Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Why am I not surprised by this story about Mitt Romeny’s debut…

Posted: March 13, 2010 by datechguy in baseball, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

…on the NYT best seller list?

Whenever the NY Times places a “dagger” symbol next to a book, it signifies that “some bookstores report[ed] receiving bulk orders” for the book.

The NY Times placed not just one, but two, daggers next to Romney’s book. You can draw your own conclusion as to who it was that purchased Governor Romney’s book in bulk.

By contrast, the NY Times failed to place the “dagger” symbol next to Governor Palin’s book in any of the weeks she held the top position on the NY Times best-seller list among non-fiction hardcover books. Despite the left’s unsubstantiated theories, bookstores did not report to the NY Times that they received bulk orders for Going Rogue. See week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, and week 6. As you can see, in none of these weeks is there a dagger symbol next to her book

I have NEVER heard anyone speak of Mitt Romney with anything resembling excitement and I live in Massachusetts.

BTW it is worth noting that Sarah Palin’s book is STILL on the list (at 34) after 17 weeks.

I take exception to Marc Armbinder’s comparison of Romney to Roger Maris. It is unfair to Maris who actually was able to hit his 61 under normal game conditions and won 3 World Series. Maybe it would be fairer to compare it to McGwire or Barry Bonds instead.

This is amateur night stuff, and this guy wants to be president? The blowback on this is going to be much worse that the positive press he got when the debut first was reported. Bad form Governor, bad form.

Anyone care to make book on how long it takes Romney to fall off?

Update: It is worth noting that Sarah Palin’s book is still ranked in the top 150, 143 at Amazon as of this morning, while Mitt’s newly released book is at 43, only 100 spots ahead.

Nomar rejoins Red Sox: Then retires.

Posted: March 11, 2010 by datechguy in baseball
Tags: , ,

I’m a sentimental guy so I absolutely loved this story:

The one time face of the organization announced today that he had signed a one-day minor league deal in order to retire as a member of the Red Sox. Garciaparra could not hide his emotions during a press conference held earlier this morning. At times struggling to get the words out, he expressed genuine happiness in being afforded this opportunity to leave the game of baseball in the same uniform he so dramatically entered in.

ESPN talked a bit about how things don’t always work out the way we expect:

But for a moment in time, Garciaparra was the darling among them. In that fourth season (2000), Garciaparra went 3-for-5 in the first game of a mid-July doubleheader in Baltimore — I was there — to lift his batting average to .403.

.403

Garciaparra went 0-for-5 in the second game that evening, stayed in the .390-.400 range for another few weeks, then batted .346 from Aug. 14 through the end of the season to finish at .372. Still …

.372

What we didn’t know was that Garciaparra had a wrist injury. A serious injury. In 2001, he didn’t play until late July, struggled in 21 games and shut things down for the rest of the season. There was a surgery, and it was “successful” … but Garciaparra would never again be that player, never again a threat to win a batting title or an MVP award.

I knew a guy who was convinced that Robin Ventura would be one of the greatest hitters of all time. Same thing.

But the best story as one might expect came from the best sports section in the country (although the rest of the paper rots), the Boston Globe:

“I teared up when I heard it,’’ K.J. Meline, a 61-year-old from Brentwood, N.H., said as she prepared to tour the park with her family. “I always loved him, and this just feels right.’’

For many, the man remembered yesterday was the “No Mah’’ who had electrified fans at shortstop and pushed .400 at the plate — and not the one criticized as a greedy, petulant ballplayer who let a contract dispute interfere with his play.

It is a nice ending to a story that for a brief period of time shone brightly across the New England Landscape.

Nomar always reminded me of Kirby Puckett a great hitter who swung at too many pitchers, but always managed to get hits anyway, at least until he got hurt.

And if you are superstitious consider…

…the last time Nomar left the Sox …we won the series!

Oh and Dan Shaughnessy dissents.

Fifty Nine in 84: Amazon Vine Review

Posted: February 27, 2010 by datechguy in amazon reviews, baseball
Tags: , , , ,

My review through the Amazon Vine program of Edward Achorn’s soon to be published book: Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had is available at Amazon.com here.

If you saw me at CPAC you might have noticed me toting that book around I had just finished it when this picture was taken by the Lonely Conservative.

It is due for release March 16th. If you want to learn both about the 19th century and the baseball they played it is certainly the book for you.

The new Sable baseball blog is up…

Posted: February 16, 2010 by datechguy in baseball, gaming, hobbies
Tags: , ,

…started by our new commissioner as we enter our 23rd year of play.

If you have any interest in face to face tabletop baseball and our league click here to see what is going on.

If you have an interest in joining for our 24th year leave a comment at the site and contact our commissioner . the league dues are $35, we are playing a 60 game season this year (our shortest for a while) running from March 20th to Oct 2nd with 6 weeks off. We play in Fitchburg so if you are willing to travel one day a week for some camaraderie and to see if you could be a great Manager or GM if you only had the chance, let us know.

Older Entries
Newer Entries