Taking Back Thursday

Some people advocate Taking Back Sunday, I advocate taking back Thursday.  Once (and for those of you in college, ir probably is still) Thursday was about finding a place that would let you pay them $5 and in return they would allow you to ask their bartenders for any tap or rail for the rest of the evening and you would receive them free of charge.  First, "$5 All You Can Drink" turned into "$5 All You Care to Drink" because people were worried that "All You Can Drink" was leading people to try to literally drink all the alcohol inbued liquid that they could fit into their body (and they were, but it wasnt because of what the bar and patrons named the night).  What those people didnt realize was that the amount of booze drank in "All You Can Drink" was, for most people, all they cared to drink as well. 
For us non-college folk (and I am pretty sure that the majority of us are now non-college folk), Thursday has turned into a roadblock that must be bridged in order to get to Friday.  I seriously dont think that I have ever heard a person while at work say, "Oh Hells Yeah! It's Thursday Bitches!". 

A quick look at the days:
Monday (originally monandæg, or day of the moon), as the start of the work week, sucks. But, there is a bit of each Monday where we are all glad to be back doing something to contribute to society after sluffing off all weekend, or a bit of us that is glad to get out of the house after lounging around for 60 or so hours.  Actually, Monday is great for catching up on what happened in the world over the weekend while you were too busy watching movies or being outside.

Tuesday (orginally tiwesdæg in reference to the Proto-Germanic "Tiwaz" or "god of the sky") is Thursday's younger, slightly more respected brother.  On Tuesday, you build off of what you started Monday (afternoon) You may not look forward to Tuesday (other than here, where waivers are processed on Tuesday.  Am I alone in that I actually do look forward to seeing the waivers that passed each Tuesday morning?  Am I taking crazy pills?), but most people don't loath Tuesdays.  I actually love Tuesdays, it's softball day in the summer and it's not Monday anymore.



Wednesday? No Woden's Day.

Wednesday (originally wodnesdæg in reference to Odin.  And if you dont know who Odin is, then you best check yourself before you wreck yourself) is hump day.  There really isnt anything more that needs to be said than that.

Thursday (originally þunresdæg, literally "Thor's day" because in Old English and Old Norse, Thor was þunor...of course it was) is the day everyone hates.  It's not the beginning of the week, it's not the middle of the week, and it is not the end of the week.  But it is close enough to the end of the week that everyone just wishes it would go away so the end of the week would get there.  Basically, Thursday is Donald Sterling.

Friday (originally frigedæg "Frigga's day," from Frigga, Germanic goddess of married love), is Friday. TGIF. 

Saturday (sæternesdæg, literally "day of the planet Saturn) and Sunday (sunnandæg, literally "day of the sun) obviously best Thursday.  Thursday is the red headed step child of days of the week.

A couple points before I make something which I promise will resemble a coherent thought.
1) The Etymology Dictionary I am referencing actually has this as part of the Saturday entry "Saturday night has been used figuratively to suggest 'drunkenness and looseness in relations between the young men and young women' since at least mid-19c."  Looks like the editor of that dictionary has been to an American college as well as to a London tavern on Saturday night.
2) Is anyone else surprsed how much the Norse Mythological stories dominate the names of the days of the week?  Thor, Odin, and Frigga?  I mean, that Hemsworth is a decent looking bloke and Anthony Hopkins had me at "Are the Lambs still crying?" but to have days named for these Gods when none of the much more popular (at least today) Roman or Greek Gods received the same treatment is very interesting to me.  Saturn was a Roman God, but the name of the day, at least where I have seen it, does not seem to be in reference to him.
3) Sun, Moon, Sky and ....Saturn?  I can see the allure, Saturn is one of the 5 planets visible with the naked eye and is often extremely bright in the night sky.  And it's got those sweet rings that wrap around it (not that the people naming the days of the week would have been able to see that.  The rings werent first seen by telescope until the 17th or 18th century).   Ancient people would have been well aware of it, but they also would have been aware of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter as well (too bad we missed out on Uranusday).  I often wonder about how things were named and how those names were able to become so widely spread that they were adopted as the standard.  I mean, people had to have come up with other names to call the period we now know as a day.  How did "day" win? And how did "Saturnday" win?

So there is a little Thursday knowledge dropped on your head.  I have decided that the league is a more fun place to live when we know each other better.  So, with that in mind, over the next several weeks I will be sending 7 questions to 1 of you via email each week for you to answer in an email back to me which I will then post here with some snarky comments.  Why 7, you ask?  Because 7 is the magic number, and at 7 we all get tacos.  Isn't that really the goal we should all always be striving for?

To start us off, I got in touch with Kyler, because, without Kyler this league and blog would likely not have existed.  I have wanted to do a fantasy baseball league for years, but never could really get traction because people, for some crazy reason, dont like fantasy baseball much.  But one weekend at my wife's (and his girlfriend's, and no, my wife is not his girlfriend) parents's house, we hashed out some of the details that would become the rule set for this league.  And it was a silly blog that he had to do for some terrible class that made me think about doing on for the league...and that bring us here to the 61st post of this blog (with 1099 page views as of this sentence, there will likely be more as you overzealouos ones refresh waiting for this to post).  I never imagined that the would get 1000 views over a season, let alone over the first 2 months or have a recurring German visitor (we are still waiting for you to post in the comments mein freund).  So thanks to all of you who are following along and those of you who are participating.  For the next 9 weeks or so, Thursdays are about you guys.

 

1) Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see. What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?

-My name is Kyler Sieben, big shocker there. My quest is to visit every active Major League Baseball stadium at some point in my life. I have been to 9 of them so far. My favorite color is red because why not. I think i liked it because when i was younger i would see people wearing Wisconsin Badgers shirts that were red so i figured that's what color I should like if i live in Wisconsin.

2) How is that you are connected to the league? How many licks does it take toget to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop?

-I am connected to the league via Louie or Trey or whatever you want to go by. Louie text-ed me the idea of the league and it sounds like great fun. I believe it takes exactly 96 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, I'm looking at you Micheal Sam.

Yeah, I texted you the idea after we talked about it like 2 weeks earlier.  I'm glad it meant so much to you, you monster.


Massive uppercut.  But ummm..Geoff the ball is way down...

3) Who was your favorite baseball player growing up and why?

-My favorite baseball player growing up was without a doubt Geoff Jenkins. He was the best player on an awful team for many years, so naturally I loved him. It was like a teenage girl who loves the cool punk rocker up on stage, except for I was a boy and Geoff Jenkins wasn't in a band. I would listen to every Brewers game in anticipation for his at bats. I would stand up and cheer for him at every game I went to when he was batting. For years I tried to bat lefty just to be like him, with absolutely no success I should add. I still have two times as many Geoff Jenkins baseball cards than I do anybody else. When the time had come for Jenkins to leave Milwaukee, it was a time of great sorrow in the Sieben household. I can still remember his tremendous uppercut swing at every pitch he saw no matter what the count was. A quick side note, I saw him doing an interview earlier this year on the Brewers website and I watched every second of it intently. It was like for those couple minutes, a piece of my childhood was back in front of me.

4) If you could eat dinner with any 4 people from any time in history, who would they be and why do you choose them?

-The four people I would choose to eat dinner with from any moment in history would be Vince Lombardi, Reggie White, Jesus, and Adolf Hitler. First off I chose Lombardi because I am a Packers fan and think it would be interesting to talk to him and here his takes on coaching the greatest team in the history of the NFL, the 1966 Green Bay Packers. Secondly I picked Reggie White not only because he was a Packer but because I would love to find out how he could be so tenacious on the football field, yet be a priest off the field and how that all worked out. I chose Jesus because that would answer a lot of question we won't get into right now. And the 4th and final choice of Adolf Hitler was because the man is in my opinion the single most polarizing person in the history of the world. I have always been fascinated by the man and by the holocaust in general and how a person could possibly do what he did. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I like it, I'm just saying its interesting.

I have 2 things to say to that: 1) It is interesting to think about what Lombardi and Reggie White would have thought about Hitler (if they didnt know what he had done before they sat down with him) and visa verse.  2) I am tangentally connected to Hitler - I am not so distantly related to Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend.  As such, I often think of whether or not the man matches up with the deeds that he did.  In movies he is always portrayed as the ultimate evil (simply calling him by name invokes evil) and the things he did could not have been more repugnant.  But you have to think that at some point, when he was alone or with close friends, he would have had moments where he would have come across as a normal person.  He was obviously a captivating public speaker and people followed him/believed in his ability to lead them in a cult like fashion, attributes that are present in many of the world's greatest historical political and religious leaders (including Jesus).  Obviously, Hitler took that to a very different end and the similarities between him and good leaders dont extend very far beyond those 2 traits.  Anyways, I am pretty sure he would be in my 4 as well.

5) How far can the Backyard Superstars go this season/whats your prediction for your team the rest of the year?

-My prediction for my team is the same as for any of my fantasy teams, make the playoffs. Its the goal I shoot for in every league because, let's face it, in fantasy sports it really doesn't matter what seed you are as long as your in the playoffs. The lowest seed can end up having a few players hit a hot streak and destroy everyone throughout the playoffs. With that said, I will make this prediction. I think my team has the capability of winning the league this year, barring any major injuries of coarse. I don't believe my team is the best in the league but i have filled it out with solid players who can produce good fantasy value. If I'm able to keep up my record as it is now and make the playoffs, I think I may have a chance to go all the way.
6) Have you become irrationally attached to anyone on your team who you were not irrationally attached to before and why? Were you irrationally attached to someone already? Basically, who's your fantasy crush?

-I've never really had a fantasy crush since I started playing fantasy baseball a few years ago. I've never looked at one player and thought there is no way I'm getting rid of him. I am always willing to drop or trade away players for the right price no matter how good they are. However, this year I have really loved having Yasiel Puig on my team more than any other player I have had before. I think it is because he has been carrying my team offensively this year. I was told that I payed to much for him in the draft this year and that he will decline when pitchers figure him out. I felt all along that I got a good deal for him and so far he has payed off as he is ranked the 9th best fantasy hitter in the league at the moment.

7) I know that you used to watch the movie Major League like daily when you were growing up.   Dorn, Cerrano, Hayes, Taylor or Parkman? Explain.
-Taylor because he gets the girl in the end. Also because he was an all-star in Boston and gets to drive around the little baseball car. And because his lack of speed reminds me of my own inability to run. If you watch the scene of him running to first base it looks eerily similar to my running form. Not to mention he also gets to talk shit to all the hitters who come up to the plate, which I used to do during my little league games all the time. Seriously, I used to pretend I was Taylor behind the plate during games and would say weird shit when the batter was about to swing until the umpire got annoyed enough and told me to stop.


Thanks Kyler.  I will be sending out the questions (they will be a little different for everyone) to the person of the week on Mondays.  Please try to get the answers back to me by Thursday morning.