My Morning in Exile

by
November 19, 2009

I know it’s basically just been a string of MMIE’s lately, and for that I apologize. Wrapping up one’s legal career and preparing to jump right into a new one really has a way of taking up the afternoon. Still, six new posts a day ain’t exactly chopped liver as far as baseball bloggers go. You can still complain in the comments, though. Heck, I’m not happy with it myself. I feel like I’m watching baseball from 1000 yards right now. Anyway:

  • A guy I know up in Flint tells this story about life at GM in the 80s that may be total bullshit, but I hope to God is true (it’s certainly truthy). Goes like this: GM used to give out cash awards to engineers and designers who came up with particularly innovative ideas, redesigns, etc. that ended up being adopted in production cars. One year, this fellow suggests that the radiator caps and windshield washer fill caps and stuff be painted and color coded so that morons don’t confuse them with one another and, I dunno, quit putting oil in the radiator. Great idea! Here’s your $1000 or whatever. After it’s put in production, the paint started to burn and bubble under the heat of the engine and caused a terrible smell. Same guy proposes that they cease painting the caps and gets another $1000. I bring this up only because Bud Selig now has the bright idea to tighten up the playoff schedule he loosened up a couple of years ago. I can’t wait until this dude’s Hall of Fame induction speech.
  • The Nats hire Davey Johnson. Maybe they should call Howard Johnson about their opening at shortstop.
  • Hideki Matsui pays for himself. You can’t afford not to buy!
  • Scott Boras is allegedly living in fantasyland. I wish it were “Fantasy Island.” I loved that show. I even liked the Malcom McDowell remake from a few years ago. Smiles everyone, smiles.
  • Lincecum or Carpenter? I dunno. Lincecum was probably better, but I’m finding myself sort of leaning Carpenter. If this whole blogging thing takes off I suppose it’s not crazy to think that I’d become a BBWAA member someday. In light of that I should probably man-up and make a case for one of them.
  • The Yankees and Jays are talking Roy Halladay. If that happens, they may as well just suspend baseball because it will guarantee the Yankees the championship. You know, like how signing Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi and Randy Johnson guaranteed them all of those championships a few years ago.


    • 9 Comments
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    Jeff V.
    14 years ago

    “You know, like how signing Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi and Randy Johnson guaranteed them all of those championships a few years ago.”

    I am guessing you would not be that flippant about it if your Braves were in the AL East.

    While it will not insure them a championship it does pretty much guarantee them a spot in the playoffs for the forseeable future.

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    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    I’d believe ANY GM story from the 80’s.  What, your Chevy Citation smells? Yod shouldn’t buy any Chevy with an Edsel model name (whose 50th year demise is celebrated today). And why didn’t you upgrade to an Olds Omega?
    Was going to post on Blue Network about Halladay and the Universe clinching on the 4th of July because for umpteen years they’ve been terrible before the ASB.Was going to say they always suck in the early season, but upon reflection that is always because their rotation is a shambles, so I guess Malcohm(sic) is correct. Good crew over there today- is your bouncer going with you to check for the secret handshake?

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    Brian
    14 years ago

    Here’s how I look at the NL Cy Young race.  Carpenter and Lincecum were similar in terms of quality this year, with Carpenter having a slightly better WHIP and Lincecum striking out a lot more guys per 9.  But, Lincecum logged thirty more innings than Carpenter, which is pretty important.  Timmy is my guy.  I would put Wainright third, as he was a step below both guys in quality, while Lincecum almost matched him in innings.

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    RickyB
    14 years ago

    I loved me some Fantasy Island as well, although I blame that show for me fearing clowns—one episode this big clown doll came to life and was terrorizing a kid. Then Poltergeist came out a few years later, and yeah, forget it, no clowns for me.

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    RickyB
    14 years ago

    Oh, and did you catch the episode of the remade FI that had Jennifer Garner as a human sometimes but dolphin other times? That was before Alias I believe …

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    Adam
    14 years ago

    The thing to remember about the Halladay sweepstakes is that he’s not a free agent, so it’s not simply a matter of the big bad Yankees swooping in to scoop him up.  They still need to put together the best package for him; if they offer Hughes, Chamberlain and Montero, will anyone be willing to match that AND pay him?  That’s a helluva lot more than the Mets gave up for Santana, and one team in that trade didn’t end up in the playoffs.  I think the Mets need Halladay much more than the Yanks do; they have a lot of expensive seats to sell next year and not sure people are going to flock to Citi to see Nelson Figueroa.

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    APBA Guy
    14 years ago

    Lively thread at CTB for the Boras discussion. There’s a reason he represents about 15% of MLB players, and many of it’s stars: he gets the cash.

    And he gets the cash in two ways, by recognizing the underlying economics (the fundamentals the owners and MLB keep obscured from us), and by exaggerating, sometimes to the point of invention (Mr.Hicks, you must sign A-Rod to $25M per becuase that other team has offered $ 22.5M).

    It works. There is always a greater fool in Boras’ world. But when he aims his speech at us “Fans need to…”) then I draw the line with my admiration.

    Fact is, my favorite seats at the Oakland Mausoleum have gone from $ 22 to $ 48 in 10 years. Parking, concessions, etc have all gone up a similar amount. It’s gone from a $ 60 date for 2 to a $130 date for two.

    Meanwhile, the product on the field has deteriorated markedly and those seats are empty more often than not.

    Yes, I know the owners pocket some of their revenue sharing money. They are evil. I also know some of the players make $ 8M per year and hit .200.

    None of this matters to me, except in the abstract.

    What matters is my perceived value of the entertainment worth of that $ 130 for 3 hours versus other options.

    With unemployment over 10% in CA, and true unemployment closer to 17%, those seats will stay empty.

    Prices must come down. And some of Boras’ clients will have to take less money. So be it.

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    Rob²
    14 years ago

    “Fact is, my favorite seats at the Oakland Mausoleum have gone from $ 22 to $ 48 in 10 years. Parking, concessions, etc have all gone up a similar amount. It’s gone from a $ 60 date for 2 to a $130 date for two.

    Meanwhile, the product on the field has deteriorated markedly and those seats are empty more often than not.”

    Prices will come down when people stop paying them.  The fact that the team on the field has “deteriorated” while prices have skyrocketed is perfect evidence that salaries do not drive ticket prices.  Demand drives ticket prices.  Revenue drives payroll.

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    hdarvick
    14 years ago

    Adam said “…not sure people are going to flock to Citi to see Nelson Figueroa.” They will if he continues to pitch in 2010 the way he pitched in his eight starts after after taking Santana’s spot in the starting rotation in mid-August: Figueroa allowed 18 earned runs in 50.1 innings (3.22 ERA), going 2-6, averaging 6 1/3 innings and 108 pitches per start. In his 6 losses, the Mets scored a total of 11 runs. He also led the team in strikeouts in September and was the only Mets pitcher to throw a complete game shutout at CitiField in 2009. So before you use Figgy in your future attempts at sarcasm, first check the stats.

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