Bastards of Young

Incorrect - the August 1987 show was at the Riv, not the Aragon...

Have to give credit where credit is due - Stosh has some good links up about the Replacements. Apparently, the three surviving members may have been in the studio this past December recording 2 new tunes for a soon-to-be-relased 'Best of' on Rhino. Seems awfully unlikely that Axl would let Tommy out of Guns N Roses to do that.. but who knows.

Beyond the 'Best of', there is also a box set on the way, maybe, (to include a DVD) and a reissue of all their albums (again, maybe. As legend has it, didn't they throw all those masters into the Mississippi?) complete with bonus material. I've heard most everything the Mats have comitted to tape, including a lot of outtakes, but I'd be real interested in the DVD.

In the meantime, take a look at this trailer for the coming film 'Color Me Obessed"about 'Mats fans and their distrubing devotion to a band that broke up in 1991.

HNT #11

HNT #11

More media bias

One guy with too much time on his hands is 'journalist' Allen St. John. In the friday issue of the Wall Street Journal, John, or St. John, or whatever he calls hisself, surrounds a few paragraphs he probably calls an 'article' with some data on "P-wins".

"P-wins" are the useless stat that that takes the number of games a team has won and "adjusts" them based on run differential. Its more complex than that, and he gives Bill James full credit for developing the pointless and complex mathmatical formula. The goal of this stat, I guess, is to identify which teams might be better than their win-loss records indicate and vice versa.

Not surprisingly, the White Sox gets slighted and all credit for any of their success in 2005 is attributed to 'luck'. Jamesians don't like 'luck', or heart or drive or desire or any intangible figure that is immeasurable and arbritary. Yet it is these intangibles that seem to carry teams to victory, again and again and again.

Oh, and just for the record, according to St. John, based on P-wins, the 2006 world series will be St. Louis over Boston.

OK, maybe. We'll see.

ATTENTION BASEBALL BOOK PUBLISHERS

During a pre-season chat with another blogger, I discovered that he's been receiving free promotional copies of newly released books on baseball, with the hopes that he might post a favorable review on his site.

I'm all about free baseball books. I'd especailly like to get my hands on a free copy of "Fantasyland" by Sam Walker.

So, any publisher out there that wishes to have their book reviewed, please contact me thru this site.

Ok, I'm done being a whore...for now.

thanks.

Settling

Book vs magazine

With the loss of the TSN/STATS,Inc. Scouting Report book, I did some research on a number of similiar publications. My conclusion is that they are either too focused on numbers, or concentrate on predicting performance (for fantasy leaguers) and are usually wrong. The price didn't justify the data inside for me.

So, going the 'miser' route, after looking at more than a dozen magazines, I've settled on Lindy's Baseball Scouting Report. Within the pages are decent scouting reports on all the major league regulars (something the other mags lacked), as well as 2005 stats. There also appears to be some minor league and college info as well.

Six Days

Now that's a choke!

Less than a week until footie season begins - that's Australian Rules Football, a brutal mash-up of rugby (with no play stoppage), soccer (but lots more exciting) and American gridiron football (with no padding). I'm making this post in the hopes the My Girl Friday will provide me with occassional updates on the thunda from downunda. I'll try to throw in some commentary as well, if I can actually find an outlet that carries the matches. And I'll try to provide some extra insight on the Essendon Bombers.

I take it all back

Thornton watches another one sail into orbit

I'm going to have a great time making fun of Thornton and his attempts at pitching this season.

Thorn in our side

NO!

By now you've read all there is to read on the Borchard for Thornton trade. I'm sad to see Borchard go - I've had a fondness for him ever since he hit that 500-foot homer back in late 2004. But it was his time, I guess.

What I don't understand is why anyone in their right mind would trade anything more than a ham sandwich for Matt Thornton. Thornton is the focus of a number of funny blog entries from Lookout Landing. Seattle fans are very happy to see him leave. How happy? The same blogger apparently sponsors Thornton's page on Baseball Reference.com and has put up a new ad up that simply states "He gone!". Ha ha ha. Thornton had a debacle of a 2005 season, where, in 55 games, 57 IP, he went 0-4 with a 5.21 ERA, yielding 13 homers and 42 walks. Oh, he did strike out 57, but also threw 7 wild pitches. His stats from 2004 lead me to believe 2005 was not an aberration (big word... you like that, huh?). Basically, he throws hard and fast and can't find the plate. I haven't see his outings for the Sox this past week, but the stats indicate they were nothing short of awful.

To say that Sox pitching coach Don Cooper has his work cut out for him with this clown is an understatement. My prediction - Thornton is working the deep fryer at a Charlotte-area Arby's by July 4th.

Don't expect any more musing from me on Mr. Thornton He's not worth writing about.

Ain't No Water

Before a single pitch has been thrown at 35th & Shields this season, the Sox have already sold 2.2 million tickets. That makes 2006 the Sox 5th highest attendance year in franchise history - not a small feat for a team that's been around over a century.

In millions, here are the Sox top years in home field attendance:

1991 - 2.9
1992 - 2.7
1993 - 2.6
2005 - 2.3
2006 - 2.2
1984 - 2.1
1983 - 2.1
1990 - 2.0

And it will porbably only take a month or two before 2006 passes 2005... I don't think the Sox will get a lot of 'walk-ups' anymore... so I'm not sure they'll pass that 1991 mark and get over 3 million. That would be quite a feat!

What does this mean for the fan?

Sox Park can hold, for 81 games, about 3.4 million fans. So that means nearly 70% of the seats for all games are already sold and gone. One look at the park's seating chart gives you a good idea of which seats are gone, and which remain. Do you really want to pay your hard earned money to sit in the 500 section? I can hear Bob Uecker now - "He missed the tag! He missed the tag!"

I guess I'm frustrated because I tried buying some group tickets (20) to a random wednesday game in may, and the "best available" were section 509 or some such crap. I tried different dates, again and again... same result.

What's worse, is for half priced mondays, it appears the lower deck is sold out as well. the last few seasons, the Sox had a policy of not putting those monday half priced tickets on sale until the friday before the monday game. No more I guess.

On the positive side, all the fair weather fans who hastily purchased season tickets with the sole purpose of obtaining World Series tickets, will have plenty to sell above the Dan Ryan. So obtaining a decent seat at a fair price is still possible, but maybe more of a hassle.

World's Greatest

from Tiffin, Ohio

The World's Greatest Potato Chip -Ballreich's of Tiffin, Ohio. So unique.. so salty...

I'm enjoying some now with a cold beer and thought you'd like to know!

HNT #10

HNT #10

Lots to write about - too busy.. not time not enough hours in my day.

Stay tuned - good stuff comin...

Out In The Desert; more notes on spring training

Near Tuscon

I still haven't watched much spring training this year. When I have had time to watch baseball on TV, its been the WBC, which has really surprised me - it's been outstanding.

From Sox Camp; Jose Contreras will throw some more and make his next scheduled start on March 25. Supposedly, no soreness. The same is being said of Hermanson, but I don't believe it. Even if he starts the year with the Sox, I think its unlikely he'll finish it, which just adds to the middle reliever woes. sPods is going thru some rehab and will in a minor league game this week. I'm still comfortable with the lack of depth in the Sox outfield. Joe Crede's bat has started coming around.

But the big talk around srping training has been the pitching of Boone Logan. Just 21, he's this spring's Brandon McCarthy.

The space won't be updated for the next few days, as I'm off on a little romantic getaway to the North country. Here's hoping to 'slow n dirty'!

Please stand by

hmm

I haven't been able to publish lately due to some technical gliches - some type of java interface error.

I'm off to watch the WBC - Cuba and the DR.

The MILF gave me some fast lovin last night... too bad, cause I prefer slow, and sometimes dirty.

Erin No Bra

wearin o' da green

I'm celebrating St. Patrick's Day by recalling the struggle of my people, reading some Frank McCourt, eating some fish n chips and drinking a lot of tea (I drank too much beer last night).

HNT #9

Goose Juice!

Not sure what that means, but it sure sounds good - goose juice!

Last plug

1951 Sioux City Soos road jersey

Ebbets Field Flannels has extended their sale ($99 on select jerseys) to April 15th. Additionally, all merchandise is now 20% off.

I picked up a fungo shirt last week and haven't taken it off since.

HALF!

With spring training half over, now is a good time to begin looking at some of the stats thus far.

Also, today is cut day, with the roster being pared down to 25.

HITTING:

Lookin good:
--at the rate he's going, Josh Fields could be in line to challenge Crede's lock on 3B. .529/1.200/.467 (OBP/SLG/AVG). He's 7 for 15 with 18 TB, 3 HRs, 6 RBIs and, for good measure, 4 SB.
--Uribe leads the regulars with a .318 BA - 7 for 22
--Sweeney has posted some surprising numbers - .478/.900/.450 - including 3 HRs and 18 TB.
--Borchard has collected 12 TB despite a .292 OBP
--Thome's hitting .350, with 7 walks. No homers, however. Looks like he's taking it slow and just trying to get back into a groove and make contact.
--Mack and Ozuna are both motoring along - hitting over .300
--all three catchers in camp are hitting well. Molina and his one at-bat doesn't count.

Not so good:
--sPods only has one hit in 9 at bats.
--Crede is also in trouble, batting just .118 in 17 AB, with a double and an RBI.
--Dye is hitting OK, but has struck out 6 times in just 20 AB--Iguchi has just 2 hits in 21 AB (.095 BA - YIKES)
--with the addition of Thome, Rogo could be trade bait - he's got just one hit in 14 AB (.071 BA) and has struck out 4 times.

PITCHING:

Lookin good:
--Contreras has stuck out 12 in 10 IP
--Vazquez has given up no runs and struck out 3 in 3 IP
--Lopez has struck out 8 in 7 IP
--Reynoso has struck out 6 in 5 IP

Not so good:
--Haeger and his knuckleball has a 17.47 ERA. Good luck in Charlotte.
--Hermanson is injuried and his stats show it.
--Lance Broadway is going to have to do better than 4 ER in 3 and 2/3rds IP.
--Politte is struggling with an ERA of 12 in 3 IP.

No title

Just some thoughts:

I've been watching a bit of the WBC - its good to see baseball that means something so early in the season. I really enjoyed watching the Japanese pitchers, and seeing Vasquez throw that great game against Colon. I don't have a lot of free time to sit down and actually watch a full game, but I get bits and pieces, here and there.

I finally got my K1 form, which means I can fax it to my accountant and he can file my taxes. One of my investments is a limited partnership (but trades like a stock) the tax form for which isn't required to be sent out until March. So all my other paperwork is in order and sitting on my accountnat's desk by Feb 5th, and every year we wait on this stupid K1 for a month. Big federal refund money coming next week, gone by next weekend.

I'm finishing up "Leg The Spread" by Cari Lynn. She's has a good writing style and tells some interesting stories about life in the pits at both the Merc and the CBOT. However, for me, it gets kinda boring towards the end. At this point, I just want to be done with it so I can go full force into 'Blood Horses".

I caught some of 'Campus Ladies' last night. Its funny, but after seeing a few episodes, I realized that every show follows the exact same situation - two clueless divorced, middle-aged women become college freshman, and put into a typical college situation and over-react, and nothing is sacred. Funny, but a one-trick pony - if you've seen one episode, you've seen 'em all.

I did catch a great new show preview on MTV - the show itself is actually only on MTVU, which is apparently not available to anyone in the burbs, or over the age of 25, but only in dorm rooms in Austin, Athens, and Madison. The show is called 'Stand In' and as a surprise, puts a celebrity in front of a stunned college classroom for a day to discuss how and why they became super rich rock megastars. Sounds stupid, but imagine Cameron Diaz teaching a Civil Engineering class at Stanford, Bill Gates walks into a computer programming class at UW/Madison, and Snoop Dogg as the special teams coach for the USC Trojan football team. The best scene I saw, however, was when some dopey kid asks Marilyn Manson if he could have some of the Absinthe that Manson was using a prop to teach an art class at Temple. Now that's the spirit! the worst one I saw was Ashley Judd running around the U of K campus for no particular reason. Good show... but its no "Pimp My Ride".

More sure signs of spring

Last night we had our first tonardo watch of the season. I watched. No tornados.

Today is the Southside Irish Parade. When this parade began,about 20 years ago, it may actually have been a true alternative to the 'official' city parade. These days, it seems to have become more of a scene for hipsters from the north who can slum it for the day in Bridgeport. No - I'm not going. But I'll post some pictures of cute drunk girls from the neighborhood later this week, if I can find any.

I know the Sox have been playing, but I've been too busy to pay attention. I'll try to get caught up on my Sox coverage this week... slowly but surely.

Finished that Lawrence Block book. I think I'm done with hard-boiled pulp fiction for a while. So far, both of his books I've read have been OK, but contain a lot of the same cliched dialogue, and the same sorta surprise ending.

For reasons I cannot fathom, I also watched Youngblood - another Rob Lowe movie from the 80s that has not aged well at all. the only worthwhile part of this movie is Keanu Reeves, in full-on 'Bill & Ted' mode, as a French-Canadian goalie, with an over-the-top accent. Hilarious.

HNT #8

HNT #8

Curious Trade

The Sox have acquired light-hitting infielder Alex Cintron from the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league relief pitcher Jeff Bajenaru. Cintron has a slow overswing, but makes good contact. He's also got some speed and is decent in the field, beside playing his position a little too tall.

I've been behind KW and his trades in the past, and this one looks good on paper, but there is more to it. Look down the road - how will Cinton fit into this team's roster? For one, it looks like Gload and/or Borchard are finished. There is no way they are going to unload Ozuna... Keep your eyes open for a mid-season deal... Dye, sPods and Anderson - I think one of these guys could be gone by June. I also think the Sox might find themselves in desperate need of relief pitching.

Speaking of great albums

One of my first introductions to music other than rock was back in early 1998, in the dead of winter, on a frozen island in Lake Superior. I was up there for the weekend, dogsledding (which is quite a workout), and stopped into a deserted, very funky cafe for dinner. The owner, a character, of course, was playing the strangest, yet coolest sounding guitar music CD I'd ever heard. It was Ali Farka Toure's fine "Talking Timbuktu" album. I've been an admirer of Toure's music ever since, even going so far as to see him play live when he came to Chicago a few years back.

Sadly, he passed away yesterday at his home in Northern Mali.

In other news...
Sox haul out the lumber in a big spring training win over the Thomas-less A's.. Widger hits two homers. Blakely, Sweeney and Konerko each add one. The pitching held up as well, including Buehrle, who struck out 5 in 4 IP. Sox are back on track.

Oh, here's another flash, gordon:
The new Sports Illustrated claims Barry Bonds was big into roids. DUH!

I hate acknowledging these things, but today is the annivsary of my birth, 37 years ago on Chicago's west side. My parents are long dead, so I don't expect a call from them anymore. A lot has happened in the past year to make me cherish this life. And even though I am surrounded by love I still feel lonely sometimes. So watch this space later tonight for potentially drunken ramblings.

The Best 80s Rock Albums You've Never Heard Pt 1

I was reading on Stosh's blog about his encounter on a bus last week with the Mekons Sally Timms, and got to thinking about the Mekons, and how, despite growing up a huge music fan in the 1980s, I've never heard any of the Mekons records. It did, however, remind me of that great song "If I Was A Mekon" by Too Much Joy from their oft overlooked "Son of Sam I Am" album.

So, whist drinkin a bit (the MILF is out seeing fuckin 'Brokeback'), here is a short list of some great 80s albums you've never heard, but were staples of my adolesense:

Too Much Joy - Son of Sam I Am
The Pursuit of Happiness - Love Junk
Georgia Satellites - In The Land Of Salvation and Sin
Little Steven - Voice of America
Replacements - Hootenanny
Replacements - When The Shit Hits The Fans
Husker Du - Flip Your Wig
The Ravyns - self titled debut on MCA
Fear - The Record
The Kings - The Kings Are Here!
The Young Fresh Fellows - The Men Who Loved Music

I wanted to add the Minutemen's Double Nickels On the Dime to this list. But if you've never heard that album, you have no fuckin business being here in the first place (kidding of course).

Speaking of which, I'm desperately trying to find this t-shirt for the MILF for her b-day in May. She'll be the talk of the burbs pickin up the kiddies from the school in that number. If that doesn't work out, maybe I'll just get myself a 'Metal Circus' coffee mug. I hope they ship to the USA!

Don't Let It End

A sad day. Southside native Kirby Puckett, 45, dies from a stroke. Horrible, just terrible. He was a hall of famer a great player and probably just an all around good guy. Isn't that the way it always goes...

Also down in AZ- and much less important, the Sox finally won a game, which definately doesn't matter - it being just spring training and all. But it still good to see. Not much to report. Sweeney was 2 for 2. Gload had a double, and Buehrle pitched 3 scoreless innings. My main man Pablo Ozune drove in 2 runs.

In other southside news, just because the Olympics are over, doesn't mean the speed skating season ends. And southside native Shani Davis continue to rake in the hardware winning some sort of big deal world cup championship over the weekend.

Comcast replayed one the series highlight films tonight. Even though I've seen it so many times before, I could not tear myself away from the TV. What a great - INCREDIBLE - year 2005 was. Now, I don't want the 2006 season to ever begin, because I don't want 2005 to ever end.

Target Practice

ready, aim...

I know its early, and I understand spring training games don't really count. But take a quick glance at the Sox pitching stats. I'd like to see some improvement from some of these guys.

A well-fed man...

...makes a lousy fisherman.

This phrase kept going thru my head this weekend as I ruminated on the Sox.

I watched the first few innings of saturday's game. McCarthy's mechanics looked fine, but his curve ball was hanging. El Duque at least pitched well enough to get guys out. The Sox just looked a little off to me. I'm sure they'll come around. But you've got wonder, after winning their first series championship in 88 years, how hungry are they? Hungry enough to do it agin? That series bonus money buys a lot of nice distractions, be it motorcycles, women, whatever... I guess we'll find out.

Plenty on today - Cubs/Giants, Mets/Puerto Ricans, and the Bulls/Cavs match-up tonight.

Saturday night I watched Shaun of the Dead, which was really good and very funny, while still managing to be a good horror flick. Highly recommended.

I took advantage of the weather on saturday to clean out the garage and get ready for spring - brought out the hose and some lawn furniture. A bit premature, apparently - by 2 pm on sunday it was all covered by a thich blanket of wet snow.

My plans to go to a party at a bar on saturday night were derailed - I felt a bit ill and stayed home.

I'm still looking for a replacement to the STATS, Inc./TSN Scouting Notebook for 2006. Something besides Baseball Prospectus. Maybe I should invest in the Bill James book? Or possibly Baseball America produces something?

I picked up some more light reading material at the library this week - another hard boiled pulp fiction offering from Lawrence Block - The Girl With the Long Green Heart. I swear, this is my last such indulgence. I also started in on one that I've wanted read for years - Leg the Spread by Cari Lynn. So far so good.

The Short Road

..that is spring training has begun.

Actually, it began on wednesday. And yesterday was a split-squad game.

None of these games have not had much to report. I didn't see them, so about all I can do is rehash the box score.

Newcomer Rob Mackowiak has 3 hits. Yesterday, some pitcher I never heard of - Almanza - got shelled for 4 ER in just 1/3 of an inning. Such is spring training. Vazquez made his Sox debut, striking out 3 in 3 scoreless innings. Yesterday, knuckleballer Charlie Haeger stuck out 2 in one inning of work, also giving up 3 unearned runs (still haven't figured out how that happened). Ozuna had a hit, Fields had 2 hits, including a double and a homer. Freddy Garcia gave up 2 ER in 3 IP. If Bajenaru wants to come north with this tem, he's going to have to do better than giving up 4 ER in one inning of relief work. Sheesh!

The Sox are supposedly in talks with ex-Dodger fireballer Hideo Nomo. I'm not sure why.

HNT #7

HNT #7

I'm still not recovered from my stripper experience, so I chose a picture that leaves something to the imagination.

First Sox exhibition game this afternoon from AZ. Its not on TV, but you can catch the debut of Farmer/Singleton calling the action on WSCR 670 AM. I'm not sure if the game will be covered by Yahoo. Regardless, watch this space for a recap tomorrow.

Went bowling with the MILF last night. It wasn't very crowded, but we were only there 5 minutes before some guys started hitting on her pretty heavily. I was having none of it and scared them away rather fast. They were about my age, but there were 4 of them and all but one of them was a lot bigger than me. I don't know if they were working some angle, but to 'apologize', they bought us game. As sweet revenge, in that game I had 3 strikes and bowled a 140 (anything over 100 is good for me).

I don't mind her flirting, I encourage it, actually, because I know no matter how hot she gets some other dude, she gives it up for me. But the incident last night was just so uncalled for - an immediate in-my-face challenge. I wasn't about to back down. The MILF is stunning and always the most beauitiful woman in the room - despite my being just 5 ft 8 (in heels), I always feel like the tallest guy in the room when I'm with her. She never drinks, but downed 3 Coronas in just over an hour last night. So, you can imagine what happened.

More blogs

I've added some links (below right) under "Blogger pals".

The first is to Sweet Nothings and Such, whose author is a sharp, chaming Aussie urbanite with a bit of an edge to her writing.

The second is Tales of a Soccer Mom/Sex Kitten. I've been reading this one for over a year and its gone from sexy to scary.

I don't read many of these types of blogs, but these two ladies appear to be regular readers of mine, and since I do enjoy peeking into their lives, I thought you might as well.