Dan Gould

I didn't say the finding was really all that deep.

The key to winning: Face fewer than 39 batters in a 9 inning game. Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20130211/baseball-magic-number-rick-peterson/#ixzz2KhoOmeuh Why is it critical? 39 batters means the number three hitter - usually the best pure hitter on the team - has batted for a fifth time. 40 means 3 and 4 has hit five times. And check out the chart - there are no outliers, its a practically linear relationship between batters faced and likelihood of winning. Simple, yet pretty cool to see it delineated like that.

The Red Sox do indeed need a lot of things to fall in place - Ellsbury, Napoli and Stephen Drew playing for contracts can't hurt, I think. But I do want to say the O's were classic over-achievers last year and I for one won't be remotely shocked if they fall to .500 or worse. Just going back to league average in 1 and 2 run games would bring them back to being a .500 team, if I'm not mistaken..

You guys are making me mighty curious about that Concord date with Scott Hamilton guesting. I've heard Bickert on some other Concord dates but not too many.

Sad news. I wished a rumor like this would turn out to be untrue but when David Weiss is reporting it, I was pretty sure his info was right. I did lose interest in Byrd - actually at the point that so captivated Noj - but he recorded so many strong records over so many years before that. RIP.

Seems to me I read somewhere there's nothing especially unique about galaxies having black holes at their center. And it if freaks you out too much, think of it like the fattest man at the absolute largest buffet you could ever imagine, raised to the hundredth power. Yeah, he's gonna eat it all eventually - but its going to take a long long, long long time.

Have you heard this? Benson in 1973, two discs of live music with Mickey Tucker in support, only one vocal track, excellent song selection. Probably really his last straightahead date, it obviously pre-dates his ascent as a pop star.

You don't want to hear it and you'll never change Tim, but you're coming off exceptionally foolish. Its one thing to insist that the refs screwed your team - the last refuge of a whiner if you ask me but its not an entirely insane complaint. But when it turns into some sort of conspiracy, you're in loony tunes land now. But do tell me: If the refs were hand-picked to make sure the 49ers lost, why was the game so close? Why didn't they make sure the game was well in hand and not end up in a situation where they had to make such a horrendous call at the end of the game?

The fact that Season 3 is available to stream, though hardly my preferred viewing method, at least gives me hope that other seasons will be made available. Oh, and I forgot to mention in my initial post - I hated Fay Furillo then, and I still hate her now. Her one-note character was grating from the get-go.

Yes, he was first cast a corrupt cop and he impressed so much they brought him back in a new role written for him.

Used a holiday gift card to purchase the first season DVD, and finally set aside some time this weekend to watch a few episodes. What a terrific show that was. Too bad I don't think sales were strong enough to justify subsequent seasons being released - would be great to see Dennis Franz again in the role that jump-started his career. But Belker, Sgt Esterhauz, Hill and Renko, had a great time revisiting them all. And I have to note that Veronica Hamel starred in quite a few dreams when I was 16 - and that I still love that theme song, so simple yet so affecting. Any other fans?

All respect but zero interest.

Well, that explains why I could not find it. Isn't it a relief?

I grew up, more or less, with Koch as Mayor. I liked him - and now I look forward to the Times publishing an interview that was conducted with the understanding it would not be published until he died. They teased it in the obit with a mention that he still had nasty words for Mario Cuomo as a result of the 'Vote for Cuomo Not The Homo" campaign signs.

What was it J Peterman said to Elaine when he came back from Burma and took back control of his company? "Thanks for a job .... done." Just kidding I will definitely listen again with the reveal and your comments in mind. Very surprised by the source of the Webster track and I'm just glad to realize that I have that Stitt as part of that two-fer - which I had completely forgotten is in fact a two-fer.

I think any serious jazz fan would know that "Junkie Jazz" isn't just any old title but might cause serious fans to question the intent as well as the knowledge of the artist. Linking artistry to the use of junk is questionable at best, above and beyond the cost its had on the artists in question and their followers. The Ken Burns jazz film was rightly criticized for its focus on Bird's heroin problem - were you unaware of this? The fact that the title doesn't appear on the art itself makes it less troublesome but I don't see how a true jazz fan, particularly of those artists, could think herself innocent when she titles her work Jazz Junkies then expresses amazement that she's on the receiving end of some rancor.

I guess I wish you luck but have to turn on choosing artists based on their "junkie" status and its even worse that you include this

A-Rod may still be a cheating POS If its true don't you figure he can wave bye-bye to the Hall?

What makes you think anyone is trying to control or squelch anything, or that its been asserted that anything should be done about album cover threads? This was a lighthearted attempt to guage the opinion of the members about these threads and nothing else. I was simply curious if others skip over some or most of these threads or if they love each and every one of them.

Seems to me sometimes that the explosion of album cover threads shows that we're running out of things to talk about ...

Rickey Woodard and Oscar Brashear on the front line? I'm definitely in.

FWIW, I enjoy both of those Byrd with voices BNs, was recently reacquainting myself with them, where else but ... in the car.

I'm ashamed to admit I consciously avoided this one, scared off by Yanow's AMG review - and the thought of what the Donald Byrd Singers might sound like. I actually think I might have snagged it as part of a CD trade a while back but never got to it - I've got to check as soon as I get home. Kinda cool to think of an unheard Grant Green, not to mention Byrd/Turrentine/Burrell/Hancock. Even with the Donald Byrd Singers. So Al this was a very good BFT since it exposed me to music I should have heard a long time ago and inspired me to finally remedy that oversight.