Sunday, June 03, 2007

Zack Greinke's Biggest Fan

I saw Knocked Up last night. Good stuff. But perhaps my favorite moment was when Paul Rudd's character was caught sneaking out of the house. His wife thought that he was cheating on her. It turns out that he was simply heading to a fantasy baseball draft. Nice. Mooney and I got so excited that we literally cheered and had to take a moment to punch it in.

As some of you know, I was in a fantasy baseball league with Paul back in 2004. He, um, didn't do all that well.

He was very pleasant to have in the league though and I'm not just saying that because I made a trade with him in May that helped me win the whole thing. After his last place finish, Paul quit our league. We added a new owner, Mike, to replace Paul.

As a joke, I named Mike's team "I Wasn't On Friends" when I added his team into the website. Mike liked it so much that he kept it as his team name. Every year, Mike shows up to the draft wearing Orioles attire. In the scene, Rudd is decked out in O's gear. Odd. In real life, Rudd is a Royals fan. I wonder why they decided that he'd be a Baltimore fan in the movie.

In the movie, Rudd's character tries to draft a player, and is told that the player had been drafted three rounds earlier. Veterans of fantasy baseball drafts know why this is so funny. I don't recall if Rudd did this or not back in '04 but he just well might have.

Rudd was great in the film - his timing was perfect. As his wife and sister-in-law are giving him dirty looks for lying, Rudd tries to get out of trouble with the classic line, "But honey I drafted Matsui!" Mooney and I were the only ones in the almost packed theater to laugh at that line.

I wish I could say that his fantasy baseball skills in '04 were as good as his acting chops but I suppose you can't have everything. Rudd has good looks, fame, and riches. I have three straight Brooklyn fantasy baseball championships.

I hear that Rudd is in a fantasy baseball league with other celebrities out there in Hollywood. If you end up stumbling upon this blog, Paul, say hi. And if you want a real owner for your undoubtedly pansy ass league, I can always add another league to the docket.

6 comments:

jamie said...

yeah, i about lost it when i saw that scene. too funny. i was furtively trying to remember the draft that he attended to see if anything had directly translated to the scene, but other than his Royals fandom and buying him a pack of Parliaments nothing came to me.

crispin said...

I too was excited and squealed with glee, turning to the friend on my right and telling him my brother and friend were in a fantasy league with mr rudd a few years ago. He politely laughed me off and I had to take him aside after the movie and say, "I don't think you understand...they really were in a fantasy league with him" to which he finally gave an appropriately impressed response. I added that I had some wallet size photos of Ian Mackaye in softball gear if he was interested.

msdee said...

I'm just waiting for Mr. Rudd's comment

youthlarge said...

Dude, I was there too and I laughed! Not with you guys, but at.

mas said...

I thought the same thing during that scene and wondered why he was in Orioles gear - you don't see O's stuff in TV/movies very often except maybe on Edward Norton now and then.

Turtle Power said...

Did you happen to see him on Conan last night? He spent a couple minutes talking about fantasy baseball, and is still on a league, but says he is not proud of it.