Throw Back a Colortini

Television personality Tom Snyder has passed away.

One of my fondest memories is watching The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder with Mom back in the mid to late 90's.

An Offer from Stilwell

To help mow his lawn. But this landscaping work is of a little different nature and for a good cause.

Sadler Out

Tragically, Rush's favorite player has been suspended for fifty games due to drug abuse. Donnie Sadler, a minor leaguer with the D-Backs, is hitting his customary low .200's average this season.

It's Been One Week Since

Seven days ago at this time Jen and I were waking up in Kansas City-K after two full days of fun and festivities. The event? The B-Burgh wedding of course.

Oklahoma Joe's carryout kicked things off at the rehearsal dinner on Thursday and for the first time we Easterners enjoyed something called cheesy-corn. Okie-Joe's is only the best bbq I've ever had and is consistently tasty each time we have it. When Jen and I hit KC last October, we went straight to Joe's from the airport with Rush and had a great meal.

The wedding was very well administered by the Brandenburg's priest and the church was very cool-looking architecturally. It was built in the late 60's and had an open, welcoming feel with a wood furnished interior ceiling reaching circularly up from the walls to a point high in the middle.

The wedding reception was held at a dinner the-a-ter a little down the road from the church. All of the tables, chairs and railings were covered in elegant white fabric. A five hour open bar really put reception over the top. Crown Royale and coke has become my new favorite mixed drink. I think Rush was putting those back too. There was even a Brandenburg special ale that had a strong lemony flavor to it. Another highlight was that a celebrity look alike joined us at the reception - Chris Farley's antics kept us laughing well into the night.

But all joking aside, Jen and I had a great time spending time with both families, friends and especially Rush and Adriane. They'll be back from their NoCal honeymoon tomorrow and this very happy couple will begin the rest of their lives together back in Kansas.

We couldn't be happier for them!

Wine #1

About a year ago my doctor suggested I start drinking four glasses of red wine per week to serve as an internal salve against heart disease. Sounded like a good idea and I did it for about a month. Unfortunately, I found myself slumped over in my chair by 9:30 every night unable to finish an OOTP baseball game, catch the 10pm showing of Top Chef with Jen or enjoy my latest Murray Rothbard read.

So I gave it up. Until now.

Earlier this month I grabbed two $10-$15 bottles of red wine. In honor of the only European country I've ever been to I picked up two Spanish wines. I bought a Rioja and a Carchelo. After a two week search for our wine opener I opened the Carchelo this evening and had a glass. I'm still awake, hence the post.

Along with the word Carchelo the label contains the year it was made - 2005 - and the words Monastrell and Jumilla. Illiterate as I am about wine I have called on the internet to help me make sense of what I've just drank. From the website classicalwines.com comes this description and praise from Jay Miller of Wine Advocate.

"Dark ruby-colored with a nose of meat, leather, earth and blackraspberry which jumps from the glass. Medium-bodied, the wine is ripe and roundon the palate with lots of juicy fruit, is nicely balanced, and ideal for quaffing over the next 2-3 years. - 87 points"--- February 2007

I'm assuming that's 87 out of 100 possible points. I guess that's not too bad for a wine. And what does quaffing mean? I reference this definition from wine-lovers-page.com.

"A wine that's simple but refreshing, prompting easy swigging rather than thoughtful contemplation. See 'gulpable.' "

Ok, well I'm glad I didn't take myself too seriously tonight as I worked over my first glass. Anyway, again referencing classicalwines.com, the word Monastrell refers to the single indigenous variety of grape plant that occupies the Jumilla region of Spain. The plant grows in desert-like conditions and it's not until recently that wines from the region have been considered to be at least average.

My experience this evening with the wine occurred over a plate of Trader Joe's pasta, Trader Joe's low-salt spaghetti sauce and some grated cheese. The wine part of the experience was just average. (The pasta experience was, as always, greatly above average). I will now explain myself. My initial attempts at describing the wine that I've just drunk will probably sound elementary to some, understandable to others and lovable to friends and family. So here goes.

The wine was warm and very prickly entering my mouth and I gulped the first swig down my gullet much to quickly. The strength of the wine caused my voice to weaken for about ten embarrassing seconds. I played it off well, though, and I don't think Jen realized how close I was to spitting it back up. The second gulp was more tolerable and by the time I'd worked my way halfway down the glass I was in a comfort zone. By then large scoops of pasta and then sips of wine were alternating in my mouth making the Carchelo all the more enjoyable.

On a scale of 1-10 the strength of the wine was an 8.14 and I didn't particularly enjoy the wine's style in the sense that the many different flavors overwhelmed me and didn't allow me to concentrate on any one trait that the wine may have had to offer. So the overall rating (1-10) that I'll give this particular glass of wine is a 4.67.

Four glasses of wine a week is my prescription. That means four wine posts a week, eh?

Hank Aaron Observations of the Day

From the 1955 through the 1973 season Hank Aaron (ages 21-39) put together an impressive string of nineteen straight seasons with consecutive top seventeen placements in the yearly MVP voting. Of those nineteen seasons Aaron placed in the top ten thirteen times.

This remarkable consistency yielded one MVP award and seven top three placements. Those top three placements were spread out nicely over the following years: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1963, 1969 and 1971.

Twither Blogging?

Ruebel explores the possibility of blogging as one of the main forums for personal expression being slowly replaced by social networking and Twitter type sites.

Damn! I was just getting started here.

Arctic Maneuvering

I didn't know that Greenland is an autonomous province of Denmark. Oh yeah, and the Russians are claiming a spit of land just to the north of them that may net them 10 billion gallons of oil.

Throwback

At times Delino DeShields wore his pants high and his socks long in the 90's as an homage to Negro Leaguers.

Now there's Curtis Granderson.

Sunny Moscow

From englishrussia.com come these photos from 1967 Russia.

The photo above and many of the others found in the link depict a Moscow that is not as desolate as I have always pictured. Granted, these shots were taken on sunny, non-wintery days and there's always the chance that they could've been staged by the government. Note that there are several men wearing capitalist-pig suits and women attired in what looks to be 1930's/40's style American clothing.

Sun

Lew has a cool link to a video that exhibits the comparative size of our Sun to the planets in our solar system as well as larger suns outside the system.

One of BLDGBLOG's many posts on the Sun.

I get light-headed when I read that the surface of the sun "is really a thousand times more vacuous than a candle-flame on Earth, and even the concentrated moiling gases hidden a thousand miles below it are a hundred times thinner than earthly air." Indeed, some stars, such as E Aurigae I – a star so huge that it could "contain most of our solar system, including the 5.5-billion-mile circumference of Saturn's orbit". [my emphasis]

Geoff Manuagh wrote that particular post a year ago and references a writer named Guy Murchie whose descriptive book on the sun, The Music of the Spheres, is no longer in print.

Palmer on Lincecum (Among Other Things)

Scott Ostler's article from SFGate.com.

On Lincecum,

"The first time I saw him pitch, he was not particularly good," Palmer said Sunday. "Yesterday, he was brilliant. I watched two or three innings; that was enough. I saw the great changeup he threw to (Prince) Fielder, which Fielder just kind of waved at. It looks like he's got real good mound presence. He's got great stuff."

Palmer as a teenage major leaguer,

As a young major leaguer, Palmer was SpongeJim SquarePants, soaking up all the pitching knowledge he could get his ears on. He made the big leagues at 19, realized how much he didn't know and went to school.

The Orioles nicknamed him "Brash," because Palmer would sit in the bullpen and pepper Stu Miller, Harvey Haddix, Eddie Fisher and Charlie Lau with questions about pitching and hitting.

On the road, Palmer would assault roommate Robin Roberts with questions for hours on end. "Robin had 277 wins; I didn't have any," Palmer said.

A comment on Mr. Weaver,

"(Mike) Cuellar was leading the Twins 5-2 going into the ninth," Palmer said. "(Cesar) Tovar leads off with a single, then it's going to be (Rod) Carew, (Tony) Oliva and (Harmon) Killebrew. I walked down and I said, 'Mr. Weaver, that's his 135th pitch.' He said, 'Get your (fanny) back to the other end of the dugout. I'll let you know when he's tired.'

What more Oriole pitchers should take advantage of,

And if Lincecum ever wants to pick a brain that won 268 games, Mr. Palmer will be glad to take the kid's call.

James Bond Shoots

Here's a nice compilation video of all the Bond gun barrel sequences.

Only once does Bond go to his knee when he shoots. Moore goes fedora-less and moves the series out of the mid-20th century and into the hatless modern era. For my money, Dalton has the best swagger.

Enjoy, Chris!

Blog Picture Update

Ron Paul has pushed Vida Blue off into the sunset. A combination of the '07 Athletic's staff struggling, my only regular reader of the site getting tired of seeing the Blue pic and me itching to get Ron's new professionally done picture up on the site contributed to the change.

Head-Shaken McLaren Ejected

Seattle Mariner manager John McLaren earned his first ejection as manager of the Mariners today. If memory serves me McLaren was ejected as Lou Pinella's bench coach back in their Tampa Bay days in a game at Fenway a couple of years back. McLaren's a pure head-shaker in the tradition of Jerry Narron when he gets riled up by umpiring ineptness.

If you have the access you can catch it at 1:19:30 of Sunday's game on MLB.com. But you should watch the previous two minutes to get a feel for why he argued balls and strikes with home plate umpire Chad Fairchild.

Tidbits From the Ron Paul NYTimes Article

Taken verbatim from Saturday's article.

- He was one of very few Republicans in Congress to back Ronald Reagan against
Gerald Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination.

- [In his '96 Congressional race] Paul had only two prominent backers: the tax activist Steve Forbes and the pitcher Nolan Ryan, Paul's constituent and old friend, who cut a number of ads for him. They were enough. Paul edged Laughlin in a runoff and won an equally narrow general election.

Nolan Ryan would be a nice celebrity to see publicly support Ron again. And hopefully Ryan wouldn't pull a Barry Manilow and also contribute to six other candidates.

Easy Sailing Through the Dog Days

I love the franchise consistency of the Atlanta Braves. They of the single GM, single manager and continually producing farm system of the past 15+ years. Charlie likes their chances as the second half commences and cites an easy schedule into early August as a big reason for that optimism.

Oh Dear!

Athletic pitching has taken a turn for the worse since my post on their team pitching staff's ERA+ of 138 on June 11th. After last night's games they come in at 115, second in the American League behind the Red Sox's 119.

The Athletics were six games above .500 at the time I blogged that post. Now they sit at four games under .500. Still, based on their aughts history I can't count out a second-half surge for the club until at least August rolls around.

The Wealth Creators

Via John Robb's blog comes this link to a NY Times article on America's richest entrepreneurs. The graphical interface that they've put together to exhibit these men's fortunes is very cool.

Robb titles his post linking to the Times as "Rogues list of wealthiest Americans". The use of the word rogue to describe these men is typical anti-market claptrap. It's surprising that, Robb, an entrepreneur himself would apply a term to these men who created jobs, wealth and products that improved people's lives as rogues. I'd much rather see a list of these men (most of whom I've never heard of) on a school bulletin board than the true rogues gallery of politicians who are prominently held up as heroes in schools across America.

In Google's Own Words

Ron Paul visits Google and they provide a brief write-up with video of the event. Great Paul quote from the day follows.

"I want to be president not because I want to run your lives," Rep. Paul told the crowd. "I don't want to be president to run the economy. I don't want to be president to run the world.

I can't remember the last politician and certainly not the last presidential candidate to utter such an idea. It's a statement whose premise runs counter to the modern day politician's credo of do-gooderism

Gutsy Move By Mets

Rickey Henderson's hiring as the Met hitting coach to start the second half of the season is a move to love according to Dave Pinto.

Classic Ron Paul Clip

This is an example of someone who makes complete sense....at least in my opinion.

League Leaders

Here are a bunch of statistics at the just past the halfway mark of the baseball season that caught my eye.

• Curt Granderson has racked up 15 triples.
• Ichiro is just 18 hits from being halfway to 3,000 career hits -- in the American Major Leagues.
• As measured by OPS+, Alex Rodriguez is having the best year of his career. His 186 mark so far this season exceeds the 167 he tallied in 2000 (SEA) and 2005 (NYY).
• Prince Fielder has exceeded last year's home run total by one, 29 to 28.
• I don't know if Jimmy Rollins is nearing exclusive company but this year marks the 5th season of his career that the 28-year old Rollins has hit 10+ doubles, triples and homers. Carl Crawford's done it three times. George Brett did it three times. Roberto Clemente seven times. Lou Gehrig nine times. Willie Mays five times.
• Oakland's ERA+ has dropped to 117 since early this June when I was all excited about there 130-plus showing.
• In the order of their innings pitched the San Diego relief corps have turned in the following first-half ERA's, 1.78 -- 3.43 -- 2.52 -- 3.03 -- 1.91 -- 0.31 -- 2.30 -- 0.84 -- 7.84 -- 0.00.
• Kevin Cameron's ERA+ is 1314. In the previous bullet he's the guy with the 0.31 ERA.

Look at the Depth!

From No Mas comes a look back at the 1977 All-Star game.

Examining the rosters I'm amazed at the depth of both squads. The A.L. boasted seven future Hall-of-Famers - Yaz, Reggie, Palmer, Eck (still a starter with Cleveland), Carew, Fisk, and Brett - while the N.L had eight - Bench, Carlton, Morgan, Schmidt, Seaver, Sutter, Sutton, and Winfield - along with one more-than-deserving Hall-caliber player who would be later be banned from Cooperstown due to his wagering proclivities.

Major Benefit

One Major League plate appearance never sounded so good.

Try, Try Again

Strange Maps gives us a quick history lesson on the Schlieffen Plan.

The Schlieffen Plan was the culmination of four decades of refining a series of military strategies that were designed with the purpose of ensuring the sovereignty and expansion of the German state in the case of a general outbreak of war on the Continent.

I always found the fact that the Germans had been extensively planning for a major Continental conflict since the completion of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) as the ultimate expression of German bureaucratic planning and their people's general neurotic state. This neurotic attention to detail was superbly expressed in Barbara Tuchman's brilliant book on the first months of World War One, The Guns of August. In the book she describes the intensive detail that the German Army built into the Schlieffen Plan -- right down to the number of minutes it would take to move this far along the railways with this much poundage in the fifth car of the train if the invasion was commenced during a particularly warm spring.

Alas, the Germans got halfway there in the summer of 1914 and would have to wait another 27 years to finally get it right.

Secession For Fun

Split-up the United States however you see fit. Here, Here!

Defensive Changes

John's been busy over at Global Guerrillas. This interesting post takes a broad look at the Russians outsourcing of defense.

The Russian Duma just passed a bill that would allow the energy monopolies, Gazprom and Transneft, to build their own security forces

In the same post I found the following quite interesting.

NATO, in its quest to remain relevant, is eyeing a role as a provider of security oil companies/oil exporting states (these companies will likely be responsive given that another Shell oil platform was attacked today in Nigeria).

Like any bureaucracy that has outlived its usefulness it tries to hang onto the budget bucks anyway it can.

KC On-Line

It looks like George Brett has found a new internet home in Baseball-Reference.com.

“I was going to go to the gym,” Brett tells The Score. “Now I can’t stop looking at this site. It’s amazing!”

Welcome to the club.

Ron Paul Quick Hits

Via Lew's Blog,

A couple of early morning posts by Lew: Ignoring Ron and Paulism as the Establishment Foreign Policy.

Then this link regarding the foreign policy establishment he's up against.

Finally, the This Week interview from this morning.

Additional stuff,

Here's a recap of Paul's second quarter from the Unofficial Ron Paul for President blog.

Andrew Sullivan notes Paul's visit to his hometown. There's some interesting personal information on Paul in the post.

Ron Paul Preview

Paul will be on ABC's Sunday morning news show This Week tomorrow. Here's a 1:13 minute teaser clip.

This Man Loves Baseball

The Kick

Reaching Back

Starting Forward

Following Through,

With Bambi.

From One Lanky Righty to Another

I heard this bit of news on Baltimore's WNST this morning as I enjoyed my third day in a row off from work. Oriole pitching coach Leo Mazzone has asked Jim Palmer if he wouldn't mind working with Daniel Cabrera. Leo's had him for close to a year and a half and while his walk rate has decreased nicely this season he's taken a step back in the strikeout rate, HBP rate and home run rate departments.

Palmer may be just right for Cabrera if he's willing to listen. But let's assume that he's ready to accept the tutelage of Palmer and work to become a better pitcher. Palmer's pitching motion always appeared to be on the verge of falling apart. So many different body parts moving in different directions gave Palmer a loosey-goosey appearance on the hill. Cabrera isn't as extreme as Palmer in this regard. In fact, he looks to be pitching from his core and keeping things compact this year. Still, Palmer may be able to offer Cabrera some insight as a fellow tall hurler.

There's no doubt that Palmer has his ideas about Cabrera. He has them about pretty much every pitcher in the league. As fellow watchers of Oriole games know Palmer also won't be afraid to talk about those ideas with him -- at length.

Year-End Free Agent Class

There are no youngsters in Crasnick's list of 2007 end of year free-agents but there look to be some good bargains to be had.

Torii Hunter will probably be the most sought after player this side of Ichiro. Hunter plays a young 31 and looks to be the type of player who will be able to perform at his established level well into his 30's. He's been a very solid offensive player since the 2001 season and has not seen any drop-off from his age 26-28 seasons. If anything, he's become more consistent and provided that consistency at a little better level of offensive production as he's moved into his 30's.

Mike Cameron and Mike Lowell are solid all-around players who will be able to provide slightly above league average offensive numbers while on the defensive side they are bonafide stars who probably won't see much deterioration in their skills over the span of a 3-4 year contract.

Andruw Jones will be the most interesting case. His absolute meltdown this year in his highly anticipated walk year could cost him close to $100 million on the open market. As of last night his .199/.299/.389 line with an 83 OPS+ is quite simply stunning. A strong second half could go a long way in getting much of that $100 mil back.

Sustainable Counter Terrorism

Chirol writes a short pondering-fodder post on the American and Japanese response to the 1973 oil embargo and how that relates to some Americans current black and white view of the War on Terror.

Spreading Wealth

Ted Roberts takes on the nostalgic set. Like those who enjoyed the good old days when only a few could afford the trappings of a lakeside second home or a car. Now, the affluent have to share their way of life with the middle class.

Government School Naming

Here's the last sentence in an article bemoaning the fact that fewer and fewer public schools are being named after U.S. Presidents,

When we’re naming more schools after birds than after presidents, something is amiss.

Actually, I see this as a positive development. And get these usurpers of personal freedom off our coinage too.

Let These People Rot

Betchya Bush doesn't commute these sentences.

If he were to do that the immoral Drug War could be called into question. Since this war on the American people is big money for the Federal, State and Local governments there can be no compassionate exceptions made to the draconian drug laws lest the whole enterprise be called into question.

If called into question on a serious level then the politicians and their hired police forces may just have to scale back on their budgets and more importatnly their exercise of brute force and power over their citizens.

I'd Use It

Via David Griffus at Lew's Blog comes Ron Paul metal.

The Yellow Is Good

I envisioned rotating the pic I have in the upper left-hand corner of the blog every few weeks but, man, that Vida Blue photo is a dandy. Ron Paul is next on the docket but for now Blue stays.

For O's Fans

Gunslinger!

I'd missed this entry on Jeremy Guthrie by Sickels last month. I wouldn't be doing my baseball civic duty if Leo Mazzone wasn't mentioned at least once in a post regarding a successful Oriole pitcher. Therefore, I like this comment in particular by Uncle Charlie,

Mazzone doesn't usually take lousy pitchers with poor stuff and make them good. He takes decent, or above-average pitchers with one problem--wild command, over-thinking, etc.--and gets them back to basics, allowing their talent to shine through. I've always found it pretty funny that one of the best pitching coaches of this era spends most of his simply undoing years of coaching and getting pitchers back to what they're comfortable with. Mazzone's two mantras are "keep it simple" and "establish the outside corner."

Modern Monarchs

Thanks to Rowland's Office for passing along a pic of the good-looking uni's the Royals sported on Sunday.

Conservative Endism

Raimondo declares the GOP dead. The Post-WWII Conservative movement that made its entrance onto the national stage with Goldwater's failed run for the presidency in 1964, was consummated in Reagan's victory in 1980 and appeared to be solidified with the Republican takeover of the House in 1994 is now caput. Instead,

Since 9/11, conservatism has reverted back to European-style absolutism, as evidenced by the Right's embrace of the revisionist theory of the "unitary presidency," which elevates the president in wartime to monarchical status.

and

The Goldwater-fusionist devotion to decentralized power, the genuine fear of Big Government, the libertarian disdain for officialdom and its inherent inefficiencies have all been thrown overboard and a state-and-leader worshipping cult of power installed in their place.

What the Bush worshippers fail to realize is that the unitary presidency will someday be occupied by someone they fear. Probably sooner rather than later.

Remarkable Vin Scully Interview

Scully worked Dodger games back in the early 1950's on radio. He's still working for the Dodgers but now on television. Paul Oberjuerge conducts a fantastic interview with the Hall of Fame legend.

Note how long and informative Scully's answers are.