by adding “La”, “Ja”, or “De” to the front of it.

I thought everyone knew that.

Even though she played about half the minutes as everyone else.

you don’t want to be labeled a hot head or a show boat, but you also can’t be too calm

I remember my mom as being a pretty big TR fan, so I did always have some love for him. Definitely an interesting guy with that mix of a totally patrican background, but somehow using that to reinvent yourself as a total badass man’s man type

I have never met anyone, including a friend who did his college thesis on him, who can find anything that he did really wrong. He improved the country in basically everyway, reached out to the world without being overbearing, helped begin the wildlife conservation movement and even said that he refused to start a war as president because he wouldn’t be able to fight and it was wrong of people to start wars that they wouldn’t fight in.

i’m not really scottish or anything…just ended up with a vaguely scottish name, although I think the true version would the Mac one

its weird the names we end up with… it reminds me of when my wife has talked with people about changing her name after marriage, which you’ll sometimes hear criticism of. at one point, she said that her maiden name wasn’t even “her” name anyway, just her dad’s dad’s dad’s

anyway, I’m fascinated by names

its crazy how he’s become the forgotten man

I don’t see BA as much different than Mitch, but he may be a better fielder and may also have more upside as a hitter (not likely that either guy has much, but its possible)

although I was too reflexively negative to really be too happy when it happened, someone like BA is a perfectly acceptable stopgap/backup option for the royals… his contract wasn’t much I think, and may even be a split one…

and then they went out and got podsednik

and then ankiel

I still don’t get it

Scotty Pods just does not make any sense, in any way, period. completely pointless move to everyone but Scotty Pods and the people he gives money to

I was thrilled when BA signed with the Royals. I thought this may really be his chance to prove something after his rocky times in the big city of Chicago. The Pods and Ankiel signings blew me away. Sure, Pods can get on base, but then he gets picked-off. Ankiel as your everyday CF doesn’t make sense to me. Should I blame Ankiel for putting the pitching bug in Brian’s ear? With some of the off season moves made by the team, it appeared defense was something they were looking to improve. Sitting Brian on the bench or sending him to AAA doesn’t improve the Royals in that area. Since the start of ST, Brian seems to have made some positive adjustments at the plate. He is striking out less. Brian will never hit 20 HR in a season, but his defense will win games. He has good speed and runs the bases well. I look everyday, hoping to see BA’s name in the starting line-up. I get frustrated when his name doesn’t appear. I don’t know anything about BA’s work habits. I’m just a fan who wants BA to get another solid chance to prove his worth.

baseball-reference lists a catcher split for pitchers on the splits page

example, greinke:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=greinza01&year=2009&t=p#catch

there’s probably more stuff out there, but its not something I’ve ever been that curious about

I think it was more the teachers, in conjunction with the works. Basically brit lit 1 and am lit 1 in college won me over. for both of them I had fairly old school teachers who delivered crazy erudite lectures and talked about random stuff and then wrapped it up in the last five minutes with a robin williams in dead poets society esque bit about how the great works of lit offers profound insight into life, truth, beauty, whatever.

I did English as a major because I wanted to become a better writer (idiotic decision, no real connection) and because its actually a really good major if you are interested in a lot of things. I had started philo, was always taking a fair amount of poli sci and hist and kinda wanted to do math. You can end up doing more history, philo or pysch than pure literary study (well versions of those things), in english classes, which is kinda what I did.

some combination ofHuck Finn, Moby Dick, The Sun Also Rises, and Milton made me want to go to grad school (other than the personal reasons that people go) and really study literature, especially american literature. (if I may say so, american literature people are the more normal people in english grad school. i ended up identifying as 19th c specialization, which is about as mainstream/generic/professors who like baseball and bbq vibe as there is, though ended up going more towards what is considered “early american” which is a little stranger)

its a decision i understand less and less everyday

I feel like a baby being force-fed gerber when watching ESPN.

The internet baby! It’s awesome! (Vitale voice)

ESPN also has some serious idiots posing as experts. At one point last season I saw a football discussion between Herm Edwards and Matt Millen. That was the death knell.

Colin Cowherd is employed by ESPN.

Cons (Listed first because they stand out): Their baseball analysis sucks, but due to baseball’s format, you can keep your job by predicting the Yankees and Phillies will be good and the Mets will choke. Football does not require the level of coverage they give it during the offseason; it has its own freaking network. They show bowling, billiards, and poker too often. Although I love all three, none are worth watching. At some point, the PTI craze destroyed sports journalism, and certainly for all of the power they have, the best analysts still work somewhere else. I believe they could do more hockey coverage (though the irrelevancy of hockey is more the NHL’s fault). ESPNews is essentially an anchor training channel. Bobby Knight, any former football players not named Tom Jackson (We get it: you can yell at a camera to make your points seem important), Barry “I Couldn’t Win With Gretzky” Melrose, Any former baseball players allowed to speak, Mel Kiper Jr.’s Hair, Their Horrible Website

I could do this for days so I’ll stop here.

Pros: Outside the Lines and the 30 for 30 movies. It’s nice to see stories that aren’t typical, and it pains me to say that Outside the Lines runs about a story a month where I have to hold back tears at some point. The documentaries they are making have been pretty fantastic.

Thank God for European Cups and the World Cup. Every match is on TV in the US. Sure, they hire ridiculous stereotypes like Tommy Smyth who hasn’t used a common English phrase in his life. Now, they show some La Liga and the occasional EPL game. It’s nice to be able to find it without scouring the Internet or buying Setanta. Though they should have anted up for the Champions league like they do for every other sport. Their college football work is generally their strongest even with Corso being legitimately insane. Berman and Jackson’s Sunday recap is usually good even with Berman’s ridiculous persona. ESPN360 makes me happy when I’m lacking a DVR.

is to the food business, its good to have if need something quick, but thankfully there are much better options out there.

ahem, no offense.

They get a lot of criticism, and much of it deservedly so, but they have such a large target because they are such an asset. They still provide us with more live sports than we ever would have had otherwise, they do break a large number of stories (and I’m not even counting the times someone else breaks a story and they claim it right afterwards), they give you scores whenever you want it, and they do have some decent analysis from time to time.

For all their warts, they’re still one of my most watched channels.

for the Calm, Thoughtful, Non-ADHD Sports Network to appear. With all the random cable networks I coast through (and for which I am inexplicably forced to pay by Time Warner), you’d think that some TV people would get together and say: “You know, I think there may be an underserved demographic out there who cares about things besides Top 10 lists, highlights of dunks, Tony Kornheiser babbling incoherently about topics of marginal interest in 30 second bursts, etc. Maybe we should design a sports network around thoughtful analysis, non-kneejerk reactions, and well-researched, substantive stories. I wonder if that will work.”

It may never happen, but if it ever does, I guarantee I’ll be watching.

When a player plays that often, you have to notice a way to utilize him in your team. I know Xavi and Iniesta are world class mids, but if you can’t find one Argentinian to link up with him, you don’t deserve to win. As good as he is, I could just as easily see him disappear during the Cup. I hope I eat my words.

is it pronounced Keisha or Kesha?

I never knew but then I heard people yesterday talking about “Kesha” that her?

I don’t think "car" rhymes with "blah"

It does if you’re from Boston.

your point is invalid

No but seriously, absolute garbage crap. THOSE AREN"T EVEN WORDS!

it’s easier for lesser known artists/bands to get their work recorded/produced/played via websites like mixtape.me and pandora. not to mention myspace, youtube, etc.

i’m not sick of it, but not hugely into it

i wasn’t on 5 years ago when it was hip, so i also have no comparison

definitely better than myspace

because really the saber orthodoxy is just a) they are overrated and b) caught stealings suck

can’t do i with bunts and hit and runs though…

that first season of Lost, sweaty ripped t-shirts…

i’m going cute or “unable to answer” for now

With 0 being tubgirl (DO NOT GOOGLE) and 10 being Ashleigh McIvor? (Still don’t agree on the McIvor rating)

My head says Mizzou. Oliver Purnell = 0-4 in the NCAAs. Mike Anderson always seems to get Mizzou to overachieve in tourney time.

I hate Mizzou, but man Mike Anderson and his gang make it hard to hate Mizzou. He is such a likeable guy who says all the right thing, gets teams to overachieve, and his team is a bunch of standup guys – Kim English, Zaire Taylor. I miss the Quin Snyder/Ricky Clemons days where you could just unabashedly hate Mizzou.

what does that mean

in my first year is close to the best I’ve got.

I started following baseball in 1987, and 1989 was the first time I really thought we were going to the World Series. Plus that was Bo’s big breakout year, Tom Gordon’s debut, George was still pretty good, Sabes had his amazing Cy Young year, and we had a great AL West race that year.

1) I think most saber analysts would say no. The repeatable skills are those based on being a good baseball player. That isn’t to say guys don’t get nervous or choke sometimes, but once we establish a basic level of competency and comfort, everything we see is just normal variation of outcomes. Yea, I probably wouldn’t want someone pulled out of the stands to hit in the 9th inning, but that isn’t what a professional baseball player is. Guys can choke (if you want to go there) or be clutch, but the fallacy is labeling those moments as a defining trait of the player’s personality that will exist over time.

2) even if you thought it was a repeatable skill… how would you study it? can a guy be clutch if he doesn’t even know he’s being clutch. what if player a told us, “honestly, I was nervous as hell. i was trembling. my mind was scattered. I just closed my eyes and swung” do we classify his game winning hit as clutch or lucky, same for player b swearing he was cool, not worried, just thinking about the game and banging some broad afterwards… but he grounded out

But it only exists in one man:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tablepa01.shtml

but maybe you know that already

Have them in the championship with KU… Vandy and Georgetown raped me yesterday.

but I’m too close to finishing now, so really just trying to finish