Thursday, October 07, 2004
RANDOM WALK
You know, getting paid (job) is good, but it's really getting in the way of me seeing all of the afternoon playoff games. It's sad really.
That said, here's some more randoms...
-- The Braves ran into a hot team in the form of the Houston Astros. I've posted about my bitter dislike of Phil Garner many times before, and while the Astros went nuts under his watch, I guess I only have a couple things to say about it. One, the talent finally showed up, which isn't wholly due to the manager; it's possibly more coincidal than correlational. Two, the last half of this season marked only the second time in parts of twelve seasons that Phil Garner has had a team finish over .500. The Astros were underachieving when Garner got there this year, and they eventually played (and are still playing) out of their minds. But the minute that the Astros revert to crap under Garner's watch, it might all hit the fan. Of course, this would be me assuming Garner hasn't learned anything since his getting canned in Detroit after the 0-6 start in 2002. But seeing Garner's track record, my advice to Drayton McLane and Gerry Hunsicker would be to can Garner, repercussions be damned. Or at least have a good replacement in mind.
-- So now both Melvin (canned) and Roger Jongewaard (resigned) are out of the picture for the Mariners. Sure, it's some employee turnover in the organization, and with the two men go their philosophies, for better or for worse. Of course, my ultimate dream is for a local buyer to buy the team and clean house at the front office, changing all of the antiquated old-school organizational philosophies along the way. Of course, my dream is just that; it's pie-in-the-sky thinking. We're left to hope that Howard Lincoln and Bill Bavasi have learned something from this year. Bavasi had the ship sink this year, while Lincoln never proved to me he'd learned anything from 2000 and 2001 (and there were things to be learned), let alone 2002 and 2003. Lest we forget how long Arthur Rhodes was the only lefthander in the bullpen. Ah, yes, the Doug Creek Experience.
-- I hope no one was greatly enjoying the Dave Myers Era, the Orlando Gomez Era, the Rene Lachemann Era, the Paul Molitor Era, or the Mike Aldrete Era in Seattle. I thought Molitor would have more to teach to a younger team, which next year's team would be. Alas, it's all up to speculation now. And as Jeremy said the other day, hooray for the long-overdue canning of the man responsible for Chris Snelling's ACL tear and possibly a key deadline deal in 2002 (Myers). If the Mariners bring back Larry Bowa, I hope it's to be a third-base coach, because I thought he was a decent one.
-- While I was gone, I'd heard about Conan O'Brien being handed the keys to the Tonight Show when Jay Leno leaves in 2009. The first thing on my mind was that I'd hope Conan would be able to keep the show in New York. However, I read something the other day saying he'd move to Los Angeles for the show. Sad. I hope Max Weinberg and the band stay with him, but who knows...Max and the Springsteen ties to New Jersey may be too much to break.
-- When I played baseball, I'd always hated it during batting practice, in scrimmages, or in games, when it felt like I'd hit the crap out of the ball, but then it was a total dud and didn't go too far. I also felt the same way when it felt like I barely hit a ball and it went further than I thought (i.e., how far would it go if I really would have connected?). Same goes for getting on base with cheap base hits that are either jam-shots or hand-stingers.
-- Quite simply, I'd do anything to keep from watching the show I'd Do Anything. The fact that ESPN can get away with absolutely anything is both a blessing and a curse. The fact that this show exists and the Two Minute Drill doesn't (Stump the Schwab doesn't cut it) is a travesty.
-- Man, I was freaking out just a second ago. Comcast had done their thing where they cut into your programming to test the Emergency Alert System. I'd turned the sound back up after turning it down and heard a voice talking, which I hadn't heard before. I couldn't make out what the voice was saying, so I thought it might be something bad. I flipped over to a couple other local channels that also had the alert thing scrolling across the top of the screen. KIRO cut away (I was watching the Letterman show), but I finally figured out it was a test. I thought the mountain was going to blow or something.
-- Speaking of which, I ran into a fellow geology major from my old days (i.e., last four years) at Central Washington University. I work at an electrical warehouse, and he works at Fred Meyer, so we're using our degrees quite well. Anyway, I ran into him at Fred Meyer on the day St. Helens was starting to act up. I knew full well about the weak eruptions, but it never came up in the conversation. Not a word. From two just-graduated geology majors. I thought it was hilarious.
-- Keeping local once more, Tara Kirk is headed off to the FINA Short Course worlds once again, this time in Indianapolis. Yes, they've put a pool in the Conseco Fieldhouse, though it's a 25-meter pool as opposed to a 50-meter pool (hence the phrase "short course") as in the Olympics. Tara will swim in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, and she has set short course world records before. Also on the US team with Kirk are people with the last names of Beard, Thompson, Phelps, Crocker, and Peirsol.
-- I really haven't watched as much college football as I should, so thank goodness Jeremy's been keeping better track. I guess my problem is that I don't really root for teams -- I tend to watch more college football games if I'm rooting against a team that's playing. So if I'm flipping around and I see that Mid Tennessee State/Old Dominion/McNeese State/the Citadel/Loyola Marymount/Kentucky Wesleyan/Nevada-Reno manages to go into halftime with a field goal lead over Michigan/Florida State/Florida/Miami/Notre Dame, I'll be a little more inclined to watch. In a related note, I was able to watch the Saints/Rams game back when I was in North Dakota, and was rooting hard for the Rams to bite it. They should have gone down in regulation, but the Rams did lose, and I was quite the happy one.
-- If any of you out there use more than six packets of fire sauce on a Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Burrito, then you are crazier than I.
-- Lastly, the new government center downtown apparently is named the Norm Dicks Government Center. Before saying something about the name, I must first note that the government center is basically Bremerton pulling one over on Port Orchard (the county seat). Bremerton scores! Anyway, I know Norm Dicks has done quite a lot for this district, but to put his name on the government center...yikes. Now Bremerton will be known for two things: Bremelos and Dicks.
I'll see how I adjust to my non-recaps swing of things. It's a little weird right now. I think I talked the other day about having to sift through articles instead of seeing things played out on the field. Now I've got to adjust back to offseason mode for the Mariners, so it might take a while. Other sports won't be so hard.
Speaking of which...I've sifted through some of the new stuff...
-- Let's hope the prowler of Edgar Martinez's house is captured.
-- Bryan Price would love some job security. He wants a plan in place in case the next Mariner manager absolutely wants his own pitching coach. He says it'd be hard to turn Melvin down if Melvin got a job somewhere, which I find unsurprising given that phony all-five-guys-starting-all-the-games thing of 2003, but surprising given the mess when it came to Melvin's bullpen management.
-- My goodness, now they're busting Seahawk kicker Josh Brown for not having enough touchbacks. The article does point to some use of squib kicks as causes for this and Brown's drop in yards per kick, and Brown also notes that not many touchbacks are possible in the thick air at the Q, and that not even Rian Lindell was eable to get a lot of touchbacks. That particular quote reads off like Brown considers himself inferior to Lindell, but read the article for yourself.
-- And then there's Bob Finnigan. He raises the possibility of trading Bret Boone, though I highly doubt anyone (sans Yankees) would take on his deal. In a crazy note, the Yankees are currently starting half of the Mariners' 2000 infield. Finnigan then floats about a ton of speculation, as he does, and throws a bunch of names out there as to whom the Mariners might go after, most of which probably don't apply. In other words, it's a vintage Finnigan offseason article on the Mariners.
And with this, I end the post. Have a great Thursday, all.
That said, here's some more randoms...
-- The Braves ran into a hot team in the form of the Houston Astros. I've posted about my bitter dislike of Phil Garner many times before, and while the Astros went nuts under his watch, I guess I only have a couple things to say about it. One, the talent finally showed up, which isn't wholly due to the manager; it's possibly more coincidal than correlational. Two, the last half of this season marked only the second time in parts of twelve seasons that Phil Garner has had a team finish over .500. The Astros were underachieving when Garner got there this year, and they eventually played (and are still playing) out of their minds. But the minute that the Astros revert to crap under Garner's watch, it might all hit the fan. Of course, this would be me assuming Garner hasn't learned anything since his getting canned in Detroit after the 0-6 start in 2002. But seeing Garner's track record, my advice to Drayton McLane and Gerry Hunsicker would be to can Garner, repercussions be damned. Or at least have a good replacement in mind.
-- So now both Melvin (canned) and Roger Jongewaard (resigned) are out of the picture for the Mariners. Sure, it's some employee turnover in the organization, and with the two men go their philosophies, for better or for worse. Of course, my ultimate dream is for a local buyer to buy the team and clean house at the front office, changing all of the antiquated old-school organizational philosophies along the way. Of course, my dream is just that; it's pie-in-the-sky thinking. We're left to hope that Howard Lincoln and Bill Bavasi have learned something from this year. Bavasi had the ship sink this year, while Lincoln never proved to me he'd learned anything from 2000 and 2001 (and there were things to be learned), let alone 2002 and 2003. Lest we forget how long Arthur Rhodes was the only lefthander in the bullpen. Ah, yes, the Doug Creek Experience.
-- I hope no one was greatly enjoying the Dave Myers Era, the Orlando Gomez Era, the Rene Lachemann Era, the Paul Molitor Era, or the Mike Aldrete Era in Seattle. I thought Molitor would have more to teach to a younger team, which next year's team would be. Alas, it's all up to speculation now. And as Jeremy said the other day, hooray for the long-overdue canning of the man responsible for Chris Snelling's ACL tear and possibly a key deadline deal in 2002 (Myers). If the Mariners bring back Larry Bowa, I hope it's to be a third-base coach, because I thought he was a decent one.
-- While I was gone, I'd heard about Conan O'Brien being handed the keys to the Tonight Show when Jay Leno leaves in 2009. The first thing on my mind was that I'd hope Conan would be able to keep the show in New York. However, I read something the other day saying he'd move to Los Angeles for the show. Sad. I hope Max Weinberg and the band stay with him, but who knows...Max and the Springsteen ties to New Jersey may be too much to break.
-- When I played baseball, I'd always hated it during batting practice, in scrimmages, or in games, when it felt like I'd hit the crap out of the ball, but then it was a total dud and didn't go too far. I also felt the same way when it felt like I barely hit a ball and it went further than I thought (i.e., how far would it go if I really would have connected?). Same goes for getting on base with cheap base hits that are either jam-shots or hand-stingers.
-- Quite simply, I'd do anything to keep from watching the show I'd Do Anything. The fact that ESPN can get away with absolutely anything is both a blessing and a curse. The fact that this show exists and the Two Minute Drill doesn't (Stump the Schwab doesn't cut it) is a travesty.
-- Man, I was freaking out just a second ago. Comcast had done their thing where they cut into your programming to test the Emergency Alert System. I'd turned the sound back up after turning it down and heard a voice talking, which I hadn't heard before. I couldn't make out what the voice was saying, so I thought it might be something bad. I flipped over to a couple other local channels that also had the alert thing scrolling across the top of the screen. KIRO cut away (I was watching the Letterman show), but I finally figured out it was a test. I thought the mountain was going to blow or something.
-- Speaking of which, I ran into a fellow geology major from my old days (i.e., last four years) at Central Washington University. I work at an electrical warehouse, and he works at Fred Meyer, so we're using our degrees quite well. Anyway, I ran into him at Fred Meyer on the day St. Helens was starting to act up. I knew full well about the weak eruptions, but it never came up in the conversation. Not a word. From two just-graduated geology majors. I thought it was hilarious.
-- Keeping local once more, Tara Kirk is headed off to the FINA Short Course worlds once again, this time in Indianapolis. Yes, they've put a pool in the Conseco Fieldhouse, though it's a 25-meter pool as opposed to a 50-meter pool (hence the phrase "short course") as in the Olympics. Tara will swim in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, and she has set short course world records before. Also on the US team with Kirk are people with the last names of Beard, Thompson, Phelps, Crocker, and Peirsol.
-- I really haven't watched as much college football as I should, so thank goodness Jeremy's been keeping better track. I guess my problem is that I don't really root for teams -- I tend to watch more college football games if I'm rooting against a team that's playing. So if I'm flipping around and I see that Mid Tennessee State/Old Dominion/McNeese State/the Citadel/Loyola Marymount/Kentucky Wesleyan/Nevada-Reno manages to go into halftime with a field goal lead over Michigan/Florida State/Florida/Miami/Notre Dame, I'll be a little more inclined to watch. In a related note, I was able to watch the Saints/Rams game back when I was in North Dakota, and was rooting hard for the Rams to bite it. They should have gone down in regulation, but the Rams did lose, and I was quite the happy one.
-- If any of you out there use more than six packets of fire sauce on a Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Burrito, then you are crazier than I.
-- Lastly, the new government center downtown apparently is named the Norm Dicks Government Center. Before saying something about the name, I must first note that the government center is basically Bremerton pulling one over on Port Orchard (the county seat). Bremerton scores! Anyway, I know Norm Dicks has done quite a lot for this district, but to put his name on the government center...yikes. Now Bremerton will be known for two things: Bremelos and Dicks.
I'll see how I adjust to my non-recaps swing of things. It's a little weird right now. I think I talked the other day about having to sift through articles instead of seeing things played out on the field. Now I've got to adjust back to offseason mode for the Mariners, so it might take a while. Other sports won't be so hard.
Speaking of which...I've sifted through some of the new stuff...
-- Let's hope the prowler of Edgar Martinez's house is captured.
-- Bryan Price would love some job security. He wants a plan in place in case the next Mariner manager absolutely wants his own pitching coach. He says it'd be hard to turn Melvin down if Melvin got a job somewhere, which I find unsurprising given that phony all-five-guys-starting-all-the-games thing of 2003, but surprising given the mess when it came to Melvin's bullpen management.
-- My goodness, now they're busting Seahawk kicker Josh Brown for not having enough touchbacks. The article does point to some use of squib kicks as causes for this and Brown's drop in yards per kick, and Brown also notes that not many touchbacks are possible in the thick air at the Q, and that not even Rian Lindell was eable to get a lot of touchbacks. That particular quote reads off like Brown considers himself inferior to Lindell, but read the article for yourself.
-- And then there's Bob Finnigan. He raises the possibility of trading Bret Boone, though I highly doubt anyone (sans Yankees) would take on his deal. In a crazy note, the Yankees are currently starting half of the Mariners' 2000 infield. Finnigan then floats about a ton of speculation, as he does, and throws a bunch of names out there as to whom the Mariners might go after, most of which probably don't apply. In other words, it's a vintage Finnigan offseason article on the Mariners.
And with this, I end the post. Have a great Thursday, all.
/ Click for main page
