Welcome back to the inside joke of the year awards everyone, I'm your host, Billy Crystal.

After careful deliberation, the BCB community has selected their favorite, and it is THE CURIOUS SPELLING OF ISHIKAWA. This joke brought us a number of laughs, and was completely innocent. It didn't insult anyone, it didn't step on anyone's toes, it was just an all around nice joke, and we're glad he came to the party this year. We don't know if Ishikawa is coming back next year, but much like Craig Counsell jokes have continued in spite of his absence, I think this fabulous rookie inside joke will stick around in some form or another. I mean, it is the Inside Joke of the Year!

Our first runner-up was TPOT. Clearly Brewer's fans were not happy about the thrill ride that was the Brewers bullpen ft. Francisco Rodriguez, and this acronym summed it all up perfectly. It was our way of dealing with the pain and adjusting a player's nickname to fit his current skill set.

The second runner-up was the early favorite, "If I Removed Cinnamon"...more an element of jargon than an inside joke, this phrase has become an absolute must-know for any BCBer. I fondly recall a thread where a comment began with the single word "Cinnamon, etc.". The author eventually posted underneath it how anybody who was new to the community has to wonder why we didn't all jump and ask what the hell he was talking about. It's a welcome member of our community, and we look forward to it sticking around for many more years.

So let's move on to voting for the rookie of the year. Ishikawa will be removed from consideration, out of fairness to the other inside jokes.

This season was a rather dreary one, with the Brewers starting off slow but optimistically, followed by a period of crushing injuries and bullpen implosions, leading most to believe the team was out of contention, and adjusting their BCB participation accordingly. But they stormed back at the end to make it interesting, and we still got some good new jokes and jargon.

First, as the trolls began to come out from under the bridges after Ryan Braun had his appeal upheld, BCBers felt it necessary to find a suitable response to said trolls. That was the simple phrase "Thank you for your insight." It would surely confuse or anger any troll hoping for a more argumentative response, and alert BCBers that there was a troll afoot. It was a very good warning system, because I can't recall a "TFYI" comment on a troll that didn't turn green. It is without a doubt the easiest way to get recs around here, and has become an important meme on BCB.

Second, Mat Gamel had a shockingly dull interview in spring training that led to comparisons to Michigan J Frog, and the joke of "..." summing up his speaking ability. For example, when he did something good at the plate, someone would post "...!" Unfortunately, he suffered a season ending injury, cutting this promising joke's life short.

BRR- Buntin' Ron Roenicke...last year was all supposed to be about the SB and the extra base on balls to the outfield, but this year we quickly latched on to his love (obsession) with the bunt. We have no word if the rumor of the bunt filing for a restraining order has any truth to it.

TPOT - It's been discussed at length already, but it's new this year!

Hart is the best at making catches at the warning track - A joke started by a particularly insightful "ask the booth" question, this one tailed in popularity as Hart moved to 1B, and the caveman joke proved more popular.

MORGBLAN - When Nyjer made more foolish mistakes on the base paths than we could count, we decided he needed his own TOOTBLAN term, and so was born MORGBLAN, Made Outs Running Goddamn Bases Like A Nincompoop.

TEHFIERS - A slightly childish text-speek way of referring to Mike Fiers, who was a rookie as well.

Cat names - An excellent way to stretch your imagination and memory of Brewers players, as well as your knowledge of feline terminology.

Cheeseandcorn - When he said "Look how bad things are, they have to get better, they couldn't possibly get worse", he was forced to watch things get worse for several months. Whereas BEARDEDJEFF jinxed the Brewers by celebrating injury to another team, Cheeseandcorn became the term for jinxing the Brewers by optimism.

Fan Freak Out Graphs - When I realized that WPA graphs failed to tell the story of the fan experience, I decided a new graph was needed. So I put time on the horizontal axis, and the extent to which Brewers fans were freaking out on the vertical axis. Used sparingly, it was still a popular feature, and an entertaining way to consider the way the game played out.

WHO WILL WIN?

(Voting will remain open until Monday night, since I know weekend traffic is lower around here).