As our SCFOM fantasy baseball teams begin their inevitable annual slide toward oblivion, the quest to consume every nugget of baseball information commenced in earnest this past weekend. It took us from Yahoo! to ESPN SI.com, and finally to a place called MLBlogs.com, which is an official affiliate of MLB.com — you know, Major League Baseball’s actual website.
So at first, everything seemed great. We were getting hot scoops from completely random people with no real baseball knowledge or insight, but then things got a lot less…kosher. You see, apparently one of the sites worthy of MLB’s blessing is Jews on First — a nonsensical compilation of everything all the Jews in Major League Baseball did on the diamond the day before.
The blog’s author, who doesn’t give his name, says he started the site to:
Honor my Jewish heritage and to highlight and celebrate Jewish major leaguers, past and present.
Well, hey, that’s pretty fun, right!? Why be a fan of one team when you can just be a fan of guys who share a religion with you? Think about it: why put all your eggs in one basket? Instead root for a guy or two on every team, and, when it comes time to hand out those World Series rings, you can pretty much rest assured that someone out there will be bringing one home for the Jews.
Anyway, it got us thinking. What other incredibly underrepresented minorities are out there, just struggling to get by? What ethnic or demograhic group needs our support more than the teams we grew up with?
Well, duh, white guys in the NBA. Once part of a proud tradition, the white guy in the NBA is no longer a star player. Rather he roots his butt off (almost exclusively from the bench), and takes those minutes when he can get them — usually at the end of the game with his team either up by 30 or down by 50.
With that as a backdrop, here’s your daily dose of what the white guys in the NBA did yesterday. Seriously, this is all of them:
Steve Blake, G, Portland Trail Blazers
This guy actually starts! Holy crap! In Portland’s loss to the Rockets, Blake scored 11 points, and dished out eight assists (team-high!) in 43 minutes.
Brent Barry, G, Houston Rockets
Barry’s club took a 2-1 series lead, and they can probably thank Barry, who did not play — coach’s decision.
Joel Przybilla, C, Portland Trail Blazers
Presumably by virtue of being the tallest person in the state of Oregon, Przybilla earned the starting job in Portland. He made the most of it on Sunday, tallying a team-high 12 rebounds.
J.J. Redick, G, Orlando Magic
Redick missed all three of his three-point tries, but managed two points and two rebounds in five minutes of play. Yay!
Wally Szczerbiak, G/F, Cleveland Cavaliers
Wally punched his ticket to Round 2 with an impressive 15 minutes of play in which he scored four points (2-2 on FTs) and grabbed four rebounds.
Kirk Hinrich, G, Chicago Bulls
Hinrich came off the bench and scorched the Celtics to the tune of 18 points, three rebounds and four assists.
Brad Miller, C, Chicago Bulls
In the proud tradition of Bill Wennington, Will Perdue and probably some other guys, Brad Miller is the Bulls’ white big man. In 24 minutes, he grabbed five rebounds, and scored 12 points!
Brian Scalabrine, C, Boston Celtics
No one’s gonna mistake Brian Scalabrine for Larry Bird, but he might be our new favorite player. He managed to foul out in just 18 minutes!
Sean Marks?
Sean Marks of the Hornets is playing tonight. We can do many things at SCFOM, but one of them is not predicting the future. Also, he’s from New Zealand, so I’m not sure we can count him. USA!