Us, nine weeks ago: Somebody wake the A’s, Marlins and Rays from their collective wet dream. There’s no way they can all keep this up. Now, a few days prior to the All-Star break, the trio remains above .500. Amazingly, this only prompted two quasi-nasty emails from readers. As we told ‘em: We missed here badly, and we’ll miss again badly. Happens to everyone. For every Gavin Floyd call and nailing the Final Four correctly, we’ll be wrong about a dozen others. At any rate, we’ve asked the winner of our wager, commenter Hef, to tell us how he was going to spend his $30 itunes card. We even offered up four completely random song ideas for him to download, but we’re guessing he didn’t take our advice on this one (the song is abrasive, but the Magnum PI beat is perfect for the gym, or just boozing alone.) After the jump, Hef goes shopping.

A large portion of this has been copied directly from my own post about the bet and the reason for that is, unlike Imig, I’m not so gauche as to link to my own site.

I’m not entirely sure why I’m doing this now. This feels like old news and I’m not really one to rub salt in a wound. But Mr. The Big Lead asked me to do a write up about the bet we made almost two months back and I had nothing better to do than try to embarrass my dear friend (Jason, tell your wife that my wife appreciates the snicker doodle recipes). I will say that Raj McIntyre is a man of his word and is quick to pay off a gambling debt. I was not forced to send in any hired goons to try to exact restitution even though RomanWarHelmet was more than willing (and, incidentally, lives right up the road).

You see, way back on May 12th, TBL made the bold statement that a few small market teams who were performing well would fall out of it by July 1st. That is, all three teams would be at or below .500. He even went so far as to call those who would get excited about these three teams “sheeple” and more or less told them that money is power so buzz off with the pipe dreams and the hope (he’s the anti-Obama). I, and many others took exception to such statements (especially Jesus, check out this comment) as we felt it was a little short sighted and insulting. You know what, let’s try to recreate that moment way back in mid May.

Here’s what the world looked like back on May 12th:

-The average gallon of gas across the nation was less than $3.79.
-The Cavs beat the Celtics to tie their best of 7 series at two games a piece.
-And an earthquake in China killed more than 60,000 people.
-We still didn’t know who the Democratic Nominee for President would be.

And back on May 12th, the MLB standings looked like this:

Tampa: 22-16; .5 game out of first
Florida: 23-15; 2.5 game lead in the division
Oakland: 23-16; .5 game lead in the division

A lot has changed since May 12th.

-Today the average price of gas is $4.12
-The Celtics are the NBA champs.
-And Barry Obama is facing off against John “Boy” McCain.

And on June 30th, the standings look like this:

Tampa: 49-32; .5 game lead in division
Florida: 42-39; 1 game out of first
Oakland: 44-37; 4.5 games back of first

Pretty shocking right? Tampa went 27-16 during that month and a half which means they actually improved their initail pace (.579 win percentage before May 12th; .628 win percentage after). Oakland played .500 ball during that same time period, and only Florida fell off the table a bit. I expected TBL to be wrong, but not on the level of wrongness that he ended up being. His wrongness surpassed levels of wrongnicity heretofore unseen in this neighborhood of the blogosphere.

So the iTunes cards came in the mail on Saturday along with a note written in Sharpie:

“Enjoy-
Recommended downloads:
Journey-”Don’t Stop Believing”
Cam’ron-”357″
The Outfield-”Your Love”
House of Pain-”Shamrocks and Shenanigans”

Now along with ordering a psychological test to be done to see what information can be garnered based on his eclectic music selections, I’m also having his handwriting analyzed to see if he’s a sociopath.

A few random observations while browsing the iTunes store in search of something worthwhile to purchase:

1. I am woefully out of touch with the mainstream media. I haven’t heard of half of this music. I don’t consider this a virtue or a vice, I’m simply stating a fact. A large reason for this is that iTunes seems to be taken over by the Disney Channel or whatever company is churning out teenage music machines these days. Isn’t Vanessa Hudgens the one who was on that High School Movie and then had naked pictures of her floating around the internet? [Ed.- Yes.] It seems that I need to start ignoring my family in order to watch more TV just to stay hip.

2. You can “rent” movies from iTunes? What’s the point? Why not rent them from Blockbuster or Netflix and then make copies of them? Or why not use the Pirate Bay to “back up” your film collection in the event of a nuclear holocaust? Why would you pay $4 to watch a movie on your computer?

3. Five of the top 10 TV episodes are from Family Guy. This tells me one important thing: I am not iTunes’ target audience. This is related to point #1 but it bears repeating. Unless you know what you want to buy at iTunes, you are in danger of sifting through a bunch of crap. All of their “featured” music and movies are stuff I wouldn’t even expect TBL to watch they’re that bad. So if you’re shopping for something, go in with a plan and get out. Don’t browse the bargain bins or look at the “what’s hot now” wall of shame.

4. Right now for the Fourth of July holiday, there’s a section on iTunes called “Birth of Our Nation” which is dangerously close to Birth of A Nation. I wonder if there might be a better way to get people interested in videos about the American Revolution without unintentionally recalling a period in our history when we were afraid of black folk riding off with our women. Maybe they could call it “Celebrating Our Independence.”

But enough with the observational humor. Let’s get down to the part where you can all mock me in a public forum. Here’s what I actually spent (TBL’s) money on:

* I bought my wife a few songs of French Cafe music from various soundtracks. A song from Chocolat, one from Ratatouille, and a few others from another album I can’t remember. I figured I’d spend the money on songs I couldn’t find anywhere for that price (plus this way I don’t have to buy the whole album). It’s surprisingly mellow and I like the French guitar (insert dick joke here).
* I bought the new Wolf Parade album for myself and my 6-year-old who thinks it sounds a little like Arcade Fire which is favorite band. My 6-year-old is soooo two years ago. Lame.
* I spent all of 50 seconds listening to two different Tech N9NE songs that were marked “popular” and I couldn’t tell the difference between the two of them. Also, they both included the word “haters” which to me implies a distinct lack of cleverness. So…pass.
* In order to satisfy all of your stereotypical expectations, I bought a song by The Silver Jews. You’re welcome.
* I bought the new Bonnie “Prince” Billy album because goddamn that dude is talented. Who’s with me?
* And finally yes, I bought The Outfield’s “Your Love” because Eric Byrnes (nay, the Panda) is a major part of my life. This song brings me hope. Hope that maybe Eric Byrnes will devote his life to music and return the $30million contract he signed allowing the Snakes to pursue a better outfielder.

The only thing I learned from this bet is that next time TBL and I wager something, I’m going to dictate the terms.