I'm kind of annoyed that I didn't know the PosCast was back and I've missed 5 episodes. If you were subscribed to the old poscast, the new ones won't show up there and you have to go to the store and subscribe to the "new" poscast. Rats. Well, time to catch up I suppose.

To be fair, you couldn't have expected Sports Illustrated to keep hosting the Poscast after the guy quit ;)

I still pick immortality.

Also flight is ridiculously overrated. Freezing your butt off, and swallowing bugs, and for what... Saving a little bit of time getting some place you could have gotten anyway? Well maybe it's worth it to get away from the TSA.

Posnanski's ballot is my ballot. Except that mine is entirely hypothetical.

Also flight is ridiculously overrated. Freezing your butt off, and swallowing bugs, and for what... Saving a little bit of time getting some place you could have gotten anyway? Well maybe it's worth it to get away from the TSA.

Or you can just buy your own plane, and get all of the benefits plus climate control and a bar.

I still pick immortality.

Now that is overrated. Lose an arm? Tough, live with it for eternity. Get caught in a fire? Oh well. Do you just get really really old? Do you stay a toddler? Do you hit puberty? Do you turn into a 600lb tub of goo as the decades roll by?

Now that is overrated. Lose an arm? Tough, live with it for eternity. Get caught in a fire? Oh well. Do you just get really really old? Do you stay a toddler? Do you hit puberty? Do you turn into a 600lb tub of goo as the decades roll by?

Well we did this before and specified Wolverine style. So you stay 30 and in shape forever, and injuries all heal.

Hmmm ... I coulda sworn I had left Schilling off my ballot to make room for Sosa (questionable). But now I think my with Sosa ballot is just 9 so I can put Schilling on. Or am I still forgetting somebody?

Bonds
Clemens
Bagwell
Biggio
Trammell
Walker
Raines
Piazza
Sosa
Schilling

That's not necessarily in order. Note, deserved or not, I'd drop McGwire and Palmeiro as hopeless if I had a real ballot ... Walker and Sosa also probably hopeless but worth making a point over while I've made my Mac and Palmeiro points in previous years. Barring the miracle of several making it through this year, Sosa, Schilling, Raines and probably one of Trammell/Biggio are out for me next year. A ridiculous battle for the #10 spot next year. Somewhat dependent on vote totals (strategic voting again).

you just go for high speed regeneration, along with immortality and you are set.

How in the world do you draft flight over teleportation?

Teleportation is superior in every way. Am I crazy?

10: You're not crazy, but flight does have some things going for it.

1. Flight is physically a fun thing to do. Teleportation isn't. You can do fun things with it, but it isn't intrinsically fun.
2. Flight is one of those powers that it'd be hard to get into serious trouble with.

Flight would be my first choice too, for those reasons.

2. Flight is one of those powers that it'd be hard to get into serious trouble with.

You say this now but just wait until you blunder into Chinese airspace.

Boy, Poz just got crushed here. Schur is an invisible super-strong omniscient time-traveller, and Poz can, like, teleport to you and yell at you in Japanese.

Well we did this before and specified Wolverine style. So you stay 30 and in shape forever, and injuries all heal.

Yeah but now you're talking about more than one superpower.

I vote for "manipulate gravity".

My superpower is the ability to invent superpowers and assign them to myself [/eleven years old]

With jet packs just around the corner, everyone will have flight soon.

If you were immortal, the world would consist entirely of people who want to kill you because they're tired of you and people who want to kill you just to see if they can.

Flight is a terrible superpower, IMO, because it's not possible to use without making yourself a worldwide phenomenon. I would hate that level of fame.

Jack Morris had X-Ray vision.

I'd pick super-intelligence. Those guys were always figuring out how to create a machine, mutation, or whatever to get the other superpowers.

I still pick immortality.

Preach, brother!


And I agree the #1 pick was a dog.

The only way it isn't is if it's Superman-style flight thru interstellar space, with FTL capability.

Flight? Too many bad consequences. Does no one remember the Peal Jam song?

Immortality is at the bottom of my list, for the reasons McCoy mentions in #6, and teleportation is just barely above that. My parents and in-laws would expect to have dinner with me every night. No thanks. Give me the ability to stop time and leave me the hell alone.

Immortality is only worth it (even with unlimited regenerative powers) if you can opt out of it at any time. Otherwise it will eventually turn hellish.

Walt, how do you feel about Martinez?

Imagine being immortal and dropped at the bottom of the sea our shot into space our thrown into a volcano. Not fun

eh I would imagine that no dieing would make it kind of fun, except the volcano I would pass on that one.

what some here are really saying is that they don't want an eternity of cubs anguish

Captain Jack Harkness didn't seem to be all that thrilled with immortality.

Walt, how do you feel about Martinez?

I think he was an outstanding hitter. Unfortunately for him, it was an era of outstanding hitting and he brings nothing else to the table. I wouldn't object to him going in but I will never in a million years understand how somebody can vote for Edgar over Walker. He's never received my mythical vote before but he's basically where I draw the border these days.

There are threads where I go into more detail. He is probably more deserving than Sosa but I'm a fanboy and Sosa will drop off my ballot next year anyway. He may be as deserving as Raines but I prefer all-around players. There are plenty of threads out there where I go into more detail.

Note, using WAR, Edgar is only #10 on this ballot and that's with Biggio just behind and McGwire and Piazza behind as well. (And Sosa obviously) On the other hand, you could easily move him ahead of Palmeiro (who's barely ahead due to his very long career) and Lofton (cuz none of us have adjusted to the idea of Lofton as HoFer) and get him back to 10th place if you ignore McGwire.

Anyway, I really have a hard time seeing him as anything better than the 10th best player on this ballot and could see him down around 13-14.

How about being an invisible, disemodied essence capable of travelling through time and possessing any body you like?

That would be my vote for best arrangment of powers.

How about being an invisible, disemodied essence capable of travelling through time and possessing any body you like?

I think I saw that movie. Starring Linda Blair.

Captain Jack Harkness didn't seem to be all that thrilled with immortality.

it's a gift....and a curse.

I would just like to give someone the "eternal waking" or whatever it was The Sandman did to his captor when he was freed.....

Not my first choice, just always stuck in my head. THAT was one of the most twisted things imaginable

EDIT: Almost forgot: Word of God would be pretty fun too...

How about being an invisible, disemodied essence capable of travelling through time and possessing any body you like?

Is this the fantasy of every historian? Or are you just thinking about the sex?

Is this the fantasy of every historian? Or are you just thinking about the sex?

Why can't it be both? You could have sex with all sorts of historically important figures - Charlotte Bronte, Marie Antoinette... Pocahontas.

Why can't it be both? You could have sex with all sorts of historically important figures - Charlotte Bronte, Marie Antoinette... Pocahontas.

Precisely!

Days being some back-bencher following parliamentary debates and being the cup-bearer at privy council meetings, and evenings banging Lady Hamilton or Mata Hari.

EDIT: Or maybe scratch that one. I never cease to be amazed at how unattractive Mata Hari seems in google searches.

I never cease to be amazed at how unattractive Mata Hari seems in google searches.

I suppose that, at least by modern standards, it didn't take much in those days to come off as exotic and provocative. Plus it's just a cool name.

The advantages of teleportation over flight are obvious, but one thing flight does have going for it is that you maintain control. Flight is not going to lead to your particles getting randomly scattered across the universe, or to half your body getting trapped in a wall. Even if I had teleported 20,000 times successfully, I would still be worried about that kind of thing.

Omniscience and immortality are kind of pushing it even in terms of "superhero" powers (although I can at least think of immortal superheroes, whereas I'm not sure I can think of omniscient ones.) I'm surprised, though, that no one took invulnerability, a pretty standard superpower. Poz even points out to Schur late in the draft, "I can still just shoot you with a gun."

Schur IMO wasn't taking positional scarcity into account enough, as he passed up both Biggio and Trammell (he wasn't against Biggio per se, but didn't think he was a "first ballot guy"). I wish Poz had been a little clearer about his exact ballot; still not quite sure. (Also not sure if they were limiting themselves to 10.)