SB Nation User Blog: Karma Police

So...what's the deal with 710 KIRO?

Karma Police — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:38:59 -0000

OK here's the situation: Im living in a house without cable or satellite, and of course I had the terrible surprise of finding out that living in Seattle means that (yay!) MLBTV is blacked out. I could go on for days about how incredibly stupid and counter-intuitive this is, but im sure it has been discussed to death.

So im making do with gameday and radio until me and my roommates actually get TV, but now Im finding I can't listen online! Was it always like this? I'm at one of the libraries at UW, with my headphones in, all ready to listen to the game as I study, but whenever I go to the KIRO website (at least I think its their website...), I keep getting the same boring March Madness talk that ive had to put up with all month. The site says that Ms and Seahawks games will preempt any scheduled shows, but obviously they're lying.

How can I listen to games while away from home? I swear mlb.com used to stream it for free, but my god I've given up on that site in every way.

100 mph...

Karma Police — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:23:19 -0000

Does anyone else think it's kinda funny how the variation of speeds of pitchers seems to be a 100mph maximum (with a few obvious exceptions)?

Was that just a coincidence, or were the baseball diamond dimensions specifically built so the fastest anyone could throw was around 100? It just seems kinda weird that people would stop getting faster right around a nice round number.

Which also gets me thinking about why a normal pitch count, or even a set pitch count is usually 100. Again, was that planned at all?

Very random question (for anyone out there)

Karma Police — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:41:16 -0000

OK, I dont know why ive never wondered this before, but me and a friend were just having a discussion about this.

What would happen if, before the all-star game, a first place leader in votes of the AL gets traded to a team in the NL? They wouldn't re-do the voting just because of one player, but what would actually happen?

I said that he would start out fresh with 0 votes, and any votes that he gets after he is traded will be his new total. My friend tried to argue that MLB wouldnt make someone miss the all-star game cause he got traded, but he doesn't have another option.

Now, I know the all-star game doesnt (well, shouldnt) matter, but is there a rule out there that says what actually would happen in a situation like this?

All-time worst MVP/Cy Young vote?

Karma Police — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:09:43 -0000

Someone has to know this, or at least know a pretty bad one. Or several.

I was just looking over the 2001 AL Cy young voting, where because of 9/11 and his famous name, Roger Clemens stole the cy young from Freddy. Which reminded me how retarded some (most) of these "experts" are. So there has to be some idiot that voted someone like Craig Counsell one year cause he got a game-winning HBP once and the writer was smashed and it made him cry.

BONUS POINTS: worst first place vote?

Time to play: Who's That Umpire?!

Karma Police — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:26:39 -0000

OK, this has been bothering me for probably years now.

Who, for the love of god, is the umpire that, when he's at home plate, calls strikes by pointing and literally shrieking "AAIIEEEEEEEE!!!" (im assuming hes trying to say strike)

My god its annoying and it always catches me off guard cause I never remember who this guy is.

First Prize: 1 free internets

Second Prize: A Big truck (with which you can dump things on)

Third Prize: You're fired

Awkward announcer moments

Karma Police — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:49:00 -0000

Whats the most awkward announcer moment you've heard? not just this year, but all time?

It could be funny awkward, could be a situation where tempers start to rise, could be a situation where either announcer really doesnt know what to say next.

I seem to remember around 2002, where Buhner was announcing, and he kept saying something really awkward, but for the life of me i cant remember what it was at all. Anyone out there remember this who can help me out? it was a phrase and im sure he was just kidding, but i remember it sounded pretty, uh...gay.

EDIT: yea i should have said just "announcer" instead of "mariner announcer". makes no sense to limit it to just 1 team

Sabermetrics (and people who complain about it)

Karma Police — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:19:06 -0000

I was just thinking, does anyone else think the struggle between many bloggers and people like Joe Morgan or sportswriters kinda reminds you of the issue of religion vs. science? on a much smaller and less significant scale, obviously.

Look at the way bloggers like Jeff or Dave or DMZ are treated by casual fans or certain sportswriters. They are constantly written off as if they don't already have a huge following, but sometimes these sportswriters will lash out at them and bloggers like them as if all of the sudden they are a threat. Like fundamentalist christians who don't think that athiests are significant enough to really matter vs. the majority, but get all worked up on the "omg WAR ON CHRISTMAS AND JESUS!". which makes it obvious that they feel threatened and angry at them sometimes.

The way sabermetrics developed also mirrors science vs. religion. At first, it was really only "baseball people" who had been in the game for a long time that could really decide who was good and who wasn't. But now, billy beane and others are proof that there are different ways of evaluating talent that work fine. so you could liken a scout to a priest and a "stathead" to a mathematician or scientist. which would make LL and USSM readers students of the bloggers.

it would also explain the argument between scrappy, hard-working white (sorry, "blue collar") players and "selfish" power hitters who "clog up the basepaths". Just like people who think abstinence is always the key to happiness and alcohol is the devil or sex is evil or whatever can be compared to writers who think that someone like Reggie Willits or Willie Bloomqist is more valuable than someone who isnt so scrappy and wasn't a punter for Nebraska (did you know Darin Erstad punted for Nebraska? how scrappy of him!); those values are simply outdated and not realistic in today's society.

so basically Bill James = Socrates wow that sounds weird but whatever.

kids, never major in Philosophy. it will fuck you up forever.

Please help me out with this

Karma Police — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:06:51 -0000

So recently Ive been looking at the baseball reference game logs for Felix, and I just noticed something that makes no sense to me.

Actually, this could work with any pitcher

As you see they have standard stats like IP, H, R, etc. but as I go along, I see: StC, StS, and StL. I assume that means Strike Called, Strike Swinging, ans Strike Looking.

what the hell?! How is a called strike different than looking at a strike?

So about these Griffey rumors...

Karma Police — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:58:31 -0000

Has anyone heard anything about who might be going to Cincinnati? Its probably still very rough at this point, but do the Reds have a need that one of our available guys could fill? any speculation?

I could see Baek or Morrow or Lowe go. Rob Johnson maybe? reed?

75 word fun fact: Miguel Cairo still has a job. playing baseball. major league baseball. on the seattle mariners. playing first base. batting second. miguel cairo.

Kill me

Karma Police — Sun, 11 May 2008 02:39:03 -0000

this is unbearable

Gomez edit:

Penis theft panic hits city..

By Joe Bavier (Reuters)

Wed Apr 23, 1:07 PM ET

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.