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February 10, 2012
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Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.Monday, July 27, 2009AP tries to rein in the bloggersThey're claiming that links to Associated Press stories violate fair use: Tom Curley, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, said the company’s position was that even minimal use of a news article online required a licensing agreement with the news organization that produced it. In an interview, he specifically cited references that include a headline and a link to an article, a standard practice of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, news aggregators and blogs. As Ed Morrissey notes, "the AP doesn’t get to determine what “fair use” means." That's for Congress and the courts. Ultimately, I think this means little for Joe Blogger or Joe Gigantic Search EngineCo. Why? Because to have any teeth the AP will have to sue, and if they sue, they run the distinct risk of the courts expanding, not limiting, the definition of fair use. I am willing to bet you several thousand dollars that the AP doesn't have anything approaching an accurate estimation of what kind of revenues they'd realize if people actually bought blockquoting licenses from them. Put a risk of losing existing fair use protection against an uncertain reward, and you've got what amounts to a giant flashing sign that says "don't overplay your hand here, buster." (link via Sullivan, who does not yet charge for content) Even firing Bernazard is crazyReader Brian is watching the press conference: For those unable to watch the press conference, this is completely amazing. Adam Rubin of the Daily News did most of the reporting on Bernazard and Minaya just said that Rubin has lobbied in the past for a job with the Mets in player development. Does Omar not read the papers? Does he not realize that throwing such a thing out there -- even if true -- is going to inspire about 12 attacks a day? Is this the GM's equivalent of suicide-by-cop? UPDATE: Here's the psycho press conference in question. Are athletes taking fewer PEDs these days?Buried in a somewhat yawn-inducing story about SuperFed Jeff Novitsky's quest to serve search warrants on every man, woman and child in the United States by 2016, is an interesting quote from the BALCO-riffic Victor Conte: "I don't believe competitive athletes are using designer steroids now. They're too easily detected - they have too many red flags. As soon as you use them you send a signal to your body to stop producing its own testosterone and they can flag that. Now, they just use low-dose testosterone. The safest thing is to stay below the testing ratio." If there's any truth to this -- and say what you want about Conte, but he's not an idiot about these things -- it suggests that, contrary to the assumptions of many, athletes aren't moving on to more and more exotic PEDs in their oft-repeated effort to "stay one step ahead of the anti-doping authorities." They've stepped back, and as a result, the PED influence in sports is diminishing. Tony Bernazard is shown the doorNo word on if he challenged the door to a fight: Mets VP for player development Tony Bernazard has been fired, multiple sources with ties to the organization confirmed to the Daily News. The move is expected to be made official at a press conference at Citi Field this afternoon. I can't recall ever hearing about a sub-GM level front office employee in the news as much as I've heard about Bernazard in the past year or so. Which, I suppose, is why he's being fired. I’ll have a steak sandwich and a steak sandwichHey, you and Tommy Lasorda? I hate Tommy Lasorda. No, it doesn't have anything to do with baseball, but it can be filed generally under obsessions. Probably worth mentioning here that seeing Gail Stanwyk in minor roles in two of my other obsessions were among my entertainment highlights of the 1990s. Bobby V is definitely freeI think this was already more or less a certainty, but now it's more and more a certainty: Bobby Valentine says he won't be back with the Chiba Lotte Marines next season even as the Japanese team's fans lobby management to keep him . . . In a statement on his Web site, Valentine says leaving the team "is best for the Chiba Lotte Marines." Given what's happened to the Mets this year, is there any doubt that this will foment a major "Bring Bobby Back!" push among the New York tabloids? That he'll be compared to post-Gaul, pre-Rubicon Caesar, poised to come back and, um, do whatever Caesar did before he got murdered (sorry, I don't really remember much of that stuff. I got all of my humanities credits in English)? Whatever they do, I suspect that we'll see Bobby Valentine a lot next year, be it on ESPN or in a Major League dugout. My Morning in ExileA day on which saying that Rickey Henderson came off as humble is probably only the third most controversial thing I said: I have to take a longish lunch during which I'm giving a talk about deposition preparation. Here's a brief preview: You look down, they know you're lying and up, they know you don't know the truth. Don't use seven words when four will do. Don't shift your weight, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, be funny but don't make him laugh. He's got to like you then forget you the moment you've left his side. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't, under any circumstances... Back early afternoon. IIATMS visits Yankee StadiumJason is about as objective as it comes in the Yankee blogosphere, so it comes as no surprise that his review of Yankee Stadium -- following his first-ever visit there yesterday -- is tough but fair. Many of the comments echo those heard in every city that has gotten a new park in the past 15-20 years: nice, comfortable, but a suggestion that it's maybe too comfortable somehow. Jason kind of sums it all up with this humdinger, characterizing the transition from Yankee Stadium v1.1 to v2.0: It was a rebel bad-ass that got married, had his hair cut, leather jacket donated to the Salvation Army, and fitted in a pair of pressed chinos and an oxford. Just not quite the same. In other news, I now feel vicariously poorer after reading Jason's description of how much everything cost. Dear Lord. And That HappenedPhillies 9, Cardinals 2: Trading for Matt Holliday is all Wellemeyer and good, but you gotta pitch too. Despite their new bauble, the Cards drop two of three to the Phils, and find themselves knocked out of first place because . . . Cubs 5, Reds 2: The Cubbies are on fire. I was a guest on WDWS radio in Champaign, Illinois last month, and host Brian Moline asked me how I liked the Cardinals chances. My answer boiled down to "with Albert, all things are possible." I noted, however, that at the time just about every single thing you can imagine had gone wrong for the Cubs yet (a) they were still only two games out and; (b) some things would stop going wrong for them eventually. That seems to have happened (or stopped happening depending on your point of view), and it's now a very real race. I'm going to be on WDWS again on Tuesday, and I suspect I will gloat a bit. I may even mention that I'm an Ohio State fan too, which should really make me popular in Cardinals/Illini country. Yankees 7, A's 5: The Yankees are 9-1 out of the break. Sure, seven of those ten games have come against last place teams (Baltimore and Oakland) but they still count and there's something to be said about winning the ones you're supposed to. Apropos of nothing, I'm reading this box score as I watch the Tigers-White Sox game, and I'm realizing that, all year, I thought that Adam Kennedy was playing for the Tigers and Adam Everett was playing for the A's instead of the other way around. Not sure if that says more about those guys or me as a writer. Either way, I'm sure I could have gone with that misconception all season and never once had it really matter for bloggy purposes. Orioles 6, Red Sox 2: Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Red Sox and their use of John Smoltz. Smoltzie, who won't get too many cheers from me until he's back in Atlanta for his number retiring ceremony next summer, gave up another six runs on nine hits in five innings. As predicted, he's really becoming a difference maker in the AL East race. Blue Jays 5, Rays 1: A bit of a letdown for the Rays after mounting an eight-run comeback in twelve innings on Saturday night. Which itself came a couple of days after getting blanked by Mark Buehrle. Maybe the Rays were just tired of talking to the media about big doings. Tampa Bay now has a series against the Yankees, a breather against the Royals, and then a short series against the Red Sox. Anytime is a good time, but now would be a particularly good time to make a move and get off the fringes and into the, well, whatever the opposite of "fringes" are of the AL East race. Is "fringes" a blanket metaphor? What the hell do you call the middle of a blanket? Braves 10, Brewers 2: A day off for Chipper meant a rare start for Kelly Johnson, with Martin Prado sliding over to third. Johnson responded by going 3-4 with a double, a homer and two RBI. Though it makes sense that Prado has the job from here on out, I haven't yet given up on Kelly Johnson, and I believe that he can still be an important part of this nutritious breakfast. Atlanta is making up no ground on the Phillies these days because the Phillies don't fell much like losing anymore, but they're only 3.5 back in the wild card race, tied with an inferior Marlins team, and trailing the flailing Cards and Giants. The Rockies sit at the top of that heap, however, and since their turnaround this year seems to have been caused by one of these, they may be tough to catch. Nationals 3, Padres 2: Without looking at official attendance, I'm going to wager that tens and tens of people watched this one. Probably fair to say that, overall records aside, the Padres are a worse team than the Nats are. Royals too, for that matter. And speaking of the Royals . . . Rangers 7, Royals 2: You have to figure that the Royals are going to win the game when Sidney frickin' Ponson of all people throws six scoreless innings, but it wasn't to be. Another day, another bullpen implosion, another loss. Can't really blame Hillman for not sending out Soria this time as he threw two innings and 37 pitches on Saturday. You can blame Alberto Callaspo, however, who dropped a pop fly that would have ended the seventh inning with no runs scoring instead of the three that did, and Juan Cruz who got shellacked once again. What's with Cruz, anyway? After ending April with a 1.69 ERA, he threw up a 6.00 for May, a 6.97 for June, and an 8.22 so far in July. I'm no mathematician, but I think that puts him on pace to, um [carry the two . . .] be really, really awful for August and September. Mets 8, Astros 3: Ponson and Livan Hernandez (7 IP, 8 H, 3 ER) each pitched well yesterday. In other news, I started to dig a bunker in the backyard. You can never be too careful with sings and portents and whatnot. Rockies 4, Giants 2: As mentioned in the Braves recap, the Giants are in near free fall and the Rockies are bulletproof. Colorado now goes on the road for ten games. In years past I'd say something like "now's the time when the competition can make their move," but this Rockies team isn't like the Rockies teams of old. They have 54 wins this year. 27 of them came at home. 27 have come on the road. Twins 10, Angels 1: Justin Morneau now leads the AL in both homers and RBI. If he keeps that up, he may very well lead all of baseball in the category of most undeserved MVP awards, lifetime. Though to be fair to him, if the music stopped right now, a 2009 MVP award would be less egregious than his 2006 award and his second place finish in 2008. He's having a good season. If either he or Mauer are gonna get voter love, though, the Twins have to do better than this, as they're just 4-6 since the break. Marlins 8, Dodgers 6: Jason Schmidt pitches again, is bad again, but this time he doesn't dodge the bullets he did against the Reds on Monday. Will he get another start? If he does, this business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it. Indians 12, Mariners 3: Break up the Tribe! They sweep a good Mariners team and are riding a four game winning streak. And they really bombed out the Ms, outscoring them 31-6 in the three game series. The Mariners fall to 7.5 games back of the Angels and 6.5 back in the wild card race. Which sucks, but may make it easier for Jack Zduriencik to do some deals that need doing rather than go through the motions of being in a playoff race. White Sox 5, Tigers 1: This one was over quick, as Rick Porcello pitched the first inning like he was 20 years-old or somethin': nibbling, worrying about the runners too much, then making a mental error on defense when he didn't cover first like he should have, then giving up a howitzer shot to Paul Konerko. Down 4-0 before even getting to bat, The Tigers couldn't muster much of anything against Clayton Richard (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER). Not even Adam EVERETT could get a hit. Still a good weekend for Detroit, which beat back the Sox, taking three of four as soon as they got really close at the end of last week. Diamondbacks 9, Pirates 0: I wonder if pitchers watched Mark Buehrle throw that perfecto the other day and thought "hey, why don't I work quickly, trust my stuff, and throw strikes more often?" Max Scherzer may have, because he was down to bidness yesterday, throwing 85 of his 109 pitches for strikes, didn't walk anyone, which is rare for him, and reached a three-ball count only twice. Gerardo Parra finished a triple short of the cycle. Story of my life, man. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||