Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Talk about a pay cut

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
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I noticed in the paper today that Worcester’s Cam am entry lost game 3 of the Cam Am championship series:

The Capitales have won the last two games and lead the series, 2-1.

Worcester pitcher Zach Zuercher allowed 7 hits and 5 runs in 7 innings, while striking out 5.

The Capitales took a 2-0 lead in the second, on an RBI single and a Zuercher balk that scored Dany Scalabrini.

Worcester scored its only run in the fifth when Alex Peña led off with a double and took third on a wild pitch before Yohanny Valera (2 for 3) drove him in with a single, cutting the lead to 2-1.

If you don’t know the Canadian/American Association of professional Baseball. Worcester is less than 30 minutes away and they are playing for the Championship. Fun little league, ticket prices a person can afford, nice game. The league draws an average of between 1,100 and 3,500 people a game over 39 games. The real surprise of the day however was the first line of the story:

Worcester couldn’t solve Eric Gagné, as the former Cy Young Award winner threw a complete-game six-hitter while striking out eight to give Quebec a 5-1 win in Game 3 of the Can-Am League championship series last night at Stade de Quebec.

Eric Gagne? I know Quebec is his home town but he can’t be making more than 20-25k pitching for them.

To get some perspective

Eric Gagne 2003

Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win a Cy Young Award, easily beating San Francisco’s Jason Schmidt for the National League honor.

Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities, received 28 of 32 first-place votes and 146 points in balloting released Thursday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Salary $550,000

Eric Gagne 2008

The Brewers have signed Eric Gagne to a 1-year, $10 million dollar contract to serve as their closer

How the mighty have fallen.

The Georgia Massachusetts Axis of hatred

Posted: September 17, 2009 by datechguy in baseball, fun
Tags: , , , ,

Considering the nature of the McCain/Johnson fight I can’t get this clip from the movie One Two Three out of my head. Key moment comes at :45

Although he denies hatred of Yankees citing his wife, when people as universally respected * as James Edwards, Charles Johnson and Michelangelo Signorile talk attention must be paid.

So I have a blockbusting confession to make. Here in Massachusetts the bluest of blue states Yankee hatred is so prevalent that at the Butcher shop there is a photo that says:

Red Sox fan’s 10% off, Yankeee Fans F— Off

With the exception of Berra and Jeter I must confess that I share that unyeilding Yankee hatred.

Oh and I strongly advise not watching the Movie it has horrible scenes of torture.

Where is Human Rights Watch when you need them, drop the Nazi medals and get on the case!

* Full Disclosure I didn’t specify which universe

How do you know when the president is in trouble?…..

Posted: September 17, 2009 by datechguy in baseball, opinion/news
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…when an MSNBC show hits them for not appearing on Fox:

Cripes even the NYT guy on Morning Joe is saying this along with everyone else.

Of course I’m kinda tired so I might be dreaming but everything else seems real except for yesterday’s comeback. Cripes gonzo got the game winning hit.

I must be asleep, one of the newspapers on the morning paper list had a visible acorn story, sure it was in Pittsburgh but it counts.

What the purpose of the speech was

Posted: September 10, 2009 by datechguy in baseball, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

Ok before we say what the president’s speech was, lets talk about what it was not.

It was NOT an attempt to persuade the American people. I suspect they tuned out in droves, with 100 channels out there and Fox putting out regular programing, and plenty of baseball out there, not to mention millions of TV’s across the land devoted to day one of Beatles Rock Band I suspect only the junkies like me were watching.

It was NOT an attempt to bring Republicans on board, republicans in the house and senate are not only able to count votes in congress but can count votes in their districts and they know that their seats depend on their opposition to this bill.

This speech had one purpose, it was designed to give the democrats that Jane Hamsher might target cover to support some kind of plan, any plan to make sure he can say he passed “health care reform”. That is also the purpose of this CNN poll. I suspect they will push these results:

What was your overall reaction to President Obama’s speech tonight – very positive, somewhat
positive, somewhat negative or very negative?

Sept. 9, 2009
Very positive 56%
Somewhat positive 21%
Somewhat negative 12%
Very negative 9%
Both/mixed (vol.) 2%
No opinion 1%

Without emphasizing this polling sample:

18% of the respondents who participated in tonight’s survey
identified themselves as Republicans, 45% identified themselves
as Democrats, and 37% identified themselves as Independents.

Soooo less than 1 in 5 polled were republicans and almost 1 in 2 who were polled were democrats.

The president’s emphasizes were specifically aimed toward blue dogs, no additional costs, no illegal immigrants, no abortion. These promises were made to give those blue dogs cover.

I wouldn’t bet the farm on it from the reaction such as this:

I don’t know how others will read this, but I was looking for something to show the President understood his credibility with Democrats has been badly damaged by precisely this kind of ambiguity. The fact that he continues this mode means he and those around him don’t get it or they don’t think it matters.

The next week will tell.

Update: The Anchoress proves me right in spades.

Tepid political theater is no match for a good ballgame. And if I have a choice between looking at Nancy Pelosi or looking at Derek Jeter, who do you think I’m going to choose?

and she saw history being made.

BTW that represents hits as a Yankee. Wade Boggs, Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield and Paul Warner are all members of the 3000 hit club and former Yankees. If Jeter gets to 3000 hits he will be the first person to get 3000 hits in a Yankee uniform.

Update 2: Hot air headlines notices the poll sample

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