As part of the continuing crusade to provide content for The Buried Lead, a series of recurring pieces titled “The Best of Nine” will be rolled out on a weekly basis.
What is “The Best of Nine”?

Derived from the series composition of baseball’s fall classic’s past (1903 and 1919-1923 World Series’ specifically), the Lead will attempt to tackle nine issues in a rapid, stream of consciousness format…from any category. Coming up with a best of ten list would –

1. Not make any sense because one side wouldn’t get an advantage in such a set-up…
2. Not be easier to only come up with nine…
3. Be clich� to come with a ‘top ten’ list…

So without further ado, “The Best of Nine”…

9. Eli Manning…After a seemingly insurmountable lead against the Tennessee Titans today (21-0 at the half), the NY Giants collapsed and lost, giving up 24 unanswered points in a 24-21 loss. And Manning? He fell off the map in the second half, tossing two interceptions, threw for only 143 yards and showing a general lack of confidence in his own abilities…. looks like it’s gonna be a long week for Manning and coach Tom Coughlin in Gotham…

8. Jake Plummer…it looks like ‘Jake the Snake’ is going to get tossed aside by the young upstart, Jay Cutler, this week against Seattle and likely the rest of the season…for all his reputation as the master of the fourth quarter comeback, he’s gonna have to enjoy the last quarter of the season on the bench and hope for a comeback of his own should Cutler stumble at any point…

7. Rocky Balboa…Is Sylvester Stallone really coming out with another Rocky flick? The whole premise of the movie is based upon ole pal Rocky winning a computer simulated boxing match against the current champion, Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon (yeah, they went there) and is starting to feel the fire rekindling from within to fight again…comes out right before Christmas and should have the same amount of success as Rocky V…

6. Mail order catalogs…Christmas time as a child was always fun because catalogs would come to the house in the mail and one could sit there and randomly pick things you just had to have…now, you can’t go a day without getting the mail and having at least four of those glossy books filling up the mail box and by week’s end, having a stack up to nearly your knees…. don’t think it gets much better than getting another Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog, does it?

5. Christmas advertising…Since Christmas came early this year (retailers get an extra week of sales thanks to the calendar marking November 23d as Thanksgiving), advertisers wasted little time getting into the ‘holiday spirit’ by launching their campaigns the week of Halloween…. don’t think one can take much more of another Zales ad offering up some quality diamond-encrusted, gold pendant for an affordable price….

4. Speaking of commercials — John Mellencamp’s song ‘This is Our Country’ being featured in Chevrolet advertising…after being inundated with this during baseball’s World Series, America must suffer from it’s extended campaign during the holiday season…no worries: it won’t be embedded here

3. Carlos Lee and his $100MM deal from the Houston Astros…Major League Baseball and it’s franchises have effectively gone batshit insane over doling out high-dollar contracts this off-season…no contract typifies that more than the Carlos Lee deal…why is it insane? For one, the guy is a DH playing leftfield (no jokes about Manny Ramirez, please)…. secondly, check the statistical comparison to a like player, Chicago’s first baseman (and coincidentally, next on the list) Derrek Lee:

• OPS+ = on base percentage + slugging percentage measured against the league average, and adjusted for ballpark factors. An OPS+ over 100 is better than average, less than 100 is below average.
• RC = runs created…how much a player truly contributes to his team and is calculated by OBP*TB
• RC/27 = runs created per game and is calculated by runs created per game (27 outs) divided by number of outs made by the batter times 27

Who would you take — the guy that’s in good shape, plays defense, paid cheaper annually and puts up the numbers or a fielding DH who’d make Cecil Fielder blush at the dinner table?

2. The BCS — will it get the national championship game right? As it stands now, it’s still up for much debate, especially with one game remaining for new number two USC, who jumped to the second slot after hammering Notre Dame on Saturday, 44-24…should USC win against cross-town rival UCLA later this week, Michigan and USC fans will be debating who should get the right to face the Ohio State in Glendale, AZ on January 8, 2007…

And the number one in the inaugural “The Best of Nine” list (and be sure to print this out for a keepsake)…

1. Tony Romo…I’d type out a full explanation on the Dallas quarterback, but it looks like the national sports media has already handled it….

� 2006, The Buried Lead