ghost of miles

A really nice profile of Giancarlo Stanton in today’s NY Times: How Stanton went from “Mike” to Giancarlo He’s impressed me all around through his first four games with the Yankees—not just his hitting, but his on-field demeanor and smarts. He also already seems well-liked and at home with his teammates. Snow in the forecast for today’s opener at Yankee Stadium. The offense better hope they score a bushel of runs against the Rays’ “bullpen rotation day” pitchers before handing it over to their own pen if they want to win. Nice first start by Shohei Ohtani for the Angels: Ohtani provides a taste of why the hype was legit

It was actually recorded under Ellington's name in late 1947/early 48 for Norman Granz's Jazz Scene set. Ellington's credited as arranger for the session, but it's Billy Strayhorn who plays piano. Fred Guy guitar, Oscar Pettiford bass, Sonny Greer drums, unknown strings, so it's really more an Ellington small-group date. There was a transcription recording of it with the full Ellington orchestra in 1945 as well. One of my favorite Carney features too!

The legendary Mad Men alternative series-finale ending:

Yankee starters through first four games: 20 2/3 IP, 3 ER allowed. Yankee bullpen through first four games: 13 1/3 IP, 11 ER allowed It's 2017 deja-vu-all-over-again. (When the much-hyped bullpen blew 23 saves and had one of the lowest save-conversion percentages in MLB.)

I'll be attending the Friday April 27 performance--any NYC or Northeast-region posters planning on going to any of these concerts? Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra performs Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige Harvey Cohen, who wrote Duke Ellington's America (my favorite of all the books I've read about Ellington) will be doing the pre-show talk at 7 p.m. for the Friday show.

44-year-old Ichiro Suzuki robbing Indians of a home run: https://www.mlb.com/video/c-1901089583

This throw by Gary Sanchez is ridiculous! Betances is notoriously easy to steal off of, Granderson’s still speedy and gets a great jump, and then... https://www.mlb.com/video/c-1901049083 EDIT: But what a freakin' disastrous outing for Dellin Betances. Gives up his second home run of the year, and the Jays steal FOUR bases off him in the 8th, including home. I'm not sure why Boone left him in to pitch the 8th, given that he's been mostly a one-inning reliever for the past couple of years... I know Warren's injury (talk about ridiculous in a bad way--NY's losing 1-2 players every day, it seems) screwed up the probable bullpen plan, but I was still surprised that they brought Betances back out for the 8th, especially since they'd already been warming Chad Green.

Yes! My friend Phil Ford wrote about that essay at length in his book Dig. I emailed Library of America to ask if a possible "prequel" was in the works (such as 1948-59, incorporating The Naked And The Dead, Barbary Shore, The Deer Park, and Advertisements For Myself) to the two-volume Mailer 1960s set they just published, but they replied that they can't get rights to any of his other books right now.

Good Lord, the Yankees started spring training with a plethora of outfielders, but they're dropping like flies--Hicks, Ellsbury and Clint Frazier all on the DL, and now Billy McKinney, who was called up after Hicks' injury, just had to be removed from today's game with the Jays after crashing into the outfield wall. Boone had given Brett Gardner the day off so that he wouldn't be playing four days in a row on turf, but he's in now, playing left--Judge still in center, Stanton in right.

Oh yeah! I had him on the show once. Right now:

I’ll keep my eye out for it, RT. In the meantime, your thread inspired me to hoof it down to Landlocked yesterday and snap up the volumes that I didn’t already have—2, 3, and 5, as well as the brand-new V. 8.

Also spending the afternoon perusing this beautifully-documented book, though it’s photographic in nature:

Some here may have already read about this—I’ve been following it closely through the Facebook posts of a friend who’s about to publish a walking-tour-of-historical-Harlem book. A movie-set fire has led to the demolishing of the four-story building that housed the St. Nick’s jazz club from 1965 to 2011. The space had quite a lot of interesting history before that (including a spell with pianist Luckey Roberts as proprietor), as detailed in this article: Harlem history up in flames

Additional love for disc 2’s April 23, 1937 session with Johnny Hodges, Harry James, and Helen Ward (this set is going to send me back to that 2-CD complete Columbia compilation of hers on Collectors’ Choice). I also want to reiterate my praise for Loren Schoenberg’s commentary; I don’t think Mosaic could have found anybody better-qualified to write the notes. His knowledge of the era and even its lesser-known musicians, combined with his well-detailed insights and seemingly-infinite delight in swing-age jazz, makes this set an even greater pleasure.

Thanks for the heads-up—I just checked and have the correct discs for 3-4 and 5-6. Currently listening through disc 2 for the second time. It’s been quite awhile since I heard the Wilson Heps, so much of this material is almost new to me. The two Helen Ward sides that open disc 2, with Goodman, Wilson, and Hampton are wonderful, as are the instrumentals from the Holiday sessions that are studded throughout the set. The Teddy Wilson-Billie Holiday dates are among the first jazz recordings I ever fell in love with, so there’s a certain warm, reconnecting glow that comes from hearing those settings again (sans Holiday) on top of appreciating the marvelous playing by Wilson and others here. Disc 2 also reminds me of how much I still need to track down Midge Williams V. 1!

Great start by David Price for the Red Sox yesterday—if he can stay healthy and Porcello returns to 2016 form, Boston will have a hell of a Big Three for their rotation. Happy to see Tanaka continue his historical domination of the Jays, and the Yankees’ infield (Gregorius, Brandon Drury, Tyler Wade) carry the offense last night.

That recent New Yorker article about Kelley was fascinating—I had never heard of him before.

I bought mine at Landlocked here in Bloomington--I'll call and see if they ever got it back in on restock. EDIT: I just called and Jason says they don't have it anymore--"way out of print." He thinks it may be repressed at some point, though.

Yeah, it's awful. Would much prefer something more traditionally corny like "Stanton deliver" or some such.

Giancarlo Stanton gets silent treatment from teammates after second HR in Yankee debut.

I’ll bet you heard Buddy Bolden too! 🎺 A memorable MLB World Series moment that resulted from a shift: Johnny Damon steals two bases in a single play

I grew up with the conventional wisdom/history that Lou Boudreau invented the shift, employing it against Ted Williams, but Wiki says a shift was actually used before that against Cy Williams in the 1920s: Infield shift

Then there was this: Astros deploy four-man outfield against the Rangers’ Joey Gallo