Dan Gould

Playoff teams in the AL are set (Bos, Cle, LAA, NYY). It's just a matter of seating now. That's "seeding" and its not over yet. Red Sox magic number to clinch the wild card is four. I presume that they can manage to combine their wins with Detroit losses to reach that number. Look for the lame champagne celebration sometime next week.

Am I the only one who finds this little tidbit very disturbing? All fine and dandy on the "soul mate" front and the search for good vibes in partnership and marriage, but I sincerely hope some of Mike's best friends told him he was an utter jerk in this respect; if not for leaving the mother of his 4 month old child, then for not leaving her 13 months earlier. Unless you know all of the circumstances, John, I don't think you should judge. What if she had told him she was on the pill and lied and that is how she got pregnant? What if she is the one to shut him out and prevent contact? I don't know what the law is in Germany but in the States a Father may have money taken out of his paycheck to cover court-ordered child support and at the same time, barring allegations of abuse, Fathers have visitation rights. Either way though I would not judge anyone's choices unless they went running because they refused to support or have any concern for their child.

I'll have to think about this one. Blasting into space is pretty tempting... There is also a sense of poetic justice to it, as the 'roids helped Bonds blast those hits just a wee bit further than before, so now the famous ball will get blasted further than even Barry could hit it.

I'd go ahead and call the number on that page.

That is correct. All money goes to the Goldman family and their Foundation in memory of Ron. If Chris is referring to OJ's first "book" I Wanna Tell You, I don't think he's seen any royalties on that one in a long, long time.

Congratulations to Patrick and his Tribe on a huge comeback win over the Tigers - three in the eighth to tie, walk-off homer in the 11th to win.

The Yankees will face either the Angels, who are the only team in the majors with a winning record against them in the Torre era and has beaten them in short playoff series twice in this decade, or the Indians. The Yankees swept the Indians but they also managed to avoid CC Sabathia. As a lefty, he's likely to give the Yankees trouble, and with the Indians in strong shape to clinch with some time left, should be slotted so that he gets two shots at the Yankees. I don't expect them to make it out of the first round in either event.

I seriously cannot believe you said that. Why? Did you bother to read the article? It states two things as being established facts among those who study these matters: Steroids help you hit home runs. HGH doesn't. The fact that players have conspired to attain HGH has no bearing on whether or not it will help. It only shows how players are driven to try to anything they can get their hands on when the biggest star in the game is well known to be an abuser of these chemicals. After all, Bonds took such drugs as Clomid, a women's infertility drug thought to help a steroid user recover his natural testosterone production, and Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug used as a powerful stimulant. Does a woman's infertility drug help you hit homers? Probably not. Does a narcolepsy drug help you hit homers? Probably not. Yet the home run "king" used them, and it shouldn't surprise anyone if it turns out that other players used them too.

When I was young and went by "Danny" there were 43 of me. When I was in Graduate School and went by "Daniel" in my papers, there were 222. But only 22 who go by "Dan Gould". But like Chuck, the data base is fucked when it comes to my wife's maiden name. She'll have to let her family know that they don't exist.

The above has to be the worst letter about baseball that you have ever written. Only the supremely ignorant baseball neophyte expresses himself in that fashion. I'm not even going to take it apart piece by piece, just chalk it up to an aberration on your part. I'll add one thing. You'll never see me belittle a team's accomplishment(s) by chalking it up to "luck". I'm going to try to be gentle here, so I'll just say "Whatever". Then I will go on to repeat that the likelihood of those two pitchers going homer, homer, walk, double, single, double, single are infinitesimal. In fact, they are even smaller than I had previously presumed. When the supremely unlikely occurs, how else can it be described but as "luck"? Okajima's batting average against (lefties) is .235. He's allowed 17 walks in facing 265 batters - the likelihood of a walk is .064. Papelbon's BAA (righties) is .212. Against lefties it is .094. So, the odds are simply calculated like this: .235 X .235 X .064 X .235 (for Okajima's string) .212 X .094 X .212 (for Papelbon) The likelihood of that string of events is .... wait for it 0.0000034 If the same situation were repeated 10 MILLION TIMES, the Yankees would take the lead in the manner they did all of 34 times. And furthermore, this calculation over-estimates the likelihood because the first two hits off of Okajima were home runs, and he had allowed four home runs in 265 opponent's plate appearances. So taking that into consideration .... Well, suffice it to say that my calculator does not go out far enough for that calculation. So let's just leave it at what we have: The Yankees would duplicate their remarkable, un-aided by luck accomplishment in the same way 34 times in ten million attempts. Nope, not a smidgen of luck involved at all.

His only known income is $400,000 a year football pension. It won't get you much of a Dream Team but its a lot more than most criminal defendants have for their representation. Considering that the case is a lot more straightforward than when he murdered two people, I'd expect him to have more than adequate representation. Its also possible that a "celebrity" lawyer will take the job to get his face on TV and get other gigs.

He hasn't committed perjury until he does it while his testimony is sworn, at a Grand Jury hearing or a trial.

Well, its time for America to vote! I can't believe they'd run the article without giving the URL but a quick google search found it: http://www.vote756.com/marcecko/ September 25 is the deadline, vote early and often! Me, I'm trying to decide how long I should keep hitting the back button to register as many votes as possible for "Brand It".

Schilling is hardly a "five or six" inning pitcher. He has reinvented himself by changing his patterns and inducing early swings and weak contact. Or did you not notice that he had only thrown seventy pitches through seven innings, an astounding average of 10 per, and aside from two hard hit balls that Drew caught, induced a multitude of weak pop-ups and ground balls? While there is a significant risk of getting a flat, relatively slow pitch hammered out of the ballpark, he seems to be making the changes to be successful with reduced velocity. His performance since his return is far better than his record and gives me hope going forward that he can be effective, and yes, pitch deep into games. When you don't got for strikeouts and get early swings and weak contact, there is no reason why you can't be a steady seven inning pitcher, and in the case of last night, be fresh and ready to keep going after seven. I'd say Francona wants Okajima to be right going forward and therefore didn't want him to pitch unless he had to. Under different circumstances, maybe Schilling comes out even though he had thrown very few pitches through seven innings but Schilling deserved to pitch the eighth inning, the only reason to take him out was The Human Sweat Gland's shot off the Monster. While I don't want Schilling back next year, he is far better right now then he has been and hardly deserves the label of "five to six inning pitcher". As far as Dice-K goes, earlier in the season he was going deeper into games because they were less concerned about his pitch-count. It now appears that they plan to skip him on Wednesday with an eye toward not only setting up the rotation going into the playoffs but also to get him a blow and be ready to throw deeper into games. In short, don't look for him to be a five or six inning pitcher in October. That will only happen if he gets hammered.

It's not luck when the two best relievers groove pitches down the middle of the plate, serving them up on a platter? They've done it to one or two batters a tiny handful of times all season - what are the odds of those two throwing so many fat pitches in succession, in the same game? Of Papelbon taking a mental holiday? Lefties were Oh for 35 against Papelbon - what are the chances he grooves one for a game-tying double? Luck is precisely what it was because I would wager that given the same circumstances 100 times, that result would never happen again.

Well it was certainly appropriate that a series that began with an all-time, historic, never-to-be-duplicated lucky win would end with an average, run-of-the-mill lucky win. Let's count the positives, shall we? 4 1/2 game lead, 12 to play. Yankees are 4-8 against the Orioles, 8-7 against Toronto and Tampa. And the Orioles look like they are coming out of their horrendous streak, winners of 3 of their last 4. For all of the Sturm und Drang and the amazing second half, the Yankees still have never gotten closer than 4 games, and they aren't even there now. If you think the Yankees have the Red Sox number this season, fine, that is your perogative. Beat the Angels first, on the road, and then we'll find out if its true. Cleveland notwithstanding. Gagne looked the best that he has since the trade, and that may be a critical factor in October. Schilling looked more like the big-game pitcher that we will need in the playoffs. And Joba wasn't exactly untouchable.

Of course. Info like that minimizes the NEW, AMAZING, EXTRA-SPECIAL nature of the project.

If Bertrand's copy isn't, mine is, so I can cover you if need be.

I was amazed when I saw this: Quote: Originally Posted by LeeS View Post Any idea what price point these will be at? Let's assume $50 each.... by my calculator's calculations for 63 titles it will total $3,150 (not including shipping). Time to start a paper-route & mow some neighbor's lawns. I was just thinking my Jazz library needed more than the big 3 (Miles, Coltrane, & Brubeck for me). Looking forward to these So the guy presumably has KoB, A Love Supreme and Take Five? I can understand people wanting to have the best sounding versions of music that they love but it seems ridiculous to me to buy music simply because the remastering job is fantastic. Different strokes and all that I suppose. I said it sort of tongue in cheek up above but this really epitomizes the attitude. Its aural masturbation for audiophile wankers.

Yeah, but I suspect he'd be treated as a 'first time offender'. What a f-ed up world we live in when OJ is a "first time" offender.

Chalk one up for Match.com. I responded to her profile, which referenced Ella Fitzgerald, and the rest is history. Well, maybe not history but it will be six years of marriage a week from today. You can actually chalk another one up to Match, my best friend met his wife through the service as well.

Well, now that some order has been restored in my universe, I think I am ready to comment rationally about the Yankee series to date. I am quite certain I was incapable of rational thought until today's game was over. Number one, I will say that the loss on Friday was the biggest gut-punch killer of my 32 years of being a fan. Worse than Grady Little, worse than Bucky Dent, worse than 19-8. Why? Because the end came so suddenly. With Grady's brain fart, the damage was done and the loss was inevitable, no matter how long the game went. This was nearly as important a game, and the lead disappeared and the loss was tallied in the space of, from the time Papelbon came in, about five pitches. I was prepared for the game to get tighter, I was not prepared for him to go single, double, single, to give up the winning runs in the blink of an eye. It will forever make me sick just thinking about it. Number two, I do not have a problem with Tito's management of the bullpen. As Patrick says, you go with your best pitchers. While Okajima has had more mixed results of late, and just as with Dice-K, fatigue has to be an ongoing concern, it was a total fluke that he went homer, homer, walk, double. This was a meltdown that in all likelihood will never happen again while Okajima and Paps are teammates. Ever. But as far as Gagne goes, you had the lefties starting the inning - that is Oki's responsibility. Once the inning started its downward slide, under the circumstances, you have to go with your best, Papelbon. That is a core belief of Theo, not to mention Bill James. If Papelbon gets out of the inning and the lead is intact, maybe he starts the ninth, maybe Gagne does. But Papelbon has to be on the mound for the most important pitches. It just so happened that he executed about as well as Oki did. Number three, let's talk about some positives: First, the top two starters far outperformed the Yankees top two. While Dice gave up some walks and threw too many pitches, it was still an impressive return to something resembling form. Beckett today was simply outstanding, and having the likelihood of home field advantage throughout the playoffs is encouraging when you consider that Wang does not have a very good ERA at Fenway in his career. Second, the offense continues to produce in the absence of Manny, as well as the mini-slump that Lowell is in and the major slump that Youk has been in since the ASB. Papi is hitting, Pedroia has to be the favorite for RoY, and Ellsbury sure looks like a star in the making. Last, while I have not shown a great ability in my prognostications, I remain optimistic about our chances in the rubber game. Schilling pitched quite well in the loss at New York and I will be very surprised if Clemens is effective, and if he is, if he is effective for very long. Magic number is nine, should be seven, and ought to have been 5 when the weekend is over. But I'll be happy if it is seven when all is said and done. Then I think we'll have a chance to clinch on the road next weekend or certainly at the beginning of our final homestand.

Shouldn't we also toast Bob Weinstock for allowing the recording to happen after Coltrane had first agreed to sign with Prestige and then also signed with BN? It being fifty years old reminds me of what happened when I first heard this. I bought the album in 1988, liking the cover and not really knowing who the artists were. Completely blown away, before I flipped the album over to listen to it again, I scanned the back cover for a recording date. The only date I could find was 1985 (the date of this reissue), and so I thought to myself, well, this Coltrane dude must have a more recent release to check out.

I don't know. How many? How many versions of What's going on", "Willow weep for me" or "Since I fell for you" by a tenor player do you want to hear? Or maybe it makes a difference who he is. MG In the case of MartyJazz, I'm pretty sure he could do without any more versions of "Since I Fell For You" by a tenor player.

This set was probably the greatest bargain acquisition of timeless music I've ever stumbled upon. Someone had sold it to a used books/music store and the inconsequential mark on the disc relegated it to the "BLEM" (ished) section: $2.50