My Morning in Exile

I was not a happy camper last week due to work and little blogging and all of that. Today still kind of sucks, but I’m basically out of the woods now. Some legal work and a corned beef sandwich is in my immediate future this afternoon, but in the meantime, have a nosh of this:

  • No Mr. Schmidt, 20 years is not enough for your pal Pete.
  • 2009: the year of the the feat.
  • Dodgers fans boo Manny Ramirez. And now the shoving begins.
  • The post which caused someone in the NBC readership to yell at me because he thought that I thought that CC Sabathia pitched Game 7 of the 1991 World Series for the Twins. You be the judge.
  • The Padres do their best to extend Davd Eckstein, but he’s still only 5’6″
  • The latest in the Wagnerian drama.
  • OK, screw the legal work. I’m getting the corned beef first.


    38 Comments
    Oldest
    Newest Most Voted
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    Oh, Craig, don’t you know by now NO COMPLEX SENTENCES

    Wooden U. Lykteneau
    14 years ago

    Sorry, Craig – but the rules of grammar are pretty clear: The “he” is preceded by C.C. Sabathia, not Jack Morris. We all know who you meant, since C.C. was barely even 200 lbs in 1991…

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    Probably, mike in brooklyn, and I personally would have loved a little more snark on the Frenchy thing.
    Something like an analysis of the thought process: “Shall I hit a walk-off HR and squelch the rally? NAAAHHHH!!!”

    themarksmith
    14 years ago

    Have to agree with Wooden a little here. You have to use the pronoun after you introduce the subject it’s referring to (or to which it’s referring—which brings me to the question of why prepositions can’t end a sentence other than that grammar rules say so).

    In other words, the sentence should have been—“even though Jack Morris beat my Braves in Game 7 of 1991 and was kind of a jerk the one time I met him in person, I have a soft spot in my heart for him because he was the ace of the team I loved when I was a little kid.”

    It would have been a bit clearer, but all it would have taken from hop was to do a double-take and realize what you were saying. Dependent clauses are tricky things.

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    Fair enough on the grammar. But it’s not like it was so bad that the meaning was totally obscured. Given how utterly brain dead the literal, gramatically-correct meaning was (i.e. CC in 1991), you’d think one would try extra hard to make sure that’s what I was saying before berating me.

    In this circumstance, it strikes me that the correct nasty post could have been “Craig, you’re a moron who overwrites from time to time, and this time it made you make a dumb mistake that could lead someone to think that you meant that CC Sabathia was pitching in 1991. I know you didn’t mean that, but Jesus, be more clear, please.”  Instead of “OMG you’re an idiot: Sabathia was only 11 in 1991.”

    bigcatasroma
    14 years ago

    Your NBC readers are boners.  Seriously.  Thinking that you were referring to the person before the phrase off-set by commas, CC, could have pitched in 1991.  And it was a serious comment.  That’s what scares me. 

    Though one guy did utter the obvious – if he knew how to win, why did he forget 186 times, and countless other times he had a no-decision?????  Would Girardi have said that if the Yankees had lost 4-2 or something???  It boggles my mind . . .

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    Bifcat: if you think they’re boners now, don’t even dare wade into the Pete Rose thread comments.  My lord.

    MJ
    14 years ago

    Bifcat: if you think they’re boners now, don’t even dare wade into the Pete Rose thread comments.  My lord.

    Just finished reading that disaster.  Good lord are those people thick.  This might win for best comment of the year though (after the Strawberry HoF one):

    Pete Rose is the Greatest Player in the history of MLB. Manny and A Rod should never be mentioned in the same article.Like many have said, ” give me 9 players like Pete and i’ll win 162 games”.

    WOW

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    This is like a secret club. You post your usual well-reasoned stuff on the Blue Network and people who are bored with amazon’s Gold Box Forum stop by and say something idiotic, then we get the afternoon chuckles off of them.
    As RHP says it: “You call this justice?”
    Have a couple of men handle them, someone good who won’t get carried away.  We’re not murderers you know.

    JasonC23
    14 years ago

    terry in the Wagner thread takes the cake. How can one hope to argue successfully against such incredible rebuttals?

    Kevin S.
    14 years ago

    Friarfan in the Eckstein thread has a pretty good one, too.  I’ve got nothing, now that he told me the Pads’ record in games with the smurf and without him.  Just like A-Rod returned made the Yanks’ pitching awesome.

    Kevin S.
    14 years ago

    *returning, not returned.  I hate that there’s no edit comment function here.

    Dennis
    14 years ago

    Actually, Craig, your sentence is fine.  It is perfectly fine for a pronoun in a subordinate clause to precede an antecedent in the main clause.

    The Common Man
    14 years ago

    My personal favorite comment (so far) is Ken Cochran, who wrote that Stan Musial “would routinely spkie [sic] Jackie Robinson because they were biggits [sic] and he was black.”  Has anyone ever accused Stan the Man of anything like this before?  Isn’t he generally acknowledged one of the classiest guys to play the game?

    The Common Man
    14 years ago

    Ooh, second favorite:

    Michael Siebert:  “A few years back, when Rose was still managing, Roberto Alomar spit in an umpires face during a game and got a 10 game suspension. The next year, Rose bumps Dave Pallone during an argument and gets 30 days in suspension. Alomar appeals and gets it reduced, Rose has no appeal rights.”

    Rose’s last year managing:  1989.  Robby’s rookie year:  1988.  The spitting incident:  1996.  Memory is a funny thing…especially when you’re a moron.

    Aarcraft
    14 years ago

    I think Ken Cochran was thinking Enos Slaughter. Its an easy mistake to make, because they were both Cardinals, and they both have an s in their name. He then goes on to say that Rose was a better player than Musial “by a wide margin” and that no one would argue with that. I am quite sure there are many people who would argue with that, myself being one of them.

    Flemming
    14 years ago

    How do you spell Eckstein? I-N-T-A-N-G-I-B-L-E-S! He’s so gritty. And hustly. And small. Only in baseball……

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    Craig, I swear I’m going to have to give up reading your NBC stuff, because the comments make me just crazy.  I want to start responding, and then I stop myself because I know there’s no real point, and then my blood starts boiling, and my wife starts muttering something like, “If the blog is going to upset you then you’re not going to be allowed to read it anymore,” and then…BAM!  I stroke out and die.

    Happens every time.

    mike in brooklyn
    14 years ago

    I thought I had read recently that Jackie actually said Musial gave him some verbal encouragement.  The same guy who wrote that comment—Ken Cochran—also said Rose was obviously a better player than slaughter or musial.  I repeat: OBVIOUSLY BETTER THAN MUSIAL!!!!!!

    And, Craig, while I hate to be NY-centric: you can’t get a good corned beef sandwich outside of NYC (or a good bagel, for that matter).

    And now I sound like a Yankee fan.  I’VE BECOME EVERYTHING I HATE!!!!

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    Mike—you may or may not be right about bagels, but you’re dead wrong about corned beef. I’m not saying the stuff I had for lunch today was fantastic or anything, but I’ve had transcendant corned beef in Detroit, Chicago, and even Los Angeles.

    MooseinOhio
    14 years ago

    @The Common Man – “Memory is a funny thing…especially when you’re a moron” is one of the better lines I read in awhile and resulting in a much needed chuckle during a frustrating day.  Thanks you.

    @Craig – I prefer the original spelling of moxie (fortitude and determination) to the newer/urban dictionary moxy version (When someone has guts or balls, they have moxy). 

    Of course as a Mainer I am biased as I grew up with great-grandparents, grandparents and uncles that loved drinking Moxie.  Personally I think it taste like a mixture of cough syrup, coffee and soda water, which I do not find pleasing in the least. 

    However I have always loved the word, had a college buddy play in a local Portland band called The Moxie Men and can often be found sporting an orange Moxie ballcap while golfing.  I guess I am a little protective of the word, especially as a Mainer living in exile in SE Ohio.

    Well I’m off to my afternoon counseling session now.

    MooseinOhio
    14 years ago

    Craig – Never in the life of me would I have expected to have read “I’ve had transcendant corned beef in …” in a baseball related blog. – 

    Are you trying to finagle a gig blogging for the Food Network as well?  I think you might have some competition with Keith Law and Guy Fieri.

    Aarcraft
    14 years ago

    Sorry, didn’t remember that he also identified Slaughter. So he wasn’t confused, he was just making stuff up. FYI – Stan Musial career OPS+ = 159. Pete Rose single season high OPS+ = 158

    Jorge Orta
    14 years ago

    Thanks, Craig, for responding to Mike’s misguided notion regarding good corned beef.  I love New York City at least as much as the next guy, and there are numerous things there that one can’t find anywhere else.  Good corned beef, however, is not one of those things. 

    Also, I don’t care much about bagels one way or the other, but I will say this: it’s difficult to find a more overrated bagel than H & H.

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    I’ll also agree on the corned beef.  Full disclosure: I am a Chicago-area native.  But I don’t have the typical NYC-hate that many locals here do.  I admire much about NYC and (heretical remark alert) I MUCH prefer NY pizza.

    But if you can’t find a great Jewish deli with awesome corned beef in Chicago, then you’re not trying.

    Alex
    14 years ago

    I had some excellent corned beef at Premanti Bros. in Pittsburgh last week. I think it travels well.

    Good bagels, on the other hand, are almost impossible to find anywhere except for … Montreal. Really.

    mike in brooklyn
    14 years ago

    I am officially retracting my corned beef comment.  I should have said, “I’ve never had good corned beef outside of NYC”.  Although that sampling is VERY small.  Oddly enough, I could never find good corned beef in Boston—where I lived for a decade or so.  Although they had some really good Jewish delis otherwise.  And the city is full of that other ethnicity we all associate with corned beef—Irish folks.

    And, Alex, although I love Montreal, I have never tried a bagel there.  I saw something on the travel channel, though, recently, saying how great they are.  It’s on my to-do list if the exchange rate ever gets decent again.

    And, finally, I love chicago pizza, too.  And NY pizza.  And Boston pizza.  And California Kitchen pizza.  etc, etc…

    Daniel
    14 years ago

    Craig, to be fair, the syntax was a bit convoluted.  You put the pronoun’s antecedent after the pronoun that referred to it.  Especially when you already had a name in the first part of the sentence, it did take a couple of reads until I realized how you had done it.

    Anyone who read the sentence thoroughly would eventually get it, but it was confusing.

    Daniel
    14 years ago

    And okay, here comes an ignorant comment from Southern California…

    It’s just a bagel, right?  How much better can it actually be?  I understand how there can definitely be a wide range of quality for corned beef.  There’s a lot of preparation that goes into it, not to mention the quality of the beef itself.

    But bagels?  It’s just dense bread in an ‘o’ shape.

    The Rabbit
    14 years ago

    @Daniel
    Oh Daniel…You really don’t know what you have missed.  As a former New Yorker & Bostonian (now living in the hinterlands of the Ozarks), you have not really eaten a bagel into you have an egg bagel in Brooklyn.  Those frozen brands are an abomination.
    It’s like rye bread.  I have to bake my own because that stuff in a package sux.
    And like Mike in Brooklyn, I could not find good corned beef when I lived in Boston, but there was pretty good Jewish deli in Worcester, MA.

    mike in brooklyn
    14 years ago

    Daniel—to build on what Rabbit said:  If you haven’t had it, you simply don’t know.  And actually, from your comment (“it’s just bread on an ‘o’, right?”), you are showing your ignorance.  (I don’t mean that as an insult.  How are you supposed to know if you haven’t been exposed to it.  I’m ignorant as to what makes a good Tom Collins, for instance.)  I don’t have the slightest idea what they do to make a real bagel a real bagel.  But it is much more than just bread in an ‘o’.  In fact, those are almost the exact words I use to insult bagged bagels, or like Dunkin Donuts bagels:  that isn’t a bagel, it’s merely a circle of bread.

    (I’m so glad we’re not talking about the Mets)

    The Rabbit
    14 years ago

    @mike in brooklyn
    Cooking is science…As hard as I try, I cannot duplicate a NY bagel or San Francisco sourdough.  I know the quality of sourdough has something to do with the “starter” and the mold in San Francisco air.
    The quality of NY bagels may have something to do with the water.  Bagels are boiled before they are baked. Also, the best recipes have a touch of malt in them. You aren’t going to find that at Dunkin’ Donuts.
    After watching the Mets game this afternoon, I only wish that they were as bad as the 1962 team. At least that team had some entertainment value….and Johann is scratched tomorrow. (Sorry to bring it up.)

    Eric Cioe
    14 years ago

    Wagnerian drama?  Craig, you should be a little more cultured, embrace the inner German in you, and call it by its proper name: gesamtkunstwerk.

    I think it’s hilarious that Papelbon’s comments were part of the reason the best lefty closer of all time won’t be pitching for for Boston this season.

    Simon DelMonte
    14 years ago

    Must commend you for your stand on Pete Rose and for your patience with the more difficult comments at NBC’s site.  Will add that I think a lot of people forget, when talking about how Rose never bet against his team, that the real reason sports are afraid of gambling is the possibility that anyone who’s addicted enough runs the risk of being suborned by those he owes money to.  (In truth, I think that any athlete who gambles at all is creating a risk, even if he’s Michael Jordan and is doing it legally in Atlanctic City.)

    That said, I much prefer debates about corned beef to debates about Pete Rose.

    MJ
    14 years ago

    127 comments on that Pete Rose article, it really is the gift that keeps on giving with such gems as:

    What I think is commical is how all these “so called” sports writer professionals and talk show hosts and experts like to forget one thing . . . WE THE FANS make these damn sports and without us they mean nothing, nothing at all

    Apparently if I stop watching Yankee games, the team will disappear.  Not sure how the Rockies continue to win since I don’t think I’ve watched a game of theirs since the WS.

    And I retract my previous comment of the year, how can this be beat (same Chris commenter from above)?

    Many of the greats were not great people, but we didnt pay to see them because they were good people did we. We dont pay millions of dollars to these guys to be good people, if they are great, if they aren’t we still watch them. MJ had his gambling issues and we all just laughed and got over it . . . there is a racist card here I think is being played against pete . . . if he were a minority . . he would be in . .

    You heard it hear first, Pete Rose isn’t in the HoF due to reverse racism.

    Jason B
    14 years ago

    “The quality of NY bagels may have something to do with the water.”

    The pizza, too. There is a theory that the water that goes into New York piaaz dough sets it apart from other cities’.  They tested that theory on “Food Answers” or whatever the show is called on the Food Network – had the same chef make the same style pizza with water from NYC, Chicago, and LA, and then gave a blind taste test to four supposed pizza aficionados and connoisseurs to see if they could identify the New York pizza, and they each did. 

    So maybe there’s something to the notion that there’s something special about that Yankee water.

    Travis M. Nelson
    14 years ago

    I’ve heard that about the water affecting bagels, too, though in my case it was a girl at a bagel shop in Freehold, NJ who told me that.  We get excellent bagels here in Bethlehem, PA, but only from one or two places.  Most of them suck. 

    As far as the Sabathia/Morris/grammar issue is concerned, I think it would have been better f you had phrased it this way: 

    “Look, I met a jerk in person one time and even he beat CC Sabathia in Game 7 of 1991. I have a soft spot in my heart for a little kid because he was love, though I was kind of the Braves and I loved my team, the ace of the him when I was Jack Morris.”

    There. That should clear it up.

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    Bagels that you buy at a grocery store are indeed usually just bread in an O shape.

    The best bagels are a different kettle of fish altogether.  Absolutely they must be boiled in water first, and there’s a density and a texture that’s not found in run-of-the-mill bagels.  I’ve had great bagels in NYC, and in Chicago, and even in San Diego, but sometimes you have to hunt them down.

    Your best bet is to avoid “chain” bagel places.  Oh they’re not horrid—a box of Einstein Bagels is a regular routine out here in the suburbs, and the bagels are tasty enough—but nothing beats a deli bagel in the city.