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July 3, 2009
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And That Happened (6)
My Morning in Exile (1) Hicks in hock (8) Rany is banned by the Royals (NOW WITH UPDATE) (19) Tiger Stadium Snuff Film (4) Shyster's Daily Circuit
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Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.Friday, July 03, 2009My Morning in ExileNo work today, so I blogged from home. It's nice, though I'm not sure if it's less stressful than blogging from the office or not. On the one hand, I don't have to shower, shave, drive anywhere, answer the phone or work around meetings and stuff. On the other hand, in many important ways its easier to balance legal work with blogging than it is to balance things like Hot Wheels car parades, fights over which cartoons to watch and wives and fathers asking me to do things around the house. Upshot: if I ever convince someone to let me write from home full time, I'm going to rent an office. And with that I'm done for the Fourth of July weekend. Probably, anyway. If something strange or major happens -- of it I just have too many beers and get some time on my hands -- I may check in with some other stuff. If I don't, however, have yourself a merry little Independence Day. And That HappenedAstros 7, Padres 2; Look, between my two bloggy spaces and the water cooler at work I have probably talked about Manny Ramirez more than anyone in the past couple of weeks. And I'll admit, my reasons for bringing him up are often tenuous at best. But nothing I've written about the guy is as tenuous as this bit from the game story, describing how a swarm of bees descended on Petco Park in the ninth inning: "The bees arrived more than 24 hours before Manny Ramirez makes his comeback from a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, when the Los Angeles Dodgers open a three-game series against San Diego on Friday night." Did anyone get Manny's comment on the bees? Where does Plaschke stand on all of this? I WANT TO KNOW, DAMMIT! Mets 9, Pirates 8: In town for a makeup game, the Mets overcome Tim Redding getting shelled (2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER), and then overcome K-Rod blowing the save in the ninth (though he did vulture the win). Jerry Manuel: "We could have just said, `Let's pack up and head to Philly, it's a short flight, let's get this out of the way.'" "They chose to fight and I thought that was what was most impressive." I don't much like Jerry Manuel so I appreciate that maybe I'm being too hard on him here, but really, could your team have chosen to just pack it in, Jerry? Is that a potential option in the current Mets universe such that their choice not to do so is laudable? Reds 3, Diamondbacks 2: Joey Votto was the hero, going 4 for 6 and hitting the game winning single in the 10th. The Dbacks have lost ten of twelve. They dead? Yep, they're dead. Cardinals 5, Giants 2: Are we sure this was only a four game series? It feels like they've been playing for two solid weeks. Anyway, Todd Wellemeyer offers a bit of an F.U. to everyone in St. Louis who has been screaming for him to be sent down or disappeared or shot or whatever (7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 6K). A couple of RBI for Ryan Ludwick who, according to Rick Sutcliffe on Wednesday, needs to start hitting before Albert Pujols can expect to start seeing anything to hit. It was a moderately useful insight the first seven times he made it, but it declined in utility over the next dozen or so times it was repeated. Braves 5, Phillies 2: The Bravos sweep the phirst place Phils, bringing them within two games of first themselves. Or, put differently, making them three games more likely to do some stupid deal to try and contend this year instead of loading for bear in 2010. My view of things is that if they can contend with what they have, wonderful, I'll enjoy it. But any deal apart from unloading Jeff Francoeur is probably a bad move. As for this game, someone better check Bobby Cox for banned stimulants. He used 18 players in this one, and I don't think he's done that since Clinton's first term. Mariners 8, Yankees 4: Ichiro, Branyan and Chris Woodward of all people join in the Mariner hit parade, ending the Yanks' seven game winning streak. Cubs 9, Brewers 5: Derek Lee bangs in seven runs on a three run homer and a grand slam, as the Cubs shell Greenbrier East alum Seth McClung. Stupid Greenbrier East. Woodrow owns you, Spartans! Hells yeah! Angels 5, Orioles 2: Bobby Abreu flashes back several years and shows that yes, he is capable of hitting home runs. Two actually. Meanwhile, John Lackey flashes back to the non-2009 portions of his career to show that he can still pitch like an ace (8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7K). Nothin' much doin' for Baltimore outside of a Luke Scott home run. Game story: "Orioles' 3B Ty Wigginton replaced Melvin Mora in the lineup. Mora asked for the night off after the trip to the West Coast." OK. For what it's worth, even my old man sucks it up and plays through jet lag when he visits my brother in San Diego, and he's 65 and flies coach. What, Mora couldn't have gotten a few winks on the plane? White Sox 4, Royals 1: Bruce Chen? Really? In the same season the Royals ran Horacio Ramirez out there? What, was Terrell Wade not available? Jung Bong won't return your calls, Dayton? Aw, don't look at me like that, whaddaya gonna do, ban me or someth---- Thursday, July 02, 2009Tiger Stadium Snuff FilmI never thought I'd cry while watching an Eminem video, but the waterworks started at about the 3:05 mark of his new one. Detroit natives of a certain age may get a little misty through the whole thing. Rany is banned by the Royals (NOW WITH UPDATE)Last week, Rany Jazayerli sent a heat-seeking missile in the direction of the Royals' medical staff. The Royals read it. As a result, the Royals have banned him. Banned him from what is not exactly clear inasmuch as Rany lives and works in Chicago and isn't exactly a constant presence at Kaufman Stadium, but banned he is. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. UPDATE: I've given this more thought. I'm still trying to get my brain around this. I mean, the Royals organization obviously reads Rany, or else they wouldn't have gotten mad at what he wrote. However, if they do read Rany, surely they realize that he's one of the best fans in the history of fandom. For years and years he has been optimistic about the Royals, giving them way more benefit of the doubt than they were probably ever entitled. No, it's never been blind faith -- Rany is not some mindless fanboy -- but he has long avoided the cynicism and hopelessness that tends to take over your more critically-minded followers of historically poor performing teams. More importantly, Rany is one of the team's most high-profile fans. In that capacity he gives voice to what many thousands of fans are thinking. In light of this, when Rany levels criticism, it's safe to assume that (a) it's serious criticism, not a cheap shot; and (b) many, many people who buy Royals tickets are thinking the same way. This doesn't mean you roll over, of course. To the contrary, when a guy like Rany says what he said, the Royals' first impulse should have been to ask themselves whether he had a point. If he did, great, it was a worthy comment. If he didn't, that's fine too. Call him a sonofabitch in the privacy of the team office and make it clear to anyone who matters (i.e. the trainer Rany went after) that he has the team's support and no one cares what this blogger thinks. But they didn't do that. They got defensive and pissy in a very public way. And by doing that, the Royals sent a signal to an important segment of their fan base -- the plugged-in segment -- that they can't tolerate reasoned criticism. And if one can't tolerate reasoned criticism, one isn't going to act on it. Which raises the question: In light of this, why on Earth would anyone with a brain continue to be a Royals fan?* UPDATE II: This is not the first time the Royals have acted so petulantly. UPDATE III: It's over, and while the Royals are apparently still barring their employees from appearing on Rany's radio show -- as is their right -- they have rescinded their threat to bar team-access to any station that airs Rany's show (got that?). Of course, as J.C. Bradbury noted on his Facebook post "They recanted only b/c they got caught." Specifically, because an Internet #### storm happened and everyone saw how ridiculous the Royals were being. None of this changes what I said above about the Royals. There's no escaping that they're focused on the wrong things. There's also no escaping that, if this how they respond to external dissent, there's no reason to believe that they're making the right decisions internally either, because all good decisions are made in a setting where people can feel free to say anything without fear of reprisal. This was probably stated too strongly and/or inartfully. I did not mean to say that Royals fans are stupid. I understand that fandom is not always a rational thing. The comment was merely intended to make even ardent Royals supporters think hard about their support for their team in light of this little development. I probably could have stated it better. Meet Selena Roberts (and an actually worthy person too)Here's an event for you, at least if you're in Brooklyn this evening: Gelf's Varsity Letters sports reading series returns on Thursday, July 2, at 7:30 p.m., with a night dedicated to baseball. At this free monthly event in DUMBO, Brooklyn, hosted by Gelf and Jan Larsen Art, Scott Price, Selena Roberts, and members of the New York Daily News sports investigative team will read from and talk about their work, and take questions. Price has the wrenching tale of the life and death of [Mike Coolbaugh]. Roberts will speak about her controversial biography of Alex Rodriguez. And the Daily News team will discuss its exposé of Roger Clemens and steroids in baseball. Admission is free. Go to mock Selena Roberts, but stay to listen to Scott Price, whose Coolbaugh book sounds really, really good. Hicks in hockThe Rangers' financial woes continue: Amid increased internet chatter Wednesday that Tom Hicks’ sports group - Hicks Sports Group - financial woes are deepening and that the club has borrowed money from MLB’s rainy-day fund, team officials took a strange approach. It's only a matter of time before the Rangers' become baseball's General Motors. Jason Bay to become a U.S. CitizenI think I read about this a couple of weeks ago, but today's the actual ceremony: Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay has long played America's pastime and will now be able to call himself an American. The 30-year-old player from Canada becomes a U.S. citizen Thursday afternoon in a ceremony at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall. Bay is from British Columbia and is the first Red Sox player to be naturalized since Dominican-born David Ortiz was sworn in last summer in Fenway Park. Sure, he'll tell you that it's because he's married to a U.S. citizen and that he plans to make his home here and all of that, but if you don't think this is a move borne of lingering embarrassment over the circumstances of the British North America Act, well, you're just crazy. Jim Leyritz continues to impressBeautiful: Former major leaguer Jim Leyritz was arrested Thursday in South Florida on charges of domestic battery against his ex-wife, just two months before his trial on a DUI manslaughter charge was set to begin. This would be the ex-wife who, according to Leyritz's weepy interview last month, "moved back in to help with expenses and the kids" when he was in desperate straits following the fatal accident. You're welcome, jackass. UPDATE: Yes, I note the conflicting reports, and I also note that the article itself says that Leyritz told police that his ex-wife was drunk and hurt herself to retaliate for him trying to evict her. I have no idea what actually happened, but (a) it was apparently ugly either way; and (b) I've been calling Leyrtiz a jackass since October 1996 and I have no plans of stopping now. Minnesota IceI love Joe Mauer, but I'm guessing he's got no flow: Joe Mauer is from Minnesota. He is white. He plays Major League Baseball. He is considered something of a pretty boy. None of these four things outlaws him from practicing his secret hobby. All of them combined into one 6-foot-5, sideburn-wearing, .400-flirting catcher, however, makes for the unlikeliest rapper in the history of rap. When I started my new job back in February, I made one or two off the cuff comments about "Watchmen," and suddenly I was transformed into the office comic book geek. Never mind that, aside from a handful of well-known graphic novels, I own virtually no comic books. For me it's basically "Watchmen," some assorted Batman stuff and that's it. But when people don't know your personal habits very well, they tend to latch onto the first semi-defining trait of which they hear. I mentioned a comic book, so I'm the comic book guy, and that's just how it kind of goes in offices. Which is one of the many reasons why you don't even joke about some crap at work. This strikes me as one of those deals. Mauer probably had one too many Sheep Head Ales, beatbox into a tape recorder, and the rest is somewhat inaccurate history. (thanks to YankeeFanLen for the link) My Morning in ExileThings I wrote while trying to decide whether it would worse to be a lawyer handling the Michael Jackson estate or a lawyer having to tell this woman's family that, no, there probably isn't a viable products liability lawsuit coming out of this. Wait, that's crazy. Guys will be lining up to file that lawsuit, and this time next year your thermostat will have a 36-point font: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||