The Gray Pages

Friday, June 30, 2006

What a great ad

Chicks dig the longball.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The only person who reads this blog regularly does not want to follow this link

Video of a giant centipede kicking a bat's ass

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Pedro! Pedro! Pedro!

Of course he didn't get booed. JoyofSox nails it.

For all of Pedro's achievements, I maintain that he is underrated. The fact that he failed to win the AL Most Valuable Player award in either 1999 or 2000 -- although he came close in '99 (F you, George King) -- is proof of how little the media understood what he was doing in Boston.

Martinez's performance in 2000 was the greatest year any pitcher has had since the mound was moved back from 45 feet. Koufax? Gibson? Johnson? Grove? No. As great as those pitchers were, every single one of their seasons -- measured against their peers -- pales next to the Pedro Martinez of 2000. That is not opinion; that is historical fact.

... Pedro is often compared to Sandy Koufax (who posted only the 56th and 70th best ERA+ seasons). While their raw numbers look similar, Koukax pitched from a higher mound (in a pitcher's park (LA)) and at a time when the rule book strike zone was enforced. Pedro's home park favored hitters and he worked in one of the highest offensive eras in the game's history. With no disrespect to Koukax, Martinez leaves him in the dust.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Viva Pedro!

Of course he's not going to get booed.

Monday, June 26, 2006

The plural of anecdote is not data, but ...

Pay no attention to the fact that Alfonzo Soriano's slump coincideded with a bunch of games against the American League. Pay no attention to the fact that the Tigers just swept the Cardinals. Pay no attention to Esteban Loiaiza's complete game against the Giants. Pay no attention to Bronson Arroyo losing to the Indians.

Just keep pretending that the Mets can win the World Series, and that Pujols is the best hitter in baseball. It will make the regular season more interesting.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Combos

The Cheese Filled Snack of NASCAR. Says so, right on the package.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Ignoring the obvious

During the Ghana-Czech World Cup game, the announcers and/or an on-screen graphic would occassionally tell viewers which team was wearing which uniform. (Ghana, as you might guess from this photo, was wearing white and occassionally practicing karate-volleyball during the match.) This might be helpful when Bolivia plays Uruguay or Russia plays Kazakstan, but I'm not sure I need the assistance when a West African nation plays a team from Central Europe.

One of my favorite aspects of the Cup has been choosing a team to root for in each match. In that match, I was rooting for Ghana because their winning would (and did) help the US. Plus, when I lived on 18th Street, Ghana Cafe was basically next door to my apartment, and I liked the guy who owned it. The food? Eh.

Does anyone else find it a little interested that Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo -- continuous countries -- all made it? There's like 60 counties in Africa. This can't be a coincidence. Can it?

Monday, June 19, 2006

I love this piece

Yesterday's Hagar The Horrible Hit A Little Too Close To Home

At first, I thought the similarity was just a coincidence. But then I got to thinking about the many other ways my life resembles Hagar's. Yes, like Hagar, I have a fat wife named Helga and a duck named Kvaak. Like Hagar, I enjoy eating with my feet on the table. Like Hagar, my best friend wears a funnel on his head. And, if all that weren't enough, while I do not have a bushy red beard like Hagar, I do occasionally winter in Norway.

Friday, June 16, 2006

How often do I get to quote from Redstate.org?

That detestable harpy
"Absolutely disgusting."

Of course, the membership disagrees -- read the comments. So maybe Karl Rove thinks RedState.org is a liberal blog, since

The Internet for the Left of the Democratic Party has served as a way to mobilize hate and anger -- hate and anger, first and foremost, at this President and Conservatives, but then also at people within their own party whom they consider to be less than completely loyal to this very narrow, very out-of-the-mainstream, very far Left-wing ideology that they tend to represent.

Touching post from a guy I don't know

One of my favorite Sox bloggers posts daily on a site named "Surviving Grady." His father just pasted away. Read about it.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Mmm, bop

Hansen called to pitch in: Right-handed hurler up from Pawtucket

The 26th overall selection in last year’s amateur draft out of St. John’s University was a combined 1-2 with a 2.08 ERA in 12 games with Pawtucket and Double-A Portland. The 22-year-old right-hander made his last four appearances as a starter for the PawSox and posted a 2.30 ERA.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I'm not a religious man

but there's no way in Hell that the Red Sox beat the Yankees on 6/6/06 I should have been smaht enough to put money down on this one.

Busby loses in San Diego

In 2004, Busby lost the CA-50 by 22.0%. Today, it looks like she will lose by around 4.5%. And that was with the NRCC spending $4.5M on the race. If Republicans want to spin losing 18 points after spending $4.5M of committee money as a good thing, go for it. After all, spin is basically why they spent so much money on this race. By blowing their wad in a solidly Republican district, they wanted to change the media narrative on the election in their favor ... In reality, for a Republican candidate to pull 49.5% of the vote in a district with 44.5% Republican registration is shocking. Given those numbers, Bilbray probably managed all of 20% of the vote among independents.

No matter what the media says, no Democrat should be mistaken about this result. First, this is a huge, seismic shift in our favor that bodes extremely well for November. If we receive an 18% shift nationwide, we will win the House easily. If Republican candidates are pulling only 20% of the independent vote, the Indycrat realignment is still on.

-- from myDD.com

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Rick Sutcliffe almost has a point!

What people forget is that the Yankees championships' were built through their farm system and the draft.


Perhaps. But every since they abandoned that approach and tried to buy their titles, they have not done so. In fact, this article (brief as it is) is an indictment of the Yankees' present approach, not a compliment to it. If Sutcliffe didn't have his nose so far up Derek Jeter's, um, leadership, he'd be able to see that.

Now, let's look briefly at the record. In 2000, the last of the Yankee championship -- all of which occured in the 20th century ...

1st base, Tino Martinez --> Traded by the Seattle Mariners with Jim Mecir and Jeff Nelson to the New York Yankees for Russ Davis and Sterling Hitchcock.

2nd base, Chuck Knoblauch -->Traded by the Minnesota Twins to the New York Yankees for Brian Buchanan, Cristian Guzman, Eric Milton, Danny Mota, and cash.

3rd base, the greatest ever at bare-handing a grounder --> Signed as a Free Agent.
Rightfield, Paul O'Neill --> Traded by the Cincinnati Reds with Joe DeBerry (minors) to the New York Yankees for Roberto Kelly.

DH, David Justice --> Traded by the Cleveland Indians to the New York Yankees for Ricky Ledee, Jake Westbrook, and Zach Day.

SP, Roger Clemens --> Traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the New York Yankees for Homer Bush, Graeme Lloyd, and David Wells.

SP, David Cone --> Signed as a Free Agent.

SP, Orlando Hernandez --> Signed as an amateur free agent.


This is NOT a team that was built from within. They took other teams' most expensive players and built around them. There is no way that David Justice -- who was absolutely vital to that year's team -- ends up on the Yankees if there's a salary cap. There's no way the Twins trade Chuck Knoblauch away if they could have afforded him.

There's no shame in any of these things. What is a shame is perpertuating the myth that because Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Mariano Rivera were once Columbus Clippers, that this franchise values building from within. They don't, and they never have.

ESPNZone?

I only discovered this page thanks to the good people at firejoemorgan.blogspot.com. But here is a list of Tommy Lasorda's favorite restaurants.

I hate ...

(a) watching a Rick Sutcliffe-announced game and
(b) watching the Red Sox lose.

If (a) and (b) are both happening, I won't watch. I can watch the Sox lose, and I can watch Rick Sutcliffe, but suffice to say I turned off last night's game in the second. He's a million times worse than Joe Morgan. Morgan is WAY easier to ignore. Sutcliffe is an idiot with an annoying voice. Morgan is just an idiot.

"You look at Johnny Damon, now there's a guy who may not be leading the league in on-base percentage or runs scored but he gives you something no other lead-off man in baseball can give you: home runs. And that's why he's the best there is."

Alfonzo Soriano and Grady Sizemore have hit 15 and 10 homeruns out of the leadoff spot, respectively; Damon has 7. Ten players have more than 5. (Fun fact: there are 30 teams in MLB.) And recall that Sutcliffe said that no one else can hit homeruns as a leadoff hitter. Apparently, the list of true leadoff hitters consists of Damon, Ichiro, Jose Reyes, Juan Pierre, and David Eckstein.

Geek stat: runs created. Johnny Damon has been the 4th-best leadoff hitter in baseball.

Friday, June 02, 2006

$21 versus $22

Or maybe it was the extra million:

Best pitch just not good enough to catch Roger

According to Hendricks, the Red Sox appealed to the pitcher’s sentimental side to the very end. The Sox offered a one-year deal worth precisely $21,000,021 to the man who wore No. 21 for the Red Sox from 1984-96. The Astros played the same numbers game with their offer, which was precisely $22,000,022. Clemens wears No. 22 in Houston.

Said Hendricks: “I told Theo, in jest, that it was too bad Roger didn’t wear 27 as a Red Sox.”

Yeah, in jest.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Translation: There's too many Jews, Latinos, and black people in NYC ...

... and, dammit, why do they keep voting against the Republicans?

No Icons, No Monuments Worth Protecting in New York City

New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News.

The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

The form ignored that New York City is the capital of the world financial markets and merely stated the city had four significant bank assets.

New York City is home to Chase, JP Morgan, Citi Group, The New York Stock Exchange, The Commodities Exchange, American Express, George Soros funds, Michael Gabelli's funds, Lazard Frere and Salomon Brothers, to name just a few of the more prominent banking interests located there.

The formula did note a commuter population of more than 16 million around the city twice struck by fundamentalist terrorists and twice more targeted in plots halted in pre-operational stages. It noted the more than eight million residents and the largest rail ridership in the nation - more than five million. It is those commuters and rail riders who are expected to suffer most from the cuts since mass transit is listed on most DHS alerts as the top terror target.

The report lists as classified "visitors of interest destination city," immigration cases, suspicious incidents and FBI cases. New York City is home to the largest FBI field office in the country, which actively monitors 24/7 the Iranian Mission. The city has also had the most significant terror trials in the nation and is home to one of the largest air hubs in the nation.

Translation: There's too many Jews, Latinos, and black people in NYC ...

... and, dammit, why do they keep voting against the Republicans?

No Icons, No Monuments Worth Protecting in New York City

New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News.

The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

The form ignored that New York City is the capital of the world financial markets and merely stated the city had four significant bank assets.

New York City is home to Chase, JP Morgan, Citi Group, The New York Stock Exchange, The Commodities Exchange, American Express, George Soros funds, Michael Gabelli's funds, Lazard Frere and Salomon Brothers, to name just a few of the more prominent banking interests located there.

The formula did note a commuter population of more than 16 million around the city twice struck by fundamentalist terrorists and twice more targeted in plots halted in pre-operational stages. It noted the more than eight million residents and the largest rail ridership in the nation - more than five million. It is those commuters and rail riders who are expected to suffer most from the cuts since mass transit is listed on most DHS alerts as the top terror target.

The report lists as classified "visitors of interest destination city," immigration cases, suspicious incidents and FBI cases. New York City is home to the largest FBI field office in the country, which actively monitors 24/7 the Iranian Mission. The city has also had the most significant terror trials in the nation and is home to one of the largest air hubs in the nation.

Cool news

From Stuart Rothenberg:

The anger has hit incumbents of both parties, but it hasn’t been distributed evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Incumbent GOPers are taking more of the heat, and they are likely to suffer far more in November.