Consider, if you are free and live in south Florida, Saturday, October 8th, 10 AM, Bryant Park in Lake Worth.
Occupy Lake Worth
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Consider, if you are free and live in south Florida, Saturday, October 8th, 10 AM, Bryant Park in Lake Worth.
I Pick Every NFL Game in 2011 - Week 5
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
I'm below .500 against the spread in each of the last two weeks; but for the season am still 36-26-2 ATS, and 46-18 straight up. As will be the case going forward, my schedule requires I make an initial post Wednesday, but I'm almost certain to return Friday to make some changes.
Colts -2.5 KC(loss/loss)
Arizona +3 Minnesota(Vikes win game)(loss/win)
Bills+3 Eagles(win/win)
Houston -6 Oakland(loss/loss)
NO -6 Carolina(loss/win)
Bengals +2.5 Jags(Jags win game)(win/loss)
Titans +3.5 Steelers(Steelers win game)(loss/win)
NYG -9.5 Seattle(NYG straight up smells like a suicide play)(that was a bad smell, loss/loss)
Niners -3 TB(win/win)
NYJ +9 NE (Patriots win game)(push/win)
Den +4 SD (loss/loss)
GB -6 Atl(win/win)
Det -6 Chi (win/win)
ATS: 5-7-1, 41-33-3
SU: 8-5, 54-23
Colts -2.5 KC(loss/loss)
Arizona +3 Minnesota(Vikes win game)(loss/win)
Bills+3 Eagles(win/win)
Houston -6 Oakland(loss/loss)
NO -6 Carolina(loss/win)
Bengals +2.5 Jags(Jags win game)(win/loss)
Titans +3.5 Steelers(Steelers win game)(loss/win)
NYG -9.5 Seattle(NYG straight up smells like a suicide play)(that was a bad smell, loss/loss)
Niners -3 TB(win/win)
NYJ +9 NE (Patriots win game)(push/win)
Den +4 SD (loss/loss)
GB -6 Atl(win/win)
Det -6 Chi (win/win)
ATS: 5-7-1, 41-33-3
SU: 8-5, 54-23
The 200 Greatest Major League Baseball Players of All Time, 2012 Ed. 191-200
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The introduction, including methodology, is here.
191. Buddy Bell 3B 1972-89 Indians/Rangers
193. Andy Pettitte LHP 1995-2010 Yankees
55.2
212-185
ERA+ 117
IP: 3000
MVPQ=none
194. Bret Saberhagen RHP 1984-01 Royals
54.95
188-113
ERA+ 126
IP: 2500
MVPQ=1989
195. Bernie Williams CF 1991-06 Yankees
54.85
.296/.381/.477
OPS+ 125
PA: 9000
MVPQ=none
196. Hank Greenberg 1B 1930-47 Tigers
54.6
.294/.386/.616
OPS+ 158
PA: 6100
MVPQ=1937
197. Jesse Burkett 1890-05 Spiders LF
54.4
OPS+ 140
.320/.407/.490
PA: 9600
MVPQ: 1901
200. Bobby Bonds RF Giants 1968-81
53.85
.272/.360/.513
OPS+ 129
PA: 8100
MVPQ=none
It's a Giants cluster at the edge of the rankings, with Jack Clark/Bill Terry just outside and Bobby Bonds manning the gates, and there's a whole gaggle of Yankees at the top of this section.
Let's talk about the bats. Greenberg has the best we've seen so far, the first with an OPS+ over 150 and a translated slugging over .600. He only had 2/3 of the plate appearances of Stargell, which accounts for his depressed value. But Greenberg's the best of the position players on the list so far. Burkett also had an MVPQ season and almost gets to my favorite translated slashline, a 3/4/5 - missing just 10 slugging points.
Saberhagen/Sabathia/Steib all have approximately the same ERA+; Sabes is the only one with an MVPQ season; obviously Sabathia will continue to accumulate more value, but he's only 200 IP behind Saberhagen right now. Let's say Saberhagen is the best pitcher on the list because of that one big year.
So - if I'm starting my baseball team (as opposed to measuring how much value they accumulated in their careers) my all time team right now would have two members:
1B Greenberg (the OPS+ of 150, the translated slugging of .600 and the MVPQ season)
RHP Saberhagen (the MVPQ season)
Onto the next ten.
191. Buddy Bell 3B 1972-89 Indians/Rangers
WAR+WARP/2= 55.4
Translated BA/OBP/SLG: .284/.348/.428
OPS+ 109
PA: 10,000
MVPQ=none
192. CC Sabathia LHP Indians 2001-
55.35
179-121
ERA+ 125
IP: 2300
MVPQ=none
Translated BA/OBP/SLG: .284/.348/.428
OPS+ 109
PA: 10,000
MVPQ=none
192. CC Sabathia LHP Indians 2001-
55.35
179-121
ERA+ 125
IP: 2300
MVPQ=none
193. Andy Pettitte LHP 1995-2010 Yankees
55.2
212-185
ERA+ 117
IP: 3000
MVPQ=none
194. Bret Saberhagen RHP 1984-01 Royals
54.95
188-113
ERA+ 126
IP: 2500
MVPQ=1989
195. Bernie Williams CF 1991-06 Yankees
54.85
.296/.381/.477
OPS+ 125
PA: 9000
MVPQ=none
196. Hank Greenberg 1B 1930-47 Tigers
54.6
.294/.386/.616
OPS+ 158
PA: 6100
MVPQ=1937
197. Jesse Burkett 1890-05 Spiders LF
54.4
OPS+ 140
.320/.407/.490
PA: 9600
MVPQ: 1901
198. Zack Wheat LF Dodgers 1909-27
54.25
.302/.360/.487
OPS+ 129
54.25
.302/.360/.487
OPS+ 129
PA: 10,000
MVPQ=none
199. Robin Ventura 3B White Sox 1989-04
54.2
.273/.367/.450
OPS+ 114
PA: 8300
MVPQ=none
MVPQ=none
199. Robin Ventura 3B White Sox 1989-04
54.2
.273/.367/.450
OPS+ 114
PA: 8300
MVPQ=none
200. Bobby Bonds RF Giants 1968-81
53.85
.272/.360/.513
OPS+ 129
PA: 8100
MVPQ=none
It's a Giants cluster at the edge of the rankings, with Jack Clark/Bill Terry just outside and Bobby Bonds manning the gates, and there's a whole gaggle of Yankees at the top of this section.
Let's talk about the bats. Greenberg has the best we've seen so far, the first with an OPS+ over 150 and a translated slugging over .600. He only had 2/3 of the plate appearances of Stargell, which accounts for his depressed value. But Greenberg's the best of the position players on the list so far. Burkett also had an MVPQ season and almost gets to my favorite translated slashline, a 3/4/5 - missing just 10 slugging points.
Saberhagen/Sabathia/Steib all have approximately the same ERA+; Sabes is the only one with an MVPQ season; obviously Sabathia will continue to accumulate more value, but he's only 200 IP behind Saberhagen right now. Let's say Saberhagen is the best pitcher on the list because of that one big year.
So - if I'm starting my baseball team (as opposed to measuring how much value they accumulated in their careers) my all time team right now would have two members:
1B Greenberg (the OPS+ of 150, the translated slugging of .600 and the MVPQ season)
RHP Saberhagen (the MVPQ season)
Onto the next ten.
The 200 Greatest Major League Baseball Players of All Time, 2012 Edition.
Monday, October 3, 2011
The 2011 version of this list is here.
In the latest incarnation of this list, we're combining two numbers - the Baseball-Reference version of WAR and Clay Davenport's version of WARP3. Each is designed to give the number of wins a player earned in his career above a freely available replacement player. So - if my career WAR was 50, that means I'm David Wells (50.1) or Doc Gooden (49.9). I'll take WAR; I'll take WARP - I'll divide by 2 - leaving you with the number of wins that player was responsible for over the course of his career above freely available talent.
(B-R WAR)+(CD WARP3)/2=the metric we're using to rank the players here.
Why the B-Ref WAR and not the Fangraphs WAR? The historical ability to measure UZR (the fangraphs defensive metric) isn't at the level of reliability of the B-Ref metric.
Why Davenport's WARP and not Baseball Prospectus? When BP overhauled WARP for its most recent incarnation, they stopped at 1950.
So - I'm slapping the numbers together (Davenport doesn't have a top WARP ever list, so its entirely possible I'm missing people) and coming up with the top 200 players of all time.
It's a career value list - but I'm including adjusted OPS/ERA and translated OPS/ERA numbers to get a measure of yearly productivity.
As in previous builds of this list, I'll go 10 at a time.
Here's who just missed - this is the bar that must be cleared for inclusion on the list.
201. (tie)
Jack Clark 53.65
Jose Cruz 53.65
Bill Terry 53.65
204. (tie)
Mickey Cochrane 53.6
Dave Stieb 53.6
Clark never had what I call a "Most Valuable Player Quality" year, that's a year where his combined WAR/WARP hit 16 (meaning, if you divided by two, 8 wins above replacement - and that's all an MVP is, 8 wins above replacement). His best year was an 11.8 in '78 (meaning, at his very best, Clark gave his team a little less than 6 wins more than a guy they could have found on the waiver wire). His career OPS+ was 137 (average is 100, so his bat was 37% better than average) and his translated slashline was .277/.391/.527 (his career BA/OBP/SLG adjusted for era and ballpark).
Cruz also never had a MVPQ season, his best year was '84 (13.6, meaning his best was better than Clark's best; incidentally, Jose Cruz was 36 years old in '84.) Cruz didn't have Clark's bat, his OPS+ was 120; his translated slash is .303/.373/.473. Cruz is a legit career .300 hitter, but Clark had a higher OBP and a significant advantage in slugging, making him a better offensive player. Cruz was a better defensive player. It took Cruz 700 more plate appearances to reach the same value as Clark. Cruz had about 8900 PA, Clark about 8200.
Terry had only 7100, so his value was accrued in significantly fewer plate appearances than either Cruz or Clark, and its reasonable to immediately think of him as a better player. His OPS+ was 136, just about the same as Clark's; and you can see that his slash only significantly varies from Jack's in batting average: .324/.384/.528, giving him a minor edge - you'd rather have a single than a walk, given its greater chance of advancing a baserunner an extra base. Knowing that Terry had the same value as Clark and Cruz - but in much less time, you'd be right in thinking that he must have been a better player at his best than were they; Terry had an MVPQ season, 1930 (16.3). Terry's in the Hall of Fame, neither Cruz nor Clark joins him, and you can see why that might be.
Note - I'm a Giants fan, so seeing that neither Clark nor Terry makes this list of the 200 greatest baseball players of all time should be some evidence of my objectivity in putting together this list.
These are regular season numbers only. My apologies for not mentioning that previously.
Cochrane's value was in even fewer plate appearances, only 6200; so he only played less than 75% of Cruz's career to accumulate the same value. He's a catcher, giving him significantly more defensive value than anyone already discussed, so you'd expect he'd have less bat, his OPS+ was 128, his slash was .289/.387/.465 - meaning he was a better bat, by a little, than Cruz (who played some center, giving him more defensive value than the corner OF Clark, but not as much as the catcher Cochrane). No MVPQ seasons for Cochrane (his best year, 13.5, was '32 - one of the areas of evaluation where WAR trails WARP is in the defensive value of catchers; subjectively, I'd tick every catcher up a little bit as you look at the list).
And finally, the one pitcher who just misses our list - Stieb. No OPS or translated slashline for Steib, instead it's ERA+ (his was 123, making him 23% better than the average pitcher) and his translated career record was 177-146 (not his actual record, the record he would have had normalizing for run support). Stieb missed on an MVPQ season in '84 (his best, 14.9). Stieb threw about 2900 innings.
And that's 201-5. All essentially the same value for their careers, worth 53+ wins. At their best - the best was Terry, the only one who had an MVPQ year. And per season, the best player was Cochrane.
So - coming up next, players 200-191.
In the latest incarnation of this list, we're combining two numbers - the Baseball-Reference version of WAR and Clay Davenport's version of WARP3. Each is designed to give the number of wins a player earned in his career above a freely available replacement player. So - if my career WAR was 50, that means I'm David Wells (50.1) or Doc Gooden (49.9). I'll take WAR; I'll take WARP - I'll divide by 2 - leaving you with the number of wins that player was responsible for over the course of his career above freely available talent.
(B-R WAR)+(CD WARP3)/2=the metric we're using to rank the players here.
Why the B-Ref WAR and not the Fangraphs WAR? The historical ability to measure UZR (the fangraphs defensive metric) isn't at the level of reliability of the B-Ref metric.
Why Davenport's WARP and not Baseball Prospectus? When BP overhauled WARP for its most recent incarnation, they stopped at 1950.
So - I'm slapping the numbers together (Davenport doesn't have a top WARP ever list, so its entirely possible I'm missing people) and coming up with the top 200 players of all time.
It's a career value list - but I'm including adjusted OPS/ERA and translated OPS/ERA numbers to get a measure of yearly productivity.
As in previous builds of this list, I'll go 10 at a time.
Here's who just missed - this is the bar that must be cleared for inclusion on the list.
201. (tie)
Jack Clark 53.65
Jose Cruz 53.65
Bill Terry 53.65
204. (tie)
Mickey Cochrane 53.6
Dave Stieb 53.6
Clark never had what I call a "Most Valuable Player Quality" year, that's a year where his combined WAR/WARP hit 16 (meaning, if you divided by two, 8 wins above replacement - and that's all an MVP is, 8 wins above replacement). His best year was an 11.8 in '78 (meaning, at his very best, Clark gave his team a little less than 6 wins more than a guy they could have found on the waiver wire). His career OPS+ was 137 (average is 100, so his bat was 37% better than average) and his translated slashline was .277/.391/.527 (his career BA/OBP/SLG adjusted for era and ballpark).
Cruz also never had a MVPQ season, his best year was '84 (13.6, meaning his best was better than Clark's best; incidentally, Jose Cruz was 36 years old in '84.) Cruz didn't have Clark's bat, his OPS+ was 120; his translated slash is .303/.373/.473. Cruz is a legit career .300 hitter, but Clark had a higher OBP and a significant advantage in slugging, making him a better offensive player. Cruz was a better defensive player. It took Cruz 700 more plate appearances to reach the same value as Clark. Cruz had about 8900 PA, Clark about 8200.
Terry had only 7100, so his value was accrued in significantly fewer plate appearances than either Cruz or Clark, and its reasonable to immediately think of him as a better player. His OPS+ was 136, just about the same as Clark's; and you can see that his slash only significantly varies from Jack's in batting average: .324/.384/.528, giving him a minor edge - you'd rather have a single than a walk, given its greater chance of advancing a baserunner an extra base. Knowing that Terry had the same value as Clark and Cruz - but in much less time, you'd be right in thinking that he must have been a better player at his best than were they; Terry had an MVPQ season, 1930 (16.3). Terry's in the Hall of Fame, neither Cruz nor Clark joins him, and you can see why that might be.
Note - I'm a Giants fan, so seeing that neither Clark nor Terry makes this list of the 200 greatest baseball players of all time should be some evidence of my objectivity in putting together this list.
These are regular season numbers only. My apologies for not mentioning that previously.
Cochrane's value was in even fewer plate appearances, only 6200; so he only played less than 75% of Cruz's career to accumulate the same value. He's a catcher, giving him significantly more defensive value than anyone already discussed, so you'd expect he'd have less bat, his OPS+ was 128, his slash was .289/.387/.465 - meaning he was a better bat, by a little, than Cruz (who played some center, giving him more defensive value than the corner OF Clark, but not as much as the catcher Cochrane). No MVPQ seasons for Cochrane (his best year, 13.5, was '32 - one of the areas of evaluation where WAR trails WARP is in the defensive value of catchers; subjectively, I'd tick every catcher up a little bit as you look at the list).
And finally, the one pitcher who just misses our list - Stieb. No OPS or translated slashline for Steib, instead it's ERA+ (his was 123, making him 23% better than the average pitcher) and his translated career record was 177-146 (not his actual record, the record he would have had normalizing for run support). Stieb missed on an MVPQ season in '84 (his best, 14.9). Stieb threw about 2900 innings.
And that's 201-5. All essentially the same value for their careers, worth 53+ wins. At their best - the best was Terry, the only one who had an MVPQ year. And per season, the best player was Cochrane.
So - coming up next, players 200-191.
The Weekly Tendown September 25-October 1 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Dear Internet:
That's Lindsay Lohan making out with her mom.
Lindsay Lohan's low hanging fruit; my approach to her is similar to how I treat Bryan Fischer and the rest of the right wing noise machine junior varsity, there just aren't enough hours in the day to monitor their games.
But sometimes there's a crazy number that flashes on the scoreboard and you can't help but check it out.
For example, this week, Bryan Fischer said the following:
I will not disabuse you - if you think there is a parallel between Islamic fundamentalism and the homosexual agenda, if they have the same tyrannical impulse - the same impulse of hatred, the same impulse of vitriol, the same impulse of the spirit of anti-Christ, anti-Christian spirit, a vitriolic hatred of all things that are connection to the name of Christ, I'm not going to disabuse you of that notion. I think it's the same dark energy. Islam wants to completely silence and neutralize Christians everywhere in the world. That's exactly what the homosexual agenda wants to do.
That's good crazy right there. Just makin' out with your mom on her birthday crazy.
Unfortunately, Fischer has a platform and an audience and no one's calling Lindsay to do a sequel to Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, so the parallel only goes as far as it does.
The other reason for the Lohan picture is it brings to mind her getting a tattoo of Billy Joel lyrics on her ribcage:
Now, the clear next step would be for Lohan, in the manner of Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, to put on about fifty pounds for her art. As that would allow her to to add the lyrics from We Didn't Start the Fire.
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball, Starkweather homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Best tramp stamp ever.
Here's Tendown 96.
1. Jail or Church?
If you caught this story this week, you'd have to know it would make an appearance in Tendown.
My favorite part is the end of the piece, in which the sheriff in the Alabama community impacted says that because offenders have the choice of jail or church, and then (bonus!) can choose from the many varieties of church that North Baldwin County, Alabama can offer them, that there really isn't an Establishment Clause issue.
It isn't the government saying "pray to Jesus" - it's the government saying "pray to Jesus or go to jail." Just as Jefferson intended.
They don't want small government. They're authoritarians. Don't believe them when they say they want small government.
2. Crony Capitalism
When war became profitable for corporate interests, we saw more war. In a nutshell, that's what Eisenhower meant by military-industrial complex.
When jail becomes profitable for corporate interests, we put more people in jail.
Since 2002, the US corporate prison population is up 37%.
Since 2002, the money spent by corporate prisons to lobby legislators is up 165%.
While Bill O'Reilly talks about imaginary 16 dollar muffins, Americans are going to jail to line shareholder pockets.
And if you have a family member in jail in Arizona - they charge you for a visit.
3. How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I was off this week; I worked every day, but didn't need to go in. Tomorrow I go back.
This should be my most challenging quarter ever; I have seven classes in the classroom, my most ever, and one online. That's not ideal, as I've dropped from 3 last year to 2 all of this year to now one; and while my classroom time is salaried (making it not a mystery why the number of classes I'm required to teach rises) my online work is adjunct (meaning I'm now taking home a grand less a month than was I a year ago, which is why the cupboards will be bare this winter). I'm in additional adjunct pools (schools like to accumulate instructors, stick them behind glass to break when needed - its challenging) and registered with two tutoring services, so hopefully some additional work will come in. I'm a little anxious.
I made a bundle of posts this week.
September's Athlete of the Month is here.
My 2011 MLB Awards Ballots are here.
My ranking of the 5 best players at each position in MLB for 2011 is here.
My historical overview of the 2011 San Francisco Giants is here.
My predictions for the MLB playoffs are here.
My Week 4 NFL picks are here. Coming into the week I was a dozen games over .500 against the spread.
And my college football picks for week 5 were here. I had my third straight week over .500 against the spread.
I told you it was a bundle of posts. Starting this week, the revision of the 200 greatest baseball players of all time. I also saw a four star wrestling match - there was a combined KDojo/Mich Pro show in September, Mashimo v. Ishikawa was four stars.
And my Ladygal and I went to the local botanical gardens.
I'm not all lefty politics and real Housewives, people. Sometimes I look at foliage.
4. Brake World = Home of the 360 Minute Oil Change
My Ladygal took advantage of my being home this week to get some automotive work done (we are a one car household).
She went here for an oil change. We also needed a tire repaired, which they said they could not do (it wound up being a twenty dollar repair elsewhere). They attempted to upsell her a 300 dollar brake job, which we could use, but given there are only 30,000 miles on the car (a Honda) don't really need and can't afford.
All she wound up getting was the oil change. It took four hours. Thanks, Brake World.
5. I Don't Believe What I Just Saw
Wednesday night, if you have any of the various baseball packages or, as I did, sat and watched the ends of each relevant game on the MLB Network, you saw an occurrence more unlikely than winning the lottery.
As calculated by Nate Silver, when one considers Boston's 9 game lead over Tampa with 24 games left, Tampa's 7 run deficit in the 8th to the Yankees in the final game, and both Boston losing and Tampa's winning with only one strike left to finish either game - the odds of the result, which was Tampa winning the Wild Card and the Sox going home, were 278 million to one.
And that doesn't take into account that almost the exact same thing at almost the exact same time happened to the Braves. It was as remarkable a sequence of events as you're ever likely to see.
I extended my streak of fantasy sports championships with an also statistically improbable 3 way tie in my NL fantasy league. I lost my mixed league by one point. It's now, I believe two straight years for each of the 3 sports in which I play (baseball/football/basketball) that I've won a $ fantasy league.
6. Food Bang
I coined a new term this week.
So, you're at a restaurant or otherwise eating in public and people walk by your table and they stare at your food.
You've been Food Banged. As in "you see that dude walk by totally food banging your pulled pork sandwich?"
There's another word beginning with f that one could use in place of bang that would allow for greater alliteration. But I already used the picture of Lindsay and her mother and thought that vulgarity here might draw stern looks. You could use either phrase depending upon the occasion.
7. Catching Hell
ESPN's documentary on Steve Bartman was good; I'd recommend it. I've written previously of Bartman, I've felt almost since the moment it happened that Cubs fans owed him a monumental apology; I assume he'd get one today; I assume the Cubs organization has attempted to reach out (pun intended). Were I in a leadership position with the Cubs I'd offer him lifetime season tickets.
There was a line by the narrator/filmmaker near the film's end referencing the Red Sox fans forgiveness of Bill Buckner once they finally won a Series in 2004, that after winning the series seasons don't mean as much as they had in the past.
That's true in multiple ways. I had a lot of intellectual interest in the Giants this season and followed as closely as I do each year, but emotionally our blowing our division lead and, largely due to poor organizational decision making, missing a fairly easy opportunity to play postseason baseball didn't particularly impact me.
It also works to correct history. The Giants lost a World Series in 2002 in a Buckner/Bartman type of way which no longer bothers me much, although I'd prefer it to have gone the other way.
I am not surprised by either of those things, I assume they're common and would be true for Cubs fans also.
But there's another thing that you don't really understand until you win a World Series.
It's not that big a deal. When the Great Pumpkin finally shows up - it's nice, you're glad it happened, but they don't cut you a playoff share. And in the context of one's life that includes trying to figure out how the water bill will get paid next month, it's not that big a deal.
If the Cubs win a World Series, one assumes everyone will come to some degree of all of that understanding; not just Cubs fans who will "forgive" Bartman to whatever degree they haven't already - but Bartman will forgive himself, and maybe wonder why he spent so many years in seclusion in the first place. It was framed in the documentary as noble that Bartman's never taken one of the many, many, many marketing opportunities available to him. Everyone else has. Bill Buckner, as portrayed in what was maybe the best season of Curb Your Enthusiasm sits next to Mookie Wilson at autograph signings. I own a version of this picture:
...signed by both Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca. And as the documentary pointed out - Moises Alou, who deserves a significantly greater percentage that he appreciates for the level of misplaced vitriol directed at Bartman, regularly signs pictures like the one a little bit above.
Why?
Because it's just not that big a deal. And when you win a World Series, you understand that. If Steve Bartman ever googles himself and comes across this piece - my advice is to go get paid. People may think less of you, and you less of yourself, right up until the moment when the Cubs win the World Series, and then you'll wonder why you didn't accept offers years earlier. I'm you, Steve Bartman. If I felt I had cost the Giants the World Series it would be like opening the front door and watching your dog run into traffic. But once you win the World Series, you recognize it's not like that at all. Go get paid.
8. They Don't Want Small Government
In Michigan, there's a proposal to put teachers in prison who use their work email for union purposes.
Prison.
Raise the tax rates of millionaires from 36 to 39 percent = tyranny.
Put teachers in prison for sending emails = Republican politics in 2011.
They. Don't. Want. Small. Government. They're authoritarians.
9. Would You Like to Read an Oral History of the Upright Citizens Brigade?
It's here.
10. A Number That Explains a Lot.
What's the percentage of law school graduates who you'd expect not to have a job that required a law degree within 9 months of graduation?
At some schools it's really high. Schools where most of their graduates aren't working in jobs that require law degrees within 9 months of graduation. When you have law school debt and not a lawyer's income, that's a challenging hole out of which to climb.
My school - on that list. 60% of its 2009 graduates didn't have a job requiring a law degree within 9 months.
60%.
That's all for this time. I'll be back next time. If there is a next time...
Your pal,
Jim
That's Lindsay Lohan making out with her mom.
Lindsay Lohan's low hanging fruit; my approach to her is similar to how I treat Bryan Fischer and the rest of the right wing noise machine junior varsity, there just aren't enough hours in the day to monitor their games.
But sometimes there's a crazy number that flashes on the scoreboard and you can't help but check it out.
For example, this week, Bryan Fischer said the following:
I will not disabuse you - if you think there is a parallel between Islamic fundamentalism and the homosexual agenda, if they have the same tyrannical impulse - the same impulse of hatred, the same impulse of vitriol, the same impulse of the spirit of anti-Christ, anti-Christian spirit, a vitriolic hatred of all things that are connection to the name of Christ, I'm not going to disabuse you of that notion. I think it's the same dark energy. Islam wants to completely silence and neutralize Christians everywhere in the world. That's exactly what the homosexual agenda wants to do.
That's good crazy right there. Just makin' out with your mom on her birthday crazy.
Unfortunately, Fischer has a platform and an audience and no one's calling Lindsay to do a sequel to Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, so the parallel only goes as far as it does.
The other reason for the Lohan picture is it brings to mind her getting a tattoo of Billy Joel lyrics on her ribcage:
Now, the clear next step would be for Lohan, in the manner of Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, to put on about fifty pounds for her art. As that would allow her to to add the lyrics from We Didn't Start the Fire.
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball, Starkweather homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Best tramp stamp ever.
Here's Tendown 96.
1. Jail or Church?
If you caught this story this week, you'd have to know it would make an appearance in Tendown.
Non-violent offenders in Bay Minette now have a choice some would call simple: do time behind bars or work off the sentence in church.
Operation Restore Our Community or "ROC"...begins next week. The city judge will either let misdemenor offenders work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sunday for a year.
My favorite part is the end of the piece, in which the sheriff in the Alabama community impacted says that because offenders have the choice of jail or church, and then (bonus!) can choose from the many varieties of church that North Baldwin County, Alabama can offer them, that there really isn't an Establishment Clause issue.
It isn't the government saying "pray to Jesus" - it's the government saying "pray to Jesus or go to jail." Just as Jefferson intended.
They don't want small government. They're authoritarians. Don't believe them when they say they want small government.
2. Crony Capitalism
When war became profitable for corporate interests, we saw more war. In a nutshell, that's what Eisenhower meant by military-industrial complex.
When jail becomes profitable for corporate interests, we put more people in jail.
Since 2002, the US corporate prison population is up 37%.
Since 2002, the money spent by corporate prisons to lobby legislators is up 165%.
While Bill O'Reilly talks about imaginary 16 dollar muffins, Americans are going to jail to line shareholder pockets.
And if you have a family member in jail in Arizona - they charge you for a visit.
3. How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I was off this week; I worked every day, but didn't need to go in. Tomorrow I go back.
This should be my most challenging quarter ever; I have seven classes in the classroom, my most ever, and one online. That's not ideal, as I've dropped from 3 last year to 2 all of this year to now one; and while my classroom time is salaried (making it not a mystery why the number of classes I'm required to teach rises) my online work is adjunct (meaning I'm now taking home a grand less a month than was I a year ago, which is why the cupboards will be bare this winter). I'm in additional adjunct pools (schools like to accumulate instructors, stick them behind glass to break when needed - its challenging) and registered with two tutoring services, so hopefully some additional work will come in. I'm a little anxious.
I made a bundle of posts this week.
September's Athlete of the Month is here.
My 2011 MLB Awards Ballots are here.
My ranking of the 5 best players at each position in MLB for 2011 is here.
My historical overview of the 2011 San Francisco Giants is here.
My predictions for the MLB playoffs are here.
My Week 4 NFL picks are here. Coming into the week I was a dozen games over .500 against the spread.
And my college football picks for week 5 were here. I had my third straight week over .500 against the spread.
I told you it was a bundle of posts. Starting this week, the revision of the 200 greatest baseball players of all time. I also saw a four star wrestling match - there was a combined KDojo/Mich Pro show in September, Mashimo v. Ishikawa was four stars.
And my Ladygal and I went to the local botanical gardens.
4. Brake World = Home of the 360 Minute Oil Change
My Ladygal took advantage of my being home this week to get some automotive work done (we are a one car household).
She went here for an oil change. We also needed a tire repaired, which they said they could not do (it wound up being a twenty dollar repair elsewhere). They attempted to upsell her a 300 dollar brake job, which we could use, but given there are only 30,000 miles on the car (a Honda) don't really need and can't afford.
All she wound up getting was the oil change. It took four hours. Thanks, Brake World.
5. I Don't Believe What I Just Saw
Wednesday night, if you have any of the various baseball packages or, as I did, sat and watched the ends of each relevant game on the MLB Network, you saw an occurrence more unlikely than winning the lottery.
As calculated by Nate Silver, when one considers Boston's 9 game lead over Tampa with 24 games left, Tampa's 7 run deficit in the 8th to the Yankees in the final game, and both Boston losing and Tampa's winning with only one strike left to finish either game - the odds of the result, which was Tampa winning the Wild Card and the Sox going home, were 278 million to one.
And that doesn't take into account that almost the exact same thing at almost the exact same time happened to the Braves. It was as remarkable a sequence of events as you're ever likely to see.
I extended my streak of fantasy sports championships with an also statistically improbable 3 way tie in my NL fantasy league. I lost my mixed league by one point. It's now, I believe two straight years for each of the 3 sports in which I play (baseball/football/basketball) that I've won a $ fantasy league.
6. Food Bang
I coined a new term this week.
So, you're at a restaurant or otherwise eating in public and people walk by your table and they stare at your food.
You've been Food Banged. As in "you see that dude walk by totally food banging your pulled pork sandwich?"
There's another word beginning with f that one could use in place of bang that would allow for greater alliteration. But I already used the picture of Lindsay and her mother and thought that vulgarity here might draw stern looks. You could use either phrase depending upon the occasion.
7. Catching Hell
ESPN's documentary on Steve Bartman was good; I'd recommend it. I've written previously of Bartman, I've felt almost since the moment it happened that Cubs fans owed him a monumental apology; I assume he'd get one today; I assume the Cubs organization has attempted to reach out (pun intended). Were I in a leadership position with the Cubs I'd offer him lifetime season tickets.
There was a line by the narrator/filmmaker near the film's end referencing the Red Sox fans forgiveness of Bill Buckner once they finally won a Series in 2004, that after winning the series seasons don't mean as much as they had in the past.
That's true in multiple ways. I had a lot of intellectual interest in the Giants this season and followed as closely as I do each year, but emotionally our blowing our division lead and, largely due to poor organizational decision making, missing a fairly easy opportunity to play postseason baseball didn't particularly impact me.
It also works to correct history. The Giants lost a World Series in 2002 in a Buckner/Bartman type of way which no longer bothers me much, although I'd prefer it to have gone the other way.
I am not surprised by either of those things, I assume they're common and would be true for Cubs fans also.
But there's another thing that you don't really understand until you win a World Series.
It's not that big a deal. When the Great Pumpkin finally shows up - it's nice, you're glad it happened, but they don't cut you a playoff share. And in the context of one's life that includes trying to figure out how the water bill will get paid next month, it's not that big a deal.
If the Cubs win a World Series, one assumes everyone will come to some degree of all of that understanding; not just Cubs fans who will "forgive" Bartman to whatever degree they haven't already - but Bartman will forgive himself, and maybe wonder why he spent so many years in seclusion in the first place. It was framed in the documentary as noble that Bartman's never taken one of the many, many, many marketing opportunities available to him. Everyone else has. Bill Buckner, as portrayed in what was maybe the best season of Curb Your Enthusiasm sits next to Mookie Wilson at autograph signings. I own a version of this picture:
...signed by both Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca. And as the documentary pointed out - Moises Alou, who deserves a significantly greater percentage that he appreciates for the level of misplaced vitriol directed at Bartman, regularly signs pictures like the one a little bit above.
Why?
Because it's just not that big a deal. And when you win a World Series, you understand that. If Steve Bartman ever googles himself and comes across this piece - my advice is to go get paid. People may think less of you, and you less of yourself, right up until the moment when the Cubs win the World Series, and then you'll wonder why you didn't accept offers years earlier. I'm you, Steve Bartman. If I felt I had cost the Giants the World Series it would be like opening the front door and watching your dog run into traffic. But once you win the World Series, you recognize it's not like that at all. Go get paid.
8. They Don't Want Small Government
In Michigan, there's a proposal to put teachers in prison who use their work email for union purposes.
Prison.
Raise the tax rates of millionaires from 36 to 39 percent = tyranny.
Put teachers in prison for sending emails = Republican politics in 2011.
They. Don't. Want. Small. Government. They're authoritarians.
9. Would You Like to Read an Oral History of the Upright Citizens Brigade?
It's here.
10. A Number That Explains a Lot.
What's the percentage of law school graduates who you'd expect not to have a job that required a law degree within 9 months of graduation?
At some schools it's really high. Schools where most of their graduates aren't working in jobs that require law degrees within 9 months of graduation. When you have law school debt and not a lawyer's income, that's a challenging hole out of which to climb.
My school - on that list. 60% of its 2009 graduates didn't have a job requiring a law degree within 9 months.
60%.
That's all for this time. I'll be back next time. If there is a next time...
Your pal,
Jim
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