SB Nation User Blog: Englishmajor

Link Dump 11-02-2009:

Englishmajor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:48:03 -0000

Because Daily may be setting expectations too high in the final flickering days of the postseason. Be grateful for whatever Dumps may come your way.

29 of the 60 newspapers that covered at least some games in the regular season do not have a reporter at the World Series, including of course the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, and the Contra Costa Times (the latter three functioning as one paper for this purpose). I don't think this is the end of the world....I'm sure SuSlu would have given us an interesting Swisher anecdote or two if she were there, but if your team isn't in the playoffs, I don't think your beat reporter has to be there either. Selig disagrees:

“It’s a manifestation of what’s happening in America,” Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, said Sunday before Game 4 of the World Series. “I’m saddened by it. I think newspaper coverage over the years has enabled us to succeed much more than a lot of people understand so for me this is a very, very unhappy development.”

You might think with all that extra space in the press box, there would be extra tickets for Yankee fans who spent days camping out before the first two games, but no. I was drawn to this AP video by the guy in the furry trooper hat who really looks like something out of the Onion News Network, but then when I watched it I was struck by the guy at :19 in wearing a camo jacket and.... an A's cap. Who wears an A's cap to camp out for Yankees tickets? Is he a mole? A ticket scalper? Was he planning to leap from his seat onto the field and strip down to his green-and-gold underpants and taunt Bud Selig? Sadly, we'll never know since he did not get tickets.

And I'm sorry, but centaurs are way lamer than unicorns and Mark Ellis would never in a million billion years do that. Plus if the ladies' principal impression is the art on your wall, you're doing something wrong.

The lede to this story will bring a tear to your eye:

Sitting in rocking chairs on the back porch, sipping beers, the three friends would talk about it: What if we could all play in the World Series someday?

Here is a shocking story of possible cheating at a high-profile tournament.....a high-profile Sudoku tournament that may have been scammed by a mysterious guy in a hoodie.

And the latest speculation (no new facts that I can see) on the territorial rights to San Jose.

DLD 9-23-09: It's a new day

Englishmajor — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:45:35 -0000

And thus a new Daily Link Dump.....however, I commend yesterday's DLD to your attention because of the many excellent links and comments including Poppy's highly-recommended suggestion.

Speaking of the new A's ballpark, some interesting recent posts from the always-interesting Marine Layer include the news of potential Sharks-A's conflicts on Comcast Sports Net California -- not this year, but in the spring.

Speaking of where the new A's ballpark isn't but should be, the Oakland Tribune has an upbeat assessment of downtown Oakland including the un-shrinkwrapping of City Walk.

The prospect of Curt Schilling in the Senate seems to have been averted.

MLB opens a training center in Wuxi, China.

SuSlu recaps last night:

"It was kind of one of those cat-and-mouse games," Cahill said. "I just try to throw what the catcher calls, and it was Landon (Powell) last time, so maybe (it was) two different styles."

Speaking of cats (but not mice), Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation is running a Raider Nation Cat Celebration. Beginning tomorrow and through October 25, adult cats are free of adoption fees. May I recommend Lemur, a one-year-old Siamese mix who is described as a little shy, but very sweet? You could adopt her with another cat and rename that one Conkers, and then you could yell "LEMURCONKERS!" out your back door every evening.

Do you have an AN- or A's related name for your pet?

Poll

My next dog, cat, hamster, parrot, or other companion animal will be named:

LEMURCONKERS

4 votes

GYMNASTICS

1 votes

Twiss

5 votes

Sunshine Biscuits

5 votes

Geren (Bad Geren! Bad! Bad!)

3 votes

Custikins

3 votes

Bagonuts (Bagonuts! Bagonuts, here!)

3 votes

OH NO!

0 votes

F. P. Santangelkitten

12 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

DLD 8-17-09: Take BART (boop-boop) if ya wanna be on time

Englishmajor — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:46:44 -0000

Yes, we have BART service today, and more importantly, tonight for those who can make it to the Coliseum to watch Brett Tomko take on the Yankees. Tomko tonight, Mazzarro tomorrow, Duchscherer....sometime maybe....he has a non-baseball issue. But let's not dwell on the future when we have the past to gloat about!

SuSlu's writeup of yesterday's terrific game includes the quote from Mark Ellis:

Off the bat, I thought it was a double, then I saw (Scott) Podsednik coming over and I thought, 'He's not going to get it."

This astute observation notwithstanding, Craig Breslow is still the smartest man in baseball because he knows about DNA sequencing and stuff.

The Wall Street Journal has a fun story about foreign minor leaguers including the Brazilian-Japanese Fabio Murakami -- what a great name -- in the Phillies organization and the Moanaroa brothers in the Red Sox organization, who are believed to be the first Maori professional ballplayers in the US. No word on whether they do the haka before games.

Y. E. Yang is a great success story. Also, there's now at least one Korean restaurant in Chaska, MN, which is good news for me if I ever have to go visit my relatives there.

"Bonk-Players-In-The-Head-Day" voted less popular than "Turn-Back-The-Clock-Day", but fortunately everyone is okay. Also, the Milwaukee man who decided to get into the spirit of How Thick Is Your Cranium? Day by hitting the mayor in the head with a pipe at the State Fair is in custody.

Your dumps are respectfully solicited below....

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?