JSngry

Payton's still fighting yesterday's battles with day-before-yesterday's ammo, but damn did I get a chuckle out of this: and this

Been hearing the same rumors...been hearing them about Darvish for quite a while now, actually. Rangers were scouting Darvish during the season, not sure if they actually established relations with the Ham Fighters or not, but Yoshi Tateyama is a former Ham Fighter, as is, I think, Koji Uehara, There's long been speculation that getting these guys was part of a "master plan" to woo Yu. Yoshi can probably give good witness, Koji, not so much. Fielder has been everybody's fantasy since Mitch Moreland had a sucky-ish second half (as it turns out, he was playing through a wrist injury which he's now had surgery for). I like Mitch a whole lot, especially defensively, and think he's going to be a damn solid player when healed. Fielder's size worries me as far as the wearing down/out factor goes, but damn, would he be a good offensive fit for The Ballpark. In the wake of Anaheim's Pujols/CJ gambit, a Fielder/Darvish counter would be one helluva PR move and/or fanbase morale booster, and might even actually help the team. But money talks, and when it come to Darvish, if the Yankees really want him, they can talk louder and longer than anybody, so...we shall see.

79? I'd never have guessed.

Yeah, hang tough!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTDM3AQQf6o

Pop? Like Sinatra w/Ernie Freeman? Or what,exactly? Creed Taylor Wes? Other than the cuts being familiar tunes at reasonable airplay length, I don't think so. But otherwise, I think it would have been a cool mix, especially later Hank with later Larry, playing Hank's tunes in some club in Newark with Eddie Gladden on drums. Just a trio. Hell, I know that woulda have worked.

Is he a diabetic?

20 points just for the name "Boyd Lee Dunlop".

"I'm an Old Cowhand"!

Check out this crazyass deal the Rays got out of young phenom Matt Moore: http://www.draysbay.com/2011/12/9/2623480/tampa-bay-rays-sign-matt-moore-to-5-year-14m-deal 5/14 with club options that at most come in around 8/40. OTOH, yeah, unproven quantity except in a very few games, so a lot of money for a kid who might go bust at any time (in theory). But good god, if he turns out to be just good, how big of a steal is that for the team? And if he turns out to meet expectations...wow. Who is this kid's agent, anyway? Rays front office continues to amaze.

Since it was recorded in 1959, more than 50 years ago, I think it is all PD. Now that, I'm not sure about, if bootlegs ever become Public Domain. That would be like a Statute Of Limitations or Amnesty thing or something.

Does this mean that the people at the Apple store should be asked to stick a finger up your as, just to be precautionary?

Stay strong.

After having cooled off a little, I'm still a little pissed off that they didn't even tender C.J. an offer. They just told him to let them know what his other offers were, and then they'd tell him whether or not they would/could match it. I don't know if I like that attitude or not, frankly. I mean, no, C.J. Wilson is not an ace, and probably never will be, but his work ethic is impeccable, and his skills are not insignificant. But I guess they figure that now's the time to bring Feliz into the rotation & Greg Maddux into the organization. But that leaves Colby Lewis as your #1 starter. If his hip gets better, you can work with that, but how much? The Nefti experiment is jsut that, an experiment. And how does Ogando come back physically for year 2 as a starter? That could go all kinds of ways, only some of them good. Scott Feldman is always a fallback, but, really... 5/77.5 seems reasonable for a proven quantity with an impeccable work ethic and substantial skills. But I guess not. The real question for me now, though, is this - how deep are the new ownership's pockets really going to be, with or without that TV money coming in 2014? Pujols will most likely yield diminishing returns at some point, but until he does, the Rangers suddenly have a significant competitor in their division that wasn't there 24 hours ago. Weaver, Haren, & Wilson vs. Lewis, Holland, & Harrison...hmmm. And I don't know if Pujols can totally compensate for the overall lightness of the rest of the overall Angles offense, but he goes a long way towards making up for it. Supposedly, the Rangers plan for this off-season is to go ahead and work on getting some "core players" locked up for some more years. We'll see how that goes, but now we know that C.J. Wilson was never considered a core player by either JD or Nolan. Although they often see things quite differently, when those two are against you, you're as good as gone.

That performance (and that program) duplicates the one on the Dragon CD, listed as from March 4, 1959, but the sound is much clearer on this video! Is this from a Jazz Icons release, or what, exactly?

Not meaning to start a fight, but I definitely disagree with your terms, Jim. A bootleg is not grey market - it's black market. I understand grey market to be legal elsewhere but not in the US, such as a PD. No argument, just a different understanding of the terms. My understanding of the term "grey market" has always been bootleg, or if you prefer, "black market", material sold over the counter on a regular-looking label through normal retail outlets. That's why it's grey market" instead of "black market", which was always sold under the counter, not over it. There was a proliferation of such material in the early 1990's, mostly from Italy, but then Italy changed their laws and all that stuff went away for a while. But it's coming back. In fact, some of the material in this current set was released on such labels, Moon & Royal Jazz to be exact. What is legal elsewhere but not in the US is a lot of Public Domain releases. This is not that, obviously.

What I've seen of the packaging (quite minimal) and annotation (biographical/chronological/discographical facts strung together in a way that resembles substance much more than it provides it coupled with some lowish quality photos, including one lifted from the Contemporary archives) strongly suggests that the very lowest price possible (up to and including free) is still, at this time, the route to pursue for this fine music.

All that's new to me here is the first seven tracks on Disc 2. The performances are all top-shelf, and the sound quality of this material never dips below acceptable relative to age/source. By my standards, it's all pretty good, actually. All this stuff is pretty essential for the serious Rollins fan. Only the material that's been released on Dragon has seen "legitimate" release, Don't know if that one's still in print or not, but other than that material (which is more or less 1 CD out of three, even though it is spread/sequenced) across two CDs, this package definitely falls under the category of "grey market", aka "bootleg", which means that there's no truly "right" way to get it, so...proceed accordingly and knowingly.

Yeah, the Pujols deal does not upset me too much, it's just big-money dick flapping, but the C.J. deal...if this really comes down to an issue of the ownership pocketbooks staying closed because they don't like his "edgy" personality (and I've hear no rumors that it does, but have heard talk that he "rubs people the wrong way"), then...fuck that. The only truly unconditional love I have is for my family. A sports team is not my family, and a sports team that lets personalities take precedence over performance when it comes time to pay up is not even my friend. Is it a business or is it not? If it is, take care of your business and put the emo stuff aside. That "edgy" personality has a talent that your team would most likely have been much better with than without, and he got fair market value afaic. Your main competitior for getting into the playoffs just better at your expense. How is that good business? I'm venting right now, we'll see how the rest of the off-season & the 2012 season goes, but right now....grrrrrrrr.

Angels sign both Pujols & C.J. Wilson. Not a good day for the Rangers. The Pujols deal is A-Rod-level nuts, but if the Rangers couldn't or wouldn't match the very reasonable deal that C.J. got, then the reservations-about-the-organization eyebrow that I'd been wanting so badly to finally relax just got raised more than a little. Nolan don't go five years for pitchers. Well fuck, dude, get over it. Other people will. That you would let your (right now) only division rival take your best pitcher without too much of a fight really, really does not sit well with me. Is the organization angling to actually win or just to "compete"? Should've won it in October. Might be a while before we get back now, especially hearing about the Angels new TV deal, which is 2-3 time more than ours (which doesn't go into effect until 2014, iirc). Just when you think you're going to be able to have a chance at staying in the hunt with the true "big market" teams in terms of dollars available...it was a fun dream while it lasted. In the meantime, that well-worn, mustard-stained C.J. Wilson jersey just went into the rag heap.

Hate Inez Andrews? Such a thing is not possible.