Out!

Off to the Finger Lakes and to visit my parents for a five day swing starting tomorrow!

The Lesser of Two Evils

Here's a nugget from Hans Herman-Hoppe on one of the differences of being ruled by a King or a President.

Both kings and presidents will produce bads, yet a king, because he "owns" the monopoly and may sell or bequeath it, will care about the repercussions of his actions on capital values. As the owner of the capital stock on "his" territory, the king will be comparatively future-oriented. In order to preserve or enhance the value of his property, he will exploit only moderately and calculatingly. In contrast, a temporary and interchangeable democratic caretaker does not own the country, but as long as he is in office he is permitted to use it to his advantage. He owns its current use but not its capital stock. This does not eliminate exploitation. Instead, it makes exploitation shortsighted (present-oriented) and uncalculated, i.e., carried out without regard for the value of the capital stock.

So which evil would you support?

40 by 180 feet

The Ron Paul field carving is on the ground at Stilwell's. The question is when will Google take another snapshot and get that thing on the internet.

Well, It's the Second Half Isn't It?

Best crooked number of the year: Santana's 17 K's against the Rangers today.

Winning Some Hearts

From Lew's blog come a couple of nice pick-me-ups regarding the Ron Paul campaign. Here are results from three separate county straw polls taken in Illinois, Alabama and New Hampshire.

These results certainly aren't bad news but I really don't know how these translate to any broader appeal he may garner. I'm hoping to see Paul hit 4 or 5% in a national poll....soon.

Stark Cherry Pickin'?

Curt Granderson and Jimmy Rollins assaulting the 20-20-20-20 club? Kevin Cameron sporting a low ERA? Sounds like pieces of an article I wrote a month ago and then revisited this week.

Jayson Stark's most recent article includes notes on those three players and much, much more.

Through Wednesday, A-Rod's numbers projected to 155 RBIs and 146 runs over a full season. So with just a minor spurt in run-scoring, he can cash that 150-150 daily-double ticket...Who was the last man to go 150-150? Ted Williams in 1949 (159 RBIs, 150 runs). And here's the group before the Splinter: Babe Ruth (three times), Lou Gehrig (twice), Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Chuck Klein. And that's it.

And, Hanley.

...if Ramirez completes his journey to the 50-50 Club room between now and October, that conversation could change a bit. This particular 50-50 Club -- 50 stolen bases, 50 doubles -- is about as exclusive a group as you'll run across. OK, it's not as exclusive as the 511 Win Club, but it's close. Craig Biggio (50 SBs, 51 doubles in 1997) is one member. To find another, you have to power up the way-back machine all the way to 1912, to drag in Tris Speaker (52 SBs, 53 doubles). But that's the entire membership -- just those two.

I've heard Hanley's defense is atrocious. He plays big out in the field and perhaps observers are referring to a lack of range. Does anyone have any insight into just how bad it is? If there's one thing I have trouble evaluating players on it's their defensive ability.

The Market at Work

A wonderful development is happening in the market for retirement home services. With the price of care in assisted living facilities skyrocketing in the United States, many American and European retirees are taking their dollars to Mexico and making them stretch a lot further.

With cheaper Mexican caregivers now competing in the market this may also have the effect of slowing down the price inflation of American assisted living centers, therefore helping those who stay behind in the U.S.

American pundits will of course come up with some terrifying stories of dirty Mexican retirement homes and how there's no regulation in the industry. Perhaps a story of one or two Americans who recently died in a Mexican retirement home prematurely will appear. Just observe the hand-ringing over the Chinese toy crises of the past week for a primer.

Then there will be some who eventually get around to suggesting that Americans who slink across the border for a better life are traitors for taking their dollars away from the Homeland.

Looking Back One Month

On July 11th I posted some baseball statistics that caught my eye. Let’s see how those numbers are progressing.

7/11: Curt Granderson has racked up 15 triples

Granderson has added three more triples this past month. While he hasn't been piling them up at the rate he did in the spring and early summer he certainly has a shot at matching Lance Johnson's 21 triples from the 1996 season. To put a 20 triple season in perspective note that since 1950 only Willie Mays, George Brett, Willie Wilson, Lance Johnson and Christain Guzman have reached that single season total.

Ichiro is just 18 hits from being halfway to 3,000 career hits -- in the American Major Leagues

While his pace slowed considerably in July it's not like he embarrassed himself. Sitting at 1,522 hits, Ichiro is back to hitting in the mid-.300 range for August.

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)

A slight drop-off to 177 as of Sunday's game. Rodriguez's September's have historically been his coldest month.

Prince Fielder has exceeded last year's home run total by one, 29 to 28

With a league leading 36 home runs Fielder is putting together a remarkable age-23 season.

Sliding. Whoa Nelly.

There. That's better.

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.

Rollins continues to chip away. The current count is 27 doubles, 15 triples and 21 homers. He has a chance at 20-20-20. I wish I had the time to see who's reached those heights. I can tell you that of the triple hitters from the Granderson post above only Brett (42-20-23) and Mays (26-20-35) reached the 20-20-20 plateau.

Hopefully a Career Phillie

I've pegged Rollins as a future Hall of Famer for about four years now. His record of consistency and durability mixed with an impressive array of baseball skills has produced some very impressive counting statistics for the 28 year old shortstop. I'm not clued into the Philadelphia sports scene but I'm guessing that Rollins is pretty popular there. He was a Larry Bowa favorite so that tells you he plays hard (and listens to orders). Nationally he just doesn't get the pub. He's much like Craig Biggio in this respect -- a player who's going to sneak up on a lot of people by the time he's nearing the end of his career and have them saying, "Er, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer".

Oakland's ERA+ has dropped to 117 since early this June when I was all excited about their 130-plus showing

Oakland's ERA+ has dropped to 109 since early this July when I was somewhat tempered over their 117 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.

Cla Meredith

Scott Linebrink was traded in July but we'll still include his numbers. The following ERA totals are once again ranked by innings pitched with a minimum of 10 IP's,

2.27 -- 3.99 -- 3.96 -- 3.80 -- 0.82 -- 2.20 -- 3.57 -- 6.89 -- 3.60

A bit of a rise but nothing too drastic. The Pads are hanging tough in the NL West due to this very good bullpen and a really good starting rotation.

Kevin Cameron's ERA+ is 1314. In the previous bullet he's the guy with the 0.31 ERA

Cameron's ERA+ has slipped to 499 as his ERA has creeped up to 0.82. He's allowed a good number of base runners for an ERA that low but has minimized the damage to his ERA by allowing zero homers in his 44 innings worked.

Baroney?

Over the years I have yet to read a pundit who knows more inane as well as interesting political information than neo-con sympathizer Michael Barone

Here's his full breakdown of the Iowa GOP Straw Poll results. The vitriolic Paul blurb is a dandy.

The Tortoise!

Momentum for Paul is accelerating according to the Intrade Republican nomination market.

Today at the Market

Today at a crowded farmers market in dowtown Baltimore a man of about twenty came up from behind me, lightly patted me on the shoulder and said, "Nice shirt".

Born Ten Years Too Late

Perhaps the 1970's and 1980's were the decades when major league baseball was played at its most balanced level in history. I've never done a statistical analysis of the era (the balanced theory is not an original idea by the way) but what other period in baseball history offers us a richer and more varied combination of baseball skills and performance manifesting themselves on the field of play. Power hitters, speed merchants, high octane hurlers, innovative managers and entertaining personalities (think Rose, Reggie and Earl) dotted the major league landscape. With the exception of Nolan Ryan's ridiculous strikeout totals and Rickey Henderson's unparalleled stolen base numbers the period appears to have been marked by statistical modesty. Rare were the forty home run seasons of this past decade but neither were the leagues dominated by punch and judy hitters plying their offensive wares between home plate and the region just beyond the infield dirt.

It was over this era that the relief pitcher transformed himself from the back of the rotation castoff to the 7th, 8th and 9th inning monster who shutdown games with a vengeance to its current resting place as the ninth inning specialist.

There was also the fact that as the 70's moved into the 80's the mini-dynasties that ruled the former decade gave way to baseball's greatest era of playoff and World Series participatory diversity ever.

All aspects of baseball strategy had to be respected by the managers and players. The multitude of skills developed over the hundred year history of the game were finally all being used together to make the game as close to perfect as possible.

It was as if the game reached it's pinnacle in the years when I was four, seven, twelve years old. Too young to appreciate the completeness of the game on the field but old enough to fall in love with it.

This video, found at Church of Baseball, is narrated by a gentleman who tells the story of a day at Shea in 1977 with his father and brother. The story is ultimately a touching one without being sappy. I won't tell it because the narrator delivers it perfectly. Instead, it's the skilled production of the video and feelings it conjures up in me that deserve the written word. The players that appear throughout the video I know only through pictures, videos, books, essays and second hand accounts. Born ten years too late I missed their baseball primes.

Set to the back-drop of some damn good funk music, you see Joe Morgan stroking gappers and hustling his way to first base. One of those hits drives in Pete Rose, helmetless, chugging around the basepaths. Morgan, one of the glues that held together the great Red dynasty of the 1970's, is the last Red you see during the opening montage when the narrator gives his respect to this great team. A well deserved homage to the two time MVP.

Later there's Johnny Bench taking a pitch the opposite way into the corner at Fenway. Perhaps a single, maybe a double. We don't know but I've only ever seen vids of Bench pulling towering fly balls into the left field seats at Riverfront, the ugly astro turf speeding underneath the white baseball as it moves towards the stands.

More history and context peppers the video. There's footage of Joe Torre waving a white towel in the dugout as he presides over the dreadful Met teams of the late 1970's, a full two decades before extended success came his way on the other side of the New York baseball world.

The producer/narrator of the video goes by the You Tube screen name of theokappel. He's put together the best baseball vid I've ever come across on the internet. It's greatly appreciated.

Payback

This evening the O's get back at the Red Sox for the May 13th debacle at Fenway. Five runs in the last two innings off Eric Gagne and Hideki Okajima seal the deal for the O's.

Jeffrey on Bond

Tonight marks the posting of Notes of Interest's first interview and I don't think I could be any happier with the result. At the beginning of this week I asked Liverputty's Jeffrey if he wouldn't mind writing down his thoughts and opinions on the James Bond character and the books and movies he's starred in over the past fifty years. For the past few months Jeffrey's been posting his Bond observations and select passages from the Ian Fleming novels at Liverputty. I credit his posting of the gun barrel video for my rebirth of interest in the Bond franchise after a looong six month hiatus.

Upon agreeing to be interviewed and using the following six questions as his vehicle, our interviewee threw down a goodly amount of Bond fodder to enjoy. Thanks again to Jeffrey!

Notes of Interest: Why the interest in blogging about James Bond?

Jeffrey: The recent infatuation stems from Casino Royale and Ross’s Rued Morgue 007 in ‘007 posts. I periodically focus on a specific topic to blog about – often movie related stuff – and spend a month or so only on that. A couple of years ago I was posting about Peter Cushing, then later it was samurai films followed by yakuza movies, etc. etc. This time it was 007’s turn. I’d been reading the Fleming books and most of my posts have been simple excerpts from the novels. They make for quick posts and, I think, the excerpts are not entirely without interest.

How has your interest in the character developed over your lifetime?

When I was in grade school I was interested primarily in the action. My brother, my friends and I would recreate fight sequences for home movies and so forth. In high school it was the sex….and the action. I don’t ever remember being uninterested in the Bond girls, but I was particularly fond of them later on as a teenager. Plus, Sean Connery and Roger Moore were ultra cool and evidently good with the ladies. Years later I realized much of that was a joke and the movies became enjoyable for the absurdity inherent in them. Somewhere along the way I also grew interested in the filmmaking aspects. If anything, the Bond films are a wonder of collaboration of technical details. So from action to sex to comedy to filmmaking techniques, and, more recently, to the novels.

Is there ample material left from Ian Fleming's literature to make many more movies? What book would you most like to see made into a movie and why?

Yes. I’m really amazed at how well and how piecemeal Fleming’s material has been used throughout the series, but I’m also amazed at what has not been used. The novels Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me have remained virtually untouched. I can’t imagine the producers will ever try to put Moonraker on screen. No doubt they think that it would come across as small and generic, which I guess is why they didn’t try it in 1979. The novel wasn’t as quickly paced and action filled as Fleming’s other stories, but nevertheless it had a film quality to it – particularly a well-described car chase towards the end. I also doubt they’d attempt The Spy Who Loved Me, though they should. It’s different than other Bond novels in that it is from the point of view of the woman and Bond doesn’t appear until the last third of the book. And he’s not really on a case. It comes across like Fleming’s version of Petrified Forest or Key Largo. That would likely be my pick for a favorite Bond film. But even if those stories are left alone, there’s plenty of other stuff to cover. Bond has never had a finale on a runaway locomotive in the films – he’s had two in the books – one in Diamonds Are Forever, and the other in Man with the Golden Gun – both stories were drastically changed in the films – and which have lots of un-pilfered material. Plus, there’s good unused material in Fleming’s two books of short stories. The filmmakers, are, however, running out of Fleming titles.

Do you feel Daniel Craig has the ability and popular appeal to become as synonymous with the Bond character as Sean Connery?

I really like Daniel Craig and, if he can get two more decent scripts – a significant if – he can be synonymous with Bond – certainly identifiable as him. But not as synonymous as Connery? I think Connery has an insurmountable advantage of being the first to define Bond. Plus, he enjoyed the apex of Bond-mania. Craig will be well received and will no doubt be Bond to the younger crowd unfamiliar with Moore or Connery and his films may gross more than Connery’s, but I can’t imagine the franchise will ever enjoy the same phenomenon status as Bond in the 60s. The spy thriller was younger and smaller back then. Plus, the genre in the 50s & 60s made plenty of hay out of the Cold War. I don’t think the film industry has been as comfortable dealing with our current threats in the world today.

My favorite Bond is Roger Moore. From what I've read many Bond fans find Moore's characterization of the character as too easy-going. Others refer to him as being an acting lightweight in general. What is your opinion of Moore playing the role of Bond?

I readily identify Moore as Bond. The first Bond I saw in the theater was Moonraker, and I well remember watching Moore’s Bond during the ABC Sunday night movies, before I knew Connery. He’s best when he’s playing Bond light and humorous – but I don’t necessarily think he’s a lightweight. He’s an actor that knows his limitations – and there are, quite frankly, too few actors like that around. His main Achilles heels were his age and a few mediocre movies – none of which suffered because of him, except, perhaps, A View To a Kill, when both age and script conspired against him. However, to Moore’s credit, he never intended making the last couple of films but did so out of duty to the franchise. It is difficult to rank Connery over Moore, but ultimately it comes down to Connery being the first. Still, I think Moore picked up the role when Connery ran out of steam and carried it more gracefully than Connery did – on and off screen. I have a tremendous affection for Roger Moore and I’m delighted any time he’s on the screen, whether it’s as Bond or not. And he is definitely the funniest 007.

Which actor enjoyed the best Bond movie scripts to work with?

Connery had the first three scripts – each a masterpiece. At that time, it seemed like the producers could do no wrong in how they adapted the script. The first two, Dr. No and From Russian with Love, follow the Fleming stories fairly closely, but when there’s a difference, I can’t help but think the film changes work for the better. Particularly in From Russia with Love, where the antagonist spy organization, SMERSH, is exchanged for SPECTRE. The expedient reason was to not insult the Soviets, but the plot, as a result, got a clever working over where the two sides of the Cold War are played off each other. Goldfinger, too, got a clever twist in the film where Ft. Knox wasn’t going to be robbed, but instead destroyed with radiation, driving up the value of Goldfinger’s existing collection of gold. After Goldfinger, the scripts got a little too bloated and directionless. Thunderball and You Only Live Twice seemed to plod along and lose interest at times. And though Diamonds Are Forever was a little better, I tend to think Connery was just bored with the role by that point.

Moore had his share of good scripts, too – though they were different than the ones Connery had. It seems that the producers picked the locations and gadgets they wanted to have and then had the script written around it. Miraculously, this method worked well for Spy, Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only.

And the one picture of Lazenby’s is about as fine a Bond picture as you could hope to see. I tend to think Dalton and Brosnan got the short end of the stick on that score, though I’ve heard defenders of License to Kill and should probably revisit that movie.

(Jeffrey's most recent Bond post is a compendium of observations on Bond's character from the Fleming novels.)

OPS and the Defensive Spectrum

Baseball observers often make the mistake of comparing players by using their offensive statistics without taking into consideration the position they play. For instance, in the 1970's when major league shortstops hit like dime-store clerks a shortstop like Roy Smalley was very valuable offensively. While his 1978, 1979 and 1980 OPS+ totals of 122, 110 and 104 are just a bit above average when viewed against the league in its entirety, in actuality he was a much more valuable player offensivelt when compared against his shortstop counterparts. Since shortstops of that era hit far below the overall league average OPS, his above average figures against the overall league average became even more impressive when compared against other shortstops.

Such insights accentuate the extreme offensive value that catcher Ivan Rodriguez has given his teams over his career. With the catcher position ranging between 8 and 11 runs below average for much of Rodriguez's career, his career 112 OPS+ against the league average is more positively accentuated when compared to the other catchers of his era. Instead of being merely an above average hitter over the course of his career, Rodriguez can be viewed as a very valuable offensive commodity when compared against the others who played his position. This distinction increased his overall value and highlights the unique opportunity given to a team by a player who hits significantly better than the others who play his position.

An additional note of interest. From David Gassko's article comes this conjecture on the evolution of the catcher position from the late 19th century and into the early 20th century.

In the early days of baseball, catchers were absolutely awful hitters—on average, -14 runs per 162 games. That’s to be expected, as bunts were very common during these years and so a catcher’s defense was very important. Also, as pitchers began to throw overhand and batter-friendly rules disappeared from the game, catching pitches itself became more difficult and thus restricted the position to relatively good fielders.

As more players became accustomed to catching and bunting became less prevalent, catcher offense slowly improved. The average catcher between 1914 and 1986 was -5 runs per 162 games—still below-average but not that bad.

Betting on Dr. No

Bookmakers have to be ahead of the curve or they go out of business.

Blogging Amateur

On the left-hand side of my blog underneath my labels and personal profile there is a vertical strip of Google Ads. Last time I checked they've generated just a touch under $2 of revenue in about a quarter of a year of blogging. Money this blog does not generate.

Originally, I had a dream of slowly building my blog readership and perhaps turning 5 or 10k in ad revenue every year. Now, just three months into my blogging venture, I could care less about the cash. I'm simply having too much fun writing about what I'm truly interested in. There's no feeling of pressure to produce content that's going to turn a buck for me -- content that may not interest me that much. I've tried that before and those blogs have died a quick death.

Zieak.com's post on how not to make money blogging sounds familiar to me. Point one sums up the state of my blog nicely.

"I write about many different things...So my randomness appeals only to people that know me and wonder what I'm up to."

And even that may be stretching it.

Pierre In-Depth

I seem to remember reading a blurb on Dodger outfielder Juan Pierre somewhere this winter that said he doesn't hit curveballs well. In fact, he has proven so inept at hitting curveballs over his career that it's amazing anyone throws the guy a fastball.

Mike Pindelski of Beyond the Box Score looks into Juan Pierre's future and while he doesn't see a disaster in the making he also doesn't see much hope in him justifying his $45 million contract.

The use of historically comparable player's career paths as a means to predict how a particular player is going to fair in the future seems to me to be a quite effective means of prediction. Pierre's comparables rarely sustained their late 20's performance level into their mid or in many cases into their early 30's.

A Great Start in the Ozarks

The B-Burgs and Stilwell teamed up this weekend in Missouri to place 5th in the pulled pork competition. And we're not talking about 5th out of 10. No, there were 82 contestants that saddled up to the competition tables this weekend. A 5th place finish in one of their first competitions is very impressive.

But this kills me because my favorite meat at the Midwest BBQ competitions is pulled pork. Two weeks ago I was hanging in KC but now I'm sitting in Baltimore readying myself for Mac & Cheese and tuna with Jen in about an hour. Everything in life is timing, eh?

Bond 1

It may have been the first James Bond motion picture but for some reason I am oddly disconnected from Dr. No. I have no idea what the plot to the movie is and have only a passing remembrance of the villian. For me, the top Bond movie of the era is Goldfinger.

Of course Ursula Andress makes Dr. No a definite must see and if you can't see it then The Rued Morgue has the rundown. Something I didn't know...

The search for an actor to play Bond led Broccoli and Saltzman to consider a number of choices, including Cary Grant (Broccoli decided against him because he wanted an actor that would become part of the series and Grant would have likely been a one time deal) as well as Roger Moore, who was tied up at the time with The Saint. Sean Connery was an up and comer, having worked with Terence Young in Action of the Tiger (1957). Broccoli was impressed with him in Disney’s Darby O’Gill (1959) and he landed the part. It is hard to think of an actor, including Moore, who could have more firmly established the character as quickly and fully as Connery did.

Jamey's Writing

When it comes to the American League West this writer pulls for the Oakland A's. I most definitely was one of those who fell hard for the Michael Lewis classic Moneyball. His portrayal of the A's as a finely tuned, low-budget organization that was constantly striving to get out in front of the other twenty-nine teams by finding baseball's next market inefficiency was intellectually captivating.

Two other teams in the division come in a close second when it comes to likability and interest factor. Much like the A's, the Angels of Anaheim are an organization that puts a premium on maintaining consistent organizational principles for the type of game they want their players to play. What makes both of these teams being in the same division so interesting is that their offensive principles are so different. The A's preach station to station basepath movement, high at-bat pitch counts and high on-base percentages. Angel players are taught to be aggressive on the basepaths, use their at-bats to move runners along early in the count and get on base through base hits rather than walks.

My other team of interest, the Texas Rangers, thought they'd have a shot at competing in the West this year but fell flat out of the gate. Under new manager Ron Washington the Rangers have stumbled to the second worst record in the American League this season. My interest in them started at the beginning of the season when Washington was hired as their manager. He's one of baseball's true good guys, a great teacher of the game and someone who had to wait well into his 50's to get his first managerial job. Add in that he came over to the Rangers from the Moneyball A's and things just got a little more interesting.

As third base coach for the A's throughout the late 90's up through the 2006 season, one of the indelible memories I have of going to Camden Yards was Cal Ripken playing third base and chatting up Washington between innings during infield warm-ups. More than any pitcher mound conference or umpire-manager argument, the Ripken-Washington chatter is the one thing I wish I could've heard on a major league baseball diamond in all my years watching the game. Two baseball lifers talking about the intricacies of the game. Or maybe they were talking about investments or women. Who knows, but it would've been cool no matter what the chatter was about. (Just recently I read that it was Washington who was sent in to replace Ripken in the 1987 game that stopped his mega innings played streak at somewhere around 8,200 innings.)

So I'm a Ron Washington rooter. As the Rangers sputtered to start the '07 season the machinations to start building the farm system were getting in gear and this summer a bevy of prospects have come to the Rangers organization through the channels of three separate trades. The biggest one, of course, being the trade that sent Mark Teixeira to the Braves for three minor league prospects.

This brings me to my second reason for finding the Rangers interesting. Jamey Newberg has a MLBlog named the Newberg Report. It's a prolific blog on the Rangers that is so detailed and interesting a read that I've found myself following this sputtering organization on a near daily basis. Newberg's passion comes through on the pages of his blog due more to the thought and effort he places into his knowledge of the organization than any homerism that so many team-centric blogs descend into. I have yet to read another baseball blog where you can find this level of daily excellence.

In Newberg's August 4th installment he delves into the vastly improved Rangers farm system. It's a farm system that can give Ranger fans great hope for the future. He starts by noting that Jim Callis of Baseball America estimates that the Rangers have moved from their pre-season ranking of the 28th best farm system in the game to approximately middle of the pack or a touch better than that today. That's a remarkable improvement in six months.

I just hope that Washington gets the chance to guide the Rangers through the next few years as these prospects filter onto the big club.

Unincorporated Territories

From Strange Maps comes a map estimating the various territories of Major League Baseball team fandom.

Interestingly, the White Sox/Cub territories accurately portray how I perceived Chicago baseball loyalties when I went to school in Iowa.

Cock the Shoulder, Bring the Hips Through

That's how these four greats hit the ball. With video!

They're In

I present to you the First Couple of Kansas City, Kansas!

The Hitting Wasn't There

On Sunday my team's last baseball game of the year was rained out. We finished with a record of 7-10 this year. That's a nice improvement over the 2-16 travesty of 2005 and the little improved 4-14 record of 2006. With three team's dominating the 12 team over 30 league I'm a member of, our 7-10 record placed us 5th best overall. That is quite the accomplishment.

After a fall and winter full of workouts during the '06/'07 off-season many of us had made eight wins as a team our goal for '07. With our last game being rained out we didn't have a chance at that but we all had a chance to attempt to reach our hitting goals. After hitting .400 in 2006 but with only a .467 slugging percentage, my 2007 goal was to maintain my high average but produce more doubles so I could raise my slugging percentage. I also had the goal of hitting one home run out of the park.

Unfortunately, my hitting results were dreadful. I finished the year with a .229 batting average and a .257 slugging percentage! Such paucity of power is simply amazing for a 6'3'' 210 pounder who lifted weights during the off-season. I hit one double all year -- in the first game on April 14th. Every other hit (and there were only seven others) were singles. This off-season I will be hitting the batting cages by myself more often so I can develop a repeatable swing that I don't have to think about when I'm batting. I'm also going to read some hitting books and maybe even buy a hitting video or two. My knowledge on the subject is sparse but I think I really need to work on transferring my weight and doing it at the right time during my swing.

The hitting troubles this year were puzzling to me since this is probably the first year that I've ever played baseball where I had virtually no fear of getting hit by a pitch when I was at bat. Perhaps I was too comfortable and lazy at the dish.

On defense I played every position but second and short. In the first game of the year I played third for four innings -- a position I'd last played as an eight year old in pickup games in my neighborhood. I was then shuttled to first (my favorite and natural position) and center over the next two games.

In the fourth game of the season I was thrown behind the plate. I had never caught before and I became enamored with the position very quickly. Due to my past umpiring experience I felt very relaxed catching and while I was poor and throwing out runners -- everyone who ran on me made it -- I did prove to be adept at snagging errant one-bounce throws by my pitchers.

From May 20th through June 2nd I caught three straight games in their entirety. While it was great fun and I felt more involved than ever in the flow of the game my knees were feeling very creaky and my recovery time after games was getting longer and longer. There was also a clicking sound in one of knees that I started to hear. Visions of me as a forty year-old with crotchety knees and being forced to play a statue in right field got me nervous and I split time behind the plate with a teammate for the rest of the year. My knees quickly recovered.

It appears that this year's off-season will be just as active as it was last year. At least ten guys on our fifteen man team can be counted on to show up to practice at least once a month during the off-season. Then we'll all start up again for real in April. And maybe we'll shoot for double digit wins in '08.

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.