about how Barry Bonds still deserves to be considered a record holder because steroids couldn't make him a better hitter.
Steroids can help batters hit 50 percent more home runs by boosting their muscle mass by just 10 percent, a U.S. physicist said on Thursday.
Calculations show that, by putting on 10 percent more muscle mass, a batter can swing about 5 percent faster, increasing the ball's speed by 4 percent as it leaves the bat.
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"A 4 percent increase in ball speed, which can reasonably be expected from steroid use, can increase home run production by anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent," said Tobin, whose study will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Physics.
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It works for pitchers, too, but not as well.
He calculated that a 10 percent increase in muscle mass should increase the speed of a thrown ball by about 5 percent, or 4 to 5 mph (6.4 to 8 kph) for a pitcher who throws a 90-mph (144-kph) fastball.
That could translate into one fewer earned run every other game.
"That is enough to have a meaningful effect on the success of a pitcher, but it is not nearly as dramatic as the effects on home run production," Tobin said.
"The unusual sensitivity of home run production to bat speed results in much more dramatic effects, and focuses attention disproportionately on the hitters."
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Tell Me the One Again . . .
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Barry Bonds Syndrome--Not Just for Baseball Anymore
Remember this when the Patriots “win” the Super Bowl.
NFL reportedly faults Patriots
Team is said to break rules by taping Jets' coaches sending signals
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Great Response
To the “cultural upbringing” justification nonsense that Whoopi and Terrell Owens and other shameless are using to excuse Michael Vick on dogfighting even while they claim they’re not excusing him:
Here's my problem with the "cultural-upbringing card" as it relates to Vick and dogfighting. It used to be part of Southern culture to hang black men from trees because there was a rumor that we may have made eye contact with a white woman. It used to be part of Southern culture to burn crosses, torch churches and kill black people because black people wanted to vote, sit in the front of the bus, take a sip of water and a shot at a decent education.
No one I knew was all that interested in understanding that part of Southern culture. We just wanted it to change. Vick's culture needs to change. I'm not comparing dogfighting to the mistreatment and abuse of human beings. There's no comparison. I'm saying you don't need to understand someone's culture to recognize and reject cruel/criminal behavior.
Jason Whitlock, FOX Sports
Friday, August 24, 2007
Uh, Dad, You Can Stop Helping Now
Vick's dad cites son's involvement in dogfighting
[In fairness to the NAACP, who probably really cared about my blast at them the other day, this story also points out that the national leadership of the org, rather than the dumba—es in the Atlanta chapter, agree that the org maybe should find better use of its resources than defending this thug.]
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
National Association for the Advancement of Confused People
I’ll say this one more time. One of the very biggest issues facing the African-American community in this nation is the disproportionate treatment young blacks, particularly males, get in our criminal justice system and sentencing. There should be rallies and marches and demonstrations and holding all the Dems’ feet to the fire until they vow to stop the New Jim Crow that prison and its collateral effects are. You can surely name a dozen other areas necessary to fulfill the American Legacy for ALL Americans.
And what does the NAACP choose to protest? Michael Vick’s possible conviction by both feds and state for the worst form of animal cruelty (and I’m not a hunter and don’t buy their defenses). And their biggest concern doesn’t appear to be his likely jail time but the NFL’s (likely?) decision to ban him for a longer period once he gets out.
This is what all those marchers risked and sometimes lost their lives for? Michael Vick is the poster child of what you think needs to be defended and fought for now?
I never thought I’d see the day when I thought it was actually better that Dr. King wasn’t around now. Looks like barefaced, determined ignorance is color-blind, too.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday (okay, Wednesday) Pirates Rant™
When Dave Littlefield is mercifully fired (some time in the next 8-10 years), my one request is for a replacement that is not so horrible at his job that he's mocked by The Onion.
PITTSBURGH—Despite a series of phone calls to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made right up to Tuesday's 4 p.m. trade deadline, Pirates GM Dave Littlefield was unable to secure the rights to surefire Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter in exchange for those of rightfielder Xavier Nady. "I don't understand… This was a trade that could have benefited both teams," said Littlefield, frustrated by the Yankees' refusal to consider the trade even after Littlefield sweetened the deal by offering shortstop Jack Wilson for pitcher Mariano Rivera. "We would have gained sorely needed offense in the infield, while the Yankees had a chance to get a little younger and pare payroll at the same time. Plus, they could have bolstered their defense, as Xavier plays first base, too." Littlefield also confirmed that that the St. Louis Cardinals had pulled the plug on a potential Shawn Chacon-for-Albert Pujols deal at the last second.
Friday, August 03, 2007
This Is Just Wrong
But I can’t help laughing.
Single-A Savannah Sand Gnats Hosting Lindsay Lohan Drunk Driving Awareness Night
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Tuesday Pirates Rant™ - Okay, so it’s not Tuesday...
...but yesterday, I was too baffled by what transpired on Trade Deadline Day to actually comment. But a day later, I’m pissed enough to form sentences.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has one of the crustier, more curmudgeonly columnists I’ve ever read. His name is Bob Smizik. Basically, his schtick is “so-and-so stinks.” That’s about all he has to offer. I gave up on Dave Littlefield and the current ownership a long time ago, but half the time Smizik’s columns are so crusty that I get annoyed by him and almost start defending this awful regime. Well...needless to say, I’m not disagreeing with him at the moment.
Heading into this year’s trade deadline, the Pirates had three highly sought-after commodities: veteran relievers. Salomon Torres (who was last seen filing a grievance against the Pirates for getting him to sign a discounted contract by lying to him and saying they’d use one of his baseball compounds in the Dominican Republic), Damaso Marte (who stinks as a closer but as a LOOGY—Lefty One-Out Guy—he’s just about the best in the business, as his current 1.38 ERA would suggest), and Shawn Chacon (who still stinks but has put together a pretty decent year).
How sought-after are veteran relievers at the moment? Well, the esteemed Scott Linebrink (3.79 ERA) was traded by the Padres to Milwaukee for THREE pretty strong minor league pitchers. Octavio Dotel (3.91 ERA, 4 blown saves in 15 chances) was traded to the Braves for a pretty highly-touted minor league starter. So surely Torres (5.00 ERA this year, but ERA’s of 2.64, 2.76, and 3.28 the last three seasons), Marte (1.38), and Chacon (3.78) could get something of value. Maybe Chacon—whose obtaining at least year’s deadline I ranted™ and raved about ad nauseum—could bring something of value in return? With an even remotely competent GM, I’d have been downright optimistic. You trade guys at their highest value, and these three guys will never ever ever have a higher value.
So what happened? Littlefield kept all three of them. His defense?
Littlefield explained that he did not feel compelled to trade pitchers because all except Chacon, who can be a free agent this offseason, have their rights owned by the team through 2009.Yes, that’s the important thing. Not, you know, actually building for the future. He actually thinks the Pirates are like one player away from being a really good team.
"The important thing is that people are interested in our players," Littlefield said.
That player? Matt Morris, apparently. Here’s what Jayson Stark had to say:
The Giants' brass was sitting around its suite Tuesday morning, bemoaning the fact that it had no decent deals cooking whatsoever. And then, out of the blue, it happened. The Pirates called. And wanted Matt Morris. His 7.94 ERA since mid-June? Not a problem. That $9.5 million he's owed next year (not counting his $1 million 2009 buyout)? Not a problem. And so they swooped in and finished off a deal for Morris minutes before the deadline -- for a legit prospect (Rajai Davis), a second prospect to be chosen from an agreed-upon list and absolutely zero money changing hands. Well, it didn't take long. For the next two hours, after people around baseball learned of this deal, they couldn't stop calling, e-mailing and texting reactions that could probably be summed up with three succinct words: WHAT THE BX!GRZFDQ!!!!! Don't get us wrong here. We love Matt Morris. Terrific guy. Has had a wonderful career. Should be a fine mentor to those young Pirates starters. But the Giants were just about begging teams to take Morris and offering to chomp big chunks of his money if they had to. Then this team going nowhere dropped out of the sky and took the man and the money. What a country. "That move," said one incredulous front-office man, "is so far out of left field, it's in the Monongahela."Maybe Littlefield should be commended for actually getting the Pirates some attention from Stark. I doubt he’s had a word to say about this pitiful franchise since last year’s trading deadline, when Littlefield was universally mocked for asking for too hilariously much in return for his craptastic players. On even a mediocre team, this wouldn’t be a terrible deal—Rajai Davis is not a “legit prospect”. He’s 27, and though he’s fast, he has no idea how to run bases, and he’s not particularly amazing in the field. Morris is better at pitching—even way past his prime—than Davis is at playing outfield, and besides...the Pirates aren’t players on the free agent market because players don’t want to play for them. If you trade for a guy and MAKE him come to Pittsburgh, hey...maybe that’s just the way you have to do things. However...
a) Matt Morris has sucked for most of the last two years and is still owed over $16 million.The only reason this trade isn’t one of Littlefield’s worst moves ever is that he’s Dave Littlefield. It’s hard to one up yourself when you’ve...
b) Matt Morris is now the highest-paid player in franchise history. That’s horrid on so many different levels.
c) Littlefield outbid himself for Morris.
d) Littlefield passed on possibly the most talented guy in this year’s draft because his agent is Scott Boras, and he’d be too expensive to sign. But throwing $16 million at the feet of an over-the-hill pitcher, six years past his prime, is somehow okay.
1) Traded Aramis Ramirez for pennies on the dollar.Yeah, somehow this move doesn’t even make its way into Littlefield’s Top 5 (nor did his spending $17.5 million on Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz, and Sean Casey in 2006). So why am I even angry??
2) Traded Chris Young (currently 9-3 with a 1.82 ERA, an all-star with the Padres) for reliever Matt Herges...who was released a couple months later.
3) Traded Leo Nunez (currently 1-0 with a 0.90 ERA in two starts for the Royals...oh, and he’s only 23 years old) for Benito Santiago...who was released a couple months later.
4) Lost 5 prospects in the 2003 Rule 5 Draft because you had to leave room on the 40-man roster for the likes of Raul Mondesi.
5) Passed on a Kip-Wells-for-Ryan-Howard deal a couple years ago because “Howard strikes out too much.” In case you didn’t notice, Ryan Howard’s hit 87 HR’s in the last two seasons, while Wells has gone 6-18 with the Pirates, Rangers, and Cardinals.
That brings us back to Bob Smizik. When I’m agreeing with 100% of the words coming out of Smizik’s mouth (or typewriter), something’s seriously wrong. But I was almost tempted to paste his entire column.
By making this trade, general manager Dave Littlefield has accomplished the seemingly impossible. He made the Pirates a buyer instead of a seller at the trading deadline. Perhaps, Littlefield missed the part where the Pirates lost 13 of their first 15 after the All-Star Game and went from a team with a glimmer of hope to one careening toward another 90-loss season.I agree with everything but the last sentence. If ownership approved the trade, then what makes anybody think that they don’t totally support what Littlefield is doing here? My initial thought on seeing this trade was, “Good...that should be the final nail in Littlefield’s coffin.” But now I’m not so sure.
It's a move that reeks of desperation and of Littlefield, who has yet to produce a winning season in six years, making a final attempt to keep his job, which is widely believed to be in jeopardy.
What's particularly scary is that in acquiring such a contract, Littlefield clearly had to get permission from owner Bob Nutting and that such permission was forthcoming.
It again brings into question, as have so many other moves in the past, whether anyone in the Pirates' organization knows what they're doing.
For example: The deal comes two days after Leo Nunez made a second consecutive strong start for the Kansas City Royals. In 10 innings, in his first two major-league starts, Nunez has allowed one earned run.
Nunez is a prime example of the player personnel decisions of the Littlefield era. In December of 2004, the Pirates traded Nunez to Kansas City, although he was registering upwards of 95 mph on the radar gun while pitching in the low minors. They dealt him for Benito Santiago, a veteran catcher who was so far past his prime that the Pirates released him May 8. He never played for another major-league team.
In other words, the Pirates were dead wrong in their evaluation of Santiago and dead wrong in their evaluation of Nunez.
In an organization still trying to develop pitchers who are 26 and 27 years old, like Bryan Bullington and Van Benschoten, Nunez is only 23.
Morris will be 33 in eight days, and the Pirates see him as a veteran presence to stabilize an otherwise young rotation. In theory, that sounds great. In practice, particularly when the veteran is having trouble getting batters out, it doesn't necessarily work.
In 2005, the Pirates added Mark Redman, a veteran starter, to the rotation and paid him $4.5 million. That was the same year the career of Oliver Perez began a downward plunge that did not stop until he left the organization. This isn't to suggest Redman was responsible for the decline of Perez. It is only to show veteran presence is vastly overrated.
Even if Morris reverses this recent career decline, the wisdom of such a trade must come into question. His salary next season will be $9.5 million, but it could go slightly higher as it did this season. That would represent about 20 percent of the team's payroll. It is not considered a wise policy to pay that high a percentage of the payroll to one player, regardless of the size of the payroll.
But the 2008 payroll does not figure to be a problem Littlefield will have to face.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Civil Rights Workers Died for Dogfighters?
I’m sorry, but all the things out there that need to be addressed in the African-American community and with race relations in this country and the NAACP is spending its time defending Michael Vick who, directly involved or not (right now it looks not not), knowingly provided the space for the dogfights he’s accused of? No wonder Dr. King’s legacy is on life support.
Friday, July 27, 2007
An Unarmed Man
Not only is Barry Bonds unnatural, he’s stupid. He embodies (sorry) that old joke about how unfair it was to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. He insults Bob Costas after Costas points out the obvious about Bonds’ steroidal corpus. Calls Costas a “little midget who knows nothing about baseball.” Costas, who would have a Ph.D. in baseball if one were offered (hmm, I might go back to college for that), gave a response that immediately should school Bonds on being a human, if Bonds were capable of learning anything: "As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally.” Want proof that Costas cleaned Bonds’ clock? Here’s Bonds’ comeback: Bonds responded, "How do you know?" before going on to say he didn't care. Huh??? And of course Costas showed the class that Bonds wouldn’t recognize if it came up to him and said, “Hi, I’m Class”:
"I've actually always had a pretty cordial relationship with Barry," Costas said. "I have no ill feelings toward him personally. I regard him as one of the greatest players of all time who got an inauthentic boost and then became a superhuman player. I wish him no ill whatsoever."
Costas said he understood why Bonds might have denigrated him.
"He's under tremendous scrutiny and some pressure. It's no big deal," Costas said. "This is a consequence of doing your job, and I've never tried to do my job in any case with the intention of calling attention to myself. I think if people watch the program, they can judge for themselves."
Sometime soon yet another cap on the cynical and unserious country in which I live will arrive when the media go ga-ga over a cheater breaking a record earned by a fine and honorable sportsman. Barry Bonds is a tumor on any claim to a decent society and we succor and extol him. And Bob Costas just goes on his way, providing integrity and honesty, far less valued today than a tainted homerun ball.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Am I Remembering Wrong?
Or has every sport taken down by a drug scandal started with someone raising the possibility and then members of the said sport denying that anything, anything like that could ever happen and demanding the accuser reveal everything possible or shut up, like talking about the chances hurts anything? Looks like golf is the next one.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Tuesday Pirates Rant™
What a Rant™-worthy week we just had. I love it when things come together.
Pirates Trade for Cesar Izturis!
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Stats Geek noted today, there aren’t many middle infielders worse offensively than the tandem of Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo, but the Pirates found one of them. And being that he was a favorite of manager Jim Tracy because of his “versatility” (meaning he’s equally mediocre at a bunch of different positions), there’s a chance the Pirates might keep him beyond this year.
There’s also a chance that, because Tracy loves him so much, the “player to be named later” is actually one of the Pirates’ 3-4 actual prospects. Woohoo.
Jack Wilson for Troy Glaus!
Rather, Pirates “inquire” about Jack Wilson for Troy Glaus. Blue Jays roll eyes, laugh heartily, and hang up the phone.
Here’s the typical Dave Littlefield trade negotiation: 1) Littlefield asks for something unbelievably ridiculous (like Wilson for Glaus, or Kris Benson for David Wright a few years ago), 2) offended, the GM on the other end of the phone scoffs and offers insultingly little, 3) negotiations stagnate, 4) Littlefield caves before deadline, accepting 50¢ on the dollar (i.e. a low-ceiling AA relief pitcher) after aiming for $50.
Former #1 John Van Benschoten uncoached!
"Coming up through the system and being the No. 1 pick and no one really stepping up because no one wants to mess you up," said Van Benschoten, who was the team's first-round selection in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft. "They have a big organization and they need to take care of other people, so I think being almost left alone has just come to a head this year with a crash course here."
Others have a “big organization” and manage not to “mess up” every #1 pick. Just saying.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Van Benschoten, the Pirates’ #1 pick in 2001, is now 27 with a career record of 1-7 and career ERA of 7.49. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
1-8 since the break!
And oh by the way, the Pirates have won once since the All-Star Break and are 0.5 games out of last place in the worst division in baseball. They’re on pace for 93 losses. Average wins the six years before Littlefield: 71.7. Average record the six years since Littlefield’s hire (if they do indeed live up to their 69-93 pace): 70.3.
Honestly, there’s a glimmer of hope here since Pittsburgh is looking for a new CEO, someone who is supposedly an actual, honest-to-God baseball man. If that’s the case, there might actually be a 10% chance for accountability, i.e. Littlefield (and Jim Tracy, for that matter) looking for a new job next year. Cross your fingers.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
And I can ALSO honestly say...
...that Mike Vick is a despicable human being. How he hasn't been suspended yet is beyond me. I actually rooted for him when he was at Virginia Tech...other than the fact that he had the tendency to get tickets for parking wherever he wanted on campus, he seemed like a pretty likable guy.
He's not.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Tuesday Pirates Rant™ - Video Edition
No words required. I'm going to go sob in the shower now. Via Bucs Dugout.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
My Month of Entertainment - June 2007
Books
Tip Off: How the 1984 NBA Draft Changed Basketball Forever, Filip Bondy
Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed, J.C. Bradbury
Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, Glenn Greenwald
Movies
The Cooler
Music
Blue Scholars, The Long March EP
Bob Dylan, Slow Train Coming
Bokoor Band, Bokoor Beats
Elk City, New Believers
Flaming Lips, Hear It Is
Flaming Lips, Hit to Death in the Future Head
Funkadelic, America Eats Its Young
Gorillaz, Demon Days
Ike Reilly Assassination, We Belong to the Staggering Evening
Jaylib (J Dilla & Madlib), Champion Sound
John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band
K'naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Mission of Burma, ONoffON
My Morning Jacket, It Still Moves
Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full
Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris
The Smiths, Singles
TV On the Radio, Live Session (iTunes Exclusive)
Wiley, Treddin' On Thin Ice
Various Artists, Frochot Music Sampler: MALI
Various Artists, The Now Sound Redesigned
Everywhere I looked, June was My Month of Redemption! Old faces, new names, hip hop, and Oklahoma City redeemed themselves to me, I redeemed myself to the God of Music Nerds, and The Butterfly and I redeemed ourselves in the eyes of Netflix. Let’s take a closer look!
I righted some old wrongs in my own music collection in June, and not a moment too soon. It’s hard to admit that I didn’t already own Plastic Ono Band, Slow Train Coming, Demon Days, It Still Moves, or anything by The Smiths, but here I am, admitting it to you now, throwing myself at the mercy of the court.
I finally got around to reading Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music this month (after purchasing it in February). Really interesting (and nerdy) read. There were interesting chapters on everything from Leadbelly and Jimmie Rodgers to The Monkees to Moby, but the chapter with the most impact on me was the one on John Lennon. Needless to say, any discussion of John Lennon and authenticity is probably going to focus on Plastic Ono Band. It’s funny—sometimes when I know there’s an album I should have bought 10 years ago, it makes it harder to suck it up and go ahead and buy it. I didn’t buy OK Computer until last year. I knew I’d love it (and boy, did I), but I guess buying it would acknowledge that I didn’t own it yet, and you can only pull the “I lost my copy” or “My roommate owned it, so I didn’t need to” excuse so many times (I think I lost my rights to those excuses after using them on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and the Led Zeppelin catalog a couple years ago).
Anyway, it was time to suck it up and acknowledge that I really needed Plastic Ono Band in my catalog. I expected it to be a decent listen, but not an amazing one—I think I’m scarred by the entire post-Beatles McCartney catalog—but I would put this one right up against All Things Must Pass as the best solo album from a Beatle. I think I like All Things better (I think that makes me pretty weird, actually), but it’s to find too much fault in Plastic Ono. A great album. It’s painfully, emotionally raw in parts—duh—but that’s obviously one of the things that make it great. Another thing that makes it great to me is that...well, it’s not just pain and acoustic guitar. Songs like “Well Well Well” and “I Found Out” are a nice balance to the agony of “Mother” and well-known now-standards like “Power to the People” and “Working Class Hero”.
Alright, next up on the “You call yourself a nerd, and you didn’t own this album???” list is...Slow Train Coming. The first of Dylan's three "Christian conversion" albums. When I felt like filling in my Dylan collection over the last couple years, I always looked past this one. Now, in my defense, I already had copies of “Gotta Serve Somebody” and “I Believe in You” on my iPod, so that’s one of the reason I hadn’t ever gotten around to buying this album—the general uncomfortability of being preached at being the other one. But it really is a strong album. Aside from the two classics listed above, “When He Returns” is unbelievable, and even some of the more preachy songs—“When You Gonna Wake Up” and “Precious Angel”, for example, are quite well-done.
Next up? The Smiths. I guess I’ve just read too many Modest Mouse articles and Johnny Marr interviews in the last few months—it was time to take the plunge. It was just a bit disorienting to me to know that The Smiths were one of the most influential bands of the early- and mid-‘80s (it seems if you were in your late-teens or early-20s in 1985 and didn’t worship U2, you lived and died by The Smiths. And while I knew of the major Smiths tunes—“Hand In Glove” and “This Charming Man”, to name a couple—I couldn’t hum a single line of any of them. So now that I’ve listened to all of their major singles, I must say...I’m not all that impressed.
But their music could just be handicapped by their era. I mean, nothing sounds more aged than music from the early- and mid-‘80s. There’s no bass, no groove, too many artifical sounds...it just sounds awful. Music from the early- and mid-‘70s sounds much newer and fresher. I wish all the major albums from the Smiths era could be remixed and remastered with today’s techniques. Could we snap to that please?
Speaking of today’s techniques, I also righted a couple of more recent wrongs by picking up MMJ’s It Still Moves and The Gorillaz’ Demon Days. MMJ is probably quite a rewarding band to have followed over the years—I wouldn’t know...I didn’t get into them until last year. They made a short leap between 1999’s The Tennessee Fire and 2001’s At Dawn, a giant leap between At Dawn and 2003’s It Still Moves, and a quantum leap between Moves and 2005’s amazing Z. I really can’t wait to see what they come up with next, and in the meantime I’m just glad I’ve finally completed the MMJ puzzle.
As for Demon Days, at long last I convinced myself to get it when The Butterfly decided she must immediately own “Feel Good Inc.” It’s embarassing to me that I haven’t gotten into the Gorillaz more; I bitch and moan that not enough bands are attempting to fuse together hip hop, rock, and other genres, and then I don’t pay enough heed to those that do. This album’s good. It’s not amazing, but it still made me feel stupid for letting it sit out there for 2-3 years before giving it a shot. And when these songs fail, they fail in creative—not formulaic—ways. I respect the songs I don’t really enjoy.
So anyway, I feel much better about myself now that I’ve righted these wrongs. Let’s see who else was able to right themselves in my eyes...
I’ll say it: I haven’t enjoyed much of the post-Beatles Paul McCartney era. Solo albums...wings...it just hasn’t done it for me. I was working part-time at Barnes & Noble when his last album came out, and though some songs were really pretty decent, it was an in-store play, and I got seriously sick of hearing them pretty quickly. But now I don’t work at B&N anymore, and I’m able to turn Macca off when I don’t want to listen to him. That’s key. In moderation, Memory Almost Full is actually pretty good. It’s uneven—the weak songs like “Nod Your Head” and “Feet in the Clouds” are bad in the ways that all bad McCartney songs are bad—but Memory Almost Full goes in a lot of creative directions. “Only Mama Knows” and “House of Wax” are great, and “Dance Tonight” has the added benefit of annoying the crap out of The Butterfly every time that iTunes commercial comes on...which makes me enjoy it in a very immature way. This won’t crack my Top 5 Albums of 2007 list, but it’s going to end up ranking a lot higher than I figured it would.
I’ve complained all year about the lack of recent quality hip hop, and June finally saw that ship slowly righted. First came The Dusty Foot Philosopher, last year’s debut album rapper K’naan. K’naan was raised in Somalia until he was 13, when he (according to his Amazon bio) left “on what turned out to be the last commercial flight ever to do so, amidst a crumbling society and the end to this day of any form of central government.” You think of what he probably saw in Somalia, and you realize that half (okay, probably 90%) of the rapper who try to act ‘hard’ because of what they’ve seen and done...well, they really aren’t hard at all. Though he does drop a few good lines regarding that upbringing (“If I have to talk about home and get descriptive/I would make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit”), he doesn’t go far into detail. His attitude basically seems to be “Trust me, it was bad, but let’s move on.” K’Naan has an acquired-taste kind of voice, and his rhymes are hit and miss, but I was looking for creativity and experimentation in hip hop, and this mix of hip hop style and African beats fits the bill nicely.
Next up is London’s Wiley, whose Treddin’ on Thin Ice has been one of the toughest albums I’ve ever attempted to actually review/evaluate. The underground London ‘grime’ sound is unique and creative—and Wiley is probably one of the two best at it, along with Dizzee Rascal—but it’s not always immediate and listenable. It takes a few listens, but I think I’m going to get into this one. I’m not sure by any means, but I’m optimistic.
Of course, neither of these albums are 2007 releases, so for the most part my Top Albums of ’07 list is devoid of hip hop. But I think I might have found the group to invade the list: Blue Scholars. I posted a video clip of theirs last weekend. I started in June with their Long March EP that was released in February. Now that I’ve digested that, I’m moving on to their June release, Bayani. It’s been a while since I heard this sort of clarity and story-telling ability, and when that’s mixed with strong (if not all that creative) beats, good things happen. If I’m optimistic about Wiley, I’m giddy about Blue Scholars.
A year ago, when my parents moved back to Oklahoma City, I discovered an old music store on 36th and Western called Rainbow Records (which I mentioned here)...and it was closed by the next time I visitied OKC. Well I drove by 36th and Western when I was in town a couple weeks ago, and a new store had opened up, called Guestroom Records. I walked out with cheap copies of Slow Train Coming, Singles, OnoffON, It Still Moves, and The Now Sound Redesigned, a neat, $2 electronica/hip hop cd from 2005. Good store. I have a reason to go back to OKC now...other than, you know, visiting berlin niebuhr’s dog, of course.
Okay, sports books didn’t need redeeming in my book, but I guess it bears mentioning that I bought two of them this month. This week’s Tuesday Pirates Rant™ suggests that I really don’t care much about baseball at the moment, but The Baseball Economist is exactly the kind of book I’ll want to read when Dave Littlefield is fired and I’m interested in baseball once again. Meanwhile, I was very much into the NBA draft (as my posts on a non-NBA blog would suggest) this year, and the 1984 draft is the most talked-about of all-time. I’m starting Tip Off tonight, and I’m looking forward to it.
This hasn’t happened yet, but I was just going to mention that, now that we have officially cranked through every episode of the first five seasons of Smallville (The Butterfly’s anniversary present), we’re open to actually watching movies again. The only Netflix rental we watched this month was The Cooler, and...I really really liked it. William H. Macy absolutely makes this movie all by himself, but Maria Bello, Alec Baldwin, and Ron Livingston are fantastic as well. Good stuff.
I will also mention the following things:
- Queens of the Stone Age and the Ike Reilly Assassination both put out fantastic hard rock albums recently. They should both probably make the Top Albums list the next time I feel like cranking one of those out (and considering how many google hits we’ve gotten from that, I should probably crank another one out soon).
- America Eats Its Young is probably the weakest Funkadelic album I’ve bought to date, but it’s got its moments.
- I like Hear It Is (the Flaming Lips’ first album) more than 1992’s Hit to Death in the Future Head, but I’ve also come to grips with the fact that none of their albums are going to come anywhere near their latest three. I do love that you can hear that great Lips guitar sound even back on their first album. It’s hard to come up a distinct guitar sound.
- I read Glenn Greenwald’s first book over a two-day period last summer when I went to DC for a conference. I plan on cranking out his latest when I go back to DC next week.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tuesday Pirates Rant™ - I’m Back, Baby!
After weeks of half-assed, “I know they suck, but I don’t want to complain too much because they’re not actually doing that badly since the division sucks so much” Rants™, I finally have some fantastic Rant™ material! Hooray! Let’s get started!
Good
This week? Nothing.
Bad
The MLB Amateur Draft was last week. The Pirates, with their usual spot in the Top 5, swore in the weeks leading up to the draft that money and “signability” were not obstacles—that the Pirates would select the best player available. It was determined that the two best players for the Pirates would be high school 3B Josh Vitters (the new David Wright!) or Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters. One of those two would likely be available to the Pirates, but probably not both.
At the very least, we could assume that David Littlefield, being the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team, would not be stupid enough to draft another college pitcher in the first round, being that a) their offense stinks, b) they officially have two good-hitting prospects in their entire minor league system, and c) their #1 picks in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2006 were all college pitchers who have, since their selection, needed reconstructive arm surgery.
Before the draft started on Thursday, a poster named Vlad made this comment at Bucs Dugout (with the subject line of “Blah”):
They aren't going to take the best available player (Wieters), and they aren't going to take the best non-Boras guy [i.e. player not represented by uber-agent Scott Boras] (Heyward), either.Pishaw, I said. Vlad is surely just some cynical internet fan who is assuming the worst. The Pirates said money is not an option! They will select the best player available!
It's really hard to care about this team, when they aren't even going to put forth a modicum of effort.
I've been operating under the assumption all along that they're going to take [Clemson pitcher Dan] Moskos, since he's the best combination of low ceiling and high risk out of all the top picks. We'll see whether I'm right.
(Okay, I didn’t really say or think that. I feared the worst just like everybody else.)
Well...Josh Vitters was selected by the Cubs at #3, leaving Matt Wieters on the table for the Pirates, who selected...Dan Moskos of Clemson, a low-ceiling, left-handed RELIEF PITCHER, who was ranked the #9 PITCHER in the draft by MinorLeagueBall.com. Rare is an organization who lives down to your most cynical expectations on a regular basis. You can’t even make a sarcastic joke about something because it might come true. Granted, they hadn’t lived this far down to expectations since last year’s epic trade deadline display, but...low ceiling and high risk? Sounds like the 4th-best player in the draft to me! Even Littlefield’s justification, “We got the guy we want, really,” sounds Baghdad Bob-esque.
Oh, and then Moskos pitched on ESPN the next day in a Super Regional game against Mississippi State...and got shelled (5 1/3 innings, 6 runs).
And the worst part was, I was almost rooting for it to happen. SOMETHING has to get Littlefield fired, right? No? How about the fact that the Pirates are now 11 games under .500 in the worst division in baseball? No? His job is still safe? How? And better yet, how can I get a job under the Nutting/McClatchy ownership? You almost literally have to kill somebody to get fired. No amount of failure will do the trick.
As for the team that is actually currently taking the field...
* The Pirates, for the second time in two tries, got swept at Yankee Stadium this weekend. Awesome.
* Jack Wilson has gone from elite defender to defensive liability in the last couple of years. That, or he’s just gotten a big case of Pirateitis, which overtakes everybody who wears the Pirates jersey for too many years. His play in the field was so bad on Saturday that even Jim Tracy, who rarely actually holds players accountable for poor play or effort, benched Wilson for Sunday’s game.
* Catcher Ronnie Paulino was ALSO benched for lazy play over the weekend. It’s contagious.
* The bullpen took a massive hit this weekend when Salomon Torres, who despite his horribly up-and-down play is still by far the Pirates’ 2nd-best reliever, got put on the DL with arm troubles. Nothing serious, but he’ll still miss a few weeks.
* With new closer Matt Capps sitting out four upcoming games due to a suspension and Torres on the DL, the likely new closer is Jonah Bayliss, current owner of a 7.15 ERA.
Actually, let’s just wrap this up...
* The entire team can’t hit.
* The entire team can’t field.
* The entire team can’t run bases correctly.
The end.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Please, Just Shut This Man Up
Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins just keeps laying down the evidence in his pursuit of the crown of “America’s Most Stupid.” After defending the reprehensible “sport” of dog-fighting and Michael Vick’s “right” to be involved in it, now Mr. Portis has done “research” that has informed him that he might have been wrong. What, you may ask, was the “research”?
Portis said he has since done research on the subject and saw people crying over two humpback whales trapped in a river near San Francisco. He said he even wondered if he was being watched on a hidden camera when a woman sitting next to him at an airport spread a blanket and put down a bowl of water for her dog.
"I had no idea the love that people have for animals or didn't consider it when I made those comments," Portis said. "I'm not even a pets man. I've got a fish — that's the easiest thing to keep up. I've never been into dogs, never dealt with dogs, don't like playing with dogs. But at the same time, there's a lot of people who are crazy over pets."
Oh. My. God. Could someone just hand him the revolver with all the chambers loaded? He watched people crying? A woman in the airport was guilting him? People love animals is news to him? Well, there is one indication that two synapses in his “brain” have fired simultaneously:
Portis said Tuesday he'll be more judicious before offering an opinion that might come back to haunt him.
"From now on, I don't comment on nobody," Portis said. "My life is the only thing I can control."
No, Clinton, your mouth, not your life. You're a football player. You have no control of your life. Just control your mouth.