100 Years of Bad Singing at the Ballpark

Did you know that we have reached the 100 year anniversary of baseball's most famous song? Yes, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was first recorded 100 years ago.

You can listen to a portion of the original recording here on Amazon.com. It's available on the Ken Burns Baseball soundtrack. If you are daring, make a video of yourself singing the song and post it to MLB.com. If you win their contest, you could find yourself leading the crowd in the singing of the song at Yankee Stadium during this summer's All Star game. If I were to do it, I would do it in the style of the original. I love how the old-tyme singers trill their 'r's.

Baseball Almanac has more information about the song including the original lyrics. Did you know that the original lyricist and composer (Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilser) had never been to a baseball game before? They also say the popularity of Cracker Jack exploded because of the song.

Next time you're at your local ballpark, don't be ashamed to sing along during the 7th inning stretch.

The Importance of Choosing Wisely

Now that we're a month into the season, we have a good idea of who the "Team Studs" and "Team Killers" are. So when you chose your keepers, did you Choose Wisely ... or did you Choose Poorly?

For my team, I had to make the choice between $5 keepers -- Jose Guillen or Nate McLouth. As the old Knight from Indiana Jones may have said, "He chose ... poorly." Yes, I went with Guillen.

How has it affected my team in the standings? Can one player on a roster of 23 really make that much of a difference? You bet. With Guillen in my lineup, my offensive production has suffered. But if I had McLouth, there would be a noticable change.

Tallying the numbers, my team batting average would be six points higher and I would have 4 more HRs, 11 more RBIs and 2 more SBs. In our league, this would move the Sliders from a total of 84 pts to 97.5 points -- a 13.5 point difference from one single $5 player.

Granted, it's only April. Guillen could turn it around. McLouth could slide into a slump. Only at the end of the season will we know which choice was the correct one.