Kyle, I appreciate you saying that I made some great points. However, you went entirely off-point. This is not about the recent 44-game winning streak. This is about the fabled Summer of ’05 32-game winning streak.

As impressive a win as it was for Jeff Vandeweerd, and as warm and fuzzy as it makes us all feel, with I think everyone agreeing that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person, and vice-versa, it was not the earth-shattering, league-shaking victory that was the first game of the third week of league action between Hollywood Grill and Nashville in the summer of 2005. Not even close.

Any IPL historian will tell you that the IPL of 2005 was quite different from the IPL of 2011. That was back when real men (and women) played the game. That was back when an 8 on the break was a win, and the other player could just shut up and buy another beer. That was back when a scratch on the 8-ball sat your big butt down for the rest of the round. That was back when 8-ball shots had to be clean, and you couldn’t use the 8-ball in combos or caroms. That was back when, if you sunk a group on the break, you were married to that group until you scratched on the 8, or hit it in cleanly, or watched your opponent do one of those.

44-game winning streak in 2011? Child’s play. 32-game winning streak in 2005? Miraculous! Breaking a team’s 44-game winning streak in 2011? Admirable. Breaking a team’s 32-game winning streak in 2005? The stuff of legends. I don’t want to bore you with the sabermetrics of the thing, you’ll just have to trust me.

Plus, the 2005 cast of characters in the match was much more compelling. A virtual Who’s Who of IPL giants. Then, when you throw in the fact that Hollywood Grill were the quintessential villains of the league, vilified and detested throughout the Itaewon area, and that the Nashville team was really, really cool, it really shows that the pool gods still smile upon the decent folk.

So, yes, congratulations to Jeff Vendeweerd. But to utterly forget possibly the greatest game and undeniably the greatest player in IPL history is really incorrigible, and a huge disservice to all the young players coming up in this modern era.

Now this is what I miss from the old anonymous off the break! It is wonderful, yes I said wonderful, what can happen when you trigger those itchy key fingers of Lenny Erickson. Congratulations Lenny on accomplishing such a magical feat. I'm surprised I've never heard you talk about it before. Oh wait...

Brandon, sweet, sweet Brandon.
I feel that I was rather succinct, concise, and directly to the point in my post. I used not a word more nor a word less than was necessary to right a wrong, and to call attention to a very important character flaw that seems to run rampant in the league. That of under-appreciating those things that most deserve appreciation.
I'm sorry, but I won't accept any condescending $3.00 plaque.
I must admit, though, that the supervised peeing does sound disturbingly appealing.

'What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy:
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?

Sorry, Arnaud,
I don't see the connection to supervised peeing.

Hopefully no connections at all!!!