It’s an Oscar Game and Grill Day thread for a daylong cavalcade of fun! Starting with an A’s game! Boy howdy!
Game actually starts at 12:05 PST, but the MLB Network telecast (w00t!) starts an hour later at 1:00. There’s no such thing as spoiling a spring training game…if you tell me when a Travis Blackley fastball nails Josh Hamilton in the ass I’ll tune in exactly an hour later to revel in the glory of baseball’s return.
And today's #Athletics lineup again: Crisp CF, Young RF, Smith DH, Cespedes LF, Lowrie SS, Sizemore 2B, Barton 1B, Norris C, Rosales 3B.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) February 24, 2013
Now, fire up the coals, it’s grill time:
Melvin will let to 2B-SS competition run through mid-March before naming starters.
Elsewhere:
Half-blind columnist interviews one-eyed pitcher trying to make the Ray’s roster. Juan Sandoval was a rising Mariners prospect until he was shot in the face as an innocent bystander in a Dominican restaurant in 2006. Now he’s back with a nasty sinker and no depth perception:
“Comebackers are tough for me,†he said. “I have to count the bounces to know how I should field the ball. That’s a drill I’ve had to learn.â€
Yankees admit, Jurists concur: They are baseball’s one and only Evil Empire. From the opinion in trademark court:
“In short, the record shows that there is only one Evil Empire in baseball and it is the New York Yankees,” wrote the judges. “Accordingly, we find that [the Yankees] have a protectable trademark right in the term . . . as used in connection with baseball.”
Closer to home:
Lake Merritt waters re-connected to the bay for the first time in 144 years.
More love for Pliny the Younger.
You know what else is a two-week party? The Chinese New Year celebration! Happy Year of the Snake, everyone! I was born a Snake myself. Some people find them attractive because of their swift movement and slender silky beauty. Other people are repelled by the Year of the Snake person because of their perceived danger. A year of mystery, divination, revelation awaits.
Oscar night! From the red carpet pre-game to the swelling orchestra cutting off long-winded victory speeches, the Oscars are great fun around Casa de Upgrade. I’ve not seen a single nominated best file, director, actor or actress. I’ll enjoy it nonetheless…hell, I watched every play of a Super Bowl with two teams I loathed.
Drew Magary’s Oscar preview is hilarious.
I’ve always thought it was a crime that the Academy failed to honor the guy who played Mike Yanagita.
IMPRESSIVE thread, especially so early on a Sunday. Are you competing for a roster spot or what?
oscar gamble grill?
I think I ate there once, the steak sandwich was chewy.
I guess I’ve now seen three of the films nominated for Best Picture…Argo, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook. Out of those three I liked Argo the best so it wins the Bedy for 2012.
I still want to see Zero Dark Thirty and to a lesser extent the Tarantino movie…the other two films that are nominated I plan to skip for the rest of my life.
I assumed Buster would win the Bedy every year.
Fair point…Phil does get the lifetime Bedy award…we’re two hearts living in just one mind.
I actually managed to see 7 of 9 best picture nominees (all except Les Mis and Life of Pi). It’s a toss up between Amour or Beasts of the Southern Wild for my favorite, followed by Django, then Lincoln, and some combination of Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, and Silver Linings Playbook bringing up the rear.
Last week, after watching Caché, I realized that Michael Hanecke is one of my favorite directors.
Our movie tastes are different it would seem. I’ve tried three of Hanecke’s films…didn’t get through one of them.
I *loved* The White Ribbon.
I feel like I’ve given his movies a fair shake…they just aren’t for me. I always try to watch movies outside of my comfort zone but I don’t always finish them.
Agree.
Amour was endearing for its bluntness, I thought. My folks both worked so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. It recalled a hazy fog of memories and brought them into focus in previously unseen ways.
I saw 4 of the 9. Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, and ZD30. ZD30 would be my pick, although Lincoln is certainly worthy. Argo was good, and I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit too formulaic and paint by numbers for a Best Picture winner, I’d say. Thoroughly enjoyable, good at many many things, but not excellent enough at any one specific thing to be worthy.
Life of Pi was one of the most visuallly beautiful things I’ve ever seen on a screen, and if it doesn’t win for Cinematography, I’m going to be pretty angry.
Dan!
Agree on Life of Pi and Cinematography. It’s a crime that the Master wasn’t nominated in the same category. Argo was a while back and Affleck’s speech is making me think less of it than I did before. Could not stand Jessica Chastain. I laughed way more than I was expecting to with Lincoln. It was weird but Williams’s score actually detracted from my experience. Kushner writing and Day-Lewis, Jones, Fields et all talking; the swells just interrupted the flow of words.
(You must be thrilled with the Best Director, dmoas.)
Oy. It’ll only encourage him to make more awful films.
I’ll agree in as much as Brokeback didn’t do anything for me but Life of Pi is something of an achievement. I’d give it a shot.
I’ve heard that line before with a number of his films. And they’ve all been awful. He’s notorious for his slow paced cuts that just drag on until you want to scream for an exit door.
Brokeback will forever be the movie in which I first saw Anne Hathaway’s boobs.
The irony!
Weird, huh?
I think I’ve seen 2. I need to watch more movies.
I’ve been meaning to post this but keep forgetting.
Also, the Master in 70mm at the Castro at the end of the month.
I saw The Master in 70mm back whenever it was first released. It struck me as a nice looking film, but I’m not sure whether all of the buzz about “must see it on 70mm” is justified. Probably you could tell the difference if you watched 35mm and 70mm prints side-by-side, but not otherwise.
You lose the edges of the film basically. Sort of like the difference between letterbox vs. SD back in the day only significantly less pronounced.
Oh really? I assumed it was just an issue of sharpness.
It’s similar to resolution, so in a sense it does have to do with sharpness, but the aspect ratios for the two formats tend to not be the same. 75mm tend to be super wide, though there is 35mm formats that go that wide too. If you’re going to the trouble of doing it, you’re just more likely to go whole hog.
Bunch of good movies this year. All of them flawed in a way that argued against Best Picture honor.
But that’s how it’s been past several years. Going back to Departed, I think.
Instead, two movies that stood out but didn’t get the nod: Samsara and Bernie.
Weekend at Bernie’s didn’t get nominated for a damn thing in 1989, either. It must be an unlucky name to have in the title.
Jack Black can take comfort in knowing that 23 years from now, he’ll be throwing out the first pitch on Moving Like a Funeral Director Day. (Surely, that would force a decision one way or another from the commissioner’s office on San Jose.)
We have a winner in the Team Photo Day Contest.
You could give me 30 guesses and I’d never guess who that is…that’s right, I’m a hardcore A’s fan, baby.
Balfour
This years closer if he’s healthy. It seems like we have a new closer every year or so but then that’s an easily replaceable part on the team.
Looks photoshopped.
So in real life he doesn’t look like a serial killer?
No, just the eyes.
Just until the painkillers wear-off. No wonder he was walking around right after surgery.
Oscar Predictions…
Best Picture – Argo
Best Director – Steven Spielberg
Best Actress – Jessica Chastain
Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway
Best Supporting Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman
Length of Telecast – 3 hours 34 minutes
Does Seth MacFarlane bomb – No, he’s about average.
Nothing like a FSU grill/magundi to set up my Sunday morning coffee reading.
So if the lake now connects to the bay is it still a lake?
I’m considering an unofficial start to BBQ season today with an Oscar meal. We also have fun sitting throughbthe dresses and speechs at casa de Aces. The one thing I wish is that there was a way to synch my friend’s texts and social media to my DVR. I dont really care about being spoiled, but it makes it hard to snark back and I wont sit through all the commercials just to be caught up with everyone.
Hmm…BBQ sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll grill up some chicken for tonight. The show might be dull but at least the chicken will be good and tangy.
Ive got a whiskey/honey/chili/Worcestershire marinade going for my tri tip
That sounds yummy…tri tip is a cut that’s hard to find in the South.
Apparently the cut originated in Oakland. Have you tried Costco? Thats where I get mine. I usually get about 8 at a time and freeze them.
Costco is illegal in Arkansas…we’re owned by Wal-Mart…I used to eat tri tip all the time when I lived in Sacramento. I don’t remember seeing it much when I lived in Kansas City either…it might just be popular on the west coast.
Wal Mart… ew.
Many of my students are the kids of Wal-Mart executives…they all live around here. I’ll shop there for food there but that’s it…they actually have really good local produce and meats.
Yeah Ive heard that they use local. I would still rather starve than spend money there.
I can understand that…they’re a really evil company. Outside of the Whole Foods type places though they have the best stuff in the area and the whole foods places are too expensive for my taste.
Whole foods is also run by a teabagger asshole
The two we have in town that I go to are co-op type places…so they aren’t part of the chain. They have really good stuff but it’s too expensive for everyday shopping.
When it comes to food, I spend whatever it takes for deliciousness.
I tend to spend my money on activities. I look for a bargain when it comes to food.
Food is an activity. I cook it. I feed people. I eat it. It is one of the great joys of this world as far as I am concerned.
You’re much more of a foodie than I am. I like to cook but it’s not something I’m all that passionate about and my wife is cool as long as she gets fish at least once a week.
Right. I care about it a lot.
I had never heard of it until I moved here.
I had never stepped foot into a Wal-Mart until I moved to Arkansas. Now, I go there twice a week at least.
In other parts of the country, Tri-tip (when not ground into hamburger) is marketed as Bottom Sirloin or Newport Steaks.
Yum
you can come to my moms house if you want some later
Love to, but I’d only be able to lick them. #Idonteattheanimals
#missingout
#soarethey
#win
That sounds delicious.
IT WAS/IS FUCKING OFF THE CHAIN INCREDIBLE. They depth of flavor is just outstanding. Im going to be doing this all the time. (though you do need to put like 2 cups of bourbon in it.)
Good to hear! I made a veal marsala dish that turned out quite well. First time I’ve ever done anything with veal.
veal is fun!
Not for the victim.
most veal is going to be slaughtered anyway. you might as well eat it.
If you don’t eat it there’d be no reason to slaughter it. No reason for it to exist either, so there’s that.
Thats actually not true. Veal is the byproduct of the dairy industry and fuck if Im going to stop eating cheese just because some potentially delicious animal gets gets killed so that I can drink milk.
I meant in the eating. You can drink milk without killing them. Besides, apparently most veal is male so if you’re drinking their milk…
What do you think makes the mothers generate the milk? Male calves.
Do female calves not make the mothers generate milk?
They do but they are turned into dairy cows.
There is no use for the males besides eating them.
If the males are to be eaten, why leave some for veal? Why not send them all to feedlots for maximum fattening? It’s gotta be some sort of demand to price ratio as to how many male calves are slaughtered young and how many are fattened to maximum efficiency before sale.
Are you not grasping that the male’s existence isn’t predicated on them being eaten? Male calves will be needed for milking and for breeding regardless of them being eaten. The milk industry doesn’t go away just because fewer people might eat beef, for instance.
Right but the number of male cows needed to support dairy is very minimal, and with the rest you eat them.
Which could still be done by giving them a nice, grass fed, free ranged life into adulthood like other beef cows.
My understanding is that most are slaughtered.
Well, if you’re going to eat meat, you have to accept that they’ll eventually be killed. I can get around that as morally gray-y as it is. But I have a hard time supporting anything that kills youth and doesn’t offer them a semi-“decent” life while they’re alive. The overfeeding, cramped conditions, lack of “free” space to play in are all unnecessary for the return of being bred for slaughter.
As long as they are treated well while they are alive I don’t really care how young they are.
Veal crates are banned.
Unless you’re a….. MANTIS ! ! !
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I love that man!
Grits teeth. Ponders an attempt to lock DFA into a cage that’s just about his size. For his entire miserable, brief life. Shakes head. Moves on.
Obviously there is a lot of inhumane treatment from factory farming, but as Im sure you know those crates are outlawed in California right now and are being phased out by the American Veal Association effective 2017.
Lamb is killed at a younger age than veal, and as long as you get veal from a reputable supplier, it is just as viable as any other meat.
Maybe tdf was trying to implant an empathy/revulsion reaction in you…
It wouldn’t have worked on me, either. I’ve done a lot of self-examination in regards to my darker impulses, and realized that most (not all) of the reasons why I don’t do fucked up shit for funsies (I don’t consider consensual BDSM to be fucked up) are rooted in social conditioning and social consequences, not any innate sense of empathy.
I feel blessed that I was socially conditioned well enough to not behave like a psychopath, but if I had to peg which is more innate in me… empathy or primal psychopathy, I’d have to guess the latter.
It would have worked a while ago. I actually didn’t eat veal for a long time due to how they were reared. Today however, veal is both delicious and much more humanely reared. I also think it is important to reward good farming practices with business.
Hmm… I don’ think that raising animals for slaughter is a good farming practice. If it’s a given that it’s going to happen, then there are ways to negate the suffering. I re-named myself after one of my heroes on that front, you know.
Why wouldn’t it be?
Look as long as it gets treated well killed quickly and as painlessly as possible and tastes delicious, Im ok killing things.
I would also be ok if I go eaten.
It takes far more feed and energy to make a pound of animal product than it does to make an equal weight of plant product. Therefore, meat production is inherently inefficient compared to grain or plant matter production.
This is true. I don’t disagree with it. That being said, protien
Rice and beans taste great!
Also digesting animal flesh is more labor intensive than other sources of protein, nullifying a good chunk of its enhanced ‘value’.
Furthermore it tends to get stuck in between the little nubbins in your colon and can sit there for weeks (!), pretty nasty/ potentially unhealthy if you ask me.
#endvegirant
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Baaah. I don’t eat lamb, either.
What do you eat
Road-kill.
Okay, work-in-progress, but here’s what I try to do: trending toward more veggies in general, more fish, cage-free eggs, and turkey bacon and hot links, on the leaky theory that nobody slaughters to make those products. Nimann beef and certified humanely raised/slaughtered when I can find it.
General approach is that I have no problem with meat that’s been allowed to live in ‘reasonable’ circumstances, and is then killed humanely. Their deaths don’t bother me much — but their suffering does.
“more fish”
I believe you mean sea kittens, don’t you?
Thanks, and go As.
They really need to hire someone who is sane to let them know that they are hurting their goal not helping it.
Seriously.
Ever since I went trout fishing and the best lure looked like a baby trout, I’ve concluded that’s some guilt-free protein I can eat.
Eat your young? All bets are off.
do you eat hampsters? theyre canibalistic fuckers.
Also fishing? Mr humanely and quickly kill and things guy? Lets shove a metal spike through their face and then drag them out of their habitat so they cant breath as they struggle to get away before being clubbed in the head with a rolling pin and having their head chopped off usually not all at once. Sound really humane.
No — are they as tasty as veal?
You can call me a mammalist, I guess. A mammarist, too, truth be told.
I have no idea, but I fucking hate hampsters.
Im just saying that considering that fish are sentient beings and have feelings too, and the difference between being a mammal and not is completely artificial in terms of the qualities that you wish to avoid, you might want to lay off the rest of us lest you be called a hypocrite.
Aw, you’ve been itching to say that since the first mention of veal. I’ve actually thought a lot about this stuff, am pretty comfortable with my ethics, and nearly immune from to critiques from the peanut gallery, especially its denizens who consider veal to be a delicacy.
Then what is the moral justification for being able to eat fish or turkey, but not mammals?
No one who trolls arguments like you do should ever claim to be “immune from to critiques from the peanut gallery.” It’s (dare I say it) hypocritical.
I agree with FSU
I agree with FSU, but disagree with DFA. I’m complicated.
I agree with the FFA.
DFA, have you ever considered the idea that it’s morally unconscionable to eat, because it is impossible to eat something without causing it suffering, therefore we are an immoral species to begin with?
It’s not a particularly conducive thought for mental health, but it holds water and carries weight…
What if plants have feelings too?
NOW WHAT, VEGANS?????
Thanks, and go As.
I disagree about who is trolling whom here.
@andeux, is it me???!!!!!
@kay I have thought about what MikeV and you are saying, in that there are some studies that show that plants do feel pain, in a rudimentary way and that eating could just be “immoral”. That being said I don’t think that stealing to feed yourself is immoral if that is the alternative that you are left with. Further, a large component of animals consume some form of other animals for sustenance. I don’t think saying that we are all immoral.
Life is all about adapting for survival. Some birds have long narrow beaks to get at burrowed insects other birds can’t get to, some small fish cling to bigger fish to get their food scraps, farm animals are tasty. If they weren’t tasty or we stopped eating them, the population of all farm animals would be drastically reduced. I think they’re doing pretty well for themselves as a species, and I would like to see them continue to do so.
Factory farming tastes bad. I try to avoid it.
I get that. I definitely support more humanely raised farm animals.
Hmm… The inefficiency of meat bothers me… the suffering, hardly at all.
Not everybody experiences suffering in quite the same way, I’m guessing.
Same with empathy.
This may sound odd, but since my empathy almost all goes toward humans, one of my main motivations for being nice to animals and not stepping on bugs is the opinions of those humans I love and respect and don’t want to hurt.
For example, when I caught the possum eating the dry cat food in BROAD DAYLIGHT, my first impulse was to kill it. Then, my animal lover friends voices’ were in my head reminding me that I probably shouldn’t do that, and so I begrudgingly shooed it away with a shovel (non-violently). You and the Witch and Batgirl and Attijah literally saved a possum by influencing me to treat it more humanely, even though it was costing me money and scaring my cats.
If that fker hurts your cats you have my permission to shovel it. And I don’t mean shooing.
I’m in Kay’s camp. I have tried to reduce/improve my meat consumption at various times and it has always been from an ecological motivation.
I am watching A’s highlights in reverse order starting from game 162 on the xbox
Wait…they play 162 games a year? That seems like a lot of games. I like about 14 or so better.
Don’t do it, Ed!
They lose the first game in Tokyo!
Spoiler alert! Geez
So, the article is a bit misleading, Its a tidal salt water estuary for one, and secondly it has always been “connected” to the bay.
The main difference is that ‘human traffic’ can access the bay from Lake Merritt, the water has always been able to flow back and forth.
The accurate way to describe it would be to say it’s now “openly” or “naturally” connected to the bay, rather than the previous dam and culvert arrangement.
Lake Merritt never was an actual lake; it’s always been and still is a tidal basin. Former mayor Merritt built the dam to create a permanent body of water (and if I recall correctly then made money charging to ferry people and stuff across it). People just started calling it Merritt’s Lake.
Thanks to you and brian. I sort of assumed that was something close to the case (that it wasnt really a lake to begin with), but this makes it clear and love the history. Especially the name. Here, we have an old shopping mall that was supposedly on land owned by a person named Chester. So when others asked where it was, the response was “it’s over by that man Chester”. Hence Manchester center came to be.
I like New Hampshire stories!
I would too. Alas, this is smack in the middle of Fresno.
If the A’s don’t win today they should fire Melvin.
I think Melvin is the second best manager in baseball behind Maddon.
So we all know the A’s had 14 regular season walk offs and one in the playoffs. does anyone want to do the research for me about how many last at bat victories they had, you know like bottom of the 8th or top of the 9th go ahead runs?
I’ll get right on that.
The Media Guide says they “were 23-14 in games decided in the last at-bat”.
thank you
You’re welcome.
So who wants to breakdown the Daytona 500 for us?
The person who turns left the fastest should be favored.
Your logic seems sound.
If you turn right you get into the secret shortcut zone
too many obstacles to jump over and not enough turtle shells to collect..
I will be watching that on the DVR tonight rather than the Oscars. Dear NASCAR, please try to avoid maiming your spectators today. I gave passing thought to going to the NASCAR race in Phoenix next Sunday but realized I’d sit there wishing I were across town at the A’s game.
I’ve just never been able to get into car racing…I used to watch the Indy 500 as a kid and I’ve been to a NASCAR race in person but it just didn’t get my motor running.
I’m good for maybe 3-4 races per year. The funky little 0.5-mile tracks like Bristol are a little more fun to watch than the “Super Speedways” like Daytona and Talladega.
I did have fun watching some motorcycle racing live with my dad once…it was quite a show.
MotoGP is FKing amazing.
Thanks, and go As.
I’ll take the wins but I can’t imagine all those games against the Astros this year are going to be that much fun to watch. At least it means less games against the Mariners…A’s vs Mariners games always put me off to sleep.
you are in houston territory, no?
Yeah, I’ll get the blackout for both Astros and Rangers games on MLB.TV and on DirecTV…thanks, Bud…you fuckhead.
Oh and Royals games and Cardinals games…even though none of those places is even close to being near me. To be honest I might just get the radio feed this year and just watch the A’s when they play on ESPN and FOX.
so, you won’t watch the A’s
I won’t get to see the A’s broadcast at all if I go this way but I’ll still get to see games just with national or Texas based announcers. The Rangers TV guys are deathly dull…I’ve never heard the Astros guys due to the fact that I haven’t watched an Astros game since Mike Scott was pitching for them.
Do they really think that you’d drive all the way to Arlington or Houston if they black out the games?
Who knows…they do it so you’ll watch the cable feed for the teams but both the Rangers and the Astros are on the same Fox Sports cable feed and the teams often play at the same time. Two years ago when I watched a fair amount of games of the 19 times the A’s and the Rangers played only about 7 of them were shown by Fox but all were blacked out on DirecTV…it’s beyond stupid. Dallas is several hours from here and Houston is over a half days drive…it’s no way to treat fans.
The Astros moved their games off Fox Sports Southwest to Comcast SportsNet Houston starting this season and as I understand it Comcast has not reached a carriage agreement for CSN Houston with DirecTV (among others), so I think you’re completely screwed out of the 18 A’s-Astros games until that is resolved.
Thanks for the info…I’m starting to think buying the package this year is just a bad investment.
so on the 40 person roster, I count 6 guys that were part of the A’s amateur draft.
So 34 of the players weren’t drafted by the A’s? Is that a high number? I know Beane and company haven’t drafted an impact hitter any time recently.
four are pitchers. This comment is sadder with the context.
Basically, Beane’s strength is trading then. If he wasn’t good at that this team would be screwed.
Griffin, Straily, Doolittle, Weeks, Green,?
I think I counted wrong. I think it might be 5.
Figueroa was signed internationally. Ynoa was signed internationally.
right.
So to bed’s question. is that an unusually low number?
You’d think it would have to be. I’m actually curious now about the answer but I have no idea how I’d get the information.
I counted 8 on the Giants.
sorry 10
So, 25% of their 40 man roster…that seems like a solid number.
I would say its probably on the low end.
I just looked up everyone on the Rays 40-man roster. I picked them because they are also small market, but probably they are going to beat everyone in the league in this category, especially when you consider how much high end talent (Longoria, Price, Moore, etc) they drafted.
Drafted by Tampa Bay (11): Alex Cobb (P), Jeremy Hellickson (P), Jake McGee (P), Matt Moore (P), Jeff Niemann (P), David Price (P), Stephen Vogt (C), Tim Beckham (SS), Evan Longoria (3B), Desmond Jennings (OF), Brett Nommensen (OF),
Signed by Tampa Bay (4): Alex Colome (P), Frank De Los Santos (P), Felipe Rivero (P), Enny Romero (P)
If they keep that up Jonah Keri is going to write a book about them or something.
Cool, thanks for doing looking.
Yeah, I would think the large number of high draft picks would skew things in their favor somewhat with this measurement.
Don’t forget CESPEDES.
Or Nakajima if you want to play that game. Neither was developed by the A’s though
They are different questions that you could ask, right? Because Cespedes and Nakajima do fall into the same international free agent category as Figueroa and Ynoa. On the other hand, if you want to talk about player development in the A’s minor league system, then you might want to count players who were drafted/signed by other teams but then came over to Oakland while still in the low minors. Or, if you are taking the perspective of “small market teams need to get a lot of value from cost-controlled players”, then you might not count Cespedes or Nakajima, because they are getting big league money (except that the Cespedes contract is looking like a bargain and the Nakajima contract could be a bargain if he manages to be an average MLB shortstop).
Also MLB classifies them differently and excludes them from the IFA spending caps.
I didn’t know that. Who exactly gets excluded from the IFA cap? Cuban defectors and players from NLB? Anyone else?
Cuban defectors over 23 with at least 5 or 6 seasons of professional play.
In the NBL its if they are posted or if they are signed after playing in Japan and being granted their International free agency.
Not sure what the rule is with Koreans
South are okay. North not so much.
and nakajima
Even though watching Trout, Hamilton and Pujols bat in order will be scary I don’t like what the Angels did with their team. They don’t have enough pitching. I don’t see the Rangers as being improved and the Mariners and Astros stink. If the A’s pitching is as good as last year and the hitting is good enough they have a real shot to repeat.
Its still a tough road for the A’s, the pitching has to be as good as last year
I agree…with all those games against the Astros and Mariners…(36 games?) the top three teams are going to win a lot of games. It might take 98 wins or so to win the division.
Yeah. I feel like it should be, but I also know I’m falling into the trap of assuming mostly positive outcomes. I know there will be some regression, but I keep thinking it will be made up for with someone better (Milone regresses but we get a full year of Anderson…)
My only concern with Anderson is health. If he can stay healthy he should be really good. On the hitting side it seems up in the air. I like Cespedes and Crisp will do what he does but Moss and Donaldson are career 4-A type guys. The SS from Japan…who knows? Weeks, Seizmore and Lowrie all have had good moments but not a lot of them. I know at one time Young was highly thought of and if Reddick can be 85% of first half Reddick that’s fine with me.
I think Cespedes has a monster year. MVP caliber
I also think the INF is going to be aweful
But what if Josh Donaldson is better than you think?
I think as a whole the inf is going to be bad. I can see replacement level production at two spots, and honestly it could be any of the four spots. Nakajima is Nishoka, Lowrie is hurt, Seizemore is Detroit Seizemore, Brandon Moss is the guy that Pit gave up on, Weeks is hurt/last year, Donaldson is the guy who played the 1rst half, Barton is Barton, Rosales, Perino and Green were never good enough to be serious contenders for starting for a big league club. Everyone has warts. Lots of Warts.
I think Donaldson is one of the better bets in that group though.
Donaldson played really well when he came back late in the season. Has Lowrie ever played 120 games in a season…he seems to always get hurt.
Good thing we traded Carter. Nobody wants a potential 900 OPS 35 homer guy.
Thanks, and go As.
I really didn’t get that trade but then I still had some hopes for Carter.
I’ll second that sarcasm.
I love your first sentence…I tend to agree with your second one. I don’t know enough about the Japanese SS to have a real opinion but the other guys I’m worried about.
They also need to figure out how to score against a starting pitcher.
I hear scoring is a good thing.
For all the talent the Angels have, I feel like they have a lot of risk. I don’t think they’re really that impressive.
Agreed. Hamiljols is on the decline, and is a constant injury/relapse risk.
So glad there aren’t any A’s players with injury histories.
Sorry for the snark, it just seems ironic that A’s fans are talking about the injury risks on other teams.
We can talk about it because we have depth and the Angels don’t have so much depth. The Rangers have depth, but they lost a lot in free agency.
Well, that’s true. But at their peak, we don’t have anyone that can match Hamiljols.
Cespedespedes?
I love him, but I’d hesitate to suggest that he could reach peaks like theirs. Especially Pujols.
I’d hesitate to suggest Pujols or Hamilton will ever play again like they did at their respective peaks.
If you exclude April, Pujols has a 910 OPS last year. Still pretty good.
I was about to say that if you exclude April, the Angels won the division. But nope, we still win.
If you throw out the back half of last year, Reddick was fking awesome.
if you throw out all my debits, I am a millionaire!
Can I have $5!!!
Pujols is worth a bit less in the AL.
you under estimate the strength of their farm and what they can go out and get.
They have an INF that will probably be 6 WAR better than ours.
Oh yeah!!! Well we have… um… stuff… and… um… more stuff… uh… pitching?
Do we?
Robbie Ross is going to be insane
We have more of it?
Im not sure that is true either.
They get Colby Lewis back, they also might sign Loshe and they can trade for someone.
Yes… but we have more…
For some reason I thought you were still talking about the Angels. Texas is stacked — for this year and the future. I think they are still the team to beat in the AL West, though I’m probably not giving the Angels enough credit.
We’re not talking about the Angels?
DFA’s mention of Colby Lewis tipped me off, since he was with most recently with the Rangers. I looked up Robbie Ross and he is a Rangers prospect. Also, it makes more sense to say that we are underestimating the Texas farm system (which is awesome), rather than the LAAAAA system (which mostly sucks). I think that both TEX and LAAAA will substantially out-WAR us with their infields.
Yeah I did too, and I was thinking that the Angels farm system is pretty terrible.
Caleb Cowart is the shit though. I wanted the A’s to draft him
The go-out-and-get factor, I underestimate, of course.
Don’t get me wrong: Beltre/Andrus/Kinsler with Profar in the wings is good but Moreland doesn’t scare me. And Olt’s K rate is high enough that I’m not a big believer.
I take Young/Cespedes/Reddick/Crisp hands down over Martin/Cruz/Murphy/Gentry. Jaso over Pierzynski (although my feelings toward AJ may cloud my judgement).
Texas is a favorite, but I’m optimistic about the A’s chances.
Even if you don’t like Moreland/Olt, Oakland’s 1B options are Moss, Barton, then Lowrie(?)/Sizemore(??)/Taylor(???).
1b is actually my biggest worry for the A’s position wise. I guess Jaso and/or Smith give it a try as well as the names you mentioned.
For as much as 1b is supposed to be easy to replace, the A’s haven’t had above average production from there in consecutive years since Giambi.
My way too early prediction is the A’s pick up a guy like Morneau or at the least Dan Murphy.
Still don’t understand the obsession w/ Moreland…
I wish I had Moreland. My neighbors are annoying as fk.
Lebensraum!
Kinsler plays 1b while Profar takes 2b
I was so pissed when Kinsler decided he ‘didn’t want to play 1st’ after all. #angryfantasynerd
Kinsler is more valuable at 2B than 1B for fantasy though!
But I own 1 Profar, and 0 Kinsler’s!!!
Well that makes sense
Assuming Kinsler is only average as a 1b, he loses almost 1.5 wins with the transition. And he’d be unhappy. I’m fine with this scenario.
Hes probably still better than Moreland
This!
Yeah, but there’s a good chance they could equal the production of our starting lineup any given game.
If the Angels had two more starters they’d be amazing on paper. I’m curious to see how the Dodgers do this year. I didn’t like the trade they made with the Red Sox last year and just throwing money around doesn’t equal wins. It looks to be an interesting season coming up. I’m hoping tha the Yankees miss the playoffs…that team is so old.
So…who is the best non PED using first baseman in Oakland A’s history?
frank thomas
Didn’t he mostly DH and I know he came back but he was only really good that one season. I’d also say that I’m not a 100% he didn’t juice that year…he did have a bounce back year at an advanced age.
look who is taking his baseball seriously
I love baseball…a lot of my stuff on this site is just me being goofy, I love talking baseball.
Honestly at this point I wouldn’t be surprised by any player using PED’s in the last 35 years of baseball…perhaps even further back. If you consider speed a PED then basically going back to the late 50’s.
I for one don’t care though…like chicks, I dig the long ball.
Thomas never had a problem hitting. It was just keeping health at the end
Right and isn’t improved health a big part of PED use? I’m not saying he did I’m just saying nothing surprises me anymore.
If he had improved health then he would have been a geriatric without it.
I now assume everyone does something to get an edge, be it blood doping, speed, roids. I don’t really care anymore.
I haven’t cared in years. I think cheating has always been and always will be part of sports.
Gene Tenace was a good OBP and power guy, would have been a good fit for Beane’s customary offensive philosophy.
Interesting choice.
Mike Epstein.
Jason Giambi or McGwire. Can’t decide which.
(Non PED user division)
I heard you
BRUCE BOCHTE!!!
This is the most I’ve thought about baseball in quite a long time…very few of my close friends out here are really into baseball so I don’t talk about it as much as football and golf. My dad is a big baseball guy but he’s a Giants fan so he’s gotten really smug as of late.
I like the yankees use of real uniforms in spring training
I hate the Yankees but their home uniforms are kind of perfect. I admire that they don’t have 27 different uniforms. I like home whites and road grays…get rid of the softball top uniforms!
I think just like the team itself, they’re horribly over rated.
How can you overrate the Yankees? They are without a doubt the greatest franchise in American professional sports and it’s really not even close…that’s why I hate them.
I’d be bored if every team had just home whites and road greys. NYY is cool for doing it, but as with the insufferable lack of player names on the jerseys, when more teams adopt that style it’s annoying.
I do like the Yankee home white unis a whole lot, one of the top five in all sports.
I like alternates. I don’t like softball alternates.
No name on the back is insufferable. Needs to be banned
I like simple, classic uniforms. No teal and no more than three colors at most.
So basically nothing the Marlins have ever worn?
Yep.
Over the years is second base the position the A’s have been weakest at? We’ve had two really good 1B. I’d say three good SS and three good 3B…some good catchers and several good OF’s but at 2B it gets a little thin.
I would agree with that. Until Mark Ellis came along, Dick Green was the best ever. He was a solid defensive player but couldn’t hit his way out of a paper bag and had no speed.
Ellis was a good, solid player. After him and Green…well, it gets a little bare.
Unicorn (Uniform) Magic.
Joe Morgan played the last year of his career with Oakland. So just claim all of his years with the Reds and the A’s have maybe the best 2B of all time!
I’d really rather not.
Hey Budweiser, horses can’t lay down for the amount of time depicted in your “Landslide” commercial.
I wouldn’t know…the only horses I like are in glue bottles.
Dog food?
That too…my dog loves the horse with gravy sauce.
You know why they have to shoot horses after they break their legs? 1) not enough blood flow to their legs to heal, 2) there isn’t a way for a horse to stay off their legs effectively because their guts squish up in them too much.
My mom owns a horse…she likes to talk about her horse a lot…when she does with me I think about golf.
My best friend trains and shows horses in dressage for a living. I know far more about them then I ever cared to before I met her.
I feel your pain…I’ve had phone calls with my mom where she talked for close to an hour about her horse…it’s a good thing I love her.
You know a Romney?!?
I would love to see DFA trying to have polite conversation with a Romney boy.
LOL
She knows their trainer.
Hey, how was your night on the town? How’d the hair work out? Did you wake up smiling with a strange handsome guy under a horse blanket in the back seat of your parents’ Nash Rambler?
Hair is okay. Not fried, thank goodness. Had a blast last night. Finally rolled in at 0530 this morning. Alone, thankfully.
I wonder if when Langerhans was called into the office to be told he was no longer with the A’s he was called “Bryan” by Geren
If he was that means Geren thought he was evil.
For some reason the Lakers are on national TV. I get my sports information from ESPN so I really never hear much about that team from LA.
the Rams are on tv during football season
Um…okay.
(Ed, I don’t know how to break this to you…)
My baseball resolution this year is not to read anything by Tom Verducci or Jon Heyman…they both piss me off and I’m bored with getting pissed off.
Thats a great MO
Sorry, this is too damn hilarious and apropos, and the sfgate search and access functions are horrible and stupid. So here:
Heh…the story that never ends.
Awesome.
“I am the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, clothed in immense inertia!”
Perfection
While I confess to watching the Oscars with a mixture of horror and glee, the best part of the night is Kimmel’s show afterwards.
The morning Slusspdate:
* Wind gusts to 30 mph; enjoy your RF debut, Chris Young.
* Jed Lowrie gets SS today, 2B tomorrow, As The Infield Turns
* The A’s have a new guy named Newby. A journeyman, obviously.
After reading that article on the Younger, I don’t feel so bad having waited over an hour for mine in Berkeley. As much as they emphasize the hops in the article, what I found remarkable about it is how they achieve a real balance with it, with the hops clearly present but not overly bitter on the finish. It is much deserving of the reverence it receives.
The MLB Channel TV broadcast is by the Angels producers and announcers. Damnit.
They’ve been well behaved so far.
A’s have been lawyer-balling a bit today.
Lot of empty seats in the Angels Tempe ballpark.
In fairness, the wind chill is probably in the 30s.
but it’s a dry cold.
heh
Based on one AB Chris Young becomes my new favorite A’s position player (non-Yoenis division).
Glad he’s not broken, just wait for the catch!
And there it is, nice! With the wind carrying the ball away from him, no less.
Some a-hole keeps waving someting behind home plate every time the A’s make a pitch- spring training dude…
Rosie throws high to first, 3-1 A’s.
Barton having a good day, 2H 1B.
Mr. February!
Again, so long as he keeps the beard I’m squarely in his camp. Go Barton!
Yeah, you have to look southward to find that kind of adornment on most males.
In these days of trimmed pubes, you might have to cross the South Pole and come back ’round the ass end to see the forest for the trees.
I live an isolated existance. Difficult to keep up with the trends.
Ironically enough, I live an isolated existence as well, but when I do crawl out of my hole, it’s often to be around naked people.
Just saw his second hit; that was a nice solid stroke to go the left on a pitch tailing low and away.
Also, not sorry we gave up on Bobby “Rock The” Cassevah.
Miles Head has quite the prodigious gut for a baseball player.
No wonder DFA doesn’t like getting Head.
Heh
Whoa, Coco’s throw would have nailed that guy at the plate if Norris hadn’t dropped it! The fly was caught about ten steps in front of the infield dirt, of course. But still! A cannon.
Not sure why they didn’t let Cespy field that…
Russell looked pretty good, solid presence in the box for such a young dude.
Please tell me this is the last movie awards thingy, how many are there?
Wow, Choice just missed a dinger off the wall, looking good kid!
Just saw this, he really turned on that ball.
Keebs got some new hipster frames, knocks one that droppe for a double!
2 and 3rd, no outs!
Perez doubles but out at 3rd, 6-4 Yay’s
An hour behind, Lowrie with a nice pick and long throw from deep in the SS hole to get the thirds out and save a run.
During commercials switching over to the Red Carpet Pre-game show. Can Jennifer Lawrence overcome the faux pas of her previous award show ensembles and rock a sharp look tonight? To be determined…
FSU…are you really Joan Rivers?
Whoa, the ball sounds REALLY good off Russell’s bat, nice double.
Again really good plate discipline, looked awkward running home though WHEN CHOICE BATTED HIM IN WOOOOO!!!
7-4 A’s
Really hope these 2 pan out.
Anne Hathaway: usually in black, sometimes in white, never in bright colors. What will we see from her tonight?
Anne Hathaway sure gets naked a lot in her movies…I’m fine with this by the way.
I am a huge supporter of this. On my top ten celebrity bangs list.
Agreed.
Zooey Deschanel is the guilty pleasure of my celebrity bang list AND my celebrity bangs list.
lol
Nicely done, ma’m.
Romney boys.
Wait. Reply fail!
Not on my list Thanks.
Hmm… (in no particular order) (assuming I could function as a straight male if I so chose) (assuming I could temporarily change their orientation to fit)
Carol Vorderman (British game show host)
Eric Sogard (American baseball player)
Zooey Deschanel (American actress)
Hugh Laurie (British actor)
Betty Davis <circa 1973-1977> (American singer, wife of Miles Davis)
Janeane Garofalo <circa 1989-1994> (American comedienne)
Lana Wachowski (American film director)
Anna Torv (Australian actress)
Betty White <circa 1950-1990> (American actress+comedienne)
Troy Bruno Von Balthazar (singer for the band Chokebore)
Hmm… I must have done some secret HTML, for there were corollaries as to the eras in which they were fkable…
Garofalo 1989-1994
Davis 1973-1980
White 1950-1990
Fixed that for you.
ty
Hugh Lawrie is a good choice.
Nipples, I hope.
For best nudity in film this year I’ll go with Jessica Chastain in Lawless…the movie was just okay but she has a scene that made most of my body stand at attention.
I don’t know who that is or what movie that is. LMGTFM.
Jessica Chastain is a beautiful redhead that is actually up for best actress tonight…she’s quite lovely and as this scene shows she has an amazing body.
Also: Tom Hardy.
And you know what ‘they’ say about Red Roof Inns.
I’m guessing that a lot of the people watching the Oscars tonight will have no idea who the hell Seth MacFarlane is…I think the Oscars tend to have an older audience.
I sure can’t wait for the speech by the guy who wins for best animated foreign short feature.
I don’t know if this makes me a bad person but the movie I enjoyed the most this year is still Skyfall.
I imagine it’s all those hobos that I’ve killed that makes me a bad person…well, that and my sick love for VORP.
What makes you a bad person is that you don’t spend every waking moment here.
I didn’t even think it was a good bond movie. Why did you like it?
At the end of the day it all comes down to a simple question…what is the weight and width of an albino swordfish in terms of comparison to any one comet flying past the Earth in the mid 20th century during a leap year while any Soviet scientist was looking on?
I don’t know, but I’m sure that it got recorded on a dashboard cam (the albino swordfish, the comet, and the scientist).
Are we talking about a cultured city swordfish, or a suburban hick swordfish?
Okay, time to warm up my mouth for snark duty…enjoy the Oscars or enjoy whatever it is you do tonight unless what you’re doing is making a Bed voodoo doll…if you’re doing that I hope you have a very unsuccessful evening.
What if we’re making a Bed effigy to be the centerpiece of our angry intifada?
So far Seth MacFarlane seems pretty good. The opening sequence was funny.
Too long.
Worth it for the Shatner.
I should have added the caveat that I think the Oscars are stupid. And I’m a Picard fan.
Agreed completely.
so worst part of the A;s game so far (I’m in the first): A guy wearing an Angels cap in the usc colors.
I have nothing against the school, but growing up, I have something against most people who represent the USC brand
So a perfect fit for an Angels fan, you’re sayin.
yes. orange county is lousy with USC supporters, whether they went to that school or not.
An uncle of mine, a USC supporter, told me, jokingly, that people from UCLA should not be allowed in the family picture at my sisters wedding.
Of course that would have excluded my brother and, well, my sister. but hey, fight on.
I lived two blocks from USC for three months when I moved back to CA in 1986. It’s safe to say that most of the immediate neighbors weren’t fans either.
Go Raiders, I presume.
When my brother was getting his PHd there, he lived in this great barton fink apartment right around there. ONe time when his car was stolen he gave the police my number. when it was recovered I tried to explain that he was out of the country and could not get it for a few weeks. I didn’t want to tell them he was in cuba, though, even though it was the 90s
From Magary’s liveblog:
“Tarantino is approaching Kennedy levels of drunken ruddiness. You could fry a pig in his skin oil.”
Ooh, Seth McFarlane got a lot more crashy and burny in the last 15 minutes there.
The musical numbers have been so terrible (as Drew predicted) I’ve had to switch channels a lot. Has he gotten more snarky?
So, an alex smith trade is all but done. They just can’t announce it until March 12 when the new league season officially starts.
Thanks, and go As.
I’m pretty excited. To say that must mean it was a good deal
walterfootball.com is saying a 3rd and another late round pick
That seems light. They’d get a 3rd round compensatory pick for him next year if they held onto him.
Thanks, and go As.
Agreed. Very light to lock up without a bidding war. I was hoping for a second, of Alex plus a pick for a first.
I was hoping to deal Alex plus the 49ers 1st for a 2nd this year and and 2nd next year.
a 1 this year is worth that without smith.
No, b/c it’s the second to last 1st round pick.
Right. That’s a mid-second for a second (generally, a round N pick in the current year is worth a round N-1 pick the following year) and a fourth. That said, I am also surprised we got that much in that deal.
That doesn’t prove that a very-late-first would get a second and a third.
I said it would get a second and next years second which is what ozz said.
next-year second = this-year third.
As I understand it, 1st round picks this year aren’t very highly valued.
It’s not so much first round picks so much as early first round picks vs. other first round picks as I understand it. Though perhaps they should be after a future first round pick instead of a this year first rounder either way.
Smith and the 31st pick for a future 1st rounder? I’d be happy with that. Depending on who the trade partner is, of course.
Yeah. Sure, why not.
I think/hope he’s considerably more valuable than that.
That would fucking suck. Like a lot.
Thanks, and go As.
agreed would you do smith and this years third for a 1 next year
Eh. Probably not. Draft pick values are really FKing weird.
I’m really not sure. As much as people want to say that SF has to release Smith if they can’t deal him, that’s just not true. Combined, Smith and Kaep make less than $10M next year. That’s pretty cheap for the pair of them, so really they could keep Smith and get a 3rd round compensatory pick when he signs elsewhere as a after 2014. Plus, the trade market for QBs is really really weird. Matt Schaub was traded for pair of 2nd rounders, Charlie friggin Whitehurst was traded for a 2nd and a swap of 3rds, and Kevin Kolb was traded for a pro bowl CB and a 2nd rounder. Then, hell, Jay Cutler was traded for another QB, a 1st, and a 3rd.
I’d have a hard time thinking that they are looking to trade Smith plus more for a future 1st round pick. It’s actually surprising that Smith wouldn’t be worth a 1st round pick by himself, or a second and a later pick.
Thanks, and go As.
I think youre right that he should net a 1 but there isn’t a were almost there but we need a qb team right now
I think you’re overvaluing Smith. Even in this year’s thin draft, no one is giving up a 1st round pick for him. From all I’ve read, most people would be surprised if he can even yield a 2nd round pick by himself.
And yet Palmer did. I’d take Smith now over Palmer then any day. Granted the circumstances are a different. But if you’re a team getting the first pick in the draft, has no real QB, a new coach and want to avoid getting being godawful next year too…
And you don’t think that Cincy asked for the sky for Palmer and then were shocked when the Raiders accepted? I mean even at the time, how many people didn’t think the Raiders got fleeced? Smith is a good QB, but he’s not great and he’s not young. No one is giving up a 1st round pick for him.
Actually he is young. Hes younger than Brandon Weedon who the Browns spent a late 1 on last year.
Which is why they’re the Browns. But do you think it’s likely that a team like KC or Jacksonville is likely to trade a 1st round pick for a 29 year old non-elite QB?
I’m just pointing out teams in bad situations are notorious for doing stupid things.
This year’s draft isn’t thin, it just doesn’t have any franchise quarterbacks.
Thanks, and go As.
Everything I’m hearing is that it has depth, but very little elite talent at any position.
Right. There are going to be a lot of solid players that come out of the draft but no superstars.
Really it’s a perfect draft for a team like SF to have a bunch of picks.
Thanks, and go As.
I agree with this; the NFL trade market in general is depressed, because its so much easier 80% of the time to just cut a guy and find someone else on the waiver wire. It’s piece of evidence #64 why the NFL Players Union/Association is pathetic compared to the MLBPA.
what is the deal?
Don’t know yet it hasn’t been leaked.
Thanks, and go As.
i thought you knew some secret and i wanted to know it, too. ;)
If he shared, he’d lose his access to privileged inside info, but it isn’t cool that someone you talk to knows insider things?
NO. :P
(sigh)
OK, I know a secret.
But I forget the spoiler tags so I can’t say it.
Thanks, and go As.
wth. :(
OKAY FINE I’LL JUST SAY IT
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.(you’re cute)
Thanks, and go As.
love you, mikey.
♥
Thanks, and go As.
Aw shucks.
….wait that’s not a reply to me!
we love you too. so much.
You’re very… um…
punctual.
Thanks, and go As.
So, the film that’s winning all the awards is about a country where the masses are being exploited, starved and bled dry by an unaccountable, obsolete and entitled hubristic aristocracy that thinks it’s funny and entertaining that the poor and wretched don’t have the basic necessities of life and survival… and the masses’ historic, triumphant and unlikely overthrow of that regime and that aristocracy.
Nothing ironic about that in today’s USA. Nothing whatsoever.
I guess Les Miserables isn’t exactly set in the French Revoultion (it takes place 20 something years after it), but close enough for folk music, as they say.
This may sound batshit insane, but as a reincarnational travel agent (my day job when I’m not spending time in 3D “realities”), you gotta come back just as balanced as when you left. The discount package is seven lives as a peasant, one as an aristocrat. Got to have the exploited to have the exploiters, and when a reality such as this one achieves such an enlightened balance as to have no exploiters or exploited, evolution and singularity follow RAPIDLY thereafter. From the perspective of one who becomes enlightened, it’s a glorious experience. From the perspective of a reincarnational travel agent, it’s a minor disaster. Storylines disintegrate, and billions of vacationers have to be re-routed. It’s kinda like a server outage.
If you’re on the discount package, methinks you crammed the seven peasant ones back-to-back, and did the aristocrat one first or are saving it for last. Generally, we don’t recommend this. The standard setting is 3-1-3, of course. Another thing is maybe you picked too detailed of a simulation for your personal emotional needs. A rule of thumb is the more detailed the reality, the darker and more fucked up it generally is. When one is coming from a place of eternal enlightenment and bliss, it all runs together something fierce. It interacts with some other force to produce kernels of non-oneness, which follow the rules of fractal math and cell division and have potential to bloom into all sorts of complex structures, but the more complex they are, the less energy each consciousness subdivision within is alloted, and things generally become kinda sad and dark. Then, as the reality gets so complex as to be unfathomable, further complexity becomes simplification, just as advanced technology shortens communication and task speeds, and the subconsciousnesses re-integrate (which like I said is hell on reincarnational travel agents.)
I don’t literally believe this stuff, but I don’t necessarily not believe it either. I also realize that not everybody is well versed in turning core beliefs on and off like light switches. If I was talking to Robert Anton Wilson, I would say that my favorite way “out” of Chapel Perilous is to “become” Chapel Perilous. Then I would let out a loud fart.
This is very nice, but I lack confidence that it will comfort the people of 100 years from now as they starve in their underground caves in which they’ll dwell, having fled the 140 degree surface temperatures decades previous.
I can see them now, wasting away painfully and slowly amid the howls of their starving children, wondering whether the next lifetime will be their lucky aristocratic day, and also just WTF we were all thinking of as we failed in any meaningful way to challenge the prevalent circumstances and conditions of now that led to their miserable, tortured plight.
So you wanna come to Gerrie and Bill’s 40th Anniversary DSotM party on March 22nd in SF? I’m inviting ye.
Yabut dude, I “literally” have four million lucky lottery-winning souls who are CREAMING THEIR JEANS for the chance to live in the time of the mole people. Some of them are severe suffering fetishists… one of whom was once hardcore enough to reincarnate as the same crated hen in Arkansas 17 times in a row! Post-apocalypse is an INCREDIBLY HIGH DEMAND destination… Many call but few are chosen.
The thing is, when there is no separation and all is one big eternal OM, if the ideas of joy and suffering were to be introduced (like cell division), they would both be seen as equals. Context comes with a later degree of further division and complexity.
However, where I’m being a little snot is that I need to back off and honor your quest for light more. I just see how it upsets you and I need to respect that it fulfills you too.
That was from 3 different facets of me, btw.
I am a lot more sort of linear than you, despite my quest for the circularity you illustrate with your comments. I know a lot of people (some here) dismiss me because I’m so literal and childlike in my desire to attenuate suffering and amplify non-suffering.
I am Phil Ochs and you’re Bob Dylan, look at it that way Kay. It takes both rather than one or the other to keep the world turning.
Plus, they’re using a Phil Ochs song in Sam Adams beer ads now.
I dreamt I saw phil oches last night
As drunk as drunk could be.
What song? haven’t seen that. According to Phil, smokin’ marijuana is more fun than drinkin’ beer, so it’s interesting.
Huh. Apparently I was wrong. It wasn’t a song I knew but the voice was a dead ringer for Phil Ochs. Google tells me it’s some guy named Tim McMorris.
Yes the ‘overwhelmed by you” song is not Phil, although it does owe something to him in its sound and vibe.
Is it possible for you to contemplate the place where suffering and non-suffering are indistinguishable?
I’m just curious. It’s one of the main places I visit in my meditations.
No, because every time I try it’s drowned out by the blood-curdling screams of the children of Gaza, or the little boys being raped by the Catholic Church, or the cries of the biosphere our species is in the accelerated process of completely eradicating as any sort of life-sustaining entity.
For me — and forgive the honesty — contemplating suffering as indistinguishable from non-suffering is just another manifestation of the global Stockholm Syndrome in which we retreat into focus upon speculative abstracts because we know we are powerless to stop the very real depredations consuming this planet out from under our feet, and that if we try to resist said depredations in any meaningful manner we are assured of brutal and immediate extermination at the hands of a predatory and conscienceless power structure bent on our outright enslavement.
I guess we all have our Happy Place… yours is just less one-dimensional than mine, which involves the quad mix of Pink Floyd At Pompeii and a rather fat doobie.
I think you nailed it earlier. I think we perceive time in very different ways. I feel like I’m living in the distant past, and I feel like I’ve lived many iterations of Earth timelines and my memory’s been wiped, but just like a hard drive, memory ghosts remain. The “memory ghosts” give experience a sort of richness, like a sepia-toned photograph. Then again, sepia-toned is just another way to say “jaded.”
I just make sure not to believe anything all the way. It is important to be flexible.
Yes, belief is the end of education or at least educability, if you ask me.
Not belief, but rigid unflappable belief.
I guess I’m rare in that I’m able to hold contradictory beliefs and turn them on/off and adjust their intensity blends as needed.
That’s not so rare – I suspect most of us do it at a subconscious level. You just are more aware of it than others. It’s a very marketable skill, if you ask me. If I ever start my own consulting firm, I’d hire you as Chief Strategic Officer.
You as Ochs and me as Dylan? That kinda makes sense.
I think I’m in my Infidels period right now.
What’s a sweetheart like you… dooooooooooooing in a dump like thiiiiiiiiiiiis?
You Jokerman, you!
Rally Salma?
n! where have you been? you have been on my mind.
I haven’t really been anywhere…..just recovering from sleep deprivation and getting used to my new schedule, I guess.
glad to know you are hanging in there, sweet lady.
I’m so looking forward to April when we all can be together in our happy place!
I bet Quvenzhane wouldn’t have face-planted on her way up the steps.
Who knew Daniel Day-Lewis was going to be funnier than Seth McFarlane?
People who have watched American Dad.
WTF.
Sometimes, you’re having a fun night when the Universe decides to remind you that you’re living in the worst part of the United States. There I am, hanging out and flirting with a hot bartender. And all the guys in the bar are hitting on her, so I’m not really special. But then I asked her if she wanted to hang out with me sometime, and she looked me up and down, smiled, and gave me a solid maybe. I’ll take it. Then some guy comes in with a bloody nose and we find out that he tried to intervene when a bunch of assholes were beating up a gay guy who had just left. Fuck you, stupid Southern redneck assholes. I hope they all get std’s from their siblings, and then get eaten alive by coyotes.
I can’t wait to get out of this fucking shithole. I hate it here.
I, for one, would welcome you in as hospitable way as possible if you ever decided to move to the Bay Area and leave behind the IQ-lower-than-shoe-size crowd you currently interact with where you are.
Thanks! The plan is to move in June.
Yay!
any jobs or projects lined up?
Not yet. Until the end of July, my only plan is to spend as much time with my nieces as possible. Once they leave, I’ll work on making a living.
Did you at least buy the man a drink?
I wish. The bar was closing and kicking everyone out.
Did you at least shake his hand… and by that I mean… you know… shake him off?
I gave him a clean towel to clean up with. Is that close enough?
Yeah, that’s good enough.
its good to remind ourselves of life outside the bubble.
I wish the bubble were bigger. Like, encompassing the whole planet.
I’ve found there are good people and bad people wherever you go.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop it. These morons down here will pay $500 for a cornhole set. IT’S A FUCKING PIECE OF PLYWOOD WITH A FUCKING HOLE IN IT! Also, it’s essentially the same game as horseshoes, but without the bell. What’s the fucking point?
Oops, linky: http://www.sfgate.com/style/article/Cornhole-game-comes-to-S-F-from-South-4301076.php
Horseshoes is dangerous to drunken onlookers. Cornhole is safe and portable and doesn’t require a permanent installation (pit and pole).
However, spending hundreds of dollars for a set is foolish. Go to the hardware store and craft store and make your own set for about $60
It could just be that everything southern is putting a bad taste in my mouth.
That means it’s time to go.
I knew it was time to leave the South when I read the New Orleans Times-Picayune essay on what would happen to New Orleans if a storm directly hit it. My gut feeling said that I would die in that storm if I stayed, so I decided to move. Three years later, my old neighborhood was under 15 feet of water.
San Francisco told me it was time to go when I asked the Universe to give me a sign, and immediately almost got hit by a car.
I’m not convinced that the Universe has much control over the teeming masses of bad drivers in this world.
I think the teeming mass of drivers is best explained like fluid dynamics meets fractals meets bad Japanese game shows.
Sorry if I’m not making much sense today…
One popular model of traffic flow for highways is indeed based on fluid dynamics.
and then charged you for parking.
Thanks, and go As.
On a Sunday.
I really want then to start ticketing the people who park in the street to go to church.
Nah. Fk that. Tow those fkers. Get those cars out of the street.
either works for me
It really baffles the mind that that’s deemed as okay.
me too
It’s just a holdover of undeserved privilege and the subsequent sense of entitlement to said undeserved privilege.
Then again, 90 years ago, with most people being of faith and attending services, the public opinion was that the privilege was deserved, and it felt immoral for them for a civic institution to profit from another (perceived) civic institution, especially one of (perceived) higher importance and rank.
Is that her boob flapping out in that pic as she throws?
It’s gotta be, right? Although it seems awfully high up.
over sized neck of sweater
Sigh… you’re probably right.
It can be anything you want in your spank bank.
Actually, I now have my eyes on the little Asian chick a pics later.
So, with Granderson out for a spell, any chance the Yankees would be interested in overpaying for one our centerfielders? Do they have anything we’d want?
I guess I would take a year of Cano.
fucker
That was two whole minutes and more text. You’re getting slow.
I hadn’t reloaded
Edit your timestamp.
im not that much of a dick
Ill take Cano
Why would they do that?
Thanks, and go As.
joke.
…
Papelbon 1/3 inning 5 hits 6 runs 1 bb 1 K
Prolly took 2 hours to finish that 1/3 inning too.
Don’t you mean Papelbomb?
sfgate is a couple weeks behind Soaker, but they have interior photos, so there’s that. Melvin’s new Berkeley estate.
You’re assuming Soaker doesn’t have interior photos…
They’re all pulled from the realtor listing we were kvetching about.
Not the ones Soaker got.
Oh yeah, the ones I got when I spent that weekend there with Alexi. Ahem, those were supposed to be For Your Eyes Only in lieu of coughing up $5 for the website hosting.
BP top 100 prospects.
They like us more than BA does: Russell 22, Choice 82, Straily 85
and a note
Wow.
that is porn
Holy fuck! When was the last time our system had “that guy”? Chavez?
Ynoa
Oh wait.
Thanks, and go As.
THANKS AGAIN, BILLY
Thanks, and go As.
Holy carp, I just pooped myself a little.
No Adam Eaton/Wilmer Flores at all. People are all over the FKing map on them.
Another note:
So let me get this straight: In the NHL, you get a point just for getting to overtime, even if you lose? That sounds like the dumbest rule of all time.
A regular hockey game is a very hard 60 minutes. Overtime comes when guys are exhausted, it lasts for five minutes, and the outcomes skew heavily to the random. For most of its existence the NHL did not break ties at all (in the regular season); each team got a point. When overtime and then the post-OT shootout were added, they preserved the one point earned for a tie, then added another point for the winning team. Hockey OT is too random to make it the sole way any points are earned from what used to be a tie.
This rule just seems to reward teams for not trying to win in regulation. Unless you are playing the team you are directly competing with for a spot in the standings, there’s every incentive for the teams to tacitly agree to the tie in regulation and then just roll the dice in overtime.
Except nearly everyone in your league is competing for (most) of the same spots.
I guess. Still, though, it seems like the risk of zero points, as opposed to a sure one point with a possible extra point, would counsel toward a very conservative approach in the third period of a tied game, unless it is imperative that your opponent not get points.
Anyway, incentives aside, a point for losing later just seems wrong.
This (citing this) suggests that the addition of the “loser point” has made the outcomes of NHL games more random, in part because teams are playing for ties more often. According to the analysis, which I don’t claim to fully understand, it takes almost a full season now for luck and skill to reach even terms in the standings.
If I remember right:
First they added overtime, but no shootout, so ties were still possible, and there was no bonus point for an OverTime Loss
People complained that everyone played too conservatively in OT to preserve their point, so then they added the OTL point. (And at some point also made OT 4-on-4 instead of 5-on-5.)
Then later they also added the shootout.
The problem is:
1) As GM said, adding the OTL point just moved the problem of playing conservatively from OT to the last few minutes of regulation.
2) Now that there is a shootout, the logic for having that bonus point in the first place is gone.
DFA Bait
Thanks, and go As.
That was fun.
Did you know Tim Manchin is on Californication this season?
Really? That would be cool to check out. Never seen the show – it’s Showtime, right?
It is. I love it.
Sometimes I feel like a cross between Hank Moody (the main character) and Josh Lyman from the Wing.
Hmm… If I was a cross between tv characters, I would probably be a mix of “Walter Bishop” (Fringe), “Boe (the lesbian succubus)” (Lost Girl), and Hawkeye Pierce (MASH)
Dear Anthony, why is your new show so terrible? Can we discuss it while getting blotto?
Thanks,DFA
Mike Yanagita is such a tragic character.
“Mind if I sit over here?”
“No, why don’t you sit over there. I’d prefer that.”
“Sorry.”
“No, just so I can see you without turning my neck.”
My father-in-law, born and raised in Winona, Minnesota, says Mike Yanagita is the Coen Brothers’ way of describing the soul-crushing despair that Midwestern living drives you to, while also pointing out that despairing Midwesterners almost invariably retain their manners and pleasant demeanors.
Laid up with my back this weekend I decided it was time to introduce Lily to Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve obviously always been aware that Calvin is a boy’s boy (at least for show), but there’s nothing quite like sitting reading the strips with a 7 year old daughter to really bring that home. On the one hand it can be a useful starting point for conversations about the peculiarities of boys and relating to them as a girl, but on the other hand Susie isn’t the most exciting character for her to be reduced to identifying with.
Late in the weekend friends with a son come by, and Lily asks if the three of us can go read C&H together. She says she thinks he’ll enjoy it, and his mother agrees, saying that he is a bit like Calvin, to which Lily responds that yes, he is, whereas she is more like Hobbes. Salvation and then some!
She’s a great kid.
I was looking through a job listing and noticed the following language:
“While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to sit. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk.”
Is including these statements seriously a legal requirement?
Gov’t job?
Nope.
You should apply, but make very clear that you discriminate based on gender when it comes to using your hands to finger.
When it comes to rear ends I’m pretty sure Jennifer doesn’t get to be choosy.
Aw man, I hate using my hands to finger.
Also, what job is it that requires an employee to use their hands to talk or hear? I didn’t know cupping your hand around your ear could be a job requirement.
Sign Linguist?
Posnanski:
Well, I know plenty of them…Joe is losing his way these days.
I got about halfway through the Paterno book…awful and I’m someone whose been a Posnanski fan for close to twenty years. He needs an editor who will tell him no…of course since he changes jobs every six months now perhaps he no longer wants an editor.
It was a terrible (though I presume lucrative) idea to write a hagiography of Posnanski even before any of the abuse stuff came out. And then to still publish it…inexplicable.
After it’s first couple of weeks the book did not sell all that well. I lost a lot of respect for Posnanski over it and now his writing has become predictable and lazy…hey, here’s 47 more columns about Jack Morris…he needs someone to give him a kick in the ass because he’s very talented.
He’s in serious danger of Rick Reilly-ization, without the huge payday.
Dead on…people forget now but 20 years ago Reilly could come up with some fresh stuff. Maybe you hit a certain age and it’s just time to coast.
It’s been my observation that most outlandish hardcore football fans tend not to care much about baseball, everywhere. I don’t see this as unique to Oakland…the frozen tundra Lambeau cheeseheads don’t catch a lot of Brewers games, I don’t think. Same with Broncos/Rockies, Jets/Mets, etc. This is of course a generalization, and local sports fans always hope on bandwagons (eg Niners fans at AT&T). But there’s something about the hardest of hardcore football fans that makes other sports not give them the same thrill, like heroin junkies having no use for pot.
Also NFL is basically 24/7/365 coverage if you want it.
Thanks, and go As.
I actually agree with Joe on this. Most of the baseball/football fan pairings I’ve encountered seem culturally similar. Yankees/Giants, Giants/Niners, Padres/Chargers, Red Sox/Patriots — same damn people acting the same damn way. Oakland really does seem like an outlier, where both the people and the culture are quite different.
I’m sorry but the vast and I mean vast majority of Raiders fans have never worn fucking spikes…it’s lazy snark at it’s worst.
Yeah, that’s a lazy stereotype. But the overall game/parking lot atmosphere is a bit of a circus, is it not?
I think most NFL stadiums are rowdier than a baseball stadium crowd…it’s more of a once a week party and there’s more drinking going on. I’ve been to a lot of NFL games in several different cities and Raider fans are pretty much like most fans.
I’ll take your word for that. I don’t like going to football games, so I’m pretty ignorant on the subject.
To be honest I don’t enjoy going as much as I used to…it’s better on TV and the drunk fans and some of the anger gets to be a bit much. I think the other point that needs to be mentioned is a lot of us were A’s fans long before Moneyball. I think most people become fans of the teams in their area…for me that meant choosing the Oakland teams over the San Francisco teams…spikes or Michael Lewis’ books weren’t involved in the decision.
The Raiders actually seem like an exception to the “root for the team nearest you” rule. Lots of people (not you obviously, but an unusual number of people) seem to choose to be Raiders fans specifically because of the outlaw culture, the color scheme…the whole “Raider Nation” thing. It’s a different sort of fan culture than most American sports teams attract.
That was more true 25 years ago. A lot of people were attracted to those outlaw Raiders teams I’ll give you that but it’s been so long since the Raiders were actually like that. I’ll give you the colors being popular too but just because someone wears a Raiders hat doesn’t mean they’re a fan…it might just be a fashion thing. All in all though you make a good point.
For the most part college football is still a good in-person experience. A lot of people have had season tickets for decades because their loyalty is tied to being an alum rather than how many Super Bowls the team has won. Most college stadiums don’t sell alcohol (Reno is an exception but in a few games there I haven’t noticed any adverse affect), and anger at the home team is almost always focused on the coach rather than the players. But, I haven’t been to an NFL game in ages so I can’t make any direct comparison.
I agree with this…college games tend to have a lot more kids and fans who love their school…also less middle aged guys who are drunk and pissed off…I’m not sure I’d take any kid under 12 or so to an NFL game. I’d gladly take a 5 year old to a MLB or NCAA football game.
The last NFL game I went to was in Dallas at their new stadium…(cool place by the way)…some of the racist comments were sick. I’ve been to dozens of Rangers games…(not a cool place by the way) and the fans are cool.
UNR still sells beer in the stadium? I could have sworn the conference (WAC at the time) banned sales inside all the stadiums. We stopped a few years ago and thought it was the same for all of the teams.
Not that I think that is much of a solution. All I have found is that it takes the people who would have had 4-5 at a tailgate and another 1-2 at the game to now hve 8-9 at the tailgate because they cn’t drink inside. So instead you get people way overboard and then leaving early if a game is not intriguing so they can go start their post game.
Beer sales at Mackay have continued through the transition from WAC to Mountain West. They have a respectable selection of microbrews.
Which is why I really didn’t mind when they stopped at Bulldog Stadium. They had Bud, Bud light, and I think Bud.
And the vast majority of A’s fans haven’t brought drums or trumpets to games, but it’s still a characterization of the atmosphere. I actually agree with Joe and GM, but I’m a Niners fan and a bigger baseball fan than football by far.
I don’t get your point…people nationally don’t associate A’s fans with drums and trumpets. The biker/Raiders fan things is stereotype not actually based in fact that lazy journalists like to throw out when in fact they’ve likely been to few games at that particular stadium. When Joe was with the KC Star it was Whitlock that went on the road for Chiefs vs Raiders games for the most part.
I have heard the trumpet/drum thing at the national level. Not at the level as Darth Vader/spikes and the Raiders, but it’s still there.
Fair enough…I have not.
Also, A’s fans cheered the hell out of our team after it was eliminated.
Raiders fans? Doubtful…
So is that just a reflection of Al Davis/Billy Beane?
Before he went Howard Hughes, Davis was a lot like Beane…finding hidden values where others didn’t even think to look.
I’m sorry about being a bit jerky at the bottom of this thread…you folks are great…I’m sleep deprived and grumpy tonight.
[crickets]
chirp chirp
hi friend
hi :) happy full moon to you!
hi… same to you
miss you terribad
i miss you too :(
weekend fun?
it was okay. these one day “weekends” are sucking. this weekend is a real weekend, though! :)
I meant do you want some?
definitely.
im mostly free right now. reserve some time
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Let the War on Kitty Drugs commence.
Hey Kay, do you know “Sexing The Transman”? It’s playing at the New Parkway on March 8th.
Hadn’t heard of it… Looks pretty good.
Nevada considers putting up the “Welcome Leadfoots” signs. I would be in favor of this for I-80; if there’s any highway that ever needed an 85 mph limit that’s the one.
Agreed. Reno to Winnemucca, and then Winnemucca to Salt Lake should both be 85mph.
I like the part about raising the limit on I-15 coming from Utah into Las Vegas. Gets that Mormon money into town a little quicker. I know the Vegas tourism people LOVE it when BYU plays a football game in Las Vegas, either vs. UNLV or in the Las Vegas Bowl; they do spend, and I suppose you live by the Book 99% of the time and then let your hair down for 3 or 4 days a year.
This is gonna kill the marine porn industry.
All today’s internets belong to Craggs. Read to the last question, you won’t regret it.
He hardly writes anymore since he got promoted, so this is especially fun.
I for one am tired of those Girl Scouts getting a free pass for their racist cookies. And don’t think I didn’t notice that their “Tagalong” cookies are a thinly veiled slur on the proud language of the Filipino people.
Seriously. I doubt most Southerners appreciate the “Do-si-dos” slur too.
Needs moar Peak Freans Trotsky Assortment.
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yay!
[blockquote]Editor’s Note: Certain language in the responses below that was deemed inappropriate for this forum has been omitted. Such omissions are denoted with a bracket [ ]. The context and meaning of the responses, however, have not been altered in any way as a result.[/blockquote]*
*i may have broken FK, I don’t html
If you used
<>you would have gotten it just fine.Scalia going off the deep end now…
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/scalia-attacks-congress-for-renewing-voting-rights-act.php?ref=fpa
I want to read the whole transcript to make sure there isn’t some context that would make that sound better, but for now: Yikes.
Scalia turns 77 shortly and would be 80 in the final year of Obama’s term. No way he would retire with Obama nominating his replacement, but 80-year-old men do keel over all the time.
I would never wish ill-will onto another, but…
Hmm…
I prefer retirement over tragedy of course. He’s a sharp, gifted, and impressive scholar, but he’s become somewhat of megalomanic, his outright taunting of the president diminishes his office and his viewpoints have become quite extreme in last decade.
The death of someone who is 77 years old is “biological inevitability”, not “tragedy”.
Well, lifespans are increasing, and It’s a safe bet he has top-notch health care.
Possibly just the regular federal government plan.
But he is a man. A kind of big man. Full of hate. Those tend to get wound up tight and heart attack themselves.
gp
FINALLY, someone states the fucking obvious, which has been infuriatingly absent in the news of course.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/02/sequestration_john_boehner_not_barack_obama_has_the_power_to_lead_us_out.html
Barton explains an epiphany to Slusser:
Passively aggressive: leaving angry notes to your roommate.
Aggressively passive: sitting on the sofa pretending to ignore your roommate, and then throwing a beer bottle at her head when she’s not looking.
Which one is better for your OBP?
Hella #win