Matthew

There is a manufactured truth and a honest truth in life and the arts. Elvis chose to go with the manufactured truth that was part of the "Elvis machine," and did it gladly. Despite the few high points in his career, he went with what he was told to do, kept his mouth shut, and made millions. Some would see that as a pact with the devil, but hey, YMMV.

Happy Birthday!

Thread seems to be open now. I agree it was an unjust decision if it was locked -- blame it on the "gort influence" of the Hoffman board, where any show of emotion or passion makes the moderator uncomfortable...

Well worth a shot for the Rangers, when he's on, Webb is flat-out nasty. I see the Rangers in a cakewalk next year in the division, no other team looks like they're close to them.

Off topic, but many, many, thanks for the Thanks To Calvary video, that made my morning!

He's right. Giants 23, Cards 16, Yanks 15, Cubs 14, .... http://www.baseball-...f/hofstat.shtml Something tells me that 10 years from now the Yankees will probably be pretty close to the Giants in HoFers. However, the Yanks will still have way more WS titles then the Giants. Don't know where Baseball Almanac got their info. Wikipedia lists 18 Yankee players who entered the HoF as Yankees: Yogi Berra, Earl Combs, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Whitey Ford, Lou Gehrig, Lefy Gomez, Joe Gordon, Goose Goosage, Waite Hoyte, Regggie Jackson, Tony Lazzeri, Mickey Mantle, Herb Pennock, Phil Rizzuto, Red Ruffing, Babe Ruth, and Jack Chesbro (as a N.Y. Highlander, the team that evolved into the Yankees). Still not as many as the Giants, but more than Almanac gives credit for. I never understood how Reggie Jackson gets called a Yankee on the basis of five years with NY out of a twenty-one year career....

The Doors: Live At The Aquarius Theater -- The Second Performance. The Doors are my favorite rock band

Thelonious Monk: The Complete Riverside Recordings. Disk one, the first two albums that were trios are on this cd, I've always enjoyed Monk's take on Ellington.

Do teams like Kansas City or the Pirates even try to build a good team anymore? How about instead of a Luxury Tax, they have a Suckitude Tax, and for finishing under .500 for three years in a row, a team has to add 20 million to the pay roll. I'm sick and tired of these crappy teams not even trying to improve themselves.

Have to agree with you on the Phillies rotation, for some reason, something doesn't feel right about it. I also think the Braves could very well surprise and win the division, I mean, losing Bobby Cox has to add five wins to this season, right?

Deadball Stars of the American League. A totally captivating book put out by the Society For American Baseball Research, which contains 136 biographies of American League baseball players from the "Deadball Era" of 1901 - 1919. Fascinating reading of players long dead and forgotten; the "Deadball Era" has always held me enthralled, an era with an unique style of play, and of an America way of life long gone. I just ordered the National League version....

Thelonious Monk: The Complete Riverside Recordings. Nice deal on a used copy for $74.95 from Rasputin's in Concord, CA.

The Richard Diamond series is regularly aired on XM's Old Time Radio station, and the writing that Edwards did for that show is amazing -- just funny, fast paced, and top-notch all the way. I always try to catch it when it comes on.

I like this paragraph about Lee from Sports Illustrated For all Lee's virtues, it isn't necessarily obvious that he's a great pitcher. Over the last two years his record is 26-22, with a good-not-brilliant 3.20 ERA. His postseason legend aside, he's made four World Series starts with a 4.55 ERA. His contribution to the Texas Rangers' playoff run was a 4-6 record and a 3.98 ERA. Even by an old school sabermetric measure like adjusted ERA he's less than the bee's knees, with a 131 mark over the last two years. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tim_marchman/12/16/hot.stove.roundup/index.html#ixzz18KrX6Ty3 Call me crazy on this one, but I don't think Lee made a good decision going to the National League, he seems more effective to me in the AL. Plus, I still prefer the Giant rotation to the Phillies, the Giants starters are younger and just coming into their prime. A rematch for the NL championship would be a great series.

81 today, not a cloud in the sky.... I hate it, bring on the cold, cloudy weather.

Feeling like 1965?

Hey, Happy Birthday!!

Been out of the country until last night. Very saddened to read about the passing of your wife. Be assured of my prayers for you and your family during this time.

Anyone catch the Aston Villa vs. Man U game yesterday? Second half was exciting and I felt bad that AV blew a two goal lead, but they were lucky to hold on, very much on the ropes. Villa had some youngish player who looked nice; I was impressed with Marc Albrighton, a lot of good energy came from his play, a good portent for their future.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Dave Niehaus, voice of the Seattle Mariners, passed away yesterday of a heart attack. Very sad news, he was a great broadcaster.

Complete Paul Desmond - Jimmy Hall Recordings: Amazon Seller $16.27

Jon Miller & Joe Morgan out as announcers of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Reaction: THANK YOU! Miller's good doing the Giants game, but Morgan brought the worst out of him -- the endless talking, the know-it-all-ism, the impressions, all in a bad way. And Morgan Did you know he played MLB baseball? It's true, and he'll tell you all about it also.

For some reason, I absolutely adore Band On The Run ( I know...), and the new remaster is very good to my ears. Does anyone here have the high-rez download? Is it worth the extra money to get? I know the Hoffy board have tons of stuff on the reissue, but I don't feel like wading through 1,000,000,000,000,000, posts to get some insight into the high-rez download. What say you?

I think Webb had tongue firmly in cheek with Pat Novak For Hire, I mean, the writing is too way over the top for that one.