Yesterday, Albert Lyu and Carson Cistulli were overzealous about the prologue of colleague Jonah Keri’s forthcoming book, The Extra 2%.

In today’s edition, they’re overzealous about chapter one.

Albert: So today, we take on chapter one, in which the author discusses… some very business-y, government-related, big-picture earth-shattering franchise stuff. As a baseball fan, I know that the Marlins and Rockies were 1993 expansion teams and that the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays were 1998 expansion teams. However, I was either (a) much too young to remember the expansion era (as in the first case, 1993), or (b) much too young to understand anything about that era (as in the second case, 1998). So it’s nice for Jonah to take me on his time-machine portal thingamabob back to those years when several cities were lusting after MLB teams.

The whole St. Petersburg lobbying and dying for a baseball team reminds me, just a very, very, very little bit, of reading about the secret meetings Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley had with Los Angeles representatives. Carson, as a (much) older man than me, how were those expansion years in the 90’s for you as a baseball fan? Was it exhilarating and thrilling? As in, history-in-the-making thrilling?

Cistulli: While, as you kindly note, I’m a very old person, I was actually only — what? — 13 when the Marlins and Rockies were introduced to the league. And though, as you might imagine, I was very mature for my age and possessed no little affection for the men’s fashion best described as “business casual,” my thoughts on the matter weren’t particularly nuanced, basically amounting to:

1. They’re just allowed to make new teams? Who knew!

and

2. Those are dumb colors for baseball teams.

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I actually can’t confirm officially that the look on Mr. Dirk Hayhurst’s face is one indicating mischief. What I can confirm is that the photo in question (a) is pretty funny and (b) comes to us courtesy the very amiable Mr. Hayhurst himself via his Twitter feed.

What I can also confirm is that, owing the fact that this photo is a tall, rectangular shape, it’s now incumbent upon me to supply, like, two more inches of text. Let’s do so with a quote from either Samuel Johnson or Ben Jonson (the internet can’t quite decide), as follows:

“Let them call it mischief; Then it is past and prosper’d, ’twill be virtue.”

And how here’s that same quote in much bigger letters:

Today, we herald a single member of the baseballing canon.

Life: Though he played for sometime in the Dodger and Phillie organizations, Sparky Anderson is most well known for his long managerial career, which includes World Series titles with the 1975 and ’76 Reds, and then the Tigers in 1984. He’s also known for having looked about 75 years old for the greater part of his life.

Ritual: To recognize the life of Sparky the Eldest, yell at someone to turn their rippity-rap music down. Or describe what life was like in the Great Depressions. One or the other.

Prayer

You were called Sparky
not, as history maintains,
for your spirited play
as a minor leaguer
but because
much like African American superhero
Black Lightning
you were born with the ability
to generate and magnify
external localized
electromagnetic phenomena —
a power you used to great effect
when creating from inorganic compounds
winner of the 1984 Cy Young Award
Willie Hernandez.

Jason Kendall rules the indie scene.

In case you missed it, Jason Kendall had one of the oddest meltdowns in Spring Training interview history on Monday. Will McDonald, as always, breaks it down in expert fashion over at Royals Review, which you should definitely check out. The money moment comes when Jason Kendall implores Nick Wright, who was interviewing hot prospect Mike Moustakas, to “rewind yourself.”

As I was reading the comments section at said Royals Review piece, I couldn’t help but be inspired by the suggestion by a few people that “rewind yourself” would make a fantastic album title. And thus, the album cover above was born. Check out the track listing, too:
1. Leader
2. The Ballad of Dave Kerwin
3. Grit
4. All The Adders
5. Scrap
6. Ground Out
7. No Rest For The Bad (At Baseball)
8. Ground Out (Reprise)

With such a monster track list on his very first foray into the music business, there’s no question that Jason will have a long career in the music industry after his playing days are over.

Did you know that Major League Baseball 2K10 is available for the PSP game console?

In case you did not, I’m here to help. What follows will be an exhaustive, penetrating review of this gaming product. It will be rich in tech-speak, measured and sober in its appraisals and free from any whiff of mixed motive. If there’s one thing on earth I take seriously, it’s my ability to provide expert guidance when it comes to gaming, gaming machines, and the gamers who game them. If games and gaming are your River Styx, then I am your Charon, and I propel and steer our ferry not with a mere boatman’s pole, but rather with something long and electronic and related to playing video games. Otherwise the metaphor wouldn’t work. Anyhow, without further throat-clearing, please enjoy this REVIEW among reviews.

First, the packaging. It’s sensible, adequate and even charming in its tethered exuberance — early adopters like us won’t be surprised that the modest bifold laminate sheathing evokes a Hockney painting glimpsed in the gauzy half-light of late morning —

Actually, no. Nope. Nope. Nope. No, I’m not going to review this product because I’ve never played it. I don’t play video games. Putting me at the switch of the contemporary video game would be much like watching a howler monkey trying to open a coconut.

No, all of this strained and affected video-game talk on my part has been nothing more than tidy baseball-y rationale to post this: some guy who batters, deep-fries and then tries to eat a PSP …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81j9M64Ssc&feature=player_embedded

And the people say: apropos of nothing!

Continuing our series of email interviews with some of our favorite writers around the web, we move to Matthew Leach of MLB.com. Leach, as he points out below, has wandered a meandering path that has led him to covering the Cardinals beat. Thanks to a great writer for being willing to sit down with us – although it’s obvious from his twitter feed that he’s pretty much ready to talk baseball with anyone.

Eno Sarris: Where did you grow up and go to school? Did you always want to be a writer growing up?

Matthew Leach: I’m a north Florida native — born in Jacksonville and grew up in Tallahassee, attended Leon County public schools, and I’m very much a product of the area. It’s still what I think of as my hometown, still where my family is.

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On the one hand, it’s a fact: writing a 14-part review of a colleague’s book in the very same publication for which both of you work — it’s entirely indecent. And yet, that’s what Albert Lyu and I propose to do here for our colleague Jonah Keri’s The Extra 2%.

What’s more, we appear to be experiencing absolutely nothing in the way of moral distress over our decision.

Why? I don’t know exactly. But my guess is it involves some combination of the following five reasons:

1. It’s exciting, in a general way, when a friend writes a book. It’s natural to want to discuss it.

2. Albert and I are too naive to realize that we’re toiling thanklessly merely to augment Jonah Keri’s already substantial personal wealth.

3. The Extra 2% happens to address, like, a thousand topics entirely within the scope of FanGraphs’ own interests.

4. Writing a multi-part review in dialogue form allows Albert and I to experiment a little, and hopefully to amuse both ourselves and readers.

5. We’re bad people.

I invite the reader to mix and match these possibilities in whichever way is most pleasing.

In any case, here are the facts: Albert and I each own a copy of Keri’s book, which goes on sale March 8th. We’re going to read a chapter each weekday and then gather at an undisclosed virtual location to discuss said chapter. Sometimes we’ll provide close readings of the day’s passage. Other times, likely, we’ll stray far and/or wide from our assigned topic.

Mostly, as I say, the idea is to have some fun.

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In my mind, there exists a Baseball Bloggers Hall of Fame. Because the good Lord above knows we’re not getting into Cooperstown. Nobody knows exactly where it — the Baseball Bloggers Hall Of Fame — is located. It could be anywhere; that’s the anonymous beauty of it.

The magical Baseball Bloggers Hall of Fame is, of course, a basement, and only a basement. A team of elderly mothers and grandmothers operate the joint. They lead you downstairs, and serve you free orange and apple juice. Sometimes, when they’re extra surly, they leave the refreshments at the top of the stairs. Visiting is an authentic experience.

Keyboards hang from the ceiling. In some cases, entire workstations have been preserved. It’s the goal of the Baseball Bloggers Hall of Fame to showcase, for the entire world to see, the baseball blogger’s natural habitat.

A committee of nine — David Appelman, Dave Cameron, Carson Cistulli, Joe Posnanski, Kevin Kaduk, Joe Posnanski, Rob Neyer, Craig Calcaterra, and Keith Law — are judge and jury. They hold the keys to the Baseball Bloggers Hall of Fame, and decide the fate of the millions upon millions of baseball blogs that exist today.

Up for induction in 2011: The Fightins. May the blog rest in peace.

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Lewie Pollis — of both Wahoo Blues and our very own Community blog — has written a post at the first of those two sites in which he does his best to find comparables for the cast of 1989’s smash-hit comedy Major League among the actual current squad of his Cleveland Indians.

That in itself is a commendable-enough undertaking. What raises his effort to Totes Delightful status, though, is that the videos Mr. Pollis has found to illustrate his selections happen to be in the Italian language.

At the risk of sounding boastful, allow me to announce for the benefit of the readership that this (i.e. Italian) is a language in which I happen to possess some expertise. And, as I have some time on my hands and am the sort of person to help his fellow man, allow me — once again, for the benefit of the readership — to present this brief, but important, Italian lesson.

Below are are three Italian phrases that you will almost definitely find yourself using within the next 24 hours — with the corresponding time-elapsed marks for the embedded video.

Now, learn!

0:21
Ecco Jake Taylor.
Behold, Jake Taylor.

1:30
Gioco come Mays, corro come Hayes.
I play like Mays, I run like Hayes.

2:19
Questa squadra mi piace blah blah blah blah.
I like this team blah blah blah blah.

Men’s fashion — it’s so often a rich union of the awful and the too clever by half. The same, of course, goes for the male sports fan, who seems to take preternatural delight in assaulting good taste about the head, neck, shoulders, and groin. This enduring truth places before us a challenge, a bejeweled gauntlet if you will: what’s the greatest possible fan outfit that can be concocted using items presently available through the bellwether fashion portal that is MLB.com?

Since my professed loyalties are to the St. Louis Cardinals, I’m going to restrict myself to the fetching threads available at their designated Internet haberdashery. Come with me, won’t you? And don’t forget your Player’s Club cards!

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