Friday Completely Open Thread

white sox are always good for a “they could win 75 or 95” squad… and when I go to South Side Sox and lurk I can never get a handle on how they feel about the team either

but I look foward to them going 3-8 in their first 11 home games and reading about how “they lost the homefield advantage”

or vice versa

also, I think an outdoor baseball stadium in Minny is idiotic

Indians are gonna win the division

I know I would

Wife needs a break, so I’ll have to rush out my “what is Kenny Williams doing” post right before it’s due…

My wife actually asks me about my blogging, since it’s better than asking me about my “real” work

she actually laughs when I tell her about Dayton Moore’s latest escapades

See thinks I am a little nuts following them, but at least I ain’t playing WOW.

We’ll listen to games on the radio together some times. She really likes Greinke and Hochevar and has an irrational hatred of Davies. She also has a soft spot for shortstops that can’t hit and anyone who wears their socks up.

she knows about greinke and …

we really don’t talk about the royals other than me occasinoally saying “the royals did something, I have to write about it”

{weeps}

The wife loves baseball as much as I do. She grew up in Memphis, going to Chicks games when they were the Royals’ AA team. They had season tickets pretty much every year, so she really got to know lots of players from the Royals’ early ‘90s teams. As such, she has an irrational love of David Howard. But don’t get her started on Shane Halter…

of all time is Matt Stairs, other than attending a couple games a year she is oblivious.

if I am watching on the tube, will check in and keep the sharp instruments away from me. We went to spring training last year and I think that got her more interested. She remembered some of the players we saw!

to explain enough to have her understand why I’m pleased (rarely) or upset (often) with what’s happening, e.g. the Betancourt deal: “But I thought they needed a new shortstop.” And she really doesn’t get following the offseason. But she likes going to the games—we’ve been to the K every year for the last 4 or so, and gone to a game for 3 different minor leagues affiliates since 2007. She will show interest at times and listens to games with me (we have no cable/satellite and MLB.com seems so wrong, so I don’t get to watch games). And she wears her “Revive ’85” shirt with pride here in Cardinals country, so she’s got the right attitude.

Random unrelated note from Cardinals country: I had a woman at church tell me the Royals will be better this year “since they have Ankiel now.” Ah, Cardinal fans.

during the season. She doesn’t understand me wanting to know the trades and what not. However, on opening day. She want’s to know each player that’s new, their back story, what they’re tendencies are………..and how the Royals can mess each player up.

She is in love with Greinke, and Teahen. ( I haven’t told her yet, this will be an interesting opening day)

On the other hand, she actually likes Tim Scott.

Also: She was crushed by the Teahen trade, and if DDJ left, she’d be calling for GMDM’s head.

Actually, he’s much more knowledgeable about it all than I am, but I’ve got more up-to-date info, so I run and tell him the latest news and he gives me the background on it. And then digs through his baseball cards and Strat-O-Matic cards to illustrate all his points. It’s pretty cute actually, in a big ol’ nerdy way.

If the worst I can do is make it not work more then ehh fuck it try for it…

But if Im working on something that has potential to kill, unless its pretty simple I dont bother.

we wouldn’t be bloggers

Yes. I think I’ve purchased a tool to fix something, when replacing the thing being fixed would cost less than the tool I purchased to fix it.

I don’t wanna spend money and I don’t wanna fix it myself

My problem is that the thing sits in my garage for 3 years until I fix it. Just call me the GMDM of handymen.

…but sometimes I get my dad’s help for laughs. He’s crazy.

He works on electrical appliances without shutting off the power. Honest, we installed a dishwasher this year that was supposed to be hardwired to the power source (i.e. no plug). It took me more than 30 seconds to locate the proper circuit breaker, so he said “don’t bother,” and proceeded to twist a series of electrical caps onto live wires. Sparks were flying, but he was fine. Crazy.

You should see him up in a tree with a chainsaw.

It’s just all the other stuff that goes wrong because of the first problem.

At least in my experience.

I mostly “don’t go there” 90% of the time. if i’m watching the game with my grandfather, i’d rather connect with him about things than argue

although I will subtly try to mix in new school thinking

i mean, he’s not at the level where he follows them at all in the off-season, or reads up on them or whatever

but he’ll basically watch 140+ games a year

and he’s pretty much always convinced their biggest problem is that they don’t bunt and play hit and run

That should say all that needs to be said.

Dad and I get along pretty good, that part isn’t too surprising.

Dad loves STATS, so when I learn a new one I try and explain it, he likes them.

My wife and I bought our first house two months before the first time homebuyer tax credit went into effect. Though in fairness, we were approved for our loan before credit became much more difficult to get. But still, I just did our taxes, and an 8k deduction would be nice.

We will be moving and selling sometime soon, within the next year and a half at maximum. I am so depressed about trying not to lose money on the sale.

it’s not an sabermetric instruction manual, but by getting a lot of young people into that stuff, it opened a lot of doors

Of course, I was 13 at the time and haven’t read a baseball book since…

I actually didn’t read “Right on Time” until after I read “The Soul of Baseball.” I was disappointed… but I don’t blame Buck. It’s hard to follow Posnanski.

…not as good as October 1964 (Hey, at least the Yanks lost in that one), but still a good read.

I am going to summarily exclude anything from Poz and James, because they have an unfair advantage.

So, in that light, my favorite baseball book is probably Nine Innings by Dan Okrent. Just a really, really neat piece of work, where Okrent basically writes an entire book about one regular-season game between the Brewers and Orioles. Obviously, he makes it work by expanding on everything with stories about the people involved in the game which actually have nothing to do directly with the game in question, and that’s what makes it so neat.

Then that’s a reason.

a little, but really not much has happened

i don’t think many have a clear idea of what the teahen trade was about

and competing in the Central isn’t impossible

but the twins look more stacked than usual

it will be a major miracle if the Royals go .500

Young and talented and appropriately paid. And a hell of a ton of fun

but somehow dayton refuses to have a truly young team

I have an odd fascination with Hockey. I really like to watch it, but it’s the only sport that I never played when I was young.

I root for the Coyotes here in PHX – they’re doing unexpectedly well so far this year. I figure that I have do something to keep from going nuts during the “dark time” between baseball seasons.

all LA sports radio is farmed out to the horrendous ESPN radio drones. There are approximately two shows that I think are produced locally. And they have terrible reception.

Which brings up a semi relevant topic…the best sports radio in the country is KNBR 680 in the bay area. Its all local talent…all of it absolutely top notch. You basically can’t go wrong tuning in from 9am to 11pm. I would highly recommend that everyone check out a couple shows over the internet if they have a chance.

Team Groundball? I know Team Coco, Team Edward, and Team Jacob, but what is this Team Groundball you speak of?

I have an Alex Gordon AZ Fall League HR ball (yes, they have an official AZ Fall League ball) – autographed by him after the game. I think it was his 2nd Hr as a pro ballplayer. I didn’t catch it though.

got it signed back in 01 when the Royals were in town to play Oakland.

I got Paul Byrd to sign it, then managed to get Doug Henry to sign it too. I got one more no name I think, but I cannot remember who it was.

I wanted to get Dan Reichert, Jeff Suppan, Chris George, and Chad Durbin to sign it. I seriously loved those guys. I didn’t understand why they sucked so much. I was a big fan of Kris Wilson too. It was just so depressing to see them all with big fat 5’s and 6’s next to their era in the box score after every start.

I had a group of college friends who I had all made cheer for the royals so I guess he noticed us

my wife is also convinced that during this same time period DDJ (or who I later told her was DDJ) checked her out, which I’m less sure about that

…Guillen hit about half-a-dozen pop fouls at me. I kept a couple. (Most of the time there was a kid nearby and I’m not a jerk). I also have one that was knocked back to the same spot by Rod Barajas from a year earlier (Jorge De La Rosa pitching).

signed by Mike Kingery count? I didn’t think so.

Fun facts according to his website:
-He “nearly won” the 1994 NL batting title but for the strike with his .349 BA (umm, Mike, Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 at the time-I don’t think you were going to catch him).
—He runs a Christian-themed baseball camp and his wife and six daughters sing bluegrass gospel (how is he not in the Royals organization in some capacity?)

I liked to see obscure nordic countries doing well, but that’s about it

could theoretically watch some hockey, but i doubt it will happen

I’ll probably watch some, just for something to watch. I think the Summer Olympics are more interesting to watch for several reasons – the sports are more diverse – more team sports – more head-to-head competition – less subjectivity (at least in my opinion). That said, I’ll try to watch hockey – everything else gets kind of boring after awile.

I love the world competes against each in various sports. I’m pretty excited for the hockey in particular. Hoping for another miracle on ice 2010 version

Everyone should once in their life go to a sports bar and scream irrationally at a sport they don’t even understand. Curling is my favorite, because I equate it primarily with bar shuffleboard. I like the bobsled, luge, and skeleton, because they seem to take a certain kind of badass/psychotic. Speed skating has its moments, and probably is the only sport I’ve watched every cycle. Hockey’s by far my favorite, but seeing Team Canada’s lineup almost seems unfair (Since I say this, they won’t win). I remember the ’94 Olympics, mainly the whole Harding fiasco, Jansen and Tommy Moe(?) but not many moments since.

Do you think Puerto Rico’s defense is worse that the Royals? That RF has made three errors in two days… that’s got to be worse than JoGui…

I don’t know if you read the new stuff. But its pretty amazing. I’ll be getting that the day it comes out

i can never get into them

I share the alma matter of Kendall Gammon (like time long snapper) and I once heard a story from him (I think from Ditka) who said he was the best long snapper he ever saw, and that every single time he snapped it to the punter, the punter caught it laces up. Im not sure I could ever do anything that many times to get that good at it.

not anymore, I don’t even have that level of faith in myself

I only had to snap once on a punt, and it was perhaps the most frightening thing I ever did as a football player. I was so amped up that I launched the snap about two feet over the punter’s head, but luckily not out of his reach. Since it was a small school, I was also the backup punter, so if they both got hurt, we weren’t quite prepared.

I even checked out what you have to do to qualify for the US Shooting Team—not that I’m any good at shooting, but I figured the air pistol was a sport I could learn and practice enough. It struck me as one of the few sports that you can still be in the Olympics in at an advanced age and don’t need to have a lot of capital (e.g. sailing) or raw athletic ability to participate in.