Quincy

I tend to zone out during local sports due to all of the Duck stuff. So I was stunned this morning turning to page C5 (FIVE?!) to read Dave Niehaus was dead. I grew up hearing Jack Buck, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Carey, Vin Scully on national games and even Ernie Harwell on a good night via the AM radio. Each uniquely great, and yes, I'd put Niehaus amongst them. Like Brickhouse he had to announce for a team that didn't play well most of the time and that takes talent. Which may be why he got just a little exited later on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOWnLqjF40g

Here's hoping the cyclist picks a higher than average number for the civil suit and thus gets a nice settlement since Mr. Moneybags can't afford to miss any time away from the desk. I cycle damn near everywhere and deal with so much idiotic dangerous crap. (He said it's not about the money but he can also give the surplus to charity.) At least I don't have to worry about hit & run high finance drivers who might (gasp) might lose several thousand dollars from the inconvenience of running someone over. Distracted drivers are enough of a headache.

With the 78 era I think the Penguin guide already does review recordings and then compares the compilations making comments about content and mastering quality. Sometimes it's 1 sentence about 1, 3 about another, but I think they're already doing this for a good number of entries. This way of doing things is perhaps more noticeable in their Blues Guide. I too don't care for dropping things when they go OOP along with never including Mosaics. On the other hand if they didn't drop something the book would have weighed 20 lbs. by the 5th edition. I'm going to wait until they collect all the reviews and make it an iPad app.

It's still your birthday on this coast, so happy birthday!

Bah. I swear earlier today there was not the subtitle that reads "Imagine if Mick Jagger responded to Keith Richards about his new autobiography."

Mick replies to Keith's "Life". I don't discount the possibility that it's fake, but it's very good read even if it is. And if it's not, Mick is more self aware than he's given credit for.

Yeah, I thought the announcement of his death was an error at first given the timing. It was also a bit of a jolt when the hospice story came up as the headline I read said "former Tiger manager." And then I remembered he spent double the amount of years managing the Tigers as he did the Big Red Machine. Not that my hair has gotten that white, but I think Steve Martin & Sparky Anderson had a profound effect on me that going grey (or silver or white) at a young age is a perfectly fine to do and thus I've never had the urge to dye my hair, no matter what Keith Hernandez or Walt Frazier say otherwise. Sparky's white hair did a better of showing off his red face when he was angry with umpires too.

As mentioned earlier the lack of an income tax in Texas means they can offer less money and have it be equal in take home pay. The author is making assumptions the family moves from Arkansas which might not happen wherever he signs. I'm not sure how the math works as far as counting days of residency when one's job requires being on the road for 1/2 of the working year. I think clearing Vlad off the books may have been an attempt to have some spending money. As far as the champs go, I think if anyone were in the market for Werth it'd be them. The staff is locked inbso they might as well overpay for a bat. I don't think they should expect Cody Ross to play like he did in the postseason over the course of a season.

I'm not crazy about expanding the playoffs, although as the system stands now there's no tough penalty for being a wild card. If they did it 2 out of 3 for the wild cards followed by the winner always facing the team with the best record (rather than best record unless that team is in your division) it might actually be a better system. And get rid of some of the weird off days that certain divisional series have where there's a day off between game 1 & 2. The other thing would be tighten up the days between the wild card playoff and the xLDS so the wild card team would not be throwing it's ace in game 1. That'd be another penalty for not winning the division. The major drawback of expanding the playoffs is that while sometimes the wild card is the 2nd best team in the league my guess is that the 2nd wild card team is likely the 5th best team. Or maybe 4th. So it just increases the odds that a not very good team becomes champ. We already have March Madness for that trip. *Oh yeah. Very happy to see how our Ranger fans are handling this. That was just one hell of a pitching performance tonight. What can you do? Come back and try your best to send in back to SF, but if not, another city of suffering fans will finally get a title. It's not over yet though. '79 Pirates...

It's 75 degrees at the start of Game 4? I half expect the game to be cancelled because the weather is too nice.

A blogger is putting up the out of print and many never put on CD Rough Trade singles.

Ah ha! That makes more sense! I mean after all (cover your eyes Bev!), we are in something of a vinyl resurgence.

Brotherly love.

Like the song says, "you gotta move." Over last fall & winter I ended up putting on 15 lbs. too many because I stopped exercising regularly and felt compelled to try every beer release from our own 3 breweries plus others in the region. The Pacific Northwest has far too many tasty alcohol temptations. Like others I now pay attention to calories, fat & sodium levels, try to avoid or cut way back on sugar and refined flour and overly processed foods. If I snack I use a 1/2 oz. metal condiment cup and partially fill it with pumpkin or sunflower seeds or a few unsalted almonds. Seaweed snacks are low cal too. I'm not a saint though and occasionally get untracked. That's where exercise can help. Drinking water is good as it will fill the stomach. There was a recent study that showed that simply drinking either a cup or pint before dinner results in people eating less at the meal and thus losing weight vs. those who don't. I guess if you're cooking portions for yourself perhaps that's not as important, but the idea is sound enough. If you don't like the taste of your water buy a Brita water filter pitcher (their faucet mounts are cheap plastic and wear out too quickly in my opinion) or look into some other brand or system. I would recommend getting some exercise in though. I never cared for the gym so I cycle a lot and add in some yoga. Situps are free and very necessary if you have a gut. Start with 25 a day for a week or however long it takes and keep adding to the total. Experiment with different music from your collection to make this more tolerable. And if you have a used sporting goods store think about picking up some dumbbells of varying weights. Weight work keeps burning calories for awhile after you stop exercising, or so I've read. Google around for ideas on what to do with them.

The lineup was an ugly position to do a double switch as Hamilton had made the last out in the previous inning. So without a double switch that meant the 6th batter in the 9th would have been been the pitcher's slot, and if you need to score at least 2 the pitcher is coming up. I know, it's a game you have to win and the situation was dire. But if you want more than one inning from your closer you have to go without your best hitter. Tough choice!

But in the parallel universe that she stepped out of there is smart guy. So there!

I actually don't think it's that big of deal. David Murphy is a pretty good hitter (.291/.358/.449). And a little more pop vs. righties. He hits .272 w/ no power vs. lefties, so instead you play Francoeur. "Frenchy" has had a mixed career, but he has been a strong hitter vs. lefties for his career and was again in 2010. So you platoon those two and have a dynamite frightening late inning pinch hitter with Vlad. If you're a Ranger fan you hope that 1st base isn't open when he comes up so they're forced to pitch to him. It's not a bad situation to have at all.

Apologies to Berigan, but the Braves beat the Yankees 12-1 in Game 1 of the '96 series. And that didn't end well for the Braves. It's not supposed to be sunny tomorrow either so with no twilight shadows to deal with, so it could be another um...not low scoring game.

Technology provides an alternative. I may give this a go as I have the iPhone baseball audio ap which gives me a choice of the Rangers or Giants announcers. I sure wouldn't go through the trouble to hear Joe Morgan of ESPN radio instead though.

R.I.P. Paul, the mimic octopus lives on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygh1-ul6E94

I know it was the low-scoring higher-mound '60s, but that Koufax line at the bottom of the article is cruel in many ways. 61 Ks in 57 innings in 8 games pitched for an ERA of 0.95. And he went 4 and 3. He lost 3 times with an 0.95 ERA! Time to head over to baseball-reference and refresh my memory. *This will do it. In the '66 series the Dodgers lost 6-0 in his start. Only 1 of the 4 runs he allowed was earned as the Dodgers committed 6 errors. Willie Davis had 3 errors in one inning from losing the ball in the sun. Even the best fielders can have a bad day.

So are Oswalt & Peavy. Still some good ole boys in baseball yet.

I can never remember the order of the letters for BABIP, hence calling it Ginsu. I agree Clay's season was a dandy, but his .265 BABIP & 4.29 SIERA were a little on the high side to think he'll do a 2.33 ERA again. I know you don't believe in the W stat either, and his 15-6 record was helped by an offense that scored 7 runs an outing for him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not down on the guy at all, I just wouldn't be surprised if the ERA is in the high 2/low 3 instead 2.33. But along with Lester they sure make a fine foundation for a staff.

Nice idea except that the more cautious places would be afraid to look at it. Too many viruses & nasty things get spread by these critters.

They accidentally (or at least they were only available for a day) about 12 mp3s from the set and I thought the sound quality was great. And that was confirmed by a single that has been released. It's an alternate "Love Or Confusion" w/ a unique b-side (not on the box) called "12 Bar With Horns" that's almost 11 minutes long. The b-side is The Experience + Chris Wood and percussionist Rocky Dzidzornu. To me some of the horn work is so-so, but Jimi's guitar work is not! And it's not some aimless jam. I think Sony is letting independent CD shops get the single at a good price, or for whatever reason it was less than $4 where I bought it and there were many copies.