A friend of mine, Nick Chichile just recorded a new song. I like it, as it has echos of two artists from my youth. He'd love to hear your opinions of "Sunless."

Manny Ramirez's former home can be yours!

The former Red Sox outfielder put his Boston penthouse condominium on the market for $8.5 million on Wednesday, the same day he agreed to a $45-million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

...

Ramirez paid $5.8 million for the condo in 2001, and put it on the market for $6.9 million in 2005.

In this market, I suspect the condo will be available for a long time.

Former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams is bringing out a new CD on April 14th, Moving Forward.

Bernie plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (windows media), an appropriate track for this time of year. It's a comtemplative take on the tune, both a little sad and a little sweet. I got the feeling that Bernie misses the game from listening to his guitar gently weeping. I'm looking forward to hearing the whole album.

Happy Square Root Day!

Celebrants are expected to mark the occasion by cutting root vegetables into squares or preparing other foods in the shape of the square root symbol.

Square Root Day occurs only nine times in a century. The last one occurred on February 2, 2004, and the next will occur in seven years on April 4, 2016.

I think it's actually tough to cut vegetables in squares. That might have been more appropriate for 2/22/08, cube root day. :-)

Hat tip, Instapundit.

Please donate to the Baseball Musings Pledge Drive.

Lone Star Ball examines how the cell phone has destroyed the sitcom. He uses as examples a number of Senfeld episodes that could never happen today, because a cell phone call solves the delimma of the half hour.

On the other hand, The Office uses the cell phone to great comic effect. Of course, that show is written by a former baseball blogger...

Via Cafe Hayek, Rick Santelli is ready to start a revolution in Chicago.

It's the 200th anniversary of the birth of two great men of the 19th century. I'm sure you're all aware of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, but on that same day in 1809, Charles Darwin came into this world as well. Check out Blogging the Origin for a chapter by chapter summary of The Origin of Species, published 150 years ago. The two would lead the world to great changes in the second half of the 1800s.

May 27, 1968, pales in comparison.

Here's a picture of the Redoubt Volcano in Alaska at sunrise this morning:

There are rumblings under this cone and they are expecting it to erupt any time.

Tuffy R sent me this link, as the Brazilian curling team calls out the Americans:

"We knew they were out there playing," Patzke said, "but we didn't really have them on our radar until they made the challenge."

The best-of-five match against the United States team, beginning Friday in Bismarck, N.D., will be Brazil's international curling debut, an appearance about as unlikely as that of the Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

"When I mention it to friends and family, the first question they ask is, 'Are you going to Brazil?' " said Todd Birr, the skip, or captain, of the United States team. "No, we're going to Bismarck. But it should be fun."

The World Curling Federation allots two berths in the 12-team world championship to countries from the Americas, and in the 50 years of the event the lone representatives have been the United States and Canada. Only two other countries in the Americas belong to the federation: Brazil, which joined in 1998, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Canada can't be bumped as host nation and world champs, so the Brazilians get a chance to knock off the US. It looks like you can follow the event here. Does anyone know if there will be live television coverage?

Every time I see an ad for Taken, I think of this.

Joe Morgan gets harrassed by the police at LAX. I hope Joe sues them.

Since it took place in LA, you have to wonder if the former writers of Fire Joe Morgan fingered the Hall of Famer.

Even if you don't agree with the rankings, this is a great reference for Beatles songs. I like his top five. He picks the meaningful and experimental songs rather than the most popular ones.

On Martin Luther King Day, this photo from the Baseball Hall of Fame seems appropriate. Here's a few book suggestions on baseball and race:

Jackie Robinson's opening day.

Two books on Curt Flood.

My favorite, Brushing Back Jim Crow.

My nephew drums in the Trumbull High School band (Connecticut) and they'll be performing in the inauguration parade. They've been receiving lots of publicity, and made today's New York Times. If you're from southern Connecticut and want to follow the band on their trip, here are some links:

• The Connecticut Post set up a blog. (I delivered the paper when it was the Bridgeport Post.)
• Photo uploads are found in this directory.
• Three people are Twittering as well.

Good luck to the band. I watched in 2000 when they marched in the parade. My cousin's daughter was drum major that year, and we caught about 1 second of her on TV.

Somehow I'm on a FoodNetwork mailing list, but I'd thought I'd pass this along anyway. They're looking for cooks from the Los Angeles area to grill along side Bobby Flay on Grill It. Here's the casting page, and they're looking for a three-minute video audition.

Bob Tufts sends me this story about US Marshals being used to transport Fox broadcasters to and from big events:

In an IG interview, the marshal who chauffeured Aikman and Buck at the Super Bowl recalled telling a colleague afterwards that he thought "the whole thing was silly" and "an inappropriate use of his time." Usually, federal marshals hunt fugitives, guard federal judges, courts, and protected witnesses, and transport prisoners.

I'm sure there are some people who would like to see Buck and McCarver in a witness protection program. :-)

The Evil Jon Weisman ruins his daughter's near perfect Chutes and Ladders game. At least she kicked his butt in Candyland. :-)

Here's wishing everyone a successful and prosperous 2009!

I hope you enjoy a joyous holiday with your friends and family!

Happy Festivus!

I usually don't get political, it's time to endorse the Harvard Hooligan for president. Here's his platform. Based on this video, it's a good thing he hired a body guard. I can't wait for 2024, when he can run for POTUS!

I don't usually blog about football players, but having read this story, I think this picture pretty much explains
Plaxico Burress's season.

Thank you to all the readers of Baseball Musings. The site is seven seasons old, and would not have last this long without your support. Thanks for your donations, your comments and your emails. Best wishes for a wonderful day with your family and friends!

I hope everyone traveling on this busy holiday has a safe trip and spends many wonderful hours with family and friends! I brought my daughter home yesterday, and the drive took only twice as long as usual.

Yale suspends the YPMB over obscenities written on a prop during the halftime show at Harvard:

Adding insult to the injury of Harvard's 10-0 defeat Saturday in The Game, which was held in Boston, Yale University's director of bands, Thomas C. Duffy, suspended the marching band Monday because of a "completely inappropriate and highly offensive" prop used during the halftime show, according to the Yale Daily News.

The newspaper quoted an e-mail Duffy sent to band members: "I was personally embarrassed and offended, and professionally compromised. I am suspending the Yale Precision Marching Band from all activities and performances, effective as of this very moment."

It was unclear what element of the band's prank crossed the line, but The Daily News said the band used as a prop "a graffiti-covered replica of the Berlin Wall, (which) was the centerpiece of a halftime show that portrayed Harvard as a Communist empire."

Friends, this is what happens when you send your children to a safety school.

I just got back from the Verizon Store, hoping to buy a BlackBerry Storm. I was very disappointed. First, I called to an in-town Verizon dealer to see if they had the phone, since they give me the same deal as Verizon. They didn't, because they had to send the phones they received back due to a last minute software upgrade that didn't get put on those phones. So I went to the Verizon store, figuring they would have the updated phones in stock. While I was waiting for a salesperson, I got to try the phone.

The first thing I noticed was that the switch from portrait to landscape was very slow. The first time I changed the orientation of the phone, nothing happened. I thought maybe the function was off, but after many seconds, the screen changed. If I want to flip to a different keypad, I don't want to wait seconds for the change. Then, when I was typing, I found the left-hand side of the QWERTY keyboard off. I kept getting a d instead of an s, and an r instead of an e. It also took me a while to figure out how to bring up the screen with the @ as I tried to enter an email address.

Then I tried to browse the web, but I couldn't find the browser application. By this time, a salesperson came to speak with me. She then talked to the technicians, who said the browser application disappearing was a known problem! I'm buying the phone for the browser! I asked if I would lose the browser on my phone, and she said probably not. The phone on display had been out three days under constant abuse. In my opinion, if a phone breaks down under three days of constant use, it's not a very good phone. Obviously, no one dropped it, since it was tethered by a retractable wire to the display.

On the good side, the touch screen does feel like a keyboard. I like the tactile feedback. I also called my wife on her cell phone, and the call was crystal clear. Unless, however, they resolve the bugs that make the browser application disappear, I would hold off on buying this phone. Once again, Verizon disappoints me.

I drove my daughter back to school this afternoon. As we approached Boston, we switched to Mike FM (they play everything). They play Margaritaville, and when it finishes, I hear a familiar piano introduction. I say to my daughter, "This is a great combination, Margaritaville followed by Werewolves of London." She then tells me I'm listening to a Kid Rock song. So disappointing.

Here's how it should have been played:

I work part time at Bay Path College, and the occupational therapy students are holding a fund raiser. It's a pumpkin contest, where you bring in a carved pumpkin for judging. One of the students worked in IT, and suggested I do a Red Sox theme. So here's Big Papi:

I sent my daughter a photo of it, and her reaction was, "Did you draw that free hand? You can't draw!" I made a stencil out of a photo. If you want to see the rest of the photos, they're on my Facebook page. Feel free to add me as a friend.

Update: Kristen Hudak at We've Got Heart sends along this Manny Acta pumpkin. It's competing in a Nationals pumpkin contest.

A reader sends along this page, raising money for the Major Larry Bauguess Memorial Field. Major Bauguess was killed recently in Pakistan, and his home of Wilkes County, NC is trying to endow a baseball field and two scholarships in his name.

He was a big time baseball junkie, so the fund is baseball-centric. His high school recently named their baseball field after him. All of the funds will go towards field maintenance, a memorial at the field, sponsoring youth league baseball in Wilkes County, NC, and providing two college scholarships annually.

Sounds like a worthy cause.

Via Athletics Nation, Billy Beane helps Newt Gingrich and John Kerry make a pitch for healthcare reform.

I'd like to see more of this from sabermetricians. Nate Silver is looking at polling this year. It's a nice problem to solve but adds little value to anything. It will teach future candidates how to better game elections, but I'm not sure that works to the betterment of society. I'd love to see people like Nate turn their expertise to assigning value to government programs to see which are actually helping. Maybe a VODN index, Value Over Doing Nothing.

Talk about playing hurt!

Maybe they can trade their old expensive teachers for college prospects.

My wife and I went to a local dog show this afternoon and ran into Mr. Big:

My family owned a Great Dane when I was a teenager, black like this one only with white feet. Duke was not as tall as Mr. Big, but was extremely muscular. Mr. Big here would be a wide receiver, and Duke would be the full back.

With a small lull in the baseball playoffs, here's a nice ditty using curling as a metaphor for life. Thanks to Tuffy R for the pointer:

We're getting ready to send my daughter off to college, so blogging will be light for the next couple of days.

We just got back from the wedding of my cousin's daughter, Erica. Her new husband Kyle is a big baseball fan and a loyal reader of Baseball Musings. We were about to leave, and he introduced me to one of his friends, J.D., who's also a fan of the site. My moment of fame for the day.

Best of luck of Erica and Kyle as they start their new life together!

The Soxaholix won't like this post, but I'm watching Olympic volleyball, and I noticed a rule change. It used to be that you could only record a point if your team was serving. Now, there seems to be a point on every play. When did that rule change?

If you're a reader who lives in Massachusetts, you should take a look at SmallGovernmentAct.org. They've put a question on the November ballot aimed at ending the income tax in the state.

I'm sitting on Fairfield Beach thinking about live blogging the fireworks. I don't know how interesting it would be to write Oohh, Aahh time after time.

Do they really expect us to believe that A-Rod would date Madonna? If you are going to date an older, once hot woman, aren't you better off with Rosanna Arquette? I mean, Madonna is so old, she dated Jose Canseco before A-Rod was drafted. Maybe Alex is this generation's Richard Fish.

A relative of a relative is trying to win a trip to the Olympics. If you would like to help him out, here are the instructions:

GO TO: http://track.flocasts.org/beijing2008/finals
Find the "Final Round Voting Begins....".
Go to the "Coast to Coast Relay 2004 Video.
Then click on the blue #3. That will cast 3 votes for Ryan. No need to cast #2 or #1 for anyone else. You will need to register if you haven't already, but it doesn't cost anything and they won't send you any garbage. You can vote once a day.

Thanks.

Here's the opening of J.K Rowling's speech at Harvard Thursday. She gave one of the better commencement addresses I've heard. Rowling pulled on her real world experiences to encourage the students not to fear failure and to use their imaginations to the fullest.

The text and video of the entire speech can be found here.

For my family who couldn't attend the event, my daughter Melinda gets her high school diploma.

My daughter Melinda graduated from high school Friday night. I just wanted to say congratulations! We're very proud of you, Melinda.

Barbara Walters revealed she had an affair with Ed Brooke while Brooke was the junior senator from Massachusetts in the 1970s. The only reason I bring this up is that one reason Brooke lost his re-election bid in 1978 was a rumor of an affair. That rumor turned into one of the best jokes the Harvard University Band did during my four years there.

The standard halftime show for us at the time consisted of about four songs. We'd start each by spelling out a word while the announcer read something topical. The punchline was the song combined with the word changing while we played. Here's how we finished the UMass show, Sept. 30, 1978 ("Bang" refers to movement on a starter's pistol signal):

(Bang to ED)

ANN: Riding the tide of a primary victory, the Junior Senator from Massachusetts is not yet out of hot water. But Brooke is not the first senator to have political aspirations dampened by a stormy personal life.
(play "How Deep is Your Love", march to TED)

It was subtle enough that some people didn't get the joke until Monday.

Peter Abraham saw Deal or No Deal for the first time yesterday:

I don't watch a lot of television beyond sports and HBO, so this was a first for me. I can't believe people actually watch this show. The entire point of the show seemed to be showing hot girls in slinky dresses. Which, you know, is fine. But can the contestants actually lose? The whole thing seemed pretty pointless. Anthropologists 1,000 years from now will determine we were a culture of idiots.

Actually, the few times I've watched the show it struck me as a good probability problem. Contestants have to balance the average payoff given the remaining money on the board versus what the bank is offering. It's the sure payoff versus the expected payoff with an element of greed mixed in.

Of course, if the show were actually marketed as a probability problem, it wouldn't sell.

Finally, a great curling blog.

My daughter Melinda and the Longmeadow HS Symphony Orchestra are performing at Carnegie Hall. We're off to New York for the festival.

This isn't the only blog that cares about curling. :-)

I didn't know that giving 110% is now for slackers.

The New York Daily News recounts the events that led to Don Mattingly resigning his coaching job with the Dodgers.

Finally, a reality show for me!

My wife Marilyn just became a real estate agent. If you're looking for a house in the Springfield, MA area or thinking about relocating to the area, give her a call or drop her an E-Mail.

With absolutely no apologies to Cole Porter and the YPMB:

Bulldog! Bulldog!
Bow, wow, wow
Eli Manning
Bulldog! Bulldog!
Bow, wow, wow
Brady is on his fanning.

When the son of Archie
Throws down the field,
Nobody will be panning!
Bulldog! Bulldog!
Bow, wow, wow
Eli Manning!

This was a no lose Super Bowl for me since I'm a Giants fan and I also like the Patriots. I did like the outcome, however. The Giants have to be the luckiest football team I ever saw. They do a good job of disappointing all game, then coming up with a big play just when you think they're done. The catch against the helmet after Manning was in the grasp of the defense was a perfect example.

Now, at least, I don't have to listen to people complain about Eli Manning.

I'm helping out my friends at Deadspin with the following photo (click for a larger image):

Update: The Big Lead has another photo from the event and more commentary.

Update: A commentator at Deadspin asks if I'm the Pinto from Animal House. Trey Wingo, pictured behind Dana above, thought the same thing. One day, he walks into the research office at ESPN, comes up to me and asks, "Why do they call you Pinto?" There's a big smile on his face, waiting to hear the story of my nickname. With an annoyed look I say, "Because that's my name." Trey was very apologetic, and in fact was one of the nicest people to work with at ESPN.

I'm not much of a football fan. At the end of the World Series, I look to see how the NY Giants are doing, and follow the team if they are playing well. So this year, I've been watching.

The Giants strike me as a similar team to the Arizona Diamondbacks. They're not really that good, but seem to make key plays at the right time. However, Eli Manning appears to have developed an excellent skill. I just saw on a 3rd and 1 in the first quarter, Manning drew the Packers offsides. Over the last few weeks, I've seen this happen a number of times with Eli. It seems to me most flags at the line of scrimmage are false starts, but with the Giants there seem to be a lot of encroachment calls. Can anyone with football knowledge confirm this?

Here's a picture of the Bay Path College campus I snapped with my cell phone on the way to work today.

I hope everyone enjoyed the New Year's Eve festivities last night. May 2008 be a happy and successful year for all!

I hope everyone celebrating today has a happy and safe holiday!

I was just reading this piece on Steve Martin at Slate, and the opening paragraph resonated with me:

According to the census bureau, roughly 40 percent of the American populace was born after 1981, which means that Steve Martin has not been a stand-up comedian in their lifetime. What do these youths make of Martin? I guess they think of him as a reliable, profoundly Caucasian presence in glossy Hollywood comedies (I use the term loosely) like Father of the Bride, Bringing Down the House, and Cheaper by the Dozen, and in mirthless paycheck specials like The Pink Panther and Sergeant Bilko. They may have read his small, well-made novels, The Pleasure of My Company and Shopgirl, or his adept and droll humor pieces in The New Yorker.

But do they realize how revelatory a performer he was?

No, they don't. Around 1998 or 1999, I was at ESPN one day talking to a group of production assistants, all around 25 years old. For some reason, I spouted a Steve Martin line from one of his stand up routines. They all looked at me curiously, so I explained it was from one of Steve Martin's old bits. They still looked at me strangely until one of them said, "Steve Martin did standup?"

If you didn't know Steve did standup, go buy Let's Get Small.

I want to say thanks to all the veterans who read Baseball Musings for your service and sacrifice. To all those currently serving, I hope you come home safe and sound.

I'm traveling to NC today to visit schools with my daughter. Blogging will be light, but I did load the laptop with PMR data, so I should be able to publish a couple of positions this weekend.

Bill Madden finds Jon Papelbon's cell phone in a cab. Of course, writing for the Daily News, it should have been required for Madden to go through the contact list and see who's who. :-)

The Sports Frog and I write twice a week at AT&T Blue Room. Check out the Sports Buzz here.

This has nothing to do with baseball, but I turned on ESPN2's coverage of Wimbledon, and the camera angle is awful. You can't see the baseline at the bottom of the screen, partly because it's obscured by the Bottom Line 2, but mostly because the camera needs to pan down. To give ESPN the benefit of the doubt, it's probably a fixed camera, rather than one they can control. But you would think they'd ask someone to change the angle.

This is a message to Al Bethke. Did you get the e-mail I sent you? My new address is dfpinto@verizon.net.

Here's the video I promised yesterday:

My daughter's high school orchestra played for the Massachusetts Music Educators' Association All-State Conference this afternoon, and I journeyed east to enjoy the show. I'll have video highlights on YouTube soon. I stopped in Cambridge earlier to join professor of international politics and Red Sox fanDaniel Drezner for lunch. Among other things, we talked about how Matsuzaka and the WBC help international relations and Papelbon moving back to the closer role.

The Longmeadow High School orchestra played Verdi and Shubert wonderfully. It's nice to hear them in a room with good acoustics, since their high school auditorium is less than adequate.

Samuel Alito shows good form as he throws out the first pitch at a Devil Rays game. It's good to see a great fan of the game on the bench.

I don't quite see why Sports Illustrated needs to scare us about global warming, but using a fake photo doesn't really help their cause. (Story starts here.)

Update: I didn't mean to post this. When I thought about what I wanted to say, I decided it didn't have a place on this blog. I must have hit save by accident. But since I did, I don't think the story is balanced at all. Only the worst case scenarios are cited, and to me that's just bad journalism.

Update: I should have credited FishStripes with a pointer to the article. They have Dontrelle's reaction to the photo. Also, Cafe Hayek agrees with the one sidedness of the story:

It's a bit of a stretch. A huge stretch. And of course it's a stretch in one direction only. It could have been written this way:

The next time you get to enjoy throwing a baseball in February or enjoying a December game at Chicago's Soldier Field instead of viewing it mostly as a rite of passage or a test of your toughness, thank global warming.

John Sickels spotted a cougar. With its new-found fame, the cat is going to change his name to Mellencamp.

The Baseball Crank gets off the line of the day on MTVs declining ratings:

If this keeps up, the network may have to fill time by showing music videos.

Bart Simpson saw this coming a decade ago.

Spring is in the air.

The Mother's Day fiasco is over:

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming the Angels discriminated against men by giving tote bags to women during a Mother's Day baseball game.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Cannon ruled Thursday that the giveaway was not biased against men and that the May 8, 2005, event was a way to honor mothers.

The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles psychologist Michael Cohn, claimed thousands of men and fans under age 18 were each entitled to $4,000 in damages because they were treated unfairly. Women over 18 received the gifts that day.

The Angels changed the giveaway to all fans after the suit was filed. I hope they go back to the original idea. And it looks like Michael Cohn will have to pay attorney's fees. I hope Moreno used a very expensive lawyer.

My friends' son Grayson celebrated his second birthday today. Grayson's favorite book is Casey at the Bat, and when you ask him what the umpires says, he goes, "Strike one." If you continue to ask, you get, "Strike two," then, "Strike three, you're out." He'll also say, "Ball four, take your base." Obviously, the young man is being brought up right.

Grayson's sister Lilly is also extremely cute.

Caitlin A. LaGrotte of Temple University asked me to post a link to a survey she's conducting. Here's the description:

Here is an opportunity to share your experiences at baseball games when the Yankees are playing the Red Sox.

This survey hopes to better understand the environment created in baseball stadiums when rivals are playing. The study will not ask for any personal information and will allow for better understanding of the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox. If you have attended a Yankee versus Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park please click the link below to take the survey. Thank you.

You can take the survey here.

The Cooperstown Cookie Company just sent me their latest treat, peanut butter filled chocolate baseball caps. I'm not a big fan of peanut butter, but this was fresh and delicious, complementing the milk chocolate perfectly. From the picture, it looks like they'll be promoting them for Valentine's Day. A perfect gift for someone you love who loves baseball!

I'm very grateful that because of people like Dr. King and Jackie Robinson, I've been able to enjoy a game where talent comes from all walks of life and from all over the world.

I'm hoping a physicist/engineer can answer a question for me. Let's say you have two identical cars (same mass, same engine) traveling at a steady100 km/hour one six car lengths behind the other. Both will use about same amount of fuel to travel a given distance. But if the trailing car tucks right in behind the lead car, the trailing car uses a lot less fuel, because the first car is doing all the work of over coming wind resistance. (I believe this is called "drafting). If you then took the distance between the two cars to 0, that is, physically attached the trailing car to the lead car, would both cars then be able to split the fuel savings (both engines keep running)? Or does it not matter if the cars are connected? (By connected I mean a stiff connection, as opposed to a chain, so the two cars always move as one.)

My daughter passed her driving test today. :-)

This is great, because I don't need to drive her around anymore! And actually, she's a very good driver.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all my readers. However you're celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful time with your friends and family!

Once again, I'm thankful for all my readers who keep this site growing. You've allowed me to make a living from something I love. I hope each of you has a wonderful dinner and day with your family and friends!

The Longmeadow High School played a great first half, but the Notre Dame women dominated the second half and took the game 3-1. It was the first loss for Longmeadow this year. Here's video of the game, featuring my daughters two friends Ally Fox (#1) and Taylor Hedges (#3).

The police took away the Longmeadow defense sign.

Update: Longmeadow leads ND 1-0 in the first half.

Update: Terrific save by the Longmeadow goalie on a penaltyshot to keep a one goal lead.

It's halftime with Longmeadow leading ND 1-0.

Update: ND ties the game at one with 19 minutes left.

Update: With11 minutes left ND takes a 2-1 lead.

Update: ND goes up 3-1 with six minutes to go.

Update: ND wins 3-1.

The police took away the Longmeadow defense sign.

Update: Longmeadow leads ND 1-0 in the first half.

Update: Terrific save by the Longmeadow goalie on a penaltyshot to keep a one goal lead.

It's halftime with Longmeadow leading ND 1-0.

Update: ND ties the game at one with 19 minutes left.

Update: With11 minutes left ND takes a 2-1 lead.

Update: ND goes up 3-1 with six minutes to go.

Update: ND wins 3-1.

On this Veterans Day I'd like express my appreciation to all my military readers, active, discharged or retired. Thank you for your service. To those on duty away from home, may you all come home safe and sound.

Longmeadow and Westfield are scoreless at the half.

Update: Scoreless at the end of regulation.

Update: Longmeadow wins 1-0 in the second overtime.

Update:Here's the team celebrating:

Longmeadow leads Agawam 3-1 in the second half in the Western Mass semi finals. Highlights to follow.

Update: Here's some highlights:

Update: The embedded video doesn't seem to be loading. You can see the video at this link, also.

It's been a busy afternoon. My daughter was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Then the Bay Path College soccer team played their final home game of the season:

Then the Longmeadow High School field hockey team played their final home game:

Now time for the game!

It's talk like a pirate day. Here's an example:

"It's a little moral victory for us," Bay said. "You don't want to run around and throw a party because you got out of last place."

Avast, me hearties! Moral victories is all these Pirates be getting.

Regular Yard Work contributor Hee-Seop Choi blasts teams for sticking with veterans too long and Bill Plaschke for his hackery.

I'm really sorry I missed this story yesterday.

McAfee Site Advisor warns that basebal player screen savers are full of spy ware.

The comments aren't working at Walk Like a Sabermetrician so I'll leave the answer to the trivia question there in my extended entry, in case you want to try it before it's revealed.

A great picture here of the Angels players all wearing Joe Maddon glasses to honor their former coach.

Larry Mahnken picked a pretty good day to be born.

Kris and Anna aren't getting divorced! With any luck, they're heading for a George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin relationship. :-)

Derek Lowe, however, is not so lucky.

The nice people at the Cooperstown Cookie Company sent me a sample of their new treats today. They're minature shortbread cookies that look like baseballs. They're tasty, and your order helps a good cause.

My daughter plays in the Longmeadow High School Orchestra, and they took part in a national competition at Symphony Hall in Boston this afternoon. We don't know the result yet, but it was the best I've ever heard them play. They deserve to be congratulated for all their hard work.

Now for baseball!

I had a good time at the Curling Championships today. The crowd was small but vocal. Here's a picture from my seat of the Swedes taking a shot.

And here are the Swedish fans. They had cheering songs they'd sing, and I'm pretty sure one was making fun of the Canadians. :-)

View image

One really great thing about attending this morning was that I was able to try out my cell phone as a blogging tool. It seemed to work well (the photos were taken with the phone as well). That means I can blog from baseball games without carrying a lot of equipment.

Australia makes a poor last shot, missing the house and Scotland wins with the hammer.

Sweden comes within a hair of three, but fall short with two in the tenth to give the victory to Cananda.

Scotland misses a guard and Australia scores 3! Extra ends!

Norway plays a defensive end and wins the match 6-5.

Scotland takes two. Australia needs three in the tenth. They do have the hammer.

Norway nearly steals one, but the measurement gives it to Germany. Norway has the hammer and a two point lead in the tenth.

Update: The Swedes hit the hammer with the broom and Canada steals a point for a five-two lead going to the tenth.

Australia comes back with 2 in the 8th to cut Scotland's lead to 1.

Update: The Swiss score three for third time, and Finland concedes. The Fins just couldn't make their shots, while the Swiss put nearly every stone where they wanted. They look very strong.

Norway takes two and leads Germany six three. They will have the hammer in the tenth if they don't steal.

After a measurement, Sweden takes one. They're tied with Canada.

Scotland takes control with two points for a 6-3 lead. Finland takes a point, but the Swiss have the advantage of the even hammer. Moron the end in a minute.

Update: Canada does some nice sweeping to take the end, but fine throwing by Sweden holds them to one. 3-2 Canada. Norway leads Germany 4-3.

Sweden ties Canada at two. Australia takes one to close within 1. The Fins have their backs to the wall now as the Swiss steal three to take a 7-2 lead.

Canada makes a big mistake, taking a point when they meant to blank the end. Despite a 2-1 lead the mistake gives Sweden the hammer in the even rounds.

The Fins played a poor end, giving the Swiss a block oftwo stones and the Swiss take three for a 4-2 lead. Scotland is up 4-2, and Norway leads by the same score.

On the penultimate shot of the end, Canada hits a triple to lie two. Sweden is able to ease in a stone to win a point and the end, however. Norway takes two and leads Germany 3-2.

Canada and Sweden each make marvelous shots in the end, curling around guards to prevent a big score. Canada takes one. Australia takes two to tie Scotland.

Two blank ends for Canada and Sweden after two. The Swiss tie the Fins at one, while Norway uses the hammer to tie Germany.

Scotland picks up two in the first end, the best of the four matches. The game is much faster in person than watching on TV.

I have great seats! Right in fromt of the Sweden-Canada draw.

I will be attending the first draw of The World Men's Curling Championship tomorrow morning in Lowell, Massachusetts. Maybe the Soxaholix can lead a contingent to try to stop me from blogging the event!

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

I thought this item how markets and crowds do picking the NCAA bracket would be of use to anyone interested in predicting sporting events.

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

I just found a blog that reviews last night's Jeopardy broadcast. I still miss Art Fleming.

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

Deadspin found the latest on-line game craze, puppy curling! Warning, it's addictive.

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

Nothing conservative in the first end of the gold medal curling match as Finland just misses three points and settles for two against the Canadians. Almost every shot in that end was perfect, with two double takeouts by the Canadian third a highlight.

Update: Canada comes back and also comes close to three. It's tied at 2 after 2 ends. Watching these two teams shoot, it's clear why they're in this game. They play aggressively with very precise shots. The ones that missed so far have not missed by much.

Update: Finland falters in the third end, and Canada steals a point for a 3-2. Only a nice final shot by the Finnish skip Markku Uusipaavalniemi saves them from disaster, as the Canadians were lying four.

Update: Canada continues to dominate the match in the fourth end. Uusipaavalniemi is heavy with the hammer, and Canada steals another point. The hose heads are giving the Fins no openings, requiring perfect last shots to score. The Fins were less than perfect the last two ends.

Update: The third for Finland makes two poor shots, but Uusipaavalniemi saves the end with a fantastic penultimate stone, threading the needle between two guards for shot rock. His last stone, however, is just a little heavy and Finland only gets one. They're at the half with the Canadians leading by 1. Canada also has the hammer in the even ends.

Update: I stepped out for a minute. When I get back to the game, Canada is lying six, and the Finnish skip misses with his last shot. Canada throws the hammer heavy and goes through the house, but still picks up six points in the end. I can't wait to see that end again on Tivo. I'm surprised the Fins didn't concede after that end.

Update: They're playing the seventh, and Canada is just taking out every stone the Fins throw out. Eventually, there won't be enough stones to score seven points.

Update: The Fins blank the 7th, score 1 in the 8th, and concede the game. Canada wins the gold medal game 10-4, their first Olympic gold in curling. Congratulations to the team from the great white north on their impressive victory, and to the Finnish team on winning the silver!

Back to baseball. :-)

Pete Fenson and the US men just played a terrific third end, leaving three on the button for a 4-1 lead over Great Britain.

Update: The US blanks the British in the fifth end. At halftime, the US leads the Redcoats 4-2.

Update: They just announced the World Championships will be in Lowell, MA in April.

Update: The US men use the blanked fifth to their advantage, taking two points in the sixth end for a 6-2 lead. They also have the hammer in the all important even ends. They're in good shape with four ends to go for the Bronze.

Update: You can get tickets for the championships in Lowell here. It's April 1-9, so you can watch the first half and still catch opening day.

Update: Pete Fenson makes a good but not great shot with his last stone of the seventh end. He prevents the British from scoring four, but the British Skip Murdoch makes a perfect double take out to score three for his team. It's 6-5 US going to the 8th.

Update: The US and Great Britain trade points in the 8th and 9th ends. The US leads 7-6 and has the hammer in the 10th and final end.

Update: The US is playing a very defensive end in the 10th, running off all the Great Britain guards. The British call a time-out to consider their last shot.

Update: Pete Fenson makes a perfect draw to the button to ehd the match. The US men defeat Great Britain for the Bronze medal. Congratulations to the team for a great tournament!

The Swedish women's curling team blanks the first end against the Swiss, moving the hammer to the even rounds. If the first end is any indication, both teams will play very conservatively, and wait for the other side to make a mistake.

Update: Nice placement by Sweden and a perfect hammer shot gives the artic team two points in the second end. The Swiss play with the hammer for the first time in end three, trailing 2-0.

Update: The Swiss third Binia Beeli makes two nice shots to set up skip Mirjam Ott for two points and a tie game after three ends. Both teams appear to have the measure of the ice in this match.

Update: The Swiss come back from an early mistake and force Sweden to take one point in the fourth end. Sweden leads 3-2, and the Swiss have the hammer going into the fifth end.

Update: Up to the minute stats for the game are here.

Update: A poor second shot by Swiss third Binia Beeli prevents the Swiss from scoring two. Instead, they blank the end to get the hammer in the even ends. Lots of great double take outs in that end, and Swedish skip Anette Norberg and Swiss skip Mirjam Ott continue to shoot to perfection. Sweden leads 3-2 as they resurface the ice.

Correction: Fixed the score.

Update: In a battle of thirds, Beeli makes two mistakes, and Eva Lund (who could be Ilsa Lund's sister) capitalizes on them to set Sweden up for the steal. Norberg continues her great shooting as skip to seal the deal as Ott fails to move the Swedish shot rock out. It's 4-2 Sweden after six, and they get the hammer back in the even rounds.

Update: On the last stone of the seventh end, Ott's stone picks up a piece of debris on the ice and hits a guard. Sweden steals one on another brilliant shot by Annette Norberg. It's 5-2, and the Swiss need a big end to comeback.

Update: The Swiss get two in the eighth end. The Swiss had shot rock in the button, with a Swedish stone frozen near it. Ott came down, kissed the Swedish stone and rolled by it by a hair to take two and make the score 5-4 Sweden going to the 9th end. I wonder is Sweden will try to blank the 9th to take hammer into the 10th?

Update: Ott forces Norberg to take one in the 9th. Sweden leads 6-4 going into the final end, but the Swiss have the hammer. This is the best curling match I've seen so far.

Update: Eva Lund trys to take out two Swiss guards, but puts one in the house. That allows Norberg and Ott to trade shots, and the Swiss tie the game with two in the tenth. Sweden goes to the extra end with the hammer for the gold medal.

Update: A great tenth end. The Swedish lead misses her first two shots, leaving Switzerland with two front guards, but the Swedish second runs them off. The end winds up with the Swiss with two stones in the house, but Ott left her last shot two close to the other. Norberg goes for the gold with the double, knocks off both Swiss stone and leaves her's in the house for the gold. A superb match! Congratulations to the Swedes on the win and to the Swiss for the silver medal.

The Canadian Women's Curling Team wins the Bronze Medal, defeating Norway 11-5. Canada took a 4-0 lead after the first end and never looked back. Norway retired after 8 ends. Congratulations to Canada on the Medal!

Canada threatens in the first end, but the US skip makes a nice final shot, knocking a US guard stone onto the button for a single point and an early lead in the semifinal match.

Update: Nice final shot by the Canadian skip knocks away an American stone and gives the hose heads 2 points in the second end. Canada leads 2-1.

Update: Pete Fenson throws a perfect draw with Canada lying three to take a point in the third end. It's tied at 2 after three ends.

I know this match is over, but I don't know the result. I'm making believe it's live. It's more fun that way.

Update: The Canadian skip makes another great hammer shot to score two in the fourth end and take a 4-2 lead. The US is going to need a big end soon, or they'll be conceding early.

Update: Once again, Pete Fenson needs to make a perfect shot to keep Canada from a big score, and does. He still gets just 1 point, and Canada keeps the hammer in the even ends as they pause to resurface the ice. The score is Canada 4, US 3.

Update: I love bread, and I really want an official Olympic Curling loaf (it's shaped like a stone with a handle). I wonder if the bakery is selling them online?

Update: Canada does it again. There's some argument whether Gushue's hammer shot did what he meant, but the result is once again Canada getting two points with the last shot. The lead 6-3 after six ends. The US is just not making their shot consistently in this match.

Update: The US blanks the 7th end. They now have the hammer in the even ends, and trailing by three they'll need it. The US third is curling poorly tonight, and his poor second shot changed the end from a good chance of the team getting two points to having to go for the blank.

Update: The US plays a good end in the eighth, scoring two. They trail by 1, 6-5. My guess is the Canadians might try to blank the 9th end to keep the hammer in the 10th.

Update: Canada instead scores five in the ninth end, and the US concedes. The curlers from the great white north were just perfect today. They'll go on to the gold medal game, while the US needs a win for the bronze.

Congratulations to Sweden and Switzerland! Both countries saw their women's curling teams advance to the gold medal game on Thursday.

The Swiss and Canadian women are playing their semi-final round right now. Canada starts off with the hammer, and blanks the first end.

Update: Sweeping in the second end, Amy Nixon of Canada leaves the ice and doubles over. It's not clear what her status is at the moment, although she is sweeping on the next stone.

Update: Canada takes a point in the second for a 1-0 lead. Amy Nixon is still sweeping.

Update: Ott draws for 1 in the fifth end. The lead 4-2 as they break for ice resurfacing. I'm off to work, so that's it for live blogging this morning.

Update: Swiss skip Mirjam Ott follows up a poor last stone by Canada by kissing a guard and moving both into the house to score three. A perfect finesse shot. Switzerland leads Canada 3-1 after three ends.

Update: Nice draw on the last stone by Kleibrink of Canada to get a point back in the fourth end. The hose heads trail 3-2.

Update: Switzerland drew for a point in the 5th, then come back to steal a point in the sixth for a 5-2 lead. It also gives the Swiss the hammer in the important even ends.

The US Men take on the hose heads from Canada this morning. The US already qualified for the medal round, but a win gives them second seed in the finals. The Canadian make the semi-finals with the win, but a loss may cause them to play a tie-breaker.

Update: The US men steal one in the first end to take an early 1-0 lead on the Canadians. Pete Fenson made a perfect last shot to put the stone on the button. The Canadian skip threw his stone with too much weight, it failed to curl and didn't dislodge the American shot stone enough. Maybe he had too much back bacon for lunch, eh? :-)

Update: An uneventful second end leads to a blank, with the Canadians retaining the hammer.

Update: The same in the third. Canada doesn't want to score unless they can get two points.

Update: The Great White North gets two in the fourth end. A poor shot by the US in the middle of the end gave the Canadians a chance for four, but a great final shot by Pete Fenson took out two Canadian stones. Canada also has the advantage of the hammer in the even ends.

Update: The US gets one in the fifth, but had a chance at more. Fenson's penultimate shot was swept too much, and set up a double takeout by the Canadian skip. But with the hammer, Fenson did manage to tie the Canadians at 2. They'll resurface the ice now.

Update: A blank end in the sixth. Canada keeps the hammer into the 7th end, tied at 2.

Update: The Canadian skip goes for a tough ricochet on his penultimate shot, but ends up taking out his own shot rock. The US has a chance to steal a point here.

Update: A great draw by Fenson leaves the Candians with a tough shot to score. They miss it, and the US steals 1 for a 3-2 lead. However, the Canadians keep the hammer for the even ends as they go to the eighth.

Update: Canada gets two in the 8th to take a 4-3 lead over the US. I wonder if the US will try to blank this end to take the hammer into the 10th?

Update: Canada steals one in the 9th to take a two point lead. This, however gives the US the hammer in the 10th. Given the way the US is playing today, that might not matter.

Update: The US concedes the 10th end when they run out of stones. It's the US, Great Britain, Canada and Finland in the finals.

The US women are battling Switzerland this morning. Jessica Schultz, the US second, steps aside today to let alternate Courtney George get Olympic experience. George threw two good stones, the second knocking out the Swiss stone and sticking just on the edge of the 12 foot ring. That allowed the US to pick up two in the first end. A win by the Swiss end the American women's chance at a medal.

Update: The Swiss score two in the second end to tie the game. Maureen Brunt threw an air stone, and Cassie Johnson just missed a double takeout on her last shot. All week long, fractions of an inch on shots hurt the US women.

Update: Cassie Johnson goes for a double take out on her last stone, but knocks her own rock out of the house and Switzerland steals two for a 4-2 lead after three ends. The only good thing is that the US has the hammer in the even ends now.

This game so far is a microcosm of why the US women are doing so poorly this week. The little misses they make appear to be a result of inexperience. My guess is they are easily the youngest team in the tournament. I suspect in four years they'll be very good. They have a lot of room to improve.

Update: The US gets a point in the fourth, but again, a near miss costs them a point. It's 4-3 in favor of the Swiss.

The Swiss, by the way, aren't playing great either. They've just been a bit luckier so far.

Update: The Swiss make their own mistake in the fifth. The US was lying three, but the shot rock was exposed. The Swiss skip knocked off the shot, but rolled too far and the US steals two in the end to take a one shot lead. However, they do lose the hammer in the even ends. It's 5-4 US halfway through the match.

Update: The Swiss try to blank the sixth end, but their stone stays in the 12 foot ring for a point. I'm not quite sure why that's bad, but I'm still a novice at this. This way, the Swiss keep the hammer in the even ends, and the score is now tied at five.

Update: The US scores two in the seventh end to take a 7-5 lead over the Swiss. The Americans are improving as the game goes on, while the Swiss continue to make poor shots.

Update: Switzerland scores 1 in the 8th. It's 7-6 US going into the ninth. The US is not trying to blank the 9th end to get the hammer in the 10th, so this is going to be a very interesting finish.

Update: The US almost blows a point in the 9th end in an attempt to go for two. Trying to avoid a Swiss stone, Cassie Johnson kisses it, but it doesn't roll far enough to be shot. The US leads 8-6, but the Swiss have the hammer in the 10th.

Update: It's not clear what happened, but the US can't reach the medal round. Some tie breaker became unwinnable for the US in the last five minutes.

Update: Mirjam Ott made a fantastic last shot to score three to beat the US. More mistakes, this time by Jamie Johnson, sealed the defeat for the Americans.

The US Men's Curling team is facing Germany this morning. It's a must win game for the Americans as they face Great Britain and Canada in their final two matches of the round robin. The US took advantage of a German miss in the first end to score two.

Update: A poor hammer shot by the Germans in the second end leads to a steal of a point by the United States. Pete Fenson's last shot curled too much, hitting a guard and leaving the Germans a chance for two. But the hammer rolled to the back of the house, and the US was able to sweep the stone beyond where their shot rock for the point.

The steal gives the United States the hammer in the even ends, meaning if the ends go back and forth, the Americans will have the hammer in the final end.

Update: A poor shot at the end of the fourth end by the American skip blanks the end, giving Germany the hammer in the even ends. The US leads 3-1.

Update: Although they're not showing the match, Italy leads Canada 4-1 through five ends. That would be a huge upset. Italy is making the most of home ice advantage in this tournament.

Update: The German skip just executed a takeout of three US rocks in the fifth end. Fenson, the US skip, follows up with a take out shot that leaves the German stone on the edge of the 12-foot ring for a steal for Germany. An impressive turnaround on the last two stones, and Germany is back in the game 3-2.

Update: The US takes 2 in the 6th for a 5-2 lead.

Update: Germany picks up two in the 7th end. The US leads 5-4, and has the hammer in the even ends. They're in good shape, barring mistakes.

Update: The Canadians are losing 6-3 to Italy after 8 ends. That would be very good for the US. If Canada loses and the US holds on against Germany, the Yanks will be leading the Great White North by a game going into their match.

Update: Germany just tried to take out three US stones and threw an air stone. The US has a chance to bury Germany. They have three stones in the middle of the house, two left, and the hammer.

Update: I'm still learning this game, but according to the announcers, the US skip just made a bad shot. It looks to me like he's guarding stones in the middle, but I guess a good hard shot takes them all out. Kapp, the German skip takes out only one, however, and now Fenson can put his last rock in the house (a draw) and score three.

Update: It's a good draw, and the US scores three. They're up 8-4 with two ends to go, and they'll likely have the hammer in the tenth. All they need to do now is knock German stones out of the house.

Update: The Canadians get two in the ninth, but trail by one in the last end and Italy has the hammer.

Update: The Germans get only 1 in the ninth. The US leads by three with the hammer in the tenth.

Update: Germany concedes. The US is now 5-2 in the round robin. Canada and Great Britain are losing, Finland is winning, so the US could be tied for first when these matches are over. As I've watched this week, the men keep improving. The next two days against Canada and Great Britain should be fun.

Update: Canada lost, Great Britain won. That puts the US in second place, tied with Finland. I assume Finland holds the tie-breaker since the defeated the Americans. Italy and Canada are tied for fourth, and again I assume Italy holds the tie breaker with the defeat of the Canadians. The British team plays their last two matches tomorrow, while the US plays tomorrow morning and Monday afternoon. The Canadians do have one easy match as they face the winless team from New Zealand tomorrow.

I just watched the US Men's match against the Swiss on TIVO. The Americans are playing much better than they did in their early rounds and won today 7-3. That puts their record at 4-2, tied for third in the round-robin tournament. Two more wins will give them a great chance of making the medal round. Unfortunately, their last two opponents are Great Britian and Canada, the two best teams in the tournament. Of course, if the US is going to win a medal, they'll need to beat one of them at some point.

The women lost to Russia and are now 1-5, in last place. Having watched this team quite a bit, I get the feeling they're very inexperienced. One suspects that if they stayed together another four years, they'd be very good in the next Olympics.

I'm watching the US women vs. Sweden on CNBC, and the US team is playing much better than in their earlier matches. Skip Cassie Johnson just made two great shots to steal a point in the fifth end and give the US a 2-1 lead. (I'm sure the match is over by now, but I'm watching it as if it were live.)

Update: The US played a good match, but the last stone picked up something on the ice, and the team lost in an extra-end. It's going to be tough for them at 1-4 to make the medal round at this point.

USA vs. Canada is on TIVO this morning. The Canadian team is awesome. In the first end they made seven perfect shots to score 5. The US has their work cut out for them.

Update: Canada steals a point in the second end with another perfect last shot by their skip. Even with the hammer, the US failed to take the end. The Canadian women look impressive so far.

Update: The US gets a point in the third end. It's 6-1. Canada continues to look very strong.

Update: Canada picks up another point in the fourth end, although they had a chance at six. The officials had to pull out the scientific measuring device, a compass, which is much cooler than the scientific measuring devices they use in the NFL.

Update: Another reason curling is like baseball; the announcer complain about the official scoring. In both sports, the official scoring doesn't matter to the outcome of the game, it just makes players look better or worse.

Update: US Skip Cassie Johnson finally makes a perfect hammer shot to score 2 for the US. It's 7-3 Canada after five ends.

Update: Cassie Johnson can't repeat her performance in the sixth end, and Canada scores three. The women from the Great White North are simply the superior team today.

Update: Johnson makes two nice shots in the 7th end and scores two, but the Canadian skip (Kleibrink) makes a perfect shot to keep them from scoring three. It's 10-5 Canada with two ends to go.

Update: I was an end off above and corrected it. The Canadians score one in the 8th, take an 11-5 lead, and the US concedes the match. The Canadians were very strong 1-4 today. The US got better as the match progressed, but too many mistakes and near misses cost them against a near perfect opponent.

I'm watching the US vs. Norway on Tivo. Norway is the defending champions. The Norwegian team is unimpressive so far through five ends. The Americans are showing flashes of billiance, but just as many serious mistakes. The US leads 6-3 after five ends.

Update: In the 7th end, the third makes two brilliant shots, but the skip blows his penultimate stone, and fails to put the final one in the house. It's a blank end instead of two points for the US. The Americans still lead by one.

Update: The US scores 5 in the 8th end, and Norway concedes the match. USA wins 11-5. It seems to me it was more poor play by Norway than great play by the US that led to the victory.

Update: The final shot not in the house was intentional. It lets the Americans keep the hammer (final shot) in the even ends. In baseball terms, they get last ups.

There's so little news about the Minnesota Twins that this is one of the articles I found searching for something about the team.

I hope things work out for them.

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!

It's snowing here in New England, so we'll need to use the sleigh to get to grandmother's house today!

It was about this time last year when I learned that I'd be losing my job at Baseball Info Solutions. As I looked for new work, it became apparent that what I really wanted to do was write this blog full time. When the BIS job ended, Baseball Musings became my business.

I wasn't quite sure how this was going to work. My business plan at that point was very similar to the Underpants Gnomes.

1. Write Blog.
2. ?
3. Profit!

Credit for filling in the question mark goes to the readers of this site. The March pledge drive yielded about $3000 in donations. That generosity and increase in traffic told me this was possible. I'm grateful to everyone who hit the PayPal and Amazon Honor System buttons that month and this year.

I'm just as grateful for all the readers who stop by to visit the site. The second prong for filling in the question mark is advertising. Readership keeps growing, making the site very attractive to sponsors. Baseball Musings hit 1 million visitors in December of 2004, thirty three months into the life of the blog. It looks like 2 million will be reached in January 2006, just thirteen months later. A special thanks to Brian Borawski. Brian took it upon himself to send advertisers my way. Thanks to him, advertising is now a significant form of income for this blog.

A big thanks to my wife and daughter for going this route with me. I couldn't do this without their support and love.

There are so many people to thank this year I'm afraid I'm going to leave someone out, but here goes.

Thanks to Steve Moyer and Damon Lichtenwalner at BIS for providing the daily updates for the Day by Day Database.

Thanks to Ray Garcia of TPSRadio.net for the opportunity to broadcast a radio show. Thanks to Jamie Mottram of Sports Bloggers Live for putting me on the air and plugging Baseball Musings whenever possible. Thanks to everyone who's had me as a radio guest.

Thanks to all my old colleagues at ESPN for the numerous plugs; Peter Gammons, Jayson Stark, Rob Neyer and Mark Simon.

Thanks to the Boston.com staff for aggregating this blog on their site, even though it's not a Red Sox blog.

Thanks to Will Leitch at Deadspin.com for all the readers you're sending my way.

Thanks to everyone who links here. New people find this web site every day, and you're a big reason why.

Thanks to Jim Storer, for always having time to talk about the question mark.

And a special thanks to the ITS department at Bay Path College. In order to make ends meet, I've taken a job there as a part time programmer. They've allowed me the flexibility to blog full time while still putting food on the table.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoy the day with your family and friends!

If I have a database table with a bitfield as a column, can I create an index on part of that bitfield? Let's say I have a 64 bit field that I'm using to track multiple conditions. Bits 4 through 7 track a particular condition. Is it possible create an index on (field & OxF0), to capture this one condition? I know it depends on the database manager I'm using, but is this something that SQL should be able to handle?

I spent the afternoon at Soldier's Field in Boston across the Charles from Cambridge to watch Harvard pummel Penn 29-3. Duncan O'Brien and his son Duncan Jr. invited me to the festivities. When we sat down, we noticed that adorning the roof line were signs indicating the years Harvard won the National Championship in football. The most recent win was 1919. Duncan Jr. commented, "That's sad."

Duncan Sr. and I are old bandies, and while the size of the HUB is about half what it was our senior year, they still sound very good. They even played Wintergreen for President at our request! All in all a good afternoon to be a Harvard fan.

I want express my appreciation to all my military readers, active, discharged or retired. Thank you for your service. To those on duty away from home, may you all come home safe and sound.

Nomar and his uncle rescued two women who fell into the water recently.

As soon as the All-Star shortstop and two-time American League batting champ ran out the door to help the woman, her friend also fell in, hitting her head on the pier, said Victor Garciaparra, who oversees his nephew's business and charitable ventures.

Victor Garciaparra jumped from the balcony to the water 20 feet below.

"I swam towards them and by the time I reached them, Nomar was already there holding the girls up," he told the newspaper. "But he couldn't get them up without help."

Kudos to Nomar and his uncle. I hope the women come forward to tell their side of the story. I'd like to know how two of them fell in. It doesn't sound like one pulled the other.

Someone should turn this into a comic book. Aqua-Nomar and his side kick Barnicle Vic.

Rick Slokum writes:

I found this contest to win tickets behind homeplate at Fenway for the last Yankees/Red Sox game of the season. It's part of contest to sound like announcer Bob Sheppard. Pretty cool, though they're giving people less than a week to enter.

Do you think you might let people know about this? I can't go, but I'd like to see a Yankees fan behind the plate at Fenway for once.

I'm sure there have been many Yankees fans behind home plate at Fenway over the years. But here's the link to the contest. Start practicing saying, "Alavaro Espinoza." :-)

By the way, the contest is only open to residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

I see Katrina's turned into a an extremely dangerous hurricane. I hope all my readers along the gulf coast stay safe. My thoughts are with you.

With a hurricane name Katrina, how can the Weather Channel not be using this song as its theme?

A friend introduced me to Skype yesterday. Skype is a peer-to-peer communications system that lets you talk to anyone with another Skype connection, anywhere in the world for free. The quality of the conversation is much better than phone land lines, in my opinion. My friends at TPSRadio.net use it for round table shows, and they say it sounds as if everyone was in the same room.

I'm just really impressed with the product and encourage you to give it a try.

Sorry blogging has been light, but someone had another affair with a skunk.

Unlike Nick Johnson, my daughter is a fast healer. The doctor took the cast off today and is impressed with how much the bone healed. Instead of another six weeks in a cast, she'll be in a removable brace for two or three weeks. Very good news for her, as she'll probably be able to go swimming during our vacation.

I want to express my sympathy to the people of London who are suffering today after multiple explosions on their transportation system.

My mother-in-law turned 80 today, so we've been out celebrating. Congratulations, Mom!

My ISP had DNS problems with its mail server over the weekend. If you sent me something important, I probably didn't receive it. Supposedly, they are all in the queue and I'll get them sometime today, but if you expected to hear back from me and didn't, I'm sorry. I'll try to get to your mail today.

My attempt to practice good journalism, I may have spread a rumor. Radar Online sent me this story on June 30 about an alleged fight between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. The story did not seem legitimate to me, as it came from an anonymous single source. I called a contact at the Daily News who covered the Yankees. He had heard nothing about this, so I didn't link to the story. However, I did send the Daily News reporter the link. One of my commentors saw the story in the gossip column of the Daily News yesterday.

I still don't trust the story. Until we get someone on the team to confirm the tale, I'm going to assume it's someone looking for publicity.

Will the person who wrote me from the Lehigh Valley Yankees Fan Club please write again? I mistakenly hit delete instead of reply, and I was in a mail client that doesn't give you a chance to correct your mistake.

We just got back from the doctor's office. My daughter, it turns out, broke the slowest healing bone in the body. She gets to spend the rest of the summer in a cast. On the bright side, the doctor was quite impressed that she did this with a punch and thinks she can be a good boxer. :-)

Clay Owen e-mails me about a new organization that is raising money for cancer research through youth baseball:

My wife and I have set up a program that honors coaches of youth sports and helps fund pediatric cancer research. We call it - Coaches Curing Kids' Cancer (www.curingkidscancer.org).

The idea is simple: Instead of buying the coach another plastic trophy or a gift certificate, we encourage kids' sports teams to donate their end-of-season gift to Coaches Curing Kids' Cancer. All the money goes to CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation (www.curesearch.org). The coach gets a t-shirt, a certificate and the great feeling of helping kids kick cancer.

We started the program here in Atlanta last autumn, and have already raised more than $100,000. The program is now in place in more than a half-dozen cities around the U.S. - and we hope to grow it more.

This sounds like a good way to honor your coach and help fund people like my college roommate, Dan Wechsler. There's an article about this group in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but it requires registration.

On this Memorial Day I'd like to say thank you to my military readers for their brave service. I hope you all come home safe and sound.

It looks like Pedro Martinez wasn't too happy to meet Jerry Seinfeld.

The Soxaholix knows why the weather is so bad in Boston year (edited for content):

We had the snowiest wintah evah, now the coldest spring evah and our second "freak" nor'estah in May … Who the **** knew hell freezing ovah would have such adverse effects on the local conditions?

Hee Seop Choi uses Yard Work to appeal for more playing time. :-)

Glenn Reynolds is sitting next to me taking pictures. This is as big as the time Gary Carter used the urinal next to me in Shea Stadium. :-)

Gene Kelly lives!

Dilbert puts steroids to good use. :-)

My daughter is an American idol fan, and I just found out Ozzie Smith's son is in the competition.

Idol does have a problem that was very obvious tonight. I caught the end when they announced the singer being voted off the island. The judges agreed neither of these singers should be at the bottom of the vote. They need a different voting system. Right now, I would guess the voting gets distributed pretty evenly between the contestants. But if they used something similar to the MVP voting in baseball, they would end up with a better ranking. In a popularity contest like this, the consensus 2nd choice would likely be first, and the poorest singer would likely end up on the bottom. It shouldn't be too difficult to implement over the phone, and it would likely prevent a result like tonight's from happening.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

After hearing someone sing "I Think I Love You" on American Idol last night, today I see that David Cassidy wants to win the Kentucky Derby. Humbug Journal thinks gene doping has gone a bit too far. :-)

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

YOCO, the college basketball blog is running an NCAA Tournament bracket game for bloggers. I came in 2nd in the ESPN pool one year, so I quite while I was ahead.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

I received this press release announcing a play about revolves around the ball that killed Ray Chapman. Here it is in full:

That’s One Foul Ball
The Information She Carried
By David L. Williams
Beginning March 24th

FBERUARY 14TH, 2005 (New York, NY) – W and W Productions is proud to present the world premiere of the sport’s memorabilia aficionados meets conspiracy theorists play The Information She Carried by David L. Williams at the Access Theater (380 Broadway, 4th floor). Performances begin Thursday, Match 24th, open March 25th, and end April 16th, running Wednesday – Saturday at 8 PM with an added performance Sunday, April 10th at 7 PM. Tickets are $15 each and can be reserved by calling 212-714-5363.

In 1920 Ray Chapman became the only player in the history of Major League Baseball to have been killed by a baseball in a game. Many years later, a sportswriter/ high school baseball coach and current owner of the collectible, sent one of his players to his car to grab a ball to practice with. The kid innocently took the death ball instead. On the very first pitch, the ball was hit, went up the third baseline, took a very funny hop, and seriously injured the third baseman. These are historical facts.

The Information She Carried surrounds the story of lifelong conspiracy theorist SHARON NORTH who will not be deceived anymore! She needs to know the truth behind some of the world’s most notorious cover-ups – JFK, Roswell, Moon Landing, Alien Autopsy, 9/11, etc. Having concocted a well thought out theory that the “Chapman Death Ball” was actually the work of the infamous Illuminati and holds unspeakable power, she aims to steal it, and then trade it for the answers she has so longed for. Having arranged a meeting, Sharon begins to realize the truth about where she is and the strange woman speaking to her, and tries desperately to change the way things will turn out, hoping that she still might discover one bit of truth.

Playwright David L. Williams is a graduate of Cornell University, a member of the Dramatist Guild and the author of more than 16 plays. Some of his works include: the Riverside Stage Company Founder's award-winning Ampersand, and four winners of the Heerman's McCalmon Playwriting Contest, The Murder of Gonzago, Behind The Nine Ball, Near Tragedy, and Ingulf. Recently he wrote the book to the musical Tess' Last Night as part of 2003's New York International Fringe Festival.

”In an increasingly uncertain world, anything that can connect the dots and explain things away becomes more and more reassuring,” says playwright David L. Williams. “Within a few days of the Asian tsunami disaster, I was already reading postings on the internet of people who were blaming the Bush administration's environmental policies. People would rather believe there is a powerful group of sinister people plotting to do them harm than have to face the fact that we have no control.”

The Information She Carried is being directed by Carolyn Malone. The cast includes Breanna Pine, Christine Carroll, Christopher Drescher, Judson Jones, Christa Kimlicko Jones and Matthew Morgan.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

It's amazing what you find when you visit refering blogs. Population: One had this post up which links to TheDoctorDementoShow.com. They're creating an archive of all the demented shows. I used to listen with my college roommates, but the show hasn't been on the air here is years. Nice to see someone is filling this vital need. If you're a fan of the doctor, this is a must see site.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Congratulations to the Baseball Widow, proud mother of a baby boy! Let's keep little Jamie in our thoughts as he's in intensive care right now.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

I love this story. Someone won an auction to name the Fleet Center in Boston for a night, and wants them to call it the Derek Jeter Center.

The winning bid for Tuesday's naming rights was made by a New York attorney. Kerry Konrad bid $2,300 on eBay. He wants the arena to be known as Derek Jeter Center, in honor of the Yankees' captain and shortstop.

Not so fast, said FleetCenter spokesman Jim Delaney. Delaney said he told Konrad that his naming request might not be accepted.

The Fleet Center needs to have a sense of humor about this. It's not like the Harvard grad wants to name it something obscene. If you're going to troll for money on E-Bay, who should clearly set your parameters.

Update: They're going to call it the Jimmy Fund Center instead.

Mike Piazza was married Saturday to Alicia Rickter of Playboy and Baywatch fame.

I guess this means he's not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :-)

Nina Maxwell writes:

I thought this would be of interest to your readers--Florida Marlins pitcher Al Leiter teamed up with 1-800 Flowers and eBay to auction off a handmade teddy bear this week, and all the bid proceeds go directly to Save the Children. This is a wonderful charity doing great work particularly now, in light of devastating world events. Check it out--it's for a great cause! http://www.1800flowers.com/celebrityteddybears

Baseball Musings is always happy to help out with a good cause. I wonder why he's not in a Marlins uniform?

Happy New Year!

From my family to yours, have a very merry Christmas!

(Click picture for a larger image.) Jason Varitek is Melinda's favorite player. She's very happy he's staying with the Red Sox. Phoebe the schnoodle doesn't have a favorite player, but loves chasing whiffle balls in the back yard. Thanks to my lovely wife Marilyn for the photography! The three of them always make my Christmas a happy one.

Pati Grady, a loyal reader of this site, sends along the latest from the Cooperstown Cookie Company.

Our small firm, the Cooperstown Cookie Company makes awesome Classic Baseball Shortbread cookies in regulation baseball size with stitches (that allow you to break the cookie and share it with a friend). No one has ever done this before - we're unique!

Our cookies are baked by hand in small quantities by nearby Pathfinder Village which is a residential community for children and adults who have Down syndrome. We share a portion of our profits with Pathfinder Village. Our shortbread is rich and buttery and is made from the finest ingredients, including 100% butter with no additives or preservatives. Please visit our website: www.CooperstownCookieCompany.com for more details.

I can't wait to try them. Sounds like a great gift for the baseball and biscuit lover in your life. You'll be helping a worthy cause as well.

My friend Mike Wechsler sends me this story:

Avi, age 9 , maimonides school, brookline was asked by his teacher, Rabbi Reisman, to give a dvar torah , a word about the torah, relating to Chanukah, for the school bulletin. This is what he came up with.

Chanukah is a holiday of miracles. One of the miracles is that the oil lasted 8 days. The rabbis explain that the miracle of the oil is that when the Maccabbes came into the temple to light the menorah, they used all the oil at once to light. They did not try to save some of the oil for later. The miracle is that the oil lasted 8 days. The rabbis explain that we learn from this that when you do a mitzvah, you have to put in all your effort at the time of the mitzvah. This is a little like the Red Sox. They were losing the ALCS, but in game 4, 5, 6 and 7 they went on to win the playoffs and the World Series. In Game 4, they gave it their all-they did not try to reserve some of their energy and strength for later. They played with all their might. Just like the Maccabees lit the Menorah with all the oil, the Red Sox understood that if they wanted to win they had to give it their all. So we learn, that when doing a mitzvah, or doing anything at all, we need to try our best and put our best efforts into it. Go Sox and have a happy Chanukah

I'd like to extend my thanks to the Harvard Club of Philadelphia for being such gracious hosts yesterday. Thanks especially to Art Kyriazis, who arranged the visit and was kind enough to shuttle me back and forth to the airport. (The Mather Moose lives!) Thanks for receiving the talk so warmly and for the challenging questions.

It was also great to see my former roommate and super Mets fan Levon Nazarian again. Levon was one of the people to get me involved in playing Strat-o-Matic baseball. We played two great extra-inning games against each other. In the first, J.R. Richard pitched a complete game of at least 15 innings (it was very low scoring; the final was 2-1 or 1-0) for the Naz Mets. The other demonstrates how seriously we took the game. It was late in the season, and Levon had wrapped up the National League title. But I had the Pinto Hatchbacks in contention for the AL title against Steve Fine and Jim Storer. Levon and I played a four game series that started late. The fourth game went into extra innings. Steve and Jim were up watching us roll the dice to see how it affected the pennant race. The game goes into extra-innings. Lots of substitutions. It's 2 o'clock in the morning, Steve and Jim want to go to bed, but they just can't draw themselves away from the action.

In the bottom of the penultimate inning, my 3-4-5 hitters go down in order. Steve and Jim (who are rooting for me to lose) say, "That's it, he won't win now." They think about going to bed, but can't draw themselves away. The Mets don't score in the top of the inning, and the 1979 Butch Hobson leads off the Hatchbacks half of the frame. The dice roll is 3-5; it's a good roll, but a split roll. If I pull a 1 or a 2 from the split deck of cards, HR and the Hatchbacks win. 3-20 Puts Hobson on 2nd with a double. Steve says, "Watch him pull a two."

Now, there are subtleties to playing strat. For example, if you're bunting, you want to roll the dice softly. If you're going for the HR, you throw them with a full motion across the table. :-) And of course, if you are picking a split card in a tense situation, you add all the drama you can to the moment. You grasp the card with your fingers, hold it face down for a few seconds to build the tension, then with great flair turn it over to reveal the result.

It was a two, sending my league opponents groaning off to bed.

Yale pulled a pretty good prank at The Game this year. I wish HD Net had shown it during their broadcast, but I think all of their cameras were on the Harvard side of the field. Of course, it still doesn't beat the MIT balloon.

And it just goes to show the Yale 2nd class mentality again. :-)

(Link via Andrew Sullivan.)

Have a safe and festive day with your family and friends. As Baseball Musings approaches its 1,000,000th unique visit, I'm thankful for all the readers who made this site successful. Enjoy the day!

On this Veterans Day, I'd like to thank all the military readers (past and present) of Baseball Musings for their service. I appreciate the dangerous job you do, and hope that each of you comes home safely.

We just spent the last half-inning outside watching the moon be consumed by the earth's shadow. Very cool. Missed the Damon triple, but no scoring. Step outside if you have a chance and take a look.

I hope they can get the price lower so I can go, too.

I'm traveling today, more tonight.

Here's a probability question I'll let you chew on. I've always found it entertaining. Let's Make Some Deal host Honty Mall has a game where he shows a contestant three doors. Behind one door is a grand prize worth 10s of thousands of dollars. Behind each of the other two doors is a worthless piece of junk. Honty has the contestant pick one door. He then opens one of the two doors the contestant didn't choose, always exposing a junk prize. Honty then asks the contestant, "Do you want to keep the door you chose originally, or switch to the other closed door?"

Do you switch? Why or why not? Leave your choice with reasons in the comments, and I'll post the answer later.

One clarification. Honty knows where the grand prize is, that's why he's always able to open a door with a junk prize behind it.

I do have interests besides baseball. :-) Here are some pictures from the American Lung Association Bike Trek. They're nice shots of me in the rain. If you go through and enlarge the one labeled Roll 7, Frame DSC_0354, you can see the water dripping off my handle bars. The last ten miles of that day were in the remnants of Ivan; cold horizontal rain. But it's for a good cause, and in the five years I've ridden, we've had many more good days than bad.

Update: Sorry, forgot to include the link before.

My thoughts go out to everyone who lost someone dear that day, and to the people from all over the world who are fighting the scourge that perpetrated that attack.

audio post powered by audblog

Last time I tried to use Audblog, it didn't work.

While on vacation, I located the house where they keep it.

About two weeks ago I was casually reading my local sports section's article on the previous night's Northeast League matchup between the North Shore Spirit and the New Haven County Cutters when this sentence caught my eye: "Klae Calvert pitched the final 5 1/3 innings to earn the save for the Spirit". And sure enough, the boxscore lists starting pitcher Gordon as garnering the win with 4 2/3 innings pitched and reliever Calvert as pitching 4 1/3 for the save.

Regardless of the discrepancy over Calvert's actually pitching 4 1/3 instead of the 5 1/3 that the text of the article says, this appears to fly in the face of baseball's official scoring rules. Rule 10.19 requires that the starting pitcher complete 5 innings (unless the game itself is shortened to 5 innings) to be awarded the win. Unless the Northeast League has adopted some weird official scoring rules, this appears to be an erroneous awarding of a win and a save. I believe that Gordon is prohibited from being credited with a win, and that the win would have to go to Calvert, who therefore could not get a save.

This got me to wondering: is it ever possible for a reliever to pick up a save in a game in which he pitches more than 4 innings? After all, if the starter goes 5+ innings, then the most a reliever could go is 4 innings in a 9-inning game, and in extra innings the longest one could pitch while earning a save would be one inning. I think the answer would be that if the starting pitcher does not go at least 5 innings, then it would be possible. Hypothetical: starting pitcher leaves without retiring a batter; reliever number one comes in and pitches, say, 4 innings and his team takes a 2-run lead while he's in the game. Reliever number two comes in and finishes out the remaining 5 innings. I believe that the correct scoring would be a win for reliever1 and a save for reliever2 for his 5 innings of work. I just don't remember ever seeing this happen, but I'm sure when Dave returns he'll check this one out.

Jim

I hope all my readers in Florida are safe and that you ride out this storm with minimal damage. Take care!

Soccer Dad has an educational post on the relationship of the Bird teams.

A few years ago (actually it probably was about 10 years ago), I was working at ESPN as opening day approached. As I walked by the mail boxes, I noticed the cover of USA Today. There was a picture on the front of a baseball stadium. Next to the picture was the headline, "Cardinals Come Out Against Abortion." My reaction was, "Why would the St. Louis Cardinals be making public statements about abortion?" It took me about a minute to realize the picture and the headline were not related.

Hope you have a safe and fun Independence Day!

No Damn Three Putts, a new golf blog, has a suggestion for the Red Sox pitching staff.

In my former job I worked for the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR) at the University of Massachusetts. One thing that lab experimented with was meta-search - searching a number of different databases (Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc.) and combining the results of those searches into one display. Blake Rhodes, who is a fan of this site, works for IceRocket.com, who has made such a search engine available on the web. I've tried a few searches, and it's fast and appears to be pretty accurate. Give it a try. I especially like the way the image retrieval takes you right to the web page with the picture, rather than adding a layer of indirection as Google does.

My daughter Melinda graduated from 8th grade over the weekend. Here's the video of her getting her diploma. Needless to say, we're very proud.

Michael Katz sends this link to an announcement about a Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson tour that will hit 22 minor-league parks. I suspect these stadiums will all set attendance records for these performances.

If you're in the Hoboken, NJ area, you may wish to check out an evening of baseball theater. (Thanks to Darren Viola.)

My sympathy and condolences go out to the Reagan family and all who loved and respected him the world over. Both my parents workd for General Electric in Bridgeport in the 1950's, when Reagan was the GE spokesman. He toured the factory, and dad got to shake his hand. My mother got to escort him from her office to the executive suite. The story is she took him up a grimy stairwell (it was a grimy factory) because the passenger elevator was out. Her supervisor was upset by this (she said my mom should have used the freight elevator), but Reagan didn't care. Mom said he was very polite and understanding about the whole situation. It was their brush with greatness.

Jeff Jarvis is looking for your help in a worthy, bi-partisan cause.

This post on how troops are making golf more interesting reminds me of an old Mad Magazine piece by Al Jaffe called The Mad Game of Basebrawl. Jaffe had defensive and offensive teams on the field at the same time. The offensive team would try to interfere with the fielders trying to put the batter out. The batter could carry his bat as he ran the bases and could pick up blockers as he went along. It was a pretty silly idea, but a very funny piece. In fact, I believe that was the spoof that started me reading Mad regularly.

On this Memorial Day I want to remember all my readers and their compatriots who are serving or have served in our armed forces for their dedication, service and sacrifice. Thank you for your commitment to a dangerous and harrowing task. I salute you.

Tim Lynch sends this story from the NY Daily News about an 11-year-old who has been banned from pitching by an opponent because he's too good.

"He [Anthony] blows away the competition, so he is what we consider an illegal player," said Gambino.

Gambino noted Anthony has thrown a perfect game and two no-hitters against St. Athanasius players.

"He is an overwhelmingly, powerful pitcher. It's a very unfair advantage," Gambino said.

He said St. Athanasius is a church league that's not affiliated with Little League, and therefore is not bound by its rules.

Gambino said St. Athanasius' rules allow it to ban dominating pitchers from outside teams.

"He can come in here and hit 10 home runs a game. I don't care, as long he he doesn't pitch," Gambino said.

In other words, Gambino doesn't want his 11-year-olds to feel inadequate because they can't hit Anthony Seblano. This has to be one of the silliest things I've ever heard. How can Mr. Gambino's players ever expect to develop into good hitters if they don't face good pitchers? One of the reasons for sports competition at this age is to find out who can throw strikes and who can't, and who can hit a fastball and who can't. Unless the St. Athanasius players face this guy, we won't know if they can hit a fastball, and they won't have a chance to develop that skill.

Baseball talent is normally distributed, like almost everything in life. At age 11, little league and church league and community league teams are going to be made up mostly of kids of average talent. So if one team has an outlier, like the young Mr. Seblano, he's going to dominate. As these children grow up, the ones who aren't too good tend to drop out and move on to other pursuits. With fewer people playing, there are fewer teams, and the talent starts concentrating. It's harder for one player to dominate, but even in high school, the best athelete is often the best pitcher and hitter. As players age further, talent is concentrated further, first in the minors, then finally in the majors, where we see the upper tail of the normal curve playing.

So Mr. Gambino should welcome the challenge of Anthony Seblano. Make it into an event! Sell tickets so people in the neighborhood can come see a future major leaguer, and make some money for the church while you're at it. But don't tell your children they can't compete against this guy because you think they'll feel better. That's the wrong lesson.

By the way, I love Anthony's approach to pitching:

"Most of the time I just throw strikes. I never walk anybody," Anthony said yesterday. "I really don't think this is fair, because my teammates depend on me."

If I'm a major league scout, I'm keeping my eye on him for the next seven years.

This is how baseball makes news in India.

Only Edward Cossette could so eloquently link feminine beauty to Dave McCarty and Pokey Reese:

And one need not restrict this notion of embracing unique qualities just to feminine beauty; take it to the baseball park with you as well. I mean as much as it's impressive to see the Greek god, sculpted body of a Barry Bonds, I actually am more fond of the way Pokey Reese's uniform hangs on him like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz because he's so skinny.

I found in college that many men would look at a single flaw in a woman and judge her appearance on that. I've always felt you should find the most attractive feature of a woman and grok why that makes her attractive. I'm glad to see others have a similar philosophy.

On my last trip to Bethlehem, I wrote that I had found the best ice cream I had ever tasted at the Heavenly Hedgehog. One of the Bethlehem residents commented that the best ice cream was at another parlor on Linden St., Nuts About Ice Cream. As one who is always in search of great ice cream, I was excited to return to Bethlehem and try out this competitor.

I got there mid-afternoon and had Joshi, the owner pretty much to myself. I told him of my experience with Hedgehog and the reader recomendation. He told me how he started the company; how he makes everything by hand using the best ingredients. He's very proud of his ethnic flavors; you can tour the world in his freezer. I settled on a scoop of Raspberry Chocolate Truffle and a scoop of Fig. The Fig ice cream was very subtle; it had the fruitiness of the figs without the overwhelming sweetness. The Truffle was stupendous. Smooth chocolate ice cream with little explosions of raspberry has you bite into the truffles. Extremely well done.

Joshi then took me on a taste tour of his freezer. Saffron Pistachio was out of this world. His Sweet Cream takes like cannoli filling (I'm not a big plain ice cream person, but that's something I'm going to take home). He supplies most of the Thai resturants down and into Philadelphia with his Ginger Ice Cream. He pretty much has a flavor that represents any part of the world you love.

While I was busy enjoying my dessert, a woman walked in to pick up shakes for her and her husband. She told me how she has to try to take a different route home from work so she's not tempted to stop at Nuts About Ice Cream. That's a huge endorsement.

So which do I like better? I'm not saying yet. There are many more samples to try. I do know that when I leave town, I'm going to be packing multiple quarts from both merchants into my cooler. Who would have guessed that the ice cream center of the universe was in Bethlemhem, PA?

The Baseball Crank is raising money for a worthy cause. See if you can help him out.

I'm a bit of an ice cream snob. When I was in college, we were lucky to have about 1 ice cream parlor for every 10 students (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure seemed like that). If you started at the southern end of Harvard Square, there was the traditional Baskin Robbins (whose flavor of the month happens to be Baseball Nut). As you walked up Massachusetts Avenue north, you came to Belgium Fudge, which later became Emac and Bollios (that may not be the right spelling). Both were specialty ice cream stores that served unusual flavors.

Continuing up the the street, as you came to the square proper (where the subway station stands), was Brigham's. Brigham's was a Boston version of Friendly's. The ice cream was the poorest in the square, but still pretty good. If you turned left at Harvard Coop instead, you'd head up Brattle Street to Bailey's. Bailey's was an old fashioned ice cream palor, with small marble tables, food and ice cream on one side of the store, and chocolates on the other. It was a perfect place to go after a movie for a frozen treat.

If you were in good shape, you could continue up Massachusetts avenue to Somerville (the subway didn't go there yet) to Steve's. Steve's was a blast. The line wound around inside the store, out the door and down the block. I don't think I ever went to Steve's when there wasn't a line. It was always a half hour wait. You were rewarded with ice cream that was made in the window (he seldom had more than three flavors on hand). And Steve would mix in up to three items; nuts, candies, dried fruit. The staff would grab giant scoops from the freezer with a pair of flat spatulas, form a depression in the middle, add your mixins, then fold until the ice cream and candy were blended. It was heaven.

Eventually, Steve expanded and opened a store in Harvard Square. He sold out to a large corporation, and later opened Herrell's. The corporate Steve's is gone, but the Herrell's still thrives in the square, and lucky for me, Northampton, MA. The Herrell's in Cambridge is located in an old bank. You can sit in the vault to eat your ice cream. Herrell's had the best ice cream I ever tasted. Until now.

I've been working out of the home office in Bethlehem, PA this week. Downtown Bethlehem is neat. There are a number of specialty shops, resturants and historic sites. I've been exploring when I've had the chance, and today I stopped by The Heavenly Hedgehog Ice Cream Company for a bit of frozen fun. I ordered a raspberry sundae with banana cream ice cream, whipped cream, almonds and a cherry. The second the spoon brought the first bite to my tongue I knew I had found something special. The ice cream was smooth, the flavors subtle and the raspberry sauce was to die for. It is simply the best ice cream dessert I've ever tried. Barbara Garrison, the owner was there, and I started asking her questions about the store and her confection. She supplies a number of resturants in the area, and is thinking of selling via the internet (although that is going to be very expensive). Next time I'm down, I'm going to bring a cooler and stock up.

If you are anywhere near Bethlehem, stop by. Drive up from Philly. If you are in western NJ, make the trip. If you are five or six hours away, and are looking for something to do, make the trip. If you love ice cream like I do, you won't be disappointed.

Correction I did misspell Emack and Bolio's. They still exist, just not in Harvard Square.

Damon's Disciples now have their own web site, if you haven't seen it yet.

Last night I attended a fund raiser in Northampton, MA, in which Edward Cossette's favorite cook, Rachael Ray, was competing against three top chefs from the Pioneer Valley. It was an Iron Chef like competition, and the secret ingredient was onions. Needless to say, the theater smelled great.

Rachael is a big Boston Red Sox fan, and one of the first thing she said to the audience was that she was happy to be in Red Sox country. At the end of the show she was going to throw an onion to the crowd, and explained how she had a good arm and threw out the first pitch at Fenway. She was very proud that she was able to reach the plate from the mound (she's a tiny woman) and was just giddy when she talked about getting a hug from Varitek and autographs from Pedro.

The Pioneer Valley chefs won the competition by two points. All the food looked and smelled absolutely delicious. There was lamb, tenderloin, salads, stuffed onions, scallops, egges and even an onion dessert. The judges loved everything.

James Joyer at Outside the Beltway links to a story about how releasing a player saved a life.

Doug's Business of Baseball Blog notes a story about the commissioner planning to revive the Negro Leagues. According to the Onion, Bud thinks it can be a real money maker:

Selig cited the abundance of Negro League documentaries, books, web sites, and museums as proof of the public's interest in revitalizing segregated baseball.

"Baseball is all about the fans," Selig said. "And the fans are all about paying big money for caps and T-shirts with the cool old Birmingham Black Barons logo on them. They love buying mahogany-framed prints of those neat black-and-white Kansas City Monarchs team photos, too."

It appears Selig will do anything for a buck:

"A new generation will get to see the tragic majesty of Negro League play," Selig said. "Once again, baseball fans will be able to argue over whether or not a black player could make it in the majors, even if the player in question was already there. And maybe, just maybe, the brave Jackie Robinson of a new generation will dare to defy my color line and become a symbol of triumph. That'd really sell tickets."

Frankly, I'd be happy with an independent minor league system.

On a more serious note, Doug Pappas also notes that the sale of the Brewers is not drawing much interest. I've been saying for a while, this is the time to buy a major league franchise. Arte Moreno got it right. He bought the undervalued Angels, is marketing them right, and will increase the value of his franchise by hundreds of millions of dollars. You can get the Expos and the Brewers dirt cheap right now. It's not hard to imagine that with proper management, the value of both clubs would double quickly.

Update: Yes, I know the Onion is satire.

Our puppy had an adventure while I was away. Seems at one o'clock in the morning, a white stripe was accidentally painted down her back. Another spieces mistook her for one of his own, and tried to seduce her with, "Mon cheri, we will make beautiful music together." Needless to say, my wife and daughter had an eventful night. :-)

Actually, my wife let her out at 1 AM on Thursday, and while Phoebe was relieving herself, Marilyn noticed a skunk in the middle of the yard. She shined a flash light to try to scare it away, but Phoebe took that as a signal to attack. She chased Pepe out of the yard, but got sprayed for her trouble. All I can say is I picked the right day to go to NY.

I find this story hard to believe. :-)

I went to the Harvard-Yale basketball game in New Haven last night. Yale has a really good team and Harvard doesn't. The Crimson hung in for the first 10 minutes, then Yale's superior bench blew Harvard away. I did get a clip of a good play by the Crimson, however.

The Bartman Ball is no more. They blew it up real good. The ball blew apart, leaving nothing but the cord in a pile at the bottom of the blast chamber. I must admit, it was pretty cool. I liked the way the ball jumped off it's holder for a second, then ripped itself apart. I'm glad that the remnants are still around, so the remains can be viewed for all time.

Fungo Pundit has all the information you need on the destruction of the Bartman Ball. Looks like NBC will be covering it full force. I guess they have to find something for Bob Costas to do. :-)

The only thing this has to do with baseball is that Rooftop Report mentions the article and my name in the same post. That said, I first saw the report on Wonkette. Harvard (my alma mater) students are starting, well...

After flipping through the pages of Squirm, a Vassar College erotica magazine, the Committee on College Life (CCL) voted to approve a student-run magazine that will feature nude pictures of Harvard undergraduates and articles about sexual issues at its meeting yesterday.

Fourteen members of the CCL approved H Bomb—a magazine that will be similar to the Vassar publication—as an official Harvard publication. Two members abstained.

Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin, a CCL member, said he consulted University General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano ’83, the University news office and University spokesperson Robert P. Mitchell before the decision.

“I needed to see if there were liability issues,” McLoughlin said.

In order to avoid liability, students will not be able to take nude pictures inside of Harvard buildings, according to McLoughlin.

(Insert loud scream.) Thank goodness there were no liability issues that couldn't be overcome! I guess the issue of whether one of the most prestigious universities in the world should be sponoring smut never got into the conversation.

Are there no adults at Harvard? If Vassar told Harvard to jump off the Weeks Bridge, would they do it? There are 16 people on this committee, and none of the thought to say no? Not one dissenting vote? All they could manage was two abstentions? That shows a lot of guts, abstaining on an issue like this. Here are some reactions I got to this story. From my wife Marilyn:

We're not sending our daughter to Harvard.

From my 13 year-old daughter:

They're Harvard people! How stupid can they get?

From a fellow member of my class:

Why didn't they have this when we weren't adults?

I just finished interviewing applicants for Harvard. A couple were immigrants with very conservative families. One told me if he went to Harvard, he was going to have to come home every weekend. My guess is that when his family hears about this, they won't let him go if he gets in.

I really don't care that Harvard Students want to start a sex magazine. I really do mind, however, that Harvard is recognizing this as a student organization, and that a member of the faculty is advising them. Colleges should not be in the business of sanctioning the exploitation of individuals. I'm hopeful that once Larry Summers, president of Harvard finds out about this, he'll take some action to disassociate the university from this magazine. Until then, I'll just be embarassed to be an alumnus.

Update: The students and faculty advisor respond to the Crimson article.

Correction: Fixed spelling of Vassar.

I just got an e-mail from our friend at NASA reminding us of the shuttle disaster one year ago. We saw the launch as guests of Dave Brown. Here's what I wrote last year after the accident.

Please go here and send the guy e-mail nominating me for the obvious character. :-)

David Berstein at the Volokh Conspiracy asks if John Kerry and Andrew Jackson were separated at birth. Actually, baseball fans know that it's Peter Gammons who looks just like Andrew Jackson (Scroll down). Peter is often presented with $20 bills to autograph.

It's interesting that people think both look like Jackson. Gammons and Kerry played hockey against each other in prep school, and Peter told me once that Kerry was the dirtiest hockey player he ever saw. Maybe ESPN can run a poll on who looks more like Old Hickory!

I watched the Patriots playoff game in high definition over the weekend. Beautiful picture, and it's great being able to see the defensive backfield on a wide screen. I noticed that SportsCenter was using definition in the studio last night. It's a big improvement over the stretched picture they were broadcasting before. But my high definition wow moment came last night.

I was exercising in my basement, watching the SOTU speech on my conventional analog TV. I watch most of the speech, then went upstairs to get some water. My wife and daughter had been watching the speech, so I went into the den to catch the end. NBC was broadcasting in high def. My jaw dropped. The colors were spectacular. The VP and Speaker were perfectly framed in the shot. You got a feel for the texture and beauty of the woodwork on the dias. The picture was unbelievable. I can't wait to watch a season of ESPN baseball in high def, and I hope my local Fox affiliate gets their transmitter working in time for the playoffs this year. If you can find a place to watch the Super Bowl in high definition do so. You'll really enjoy it.

Correction: 2/11/2004, fixed a typo.

Outside the Beltway names it's ultimate Super Bowl matchup! Maybe Drew Henson will have a job after all. :-)

Well, we didn't last too long at the Hot Stove Cool Music fund raiser last night. The event changed a lot since I attended two years ago. At that time, you needed a ticket to get into all parts of the event. Last night, you only needed a ticket to get to the music. This caused both the music area and the silent auction area to be extremely crowded. Secondly, two years ago there was no Red Sox involvement. John Henry had just bought the team days before the event, and was surprised the Red Sox were not involved. At the last minute, he donated a four tickets to a Yankess-Red Sox game with him, and it went for $3000. With the smaller crowd, it was easy for everyone at the event to say hi to Gammons and the other local Boston celebrities who were there.

The involvement of the Red Sox is great. The crowd was much bigger, and I'm sure the Jimmy Fund is raking in a lot more money. Red Sox players and management were there. There were game tickets, lunches with players and broadcasters, and Sox memorabilia for auction (I lost out on a Jason Varitek bat). But the music was too loud.

Now, I'm an old fart. This was firmly established at the 1997 All Star game in Cleveland when I was at a club in the Flats with the ESPN crew. Another 30's something member of the crew and I were trying to talk and really couldn't over the extra loud dance music. We decided we were old farts because we no longer liked getting our ears blasted.

Well, last night was even worse than that. The Paradise is a small club. I estimate the room where the bands were playing at 40 ft by 120 ft. But all the bands had the volume cranked to 11. When Buffalo Tom started their set, we listened to the first song, which was a duet, but then the whole band came out, and I could feel the shock wave from the base drum hitting my chest. At half the volume the bands would have been loud enough. As my wife said, "The band is drowning out their own singing." Maybe with five different bands, no one has time to do a proper sound check. Maybe they just want to play loud enough that no one can talk above them. Maybe I'm just an old fart. But it wasn't pleasant listening to the music last night, and that was disappointing.

So we didn't stay to listen to Theo, and it since the VIPs didn't seem to be mingling in the auction area, we left early. Still, it was fun seeing Millar and Francona being so enthusiastic about the Red Sox season, and the crowd returning that enthusiasm. This event as grown with the Sox involvement, and that's a great thing. But I think it's time to move to a bigger venue, where there's more room to be loud and more of a chance to meet and mingle.

Correction: Fixed two typos.

audio post powered by audblog

I'm going to try to use this tonight while I'm attending the Hot Stove Cool Music Fund Raiser.

Jim Palmer on third world debt.

Instapundit has a link to Spirit of America, which is asking for donations so the Marines can bring supplies to the Iraqis when the 1st Division returns. While donating, I found this story on how baseball helped save lives in Afganistan.

For those of you, like me, who are fascinated with space exploration, the Mars lander made it to the surface successfully last night. Susan was at the JPL and blogged the whole experience.

This is a great event put together by Peter Gammons to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. It's call Hot Stove Cool Music, and it's a night of great rock and roll and baseball talk at the Paradise in Boston. This year, the concert will be held on Jan. 11 (that's a Sunday night). Theo Epstein and Peter Gammons will both be performing. I went two years ago and had a great time, and I just bought tickets for myself and my wife Marilyn. If you are a baseball fan, this is not an event to miss. Hope to see you there!

The last sunset of 2003 turned out to be a real beauty. My wife Marilyn captured it from our back yard (click on the picture for a larger view):

Happy New Year to all!

Phoebe got a Christmas present, too:

Click on the photo for a larger view.

A Christmas Card for you!

A number of baseball celebrities participated in this year's Oakland Ballet "2003 All-Star Nutcracker." Alysse Minkoff has details, including why it's great to be Barry Zito. :-)

If nothing else, the Red Sox trade, the Sheffield story, the various free agent signings have kept baseball news on the front burner. There aren't too many times that I go to ESPN.com's front page and not see a baseball story up for part of the time. Even my blog traffic hasn't fallen off as much as I expected it would this off season, and this last week has shown a spike in daily traffic. People are in tune with baseball, and that's good for the game.

I should have seen this coming. (Hat tip to Instapundit.)

I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read this. I just want to know what Mr. Drysdale is going to do with the $750,000.

I was all over the place since yesterday, taking my daughter to an audition, going to New York for a surprise party for my college roommate Dory (as you can see, he was very surprised):

I guess some interesting things happened while I was away, not least of which was the capture of Saddam Hussein. To all my military readers, great job! More baseball to come.

After very little snowfall yesterday, we got 10 inches overnight. Phoebe had a good time playing in her first big snowfall.

Update: If you are having trouble seeing the movie, you can download the latest version of QuckTime here.

I attended the meeting of the Southern New England chapter of SABR today. They had two interesting guests; Joe Morgan, the former manager of the Red Sox, and Art Johnson, a lefty pitcher for the Braves in the early 40's.

Joe Morgan gave a presentation that was part recollections, part trivia. Two questions he answered struck me as worth repeating. One audience member asked him about the importance of team chemistry. Joe basically said that team chemistry was a crock. Give him good players, and they'll win. He pointed out my favorite example, the A's of the early 70's of a team that had no chemistry but won. The other question was on steroids. He pointed out that when he was a player he and his teammates used greenies. Morgan said he used them if he was playing a double header after a night game. Others, however, used them all the time. He talked about the Cardinals having a jar of them in the clubhouse, but then players started using 6 or 7 a game. At that point, the club put the drug under lock and key. He refused to name any players who might be using steroids today.

Art Johnson came to talk about Casey Stengel, who was his manager in Boston. I asked him about Stengel wanting to have fielders who were great at turning the double play, and Art confirmed that Casey always tried to have great players up the middle.

If you are at all interested in baseball history, I would recommend attending one of these meetings. The SNE chapter always has interesting speakers and usually has some good reports.

I will be attending the meeting of the Southern New England Chapter of SABR with my good friend Jim Storer today. If you are there, be sure to say hi. Joe Morgan, the former manager of the Red Sox will be the guest speaker at 11 AM.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you get to enjoy time with your family and friends today. I especially wish to thank our armed forces for their service in difficult times. I appreciate all you do.

Ken Brett has passed away from brain cancer. I remember him as a great hitting pitcher and the guy who set the record (since broken) of playing for the most teams. I believe he did a light beer commerical based on that once. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. Peter Gammons remembers George's older brother here.

Police have arrested a third suspect in the death of Dernell Stenson. However, details about exactly what happened and why remain sketchy at this point.

Here's the latest on the Stenson case. Seems both his hands and feet were bound before he was shot. The more I hear about this case the more it seems like more than a car jacking to me.

It appears that the two Riddles were related. This may turn out to be a very interesting case.

Dernell Stenson, a rookie for the Cincinnati Reds this year, was violently killed Wednesday morning.

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Dernell Stenson was found dead early Wednesday on a residential street after he was shot and apparently run over in a Phoenix suburb, police said.

Chandler police said the death was being treated as a homicide.

My deepest sympathies go out to his family and the Reds organization.

Christian Ruzich, the Cub Reporter lost his house in the southern California fire. Please send him your thoughts, and I believe this would be a real good time to hit his Paypal tipjar.

My wife sent me the following e-mail:

Hey David, check it out. I'm sitting next to your new girlfriend. Don't you just love your new girlfriend?

Feel free to leave a treat in the PayPal tip jar. :-)

We just got back from visiting my dad. As we were driving up interstate 91, large snow flakes started falling from the skies. It's not a good sign to see snow in October in this part of the country.

When I was traveling with ESPN for the 1997 World Series, we went from 90 degrees in Miami to snow in Cleveland. We had to have long johns and shorts for that series.

Looks like the series will be decided by another nine. :-) (Thanks to Casey Abell.)

Robert Decker sends this link on how to save the life of the Cubs fan who did you know what.

Darren Viola writes:

Major water main break near Yankee Stadium....Cashman was just on WFAN and said that he has been calling the players to leave "very early" for game, as they are now shutting down some major arteries.

You can read about it here. Sounds like a Red Sox plot to try to get Pedro another day of rest. :-)

Speaking of Jeff Maier, Ben Domenech has found a picture of him. (Hat tip to Off Wing Opinion.) Not surprisingly, Jeff (as he's now known) is an outfielder. He hit for what appears to be a pretty good average, but he doesn't walk (although he gets hit a lot). I don't think he'll be replacing Bernie Williams any time soon.

Neighbor Bill is having his big Ocktoberfest party today. I can hear the music from the band through the open back door. He's set up the TV in the back of the garage so we can all watch the game at 4. Blogging, needless to say, will be light today.

Nice story here on how the Red Sox drive for the pennant is bringing communities together in the Boston area. The video is better than the text.

You read it here first.

Scott Brodeur has a reader who sees the curse being broken in the centerfield collision last night.

Irnia Paley pens a post called The Stuyvesant Complex.

The Bronx Science perspective is such: We hate you Stuyvesant, you with your brand new building and your brand new swimming pool! The only reason that you beat us in chess/soccer/debate is because you have more money! We can still recite from memory all the categories that we topped you in - college admission... and US News rankings... and math league..... and ...

The Stuyvesant perspective is such: You hate us? You are competing with us? Really? Oh... I didn't know... Well, keep up the good work, ol' chap. (To be read with a British accent to emphasize the pompousness).

I wrote a similar piece last December, except I used colleges instead of high schools. But it applies anywhere. Pepsi uses taste tests to show it's better than Coke, but I've never heard Pepsi mentioned in a Coke ad. Apple show ads with people who are switching from Window; have you ever seen a Mac in a Microsoft or Dell ad?

"They're #1 but we're better," means they're #1. Just say, "We're #1."

This is a few days old, but I just noticed this post by Alex Belth of Bronx Banter. He's congratulating the Red Sox on winning the wild card and writes this:

Oh, and a special congrats go out to Scott Adams, Ed Cossette, David Pinto, Ben Jacobs, and my man, Johnny fuggin' Red Sox---all Red Sox fans of the first order.

I'm surprised that Alex thinks I'm a Red Sox fan. I swore off alliegence to teams when I started working for ESPN, but that had been disappearing on its own anyway. I am a baseball fan. I like to root for good organizations, and the Red Sox certainly are one, but that also includes the Yankees, A's, Twins, Braves and Giants, along with a few that did not make the playoffs. There's not a team I dislike in the championship hunt this year, I'm just hoping to see lots of good baseball.

You know politicians are getting desparate when they resort to using baseball loyalties to attack their opponents.

Kerry's camp, reacting to news that Dean will hold a rally today in the senator's hometown, brushed back the former Vermont governor by claiming he's a New York Yankees fan.

Those are fightin' words, especially within four months of the crucial primary in New Hampshire, a key state in Red Sox Nation. Dean, who grew up in New York, says he dumped pinstripes for Red Sox three years ago.

"When you move to New England, you put your old loyalties behind you," said Dean campaign co-chairman Steve Grossman, a Massachusetts businessman. "You've got to have a sense of humor about this."

The "flap" began when Kerry's campaign said Dean's Red Sox switch was just the latest in his quest for the presidency.

"Of all the flip flops, this is the most inexplicable and indefensible," Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander said yesterday. "It's like switching from the Redskins to the Cowboys or from Carolina to Duke."

Dean told the Boston Herald that the Yankees accusation was the "biggest insult" hurled at him so far. He says Roger Clemens' beaning of Mets catcher Mike Piazza in 2000 was the final straw.

I expect John Kerry will lead a throng of his thousands of loyal supporters to the Dean rally tonight to chant, "Yankees suck!" That is, if Kerry actually has loyal supporters.

Also, notice the caption below the picture of Dean. I thought he was running for a higher office.

The bike ride went very well. 95 Miles in two days on Cape Cod. The weather was great, and we raised a lot of money for the American Lung Association. Back to blogging tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who came to visit the site this week, as it had a record number of visitors!

You can tell by the background at A Small Victory.

On the 2nd anniversary of 9/11, I want to extend my thanks to our soldiers and sailors in the US military. From my logs, I know there are many in the service who read this web site. You've done an outstanding job in difficult conditions. You've been professional, deadly and compassionate when and where each was needed. I'm proud of you and thankful for your service. Keep up the good work.

Ken Stagg sends these:

Ty Cobb (as in Corn on the)
Joe "Ducky" Medwick
Sugar Cain 
Jack Coffey 
Delos Drake

My post on suggestions for an all-food team brought in a number of suggestions so far. Steve Timberlake sends the meat group with Bob Veale, Ray Lamb and Bob Moose. Dan Birnbaum sends his favorite, Mark Lemongello. And Jen Van Dijk sends a long list:

Catfish Hunter
Chili Davis
Candy Maldonaldo
Chick Hafey
Goose Gossage
Cookie Lavagetto
P.Astactio (Okay that one is just sad)
Oyster Burns
Soup Campbell
Sweetbreads Bailey

Keep them coming!

Update: Josh Getman sends quite a few:

Pepper Martin

Pie Traynor

FP Santangelo

Joe Torre (as in coffee, get it!)

and, of course,

Bab(y)e Ruth


(Bonus - For the preschool set: Boog Powell)

Mark "the Bird" Fidrych

Steve Gravy...er...Garvey

Zack Wheat

Preacher Roe

Kazuhiro Sasaki

Nate Cornejo

Tim Crabtree

Bert Hogg

Butch Wynegar

I'm back from our trip to the Berkshires. Had lots of fun with my old college roommates. I'll be blogging this afternoon.

I'm off for a long weekend with some of my college buddies. Enjoy the pennant races and have a wonderful labor day weekend! Blogging will likely be non-existant until Sunday.

Just want to wish Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit a happy birthday. Instapundit is one of the reasons I became interested in writing my own web log. Many happy returns!

You just have to read the first paragraph of this article.

There's no maybe about it. :-)

Jon e-mailed me with a link to this story:

Major League Baseball, owners of the Montreal Expos, signed veteran third baseman Todd Zeile to a contract for the remainder of the season.

It was erroneously thought that Zeile, who went 1 for 3 with a walk in his debut with his new organization Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers, would spend the rest of 2003 with the Expos. However, baseball announced that the UCLA graduate had instead been signed to play for visiting teams to Dodger Stadium.

Zeile will suit up for Montreal in today's afternoon game against the Dodgers. Then, while the Expos head down to San Diego, Zeile will stay in his hometown and put on the uniform of the New York Mets for a three-game weekend series at Chavez Ravine.

I was actually surprised the Yankees let Zeile go. I assumed at this point you had to be a bad hitter to play third for the Bronx Bombers. I really thought Weaver would be the first to go.

On a more serious note, has anyone noticed that Gagne needs the game to be on the line? In save situations, his ERA is 0.44 and has allowed a .096 BA. In non-save situations, his ERA is 3.47 and has allowed a .190 BA. (40 2/3 innings in save situations, 23 1/3 innings non-save situations.)

Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth is running for governor of California. Ueberroth has been very successful at fixing things in his career. I wonder if he'll solve the budget crisis is California by selling corporate sponsorships? Look for the Only Baseball Matters Golden Gate Bridge soon!

In a bit of fun, ESPN ran a computerized series between the '62 Mets and the 2002 Tigers. It wasn't pretty. I have my doubts about the simulation, because way too many runs were scored. But it makes a good story.

I can hear thunder not too far away, but it's not raining here. However, channel 22 in Springfield now has a digital channel with 24-hour live doppler radar, so I can see that the rain is only a few blocks from my house. Way cool.

The NE power outage missed us here in Western Massachusetts. This makes me two-for-two in missing big NE blackouts. In 1965, when most of the northeast went black, Bridgeport was somehow spared. I remember the TV going snowy becuase nothing was coming out of NY, but somehow, Bridgeport got off the grid before the circuit breakers tripped and knocked out the power. Just lucky, I guess.

Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, passed away.

"We're just trying to celebrate his life at this point. When he did it, it was considered a national disgrace," said Knox Phillips of his father's legendary recordings of black and rock and roll musicians. "Now it's considered a national treasure."

Phillips said his father fell ill Wednesday while watching a Chicago Cubs baseball game and was taken to St. Francis Hospital.

Must have been Kerry Wood giving up the grand slam to Alfonzo. :-)

(Thanks to Darren Viola for the link.)

A couple of people have pointed this story out to me, so I thought I'd include a link. Maybe the funniest thing that happened to the Mets this year.

I'm off on vacation. I'll be gone for a little over a week. Blogging will be light to non-existent over the next seven or eight days, but luckily, during a lot of that time, nothing that counts will be going on. :-) Enjoy the many great blogs listed on the right, and enjoy the all-star game!

I haven't put up a picture of Phoebe in a while. See if you can spot the dog. :-)

I hope everyone who celebrates the day has a great time with family and friends. Read about the day here.

NASA is looking for help with a cork problem. :-)

Scott Adcox writes in regard to the previous Cricket/Rugby post:

First of all, love your blog. I try to visit at least a couple of times each day. I was especially interested to read Casey Abell's baseball/cricket, football/rugby musing today.

This is totally unrelated to baseball, but...

As a rugby enthusiast born and bred in the U.S., I completely agree with his assertion that the main contributing factor of football's inability to spread internationally is that rugby is simply superior in every aspect. My question has always been, "Why isn't rugby more popular here in the U.S.?" Luckily for you (haha), I love nothing more than introducing people unfamiliar with rugby to the game I love!

While I realize that the point of the posting and your blog is baseball, you have a loud voice, so I'd like to take a second to dispell one of your assertions about rugby.

"I guess it's too violent for colleges to accept the liability of being responsible for every player being seriously injured"

Actually, medical studies (and personal experience) show that rugby is statistically much safer than football, especially when considering "serious" injuries. For instance, the knee injury so common in football due to blocking is more rare in rugby, where blocking or obstruction of any kind is not allowed.
www.usarugby.org/resources/medical/IsRugbySafeForYouth.pdf

In short, "Rugby is a contact sport, football is a COLLISION sport"

The medical team which sponsors our local high school leauge (www.smacrugby.com) also provides support for local football teams. They are currently conducting an injury comparison study based on actual high school rugby and football games in Tennessee.

Additionally, while there is no NCAA tournament currently, some colleges are beginning to accept rugby as a women's varsity sport to satisfy Title IX. In addition to rugby's safety relative to football, it is inexpensive to operate and manage due to the minimal equipment required to train and compete.

Anyway, thanks for mentioning rugby on your site at all!!! Some of my teammates and I participate in a yearly rotisserie league, and since discovering you from instanpundit I've turned a couple of them on to your site. Keep up the good work!

I remember first reading about rugby in the book Alive!, about a South American rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andres and has to resort to cannibalism to stay alive. I remember reading (and my memory may be bad here, I no longer have the book), that everyone on the team had a broken bone at some point. I also remember that if you weren't seriously hurt at some point, you weren't a real rugby player. Of course, it's quite possible that the South Americans play a tougher game.

As for women's college rugby, I have a humorous story. A couple of weeks after 9/11, by sister-in-law was getting remarried, and they were holding the ceremony at Wellesley College. I drove her son and his best friend over early to make sure everything was ready, and it turned out we had 1/2 an hour to kill. So the three of us, in dark suits and sunglasses walked over to the pitch to watch Wellesley take on Tufts. So, I'm a forty year old, standing there with two 14-year-olds, and a student from the team walks over to us and asks what we're doing there. I couldn't resist. "The President's coming." Her reply, "Which president?" Now if three guys in dark suits and sun glasses told you the president was coming, who would you think they were talking about? I immediately told her I was just kidding, and asked where the keg was located. Since the drinking age is 21, they had to keep it hidden.

We watched for a about 10 minutes, but no one scored. Wellesley got close a couple of times. It looked like a lot of fun. Again, I think it's perfect for Vince McMahon's next foray into televised sports.

Casey Abell writes:

Ever since that link from Instapundit alerted me to your blog, I've really enjoyed your commentary on baseball, life and the cosmos. Okay, you usually don't get cosmic, but your blog has still become a must-read.

Your comments on baseball vs. football got me thinking about another way to look at the difference between the two games - which is to look at their closest relatives on the international stage. For (American) football, of course, the closest kin is its father, rugby. Indeed, the relationship is so close that it's the major reason American football hasn't spread to any other country except Canada. Rugby offers the same violent content as football packaged in a much faster format. All but a few minutes of a three-hour American football game consist of, well, a dead stop. While there are occasional pauses in rugby, the sport offers much more continuous action in its eighty minutes. And it also offers all the passing (though not forward), running, tackling and bone-crunching of the American game.

So it's not surprising that, with rugby well-entrenched throughout the world, the much more static game of Joe Montana and Walter Payton hasn't made many inroads abroad. Plus, rugby is a lot less predictable in the sense that you cited about American football. It often happens in rugby that the equivalent of a lumbering NFL lineman will score the equivalent of a touchdown. How often does, say, a right tackle score six in the American game?

Moving to the bat-and-ball department, baseball's main competitor has always been its distant cousin, cricket. The relationship between the two games isn't the same direct father-son lineage of rugby and American football. But there's no doubt that the sports are both descended from simpler English bat-and-ball games of the misty past.

Except while American football has slowed rugby to a crawl, baseball has speeded up the throw-the-ball-hit-the-ball proceedings considerably. So the American game has spread to many other countries despite continuing competition from cricket.

But give the cricket authorities their due. When their game seemed on the verge of extinction because fewer and fewer fans were willing to sit through a five-day test match, they came up with the one-day version of the game. That "short version" still takes seven or eight hours, but it's looks downright giddy compared to test cricket. The cricket poo-bahs have even been able to stage eight successful World Cups using the one-day game. (Don't look now, but they're talking about playing a couple of the 2007 World Cup matches in...Florida!)

Things have gotten even more interesting. The International Cricket Council's most cherished dream has always been to break into the American market. Test cricket is hopeless for short-attention-span Yanks, and even the one-day game takes too long. So they're now testing a twenty-overs-per-side game in England. Wouldn't you know, this version completes its business in about two and three-quarter hours. Wonder where they came up with that time frame?

So far the experiment has been a tremendous success, with enthusiastic crowds and good television/radio ratings. I've listened to a couple of the "Twenty20" games on BBC Internet, and there's no question that this format makes the Olde Game seem positively spiffy. Three hundred runs or so packed into a few hours means lots of running around and plenty to cheer about.

To make a long story short - too late, I know - baseball may not be the fastest game, but at least its main international competitor seems interested in becoming more baseball-like in its pace. American football's major competitor on the world stage, however, does everything it can to avoid the glacial slog of the NFL. It's an interesting way to look at the timing issues in each of the sports.

Two of the professors who run our lab are from cricket playing countries, and love the game. They watch scores on the internet, and love to argue with each other over the superiority of Australia or India. R. Manmatha, who is from India, has attempted to explain the game to me (and I baseball to him). I really need to sit down, read the rules and watch some games to see how I like it. But a 3-hour cricket match sounds fascinating.

As for Rugby, we had a college team, but at the club level, so the University wasn't responsible for it. I guess it's too violent for colleges to accept the liability of being responsible for every player being seriously injured. And Rugby with pads just woudn't be the same. Seems to be the XFL should have been about Rugby. The sport appears to be right up Vince McMahon's alley.

Here's a link to the Laws of Cricket. I wonder if they have cricket police to enforce them? :-)

Just wanted to wish all the dads reading today a Happy Fathers Day and hope you get to enjoy a ball game this afternoon. :-)

Scott Brodeur reviews the new cover of the New Yorker, which is all Shakespeare.

But the one that really kills me is Will walking a dog, wearing a Yankees cap. A Yankees cap! William Shakespeare. No way, man. You know Will would be a Red Sox fan. Maybe the Cubs or even the Mets. But definitely not the Yankees.

I have to disagree here. I assume Scott thinks the Red Sox or Cubs due to the tragic history of those clubs. But in Shakespeare's tragedies, some good comes out of the tragedy, whereas the Cubs and Red Sox have never learned from their mistakes. Why the Mets would be considered tragic, I don't know. They've actually been a pretty successful franchise. Shakespeare, I assume would see a lot of Lear in Steinbrenner, which is why he's probably wearing that cap.

Mark Leeman writes in regard to this post:

But what motivates me to write is your failure to "properly chide" (or quietly edit) your correspondent Aaron Loomis for the egregious usage "I wish you would have taken a different TACT". For some reason, I'm suddenly seeing this error everywhere: the correct term is "different TACK" - it's from yachting, referring to the changes in direction a yacht makes when beating into the wind.

I hope you will assist in shining light where currently there is darkness . . . for the sake of the children.

The beacon is on, Mark.

I'm back home, watching the Mets and Braves with the laptop on my lap. Blogging will get back to normal soon, although I suppose it's going to take me a while to catch up at work. Thanks again to everyone who sent their condolences. I appreciate the love.

My mother's obituary from the Connecticut Post. At the moment, her name is misspelled. It should be Jacqueline, and they are in the process of fixing that. Thanks again for all the support all of you have sent my way these last few weeks.

My mom passed away this morning. My dad and I were present. She went peacefully after suffering for a long time. Thanks to all who have sent their best wishes over the last few weeks.

Thanks to all the servicemen past and present who fought so hard for this country. We're all proud of you. And to the families who have lost loved ones in the service of this country, you have our undying respect and sympathy.

Mom is in very bad shape. It's very hard for her to eat, and they've started giving her morphine to keep her calm. They are going to move her to a hospice suite in the hospital, where she will get care to keep her comfortable, but not anything to prolong her life. I'll be spending time with her and helping my dad and sister as much as possible.

My mom is in bad shape. She seems to have lost her will to live. I think it's only a matter of time now.

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their sympathy. It is greatly appreciated. Blogging will continue to be light over the next few days.

My post on the Wechsler brothers brought some interesting responses. First, Jay Sokoloff shows it's a small world after all:

My eyes nearly bugged out of my sockets when I read the above entry. I am a diehard 'Spos fan. As a result, I am also a baseball junkie. In the last 6 months I discovered "newsblogs" and much to my surprise, I also stumbled across sportsblogs as well. I read your site daily.

Getting to the point, I used to play Strat-O-Matic with Mike all the time. In fact, a group of use once made a pilgrimmage to from Montreal to Cooperstown while playing Strat non-stop.

In all the blogs that I have read, this is the first time an entry has been dedicated to someone I know.

I'll continue reading your site waiting for my Wechlser updates as they happen and watch out Nos Amours (the Montreal Expos).

Dan Wechsler was less than enthused:

Pintoooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Stop it you goys!

Please be advised that you will be receiving a letter from my attorneys (Storer, Aceto & Atman, Esq, Esq & Esq) informing you that use of my likeness without my prior authorization is illegal, and that the slanderous implication that the University of Michigan is inferior to the other snotty institution is baseless.

Fortunately for me, Storer of Storer, Aceto and Allman has been my attorney for many years, and always finds against Canadians in wrestling matches. And finally, Rob Wechsler, the third underachieveing brother, feels left out.

As the other (and probably adopted) brother, I feel very slighted. Granted, I have never caught a foul ball at a baseball game, and have never been acknowledged by Jerry Remy. But I did once get hit in the face by a line drive. Also, I have a son named Remy, and he mentions me on a regular basis. Finally, I lived with both Mike and Dan for more years than I can remember. If that's not heroic, I'm not sure what is.

Rob, of course, is the middle son. Imagine a Marx brother's movie. Mike would be Chico, fast talking and mischievous; Rob would be Harpo, quiet but very funny; and Dan would be Margaret Dumont, standing around appalled by the other two. :-)

All in all, I think their mother is very proud of them. :-)

My good friend Michael Wechsler writes:

In addition to getting Arod’s and Palmeiro’s autographs last night, as well as a ball from Johnny Pesky and picture of Avi with Buck Showalter, I caught a foul ball line drive.

I later taped the game last night. After I caught the foul ball, Jerry Remy said, “Nice catch by a fan, on the fly. Play of the game.”. They zoomed in on me but you could only see my back as I was hugging avi.

!!!!

Mike's the younger brother of one of my college roommates, Dan Wechsler. This is a picture of the evil Dan Wechsler from from the mirror universe in Star Trek. Click on the image and scroll down to read his bio.

Mike, as you can see by his resume, is clearly the more talented, having been able to get an appointment at Harvard Medical School rather than the University of Michigan. :-) As far as I know, Dan has never caught a foul ball on TV.

After a tough week with my mom and uncle, I needed a good laugh.

My uncle's funeral was very nice. A very simple service, with his favorite hymns and people remembering him fondly. Just right.

My mom's still in the hospital. She's stable at the moment, but I wouldn't call her improving. She has new complications that will make her life more difficult. Thanks to all who have expressed their sympathy.

Thanks to all who have expressed sympathy for my mom. She appears to be doing better today. Unfortunately, my uncle passed away yesterday after a long illness. Between the two, blogging will remain very light. Thanks for understanding.

Update: Remember to visit all the fine baseball bloggers. The blog roll is on the right. Scroll down and take a peek.

My mom is in the hospital. Depending on how she does, blogging will probably be light over the next few days.

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale are conducting a survey of blog readers. I particpated in the survey through Instapundit. If you haven't already, please fill out the survey here.

I just recieved the New Yorker in the mail, and there's a baseball cover this week. Looks to me like an Animee rendering of a ballplayer. The title of the cover is "The New Left Fielder."

When I first got the New Yorker, the magazine would come in a plain, brown wrapper. This way, if you liked the cover, you could cut it out and frame it. Now they put the address sticker on the cover, which ruins it as art, and you have to go buy one from a store if you want to save the cover.

You can see a small picture of the cover on the New Yorker website.

I received two interesting links to stories in this morning's mail. Aaron sent me a link to a Juan Williams interview of Walter Iooss Jr. Iooss has a new book out that is a collection of his baseball photographs over the years. The interview is nearly 30 minutes, so be prepared to spend some time with this piece.

Jan from Wellesley sends me this link to a NY Post article reviewing Moneyball, the Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

As depicted in "Moneyball," the A's would not have been all that different if managed by a cardboard cutout of Howe. Unlike other GMs, Beane dictated (among other things) lineups, bullpen usage and strategy - specifically no steals or sacrifices. Howe would confirm with players who stole on their own that it was indeed their decision, so Beane would be furious with them and not him. Most unflattering of all was that Beane even ordered where and how Howe stood in the dugout - on the top step with his chin raised to project leadership to his players below, though Howe preferred to sit on the bench.

When asked about that and other matters in "Moneyball" Howe said, "I'm not going to comment on anything said in the book."

And if that's not bad enough:

In "Moneyball," besides the Howe issue, Phillips is depicted as a stooge for Beane during the June draft and July trading deadline. It should be noted most other baseball officials, including all the scouts in the A's organization, come off poorly, too.

"Books like this never seem to be good ideas," Phillips said. "Winning is a complete and total team effort and most people recognize that."

That was a dig at Beane's ego. Still, Beane wins. Phillips and Howe preside over a complete and total team effort in losing, an 11-14 mess that the Shea fans rightly despise. With a $120 million payroll, Phillips has produced a roster on which - for now - Tony Clark is remarkably the best player. Howe - for now - has fixed none of the offensive, defensive and attitude issues that supposedly got Bobby Valentine fired.

Things are so bad at Shea that you can throw the book at them.

Here's Phoebe, now three months old. :-)

It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of Watson and Crick's structure for DNA. The Nature communication linked to in the previous sentence is the essense of simplicity. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read it. Also, if you're looking for an interesting read, pick up a copy of The Double Helix by James Watson. It's a fascinating story of how these two men solved one of the most important mysteries of science.

I was away visiting family. I'll be blogging later tonight once I get settled in. Meanwhile, this is exciting. It looks like Rickey Henderson will be playing in the Atlantic League. That' means he'll be visiting my old home town, Bridgeport, CT. Can't wait to see him there!

Blogging will be light the rest of the day. Enjoy your holiday!

I wonder if this has anything to do with Bill James living there. :-)

It's officially Greg(g) day, as Greg Maddux (37), Greg Myers (37) and Gregg Zaun (32) celebrate their birthdays!

Happy birthday to Brad Ausmus (34) and Kyle Farnsworth (27) also.

If you go to msnbc.com, they have a live video feed of Iraqis trying to topple the statue of Saddam in Baghdad. It reminds us all of how lucky we are that our main form of aggression against each other is through our sports teams.

Update: The statue is down! Looks like an American tank support vehicle helped pull it off the pedestal.

I saw that NBC reporter David Bloom died today in Iraq of a pulmonary embolism. I had really enjoyed his reporting over the last three weeks. I saw a report of his on Friday night, eastern time. His skin was a deep mocha tan. He had dirt caked on his face. His hair was gray from all the sand and dust in it. I said to my wife, "He looks like he's been through hell." He also looked like he was enjoying the work he was doing.

My condolences go out to his family, friends and co-workers. I will miss his reports.

I haven't been blogging much this morning. We have a new addition to the household. Her name is Phoebe, and you can see her and my daughter Melinda here.

The Twins will have a video linkup with Kuwait, and Minnesotans Army Reservists will throw out the first pitch for the home opener.

The Padres are wearing camouflage shirts today to honor military personnel. I'm waiting to see them take the field to see if the outfielders disappear. :-) It's a nice gesture by the team. Before the game, supports of the troops got together and formed a giant yellow ribbon in the parking lot.

Should C.C. Sabathia's nickname be Milliliter?

Day by Day is a new internet comic strip. This one had a baseball theme.

I haven't seen that many pictures of Matsui up until now, but looking at him sitting on the bench, he looks like a cross between Moe and Shemp Howard. I think it's the haircut.

Tim Bray has an essay on sports and opening day.

According to this Royals recap,

A sellout crowd of 40,302 was at Kauffman Stadium, and the temperature was 73 at gametime. A stealth bomber flew over the stadium after the national anthem.

If a stelth bomber flys over, and no one sees it, was it really there?

This was the first opening day shutout in Royals history. This I find a bit surprising, since KC had a long history of good pitching.

There's a musical about the Curse of the Bambino. They also agree with me about the best pancake house.

This post now has a picture of the sign.

I just got back from Boston. One of my favorite signs in the city is on Storrow Drive heading west from the Science Museum. There is an S-curve in the road that's labeled "Reverse Curve." I always thought it sounded like a trick pitch. :-) However, when I passed the sign this weekend, someone had painted over the V with an S, and include the word "the", so now it reads, "Reverse the Curse."

Update: Edward Cossette of Bambino's Curse sent this link to a photograph of the sign.

Hal Bodley is happy to see this spring training end:

The lights are about to go out on another spring training and not a moment too soon.

When Jim Thome sat on a bench in the Philadelphia Phillies' camp in mid-February and discussed his new team it seemed like a delightful beginning to spring.

Thome is refreshing, a throwback. As he discussed his career with Cleveland, his childhood and his passion to whip up a Cajun chicken dish for the family, the thought occurred to me that this would be a spring writing about baseball on the field.

I was wrong.

Within hours, off-the-field issues were dominating the sports pages.

Of course, Hal might want to read some other newspapers. :-) I've seen plenty of positive stories this spring and was happy to share them with you. And no stories about a strike! Sixty one hours to baseball...

Reader Robert Saunders now has a blog, Procrastination Nation. It's not about baseball, although he promises me you will see some posts on the subject from time to time. I was the 7th visitor to the site, which I'll take as a bit of good luck. Drop by and say hello.

David Thomas of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram finds a message for the baseball season in the greatest hits of Donnie and Marie.

Edward Cossette at Bambino's Curse has taken my Saddam/Carey comparison to the next level.

The Houston Astros will honor the crew of Columbia on opening day. If you are new to this site, I was at the launch of Columbia as a guest of Dave Brown. My thoughts on him are here.

How many times are we going to hear a baseball announcer describe a pitcher "in shock and awe" after he gets pounded in a game?

Well, just a little. I just saw Saddam's speech. He looked like Harry Carey with a mustache glued on. :-)