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Down with Goldy: Year in Review 2009 Last year at around this time, I did a round up of the best comments on this site for the year to some popular acclaim.  I'd love to do that again, but it is a lot of god damn work to go through all those comments so I'm not going to.  Those of you who really like that kind of thing and have organizational skills are no doubt saying "Why don't you just make note of all the good comments on a daily/weekly/monthly basis and make it easier on yourself, dumbass?" and to that I say shut up and leave me alone.

Instead, why not look at a month by month basis of what was going on and see if I actually managed to say anything funny (doubtful) or insightful (super doubtful) about anything?  Interestingly, of the three years this site has been in existence, this year had the least posts (296 this year vs. 405 last year vs. 348 in 2007).  At the same time, I'd be willing to wager that I've written a lot more words this year compared to any other year.  I may post less often, but when I do I seemingly can't shut up.  Like this post right here.  I just keep writing an intro, when I have no doubt I will write far too much once I get to the wrap up review thing or whatever.  So I'm going to stop.  Right now.  I promise.


We started off the year with threats to the guy who sits next to me at the Gopher game, my first ever criticism of Tubby Smith, and a spirited rant after the Spartans blew the team's doors off.  (This post also included a comment where Dawger corrected me on a Tiffani-Amber picture, to my everlasting shame).  We also got the beginning of my Ralph crush after the Gopher win against the Buckeyes, which was also the post that made my mom ask me if I had any plans to "clean it up."    Carl Pohlad died and here is that best comment post I mentioned.  Super Sioux Fan posted a couple of times, included one where she tried to show us all Dawger's weird nipples.  The Gophers beat the Badgers in Mad-Town, and I was actually there in what might have been the most fun I've ever had at a basketball game (and then Dawger slapping pizza out of some poor kid's mouth was the icing on top of the awesome cake).  The month ended with a trip to L.A. in which I ended up hanging out with Larry David.  Damn, that was a good month.  I didn't even have to use my A-K.


We got a Royce/Rodney game review from Dawger that seemed slighly racist, then he later posted a picture of The Hoff and his hot sister (even money on which one Dawger would rather spend a night with).  Was this the end of the Dawger?  I miss his posting.  I traveled to Utah and took in a very fun Utah State game and also sat by Rich Gannon at Williams.   Snacks made one of his rare posts.  We got not only a post from Super Sioux Fan but a live blog from Optimator.  I went to Chicago (ditching out on Bogart), there was some Crede talk, I ran down the stats of some dudes who were almost Gophers, and we closed out the month with the best cartoon in the history of the world.


There were a bunch of conference tournament previews that aren't worth linking but were worth reading at the time and screw you if you didn't like it.  I compared Lawrence Westbrook to Anakin Skywalker.  Snake's favorite picture made an appearance again.  I nearly quit blogging after a loss to Michigan.  The Netherlands made a run in the WBC and fantasy baseball started up.  I drunkenly Facebook chatted a Gopher star.  Snacks got in a fight with Andy Glockner.   I went to Chicago to watch the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and Dawger passed out at the bar at nine.  Old Man W tossed a perfecto.  There were several drunk posts at the end of the month thanks to work travel and being in New Jersey.  Also a healthy dose of Sidler.


With basketball sadly over I fired off some MLB predictions (I went with a Rays/D-Backs series and predicted the AL Cy Young would be Liriano - ouch).  Travis Busch quit the Gophers, which devastated me, and the Masters was a barn burner that was won by whoever made the least mistakes.  I also started an ill-fated mission to write a post every day summing up what happened the night before which didn't last long.  Wonderbaby had her first birthday, I predicted Glen Perkins would keep up his hot start and have a nice season, and we got a rare (though promised to be regular) movie review from Dawger.   This month also had the post that brought in the most traffic in DWG history, my NFL Mock Draft (using video game players) that was linked by With Leather.  And the month ended with me getting the swine flu in New Jersey and posting the teams Dawger and I drafted on the way to Madison.


May started with the return of Joe Mauer, which I tried to mock and failed after he hit a home run.  The first Favre rumors started and I wasn't enthused.  Our sponsorship of Scott Stahoviak ran out at baseball reference and I was looking for suggestions - finally settling on Mo Sanford - and I indulged in a bit of rumor-mongering regarding Brendan Harris's penchant for threesomes.  I went to Texas and wrote some words while drinking, and then compared Mauer to A-Rod. And I must have been bored because I wrote not one, but two Live Movie Blogs.


A few associates of DWG took a road trip and drafted all-time baseball teams (Team #3 is still the definite winner), while I stayed home and live-blogged a Liriano vs. Felix ball game.  The Twins made their picks in the Amateur Draft and I tried to pay attention, and then posted my Rico Tucker career retrospective.  The NBA draft happened, as did some random Super Sioux Fan thoughts and two more Live Movie Blogs.  The month wrapped up with me seeing a letter in the Star Tribune opining that Roger Maris should be in the hall of fame and making sure that anybody reading understood just how wrong that was (Hrbek gets in first).


I was pissy about traffic one night, which read to some long ramblings which included a monster bass, and speaking of monsters there were live blogs about a giant squid and a giant crocodile.  Kevin Mulvey got rocked, Tom Watson didn't win the British Open, and I got sick of Brett Favre - again.


Super Sioux Fan broke my heart when she quit and started her own blog, although not quite as much as when John Hughes died, although that led to a pretty good tribute post.  Got into a ton of Twins talk, including pro-Gomez, anti-Cuddyer, Mauer MVP talk, and a live blog that sucked thanks to the Royals kicking the crap out of the hometown nine and an unprecedented combo Twins/Vikes live blog.  I got screwed out of a Tubby Smith autographed ball (and cracked the Mbakwe case), but still had time to squeeze in my favorite Movie Blog yet.


The month started with me in New Jersey and ended with a trip to Detroit, with Patrick Swayze dying and Tubby signing two recruits (to my luke warm reaction) in the middle, all while Brewster managed to feud with the biggest (only) sports radio station in town despite having accompished nothing.  The Dawgers came over for a cookout and everybody survived, although Kevin Mulvey didn't, and neither did my attempt at doing a live blog of a college football game.  I called the White Sox the Gay Sox for the billionth time, and also got busy with some predictions - My Atlantic 10 preview caused A-10 fans to crawl out of the woodwork to call me stupid, but my NFL predictions were fairly good (picked 7 of 12 playoff teams and a Colt/Viking Superbowl looks good).


My trip to Detroit continued with a detour to Canada and a night spent at Comerica watching the Twins get blasted, and we said good-bye to the dome with a hell of a final game (with a tribute in pictures).  I spent the Twins/Yankees series avoiding Hippies in Portland, but still managed to live blog a Red Sox/Angels game and the first three games of the World Series.  We also branched out into other sports with Snake's WCHA Preview,  Optimator live blogged the Gopher/UND hockey match, and I looked at the T-Wolves and the NBA in general.  I also predictably live blogged movies about a squid (featuring Dawson Leery) and less predictably defended Goldy Gopher's behavior.


With basketball season finally starting, Gopher fans had some distractions in Royce White and Trevor Mbakwe, but still managed to win a big game over Butler (and then promptly fell apart after that).  There was plenty of other college basketball going on as well, not to mention the finish of the World Series (Yankees are still assholes).  It sucked when Carlos Gomez was traded (and Dawger was bored with the whole thing, yet advocated the Twins getting guys like Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora) and it also sucked when I had to go to New Jersey again, but my fantasy college basketball league was awesome.  Not nearly as awesome as this Fresh Prince video, however, nor a movie about a genetically engineered Crocodile/T-Rex.


The live blogs of the month didn't go well, with both the Gophers and Vikings losing the games I chose to type while I watched.  Even so it was an exciting month, as I not only discovered Jersey Shore but also Captain Share-the-Ball himself, Reggie Holmes (who did end up with 2 assists in one game later in the month).  Wonderbaby took in her first Gopher game, which is still one more than Royce White has played to this point.  Luckily the Hoff has been there to carry the team.  We wrapped up Christmas with gifts for others, and a gift for you reader guys.

And there you go, a year in the life of Down with Goldy.  When you lay it all out like that you can really see how awesome I am.  Or lame?  I'm awesome, right?  Please?  My self-esteem is at an all-time low right now.  I might have to steal one of Wonderbaby's teddy bears to sleep with to make me feel better.

Posted by WWWWWW at 10:13 PM Labels: Awesomeness, Things that Suck

