Quincy

Heck yeah!

This is slowly changing. Just last week Rob Neyer and 3 guys associated (1 formerly) with Baseball Prospectus were given the vote. One didn't sound all that thrilled by the honor in his blog (wasn't Neyer.) Allowing just beat writers is a problem as even with interleague play they see so little of the other league. Unless they're extreme baseball nuts with a lot of time on their hands I'm doubtful that they much of anything other than the game of the team they cover. Of course the national TV people mostly just see the Red Sox or Yankees and whoever they're playing...

Yeah, their service can be spotty. I greatly appreciate's Aggie's notices here, especially as he filters out the fool's gold.

A snow day! They're rare here so the whole town shuts down. You'd think we were southerners or something. Of all things Joe Posnanski wrote something about "the aura." As you'll see he's not a believer. For me I'm not that anxious to put Morris in the Hall but it wouldn't upset me if he was put in. But I agree with you that Morris was something else to watch. He was intimidating. He was a grouch. He looked great in that Tiger uniform. And yup, he and Stewart are very much the face of AL pitching when I think of that era. (It also reminds me that the NL had better pitching.) One could field an excellent team with guys from the past 30 years who will likely not make the Hall of Fame yet who were damn good players. How about an outfield of Kirk Gibson, Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans? Mattingly on 1st, Whitaker or Randolph (or White for matter) at 2nd. Trammell at short, Nettles at 3rd...For the NL you could put George Foster in left and Dave Parker in right and go from there. They may not get official recognition (and most shouldn't) but all remembered by fans who around at the time as terrific ballplayers in their prime. And some were more exciting (think of Eric Davis in his prime) then some of the guys in the Hall. Sorry, I've been babbling. I've been cooped up inside too long.

I think plenty of people who don't think he should be in saw him pitch. If anything more saw Morris pitch than Blyleven thanks to increasing TV coverage. There are loads of articles that go deep into why he doesn't belong written by people who saw his whole career such as Bill James. Here's one that addresses the "pitching to the score" defense that's usually mentioned when discussing Morris. If your eyes start to gloss over with this sort of article (and mine do - I used to really get into this kind of stuff but no so much now) then I think one of the key things to glance over are "number of times Morris blew a lead." The pitching while behind is kind of interesting too. He also tended to pitch for good offensive teams btw. For some part of whether Morris should be in or out depends greatly on how big do you want the Hall to be. If you play the game of "well he's better than Drysdale/Hunter" then that opens up a lot space. Aside from Blyleven/Kaat/Morris then there's Tiant, hell, David Cone...it goes on & on. I think the thing about Morris is that he had an old-timey mustache and wore a classic old time uniform and pitched in the park that Cobb, Ruth (when visiting), Greenberg played in. If you took a black & white picture of him he looks like he could have played in any era. He was a gruff cuss and like you say, a workhorse. Mussina was a workhorse too. Do you want thoroughbreds or workhorses in you Hall? Both? Blyleven's 1979 games His no decisions were an oddball mix. He had his usual rotten luck of excellent starts (2 runs in 7 innings type of games) along with plenty of early hooks where you'd think he would gotten tagged with a loss but didn't. Oh that Lumber Co.! As you note Chuck Tanner was very hook happy and other then one injury plagued year Bert had more complete games every year until he turned 39. Somewhere out there is an article about all of the 1-0 and 2-1 games that Blyleven lost but I can't seem to find it. It may be in an BJ Abstract rather than online. If I'm remembering right (and I may not be) it was a real mind blower.

You rang? Simba's Retrosheet page Home/Away Slugging % while a Cardinal: '72 .433/.495 '73 .393/.480 '74 .495/.403 '75 .476/.505 '76 .383/.404 '77 .484/.516 '78 .506/.516 '79 .625/.411 '80 .494/.516 Mostly hurt, though he was a beast at home in '79. Lifetime at Busch (and this includes his post-Cardinal years): .294/.360/.459 His lifetime mark at the 3 other plastic parks from that era. Veteran's .322/.389/.516 3 Rivers .310/.371/.484 Riverfront .307/.348/.533 I reckon the Riverfront #s are helped mightily by shaky staffs. He feasted on the Cubs. Wrigley .339/.410/.482 He also had a high average in 75 ABs at Old Comiskey. Quite a bit of cherry-picking going on in the above though if you check how he hit elsewhere. He had a reputation as not being very good defensively, namely his throwing which for a season or 2 appeared to be sidearm (I think because of a sore shoulder.) However I recall Bill James writing an article (probably in one of the Abstracts or the books that followed) defending his defensive abilities. Catchers have it hard when it comes to the Hall. Even Gary Carter had to wait for awhile.

You're only allowing for 3. Tough choices have to be made. I love Chu's playing but there is a lot of Cab Calloway to deal with. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for that part of the set. And answers also obviously depend on when someone found out about Mosaic. For me it wasn't until the Konitz/Tristano/Marsh set came out. Monk's Blue Note material is some of my alltime favorite music, but for me I know it as RVGs. Herbie Nichols is a Blue Note box that fits easily on the shelf, not a big box Mosaic. And so on. If I answered on music I have that was a Mosaic set but I have in another form, you'd get different answers.

And as of today, these 3 were announced as going out of print. The "...and many more too."

An easy enough site to shrink the megabytes down on whatever picture you want to use for your avatar is webresizer.com.

Hmm...you ask a tough question. Out of 21 big boxes: Venuti/Lang - such a diverse set, and the sound in most places is almost criminally good given the age of the recordings. Django Reinhardt - have the JSP too, but this is nicer. Guess I like violin in jazz alright, but I also like how the clarinet period is included here as well. Gerald Wilson - I go back to it all the time. This may have been the release that pushed me over the edge to the Malcolm Addey cult too. It's very tough to leave off the Duke small groups, but I still associate that set with having the Columbia releases. And hell yes, I love a bunch of the Blue Note sets (Byrd/Adams, Mobley, Turrentine, Parlan), the 2nd Hodges, Bix/Tram/Tea, and H.R.S. too. Not a one I dislike. I still need another couple of years to digest the Classic Capitol to see where it ranks.

Yup. My morning tab. The little pill that starts the day. (Though I renamed mine "AM tab" to save real estate on the toolbar.) Tabbed browsers are one of the great recent inventions, right after clumping cat litter.

That's this one, not this one. ... or maybe visa versa. I could do without the 50-odd Symphony Sid tracks. I have the 2nd one. It's a nice set with some variety at trumpet as you get Davis, Dorham and Gillespie, plus all-star jams and a even a Christmas song. Glad this thread popped up as I just have this and the Uptown and was looking for ideas.

I know, no need to act like a schoolteacher. But he is a schoolteacher.

It's real. Sports Illustrated Cover Vault Ain't it great! Wonder how many seconds (minutes?) the hair added to her times?

Ah yes...I used to do wildlife rehab so have seen these buggers more times than I'd care too. The worst was when someone brought in a fawn (which they shouldn't have done.) Easily the most disgusting thing I've ever set eyes on. Now to purge that vision from my brain again.

Unique? No way. Batter vs. pitcher in baseball. Golf. Tennis...

You forgot to add another 243 of these "!" at the end of your sentence.

Because I already have 14 Jackie McLean CDs and wanted to solicit opinions on whether these two were compelling enough to make it 16. I happen to have both amongst my 16 McLean discs. Right Now! is one that sometimes is my favorite McLean and it really blew my socks off the first time I heard it. It was tough to get it out of the player from what I remember. Jacknife is one you want as well. This warning notice is a good wake up call to not take these releases for granted.

Although I didn't do it this year for the past 15 some odd years I've videotaped the All-Star game. During these cold and grey days without baseball I'll sometimes watch one or two during the winter. It works nicely as it's rare that I remember who wins, and it's kind of a kick to see players in old uniforms, or see how much smaller some of them were when watching the older games. So I pop in a tape of the 2004 game. The tape leads off with a campaign spot of John Edwards speaking on behave of John Kerry saying "he won't leave us behind." Oof. It was all downhill from there believe it or not. The game led off with one of those nutty FOX whacky promo jobs inspired by the Blues Brothers of the Clemens family driving a car around Houston and also featured Barry in another. A steroid parade in other words. Had the tape in for almost an hour (only half paying attention as I was on the laptop) and never saw the game itself thanks to all the pregame stuff despite some fast forwarding. No news here but so much of the Fox junk about the game is not aging well, not that it was ever good to begin with. Okay, enough of the game break, back to DNA samples!

It's usually very easy to turn any DVD player into a multi-region player. Despite the somewhat scary word "hack" it usually just involves using a strange order of button presses on the remote to enter a menu that's for the service person. Once there it involves changing "no" to "yes" on the menu that says "Multi-region player." Or at least this is how it's gone the 3 times I've done it (twice involved "hand holding" a friend through it.) Just Google DVD hack and have your brand and model name handy.

It's a big crazy state Oregon - something for just about everyone. I hear ya! I spent a few weeks out there about 5 years ago, and fell in love with the place, particularly the Eugene area. Its been my goal to move out there ever since, and Im hoping to make that come true in the next year. Eugene eh? Yes, I rather like it too. Came here 22 years (from IL, though a different stop on the CB&Q than you) ago for grad school and decided to stick around. Tough place to find employment - having an in at the university or a government agency helps as they seem to be the only ones who don't lay people off. But what you don't get in $ is more than made up for in surroundings. Er, not architectural (this is one ugly town buildingwise), but rather in natural beauty in the area. Feel free to contact me if you need hints about neighborhoods etc., where to buy CDs, and so on when you dream gets closer.

Might as well use your power to delete this one.

The southern Oregon coast around Brookings is known as the banana belt. From Portland on down the Willamette Valley we'll occasionally get snow in the winter but usually not much. (Actually for the past few years it seems like Portland has had more days of snow than usual - still not much compared to other northern places.) Head about 60 miles east from the valley from Salem/Eugene and you hit places to ski in the Cascades. Where the Moose be is whole 'nother place comparatively. They get real winters out there! It's a big crazy state Oregon - something for just about everyone.

Google now allows you to search the Life Magazine photo archives. This includes photos that weren't published as well. Here's baseball

I'll never look at this one the same way.