ghost of miles

Some self-appointed Wikipedia contributor is engaged in wishful thinking on Houston's Wiki page: After being accused of cheating on November 12, 2019 for using electronic video technology to steal signs, the Astros 2017 World Series was vacated and given to the Dodgers. I certainly wouldn't be bothered if Manfred decided to strip them of their 2017 WS title, but that ain't gonna happen because he's shown himself to be a wuss about matters like this, and also most likely because the rule forbidding use of an outfield camera came into effect only this season, correct? I don't know what the rules were re camera placement and other use of technology for sign-stealing in 2017. Perhaps instead Manfred can dictate that the team's name be changed to the Houston Asterisks.

Which Don Shirley CD on Collectables are you looking for?

I’ll confess I don’t even know what MLB’s rules are re using technology to steal signs, or what meaningful punitive actions could be levied against the Astros. But this to me deeply taints their recent success, and also makes me lose respect for A.J. Hinch, who had to have known about this. No wonder Houston’s put up such good offensive numbers and been so tough at home. And as skeptical as I was of Trevor Bauer’s public speculation about how they’d improved their pitchers so much, now I have to wonder about that as well. All the more credit to your Red Sox for busting their chops in the ALCS last year. MLB shouldn't expect too much from the Astros' investigation of their own cheating In other news, O.J. Simpson still on the hunt for "the real killers!"

Astros using cameras to steal signs, a breakdown

One of my baseball-circle-texting friends sent a link to the original Athletic article with the comment that the Astros are doing their best to overtake the Yankees as MLB's evil empire. I will cheer them on in that endeavor! To me it's one thing if one team notices that a pitcher is somehow tipping his pitches, but when you start pulling stadium technology and the baseball operations staff into it, it's crossing a line into cheating. I'm sure Houston's not the only team to have done so, but man, it confirms once again to me that there's an organizational rottenness in general when it comes to the Astros. Following accusations of sign-stealing during this year's postseason, one former Houston Astros pitcher said members of the organization devised a system in 2017 to steal signals from opposing teams. Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, Mike Fiers and three other people who were with the organization in 2017 said the Astros developed a system for home games that was aided by a camera set up in the outfield. "That's not playing the game the right way," said Fiers. "They were advanced and willing to go above and beyond to win." Rosenthal and Drellich reported the system began early in 2017 and involved "at least two uniformed Astros" who planned out how to do it. The setup "required technical video knowledge and required the direct aid of at least some on the baseball operations staff." Mike Fiers admits Astros stole signs electronically during 2017 season I mean, ffs! The Astros' setup involved a television on a wall steps from their dugout connected to a camera feed from center field, which was trained on the opposing catcher's signs. "Team employees and players would watch the screen during the game and try to decode signs—sitting opposite the screen on massage tables in a wide hallway [that leads from the clubhouse to the dugout]," Rosenthal and Drellich wrote. "When the onlookers believed they had decoded the signs, the expected pitch would be communicated via a loud noise—specifically, banging on a trash can, which sat in the tunnel. Normally, the bangs would mean a breaking ball or off-speed pitch was coming." Danny Farquhar, who made two appearances against the Astros in September 2017 for the Chicago White Sox, told Rosenthal and Drellich he remembered hearing something coming from Houston's dugout while he was on the mound. "There was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down," Farquhar said. "After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups, and they were getting fouled off. After the third bang, I stepped off."

We re-aired Tyner Time: McCoy Tyner's Blue Note Years last week, and it remains archived for online listening.

OK Boomer! Just kidding, I'm completely with you on this whole matter. I may break down and get a Spotify subscription at some point in the next few months, but I like my physical media, oh yes I do. And yes, storage becomes an issue, sure, but one that I have direct control over, as opposed to whatever corporate clouds that are floating out there.

Yes! I've really liked what I've heard from this. Right now:

Big Country's vastly underrated sophomore album:

You’re far too kind! I need to finally get in gear with a long-planned show about the Five Spot, which will include comments from David Amram and Dan Wakefield (the latter a writer who hung out at the Five Spot frequently in the late 1950s and who wrote a memoir called New York In The Fifties). Coming in January, if all goes as planned. And I am going to at least pop my head in the door of the newly-reopened Cafe Bohemia when I’m in town for the Jazz Congress. Love this record! There’s music from it in the show.

I was just listening to that yesterday! And coincidentally enough have more 80s Chet on the stereo right now:

Up in honor of the club's reopening after 60 years: Live At Cafe Bohemia: Hardbop In The Heart Of Greenwich Village

15 Barrow Street, original location. I'm definitely going to drop in when I'm in New York in January.

Historical photo from the re-opened club's website:

Several days ago I noticed in the station’s website traffic analytics that an older Night Lights show about NYC’s Cafe Bohemia club was suddenly getting a fair number of daily pageviews. Now I think I know why: Cafe Bohemia re-opens

Excellent interview with Ricky Riccardi, Louis Armstrong biographer and Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum (also annotator of previous and forthcoming Armstrong Mosaic sets) in the Winter 2019 issue of Brilliant Corners. Not available online, unfortunately, but the magazine itself is always worth checking out (full disclosure: the editor, Sascha Feinstein, is a longtime friend): Brilliant Corners

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Yes, SI, like so many other legacy media institutions, can’t be the crucial cornerstone of sports journalism that it once was. One of the article’s observations, though, is that it was still getting by, until the private-equity vulture capitalists swooped in and did what they’ve been doing to America for much of the past 30-40 years. They don’t even make anything, they just rip things apart and throw people out of work to make a few already-rich folks even richer: >>In 2018, Sports Illustrated had nearly three million subscribers. That was down from the magazine’s peak, and subscription numbers can be propped up by various short-term promotions. Still, that’s a lot of people. It was enough people, in fact, for the magazine to produce operating profits—not high ones, and only under cost-saving pressure, but, at least according to one Meredith spokesperson, Sports Illustrated was in the black. It had a strong and respected Web presence, and it employed well-known and influential journalists. Even during the past few months, under uncertain and demoralizing conditions, the magazine’s remaining staff has produced some of the most noteworthy stories in sports—investigations into allegations of sexual harassmentagainst the former N.F.L. wide receiver Antonio Brown, for instance, and an instantly viral piece by Stephanie Apstein about an outburst by a Houston Astros executive following the American League Championship Series, which led to the firing of that executive during the World Series. Sports Illustrated may not have been thriving, but it wasn’t dead<< Strongly disagree that Deadspin was a “shitty site.” It was an excellent compendium of interesting insights and perspectives whenever I looked at it, and a welcome relief from the “let’s keep politics out of sports” b.s. (which, as noted in the New Yorker article, amounts to a political position itself). Especially in the DT era, especially after he waded in time and again on the anthem-kneeling issue and used it as a fire-up-the-base issue. Deadspin was an excellent site done in by the shitty business practices of vulture capitalism, which is always bad business for everyone except those who get to further line their pockets at the expense of everybody else.

Story out in the Athletic today (behind a paywall) that Rob Manfred says automated balls-and-strikes will be introduced in some form at the minor-league level next year. I’m all in favor, but they gotta work some kinks out first. Thinking that Trackman won’t be the system they eventually use in MLB.

Wow, that's a baggy throwback! Still in love with these two albums and Big Star's Third:

Right on, right on, right on, in so many ways: The New Yorker on the destruction of Sports Illustrated and Deadspin

Never trust your manager, kids, lest this be your fate.