Avoiding Work

Shame

2008-05-08T12:49:00.003-04:00

Hillary Clinton is approaching the Ralph Nader level of people I used to respect but now want to completely disappear. She is behind Obama by almost 700,000 in the popular vote, behind by almost 200 in committed delegates and has won fewer states than BO and has virtually no chance of winning. Her pitch now is that she should be the Democrat's nominee because she has received more white votes. I was pissed off at her pandering gas tax holiday but this goes far beyond that. Is she honestly suggesting that superdelegates should consider black votes as less important than white votes? Perhaps she misspoke like she misspoke about her visit to Bosnia but I think she is far more intelligent than that. This is about as low as campaigning can go and shows that she has little inclination at the moment to help Obama defeat McCain. Rush Limbaugh is giggling happily to himself somewhere. This is a sad day that calls for sad music.

Shell Game

2008-04-29T10:08:00.008-04:00

Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain and come out in favor of suspending the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax in her quest to be the Ivy League educated Democratic nominee more in touch with the common man. Of course the idea of suspending the federal tax on gas would be almost meaningless and further deepen America's dependence on foreign oil. The reason for the price increases has been America's increasing consumption of oil plus greater demand on the world markets with the growing economies in China and India. Clinton compounds the damaging effects of this scam by proposing greater taxes on oil companies profits. This has prima face logic but would ultimately decrease oil companies' investment in exploration. With oil companies producing less oil and demand increasing worldwide, the price would continue to climb. I'm more or less reflexively in favor of higher corporate taxes but if you are arguing that higher taxes on oil companies will lower fuel prices, you are absolutely wrong. I'm also wondering if she thinks oil prices would rise or fall if the United States "totally obliterate" Iran if Iran attacked Israel.

I'll be willing to bet that Paul Krugman will be completely silent on this meaningful difference between Obama and Clinton and continue to quibble over their nearly identical health plans while acting as the principal apologist in her increasingly nasty campaign.

UPDATE
Ok. I was wrong. Krugman has responded in his blog and it predictably minimizes Clinton's endorsement of a very bad idea and returns to the healthcare issue to attack Obama yet again. It puzzles me how he thinks Clinton's pandering to voters' gas price fears is "pointless". If she were to become president the only way to slow global warning is decreasing consumption of fossil fuels which would require higher gas prices, not lower. She certainly isn't showing any political courage on perhaps the most important public policy issue.

More Paullary Krugton

2008-03-28T10:11:00.008-04:00

Seriously. Paul Krugman's pieces in the Times should be followed by a short clip saying, "My name is Hillary Clinton and I approve of this editorial."

So again Krugman is arguing and insinuating that Hillary Clinton is more progressive than Obama. He says that her policy proposals on the financial crisis "suggests a strong progressive sensibility." Fine. I'm sure he is aware that a candidate's policy proposals are not automatically adopted once he or she is elected. Having bold ideas in not enough. We've already seen a very progressive health care plan by the Clintons crash and burn due to their attempt to jam it down the throats of Congress and in the process alienating both Republicans and Democrats that were essential to passing any meaningful legislation. And this gets to the primary reason why I'm against Hillary. It's not that I disagree with most of her policies but I think she has built up so much animosity, both fair and unfair, that she would have a very hard time getting anything passed.

While I'm sympathetic to anyone who is in danger of losing their homes because they can't make their payments I'm also not necessarily in favor of the government bailing out people who made very bad decisions on buying a house with little money down and an adjustable rate mortgage in the first place. It was hardly a secret that these adjustable rate mortgages were very risky. So Obama's somewhat "cautious and relatively orthodox" proposal might actually be the approach I favor.

Krugman turns up the hyperbole and says "Mrs. Clinton, we’re assured by sources right and left, tortures puppies and eats babies. But her policy proposals continue to be surprisingly bold and progressive." I'm reasonably certain she doesn't torture puppies and eat babies. But I'm not as certain that she and Bill aren't intentionally trying to sabotage Obama's chances in 2008 and set her up for 2012 because she's finally realized she has no shot this year. Actively trying to defeat Obama and elect McCain who would continue the disastrous war in Iraq (a war Krugman doesn't like to remind you that Hillary voted to authorize because it doesn't fit his "progessive" label) would result in thousands more deaths and probably include puppies and babies.

Metal Masterpiece

2008-03-27T12:50:00.002-04:00

This made my shitty work week not so bad.

Listen to Rush

2008-03-19T12:53:00.005-04:00

I think there a plenty of good reasons not to vote for Hillary Clinton but perhaps one of the best is that it greatly increases the chance of McCain winning. But don't take my word for it. What does America's favorite Oxycodone addict have to say?

What if she's not the nominee? We've got make sure she's the nominee if the Republican Party is to be unified.

If our electoral victory in November requires her being in the race, we gotta stop him; because there's no fear and loathing on Obama. You can't run against Obama fearing him or loathing him or dissing him. It isn't going to work. He doesn't have the personality that makes any of that fit. So we need to keep her in it so we can win it.

All right, we have a campaign slogan here for Mrs. Clinton, because obviously the best shot for Republicans winning the White House is Hillary as the nominee, so I'm thinking of doing this fundraiser, the slogan: "Stay in It So We Can Win It."

Well, now Obama needs a slogan. If our slogan is, "Stay in It So We Can Win It," Obama's slogan is, "A Vote for Hillary Is a Vote for McCain." It would work. It would absolutely work. The Republicans want her to be the nominee since that's the best shot for Republicans.

I hate to say it but I agree with Rush here. I must bathe.

Krugman

2008-03-07T15:43:00.004-05:00

So when did Paul Krugman’s column become the weekly Hillary Clinton Booster? This bothers me for the predictable reason that I’m for Obama and he is not and he is a writer I have a lot of respect for. But his columns repeatedly says that Clinton is more progressive that Obama and I see very little evidence of this. Krugman made this striking remark in his March 3rd column:

Now, nobody would mistake Mr. Obama for a Republican — although contrary to claims by both supporters and opponents, his voting record places him, with Senator Clinton, more or less in the center of the Democratic Party, rather than in its progressive wing.

How does he come to the conclusion that Obama is in the center of the Democratic Party? Certainly not from his actual voting record in the Senate when the National Journal ranked him the most liberal Senator in 2007 and consistently more liberal than Hillary Clinton.

He consistently downplays Clinton's vote in 2002 to authorize the Iraq War which was perhaps the most important litmus test of a politicians liberalism in the last 40 years and she wasn't on the same side as Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Paul Wellstone or even Lincoln Chafee.

From what I can tell his claims are based on Obama’s healthcare plan not including mandates to buy health insurance where Clinton’s would. I guess that is a fair criticism although I think Obama’s reasoning that mandates that penalize people who can’t afford healthcare premiums is far from progressive is a valid counterpoint. But beyond that where is the proof that Clinton is the better choice for progressive than Obama?

2008-02-26T10:23:00.003-05:00

There are many good reasons to support Barack Obama in 2008 but his decision to not wear an American flag lapel pin might be one of the best I've seen. I have no problem with anyone who decides to wear an American flag lapel pin. But what has happened is the wearing of a pin has turned into a requirement and anyone who doesn't wear one will be subject to having their patriotism question. It is shameful how many politicians wrap themselves around the flag while repeatedly supporting policies that desecrate the constitution through illegal wiretapping, imprisonment, torture and a disastrous war that was never authorized by Congress. The guardians of false patriotism have predictably started their Swiftboating of Obama by portraying his stand as vain and self righteous. This is an early preview of the general election where McCain will have little else to run on. But anyone who favors substance over symbolism should applaud Obama. Conservatives constantly rail against 'political correctness' and its infringement on free thought but conveniently forget this concern when faced with their own dogma. Please forgive the cliche but reminds me of yet another Seinfeld episode.

2008 MLB Preview/Message from God

2008-02-20T14:38:00.004-05:00

I was going to write a detailed preview of the 2008 before seeing this in Over the Monster. There is no need for my prognosticating when it is clear that more powerful forces are favoring the Sox to repeat as World Series champions.

M.V. Domination

2007-11-19T13:53:00.000-05:00

For the 5th year in a row Martha's Vineyard crushed the pathetic Whalers of Nantucket 48-6 last Saturday. Obviously Bill Belichick spends no time tutoring Whaler coach Vito Capizzo while summering on the lesser of the 2 islands. I am allowed to gloat being an M.V.R.H.S alumnus as well as being a 1 year veteran of the mighty Vineyarders football squad. It might have been junior varsity and I sucked but I did have a uniform and helmet.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T14:49:00.000-04:00

Sox Win!

2007-10-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

Click on the picture. There are some real geniuses out there.

2007-10-26T09:57:00.000-04:00

First a few belated comments on the ALCS. I had some mixed emotions on the Sox remarkable comeback. Cleveland has always been my 2nd city of sports. My father grew up there and was a devoted Indians, Browns and Ohio State fan. He loves to recite the entire starting lineup of the 1948 Indians and has told me at least 100 times the story of his going to a double header in 1948 where Bob Feller pitched the first game and his favorite player of all time, Satchel Paige, pitched the second. I have been to games at the now demolished Cleveland Municipal Stadium with my grandfather. Cleveland has very good baseball fans as you can see in the infamous Beer Night of 1974. At the same time I’m still pissed at Ohio for the 2004 Presidential election. Now Cleveland is a very strong union town and I’m sure they went for Kerry but that does little to soften my anger for the entire state. Plus there is the Indians logo issue which just doesn’t play well in 2007. So of course I wanted the Sox to win but certainly bad that the much maligned Cleveland had to face yet another humiliation.

Now for last night's game it is amazing how different my attitude is towards the Sox since 2004. Gone are the days when I would expect a spectacular collapse that would torment me through the winter. I'm by no means overconfident but I no longer expect to lose. Last night with the Sox down 1-0 I was calmly waiting to take the lead. And when Okajima and Papelbon came in to relieve Schilling I would have been much more surprised to see them blow the lead than get the save.

This is obviously a very good Boston team and the series is looking very good. Yet I'm not quite ready to call it over because I really expected the Sox to win the first 2 games with Beckett and Schilling starting. One more win by a pitcher other than Beckett and it is over because the Rockies are not going to beat him. I like our chances tomorrow night because teams tend to not fair well against Matsuzaka when facing him for the first time.

So all in all to this point this is the most enjoyable post season I've ever had even though the Fox network and Taco Bell are trying very hard to destroy it. This 'steal a base and America gets a taco' crap is beyond annoying. The obviously scripted shots of Royce Clayton talking about it in the dugout are a real shame. Not to be a whiny killjoy but does America really need a free taco? Can I send my taco to Sudan where they could actually use it? And one wonders what would happen if Cialis ran the same promotion and if Manny Ramirez hit a homerun, half of America gets a chemically induced boner.

Requiem for the Yankees

2007-10-09T09:24:00.001-04:00

I feel bad for piling on and no Yankee fan should mistake my opinion as sincere criticisms designed to improve their ball club but Joe Torre’s managing in this post season was so horrendous I see no way that he could keep his job. I could talk about a lot of things. There is the head scratching choice of Clemens in game 3 over Hughes which predictably burned out the pen for game 4. And Matsui with a recently drained knee over Giambi who Torre mysteriously refuses to give post season at bats to despite having excellent numbers. But the most glaring is his decision to pitch Wang over Mussina in the deciding game. I don’t think Wang could have looked any worse in his game 1 start and had never pitched on 3 days rest in his career. Yet Torre decides to start Wang over Mussina who hadn’t pitched since September 28th and had looked good to average in his last few starts. Add to that that Mussina’s good post season stats and the choice is even more queer. As much as I enjoyed the Yankee batter futility with the exception of Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano you really can’t say too much about their failure. They faced some very good pitching and didn’t come through. It happens. Perhaps this year will finally deflate the last few bloated Yankee fans who have always thought of the World Series as an entitlement rather than a gift. As I heard many angry Yankee fans over the weekend say on WFAN this team seemed more designed to sell 4 million tickets than to win a World Series. And Yankees fans should be very pissed off. They were the second best team in all of baseball this year and they won just a single game in the playoffs. And for those of you keeping track of such things the Yankees are 4 and 10 in the post season since game 4 of the ALCS in 2004 and have lost 13 of their last 17 playoff games despite have very good teams every one of those years. Now that is a curse!

There is one thing I will gloat on a bit and that is Jeter grounding into the double play in the 7th inning which really buried the Yankees.

Your 2007 American League Wild Card Champions

2007-10-01T15:37:00.000-04:00

I'm not saying this to be a wiseass because if the Yankees go further than the Sox in the playoffs and win the World Series, Yankee fans will not care one bit that they won as a wildcard. But in terms of marketing don't you think the sales of this t-shirt will be horrible?

So winning the A.L. East is meaningless yet satisfying at the same time. I'm certain the players don't really care how they make the post season, nor should they. But what is so gratifying about this season is that the loudmouth Yankee fans who always thought the the Sox would blow it have to accept that over the course of the 162 game season Boston was the better team. I don't want to hear that they won the season series because that isn't relevant. The Yankees were 9-9 against the Orioles this year. Does that mean they were even? It certainly bothered me that the Yankees won the A.L. East every years since 1996. So, sit on it, Murray Chass.

Looks like the Red Sox are making it a tradition of completely over the top celebrations. I thought Friday night looked pretty ridiculous until I remembered Kevin Millar saying that he thought the Sox didn't drink enough after winning the wild card in 2003 and Kevin Millar was a very wise man.

Larry Craig is inconsistent and kind of creepy.

2007-09-18T10:52:00.000-04:00

Chris Matthews expression after the clip is a 10 on the unintentional comedy scale.

Guinness is good for you?

2007-09-07T14:26:00.000-04:00

I was very pleased to learn from the BBC that getting dogs drunk on Guinness reduced their incidents of heart disease. Unfortunately for the dogs it had little effect on the mortality rates of animals being used in stupid lab tests. But it is nice to know that dogs who drink stout have fewer heart attacks. Next I would like to see which brand of nail polish causes more cases of testicular cancer in squirrels.

V Day

2007-08-27T14:45:00.000-04:00

A pathetic 2 months since my last post when I complained bitterly about Paul Pierce and the sad state of the Celtics. The situation seems to have corrected itself. Also on June 27th the Sox where 9 games up on the Yankees. Today they are 7.5 games up and soon to be 8 after Mike “The Mess” Mussina gets hammered by the Tigers tonight. I’d like to reenter the blogging world by proclaiming loudly that the Sox have pretty much locked up the A.L. East. A quick look at the numbers shows that if we play 1 game under .500 we’ll finish the regular season with 95 wins. For the Yankees to equal that win total they would have to go 23 and 9 in their remaining 32 games and their pitching staff simply isn’t good enough to do that. I won’t talk too much smack because I think the Yankees are quite likely to win the wild card. And with a team that has underperformed mightily and with a top three of their rotation Clemens, Pettitte and Wang they are not a team you would want to face in a short series. Add to that the extra motivation they would feel playing a Sox team that completely emasculated them 3 years ago and it gets a little scary. But for now I’m just going to enjoy our first A.L. East title since I was still in college and celebrate Steinbrenner’s empire looking like Shelly’s poem.

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away

Where is your head?

2007-06-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

I'm on the verge of completely turning on Paul Pierce. Last year he negotiates a 3 year $60 million dollar extension which will make him one of the highest paid players in the NBA. So instead of being grateful to a team an owner that invested so much money in a player that probably doesn't deserve to be paid as an elite, he starts grumbling that he wants to be traded if the Celtics don't make a get another elite level player. Now the Celtics have very little space under the cap to get a free agent due to Pierce's contract and missing out on Oden and Durant made their #5 draft pick not all that valuable. I'll never understand why players who want to be traded go to the press which instantly weaken their team's bargaining leverage with anyone they hope to negotiate with and making an eventual trade more difficult. I say screw Pierce. By the time the Celtics are decent again Pierce will be beyond his prime. His body type makes me think that he is not going to be great player in his 30's. A charitable observer would say that Paul desperately wants to win and is frustrated by the current state of things. Well so am I but this is not going to make it any better and if he really wants to be traded he isn't helping his own cause by being such a loudmouth. Danny should get the most he can for him and start over. My God the Celtics are a disaster.

Benny, Benny

2007-06-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

Did I know who Benny Feilhaber was before yesterday? No and I follow the U.S. National team pretty closely. This was an absolutely fantastic strike to win the 2007 Meaningless Cup. It was exactly the kind of spontaneously creative goal that the United States team could not produce for years. It was also nice that the tv camera caught the 8 U.S. fans in attendance at Soldier's Field. I’d be pissed off at Hugo Sanchez’s pathetic comments after the game if it wasn’t for our complete dominance of the Mexican national team for the last 7 years. There were quite a few things I didn’t like about this game most notably the weak first half and DaMarcus Beasley’s whiff that should have given us a third goal. I don't expect too much so the Copa America should be fun.

No no-no

2007-06-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

I don’t want to take anything away from Curt Schilling's near no-hitter yesterday but if Alex Cora had reached Shannon Stewart's grounder in the 9th and got him out at first, it would have been one of the luckiest and least deserved no-hitters in the last 20 years. It all come down to batting average on balls batted into play. The best way to get a no-hitter is to limit the number of balls put into play by striking guys out. There is a reason why Nolan Ryan has 7 career no-hitters, he was one of the best strikeout pitchers in the history of baseball (#4 all time in strikeouts per nine innings) and had a ridiculously long career. The logic is simple, the fewer balls put into play, the greater the chance that there will not be a hit. A batter that strikes out has a 0% chance of getting a hit but a batter that puts the ball into play has about a 30% chance of getting a hit. Yesterday Schilling struck out just 4 batters. If the averages had held Schilling should have given up at least 7 hits. There have been 24 no-hitters since a pitcher has had less than 4 strikeouts and still had a no-hitter (in 1993 Jim Abbot struck out just 3 Indians and walked 5 in the luckiest no-hitter I could find). In the 24 no-hitters since 1993 the strikeout average is 8.45. So if anyone should be congratulated on yesterday’s 1 hitter it should be the Sox defense which converted 24 of the 25 balls in into play into outs. I can't say enough how happy I am with the Sox improved defense over last year. So far they are converting .709 of balls in play into outs compared to the woeful .683 last season. It was a good performance by Schilling but not even his best of the season. That would have been on May 28th against a much better Cleveland lineup when he struck out 10, walked 0 and gave up no home runs.

Demetri Martin

2007-06-06T14:46:00.000-04:00

With a few exceptions I hate stand up comedy. Like musicals I think there are a few good ones and the rest are unbearable. It’s not like I have any knowledge of current comedians but of what I’ve seen I think David Cross and Sarah Silverman are very funny. Chris Rock used to be up there but he seems to be floundering. Recently I saw a little of Demetri Martin. He obviously owes a lot to Steven Wright but I thought his jokes were hysterical.

The National

2007-06-01T15:26:00.000-04:00

I bought The National's "Boxer" last week and can't recommend it enough. It's not exactly cheery summer music with lyrics like...

"arm in arm in arm and eyes and eyes glazing under
oh you wouldn’t want an angel watching over
surprise, surprise they wouldn’t wannna watch
another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults"

but that is some good writing.

Here is a boring video to a great song.

But National Carpet is twice the band of The National.

Best of Times

2007-05-30T13:07:00.000-04:00

Baseball Prospectus has a Postseason Odds generator that plays out the season one million times and gives you a percentage chance of a team winning their division and winning the wild card. Right now the Sox are a 96.35115% chance of winning the AL East, a 2.21765% chance of winning the wild card. So it looks pretty good for the playoffs. Buster Onley had a bit today in his blog where he writes that only one team has ever come back to win their division after falling over 14 games back. It was the 1914 Boston Braves. Yankee fans can't blame their pathetic-ness solely on injuries. Damon/Abreu/Giambi/Matsui/Cano are monumentally under performing. In fact, if it wasn't for Jeter/Rod/Posada hitting out of their heads, Yankees might be the worst team in American League. Boston lost their #1 starter in Beckett for over 2 weeks and managed to stretch their lead from 8 1/2 to 14 1/2 games. The Yankees can come in to Boston and sweep the series and still be over 10 games back. And how smart does Theo look right now? Passing on Pedro and Damon. Signing Varitek (which I strongly criticized because I'm a moron). This is shaping up to be a very pleasant summer.

In personal sporting news I went to Martha's Vineyard to defend my title in the 30-39 age group at the Oak Bluffs Memorial Day Road Race. Last year I rather flukely won my division which was more evidence of a poor group of competitors than my skill. The good news is I cut 21 seconds of my time from last year running the 5K in 20:37 compared to my 20:58 in 2006. The bad news was that this time put me 21st overall (compared 15th in 2006) and 7th place in my age group. I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping to finish with my average pace under 6:30 minute miles which I consider the "fast line". But this defeat was quickly forgotten when I went back to my Mom's house and watched my Sporting Clube de Portugal win the Taca de Portugal on a fantastic goal by Liedson. Forca Sporting! View the beautifully homemade clip below.

Pitching and Defense

2007-05-15T10:11:00.000-04:00

Obviously Boston improved their pitching staff with the addition of Matsuzaka but almost a quarter of the way through the season the most noticeable improvement in the team has been their defense. Many argue that Boston was a great defensive team last year and point to their low error total and high fielding percentage. But fielding percentage is a very deceptive stat and can lead someone to think that a poor defense is good and vice versa. The problem with fielding percentage is that it only takes into account errors committed and does nothing to rate the speed of a defense. Putting yourself in a position to make a play is just as important, if not more important than making the play. Take a hypothetical 10 ground balls hit to two different shortstops. Shortstop A (Derek Jeter) is has a great glove and accurate arm but is very slow and has poor reaction time. Shortstop B (Miguel Tejada) is very fast and has great reaction time but occasionally misplays a ball with his glove or makes an errant throw every once in a while. In the 10 balls hit to Shortstop A (Derek Jeter) he fields 6 of them cleanly and throw the runner out at first, pumping his fist after each out. But 4 of the balls hit in his area go for hits. Shortstop B (Miguel Tejada) has 10 balls hit in his area, 8 of which he gets to because of his superior range but one goes for a hit and one he commits an error throwing to first base because he was off balance because he had to run 20 feet to reach a ball that Shortstop A would never have come close to. Now if you only use fielding percentage as a measure of defensive ability you would say that Shortstop A (Derek Jeter) is better than Shortstop B (Miguel Tejada) because his field percentage is 1.000% and Tejada’s is .888%. But you would be ignoring that of the 10 balls hit in his area Tejada turned 8 of them into outs and Jeter only turned 6 into outs. If you only consider the results an error is the equal to a play not made. This can be applied to team defense as well. If you only look at fielding percentage you are missing the more important stat which is the rate in which balls put into play are turned into outs or Defensive Efficiency. This brings me to the Red Sox this season. Last year many said that the Red Sox were a great defensive team due to their fielding percentage being the best in the American League when in fact their defensive efficiency was 12th out of 14 teams. Alex Gonzalez and Mark Loretta had undeserved reputations as great players at their respective positions. To be fair like Jeter both were very sure handed and had accurate arms but were very limited in their range and didn’t get to many balls hit in their area. In effect they were more Jeters than Tejadas. This season we have the much speedier Julio Lugo at short and Dustin Pedroia at second as well as a healthy Coco in center. This has lead to the Sox currently being 2nd in the league in defensive efficiency. At the same time their fielding percentage has dropped to 12th in the American League which makes some say that the loss of Gonzalez and Loretta has hurt their team defense. But the exact opposite is true. So with a great number of balls hit into play being turned into outs the pitching staff’s ERA has been lowered as well. When you look at a pitcher’s stats the ones most often used to judge their abilities are the stats that are the most dependant on the quality of the defense behind them (Wins/Losses/ERA). Taking Josh Beckett as an example I think his 7-0 start can be attributed to 3 things; fewer walks, giving up fewer homeruns, and most importantly a vastly improved defense behind him.

MOBA

2007-05-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

I used to think that there was no good reason whatsoever to go to Dedham. I need to reevaluate that opinion after learning of The Museum of Bad Art. If all art was this entertaining, I'd go to museums much more often. I firmly believe that if you can't do something well the next best thing is to make fun of people who do it poorly.

Roger Clemens: The Great White Barry Bonds

2007-05-07T10:53:00.000-04:00

Now the Yankees have two chronic human growth hormone freaks on their team and possibly 3 if you want to add Andy Pettitte. It seems terribly unfair and whiffs of racism that Barry Bonds is solely pointed out as a performance enhancing drug cheat and guys like Clemens and Jason Giambi get away with the same offenses. Red flags fly all over the place with Clemens as they did with Bonds. But the mainstream media is almost completely ignoring his connection to performance enhancing drugs and play up the feel good story. The photo above is a fine example of Roger's frequent steroid rages.

The Big Story

2007-04-30T10:40:00.000-04:00

What was the big sports story from this weekend? Was it the continuing bloodbath in the Bronx where even the Yankees ace can’t beat a journeyman number 5 starter and Doug Manishevitz hits a 3 run home run and they still lose? No.

Was it the Pats miraculously picking up Randy Moss for a pittance of a 4th round draft pick, negotiate is base salary down from $9 million to a little over $3 million AND can decide to cut him by opening day at no cost? No.

The big story was Taylor Twellman scoring in the 13th minute of the match to surpass Preki as the 7th all time leading scorer in MLS history.

Normally I might be disturbed by images of David Ortiz wearing a Yankees cap but this weekend was so glorious I can just laugh it off.

Weekend

2007-04-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

Two notable things about my weekend.

After over a week of frustration I finally installed my roof rack. For a brief period I cursed all things Swedish and vowed to never purchase anything from them or their Scandinavian neighbors for the rest of my life. I was convinced that they intentionally shipped their racks with impossible installation instructions in order to infuriated Americans and get back at us for starting that unnecessary war thing. But I successfully completed the installation and the Scandinavian boycott is off except for my continuing embargo of Danish cinema due to my intense hatred of Lars von Trier.

Watched all of the Sox/Yankees series. I was expecting to be more elated than I actually am considering the Sox won every game, some in humiliating fashion. But you could hardly call it domination when we won 2 1-run games and 1 2-run game. Honestly the ball literally bounced our way this time (thinking particularly of Coco’s game winning hit against Rivera on Saturday). This by no means made it any less enjoyable. I was almost giddy when Torre desperately put in Pettitte in long relief on Sunday. He can say as many times as he wants that the Sox/Yankee series isn’t anything special but when he used his $18 million dollar starter on 2 days rest to try to keep you in an April ballgame, he is taking this game more seriously than other games. That said the Sox starters looked far from invincible in this series and that was a seriously banged up Yankees team. Kevin Thompson and Wil Nieves don’t exactly strike fear in my heart. I don’t want to get too dorky and talk about Pythagorean records but in terms of runs score to runs allowed the Yankees are playing about even with the Sox and have a horrible record in 1 and 2 run games (2-8) that will correct itself over the season. Now Yankee fans will say that it is a 162 game season which of course is true but the 162 game season is made up of series and this particular one couldn’t have gone much better. To throw out a sports cliché in order to win you must be good and lucky and the Sox were both this weekend.

I also learned that 2 month old babies don’t like it when I yell at the tv. I’m a little worried I permanently damaged my kid during the 4 consecutive homeruns.

Amy Winehouse

2007-04-17T15:57:00.000-04:00

I’m having problems figuring out my opinion on Amy Winehouse. On the one hand she is making pretty original music for 2007 and it is refreshing to hear a classical R&B delivery in an age of over-emotive, American Idol inspired pseudo-soul. There is no doubt she can sing. But there is something overly practiced and artificial in her music. I can almost see her rehearsing in front of her mirror ten years ago saying, “I’m going to be a great singer someday”. The well reported rumors of her supposed heavy drinking seem to have the feel of a publicist and marketers touch, carefully forming her back story. And it is probably unfair to criticize her for this video but she makes a whole lot of contrived faces and hand gestures that, to my eye, seem far from natural expressions. I’d also love to jump into the video and punch the annoying saxophone player in the nose. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get the tune from “Rehab” out of my head for a couple of weeks now and am tempted to buy it on ITunes and overplay it to death in order to purge myself of this bothersome song. Ultimately she seems like a pretty poor Shirley Bassey rip off which is a very good choice for an influence but far too derivative to my liking. This brings up a question I've always wondered that if you are really annoyed by a song a part of you actually likes it. For years I thought I hated the song "Here's Where the Story Ends" by the Sundays when one day it dawned on me that I really liked it a lot but this is a topic for another post. So if you want my recommendation for annoying but likeable female British singers I say Lily Allen. Mindless pop? Indeed. Infectious and likeable? Without a doubt.

Mythical Manny

2007-04-17T09:57:00.000-04:00

Great article on Manny Ramirez in this week’s New Yorker. Two things I learned about him were that both of his sons are named Manny Jr. and that he once requested a trade to the Pawtucket Red Sox while playing for the Boston Red Sox.

The Wisdom of Ichiro Suzuki

2007-04-11T13:29:00.000-04:00

In an era when 99% of professional athletes give tired, cliche-ridden drivel when interviewed it is beyond refreshing to hear Ichiro Suzuki's response to an reporter's question on facing Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight.

“I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul,” he said. “I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.”
(source: Times of London)

I'm going to repeat those wise words of Ichiro every morning as part of my daily affirmations.

More Matsuzaka

2007-04-09T14:01:00.000-04:00

First there was the exceptional Asahi Super Dry commercial (see previous post) which I proclaimed “the greatest commercial ever made” not 2 weeks ago. Well I’m going to have to recant that superlative and say that no commercial will ever be better than this one. You have little kids waking up in the dead of night to watch Matsuzaka pitch, a strange cameo by Paul Konerko, a brilliant image of a neck-tattooed degenerate Yankee fan (yes, I know there is no other kind) who looks like he wants to kick your teeth into the curb, an even stranger cameo by Wally the Green Monster alone in Fenway’s grandstands, and a rapid montage of rabid Sox fans, pissed off neck-tattoo guy again, Matsuzaka’s name in lights on the scoreboard and some creepy off-screen voice whispering “Matsuzaka”. The result of which is the greatest piece of film since Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps scene or the first 5 minutes of ‘Touch of Evil’.

Dice-K

2007-04-05T16:39:00.000-04:00

Matsuzaka will not strike out 10 batters and walk only 1 in every game. Nor will he give up only 6 hits with just 1 being hit hard. I’m sure that he will be shelled at some point in the season. But with all of the expectations for this game that was one of the best debut performances ever. This is ridiculously premature for me to say but the $51.1 million dollar posting fee for him seems like a bargain. Does anyone think Andy Pettitte will be even close to this good?

Humps?

2007-04-04T09:29:00.000-04:00

My god. Did Alanis Morissette just do something I thought was both funny and good? Or is this simply a novelty much like William Shatner's "Mr. Tambourine Man"? This video left me without words. "They buy me all these icies" indeed.

Schilling Doesn't Suck (but he is fat)

2007-04-03T10:34:00.000-04:00

It is a little difficult to say that after his Opening Day performance but it really wasn’t as bad as it looked. I would never say that I truly understand most of what the sabrmetric geeks say even though I’ve been accused of being one. But there is one thing that they believe that makes a lot of sense to me. When evaluating a pitcher ignore ERA and wins and loses and focus more on strike out to walk ratio, BABIP (batting average on balls in play), home runs per 9 innings and to a lesser extend ground ball to fly ball ratio. The most important thing to look at is BABIP. Master this stat and it will change how you look at pitching forever. Essentially the argument is that the only consistent way for a pitcher to succeed is to strike batters out. Once a batter has hit the ball, it is simply a function of chance and how good your team defense is if the batter will be out. When looking at a pitcher’s stats it is essential, especially early in the season, to look at his BABIP because he could be either the beneficiary of good luck or a goat of bad luck. Sometimes the ball is hit to fielders and sometimes it is not. On average a little under 30% of balls hit into play go for hits. So your average pitchers BABIP is going to be around .300. If you see a pitcher with a BABIP much higher or lower than .300, there will likely be a correction (I’ll talk about regression to the mean later). So what happened yesterday with Curt Schilling? He faced 22 batters, striking out 5 and walking 2 which is a respectable but not great 2.5/1 strikeout to walk ratio. Although there were quite a few well hit balls he gave up no homers. But they key stat to understanding the final score was that of the 15 balls that were put in play, 8 went for hits giving Schilling a horrible but unlucky .533 BABIP. And what about Schilling’s opponent Gil Meche? He faced 27 batters, striking out 6 and walking 1 (6/1 k/bb ratio). 20 balls were put in play and the Sox had 6 hits. What was Meche’s BABIP? Exactly .300. So the bottom line is that Meche did indeed outpitch Schilling but the bad luck shown in the poor BABIP had a lot to do with the final score.

Sox Support Fascism

2007-04-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

That is a little harsh but I remember hearing a few months ago that the Sox were moving from WEEI to WRKO and not giving it too much thought. Now that the season is upon us and I’ve realized, to my horror, that I am going to have to endure endless promos for Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage’s radio shows that run on WRKO, not to mention the loathsome Howie Carr. WEEI politics were always annoying but generally contained to the fascist rantings of Grand Duke Wizard Jerry Callahan which were easy enough to avoid. But now the Red Sox have lent their brand name to a radio station that airs Michael Savage (who has suggested killing 100 million Muslims) and Limbaugh (mimics people with Parkinson’s among many other unpardonable offenses) simply because that station’s parent company (Entercom Communication) offered the most money. What is most upsetting about this is that the politics of the ownership and management is entirely at odds with WRKO’s. I guess the only remedy to this is to listen to the Sox Spanish radio broadcast on WROL.

Kickin' Asahi

2007-03-28T13:40:00.000-04:00

Had my first Asahi Super Dry last night and I'm not ashamed to say it was because of this commercial. It is just my opinion but that is the greatest commercial ever made and I dare anyone to disagree. The part when Matsuzaka throws a pitch in a virtual Fenway is breathtaking. It took me considerably longer to drink than Dice K but I did put on my Yaz jersey in an imitation slow mo. C. Jo didn't get the reference and probably wouldn't have found it amusing if she did. It is a good beer although I'm not sure it is worth the $9.25 I paid for it at Blanchard's unless a portion of that goes to the Sox to pay Matsuzaka's posting fee. I also fully support the reemergence of dry beer. I never had a Bud Dry but miss it mightily. All said it is a fine beer and I'd order it at a restaurant but probably won't pick up another 6 pack. Narragansett had not been dethroned. It is tough to beat cheap drinkable nostalgia in 16 ounce cans.

UPDATE: According to the Anheuser Busch website Bud Dry still exists. Who knew?

Getting My Irish Up

2007-03-28T10:57:00.000-04:00

The implications of this recent New York Times article are enormous. The most important of which is that the Boston Celtics name is, genetically speaking, inaccurate. The article basically says that researchers have found very little genetic differences between the English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. The Irish, Scottish, and Welsh belief that they are primarily the decendants of the Celts is a myth used to create a false difference between them and the English. The truth is that the British Isles were settled by people from the Basque region of Spain. Here in Boston where psuedo-Irishness is way of life this bit of scientific truth wouldn't dampen the Saint Patrick's Day fun of public drunkenness and banning homosexuals from the parade.

Mission Statement

2007-03-27T12:51:00.000-04:00

No mission statement. No explanation of the overriding theme of Avoiding Work. Well, maybe a little. One thing I do promise is to not use anything resembling the expression "we at Avoiding Work" because it is annoying and, more importantly, there is no 'we'. Just me. I recently read somewhere that those who do, do and those who can't criticize those who do on snarky blogs. Well that is fully my intention. Snarking. Another thing you won't see at Avoiding Work are well thought out arguments and it is entirely likely that I'll deny most of what I write here in a matter of weeks if not days. I should add as a word of warning to my readers that if I were a proofreader, I would be a really shitty proofreader. I type quickly and rarely re-read what I've put down which is often filled with misspellings, improper punctuation and completely incorrect words. If this bothers you, please go to http://www.newyorker.com/ and leave me and my comment section alone. All other comments, slights, observations and insults are welcome.