2018 Baseball Predictions

AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Cleveland Indians
AL West: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wild Card: Houston Astros over Boston Red Sox
ALCS: New York Yankees over Los Angeles Angels

NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Arizona Diamondbacks over Philadelphia Phillies
NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers over Arizona Diamondbacks

World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Yankees

AL MVP: Mike Trout
NL MVP: Bryce Harper
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
AL Rookie of the Year: Vladimir Guerrero Jr
NL Rookie of the Year: Scott Kingery
Manager of the Year: Aaron Boone
Manager of the Year: Gabe Kapler
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Michael Brantley
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Matt Harvey

Mrs. Poop's All-Hair Team

Remy Martin from Arizona State (he could also make the All-Name team)

Lonnie Walker from Miami

Alabama's entire lineup

From left to right: Collin Sexton, Herbert Jones, John Petty and Dazon Ingram

But she was most curious about the hairstyle of TCU's Kenrich Williams

She wasn't the only one. When she googled it during the game "hair" was an automated addition to his name.

Apparently it is a less greasy version of the popuplar 80s style "shag" haircut.

He cut it last year because girls didn't like it but evidently that didn't work for him either because there he was against Syracuse rocking the shag.

Mrs. Poop's All-Hair Team even has a coach this year. Virginia Tech's Buzz Williams who was bald for many years suddenly has hair. He says he always had it, just shaved it, Billy believes this. I think Buzz is resodded.

But the unquestioned star of the team this year is Houston's Rob Gray and his man bun.

Even his younger brother has a manbun.

I Won't Sleep for a Week

Ever since seeing the performance of pairs figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, I haven't been able to get it out of my head.
Though their performance was excellent, it wasn't their skating that is haunting me.
It's the song they skated to. A cover version of U2's "With or Without You" sung by April Meservy.
It's sung even slower than the original and more quietly. The whole thing is performed in a low whisper, as if sung by an ex-girlfriend who is watching you from outside the window.
If you don't believe me, just watch their performance from the Canadian National Championships.

TON's New Favorite Olympian

Every four years, TON falls in love with a new Winter Olympian. First it was Peter Northug in 2010, in 2014 it was Henrik Harlaut and it is a short track speed skater from Hungary.

Shaolin Sandor Liu Shaolin has a Chinese father and Hungarian mother, which could explain the unusual name.
Let's wish him all the luck in the world as he represents Shaolin.

Super Bowl LII

New England -4 1/2 philadelphia

I am not rooting for either team. The Patriots are arrogant cheaters and the Eagles fans are obnoxious boors.
I have tried to pick a side but I just can't.
I admire the Patriots but I am not in awe of them. If not for two of the dumbest coaching decisions in Super Bowl history they could well be 0-4 in Super Bowls over the past 12 years.
I like the Eagles as underdogs but I am the rare person who roots for favorites, especially when the team and players are all-time greats (but not cheaters).
Plus the Eagles are a divisional rival of my beloved Redskins.
So what do I do?
I watch and enjoy and eat my troubles away.
Enjoy the game!

They Had a Hard Time Putting Together His Coffin

Billionaire IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who turned a business he launched as a teenager into one of the world’s best known furniture brands, has died at the age of 91, the Swedish company said on Sunday.
IKEA’s simple but sturdy designs and self-assembly products are now familiar in homes around the globe and the retailer is aiming to generate 50 billion euros ($62 billion) in annual revenues by 2020.
Kamprad started IKEA in 1943 when he was just 17, but his big break came in 1956, when the company pioneered flat-pack furniture.
He got the idea when he watched an employee taking the legs off a table to fit it into a customer’s car and realized that it could be developed to save money on transport, storage and sales space.
The business now has around 400 stores, many of them cavernous warehouses in out-of-town malls and roughly 1 billion people visited them last year.
“One of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Ingvar Kamprad, has peacefully passed away, at his home in Smaland, Sweden, on the 27th of January,” the company said.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven praised Kamprad as an inspirational figure whose influence had reached far beyond his native land.
“Ingvar Kamprad was a unique entrepreneur who had a big impact on Swedish business and who made home design a possibility for the many not just the few,” national news agency TT quoted Lofven saying.
Born on March 30, 1926, in southern Sweden, Kamprad started off selling matches to neighbors at the age of five and soon diversified his inventory to include seeds, Christmas tree decorations, pencils and ball-point pens.
Despite his wealth, Kamprad prided himself on being frugal, driving an old car and encouraging staff to write on both sides of a sheet of paper to avoid waste.
Kamprad was also controversial figure.
He was forced to apologize for his time as a member of the New Swedish Movement, a nationalist, far-right group that supported fascist parties around Europe, in the 1940s.
His decision to live abroad, mainly in Switzerland, to avoid Sweden’s high income taxes was also widely criticized.
In recent years, Kamprad had stepped away from the day-to-say running of the empire he created, though he remained an advisor.
His sons -- Peter, Jonas and Mathias -- still sit on the boards of various IKEA entities, but the family is no longer at the helm.
“Ingvar Kamprad was a great entrepreneur of the typical southern Swedish kind - hardworking and stubborn, with a lot of warmth and a playful twinkle in his eye,” the company said.
“He worked until the very end of his life, staying true to his own motto that most things remain to be done.”

Weekly Picks

MINNESOTA -3 philadelphia
Nothing to do with destiny, just a better team, but only because it's Foles and not Wentz.

BEST BET
NEW ENGLAND -7 1/2 jacksonville
There is nothing wrong with Tom Brady's hand. It's more bullshit gamesmanship from the Patriots. They don't need it. They will dominate this game.