Join us as we go for the record on July 24th!

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Seventeen years ago today Ken Griffey Jr stepped into the batters box at Camden Yards, Mariners pro cap turned backwards, and roped a homer off of the warehouse beyond the right field yard. He was the first player to hit the warehouse and no one has done it since.

And, although he didn't win the Home Run Derby that year he knocked a shot out of the stadium and into the imagination of sports fans around from Baltimore to Seattle. The next season Griffey did win a HR Derby, his first of three, the same week he scored more All-Star votes than anyone in history. That same year, 1994, he hit 40 jacks before the strike shortened season ended his best shot at breaking Roger Maris' iconic '61' record. The Kid still had a few great seasons before winding down the second half of his career riddled with injuries (mostly sustained while hustling for fly balls or trying to pick up an extra base) in Cincinnati, eventually retiring as a member of the Mariners earlier this season.

In an era dominated by juiced-up superstars who have left a gaping hole in the hearts of fans, Griffey kept clean and stayed legit. Although probably no one would have benefited more from the quick recovery impact from HGH and steroids, Junior, by all accounts, played by the rules, and earned a special place in the hearts of baseball fans from even his teams most fierce rivals. Unfortunately Major League Baseball's reluctency to acknowledge the "Steroid Era", means they can't give Griffey the honor he is due, so we plan to take that on ourselves.

Project Franchise and SB Nation are all about the fan, we are hoping to honor the true fan favorite this month in epic fashion by retiring his style as a world record. On July 24th we are encouraging fans to join us in paying special tribute to The Kid by turning their hat backwards, snapping a pic and sharing it in our online photo gallery as we attempt to set the record for The Most Backwards Hats Worn. To get involved and join the cause, sign up for more info and we'll send you an email just before the big day with all of the details.

To help hype up the record attempt, we'll be in Anaheim tonight for the 2010 version of the Home Run Derby promoting it to a national audience of fans of the long-ball. If you're going to be in attendance this eve, be sure to send us an email to team[at[projectfranchise[dot]org or leave a comment below and we'll send you the details for our tailgate. And to really get in the spirit, you can pick up one of our sweet commemorative Tee's @ www.fan-fits.com, where all the proceeds go towards purchasing our fan-run minor league franchise.

More photos » Jim McIsaac - Getty Images

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In light of Joey Votto's insane snub from the 2010 MLB All-Star Game, I decided to re-post something I wrote about him in December of last year. 

It isn't too late to vote Votto into the All-Star Game, as he is an option on the Final Vote. You can place your vote here. 

After the jump, take the time to read my "Why I Was Proud to be a Baseball Fan in 2009" post. Hopefully, it will convince you to send one of baseball's best players and best stories to the All-Star Game.

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We made some new friends this week who are very 'rock & roll' and figured we'd pass along the details. The site is called Fuzzedout and it basically enables simple music discovery with no extra hype or editorial. They post 5 songs a week and let the site visitors listen and vote on their favorite - then at the end of the week they provide the winning song as a free download, legally. Like us they launched their site earlier this year and are already starting to get some traffic, so hopefully they will blow up alongside us like Matt Damon & Ben Affleck... But we get to be Jason Bourne.

The dude who built the site put together this video that explains why they created Fuzzedout and its a lot inline with what we are trying to achieve with Project Franchise, by giving the power back to the people who care the most - the fans.

They've also got a blog on Tumblr where they post all sorts of cool indy music stuff and updates on how the site is coming along, which you can check out @ http://fuzzedout.tumblr.com/ 

And if you think you're the ultimate music fan they've created a little contest to test you skills. Pitting the human ear against the Shazam app you get less than a minute to correctly "Name That Tune" for 5 different songs - get all of them right and they'll give you 5 fre Fuzzedout downloads. Check the game out in the video below and tell people your "with the band" at www.fuzzedout.com

Party on Wayne.

Let’s put it this way.  I don’t give a flying puck where LeBron is going on July 1^st.  I care about celebrating Canada Day and seeing where NHL free agents end up.  As a fan, there are always players that are more fun to track than others, since they could have a big impact on your team’s fortunes.

In my mind, here are the 4 most intriguing free agents in this year’s crop, after the jump.

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Jasper Juinen - Getty Images

Can Ronaldo carry his club form into international play to lift Portugal to World Cup glory? (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

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What if you entered the World Cup having only given up 2 goals in its last 10 competitive matches and not one in the last 6 games.  What if you also had a former FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or winner that had just notched 33 goals in 34 games playing in one of Europe's top leagues?  Most would feel pretty good about their chances of at least competing against the world's best on the biggest stage starting on June 11 in South Africa, but Portugal is very much under the radar entering the World Cup.  

It's easy from listening to all the talk preceding this week's kickoff that only Spain, Brazil and England have a real chance of winning the World Cup.  Well the favorite very rarely advances and a lot of times actually ends up exiting the tournament much earlier than expected, while underachieving dark horses have come through in recent memory. Look no further than Portugal if you want a value pick with top quality and depth.

In 2002, Argentina the favorite didn't make it out of their group finishing behind both England and Sweden.  Brazil ended up winning that year after a very lackluster qualifying campaign.  

In 2006 on the heels of their triumph four year earlier, a roster loaded with attacking talent and Ronaldinho's emergence as the best player in the world Brazil were huge favorites.  They ended up looking sluggish throughout and were knocked out by France in the quarterfinals.  Italy were given little chance after Serie A clubs like Juventus, AC Milan and Internazionale were hit with allegations of corruption and many Italians were rooting against their countrymen.  They ended up defeating an aging French side in the World Cup Final on penalties no less.

If there's anything that is apparent when watching international play is how unpredictable it can be especially when the elimination rounds begin.  Being a favorite guarantees little when you have to get through the group stage and then win four games to capture the World Cup.  

Enter Portugal.  

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More photos » Elaine Thompson - AP

Griff even makes being in a pile under Bob "the Bullet" Walcott look fun.

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On the heels of Gary Coleman's death and only days before my 28th (late mid-twenties) birthday, I really didn't need the retirement of my childhood sports icon to make me feel any older than I already do.  But, the coming weeks will surely be a chance to relive some of the Kid's most memorable moments, and give some of the younger fans a glimpse at Griffey during his first stint in Seattle. That way they will know who us old timers are talking about when Chris Young, Bryce Harper and other future favorites are compared to Ken Griffey Jr.

Over the next few days there will be countless articles about the stats, the injuries, the "what might have been."  The Steroid Era will come up and the talking heads will squawk about "playing the game the right way." Griffey's career will be dissected and put under a microscope as fans and sport writers alike struggle to rank Griffey amongst the all time greats.  All of that stuff is secondary right now.  Bottom line, Griffey's dynamic combo of personality and extraordinary talent made baseball cool for a generation. That's not always easy to do, as baseball doesn't seem to influence pop culture as much as the NBA or even NFL.  He made playing defense cool, in a time when power hitters ruled the day. He took center field and made that a marquee position usually reserved for pitchers and shortstops.  He even made baseball uniforms look cool, even though unis haven't really changed much since Honus Wagner sported one.  He took those uncomfortable, unflattering,  made of seasonally inappropriate fabric uniforms and made me want to wear it to the beach in July.  He did the seemingly impossible, when he rocked a turtleneck on his rookie card and immediately made it a "must have".  Of course, the "Kid's" trademark was the backwards hat...independently cool, but Junior made it cooler.

As a show of appreciation for Griffey Jr., the ProjectFranchise.Org and Front Office Fans teams have decided to rock backwards hats on June 24th in the hopes that this campaign snowballs, and maybe.....just maybe, MLB will honor Junior along with us on June 24th and urge all fans at major league games to turn their caps around for an inning.  I'm sure there's a Guinness World Record to be broken in there somewhere.  Let's harness the power of SBNation and make it happen - and if you aren't a doctor (or some other type of job where wearing a backwards fitted to work is highly inappropriate), then email us (Team[at]ProjectFranchise[dot]org) or Fanpost a pic of yourself honoring Griff on June 24 and we'll add you to our Flickr Gallery.

NOTE- Technically, it looks like we may have to aim for setting a record rather than breaking it, since I haven't been able to find a backward hat record to "break" unless you count the silly version of my little league team picture.  In which case the current record is 12.

If you missed my predictions for the Eastern Conference Finals, go take a look.

The East Finals will be flooded with stories about which Cinderella has the more dainty glass slipper.  Here’s a tip for you though, it doesn’t matter.  The West has two powerhouse teams playing and whomever wins the West will win the Cup. 

Just in case you don’t trust me, take a look at the breakdown of these two teams and then flip back to the underlying stats of Montreal and Philly, you’ll see my point.

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Bruce Bennett - Getty Images

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We’ve just hit my favorite part of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the conference finals.  We’re down to only four deserving teams and it’s now possible to watch every game left without ending up in a divorce. 

The real question, as always, is who will win.  Here is my Eastern Conference prediction, and I’ll try to post for the West in the next 24 hours.

This has to be the most karma-laden series to be played in a long, long time.  Either Lady Luck has decided to entertain two partners, or one of these teams is about to melt down Dennis Green style.

The Flyers have not only come back from being down 3-0, but they staged a phenomenal comeback in game 7 when down by 3 goals.  That’s the first 0-3 comeback since the ’75 Islanders and deserves a ton of praise.

The Canadiens have been out-shot, out-chanced, out-Corsi’d and out-Fenwick’d all postseason and yet have ridden a hot goaltender and two hot scorers past the two best teams in the conference.  Just take a peak at my thoughts on the Caps-Habs series if you want a better explanation.

So which one has reached the end of the Lady Luck lovefest?

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