Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Great Moments in Plagiarization


ESPN plagiarised -- and then un-plagiarised and apologized for plagiarising -- a story on my NBC colleague Mike Florio's Pro Football Talk blog. Best part of it is the first comment on ESPN's article after the correction was made:

Jesus... at least plagiarize a legitimate site... you're now poaching off of a failed lawyer's sports blog

That works for me on so many levels.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:24pm (5) Comments

The Nats lay people off


From Washington Business Journal:

The Washington Nationals, which finished its 2009 season with the worst record in baseball, recently laid off several people in the team's executive offices, according to sources close to the team. Two former employees, who asked not to be identified, admitted to being laid off by the team.

One former employee, who worked as an account executive in the sales department, said he was let go last month. “There wasn’t much to it,” he said in a phone interview on Friday. “If you lose that many games there’s going to be changes to any organization, on and off the field. I think I was just part of that downsizing.” He said he was “definitely one of several” laid off in his department, which he said was made up of about 15 people. “We were told they were just downsizing and they basically left it at that . . . it was almost like a last in, first out kind of thing.”

So I guess that means the other person let go was Strasburg?
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:05pm (4) Comments

McCourt Update


I didn't get to it today due to other obligations, but you don't need me when you have Josh to tell you all that has happened. Obviously the most notable thing in all of this is that the person who will be overseeing the case is named Commissioner Gordon.

It's nice to see him back to work after what happened to Barbara.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:43pm (2) Comments

My Morning in Exile


For reasons that aren't important, I took out a supplemental disability insurance policy a few years ago. I can't remember the terms and don't have the policy handy, so I got on the phone with my broker this morning and asked him if the fact that I'm not going to be a lawyer anymore makes a difference for my coverage. I won't bore you with the details, but the conversation ended with "well, you're still basically going to be sitting in front of a computer and typing all day, so it's not like anything new is happening . . ." Nothin' like that kind of ego boost to power you through your day!

  • The Indians name the Pride of Mt. Gilead, Ohio their new pitching coach. Why they want the late Tom Poston as their pitching coach is beyond me, but given what he has to work with there, being alive wouldn't make much of a difference.


  • Your offseason calendar. It's kind of like your work calendar: filled with pointless meetings.


  • Joe Girardi may change his number to 28. Hold firm, Shelly Duncan! I mean, c'mon, what are they gonna do if you don't give it up? Release you? Wait, don't answer that question . . .


  • Seventy nine players filed for free agency yesterday. The rush to sign Eric Milton to a multi-year deal begins.


  • You'll be shocked to hear that Curt Schilling has an opinion about Pedro Martinez.


  • Finally, at least a Dairy Queen has Dilly Bars. What's Houston got?


    • It may be quiet this afternoon. I have all manner of administrative hooey I need to deal with. I've been leaving jobs at a fairly regular clip for 20 years now, and the paperwork just gets more arduous.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:39am (10) Comments

    Deep Thoughts: Tim Lincecum Edition


    I'm sure you've all seen this by now:

    An officer approached Lincecum's 2006 Mercedes and smelled marijuana as the pitcher rolled down his window. Schatzel said Lincecum immediately complied with a request to hand over the drug and a marijuana pipe from the car's center console.

    Lincecum pitched a two-hit shutout last June 29th, but this was his first career one-hitter.

    Congratulations, Tim!
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:23am (26) Comments