My Morning in Exile

It’s ShysterDaughter’s first day of kindergarten today. It’s afternoon kindergarten, so I’m going to bust out of here soon to go be that dad who stands at the bus stop taking pictures and holding back tears as my kid rolls her eyes. I’ll be back later this afternoon, however. In the meantime:

  • The Rays didn’t cut salary. They “reallocated resources.” Maybe this isn’t a worrisome example of it, but it’s always worth remembering that while thought can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thought.
  • The Braves stand to have six good starting pitchers to start next year. Of course, give Frank Wren an offseason to work with and they’ll have three good pitchers and a couple of past-their-prime corner outfielders, but as of now, I still hope.
  • J.P. Ricciardi falls on his sword, but he may have been pushed.
  • Mariano Rivera should not win the Cy Young award. Yesterday the NBCers killed me for allegedly disrespecting the Sox, so I figured I’d go for equal time today.
  • Buster Posey isn’t in San Francisco to “light a fire” under Bengie Molina. He’s there to confirm that Molina is, in fact, expendable.
  • Huston, this problem isn’t nearly as bad as it seems.
  • Off to put my little girl on the cheese wagon. [Sniffle] [Snork]


    22 Comments
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    Greg Simons
    14 years ago

    Let the tears roll down, Craig.  She’s your little girl.

    mgflolox
    14 years ago

    There may be some separation anxiety on that first day, but don’t worry Craig, you’ll get over it.

    Alex
    14 years ago

    I know that there’s a Law of Conservation of Knuckleballers, but is there a Law of Conservation of Molinas?

    Grant
    14 years ago

    Yeesh. Write about the Yankees and the mouth-breathers come out in force. That Mariano post was painful.

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    This is nothing, Craig.  Wait until you drop your first kid off at college.

    That’s a toughie, lemme tell you.

    michael standish
    14 years ago

    About the Rays and debased and/or corrupted language:

    As either Sigmund Freud or Ludwig Wittgenstein, or maybe it was Lenny Bruce, pointed out, talking funny (or, as we professionals say, “reallocating language resources”) can make a person go blind or—perhaps even worse—turn one’s hands into wings, in which case one can only fan the keyboard.

    I’ll ask Dan Shaughnessy (he’d know about this stuff) and get back to you on this.

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    Long before spring turned to summer I made a conscious decision noit to comment to your morning posts on the Blue Network and hold my water until MMIE. This has served me well, except during recess for your legal mumbo-jumbo that sometimes lets the inmates take over with corned beef food fights, etc.
    Well, this morning I relapsed and agreed with you about Mo, hero though he is in these quarters, who should not be a Cy Young contender.  No less than a couple of posts later, some Einstein (the saint) also agrees, then disparages you for lack of analytical skills and poor journalism, Hate to think of the diatribe if he disagreed.
    So WTF, I won’t even bother to troll over there anymore and retain my love for intelligent discourse, Jeopsrdy!, Star Wars, Marx brothers and all. (Gives secret handshake)

    ecp
    14 years ago

    Goodness, they are really lobbing the tomatoes over there at the post on Mariano.  Craig, is there a way for you to delete objectionable posts?  No one should have to be subjected to that language.

    YankeesfanLen – I have, over the years, said many disparaging things about the unreasonable attitudes of Yankee fans.  However, you, sir, always conduct yourself with class and are not included in the group against which I have railed.  Now, with that said…while CC MIGHT win the Cy, based on what’s happened YTD, he SHOULDN’T win.  Greinke should.  But hey, there’s a lot of season left.  Let’s wait and see what everybody does in September before casting our (virtual) votes.  (I guess that’s a response to your post over there, and that’s a fray I can’t bear to enter into either.)

    MJ
    14 years ago

    Craig, do you guys have any power to ban/mod people at CTB?  The vitriole is bad enough, but Hotrod’s constantly posting in all caps is MAKING MY EYES BLEED.

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    ShysterDaughter got on the bus. Mrs. Shyster and I got misty. Then ShysterBoy started raging about some damn thing or another and I realized that sending them away to school is a good thing. One more year, Carlo, and you’re on that bus. Dear God it can’t come fast enough. Anyway:

    I can delete comments and I can ban (at least I think I can ban) over at NBC. Thing is, I pretty much subscribe to the same posting rules over there that I apply over here: say whatever you want as long as you’re not getting racial, sexist, homophobic, irredeemably profane, or if you’re attacking people too much.  You can, however, be as stupid as you want to be.  And boy, are there some stupid people posting over there.  I let ‘em. Censoring them turns morons into martyrs.

    If anything, it’s a testement to how great THT posters are. Despite the fact that I’ve only delted a handful of comments—most of them Dave’s—you never see that kind of idiocy over here. THT selects for brains, I guess.

    As for HOT ROD. Eh. He’s a troll. I used to go after him for it, but I decided to simply ignore him, and it works out fine.

    Aarcraft
    14 years ago

    I believe thats the first time I’ve ever heard the argument that the Cy Young needs to go to an inferior pitcher for a playoff team. Its remarkable really. I’m actually waiting for someone to argue that Joe Mauer’s batting average doesn’t count and the new batting champ will be determined by the highest average among playoff teams.

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    I vote that the ShysterBall gang lure the CTBers to the basement of a bar in Pittsburgh (FREE MUTTON) and force them to write coherent arguments that are not self-contradictory. 
    Wear your colors! (navy and white)

    MJ
    14 years ago

    Thanks Craig, although maybe an ignore function would be nice smile

    I don’t get all the hubbub over Rivera. [note, Yankee fan].  He’s having a phenomenal year, but considering Hughes is pitching just as well, if not better, how can you say one deserves the Cy (or ha, MVP) over the other?  Greinke is the best pitcher this year.  It’s not his fault the rest of the team is terrible.

    Pitcher A: 55 G, 55.2 IP, 1.78 ERA, 41 H, 9 BB, 61 K, .199/.233/.316

    Pitcher B: 31 G, 39.1 IP, 1.14 ERA, 22 H, 10 BB, 48 K, .162/.218/.204

    A is Rivera, B is Hughes

    HP3
    14 years ago

    Wait until the Shysterdaughter gets engaged next month or does it seem to just pass that quickly.

    John_Michael
    14 years ago

    I happen to enjoy the MVP/CY debates.  Yes, we must put up with some pretty nonsensical arguments, but I, for one, find it much better than just calculating VORP at the end of 162 games.

    Nigel Incubator-Jones
    14 years ago

    MJ – Either this is a coincidence, or you owe an h/t to Ben Kabak at River Ave Blues.

    Either way, you can see a nice discussion on this with (mostly) sane Yankee fans at riveraveblues.com

    The Rabbit
    14 years ago

    Afternoon all,
    Just finished reading CTB…Is it a full moon? Boy, the knuckle scrapers are out in force today. It’s great for my self-esteem, though.  After reading it, I immediately feel superior.

    Congratulations on ShysterDaughter’s first milestone.  Wait until the first day of college!  It’s really tough partially due to tuition sticker shock. But, then you think “Woo Hoo. He’s gone. I can have a life!”  Didn’t happen, though. My household adopted a Jewish tradition: Life does not begin until they graduate medical or law school and get the boxes out of the basement.

    Re: The Rays:  No matter how hard you might try to spin it, “rightsizing” still means “layoffs” and “reallocating resources” still sounds a lot like “salary dump”.
    Interestingly, Sternberg’s last comment in the article went right from defense to offense:
    “But does he understand why some fans might be upset?
    “People love Scott. He was a great Ray here, he did a lot of tremendous things. This is what we do. This is who we are and this is what we do. People better get used to it, because it’s going to continue.””
    Almost sounds like a threat. With the rest of the article discussing declining attendance, I’m not sure that’s a great PR move, but I’ll leave it to the Rays fans to interpret.

    mgflolox
    14 years ago

    “Turning Morons Into Martyrs” sounds like a good album title for a punk band.

    MJ
    14 years ago

    @ Nigel Incubator-Jones

    That’s where I got it from as i read RAB all the time, unfortunately my work chooses to use Internet Explorer and it ate the rest of my post.

    Kevin S.
    14 years ago

    Man, that thread on CTB made me embarrassed to be a Yankee fan.  Yes, Mo is having a great season.  No, that doesn’t mean he deserves the CYA over a dude with 150 more IP and an ERA half a run higher (and that’s without getting into SABR stats, which show Greinke really is this freakin’ good).

    Joe
    14 years ago

    Yikes, that thread on NBC was vomit-inducing…regardless, I fully agree with you. But not all voters know what true value is…meh.

    Bob Rittner
    14 years ago

    Your point about language corrupting thought is valid and important. One of the great essays I ever read is George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” in which he discusses that issue and more.

    But as you imply, and I would emphasize, I don’t think it applies in the case of the Rays. They have one of the most enlightened owners in the sport and one who has demonstrated a commitment to building a contender. Reading the entire set of remarks, it is refreshing to see such an honest response to the questions raised by the Kazmir trade.

    And as a fan, I appreciate that the Rays have a clear and intelligent plan to turn over resources in such a way as to keep the pipeline of talent flowing rather than relying on a small window of opportunity and then tearing down the team to start again from scratch.