Mejor del Mundo

"I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
Hey I made it
Mmm..I'm the world's greatest"
--The World's Greatest, R.Kelly

I think that means "best in the world" or something roughly equivalent (for a great example of loose translation, see Ichiro's quote from yesterday before facing Dice-K: "I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger."). It's on the occasion of watching my Padres win another one last night (4-0 over the TERRIBLE Giants) that I've decided to generate a list of some of the greatest things in the world, in their respective categories.
World's Greatest...
- Bullpen: The Padres. The reason for this post. Of course I'm probably jinxing them now, but Linebrink tossed a scoreless seventh and Brocail tossed a scoreless ninth (up four, no need for Trevor Time), running the pen's streak to 28 1/3 scoreless innings to start the season (club record is 32, should be eclipsed by the time I make it out to Dodger Stadium for Sunday's series finale)...
- Footballer: Cristiano Ronaldo. Two goals in Man U's 7-1 thrashing of AS Roma on Wednesday, and countless pressure-inducing runs, back-heels, stepovers and other acts of brilliance. He's 22, the source of a $107 million rumor (Real Madrid wants him badly), and has been the most dominant player on the best club in Europe this season. If United manage to capture the European Cup (they're in the semis against AC Milan), the FA Cup (they're in the semis against Watford) and the Premiership (they've got a three-point lead over Chelsea with six matches left), this will go down as one of the great team and individual performances in European football history...
- Pitcher: Could it really be Felix Hernandez? Watched most of his outing last night and he was ridiculous. I had heard last year that he had the stuff to be the best in the game, but wasn't all there mentally (and physically--he evidently dropped a bunch of weight in the off-season). He's been lights-out to start the season, so we'll see if it keeps going. According to Buster Olney, "seven of the 58 batters he's faced this year have hit the ball to the outfield -- and only one has mustered an extra-base hit, for an .075 batting average." Wow...
- Idiot: Don Imus. Enough has been said about him that I don't need to pile on, but after reading a list of some of the crap this guy has said in the past, it's about time that something went down. My only two cents on this: if this leads to misogynistic videos leaving the airwaves (read a good post on that from SI guy Roy S. Johnson here) and hyper-awareness about offensive (racist, sexist, whatever) behavior from people like Imus, then it's one of those good-that-comes-from-bad things that God's so good at...
- Music video: This one...
- Weekend: 3/30-4/2 (the exact days vary from year to year, and I'm including Friday and Monday, which might be technically stretching the concept a bit, but bear with me). It should be pretty obvious, but here's why: NCAA semifinals (even if UCLA did lose) and finals. MLB opening day (even if the Padre haters in the league office don't let us open the season until Tuesday, two days after the freaking Cardinals). Premier League in full swing (even if Newcastle United lost), nearing the end of the season (nice 4-1 win for Man U over Blackburn, poor Brad Friedel; Chelsea sneak out a late win over Watford, poor Jay DeMerit). You know, now that I look at it, even if the sports action was great, my squads were either losers or neglected, so maybe I won't make such a grand assertion...
- Video game: Still this one, after all these years. Thank goodness for emulators.
- Computer game: Still this one.
- Basketball commercial: This one is a close second (and was the inspiration behind a certain Top 50 show open, but I've always loved C-Webb at the barbershop. If you want a few more (including KG's fooseball game with Brandi Chastain, which probably would be third on my list), look here...
- Job: Mine. And I have to do it now...