Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Great Moments in Futility


Yesterday, Roger Clemens' filed a motion asking the judge in the defamation action to reconsider his February 12th ruling which essentially gutted his case. As I sat here a few minutes ago reading about it, I realized that I couldn't recall a single instance in my nearly 11-year legal career in which a motion for reconsideration was granted. So I walked down the hall and asked a more senior colleague of mine if he's ever been party to or opposite of a successful motion for reconsideration. He too said that he couldn't remember it ever working either.

So good luck with that, Rusty.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:27pm (5) Comments

Those who ignore history . . .


Chip Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle is miffed that Lew Wolff isn't even considering Oakland in the effort to get a new stadium for the A's. Fair enough, even though the economics probably aren't on his side. But then Johnson trips the light moronic:

In light of the team's stated unwillingness to even consider another proposal for an Oakland-based stadium, city officials should seek the help of congressional representatives in finding a way to persuade league offices to help find a suitable alternative.

In the absence of that help and the continued unwillingness of team officials to even consider another site in Oakland, the city should follow Cleveland's suit, and sue for the right to retain the team name and first consideration the next time a ball club wants to change location.

In 1995, the Browns announced their intention to move to Baltimore and a year later, they became the Ravens.

Whether or not Wolff, a developer and businessman, recognizes it, the Athletics baseball team is synonymous with Oakland.

You would think that an editor would require Johnson to at least mention Philadelphia or Kansas City before saying such a thing. Then again, given how unstable things are at the Chron these days, I suppose they're too busy updating their resumes or applying to law school or something to care.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:33pm (7) Comments

Ecosystems


For those who found value in yesterday's media piece, here's a much, much longer and richer take on the future of news from Steven Berlin Johnson. No, he doesn't have all of the answers either, but there are a ton of powerful ideas in there that will ultimately help those who do come up with the answers. Among them: an increased focus on the hyper-local, borne of the realization that while we may lament the loss of the city daily because there won't be a metro section anymore, that metro section never covered what we wanted to see anyway. Neighborhood reporters and bloggers -- who will ultimately fit into some form of filtering/aggregation system -- will one day make us wonder what we ever did for local news before.

The same goes for sports coverage, I would argue, as team, sport, and subject-specific blogs become increasingly refined, reliable, and findable. The big question -- and one near and dear to my heart, of course -- is how you compensate people under such a scenario, which I think is pretty essential. Maybe not immediately in that there are and always will be a ton of great amateur blogs out there and some level of amateurism actually ads some depth to the party. But ask yourself: how many good blogs have you seen close shop because the author's professional or personal life demanded it? I can think of several. Maybe that doesn't yet matter all that much, but in a brave new world in which people are truly getting their content from multiple sources, won't we want at least some level of continuity?

Anyway, just one of many things to chew on in Johnson's piece.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:23am (13) Comments

Deja Vu All Over Again


Lar at Wezen-Ball has a fascinating look back at what folks were saying the last time Yankee Stadium was replaced. And it seems like the second verse is the same as the first:

In less than one month now, the new Yankee Stadium will open amidst a sea of publicity and fanfare. Newspapers and television networks and blogs will wax poetic about the "dawn of a new age" and the bittersweet transition of old to new. Some will focus their attentions on the cost overruns and the city's questionable roll in the construction. Regardless, there will be plenty of discussion and press when the Yankees make their regular-season home-debut this April.

I know, I know... that isn't the boldest of predictions to make. But I feel more than confident when I say that - and that's mostly because this isn't new at all. Back in 1976, the old Yankee Stadium re-opened after having been closed for two years for remodeling. The interior of the stadium was completely rebuilt, including the fences, the seats, the roof, and the original grandstand. When the remodeled Yankee Stadium opened that year, the sportswriters of the time took notice and spent their column space doing exactly what we know today's sportswriters will do next month: waxing poetic about the "dawn of a new age" and the "bittersweet transition of old to new" and also talking about the cost overruns and the city's questionable roll in the construction.

As is Lar's wont, he provides extensive quotations of and great links to contemporaneous accounts, so I highly recommend that you click through and spend some time reading the material he has assembled.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:10am (1) Comments

Deep Thought


Davy Johnson said that he'd rather forfeit the WBC than play someone out of position at catcher, fearing that such a thing risks injury. Why then did he have no problem playing my team's catcher out of position in left field? Yes, I will grant that it's easier to get hurt catching than it is playing left, but radically out of position is radically out of position, no?

Atlanta has already lost Chipper Jones for some amount of time, and given his history, he'll be nagged all year with this injury. If McCann had hurt himself too, there wouldn't be much point to the Braves' season, now, would there?
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:45am (5) Comments

Guzzler Litigation


The big Coca-Cola bottle in the outfield of AT&T Park in San Francisco has a slide in it, and that slide is called the Guzzler. The sign says "keep your head and arms inside the Guzzler at all times." But Chad Mello -- HE WAS A DAREDEVIL! -- just like his old man!

"My foot just twisted and got caught in one of the turns, the rest of my body just went forward; I felt a pop in my knee and I immediately knew something was wrong," Chad Mello said. Mello shattered his knee and broke his ankle as he slid down the giant Coca-Cola slide called the Guzzler. Mello took his family to the ballpark in July 2008 as a birthday gift for his son Calvin.
Mello's lawsuit comes on the heels of a jury's decision last fall to award $177,000 to Terry Raush, who was also injured riding the Guzzler. She won her lawsuit against Coca-Cola and the Giants. Her attorney Fred Meis now represents Mello. Coca-Cola continues to contend the slide is safe.

I really have no idea if these suits have any merit. Maybe the slides are inherently dangerous and maybe the Giants and Coke and whoever else is capable of accepting service of process didn't do everything they could do to make them safe. I just can't help but wonder, however, why adults are allowed to go down a big playground slide in the first place. And don't tell me it's a safety-of-children thing. As far as we know, kids aren't getting hurt doing this. Indeed, in my own experience, kids can do all sorts of things without getting hurt -- running, jumping, skipping, falling, fighting, stretching, eating stuff with sugar in it, waking up early -- that put us grownups down for the count.

There are big plastic animals and climby things in the middle of a mall near our house. If a kid over the age of 10 or so gets on them, security comes and shoos them away because they're too big. I can't see why the Giants don't institute the same policy with the Guzzler.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:06am (9) Comments

Average Postseason Revenue


We all know that making the postseason = $$$. Maury Brown has decided to measure how much $$$.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 8:41am (0) Comments

Jeff Pearlman Interview at IIATMS


Jason has 20 questions for author/Facebook addict Jeff Pearlman about his new book "The Rocket that Fell to Earth." Pearlman is a really direct guy, so there's a lot of good stuff in there. My favorite part:

IIATMS: Does Clemens regret:
a. Using?
b. His defense?
c. Anything?

JP: Roger Clemens doesn't do regret.

It seems that people either love Pearlman's work or hate it, and my guess is that it's that kind of directness, as opposed to a more detached reporter's perspective that accounts for that. Indeed, there have been times when I've taken issue with Pearlman's stuff for exactly that reason. Still, I think we're better off having someone like Pearlman around. He's insanely prolific, picks interesting subjects and, while he may occasionally engage in some hyperbole, you always know where he's coming from.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:30am (3) Comments

180 IP > 75 IP


There are few debates that aggravated me more last year than the one about Joba Chamberlain's role. Thankfully, that debate has been ended:

Some believe Chamberlain's highest value is as the eighth-inning bridge to Mariano Rivera, while others think the 23-year-old fireballer better serves the Yankees by pitching five, six or seven innings every fifth day.

The only voices that matter in this debate are the ones that make the decisions for the Yankees, namely general manager Brian Cashman, skipper Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland, who all firmly believe that Chamberlain's future is in the starting rotation. That's where the Yankees say he'll begin this season.

"I understand that (other) side of the argument," Eiland said. "There's no denying what he did out of the pen. Could we put him back there right now and have him do the same thing? Sure. But power guys don't come around that often with the four pitches that he has. When they do, they're in a rotation somewhere - usually in the top three spots."

Well, given that this is New York, I suppose the debate is only over until the first time he doesn't pitch a shutout over eight innings. But still.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:00am (5) Comments

Today at THT


Things to read while realizing that sometimes it's better to let the metaphors go and simply call it like you see it:

  • Scott Lucas has five questions about the Texas Rangers. Question number 6: how much money would the Rangers pay you if you built a machine that turned corner guys with some pop into starting pitchers? $5 million? $10 million?


  • Steve Treder has part 2 of his look at the Branch Rickey Pirates. As I mentioned over the weekend, I just read and reviewed a book about Walter O'Malley. The entire time I was reading it, I kept thinking "boy, I can't wait until Rickey shows up again, he's way more interesting than O'Malley." I think the author might have felt that way too.


  • Dan Turkenkopf analyzes Vernon Wells. Dan prefers a Jungian critique, whereas I dismiss the accumulative phenomenology of symbols and dreams, taking more of a Freudian approach.


  • Peter Jensen has part 3 of his Gameday/fielding metric analysis.

  • Paul Singman shares his Yahoo! team roster with us. I have a Yahoo! draft coming up a week from Wednesday. I have this feeling my team won't look as good as Paul's.


  • Finally, Eriq Gardner talks about "unsexy balance." I haven't read the article yet, but I'm going to assume it's about someone putting their socks on in the morning without sitting down.
    • Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:56am (0) Comments