I'll Take Idiots for $2,000, Alex

Richard Justice has some of his standard stupidity in this blog posting from yesterday -- chief amongst them is getting the baseball standings wrong. But that's not what I want to opine on. No sir. No it's not. Instead, I want to address one of the comments.

As for the why the Astros should be able to win the World Series this year, one moron states the following: "If the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies can win a World Series with a roster having an average age of 32 years old, then why can't the 2009 Houston Astros win a championship with a roster having an average age of 33 years old?"

Which leads me to provide the answer to today's question: how do you define idiot?

The answer to this question is rather simple. On some days, it was possible for that 1983 Phillies team to start four future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame (and one guy who would be in the hall were it not for a gambling addiction). Yep, starting most nights for that 1983 Phillies team was one Pete Rose at first base, one Joe Morgan at second base, and one Mike Schmidt at third base -- these just happen to be three of the greatest players in baseball history, especially Schmidt. Starting every five games for the Phillies was a multi-Cy Young Award winner by the name of Steve Carlton. And sitting on the bench, but ready to relieve Rose at first, and possibly start there with Rose able to play in the outfield, was one Tony Perez. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a roster of four Hall of Famers and gambling addict Rose.

Now let's look at the Astros roster. Of the old-timers on this roster, how many future Hall of Famers do you see? There's Pudge Rodriguez at catcher. And then there's, well, there's, well... Yeah, that's right, there aren't any. Lance Berkman's nowhere near Hall of Fame worthy. Neither is Carlos Lee or Miguel Tejada. Roy Oswalt's never even won a Cy Young. The only way Kaz Matsui's getting into the Hall is if he sets some kind of record for trips to the DL in a season.

So the answer to why the Phillies, with an average age of 32 could make it to the World Series in 1983, but the 2009 Astros, with an average age of 33 can't make it is that the Phillies were a good team loaded with Hall of Famers. The Astros are just an old team loaded down with old guys. (Oh, and the 1983 Phillies didn't win the World Series. They lost 4-1 to the Baltimore Orioles.)

But this has me thinking of the idiots I see on Jeopardy, so why not watch a little Turd Ferguson?