Patrick

Nice to see Sandy Alomar Jr getting a few more manager interviews. Bet he is in Cleveland another year (...and Carlos Santana would continue to benefit). Class guy who could be an excellent manager.

This year I went with Andrew Hill's Dance with Death, a little creepy at times but not too scary.

Thanks again. This year weather was fairly lousy in NoVA--rain/snow. Saw some friends at a Halloween party. Signed up to run a half marathon next March (...will be my first), and received a Garmin GPS/heart rate monitor as a gift. All good things.

Brewers and Padres have existed about as long as the Texas version of Senators/Rangers, and they are also in the no titles category.

Glad to hear that it was a great night. Had hoped to make it Friday but other things intervened. I recall that George Cables had health issues awhile ago (maybe a couple of years ago by now). Glad that he's back in it with a great ensemble. I did manage to get to Bohemian Caverns the following night (Sunday) for Jason Moran and Bandwagon. Jason was in town early for Thelonious Monk Institute competition I guess. They were great, playing a lot of material from Ten, which is an album that I greatly enjoy. It was my first visit to the BC and I learned some things, mainly don't order food there. Despite persistent reminders, wife's entree arrived about 1 hour after mine did. Not good when you'd like to convince the beloved to stay for a second set on a worknight. Fortunately they took it off our bill. [...next time Ben's Chili Bowl or something else nearby!] There also was lack of clarity on paying for the second set. Our server said to some other patrons that the second set would largely be the same music as the first. WTF!?! Guess she wanted new blood in those seats ordering lots of food/drinks. She also said that the emcee would make an announcement about this (depending, obviously, on how many new folks showed up for the 9pm set). That didn't happen, but we did stay for the second set (which, as one might expect, included no overlapping material). As we left the club, Jason was standing by the doorway. I asked him if it was just happenstance that he was performing in DC on 9/11 two years in a row. [Last year he performed at the Rosslyn Jazz Fest on a bill that included Bad Plus and Tierney Sutton.] He had not realized this, smiled, and indicated that it was coincidence.

Congrats to the Tigers for taking the AL Central. They had a stacked lineup from the start and underachieved in the mediocre AL Central for much of the season. In late April, after getting swept by the highflying upstart Tribe, Jim Leyland and company just looked plain tired. But with about 135 games left in the season, they managed to straighten things out. [...Just as plenty of other slow starting teams have.] Tigers will be a tough out for whomever they face, and it is more than just Justin Verlander in the rotation and Mig Cabrera in the lineup. Nice to see Victor Martinez having a great year, and even Jhonny Peralta is hitting .300 (which I will confess is a bit frustrating since Tribe fans hoped for such for several seasons--I guess we'll see how well his second season in Detroit is...). For the Tribe, obviously quite frustrating given the heady start. Hopefully the early season success will be something to build on, but I have a feeling this will be like 2007 where they seriously scared Boston in the ALCS but crashed and burned the following season. A reason to not be optimistic is looking at how completely overmatched the current lineup is. Would they even do well as a AAA lineup? Too many guys batting about .230 with little to mediocre power. Injuries have played a part--for awhile they had only two regulars still in the lineup (Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana). For a team that was not at all deep, injuries to Choo, Sizemore, Brantley, Hafner, and upstart Kipnis have made scoring tough. Hopefully, the successes of Justin Masterson and Josh Tomlin in the rotation (and to a much lesser extent Carlos Carraso who is now having Tommy John surgery), and Jason Kipnis will lead to progress next year. Lonnie Chisenhall has also recently shown promise. [Another high prospect, Cord Phelps, has not.] The plan was to contend next year. Given the inability to develop any of their own outfielders (Brian Giles may have been the last one) and trading away their two best starting pitcher prospects (White and Pomeranz) for the potentially mediocre Ubaldo Jimenez, I'm not so optimistic. But this may just be from August/September fatigue. Everyone will be in first place come next April. That said, I did have a great time at an Indians game this season. To celebrate her birthday, I took my mother out to a Friday night game in late August at the Jake (still what I call it) against another Titan of April, the Kansas City Royals. Friday night home games include an impressive fireworks display shortly after the game ends (...especially useful when the lineup is not providing much of their own fireworks), and my mother enjoys these. Needed to arrange for handicap accessible seats, so we sat in the last row of the lower deck, very close to home plate. Perhaps the best seats that I have sat in at the Jake. We could look right into the Tribe dugout. Turns out this was Jim Thome's first game back as an Indian. Jim Thome is my mother's all time favorite player. We ate dinner downtown beforehand and my mother wore a "Team Thome" ballcap that I had gotten for her (from a Ohio turnpike reststop) as a gag gift a decade earlier. Downtown was swarming with fans, and several of them smiled at my mother and complimented her attire. Thome started as DH in the #4 slot in the lineup. He led off the second inning. When he first stepped out to the on deck circle, the whole place (41K+ attendance, which is huge for Cleveland) rose chanting his name, waving "Welcome (T)Home" signs. Hero from days past returns. No one expects him to hit .300 with 10 HRs in September these days (...at least I don't). Still quite a thrill to welcome him back. Felt like I was 12 again (similar feeling when Lofton hit a HR against Boston in 2007 ALCS). Before he stepped into the batter's box, he briefly tipped his helmet to the fans behind home plate. Understated and classy. So much love. Hope he is a first ballot HOFer. Jim then proceeded to ground out to pitcher as part of an 0/4 night with 2 K's. I imagine Vizquel and perhaps Sabathia are the only ones out there that would be similarly warmly received. Ubaldo Jimenez had a great outing, and the Indians managed to scratch out a 2-1 win (scoring the winning run on a bases loaded walk). A great time at the ballpark.

placed a pre-order. amazon price has ticked up slightly to $30.17

And are the magic numbers for NYY and BOS making the post-season (via division or WC) essentially zero?

The Cookers will also perform at the Kennedy Center on February 11.

Yes there was a measurable earthquake on the east coast. This is at least noteworthy, if not newsworthy, because it happens infrequently over here. No one is comparing it to the big deals that have occurred in the past on the west coast or recently in Japan. I'm sure there would be volumes of breathless chatter if SF got a foot and a half of snow some weekend. The west coast snark grows tiresome quickly. Hopefully it is aimed primarily at the media coverage (like with all things frequently enters overkill mode). Many of us on the east coast reacted with a smile at the noteworthy/newsworthy event but were not in panic mode like some of the snark suggests. For me, I was in my office on the 9th floor of a downtown DC building. Felt the windows/walls vibrate, got to walk down 9 stories and stand on the street corner for about 20 minutes chatting with coworkers before returning to my desk and my job. On the commute home, Metro ran at 15 mph all the way out to NoVA, because they were not sure about the condition of train stations. No big deal. I find it kind of surprising that an area with so many old buildings did not suffer greater damage. Time will tell how long the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral remain out of commission. At home, my beloved wife (...born and raised in California) was concerned that the shelving units that house the jazz CD collection may have tipped over. God bless her. Turns out the shelving remained upright--only a few CDs at the end of each row tipped over slightly. That and a few file cabinet drawers that swung open were the extent of the effects we experienced.

Congrats to the Tribe for having an interesting season, which is now essentially over. Can they hold off the ChiSox? Congrats to the Rockies for completely fleecing the Tribe out of their two best pitching prospects in exchange for the highly overrated Ubaldo Jimenez. Why did the Tribe get less for Cliff Lee or CC Sabathia than they turned over for this fraud. [Yes, Ubaldo is more than a half season rental, but so was Clifford.] (...maybe more rant later)

Jim Thome hit a homie, actually 600 of them!!! Hopefully he and Omar are HOF-bound, though I suspect it make take awhile for each.

Yep. I waited for awhile and then purchased the Russell from amazon.uk. May do something similar for Braxton. Lots of BN/SN to listen to in the mean time.

My brick of goodness also arrived today in fine shape!

Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered Konitz, Lacy, Murray from them for $96.54 delivered.

I didn't notice it either. Generally stay out of the forums discussion folder (due to lots of complaining about personalities etc). Paypal payment sent.

Tribe getting trounced early on Sunday. Verlander starting for Tigers against KC. Looks like the Tribe won't be in first place at the ASB. But they will only be 1/2 game out, and showing promise, much more promise than anyone predicted in March. Plenty of "what ifs" for that team--among position players, only Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis Hafner can be said to be exceeding expectations. And plenty of key position players are not meeting them (Sizemore, Choo, Santana head the list). With the glaring exception of Fausto Carmona, pitching staff has performed quite well (though Mitch Talbot has struggled lately--I don't think many reasonably expected him to have a solid year). Masterson and Tomlin have been tremendous, as has most of the bullpen. Go Tribe.

Travis Hafner!!!!!!! Glad that June is over for the Tribe.

I agree. I wasn't sure Masty was more than a shutdown late inning reliever, but he looks to be solid (and given the large number of available rotation slots, he'll have one). As always, we'll see about dollars. Tribe in the past has been willing to pay a bit to forego free agency years. Nice to see some value return for VMart. Tip the cap to Millwood for still playing. He is definitely a grinder. I doubt there's much left (...but I felt the same away about Bartolo). Fausto will get at least one rehab start. Hopefully he'll do more than check that his quad is alright. I would be thrilled if he gets two such starts and does some work on his mechanics, esp from the stretch. Zach McAllister (acquired in the Austin Kearns rental deal last year) will make his major league debut tonight against Toronto. Hopefully he'll pitch as well as Tomlin, Carrasco, and White have this season (i.e. better than Fausto and recent Mitch Talbot).

The Tribe/Yankee series that just concluded illustrates the promise and shortcomings of the Tribe. Two outstanding starts (Tomlin and Masterson), yet Tomlin looked to be taking a tough loss. Something that Masterson has dealt with much of the season. Team just doesn't score enough runs. Carrasco, another young starter with great promise (and high variance) gets trounced in the middle game. Tribe leaves men on base all over the place (at least tonight). Defense is solid (ACab, LaPorta in his first game back, Grady for the Ladies). Only exception tonight was the complete ineffectiveness of Vinnie Pestano. Maybe he just wanted to create a save opportunity for CPerez, and did it just about at quickly as possible. Nice to see Granderson (and his bats) leaving the Jake.

A Cleveland legend. Check out the photo gallery assembled for her 92nd birthday here.

I caught the Rosnes quartet at the Vanguard on Thursday, and share the view of Professor Nash. Friendly chap who responded to a slight handwave from me by coming over to our table and shaking everybody's hand while wearing a big smile. Also caught him with Randy Weston's group at the Kennedy Center fairly recently. Wasn't Rosnes part of SF Jazz Collective for a bit, and maybe writing an arrangement or two for BlueNote 7, not to mention recording and performing with current hubby Bill Charlap?

Not a bad point, not at all, but...I have a very hard time holding any type of enthusiasm or optimism about a team with a bullpen that shows a lack of basic character and skill on anything other than a fleeting basis. Especially when it starts to infect the team in little ways that betray a basic lack of focus. At some point the "organization", be it the clubhouse leaders, the managerial staff, and/or the front office needs to disallow that type of bullshit by any means necessary. Otherwise you're playing me for a chump, and I'll not allow it. Give me a team that loses honestly, hey, I'm good. Give me a team that has the occasional lapse or slump but bounces back, I'm good there, too. Give me a team that has needs but makes honest attempts to meet them, no problem. I don't expect to "always" win, I just expect to see an honest effort executed that exhibits professional and personal pride & self-respect. But I will not invest in a team that continues to perform like the Rangers of tonight and far too many other games this season. This Loyal Doyle stuff is for people who have needs that I do not have (meaning only that everybody has their own needs, nothing more). Like most people, I get paid to tolerate unaddressed & ongoing incompetency, and to pretend to support those who "expect" thing to happen without understanding what it takes to actually make them happen. What I don't get paid to do is watch baseball games and emotionally invest in a team. Like I said, I don't need that in my life. I love it when it's there, but can get along quite well without it. Spent the first decade of this century doing it, and have totally disavowed the Mavericks & Cowboys, so it's not like I don't know how... Now, having finished that little vent/rant. let me add that C.J. Wilson is exempt from all of this, his post-game comments and demeanor after the most vile, bitter, wholly unnecessary and uncalled-for loss of the season being that of a person of true character. He may be a total jerk in his personal life, I don't know, and that's none of my business one way or the other. But as far as professional character, everything I've seen out of him, hey, he's a worthy human being. The rest of these jokers I'm not sure about. At least not at this particular moment. Well stated. I agree with most if not all of it. And I will freely admit that it is not hard to be an easygoing Indians fan this season since the expectation was 4th place and the team's key core is young. Also reasonable for major concern for favorites whose window of opportunity is rapidly closing, though (despite the hysteria on display) I'm not yet convinced the Yankees are in that bucket. Is it time to trade Texeira, Cano, and ARod for prospects? I didn't think so. The Red Sox and the Phillies are definitely not in that category. Don't have a feel for your Rangers, though the lineup looks pretty damn solid. Bullpens can be damn frustrating (see Wickman, Bob and Borowski, Joe for some recent Lake Erie mayhem). The Tribe bullpen has been a strength this year which is another reason for optimism watching the Tribe, even if bullpen success can fade quickly. Your Loyal Doyle view is why I'm a subdued Browns fan since their return. They've been terrible in just about every way. Root for the team, but with little emotional investment. Smile when Josh Cribbs shines. May go that way with the post-LeBron Cavs as well--expectations are definitely dialed down.

No thank you note to the Tribe for the three pack gift they provided your team last week??? Tribe managed to go 4-5 on road against SF, AZ, and Cincy. Hopefully Fausto Carmona will be on the DL a little longer than 15 days and gently moved to long relief. Not going to happen, but one can dream. Hopefully Travis Hafner will have his swing in good shape against NYY at home. He's only had a few pinch hit opportunities over the last 9 games in NL towns. Nightmare June (10-17) now over and Tribe is still in first place at the halfway mark, even with a large number of injuries and quite a few underperformers on the team. Cannot really complain (...just as any fan of a team that is still in contention shouldn't be ). Tribe needs to add a good outfielder if there are any to be had. Not sure GM will do anything besides promote young pitching talent and hope the likes of Travis Buck and Austin Kearns can deliver.

as is the entire city of Charleston, South Carolina?