Yesterday was hot in Iowa; we even broke a record high (officially it was 94 degrees, but my vehicle registered 96 degrees at 6:30 PM).  My parents have a pool at their house, so I'm pretty much in or near the pool on the weekends all summer long.  On occassion, my mom's brother and his family will come over on Sundays as well.  That's what happened yesterday.

I had hooked up a pair of old computer speakers to my iPhone and was listened to the WEEI feed from the game.  My uncle asked what I was listening, and I told him.  He knew that we've hooked up the laptop to the speakers in the past, so he shouldn't have been that surprised that we would have the game going outside but he was suprised.  He simply shook his head slightly.

Something you need to understand about my uncle is he's notorious for giving other people crap about anything, especially sports, but he doesn't really follow sports, except for the Lakers.  Last year when the Red Sox lost game 162 and missed the play-offs, there was a message on my answering machine from him, but I simply ignored it.  When the Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals a few years back, our family made sure to leave him a message on his voicemail.  Another thing to know about my uncle is he's pretty much a front-runner when he watches sports, except for the Iowa Hawkeyes (football only) and again the Lakers... or so I thought. 

My dad said something to uncle about the Celtics still playing basketball and the Lakers being out, and my uncle said he was going for the Thunder.  My uncle did say he hoped the Celtics beat the Heat though (which sort of surprised me since they are considered the favorite to win the Finals but then I remembered... Bosh is out.  Thus, the Thunder must be the new favorites). 

My uncle then started to talk baseball again.  He said he hoped the Rangers won the World Series this year.  Since the Rangers have been to the World Series the past two seasons, this didn't surprise me in the least bit.  My cousin, who's ten I think, started saying how much he likes the Rangers.  Then he started to say he liked the Rays and hoped that the Red Sox lost the game.  My dad asked my cousin to name someone on the Rays (playfully, not maliciously since this was a ten-year-old afterall); and of course, my cousin couldn't.  I wonder if he could name someone on the Rangers?

As the afternoon went on, the conversation went away from sports (basically because my family was tired of talking about them), but it eventually came back.  My uncle brought up Josh Hamilton and how great he thought he was.  I agreed and said that I thought he was a great player.  My uncle said something to the effect of how many home runs Hamilton had (I think he said 18 or 19), and I politely corrected him and told him it was 20 and he got there by a walk-off the night before.  I also told my uncle how my brother hoped the Sox would sign Hamilton this coming off-season to plaright-field, but how I didn't think they would because the team appears to be trying to get younger.

That's when the discussion turned to baseball team's and their markets.  My uncle tried telling me Texas was a small market team.  I told him that Texas was mid-market.  He said that Tampa Bay is mid-market, and I told him their payroll is something like $42 million (I'm wrong there, they're spending more this season at $63.2 million, which is still the 6th least amoung.  2011 it was $42 million however).  My uncle argued teams like Texas and Seattle were mid-market and Tampa Bay was large-market.  He said it went by the size of the city and how many people were in the city.

At that point, I was tired of my uncle acting like he was right, so I proved him wrong.  I explained to him in baseball, the size of the market went by how much money the team had to spend.  Teams like Seattle and Texas were mid-market because their payrolls were in the middle.  Teams like Tampa Bay and Kansas City were small-market because their payrolls were towards the bottom of the scale.  Teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, and Angels were large-market because they had the highest payrolls.  Again, my uncle disagreed and said their was too much temptation in Tampa Bay and thus it was large-market.

My parents told my uncle that he shouldn't argue with my about sports, especially baseball.  My uncle seriously just rolled his eyes.  My mom pointed out that I was very knowledgeable about sports and even had a Red Sox blog (shout out from my mom to the blog!).  My uncle then wanted to quiz me on golf, and I informed him I didn't like golf but hoped Zach Johnson won yesterday. 

It was about this time that I went inside (I was starting to burn), and I started to watch ESPN with my uncle.  My uncle came in a few minutes later and asked who won Indy.  My brother told him Franchitti, and somehow we started talking about NASCAR.  I told my uncle that Franchitti used to race for NASCAR, and my uncle told me I was wrong.  I was angry now so I told him to wait a minute and I would bring up my computer and google it.  My brother beat me to it, as he had googled it on his phone, and told my uncle that Franchitti raced in NASCAR in 2007.  My uncle then turned to me and asked how I knew that.  I told him that my dad and I bet on the races every week (my driver's finished 1, 2, and 3 last night!).  I also told my uncle that following sports is what I do everyday.  I think it was finally starting to sink in to him.

My relatives left shortly afterwards; and when my parents came inside, my mom informed me that my uncle told them how impressed he was at my knowledge in sports.  I simply told her that my uncle should know better than to argue with my about sports.