ghost of miles

Hey, me too! Such a great set.

Speaking of annihilation… Judge hit one 467 feet into the third deck at Target Field last night:

A recent trip to New York City’s Tenement Museum inspired me to finally get around to reading Mike Gold’s classic novel of Lower East Side life in the early 20th century (Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep, published four years after Gold’s work, is an outstanding book covering roughly the same area and period):

CD 1 of the Springsteen Columbus, Ohio show that my youngest brother and I saw a couple of weeks ago. The Boss was in prime form that night:

Not aware of another one, though there's an excellent book about the AAF which you likely already know about (and is admittedly not a bio, but certainly an in-depth account of Miller and the transition from the civilian band to the military band: Next To A Letter From Home: Major Glenn Miller's Wartime Band Recommended to others as well who might have an interest in Miller and/or this particular orchestra, which was an extraordinary one.

Sounding great out of the gate.

Judge has been in MLB for 7+ years without getting ejected prior to this incident, and—as I’ve documented before—is the far-and-away leader when it comes to balls being called strikes. I’ll grant that the call he was protesting was on a borderline pitch that could have gone either way, but it’s amazing to me that Judge went this long without being tossed, given all the blown calls he’s endured since coming up in 2016. Robo-ump is coming, sooner or later, and the game will be the better for it.

Pre-ordered. An appropriate valedictory set for Michael.

This week’s New Yorker cover by artist Faith Ringgold is titled “Sonny’s Bridge, 1986”:

Up one more time—I scheduled this rerun six weeks ago, so it was weird/coincidental timing that it aired last week: 1968, Riot: The Year In Jazz

Wish I’d been able to see the actual exhibition, but the catalogue’s the next-best thing:

Verrrry interesting, haven't heard this one before! Familiar with the song only because of the Gene Krupa/Anita O'Day studio version from around the same time.

Jim Bowden at the Athletic lists his ten biggest disappointments of the young season so far, and bad umpiring clocks in at number 3: 3. Umpires making headlines because of egregious mistakes We have never had a more talented group of umpires in the history of the game. Instant replay has been a huge success and evaluating umpires has never been more precise. That’s why it’s so disappointing that umpires Angel Hernandez and Hunter Wendelstedt stood out for all the wrong reasons in the season’s first month. First up was Hernandez, who on April 12 made a series of laughable calls behind the plate during an at-bat by Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford. With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth inning, Langford didn’t swing at single pitch from Astros righty J.P. France, watching all five he faced land significantly outside the strike zone. Ball 1 was in the dirt, Ball 2 was high and outside, “Ball 3” was way outside, “Ball 4” was farther outside and “Ball 5” was even farther outside. Hernandez called the last three strikes. Everyone misses calls, but not like this. Did Hernandez decide to let a rookie know who was boss, that he would decide the strike zone rather than go by the rule book? Who knows with Hernandez, who has a well-deserved reputation as one of the least accurate umpires of all time. This was a total embarrassment to the integrity of the sport, and why Hernandez hasn’t been fired or paid to go away is beyond me. Even worse than that was what took place during the Yankees-A’s game on Monday when Wendelstedt, the home plate umpire, ejected manager Aaron Boone because he heard a fan heckle him and thought it was Boone. TV cameras supported the account of Boone, who said he didn’t say anything to deserve the ejection. After the game, Wendelstedt doubled down on Boone’s ejection, saying, “Apparently what he said was there was a fan right above the dugout. This isn’t my first ejection. In the entirety of my career, I have never ejected a player or a manager for something a fan has said. I understand that’s going to be part of a story or something like that because that’s what Aaron was portraying. He’s the manager of the Yankees. So, he’s the one that had to go.” Wait, what? Now you’re accusing the manager of lying and you’re misrepresenting the situation? Apparently Wendelstedt didn’t know YES Network had a camera trained on Boone that showed he said nothing and another camera on the fan in the front row who made the comment. Wendelstedt should have been suspended and fined a day’s pay for this egregious mistake as well as his response. Three straight balls well out of the zone--certainly more than a ball's width--and Hernandez called them all strikes. No reason for this nonsense anymore, given the available technology. Some fans carried on when replay was introduced, saying it would slow down the game, erode the "romance" of legendary bad blown calls, etc. Instead we have a game today where egregious mistakes can be easily corrected, and a system in place that keeps the replay tactic from being overused. If some sort of modification, perhaps similar to Dan's suggested challenge approach, is necessary to bring robo-ump to use, then by all means implement it. I'm so sick of seeing numerous blown calls in games, and there's really no excuse for them continuing. I predict we'll have some form of robo-ump in the next couple of years.

You can say that again: Boone ejected for fan’s remark Ridiculous. One thing for the ump to initially think that Boone was defying him, another thing to double down on his mistake. Amusing there, but maddening in general. I’ve already seen waaaay too many badly-blown calls 20+ games into the season. The sooner we get robo-ump for balls and strikes, the better.

So very sad to hear this. Going to take awhile to process this one. Talked to him on the phone a few times and did a long interview with him for a Night Lights program—he was very supportive of the show in general. Hard to imagine what the jazz record landscape of the 1970s through the 2000s would look like without his presence. (Especially the Blue Note part.)

Juan Soto slashing .347/.468/.600 after 20 games. That’s a Ted Williams kinda line. His ABs are practically making Judge’s afterthoughts. He also seems totally amped to be playing in New York. Yankees won’t get a hometown discount when he hits free agency this winter, but it’s already clear that he’d be quite happy to continue with his present team. I still see Baltimore as the favorite to take the AL East—NY’s got depth issues and question marks with both its rotation and its bullpen that could really hold the team back if not resolved. A lot riding on Cole returning and (1) not hitting the IL again or needing TJS (2) pitching at or close to previous form. Rodon and Cortes have been inconsistent, Schmidt’s improved but seemingly still can’t go more than 5 innings, and Gil is walking too many batters. Stroman’s been the only truly solid starter so far.

Miles at the Plugged Nickel and the Art Pepper and Coltrane at the Village Vanguard sets immediately came to mind, plus the Mosaic Select of Dexter Gordon at the Keystone. Wildcard offering: Dave Douglas Live at Jazz Standard.