Patrick

Bertrand, How was the music?

I'm nearby (end of the Orange Line in Fairfax VA)--in the suburbs, in an affordable home, with a spouse, 2 cars, and no cats. Real estate is fairly expensive, and at the time we weren't too excited about plowing nearly all of our modest wealth into a home (or relying on Marion Barry for any city services), so we invested less of it, and I get a seat on the metro. Will have to miss the house party that Bertrand mentions--will be visiting folks in Cleveland and seeing the winningest home team in town, ie the Cleveland Orchestra.

It depends on what you buy. For example, if you bought titles at the $8.98 price point, got the discount, free shipping and the free 6th disc, the average disc price would be just under $6.00 per disc. Agreed. I did do a cursory check and saw very little at $8.98, so it doesn't look too compelling. But if the custom here continues of folks posting their orders, perhaps I will place a late one if enough interesting cheap items can be found.

Come on. Toughen up. It's only 20%. Does that even get Concord into the reasonable pricing zone? [...I'm not going to check...] If/when Action Jackson (or successor) steps up for a major final clearance/warehouse cleaning thang, I'll get interested.

I believe the SI version was actually Avalon Hill's Statis Pro Baseball. Played in a couple leagues of this in high school. The beast pitcher in the year we played was JR Richard. He was "2-9" so most plays appeared on his card. If I recall correctly, on his card any batter had a 1/8 chance of single, 3/8 striking out, 1/8 walking, and 3/8 retired some other way. My rotation also had Nolan Ryan, who did throw a no hitter! Ahh, memories. This definitely a better use of the term fantasy baseball.

I guess he is (at least) as good as Cliff Lee after all.

I haven't kept track of the seller, but one (or more) sellers have been trying to move the set for about $150. Perhaps the price is too high?

Happy Birthday. Enjoy the extra hour of it!

Like everyone else, my discs arrived quickly and in great shape! Thanks Paul.

Happy Birthday. You contain to remain extremely youthful!

Thanks my fellow Organisms. Talked a few coworkers into leaving work early for beers at the District Chop House, met the spouse for a great dinner at Rosa Mexicano, and then caught the early set of the Heath Brothers at the Kennedy Center. First time for me seeing Jimmy and Tootie. While I turned 44 today, Jimmy turned 84 this past Monday. Great music and I was definitely impressed by the life force on display. Jimmy stood up throughout the whole set, save for a feature for piano player Jeb "General" Patton (Horace Silver's Cool Eyes), and was smiling and dancing throughout. Returned home to find two packages waiting for me--one from amazon.uk with the George Russell Black Saint/Soul Note box set and the other from Newbury Comics with the Bill Evans Last Waltz box. Thanks for the tips on these!

Eric, Discs arrived quickly, in fine shape! Let me know if some more SteeepleChase titles get added.

It's only fair, I'm not yet sure the Phillies traded away more than 3 toilet flushes to acquire Cliff Lee from the Tribe. [Must take the long view...]. I'll admit I'm much more of a Josh Hamilton fan in recent months than I was prior to that.

Me too. Definitely have a rooting interest for Cliff Lee, but a lot to like on both teams (stories, players, youthful enthusiasm, etc).

Not really. Only one team showed up. Yeah, no kidding. As far as Jim's rant about the Yanks go, it's is not about money but because they have national, strike that, international following. It's been that way for years and ain't going to change. I mean you've got Ghost and Dave who love them as an example. Naturally, Cashman is going to be asked what's next. I'm not a Yankee fan but I want to know what's next. I follow them ad much as my own team. Rangers are a nice story but come next season the attention will decrease somewhat even if they win and people will want to know what the Yanks are doing, what the Dodgers are doing, what the Red sox are doing and so forth. It's just the natural order of things. As a Mets fan, I'm used to second place status; just the way it is. When your heritage is the Babe, Gherig, Dickey, DiMaggio, Mickey, Yogi (I could go and on), you've won 27 titles and play in the most famous ballpark in the world (maybe next to Wembley), you've earned that attention. Which is fine. But can we please start talking about it after this Yankeeless World Series is over? Right after the game ended last night, I flipped around the channels a bit and saw that ESPN1 (Chris Singleton and another explayer) were already discussing how Cliff Lee was going to sign with NYY next year. Please. Every other team's hot stove machinations don't start until November. True Yankee problem may have been too many ex-Indians (Sabathia, Wood, Kearns). It wiped out the Dodgers last year.

Indians magic number is much less than 45. If they can hold on to their 6-run 9th inning lead at KC(sign me up for the Choo crew: 3HR, 7RBI), their record will improve to 61-86. Thus their magic number will fall to 2.

Conversation with Jackie McLean and a moving story from Brubeck about race relations were worthwhile. I even liked Wynton's demonstrated enthusiasm for Monk. Agree that the narrative clung to Armstrong for way too long (especially with so much other interesting events/styles completely ignored or quickly glossed over). Fortunately, I don't think historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was consulted for this Burns extravaganza...

Nice to see Cliff Lee back in form. If only back in 2007... wouldn't have needed Paul Byrd for anything... ahhhh. Is it correct that the MLB/TBS game next week really is NYY/Orioles??? Is there not a more interesting national matchup out there, or is MLB really trying to drive everyone outside of Yankee Kingdom to watch the NFL? I haven't checked the schedule, but is there really not a better matchup than the best and worst records in the AL? Are we really suffering from Yankee underexposure? Ugh.

Chilling indeed. I read the story right after listening to the recent Fresh Air episode with Andre Agassi. Much the same story of an overbearing father trying to live his dream through the athletic prowess of his son.

Hats off to Fausto Carmona! Complete game shutout against the Twins, 3H, 1BB, 7K, facing two batters over the minimum, throwing only 108 pitches, and (with the assistance of the anemic Indian offense) finishing nine innings in just 1:57. Ex-Indian Carl Pavano (16-11, 3.47 ERA) takes the loss.

91-year-old Bob Feller, probably the greatest Cleveland athlete ever and arguably the best right hander ever has acute myeloid leukemia. It is treatable, and Feller has been taking a number of chemotherapy shots. The guy has been remarkably vital even in such old age--attending games, doing interviews (...better watch out, Acta may want him for an inning or two out of the pen). PD story

22 year old Hector Rondon, the Indians minor league pitcher of the year in 2009, just had Tommy John surgery. For a team (like the Nats) that is all about the future, kind of tough to see the future dimmed/delayed in this fashion (along with Carlos Santana). Tribe showed a little bit of a pulse after the ASB--started 7-1 against Det and Minn but have been a dreadful 9-21 since then. Magic number (to avoid first 100 lost season since '91) is 12. Can they go at least 12-23 the rest of the way?

No mention of Kurt Elling [...insert quip here]. Is that Bill Charlap accompanying Freddy Cole?

"Bird alone, flying high Flying through a clouded sky Sending mournful soulful sounds Soaring over troubled grounds" You Gotta Pay the Band (Verve, 1991) was my point of entry with Abbey. First checked it out from the Evanston Public Library--many an evening spent listening to this after a grinding grad school day. Thanks Abbey. Keep soaring.

Good news, given the situation. Hopefully, nothing too serious.