117 thoughts on “December 10, 2013: The Other One”

  2. Yesterday I had my best day of bowling of the season, probably of my life. I bowled 200, 171, 200 for a 571 series. That's the first time I've even been over 500 this year.

    1. Holy cow, that's pretty good. My best game ever is in the high 140s, I think.

      I have a problem bowling because I don't do it enough to own my own ball. That means trying to find a ball they have that both isn't a 16 lb behemoth, yet still has holes that accommodate my long fingers and fat knuckles.

      1. A couple of weeks ago, when I went to visit my parents at Thanksgiving, Dad gave me his old bowling ball. It's a little heavier (a 14-pounder, I think) than what I'd been throwing and seems to carry the pins a lot better. It has made a definite difference.

        1. Sadly, my town no longer has a bowling alley. It closed two years ago. I guess Californeyeaaaih libruls (and, more likely, our high hispanic percentage) don't bowl.

    2. Man, I really need to take a Sunday morning and go throw a couple games. I haven't been out in three years since my last league game. I'm not sure if I'd be able to roll a 571 these days, though.

        1. Heh, yeah, I noticed that after I mailed. Of course, the local alleys don't have Saturday morning deals like they do on Sundays.

    3. Wow. I think my lifetime record is something like 585, which I did the day before I got my own ball. Can't believe I bowled my record with a house ball, but it did fit well.

      Would there be any interest in a WGOM league here in the cities, if not this year, next? Nobody in my family bowls these days, so I'm not sure how else I'd go regularly.

      1. I'm interested, but actually participating would probably depend on the particulars: location, day(s) of the week, registration fee, etc.

      2. I've had some fun scores in my life. I nailed 700 even and I think I had a 700 during my last season as well. My best single game is a 279 (missed the first, so less pressure for the rest of the game and I completed the unofficial 300 starting the next game). I did it with my own ball, though. Never would have managed that with a house ball. If anyone is curious, the first 700 series was with an Elite R43 and the 279 was with a Brunswick Wicked Siege. I love those balls and still have both.

          1. Thanks. I went on a wicked hot streak in the second half of my last year in league play where I was seemingly putting up at least one 240 game a night. (of course, there was always a 140-170 in there somewhere, but what are you gonna do?) We all got hot at about the same time and steamrolled the league, then disbanded.

      3. I don't know if I could commit to a league, but definitely a gathering at a bowling alley.

  3. Does anyone here have experience trying to help a friend realize they have a problem drinking? I'm extremely concerned about a good friend's relationship to booze, and, thus far, any attempt to offer him support has been automatically rebuffed.

    1. I don't have experience as a friend. As a social worker, the best method is coming along side them, learning their motivations, and finding ways to get them to talk about it without giving advice or platitudes. However, I don't know if that works as a friend.

    3. The friend who should have been the best man at my wedding wasn't because of his drinking problem (and I couldn't rely on him not to misbehave). I've tried to help him repeatedly, and, at present, he's in good shape, but his life has been a rollercoaster. I don't have any wise words of advice besides a) always being there for him, while b) also letting him know that I don't condone his decisons and demanding that he accept responsibility for the consequences.

    4. When I was in my early twenties I had a "tough love" encounter with a high school friend who was drinking way too much. After experiencing a weekend of him constantly drunk and looking for his next drink at a mutual friends' wedding events, I basically reamed him out and said he was making a fool of himself and endangering his life. I told him it was embarrassing to be with around him. I pulled no punches. He stopped drinking about 6 months later and has remained sober for some 27 years. To this day he thanks me for the talk and basically has said that if his user buddy thought he had a problem, then he must really have one.

      Not saying that will work in your specific case, but it worked in this one.

      1. I had a similar experience with a friend who was destroying himself with crank and opium, among other things. He did some very embarrassing things that I won't repeat here - even without his name attached. I similarly pulled no punches and he drove himself to inpatient the next week and has been clean since 1998.

        This, however, is one of my best friends in the world. Our friendship is bulletproof. It's hard to apply it to another situation without knowing the particulars.

    2. Wish I had my original co-wowrker phone # printout from years ago; I worked with an incredible number of celebrity names per person ratio. I remember there was a Steve Young and Vincent Price, among others.

    4. I just found a Larry Johnson. Whether it's the erstwhile Chiefs running back or Grandmama is up to you.

        1. As do I, though I'm still extremely miffed about this play.

          httpv://youtu.be/7xlCbpPN8rs

          I remember everyone watching that game saying "Whatever you do, don't foul"

          Damnit, now I got my blood going.

    6. Was Shannon Stewart a female? Calvin Johnson, Luis Rivas and Victor Cruz probably aren't all that uncommon. If you find a Bert Blyleven or a Doug Mientkievicz, then I'd be really impressed.

      1. I figured those three weren't too uncommon, along with Larry Johnson either. I was just sharing for completeness more than anything. And I didn't actually look in Stewart's file, I just found it and moved along.

    1. Speaking of officially retired, should have drafted....

      Seriously, though, Prior's career was really unfortunate. He was obviously as good as advertised, he just broke down. Maybe he would have broken down without Dusty Baker pushing him over the edge, but he would have at least had a fighting chance. His 2003 fWAR of 7.5 is the 28th best season by fWAr in the last 20 years ('94-'13). Also of note on that list, #27 and #25 are Santana's 2004 and 2005, respectively. Randy Johnson has 5 of the top 10 seasons, and Pedro leads the list with 11.9 fWAR in that ridiculous '99 season he had.

    2. In this case, I can see where some kind of intervention may be necessary--the kid has to at least learn to kiss his lady in secret--but it's basically just incorrect to deem it sexual harassment.

      1. I think it's pretty sad that the school thinks they are going to teach him a lesson or something by branding him with a label that could haunt him for a long time. He's six! The lesson will be to never trust authority because they will destroy you if they get a chance.

        1. I've never talked about it here, but I learned that lesson too young, and it pushed me into the angry, cynical direction I don't think I otherwise would have followed.

        2. Yeah, even if they want to tell him that it's sexual harassment--maybe not the worst idea in the world if they want him to stop doing it at school and ward off future problems--putting it in his record as such serves no good purpose.

          1. not to mention (wait! we have mentioned!) he's six and can't understand "sexual harrassment". Indeed, it is not developmentally possible for a six-year-old to behave "sexually" in any meaningful way.

        3. The lesson will be to never trust authority because they will destroy you if they get a chance.

          I thought this was a lesson everyone learned in elementary school.

          1. man, did everyone else here attend P.S. 666 in Hellmount?

            In my elementary school, we actually did learn things like sharing and taking turns and being polite and respectful. Or at least the teachers tried to teach those things (and reinforce those same lessons that we were getting at home). And I'm pretty sure my kids got the same in theirs.

            1. For me, I'll put it this way: when I was graduating high school, I was much less convinced than my peers that life was going to get a lot better/easier once we were out on our own. Also, I am more or less the most rule-followingest rule follower that walked the planet, so anti-authority wouldn't really describe me.

              1. And in my case, school wasn't the problem. School and home were both probably well above average experiences for me (despite some of my kvetching at the time). I ran into crooked authority elsewhere(s).

  8. The weather here has shut down the federal government, DC government, and all the local schools. Today's commute was easily the best I've had since I got here. Even accounting for driving more slowly, I made it here in the same amount of time as usual but with far less aggravation thanks to the complete lack of traffic. It's bad enough I suppose if you didn't grow up driving in it, one would be uncomfortable, but growing up where I did it was nothing slowing down to 45 couldn't solve.

    1. I got a picture from a friend in Alexandria of her lawn with the caption "snow day." What a joak.

    2. Its been making the rounds, but this happened the other day when we got a couple inches of snow (although this is near Milwaukee, which might explain it...)

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8yQHh69sjI

      2. It's probably be pretty interesting to see a chart of the biggest differences positive and negative between on and off the court numbers for around the league.

        1. Here you go. Love leads the league. (The numbers are slightly different, but that's probably because they are looking at per game vs. per 100 possessions. That's a guess, I could be wrong.)

          1. Ah, thank you kindly. I figured those numbers were out there somewhere, but I know next to nothing about NBA stats.

            Interesting to me is that Love (+13.2/-16.6) is one of only two players, along with Iguodala (+12.9/-13.3), that are in double digits in both categories (Also Milwaukee's Henson at -10.3/-10.5, but I was meaning a positive on-court number, not just slightly less bad)

            1. As ubelmann points out, +/- is not the be-all and end-all. After all, LBJ has a negative number -- the Heat are actually better when he's not on the floor! However, he leads the league in own/opp production differential. Love is down the list a little there.

              Basketball is a lot harder to quantify with numbers than baseball. But, Love is pretty good (i.e. elite) and I think there's a lot of credible support for that in the numbers that we do have.

        1. Not to be a total party pooper, but I assume that Love's time is highly correlated with being with the rest of the starting unit. This still seems like a relevant statistic in terms of reinforcing the perceived chasm between the starters and the bench. It seems like it should be easier to bring the bench up to par than it would be to improve the starters, though, so the Wolves have that going for them.

          1. And also might be skewed because he missed the last game entirely, which was against the Heat, who took the starters to the woodshed without him. However, his time on the floor is also highly correlated with when the other team's starters are on the floor.

            1. Definitely I think it's a lot more encouraging for a player to have a high +/- as a starter than as a bench player, since like you say, his time with the Wolves' starters is highly correlated with when the other teams' starters are on the floor.

  11. Hey SBG, did you write this?

    Seriously, though, I just recently joined Twitter and never realized that his entire feed was so... depressing.

    1. It wasn't SBG because the writer of that complained about him telling drunk weekend stories. His Twitter is definitely not just limited to the weekend.

      Also, those replies made me weep just a little, but then happy because I don't know any of those people.

      1. One of those commentors (the one who got into a little argument with SBG the other day about NDSU football) is a HS classmate of mine and a really good guy. I've asked him to head over here from time to time and I know he has lurked in the past.

    2. When you think about it from the perspective that Aaron is a big Howard Stern fan, everything I've heard about the podcast makes sense.

    3. I stopped reading Gleeman a long time ago after I got sick of his relentless celebrity fetishizing, and I don't follow him on twitter or listen to his podcast. But is that what his entire schtick has become? Fratboy drinking and pick-up-artistry? Good grief.

      2. Yeah, pretty much. I'm pretty sure the entire last week was just tweets of "drinking at such and such bar" followed by "going to brunch" with the occasional link to a HBT article.

    4. What's sad is for the most part, his baseball stuff is pretty damn good. Eventually everyone will get tired of the drinking and brunch tweets, move on and go scratch their baseball itch elsewhere.

      1. I'm not in anyway to be confused with being an expert on how to make it big in the world of media, but I would think that the podcast as currently configured can't really help him further his career, unless his ambition is to be Paul Allen's sidekick, in which case it might help him.

        I am not going to criticize him anywhere other than in this mostly insulated forum. If I send questions to him for his podcast, they are legitimate baseball questions. He seems right now to be where I was when I was 21 years old. Hopefully, he'll move on soon and get back to what he does best -- write and talk about baseball.

        1. If I send questions to him for his podcast, they are legitimate baseball questions.

          That's probably a good idea, otherwise you might be on the receiving end of a 10 e-mail(!) harangue:

          Update: I'm on e-mail No. 10 with the podcast feedback guy and he just called me an "a-hole" because I begged him to stop listening.— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 10, 2013

        2. He seems right now to be where I was when I was 21 years old.

          this is a really good point, and a fair one. He's exposed to a lot more criticism than the typical 20-something because he's making his living in the public eye. But he's still a young guy. Hopefully he grows past this phase, and soon.

          1. Yeah, but he’s in his 30’s now, isn’t he? Attitudes that are merely obnoxious at age 21 become kinda pathetic at age 31. I get that he was a self-conscious introvert for a long time, and that he’s really now coming out of his shell. I would never begrudge him that. It’s great that he feels more comfortable in his own skin. But it sucks that his personal growth is marked by a public transformation into a stereotypical douchebag.

            1. I'm assuming at one point he was doing it to be funny because hey it's the guy who wrote for years about never leaving his house! But at this point he's become that guy. Kidding on the square has just become the square. It is pretty annoying.

          3. As others have said, he's now in his 30s. I think it is true that he spent a lot of time as a recluse, and it's okay by me if he wants to go out and have some fun and enjoy his life. But a little bit of discretion might be in order.

        3. I am not an expert either, but I'll say this much--it seems like you need some kind of angle to make it big. As examples off the top of my head, you have the Gammons/Heyman/Verducci guys whose angle is insider information and contacts, and you have, say, Nate Silver whose angle is statistical analysis. From what I can tell as an outsider to the situation, Aaron seems to be most closely following some kind of Bill Simmons/Howard Stern angle as a sort of sports personality--an outsider who thinks about baseball a lot, has opinions, but isn't at all shy about injecting personal anecdotes, etc. into his content. The Hardball Talk gig doesn't really fit that, but it would fit as a sort of day job that pays the bills while he uses his blog/podcast/Twitter to do more of what he might ultimately want to do. This is complete speculation, of course, but what are blogs for anyway?

          1. Yeah, it's hard to criticize the guy for the content he has. His formula really hasn't changed over the years except for how it's delivered now with more podcasts.

    5. That podcast gets a 100 percent better when Bonnes isn't on it. The non-baseball crap gets almost entirely cut out and the other person is usually highly knowledgeable about some aspect of baseball that isn't usually covered.

        1. I always wanted Jack in because he was "One of Us!" and I remember the Game 7 win with total awe. That being said, I don't think that he belongs (but I also don't feel so passionately about it that I'll complain if he gets in). May have been colored by learning later how quickly he bolted on the Twins following the '91 World Series.

        3. my reference was to the "Give it a rest already with the Game 7 crap" bits. As for Hall inclusion, I'm a "no" as well, but don't really care all that much.

          That said, it's a travishmockery that Marvin Miller was not elected this year.

    2. I'm fine with Morris getting in because I think the standards for starters are way too high, especially now as innings for starters continue to drop.

      On a different note, has anyone else ever had the feeling that TK might have been pissed off at Morris in Game 7 and left him in almost because he was tired of dealing with him? Could his "It's only a game" comment been a sarcastic response? No one ever really questions whether it was the right move to keep Morris in because it worked out so well. But how do you explain not even having your closer warming up for the possibility of needing to get your pitcher out of a jam in extra innings?

  13. I'm pretty sure my Latin is off, and I'm not super pumped about the mane(?} thing, but for a quick and dirty, I like it.

  14. My wife called me to inform me that she bought some creme filled cookies (not Oreos, but similar). When my daughter saw them, the six year old said, "Whoa! Oreo must not have had a patent on their cookies!" She was quite concerned about this -- could this other company copy the Oreo cookie? I have never discussed the patent right with her.

    I'm not concerned when she shows little or no interest in dolls or other toys (stuff animals are to be cuddled tight, though). Her mind is on Other Things.

    1. You'd better get your legal and financial affairs in airtight order before she seizes control and has you committed. I sense a budding shark.

      1. We have, in fact, gotten our financial affairs in order. I recommend this to everyone. Not because my daughter is going to seize control, but because it's a good idea.

    2. Oh no, you're raising a Sheenie!

      edited to add: and I don't mean because she's showing an interest in patents, but becase Sheenie has always been obsessed with space and dinosaurs and other very scientific things rather than pink and dolls and all that stuff

      2. This just in: Miss SBG typed out a Christmas letter addressed to "friends and family" this afternoon.

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