Some down time today allows me to fool around with the Sabermetric Encyclopedia.
-Over the last two seasons, Chase Utley has hit 60 home runs, driven in 207 runs, and stolen 31 bases. Only twelve other players in baseball have compiled numbers better in their age 26/27 seasons. Eleven of those twelve are outfielders, and none are second basemen. That should put Chase's ability into perspective. Just for assurances, I removed steals, and Utley still remains the only second baseman on the
Grace is doing pretty good and has adjusted to being home again and back to her usual routine despite the hindrance of the cone/funnel contraption to prevent her from tending to the wound that is still pretty deep and probably won’t fully heal for awhile.
Saturday afternoon/evening, I went with Allison to a birthday party for one of her cousins. Generally, she doesn’t care about any of her family members and wouldn’t make the effort to even attend a cousin’s 25th birthday party. Howev
Let's see if this week I can match up the teams I pick to win/cover with what I actually say beneath each game.
(5.5) Atlanta at Detroit
The Falcons upset the Bengals last week, and I'm a little wary of them having one of those “letdown” games. Good thing they’re playing the Lions this week, or I’d be more worried about that 5.5 spread.
Cincinnati at Baltimore (3.5)
I’ve been going back and forth with this one. You’ve got Cincinnati’s offense versus Baltimore’s defense. Whenever th
So I was surfing through the Free Movie selection from my Comcast On Demand service, and I came across a gem that I had forgotten all about -- Alien Nation. No, it’s not about Mexicans. It’s about these space people that find their way to earth and are trying to fit in. While this was pretty much a “buddy cop” movie between an earthling and one of aliens, it was interesting to see how a number of the newcomers tried to mesh with human society. This film spawned a TV series on FOX back in the lat
Even with the baseball season over I'm always looking for an excuse to do a redo and resident Astros fan vivalaultra gave me one while lamenting over the end of Jeff Bagwell's career in Houston:
Well god dammit I have to solve this quandry!
Jeff Bagwell finished second in the 1999 N.L. MVP voting but he wasn't even close to winning it. Chipper Jones had the best year of his career hitting .319 with 45 homeruns while helping the Braves to a league best 103 wins and would receive 29 of
The news out of Philadelphia is that the Phillies want to persue free agent outfielder Alfonso Soriano. Presumably they would trade Pat Burrell to open up left field. Soriano has long been looked at in the sabermetric community as an overrated player, even a bad one. At some points, that flies in the face of logic. What do we make of Soriano? Is he a promising player into his 30s, or a potential liability?
Soriano's comparables at his age include Howard Johnson, Tony Batista, Matt Will
• Well who didn’t see this one coming?
Wow, and he's not Catholic. Well he wouldn't be; the other guy isn't nine years old.
Oh did you now?
Just what the hell has gay marriage got to do with any of this shit? It sounds like to me the good reverend didn’t want to get hitched with you.
Lies. All lies. I’m sure they were talking about Bibles. Damn you liberal media.
I’m a bit of an odd bird when it comes to religion. On one hand some of the bigg
• This ain't going to be pretty.
Arizona at Green Bay (3.5). Correct.
This was a gimmie game. However, with my record so far this season I will take all the easy ones I can get.
Atlanta at Cincinnati (4.5). Incorrect.
Ah, shit. Here’s what I said when predicting this game:
But the Bengals are in boldface. Whatever should I do? Well, I go with the bolded team. Goddamnit. The funny thing is I don’t even remember making this week’s picks. I’m almost afraid to look at the r
Last Wednesday, my dog Grace (2 year old German Shepard Lab) went missing. This isn’t the first time this has happened. She gets out quite often, runs around and returns the next morning. Not any different from most cats, she has a natural sense of direction. In fact, it had become so routine that last Wednesday, no one was really too concerned. Come Thursday evening, panic sank in as she hadn’t returned yet. We sent the necessary calls to local police, vet offices, pounds etc, etc. She ha
-To John Kerry: Godamnit. I don't care if it was a botched joke, you really fucked up. Quit being high and mighty over it ("oh, it's all part of the Republicans trying to make us look bad") and fess up. Unfortunately, this will probably fuck things up, and make it that thr Republicans are still in office (remember folks, while I may rip on the republicans and tend to lean left, I'm still not a Democrat), so fuck you John Kerry, and thanks for nothing.
-Leena's getting shitloads of attention
• So John Kerry, who at one time served in Vietnam, recently said the following to some students.
Later on he said he was talking about the Bush Administration or something and that this line was nothing more than a botched joke. Botched joke? Well, I did find it rather funny. And for all the commies saying, “But he was talking about Bush and not the troops; stop being such a smear merchant,” shut the fuck up. Just grin and bear it – that’s what I do a lot of the time when W. opens h
Well, since today is the big “H” day, I figured it might as well be appropriate to look back at my childhood and remember how I dealt with this special time. I always liked Halloween, and it was for the same reason ninety-nine percent of kids across America did – for the free candy. Well, it isn’t exactly free; you have to sport a costume and walk from house to house demanding sweets. I tried to remember some of my old costumes, and here is what I came up with, in no particular order:
Early
MAC
Conference bids: Motor City, GMAC or MPC Computers, International
Locked up a bid: None
Near locks: Ohio
On the bubble: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan
The MAC is very hard to figure out when it comes to bowl bids because outside of the MAC title game winner, no one is guarenteed a bowl. In the past the loser of the MAC title game has often been passed up for the MAC's other bowl bid. This year they
Well, it's about Halloween. Here's a list of what I've watched the last few days:
-"Masters of Horror"-Season premier was on last Friday. It was good, but not great. The ending was unsatisfactory, thoughg it still wasn't bad. Some nice gore in it though.
-"Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes"-This one was on last Saturday at 9:00 PM. Man, not even Doug "Pinhead" Bradley or Lance Hendrikson could save this shitty sequal. Granted, it was better than part II, (Which had Roger Clinton in a cameo,
Well it is that time of the year again. For the third or fourth year now I’ve been watching those horror movies AMC plays nonstop for a week plus. I don’t know why I watch these movies, which are edited and watered down, but it’s just one of those things. It’s on. I watch it or have it as background noise. I noticed this year there weren’t as many Friday the 13th movies, and it seemed like the Halloween films weren’t played as much, although it looks like Parts I-V and VIII will be on all day Tu
It’s been awhile…
This was a busy weekend for me and it started Friday night as I attended the Ring of Honor show in Dayton. As far as ROH shows go, this was fairly solid but nothing out of this world (probably will be best known for Brent Albright’s debut with the company and another fantastic edition to the Delirious/Sydal series) I covered my reactions and thoughts in the thread so I won’t bother to go over here because anyone that really cared to begin with already seen it and I’d hat
Let me say first off I hate the bowls. Okay scratch that I kind of like them but I hate the bastardized system we currently have that helps determine an undisputed champ about half of the time and in the process kills any tradition the bowl system still had. I'm an all or nothing guy when it comes to bowl games. Give me the Pac-10 champ against the Big Ten champ in the Rose, give me the SEC champ in the Sugar, and give me the Big XII champ in the Orange (not the fucking Fiesta) or don't give me
• Woo-hoo! Due to the rain, and brief appearance of snow, that hippie hayride thing I talked about in yesterday’s entry was cancelled. Instead I got to watch some animated movie called “Open Season” that we took the nephew to. Eh, it could have been worse – we could have went to see “Flicka.”
• Well the World Series came and went and I nearly forgot it was on. I saw parts of a few games, but otherwise I have no idea what happened, other than that it rained a bunch. I really had no bandwagon
The World Series is over, the Cardinals defeating the Tigers in five games. And in a way, I am glad the Series is over. Yes, it means no more Major League Baseball until March. But this Series was one of the more excruciating baseball experiences of my life. There were times I did not want to even watch the games, but felt obligated.
Neither the Cardinals or Tigers really set the world afire. This is one of the problems with parity. Yes, you have a greater number of teams competing
• Well, I have for all intents and purposes gotten over this bug in me for the last week or so. And where am I going tonight? Why, to some hippie event dealing with an historical battle that took place around this region (either the Revolutionary or Civil War). On top of that, the better half and I will be taking our one niece and nephew. Oh, and I have I mentioned that the weather is absolutely shitty and it will probably be raining? You have no idea how difficult it is in controlling the erect
• A few years back I remember a bunch of liberals goofing on Bill O’Reilly for some adult-themed book he wrote called “Those Who Trespass.” It was naughty and supposedly had sex and violence jam-packed throughout this story. I said “supposedly” because I didn’t read this book and I don’t intend to. Not because I’d be offended by the graphic details but rather because I don’t care. Fast forward a few years to the present day. The battle for Virginia’s Senate seat has heated up when the Republican
