4/15

It's a strange thing, how well we remember some of the worst moments of our lives. Of course, some of the best moments are lumped in there as well - for every person that remembers exactly where they were when JFK was shot, there's another that knows exactly what they were doing when Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon. But it's the moments of tragedy that quite often rise to the forefront of our memory.

Fear and Awe in Phoenix

I went to the USA-Mexico WBC game last week, and while it was a rough day for the boys in the red, white and blue, it was decidedly fun for the overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd that was packed into Chase Field. The din as the final out grew closer pitch-by-pitch was ear-splitting from my vantage point five rows from the very top of the stadium, and that was with maybe 25,000 people left (almost all of whom were rooting for the baseball incarnation of El Tri). You'd have thought Mexico had just won a gold medal when Jimmy Rollins bounced out to first to end it. But that's all beside the point.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing - Giancarlo Stanton. The man is 6'5", 245 pounds. Absolute freak of a human specimen. I foolishly and a bit absentmindedly showed up to the stadium about an hour before the first pitch, and so was disappointed to have missed Team USA's batting practice - more specifically, Stanton's batting practice. This is because what The Player Formerly Known as Mike Stanton can do to a baseball is absolutely terrifying.

MJ and Baseball, or How Hitting .202 is Considered a Success and Double-A is Better Than Triple-A

I happened to flip on First Take the other morning. It's a real rarity these days for me to "embrace debate," but I was feeling particularly bored with the eleventh Lakers story of the previous 15 minutes on SportsCenter, or at least it seemed like it had been that many (side note: Jay Pharoah as Stephen A. talking about the Lakers on SNL was magnificent). Anyways, Skip and Stephen A. (and Steelers receiver Antonio Brown, wearing a bow tie and what looked like a classy straw hat) were dealing with the question "Jordan v. LeBron: Who's a better athlete?" For my money, it's LeBron, simply because he's a 6'8", 260-lb. manimal who can run the floor like a point guard - but as I'm not getting paid to disagree with somebody on national TV, what does my opinion matter? Skip took MJ, Stephen A. took King James, I forget who Brown took because I was too busy laughing at his ridiculous outfit, and the yelling commenced.

Then Skip veered off into a potentially interesting line of thought, but ruined it by saying two things in defense of his argument that immediately sounded completely ludicrous to me.

The Inevitable Te'o Post

I know what you're thinking. This is going to be about Manti Te'o and the strange, strange saga of Lennay Kekua, catfishing, black boxes and OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP.

Seriously, at this point, I really don't care about Manti anymore. I don't care if he made up his girlfriend. I don't care if he made up his girlfriend to hide the fact that he's gay (which is an absolutely ridiculous notion - but while I'm on the subject, I was thinking. If that does somehow turn out to be true, I heard people saying that he would be a hero to homosexuals everywhere for being the first active athlete to come out. Call me crazy - and also straight, because I'm coming at this with an outside point of view - but I'd think that if that were the case, he'd be a pariah among the gay community for going to such ludicrous lengths to keep his sexuality a secret. But I digress). I don't care if Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was the mastermind behind the whole thing and Manti was just an incredibly naive dude who was willing to have a yearlong relationship with a girl he'd never even seen over a video chat, let along met in person. About the only reason I care about Manti at the moment is because this was hilarious (at the 2:10 mark). Also this. And the Weekend Update joke that when Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping, he disappointed the only person who had believed otherwise...Manti Te'o. So let's just leave all that behind, and agree on the following point - no matter what actually happened, Manti doesn't come out of this untainted by a long shot. Because everyone thinks he's either the most naive, gullible person ever, or he's a lying scumbag.

The Harder They Fall

I woke up this morning intending to finally put some thoughts down about Te'o (not the ones you might expect, however), and I still intend to in the near future. But the conference championships today caused me to think about a couple things, and I wanted to address them before I forgot some of the nuances rolling around in my head. Strike while the iron's hot, right?

Rediscovery

"The reason I haven't written much of worth for many years is because I want to write it all, and write it perfectly, when I do."

The above quote, from the blog of a former co-worker, really sums up - more or less - why I've had such a hard time keeping this blog continuous through the years. I want so badly for everything I write to be of the highest caliber that I feel obligated to spend as much time as possible on each post, crafting it to be as good on the screen as it was in my mind. That, or I want to make sure that the idea itself is fully formed in my mind, so that I don't go back in days to come and think "I really should've tackled X, Y and Z in that post." Not coincidentally, these two things lead to a fair bit of stasis on here save for when the muse moves me to write without any further hesitation or perusal on a topic.  This is one of those times.

Fun With Statistics: MVP Edition

I really didn't want to weigh in on this whole Cabrera vs. Trout thing (my two cents, for the record: Trout should've won, but Cabrera had a fantastic year and I in no way take the MVP away from him. It's also silly this has devolved into new school/old school when you don't need sabermetrics to know that Trout positively impacted the game in far more ways than did Cabrera) - but reading some of the reactions from the pro-Cabrera writers forced my hand. Specifically, one Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated. This is to take nothing away from Verducci. He's a great baseball writer. Unfortunately, in the service of writing a good story, sometimes important facts/numbers/statistics get kicked to the curb. Case in point: the following passage from that article. Italics are my own contribution, had I been allowed to edit it.

Fun With Statistics

Numbers are a funny thing. They never lie, provided the ones you're using are accurate and calculated correctly. But they can definitely not tell the whole truth, when not put in the proper context. Here are two examples.

Incontrovertible Fact #1: Albert Pujols had by far the worst season of his career this year. In fact, the past two years have been undoubtedly the two statistically worst of his career.

Incontrovertible Fact #2: Albert Pujols had a season this year - and an average season over the past two years - that, by using fairly common stats, was matched by very few hitters.

The Ebb and Flow of Life

I really don't know what to write, other than this picture may be the saddest thing I've ever seen. 

 

An Apology for Irrational Rooting

Quick bit of housekeeping before I get on to the actual post. Here is the link to the last opinion I wrote for NESN a little more than a month ago - a glowing piece about the historic season of Mike Trout, in which I suggested he had a good shot to win the MVP. And while I agree with Joe Posnanski in thinking that if Miguel Cabrera wins the Triple Crown, he'll win the MVP, I also agree with him in thinking that Trout has been the better all-around player this year. Cabrera's season to-date (Triple Crown stats of .332/42/131) has been done or bettered 26 other times in MLB history. Trout's of .323/28/122 runs/46 stolen bases? Once. I'd tell you who it was, but I don't have a subscription to Baseball-Reference - so all I can tell you is the guy had 29 homers. And that's not even mentioning Trout's defense. I rest my case. Did I mention he turned 21 in August? Anyways, the real reason I'm writing...

Abstract Story Concept Album #1: Continuum

A quick note on how this is going to go down - although I've obviously heard the albums before, I'm going to present thoughts on each song as if I were hearing them in order for the first time. That way, I'm not retroactively applying what I know to be a theme on a later track to earlier tracks. Also, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the link to the post wherein I explain what I'm attempting to do.

Without further ado, I give you the first of what will probably be several attempts at seeing if my thought holds up under some level of imagined critical scrutiny - one of my favorite albums of all time, John Mayer's Continuum.

The Abstract Story Concept Album, or How I Made Up a New Thing in Music Because I Was Curious

*Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be either a music critic or a great interpreter of lyrics. Go figure I'm about to try both.*

I've long been fascinated with music. It's always seemed to me to be the most expressive of the art forms, coming far closer to allowing you to experience emotions rather than merely observing them. Plus, a bit less snobbily, I simply really like listening to it. I've been described as having a very eclectic taste in music - although, as has been proven by at least one of my close friends, not eclectic at all compared to some people - or at least, a wide-ranging scope of interests. To prove it to you, here are the first 12 songs to come up on iTunes when I hit Shuffle:

Editor's Note

If you've been playing close attention, you'll notice that two posts just disappeared into thin air. If you were none the wiser about that, well then, now you are.

Anyway, the two posts in question were Parts 1 and 2 of my new attempt at figuring out why fantasy baseball head-to-head standings are the way they are. I was in the middle of finishing off Part 3 when I discovered a rather glaring error - I had been unwittingly been using the wrong standard deviation formula.

Happy Valley Doesn't Need the Death Penalty

Never in the NCAA's wildest dreams could they have imagined a scenario as horrifying the one that unfolded at Penn State. 

It's for precisely that reason that, despite Jerry Sandusky's 45 counts of child sex abuse convictions and a preponderance of evidence that Joe Paterno and high-ranking university officials withheld information on his crimes, the NCAA cannot and should not punish the Nittany Lions football program -- much less hand down the death penalty for which many are calling.

Bud Selig Wants to Do WHAT to the Home Run Derby?

The answer, if you've been paying attention the past few days to the furor sparked by Robbie Cano's being booed viciously by the Kansas City partisans during the Derby on Monday, is possibly institute a mandate that says the host team must have a representative in the event.

Okay, okay, so Selig isn't all of a sudden off on a wild crusade to change the rules of the Derby yet again - he merely said that Major League Baseball would "talk about this [potential rule change]."

The mere fact that there would be any kind of discussion on this, however, is simply ludicrous.

Roger and Me

I was at a Sox game two weeks ago or so with a buddy of mine when the subject of Roger Clemens' recent return to Fenway came up. For those of you who missed his appearance in the Monster Seats mere days after his acquittal on charges of perjury, check it out here. I'll wait until you get back.

...

Okay, so his reappearance at Fenway was the subject of a brief discussion, and we were talking about the reception the Rocket got - a mixture of cheers and boos, with the boos seemingly a little louder. I was about declare that I too would have booed Roger...but a funny thing happened on the way to my statement. I thought honestly about how I would react to seeing the guy in the same ballpark, displayed on the videoboard. And I realized something that I had never really given much thought to before.

Tim Lincecum and the Mystery of the Disappearing Velocity

Another Friday night/Saturday morning winding down from a late night at the office, and another day - well, week really - with nothing original. I apologize for the lack of posts this week, but I've been working my way through some data for an idea I've had for a while and it's taking some time. Hopefully the results are interesting enough to warrant the time I've spent on it.

That being said, here are the fruits of my labor from tonight.

While I'm at it, I should probably also link to my opinion on the Madden Curse and whether Megatron will fall victim to it. I did some research for that one ahead of time at home, which had the unfortunate byproduct of holding up my research for my current blog-specific project a bit.

Finally, I'll leave you with this wildly entertaining Seattle Mariners commercial, which I had linked to in my Lincecum article initially (I was comparing him to King Felix, who has also experienced a drop in velocity but not a massive decrease in performance), but eventually cut when I tossed out the Hernandez section.



By the way, that tan building visible between Eric Wedge and Larry, er, Felix beyond the right field fence? That's the Padres spring training offices/clubhouse/etc, aka where I spent my spring training class. The ad was shot at the stadium in the Peoria Sports Complex, which San Diego and Seattle share. Makes me a little nostalgic.

In the Name of Self-Promotion

It's a little late as I sit here unwinding after a late shift, so I've got nothing original for the day. What I think I'll do instead is link to my labor of love from today - an argument against the continued existence of the Home Run Derby.

That said, below are two quick things that I wanted to address in the article, but cut either because of length or flow considerations.

The Great Hambino

No, not this guy.



This guy.

Journalism Lesson #11 - Writing and Reporting

I've been sitting on two posts the last couple days, but they keep getting pushed back because I keep coming up with more timely ideas. They say waiting makes it better, right? Well, you'll find out eventually, hopefully tomorrow and then Friday.

While I'm at it and before I forget, I should probably just issue the blanket statement that the content on this blog are my own personal thoughts/opinions/viewpoints/etc., and in no way represent the thoughts/opinions/viewpoints/etc. of NESN. Since I'm an intern for them this summer, I should probably do my due diligence and make it clear that Stretch's Take is unaffiliated in every way from my work there. Save, of course, for when I link to any of my articles I think are particularly good or worth a read.