Thursday, March 31, 2005

PostSecret

PostSecret

Fascinating.

North Dakota?

North Dakota Senate backs restoring Roger Maris' home run record

"The North Dakota Senate unanimously approved a resolution Thursday asking baseball commissioner Bud Selig to reinstate Roger Maris' 61 home runs in 1961 as the major league record."

Yawn.

"Sen. Heitkamp said he has gotten several messages wondering why the North Dakota Legislature was wasting its time on baseball."

I think it's fairly obvious that there's nothing going on in North Dakota. Thus, they're not wasting time so much as keeping busy. North Dakotans, this is your tax dollars at work.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

My Favorite Ongoing Celebrity Legal Situation

Here's the latest in the C-Murder Criminal Proceedings: C-Murder Loses Murder Conviction Appeal

"C-Murder, who lost in his latest bid to get his second-degree murder conviction thrown out, is hopeful Louisiana's Supreme Court will be more favorable to his appeal than the lower courts have been..." Blah, blah, blah.

Here's the gem of the article: "He recently angered the local sheriff by recording parts of his latest music video and album [The Truest Sh** I Ever Said] behind bars."

You absolutely have to love the irony of a rapper named C-Murder in prison for (pause) murder, recording his latest album and videos from behind bars.

(Of course, you cannot love the fact that a sixteen-year-old *or anyone* was killed in the story.)

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

More from Blez

Athletics Nation Spring Training Report: Part II

As I finish with Zito, I realize that I've lived a dream for many A's fans. Make no mistake, I am and always will be a fan of this team, first and foremost ... I feel so very fortunate that my passion can be shared with this unbelievably astute audience and I'm humbled by the opportunities you've afforded me. If it wasn't for you [readers], I would've never been given this access to our team. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, AN, for giving me the glorious opportunity to be your vessel and carry your message of support to the team...
I think we're all both very happy that Blez is sharing these experiences and VERY jealous that we're not actually there with him.

On a different note, it's interesting to watch a sports blog straddle the line between journalist and fan. There's been talk around the blogosphere about the difference between blogs and media - expecially, why don't political blogs get the same kind of respect, etc? Well, Blez and AthleticsNation are a great example of a blog that's doing it well - creating a forum for (mostly) rational discussion about the A's while also bringing more articles, interviews, etc to the table.

Should Blez temper his enthusiasm about the A's in order to be more of a traditional, impartial, "professional" journalist? I say, "Absolutely not!" As I said yesterday, the enthusiasm about the team, the players and the personalities makes it a much more interesting read than much of what I find elsewhere. So, Blez, keep up the good work!

Monday, March 28, 2005

Kudos, Blez, Kudos

Athletics Nation :: AN Spring Training Report: Part I

It's a must read for insight into the A's spring training experience, unprecedented access for a blogger and the sheer enthusiasm of it all. Blez has done a tremendous job of building AthleticsNation and covering the A's - here's hoping for more and more great things from (and for) Blez.

Now, off to order my official AN shirt...

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Barry Bonds - Done?

Bonds says he may be out until next season following knee surgery

Right now I'm just going to try to rehab myself to get back to, I don't know, hopefully next season, hopefully the middle of the season. I don't know. Right now I'm just going to take things slow. -Barry Bonds, earlier today
Barry's not going to catch Hank Aaron. I wonder if the Godfather got to him and told him to shut it down for the good of the game. Or maybe, he's just 40 years old and wearing out. Who knows...

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Ken Macha, Nice Guy?

Recap - Athletics 17, Giants 3

On the bus ride back from Tucson on Saturday, A's manager Ken Macha had the driver pull into a Dairy Queen, where he paid for the team's treats. ``We all went in uniform and people looked at us like maybe we were a softball team,'' Macha said. ``I went to the counter and said 'I'm the coach of this team, please total everything up and give me the bill.' It was a little over $50. When I was 8, cones were 10 cents, so for 13 players it was $1.30.'' OF Nick Swisher said he ordered ``the biggest Blizzard I could get, with chocolate chip cookie dough.''


Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Amen, Brother

Concerned (But Powerless): The Decline and Fall of espn.com

Once upon a time, espn.com was the very first site I would visit after popping open my web browser. Though depressingly corporate, the site nonetheless offered a cavalcade of interesting and/or entertaining columnists, and provided a wealth of useful information. Over the past few years, however, espn.com's most glaring faults -- endemic commercialism, East Coast bias, ignorance of groundbreaking new methods of baseball analysis, and increasingly irritating columnists -- have rendered the site virtually worthless.
Thanks to Beaneball for the link.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Friday, March 11, 2005

Baseball Crank on the AL West

Baseball Crank: BASEBALL: 2005 AL West EWSL Report

My gut tells me the A's will be a force to be reckoned with this season. But EWSL is much more sober about the rebuilding job the team needs to suffer through before the A's can be considered a bankable contender rather than a maybe-if-everything-breaks-right longshot.


BaseballCrank's EWSL projection has the A's finishing 4 games behind the Angels, 8 wins ahead of the Mariners and 11 games ahead of the Rangers. And that's assuming 9 total Win Shares out of Dan Haren, Joe Blanton and Dan Meyer. I'd like to think that those projections are more likely to be too low than too high, but the track record for rookie/unproven starters ain't great.

Well, here's hoping we get an extra 16 win shares from somewhere and scrap our way past the Angels into the post-season, where (as we A's fans all know) it's a total crapshoot.

Read the whole AL West piece on Crank, make your way over to the 2005 AL East EWSL Report and keep your eyes peeled for the remaining four division reports. It's great stuff.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Rick Ankiel's Premature (?) Obituary

And let’s face it, after Ankiel hangs up his cleats for good, he’ll follow a career path not unlike countless Americans before him. I mean, very few of us get paid to follow our dreams. By the time we reach age 25, most of us have already set aside our ball gloves or our guitars or our paintbrushes and we’ve started looking for more practical ways to settle down, pay the rent, make do. In a very real sense, then, when we mourn for Rick Ankiel we may as well be mourning ourselves. - Brian Gunn Rick Ankiel, Ex-Pitcher


Great little article about Ankiel and what looks like the end of his once-promising baseball career.

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

High Paying Executive Jobs

Over at the Ladders, we just posted an archive of all the jobs we posted in 2004. Flip through some of the titles - it's interesting stuff.

Executive Jobs

And, while you're there, check out the latest jobs through our job search engine.

Monday, March 7, 2005

CBGB Closing?

"Rosenblatt could be immediately reached for comment." -Yahoo! News - NY Punk Venue CBGB Faces Closure Over Unpaid Rent

Interesting... Rosenblatt could be immediately reached for comment, but Reuters didn't bother to publish those comments? Perhaps there's a slight error in there, eh?

About CBGB, I've only been once, in the summer of 2000 to see Yitzhak Perlman's son. He was in a punk rock group that wasn't too bad, but the rest of the groups there were painfully awful. I can't say that the closing of CBGB is going to affect my New York experience in any way.

Thursday, March 3, 2005

Ranting, Raving and oh yeah, Baseball

Offseason Rankings: Part One -- The Hardball Times

"The Orioles were 10th in the AL last year with a 5.05 ERA from their starting pitchers. Want to guess how many starters they added this offseason to try to rectify the situation? That's right, none. Unless you count James Baldwin (you shouldn't)." - Ben Jacobs

Just a phenomenal, bitter series of comments on the 15 worst offseasons. Ben Jacobs is clearly not trying to make friends in any front offices or locker rooms. Good times.