PHILLYQ

Uh, Mark, if its the best lineup in baseball, how come the Red Sox scored almost 100 more runs? .. The Dh, and the wee little stadium they play in???? And Larry Walker joined the fun late...

'Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too'

Ichiro's OBP is only slightly better than Posada's, yet his BA is much,much higher. Look in the Sunday newspaper, where most papers will have the teams BA, OBP, runs scored. Check how BA does not correlate to runs scored, but OBP is much closer to a very good correlation. I don't deny that Ichiro is a very good player, but if he walked as much as Posada he would be of much more value to his team because he would make less outs.

The game last night had a wonderful,'only in Yankee Stadium' ending. A tie game, Matsui works a walk and Bernie Williams sends one out! It was so nice to see him do well, he's one of the classiest people in all of sports. He had a difficult year, with an emergency appendectomy, shuffled around in the lineup, sometimes benched for Lofton, but didn't whine and moan about it. bernie, this one's for you

I just lstened to to 'Patterson's People'- y'all got a winner there!

Welcome to the board, Steve.

Walks don't drive in runs and move runners along the same way walks do. Plus Ichiro has a canon for an arm and steals bases. Which would you all want on your team, Posada or Ichiro? No brainer. Don't know what Ichiro's stolen base percentage is, but below about 80% doesn't really help much, as every caught stealing is an out created.

Walks don't drive in runs and move runners along the same way walks do. Plus Ichiro has a canon for an arm and steals bases. Which would you all want on your team, Posada or Ichiro? No brainer. Johnny E, There are really only two things that you can do when you get up to bat- get on base or make an out. With that in mind, OBP is a lot more important than BA. BA tells you about hits, but not much about how often you get on base compared to appearances. In 1996, the Yanks had Mariano Duncan as their second baseman. He hit .340 and walked 9 times- his OBP was a measly .352, pathetic for someone hitting .340. The goal on offense is to score runs, and runs scored correlate much more highly to OBP than to BA. Barry Bonds is considered by many the best offensive player in the game right now, and he has a slightly lower BA than Ichiro, but his OBP is about 200+ points higher. Walks do matter-they're not outs. Check out Moneyball(a very good read,regardless- Art Howe comes off clueless!) or a Bill James book. I was at first skeptical, but they can prove it.

The Patton Select has some serious groove and about a disc of Grant Green. Put it in the player, relax and ride the groove.

Considering that they finished last for three years in a row, they had a great year to be in it this late. They just need some decent pitching to go with that great hitting and they'll be a force to reckon with. Funny how Showalter is not such a bad guy when his team wins, right?

It is very sharp looking.

I'm up to my third disc in the set,and I'm lovin' it(It's also much better for you than McDonald's!). The sharp contrast of the different versions of 'Seven Steps' is astonishing- the studio version is very good, but it has Frank Butler on drums and Victor Feldman on piano. When I listened to the version with Herbie Hancock & Tony Williams, the floodgates were opened and they were playing it for all it was worth. Hearing the French MC announce 'erbie 'ancock was a good laugh. I get to listen to more later on-can't wait.

My box arrived today- OH JOY! Now I'm going to clear out the discs in my bag and play Miles on the subway starting tomorrow morning.

Both Boston and the Yanks are in the playoffs, so who wins the AL East is not that big a deal. Keep in mind that Baltimore has given the Bosox fits this year- they may help the Yanks win the division. El Duque's injury does concern me- I was thinking of a playoff rotation of him, Mussina & Lieber, as Brown seems to be out of gas(& brains-PUNCH A WALL, YOU IDIOT?) & Vasquez is just lost. If El Duque can't make the playoffs as the effective pitcher he has been, it may be a long winter in NYC.

Sisler also did it with much fewer at bats, and he hit around .420! However, Sisler did it when there were only white players, you rarely faced more than one pitcher in a game, and travel was rather limited. Interesting that this record hasn't been seriously challenged up until now. That said, Ichiro hardly walks at all, and his OBP is lower than Jorge Posada's. Posada walks 90-100 times a year and his BA is around .265 now, but with the walks his OBP is about .400. So while Ichiro gets tons of hits, Posada helps his team win more games by getting on base more often.

MILES IN BERLIN-SONY/COLUMBIA CD62976($10) With Wayne, Herbie, etc. Includes Milestones,Autumn Leaves,So What,Walkin', Theme GREAT JAZZ TRIO-LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD(UNIVERSAL UCCU5099)($12) Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Tony Williams. Includes Moose the Mooche, Naima,Favors,12+12. Japanese import, still sealed with obi strip. Shipping included in the continental USA. Paypal only. PM if interested Up with price reductions.TAKE BOTH FOR $20 Great Jazz Trio is gone, anyone for the Miles disc? NOW $9

Was Brubeck wearing lederhosen?

Leo Mazzone also deserves some credit- the Braves seem to turn a lot of pitchers around into consistent winners.

As someone who is intimately familiar with long stretches of bum luck(much of it self-inflicted), DON'T WORRY OR DRIVE YOURSELF CRAZY ABOUT IT! It happens, but it is worthwhile to take stock of your situation and see if there are some things that maybe if done differently might yield a different result. I don't know your age, but as you get older(I'm 48), you realize that life ebbs and flows, sometimes everything goes wrong, sometimes everything goes right, and most o fthe time it's a mix of the two. Worrying about it doesn't improve it, but a clear look might. Hang in there, it will get better.

Leeway, Maybe UA was a bit slow mailing the disc(s). But he gave you a refund and you're still complaining- he made good, move on. If the discs show up at your door, please be sure to come backe here and loudly announce that.

May you live a long life

At least one critic has noted that aspect of it. Go to see it if you can- I highly recommend it.

Great post, B-3r, I'm still laughing- here's a section I really liked: "That album proved what record executives have known for years: It's actually very difficult to record a rock record that has no rock in it at all. But with this new release, Matchbox Twenty has really delivered on its signature non-sound." A rock record with no rock!

Berigan, You're giving me flashbacks to 1964- I was an eight year old who thought Mickey Mantle was the coolest thing on Earth(hadn't heard Miles yet), and I was so excited that they were in the World Series. I got to watch some of the games(most were played in daylight hours, not like now, when you have to stay up 'til 12:30A.M. on the East Coast to see the end of the game), and I suffered much heartbreak as the Cardinals beat the Yanks in 7. Little did I know then that the Yanks would not make the postseason until 1976. The Cards do have a great team, and I think you're right about resting Pujols & Edmonds.

I saw it a couple of weeks ago with my 12 year old son, and we both enjoyed it immensely. I was blown away by the scenery & cinematography, how visually the movie draws you into this other world of different colors depending on who's telling the tale. The story itself was very good, the differing perspectives on the same event clashing was quite interesting. The martial arts scenes were dazzling(My son's favorite parts, although he did say it had a good story- nice going, son!).