|
November 8, 2009
Who is Shyster?Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Rob Neyer, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT.
 Plus our Statistical Definitions Monthly Archives
November, 2009
October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008
Or you can search by:
Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets. Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com. Chicago Cubs Tickets Chicago Tickets  All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Most Recent Comments
The Nats lay people off (2)
Great Moments in Plagiarization (5) McCourt Update (2) My Morning in Exile (10) Deep Thoughts: Tim Lincecum Edition (26) Shyster's Daily Circuit
Rob Neyer
AaronGleeman.com Joe Posnanski Blog Baseball Analysts Baseball Musings Cot's Baseball Contracts It IS About the Money Keith Law Cardboard Gods Baseball Think Factory MLB Trade Rumors Retrosheet Vegas Watch Way Back and Gone Bats -- NYT Baseball Blog The Biz of Baseball The Daily Fungo U.S.S. Mariner Braves Journal Scott Simkus The Common Man Jorge Says No! Baseball Over Here Fack Youk Wezen-Ball Chop-n-Change |
Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.Friday, November 06, 2009Great Moments in PlagiarizationESPN 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 The Nats lay people offFrom 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. So I guess that means the other person let go was Strasburg? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:05pm McCourt UpdateI 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 My Morning in ExileFor 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!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 Deep Thoughts: Tim Lincecum EditionI'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 Thursday, November 05, 2009Bit dramatic, ain’t it?I'd like to think that the announcement by Bugs & Cranks' Dave Chalk that he is quitting the baseball blogging business is dry humor, and that his leaving B&C is occasioned by another offer or a lack of free time or something as opposed to truly being disgusted with the sport. If not, it's simply baffling. He's been blogging about baseball for less than three years. None of the factors he cites -- high payroll teams having advantages, steroids -- came onto the scene anew during that period.If he is being straight-up about it, it just reinforces what I've always told people who ask me about blogging: I don't care if it's baseball or politics or tech or sitcoms or the self-indulgent, overrated novels of Susan Sontag. If you're going to seriously blog about something, you had better love the subject matter or at the very least find your peace with its flaws, because you're going to be living and breathing it. Good luck with whatever you're moving on to, David. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:08pm Judge to Jamie McCourt: No you can not have your job backNot yours:A court commissioner has denied Jamie McCourt's bid to be reinstated as the chief executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon ruled Thursday in Los Angeles there is no state law to support her bid. I hate it when judges cite B.S. reasons for ruling against you. Stuff like "there's no state law to support your arguments" and "your pleading was a month late" and "you're not wearing any pants, Mr. Calcaterra, please cover yourself before I throw you in jail, you utter disgrace of an attorney." You know, just by way of example. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:43pm My Morning in ExileNot sure why I'm writing this -- I'm guessing most readers are off work today for Guy Fawkes Day and everything -- but for those of you in essential services . . .Glad the series ended last night. If it had gone to Game 7, I'd have a living room half full of baseball fans and half full of people commemorating the unravelling of the Gunpowder Plot! AWK-ward! Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:35pm The Yankees and the DUI checkpointThis story is mostly about Joe Girardi helping an accident victim on his way home from the ballpark last night, but this is all kinds of fun:Police were in the area conducting a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. In fact, about 15 minutes earlier, Girardi had passed through a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. Cristiano, who was working the checkpoint, congratulated him on his first win as a manager and waved him through. He hadn't been the only Yankees member to pass by the checkpoint. Pitcher Andy Pettitte also passed through earlier. Of course it makes perfect sense that Girardi and Pettitte were waved through with a smile. I mean, it's not like there was any video of them drowning in booze from less than two hours prior . . . Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:47am And That Happened: World SeriesYankees 7, Phillies 3: Champs. You saw it, so no need for me to describe it. I'll just offer some observations:I suppose I could go on all day. And really, there won't be much other news happening, so I probably will. For now, congratulations to the 2009 New York Yankees, champions of baseball. 151 days until Opening Day. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:40am Wednesday, November 04, 2009Viva DemocracyWith perks like these, you'd think the folks in Congress wouldn't beat baseball up over steroids and stuff as often as they do. I mean really, isn't a bribe worth anything in Washington anymore?Tickets for Wednesday's World Series game are nearly impossible to come by at face value. But that isn't the case if you are a member of Congress or one of their aides. (thanks to reader Rich C. for the link) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:02pm My Morning in ExileJust want to thank everyone for all the kind words in my little ego thread yesterday. It's humbling to say the least. I feel like Johnny Fever after he told people to go throw garbage on the steps of city hall and they actually, you know, did it. I'll try to get back into my usual snarky-ass ways as the day progresses, but I'll admit: it would be way easier if Bailey Quarters were here to help me get my mojo back like she helped Johnny in that episode. Alas.BTW: Happy 59th birthday to Markie Post. (Call me). Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:00am Great Moments in Being Vicente PadillaLadies and gentleman, the man on which Joe Torre depended to stave off elimination in the NLCS:Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla accidentally shot himself in the right leg, the Dodgers confirmed Tuesday, but the wound is believed to be minor. Whatever. I couldn't get too mad about that, even if I was a Dodgers fan. What I can't abide, however, is the fact that one of my NBC colleagues stole the Warren Zevon reference I was going to drop. I'm not going to get a chance like that again. At least until some ballplayer loses their head in a war in the Congo. I haven't officially signed my NBC deal yet, but rest assured, prior to doing so I will check the fine print to make sure that I have the authority to have Harkins killed if something like this happens again. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:31am Tuesday, November 03, 2009Programming NoteWhen I started writing ShysterBall in the spring of 2007, the idea was to give myself a place to be where I could escape the stress and unpleasantness of my legal career, if only for the briefest of moments. As time went on, it began to consume more and more of my waking hours and, in all honesty, interfering pretty significantly with that legal career. No, I never dropped the ball on a case, but it has been a struggle. I mean really, how is someone supposed to prepare for an oral argument when Roger Clemens is testifying before Congress? I'd like to say that I eventually managed to find balance with all of this, but that would be a lie. My life hasn't been in balance since at least 2006. Maybe earlier. Something has to be done. So I'm doing it:I'm quitting the law. Starting November 30th I will be writing about baseball full time for NBC Sports.com. Obviously this wasn't a unilateral decision on my part. NBC has decided that they want me all-in on Circling the Bases, and that's not the kind of thing you have to ask me twice. The people over there have been fantastic to me since I started moonlighting back in April. They've never censored a word I've written. They've never declared a topic off-limits. Their instructions to me when I started were to make some f*cking noise, and they've allowed me to do that non-stop since. When they asked me to do it full time, it was a complete no-brainer. I don't yet know how it's going to all work out -- the enormity of this is just starting to sink in -- but to say I'm excited would be something of an understatement. Q: But Craig! Where am I going to go for my daily ATH fix come April?! A: Right here. Well, to THT at least, because NBC has been good enough to allow me to keep doing ATH and posting it at The Hardball Times (see above about NBC being totally cool). It likely won't be in ShysterBall, because the ShysterBall name is going to go into mothballs. Right now the smart money is on it appearing as a daily post at THT Live, but we'll give you lots of advanced notice once the good Mr. Studeman and I figure it out. The upshot, though, is that everyone involved realizes just how valuable an outlet and how outstanding the readership and community is at THT, and no one wants to mess with a good thing. Day-to-day blogging will be at NBC, but ATH will continue to appear at The Hardball Times. Q: But Craig! How can you subject yourself to the kind of abuse you get from the commenters over there every day? A: I've learned a lot in a short period of time. I've also noticed a slight uptick in commenter quality as time has gone on. I credit many of you for that, as I have been seeing a lot of familiar commenting handles migrate over to NBC as the year has progressed. I hope that continues. And I'm sure that it can. None of you are the type who can't handle more baseball in your lives, so I'm sure you can make a point to be good boys and girls and read your THT, and then come over to NBC to see what I'm up to. Q: So, like, what does this all mean for you? A: I don't know. No shaving. Pants optional. Walking kids to the bus stop. Cheaper coffee. More time to go to the gym. Occasional cushion forts in the living room. I'm sure it's going to be an adjustment process. I'll ask Neyer what he does with his days. OK, enough self-indulgent crap, we have almost a month to get all of that in. In the meantime, let me offer some thanks to some people. Thanks ShysterBall readers of both the commenting and the lurking persuasion. I could bring more bloggy noise than anyone, but it's worthless if there's no one there to read it. I'm not the statcounter obsessive I used to be, but whenever I've lost the will to write, I've checked in to look at the numbers. When I see people who have way better things to do with their lives click and click and click like you've been doing for so damn long, I'm reinvigorated. And away we go . . . Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:52pm The McCourt divorce: messier than you could possibly imagineI may dabble, but Josh Fisher is the go-to source for all of your McCourtly goodness. Today, Josh talks about just how much of a clusterf*ck the Dodgers' sale was, and why it will make the McCourt divorce an even bigger hassle than most of us currently realize:So, if you're counting at home, the above adds up to $421 million in financing...for a $371 million purchase. That, friends, is a little scary. And there's more. In May 2005, McCourt announced a new, $250 million 25-year note which took out B of A and what remained of the debt to Fox (after the foreclosure on the Boston property). This increased the debt load to $521 million on a $371 million purchase. This financing, known as a private placement, was provided by an unidentified group of institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies. The terms of the loan--5.66% fixed for 25 years--are relatively favorable to McCourt. The collateral for this new loan was reportedly the 300 acres of real estate surrounding Dodger Stadium--not the club itself. Importantly, one of the provisions of the private placement was that control of the Dodgers would not change hands. That is just a snippet of an insanely fascinating (at least to people like Josh and me) post about Dodgers, Inc. The upshot of which is that the McCourts don't have nearly as much money as Jamie McCourt's filings would have you believe, and that unwinding all of this is going to be a monster headache. So much so that if I were one of the McCourts, I'd consider some kind fo truce as soon as possible that would keep joint ownership to some degree rather than risk all of the creditors calling in the notes. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:10pm My Morning in ExileThings I wrote while realizing that no matter who wins this series, one of the managers is going to get more guff than he probably deserves:Not that guff is the worst thing a guy can take. Indeed, on the "taking" scale, guff is far preferable to grief, crap and its more colorful permutations. Really, with the exception of "rebop" guff is probably the best thing you can expect to take under the circumstances. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:22am From the WTF departmentThis video is better without any intro.I would love to see one of these specifically geared toward every single team. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:30am And That Happened: World SeriesPhillies 8, Yankees 6: Jimmy Rollins on the win: "We didn't have a choice. It was either go home and watch football and college basketball or extend the season." Somewhere Cole Hamels is whimpering. He really likes college basketball. Other random thoughts:Today is the last off day before the season is over. Can't decide if that's a good thing (no more waiting around a whole day for baseball) or a bad thing (we're so close to months of waiting around for baseball). Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:43am Monday, November 02, 2009My Morning in ExileLots of cross-pollination between NBC and THT this morning, as every time I wrote something in one place, someone would tell me something interesting and new about it in the other. Who says that the mainstream media and new media can't get along?Lots of legal work today, so there's a chance this afternoon will be light going. Must do something about that . . . . Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:33am Quote of the Day: Johnny DamonIn Lupica's column, via CTB reader comeoneman:"What were you doing going to third?" Damon was asked in the Yankee clubhouse. And in case you've missed the comments in ATH this morning, eagle-eyed and elephant-brained ShysterBall readers recall that Willie Mays and Brandon Phillips both pulled that play off before, stealing against anti-McCovey and anti-Dunn shifts. Please let me know of any others. Not that it still wasn't totally cool to see it happen live. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:18am And That Happened: World SeriesYankees 7, Phillies 4: On the one hand, the double steal by Damon in the 9th doesn't really matter, right? He'd be on second base before the A-Rod hit and still would have scored, even if someone had thought to cover third. On the other hand, Brad Lidge was on the mound, and that guy is something less than grace under pressure. You know he was worked up about that play when he hit Teixeira, and you have to figure he was still thinking about it when he threw the pitch to A-Rod.But that's boring post-hoc analysis. As it happened, all I could think was "WOW!" I have no horse in this race, but I stood up and shouted at my TV when Damon took off from second, just as amazed at what was happening as I was amazed at how quickly Damon reacted, realizing that there was no one at third and that he had the edge in the footrace. My next thought was "man, they've been playing baseball for more than 150 years, so you'd think everything that has happened could happen, and then something like THIS happens." I'm guessing some guy will dig deep somewhere today and find an account of this happening before, but the fact that he'll have to dig is testament enough to that play. But maybe it hasn't happened. Think about the perfect storm of weirdness that has to occur for that play to happen: (1) the overshift has to be on with the third baseman covering the play, just, like they had on for Teixeira; (2) someone has to be stealing with an overshift on, which by definition means that someone is attempting a steal when a fierce pull hitting lefty is at the plate, which is usually a low-percentage play; and (3) a defensive brain fart, to the extent the pitcher not covering third on a stolen base -- something which doesn't come up too often -- can be considered a brain fart. If I had to guess, I'd say that someone got a double steal awarded to them on a bad scorer's call at some point, when an error really should have been recorded. My guess is that it happening like Damon did it has never happened before. Anyway, it's 3-1 now, with Cliff Lee on tap. My Yankees in 6 pick looks reasonably safe right now. Unless things like momentum and statements and dramatic turning points and all of that mean anything, in which case New York takes it tonight. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 6:29am Friday, October 30, 2009Pearlman on McGwireJeff Pearlman brings the Mark McGwire sanctimony:Worst of all, however, McGwire was a baseball thief. At the very moment his 341-foot home run landed behind the outfield fence, he robbed Roger Maris of the most important record in professional sports. He robbed the Maris family of future income from 61-related merchandising and events. He robbed the Hall of Fame -- which swooped up McGwire memorabilia as if it were free Twinkies -- of its credibility, he robbed those fans who spent hundreds of dollars for a ticket in order to witness history and he robbed thousands upon thousands of kids of a seemingly genuine role model. Pearlman often writes how disgusted he is with what baseball has become. I can't help but think that if he hadn't had such a ridiculously idealistic notion of what it was in the first place, he never would have crashed so hard to begin with. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:56pm Great Moments in Niche BloggingReader and Dodger fan Josh Fisher has found his bloggy calling. It's called Dodger Divorce. But allow Josh to explain it:Greetings, Dodger fans, and a pleasant afternoon to you, wherever you may be. Welcome to Dodger Divorce, a blog designed to be your one-stop shop for news and insight into the McCourt divorce and how it will affect the Boys in Blue. If you're a Dodger fan, I presume that you'll want this blog to run out of content as soon as possible. Based on what we've seen in the last week, however, I see no danger of that happening. Good luck, Josh! Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:58pm My Morning in ExileAs brushes with celebrity go, this is pretty good. Not as good as that time I was at the urinal next to a totally wasted Marshall Faulk at the Bellagio during the Rams' bye-week in the 2001-02 playoffs, put pretty good.The next night, also at the Bellagio, I saw Fred Schneider of the B52s dining alone at Circo. If you made a list of 1000 celebrities who you'd expect to see dining alone, would Fred Schneider ever be on it? I figured that the "Love Shack" video was one of his home movies. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:19am And That Happened: World SeriesYankees 3, Phillies 1: The Empire Strikes Back. Sorry, that was totally hacky. I haven't looked, but I'm guessing that line is being used by no less than two dozen outlets this morning. Anyone that can find them and make a note of it in the comments gets bonus points. Anyway:In the copious back and forth I had with Phillies fans in my "it's not time to panic yet, Yankees" post, almost everyone said that Burnett would get lit up last night because, well, I don't know exactly why. Yes, the guy was a bit erratic down the stretch, but he was still an above average pitcher this season, totally capable of dropping a nice performance like this one last night. Teixeira and Matsui shaking off the cobwebs was welcome too. And for the "good outcomes don't mean good decisions were made" file, how about Molina picking off Werth and Posada hitting that pinch hit RBI? I bet Burnett still has good stuff and wins last night even if Posada was behind the plate, but with it breaking down the way it did, Girardi will probably get some genius points today, for whatever they're worth. Ah, Pedro. I love the guy. Like I said over at NBC, I hoped like hell that he would be able to catch some 1999 lightning in a bottle. He didn't quite do that -- who could? -- but he gave a solid and gutsy performance, showing all of the smarts and guile he's always had, even if he doesn't have the velocity anymore. But really, if you had told anyone before the game that he'd throw over 100 pitches, lasting into the seventh and giving up only two runs before his exit, you would have assumed a Philly win, right? He was just met with a better performance by his counterpart. That happens. I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying this World Series so far. I'm a pitching guy, and we're four for four in solid starting pitching performances. Here's hoping it keeps up. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:38am Thursday, October 29, 2009Frozen Ropes and Dying QuailsYou may remember The Baseball Project, which was a supergroup of sorts (R.E.M.'s Peter Buck being the biggest name) that put out an album of baseball-related songs last year called "Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails." I had it in my "must acquire and listen to" file but lost track of it. MooseinOhio had his ears on last night and heard it featured on NPR's World Cafe last night. Interviews with the principals and some of the music.A good time killer before tonight's game. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:12pm Phillies trying to end World Series droughtYa gotta believe:The last time the Philadelphia Phillies brought a World Series title back to the City of Brotherly Love, the nation’s financial sector was in complete ruin, the cost of a gallon of milk was only $2.74, fans watched the Fall Classic while huddled around their slightly-less-streamlined high-definition television sets, and Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard was just 28 years old. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:01pm Great Moments in World Series HistoryA 5-0 Phillies lead has Mayor Bloomberg snoozing, Bernie Williams happy.Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:50pm 22 milliseconds = $850KA big products liability award for the family of a dead American Legion pitcher and against the maker of an aluminum bat company:Attorneys for Hillerich & Bradsby Co. argued any other bat would not have hit the ball differently; in fact, they said, most bats on the market at the time would have struck the ball harder. Patch’s death was a tragic accident, they said. The defense lawyers declined comment after the verdict was read. I've never read the pleadings in this case and I'm not a products lawyer, so I have no idea if this is a crazy verdict or not. I will say, however, that I'm pretty dubious about such claims in general. And I say that even though I'm generally anti-aluminum bat. UPDATE: to clarify: my general position on this is that aluminum bats are either inherently safe with proper use or inherently unsafe and are incapable of proper use that won't cause injury. The presence or absence of a warning, or a milisecond difference between reaction times off of various aluminum bats does not seem like it would render the bat either safe or unsafe to use. As such, these kinds of bats should either be banned, or else we should accept comebackers to the mound as accidents, however unfortunate they might be. (link via BTF) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:47pm My Morning in ExileColumbus, Ohio has the highly annoying habit of scheduling trick-or-treating on nights other than Halloween. They call it "beggar's night" and after 18 years in this town, I've still never heard an adequate explanation for why kids can't go door-to-door on the 31st. Some have suggested non-interference with high school or college football, but they move it even when Halloween falls on a Monday-Thursday. Some have claimed that, many years ago, Columbus held some city-wide Halloween party on the 31st and they wanted people to be able to do both, but no such beast exists today. There's really no good explanation. My suburb actually does it on the 31st most years, but this year they're falling in with Columbus. So we go trick-or-treating with the kids tonight, 6pm-8pm, followed by a good hour of trying to bring my children down from their sugar highs before bed.So I guess what I'm saying is, no one email me with mid-game spoilers, because I'm going to be DVRing that bad boy and watching it late. In the meantime: And if anyone cares, my daughter is dressing up like a witch, my son is dressing up like a construction worker, and my wife and I are dressing up like two suburban parents carrying travel mugs filled with liquor around the neighborhood while hoping nobody notices. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:57am Now that’s a game storyThose of you who recall an era when game strories weren't mere regurgitations of the box score will enjoy Josh Levin's game story over at Slate:On this night, the slim Phillie's casual brilliance outshines the grunting effort of his hefty ex-Indians teammate CC Sabathia. Despite a recurrent inability to spot his pitches, the Yankees starter kept every Phillie off the scoreboard excepting the brilliant, lefty-hitting second baseman Chase Utley. Down to his last strike in each of his first three plate appearances, Utley coaxed a walk and yanked two solo home runs. Utley's first shot comes with his left hand off the bat, a looping parabola that drops over Yankee Stadium's short right field porch. The second, which extends the Phillies' lead to 2-0, gets half as high off the ground and travels seemingly twice as far to deep right-center, leaving grunts and gasps in its wake. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:50am And That Happened: World SeriesPhillies 6, Yankees 1: Cliff Lee looked like Neo on top of the building at the end of the Matrix. Like the game slowed down just for him and he could see everything in ten different ways while the Yankees were stuck in their little three dimension world. With the exception of a couple of fat pitches, CC Sabathia wasn't bad himself, but Chase Utley deposited both of those fat pitches in the seats.If you're the Yankees, you can't really worry too much about Sabathia's fat pitches or especially what Lee just did to you. He's good. You knew he was good. You knew that he is head and shoulders above the rest of the Phillies rotation and that losing to him is no dishonor. What you do worry about, however, is the fact that neither Phil Hughes nor David Robertson could keep it close, because Burnett and Pettitte are going to need a good bullpen behind them even more than Sabathia did, and right now that pen ain't getting the job done. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:38am Wednesday, October 28, 2009Neyer: Ryan Howard is basically Shin-Soo ChooThere have been a lot of people who have followed in Rob Neyer's footsteps over the years, but there still isn't anyone better at writing stuff that pisses off mainstream baseball writers:Ryan Howard is pretty good. I mean, he's no Shin-Soo Choo. But pretty good, for sure. If you don't know where Rob goes with this next, well, you're just not familiar with his work. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:02pm IIATMS v. Wezen-BallIt's not as bad as Sophie's Choice, but picking between Jason and lar in their blog network's awards voting is kinda sorta like picking between your kids. Your baseball-obsessed, sloughing off from work, probably-got-no-family-life-to-speak-of-because-they're-reading-old-Baseball Digests-or-trying-to-hide-their-man-love-for-Derek-Jeter kids.Each are nominated for "Best Baseball Blog." Jason is also nominated for "Blog of the Year." Vote early and vote often. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:47pm Frank Fires BackWell, it was technically the Dodgers themselves who filed the latest brief, this one telling the divorce court -- quite reasonably, mind you -- that it has no business telling a private company whom it must and must not hire or fire, no matter who owns it. Best quote:"Given the dysfunction which was caused by the Petitioner's prior employment, her inappropriate relationship with a subordinate employee and the clear acrimonious relationship between her and Mr. Court (sic), if she were reinstated by order of this Court it would no doubt lead to this Court being called upon to oversee the day to day management of the Dodgers." I love how Frank McCourt's lawyer misspells his name to make it look like it is a totally different party filing this thing. I also love how "The Dodgers" cite Jamie's "inappropriate relationship." If this really was the team advocating its own interests separate and apart from Frank's, don't you think they'd want to be more circumspect about citing the reasons for the employee's dismissal? What company cites this sort of thing in a public filing in a case in which they're not a party? Of course the answer is that this isn't really the Dodgers acting in their own interests as a corporation or partnership or whatever type of entity it is. This is Frank trying to get his infidelity allegations out there as soon as he possibly can (his big brief contra Jamie's will likely take a few days to put together). That "the Dodgers" filing is signed by Frank McCourt's divorce lawyer pretty much says it all. Are there any minority owners involved in that team at all who can put an end to this silliness and get the team its own representation, or are Frank and Jamie the only people around? It's behavior like this -- and Jamie McCourt's using the team as her personal bank account as she admitted in her own filing -- that gets corporate veils pierced. And before you say anything: yes, I realize I'm linking TMZ again. I blame Major League Baseball and FOX. If there weren't so many damn days off in October I'd have some actual baseball to write about. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:47pm My Morning in ExileLet's put the comments section to good use this afternoon: use this thread to post your World Series prediction. No need for heavy analysis. I want (a) your winner; and (b) a short statement with your reasons why. I won't hold you to Twitter length, but I'm definitely looking for Twitter spirit: short, pithy, decisive and, for bonus points, funny. I'll start: Yankees in six. Why? Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It is with this left hand that the Yankees will strike the blow that will lay the city of brotherly love low.Now you go (no, you don't have to be as obtuse as me). While you're thinking: Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:01pm The McCourt Divorce: Reader’s Digest versionRecently-fired Dodger CEO Jamie McCourt filed for divorce from Dodger owner Frank McCourt yesterday. Or I should say alleged Dodger co-owner Jamie McCourt filed for divorce from alleged Dodger co-owner Frank McCourt, because ownership of the Dodgers is clearly the big deal here. If you're into this sort of thing you can read the papers here. If not, here are some of the highlights:It goes on and on and on like that, complete with exhibits and stuff which bloat it to 137 pages. At the risk of going on that long myself, I'll stop now. But before I do, let me say one thing: don't ever, ever, ever get married, no matter what you do. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:01am Tuesday, October 27, 2009“It’s Slumdog, but with baseball, baby!!”At least I'm assuming that was the pitch:The rights to the improbable story of two kids from Indian villages, who won a pitching contest without even knowing the rules of baseball and were eventually drafted, have been acquired by Sony. Rinku Singh won the Million Dollar Arm contest and was marketed to teams along with the runner-up Dinesh Patel. Both signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although the plot doesn't necessarily have the perfect ending yet -- the two pitched 20 innings combined of rookie-A baseball this season -- the fact that they are even on the same playing field with people who have been playing baseball for their entire lives . . . Nice casting suggestions. Of course, given that they signed with the Pirates, the movie will be a tragedy. (thanks to Pete Toms for the heads up) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:33pm Quote of the Day"I don't have hate for Philly exactly -- they are like our redheaded stepchild. It's like a nothing city. It's just insignificant in comparison to New York."-- Michael Stewart, random Yankees fan quoted in an article that brings the Phillies' hate like nothin' you're going to see today. I'm guessing that the Philly retort will come tomorrow, either in the form of a companion article in the Inquirer or via a mob hit or something. A lot of us wanted to see at least one of the L.A. teams in this thing because of the contrast in styles and the weather and all of that. But really, it had to be New York-Philly to get this kind of trash talk going, and I for one am thrilled with it. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:12pm Why I’m not a divorce lawyerI'm guessing Joe Torre never would have guessed in a million years that he'd ever find a more messed up ownership situation than the one he had in New York.(link via FanHouse) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:01pm My Morning in ExileDon't read anything I wrote this morning. Spend any free Internet time you have today here. You won't be sorry. But when you get done with that:The best book over at that blog has to be Why our Children Drink. Points will be awarded to the best answers to that question in the comments. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:04pm “Win one for George”Win one for George? He's got six already. Can't Hal have this one? Or maybe they can mail it to Bobby Murcer's family or to Mattingly? They always deserved one, didn't they?Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 8:41am And Nothing HappenedI get having last night off, but is there a reason in the world why Game 1 can't be played tonight? I mean a reason that doesn't involve silly network decisions?In the meantime: Robin Roberts reflects on the Whiz Kids and the Phillies of today. In his honor, and in honor of the 1950 series, Charlie Manuel should sit Cliff Lee for Game 1. Also, lar has all kinds of fun with the 1950 series. Hey, if Jim Konstanty smokes Camels, why wouldn't I smoke Camels too? Note: the last game of the 1950 World Series was played on October 7th. People keep complaining about the postseason lasting so long, but at least we still have some baseball ahead of us in late October. What did those mopes in 1950 have to look forward to? The Chinese invasion of North Korea? The Rosenberg trial? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 6:59am Monday, October 26, 2009Yankees > GiantsBaseball is my sport, but NBC pays me, so I'm torn:In a television matchup of New York sports teams, baseball’s Yankees were more popular than football’s Giants. But with all due respect to my NBC overlords, anyone watching the Giants and the Cardinals over the Yankees-Angels who wasn't being paid to do so needs their head examined. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:55pm Silver Chalice VenturesI've written in the past about Fenway Sports Group and its not-subject-to-revenue-sharing money. The Red Sox are not the only team getting in on the act:The Chicago White Sox are stepping up to the plate in the digital media arena. If David Glass were serious about making the Royals a winner he'd rebrand the pharmacies and sporting goods sections of every Wal-Mart store "Royal-Mart" and give Dayton Moore a billion dollars to play with every year. Well, not the Dayton Moore part. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:21pm The World Series and the polsNPR's Ken Rudin has a story on politicians riding on the coattails of baseball teams. After rolling his eyes at Bloomberg being an attention whore in the Yankees' locker room last night, Rudin asks an intriguing question: what do the people running for Governor of New Jersey do about the World Series? What plays in Camden doesn't necessarily play in Hoboken! And Game 5 is scheduled for the night before the election . . .Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:07pm My Morning in ExileI got 99 problems but delaying the first pitch ain't one:Finally, though I didn't weigh in on it in a formal post, I am struck by the notion that three nights of bad judgment as a playa did for Steve Phillips what five years of bad judgment as an analyst couldn't do: get him fired. There's probably a lesson in there somewhere, but I'm too busy planning a rendezvous with my portly mistress to think too hard about it . . . Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:58am Coach Mark McGwire, 2010I handled the McGwire story seriously here, so now let's have some fun with it:[scene: Cardinals-Cubs game, summer 2010. Yadier Molina just struck out on four pitches and goes to talk to the hitting coach] Molina: Hey Mac, Zambrano got me with the changeup last time. So I was looking changeup, and he busted me with the fastball. Did it look like I was cheating changeup? McGwire: I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject. You took a good hack at that last one. Molina: Um, sure, but I need some help with my approach here. I feel lost up there today. Should I move back in the box a bit? McGwire: Asking me or anyone else to answer questions about where to stand in the box will not solve the problem. If I answer 'No,' he will just come with the changeup again and you'll be further out in front. If I answer 'Yes,' you risk public scorn and endless second guessing when you wait too long to react to the pitch. Molina: Jesus, coach, you got anything for me? McGwire: My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself. I will say, however, that it remains a fact in this country that a man, any man, should look at more film before facing a crafty veteran like Carlos Zambrano. Molina: Uh, thanks, coach. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:25am And That Happened: ALCSYankees 5, Angels 2: "At times we played good baseball. At times we shot ourselves in the foot," Mike Scioscia said after the game. Someone's gonna have to point out the good for me, because I missed most of it. Eight errors in the series. Saunders walked five guys last night. Scioscia made baffling move after baffling move. Guerrero getting doubled off first base on that shallow fly ball. Just a lot of ugly baseball from a team that's alleged to be fundamentally sound.But like the Phillies over the Dodgers, this is the case of the better team winning, not some default job. It was like old times seeing Pettitte and Rivera taking care of business. It was like an alternate universe seeing A-Rod repeatedly come up strong in the postseason (I love me some CC, but I really think Rodriguez deserved the MVP). Based on how my postseason predictions have gone it'll make Philly fans happy to hear that I think the Yankees are gonna take this thing, but this time I don't think even my prognostication will prove poor. Here's hoping the weather holds up. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:47am Friday, October 23, 2009GiveawaysSBJ breaks down the impact of various ballpark giveaways and promotions on attendance. There's a chart at the link that I'm not going to reproduce here. Suffice it to say, however, that Webkinz night is quite the draw. College Night and Little League Day, however, may as well be replaced by an H1N1 promotion.(Thanks to Pete Toms for the link) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:08pm My Morning In ExileThings I wrote while wondering whether I am the only attorney in Columbus, Ohio who is listening to "Protect Ya Neck" on his iPod right now. Maybe this guy is . . .That's right: I'm all OVER 16 year-old hip-hop. Next year I may listen to some new stuff by some guy called the Notorious R.B.I or whatever his name is . . . Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:12pm And That Happened: ALCSAngels 7, Yankees 6: Behold the power of the Rally Monkey. Or behold the the suckiness that is A.J. Burnett when he doesn't have his best stuff. Or behold the presence of mad chance that allowed the Angels to win despite the best efforts of Mike Scioscia. Whatever the case, each team did its best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, with the Yankees just barely edging the Angels in that department.Game 6 in New York. Giant rain is in the forecast. Thankfully we have approximately 19 days until Game 1 of the World Series, so we should be OK. Probably. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:35am Thursday, October 22, 2009Deadspin’s assault on ESPNLike a lot of you, I've been watching the Steve Phillips business from afar. Between the almost complete lack of any real baseball angle whatsoever, and the fact that, unlike a lot of scandalous stories, this one has an innocent wife and children being dragged through it all, I really don't see the percentage in writing about it. I'll gawk like the rest of you, but it doesn't exactly scream out for coverage.Of greater interest to me is one of the things that has spun out of the Phillips story, and that's Deadspin's crazy-even-for-Deadspin assault on ESPN yesterday. If you missed it, Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio, apparently pissed that he missed out on the Steve Phillips scoop due to ESPN stonewalling him when he sought comment on the affair last month, decided to let loose with multiple rumors he's been sitting on regarding the sexploits of ESPN employees. He reported on a sexual harassment complaint against radio guy Eric Kuselias, as well as his divorce. He went after Katie Lacey, ESPN's Executive Vice President for marketing, accusing her of sleeping her way to the top. In his last post he went on about the overall culture of ESPN, about how everyone there allegedly has sex with everyone else and how, somehow, the town of Bristol, Connecticut is to blame. These descriptions do not do it justice. He really pulled no punches. I read these with my mouth agape, not because of the allegations contained in them, but because of Daulerio's decision to actually write about them, and Nick Denton's presumed approval of them to begin with. Yes, the Gawker empire is well known for trafficking in scandal, but this seems above and beyond their usual brand of muck. As AOL's Clay Travis -- lawyer, and, it just so happens, former Deadspin assistant editor -- notes, this may not amount to a meritorious defamation suit by ESPN, but it's certainly closer to the line than Deadspin normally treads. I actually think ESPN would ultimately lose any lawsuit here simply because defamation is so hard to win, but I could see Disney and ESPN making the decision that, after all of the hell Deadspin has caused them, this is a decent enough place to draw the line, file the suit, and cause Nick Denton to have to pay a bunch of money in legal fees. Whether any suit is brought would likely hinge on the cooperation of either Kuselias or Lacey, whose lives would become open books in such a suit, but if one of them were pissed off enough and/or close enough to retirement to say sure, go ahead, it would be game-on. Maybe there are long odds against that happening, but are they so long that it was worth Daulerio taking such a risk? Moreover, is this really where the original promise of Deadspin and the sports blogosphere in general was meant to lead us? I'm not Buzz Bissinger when it comes to these matters, but as I sit here today and reflect on all of this, I am far from inspired. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:55pm The Negro League All-Stars for Strat-o-MaticCourtesy of our friend Scott Simkus, the Negro League All-Star set is now available for Strat-o-Matic:I’ve spent the past several years working as a consultant to the Strat-O-Matic game company, focusing on their Negro League All-Star set. The opportunity is really the product of happenstance, lucky timing on my part. But it is now, and Scott talks about what went into it and why it was possible to do it today. Neat stuff regardless, but especially so if you're a strat guy. Or girl. The set can be found here. New Strat website too. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:39pm My Morning in exileStuff I wrote while thinking of the best way to taunt the lead singer of a 1980s British synth-pop band (explained below) . . .I've mentioned this before I think, but my In-N-Out managing brother's longtime girlfriend was a childhood friend, and is still best friends with the wife of a guy named Andy McCluskey. McCluskey, some of you may know, is the lead singer for the band OMD of "If you leave" fame. The McCluskeys keep a house in San Diego and my brother is over there all the time, house sits for them them, babysits the kids, etc. When I first became aware of this several years ago I began taunting my brother -- who was sort of dropping the OMD thing like it was some major social chit -- over the moderate-at-best worldwide fame of his new friend and patron. I probably would have left it alone, but he set me off when he used the "hey, they're really big in Europe and Japan" line. Since then, it's been almost constant abuse. Things like "hey Curt, I gotta go; Howard Jones is on the other line, and it's obviously a much more important call." Or "So, like, is house sitting for Human League a promotion or is it considered a lateral move?" Most of the jokes were about him being a one-hit wonder. He told Andy about all of this. His response: "ask your brother what it's like to work a job, because I'll never have to know." Damn McCluskey. He's had me dead to rights on that one for about five years now. Anyway, I'm newly inspired to mock him -- in a friendly fashion, mind you -- because OMD is apparently going on some tour this winter with another John Hughes movie one-hit-wonder, Simple Minds. Curt is going to travel with them and, hell, I don't know, get them towels or hair gel or white Zinfandel or Patrick Nagel paintings or whatever it is those 80s synth-poppers need to survive. I was thinking about flooding the official OMD website with questions about whether it was true that Hughes' will finally freed them from servitude or whether it's true that Oingo Boingo was going to be headlining or something, but his wife runs the site and she's pretty good people. There's no point to this except that if I'm slow blogging this afternoon it's because I'm obsessed with trying to come up with new and inventive taunts for OMD. Which pretty much shows you how pathetic I am. Determined, but pathetic. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:27pm And That Happened: NLCSPhillies 10, Dodgers 4: At some point this winter, Ned Colletti and Joe Torre are going to have an epiphany in which they realize that having to rely on Vicente Padilla to save their butts in an elimination game means that they screwed something up somewhere along the line. Torre may not have deployed his troops in ideal fashion in the NLCS, but ultimately, he was simply outgunned. And betrayed by his bullpen, his supposed strength.But this was not merely a Dodgers loss. It was a Phillies win. Their lineup has proved every bit as formidable as advertised, with Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth showing that to beat them you need to do more than to throw a lefty or two at Ryan Howard and hope for the best. They're going to be tough to beat. The Yankees are their likely opponent. We'll see if they seal the deal tonight. If they do, Game 1 of the World Series will likely feature a matchup of two Cleveland Indians' Cy Young Award winners, one of whom is managed by the Indians' former manager. They should get Duane Kuiper to throw out the first pitch. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:38am Wednesday, October 21, 2009Don Fehr gets a severance packageDon Fehr's severance package comes in at about $11 million. He made $1 million a year for the past decade or so, which is way below his worth based on what he does and who he tangles with on a day to day basis. His work has put hundreds of times that amount of money into the pockets of the players he has represented. According to the article, the players had no problem agreeing to pay him his dough.Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:02pm My Morning in ExileI don't have anything snarky to say about Steve Phillips' situation. Some bad judgment on his part has led to an ugly and possibly scary situation, and that's no good for anyone involved, whatever their foibles.But man, if the dude was going to get kicked off ESPN for a week, you'd at least hope that it would be during a week in which he was scheduled to broadcast a game . . . Thanks for all of the kind words and constructive criticism in last night's thread, everyone. I try to do whatever I can to get better at this stuff, and you're all a big help in me doing so. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:37pm And That Happened: ALCSYankees 10, Angels 1: I-95 Series here we come. As the geniuses out there predicted, CC was studly on short rest. As has been the case all postseason, A-Rod was huge (3-for-4, two-run homer, three runs scored).Man, that umpiring. Calling Swisher out on the tagup play was an obvious makeup call. Of course, like the unwritten rules, umpires say there are no such things as makeup calls, so we should probably ignore it, right? I guess we can just be thankful that it didn't have an impact on the ultimate outcome of the game. Pointless day off today. Burtnett vs. Lackey tomorrow. Philly vs. New York, hell, sometime around Thanksgiving, I think. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:35am Tuesday, October 20, 2009Death threats and precedentsThe Mariano Rivera stuff obviously struck a nerve today. For what it's worth, I stand by my posts on it, both here and at NBC. There was a video that showed something interesting. I raised some questions about it and doubted whether simply saying "Mariano would never do such a thing" was enough to put the kibosh on the inquiry. I qualified everything I said with statements about how the video was not conclusive and how better angles would be needed before something conclusive could be said. If there was an actual accusation in my comments somewhere, someone will have to point it out to me. MLB at least felt it necessary to take a quick look. When they did and weighed in later, I posted an update quite quickly. All in a day's bloggy work.But clearly not everyone agrees. Question: was it illegitimate to post links to the video and ask the questions I asked in the first place? I don't think so, but I'm curious for your thoughts. Not about Mariano -- that's over, and I'm quite content to accept MLB's view on it, especially in light of the still photos that appeared later in the day. I want to know whether it was wrong to even raise the issue in the first place, and if so, why so. The one reason people cited over and over today -- that it was Mariano Rivera we're talking about here, and he's not worthy of accusation -- doesn't convince me. If we had a picture of Mother Teresa raising a baseball bat over the head of a cowering man, would we not ask what was happening? The problem, it seems, only comes if you (a) immediately jump to a conclusion that she's beating the guy without acknowledging that more could be going on that first meets the eye; or (b) disregard actual, later evidence which debunks the first impression created by the picture. Two things lead me to ask these questions. First is the fact that I got a freakin' death threat over all of this. It's been deleted, but a commenter at NBC, after multiple posts in which he wished for me to die of horrible diseases, finally came out and said that he hoped someone killed me. Hey-o! I'm used to the Yankee nonsense I willingly stir up over there turning ugly, but this was beyond even my comfort level. There's no need to tell me that was uncalled for -- believe me, I know it -- but was this merely a moron at work, or was the post (which was nearly identical to the post below here) beyond my usual taunting? I honestly want your opinion. The second, and more substantial reason I ask is because I'm reminded of the Kenny Rogers affair from three years ago. You'll recall that cameras captured some schmutz on Rogers' hand. It disappeared an inning or two later. It was quickly looked into and then dismissed by MLB. In all of that, it was much like today's business. The difference: Mariano Rivera has a better reputation than Kenny Rogers, and no one thought to say that Kenny Rogers was above such questions. Was it legitimate to raise questions about Rogers and not Mariano? Was it legitimate or illegitimate for both? What are the rules here? Like I said, I think my posts were within the realm of the acceptable but obviously others disagree. Even those who don't want me dead. If you're all tired of this, move along. There's baseball happening. If not, though, I think it might be a worthy conversation to have in the comments. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:36pm MLB: No evidence Rivera was throwing a spitterI suppose this closes the case:The Commissioners Office reviewed available video and still photography from Mariano Rivera spitting toward a baseball in ALCS Game 3 and “found no evidence that Rivera spit on the ball,” a spokesman for the commissioner told the Post. Kudos for MLB to looking into it. As I said in the earlier post, there was certainly nothing conclusive about the video -- another angle clearly showing spit smacking the ball would be the minimum necessary for this to be taken to the next level -- but it was interesting enough that it warranted scrutiny. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:40pm Did Mariano Rivera throw a spitball?!Check out the video here. I'll hear all evidence to the contrary, but that looks to me like he (a) looks up to see if anyone is watching; and (b) spits right on the damn ball.Is that the secret to the unhittable cutter? UPDATE: The Yankees' bad day in multimedia continues . . . UPDATE #2: A Q&A on Mariano: Q: Is Mariano definitely spitting on the ball? A: Hard to say. Looks like it to me, but the cutaway is quick and the angle could be deceiving. I'm just going with my first impression of what the video and photo show. I'd kill for another angle of this. Q: Do you actually throw a spitball by, you know, spitting on the ball? A: It's not the most traditional way -- according to everything I've read merely wetting the fingers is more common -- but it's certainly been done. Really, anything that either (a) adds a viscous fluid to the ball to alter its flight; or (b) lubes it up to decrease friction upon release, thereby increasing the spin and thus the ultimate drop is sufficient. Q: If it is a spitball, why would Rivera be so obvious about it? He's a smart guy. He'd try to hide it better, wouldn't he? A: Maybe so. But isn't it just as valid to say that Rivera, one of the most talented pitchers ever, never had to use a spitball before, and thus if he is now, he's less likely to be practiced at it than a guy who had to cheat just to keep his job? I have no idea what he's doing here -- and I simply don't want to believe that Rivera was throwing a spitter, because I've always admired and respected the guy -- but it doesn't seem satisfying to simply say "Mariano would never do this, so he didn't do it." The video is very, very interesting. It may be completely debunked by another angle -- and if anyone has one, please send it ASAP and I'll update. But for now, it's all we have. I know I have a reputation for baiting Yankees fans, but I am sincere in asking whether or not Rivera was doing this. I don't know, and I'm open to alternate interpretations and evidence. (thanks to Jason Epstein for the heads up) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 8:45am And That Happened: LCS EditionAngels 5, Yankees 4: Girardi, on the decision to replace Dave Robertson with Alfredo Aceves:Joe Girardi: The bullpen goes up to eight. Look, right across the board, eight, eight, eight and... Phillies 5, Dodgers 4: Um, L.A.? You're supposed to have the good bullpen. Bruntlett scored the tying run, but let us all remember that it was Matt Stairs who drew the walk that called for a pinch runner to begin with. Matt Stairs is the best. 3-1 Phillies. I hate to cut this short, but I have a long day of "See! I told U! No 1 believed in us! We're the champs, dood! Your stupid 4 picking the Dooshers to win anything. Get a new job" comments over a the Blue Network. And they'll still come when I write a piece talking about just how sharp the Phillies are right now, and how well-managed and confident they are and everything. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:02am Monday, October 19, 2009NBC Comment of the DayIf St. Louis baseball fans are so great and "die-hard" why aren't the Browns still in St. Louis? -- Commenter "Bamboozled" in "Teh Yankees are the greatest, dood!" post. I often use this feature to mock, but I can't decide if this one is mock-worthy or brilliant. I'm leaning brilliant. The actual mouth breathers over there probably think that the Browns moved to Phoenix in the late 80s. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:21pm Nats tickets? Really?From the military police blotter:The Marine Corps said Monday a sergeant charged with faking war injuries to obtain freebies intended for wounded warriors will plead guilty . . . The 34-year-old Marine from Springhill, La., faces eight counts carrying prison terms of up to 31 years. He is accused of bluffing his way into 33 events last year, including six rock concerts, two Washington Nationals baseball games and a Washington Redskins football game. I understand the rock concerts and Redskins games. Those are expensive! But why anyone would risk their freedom and honor over Nats tickets is beyond me. They have roughly the same value of a spent Metro card, don't they? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:13pm Great Moments in Supply and DemandFrom Peter King, the latest from Yankee Stadium:So I went to Yankee Stadium the other night to watch Yankees-Angels. Pretty cold. In the bottom of the fourth, a vendor came by. "Hot chocolate!'' he yelled. "Hot chocolate!'' I guess the fact that you have a captive audience screws up one's ability to analyze this from a purely microeconomic perspective. Then again, I went snowmobiling in Yellowstone three years ago and it was 25 below when we started out (reached a balmy 8 degrees later in the afternoon). At our lunch stop we got free hot cocoa. I probably would have paid $79 for it, but I'm assuming the snowmobile outfitter wanted return business one day and decided to take the hit. (thanks from MooseinOhio who, unlike me, can bear to read Peter King) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:01pm My Morning in ExileSo I go to the science museum with the kids yesterday. They have this feature where, via a gigantic lever, a person can lift up a full-sized car. My five year-old daughter and four year-old boy think it's awesome. When they ask me how they could lift a car, I tell them that the thing attached to the car and the rope is a lever, and that while the reasons are kind of complicated, it's basically a machine that helps people move heavy things. They accept that, later talking about "the machine that helped them lift a car." A few minutes after the kids used it, some full-grown adults of the redneck persuasion lift the car. Overheard: "there's gotta be some trick to this thing." Also overheard was a sentence that had "one of them optical illusions" in it.Question of the day: are we sliding back into a dark age in which science is viewed as magic -- and in some cases sorcery -- or did we never truly leave the dark ages in the first place? Now, on to more enlightened fare: Bread. Apples. Very small rocks. Cider. Gravy. Cherries. Mud. Churches. Lead! Lead! A Duck! Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:13pm And That Happened: NLCSPhillies 11, Dodgers 0: I'd jump all over the Kuroda start, but (a) the alternative would have been Chad Billingsley, right, and he didn't have much of anything himself last night; and (b) even if he gave up one run over eight innings or something, he still would have lost because Cliff Lee is the freakin' Terminator (8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 10K). They could have gone with Randy Wolf, of course, who hasn't pitched since (I think) the 1988 NLCS, but at least he gets a turn tonight. In other news, Ryan Howard's triple made me tired.Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:36am Friday, October 16, 2009Random thoughts while waitin’ for the first pitch . . .The Philadelphia Daily News' Paul Hagen on Pedro in Game 2:If it works out, if Pedro Martinez pitches well, it will only buff Charlie Manuel's reputation as a baseball savant to a high luster. If it explodes, if it blows up in his face like a trick cigar and the Phillies are eventually eliminated, it's a decision that the manager will be questioned about for the rest of his baseball life. Now that hardly seems fair. It's what'll happen, sure, but it hardly seems fair. That's life though. I guess the same goes for Torre throwng Padilla. As I think about it, I can't remember the last time we had a league championship series matchup with the potential for so much carnage. Really, I could see both starters getting knocked out of the box early. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:40pm Sometimes it rainsThere are many reasons I like the cut of CC Sabathia's jib. This is the latest:Rain can delay Friday's Game 1 of the ALCS between the Yankees and Angels, which would give starter CC Sabathia time to play his favorite video game. I like both the game and that he chooses Blyleven. If he had said Hardball Baseball for the C64, I probably would have started a fan club chapter. Has there ever been a better #2 hitter than Guy Jose? And how unhittable was Pepi Perez' screwball? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:22pm No sellout for tonight’s ALCS?Pete Abe has the story.I know it's cold and rainy, but you CAN use the tickets when they reschedule, you know . . . (thanks to Ernest O. for the heads up) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:54pm My Morning in ExileQuery: Is George Sherrill really "the Pride of Memphis" as Chip Caray said last night? How many people in Memphis actually know him and what he does for a living and truly take pride in it? You certainly have family, some high school teammates and what, a few dozen other people? I bet the number of people from Memphis who truly take pride in George Sherrill is under 100. And none of those people mess with Wikipedia, because Sherrill isn't even mentioned here. Unless of course he was removed from the page after last night's performance . . .If I had to pick someone to be "The Pride of Memphis," I'd go with any of the following before George Sherrill: Howlin' Wolf; Al Green, Jerry Lawler, Elvis, and Missi Pyle, whom I've sort of had a crush on for a while. There are many others. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:07pm And That Happened: NLCSPhillies 8, Dodgers 6: We've taken your National League division champions and secretly replaced them with the Red Sox and Yankees! Let's see if anyone notices! Four hours+. Lots of homers. Not my kind of game, but I suppose the Phillies will take it. I had thought that Kershaw would be sharp and Hamels not so much, but I was only half right. Both starters struggled, with such struggles aided by what looked to my untrained eye as a really poor effort by home plate umpire Randy Marsh. Kershaw later said that he "failed to make adjustments" throughout the night. It wasn't the lack of adjustments to Phillies hitters that seemed to be the problem, though. It was the adjustments he tried to make to Marsh not giving him anything low in the strike zone. He turned to overthrowing and seemed to get frustrated. More experienced pitchers would have probably stayed with their game and kept trying to drop that backdoor pitch down low until Marsh finally started calling it. If he did call it: great. If not? Well, at least you're not getting shelled for five runs and throwing three wild pitches.But ultimately this game didn't turn on the umps. It did turn on the strike zone, though. As in George Sherill's inability to find it against Howard and Werth. The fastball he subsequently threw to Ibanez was a get-me-over pitch, right? I mean, otherwise, a lefty doesn't connect against him like that, true? In light of last night, Game 2 brings a great chance to make Torre look like the goat of the NLCS. The youngin' in which he placed his trust for Game 1 got beat up. If the lighting-in-a-bottle veteran for Game 2 reverts to Padillistic form, the story of the offday will be how L.A. managed to all but lose the NLCS without Randy Wolf, Kuroda or Billinglsey even throwing a pitch yet, seeing as though they were the dudes who staked them to a big lead back in the spring. I'm not saying it's a fair storyline -- I liked the Kershaw call -- but it'll be out there. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:40am Thursday, October 15, 2009Killing time until 8:07 tonightWith a question raised in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch mailbag: if you were the Cardinals, would you trade Albert Pujols for Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp?No, no one is really suggesting it. It's more of a "would you rather . . ." kind of game. And for the record, my usual answers to these things are Veronica over Betty; Betty over Wilma; Bailey over Jennifer; and Mary Ann over Ginger. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:38pm And now, here’s something we hope you’ll really likeThe Giants' Double-A team moves to Richmond and gets a new monicker:"Flying Squirrels" was announced this afternoon as the nickname for the new Richmond Double-A baseball franchise. Also under consideration as finalists were Rhinos, Flatheads, Flying Squirrels and Hush Puppies. The new team will begin playing at The Diamond next season and is affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. Personally, I like hush puppies. Not for a team name or anything. I just like hush puppies. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:52pm Remembering the ‘89 QuakeThe Chronicle's Henry Schulman was in the press box before Game 3. As with all good accounts of such things, Schulman captures the tragic, the comic and the simply insane:Like the fans, many of us assumed power would be restored and the game would be played. Then came word from transistor radios (remember those?) that "the Bay Bridge had collapsed" and "the entire city was on fire," exaggerations both, but enough for us to realize we needed to go to the field to cover not a baseball game, but a stadium evacuation . . . In another scene hard to forget, Giants manager Roger Craig quickly got into his pickup truck in full uniform, wanting to beat the crowd to the freeway, and rode off. We always assumed the Humm Baby came to work on a horse. The Chronicle is running a number of these actually. I always find personal rememberances like these to be far more enlightening than top-down news reports. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:21pm My Morning in ExileIf anyone cares, I finished season three of "The Wire" last night. It just gets better and better, as you all said it would. Again, no spoilers for those of us who haven't seen it all yet, but I will offer a question: why on Earth didn't HBO do an Omar/Brother Mouzone spinoff? If people watched "Simon and Simon" and "Hardcastle and McCormick" they sure as hell would have watched "Omar and Mouzone," wouldn't they?Note: it's also not acceptable to give up any "Hardcastle and McCormick" spoilers, as that's next in the NetFlix queue. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:18am I like the Dodgers, but it’s gonna be closeI wrote up an NLCS Preview over at NBC. I'll be honest and say that this thing could go either way, but if I have to pick, I'll go with the Dodgers, mostly because of bullpens.The more I think about this matchup, the more excited I get. I think the Yankees will beat the Angels fairly easily, but I think we're going to get some great baseball out of the Dodgers and Phillies. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:55am Wednesday, October 14, 2009My Anticipatory Morning in ExileAs I mentioned yesterday, I have to be in court this morning, so I won't have anything here until this afternoon. I did write six posts for NBC, however, that will be going live as the morning progresses. Among the topics: Ron Darling's tax trouble, the Dodgers' playoff rotation, the desirability (or not) of a potential freeway series, some thoughts on hating Manny, and two posts on the Nats: one about how they poached my team's scouting director (grrr!) and one about how their former, disgraced employees are still somehow privy to the team's inside information. Or at least pretend to be.Anyway, you know the place. There are two posts up now, one will come live in about ten minutes, and the last three at roughly half-hour intervals after that. Craig Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:18am Tuesday, October 13, 2009Proposal: Regulate PEDs like mortgage-backed securities. Or something.The legally-minded among you may find this interesting. It's a law review article about the best way to go after PEDs in sports. From the abstract:This Essay argues that performance-enhancing substance policy should be modeled after federal and state securities regulation. Instead of punishing use, regulators should require disclosure of all substances used, and punish only omissions and fraud of a material nature. The goals of a regulation regime would be better achieved without unintended negative consequences through a market approach based on minimum disclosure requirements. I like anything that brings sense and reason to the PED debate -- "wars" on drugs are, by definition, futile -- but given how well securities regulation works in this country, I'm not sure the proposals here represent an improvement. (link via Pete Toms) Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:50pm My Morning in ExileSorry things have been quiet the past couple of days. I was home with kids yesterday, and today I'm busy preparing for an appellate argument scheduled for tomorrow morning. Breaks from those activities -- and almost all of the time that stretched into the wee wee hours of last night -- consisted of me frantically finishing my contribution to The Hardball Times Annual. Which I just submitted to the editors. And which was due, like, two days ago. The fact that I tend to equate the word "deadline" with "suggestion" is one of the reasons that editors tend not to want to work with me. But hey, it's done. In the meantime:I'll have another post up in about a half hour, but beyond that it may be quiet for the rest of the day. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:24pm And That Happened: Division SeriesPhillies 5, Rockies 4: Wow, what a game! Colorado scores three times in the bottom of the eighth, only to have Philly do the same in the top of the ninth. The most interesting thing about this, I think, is that home field advantage, such as it was, actually hurt the Rockies, with the snow-out allowing the Phillies to throw four straight lefties at Colorado, helping neutralize their most potent bats. My buddy Matt thinks that this is unfair and that the result here cries out for a seven game divisional series. He's probably right about that. But unlike most years recently, I tend to think that all four division series resulted in the best team winning anyway, so maybe we just save our complaints for another year.Next up: an NLCS rematch with the Dodgers on Thursday, and two nights without baseball for the rest of us. Visit with your spouses, children and others close to you, my friends, because it will be the last time to do so until after the World Series. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:34am Monday, October 12, 2009And That Happened: Division SeriesAngels 7, Red Sox 6: Over at NBC on Saturday I wrote a post about how the Sox will go with Lester on short rest in Game 4 if, indeed, there was a Game 4. I went on to talk about Beckett on short rest in a Game 5. Some commenter called me an idiot because (a) if Beckett did pitch in Game 5 it would have been on regular rest, not short rest; and (b) because I as assuming that "the Red Sox going on a two-game winning streak" was such a daunting task. Hey partner, let's just agree that we were both right about something and both wrong about something an bury the hatchet, OK?Yankees 4, Twins 1: Best Facebook message I've gotten in a long time came in last night. From our own Steve Treder's brother Mike: "I hear that when Nick Punto was a kid, his favorite player was Lonnie Smith." In other news, baseball announcers and writers everywhere are going to have a conference call at 2PM this afternoon to determine whether the Twins still do, in fact, do things "the right way." Phillies 6, Rockies 5: The AP game story says that Brad Lidge "erased a season of frustration" when he "stranded runners at first and second" to get the save in the ninth inning. I suppose he may not be frustrated anymore, but how much credit do you really get when you're the guy who put the runners on first and second in the first place? Mitch Williams was rather famous for that kind of thing. He too got saves most of the time. Shut someone down, Brad, and we'll talk about your frustration truly ending. Oh, and yet another blown call this post season. Because a lot of you were probably asleep for it, here's how it went down: Ninth inning, game tied, Rollins singles, moves to second on a Victorino sacrifice, moves to third on Chase Utley's infield hit, and then scores the winning run on a Ryan Howard sacrifice fly. Except Utley's hit shouldn't have been a hit, because it bounced up and hit him on the leg in the batter's box. Home plate umpire Jerry Meals didn't call the ball dead. Meals admitted after the game that he blew it, blaming a tough angle -- which is true -- and the fact that Utley didn't react: "Chase Utley took off like it was nothing," Meals added. "He gave no indication to us that it hit him. Whatever percent of the time, you're going to get a guy that's going to stop if it hits him." I guess "whatever percent of the time" criminals turn themselves in for their crimes too, but I don't think we should base law enforcement strategy on it. I'm kind of pulling for the Phillies in this series (a) because they're a more interesting team to watch; and (b) I really don't want to see more winter ball. That said, if the Phillies take care of business today, we'll have two nights off of baseball. So let's go Rockies today, and let's go Phillies tomorrow, cool? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:53am Friday, October 09, 2009Deep ThoughtsHow many beers does C.B. Bucknor owe Phil Cuzzi for taking the heat off him?Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:50pm Steven Soderbergh to try and make another baseball movieNot Moneyball, according to MTV Movies blogger Larry Carroll:“Yeah, I have another idea for a baseball movie that actually doesn’t have any baseball in it,” the “Informant!” filmmaker revealed to us recently and more than a bit cryptically. “I am going to see MLB when I’m in New York to talk to them about it.” Carroll speculates that it could be a Jose Canseco/steroids or a Pete Rose kind of thing. Those ideas sound too ESPN-cheapie-movie to me. Any guesses about what real-life baseball story would be Soderbergh-worthy? He already did "Solaris" and I can't see anything moving slower than that, so "The Steve Trachsel Story" is out. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:39pm The Phillies can’t hold on to their ringsThis article has a little bit of everything:A masked fan ejected from a Phillies playoff game is charged with stealing three World Series rings from a ballpark office. The Phillies have now had four such rings stolen since winning the title last year. Police say 22-year-old Matthew Mervine of Berlin, N.J., was videotaped taking the rings Thursday. They say he had also left his contact information on a job application. Among its delights: (1) confusion: is the penalty for stealing jewelry in Philly ejection from the ballpark? I'm assuming he was arrested, right? If so, is it really necessary to note that he was ejected too? If he was ejected and only later arrested, why was he ejected? I'm worried that there is some high comedy we're missing here; (2) courtesy: it was very nice of the criminal to leave all of his personal information prior to committing the theft; (3) Pfun Pfilly Pfacts: Scouts get cheaper rings. This isn't necessarily surprising, but I never really thought about it before. I wonder what the cutoff is. Does the bullpen coach get full-blown bling? Trainer? UPDATE: More info from another story: Apparently, Mervine, who wore a rubber skull mask to yesterday's game against the Rockies, found his way to the Phillies offices after being kicked out of the game with other fans who were being too boisterous, police said. He'd been wearing a skull mask and calling himself "Rockie Killer." Someone on the Citizens Bank Park security staff should probably brush up on the concept of "kicking someone out of the game." Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:31pm Roy Clark to the Nats?Rosenthal has the Nats interviewing Braves' scouting director Roy Clark for the assistant GM job.If Clark were to jump ship, it would be . . . bad. Clark has been courted by the Nats before and turned them down. That was more of a lateral move, however. If Robo is right, this is something else entirely. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:13pm This is how you reflect on sports failure, kidsDanUpBaby from Viva El Birdos:Nine-hundred and eighty times out of a thousand Matt Holliday catches the ball. Seven-hundred and eighty times out of a thousand a batter facing Ryan Franklin doesn't reach base safely. If I keep saying that he sucks he can't suck. None of it matters in that one instant except to remind us, to insist to us, that baseball isn't always like this, that normally it meets our expectations halfway. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:03pm NBC Comment of the DayAn article by Craig Calcaterra is like a fart. It stinks, but it will soon go away! You guys often ask me how I put up with the NBC commenters. I have no idea what you mean. This stuff is GOLD! Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:41pm My Morning in ExileThings I wrote while wondering why Greg Maddux never won a Nobel Peace Prize:And if not Maddux, how about Picard? You gonna tell me that the guy who almost single-handedly put an end to the Klingon civil war isn't worthy? Politics, man. Freakin' politics. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:57am And That Happened: Division SeriesDodgers 3, Cardinals 2: Look, I know all you Cardinals fans want to kill Matt Holliday right now, but (a) your guys may not have made the postseason without him; (b) he did hit a homer in the game; and (c) Ryan Franklin still had to walk Casey Blake, give up a single to Ronnie Belliard, walk Russell Martin, give up a single to Mark Loretta and deal with a passed ball in order for the game to go bye-bye. All of that said, This is still the picture of the postseason so far. In other news, you had two Cy Young Award candidates pitch the first two games of a playoff series and you're still down 2-0? Welcome to the the world of the late-1990s Braves, Cardinals fans! UPDATE: I lodged this same Braves comment on Facebook, and the great Mark Armour weighed in thusly:Did you know: the 1995-99 Braves (a) had the best record in the league five years in a row (matching the 1949-53 Yankees) and (b) won 9 of their 13 post-season series. An incredible team with a fine post-season record. That's great and all, but my response: "Who ya gonna believe Braves fans, the well-respected baseball historian stating what are no doubt accurate facts, or your irrational, Jim-Leyritz and Livan Hernandez-hating hearts?" Rockies 5, Phillies 4: Cole Hamels allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings and then high-tailed it to be by his wife's side in the maternity ward. But I think the most amazing thing about this game is that Charlie Manuel used two of his three options to start Game 3 -- Happ and Blanton -- as relievers. Blanton pitched an inning of relief because, hell, I don't know why. He hasn't done it in three years, and when he came into the game, every single member of the Phillie bullpen had at least three days rest under their belt thanks to Cliff Lee's CG on Wednesday. Then, having used Blanton, he turns to Happ, who was promptly knocked out on a comebacker. Is Manuel that afraid of his usual relief corps.? I guess not, because he used a bunch of them eventually. Thirteen pitchers in all between these two teams, and 3:41 for a nine-inning game. Heidi's labor probably didn't last that long. Oh, one other thing: it snowed in Denver yesterday and there's a chance of it again on Saturday. Not exactly Pedro Martinez's element. Happ pitched college ball at Northwestern and based on the Big Ten baseball I've watched, there's no doubt he has pitched in snow before. Too bad he's not available. Angels 5, Red Sox 0: Based on what I'm hearing via Facebook status updates, angry emails, and generalized chatter in the winds, Red Sox Nation is none too happy with the umpiring of last night's game, particularly as it came from C.B. Bucknor. Very little of this chatter mentions the fact that none of the controversial calls -- Hunter walking in the third, Youkilis' "missed" tag on Howie Kendrick in the fourth inning, Youkilis stretch in the sixth -- came in innings in which the Angels scored. Fair? Oh hell no. Those missed calls led to extra pitches by Boston pitchers that weren't helpful by any means. But maybe the Sox' complains would be better taken if they had managed to do thing-one against John Lackey. Quote from the game story: "the noisy Orange County crowd didn't seem to be anticipating disappointment while clacking its ThunderStix and easily drowning out the surprisingly small Boston fan contingent on a slightly chilly night." Holy crap, they're still doing the ThunderStix thing out there? I went to an Angels game in 2003 and it was played out then. Angels fans, take it from a Braves fan: you don't want to continue to be identified in the world by a group cheering thing that, while possibly amusing when it started, grows more and more ridiculous as time goes on. No, ThunderStix will probably never be as bad as the Chop, but you don't even want to be half as bad as that, OK? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:41am Thursday, October 08, 2009Cole Hamels bolts to the birthin’ roomMy son was born the day after I saw "Batman Begins" at the theater. If he would have come sooner, Mrs. Shyster would have been on her own. They're called priorities, Cole Hamels. Think about it:Phillies starter Cole Hamels has left the ballpark with his wife, a former "Survivor" contestant, who is in labor with the couple's first child. In other news, at least he now has a use for the minivan. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:41pm TBS PitchTraxThe little rectangle on the right side of the screen bugs me. No, it's not a crime against humanity, but I tend to have a pretty good ability to remember how a sequence of pitches has gone -- at least to remember enough to make the whole batter-pitcher confrontation meaningful for me -- so I really don't need it.Jay at Fack Youk has a much more considered opinion of it all that's worth checking out. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:23pm Andy Oliver and the NCAA have settledPer Keith Law, Andy Oliver has settled with the NCAA :Andy Oliver, the former Oklahoma State Univ. pitcher who won a court decision earlier this year voiding the NCAA's regulation prohibiting student athletes from having an attorney make direct contact with a pro sports team, has settled his case against the NCAA, two weeks before it was to go to a jury trial. "I can confirm there is a settlement and that it is confidential," Oliver's attorney, Rick Johnson, said late yesterday. He declined to comment further. I've been forwarded the settlement agreement -- or at least the notice of settlement which outlines the major terms -- and basically the NCAA is giving Oliver $750,000, and the court is going to vacate the Feburay order in which it invalidated the NCAA's no-representatives rule. I think -- and since I lose all my cases and never settle, I do not know for sure -- that vacating that order allows the NCAA to reinstitute its no-reps rule. Which would probably be stupid on their part because it's not like the groundwork hasn't been laid for another plaintiff to come in and make the same case. But if the order is vacated, the order is vacated. The NCAA is rather stupid. My bet is that they learn absolutely nothing from this process. As for Oliver: seeing this case through to the end probably could have done a lot of good in beating the crap out of the odious NCAA, but at the end of the day, $750,000 ain't hay for a minor leaguer. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:45pm My Morning in ExileNew York, Los Angeles and Philly won yesterday. FOX and TBS smile . . .*If I may, please allow me to ask all of you not to use this phrase unless you know what it means. It does not mean "the exception which renders the rule valid." That's how people almost always use it, but it makes no sense if you think about it for more than 3 seconds. In this instance, "proves" takes on an alternate, and somewhat more antiquated meaning; that being "tests," in the same way that "proving grounds" really means "testing grounds." Ergo, "the exception which proves the rule" means "the exception which really tests and challenges that rule, and may in fact make us consider whether or not it is still a rule." And no, I will not accept the recently cited "2000/2001 is the end of the century" or "-gate = scandal" argument, which holds that if enough people f*ck something up those of us who had it right all along should just fall in line with the morons. The last time I ever gave in on that was with UNABOM/Unabomber thing and I still hate myself for it. UPDATE: OK, based on the comments, it seems that I'm wrong about this too. Whatever. Let's not lose sight of the important thing here: there are a lot of people in the world who annoy me, and whether it's over their turns of phrase or on general principles, I am going to use this space to attack them whenever possible, because I am a small, small man. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:35pm And That Happened: Division SeriesPhillies 5, Rockies 1: Man, when Cliff Lee is on he's on, isn't he (CG, 6 H, 1 ER, 5K)? Nice of him to spare Charlie Manuel the need to fret over his bullpen for a day. Every Phillie had a hit, Lee included. Jayson Werth said the sun and wind made it "the toughest day I've ever seen in Philly." Based on what I know about Philly, he must not spend a lot of time in town.Yankees 7, Twins 2: This was all rather ho-hum. The Twins were no doubt gassed after Tuesday's business, but Duensing was probably going to have trouble against that lineup regardless. Still -- and I appreciate that this is hindsight, but I did think it at the time -- maybe he should have left him in to face Matsui? Probably doesn't matter. Deck chairs on the Titanic don't you know. Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3: Hey, does anyone here appreciate that I picked the Cardinals to win this? Shape up, will ya? Everyone, actually, because that was way too many walks from guys who are supposed to know better and way too many men left on base from teams who are supposed to be fundamentally sound. And since when is Jeff Weaver the get-you-out-of-a-jam guy in the pen? Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:40am Wednesday, October 07, 2009Man, those Giles brothers are charmingFirst Brian, now Marcus:Former Padres second baseman Marcus Giles was arrested early Wednesday morning on charges of domestic battery involving his wife, El Cajon Police Sgt. Fenton Sue said. Sue said police were called to Interstate 8 at Greenfield Drive at 3:20 a.m. by California Highway Patrol officers who were with Giles, 31, and his wife, who were in a vehicle that was pulled over, Sue said. It's unclear if it was the CHP officers who had stopped the car. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:09pm My Morning in Exile1. Play emotionally-draining game;2. Drink lots of beer and champagne; 3. Immediately board a flight to New York; 4. Arrive at, like, 3 A.M.; 5. Sleep the sleep of the drunk and the red eye air traveller; 6. Play game against the best team in baseball at 6 P.M. Sounds like a recipe for winning to me! I know this is late today -- and I apologize for the lack of content -- but the law has been beating me like a rented mule. Besides, the first game just started. You should be watching that instead of reading my scribblings. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:46pm And That Happened: AL Central Playoff EditionTwins 6, Tigers 5: You didn't know it you didn't think it could be done in the final end they won the war. After losing every battle.Greatest game in Metrodome history? With all apologies to Chris I'm inclined to say no, simply because I don't equate high drama with greatness. There were all manner of screwups in this game. They kept things close, but that doesn't define greatness as far as I'm concerned. On the one hand you can say "Wow! What an incredible game!" On the other hand you can say "Man, a lot of sloppy play, a lot of missed opportunities, and hoo-boy a bad call by the ump made a big difference." Though the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to believe that those things aren't mutually exclusive. Whatever: what an incredible, sloppy game! From the end of this thing the Twins had 21 hours until the first pitch in the Bronx. After burning though eight pitchers and a hundred different emotions. Against a team who ran the table against them this year. It's hard not to root for Minnesota going forward, but I wouldn't put a ton of money on them. Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 12:02am Tuesday, October 06, 2009Great Moments in Selective OutrageTed Williams' youngest daughter is "horrified and shocked" by the fact that a judge won't restrain an author from exercising his First Amendment rights. No word on how she feels about lab goons smacking her daddy's frozen brain pan around with a monkey wrench.Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:15am CommentsTell the Shyster what you think: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
