ghost of miles

Nice sale--I bit on Introducing Kenny Garrett, Ted Brown's In Good Company, Mark Turner's Yam Yam, and both Christlieb/Marsh volumes.

I think the players and other team officials (and fans) are thinking more and more that the punishment levied wasn't enough--and every time the Astros open their mouths about the scandal, they somehow seem to make it worse. You can blame that worsening on "moral outrage" culture, but seems to me that's a copout akin to the abdication of personal accountability/responsibility that you're lamenting the apparent vanishing of above. Astros were great at cheating and suck at mitigating the fallout from getting caught. (And only then because Fiers said something, and that forced Manfred's hand. I really don't think Manfred wanted to pursue this, for a variety of reasons.) And regrets if I've misread your posts, but iirc your response from the git-go to the whole story was to kinda pooh-pooh it, downplay it as not really being a big deal. If so many people are upset about it, y'know, might be fire behind that smoke, not Jello (apologies to J.D. Salinger) or a heapin' stack of moral-outrage pancakes. Now maybe some of that's resentment, because the Astros have been relatively dominant the past three years... but that's also part of what makes it bad. (Yes, bad! ) They won a WS title and damn near picked up a second. If the Astros had concocted this system and finished in the middle of the division the past three years, or barely made the playoffs and been dislodged, there still would've been a scandal, for sure--but I believe the ramifications and reverberations would have been considerably less intense. This is the tainting of a World Series title--not the tainting of an 83-79 season finish, or some such.

Jim, I have no idea why you’ve decided to devote your considerable intellectual abilities to defending what Houston did. Unless it’s some kind of longstanding affinity for a Texas team—but I thought you were a Rangers fan?! I’m not going to wade further into any Trump stuff, because it will inevitably involve too much political talk, but trust me, I’m well aware of the smoldering ashfire that is America. There is NO doubt, though, that DT has made it A-OK for a lot of assery to start showing itself, and I heard his influence loud and clear in how Houston handled the Taubman situation (attacking the media, blatantly lying about what happened, etc). You’ve gone down an analytics/algorithm rabbithole that’s ultimately a smokescreen distraction. As Larry pointed out, yes, it’s one thing to study how pitchers sequence their pitches (when pitcher X gets into a 3-1 count, he throws a slider 90 percent of the time, etc). It’s one thing to study if a pitcher is tipping his pitches. But when MLB says NO use of technology to tip off a hitter, NO centerfield camera, and then you get these oh-so-advanced guys banging on trash cans and setting up a damn monitor just a few steps from the dugout... sorry, I’m not buying the cynical, morally-clouded argument being made here, or berating the Nats for “whining” about how they had to combat this cheating bullshit. It was an open secret in the sense that most teams had a strong feeling the Astros were cheating... but until Fiers blew the whistle, there was no concrete evidence to be had. Just curious, why DO you think Fiers blew the whistle, if this is all just “boys-will-be-boys” nonsense? Clearly he was bothered by it a great deal, given that he chose to speak out about it. Is he a chump? Are all of the MLB players who’ve expressed outrage about it chumps? The fans? Sorry, I can both accept that athletes and teams are just as fallible, maybe more so, as the rest of us when it comes to unethical behavior. But no way am I going to cheer it on as “gee those guys are smart!” and attack those who deplore it as dupes and malcontents. F*#% that trash-can noise! Bingo!

Finally, some moral clarity!

Strip The Title:  Astros' "Apology" Press Conference Was An Utter Joke Manfred won't do it, but at this point I'd be highly in favor of MLB vacating the 2017 World Series title. They can't really award it to the Dodgers--there's a hollow victory if ever there was one--but wipe it off the record books, take the banner down.

To paraphrase a certain former Astros executive, "I'm so f*^&%ing glad the Nats won the World Series! I'm so f*$%ing glad the Nats won the World Series!" (The Trump spin from one of my late-2019 posts, btw, referred to the way Houston initially responded to the Brandon Taubman story. And that was *straight* out of the DT playbook.. but several weeks before the cheating scandal broke. Anyway, I completely stand by that association. Beyond ideology, beyond politics, the effect of DT's toxicity is clearly evident in the wider cultural realm, and his tone was *very* present in the way the Astros handled that mess.) So yeah, God bless the Washington Nationals for taking down the bad guys, and goddam the said bad guys. This article provides some interesting background: Astros' cheating was an open secret inside baseball To quote Nats reliever Sean Doolittle--a member of the victorious team, so no sour grapes to be found here--from just a few days ago: “This is really frustrating,” Nationals closer Sean Doolittle tweeted last week. “A month after MLB’s report and all we have now is more evidence and more questions. . . . The integrity of the game is at stake and players and fans deserve some answers. “It feels like there’s still no closure and everything has been thrown into question — past outcomes are being second guessed and even future games will be cast in doubt. There can be no redemption arc after an institutionalized scandal like this until there’s some accountability.” No laughing matter.

Prosecutor to defendant: “Did you murder that man?” Defendant: “He stopped breathing. You can phrase it however you want.” Using the same “tools at everyone’s disposal, just outside of the currently-allowed guidelines” is akin to saying, “So what, guy took a gun and shot somebody. Btw that dude has great aim! Really knows how to use a pistol to gun folks down.” Granted, Houston didn’t commit murder. They just sullied the integrity of the game in a collective manner not seen since the Black Sox scandal. Nobody else around MLB is laughing. Astros ripped for pathetic press conference

I'm reading similar reports. Also that Crane, just like Hinch, gave a non-answer to the buzzer question, which is pretty damning. Astros cheating and skulduggery aside, it's good to see players at camp, though. Opening Day just six weeks away!

From today’s Pinstripe Alley roundup: NY Daily News | Kristie Ackert: One of the players that hasn’t moved on from the Astros just yet is Gary Sanchez. Sanchez was openly joking about the situation to reporters, but also noted that he’s seen the clip of Jose Altuve hitting the walk-off against Aroldis Chapman countless amounts of times. Then he offered an amazing quote, saying “I can tell you if I hit a homer and I get my team to the World Series, they can rip off my pants.”

My 80s indie-kid heart still beats strong:

Thanks for starting this thread... it's going to be an interesting season. Go Yankees!

Sounds good to me! They’re more likely to get pelted with a few high hard ones this season, though, judging from what some pitchers around the league have been saying. (Three bangs means “chin music.”) In more general and much more upbeat news... pitchers and catchers start reporting tomorrow! Hallelujah. Spring training reporting dates

Not rock, but an excellent collection of late 1960s/early 70s Indianapolis soul music:

Thank the baseball gods they did! Turns out Taubman was indeed just the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, just another guy whose team was screwed and cheated by the Houston Asterisks, or the “Cheating MFs,” as he calls them. (You wanna see some real hate for Houston, just stop by SB Nation’a True Blue LA site sometime. Well, pretty much *any* non-Houston site these days.) My pre-2019 World Series comment about the rottenness at the core of Houston’s organization has sure been born out, btw.

Tommy Pham sure didn’t hold back in his reaction to the A.J. Hinch interview. (An interview btw in which Hinch gave a non-answer when asked if the Astros employed a buzzer system last season.)

We're re-airing Black, Brown and Beige: Duke Ellington's Historic Jazz Symphony this week, and I just found out that WBGO-Newark will be broadcasting it tomorrow night as well from 7-8 p.m. EST. (It will also air on Blue Lake Public Radio, home to our own Lazaro Vega, from 10-11 p.m. EST tomorrow evening.)

No kidding. Friends of mine from the UK and Canada profess shock and horror at the cost of medical care in the United States.

Thanks for these recs, Brad. Watching Smiley’s People has got me on another le Carre jag. Just resumed reading Adam Sisman’s bio as well. I have to confess that I bogged down with A Perfect Spy but will try returning to it too. Intrigued by an earlier Smiley novel, The Looking Glass War... how’s that one, if you’ve read it?

Ride's Nowhere, an album that still sounds gorgeous 30 years on:

I'm sure it's been discussed previously on the board, but last night I was listening to disc 1 of the Miles 1965-68 box set and really noticed the Tristano influence coming through on "Dolores." Googled out of curiosity and came across this article, which does indeed namecheck Miles Smiles (the original album on which "Dolores" appeared) as audible evidence of LT's influence on Herbie: The Lennie Tristano-Herbie Hancock Connection EDIT: I see to no surprise that it has been discussed before. Mods, feel free to delete this thread and add my comment to Allen's previously existing one.

Hoping this PSA poster’s take is credible: >>Paxton might not be out as long as mentioned. The good news is that there wasn’t a structural issue. I suspect he will start rehabbing as soon as the stitches are removed. (2 weeks?) Probably start Baseball activities after a month (March). I could see him coming back by the end of April, definitely by early May.>> In the meantime that means Happ will most likely be the fourth starter behind Cole/Severino/Tanaka, with a bevy of prospects and others (Montgomery, Garcia, Loisiaga etc) tussling it out for #5.