113 thoughts on “September 28, 2012: Breather”

  2. Last night, I drove to the Capitol City and when I got to my hotel room, I did some email and then about 1.5 hours of work related stuff. I'm away from the house and family right now, so none of those things happened, but still, I'm #NFLfree.

  4. Wow. Doug Fister struck out nine Royals in a row last night, six looking. He ended up with 10. He had gone 10 batters in a row without a strikeout before starting the streak. He's definitely not the Tigers starter I thought would have such a streak, which tied the AL record and was one off the ML record (Seaver). Fister had struck out at least nine in a game just twice before this season, although I was surprised to see he had ever done it. His K rate is up to 7.7 this season. He was at 5.5 last year with the M's before being traded to the Tigers, where his K rate jumped to 7.2.

  5. Tomorrow's a big day for the Freealonzo clan. Starting in the morning the kid is doing his Eagle Scout service project, which is the last thing he needs to complete his Eagle Scout. It's been tough pushing him to get it done, without going out and doing it for him. Also means I'll miss the Chelsea-Arsenal game and the Gopher-Hickeye game. DVR will be doing double duty.

    Also me and the misses will celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary.

    Finally, my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary (yes it's the same day as mine, that's when we could get the Basilica). I haven't talked about this in this basement but my father is in poor health and we almost lost him two weeks ago to a blood infection. A couple of years ago he privately told me he just wanted to get to their 50th anniversary so I am a little concerned about what happens to him now that he met that goal. We are going to just have a nice quiet dinner with my parents, sister, spouses and kids at Jax Cafe to celebrate.

    2. I'll watch the Chelsea-Arsenal match double for you.

      Congratulations, and your dad will be in my thoughts. No matter how long he gets, I hope it's relatively painless for him and that he's surrounded by the ones he loves.

    3. 50 years is quite an accomplishment - hell, 22 is quite an accomplishment - congratulations to you all.

      (Also, Jax seems like pretty much the perfect 50th-anniversary-dinner location - I've been to two there!)

      1. Jax is where Sheenie and I went to celebrate our engagement (her parents and sister flew up to surprise her) the day after I proposed. I guess we'll have to keep it in mind in about forty-five years.

      2. Yeah, Jax is our default place for big family events. My Grooms dinner was held there, I think we did my parents 40th there. Numerous birthdays, retirement parties, etc have been held at Jax.

    4. congrats to you and your folks, free. Now you can start working on another goal for your dad. Like, maybe seeing your kids graduate.

      1. My grandfather talked like that for about 20 years. At one point he wanted to make it to the new millenium. He liked it so much he lived in it for 10 years.

    7. I needed to be pushed hard for my Eagle Project.
      Ended up having to be caught trespassing to light the fire under my butt.
      May your son get it done without having to rely on the kindness of a cop not to tell the railroad company as long as his father will "Take care of it."

  6. Hey, I need to write a PWP entry today. All I need to do is not nonsub. I think. Anyone have any ideas for me?

            1. Mine this week practically wrote itself. Turned it in on Tuesday. I think it's pretty good. Meaning it will get a bronze from Spooky and a dismissive comment from Nibs.

            2. Oh crap I just saw this. I thought mine was somewhat Deanish, but really more me anyways. Now I wonder what the chances are that we went the same way.

    2. Whew, finished mine. I really need to come up with more succinct ideas. I had to take a chainsaw to this one to get it to fit.

    1. Oy. No can do. I think the good Dr. would stab me if I chose to spend time on the intertubes before leaving her for a month and a half.

      1. Provided you were a wolf and I was a villager, that would be an acceptable result. Seriously though, you get a pass.

      1. I'm of the "judging can wait" opinion. Philosofette is working on a paper tonight so I've got clearance to spend time on the computer without any guilt. I gotta seize this!

          1. You know what? Suck it Nibs.

            Here, I'll do your judging for you:

            "? The one part was a bit confusing, and I think I wanted a little more explanation of what the character was doing, but it was kind of fun though."
            Medal assigned by random.com.

                1. Hahaha, just giving you crap.

                  It's surprisingly difficult to come up with a million ways to say 'you did what you could in 200 words, and I liked it.'

            1. Throughout this story I wanted to take off my shoes, vomit into them, and deliver said vomit-filled shoes via the slowest form of shipping I could possibly find. I would do this, but the author would likely be so overjoyed to find these festering, vomit-filled shoes on his doorstep that it might encourage him to write more execrable pieces like this one.

              GOLD

              1. [Story in which Y clearly kills X.]

                I'm not sure what's going on. The relationship between Y and X is very relatable, but what happened X at the end? I'd like to read an expansion of this story in which X and Y go on crazy madcap adventures together.

    3. I might be available- two-thirds of the kids should be in bed by that point, and the wife has the other kid at a wedding rehearsal deal at that point. I'll check in at spookyville if I'm around.

    1. I hope that doesn't scare away the Twins from future postings of Japanese players. Also, hopefully it will force them to analyze why they failed so spectacularly with Nishioka.

      1. I hope that doesn't scare away the Twins from future postings of Japanese players.

        this part especially. aoki's been a nice little pickup for the brewers, and IIRC, he was dirt cheap (relatively).

      2. publicly, they've so far just said "this isn't the guy we saw" and seem more angry at the gods of luck rather than themselves. Perhaps privately they have some ideas but don't want to share.

        No matter how much they overrated him, though, being this awful is still surprising. Perhaps he would have been okay, but the injury messed him up. Or maybe the cultural/language barrier was hard for him emotionally.

          1. It really seemed like an awful year for him mentally, emotionally and physically. Even the most rabid Mauer-haters I know figure he was doomed from the start, and not entirely because of skill.

        2. Apparently the distance also helped his marriage head off a cliff (and if I recall correctly it was a very public cliff, as he was married to a model... I think?). I'm thinking the emotional turmoil the guy went through had to be pretty significant.

        3. "this isn't the guy we saw"
          Sounds like they believe that there's been shenanigans as to whether this actually is "Tsuyoshi Nishioka" or some lookalike with a smaller bit of baseball skill. Could they check his birth certificate? Was he born "Daisuke Oviedo"?

          Either that or they scouted the wrong player.

    2. i was going to post that with a re-turning japanese joke.

      i didn't necessarily have high hopes for nishi, but i was really hoping that he would do well. ah well...

    4. The big news is that Nishi agreed to walk away from the money left in the deal, so the Twins have just cleared over $3M from next year's payroll. I suddenly like Nishi a lot more than I used to. He may have sucked in all phases of the game, but he certainly was a man of honor.

      1. I honestly think that no small part of his struggles (at least initially) came from an attempt to live up to expectations, and that it sort of built up and doubled as he kept sinking lower and lower.

        1. Yeah, I agree with this. I think the Twins did the ball club, and Nishi, no favors by leaving him out there as their main option for short. All along I thought adding him to supplement the infield would be cool, but relying on him to be the everyday shortstop was a bad idea. I think the pressure definitely got to him. He looked decent in spring training before last season, and I think getting injured right away at the start of the season did the young man no favors.

          I hope things go better for him back in Japan. And I hope that Nick Blackburn is also this honorable this year. I'd sure like him to give back his 2013 salary.

    5. I wanted to like Nishi so much, but he just was not very good.
      Hopefully his next stops turns out well.

  9. We have a new apt. in Buffalo. Unfortunately, the power utility can't come until Wednesday, so we're sorta in a PB&J only rut until then. On a better note, I am a 20 minute walk from what I'm told by The Hitman is one of the best bars in town.

      1. I don't have a job yet, so if somehow that turns into longer and you get free time, let me know. Still have my number from the Goose Island meetup?

    3. Unfortunately, the power utility can't come until Wednesday

      seriously? That's some bullshit if ever I heard it. You are supposed to go electricity free for almost a week?

        2. I went 2.5 years with no electric bill in a building above Colter Bay. When the found me I found a new place. Those were the days.

    4. If you need a place to charge cell phones/computers have a beer over the weekend, let me know.

    1. Personally, I think the worst part of that is that I think Dombrowski is trying (poorly) to use the "Player A has worse teammates than Player B, therefore Player A is more valuable" argument.

        1. That reminded me I haven't seen Delmon's stats lately:

          .272/.303/.421, .309 wOBA -- Delmon '12

          For comparison:

          .257/.303/.377, .301 wOBA -- Luis Rivas, career

          Essentially, the Tigers are paying $6M this year for a DH who hits like Luis Rivas. Awesome move.

  11. How to watch the debates, California-style.

    rather than having to provide your own snarky comments during the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates, now you can have a professional do it for you.

    Stand-up comedians Dhaya Lakshminarayanan and Samson Koletkar are producing a series of events coinciding with the four debates at The Washington Inn, at 495 10th St. in Oakland, at which audiences watch the debates with comics who afterward dish up their best political material.

    Four different headliners will be accompanied by “a cast of comics including a lesbian Latina, a black lesbian single mother, a single father of three daughters, a transsexual, a Mormon, a non-U.S. citizen and, just to balance things out, a fistful of straight white men,” the producers say

    2. kudos, Rhu.

      I guess now I won't brag about helping to sell pulled pork sammiches tonight to support music at my kid's h.s.

  13. Take the high road, people.

    Spoiler SelectShow

        1. Just doing my part to keep you from passing through the neutral zone into the forbidden zone. 🙂

  14. I'm sure by now everyone is aware of yesterday's shooting in North Minneapolis. One of the victims was the UPS driver who just happened to be making his afternoon pickup. My dad is an UPS driver out of the same central building, and knew the victim. He said it was a 3-minute, quick in-and-out stop. Ugh. I feel sick.

  15. I just went to catch some Breaking Bad. I'd thought I was two episodes behind, but I was four behind. Well, I guess that's good news, despite how anxious I am to catch up. I watched the first of the four remaining (the train episode).

    Spoiler SelectShow

    1. Yes, Sheenie did not sleep the night that aired. That might have been the most beautifully shot episode ever. Every angle was beyond gorgeous.

    2. That is a favorite of mine, meat. As for the Monk, bS, I can't be bothered with their prices. I can drink almost as well at home. Mags, his lady friend, and myself did have about 6 growlers of this and a few juicy lucy's on his first visit to casa de Buffalo.

      1. the Tumbler is pretty good. But again, foreign beer! Don't you guys make anything potable up Buffalo way??

      2. It's not Western New York (it's the bad part), but I can't recommend Sixpoint enough. You guys should drink that. (Full disclosure: the brewer used to be in Madison at one of the brewpubs.)

    1. well, he wasn't actually a Sooner yet, so it's not that disgusting. He was a verbal commit.

      Frankly, I don't see any reason that a school should be expected to honor a scholarship offer to a kid whose health prevents him/her from starting to compete for the school. Once the kid gets to school, I'm all for demanding that a school honor its commitment (for four or five years).

        1. If he decides to suspend them, the public outcry over replacement players will be so great as to make him reinstate them.

  19. Renoir stolen in 1951 bought at flea market in a bin of art junk for $60.

    The best part:

    "What had actually caught her eye in the box wasn't the valuable Renoir but a plastic cow and a Paul Bunyan doll. She stored the rest of the box's contents first in a white plastic bag in a shed, later in her car's trunk and eventually in her kitchen," Anne Norton Craner, the Potomack Company fine arts specialist, said in a statement earlier this month, when the auction was announced.

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