This week in state laws
Lots of discussion in the comments this morning about state liquor and marriage laws yesterday. Apparently WaLi tried to get drunk and marry his cousin yesterday, and needed to make sure what states he was allowed to do that in.
Is there a Cubs game today?
The Cubs play an A's split squad today at HoHoKam. Pat and Zonk have the call on WGN radio, and will be calling Tuesday's and Wednesday's games as well.
Cubs lose 12-10 to the A's to kick off the Cactus league
The highlights:
- Rodrigo Lopez and Marmol looked sharp, and Dolis and Trever Miller had scoreless outings. Not so much for Lendy Castillo, Jeff Beliveau, Dae-Eun Rhee and Marcos Mateo.
- The Cubs TOOTBLANed twice in the same inning, as David DeJesus and Darwin Barney were both picked off 1b by Kurt Suzuki. Good to know that DeJesus is learning the Cubs Way. Sveum quote:
“The first instinct was right and the second instinct got you thrown out at first base instead of second base,” Sveum said. “If we had won that game today, we would’ve won it because of baserunning.”
(snip)
“I’ve told these guys your second instinct will always be wrong,” Sveum said.
- Welington Castillo homered, and roster hopeful Adrian Cardenas hit a bases-loaded triple in the sixth as the Cubs rallied to tie the game.
Rodrigo Lopez "in the mix" for the rotation
Per Sveum. Also, Kendrys Morales "has a chance" to win the starting 1B job with the Los Angeles Angels of Disneyland, and I am "in the mix" for winning the Fields Medal.
On a related note
Former Cub Andrew Cashner reportedly hit 103 in his throwing session with the Padres earlier this week. Sounds like they need to get their guns calibrated.
Theo went on ESPN 1000 on Saturday
The Cub Reporter has a good recap of Theo's comments (h/t to GW for the link). Most notable is how impressed Theo is with the progress on the Dominican Facility
"We're way ahead of the game in how organized we are down in the Dominican, in how we teach the game from a player development standpoint, not only from a scouting standpoint. Those kids down there were really working hard, playing the game well and were fundamentally sound. From the other academies I've been to, you see the balls getting sprayed all over the place and it looks a long, long way from the big leagues. We have some really good instructors down there. You could see the kids were ahead of where they should have been fundamentally. That's something that's hard to build. The fact that is already in place now is a competitive advantage for us."
Pitcher maintenance strategies in spring training
Buried at the bottom of Gordo's recap of yesterday's game, Bosio has an apprently new (at least, new to me) strategy for dealing with pitch counts.
Chris Bosio and the staff are building up pitch counts quickly in bullpen sessions and batting practice (50-plus), then dropping the limit to 35 for first starts in games. “We built them up pretty good to try to stay away from the dead arm guys get in spring training,’’ Sveum said, “and then you just back them way down and start right back up from scratch again.’’
Today in awesomeness
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
I watched the couch gag 3 times last night. Win.
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2012/03/05/bounty-hunters/
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Also pretty crafty, given that the new GoT season starts in about a month and HBO is ramping up its marketing for it.
As was noted in the NYT blog post about that couch gag, it’s extremely disappointing that they didn’t work in a “Wiggum is coming” to those opening credits. Maybe as some sort of chalkboard gag.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/05/ur-ine-sam-ple-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap/
Makes a good point re: Giants fans and cheering for Bonds.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7646862/smacketology-#8212-tournament-determine-wire-greatest-character
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Re: MO linking to Grantland
@ Rice in limbo:
Whaaaa? Spider poison is people poison?
Prezbo should be much higher than an 8 seed
@ Berselius:
Such is the power of The Wire. I must now go ritually cleanse myself burning a Welker jersey and saying 14 Auerbach Is the Most Overrated Coach Ever’s
I’m one of those people. All the teams are doing it. The Saints just got caught. I remember about 10 or 15 years ago the Raiders gave something like 5 or 7 concussions to quarterbacks in one year. I think one QB had 2 of them. There was no doubt in mind at the time that they were trying to hurt them. Every defender I’ve ever heard talk speaks about trying to hurt the players they’re hitting.
@ Berselius:
Yeah, he should at least be higher than fucking Ziggy.
Also, Lester at #5? He’s probably my favorite on the show.
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Only 3 times?
Actually, I only watched it once, as my head asploded the first time through.
@ Berselius:
I though the three-eyed ravens out of the Nuclear Power plant was pretty perfect.
False. (dying laughing)
@ Rice in limbo:
We’ve all cheered wildly for steroid users. I’m 37 years old and I know I’ve done so since the very first game I watched. At no point in my life have I not been cheering for a steroid user.
@ mb21:
The galling thing to me about the Saints story is the degree to which coaches and team personnel were cognizant of, and even participating in, this scheme. Football players are taught to be brutal and in the NFL are largely motivated by cash. And who can blame a guy who’s expected career is somewhere from 3-8 years. That’s not a lot of time to make enough money to live on for the rest of your life. But coaches and team personnel aren’t subject to those pressures and should therefore be able to keep themselves away from shit like this. Especially when these same coaches and team personnel are the first ones to cry foul when it’s a player from their team lying crumpled on the field.
@ Berselius:
Chris Partlow is my favorite character, and as the numbers stand now, he won’t even advance.
http://deadspin.com/5890499/
I think Brother Mouzone over Bunk is first round upset.
@ Mucker:
That Hamsterdam Regional is brutal.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
But coaches are subject to the pressure of winning and hurting another player improves the team’s chance of winning. I haven’t paid enough attention to the NFL for about a decade now to know for sure, but it’s seemed to me only a handful of coaches stick around the league longterm. The rest of them are in and out of their position in a few years. So winning is very important. I see the motivation for both players and coaches.
That doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s not. Not at all. But it is an accepted practice. Hopefully that will change, but until it does I just can’t care too much about what the Saints are doing when every other team is doing it. Not to mention the violence of the sport to begin with.
It’s like throwing at batters or taking the catcher out. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to get upset because they all do it. To those in the game it’s an acceptable practice. When they decide it no longer is we’ll see these things change, but not until then.
The problem with football is that you have to change the entire mentality that these players have. I think that’s impossible. These guys are so stupid they think what they’re doing is war and they have every intention of hurting the other team. I don’t know how you change that mentality and maintain a game worth watching.
@ Berselius:
This is exactly what I’m talking about. The icky part of this story is the involvement of people at the highest levels in the organization. But just you watch: the players will wear it. Just like steroids.
Good luck on the Fields Medal, B. I love an underdog story.
@ mb21:
That seems fair. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying I get why a player would be engaged in the practice. A head coach/DC/OC? Not so much. And even less so the GM. And it now appears all those people were involved.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
I would definitely vote him most likely character to give me nightmares.
@ josh:
(dying laughing), I have no shot anyway based on what I work on. If I wanted to aim for some big award 20 years down the road it would probably be the SIAM one. /interdisciplinary
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Yeah it is.
@ mb21:
I think it might gall some people to realize that the steroid users were among the most entertaining players to watch.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
That is fantastic. My Final Four:
Bunk
Omar
Marlo
Frank Sobotka (Cinderella pick)
@ Rodrigo Ramirez:
Omar
The Bunk
Bunny Colvin
Lester Freamon
Having String and Lester in the same bracket is tough.
@ josh:
That’s what I’m saying though. In a show full of people with dubious motives and questionable ethics, you never questioned what Chris was going to do. You knew. As soon as Michael told him that guy molested him and that’s why he was scared for his little brother, you knew what Chris would do, because that’s what Chris does. When people step out of line, Chris whacks them. And he does it himself, and he does it while he looks them in the eye. He’s a character that somehow is just purely evil and yet manages to spin an unshakeable sense of justice out of a completely malformed moral character.
And I should add, the East Baltimore Division is ridiculous.
Look at that bowlegged motherfucker. I made him walk like that.
@ Berselius:
An applied mathematician!? I apologize for using your name in the same sentence with the Fields Medal, then.
b, have you come across any of Tim Maudlin’s work?
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
I think you capture his essence perfectly. Being a latecomer, though, it’s going to be harder for him. But he’s definitely one of the first characters that comes to mind when I think of that show.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
nope.
No Slim Charles? Man that’s an oversight.
@ Mucker:
No Carver either.
@ Berselius:
I’m just kidding of course. I’ve no basis to judge anyone else’s mathematical ability. I’m double-cousin-marrying stupid.
@ Berselius:
He does philosophy of math, philosophy of physics, time and logic. Interesting guy. He just had a nice short interview in the Atlantic.
@ Rodrigo Ramirez:
At least they put Herc in to give people the chance to vote against him.
Berselius wrote:
Also, Lester over The Bunk for the championship
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/watch-tom-hanks-rita-wilson-fall-victim-la-140926644.html
(dying laughing)
Nice.
I could never decide who was a worse character: Herc or Ziggy?
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Ziggy, by far. At least Herc was funny from time to time like when he asked that guy where he bought that hat with the sideways brim. That was funny.
@ Mucker:
I’d have to agree with you. Although I did like when Ziggy had the pet chicken- until it dropped dead.
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Easily Herc. This scene alone defeats any argument.
Is this a good show that should be watched? I’m all caught up with current shows and need a new one.
Ziggy’s just a fuck-up. Herc’s idiocy destroys lives. And cases.
I just can’t get worked up over the bounty thing. Charles Martin had a hit list on his towel when he essentially ended Jim McMahon’s career and nothing came of it. If I remember it was McMahon, Walter, Gault, Hilgenberg, and one other guy. Maybe Wendell Davis.
And the Bears were absolutely trying to hurt people with the 46 defense. That was practically the whole point of it. I remember hearing the story about how McMahon was cheering for the defense to hurt Danny White when they were pasting Dallas, and Ditka told him to shut the hell up. McMahon asked him why and Ditka replied that they didn’t want to hurt White because Hogeboom was better.
the fact that this was structured is only mildly more disturbing than what happens on a regular basis in the NFL.
WaLi wrote:
Fuck yeah. It’s one of the best shows ever, maybe the best show ever. You have to watch it.
@ Berselius:
Ziggy only hurt himself and a guy who was in the game (although his actions allowed the Greek to escape, which could be argued to be destructive). Herc did way worse. He was the only character I physically wanted to strangle. I almost think, though, that Herc was the better written character. Like some of Ziggy’s problems are that he’s a little too contrived from a writing perspective. Herc, in the reality of the show, is a worse person, but is he a better character from an outside perspective?
@ WaLi:
So, I have a couple friends who, like me, just watched and enjoyed it. It’s a really good show. I have another friend who got really weird about it. He liked it, but it really fueled some kind of weird super cynicism within him and for a couple weeks everything he posted was about how everything was bullshit, and it got really annoying so we told him to stop. If you’re like really sensitive to social and political issues, then maybe you should avoid it.
@ josh:
Cool story bro. Sounds good. I’ll go ahead and watch it.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but one of my good friends from college was just pulled out from the bottom of Belmont Harbor (lake Michigan). He had been missing since Saturday night.
Sucks.
@ Mish:
I neg’ed this because it sucks. Sorry to hear that, Mish.
@ Mish:
Sorry to hear that Mish
@ WaLi:
I love to read (words, that is), and the wire is structured like a series of novels centering around a group of characters, but with also an overall story arc. There are really no episodes that feel like filler, and they don’t ever really veer off-track or have an episode that’s a side story. It’s just a very tightly written show (the second season most people agree is the weakest). I wish all TV was structured like The Wire. Again, though, I really like novels and words etc.
@ Mish:
Sorry, man.
Mish, that sucks. Hope you’re doing OK pal.
@ Mish:
Oh shit. I saw that on the news this morning and it didn’t sound good. I’m sorry, man.
I appreciate all your guys kind words. He was a really good friend in school and we maintained touch afterwards, but we weren’t as close. Last time I saw him was in December for our annual Christmas party with U of I friends. He was engaged to be married this fall.
I’m pretty torn up mostly because he was probably the nicest guy I’ve ever met. And that isn’t some post-mortem lionization; he truly had an infectious smile and personaliity.
Sorry to hear that, Mish.
@ Mish:
My condolences.
DPLEETED
I’ve decided that the fucking pedants who make it their mission in life to use any mention of the Simpsons on any social media platform as an opportunity to inveigh against any Simpsons episode created after season 9, are quickly propelling themselves to the top of the internet douchebag list. De gustibus, motherfuckers.
One more reason for MB to love Georgia, they are seeking to ban vasectomies as a way of “preserving life.”
Apparently there was a swarm of bees at the ballpark in Arizona. A couple players thought the bees were going to kill them, I guess. For the record, bees swarm like that around a queen when they’re searching for a place to start a new nest. The best thing to do is call a trained beekeeper, since the swarms are actually fairly easy to control and relocate, if you know what you’re doing.
And that’s…One to Grow On.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Human life is, after all, exceedingly rare.
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
I think the incentive for the coaches and GMs are the same as it is for the players. The Saints offered something like $1000-$1500 for an injury. That’s not all that much money. That’s even less to someone who is making what those guys in the NFL make. I think it’s comparable to offering the average person about $10 to do something they probably shouldn’t, but something that isn’t illegal. I think the incentive is to win. The money is just a bonus.
josh wrote:
What else would you read if not words? Hieroglyphics?
Sorry to hear about your loss, Mish. That sucks.
@ WaLi:
tea leaves
@ WaLi:
In case you were unclear what “reading” was, I though I should clarify. I know it’s a rare occurrence these days.
@ josh:
(dying laughing) thanks.
I just finished reading a book on my phone. It was weird. I definitely prefer print
Mish sorry for your loss.
@ Mucker:
Herc at least personified something (meathead drug police). I’ve seen season two like seven times and I still don’t know why the fuck Ziggy was as annoying as he was.
I really liked Phil Rogers column today in relation to Soriano leading off
I have no idea how Snoop is taking down D’Angelo. D’Angelo owned season one.
@ mb21:
Parents of 10 year olds tell their kids to try hurt their opponents. That’s the mindset in football.
AC’s kids —————–> not playing football
And of course, my condolences to Mish. I just lost a high school friend three months ago. It sucks. Stay strong.
@ Mish:
That’s awful, Mish. I’m so sorry.
Maniacal laaaaaaaaaaaugh…maniacal laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh…
@ GBTS:
Yeah, no contest. The first season was basically D’s story, Snoop was never more than Chris’s strange-talking lackey.
Game thread up http://www.obstructedview.net/games/spring-training-game-2-as-cubs.html
@ GBTS:
MONEY BE GREEN