Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

My Morning in Exile


Before we get to the posts, take a look at some amazing pictures of that Utah salt flat NASA tried to sucker us into believing was the moon forty years ago.

  • "If you look beyond the Yankees" there is no competitive balance problem in baseball. And if you leave out the killings, Washington has a very low crime rate!


  • There's a construction law case I worked on at my old firm that has been active since 2000 with no end in sight. The 2003 steroids testing raid is gaining.


  • There aren't many rallying cries less inspiring than "Bring back Riggleman!" but in this case it's probably the right call.


  • Right now I wouldn't bet against John Lackey winding up in the Bronx.


  • Varitek exercises his option. Sadly, he pulled it while exercising it and will be on the 15 day DL.


  • Mark Cuban says he'd buy the Dodgers if they were up for sale. If the McCourt battle gets as ugly as I suspect it will, he may actually look like a palatable option to Major League Baseball for the first time ever.


    • I wish the photo at the link would have focused more on the West Crater so we could see the Monolith. Wait -- It's buried 40 feet below the lunar surface near the crater Tycho. Forget I said anything.

    UPDATE: The 2001 reference got me surfing, and I made it over to the "memorable quotes" section of the IMDB page for the sequel, "2010." This passage stood out:

    Heywood Floyd: I'd love a hot dog.

    Walter Curnow: Astrodome. Good hot dogs there.

    Heywood Floyd: Astrodome? You can't grow a good hot dog indoors. Yankee Stadium. September. The hot dogs have been boiling since opening day in April. Now that's a hot dog.

    Walter Curnow: The yellow mustard or the darker kind?

    Heywood Floyd: The darker kind.

    Walter Curnow: Very important.

    It's not quite 2010, and neither of those stadiums exist anymore. I can't help but think the writers of the flick, back in 1984, thought "well, the Astrodome is totally futuristic, so it'll still be around 25 years from now. And Yankee Stadium is freakin' Yankee Stadium. Let's go with those references.!"

    And while I'm rambling, allow me to go on record as absolutely loving "2010." No, 2001 didn't call out for a sequel -- quite the opposite actually -- and it's not as good as 2001, not does it even attempt to be. But it works on its own merits, and has a bunch of nifty performances by actors I really like. Lithgow and Scheider mostly, but the always welcome Bob Balaban as well. I probably watched that flick on HBO 100 times when I was a kid, and if it's ever on now -- usually SciFi or some other low rent channel -- I'll watch it all the way through again.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:20am (16) Comments

    Don’t bring Griffey back Seattle


    The Seattle Times' Larry Stone thinks that the Mariners should bring Ken Griffey Jr. back. There are many words, but it essentially boils down to this:

    I believe Griffey still has something to offer. He can tickle Ichiro, bring laughter to the clubhouse, hit an occasional bomb and take one more crack at October.

    Sounds great to me.

    With the exception of the occasional bomb, he can do those things as a bench coach. And those occasional bombs are more than outweighed by his other liabilities. Just say no, Seattle.

    Retire his number on opening day. Enshrine him in any Hall of Fame at your disposal. Offer him any job in the organization he wants this side of GM. But don't give the man a roster spot.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:20am (12) Comments