tiges could

sweep tomorrow but the bosox had to blow it for us.
there's still a slim chance D-town gets things going.

I hope they at the very least are still in the vicinity of contention when I see em play on Aug 10 and then on Aug 23.

By the way Parham, sorry I haven't paid you yet. I totally forgot.

Nomar

I'm disappointed with the trade. We got two .250 hitters who are FORMER gold glove winners. Big deal. So now infield will be three .250 hitters? That sucks. Nomar was great at short. I guess it is a good trade for the Sox, knowing that they had no chance to resign him after this year.

bummer

I would have liked to see Nomar stay. Even knowing that it was highly likely they would deal him, I was still stunned. On the upside, it is good to see the Bosox shoring up their infield. makes me think they might be serious about playing for the rest of the season.

wow

not a peep on the board about Nomah.

Go Cubs.

keep it up Boston

Tiges won 2 from the chisox.

Now we need some help from the bosox.

damn Parham!

Simey sounds like he's got free time, if he's not too busy ogling the talent. Maybe he will take the test. He'd need to be sober enough to operate a pen though.

sorry RTA

I was hoping that if some of you went through and got some scores and made some funnies, I'd be inspired to go back break out a crisp clean sheet of line-ruled paper, scrounge up a couple of #2's, and an egg timer and take the test. But Parham called my bluff.

now i feel like a tool

'cause i'm the only one with 20 minutes, an envelope and a pen to take the test. Nice goin', crushing my self esteem like that. What a dork to think "Oh Gee Q has presented us all with an opportunity for fun, let's all play along!" I should know better by now.

hahaha

yeah, I stumbled across the test and looked at about 30 or 40 and realized I had to write down my answers or at least I couldn't figure out how to do it otherwise. Anyway I never took the whole thing but I thought maybe one of you would find it worth a glance.

The Sports Test

I took it, did best on the "easy" questions (one Light Bulb), and did better on the NASCAR stuff than a SoCal kid ever should, but when you spend the holidays with my in-laws, you watch the races, and fight for the occasional football game.  I also realized I watch too much cable in general.  Total score was 61.  A "double off the wall with bases loaded."  Woo hoo!  I bet y'all could do better, what with your baseball and basketball knowledge being considerably deeper than mine as far as I can tell.

red sox

please sweep Minnesota

Tigers need a lot of luck to get into contention and I'm hoping it starts this week we already got one from the white sox.

take the sports test

http://www.sportingnews.com/features/iq_test/index.html

Francis Crick died

obit on NY Times site

my sister

had her baby last night. finally! a baby boy, William Ryland Graham. very cute (dad sent a photo around this morning).

Jumbos in Montana

Internet connection is ridiculously slow. Been fishin'. Caught a couple nice trout. Let them go afterwards. People in Seattle ARE upset that Guillen has done so well, but the thing is that he was seen as an oft-injured SS that would never play 162 games, so they let him go and figured Aurilia would be more durable and decent at the plate. Turns out Guillen hasn't been hurt yet this year and his clobbering the ball, and Aurilia is.....now in San Diego.

Man

I really hate going to this website 50 times a day and not finding anything new. Please someone do something.

Hey Jumbos are people in Seattle kicking themselves for giving away Carlos Guillen. The guy's having a great year. 16 dingers, 74 RBIs batting .325. It's a joke that Torre didn't play him in the damn All-Star game.

Armstrong article including physiology data

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020715fa_fact1

a little long, but the phys stuff is not too far down, and there's more toward the end.
No mention of EPO, but he has way-above-average VO2max and produces less lactic acid and metabolizes it better than most athletes.

great minds think alike

and apparently, so do Parham's and mine at 1am.   scary thought.

Kerry's pitch

made it past the plate, but hit the dirt right in front of the catcher's (some enlisted guy in full fatigues) glove.  So it was better than most.  The kid could have blocked it better.  Kerry then gave him one of those embarassing "I don't normally touch people, but I'm trying" hug-like things. 

Kerry's pitch

was it any good?

Did it make it to the catcher? or was it in the dirt like most opening pitches?

more than momentary

the cable is coming and going. highly aggravating. and when it is out, my internet is out too (since they are conjoined) so I get nothing.

momentary panic

we are having a thunderstorm here. there were a couple flickers of the lights and after one the cable DID NOT come back on. several prayers were sent to the god of baseball and after a minute or two, the cable came back to life.

Tigers

don't you want them to win to push the A's back in the WC hunt?

Or are you torn b/w the A's and the BoSox? I doubt it, right. You're a BoSox fan, no?

Were you guys

pissed about the Tiges giving up a 4 run lead, yeah me too.

Ugie Urbina tossed a cabbage over the plate for the walkoff dinger.

yeeaahh!

Red Sox/EE game

I can't believe that Tim McCarver would even suggest that Arroyo hit Rodriguez on purpose. give me a frickin' break.

before and after

I don't know the details but I believe in the beginning of his campaign he was also recovering from some illness or surgery I can't remember. So I think he looked particularly gaunt early on because of that. But he may have taken some botox injections to speed up the superficial appearance of health. Don't know.

I did a little google check and now found that yeah he did have prostate cancer so he had that removed in Feb of 2003. So that was a while ago, but I can imagine he didn't have time to fully recover.

there was a rumor

I don't know if it was ever substantiated. when he was running for the Dem nomination, the rumor was that he had botox injected into his forehead wrinkles to smooth them out. there were some "before and after" photos.

fair and balanced humor

Somebody else

had sent me that link before, so I had looked at it already.

I thought it was pretty funny though. And yeah, it was more evenly played then I thought it was going to be.

Three (3) ٣ ﻩﺭﺎﻤﺸ ‘ﻩﺴ tickets for RTAs please (nt).

 

Bleachers = sections 134-150 on yer map

behind the outfield walls, or as my Dad used to say, "behind 2nd base." 
It's fun, rowdy, and its general admission, or it used to be so you just need to grab whatever seats are open. 

Bleachers are cool, plaza, especially infield ($16-18) are cool, can we stay off the 3rd deck if possible?  It gets a little cold and windy for the kid up there.  I know you like to do things for the children, parham.

bleacher seats?

Yeah, we're not rich, but I don't go to a game all that much. But if most people want the cheaper seats, I won't complain too much.

Where would they be on this seating chart



http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/oak/ballpark/oak_ballpark_seating.jsp

DIII is pure

reasons:  there's no motivation to cheat-- no money, no scholarships, no "next level" -- it's an athletic dead end, especially football.  Teams that made the national playoffs, or individuals who made nationals in say, track or golf, were urine-tested, I never heard of anyone failing, and we had people go to nationals in track, golf, b-ball, every year.  You need "pure" sports, that's your ticket.  Hell, it was hard just to get guys on our team to lift weights, much less cycle 'roids.  That kind of stuff can damage an investment banking career...

however,
In H.S. our middle linebacker had a 50" chest, 32" waist, 380 lb. bench press, horrible acne, and tended to pee blood before games at age 17, his kidneys were so shot.  That was all the evidence I needed to keep clean.   I'm sure he got his stuff from Tijuana and didn't have professional-coach type help though.

The evidence linking steroids to rare cancers is sketchy and anecdotal-- there aren't enough Alzados out there to prove Alzado's claim that steroids gave him brain cancer.  The links to high cholesterol, high bp (probably from water retention&weight gain), kidney damage, and atherosclerosis are not, nor are the 2ndary sexual affects (shrunken balls, bitchtits). 

Nomar sucks at short now

Quote from the Boston Dirt Dogs website: "He's about as smooth as the legs at an Indigo Girls concert." Hahahahaha.

Armstrong/ 'roids

Cyclists dope, and they are tested extensively.  They take stimulants, muscle builders, muscle relaxers, they blood dope (get transfusions so they have more RBC's), everything. 

As for Armstrong, I've read he's some sort of physiological freak-- in high school he was tested and either he actually has more mitochondria, or they are just more efficient than even most top athletes-- meaning he can pedal faster, longer without going anerobic than other folks.   He actually uses different gears than other dudes for this reason-- it's somehow more efficient for him to keep pedaling in higher gears rather than get power for short bursts in lower ones, since he can just-keep-gooooing while other dudes can't.  I think that test is one you get when your Dad is the strength coach, and not other times.  If he dopes, he's wayyyyy ahead of the detection curve.  Also, I read that he's *better* after cancer because under chemo he shed weight that's extraneous for cyclists, eg, arm muscle, as well as fat, not to mention the 'nad.  That seems a bit of a stretch, but the results are hard to argue with-- he lost weight and won all those races.

I'll post on 'roids and DIII later.  These long posts glaze the eyes.  --RTA

Hellbenders

I know you were joking. I was joking, too. Sorry for the confusion! First Parham, now you. Pretty soon even Quilmes won't realize I'm joking. And then what would I do?

no,

it's just on the wish list. Chris Sidor (paleo guy) went there recently and told me how funding to go there is remarkably easy to get though, so I've definitely thought about the possibilities.

I'll take

the highest latitude title when I get to Finland. Then I'll grab the most remote when I head to the Sahara, and then I'm planting the flag in Antarctica and South America. ahahahahdahahahahha.

lance

can someone tell me if this guy is doping or not?

Man. Do they test in cycling? They must right.

And he's never failed a test.

But I guess these tests don't pick up everything.

The conspiracy theorists and the media have slipped that sense of doubt into my head and it pisses me off. I'm starting to think everybody must be doping. I don't know what to believe anymore. And it doesn't help that my friend told me that his dad, who is a physical fitness coach or instructor at a medium sized university,is friends with the track coach there and that this coach (a former shotputter) apparently talks regularly about the new steroid and HGH cocktails that he mixes to get different effects. This is someone who knows physiology and they're talking with someone about steroid and HGH use.

Have they figured out ways to avoid the Lyle Alzado results from steroid use? Maybe they've spent so much time studying it that they now know which steroids are more harmful than others and can advise athletes, thinking that they're doing good by helping them avoid the worst stuff. Does this culture exist to anyone else?

RTA, in your DIII football experience, did you know jokers on Vitamin S?

It's a cloud hanging over my view of sports.

I was making a joke Jumbos

I was trying to use hyperbole to make a humorous point. everyone else seems to have been to many cool or just physically extreme places and the best I can do is posting using my Dad's AOL dial-up service in Arlington MA, a suburb (sensu stricto) of Boston . Arlington is not very poor either, and I tend to have a fairly broad definition of suburbs as well since I will sometimes include RI when it suits me. jeez louise, get a sense of humor.

Poor Posting

Hellbenders: I posted from Woods Hole, which is not a Boston suburb, not even close, and which is very very far from being poor. But thanks for the consideration. Woods Hole is way out in the middle of fucking knowhere and, in the winter, is equivalent to living in Point Hope, Alaska.

Farthest North post may be me, in Seattle. Look it up.

Important Fantasy Football dates:

Live Draft End: 9/30
Full Season Registration End: 10/15
All Drafts End: 10/15

chiefs

I thought he was running guns in El Salvador or something. gun runners have notoriously bad internet service.

posting

I posted over a modem. from the poverty and general malaise of the Boston suburbs. jumbos can back me up on what a backwater that region is.

3 tix

if you haven't bought them yet.  They're like, $26-$30 apiece, right?
RTA

Thought maybe

i missed the window... when are you getting the tix?

If you haven't made the purchase yet, I'll bite for 2 or 3-- I'll know by about 3 today.  I gotta call my wife and see if her coworker wants to join the fun.

A fat $7 brew in souvenir cup or even the giant plastic ref-targeting bottle would be awesome right now.

 

Just trying to keep it clean

for the children, man.  For the children.

more chatroom blog abbreviations

IMO/IMHO (in my opinion, in my humble opinion)-- as if we can't tell fact from opinion.
WTF?  What The Fu(dge)?

somewhere, there has to be an online use for military acronyms, in this militarized age...
my faves include
FUBAR (f'd up beyond all recognition)
FUBB (f'd up beyond belief)
SNAFU (situation normal:  all f'd up)
FUMTU (F'd up more than usual)

 

laughing my ass off (nt)

EOM

end of message. same usage as "nt." what is LAOM?

thank god

I figured it out. I went back to pull out some examples of when they use "nt" for ol Jum Jum and discovered what it means.

"nt" = "no text" I think.

So if I posted something that said "Fuckin tiges lose (nt)" it would save others from clicking to find out that nothing was in the text of the message. Man that was bugging me to death.

To show further ignorance I only recently figured out what LMAO was. I knew LOL at least. Are there others?

Red Sox Humor

That is funny. If anyone, at any time, questions your fanhood, you can tell them that story and they will say, "Ohhh. Wow. Now I believe you are a real Sox fan."

I don't know why people put "nt" at the end of their posts. Can you show me an example somewhere?

nt

other blogs/forums

why do people put "nt" at the end of their posts?

Not on this forum but on others, I've noticed that people tend to put it at the end of their posts but I have no idea why.

red sox

I wanted to share this humor with the blog, but I had to wait until tonight's game was over.

my sister and I were emailing about red sox paraphenalia for her impending baby. she mentioned that our mother had given her a red sox keychain. then my sister wrote "hello? choking hazard?"

my first thought was to wonder if she thought the key chain was a jinx of some sort and could increase the Red Sox likelihood of choking this year. my second thought was ooohhh, baby choking hazard.

I am looking forward to this weekend's series against the EE, but I'm having some non-positive feelings about the Red Sox season. ugh. the wild card race is going to be tight this year. the AL west, as usual, is fairly competitive.

blogsot

it doesn't matter what is before blogsot.com (I tried effm. and newt.), the blogsot site comes up. I cannot figure out what blogsot stands for given the content of the site. I agree with Jumbos, "weeeeird".

Why?

The Boston Bullpen is imploding. Giving up massive runs in late innings. Mariners might come back from 8-0 deficit today. This is horrendous.

effl.blogsot.com

That is weeeeird. Why do they have that address? I don't understand.

Man

the cubs can't buy a win against the cards.

what's going on there.

VERY weird coincidence--

I accidentally typed the wrong URL in to hear what y'all had to say, leaving out the P in Blogspot:
 
http://effl.blogsot.com/
 
go here and see,
and look what you get (I promise it ain't porn or popups, in fact, quite the opposite type of thing). 
 
How do they keep finding me?  Why are they shamming our board's name?  Are they targeting us for our heathen "beliefs?"
 
 

Why Dear Lord

Is Leskanic pitching for the Red Sox? He SUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!

email

either my yahoo mail address: molge@yahoo.com

or my brand spankin' new Texas email: mjmahoney@mail.utexas.edu. This one might look familiar to you Parham since I sent an email to you from it soon after I arrived.

Keith Foulke

He gives up 2 dingers to the Mariners in the bottom of the 9th, then Leskanic gives up the Granny in the 11th. We could have been only 6 games out. But no. Why? Why? Why? What the fuck?

rings a bell

Okay, now I'm starting to remember it. And I seem to have the same recollection that there was this issue about number of days rest. Thanks.

Not just Selig

I remember there being managerial input-- as in, Macha said "don't pitch my guy on no rest," and wouldn't game his rotation,
thus Torre or Selig wanted a guy who could actually pitch the game. 
I don't think Zito was happy with any of it, though the not pitching on no rest part kinda made sense, but I think not letting a previous year's Cy Young winner at least suit up was b---s.
 

Zito

I was just reading something on ESPN that said last year Zito got dropped from the All Star team the day before the game after he had gone to all of the team meetings and interviews because Selig wanted Clemens on the team to add more star power.

I didn't know that, I guess I wasn't paying that much attention to baseball last year. Did this make big news? What shitty move by Selig.

can't remember

what the system was last year, but smoker's system looks as though WR's would be the more valued than RBs.

If a WR has 6 catches for 60 yards that's 12 pts. An RB has to have 120yds to match that point total. Counting receptions and yds for pts weights in favor of WR's. I think WR should get less per yd to compensate. Maybe 1pt/15 yd or 1pt/20 yds.

mostly looks fine

I don't think we can give different points to receptions or other categories for WR and RB though. Yahoo won't let us probably.

also, I don't think D should get more points for a TD than offense players.

closed-toe shoes

I assumed they were so you could kick a potential assailant in the shins without worrying about your toes being damaged.

Defending oneself

Yeah, I too would love to hear a missing Chiefs story.  It might involve serious injury in vital or delicate areas, but not mine.
 
As for defending oneself, I'm pretty sure I could handle myself against most of the shizoids around here in anything but pumps, but having considered it, it's an incredibly no-win situation.  You can't just go LAPD, or even Kwai-Chang Cain, on someone whose mental health is compromised-- he'd get his day in court with pro-bono representation from the compassionate Berkeley residents.  The disease factor has already been mentioned.  I'm giving them all a wider berth than before, and counting the days until I move somewhere blessedly less tolerant of deviance.
 
personal to JUMBOS-- remember when ol' Jim Kruse was telling us a panhandler kicked the stroller his kid was in?  Christ, now that I have a kid, I'm surprised he didn't kill the guy.  I woulda gone batshit.

closed toed shoes and the missing confrontation

that's more because I don't think I'd be able to defend myself if I was worried about getting my toes stomped on in the heat of battle, plus I don't maneuver as well. I'm not sure where I got that hangup, but I have it and have learned to work within it.

And RTA, my guess is that if the Chiefs wasn't living in the stone age, we'd hear a great story about a confrontation of some sort that would top both of our stories. Just a hunch.

Doesn't crazy sh*t come in 3's?

So which one of you is hiding your random Berkeley attack related incident?
 
As for the recommendation of taking someone to the conversation pit I did consider a couple of other Monty Python techniques for self defense.  1.) using the gun vs. the banana, and 2. using
 --sarcasm.  I guess I'll just take the Q approach and stick to close-toed shoes, though, many of you have seen me "run"-- i might be better off with the banana when things get nassssty.
 
 
 

I like

the roster set up jumbos posted in the Addendum post.

also, 10 teams sounds good. I don't have feelings one way or the other for the 10th person, though I'd be into trying to get a returning player (gruen, lynchmob) before recruiting a newbie.

what season

of EFFL are we going into? 4th? 5th?

Addendum

QB, RB, TE, 2 WR, WR/RB

K

2 DB, 2 DL, DB/DL

6 vs. 4

only 4 defensive positions?

what about a general D position, so 2DBs, 2DL, and 1D.

t-shirts

each team should create an icon a la the Olde English D for Detroit and then put all of them on the t-shirt. And maybe somewhere on the back list the former champions.

Quilmes beer logo is ready for printing.

Positions

I would second whoever proposed the QB, RB, TE, 2 WR, WR/RB, K, 2 DB, 2 DL.

And I think Gruen would be the best 10th team. Top 8 teams make the playoffs.

I am open for T-shirt design suggestions.

Crazy Bums!

Wow. Those are great stories! I wonder how many people your average Berkeley Bum makes contact with each day. Dozens? That shit is kinda scary...what if they're holding a hypodermic needle in their hand? You never know. I like the Quilmes approach to footwear. Pretty soon Quilmes is gonna be carrying a Bowie Knife, wearing a flak jacket, and sprinting from place to place, "just in case things get nasty."

It musta been the atmospheric pressure

I was walking for dinner from campus toward triple rock on Friday evening. As I crossed the street to the west side of Oxford near Yalis I crossed paths with a younger dread lock guy with glasses, heading south on Oxford. It was timed so I walked across his tracks without infringing on his space, but he slowed down and swung his arm backward in an effort to swat me and also mumbled something I couldn't make out. He missed me but it was close. I was shocked but not that shocked, it being Berkeley and all. I said something to him like "What the fuck was that?" but sized him up just in case he bum rushed me. This is another reason I rarely wear sandals. You never know when you're gonna have to get nasty.

My Berkeley Lunch hour

a story...
When Bums Attack, Volume 1...
as I was walking out to grab a bite Friday,
a homeless dude was shambling in my direction.
When he got within about two feet of me he pulled himself up to his
full 5'2" frame and swung his arm/open hand within 6" of my face in while mumbling something incomprehensible.
 
I ducked out of the way, said, "eaaaasy there, guy" kept walking, and then asked my friend if he'd heard what the guy had said.
"Karate chop," was my friend's reply.
 
So, the guy did not hit me, which is good, because, what's the right thing to do in the situation that a tiny, old, homeless bum pull unprovoked (in my mind at least) attacks?  Just wipe the street with them?  Assume they are harmless and go get a hepatitis test? 
 
Anyway...

Ab Crap

Jackie's posts were like beach balls, too easy to hit, but you could hit em a long way.

I say bring back POONERS. End of story.

I like

2 WR, 1 RB, 1 TE but would suggest an additional mixed position 1WR/RB for a total of 5 non-QB spots.

also how many teams are going to be in the league? 8? 10?

Jumbos is Commish

And I will provide T-shirts. 'Nuff said.

Hammerin' Hank

HB and P

good posts.
 
that website was pretty funny, didn't really read it, but with the beer involvement I trust it was funny.
 
Yeah, it seems like the Red Sox can't help but shoot themselves in the foot.  At least Pedro won.  How long is Ortiz out.  Not that I really pay too much attention to the Sox, but it seems like they don't show too much discipline when it counts (maybe the media blows it out of proportion b/c it's Boston though).  That seems like a manager thing and a teammate thing.  Any truth to that?
 
I'll check out the Greenberg video.  I don't know much about him except he was a big time slugger for the Tiges back in the 30's and 40's.  I've watched a little of the Ken Burns Baseball videos.  From what I watched it was pretty good.  Didn't know that the Dodgers were actually the Trolley Dodgers.
 
 

and now for something completely different

a man with a harmonica up his nose. no really, it is humor about assembling IKEA furniture, I was just having a Monty Python moment. plus I really don't want any more economics lectures.

I thought this was pretty funny. especially since I just put together a coffee table from IKEA and I did some of the things including disassembling everything at one point. I had a good reason.

Price controls = government interference in markets

In general, any government control over prices, as opposed to market self-regulation, runs counter to what is thought of as conservatism in our capitalist system.  Redistribution of wealth by government means, coercion or taxation, is the hallmark of socialism.  In our system, we all have the right to try'n get rich, or not, getting paid at market rates for our services or the use of our capital.  High athlete salaries are the result of there being a robust economy and relatively few star-quality athletes-- simple supply and demand.  Many athletes would actually make more if they didn't play in leagues with salary caps designed to "increase parity" and keep owners wealthy.  Athlete salaries may seem "out of control" as you say, but there is control by the invisible hand of the market, governed by the bargaining between unions and owners' groups.  To paraphrase Chris Rock-- Shaq is rich, but the guy who signs his check is *wealthy*.
 
To defuse your argument regarding snails et cetera, to a large extent, unlike athletes, scientists' salaries are already propped up by the government, since NSF and NIH provide large percentages of postdoc salaries on bureaucratically determined scales, pay summer salary to profs on 10 month contracts, and pay huge amounts of grant funds directly to universities in indirect costs, the last of which makes certain professors into real "human capital"-- cash cows for the U.  Without fed gov help, we might, as profs, still make our 70G's a year at private schools,  industry, or whatever, but there would be a lot fewer positions for us in academia.   Likely our salaries would be a lot closer to English or history profs, too, meaning,  10-20% lower.
 
Econ lesson over.
 

tiges blank yanks 8-0

wow, one-hitter by Maroth, last year's first 21 game loser. 
 
Man, I hope they don't trade anybody away.  They have a chance to compete especially in the relatively weak AL Central

Live Draft

If we can figure out when this draft has to be (Specific Date), then perhaps I will make an effort to show up.

backing out?

I thought we decided you were gonna be commish?  Didn't you even have a campaign platform?
 
Don't back out now. 
 
I think we should have a live draft though at a Berkeley location and others not in the Bay area can participate via the web or phone.  I bet Simey could webcast it with all his web savvy.
 
I'll bring the chips.

Fantasy Football

So, what's the deal. Is Jumbos the Commish this season? Is that the group consensus? Or is LOTTIA doing it again? I remember that Parham is going to be out of the country for a while, right, otherwise he would be the Head Honcho. What about Quilmes? What about Hellbenders? Isn't about time we had a woman Commish? We call ourselves Liberal (Sorry, Totenkopf) and we are all Berkeley all the time, so shouldn't we have a woman Commish?

Have any of you seen the trailer for Spy Captain and the World of Tomorrow? The bad guy in that movie is named Totenkopf!

Blogger no longer works for me when I use Safari browser. I have to use Fucking Explorer to post. Bullshit Blogger.

smoker

Is this line of reading new for you?  This is not a smart ass question.  I know you've read a lot about WWII, so I was wondering if all the stuff about ancient Greece is something new you're just getting into?  And if so, is it changing your views on politics? 
 
Curious Quilmes

Smoker-- you trolling

the board trying to get a response?  We know you're a conservative, so why bait us with the fake lefty "athletes make too much" argument?   JUMBOS bit on that one and said all there is to say. 
 

$40 million to run and catch

Blame the fans (cause they pay the ticket prices). Can't fault the owners, players, or agents. This is just capitalism: the consumer is willing to pay that much money for the seats, therefore the owners can make that much money from the games, therefore the players are justified in asking for their share of the take. It ain't nobody's fault but the fans.

Trade secrets

I haven't read Moneyball, but here's my last question/comment:  if you are having success in a competitive big $ field using some business/recruitment model that the other dinosaurs in your field are not up-to-date with, and which could help them if they got wind of it, WHY WOULD YOU COOPERATE WITH SOMEONE WRITING A BOOK ON IT?
 
I would keep them cards -real- close to my vest.  Does Beane have an outsized ego or something?  I would let the winning speak for itself, and keep the strategy real quiet.
 
Notice Dick Cheney is not cooperating with anyone on a book called "Moneybombs:  how to use executive influence to secure cost-plus, no-bid government contracts"
 

Moneyball question

isn't a major part of the moneyball strategy to normalize the OBS or whatever stat by the salary price for the individual producing those numbers, so you get relative bargains, not superstars?  So the A's may not have any 1.1's or 1.4's now, but I bet they pay Durazo way less than 1/2 what Bonds makes.
 
However, their utter refusal to pay market price for free agents will no longer work when other teams figure out what has been successful for the A's, then rip it off, but then have money to hold onto their proven producers come free-agency time.  As somebody on this board (jumbos?  Parham? sorry for the half-ass citation) pointed out last year, they were beaten in the playoffs by a Boston lineup that was built using similar statistical preferences, but I would add, also had the added advantage of competitive salary-paying ability.
 
 

highly annoying

Terrell Owens.
he annoys me even though it isn't football season (yet).

additionally annoying: all talk about Jeter as MVP. I find it flat out bizarre at this point in the season and in his case it is completely unwarranted based on his stats so far.

Jeter

I am glad to hear one Kalamazoo kid (Quilmes) is not wooed by the media hype over another Kalamazooite (Jeter). To consider him as an MVP candidate is just flat out absurd. He was batting below .200 for the first 2 months (2 months!) of the season. Everyone always says, "Jeter just nows how to win!" Well, put Jeter on the Expos or the Royals and see what happens. Absolutely jack shit will happen, and those teams will continue to suck.

RTA's least charismatic/mosy annoying sports figs

5.  Marion Jones
cries about BALCO investigation, finishes 7th (7th!) in O-trials in 100m.  Stop whining, start training.  And she has ugly teeth. 
4.  Lance Armstrong. 
He could recover from 9 more kinds of cancer, win every race on earth, and he'd still be a gaunt, dull cyclist that I wish I were exposed to even less than the once a year I currently hear about him.
3.  Men's tennis-- the entire sport.  From a sport that used to produce Borg, Connors, McEnroe, and longhaired Agassi, we now have a bunch of 135mph-serving automatons.  Dull.  When's the last time you heard a chair ump really get his ass chewed off and handed to him?  1986?  Bring back the fun.
2.  John Elway.  Need him and his ugly bucktoothed face to retire from acid prevention ads too.
1.  Shaq, Shaq-Daddy, Shaq-Diesel, Big Daddy, The Big Shakespeare... what's with all the nicknames?  Bad rap records.  Toe arthritis.  Playing well at 340, playing well but breaking down at 370.  When you play b-ball 3-4 hrs a day,how hard is can it be to stay sub-350?
 

MVP candidate?

This was on the MLB home page as part of their half way point analysis of teams.  How is Jeter considered for AL MVP?  I just don't get it.  Predictably, I'll say Pudge has done more for his team, but I'm sure there are others out there too.  The media bias is sometimes just too much.
 
New York Yankees (55-31)

Time-tested adages aside, hitting has been 75 percent of their game. Their staff ERA is 4.46, and the last time it was higher (4.76 in 2000), the Yanks won only 87 games, which won't cut it now. It makes Joe Torre nervous, but it unnerves the opposition even more. A game against the Bombers is 27 outs of pure hell.

Grade: A-minus. We checked the Webster's in the clubhouse; "complacency" is not in there.

Award candidates: Derek Jeter, MVP; Kirk Gibson once won this Award for refusing to let LA lose, and don't recall him head-butting any seats. A-Rod; the Gold Glove follows him to third.

Remote control: The heat's on, but just try to make everyone understand The Apple isn't Randy Johnson's kind of town. Persuade Nomar to switch to second, and grab him; think he'd be fired up to beat the BoSox?

Predicted finish: First place in AL East

oh yeah,

Brett Favre is the reigning king, forgot about him.

Tim Duncan????

Yeah, low key and sincere were not the best ways to describe it, but I guess he seems likeable. Okay, I confess I'm mostly basing this on how he treats that little guy on the Sprite commercials, I think his name is Thirst.

News out of Seattle

The Mariners are dropping John Olerud from their roster. And it turns out that Olerud turned down a trade to the Giants two weeks ago! I can't believe he did that. He is struggling this year, and the Mariners flat out suck, and here he is offered a spot on a playoff contending team, within a couple hours flight of Seattle (where he is from, and where I guess he likes his kids schools, etc.), and he will probably retire after this year anyway, AND HE TURNS IT DOWN SO HE CAN BE CUT INSTEAD!!! That is just weird. Maybe he is just sick of baseball. But if that were the case, why didn't he just cut himself, instead of sucking in the first half and dragging the Mariners down with him?

Most Charismatic

Since when does "sincere and low key" equal "most charismatic"???? If we are voting on Most Charismatic, and are actually interesed in Charisma, but feel the need to include Sincerity as well, I would vote for Tim Duncan. Hahahahaha...Just Kidding. The top five, in no particular order, may be: Brett Hull, Manny Ramirez, Kevin Garnett, Phil Mickelson, and, I don't know, I want to say Charles Barkley, because if he were still playing I would put him at the top of the list.

Actually, just thought of Most Charismatic, hands down: Brett Favre.

most charismatic pro athlete

Jeter seems contrived to me, so does Tiger.

Michael seemed to have a more natural charisma but he's gone.

I'd have to vote for Lebron. He seems sincere and low key.


Shaq can be funny at times.

Lets hope that D-Lowe is on fire in the 2nd half

It's actually bigger than you think

I am experiencing

Kalamazoo overdose.

Kalamazoo

When I was little I (like many of kids from the area) had a t-shirt that said "Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo!!!"

And of course, being from there I never understood it or I imagined that there were kids living in places like Kansas City that had their version "Yes there really is a Kansas City!!!"

Kalamazoo?

That is a made-up place, right? Kind of like Neverland, The Shire, or Gotham? Is there really a Kalamazoo?

We do need a big world map with pushpins placed at all posting locations. That would be awesome. Where should that be? Ideally it would be in VLSB somewhere, since VLSB is EFFL Central. But VLSB may not be EFFL Central for much longer. We are in the midst of the EFFL diaspora.

Africa

Maybe not. I thought I remembered somebody posting from Cape Town of Johannesburg once, but maybe I am mistaken. So we need Africa and South America. I am surprised we don't have a Canadian post, yet.

Damn

Honduras, right. Sorry bout that.

We haven't done Africa either, although I was there in the fall of 2000 (pre-EFFL membership). I'll go again soon. Sahara desert post is pretty good.

I envision Jumbos down in his basement that's set up kind of like a war room and he has this world map with various colored pins stuck into representing the places we've been, madly trying to locate Kalamazoo, Michigan on the map. Can you do this for us.

what about Africa?

did someone post from that continent?

Jumb- I know (I was just exaggerating).

More remote posts

I forgot that I have posted from Mexico City and from Honduras. The Chiefs has posted from Honduras, too. He was never in El Salvador, although it was an honest effort by Quilmes to remember where Chiefs was for two years.

H*llbenders: I don't think all of MA is remote, I think Woods Hole is remote.

If I had to vote for most amazing posting site, I would have to vote for Iran or someother amazing place that Parham posted from. It might be true that Perth is mileage wise more remote (although I doubt that now that I think about it), but Perth is the simple western world. Iran or wherever else Parham went is something else.

I think some of the places that could be better to post from are: Antarctica, The Ivory Coast, Bolivian Andes, Greenland. Any other ideas. We should make this into a group effort: to post from every continent. So far we are short only Antarctica and South America, right?

word of warning

it occurs to me that the links I posted might not be something you want to read over breakfast.

santorum

the column where Savage lists a bunch of nominations for the definition of Santorum


he announces the winner. Scroll down to the end of the column. He also introduces a website devoted to Santorum (that is what the link at the top of the column is for)

Dan Savage

in his Savage Love sex advice column ran a contest a while back to name a sex related event/act after Rick Santorum. the nominations were hysterical. I can't say what won (I know what won, my fingers won't type it), but maybe I can find a link to the column.

Posting Outposts

So far,
just Riverside (CA) and southern Illinois. Hick but not remote. I will be adding Belgium soon, but that has not happened yet. RTA

The turtle thing is up there with Senator Santorum's quotes about legalized sodomy leading down the garden path to tolerance for "man on dog sex."

stewart

Jon Stewart is hilarious. I used to just watch the openinng monologue and the interview skits by other people, but lately he's had on Wolf Blitzer and this other journalist from Newsweek that were pretty entertaining. It must be difficult to prepare that show everyday and synthesize the news and then make it funny.

As for finding fans of your team and a place to watch the games (hellbenders) that's great. I'm gonna have to get NFL pass in Helsinki somehow or maybe I can get it on the web. If I win the championship out of country that's gotta be worth more.

Posting off cycle will be tough too, man.

p.s.

shouldn't that be "Terrapene does Washington"?

I am home right now wallowing in my new cable/internet set up. if only I had this last night during the all star game. I had serious need for a data monkey. shocking, I know. but joe buck failed to meet all of my trivia needs, though he tried mightily.

turtles, sox

if you are home tonight, watch The Daily Show (comedy central, 11pm). he talks about the turtle quote near the start of the show. that is how I found out about it.

BoSox have best team ERA in AL. Manny leads AL in HRs (Ortiz tied for 2nd)

better texas news

I met some Red Sox fans yesterday. and they have a VLTV*, so I know where I will be during the playoffs this year.

(*= very large television)

posting

well, I've posted from CA, MA, NY, and now TX. none of these may seem remote (except to Jumbos who thinks MA is the other side of nowhere), but I give you the following quote to suggest that "remote" may be more than just geographic:

"It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."

-- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), advocating a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in a speech Thursday to the Heritage Foundation.

Remote locations

Most remote location for Jumbos post has been Woods Hole or Montana. Not too impressive, I guess.

List of remote locations

Quilmes from India (Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad) and Kalamazoo, MI

Parham from Iran (where?) and Russia?? and probably other places

Charleston Chiefs from El Salvador (where exactly?)

Simey from Australia (Perth) and where else?

SS from the mid 1940's(Germany), some early ass century (Sparta), and George Washington Carver's ass

Jumbos?

Sallies?

RTA?

Feldman

Is he crying right now? With Shaq gone and Kobe headed to the Clips? Or does he care?

What a cluster fuck that is. Someone isn't getting GM of the year.

The Big Unit

I think that trading Nomar for the Unit (via Chicago) is a bad idea. I also think that if the Evil Empire gets the Unit, there is a 86% chance I will lose all interest for major league baseball. I would not be against the Red Sox acquiring Beltran, but ONLY if they put him in right field and either bench or trade Trot Nixon. Johnny Damon should not be moved from center; he is on fire right now, has great range, and his mediocre arm would be a liability in right field. And Damon is a "Fan Favorite" at Fenway, so getting rid of him for Beltran would flat out be a bad idea.

Unit's Odd Trade Demand

everything I've read about Johnson's trade possibilities include the stipulation that the trade must "benefit the Diamondbacks."

Shouldn't the guy (and his agent) be using all of his leverage to help himself, not his soon-to-be-ex team? The whole "benefit" determination should be up to the Diamondbacks ownership/management, shouldn't it? If it were me, I wouldn't give a rat's ass if I were traded for a bat-boy and a case of Miller Lite, as long as my new team could pay me market value and contend.

I guess it's a show of loyalty of some kind, but I just don't get it. I have other thoughts, but my posts tend to go too long anyway.

I must admit

I never really thought of it in terms of protective cups. Did everyone else?

I originally thought it was laid out in terms of two people "tinking" or "clinking" glasses of beer or wine or whatever together in a sort of cheers, like "we got him on that one" sort of way. But somewhere subconsciously it definitely sounded homoerotic and for that reason I didn't feel as comfortable saying it as for instance, Parham does. Maybe it's the similarity with the "bumping uglies" phrase that I never really found that appealing (the phrase not the . . . you know what I mean).

Anyway, I got a good laugh out of the Jumbos (not Zero's) post about baseball players getting to close.

nice try JumJum

but Q is onto something. Cups are funny because they cover the genitals. Thus, "bumping cups" is, at least in part, a linguistic proxy for any type of culturally questionable man-on-man touching. Just look at the way we use it in the posts-- the humor comes from the derisive way it's used as much as "the image" it produces. I'm comfortable with this sort of humor after 6 years of playing center (QB hands under ass) and wrestling (looking really gay to many onlookers). Why do you deny it, with so much less to compensate for?
HIKE!
RTA

Tink, tink

Sexual connotation? No, I don't think so. It is just a funny reference to the fact that ballplayers wear cups and when they congratulate each other they are very close to bumping their cups together, which makes for a pretty funny image. Any sexual meaning is simply a Quilmes thing.

cup bumpers

maybe it's just me or maybe it's intended but "cup bumpers" has some sexual connotation to it. I'm not sure exactly what "cup" is substitute for, but I have some ideas that I'm ashamed to talk about.

this damn blog, McDyess, and HR derby

why does it take so long for it to load up compared to other websites?

Did anyone see McDyess (sp?) play last year? Did he look like the knee was shit. Detroit's probably gonna sign him soon, but I don't know much about him, except that he was once damn good.

Anyone see the HR derby yesterday. I watched some of the first round. It's most fun for me to see all of the other players sitting around on the sidelines. I noticed it's pretty divided though, not that I thought all of them would be holding hands or anything. All the Latin players (which is a lot of them) seem to hang together. Barry and his daughter were sitting with Thome.

Rieboldt-aritas!

two thumbs up for those. and for mango chicken sausages. I wish I could go to a baseball game. I'm about 3-4 driving hours from a MLB park here. I did stumble onto the Rangers-BoSox game yesterday on the radio. unfortunately, the Sox chose that game to lose. I'm getting cable + internet hooked up in my apt Wednesday. yay for ESPN again! just in time to start ranking my picks for fantasy football draft.

You had me

at "Tigers..."

press conferences and the Tiges

Yeah this year I signed up for something like Real One pass or something where I got to watch all of the NBa press conferences on the web. I loved that shit.

I don't have 402 or 40whatever.

I usually listen to the Tigers games on the web but didn't today. Apparently Jason Johnson pitched a gem to beat Santana for Minn. Man we took 3 out of 4 up there. Big wins big wins. 5 games out at the all star break, one win away from tying last years win total for the entire season, incredible. Pudge and Guillen have been ridiculous. 2nd half of the season is tough though. Series with the NYY and Bosox, A's, Whitesox and Rangers right off the bat. If we had one more bull pen pitcher we'd be leading the central. Our hitting is ridic, our starting pitching not bad, and our fielding could use some work.
But all in all, I'm tickled to be able to think about baseball in August. Hasn't happened in years.

ESPN Classic?

Do you get that with Comcast cable?

Does channel 39 sometimes turn into ESPN Classic? when it's not acting like ESPN2 or ESPNDeportes?

I guess I don't pay that much attention to the name, but mostly just switch between Ch. 38, 39 and 40.

Texas Texas Texas

Not only is there a very large building on campus that is shaped like Texas (when viewed from space), I just realized that the campus itself is shaped like Texas.

Yeah well

100.000% of American children polled could not identify
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy when shown his picture.

This put us in a tie for last place with every other country in the world, after Hungary.

Interestingly, when shown a list of foreign leaders, 12% of the children picked Medgyessy as their "favorite foreigner."

What is our educational system coming to?

Worst news story of the day

Who the fuck cares? Why is this news?

Red Sox pitching

D-Lowe sucks now. Arroyo is up a canyon somewhere. And, for some unexplicable reason, Theo signed BY Kim to a 2 year deal, and Kim is now in Pawtucket with a tired arm at age 24.

turtle, big unit

Parham, I dont' own a digital camera. I'll look more closely at the turtle, its shell is covered in algae. the turtles in the turtle pond aren't necessarily Texas natives.

I saw an article on Yahoo Sports that said Anaheim was interested in Randy Johnson and he was more interested in playing on the west coast than in NY. It sure would be interesting (in a "I'm trying not to drool over the prospect" kind of way) to see him in Boston. I like the argument about it being more meaningful to win the WS in Boston than in NY. but, whatever happened to boston's pitching staff that was supposed to put them up top in the AL East?????

Sheffield

OK, so Bonds had an MVP season too, but look at Sheffield's numbers:

.330 average, 39 HR, 132 RBI, 190 hits, 126 runs.

Pretty good.

Randy Johnson to Yankees?

Latest rumor is that Johnson prefers the Yanks over the Red Sox, if he were to waive his no-trade clause. That baffles me. Don't players understand that if they win a World Series with the Red Sox they will be a Hero for life in New England, I mean for life, for ever, they will be a God. Whereas if they win a World Series with the Yanks they will be just another superstar to hop on the bandwagon and they will be forgotten within 2 years time. I mean, I know every position player on the '86 Sox team, and they LOST. But I bet a Yanks fan couldn't tell me every position player on any on their winning teams of the 90's. Look at Sheffield, who should have been MVP of the NL last year: he comes to the Yanks and now nobody even talks about him anymore... and if the Yanks win he will be just a footnote in history. Whereas if he had come to the Sox and the Sox win, he would be a hero forever. Same with A-Rod.

lizard and J-Par crisis

I saw a lizard this morning at my apartment. I think it was a gecko, but it hid again pretty quick. There is an introduced house gecko around here. It was not wearing a Cal ballcap, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Parham, I think it will be okay for you to root for Odom while continuing to loathe the Lakers (if he winds up there). there have been a few players that I have liked who played for the Evil Empire. Of course, for players that I detest, playing for the EE only makes them more loathsome, and sometimes the act of going to the EE makes a player loathsome, but I decided that good players shouldn't be hated merely for their association with EE.

Pokey diving for the ball

Jeter, Pudge, Kittens, Austin

Jeter is a decent shortstop on a great team. If he played for the Brewers he wouldn't even be an All-Star. That highlight of him diving into the stands was shown over and over on TV, but Pokey Reese, who was playing shortstop for the Sox in that game, made a more difficult catch in the exact same spot earlier in the game, and it wasn't shown on any highlight reels. Bullshit. I will NEVER understand this Jeter-philia that the media has. (On a similar note, I will never understand the Torre-philia either; give ME the best team in baseball each of the last 10 years and I will manage to win a couple World Series, too.)

I read Pudge's comments as being tongue in cheek, like he was just joking around with the reporter he was talking, too.

I posted that original kittens picture for no good reason at all. But I almost laughed coffee through my nose this morning when I saw Parham's "Kittens with Flowers" and "Two-headed Kitten" pictures.

That's cool about seeing Cal shirts in Austin. I remember last year at Woods Hole if I saw somebody with a Cal shirt or sweatshirt I would get all teary-eyed, dreaming of the West Coast and good sushi and the cool fog rolling in off the bay and coffee at the Free Speech Cafe and the RSF and IM championships and the Bear's Lair and watching all the hot coeds in Sproul Plaza.

pudge and jeter

I didn't like that part about "a lot of people want to see me on tv" either. That sounds stupid though it is true. I don't like those sorts of I'm bigger than the team type comments. I didn't expect that from Pudge. But there's no doubt that guy has done more for the Tigers than I could've imagined. Took a series from the damn Bombers.

Has anyone else notice how Jeter is being anointed as baseball's savior? He's being placed in the same category as Jordan and other willful winners. It's almost better that he isn't the most skilled defensive shortstop and isn't a deep ball threat. It's like they're harkening back to the pre-steroid era of baseball when everything was about desire and the little things.

two-faced kitten

MVZ has one in the collection. also a cyclopic goat.

I had a nostalgia moment today. I saw a guy on campus wearing a SF Giants t-shirt and a Cal ballcap. I wanted to hug him. he really stood out among all the burnt orange longhorns paraphenalia not to mention, Rangers' T caps and Astros shooting stars.

Uhhh...

I didn't say he was wrong.

Pudge Rodriguez gets tossed in the 1st inning:

"I didn't do anything," Rodriguez said. "I was just smiling in the dugout. Anybody can smile. The only thing I told him was the pitch was low. I said to him two times or maybe three that pitch is low, it is not a strike. Then I go back to the dugout, and he throws me out. I don't think it was acceptable. ... A lot of people want to see me on TV."

Hahahaha. That's funny stuff.

turtles

yes there are turtles on the UT campus. I passed a little turtle pond yesterday. red-eared sliders, something with just yellow stripes on its head (cooter?) and maybe a E. marmorata. It had the coloration on its head that I associate with marmorata. there were piles of turtles out sunning themselves in the early afternoon. later on when I stopped to admire them again, a bunch swam over to where I was standing. I assume these turtles were actually begging for food, though they did it in a stoic sort of way.

Kittens

in Austin

yay. I made it and all my possessions are in my apartment. I got moved in yesterday morning (with the help of some of my new labmates) and worked on unpacking for most of the rest of the day. The drive was uneventful, fortunately. nice scenery. a very different transect than the I-80 transect I drove back in 2000. for one thing, there aren't inspection stations for illegal immigrants on I-80.

oh yeah, one other thing IT IS REALLY HOT
though I think I could handle the heat if it werent' for the humidity. killer.

Okay SS

I bite. What gives? What's this new approach? Talk to us in something other than quotes.

shit the bed?

Never heard that phrase used that way.

But yeah, I know he died.

Nice work Parham

But I'd prefer the Hot chick or the Late K mammal fossil
not to take anything away from the man who brought us some classic characters.

Parham reaching new heights

Parham, dude, please post your god damn images so we can see them. It would only be worse if you entitled them "Hot chick" or "Never seen before Late Cretaceous mammal fossil" and then gave us that broken link. Please, what are you posting.

As for Jeter, I have to agree. Gammons called it the best defensive play he has seen. I don't believe it.

It was a good hustle play, but it didn't look like he needed to dive into the stands. But I guess sometimes you can get so pumped up that you put too much energy into it and fly out of bounds. And why in the hell isn't that area slightly more padded. There's a two foot wall there asking to be tripped over and fall head first into those hard plastic chairs. You should only be able to sit there if you're gonna help catch the player that makes that kind of move.

Maybe he watched Tayshaun Prince swat Reggie Miller and wanted to provide the same sort of lift. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it seemed to work and it will be remembered.

Think they trade Nomah for pitching?

posting images

*image src="blahblahblah.jpg"*

But instead of the asterisks put less than and greater than signs on either side of the statement.

Jumbos taught me that.