Dan Gould

Fascinating piece on the last two months of the Nats disastrous season: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/trade-for-jonathan-papelbon-had-disastrous-results-for-the-nationals/2015/09/30/0aef1564-66ee-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html

Few thoughts Jim: 1. The Cubs won 97 games, a better record than everybody but the two teams they are (barely) looking up at. Personally, in this extremely rare circumstance, I'm pretty damn glad they get a chance at the post-season raffle. 2. Football is too different to have playoff games to determine seedings. NFL plays once a week. MLB plays more or less 6 out of 7 days for six months straight. NFL relies on scouting and new game plans/defensive wrinkles predicated on who the weekly or playoff opponent is. There's no point to take an extra week for a seeding-playoff game because every game thereafter is a one-and-done, do or die. You're both in, let the tie-breaker decide who plays at home because eventually the winner is going to go on the road anyway. Baseball only has one do-or-die game outside of a Game 5 or a Game 7, and that's the wild card play-in. To me its appalling that either Pittsburgh or Chicago is going to be heartbroken after a single 9 inning contest. It should be a best of three series between the WC teams, so that there's some sense that the right team moved on. And as for that headline, I'd assume that CC said it or something pretty damn close for them to go with that.

I can't believe the Cubs won 97 games and I won't see their play-in game. Who knew back in August when I scored tickets that the John Cleese - Eric Idle show in West Palm Beach would end up sharing the night with the NL Wild Card game? Of course Cleese & Idle are a once-in-a-lifetime chance but the Cubs are situated to get into the playoffs pretty regularly in the coming years. What was their net increase over last year? 30 wins?? More?

That's seriously f-ed up.

You lost me there, Jim. Wouldn't game 163 be a win-or-go-home game, either of the tie-breaking or wild-card playoff variety? How do you lose game 163 and not go home immediately following?

Credit where credit's due: Dusty Groove shipment accepted 7 pm Thursday, in my hands in south Florida 10 am Saturday. I noticed the tracking went straight to Chicago Metro, where as before it would be scanned at two locations in IL so maybe they've tightened up the process for getting stuff on it's way?

Jim I believe that is correct but I didn't take note of the preface to Herbie's trio spot.

The tunes on this were so fresh that they hadn't named one of them, and another only had a preliminary name (which they kept). I think the concert was several months before the Royal Flush session.

I thought this got discussed but couldn't find a thread (big shocker). Anyway I sprung for this as part of my "Happy 50th Birthday to Me" and was listening to this on the way to work and can't recommend it enough. I know Solar has questionable business practices but then again what was the provenance of those original VGM LPs? This concert has four tracks by the band, consisting of tunes from the Royal Flush Blue Note LP (Plus Hancock stretching out on a standard). I've loved the originals on that record for a long time and hearing the band stretch out on them is great. Soundwise there is an odd hiccup on the first track, Herbie is playing an intro and fades out and back but beyond that the sound is quite acceptable, although I did have to crank the volume in the car. Amazon has one offer of this for almost $30 but ebreggae has it for almost 2/3 less, under $13: http://www.ebreggae.com

Gotta say I am lovin' how the Red Sox are finishing up, and that Mookie Betts is a freakin' star and only 22.

Good luck to those in the path or potential path, but all I can say is thank God that there is this front coming thru that is like a force-field to push this system to the north shortly. If it wasn't coming thru, south Florida would be in pandemonium, with a storm this big this close and we'd be right in it's sights.

But Ted didn't play piano, at least on this record. I've listened a couple of times, I like it but I can see how it's not especially consequential. Might find the other records, might not bother.

Unbelievable, so soon after his surprise retirement announcement. RIP.

This is a good part of why there's actual hope around Fenway even as they likely finish in last again.

I have to disagree with you on the diamond cutter assertion Larry. You wait til the familiar notes hit and pod up the crowd track. Maybe you vary the reaction time - two notes? 4? But it really is not hard to duplicate such a thing, and unless the crowd reaction came in too early no one would detect it. What would be harder is if it had been an intimate club setting, because then you might want to hear individual reactions, perhaps an audible "Aah" from some extra perceptive person before the applause builds up in a split second.

In my experience the project is dependent upon the funding (Look at the projects funded for Organissimo and Jim's solo projects, or Mike Flanigin's new release). What is going to happen if the project fails to reach it's goal? They get none of what was pledged. What exactly is happening then? I'm not sure why you don't see this as somewhat 'cart ahead of horse' but I surely do. Having said that I never intended to imply that I hope he doesn't reach the goal. I just don't expect projects that are limping toward the finish line to have updates along these lines, rather than "please help us get over the top! Tell your friends! Spread the word!"

Thanks for the reminder but I am really confused about the status of this. I went for a $50 contribution, more than I wanted but felt like he needed, and now I wonder, maybe wasn't necessary considering the project update that was sent to me? He's still down $1700 but she's expecting delivery in 10 days? How is this being produced if they are dependent on Kickstarter? And what happens if this doesn't fund? They aren't supposed to get diddly yet they appear to have a batch of CDs and artwork en route? It almost makes me think this Kickstarter campaign wasn't for production of a "final' release at all.

My wife and I are getting ready to go to the Animal Hospital to say goodbye to Coltrane, who you've known before and whose photo you see with all of my posts. Normally you might preface a story like this as "long story short" but this is literally a short story. Less than 48 hours ago he was eating normally and jumping on the couch (despite what the vet had diagnosed as a 'soft tissue injury' to his right forearm). And then 8 hours later on Friday morning he was listless and had a major fever, and the vet said it could be tick-borne or cancer. He was doing a little better late yesterday but the news this morning was very bad and we know we have to end his suffering. It's going to kill me but what really worries me is how his sister Gracie will get along. Whenever he's had to go to the vet alone, Gracie paces around the house, from the front door to the living room, and when she isn't pacing, she howls her dismay. When Coltrane had his knee surgeries, Gracie did the same thing but I recall that she settled down and was OK after the first day. Now, it's almost like she had a sense of what was going on before we knew. Or she was just extra dismayed that he went away from her only three days later. But she did not calm down much last night and Sue had to take her downstairs and slept on the couch. We're going to have to find her a companion pretty quickly. Farewell to the sweetest, lovingest most amazing companion I've known in 45 years of being a dog lover. Cherish the time you have because it always ends too soon. 12 years was too soon for us.

What does he want and did he end up with it?

Different strokes then. I've enjoyed all of the ones I've heard to date (have transferred but not listed to the Brown, Milton and two Johnny Otis issues).

Thanks to Steve and MG, all things considered I am not going to go looking for this.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!