May 18, 2013

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Shyster's Daily Circuit


Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Don’t bring Griffey back Seattle


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

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

Sounds great to me.

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

Retire his number on opening day. Enshrine him in any Hall of Fame at your disposal. Offer him any job in the organization he wants this side of GM. But don't give the man a roster spot.

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:20am (12) Comments

Monday, November 09, 2009

Jeff Pearlman continues to loathe his job


The working conditions are terrible. None of his colleagues do their job. The whole damn operation is a waste of time. I'm just waiting for the "I don't believe in nothin' no more, I'm goin' to law school!" post.

Not that I don't see where Pearlman is coming from. Press boxes are bad places to watch games. Reporters do ask inane questions. Athletes do give vapid answers. That whole scene is rather silly.

But rather than mope about it, Jeff, do something about it. Tell SI that you're done with the conventional beat and you want to cover stories differently. Tell them you want to eschew the box, dispense with the postgame interviews and ask the questions you're presumably not allowed to ask. You wonder why no one asks if Jay Cutler is overrated? Ask it yourself! You want to rain on the Bears' playoff pretensions? Do it!

But for God's sake, drop the pity party. Everyone has a job they hate from time to time. None of us like being away from our kids for work. All of us, however, sack the hell up and get on with it.

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:13pm (14) Comments

Tom Brookens Sighting


You probably have to be in your mid-30s and had to have lived in Michigan in the mid-80s in order to care about this.

Anybody know what John Wockenfuss is up to?

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:49pm (5) Comments

Chalk pulls a Favre


Remember Dave Chalk's retirement from Bugs & Cranks last week? Well, he's takin' a mulligan.

You'll recall my bewilderment re: Dave's stated dissatisfaction over steroids and money and stuff ruining baseball, and wondering why that all of a sudden became a problem for him when it was nothing really new. He responds, with the upshot being that 2008-2009 were particularly bad in those departments, thus fueling his dissatisfaction. The substance is too long to blockquote, so click on through to read his explanation.

I like to see more baseball bloggers, not less, so good for Dave for taking a week and rethinking it all.

Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:10pm (7) Comments

My Morning in Exile


Twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall fell. I'm obviously not equipped to do the event historical justice in this space, so I'll share my own shallow personal remembrance: I was in the 11th grade, taking an advanced placement government and politics class. The teacher was way more interested in international relations stuff, however, so the syllabus and text for the class was premised almost exclusively on Cold War politics. With the fall of the wall, the entire lesson plan for the class was essentially mooted. It was at that moment that I realized "hey, maybe they're not teaching us everything we need to know in school."

Secondary remembrance: the fall of the Wall led directly to the Scorpions' late-career hit "Winds of Change." Who would have thunk that a band who once put out an album called "Virgin Killer" with a cover depicting a nude pre-teen girl covered in broken glass would one day tell us everything we needed to know about the thawing of NATO-Warsaw Pact relations? Anyway:

  • The Phillies say no to Pedro Feliz's option; may activate a time machine and get the exact same player five years younger in the form of Adrian Beltre in free agency.


  • Some McCourtenfreude from the Boston Globe.


  • No, Sammy Sosa is not doing an homage to that awesome Eddie Murphy SNL skit.


  • Lackey to Milwaukee? Eh, why not? It's not the craziest thing Olney has said recently.


  • The Rangers have pitching depth from which to deal. Hopefully for them it will work out better than all that catching depth they had last year.


  • One definition of happiness: receiving a case schedule from a court and realizing that you'll be long gone before any of the hard stuff has to be done.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:38am (10) Comments

    Friday, November 06, 2009

    Great Moments in Plagiarization


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

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

    That works for me on so many levels.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:24pm (5) Comments

    The Nats lay people off


    From Washington Business Journal:

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

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

    So I guess that means the other person let go was Strasburg?

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:05pm (4) Comments

    McCourt Update


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

    It's nice to see him back to work after what happened to Barbara.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:43pm (2) Comments

    My Morning in Exile


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

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


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


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


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


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


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


  • It may be quiet this afternoon. I have all manner of administrative hooey I need to deal with. I've been leaving jobs at a fairly regular clip for 20 years now, and the paperwork just gets more arduous.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:39am (10) Comments

    Deep Thoughts: Tim Lincecum Edition


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

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

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

    Congratulations, Tim!

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:23am (26) Comments

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