Interleague baseball is in full swing, and as you may or may not have heard, it has been taking hostages.

Starting New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, oh so accustomed to his minimalist American League duties, found himself in a foreign situation running the bases in Houston.

This task proved overly difficult, and the Taiwanese pitcher deflated quicker than a hard-on at the sight of Rosie O’Donnell. Best case scenario: a late-season comeback. More likely: done for the year.

Clearly this is an outrage, and rules must be amended as soon as possible! How dare the paleolithic National League let their pitchers bat and run the bases!

OK fine you got me - I just really wanted to throw up a post with an inappropriate, euphemistic title. I have no shame.

I’m not sure why I haven’t posted a fantasy baseball update in a while. Perhaps because I was busy with real life, perhaps because my teams were excelling and didn’t care, or perhaps cuz I just wasn’t making any moves.

Well, I just made some moves - so I shall use this time and medium for my cop-out post for today.

Friends League:

This team went from being my pride and joy to just plain looking fugly. Here is is:

C - Geovany Soto
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Brian Roberts
3B - David Wright
SS - Stephen Drew
MI - Aaron Hill
CI - Ryan Zimmerman
OF - Michael Bourn
OF - Alex Rios
OF - Alfonso Soriano
U - Mark Reynolds

SP - Carlos Zambrano
SP - Ben Sheets
SP - Matt Cain
SP - Felix Hernandez
SP - Jeremy Bonderman
RP - Brad Lidge
RP - Brian Fuentes

B - Dustin McGowan, SP
B - Micah Owings, SP
B - Daniel Cabrera, SP
B - Jeff Francoeur,OF

Let’s see - in the past month, I’ve dropped a slumping Frenchie from the lineup to keep Bourn in for his steals (even though this further killed my average - but hey at least he’s slightly picking it up as of late), dropped Broxton and Rafael Soriano outright (Soriano is gonna be replaced by John Smoltz as the closer anyways), and picked up Fuentes and Cabrera. Slim pickins for closers in this league, so I make due with Fuentes I suppose.

Note: I have owned Cabrera every year for as long as I can remember, and every year he has shown flashes of brilliances which leads to the annual “Daniel Cabrera Is Breaking Out” conversation. Well, perhaps it really is legit now. He’s not striking out as many guys anymore, but nor is he walking as many, and he’s definitely getting outs - and in the AL East at that. The time is now.

Another Note: Geovany Soto is the truth. He is well on his way to earning Fantasy MVP honors for not only my teams, but I’m sure a multitude of others as well.

Lastly, and shamefully, I have fallen to third place with 66.0 points. The leader has created a cushion for himself with 89.0 - but alas, the season is young.

Office League:

I’m proud to say that I can still call this my Office League, as my internship has now turned into an actual paid position, so hoo-ray for that. On with it:

C - Geovany Soto
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Rickie Weeks
3B - Aramis Ramirez
SS - Hanley Ramirez
OF - Jeff Francoeur
OF - Adam Dunn
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
U - David Murphy

SP - Tim Lincecum
SP - Ben Sheets
SP - Scott Kazmir
SP - Ervin Santana
RP - Joakim Soria
RP - Brad Lidge
RP - Joey Devine
RP - Joba Chamberlain

B - Homer Bailey, SP
B - Daniel Cabrera, SP
B - John Danks, SP
B - Dana Eveland, SP
B - Max Scherzer, RP
B - Eric Gagne, RP
B - Justin Upton, OF
B - Aaron Hill, 2B

DL - Rafael Furcal, SS
DL - Chris Young, SP

Wow - this has been revamped. Gallardo out for the year (seemingly) - dropped. Cla Meredith, Butler, Gomez worthless - dropped. Just picked up David Murphy to fill in the util spot for a slumping Justin Upton while Furcal comes back. Murphy might be legit, as he has been getting a substantial amount of at-bats (on pace for 644 as of writing) and has produced. Also picked up a resurging Weeks to mix and match with Aaron Hill.

Joba is getting promoted so I kept around a demoted Mad Max to shore up the bullpen. Gagne is injured slash worthless, so I picked up Joey Devine for the peripherals and decent K totals in the meantime. John Danks has been solid for a few weeks now, and Eveland is a new addition who I was surprised was even available. Should be solid for here on out.

Still atop the standings with 100.5 points, 2nd place a distant 83.0 - however things may not bode well for the future, as I had been ahead even more comfortably well above 110 points while the rest of the pack was in the 70’s - oh well… can’t be perfect for 162 games.

I’ve posted a few sports commercials on this site in the past, and I figured it was time to expand upon the topic (even more there are about to be some repeats in here). Here are some of the best I’ve seen so far in 2008:

5. Shaq the Jockey

Shaquille O’Neal and his horse, Chunk of Love, win in a photo finish in this Vitamin Water spot. This originally debuted during the Super Bowl and I’m sure it caught everyone by surprise. Nice touch with the crotch pat at the end.

Note: no horses were euthanized in the making of this commercial.

4. NBA - Where Amazing Happens

This campaign has been going for a while now, but is totally worth mentioning in the top 5. Although the concept has gotten a bit played out as the season has gone on, no one disagrees how great these have been. Even through May, we are still getting some good ones, particularly the spots personalized by athletes, such as this one by Dwight Howard:

Don’t forget Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash’s questionable haircuts:

We’ve all seen the original spots before, but have you checked out YouTube in the past months? There are countless other versions created by fans that are good unto themselves. The simplicity of the commercials makes it easy for anyone to make their own. Some fans have even taken it upon themselves to do crossover ads into other sports to showcase their favorite teams:

A Philadelphia Eagles example:

Or how about a New York Yankees version recounting moments and figures in their fabled ballpark:

Ok enough of these… you get it. On to the next one…

3. 2008 NBA Playoffs - There Can Only Be One

The original split screen that debuted with Shaq and Kobe was incredible. Everyone knows their history and their story, and it was interesting to see them as one once more. Seeing this definitely got me amped for the playoffs.

Needless to say, several people within the NBA marketing department undoubtedly got huge raises this year for these two ad campaigns.

EDIT: PhDribble just posted this one and I had to include it as well:

Although not as simple as the Where Amazing Happens commercials, these too are clearly customizable and versatile. Hell, its even been extended out to movie advertisement for Adam Sandler’s new flick:

Oh, split screen goodness…

2. Sidney Crosby - League of Clutch

I included this Gatorade spot starring Sidney Crosby in an earlier post, but due to its significance to the sport, I’m placing it this high on the list.

It’s great to see Sid the Kid’s success in this postseason. Hockey is coming back big.

1. Nike Soccer in the first person

Another recent post, I’m still clearly not over this ad.

I’m aware the division is actually Nike Football. I’m a fan of the sport and all, but sorry purists (cough, Devin, cough) - for all intents and purposes, its known as soccer on this site.

Sure its a bit shaky, but Guy Ritchie did good work. This isn’t exactly Cloverfield or anything.

Soak that one in, tsarist subjects. This commercial is pure perfection.