Here are the Finalists…Vote for Your Favorite!

The contest entry period for the August contest is over. We have the finalists who have a chance to win the wonderful prize. All we need to do now is see which picture gets the most votes from you, the readers. Ready to see the entries?

First, we start with loyal reader and contributor Bryanne. She took her picture with the logo during a break from dinner. Here she is:

Next is our June winner, Steve. He hopes to be a repeat champion with his entry, a picture of him (well, his thumb at least) and the Hood blimp. Here he is:

Finally we have an entry from blog reader Alexis. She sent a great picture of her enjoying a game. (She's the one on the right) You’ll notice she hopes to steal some votes by including Bryanne in her entry. Clever tactic. Here she is:

So, there are the entries. Which one do you like the best? There will be three different ways to vote.

First, you can vote by leaving a comment on this post saying which picture you’re voting for: Bryanne, Steve, or Alexis. To be fair, I’ll only allow one anonymous vote for each entrant to count.

Second, I’ll place a poll on my sidebar where you can select a winner. That allows you to make a vote without having to tell everyone whom you prefer.

Finally, I’ll create an album for the contest entries on the Section 36 Facebook page Albums. You can vote by “liking” the photo you like the best. (While you’re there, you can “like” the page itself!)

Technically, since I can’t really stop you, you could vote for your favorite picture all three ways to stack the votes. Feel free to vote for more than one entry, as well.

I’ll allow votes until 8:36 PM on Monday September 3, 2012. Then, I’ll add the totals from the three voting methods to decide the winner. So, vote early, vote often, and spread the word!

Good luck Finalists!

One More Day!

That’s right. There’s only one more day left to enter the August contest! We’ve passed the point where you have a lot of time to be creative. No time to book a trip to the Great Wall of China, or the Grand Canyon, or Dollywood. Just print out the logo, take it somewhere close, and take your picture with it. Send it to me (section36 at gmail dot com), and hope for the best during the voting period. You only have until 12:36 PM tomorrow (Aug 31) to e-mail me your entries! Don’t delay!

After all, you don’t want to miss out on the chance to win a great book just because you didn’t take a simple picture.

Come back tomorrow to see the finalists, and start the voting process!

List of 36

Words you can make out of the letters in “JASON VARITEK”

1. jar

2. java

3. jest

4. joke

5. joker

6. kite

7.  raja

8. rave

9. raven

10. risen

11. rose

12.  rove

13. sank

14. satire

15. savor

16. sink

17. snake

18. sneak

19.  soak

20. son

21. stake

22. steak

23. stoke

24. stove

25. strive

26. tank

27. tanker

28. task

29. tears

30. tier

31. treason

32. trek

33. van

34. vast

35. vision

36. visor

There’s Stupid…There’s Really Stupid…Then, there’s the trade.

I’ve been quiet on this trade so far. I’ve had trouble putting anything into a coherent post. There are just so many reasons why this is such a stupid, infuriating, move, that I can’t stop jumping from one to the next. Basically, though, I can’t wait any longer, so I’m just going to roll through them all.

My first thought? So, this is what it’s like to be a Pirates fan? To see your best players traded away because you can’t afford them? But, that’s not really the case. When the Pirates dump good players, it’s because they know that they can’t win with just the one star, and can’t afford to fill in stars around them. So, the only option is to get prospects, and hope that five prospects mature into stars at the same time. Like the A’s did ten years ago. The Sox, though, had a team that (when healthy) was a winner. When the players on the 2012 roster were all healthy, the Sox were the best team in baseball. Why do you trade away players from that situation?

What’s the plan, exactly? I hear all about financial flexibility. To do what? To sign an all-star first baseman? You had one of the top finishers in the 2011 MVP race already. To trade for a multiple time all-star outfielder? You had one of those too. I actually heard a beat writer say with joy that the Sox had to pass on Edwin Jackson and Hideki Kuroda last off-season, and now they’ll be able to make those moves. Really? Dumping the core of a great team in order to sign Hideki Kuroda? That’s the plan? Go with a team made up of minor leaguers and Edwin Jackson? How does that make sense to anybody? Go ahead. Look at the list of free agents. Find me any of them that makes a roster better than the one that was just broken apart. Anyone?

I hope all the EEIdiots who have been calling for this start buying tickets. They wanted to go with the youth. They wanted to blow it up so that the team had nobody with any talent, but that would run out ground balls. They wanted a team of players who can’t pitch, but who eat salads at their locker. They got it. They better start filling the stands.

One good thing has come of this. It has made my avoidance of Boston based media complete. I can’t listen to anything they say anymore. I can’t read any Boston papers. It’s just sickening. What did they have to do with this? Everything. Imagine this. Two years ago, Carl Crawford signed a contract to play here for the next seven years. At the time he picked three other teams in all of baseball that he didn’t want to be traded to. One of them was the LA Dodgers. Less than two years later, he waived that restriction. That’s how unbearable the toxic media had made things for him. That’s how much they had made themselves the story. I can’t do it anymore. Unfortunately, I’ll still get too much of what they have to say form other locations. I wish I could stop that too.

The part I can’t stop thinking is that this trade smells of a cocky GM wanting to make the team his own. I hope Ben’s not pulling a Theo. I had hoped that since he has been here all along, he might not feel the need. Hopefully this trade wasn’t made just to clear out all of the old guard. It just makes a bad move even worse.

There’s just no upside whatsoever.

One Week left to Enter!

I know how it goes. People put things off. “I’ll take that great picture later.” “I’m going to Mount Rushmore next week. I’ll take a picture then.”

But then, you go to the movies later, instead of taking the picture. Or, it rains next week and cancels the trip to see the presidential carvings. Before you know it, three weeks have passed without taking a picture. So, here you sit with no entry in the August contest. No entry to win a fantastic book.

Fear not. You still have one week left to take that picture. Seven days to plan a trip to Disneyland. Or the St Louis Arch. Or Target. You can do it!

Keep those pictures coming.