3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Wow. Eighty-six years. Thirty-one thousand, four hundred fifty-eight days. Generations have lived and died without seeing the Red Sox holding a championship trophy, and we saw it live last night. I’m no Red Sox fan (my attempts to curse Jim Rice from the empty confines of Municipal Stadium generally for naught), but I was verklempt last night. Think about it. Since the last time the Red Sox Nation was this happy, we finished the Great War, fought another World War, fought in Korea and Vietnam and Iraq and Iraq again (thanks to Dean for the last link). We elected sixteen presidents. We landed on the moon, watched two space shuttles explode, worried about the fall of Skylab, watched Mir return to the confines of gravity, and started building a space station. We discovered Vitamin C and penicillin. We conquered polio. The Los Angeles Angels, Washington Senators, Houston Colt .45s, New York Mets, Seattle Pilots, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays entered the league. And eighty-four baseball squads other than the Red Sox sprayed champagne and hoisted a trophy, including nine teams that didn’t exist in 1918.
The Sox’ performance in the last eight games, including a World Series sweep of the team with the best record in the game, a sweep in which the Red Sox never trailed, begs the obvious question: what the hell happened in New York? The Sox won three straight against Anaheim, four straight against the Yankees and four more against St. Louis, eleven wins interrupted only by being a few outs away from making it Red Sox 0, Everyone Else 85.
Enjoy it, Red Sox Nation, and don’t let the Yankee fans get you down. Sure, they still lead in overall Series titles 26-6. But they also hold the crown for teams Losing Game Seven After Leading 3-0 And Having Their Closer On The Mound With A Lead In Game Four. In any event, you are Cursed No More. Who will be next to lift up from the Pits of Shame? The Windy City? It’s been 87 years on the South Side and 98 up North. Cleveland? One title since 1920 and none in 56 years (call it the Curse of Rocky Colavito). We Indians fans know how you feel, a dominant team losing four straight in 1954, waiting forty years for a chance to try again, losing the 1994 Series to a strike, losing to the Braves in a 1-0 game in 1995, losing to a five-year-old franchise in 1997 after being a strike away from victory.
It’s enough to give one hope for the underdogs of the world. And to forget the negativity of the current election campaign (although it does lead one to wonder if JFK will claim in 2022 to have been at Game Four when Foulke caught Renteria’s grounder and tossed underhand to Mientkiewicz).
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Please can I have it? Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top? I promise to be good. I’ll compliment you every day on your clothes/hairstyle/wit. You missed my birthday, but Christmas is coming, and if you let me have it, I’ll fill it with photos of you. At 40 or 60 GB that’s a lot of photos of you. Read the press release, and you’ll want one too.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Ebay memorabilia watch: The University of Kentucky is auctioning 12 sets of Rupp Arena lockers used during the 1976-2003 seasons (UK won the NCAA Championship in 1978, 1996 and 1998 and 19 SEC Championships during this period). Nine are sets of double “Player” lockers and three are triple “Coaches” lockers. The auction is ongoing at the UK Basketball Museum (at The Shops at Lexington Center, adjacent to Rupp Arena) or by Fax to (859) 226-9462. Bidding ends at halftime of the UK-Coppin State game November 20. One set of each type will be available on Ebay beginning November 15.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Here’s hoping the World Series is an anticlimactic letdown. I’m not sure I can take too much more of this. First the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the Greatest Comeback Ever or the Greatest Collapse Ever, depending on your perspective. The the Redbirds beat down the Astros on the back of a pitcher with a broken hand and the inhuman efforts of Jim Edmonds (can we just give him the Golden Glove permanently?), Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen. This after posting the best record in baseball in winning a division in which they were picked to finish third. Add to that two seven game series, Curt Schlling pitching through a damaged tendon and a bloody foot, Mariano Rivera blowing two consecutive save opportunities (even though one was kind of cheap, given that he wan’t the one to put the runner on third), the Sox almost blowing a huge lead based on another boneheaded managerial decision involving Pedro Martinez, Johnny Damon deciding to finally use his bat when it was almost too late, and it’s exhausting. The Series does offer some things to look forward to - David Ortiz trying to play defense, for example.
Can we now and forever dispense with arguments about whether the three-division/wild card format is a Good Thing? Would you trade the Yankees-Red Sox and St. Louis-Houston LCSes for Yankees-Twins/Angels and St. Louis-Atlanta? I’m sure Yankees fans would, but the format is good for the rest of us. Now if we could just get rid of the DH.
Final thought: New Yorkers, take heart, for you’re now feeling what the rest of us are feeling. In the time since the Indians last won the Series (20 years before I was born), the Yanks have won 15 times. Still better than those in the Windy City or Beantown, I guess, but at least those teams were competitive between 1954 and 1995. But no one else can claim a player who opened bottles with his eye sockets and drank beer with a straw through his nose. And I’m reasonably confident that the night of June 4, 1974 at Municipal Stadium will never be topped:
After the Rangers took an early lead, the alcohol-fueled [10 ounces of Stroh’s for 10 cents] frenzy that had pushed fans through the turnstiles began to push them onto the field. In the second inning, a large woman jumped into the Indians’ on-deck circle and lifted her shirt; in the fourth, a naked man slid into second as Rangers outfielder Tom Grieve circled the bases with his second homer of the game; and in the fifth, a father-and-son team welcomed [Mike] Hargrove to Cleveland by leaping into the infield and mooning the crowd. From the seventh inning onwards, a steady stream of interlopers greeted [Jeff] Burroughs in right field. Some even stopped to shake his hand.
The stadium simmered until the Tribe came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, down 5-3. With one out, an Ed Crosby single scored George Hendrick; two singles later, a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to center by John Lowenstein plated Crosby to tie the game. But slugger Leron Lee never had a chance to drive in the game-winner (Rusty Torres) from third. As the Cleveland fans pelted the field with golf balls, rocks and batteries, someone took the opportunity to swipe Burroughs’ glove. Burroughs chased the fan back to the stands and in response, people began swarming into the outfield, surrounding the Rangers’ star outfielder and ending any hope for an Indians rally.
Dodging more than a few flying chairs, Texas manager Billy Martin grabbed a bat and led his team on a rescue mission to right field. “The bat showed up later,” Hargrove recalled, “and it was broken.” Even the Indians were helping to fight off their own fans. Umpire Nestor Chylak, hit by both a chair and a rock, quickly forfeited the game to Texas, officially ending the Indians’ comeback. “They were just uncontrollable beasts,” said Chylak later. “I’ve never seen anything like it except in a zoo.” Nine fans were arrested for their part in the melee.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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I agree with virtually all of Michele’s rant about her biases, even if she is a Yankee fan. Not all, but most. Especially the no fruit on pizza part. But really, the key to pizza toppings is … are they foldable? Can’t have the toppings interfering with the midslice crease.
The Star Wars franchise jumped the shark mid-Empire. All of the prequels are equally bad. And TV is in fact a vast wasteland. Except for The Amazing Race. And Smallville, but only because they included Barry Allen last night, even if they did insist on referring to him as Bart, who is actually Barry’s grandson. But I digress.
She’s got some points on music too, I guess. Faith No More is not the greatest band ever, but I’m not adequately prepared to name an alternative. Maybe the Pixies, given my current state of mind. Not only is Stairway to Heaven not the Greatest Song Ever, it isn’t even the Greatest Led Zeppelin Song Ever. Or even the Greatest Led Zeppelin Song On Their Fourth Album. The Greatest Song Ever is clearly Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child. And Michele, we all love you, but you give far too much credit to Metallica’s Black Album. The road downhill crested with …And Justice For All.
Enough leeching off someone else’s post. Should probably write my own.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Come into my tummy, oh so very yummy. Do YOU Love Egg? You should. Little ovoid cholesterol receptacles of joy, they are. Always keep at least one egg in your pocket. If you tie a waxed string to an egg, it can make an economical alternative to a yo-yo.
It’s all Tim Blair’s fault.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Second-best baseball story of the day:
Starting with 2005 preseason play, XM will broadcast every major league game live. Some games will be broadcast in Spanish. XM also said its new Major League Baseball Channel will broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The channel will feature new content and rebroadcasts of classic baseball games.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Gotta love those New Yawkers. The umpires actually get something (actually two somethings) right, and how do the Yankee fans respond? By throwing baseballs and other debris on the field, leading to a half-inning where NYPD officers in riot helmets lined the field. Real class. And don’t try to argue that the umps had it in for the Yanks. Both calls were clearly correct. Somewhere a blue jacket-bedecked fan sports a circular bruise left by Mark Bellhorn’s home run. Call that karma for Jeffrey Maier. And A-Rod? Get outta here with that lame “part of his running style” line. Unless A-Rod runs with an open palm. I’ve seen five year-olds run that way, but not A-Rod. Face it, Yanks fans, he tried to cheat, and got spanked for it. Or as Buster Olney put it at ESPN, “A-Rod tried to pull a Reggie, ‘78 World Series, and it didn’t work.” Call that one karma for Chuck Knoblauch.
Will the Sox win the series? I still doubt it, as they’ll have to win Game 7 in Yankee Stadium behind crafty knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (all knuckleball pitchers are required to be called “crafty”). Big mo’ (not that Big Mo) may be on the Sox’s side, but it’s still the Yankees, still the cursed Sox. Yanks are only 2-3 in Game 7s at the Stadium, and there is no precedent for a Game 7 following a 3-0 lead, so who knows. Maybe we can add a baseball series to the heretofore-hockey-only list of ignominious seven-game collapses.
UPDATE THE FIRST: Michele makes a good point. One should not extrapolate from the actions of some drunken, boorish, violent Yankee fans that all Yankee fans are drunken, boorish and violent. Certainly not, any more than one should extrapolate from the behavior of Eagles fans in the 700 level that all Eagles fans are homicidal. The amount of debris on the field seems to indicate that this was not merely a few troublemakers, however. Still, keep the net only as large as is appropriate. And I should have perspective on this - the Indians remain to this day the only team ever to forfeit a game due to fan behavior (see Night, Nickel Beer, 1974). Jeff Jarvis says that “the best replay I heard of last night’s amazing Yankees/Sox game (not that I tend to hear much sports, mind you) was Artie Lang regaling the Stern show this morning with tales of the angry, drunken, desperate Yankee fans in the stands.”
UPDATE THE SECOND: This is the dumbest commentary on last night’s game you are likely to read:
Twice, the umpires set aside their professional egos, practiced true collegiality, erased a mistake, and did the right thing, risking the wrath of Yankee fans. Think how rare that’s been in the Bush-Cheney years, admitting error and correcting it–taking the right stand after making the wrong stand. Last night the umps reminded me of a better America I’d almost forgotten we’d had, one where reason every once in a while prevails.
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3 years, 10 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Jeffrey Zeldman has a fascinating Ad Graveyard, featuring “ad campaigns which nearly made it out the door, before being yanked at the last possible moment.” Many of these ads are in bad taste, and some of them are in really bad taste. Who wouldn’t want to go with an ad campaign that invokes the Nazis? Or one that uses both Satan and crazed, maniacal serial killers? Bonus points for anyone who can explain this one. Some of the ads are actually pretty good.
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3 years, 11 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Now that it’s found its way to Reason (see The New Transistor Radio), I guess the “podcast” meme is sufficiently established that I’m going to try it out. Basic concept: record some audio in a portable player-readable form (usually mp3, but you could also use AAC, or AIFF or Apple Lossless). Attach it to an RSS syndication feed, which the user snatches using a handy media aggregator that automatically synchs with the iPod via iTunes. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
That’s a lot of geek-speak, but the real key is convenience. Once you find the feeds you want, the software runs in the background, grabbing the audio and transferring it to your playback device. Find a show you like and listen when you want.
Think of it as a step along the way to the TiVofication of radio. As a TiVo user, it really has changed the way I interact with television. The networks’ schedule is a non-issue for me; I set up all the programming I like via Season Passes or WishList keyword searches, and watch when I want. I can record two shows at the same time and watch a third that I recorded earlier. I use my TiVo’s hard drive as a semi-permanent archive medium - at one time, we had all of the last season of Sex & The City and the first season of Deadwood ready to go. If I like it enough to want to have a permanent archive, I can either send to the VCR, buy the DVDs, or record to DVD (if I had a DVD recorder, which I don’t). If I find I’m not using the archived programming, I can delete it, and I haven’t spent the cash on an unwatched DVD set (unlike Sports Night, for example, which I own but very rarely watch).
TiVo beats the pants off other systems. I could of course keep a tape in the VCR and set a permanent timer for 8pm Wednesdays if I want Smallville. But what if for some reason the show gets bumped to another time slot, as has been known to happen? TiVo also can be set to record only new shows, and not record if an episode is a repeat. It’s handy for cases like Fox right now - if a program is bumped by the playoffs, TiVo won’t record a half-hour of baseball (which I’m (a) probably watching live anyway and (b) won’t watch recorded if I don’t watch it live). And it can be set to record non-predictable programming - I have a permanent search for UofL basketball games, which I sometimes do like to watch later even if I miss the live broadcast. All of this (not even getting into the bizarro TiVo recommendations and commercial avoidance), has changed the way I think about TV.
Technology like podcasting has the same potential for audio. If adopted in a big way, I could listen to what I want when I want. Morning Edition at lunch? No problem. Tonight’s debate tomorrow instead of the sound bite summaries? Got that right here. How about serialised audio books, one chapter a week, so I can decide for myself if I like it rather than downloading the whole thing at once? The possibilities seem endless - a new foreign language lesson every morning. Out-of-town radio shows. iESPN. And so on - I’m no Jeff Jarvis, so don’t look to me for ideas. If done right, It could even be a limited competitor to satellite radio, at least for those who prefer talk to music.
At the moment, the available podcasts are home-brewed and tech-heavy, as one would expect. Hopefully this will change, and hopefully a pay-for-download system will develop, to attract for-profit content.
Resources:
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