Quincy

Having done the same to the Cardinals when they hired Vern Rapp I totally get that sentiment. What's the Rapp on Vern??? Now Whitey Herzog...after he traded Gary Templeton, Ted Simmons, Keith Hernandez, Terry Kennedy and Leon "the Bull" Durham....the Cards were no longer my Cards, that is a good reason to stop following a team! Forcing Al "The Mad Hungarian" to shave off his Fu Manchu was the final straw and I think he also wanted shorter haircuts on players too. That didn't set well with the 14 year old me who believed in the Samson power of long hair. But it was also trading Reggie Smith just before that that pissed me off royally. It was good for Reggie as he played in 3 World Series with the Dodgers, but who knows, had the Cards held onto him maybe the '70s would have been a better decade for the franchise.

Having done the same to the Cardinals when they hired Vern Rapp I totally get that sentiment.

:tup :tup :tup :tup :tup :party: :party: :party: Yeah, I really hated those black Mets unis.

The positives: 1) It does put more importance on winning the division. 2) It means that the wild card teams will want to have their best pitcher available for the 1 game playoff, and thus will not have their ace ready for the start of the divisional playoffs. So back to point 1. Negatives: 1) What Jim said. 2) Often Wild Card #1 is a better team than one or two of the division winners. This is a common problem when you slice a league into many divisions (see the NFL.) 3) Although this puts more importance on winning the division, it also invites the likelihood that the real race will be between the 5th and 6th best teams in the league. And that just seems sad. 4) Had this system been in place last year the 2 great collapses wouldn't have happened. At this point I'm resigned to "see what happens." I do like #2 in the positives, although point #2 in the negatives bugs me too. But one reason why we have wild cards in the first place dates back to when you'd have 4 AL East teams that were better than the AL West winner.

It's kind of sad as I thought they had one of the more classic styles of the expansion teams. The new uniforms are blocky, and I don't think the rainbow thing works well, especially when viewed from a distance. Or it didn't look good on Boggs when he hit 3000 for the Devil Rays. If you're going to have rainbow lettering I say go all out and have a fairy riding a unicorn on the jersey. Now that would be awesome!

The Marlins owner Loria is a pretty shrewd guy - if one is using a kinder definition of shrewd. He's the one who sold the Expos to MLB and then used that money to buy the Marlins from John Henry, who then bought the Red Sox. The Marlins have a (barely) winning record since he's been owner and one title. And now he's gotten a ballpark. It's a typical strategy to spend some money on a high end free agent or 2 when a new ballpark is built and with the money he saved in previous years by seemingly intentionally fielding a team built to lose (as in the city as well), I think they'll "go for it." Also note the owner is 70 and grew up a Yankee fan, so perhaps he might be more willing to fund a championship run. With Ozzie as manager they'll be in the press more. Maybe he'll take some heat off of Hanley.

Hmm, I guess I'll have to go ahead and order the SMiLE sessions box then.

After seeing this report I totally get why the grad student didn't intervene.

Cheers!

In a weird case of timing over past 2 months I've watched 5 boxing related DVDs from the library, all of which involved Joe as they were all Ali-related. Watched the 1st fight which I had only seen once long ago and the Thrilla In Manila for probably the 4th time. As a kid I laughed at Ali's taunts but many of them this time around were tough to watch. There wasn't as much cleverness in them as I thought there was. Youtube has scads of fight clips btw. One night I played a form of tag. Find a fight (or clip) with Ernie Shavers, then follow up with his opponent. If you really have time to kill you can circle it all back to the original fighter of interest between the likes of Frazier, Ali, Norton, Lyle, Young, etc.

All the best!

Cheers!

Hey hey! Hope it was (and still is) a great day!

What can I do to encourage this? Not really sure, but squirrels do indeed occasionally munch on each other. There are recorded instances of: 1) The parent eating the dead child. This is fairly common rodent behavior. 2) Males raiding nests of other squirrels to eat their young. Aside from the yummy protein & calcium it's a good way to keep your DNA on top in the neighborhood. 3) Squirrels seen carrying dead adults and then dining on them. There might be youtube videos or them murdering each other, I foolishly didn't check before replying. Because most biologists enjoy a nice trip to Costa Rica and the like squirrels haven't been as heavily studied as some of the more exotic species on the planet. I think that's changing. Maybe some good out the recession will be more knowledge about the habits of campus squirrels.

It's also easier on the hearing too! I only use my iPod for traveling and I've barely used it this week, simply because like you I seem to have a pretty good stereo in my head (with improvising abilities). I guess the iPod is good for something that hasn't been heard before (I put on a few newer things to get more familiar with on this visit), but with a small Spotify in the head, I could make due if heaven forbid it broke.

It's just one of those years, no sign of doom other than the squirrels may have to turn to cannibalism. See this link for information about acorn production. *edited to change the link to show the chart.

Since game logs are easily available on baseball-reference, we have both the averages and every game box score and stats. So one can easily look at this stuff and see that variation is such that surprise surprise, the averages do indeed show what a typical game was like. Yes, there are instances where in his wildest year as an Angel (when he averaged 6.1 walks per game) where he'd only walk 2 and others where he'd walk 8. But in 18 games out of 37 starts he walked 6 or 7. That's pretty much your typical average. If you were to go to the ballpark it was a coin flip that he'd walk 6-7 rather than some other number. But if that sort of thing bothers you, the logs are at your fingertips, and they can fun to look at if you're feeling nostalgic or are withdrawing from no baseball being played. It boggles the mind sometimes to look back at how pitchers were allowed to go so deep into games before the relief specialists came about, even when you remember this being the case. Forget your garden variety complete games, 3 times he went into extra innings that year. An 11 inning with 7 walks and "just" 11 Ks. 10 innings against the expansion Blue Jays with 5 walks and 19 Ks. Just look at the end of April to the end of May. Following a game he lost in the 10th he isn't allowed to finish the last out in the 9th. After that a run of complete games for May. Your arm will hurt if you check out the game logs of other aces in first years of the DH from '73 to the end of the '70s, be it the hall of famers or guys like Mickey Lolich. The attitude was "if you don't ever have to bat for the pitcher, then let him pitch." As far as great starters of the past 40 some years, Pedro Martinez had 6 years out of 7 (1 lost due to injury) where he ruled the world. Just because 1 year of greatness happened in Montreal is no reason to forget this, nor is his odd "I don't want to be like Walter Payton in the Super Bowl" World Series moment in 2004 a reason to discount it either (or trying to take The Gerbil's head off.)

Yeah, I'm sure that in all those years of being a fan Paul never saw Ryan pitch. (The name of that emoticon is "rolls eyes" btw, it's not just a smile.) So anyway, Ryan easily could have won 2 Cy Youngs. In the '81 strike year he led the league with a sub-2 ERA and as usual strikeouts. He also went 11-5 (just 110 games that year.) But that was the year of Fernandomania. 1987 is the poster year for showing how wins for pitchers can be a dubious stat. At the age of 40 he again led the league in Ks & ERA but went 8-16. The Astros just didn't score for him at all. He had one game where he allowed no earned runs thru 8 and lost. Many games where he gave up 1 run and lost. His '87 game log. It's not for the squeamish. (As an aside how on earth did Bob Gibson lose 9 games in 1968 when he had an ERA of 1.12? See for yourself. Some are deserved, but one includes giving up 1 run in the 10th for a 1-0 loss!) That said I do think that Nolan is overrated, or at least if I was going to pick a staff just in my lifetime (beginning in the early '60s) I doubt he'd be on it even if I chopped it into leagues. And I like him, the folklore about him and loved watching him pitch. He was too wild in his Angel years walking 5 to 6 per game. Sure, he also only gave up 6 hits per game, but imagine having to field behind that as he's also striking out 10-11. That's a lot of time staring into your glove and making sure your shoes are tied. He did become a pitcher rather than a thrower once he reached his 30s and that's admirable. But the high leg kick made him easy to run on, he didn't field the position well and he was a terrible hitter. (Somehow I managed to see him hit one of his home runs.) Those later complaints might be like complaining about a weird mole on a goddess but the holding runners & fielding problems may help explain a wee bit of the difference between Carlton & Ryan's careers, as Cartlon was good at all 3 of the little things mentioned.

Simple. MLB was complicit regarding the wondrous effect of steroids on attendance & ratings in the chase of 61. Pete gambled on baseball. There have been warnings against this behavior in every MLB clubhouse for decades. A player gambling on games does not help attendance nor the game in any manner whereas for a brief time steroids did (not as far as aesthetics or statistical integrity, but in ratings), especially after the ill feeling following the '94 strike.

I don't know whether these would be part of the "Bootleg Series" or something else, or ignored altogether. But when Legacy asked the top vote getting (one could allocate points in any manner) Miles projects were: Complete Live In Japan 1975 (3446 votes) Complete "At Fillmore" 1970 (2545) Complete Columbia 1980s sessions (588) '60s live material (Juan-les-Pins, and anything w/ the 60s quintet (336) - by GregK Either GregK has great pull w/ Sony/Legacy or they're using different measures to determine what to release. I'm easy, there's lots of stuff I'd love to see, be it w/ Coltrane, the transition years or more of the '60s Quintet, Lost Quintet, '75...Lack of booklet pocket aside, I still am amazed at what a generous release in terms of material & price Bootleg 1 was!

Dave Duncan's wife has a brain tumor and I would expect that he may retire. I'm not sure what happens to the other La Russa sidekick Dave McKay. As far as McGwire the word is he's an excellent hitting coach. Great hitters (and yes, regardless of the timing of his use of steroids I still consider him a great hitter as far as his patience & power) don't usually make for good hitting coaches, but the word is he's good at communicating how to prepare, even for the Punch & Judy hitters. The players appear to have the utmost respect for him, so frankly that matters more than what sportswriters and fans of other teams think. But whether he'd make a good manager is another matter. I give La Russa a lot of credit for not hanging around to go for McGraw on the win list. *edited to add a space to Tony's name. I blame Tommy Lasorda.

Nolan is a fairly regular guest on the Dan Patrick Show and he has a good sense of humor about things. The closest thing to arrogance is when asked if he could throw 85 mph he says "give me a week." But you know, maybe he could. Last time on Patrick pointed out the opening day matchup and noted at Arlington they still run the Ryan-Ventura fight on the scoreboard (before the game I believe.) He suggested to Ryan that perhaps to make Ventura feel more welcome they could give that a break for the series. Ryan chuckled and agreed.

Happy 40th!

When I was 9 years old just once I put a quarter into a fancy gumball machine that was full of baseball team magnets inside of clear plastic containers. The one that came out was this Ranger logo. At first there was a feeling of brief disappointment but then I realized it was probably the largest magnet, plus it was a big ole cowboy hat so all was well. A couple of years later the Rangers caught further attention because Billy Martin was leading the team in a charge against the Mustache Gang. Over the years I paid a little more attention to the Rangers than I normally would have had I not gotten that magnet. I noticed they'd end up with former Pirates like Richie Zisk or Al Oliver. They had a few future Hall Of Fame pitchers over the years like Jenkins, Blyleven & Gaylord Perry. Some of those teams had great offenses, one great pitcher and the rest of the staff couldn't hit a barn door. Like Berrigan the Cards were my regional team growing up (I was on the Cub/Cardinal line) though I defected when law & order Vern Rapp took over. I eventually came back when elements of Cubdom became intolerable, though the M's became my main team after settling down in the Pacific NW. So while it was hard to root against the Redbirds it I sure didn't wish the Rangers any ill will. That game 6 was as rough as anything any fan has ever had to suffer. But just as I still count the '95 series win over the Yankees as a type of title this year can be that and more for the Rangers. They fought the good fight. Let's try to file away that a team can lose its ace and still make the World Series, since both teams are examples of that.

That was a squeamish moment not knowing for sure what happened, then seeing the ankle go like that on the replay. It's happened before in the Super Bowl and I wouldn't opposed to giving Napoli the MVP even if the Cardinals win tonight. Obviously though if say Mr. Freese were to be dramatic tonight that could pretty much slam dunk the choice. Ooooo, I'm feeling giddy.