Anyone up for a Song Parody Contest this offseason?

[stevejrogers]

I'm game for a 07-08 edition of the CPF Song Parody Contest.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Slow down, not everybody at once.

I know this may have run its course. Maybe this year, though, we could ask our bloggy friends to promote it and maybe bring in some new members.

[nymr83]

i'm out, i'll be retiring at 0-1.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was also thinking it may have run its course.

If it's on, I may or may not participate.

[DocTee]

Not now, not ever.

[metsmarathon]

boo! i live for this.

[soupcan]

="SteveJRogers"]I'm game for a 07-08 edition of the CPF Song Parody Contest.

"Know your place Rook."

[seawolf17]

I'm definitely in. Got your back, SJR.

[Guest sharpie]

I'll probably do it. Over the course of a year a song occurs to me that reminds me of a Met and I think "I hope I get (so-and-so)." If, however, I am stuck with Mike Torrez as my most compelling player I'm gonna be pissed.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I shall defend my title with Honor and Dignity and if they're not available, the Dave Clark Five.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

I'm in if we proceed at a leisurely pace - and I usually get booted
in the first round anyway most years it seems.

[TransMonk]

I'm in.

[Guest sharpie]

As to Carsay's leisurely pace comment, I think it might help if we schedule this stuff for particular dates. In other words, Round One happens on such-and-such date, Round Two two weeks or so later, etc. I find that as it goes on the songs generally get worse as people have ample time for the first round but are pressured for subsequent rounds.

[seawolf17]

Yeah, sharpie's got a good point. By the time I get to the championship -- which I plan to do this year -- I'm lyrically spent. I thought "Estes' Lament" was Songwriters Hall of Fame-worthy, but the rest of the stuff I did got progressively worse.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, last year I was an early exit, but the previous year when I did five songs I found that my muse came and went. I was most happy with my second ("I Think It's Don Grant Now") and third ("Pedro is the Guy Dwarves Climb On") efforts, and my fifth ("I've Looked at Maz From Both Sides Now") was pretty good too, but my first ("Mookie") was somewhat weak and I was lucky to win with my fourth song. ("Don't Know Much About Ed Bressoud")

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think to win the whole thing you have to arrange your rotation and have a ready ace in the bullpen.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I like to blow my ace up front and hope that the muse returns to me when I collect my new names.

Very stressful way to fly, though.

[Guest sharpie]

That's how I do it, too. One at a time.

O'course two years ago when I lost to Yancy in the finals and knew I was going with a weak Rusty Staub song I came up with a better idea for a different player a week later.

[seawolf17]

I think you have to do it one song at a time; it's one loss and you're out. No reason to save your ace for Game 2 when there's no guarantee that there will be a Game 2.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Winning names sucks. The whole name thing sucks. Too many people purport to get screwed, and this thing needs a change anyhow.

So if it were me, and not Steve J Rogers, in charge of this shindig, I'd shitcan the whole winning and receiving names thing and instead align rounds to broad categories, like in a game show.

So you seed the contestants and set up the first round matchups, then randomly assign a category for both combatants to tackle. The categories could be people, places or things.

Let's say, Sharpie vs. Gwreck get "the 1970s"

and Lunchbucket vs. Willets Pt get "the 2006 playoffs"

and Edgy-Lundy square off in "Shea Stadium"

and another pair gets "Jose Reyes" etc etc etc.

You just need enough categories to cover the number of anticipated song showdowns.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I like it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Iwas already preparing to expand the subject pool to include managers, owners, seasons, stadia, and such.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah but think of assigning those topics to contests and not to contestants.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hear you.

On one hand, being hit with a single subject choice per round is hard.

On the other hand, the challenge of hardness can breed innovation, and probably will make voting easier, as we're comparing apples to apples.

[Guest sharpie]

I do like the idea of both contestents writing about the same topic or player (once again I refer to my matchup with marathon over Eric Hillman which, I think, produced two good songs about one not-good pitcher).

[seawolf17]

Definitely like the same-topic battles. Vastly more interesting.

[Guest Edgy DC]

OK, looking at people, places, and things, we have...

500 players (among our ranked guys)
+18 Managers
+ 46 Seasons
+ 11 General Managers
+ 7 Post-Seasons
+ 3 Principal Owners
+ 3 Stadia (five or six if you count spring training)
+ 2 Mascots
+ 29 Broadcasters (no, I don't count Francesa and Russo)
+ 11 TV, Cable and Media outlets
+ 4 Retired Numbers

That's 634 subjects, 79% of which are players. Stop me when I've gone too far.

Edited November 26, 2007 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That's way too big a list. I'd suggest you include only the Top 15 or maybe top 20 players max, with the idea that, if you include the seasons (and not all of them are going to be necessary), most players are available theoretically.

Make the topics broad and give the writers room to interpret and be different from one another.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sorry. Top 15 or 20 players from each season, or top 15 or 20 players ever?

[Guest sharpie]

Shouldn't be "top" players. Should be a random assortment of players from very good to very bad or it could be subjects like "left handed closers", "drug users" etc.