Welcome to Deep Left Field

I never planned to start a blog with a baseball-themed title, given that -- technically speaking -- I hate baseball.

Small-market teams have no prayer of winning the World Series, the league did the whole "see no evil, hear no evil" bit while half of its players were juicing themselves into Incredible Hulkdom, Bud Selig is bathed in the stench of incompetence, watching a game on TV involves the perilous risk of hearing Joe Buck or Tim McCarver, and oh yeah, the game is really, really boring unless you happen to be sitting in the stands on a sunny day, drinking a beer the size of Sean Hannity's noggin.

But I digress.

My initial plan was to make a cheesy pun about the color blue, since I am a diehard Tar Heels fan and a proud Democrat. But I couldn't come up with a good title that wasn't already taken. Most egregiously, whoever signed up for carolinablue.blogspot.com made two posts in 2003, then threw his hands in the air and waved 'em like he just doesn't care.

trueblue.blogspot.com? Taken.

youremyboyblue.blogspot.com? Gone.

littleboyblueheneededthemoney.blogspot.com? I didn't actually check that one, but Andrew Dice Clay probably still has a fan out there (somewhere ... hopefully far, far away) who snared it.

(By the way, unbeknownst to me until about 30 seconds ago, the Diceman is attempting a comeback. His goal: To play to a sold-out Giants Stadium. How's that working out, you ask? According to the "Upcoming Gigs" section of his website, he has a two-night-stand coming up at the Andiamo Celebrity Room in Warren, Mich. -- so it's safe to say Lawrence Taylor will play in Giants Stadium again before Dice does.)

I ultimately went with Deep Left Field, mostly because it's the first marginally-catchy name that was actually available. It also happens to make sense, considering that most of my blog entries will be about sports or politics (with a generally progressive point of view, whatever the hell that means).

So, sit back, pour yourself a refreshing beverage the size of your favorite right-wing blowhard's cranium, and enjoy what promises to be a sporadically-updated, often-incoherent series of my nonsensical ramblings.