SB Nation User Blog: Englishmajor

DLD 7/1/09: Less about baseball, more about baseball movies

Englishmajor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:14:22 -0000

Or the one that isn't in production right now. The New York Times has a story headlined In Skittish Hollywood, Stars Can't Save "Moneyball" and the LA Times counters with its more insiderish Sony's Amy Pascal speaks out about "Moneyball". Both identify the problem with the original script: people who are still alive being portrayed by actors, saying and doing things that did not actually happen exactly the way the script depicts them. This is a problem that many other filmmakers have conquered successfully, but it does help to have the cooperation of the people who are going to be portrayed as characters....and the NYTimes indicates that it was at least in part Major League Baseball that objected to the historical liberties. The second draft -- the one we haven't seen, the one that caused Sony to put the movie on ice -- was apparently much more of a documentary/reenactment. The LAT story says one of the bits in the first script that director Steven Soderbergh wanted cut was the part where the 4-year-old daughter of Scott and Bitsy Hatteberg fields a ball that her dad missed and the "Ron Washington" character suggests signing her up.

Also, Monte Poole has a D-Train update.

That's about all I've seen today and it's time to head to the ballpark!

DLD 6/30/09: Pardon me if I'm sentimental

Englishmajor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:51:51 -0000

It's the 42nd anniversary of the first major-league game I ever attended, Minnesota Twins vs. Washington Senators. Unfortunately, the game was called on account of a tremendous thunderstorm before it became official; here's the box score for the next day. Look at that lineup.....Tovar, Versailles, Killebrew, Oliva, Allison, Rollins, Zimmermann, Quilici, and the promising rookie Rod Carew was brought in to pinch-hit for Kitty Kaat.

Some links that caught my eye:

AP writeup of last night's game describes Mark Ellis as possessing "an ineffable knack for timely hits" which is so much nicer than "clutch", don't you think? Also:

Left-hander Fu-Te Ni struck out Giambi in his major league debut. Ni didn't know who Giambi was, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise when told of Giambi's achievements.

NI!

SuSlu prefers to reference old Hayley Mills movies to describe last night's game, or perhaps she was thinking of the Lindsay Lohan remake, which was vastly inferior in every way except that it used a song by Shonen Knife. Which makes it of course the greatest film ever made in my opinion.

It will be a long time before many of us can hear or read the words "dance floor" without adding "Whoops! But I did not spill my draft beer". In this case, that may be appropriate.

The good people of Fremont, having averted the horrible inconvenience of having a major-league ballpark in their PLWAM, may also soon be rid of the annoying congestion caused by nearly 5,000 people going to work;

And July 4 is the anniversary of Lou Gehrig's retirement speech; the speech will be read during the seventh-inning stretch at every MLB game.

DLD 6-22-09: There is an "A" in delay....there's a D and L in there too

Englishmajor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:06:30 -0000

Shooting was supposed to start today on Moneyball: The Movie, but it isn't gonna. It may be a temporary snag, or the film may be dead....it's day-to-day.

The advisory vote on whether to encourage an A's stadium was supposed to be on the ballot in San Jose in November, but it isn't gonna either. Maybe in 2010. It's day-to-day.

Zito pitched a fairly good game yesterday and somehow this is deluding people into thinking the Giants are going to the postseason.

Susan Slusser reports that three A's pitchers are following Barry's example and living in -- gasp -- San Francisco!

And Oakland police apprehended a sea lion apparently trying to get to the Coliseum for tonight's Battle of the Bay redux. The sea lion won't be there but if you're a RAF, you can be. Or meet us back here tonight at 7 PM. In the meantime, commence dumping!

DLD 6/9/09: Lemurs conquer San Jose

Englishmajor — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:01:43 -0000

I hope I'm not stepping on anyone who intended a special DLD for today, but when I saw this story I knew I had to post it.

Four lemurs of endangered species born at San Jose's Happy Hollow zoo

via extras.mnginteractive.com

Recap of last night from the Minneapolis Star Tribune includes reader comments indicating a very un-Minnesotan level of frustration with the Twins' performance:

Our hardware spokesman should've grabbed Swarzak by his ear and hauled him off the field! He has to look at video to see what he did wrong?! Has he forgotten already? I could smell it from here! Plus I'm sooo sick of this "confidense" garbage. You're in the majors! Strap on a pair and do your job. That goes for all of you, front office on down.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Public Radio Twins blog profiles reliever Sean Henn, who we saw last night. I was half-asleep and thought it was Sean Penn.

Bobby and Gina Crosby have named their baby after Blez. Fortunately it's a boy.

Also: America's best baseball schools, according to the Wall Street Journal. Not the Jack Cust Baseball Academy.

And I hate to even link to this and give the Oakland-bashers more ammo, but our beloved home city considers filing for bankruptcy -- well, at least according to Ignacio de la Fuente (who's already filed for intellectual bankruptcy).

Okay, back to work....

Poll

To improve the scansion of the MGD song, "So have a draft beer in the bedroom, in the bathroom, by the pool..." should be followed by:

Last week I had a draft beer, which made me fart and drool

17 votes

Last week I had a draft beer while I was skipping school

12 votes

Last night I had a case of them and acted like a fool

19 votes

I think "pool" rhymes with "cruise" just fine

6 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

DLD 4/21/09: Overheated and underreported: Scott Hatteberg, Actin' Machine!

Englishmajor — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:22:46 -0000

Bruce Jenkins: on the Yankees' new ballpark:

The real Yankee fans, the ones who perfected the art of sophisticated (or downright rude) heckling, have been priced out of the yard.

The Wall Street Journal: rocks the high socks....with stirrups; taking us to Twin City, South Carolina, home of "the last mass-production baseball-stirrup mill in America".

Futsal? In Hayward?

And the most awesome news after the jump.

Scott Hatteberg to play himself in Moneyball: The Movie alongside Brad Pitt as Billy Beane and Demetri Martin as DePo. David Justice will also appear in the role of David Justice. If this thing ever actually gets made I will see it 1000000 times.

The Art Of The Autograph (Detroit Free Press)

Englishmajor — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:25:15 -0000

The Art Of The Autograph (Detroit Free Press)

A nicely done video from the Detroit Free Press staff at Tigers spring training -- captures the ST fan experience well.

DLD 2/25/09: Just because there's a Game Thread...

Englishmajor — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:58:35 -0000

does not mean that we don't need a DLD as well. Because we don't like to clutter up the game threads with Ignacio de la Fuente saying I told you so:

"I predicted a long time ago that Fremont wouldn't work out" for the A's, De La Fuente said. "The A's belong in Oakland," he said.

Just call him Nostradanus. However, at least Oakland city officials are now pretending they want the team to stay. In a further quote from that Bay City News Service* story:

*just because NBC11 is comfortable putting unattributed wire copy on their website does not mean I am

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' spokesman, Paul Rose, said, "The mayor is willing to do whatever it takes, within reason, to stay in Oakland."

I'm pretty sure that it's the A's rather than Dellums himself who are being referred to here -- because very few people think Dellums wants to stay in Oakland.

Meanwhile, speculation about San Jose

and speculation about San Jose

and speculation about the Coliseum continues to fill papers.

Miggy will not be playing in the WBC, but it's not because of his legal and chemical issues, it's because the Dominican coach wanted him to play first instead of short.

In other news, you know the big new Toyota dealership across the freeway from the Coliseum (and directly across the street from the In'N'Out) which has been under construction for ages (or at least the last seven or eight times I went to In'N'Out)? Closed before it even had its official grand opening. Hmm. It might not seat 30,000 people but it's kind of a nice-looking building.....

Have you any links?

DLD 2-18-09: Fremont On Ice

Englishmajor — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:20:52 -0000

The SanJoseMercuryNewsOaklandTribuneFremontArgusWarmSpringsPennySaver is reporting that the A's have told the city of Fremont that they are indefinitely postponing a presentation to the city council and chamber of commerce that was planned for next week. Marine Layer says that the COO of Major League Baseball was scheduled to be at the presentation, and the A's didn't want him to be pelted with rotten tomatoes by the locals. It's not clear whether this represents the end of the Fremont experiment or just another bend in the road. Also unclear is whether Ben and Nate will revise their previous statement to "a parking lot with an ineffectual mayor".

However, it's unlikely that the team will be relocating to Morgan Hill. Just in case you were wondering.

Also probably an unlikely spot for the stadium: the Albany Bulb, although the left field bleachers would fit right in:

"It's self-regulating, with no authority controlling it. And we like it this way," said Oakland lawyer and artist Osha Neumann, who's created many of the sculptures there. "It's an urban wilderness. It's benign, positive anarchy."

Susan Slusser's daily report from spring training is all about Jared Lansford:

Lansford said it's funny to see the A's longtime support staff, like Vucinich and director of team travel Mickey Morabito, after all these years. "I haven't seen them since I was 8, sometimes they don't even recognize me," he said.

And in my home town, baseball (of the Northern League variety) is also on ice -- the Saint Paul Saints are playing an exhibition "iceball" game later this month. It will only be five innings, which is good because the average temperature for February is 18 degrees F.

DLD 11-11-08: For all your non-Holliday linkage needs

Englishmajor — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:45:34 -0000

That cute kid from across the Bay won the Cy Young.

Preacher Roe died at the age of 92.

“It never bothered me none throwing a spitter,” he said. “If no one is going to help the pitcher in this game, he’s got to help himself.”

Doug Glanville writes about what players do in the off-season. I liked the alpaca farm.

A student at my alma mater really, really wanted to get out of going to class today....so she made up a story about scary black people and bombs. Next time, stick with "food poisoning" or "unplugged the alarm clock by mistake" , okay?

Kindly do not scalp your tickets for the Inauguration.

That means you, "Steve"!

Missing 150-year-old tortoise is back home. All together now, please: "You come push it. Push it real good!".

Daily/Weekly F******* Link Dump: 11-3

Englishmajor — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:48:22 -0000

Maybe once a week is enough for those off-season dumps.....

Chase Utley says the very bad word on live TV. Station managers swoon; the audience, at least those interviewed in this story, doesn't give a ****.

The New York Times has an interesting article on athletes and the media; why players spout cliches and how to get them to say something interesting.

In the same issue of the NYT's Play, Dexter Filkins had an essay about the frustrations of trying to follow his favorite team (NFL, in his case) from the Baghdad bureau, through online game reports and the occasional spotty streaming audio. The ultimate NRF experience?

And in non-sports news:

From HIGH WIND ON BRIDGE to HIGH WIND ON BRIDGE SO WHY NOT GET OFF AT POWELL AND GO TO IKEA INSTEAD?

Dump away. And don't forget to vote if you haven't already! There's a free coffee in it for you. There's only 20,20,24 hours to go!