UPDATED WITH MILES TRADE!
I was trying to figure out a way to make the winter go faster, how to hurry up and get to the day pitchers and catchers report.
There are 20 weeks from when the Cubs stopped playing (on October 4th) until February 18th, the first day pitchers and catchers can report (according to MLB.com). So if you just think of each 2 week period as one inning, well then you've got a baseball game that goes one extra inning. (So, maybe Kevin Gregg pitched the 9th or something.)
Anyway...
When things are slow I Google stuff for the hell of it.
I looked up "Hot Stove", thinking I could get inspired. Wikipedia says it's really just the time in the winter when you hang around a "hot stove" to stay warm and talk baseball. Makes sense.
When it's modified with "League" to "Hot Stove League" it refers to the competition between owners and general managers doing trades and stuff in the winter. Now, that's inspiring...why not make it a game?
Something to pass the time?
So this illustration is the first scoreboard for the "Hot Stove League Game", of course the Cubs' version.
Depending on what the Cubs do vs. Everybody Else, we can kinda keep score. And since this is my game I'll start out by doling out how many runs each "move" is worth.
For instance, it's really not good that the Cubs have to get rid of Milton Bradley, so the Cubs score 0 in the 1st. But it's worse for whoever gets him, so that's minus 17 for Everybody Else.
Each year the Cubs don't win the WS will be the number of runs scored by Everybody Else.
Cub Fan Tom Ricketts becoming the new Cubs owner is arguably the most important thing to happen to our favorite team in decades, so that's 122 runs in one inning for the good guys.
As the Hot Stove League moves along, we can re-visit this scoreboard, and it would be AWESOME if you guys would suggest what the score should be based on what happens around the league.
Also, Cub Fans are special. We get points for stuff that has nothing to do with the team, really. Like...say Tom Ricketts announces that the cost of a frosty cold Budweiser will remain the same as it was last year...I figure that's worth about 15 runs.
Right now, the Cubs are up 128 to Everybody Else's 127, so it's a pretty close game.
And even better, you can see we're already in the 5th inning! So my little plan of making winter go faster is already working.
WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GO CUBS!
