baseball Archives - Page 5 of 14 - Ramblin' with Roger

Football, Baseball, Obits

So who had the Cardinals vs. the Eagles in the NFC title game in their preseason picks? I’m going to need to see some proof.

In the past two weekends, I’ve seen at least parts of all eight games, which is more football than I watched the previous 18 weeks combined. Thanks to the magic of the DVR, I actually saw the Pittsburgh/San Diego game on Monday morning. The only one of the eight I saw in real time was the Eagles/Giants game on Sunday afternoon. To which I can only say, How do people actually watch commercials anymore? Not only are they annoying, they are replayed endlessly; a particular Subway commercial was effective in making me wonder if I’ll ever go to one of their restaurants ever again.

So now I have to pick my rooting interests for the rest of the way:
1. Philadelphia Eagles – making the playoffs through an improbable set of circumstances the last weekend (two potentially playoff-bound teams losing to lesser opponents while the Eagles demolished the Cowboys) with a quarterback, Donovan McNabb, who was benched for a time this season. I always like McNabb, who played in Syracuse (yay, upstate NY!) and whose pick was booed by some of the Eagles’ fans before he’d even put on his helmet for the first time.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers – yes, I’m rooting for the two PA teams. Call it geographic bias. But I like the QB, Ben Roethlisberger. I especially like receiver Hines Ward, who really embraced his Korean heritage a couple years back.
3. Arizona Cardinals – the Cinderella team, though it’s been the Team of Destiny for Couch Slouch, Norman Chad for a few seasons now. The problem is that: 1) I can never remember where the Cardinals actually play. Chicago? No, that was many years ago. St. Louis? No, not any more, though St. Louis has the Rams that used to play in Los Angeles. 2) I’m not a big Kurt Warner fan. I’m sure this has something to do with his excessive religiosity. He also was less than stellar in his brief stint as Giants QB.
4. Baltimore Ravens – I just don’t like the Ravens. And I particularly don’t like Ray Lewis.

BTW, I really enjoyed Jaquandor’s take on football. It’s not a football blog, but he has some good insights:
Odd synchronicity: this weekend saw action by all three quarterbacks who lost Super Bowls to Tom Brady (Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb) and the one who beat Tom Brady (Eli Manning).
But on one point, I think he’s wrong:
I think there should be no points but the team recording the safety should automatically take possession at the 50 yard line. The problem with that is that a team could intentionally go out of the back of the end zone and the team would have potentially better field position than it would if it had to punt from the back of the end zone. Now, talk about putting the ball on the 20-yard line of the team suffering the safety; THAT might be better than two points and receiving a free kick.
***
I thought Rickey Henderson’s vote to the Baseball Hall of Fame was obvious. My only surprise was that he was eligible. I thought he was still playing ball somewhere. He probably won’t, but Rickey should go in as a member of the A’s.

As for Jim Rice, I’ve favored him getting in for as long as I can remember. This is what I wrote two years ago: Jim Rice 13th year. PRO: Eight All-Star teams (1977-’80, ‘83-’86). Seven .300 seasons, four 200-plus hit seasons, three 100-plus run season (consecutively from 1977-’79),30-plus HR four times, 40-plus HR once, and 100-plus RBI eight times. Led AL in total bases four times in 1977 (382), ‘78 (406), ‘79 (369) and 1983 (344). One of 31 players with 350+ home runs and a .290+ career batting average. Only player in history with three straight seasons of 35+ home runs and 200+ hits. CON: Prickly relationship with the press, who would note that the one time his Red Sox got to the World Series (1986), they didn’t win.
That he got in during his final year of eligibility suggests that the voters spent less time on his personality and more time on his stats.
***
Patrick McGoohan has died. I watched The Prisoner religiously. I also saw him in other things such as Braveheat, but The Prisoner was his signature role.
***
Ricardo Montalban also has died. I wrote about him only three months ago.

ROG

The Year in Review: Politics, Sports

2008 was only the second time in ten attempts I’ve voted for a successful Presidential candidate – any guesses to the other time?

I also voted for Obama in the New York state primary. My, that was SO long ago, back in early February. Like many people, I suffered from election fatigue. So silliness such as the Barack the Magic Negro song kerfluffle, played on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, doesn’t even register.

But here’s a terrible thought: perhaps the Republicans were (gulp) right in in their winner-take-all primaries. In the same vein, I have also finally figured out what’s so very RIGHT with the Electoral College. People say, correctly, that it’s undemocratic. EXACTLY! It wasn’t designed to be democratic, it was meant to be definitive. Obama won with about a 53-47% vote. BUT he also won with a landslide ELECTORAL vote. The results of the election were not in question. And the system works most of the time. OK, not in 2000. Or 1888. Or 1876. Or 1824. But most of the time.

Imagine a close election, say 1968. Nixon and Humphrey were virtually tied in the popular vote. But Nixon’s Electoral College victory codified the race. Let’s say there were no Electoral College. There would have been canvassing of votes all over the country. Or even 2000, where the canvassing was limited to Florida.

There’s some merit, though, in doing what Maine and Nebraska have done; allocate electoral votes by Congressional district, with two votes going to the winner statewide. This would put more conservative parts of “blue” states and more liberal parts of “red” states in play, and that we in upstate New York would be barraged with the same campaign of ads that the folks in Ohio and Florida get. Wait, I said there was merit to this? Well, for the local media bottom line, for sure.

Caroline Kennedy for Senate? Don’t much care. Whoever is elected would have to run in both 2010 AND 2012. But she’s getting killed in the “vetting” process. There’s also the more parochial issue that upstaters in New York want an upstate Senator, since there hasn’t been one since Charles Goodall finished the term of Bobby Kennedy. An AP story this week suggested that some “caretaker” take the seat now, someone with no desire to run in 2010, like Bill Clinton, or Mario Cuomo, or Eliot Spitzer. OK, not Eliot Spitzer; seeing if you were paying attention. But Governor David Paterson does not want a caretaker candidate; he wants whoever he appoints in 2009 to be on the ballot in 2010, possibly, one could speculate, to enhance his own chances for being elected governor in hios own right.

I’ve been pretty obsessed with the Constitution this year. Do you know which Amendment took 203 years to be passed?

BASEBALL

Congrats to the Phillies and the ~~Devil~~ Rays. What a difference a season, and a name change, makes.

I started reading a Bob Costas book from 2000, which I seemed to have misplaced. Regardless, the points he made helped me realize that interleague play, as it’s currently constructed, is fatally flawed. Where in the NFL, all the teams in a division play common opponents (the NFL East playing the AFC North in 2008, e.g.), Major League Baseball has this romanticized notion of Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs, etc. Nice, but When getting into the playoffs is determined by this, it’s not particularly workable. Let’s say the White Sox had a weak team, and the Yankees a strong one. This is advantageous to the Cubs and problematic for the Mets.

Also, how is it that the AL West has only four teams, while the NL Central has six? This is competitively unfair. Short of expanding MLB to 32 (four 4-team divisions in each league a la the NFL) or contracting two teams to 28 (two 7-team divisions, maybe with two wild cards, in each league), I don’t know how to make the system more equitable.

I’m also distressed that the Yankees can afford to get two front-line pitchers in the offseason (LHP CC Sabathia’s seven-year contract; RHP A.J. Burnett’s five-year contract). They are playing by the rules; it’s the rules that have to be fixed, with a greater amount of profit-sharing than the “luxury tax” has created. (Oh, and why isn’t the Mark Teixeira deal showing up on the MLB transaction list?

Will Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) be the end of late-season collapses for the Mets?

FOOTBALL
There’s a bowl game today at noon on ESPN2 that I never even heard of, the International Bowl, played in Toronto, ON CANADA, but I have a rooting interest: the Buffalo Bulks, which had been a terrible team, but won some incredible games down the stretch this season. Not only is it an upstate team, it’s a SUNY school (as is U Albany and SUC New Paltz, my alma maters), the school declined its only other chance to go to a bowl game 50 years ago.

On the pro level – Go, Big Blue! (That’s the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, to the uninitiated.)

ROG

The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, Levon Helm and Roger Trafford

One of my racquetball buddies, possibly inspired by the success of the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies, was interested to find out who played first base for the World Series winning 1950 Phillies. That would be Eddie Waitkus who played 154 games for the team.

But then I noticed that the left side of the infield, 3B Willie Jones and SS Granny Hamner, each played 157 games. In a 154-game season, how could that be? So I asked Baseball Almanac, because, you know, a librarian just NEEDS to know.

They played three tie games: April 21 at Boston, July 2 (2nd game) at Brooklyn, and August 24 (2nd game) at Chicago.

Ties?

So when they play a tie game, they have to play another one? And the ties didn’t show in the standings, but the individual achievements did?

The ties are supposed to show and it is more complex in respect to the achievements. Prior to 2007 tie games were replayed from the start. Since 2007 they are continued where they left off. If it was a tie before it became official, the stats do not count. If it was official then the stats do count.

So this apparently happened often, but I had just never came across it. Thanks!

Someone asked: “I was looking for information on Levon Helm’s song “I Want To Know”. When I googled the song with the singer’s name, I found your blog. How would I find the information I was looking for? I LOVE your Bush countdown!”

As is often the case for a librarian, I get asked questions I’m not entirely sure of the meaning, yet I feel compelled to answer.

This is what I know:
“I Want to Know” is available as a single, part of the album FestivaLink presents Levon Helm Band: MerleFest Ramble at MerleFest 4/26/08. But it’s not the first appearance of the song on a Helm album. It also shows up on Midnight Ramble Music Sessions, Vol. 2, released February 21, 2006

I Need to Know was a 1958 hit by Ray Charles and sounds like this.
***
Next up:
I found a reference to Roger Trafford (Actor, Larry the Lamb (1947) (TV) in your Ramblin’ with Roger, when I was trying to piece together some background of this man. I understood he was the voice over in the film Larry the Lamb. His name actually was Edward Arthur Johnson, born 1918, and he changed his name by deed poll to Roger Trafford. I am following up a very intriguing story, and would love to know what you have on this actor. Was he also on TV? Do you know where he lived, after leaving Nottingham? I believe he had a son. As he heads your piece about all the Rogers, I hope you can help.

Unfortunately, I found little more about Trafford or Larry the Lamb, which, BTW, is a UK program (or programme), so I’m hoping the wisdom of the Internet will come pouring down on me. Help!
ROG

My baseball postseason rooting interest

With the Mets eliminated, I still need to come up with a priority list of teams to root for:

1. Chicago Cubs (NL) – last won the World Series in 1908, so a win this year would be especially sweet.
2. Tampa Bay Rays (AL) – getting the Devil out of their name helped therm fend off the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.
3. Philadelphia Phillies (NL) – I know personally the brother of the Phillies’ Hall of Fame announcer.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) – based entirely on one person – manager Joe Torre, who got out of the new Bronx Zoo just in time.
5. Milwaukee Brewers (NL) – yes, they took the Mets’ slot but that was really the NY tram’s fault. Anyway, they haven’t been in the postseason in over two decades, when they were in another league (AL).
6. Los Angeles Angels (AL) – don’t see them very often.
7. Chicago White Sox – knocked my father-in-law’s team, the Minnesota Twins, out of the playoff AND got off the WS schneide this century
8. Boston Red Sox (AL) – Boston, with its success in the NFL and NBA, not to mention MLB, needs to be taken down a peg. Or two. Or six.

You’ll note I’m leaning heavily National League. The AL has won TOO often.
ROG

Roger Green Answers the Proust Questionnnaire

I was listening to a HubSpot free webinar about Blogging for Business, and one of the examples was this. Andrew McAfee is “a professor at Harvard Business school, a top blogger, and the coiner of the term Enterprise 2.0 which is used to describe the application of web2.0 technology (i.e. blogs, wikis, social media, etc) in the business world.”

Device you would never give up?

My DVR. I watch television when I want, without actually having to watch commercials, in whatever order I want. With the VCR, I had to find a particular program. I also like recording two shows while watching a third, and pausing live TV. Since I’m sharing it with two others, this is an important consideration.
I’m also very fond of Caller ID. Yes, I screen my calls, often letting unfamiliar numbers go to the answering machine.

Your Favorite Software Application?

iTunes, because I don’t have to do as much work in accessing podcasts I listen to. The music stuff’s OK too, but not my primary usage.

Blog you read most frequently?

Probably News from ME by Mark Evanier, if only because he posts often, is only mildly left of center, and finds whack videos , many of which I actually remember.

Social Media Tool you actually use?

LinkedIn. Probably not as often as I should, but I’ve written up a positive review or two and people have reciprocated.

Favorite Business Book(s)?

As a business librarian, I suppose I ought to have one, but most of what we do isn’t business philosophy, it’s finding facts. I do recall enjoying Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg.

Favorite Newspaper(s)?

The Wall Street Journal. Aside from its pretty rabidly right editorial pages – no worse under Rupert Murdock than the previous owners – it gives me useful trend information that our clients can use.

Person that inspires you?

I think I’m a big fan of those amazingly creative people like Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. McAfee picked Jefferson, among others, calling him “another flawed polymath and humanist”.

Who Was Your Best Manager? Why?

At the risk of embarrassing her, my former library boss, Mary Hoffman. She let me know what was expected and mostly left me alone. She was also someone who let me test her, a reaction to her evil predecessor, and her listening to what my issues about that other person were.

Your first “real” job?

I delivered the Binghamton (NY) Press, six evenings plus Sunday morning, for a couple years. I was good at delivering the paper, not so good at dealing with collecting money and I got stiffed more than a few times. But the good customers were generous with their tips. I inherited that job from Walter Jones, my parents’ godson and the grandson of my godparents. I also inherited my library page job from him a few years later.

Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?

Washing dishes, taking a shower, almost anywhere that doesn’t require thinking, ironically.

What Do You Most Value In Employees/Colleagues?

Varied intelligences, a sense of fair play, a desire to share.

What I’d like To Be The World’s Best At?

It used to be lawyer or baseball player or pastor, but I was never good enough. Librarian, I suppose, however one measure that.
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My condolences to friend Fred Hembeck on the demise of another Mets season; I managed to see parts of that last game. What kind of karmic forces are at work where neither NYC team gets into the playoffs the year their stadia are being torn down and replaced?
ROG