I've got one for the first time in a while. Yes, it was a Monday/Tuesday weekend, but it's something.
53 thoughts on “October 27, 2015: Weekend”
Two Chris Jaffe historical notes today:
First, today Matthew McConaughey is exactly as old as Kirby Puckett was on the day he died: 16,793 days.
Second, we tie a national record on this day. It's been 51 years and 339 days since the last time a serving US president died on us. That's how long ago JFK died (Nov. 22, 1963). And it's how long it was from George Washington's first inauguration (4-30-1789) until the death of William Henry Harrison (April 4, 1841). Let's hope we set a record tomorrow!
Without looking it up, I knew we were approaching this record.
And only one assassination in the past 114 years (unless you are going with McKinley Harding being poisoned). Reagan, of course, would have died in an earlier era, but he was able survive the attempt.
Also attempts on Truman and Ford
Not actually hit, though. Reagan was seriously wounded. He doesn't survive fifty years earlier, probably.
True. The liquor store directly across the street from the DC Hilton that Reagan was exiting was owned at the time by
When I was teaching street law in a D.C. high school one of my fellow teachers took her students to the D.C. courthouse for a tour. There was a holding cell called the "John Hinckley cell" because that's where he was held during the whole criminal proceeding. The day they were visiting he had a review hearing and while they were touring he was, in fact, occupying his own cell.
That's really neat.
I wondered where you were going with that McKinley bit. I was thinking, "Is Stick making a 'lead poisoning' joke?"
As soon as I hit "mail" I realized that I'd goofed.
Reagan, of course, would have died in an earlier era, but he was able survive the attempt.
On the other side of the same coin, Garfield survives if it was a century later.
Yep. That's true, too.
For that matter, he probably wouldn't have been shot at all with the Secret Service protecting him. Or at least, his assassin wouldn't have been able to walk right up to him and shoot him twice at point-blank range.
I just learned the "ins" html tag.
We also recently passed the 103rd anniversary of the day Teddy Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee while running for re-election as a Progressive. (Teddy being Teddy, he gave a speech after being shot and carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life.)
My ear has been acting up. I scheduled a doctor's appointment like a big boy. Yay adulting.
How's that wrist/hand?
99% fine, as long as I don't push on one specific point. The scabs are about gone too.
Your calculation seems suspect...
It's still attached and I can feel my fingers, which, really, is all you actually need in a hand, right?
I laughed
Was thinking "60% of the time, it works EVERY time..."
On that note, I had a dream last night that I was playing rugby and you made an appearance. It was four on four and it was very clear that no one, except for yourself and one unknown British guy, knew anything about how to play. I was doing pretty good on account of having watched it before.
I also took some cold medicine before bed
Haha, nice. 4-v-4 (or 4-v-3 to learn to exploit odd-man rushes/defend short-handed) is a pretty common training drill. Maybe your NyQuil induced visions are telling you to get a pair of boots and get out on the pitch? 😉
Heh, it's been a good seven years since I was in any kind of shape to be able to play rugby. In fact, just last week there was a chili cook off at work and I spilled some on my shirt. I noted at the time that, had it been for years ago, it likely would have landed on my shoes.
Guess what's a great way to get into shape*?
*Assuming you don't hit the post-practice beers and post-game socials too hard
*Assuming you don't hit the post-practice beers and post-game socials too hard
That was my problem....
I also took some cold medicine before bed
I laughed moar
Not to start another Torii thread, but I'm not sure how to react to the Puckett comparisons. I will admit this is a touchy subject for me because I still haven't fully reconciled the baseball hero of my youth with the Kirby Puckett I learned about years later. I know that Souhan intended it as a fully complimentary comparison, but it's unsettling to me to compare the two. I guess the whole public persona/media worship versus "real" person contrast hits close to home.
Perhaps it is because I am fully aware that if I had been born 15 years later (and media covered players as they had in the 80's) it is extremely likely that Torii would have been my favorite player.
I'm not going to read that column. Torii had a really, really good career. Puckett was better. End of my input.
Edited to add: Souhan must be verklempt. He had two Twins columns he could write: Torii good, Mauer bad. Now he's down to one.
Some rambling thoughts on this...
Though there a similarities, for me, there are a couple of differences that matter that weigh directly on what makes me love a ballplayer.
As Stick points out, Puckett was the better player. That matters when discussing why you like ballplayers.
Puckett delivered specific heroics in specific circumstances. I remember Torii misplaying a ball into an inside-the-park HR. I remember Puckett's Game 6. That difference is huge.
I remember Puckett took a tour to check out other teams and test free agency like Torii did. But I remember that Puckett resigned with the Twins and said all the right things about it. Torii didn't say the right things at that point. He's done much better lately, but it took him a while to get to that, whereas Puckett delivered consistently.
With Flip's recent passing, there was much talk of the "one of us" phenomena. Puckett embraced MN, and became one of us. Torii never did.
Torii and Puckett were both regularly portrayed as very happy people, with infectious smiles, etc. But to me, watching their careers play out, Puckett's joy and Torii's seem like they come from different places. On his passing, here's what I wrote about Puckett: "When I was ten years old, my hero was a man named Kirby Puckett. He was my hero not because I wanted to play baseball as well as he did, but because he wanted to play baseball as much as I did. Kirby Puckett played baseball with the joy, the enthusiasm, the love, of a ten-year-old boy."
I don't think I could say that about Torii. He certainly enjoys the game, but I have the sense that he would have just as soon have picked any other sport that paid him over baseball. I never got that from Kirby. I was younger, and I'm sure I've got some blinders on, but... there was something unique about Puckett. That's why he's in the Hall. Because all of baseball knew it.
When comparing the two, I end up comparing the size of the bus they shoved people under. Puck never had a bus.
Wrong: Puck had a bus. He put everyone in it and he drove it to the promised land.
$1 WGOM
Here's another thing: Torii looks like a ballplayer. He has the classic body, lean, smooth, broad-shouldered, etc.
Kirby was a bowling ball. A bowling ball with legs that churned impossibly fast.
I remember Puckett's Game 6.
This is true, much of my connection to Kirby the ballplayer came from that performance, and the fact that he was my favorite player on two World Championship teams.
When I was in college I had a female friend who was a big Detroit Tigers fan. I remember Kirby hitting the first pitch of the game out of the park on two consecutive nights in Tiger Stadium back in 1986 while she and I were watching. That was when Kirby was exploding onto the national scene. I think that 1986 season was the one I'll always remember.
That was the season that turned me into a baseball fan. Before that, I was a big football fan and I would casually watch other sports when football wasn't on to see if I could find the same enjoyment. Kirby's breakout season was fascinating to watch. 1987 was the first season I followed the Twins during spring training and watched or listened to (only road games and the occasional home game were televised) every game during the season. The magic of 1987 cemented my lifetime membership in the Twins fan club. But I don't think I would have appreciated 1987 if I hadn't started following the Twins on a day-to-day basis in 1986.
Deadspin, of all places wrote up an article that pretty much sums up my feelings about Hunter.
Torii Hunter was a great baseball player with a seemingly good heart who actively hurt people. It’s a complicated legacy: worse than some and better than many.
Is Vincent Price wearing a lace collar?
The question is, is Dali wearing a lace collar?
I don't...know?
He probably is--this photo seems to have been taking during filming for Tales of Terror. For more fun, check out this still.
It occurred to me this morning with the World Series starting tonight, it would be a great indignity to have the Royals win it all this year and for Billy Butler to have left and not get a ring.
Would the indignity be worse knowing that drew buyers arrived and got a ring?
Give your spellcheck $1 WGOM
I'll take it!
To say nothing of Mike Sweeney!
I'm sure Royals fans are saying to themselves: Good point, we don't want this thing now. 😛
Batting practice has been rained out, but it sounds like they expect to get the game in tonight.
So, last week, Nate Silver trolled me by saying that Wiggins best comp is Carmelo Anthony, quite possibly my least favorite player, ever. Now he writes that Karl A-Towns best comp is...
It was a poll of fellow managers, which I think is more meaningful than the BBWAA award, which is considered the "official" award. Yost's Royals had the best record in the AL and didn't receive a single vote.
Two Chris Jaffe historical notes today:
First, today Matthew McConaughey is exactly as old as Kirby Puckett was on the day he died: 16,793 days.
Second, we tie a national record on this day. It's been 51 years and 339 days since the last time a serving US president died on us. That's how long ago JFK died (Nov. 22, 1963). And it's how long it was from George Washington's first inauguration (4-30-1789) until the death of William Henry Harrison (April 4, 1841). Let's hope we set a record tomorrow!
Without looking it up, I knew we were approaching this record.
And only one assassination in the past 114 years (unless you are going with
McKinleyHarding being poisoned). Reagan, of course, would have died in an earlier era, but he was able survive the attempt.Also attempts on Truman and Ford
Not actually hit, though. Reagan was seriously wounded. He doesn't survive fifty years earlier, probably.
True. The liquor store directly across the street from the DC Hilton that Reagan was exiting was owned at the time by
When I was teaching street law in a D.C. high school one of my fellow teachers took her students to the D.C. courthouse for a tour. There was a holding cell called the "John Hinckley cell" because that's where he was held during the whole criminal proceeding. The day they were visiting he had a review hearing and while they were touring he was, in fact, occupying his own cell.
That's really neat.
I wondered where you were going with that McKinley bit. I was thinking, "Is Stick making a 'lead poisoning' joke?"
As soon as I hit "mail" I realized that I'd goofed.
On the other side of the same coin, Garfield survives if it was a century later.
Yep. That's true, too.
For that matter, he probably wouldn't have been shot at all with the Secret Service protecting him. Or at least, his assassin wouldn't have been able to walk right up to him and shoot him twice at point-blank range.
I just learned the "ins" html tag.
We also recently passed the 103rd anniversary of the day Teddy Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee while running for re-election as a Progressive. (Teddy being Teddy, he gave a speech after being shot and carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life.)
My ear has been acting up. I scheduled a doctor's appointment like a big boy. Yay adulting.
How's that wrist/hand?
99% fine, as long as I don't push on one specific point. The scabs are about gone too.
Your calculation seems suspect...
It's still attached and I can feel my fingers, which, really, is all you actually need in a hand, right?
I laughed
Was thinking "60% of the time, it works EVERY time..."
On that note, I had a dream last night that I was playing rugby and you made an appearance. It was four on four and it was very clear that no one, except for yourself and one unknown British guy, knew anything about how to play. I was doing pretty good on account of having watched it before.
I also took some cold medicine before bed
Haha, nice. 4-v-4 (or 4-v-3 to learn to exploit odd-man rushes/defend short-handed) is a pretty common training drill. Maybe your NyQuil induced visions are telling you to get a pair of boots and get out on the pitch? 😉
Heh, it's been a good seven years since I was in any kind of shape to be able to play rugby. In fact, just last week there was a chili cook off at work and I spilled some on my shirt. I noted at the time that, had it been for years ago, it likely would have landed on my shoes.
Guess what's a great way to get into shape*?
*Assuming you don't hit the post-practice beers and post-game socials too hard
*Assuming you don't hit the post-practice beers and post-game socials too hard
That was my problem....
I laughed moar
Not to start another Torii thread, but I'm not sure how to react to the Puckett comparisons. I will admit this is a touchy subject for me because I still haven't fully reconciled the baseball hero of my youth with the Kirby Puckett I learned about years later. I know that Souhan intended it as a fully complimentary comparison, but it's unsettling to me to compare the two. I guess the whole public persona/media worship versus "real" person contrast hits close to home.
Perhaps it is because I am fully aware that if I had been born 15 years later (and media covered players as they had in the 80's) it is extremely likely that Torii would have been my favorite player.
I'm not going to read that column. Torii had a really, really good career. Puckett was better. End of my input.
Edited to add: Souhan must be verklempt. He had two Twins columns he could write: Torii good, Mauer bad. Now he's down to one.
Some rambling thoughts on this...
Though there a similarities, for me, there are a couple of differences that matter that weigh directly on what makes me love a ballplayer.
As Stick points out, Puckett was the better player. That matters when discussing why you like ballplayers.
Puckett delivered specific heroics in specific circumstances. I remember Torii misplaying a ball into an inside-the-park HR. I remember Puckett's Game 6. That difference is huge.
I remember Puckett took a tour to check out other teams and test free agency like Torii did. But I remember that Puckett resigned with the Twins and said all the right things about it. Torii didn't say the right things at that point. He's done much better lately, but it took him a while to get to that, whereas Puckett delivered consistently.
With Flip's recent passing, there was much talk of the "one of us" phenomena. Puckett embraced MN, and became one of us. Torii never did.
Torii and Puckett were both regularly portrayed as very happy people, with infectious smiles, etc. But to me, watching their careers play out, Puckett's joy and Torii's seem like they come from different places. On his passing, here's what I wrote about Puckett: "When I was ten years old, my hero was a man named Kirby Puckett. He was my hero not because I wanted to play baseball as well as he did, but because he wanted to play baseball as much as I did. Kirby Puckett played baseball with the joy, the enthusiasm, the love, of a ten-year-old boy."
I don't think I could say that about Torii. He certainly enjoys the game, but I have the sense that he would have just as soon have picked any other sport that paid him over baseball. I never got that from Kirby. I was younger, and I'm sure I've got some blinders on, but... there was something unique about Puckett. That's why he's in the Hall. Because all of baseball knew it.
When comparing the two, I end up comparing the size of the bus they shoved people under. Puck never had a bus.
Wrong: Puck had a bus. He put everyone in it and he drove it to the promised land.
$1 WGOM
Here's another thing: Torii looks like a ballplayer. He has the classic body, lean, smooth, broad-shouldered, etc.
Kirby was a bowling ball. A bowling ball with legs that churned impossibly fast.
This is true, much of my connection to Kirby the ballplayer came from that performance, and the fact that he was my favorite player on two World Championship teams.
When I was in college I had a female friend who was a big Detroit Tigers fan. I remember Kirby hitting the first pitch of the game out of the park on two consecutive nights in Tiger Stadium back in 1986 while she and I were watching. That was when Kirby was exploding onto the national scene. I think that 1986 season was the one I'll always remember.
That was the season that turned me into a baseball fan. Before that, I was a big football fan and I would casually watch other sports when football wasn't on to see if I could find the same enjoyment. Kirby's breakout season was fascinating to watch. 1987 was the first season I followed the Twins during spring training and watched or listened to (only road games and the occasional home game were televised) every game during the season. The magic of 1987 cemented my lifetime membership in the Twins fan club. But I don't think I would have appreciated 1987 if I hadn't started following the Twins on a day-to-day basis in 1986.
Deadspin, of all places wrote up an article that pretty much sums up my feelings about Hunter.
Is Vincent Price wearing a lace collar?
The question is, is Dali wearing a lace collar?
I don't...know?
He probably is--this photo seems to have been taking during filming for Tales of Terror. For more fun, check out this still.
It occurred to me this morning with the World Series starting tonight, it would be a great indignity to have the Royals win it all this year and for Billy Butler to have left and not get a ring.
Would the indignity be worse knowing that drew buyers arrived and got a ring?
Give your spellcheck $1 WGOM
I'll take it!
To say nothing of Mike Sweeney!
I'm sure Royals fans are saying to themselves: Good point, we don't want this thing now. 😛
Batting practice has been rained out, but it sounds like they expect to get the game in tonight.
So, last week, Nate Silver trolled me by saying that Wiggins best comp is Carmelo Anthony, quite possibly my least favorite player, ever. Now he writes that Karl A-Towns best comp is...
wait for it...
and his second comp is...
WARNING, not for the faint of heart:
Clearly, he is trying to get me to respond. Not gonna do it.
Sporting News named Molitar AL Manager of the Year.
It was a poll of fellow managers, which I think is more meaningful than the BBWAA award, which is considered the "official" award. Yost's Royals had the best record in the AL and didn't receive a single vote.