WorldB3

Man, last night Feliz came up w/ the bases loaded and swung at the first pitch and popped up. Rally over. Phils lose 1-0. Mind you this was against the same pitcher who lost the game today by throwing 4 straight balls w/ the bases loaded. Welcome to my nightmare of the past several years. Feliz is a great glove man....but he just plain doesn't know diddly squat about hitting. I feel your pain, JH. Trust me. I think in a real lineup like the Phillies have he will be fine. But I would recommend pitch hitting for him in the later innings if the game is on the line.

Im going tonight. I figure even if he doesn't show I can't go wrong with the rest of the band. Last time I saw him was in the early-mid 90's and he was great.

I listened to this again for the first time in several years and it sounded as great as I remembered. Its pretty much a perfect record. Mobley is so fluid on this and what can you say about Wynton Kelly? It doesn't get any better then This I Dig Of You and Dig Dis. If you wanted to introduced somebody to a very early 1960's Blue Note session this would be a great pick. While Soul Station is one of the great records of all time its still not my favorite Mobley. That would go to No Room For Squares, not saying its better but I feel the song writing is a little more challenging and it has Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock and I love Andrew Hill's playing on it. Philly Joe Jones puts on a drum clinic. Again you can't go wrong with Soul Station. Its so good I might even upgrade to the RVG edition of it.

It would be pretty funny if their two young stud pitchers have a record anywhere close to that. For those who enjoyed Finn's Nine Innings column on foxsports.com last year, you should know that he has signed a deal with Boston.com, to start around April 8. He's got an obvious Red Sox bias but his column for Fox was pretty good - I liked the way he took an old Bill James player rating book and quoted what was thought of famous/infamous guys way back when. They could both be good enough to keep going out there and have era's under 4 yet still lose 20 games each. Maybe like Roger Craig in 1963. 5-22 with 3.78 era. When Brian Kingman lost 20 for the A's in 80 he still had the best stuff on the team. Pitched 10 complete games and had a era of 3.83. The more I think about that year Carlton had when he won 27 for a team that lost 97 games it still boggles my mind.

Reminds me of a poll I thought about doing: Who will lose the most number of games this season? The Giants The Pirates The Orioles The Marlins My money is on the Giants, who are likely to be terrible for many years to come, regardless of how their young starters do. I don't know how Brian Sabian can still have a job. While Cain, Linzicum and Lowrey are very nice to have the rest of the division has good front end rotation starters and young players that are major league contributors. The best position players in the Giants organization are 3 years away. I don't know how a team with a such a long history and high revenues can turn into the KC Royals or worse so quickly.

ooh that does looks cool, what's the eta? who is paying for it, as you know the housing and office space market is a little soft right now.

Tampa Bay deserves to be in last place at least until they add the Devil back to Ray and play in real ball park. Some nice young talent but its hard to take them seriously. Luckily for you it appears the Orioles really want that last place slot a little more. "LETS GO OAKLAND" Nice! ... They gave up some good, young talent in the offseason but appear to be better both offensively and defensively (on paper, at least). It looks like Navarro may be a much better hitter this year, and Bartlett and Hinske should be great additions. Crawford looked a little shaky in left at Baltimore on Monday. As long as Kazmir doesn't develop some nagging arm injury, the starting rotation should be able to keep their offense in games. And the pen is definitely improved, but how could it not be. Tough division though. To finish third either the Yankees or Jays will have to go in the tank. ...

If that happened I would be tempted to cancel my e-music subscription. Not that there wouldn't be enough of other things to keep me going for a couple months but I really like having the opportunity to download the Fantasy and Prestige releases if I choose to. As much as I like Tift Merritt I would say her latest while it has a few good tunes isn't worth more than the download. I did read somewhere because of the Fantasy and Prestige collection on Emusic that Jazz is #3 in downloads by genre on the site.

Bev, I work with several under 35 years that are highly motivated and creative also. I was referring to a suburban privileged class of overly coddled and medicated youth that won't have the skill set to rebound from any type of failure. I am pretty sure its more of a specific american issue. Maybe I am jealous because I can't bounce back from hangovers anymore but there seems to be a higher degree of loutishness with younger people than I remember. But again that could be age talking.

Bravo! great post and so true. In Marin Country and San Francisco where I work these people are unbearable. I guess when you have never had to earn anything and have never gone without anything your whole life... I guess the privileged class doesn't need to worry but I wonder how these people will even handle any type of set back or failure.

Wow, sounds like a great weekend of music, I love that stuff instead of the "pop with boots" that gets passed as new country by the nashville machine these days.

hmm.. AL Red Sox Tigers Halo's wc: Yanks NL: Mets Cubs Rocks wc: D-backs Tigers beat the D-Backs in five to win it all

Let me know what you think of that, I found it to be well played and very nice sounding yet its still not grabbing me. I think it may be one of those its me not the record kind of thing. Latest purchase, need more classical in my collection. I really like the other Michelangeli I own.

^ he was supposed to ease the pain of losing Mulder, Hudson and Zito. He was great two years ago but since then hasn't been making his starts. Hudson was the one out of that group to keep.

Aside from another blown save by Street (which cost them a sweep) and 4 strike outs by Cust which isn't that unusual the A's might be better than I expected. Under extreme hostel conditions, terrible umpiring at home plate and the announcers not knowing or caring enough to say any of their names correctly they more than held their own. If Harden can start more than 10 games who knows.

I am 40 and my knee hurts. I also want the young hipsters wearing white belts to get off my lawn.

I am looking forward to the recordings from this list I don't already have. Thanks for putting this together. You know your stuff.

No Unfortunately C. Webb is not a HoF player. Yes, he scored lots of points and was a good passer. But he was not a winner and he did not contribute enough to make his teams a winner. C. Webb also did not play the style of basketball that was pertinent to his position. He was a power forward with the "power" removed. C. Webb only mixed it up with other power forwards when he gained more weight from being injured and even then he was reluctant, he wanted to be a big guard (which more than once hampered the real guards on his teams). While he had a very good career and was paid very well, he is not a HoF. I have to agree, it the intangibles that don't get him. Forget the numbers.

That was the acid jazz movement in San Francisco in the mid 90's. Then the club owners decided it was cheaper to just have the DJs without the jazz musicians and hipsters decided that indie rock was cooler and it all went downhill. Im ready for a revival though.

I wouldn't go that far. The west this year will have 8 teams with 50 wins going into the playoffs. Every game in the west since the all star break has been like a playoff game. As of now your still in it, somebody deserving will not make it. Until the Suns won 7 in a row everybody was saying the Shaq trade was the worst trade in the history of the NBA. Kidd may have not been the right fit for the team but on paper it made sense.

The Potter thing is simper than that...Craig Taborn is just ridiculously BAAAD... and so is Adam Rogers and Nate Smith. Those guys are scary good. Good take Jsgngry. think around Lift he was getting there but found what works on Follow The Red Line. I still love him with Dave Holland also.

Great Post Jim, I feel the anger towards these artists are totally misplaced. I also don’t write off a whole career because somebody put out a safe record when they were young and on a major label or had a off night and wasn’t able to connect to everybody in the audience. I have found all of the Trio records Mehldau has done to be emotional and intellectually rewarding that also inspire me to go practice. I can’t ask anything more from a piece of art or from an artist. While its not a 10 I give the record Redman did with Sam Yahel and Brian Blade last year called Truth and Beauty an 8.5. A dense and beautiful record in my opinion, it may not be Larry Young, Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones but its still a fresh and well played take on the Organ Trio format.

No. One can create valuable, compelling and spirited music that is in the tradition of what came before while not being beholden to it. That can occur without the bells and whistles of "newness" (that rarely we hear until much, much later). Here's a review of the new release by the Empty Cage Quartet that I wrote. It's an excellent little record that may not be "jazz' Great Savior" but it proves that that really is not the point. (Review reprinted from Bagatellen). Thanks, will pick that up when my emusic credits renew next month.

Allen and everybody else. Are there any doors left to open or new paths to be blazed that haven't already come before? Jazz is funny in that you have to have to be able to be create something new yet your judged by the past and how/if you play something from the past. Seems like you are criticized either by going to far off or staying to close. Even Ornette and Hank M had their critics back in the day.

I got $20 bucks sez you're wrong. NL West will once again be the most competitive Division in baseball. Giants may not win it all, but they'll be in the mix. And you can bet the ranch on it. Hope your right, hard to do a youth movement when the youth aside from starting pitching doesn't have any talent.