SBNation.com User Blog: BuehrleMan

Music Thread: First Show? Best Show?

BuehrleMan — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:55:08 -0000

WHAT I'M AFTER IS TWO THINGS: What was the first concert you ever went to and what was the best concert you ever saw. They don't have to necessarily be stadium shows or anything but at least something like a few hundred people. Could be a state fair or the like with an over the hill type of band.

FIRST SHOW: OK, so I did not see the show that that poster is for but the first concert I ever went to was during Ozzy's first solo tour, for "Blizzard of Oz", in 1981 (just under six months before Randy Rhoads died in a plane crash). It was fantastic. (The concert, not Randy Rhoads dying in a plane crash). My friend won tickets on WLUP and we had 5th row seats at Poplar Creek. I luuuuv me some old Black Sabbath but other than his first solo album I never listened to any other Ozzy again. I don't feel like I'm missing much.

(Funnily enough one of my sister-in-law's first concerts was seeing Ozzy later in the same tour, in 1982, less (fewer) than one week after Ozzy bit the head off a bat in Des Moines. When he played at the Assembly Hall in Champaign he made it through two words before collapsing and being taken to the hospital. Rock and roll.)

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

BEST SHOW: Well, I know it could be a tough decision for a lot of people but mine is pretty clear cut. It was seeing the band Love, touring and playing their ultimate classic album "Forever Changes", in it's entirety, in Dublin in 2003. Now Love is not my favorite band or anything but the setting and the historic nature of the show increase the sentimentality and take it beyond all the others.

(I say historic because the band effectively only existed for about three years, only had three albums of note, and for a few different reasons they hardly ever played outside of L.A. Add in the fact that they went about 35 years between their glory years and their re-emergence, with the lead singer Arthur Lee having spent a number of those years in prison, and it made the news of their reuniting all the more amazing.)

I happened to be in Ireland on vacation at the time so I didn't actually go all that way just to see them but I was on the west coast of the country and drove about 4-5 hours just to see them. (Technically it wasn't "Love" but Arthur Lee who was backed by a band called "Baby Lemonade".)

Love is seriously underrated. Not only have many people never heard them but people also don't know anything about the influence they had. From the fact that Jim Morrison said he only wanted The Doors to be as big as Love (sorry, can't find a link but it's true) to the fact that the classic riff of the Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd mega-classic "Interstellar Overdrive" is based on the Love cover of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book" (Which Bacharach apparently hated, but I love), (You can totally hear the similarity. "My Little Red Book" goes "dun dun dun dun dun dun-ta-da-dun dun dun-ta-da-dun-ta dun" and "Interstellar Overdrive" goes, more slowly, "dun dun dun-ta-da-dun dun dun-ta-da-dun"), to the fact that their song "7 and 7 Is", which came out in 1966, is sometimes considered to be the first punk song ever written.

Anyway, the show was completely insane. Arthur Lee was in fantastic shape, and voice, considering he was almost 60. (I saw him again at the Park West a few months later and he was not in such great condition) I expected an older crowd but the majority of the 400 or so people there were relatively young (younger than me) and they seemed to know all the words to every song from an album which came out in 1967 and were singing along very loudly.

Arthur had been released from prison not too long before this time and the song "Live and Let Live" with it's bridge "Served my time, served it well" and the last verse of "The Red Telephone" with the haunting words "I want my freedom" (starts around the 4:50 mark) repeated over and over brought chills that I can still conjure. He also ended the show with a mash-up of "Everybody's Gotta Live" and "Instant Karma".

HONORABLE MENTION:

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

Yeah, maybe not the finest Who album of all time and Kenny Jones is no Keith Moon but at least I can say I saw The Who in their first final farewell tour, the It's Hard tour, at the Rosemont Horizon in 1982. Got scalped tickets, 48th row main floor, $25.00)

via www.rotatingcorpse.com

Believe me I understand how unlikely it is to put a tribute band into a category like this but that's the way it is. One of the best shows I ever saw was a Genesis tribute band called "The Musical Box" doing the entire "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" album. I think it was either at the Vic or the Riv, can't really remember which. I figure about 1% of people reading this are even familiar with Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. It was kind of so crazy that if all you know is Phil Collins-era Genesis you can't really imagine how crazy (and great!) it was. Luckily, you don't have to imagine it because it's right here.The show I saw (with the blessing and original costumes and slides of Genesis) was incredibly, absurdly awesome. People were freaking out it was so fucking awesome.

BONUS SECTION: Where I just tell you about smaller bands that I like that played often in the Urbana/Champaign/Savoy tri-city area:

via cps-static.rovicorp.com

Two of my favorite bands that played locally down here with some regularity back in the day were Chicago based bands involving Leroy Bach. (Before he went on to play with Liz Phair and Wilco (from '97-'04)). Uptighty was so fun and great. Fantastic rhythms and horns and singing. Like anywhere from 6 to 14 people on stage at any given show. (Here, lookit) Personal favorite though was a band called 5style, or 5ive Style. No singing, with Leroy on bass, John Herndon on drums, often Jeremy Jacobsen on organ/other stuff, and the coup de gras, maybe my favorite guitar player ever, Bill Dolan, who was just so ridiculous I can't describe it. (Behold) (He was also in Heroic Doses which was pretty freaking awesome. They didn't play but a few times down here but. I think they only had one album (which was on sub pop))

via f0.bcbits.com

Of course I have mentioned this before on other RRRRs but the greatest band to ever come from Urbana-Champaign is Lonely Trailer. They've been around for close to 30 years. After an extended break starting in the mid 90's or so until the early-mid 2000's they are back. Just unbelievably great. I can't find any links to do them complete justice, but here's one anyway. Ok, here's another. You maybe can't tell how great the drummer is. He is also the main singer. The drummer is the singer! I'll just say that they opened for the Pixies once and it's a crime that they haven't been able to make a living by playing music. The album pictured above (which you could listen to and/or buy here) is their new album. For me, in a good way, it sounds so remarkably similar to their older stuff that if I didn't know better I wouldn't know better. The addition of a keyboard player when they re-formed has worked out very nicely.

via www.smilepolitely.com

Of the slightly bigger name variety, probably the best show I ever saw in Champaign was The Flaming Lips at the old Blind Pig just before "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart" came out. (They played here other times as well, but you don't forget the first time you hear "When Yer Twenty-Two". LOUD.)

via userserve-ak.last.fm

And one more band that used to play somewhat regularly in Champaign was the punkish/bluegrass then later more straight-up bluegrass band out of Austin, the Bad Livers. They pretty much ruled for a couple years but then refused to play at the Blind Pig anymore because the owner was a complete dickwad.

SO LET'S SEE, WHERE WAS I? Oh yeah. Now I'm fully prepared to be occasionally disheartened by some of the young whippersnappers on here who will either name some band I never heard of or possibly some band that I have heard of and it will make me feel sad, but that's ok. I can handle it. I won't judge. So, what's the first show you saw? What's your favorite show you ever saw? Tell me.

via p2.la-img.com

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

HONORABLE MENTION:

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

via www.rotatingcorpse.com

BONUS SECTION: Where I just tell you about smaller bands that I like that played often in the Urbana/Champaign/Savoy tri-city area:

via cps-static.rovicorp.com

via f0.bcbits.com

via www.smilepolitely.com

via userserve-ak.last.fm

Soccer is back! Calm down, Jack!!!

BuehrleMan — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:01:01 -0000

He's coming to get YOU.

via img.thesun.co.uk

And if it seems like soccer never left that's because it pretty much didn't. The Euros began two weeks after the Champions League final and the Olympics followed closely on the heels of the Euros. Then a few preseason matches and here we are. The Eredivisie and SPL have already started. England, Spain, and France start this week with the Bundesliga and Serie A to start next week.

As always there have been plenty of off season moves. I don't follow the other leagues as closely as the Barclaycard Premier League so that's all I'll really mention here, but even just there there have been too many to even keep track of. (And they're not done yet. Still two weeks until the transfer window closes) The biggest move has probably been the diabolical switch made by Robin van Persie from Jack's beloved Arsenal to larry's beloved Manchester United.

I considered doing a full blown preview of sorts but I was worried I would end up with something around 80,000 words so instead I thought I would just make some random statements.

Chelsea went on the biggest spending spree, paying about $75 million just for midfielders Oscar and Eden Hazard, then for good measure picked up another midfielder, Marko Marin. Why so many midfielders? In defense, John Terry and Ashley Cole are aging but David Luiz is very entertaining. He looks like Sideshow Bob and is just as likely to make a terrific blunder as he is to do something fantastic. They have a lot of talent. Should be in the top four this year. I think Torres is going to have a very good season.
Though Arsenal lost RVP they acquired some fantastic players, my favorite of which is Santi Cazorla. If they can avoid injuries and if Jack Wilshere ever gets healthy they will be dangerous. Emmanuel Frimpong is another very talented youngster who is currently out injured for at least a couple months. He's very exciting but a bit raw. One of the funnier moments of last season was on January 2nd when, (on loan at Robert Plant's favorite team, Wolves) against Chelsea in the 24th minute and for no reason I could determine, he gave referee Peter Walton (who has since retired) a two-handed shove in the back. (Maybe you just had to see it.) He should probably lay off of the anti-semetic tweets though.
Tottenham losing Luka Modric to Real Madrid will hurt but they picked up Gylfi Sigurosson and Vertonghen and with new manager Andre Villas-Boas they are going to be fascinating to watch. They have a pretty flowing and athletic team. (Except Scott Parker who flings himself all over the field with reckless abandon in order to block opposing shots. He's going to miss the first month or so due to injury.)
Along with RVP United got another excellent player in Kagawa. With Nemanja Vidic healthy (and maybe Darren Fletcher coming back too) United could get the title back. Like Chelsea they have some questions at the back. Chris Smalling is injured, I'm not sure about Phil Jones with his penchant for charging upfield, and Rio Ferdinand is not getting any younger. (And Rio Ferdinand is a choc ice, if "choc ice" is what he says it means. What a bad liar he is.) (Update: He just got busted for it. Disrepute it is!) They have a good deal of depth even if Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are just about past it. Will Chicharito stick around now that he has fallen further down the depth chart? Ashley Young should really stop diving.
Manchester City didn't do much other than take a pretty good young Rodwell from Everton. (Where would he play? Seriously. He's going to be grabbing bench most of the season.) They probably didn't need to do much though. If Carlos Tevez is motivated and plays a full season and if Mario Balotelli can show the kind of composure that he did in the Euros that team can be awesome. Of course those two are capable of all sorts of weirdness. Can City win it again and progress further in the Champions League? Sergio Aguero is awesome and Samir Nasri is a twat.
Liverpool. Not a fan. Luis Suarez is not an easy fellow to like, and it is much more than the racism charge (or the fact that he bit that dude on PSV). (I don't think he is a racist) Liverpool really did not cover themselves in glory last season with regard to the Suarez-Evra incident and for some reason Suarez just continues to bring it up. It's been fun watching them try to offload Carroll after paying about $45 million for him a year and a half ago. I'm not enamored of Brendan Rodgers either. He did great with Swansea but I've heard quite a few people give some of that credit to Roberto Martinez and Paolo Sousa. He also made an agreement with Swansea that he would not go after any of their players (unless another team made an offer for the player or the player was listed for transfer) but hey, look! What do you know? Now Joe Allen is on Liverpool. Huh.
I'll be rooting for Aston Villa to begin heading in the right direction this year based on a managerial change. Alex McLeish out, Paul Lambert in. They snagged three pretty good players from the Eredivisie. It would be nice if they got rid of Alan Hutton. That guy's a butcher.
Maybe I give Lambert too much credit but I fear that Norwich City may be in trouble. I hope Chris Hughton can keep the Canaries up.
QPR is certainly trying to cement their Premier League status by spending loads of money. I'd feel fine if they were relegated. Either way, hopefully Joey Barton goes away.

It's hard to not like Wigan Athletic. They seem a little similar to Everton in that it seems they start every season badly but pick it up towards the end of the season. (The difference being Wigan is always battling relegation whereas Everton just battles back from low-mid table mediocrity.) Among the seven wins from their last nine games last season Wigan beat Stoke, Man U, and Newcastle at home and Liverpool and Arsenal away. It was awesome. (One of those nine games should have at worst been a draw. They lost 2-1 to Chelsea but were egregiously robbed on an absurd offside call and basically played Chelsea off the field.
Arsenal fans will want to keep an eye on Wigan this year as Ryo Miyaichi has been loaned there for the season. Hope he gets some PT. He looked hella hyphy when I saw him on Bolton last season.
No idea what's going on with Fulham other than they got Hugo Rodallega from Wigan and lost Pavel Pogrebnyak to Reading. I keep hearing about "Deuce" wanting to get a chance to play in the Champions League but also have heard his name in connection with Liverpool. Those two things seem like they're going to be mutually exclusive for a while.
I like West Bromwich Albion but don't have much to say about them. After boing-boinging for so long they have managed to stay up two consecutive seasons now. They finished 11th in '10-'11 and 10th last season. We'll see if losing Roy Hodgson will cause them to slip down the table or even cause them to go back to their boinging ways.
I like a bunch of players on Sunderland. Especially James McClean, Sebastian Larsson, and Stephane Sessegnon. But not Lee Cattermole. He should probably be imprisoned.
Oh. Everton. They're pooty goo. Like Everton a lot. Marouane Fellaini is a riot. And of course there's Tony Hibbert. (Shout out, Toonder!) David Moyes is one hell of a manager. They are a selling club but he manages to continually get them in or near a European place. Fantastic.
I don't know how I made it this far without talking about probably the best story and one of the best teams to watch last season. Newcastle. I hope they can keep it up while also competing in the Europa League. Papiss Cisse scored, for me, the goal of the season and maybe the goal of the century against Chelsea (replay of this goal starts at 0:52 (no audio). (The first goal is pretty awesome too but i'm talking about the second one.) (And click here to see Steve Claridge's reaction.)) Cheik Tiote is fabulous. He's an absolute destroyer.
Stoke City. Lots of folks don't care for their style of play. It includes lots of physicality, kicking the ball very far, and massive Rory Delap throw-ins. Some people wonder whether even Barcelona could handle Stoke at Stoke on a wet, windy Tuesday night. Peter Crouch scored what some people think was the goal of the season last year against Manchester City. (But don't try to tell Jack that he meant to do it.)

I don't know a whole lot about the three promoted teams, West Ham, Reading, and Southampton other than West Ham got a lot of grief last year for playing like savages and Sam Allardyce can be a jag. I only saw them in their game to win promotion last year and was rooting for Blackpool.
For not many real good reasons I would like to see Reading and Southampton stay up and QPR and West Ham to go down. I think I like the manager of Reading, Brian McDermott.
Hey Hoodlight, when are we going to see Leeds back up with the big boys?

So I thought maybe I'd try this soccer fan post thing and see if it works and if it does we can keep it going. The objective of course is to have a spot for the soccer comments to congregate and to avoid clogging up the ol' rumpus room. Secondary objectives are not irritating people who don't like soccer and avoiding unintentionally disappointing people who see a whole lot of new comments on the RRRR and get all excited only to find a fifty comment sub-thread about whether or not somebody thinks Demba Ba can make it through a whole season without his knee falling off (I doubt it) and wonders if he can coexist with Papiss Demba Cisse (not sure of this one either).

Oh dear, I may be more excited than Jack. I think I need to calm down.

(Good preview podcasts at EPL Talk. Also, the best podcast in the world has just started up again in advance of the new season: Men In Blazers.)

He's coming to get YOU.

via img.thesun.co.uk

I considered doing a full blown preview of sorts but I was worried I would end up with something around 80,000 words so instead I thought I would just make some random statements.

Chelsea went on the biggest spending spree, paying about $75 million just for midfielders Oscar and Eden Hazard, then for good measure picked up another midfielder, Marko Marin. Why so many midfielders? In defense, John Terry and Ashley Cole are aging but David Luiz is very entertaining. He looks like Sideshow Bob and is just as likely to make a terrific blunder as he is to do something fantastic. They have a lot of talent. Should be in the top four this year. I think Torres is going to have a very good season.
Though Arsenal lost RVP they acquired some fantastic players, my favorite of which is Santi Cazorla. If they can avoid injuries and if Jack Wilshere ever gets healthy they will be dangerous. Emmanuel Frimpong is another very talented youngster who is currently out injured for at least a couple months. He's very exciting but a bit raw. One of the funnier moments of last season was on January 2nd when, (on loan at Robert Plant's favorite team, Wolves) against Chelsea in the 24th minute and for no reason I could determine, he gave referee Peter Walton (who has since retired) a two-handed shove in the back. (Maybe you just had to see it.) He should probably lay off of the anti-semetic tweets though.
Tottenham losing Luka Modric to Real Madrid will hurt but they picked up Gylfi Sigurosson and Vertonghen and with new manager Andre Villas-Boas they are going to be fascinating to watch. They have a pretty flowing and athletic team. (Except Scott Parker who flings himself all over the field with reckless abandon in order to block opposing shots. He's going to miss the first month or so due to injury.)
Along with RVP United got another excellent player in Kagawa. With Nemanja Vidic healthy (and maybe Darren Fletcher coming back too) United could get the title back. Like Chelsea they have some questions at the back. Chris Smalling is injured, I'm not sure about Phil Jones with his penchant for charging upfield, and Rio Ferdinand is not getting any younger. (And Rio Ferdinand is a choc ice, if "choc ice" is what he says it means. What a bad liar he is.) (Update: He just got busted for it. Disrepute it is!) They have a good deal of depth even if Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are just about past it. Will Chicharito stick around now that he has fallen further down the depth chart? Ashley Young should really stop diving.
Manchester City didn't do much other than take a pretty good young Rodwell from Everton. (Where would he play? Seriously. He's going to be grabbing bench most of the season.) They probably didn't need to do much though. If Carlos Tevez is motivated and plays a full season and if Mario Balotelli can show the kind of composure that he did in the Euros that team can be awesome. Of course those two are capable of all sorts of weirdness. Can City win it again and progress further in the Champions League? Sergio Aguero is awesome and Samir Nasri is a twat.
Liverpool. Not a fan. Luis Suarez is not an easy fellow to like, and it is much more than the racism charge (or the fact that he bit that dude on PSV). (I don't think he is a racist) Liverpool really did not cover themselves in glory last season with regard to the Suarez-Evra incident and for some reason Suarez just continues to bring it up. It's been fun watching them try to offload Carroll after paying about $45 million for him a year and a half ago. I'm not enamored of Brendan Rodgers either. He did great with Swansea but I've heard quite a few people give some of that credit to Roberto Martinez and Paolo Sousa. He also made an agreement with Swansea that he would not go after any of their players (unless another team made an offer for the player or the player was listed for transfer) but hey, look! What do you know? Now Joe Allen is on Liverpool. Huh.
I'll be rooting for Aston Villa to begin heading in the right direction this year based on a managerial change. Alex McLeish out, Paul Lambert in. They snagged three pretty good players from the Eredivisie. It would be nice if they got rid of Alan Hutton. That guy's a butcher.
Maybe I give Lambert too much credit but I fear that Norwich City may be in trouble. I hope Chris Hughton can keep the Canaries up.
QPR is certainly trying to cement their Premier League status by spending loads of money. I'd feel fine if they were relegated. Either way, hopefully Joey Barton goes away.

It's hard to not like Wigan Athletic. They seem a little similar to Everton in that it seems they start every season badly but pick it up towards the end of the season. (The difference being Wigan is always battling relegation whereas Everton just battles back from low-mid table mediocrity.) Among the seven wins from their last nine games last season Wigan beat Stoke, Man U, and Newcastle at home and Liverpool and Arsenal away. It was awesome. (One of those nine games should have at worst been a draw. They lost 2-1 to Chelsea but were egregiously robbed on an absurd offside call and basically played Chelsea off the field.
Arsenal fans will want to keep an eye on Wigan this year as Ryo Miyaichi has been loaned there for the season. Hope he gets some PT. He looked hella hyphy when I saw him on Bolton last season.
No idea what's going on with Fulham other than they got Hugo Rodallega from Wigan and lost Pavel Pogrebnyak to Reading. I keep hearing about "Deuce" wanting to get a chance to play in the Champions League but also have heard his name in connection with Liverpool. Those two things seem like they're going to be mutually exclusive for a while.
I like West Bromwich Albion but don't have much to say about them. After boing-boinging for so long they have managed to stay up two consecutive seasons now. They finished 11th in '10-'11 and 10th last season. We'll see if losing Roy Hodgson will cause them to slip down the table or even cause them to go back to their boinging ways.
I like a bunch of players on Sunderland. Especially James McClean, Sebastian Larsson, and Stephane Sessegnon. But not Lee Cattermole. He should probably be imprisoned.
Oh. Everton. They're pooty goo. Like Everton a lot. Marouane Fellaini is a riot. And of course there's Tony Hibbert. (Shout out, Toonder!) David Moyes is one hell of a manager. They are a selling club but he manages to continually get them in or near a European place. Fantastic.
I don't know how I made it this far without talking about probably the best story and one of the best teams to watch last season. Newcastle. I hope they can keep it up while also competing in the Europa League. Papiss Cisse scored, for me, the goal of the season and maybe the goal of the century against Chelsea (replay of this goal starts at 0:52 (no audio). (The first goal is pretty awesome too but i'm talking about the second one.) (And click here to see Steve Claridge's reaction.)) Cheik Tiote is fabulous. He's an absolute destroyer.
Stoke City. Lots of folks don't care for their style of play. It includes lots of physicality, kicking the ball very far, and massive Rory Delap throw-ins. Some people wonder whether even Barcelona could handle Stoke at Stoke on a wet, windy Tuesday night. Peter Crouch scored what some people think was the goal of the season last year against Manchester City. (But don't try to tell Jack that he meant to do it.)

I don't know a whole lot about the three promoted teams, West Ham, Reading, and Southampton other than West Ham got a lot of grief last year for playing like savages and Sam Allardyce can be a jag. I only saw them in their game to win promotion last year and was rooting for Blackpool.
For not many real good reasons I would like to see Reading and Southampton stay up and QPR and West Ham to go down. I think I like the manager of Reading, Brian McDermott.
Hey Hoodlight, when are we going to see Leeds back up with the big boys?

Oh dear, I may be more excited than Jack. I think I need to calm down.

(Good preview podcasts at EPL Talk. Also, the best podcast in the world has just started up again in advance of the new season: Men In Blazers.)

STILL HERE, EURO 2012

BuehrleMan — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:35:07 -0000

The group stage has concluded and we now move to the knockout stages. Draws are no longer an option. Any match that is tied after 90 minutes will play an additional 30 minutes and if still tied after that will go to a penalty shootout. There have been a few surprises thus far; Russia didn't make it through, Greece did, and Holland not only didn't make it through but lost all three matches.

So, the quarterfinals. On paper, Germany should take Greece to the cleaners. Portugal will also be favored against the Czech Republic. The other two quarterfinal match ups are the ones I am more looking forward to with Spain playing France and Italy taking on England. Spain v France probably has the greatest potential for quality unless you think France's form from the match they just lost to Sweden is going to carry over because they were heinous. England also did not look good at all in their last match. The Ukraine was all over them like a duck on a junebug. England's goal, and their victory, were both extremely fortunate.

Mexes (France), ~~Boateng (Germany)~~, and Karagounis (Greece) are the two most prominent players to miss the next match due to accumulating two yellow cards. Also, important players that may be out injured include Rosicky (Czech Republic), Chiellini (Italy) and Cabaye (France).

The semis are set up for some possibly massive clashes. Spain v Portugal and Germany v England being the most gargantuan of possibilities. Mercy. Spain and Germany, the pre-tournament favorites, are still on course to meet in the final.

I think it's been a great tournament so far, aside from Ireland, though the better of the group stage games came in the first two rounds of matches. Top goals of the tournament for me so far: Welbeck against Sweden, Ibrahimovic against France, Balotelli against Ireland, Varela against Denmark, Blaszczyokwski against Russia and Pavlyuchenko against Czech Republic. Honorable mention to Carroll's header against Sweden and Pirlo's free kick against Croatia.

A few thoughts:

There has not been a 0-0 draw yet
Pirlo scored the first Euro goal from a free kick since 2004
There has only been one penalty kick so far and it was saved (or missed depending on how you look at it)
Mario Balotelli is always entertaining and looks as likely as ever to do something crazy
Contrary to what a novice soccer watcher may think I have been heartened by the relative lack of diving thus far. Of course, that could change and the diving could get crazy as the pressure of the games gets ratcheted up. (Yes, Portugal. I'm talking about you.)

What's that? You want to know how my fantasy team is doing? Well, thanks for asking. I am now sitting in a tie for 43rd place, which is about 20,000 places higher than I have ever been in one of these kinds of fantasy leagues. (this one is ESPN)(I still can't figure out how many people have entered the stupid thing but wouldn't mind knowing. Anyone?) There are still two more chances to pick teams, once for the quarterfinals and then another time for the semifinals and finals combined. I suppose that last time picking is going to be extra crucial because you're going to have to try to pick players that will be on the teams that make it to the finals and if you get it wrong you will be screwed.

In the bracket prediction challenge I have Germany beating Spain in the final even though I'd rather see Spain win it. Who you got?

The schedule is (all matches start at 1:45pm central time):

Thursday, June 21st, ESPN, Czech Republic v Portugal

Friday, June 22nd, ESPN, Germany v Greece

Saturday, June 23rd, ESPN 2, Spain v France

Sunday, June 24th, ESPN, England v Italy

Wednesday, June 27th, ESPN, winner of Portugal/Czech v winner of Spain/France

Thursday, June 28th, ESPN, winner of Germany/Greece v winner of England/Italy

Sunday, July 1st, ESPN, FINAL

A few thoughts:

There has not been a 0-0 draw yet
Pirlo scored the first Euro goal from a free kick since 2004
There has only been one penalty kick so far and it was saved (or missed depending on how you look at it)
Mario Balotelli is always entertaining and looks as likely as ever to do something crazy
Contrary to what a novice soccer watcher may think I have been heartened by the relative lack of diving thus far. Of course, that could change and the diving could get crazy as the pressure of the games gets ratcheted up. (Yes, Portugal. I'm talking about you.)

In the bracket prediction challenge I have Germany beating Spain in the final even though I'd rather see Spain win it. Who you got?

The schedule is (all matches start at 1:45pm central time):

Thursday, June 21st, ESPN, Czech Republic v Portugal

Friday, June 22nd, ESPN, Germany v Greece

Saturday, June 23rd, ESPN 2, Spain v France

Sunday, June 24th, ESPN, England v Italy

Wednesday, June 27th, ESPN, winner of Portugal/Czech v winner of Spain/France

Thursday, June 28th, ESPN, winner of Germany/Greece v winner of England/Italy

Sunday, July 1st, ESPN, FINAL

EURO 2012 IS HERE

BuehrleMan — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:19:25 -0000

So, there's this real big soccer tournament starting tomorrow, June 8th, and running until July 1st. To avoid possibly aggravating people by broadcasting my soccer related sentiments at random in the middle of the RRRR I thought maybe I'd throw up this post as a place where the few soccer talking regulars could marinate.

Now I know for most of the people on here the interest in soccer ranges from "I like to watch the World Cup" to "whatever it is that Kenwo thinks of soccer", but I'd like to take this opportunity to give you a few reasons you may want to check it out.

Every game is televised (either on espn or espn2 I believe), and also all games are on (and archived on) espn3. For the group stage all games start at either 11am or 1:45pm central time. I mean, you're in the basement, you have a television and a computer, what else do you have to do?
The quality of play is very high. The format is the same as for the World Cup but it's only countries from Europe and it's limited to 16 teams so it is quite difficult to qualify for.

It gives you something to root for, or against. It's a great way to get some artificial nationalism going. A lot people have some European ancestry so you can start there. If your team didn't make it in, well, you can be like Craig and simply root against England. Or maybe your family was run out of Europe by Germany. You can root against them. (but they very well might win) Or just think of some reasons you don't like a country and root against them. Did you once eat too much linguica and get sick so now you hate it? Fuck Portugal. Can't figure out whether to call the Netherlands "the Netherlands" or "Holland" (and also don't know why the people there are called "Dutch")? Screw them. Despise France because they have sex with their faces and fight with their feet? Hope they get crushed. I'm getting so worked up and I dislike Zlatan Ibrahimovic so much I think I'm going to go over to the international food store and start smashing jars of lingonberries.

Anyway, though they are quite likely not going to win a game, and possibly not score a goal, my team is Ireland. They play very defensively and rarely have the ball. When they play Spain it is going to be ridiculous. Germany and Spain are probably co-favorites. Netherlands are strong. France looks to be on an upswing. Italy seems to always do well when their country is embroiled in a match fixing scandal, and they're in one now. England is missing quite a few players due to injury (and Rooney is suspended for the first two games for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic in a qualifier) (and Rio Ferdinand has been left out because John Terry allegedly racially abused Ferdinand's brother)

Some of the games might be boring 0-0 draws and others might be hyphy 2-1 shootouts. I can't wait.

Every game is televised (either on espn or espn2 I believe), and also all games are on (and archived on) espn3. For the group stage all games start at either 11am or 1:45pm central time. I mean, you're in the basement, you have a television and a computer, what else do you have to do?
The quality of play is very high. The format is the same as for the World Cup but it's only countries from Europe and it's limited to 16 teams so it is quite difficult to qualify for.

It gives you something to root for, or against. It's a great way to get some artificial nationalism going. A lot people have some European ancestry so you can start there. If your team didn't make it in, well, you can be like Craig and simply root against England. Or maybe your family was run out of Europe by Germany. You can root against them. (but they very well might win) Or just think of some reasons you don't like a country and root against them. Did you once eat too much linguica and get sick so now you hate it? Fuck Portugal. Can't figure out whether to call the Netherlands "the Netherlands" or "Holland" (and also don't know why the people there are called "Dutch")? Screw them. Despise France because they have sex with their faces and fight with their feet? Hope they get crushed. I'm getting so worked up and I dislike Zlatan Ibrahimovic so much I think I'm going to go over to the international food store and start smashing jars of lingonberries.

Some of the games might be boring 0-0 draws and others might be hyphy 2-1 shootouts. I can't wait.

RRRR: Appleknockers, Cornjerkers and Little Zebras

BuehrleMan — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:21:54 -0000

The Bhoys sure could use you right about now.

via www.posters.ws

Being the soccer fan that I am, and looking forward to the rare occasion of being able to see one of the teams I root for (Celtic) on TV (Gol TV, Wednesday, Nov 30th, 12pm central time), I got to thinking about sports teams nicknames. This Europa League clash I am looking forward to features the Bhoys (Celtic) vs The Mattress Makers (Atletico Madrid). The world of soccer has introduced me to all manner of fascinating nicknames, and often teams have multiple unofficial nicknames. A team in the English Premier League I follow is West Bromwich Albion. They can be called The Throstels, though I have never heard them called that. They are usually referred to as The Baggies (or The Boing-Boing Baggies. Boing-Boing because they have a propensity for being promoted to the Premier League only to be quickly relegated to the league below, then soon back up to the Premier League, then down again).

Here are a few of the soccer team nicknames I am familiar with: The Toffees, The Latics, The Little Zebras, The Potters, The Yellow Submarine, The Hammers, The Canaries. If you would like a list (and who wouldn't) here's one of soccer team nicknames in the U.K. Here's another with soccer teams from around the world.

Now while I have no scientific evidence of this it has long been my understanding that this particular part of the midwest (Illinois, Indiana and Wisconson) is a rich source of odd high school team nicknames. I still can recall that as a youth my father would bemoan the time that his Evanston Wildkits went downstate (for basketball I believe) certain of victory when they heard they would be facing the Cobden Appleknockers only to be vanquished. Other Illinois High School nicknames: The Fisher Bunnies, The Freeport Pretzels, The Teutopolis Wooden Shoes, and The Hoopeston Cornjerkers.

So tell me some other team nicknames. Which ones do you like? Which ones do you think are terrible? If you were to be able to nickname a team, what would you choose?

The Bhoys sure could use you right about now.

via www.posters.ws

So tell me some other team nicknames. Which ones do you like? Which ones do you think are terrible? If you were to be able to nickname a team, what would you choose?

FIRST! Mike Jacobs Tests Positive For HGH

BuehrleMan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:16:28 -0000

FIRST! Mike Jacobs Tests Positive For HGH

"A few weeks ago, in an attempt to overcome knee and back problems, I made the terrible decision to take H.G.H.," Jacobs said in the statement. "I immediately stopped a couple of days later after being tested. Taking it was one of the worst decisions I could have ever made, one for which I take full responsibility."

Complaining About WCIU

BuehrleMan — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:11:07 -0000

Complaining About WCIU

It appears from now on you all will be spared my incessant whining that I cannot see any games that are broadcast on WCIU. My friend clued me in that in the Urbana-Champaign area (starting this season I believe) WCIU games are broadcast on WCFN, which is channel 3 on cable.

For those in Rockford, it looks like games would be on WTVO, which is also a member of something called MyNetworkTV, but I have not been able to verify it.

A Blow For Bonds?

BuehrleMan — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:00:04 -0000

A Blow For Bonds?

Law professor Peter Keane on Judge Illston's ruling that players linked to BALCO will have their testimony allowed.

"I think that hurts Bonds a lot, and I think it’s something the jury is going to find fairly important in determining that Bonds used steroids and other drugs," Keane said. "It targets in on Bonds in a way that shows the jury that he was using drugs and he knew he was using them. It’s another brick in the wall of the prosecution’s case."

Baseball In Ireland

BuehrleMan — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:30:10 -0000

Baseball In Ireland

Craig Calcaterra with a little info and a couple of links related to Irish baseball.

Also, there is a documentary called "The Emerald Diamond" which is available from Netflix.

1960 World Series Game 7 Broadcast

BuehrleMan — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:53:57 -0000

1960 World Series Game 7 Broadcast

Considered by some the greatest game ever, it will be broadcast for the first time in 50 years on Wednesday, December 15th at 7 PM central time on the MLB Network.

Let me be the first to request a game thread.

Marvin Miller Misses Hall by One Vote

BuehrleMan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:58:30 -0000

Marvin Miller Misses Hall by One Vote

A Web site, ThanksMarvin.com, is filled with testimonials to Miller. The site, which was created about six months ago by Bob Locker, the former Chicago White Sox relief pitcher, also pushed Miller’s candidacy, although its original intent was to show gratitude to the labor leader.

"All of professional sports was changed by what he did," Locker said in an interview Monday. "He ought to have a statue in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame — and every other sports hall of fame."

'Best Game Ever' Broadcast Found In Bing Crosby's Wine Cellar

BuehrleMan — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 01:48:17 -0000

'Best Game Ever' Broadcast Found In Bing Crosby's Wine Cellar

He spotted two reels lying horizontally in gray canisters labeled "1960 World Series." They were stacked close to the ceiling with home movies and sports instructional films. An hour or so later, he found three others on other shelves. Intrigued, he screened the 16-millimeter film on a projector. It was Game 7, called by the Yankees’ Mel Allen and the Pirates’ Bob Prince — the complete NBC broadcast. The film had not degraded and has been transferred to DVD.

Bader’s call to M.L.B. officials last spring initiated months of talks that have led to an agreement allowing the MLB Network to televise the game in December, and to wrap interviews and other programming around it, with Bob Costas as the host. M.L.B. also plans to sell DVDs of the game.

A Hot Time in Nap Town

BuehrleMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:20:32 -0000

Saturday seemed like a great day to escape the brutally oppressive heat of central Illinois by traveling to....central Indiana. Okay, so I knew escaping the heat was not going to happen and it turned out it was even slightly more ruthlessly savage in Indianapolis than it was at home, but I couldn't pass up a chance to see my favorite team's AAA team in action.

I've been to at least 5 or 6 games at Victory Field and cannot recommend it highly enough. The only other minor league stadium I've been to is Louisville Slugger Field, which is also awesome. Ticket prices for the best available seats are $14 at Indy and only $11 at Louisville but it seems that most (if not all) of the lower level seats from dugout to dugout at Louisville are reserved for season ticket holders whereas at Indy I have usually gotten seats in the first 5 rows anywhere in the stadium I want. (I like the first base side next to the visitor's dugout, though those seats were sold out already this time. That was fine because: a) no matter where your seats are you can end up moving at some point anywhere you desire, and b) on such soul searingly hot days as Saturday the sun remains scorching down the right field line until close to sunset.)

Apparently ChicagoPete was at the game as well and he had a recap including some information about the food and beverages. I don't eat so I can't comment on the food but I did frequent the Guinness Pub Stand. (Menu pictured by Pete in the comments of his recap). Yes, the prices may have been a little high but the problem (for me) is that the only domestic draft, a reasonable $6.25 for 24 oz, is Coors Light. I don't know about you but even if it is free I'm not drinking Coors anything, so I paid the premium and stuck with Smithwick's all night.

Join me after the jump for some thoughts, pictures, and to hear about my fateful meeting with Rowdie.

Have I Mentioned That It Was Really Freaking Hot?

I mean, at 5 PM it was 93 degrees, which is hot enough, but when you combine it with the dew point (and as you should know by now, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DEW POINT), which was 76 degrees, the heat index was 107. Somehow, when the sun went down it almost seemed to get hotter. Yes, the temperature had fallen to 85 by 10 PM but the dew point remained at 76 and there was virtually no air movement. Mercy.

Where was I? Oh, so the main players I was hoping to see were Tyler Flowers and Brent Morel (I knew Chris Sale had pitched on Friday so I didn't expect to see him pitch) and I was in luck as they both were in the lineup. Flowers made two nice plays in the first, once picking up a good bunt and getting the force out at third and to end the inning he had a nice block of a pitch in the dirt on a swinging strike three.

Beautiful Victory Field. A touch on the warm side however.

via i955.photobucket.com

T Flo says," Stay fair!" It won't, dadgummit.

via i955.photobucket.com

It was not Mr. Morel's night.

via i955.photobucket.com

Neither Flowers nor Morel looked too good at the plate. I remember Flowers swinging at the first pitch in at least 2 of his plate appearances. Alejandro De Aza looked quite hitterish. Carlos Torres was in difficulties all evening but managed to work out of jams several times. He could have escaped with even less damage than was credited to him, but when he left the game with one out in the sixth inning Randy Williams came in. (If you care enough, you can see Williams' line.)

(Scouting note for Larry: As I'm sure you know, Donny Lucy did not play in this particular game but from my various vantage points throughout the game I believe I could discern that it is possible he may possess the finest clubhouse presence of his generation.)

Do You Want To Hear About My Fantasy Team?

My interactions with the hometown fans were somewhat limited (even though I changed seats several times). For example, I was under the impression that Dana Eveland was scheduled to start for Indy. When I noticed someone named Jeremy Powell was the actual starting pitcher I attempted, on two separate occasions, to find out why but I was greeted each time by a blank, mute stare.

I did speak with one fellow for a couple of minutes, but when it became obvious that he didn't have any interest in real baseball but only had interest in fantasy baseball, I said,"I drafted Alex Rios in the 17th round" then I turned away from him and went back to talking to my wife and two friends that I went to the game with.

My Name Is BuehrleMan and I Have Hawk-a-mania

I am not ashamed of my affliction and I suspect a lot of people have it. (Hell, I even know people who are not White Sox fans that have it) I define this syndrome simply as an urge to utter Hawkisms. I believe it to be an easily manageable condition as the urge is generally effortless to suppress. The time when it can become problematic however is when you are among a large crowd of people (like, for instance, in an opposing team's stadium) and, depending on your size and tolerance, have had anywhere from 3 to12 beers.

In the 8th and 9th innings I found myself seated in the 3rd row behind the Knights' dugout and one row behind 3 young boys, maybe 6-10 years old. Before I had said anything to them I heard them saying "He gone!". (It turned out they were Sox fans) They weren't yelling it though. It was almost as if they were embarrassed to let people hear what they were saying. I told them I too was a Sox fan and needless to say proceeded to show them what acute Hawk-a-mania was all about.

And If I Was Hot, How Do You Think Rowdie Felt?

After the game I was determined to meet Rowdie. This meant standing in line with many children while their parents (and stadium staff) stood all around and took pictures. Here is a transcript of our conversation:

ME: (Yelling and pointing to my Charlotte Knights hat)"I'M A KNIGHTS FAN BUT I LOVE ROWDIE!!!!"

ROWDIE: "............................."

ME: (Shouting. Grabbing/hugging Rowdie ) "YOU POOR BASTARD, I HOPE YOU'RE GETTING PAID DOUBLE TIME FOR WEARING THAT SUIT IN THIS HEAT!!!!"

ROWDIE: "..........................."

ME: (Turning to a crowd of people looking mystified/horrified. Posing for photo, then bellowing) "MERCY!!!!"

ROWDIE: (Hugging, then both of us attempting conflicting handshake styles) ".................................."

BuehrleMan and Rowdie, BFF.

via i955.photobucket.com

"There’s nothing uglier than the manager taking a shower with the players," Mr. Guillen says. "You look very bad."

BuehrleMan — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:06:20 -0000

"There’s nothing uglier than the manager taking a shower with the players," Mr. Guillen says. "You look very bad."

NYT Review of "The Club" Starring The Chicago White Sox

Poll: Joe West Should Be Suspended

BuehrleMan — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:45:10 -0000

via cache.daylife.com

Alright, I've seen it enough times now. I defy anyone to tell me that Joe West was not either being a total bastard or that he has something against Mark Buehrle, Ozzie Guillen or the White Sox. (My assumption is that he was just being a bastard). The MLB network had multiple views of the two plays in question and they (two of whom are former major league left handed pitchers) all agreed that there was no way either call should have been a balk.

I understand the fine line of a balk call with a left handed pitcher, but Mark Buehrle has been in the league for ten years and he has been doing the same thing all that time and has been called for five balks in the last 9 years.

Yes, you can argue whether Buehrle deserved to be tossed for his glove "dropping", (I obviously am going to disagree with that decision), but I wonder what you might think of Joe West.

via cache.daylife.com

Yes, you can argue whether Buehrle deserved to be tossed for his glove "dropping", (I obviously am going to disagree with that decision), but I wonder what you might think of Joe West.

Poll

Should Joe West be suspended?

Yes, he was out of line.

45 votes

No, you're crazy.

10 votes

Yes, he was out of line and should be suspended, but you are crazy.

35 votes

90 votes | Poll has closed

Carlos Quentin Is A Hacker

BuehrleMan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:11:50 -0000

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

When Carlos Quentin first came over to the White Sox all I really knew about him was that he was a top prospect, he had been injured a few times, he had a high on base percentage in the minors and he got hit by pitches a lot. (Although I didn't realize just how much impact all those HBPs had on his OBP**) I assumed he was a patient hitter. I was wrong.

Sometime early last season I, among other people, noticed that it seemed Q had a penchant for swinging at the first pitch. As the season progressed, other than making the occasional comment about it, I did not attempt to verify this observation. Sometime just before his return from the disabled list (on July 20th) I decided I would look into it.

I kept track of Q's plate appearances from July 20th through the end of the season. With some additional research on baseball-reference.com not only did I confirm that observation to be true, I ran across a few other numbers I found interesting which I will present after the jump...

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Now let's not bicker and argue about small sample sizes. It is what it is.

Let's start with his first pitch swing percentage numbers

In 2008, Q swung at the first pitch 36% of the time. (MLB average was 28%)

In 2009, Q swung at the first pitch 41% of the time. (MLB average was 26%)

2009, however, breaks down this way: In 156 PAs before he hit the DL, he swung at the first pitch 48.1% of the time. In 243 PAs after the DL he swung at the first pitch 37% of the time. (See? 48.1% is Vladimir Guerrero territory. He was swinging at the first pitch an awful lot at the beginning of last year! (Maybe because of his injury. Hard to say for certain.))

When he swung at the first pitch, in either year, he did just fine.

2008 .382/.421/.831 (MLB avg .337/.342/.546)

2009 .277/.338/.492 (MLB avg .339/.345/.558)

A brief disclaimer here: As I discovered recently on Baseball-Reference.com on this page, in 2009, on only 3 of the 12 possible counts a batter can face was the average OPS for MLB batters under .800. (Those counts are 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2)

How about looking at his numbers on the second pitch

2008 Q on 0-1 .292/.333/.479 (MLB avg .315/.324/.475)

2009 Q on 0-1 .333/.368/.806 (MLB avg .317/.325/.482)

2008 Q on 1-0 .383/.396/.1.021 (MLB avg .339/.340/.558)

2009 Q on 1-0 .343/.361/.600 (MLB avg .340/.341/.564)

Carlos Quentin and the catbird seat

One anomaly I noticed was Q's record on a 2-0 count in 2009. Look:

2008 Q saw 86 2-0 counts in 569 PAs on 2-0 .429/.429/.929 (MLB avg .355/.353/.622)

2009 Q saw 44 2-0 counts in 399 PAs on 2-0 .111/.100/.111 (MLB avg .368/.366/.667)

What is interesting (to me anyway) is not how poorly Q hit on 2-0 in 2009, but the fact that he saw 26.67% fewer 2-0 counts relative to his plate appearances in 2009 than he did in 2008. The MLB average in 2009 for batters seeing a 2-0 count was 15%. In 2009 Q saw a 2-0 count in only 11% of his plate appearances. (I don't think I'd be going out on a limb to say it is obvious that the more 2-0 counts a batter sees the better off he will be. Q's miserable line on 2-0 in 2009 notwithstanding, his numbers after 2-0 in 2009 were .241/.477/.483 which was pretty reasonable but a bit below the MLB average line after 2-0 in 2009 which was .293/.521/.502.)

Carlos Quentin after returning from the disabled list

Now we've arrived at my specialty. I didn't need any fancy computers to gather this data, I did it the old fashioned way, with my eyes. And a pen and paper. (Okay, if you want to get technical about it I probably did not watch about 5 to 10 games and for those I had to rely on MLB gameday)

The following numbers are from July 20th-October 4th.(61 games and 243 plate appearances, not counting 2 intentional walks except when specifically noted)

892 pitches seen. 3.67 pitches per plate appearance.
.239/.358/.454 (including the 2 intentional walks)
37% first pitch swinging.
On first pitch 13/36, 4 HBP, 2 doubles, 3 home runs. .361/.472/.667
On second pitch 16/42, 2 HBP, 2 doubles, 5 home runs. .381/.423/.786
Totals on first and second pitch .372/.449/.731
Totals on all other pitches .164/.307/.300 (including the 2 intentional walks)
HBP in 2.8% of PAs. (MLB average was .85%)

What's that? You want more numbers?

Jeez, okay. Calm down. I'll just leave you with a few further frivolities.

In 2009 A.J. Pierzynski was the only non-pitcher on the Sox who saw fewer pitches per plate appearance than Q . 3.29 for AJ, 3.53 for Q
Gavin Floyd swung at the first pitch in 100% of his plate appearances in 2009.
Tyler Flowers was the only Sox non-pitcher in 2009 to swing at the first pitch more often than Q. 45% for T-Flo, 41% for Q.
Over their careers, Q has swung at the first pitch 29% more often than Alfonso Soriano.
Joe Mauer swung at the first pitch 7% of the time in 2009. (Tied for lowest in baseball with Dustin Pedroia for any player with at least 400 plate appearances. Jamey Carroll was at 6% in 358 PAs)
The lowest first pitch swing percentage Frank Thomas had in a full season was 14% in 1991, his first full season.

I really have to stop now

But there's this site that I've heard exists called fangraphs where you can find some more information. This page will tell you all sorts of things. Things like: Q swung at 12.6% more pitches outside the strike zone in 2009 than 2008. His contact rate on those pitches went up 3.9%. (Please note that a lot of really good hitters swing at more pitches out of the zone than Q, but in general their contact rate is better as well. Players like Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Ichiro Suzuki). Or that overall he swung at 7.7% more pitches in 2009. His contact rate went up 1% overall. Or that his fly ball percentage went up 9.26% while his HR/FB percentage went down by 28.5% (not that anyone thought he would sustain a 20.7% HR/FB ratio).

I'm afraid this all might be getting a little confusing, at least as far as what I am trying to convey. I guess what I'm saying is that generally speaking, in his White Sox career Q has swung early and often, and when he has he often knocked the crap out of the ball.

OK. I'm done

Good day.

** In his 1092 plate appearances over 3 years at AAA Tuscon Q was hit by 69 pitches. That is 6.3% of the time. The MLB average percentage for being hit by a pitch in 2009 was .85%. If Q was hit at that rate over those 3 years, he would have been hit 9 times. If you were to take away his 69 HBPs and give him 9 instead, then take the remaining 60 PAs and give him close to his average numbers plus a league average HBP% (I gave him a .300 avg and an 11.67 BB% which was 18 hits and 7 BBs and also added 1 HBP) his on base percentage would drop from .424 to .393.

So far, in his Sox career, Q has been hit in "only" 3.6% of his plate appearances.

Don't Hate The Game, Hate The Player

BuehrleMan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:55:48 -0000

You know who I don't like? Nick Swisher, that's who. Some of the more observant regulars around here may have even noticed that I have been known to make some disparaging comments about him from time to time, some of which can be found (warning: if you are offended by coarse language you will not want to be clicking any of these links) here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. There are more, but I think you get the idea.

Now I know that I'm not the only one who dislikes Swisher, but what I'm interested in finding out here are which other players some of you don't like. If you have a reason for your malice feel free to share. Perhaps you saw a player blow off a kid's autograph request. Perhaps you have an irrational hatred of a player who was signed as a utility player by your favorite team and when he was placed in center field it became painfully obvious that he did not belong there. Perhaps you just don't like the cut of a players' jib. Perhaps a player said something vile about your daughter.

Here are just a few of the players I don't care for to get things started.

Brett Myers --- Wife beater, jackass.

Joba Chamberlain --- Hat, face, too screamy, on the Yankees.

Carlos Gomez --- Too prancy, always drawing for the vapors, plays inordinately well against the Sox.

Mike Sweeney --- Too jesus-y, always killed the White Sox. The only thing he did that I enjoyed was when he attacked.......

J eff Weaver --- Does not have the "good face", seems like a real tool. (See him get body slammed by Sweeney here.)

Geovany Soto --- I suppose I could abide the frosted hair but the waxed eyebrows send me right over the edge. I find his minor league home run totals (in addition to his rookie season) extra suspicious. Also, being on the Cubs certainly doesn't help.

Matt Holliday --- The shape of his jaw/skull and body give me the creeps.

Well, there you have it. Oh, there are plenty more players, past and present, that I could list, from Steve Garvey* to Manny Ramirez to Kenny Rogers to Dave Kingman.** I better not try to list them all though. I wouldn't want to leave anyone out.

So, who gets on your very last nerve? Who do you find yourself rooting against? Who do you think should pound sand? Bring it on. And FNS.

* Link for Garvey is a long Sports Illustrated article

** Link for Kingman is a Joe Posnanski article.

Here are just a few of the players I don't care for to get things started.

Brett Myers --- Wife beater, jackass.

Joba Chamberlain --- Hat, face, too screamy, on the Yankees.

Carlos Gomez --- Too prancy, always drawing for the vapors, plays inordinately well against the Sox.

Mike Sweeney --- Too jesus-y, always killed the White Sox. The only thing he did that I enjoyed was when he attacked.......

J eff Weaver --- Does not have the "good face", seems like a real tool. (See him get body slammed by Sweeney here.)

Matt Holliday --- The shape of his jaw/skull and body give me the creeps.

So, who gets on your very last nerve? Who do you find yourself rooting against? Who do you think should pound sand? Bring it on. And FNS.

* Link for Garvey is a long Sports Illustrated article

** Link for Kingman is a Joe Posnanski article.

OT: Unwired: Mr. Barksdale Tells His Side of the Story

BuehrleMan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:01:29 -0000

OT: Unwired: Mr. Barksdale Tells His Side of the Story

"If The Wire was the epitome of art imitating life, Unwired is life coming back on art with somewhat of a chip on its shoulder."
(This quote is from the writer of the story, not Barksdale)

also, there is a trailer for the dvd here.

Mark Teahen Has Won The Hutch Award

BuehrleMan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:02:23 -0000

Mark Teahen Has Won The Hutch Award

"The award is given annually to the Major League player who best exemplifies the honor, courage and dedication of the late pitcher and manager Fred Hutchinson on and off the field."

Good for him.

Chip Caray: He Gone!

BuehrleMan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:24:42 -0000

Chip Caray: He Gone!

"Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play!"

Don't worry buddy, you won't be missed.

Chip Caray Is Terrible At What He Does

BuehrleMan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:55:05 -0000

Chip Caray Is Terrible At What He Does

And Richard Sandomir doesn't mind pointing it out. And this is not the first time Mr. Sandomir's attention has been turned upon the old Chiperoo. This article, from 1 day shy of 2 years ago, is also wonderful.

"No announcer is perfect. A mistake now and then is expected. The best ones realize that they’ve made errors and often do their best to fix them quickly......Then there is Chip Caray...."
haha

Hawk Always Said He Threw Harder Than Anyone He Ever Saw

BuehrleMan — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:40:06 -0000

Hawk Always Said He Threw Harder Than Anyone He Ever Saw

Steve Dalkowski to be inducted to the Shrine of the Eternals in the Baseball Reliquary.

Do You Think Hawk Was Suspended?

BuehrleMan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:54:33 -0000

Last Friday *Mark Gonzales noted* that Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson would not be announcing the game in order to attend to a family matter. My question is do you believe this explanation or do you think he was told to grab some bench due to his excessive whining about the umpires? Also, whether you think he was suspended or not, have you noticed a distinct change in his demeanor since then or am I just crazy?

Poll

Was The Hawkeroo Suspended?

Hell Yes!

28 votes

Hell No!

50 votes

Hell, I'm Not Sure!

42 votes

120 votes | Poll has closed

cito gaston confirms everyone's feelings about roger clemens

BuehrleMan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:59:14 -0000

cito gaston confirms everyone's feelings about roger clemens

Though Gaston said he didn’t know of anything specific Clemens did to get him fired, he said Clemens did flaunt his influence with the club’s upper management, even asking Gaston if he wanted to keep his job as manager or lose it.

He also challenged Gaston’s authority in front of the team, once questioning the manager’s refusal to pull Pat Hentgen from a game. Gaston says Clemens never brought those criticisms to his face, and he regrets not confronting him over it.

"He wouldn’t (confront me). One of us would have had an ass whuppin’ that day," Gaston said. "It might have been me, but he still would have known I was there."

a supposedly rare thing i'll never see again

BuehrleMan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:25:45 -0000

We've all heard the axiom about how when you go to a baseball game you're going to see something you've never seen before. When I think of this saying, 3 games I've attended immediately pop into my mind.

1. This game actually had 2 occurrences of note, one being of the somewhat rare variety and the other a once in a lifetime kind of deal. The game ended in a tie, which I didn't even remember until I looked up the box score. It's the only tie game I've ever been to, but the memorable part was that pete rose got his 4,191st hit in this game.(equaling ty cobb for the all time hit record, duh). Rose got his 4,190th in the first inning, and he tied the record in the fifth. sometime just after that there was a long (as i remember it) rain delay. I decided to leave because it was getting dark and i figured they wouldn't be able to resume the game. (for all you kids out there, wrigley field had no lights at the time). Well, they did continue that game (through 9 innings) and rose did bat one more time, but the combination of lee smith and virtually no daylight resulted in a strikeout for old Charlie Hustle.

2. This game was not memorable because of Horacio Ramirez's excellent outing.( He pitched 7 2/3 innings and had only given up one run, but in the eighth, with a man on and pujols coming up, bobby cox brought in john smoltz. The result was very similar to the result when pujols faced brad lidge in the 2005 playoffs, an absolute rocket to the very, very deep left field bleachers.) the real rarity, though, was the unassisted triple play turned by rafael furcal. It happened (obviously) really fast, and I still remember the moments of silence afterward as everyone realized what had just happened, followed by a loud ovation by the always polite st. louis fans.

3. This game, of course, is my all time favorite. I reckon some of you were also in attendance. The only disappointment was that buehrle didn't get the perfect game, but if he hadn't walked sosa I wouldn't have been able to laugh when he picked him off of first.

I think there may have been somewhat similar posts in the past of people recalling memorable games that they have been to, but I don't recall any specifically on the topic of "seeing something you've never seen before", so if anyone's got some stories(one last time here; from games you have been to), let's hear ‘em.

(and in case you didn't know, the title of this post is a nod to the late, great david foster wallace)

2 tickets available for monday 8/18

BuehrleMan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:06:48 -0000

i've got two extra tickets located in section 115 row 29 for tonight's game, buehrle versus washburn. i live ~2 hours away and should get to the park somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30pm. anyone interested?

is this post lardy enough yet?

last time i had two extra tickets was april 18, 2007. that was a really, really, really, really good game. if i recall correctly, my man buehrle pitched a no hitter.

is this post lardy enough yet?

last time i had two extra tickets was april 18, 2007. that was a really, really, really, really good game. if i recall correctly, my man buehrle pitched a no hitter.