Monday, October 29, 2007
OK, so I was early
Those were my Tuesday posts, but they were posted Monday night. Sometimes, I am so organized and prepared, I amaze myself.
I could have sworn I saw someone in that old attic window
This is an interesting ghost de-bunking story. And, what's that in the hallway behind you?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/62337
http://www.newsweek.com/id/62337
I wouldn't eat salmon dip, either
In high school, the cafeteria once served salmon loaf. Once. (Remember that?) I didn't eat it then, and I wouldn't eat salmon dip, either, and apparently that's a good policy.
Salmon dip recalled after Ga. inspectors find bacteria
Georgia inspectors have found a deadly bacteria in a package of Kroger Smoked Salmon Dip -- prompting a produce recall.
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=7280727&Call=Email&Format=Text
Salmon dip recalled after Ga. inspectors find bacteria
Georgia inspectors have found a deadly bacteria in a package of Kroger Smoked Salmon Dip -- prompting a produce recall.
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=7280727&Call=Email&Format=Text
Making managers
Maybe somebody out there knows more about this that me (certainly someone does), but I noted a very interesting thing about the Kansas City A's from 1962-65: Those teams had a LOT of players who would later become significant managers and/or coaches in major league baseball.
How did I start studying this? I looked up former St. Louis Browns, Kansas City As, Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Indians general manager Hank Peters. The current crop of playoff-caliber Cleveland Indians is a direct descendant from Peters' handiwork, to wit:
Peters became the Indians general manager in 1988. As his assistant, he picked John Hart, a young former player her knew from Baltimore. When Peters fired manager Doc Edwards that summer (Let us note Edwards was one of the A's players I shall shortly list. He was team's primary catcher in 1963-64.), Peters replaced Edwards with Hart. Hart finished out the season and then was kicked upstairs to the front office, where Peters would groom him to be the next general manager.
Peters believed in player development, and Peters and Hart put together the core of the team that would win six American league central pennants in the 1990s and early 2000s. Hart trained as his replacement Mark Shapiro, who has been in place since 2001, and who used a player development oriented minor league system to rebuild the Indians after the 2002 season.
Thus, the modern Indians are the heirs of the 1970s and 1980s Baltimore Orioles teams overseen by Peters, building around home-grown players from a strong minor league player development system.
Now, back to where I started. Long about 1962. Peters had moved into Kansas City's front office as a director of scouting and minor league system a few years earlier. I went to check and see if the A's developed any superstar players while he was there.
If they did (and Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and so on certainly were great players) they did not surface until after Peters left to return to the Browns, who were now the Baltimore Orioles, in 1965. However, it seems that Peters may have had one lasting effect on baseball: his team developed players who became major league coaches and managers at an amazing rate.
Baseball-reference.com has all sorts of interesting things on it, and that's where I found lists of the teams including the following names:
1. Tony LaRussa (manager)
2. Dick Howser (manager)
3. Doc Edwards (manager)
4. Ken Harrelson (manager)
5. Haywood Sullivan (manager, front office guy, owner)
6. Charlie Lau (hitting coach)
7. Dave Duncan (LaRussa's longtime pitching coach)
8. Bill Fischer (pitching coach)
9. Jack Aker (pitching coach)
There may be others I don't know. But, at the rate of nine managers and coaches on one team over three seasons, I doubt there has ever been teams as "baseball smart" as these were. Unfortunately, they only won 72, 73 and 57 games during those seasons.
How did I start studying this? I looked up former St. Louis Browns, Kansas City As, Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Indians general manager Hank Peters. The current crop of playoff-caliber Cleveland Indians is a direct descendant from Peters' handiwork, to wit:
Peters became the Indians general manager in 1988. As his assistant, he picked John Hart, a young former player her knew from Baltimore. When Peters fired manager Doc Edwards that summer (Let us note Edwards was one of the A's players I shall shortly list. He was team's primary catcher in 1963-64.), Peters replaced Edwards with Hart. Hart finished out the season and then was kicked upstairs to the front office, where Peters would groom him to be the next general manager.
Peters believed in player development, and Peters and Hart put together the core of the team that would win six American league central pennants in the 1990s and early 2000s. Hart trained as his replacement Mark Shapiro, who has been in place since 2001, and who used a player development oriented minor league system to rebuild the Indians after the 2002 season.
Thus, the modern Indians are the heirs of the 1970s and 1980s Baltimore Orioles teams overseen by Peters, building around home-grown players from a strong minor league player development system.
Now, back to where I started. Long about 1962. Peters had moved into Kansas City's front office as a director of scouting and minor league system a few years earlier. I went to check and see if the A's developed any superstar players while he was there.
If they did (and Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and so on certainly were great players) they did not surface until after Peters left to return to the Browns, who were now the Baltimore Orioles, in 1965. However, it seems that Peters may have had one lasting effect on baseball: his team developed players who became major league coaches and managers at an amazing rate.
Baseball-reference.com has all sorts of interesting things on it, and that's where I found lists of the teams including the following names:
1. Tony LaRussa (manager)
2. Dick Howser (manager)
3. Doc Edwards (manager)
4. Ken Harrelson (manager)
5. Haywood Sullivan (manager, front office guy, owner)
6. Charlie Lau (hitting coach)
7. Dave Duncan (LaRussa's longtime pitching coach)
8. Bill Fischer (pitching coach)
9. Jack Aker (pitching coach)
There may be others I don't know. But, at the rate of nine managers and coaches on one team over three seasons, I doubt there has ever been teams as "baseball smart" as these were. Unfortunately, they only won 72, 73 and 57 games during those seasons.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Also lurking
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/
Cool animation site, for those who have not seen it.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/events/animation-in-columbus-ohio
This is about an animation festival in Columbus starting in November. If I still lived there, I'd go.
Cool animation site, for those who have not seen it.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/events/animation-in-columbus-ohio
This is about an animation festival in Columbus starting in November. If I still lived there, I'd go.
What lurks within ... the Internet
This is a website with all kinds of scanned pages from Jack Kirby’s pre-Marvel monster comics.
http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/collectors_corner/kirby_monsters_never_reprinted.html.
The trick is – none of the stories were ever reprinted after they appeared from 1959-1962. What a find!
Mostly inked by Dick Ayers or Christopher Rule, the art isn’t really much like what Kirby did at the peak of his Marvel work a few years later. Still, it has a charm all its own, and I have always loved reading the old monster stories when I found them.
I have a bunch of the monster reprints Marvel issued in the 1970s, but to find there were some “lost episodes” made me very happy. The original issues would be really hard to find, and probably very expensive.
There is one story inked by Wally Wood that’s worth checking out.
They are short, sinple, campy monster stories reminiscent of the Twilight Zone TV show. They are not great literature, but they are great fun to read.
Who could not love titles like, “I Am the Menace from the Purple Planet,” or “I Created Mechano!” or “We Were Trapped in The Twilight World.” For that matter, “The Luna Lizards Had Me Trapped” sounds like a winner, too.
I assume Stan Lee wrote most of them, or maybe Larry Leiber, his brother. No credits were given on many of the original stories, though.
To read these, you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief, and some of the laws of common sense, but if you do, there’s almost nothing more fun than these old monster comics.
http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/collectors_corner/kirby_monsters_never_reprinted.html.
The trick is – none of the stories were ever reprinted after they appeared from 1959-1962. What a find!
Mostly inked by Dick Ayers or Christopher Rule, the art isn’t really much like what Kirby did at the peak of his Marvel work a few years later. Still, it has a charm all its own, and I have always loved reading the old monster stories when I found them.
I have a bunch of the monster reprints Marvel issued in the 1970s, but to find there were some “lost episodes” made me very happy. The original issues would be really hard to find, and probably very expensive.
There is one story inked by Wally Wood that’s worth checking out.
They are short, sinple, campy monster stories reminiscent of the Twilight Zone TV show. They are not great literature, but they are great fun to read.
Who could not love titles like, “I Am the Menace from the Purple Planet,” or “I Created Mechano!” or “We Were Trapped in The Twilight World.” For that matter, “The Luna Lizards Had Me Trapped” sounds like a winner, too.
I assume Stan Lee wrote most of them, or maybe Larry Leiber, his brother. No credits were given on many of the original stories, though.
To read these, you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief, and some of the laws of common sense, but if you do, there’s almost nothing more fun than these old monster comics.
What happaned to my Tuesday post?
The cat thrwew up on it and the dog at it and I lost it and when the bullies beat me up Monday afternoon, it fell out of my bookbag and went down into the sewer drain. Honest.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Collecting Sturgeon
(This is my Friday post, a little bit early.)
What makes someone want to dish out some 30 bucks a-freakin'-piece for 11, so far, volumes of "The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon?" Especially when it is noted that he-who-is-typing-this-little essay already has most of the stories in their original, or second- or third- of fourth-printing, paperback forms?
A little background:
(And please pause for a moment to note that I have just read Harlan Ellison's wonderful introduction to the latest volume, number 11 in the series, called "The Nail and the Oracle," and I have his authorial voice pouring through my fingers and, try as I might, if I write anything right now it comes out on the keyboard.)
I spend a few years after I graduated from college reading a lot of science fiction. I mean a lot. I mean, sometimes three books-a-day a lot. Often, it would mean finishing one book in the morning, reading another in the afternoon, starting a third in the evening, and then going to be to wake up and do it again.
I started with Ray Bradbury. For some reason, whenever I want to read but can't, I can always turn to Bradbury to make me read again. I don't to this day really understand why, but it almost always works.
The book was "The Vintage Bradbury," and I had bought it and was supposed to read it for a college class (English 210, "Lit of Science Fiction," if I am to remember correctly). I had read a few stories in it, written a paper and discussed what I had read, along with what I hadn't, during the class.
There were several similar books from the class which I had read but not read that I read that summer as well. None were written by Theodore Sturgeon, however.
I moved on to a book I had wanted to read but never did, "The Essential Ellison," and worked backward to re-read Ellison's "Angry Candy" which I had bought and read a few years earlier. In the introduction to that book, Ellison talked at some length about people he knew who had died recently. One of them was — A-hah! Here's where I am going at last! — Sturgeon.
After reading Ellison eulogize his friend so passionately, I started looking for some books Sturgeon wrote. The first I found was his wonderful novel, and science fiction classic, "More Than Human." I read it, and really enjoyed it. So, I kept looking for more.
I haunted used bookstores that whole summer, and found lots of old Sturgeon books. I could find almost none of his works in new book stories. I think most of his short story collections were out of print by the early 1990s.
But, I rounded up "E Plurbus Unicorn," "Theodore Sturgeon Is Alive and Well," "Beyond," "Caviar," and many others. I found his novels like "The Dreaming Jewels," "The Cosmic Rape," and Venus Plus X."
So, I had, and still have, a pretty good Sturgeon collection. I didn't have everything, though.
Then, a few years later, random House books started publishing "The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon," which, I think, was initially supposed to be a 10-volume set. (It has already reached 11 volumes, and I don't know when it will stop.)
Initially, I decided not to buy them, because I figured I had most of the stories, anyway. Plus, they were expensive, even as paperbacks.
Cut to an evening in 2001 and I am perusing a Half-Price Books store in Columbus, Ohio and I find two of the earlier volumes, three and four, for $5 apiece. What did I do? I bought them.
Sturgeon's story "Killdozer" is considered one of his best. However, I always get stuck reading it. I have tried to work through it something like four or five times, and I have to force myself. I don't really know why.
I started the volume with "Killdozer" in it pretty soon and I got the books, and I got stuck. So, I didn't finish the volumes I had until 2004.
I figured I ought to take something along to read when I was on my honeymoon in Ireland, something that I could pick up and put down as I wanted. So, I picked the Sturgeon book.
I think I finished it while my lovely new wife was showering one evening, and when I got home resolved to start buying the rest of the series.
At this point, there was something like eight or nine books, and I had but two. The later ones were only being issued in hardcover, which meant they were expensive. Like $35 apiece expensive.
I got a couple and plowed through them, all the while planning to get the rest, buying maybe a month or two at a time. Well, it didn't work out that way. I shunted the collecting to the side for something like two more years.
Allofasudden it was 2007, and I was arranging my Sturgeon on a bookshelf and I saw which ones I was missing. So, I tried to get one book from what I thought was his peak period, which turned out to be volume eight.
I ordered in it April from Amazon.com. It was backordered. I waited something like four months, and it never came.
I tried to order a used copy from Barnes and Noble's Web site. A seller listed it, but then I ordered it, it never came. Ultimately, I got a refund. I tried to order it from the Random House site. I got an e-mail that it was back ordered there, too. I cancelled that order a day later.
Because it was so hard to get, I realized I may run out of time. I worried they wouldn't be in print forever, and I'd have a collection with some gaping holes.
In the mean time, I started buying all the other books I didn't have. I got volumes one and two from Amazon. I got volume six, too. I got volumes nine and 11, too -- all of them for less than cover price, sometimes less than half.
Finally, on Amazon, a used volume eight appeared for cover price, $35, and I ordered it. I got it four days later. It's the only one I paid full price for.
One can safely say that after some six years, I almost have the complete stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Volume 10 is on the way to me now, and I'll finally be done with the whole thing.
I just noticed something: I still didn't answer the question I started with: what makes a person want to buy all these books? Sturgeon is a wonderful writer, whose stories are entertaining, informative and enlightening all at the same time.
I guess if you really want to know why I got all the volumes, you'll just have to get one, read it and find out for yourself. Needless to say, I think having all the stories is worth the work I went through.
What makes someone want to dish out some 30 bucks a-freakin'-piece for 11, so far, volumes of "The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon?" Especially when it is noted that he-who-is-typing-this-little essay already has most of the stories in their original, or second- or third- of fourth-printing, paperback forms?
A little background:
(And please pause for a moment to note that I have just read Harlan Ellison's wonderful introduction to the latest volume, number 11 in the series, called "The Nail and the Oracle," and I have his authorial voice pouring through my fingers and, try as I might, if I write anything right now it comes out on the keyboard.)
I spend a few years after I graduated from college reading a lot of science fiction. I mean a lot. I mean, sometimes three books-a-day a lot. Often, it would mean finishing one book in the morning, reading another in the afternoon, starting a third in the evening, and then going to be to wake up and do it again.
I started with Ray Bradbury. For some reason, whenever I want to read but can't, I can always turn to Bradbury to make me read again. I don't to this day really understand why, but it almost always works.
The book was "The Vintage Bradbury," and I had bought it and was supposed to read it for a college class (English 210, "Lit of Science Fiction," if I am to remember correctly). I had read a few stories in it, written a paper and discussed what I had read, along with what I hadn't, during the class.
There were several similar books from the class which I had read but not read that I read that summer as well. None were written by Theodore Sturgeon, however.
I moved on to a book I had wanted to read but never did, "The Essential Ellison," and worked backward to re-read Ellison's "Angry Candy" which I had bought and read a few years earlier. In the introduction to that book, Ellison talked at some length about people he knew who had died recently. One of them was — A-hah! Here's where I am going at last! — Sturgeon.
After reading Ellison eulogize his friend so passionately, I started looking for some books Sturgeon wrote. The first I found was his wonderful novel, and science fiction classic, "More Than Human." I read it, and really enjoyed it. So, I kept looking for more.
I haunted used bookstores that whole summer, and found lots of old Sturgeon books. I could find almost none of his works in new book stories. I think most of his short story collections were out of print by the early 1990s.
But, I rounded up "E Plurbus Unicorn," "Theodore Sturgeon Is Alive and Well," "Beyond," "Caviar," and many others. I found his novels like "The Dreaming Jewels," "The Cosmic Rape," and Venus Plus X."
So, I had, and still have, a pretty good Sturgeon collection. I didn't have everything, though.
Then, a few years later, random House books started publishing "The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon," which, I think, was initially supposed to be a 10-volume set. (It has already reached 11 volumes, and I don't know when it will stop.)
Initially, I decided not to buy them, because I figured I had most of the stories, anyway. Plus, they were expensive, even as paperbacks.
Cut to an evening in 2001 and I am perusing a Half-Price Books store in Columbus, Ohio and I find two of the earlier volumes, three and four, for $5 apiece. What did I do? I bought them.
Sturgeon's story "Killdozer" is considered one of his best. However, I always get stuck reading it. I have tried to work through it something like four or five times, and I have to force myself. I don't really know why.
I started the volume with "Killdozer" in it pretty soon and I got the books, and I got stuck. So, I didn't finish the volumes I had until 2004.
I figured I ought to take something along to read when I was on my honeymoon in Ireland, something that I could pick up and put down as I wanted. So, I picked the Sturgeon book.
I think I finished it while my lovely new wife was showering one evening, and when I got home resolved to start buying the rest of the series.
At this point, there was something like eight or nine books, and I had but two. The later ones were only being issued in hardcover, which meant they were expensive. Like $35 apiece expensive.
I got a couple and plowed through them, all the while planning to get the rest, buying maybe a month or two at a time. Well, it didn't work out that way. I shunted the collecting to the side for something like two more years.
Allofasudden it was 2007, and I was arranging my Sturgeon on a bookshelf and I saw which ones I was missing. So, I tried to get one book from what I thought was his peak period, which turned out to be volume eight.
I ordered in it April from Amazon.com. It was backordered. I waited something like four months, and it never came.
I tried to order a used copy from Barnes and Noble's Web site. A seller listed it, but then I ordered it, it never came. Ultimately, I got a refund. I tried to order it from the Random House site. I got an e-mail that it was back ordered there, too. I cancelled that order a day later.
Because it was so hard to get, I realized I may run out of time. I worried they wouldn't be in print forever, and I'd have a collection with some gaping holes.
In the mean time, I started buying all the other books I didn't have. I got volumes one and two from Amazon. I got volume six, too. I got volumes nine and 11, too -- all of them for less than cover price, sometimes less than half.
Finally, on Amazon, a used volume eight appeared for cover price, $35, and I ordered it. I got it four days later. It's the only one I paid full price for.
One can safely say that after some six years, I almost have the complete stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Volume 10 is on the way to me now, and I'll finally be done with the whole thing.
I just noticed something: I still didn't answer the question I started with: what makes a person want to buy all these books? Sturgeon is a wonderful writer, whose stories are entertaining, informative and enlightening all at the same time.
I guess if you really want to know why I got all the volumes, you'll just have to get one, read it and find out for yourself. Needless to say, I think having all the stories is worth the work I went through.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Here's my new blog plan
Let's see if I can keep this up. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
My goal is to do two column-length blog entiries a week, one to be posted on Tuesday, and another to be posted on Friday.
It looks like I have focused on two subjects mainly: baseball and comic books, so I suspect that will be the majority of the entries. I'd like to be consistent about it, so there would be a comic book entry on Tuesday and a baseball or sports entry on Friday. I don't know if that will be the schedule, though. I'll see what works.
I'd also like to post more things like links in between the main postings. Silly little things that pop into my head or that I run across from time to time.
So, here's my pledge: Tuesdays and Fridays I update. What time, I cannot gaurantee. It may be better to look at the blog on Wednesday and Saturdays, depending on how late in the day I post.
I'll try this for a few weeks and see if I keep up.
Wish me luck!
My goal is to do two column-length blog entiries a week, one to be posted on Tuesday, and another to be posted on Friday.
It looks like I have focused on two subjects mainly: baseball and comic books, so I suspect that will be the majority of the entries. I'd like to be consistent about it, so there would be a comic book entry on Tuesday and a baseball or sports entry on Friday. I don't know if that will be the schedule, though. I'll see what works.
I'd also like to post more things like links in between the main postings. Silly little things that pop into my head or that I run across from time to time.
So, here's my pledge: Tuesdays and Fridays I update. What time, I cannot gaurantee. It may be better to look at the blog on Wednesday and Saturdays, depending on how late in the day I post.
I'll try this for a few weeks and see if I keep up.
Wish me luck!
Sabathia, Crisp, Borowski and more
Ten questions about the American league Championship Series game five:
1. How will C.C. Sabathia pitch?
A: Against New York and Boston, he was starting the first game of the series and placing a lot of pressure on himself to get the team off to a good start. He pitched poorly both times. My guess is that because the Indians are leading the Red Sox three games to one, there will be less pressure and C. C. will be able to settle down and pitch a good game. Also, he has had two poor starts to learn from, and sometimes the guy who fails learns more and ultimately becomes better than the guy who always succeeds. Just law of averages makes me think sooner or later a pitcher as good as Sabathia will win, and eventually, Josh Beckett has to have a post-season start in which he struggles. Maybe it won't be tonight, but we'll see. Even Orel Hershiser eventually lost a few playoff games.
2. How will the Red Sox respond to having their backs against the wall?
A: This is a veteran team. They won't be intimidated. If they show up ready to hit, they can beat anybody. There is little doubt in my mind they could still win the series if they started getting some little breaks, and their hitters — other than Ramirez and Ortiz — and pitchers started living up to expectations.
3. Should the Red Sox bench Coco Crisp and play Jacoby Ellsbury?
A. I'd say no. Crisp hasn't hit in the series, but sooner or later, he will. He's a good defensive player and has a lot of speed, too. If Terry Francona was going to bench him, he should have done it long before game four. If I were managing, which I am not, I'd figure out who my best players were and get them as many at-bats and innings as I could on the premise that the talent will assert itself.
4. How much longer can Rafael Betancourt keep getting out the Red Sox hitters?
A: I have no earthly idea, but I hope for at least another week.
5. If the Indians are leading by one run in the ninth in game five, should manager Eric Wedge give the ball to shaky closer Joe Borowski?
A: Yes.
6. What if that happens in a game seven?
A. Maybe.
7. What if that happens in game seven of the World Series?
A. Well, the Indians would have to get there first. But, remember Jose Mesa? I think Borowski has done a good job for the Indians all year, and he did lead the AL in saves, and he did have more three-up-three-down saves than Mariano Rivera this year, but if he is pitching in game seven of the World Series with a one-run lead, and gets two strikes on the last batter, I don't know if I'll be able to watch. At least we Indians fans learned to deal with this in recent years with the team's all-time saves leader Bob Wickman keeping us on the edge of our seats for years.
8. Isn't it interesting the way Wedge has bunted and stolen bases way more than usual in the playoffs?
A: Yes! Since runs are harder to come by in the post season (because you are facing better teams and generally only seeing the better teams' better pitchers), it only makes sense to have the team ready to play for one run in certain situations.
9. Will this come up in game five?
A: I guess we'll see. If I were the Indians, I'd do anything I could to facilitate ending the series in Cleveland. First, I'd like to get the series over and send the Sox home as soon as I could, and second, I'd hate to have to go back to Boston and try to win. Fenway Park is one of those places where no lead is ever really safe.
10. How hard was it to come up with 10 questions about a single game?
A: Harder than I thought. It might be easier to do for the World Series. We'll see.
1. How will C.C. Sabathia pitch?
A: Against New York and Boston, he was starting the first game of the series and placing a lot of pressure on himself to get the team off to a good start. He pitched poorly both times. My guess is that because the Indians are leading the Red Sox three games to one, there will be less pressure and C. C. will be able to settle down and pitch a good game. Also, he has had two poor starts to learn from, and sometimes the guy who fails learns more and ultimately becomes better than the guy who always succeeds. Just law of averages makes me think sooner or later a pitcher as good as Sabathia will win, and eventually, Josh Beckett has to have a post-season start in which he struggles. Maybe it won't be tonight, but we'll see. Even Orel Hershiser eventually lost a few playoff games.
2. How will the Red Sox respond to having their backs against the wall?
A: This is a veteran team. They won't be intimidated. If they show up ready to hit, they can beat anybody. There is little doubt in my mind they could still win the series if they started getting some little breaks, and their hitters — other than Ramirez and Ortiz — and pitchers started living up to expectations.
3. Should the Red Sox bench Coco Crisp and play Jacoby Ellsbury?
A. I'd say no. Crisp hasn't hit in the series, but sooner or later, he will. He's a good defensive player and has a lot of speed, too. If Terry Francona was going to bench him, he should have done it long before game four. If I were managing, which I am not, I'd figure out who my best players were and get them as many at-bats and innings as I could on the premise that the talent will assert itself.
4. How much longer can Rafael Betancourt keep getting out the Red Sox hitters?
A: I have no earthly idea, but I hope for at least another week.
5. If the Indians are leading by one run in the ninth in game five, should manager Eric Wedge give the ball to shaky closer Joe Borowski?
A: Yes.
6. What if that happens in a game seven?
A. Maybe.
7. What if that happens in game seven of the World Series?
A. Well, the Indians would have to get there first. But, remember Jose Mesa? I think Borowski has done a good job for the Indians all year, and he did lead the AL in saves, and he did have more three-up-three-down saves than Mariano Rivera this year, but if he is pitching in game seven of the World Series with a one-run lead, and gets two strikes on the last batter, I don't know if I'll be able to watch. At least we Indians fans learned to deal with this in recent years with the team's all-time saves leader Bob Wickman keeping us on the edge of our seats for years.
8. Isn't it interesting the way Wedge has bunted and stolen bases way more than usual in the playoffs?
A: Yes! Since runs are harder to come by in the post season (because you are facing better teams and generally only seeing the better teams' better pitchers), it only makes sense to have the team ready to play for one run in certain situations.
9. Will this come up in game five?
A: I guess we'll see. If I were the Indians, I'd do anything I could to facilitate ending the series in Cleveland. First, I'd like to get the series over and send the Sox home as soon as I could, and second, I'd hate to have to go back to Boston and try to win. Fenway Park is one of those places where no lead is ever really safe.
10. How hard was it to come up with 10 questions about a single game?
A: Harder than I thought. It might be easier to do for the World Series. We'll see.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
ALCS: closer than a good shave
I have no idea who is going to win the ALCS. The Indians and Red Sox are very similar teams with similar strengths and weaknesses. My guess is, it will come down to which team gets the little lucky breaks, like bunts rolling foul, bugs descending on the field, fly balls ricocheting off of walls and bouncing away for all the fielders and so on. The only thing I dare predict is that we'll be seeing a game seven in Boston, and I'll need a whole bottle of Tums.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Baseball playoffs are here!
This may not get posted before the playoffs start, but it is being written well before (or, the afternoon before, anyway). Here are my thoughts about the MLB playoff series:
Indians-Yankees:
I am biased, but I'll take the Indians. Two reasons: 1. I think the Indians have dominant starting pitching and 2. The Yankees don't. I remember those muscle bound late-1990s Indians going into series after series with great hitters and mediocre pitching and losing. The Yankees are a similar hitting-heavy team. The Yankees may have the better bullpen, mainly because of Mariano Rivera, but the Indians' pen is good enough to win, especially in a short series in which their weaker relievers may not have to see much action. The Indians just have to knock out the Yankee starters early and hold a lead. The Tribe can't keep up if the games become slugfests.
Red Sox-Angels
I like the Sox, although the Angels have some good starting pitchers, too. The Sox just have too good a team not to win in the first round of the playoffs. That said, I think the Angels could win this series on the strength of starters John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, especially if the Boston bullpen, with struggling late-season acquisition Eric Gagne, doesn't pitch well.
Diamondbacks-Cubs
I don't care who wins this series. I really don't. I have no investment in either team. My prediction: Who cares?
Rockies-Phillies
Perhaps this is the most compelling matchup in the playoffs, with both teams sprinting down the stretch to get in. I was rooting for the Phillies all the way (Who cares about seeing another New York team in the playoffs again?) and not paying much attention to the Rockies. I think the Rockies overall hitting (Helton, Holliday, Hawpe, Tulowitzki and Atkins) is more consistent than the Phillies, although the Phils have more home runs. I'll take the Rockies, but not by much.
Indians-Yankees:
I am biased, but I'll take the Indians. Two reasons: 1. I think the Indians have dominant starting pitching and 2. The Yankees don't. I remember those muscle bound late-1990s Indians going into series after series with great hitters and mediocre pitching and losing. The Yankees are a similar hitting-heavy team. The Yankees may have the better bullpen, mainly because of Mariano Rivera, but the Indians' pen is good enough to win, especially in a short series in which their weaker relievers may not have to see much action. The Indians just have to knock out the Yankee starters early and hold a lead. The Tribe can't keep up if the games become slugfests.
Red Sox-Angels
I like the Sox, although the Angels have some good starting pitchers, too. The Sox just have too good a team not to win in the first round of the playoffs. That said, I think the Angels could win this series on the strength of starters John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, especially if the Boston bullpen, with struggling late-season acquisition Eric Gagne, doesn't pitch well.
Diamondbacks-Cubs
I don't care who wins this series. I really don't. I have no investment in either team. My prediction: Who cares?
Rockies-Phillies
Perhaps this is the most compelling matchup in the playoffs, with both teams sprinting down the stretch to get in. I was rooting for the Phillies all the way (Who cares about seeing another New York team in the playoffs again?) and not paying much attention to the Rockies. I think the Rockies overall hitting (Helton, Holliday, Hawpe, Tulowitzki and Atkins) is more consistent than the Phillies, although the Phils have more home runs. I'll take the Rockies, but not by much.
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