1. Injury updates:
– Surgery for torn thumb UCL (not to be confused with elbow or wrist UCL) for Gray.
– Surgery for right wrist sprain for Reddick.
– Forearm strain, no surgery for Parker.
All expected to be ready for spring training, but obviously we could use some more pitching depth.
2. The Frontline documentary “League of Denial” about concussions is worth watching for NFL fans and haters alike. There’s also an excerpt from the book up at SI.
3. A great takedown of Niall Ferguson from Josh Barro.
The reason Ferguson wants to talk about civility is that he can’t talk about not being full of crap.
5. I can’t even express how happy I am that the Bills have signed Matt Flynn.
My off-season project will be a 4-tap keezer:
The big question is how this gets transported to – and powered at – a FKup.
Mikev’s truck and a portable geni. I may never actually leave Mikev’s truck though.
I’m a portable Jenny!
Oooooh there’s an joke in there that I best let go of. Shit, you said Port. Two jokes. Fk. I’m sorry, I’m an ass. Um, I’m going to go with there’s also a Port-a-Poppy, but you best not do your business in her else she’s kill you with her reserved fury. Okay, now you and Poppy can team up.
Your jokes will not make me hate you. Your face makes me hate you.
Unless it was a fat joke. Then I’d hate you.
Let’s just keep it as my face making you hate me. I don’t like to tell fat jokes even when they’re good ones. For one thing, it’d be the pot and the kettle. For another, I’d much rather encourage weight loss and health than embarrass, condemn, or shame another for their weight. Otherwise, it’s just counter productive and royally fked up.
How could I hate that?
Like I said. My face.
I like Porsche’s, doesn’t mean I have to like the Nazi bastard that started the company.
Pfft. I have 99 problems, but an ozzman ain’t one.
I’m not a problem. I’m your worst nightmare. I’m the thing that goes bump in the night.
No, that’s my fking foot against the door when I’m walking to the damn bathroom. Sometimes my head.
Why do you have a door in the way of your bathroom?
It’s called the bathroom door. And I have to go out my bedroom door as well.
Doors just impede the flow of traffic. Human traffic. Because there’s a lot of human trafficking going on here.
Not in my house. {SMACKS OZZ AWAY LIKE A BASKETBALL}
LOL
Um, turn the fking light on, Oz. That way you won’t bump into things in the dark.
That’s hurtful. Did you ever think that I did turn the light on, and maybe I’m just that klutzy?
I like Portia’s too, great smile, she always seems so genuinely happy.
Me & Jennifer teaming up? Keep your nasty dreams to yourself.
I am. These are my more safe for human consumption but still not quite dreams.
Is everyone surviving?
Nah. But I was dead already.
I was until Saturday and then I just decided that the wide world of sports can go FK itself.
Are you at least migraine-free?
Yes! So that’s something!
maybe.
Also in injury news: Jaso is now okay and has been doing some catching in instructional league. For all the FKing good that does, because we lost, but I’m glad he’s feeling better.
The D Gate team store is open this week M-F from 10 AM to 3 PM with some items 15% off, then closed until spring. No official word on the unofficial merch situation — there was a tent in the parking lot of the gas station next to the Denny’s on Powell Street Emeryville last week, but maybe it’s gone by now. Because we lost.
March, not merch, on October 26 to save Oakland sports. Because we lost, but we don’t want to lose forever.
15% off? I guess they just want to store this merch for all eternity.
May want to encourage a deal for a lease extension then. The A’s are (hopefully/very likely) temporarily homeless now.
J. T. Snow is the grand marshal of the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. Apparently Pablo Sandoval was busy.
Maybe he was afraid they’d put him up on one of those scales for the big weigh in.
How do I make it so that you can’t see the whole intro to a post unless you click on it?
Click on the insert more tag. 3rd from the right.
Ah, thanks! See, I don’t care what Jennifer says about you. You’re alright.
5. Does that mean the Raiders are off the hook for Flynn’s salaray?
I don’t think so.
I don’t think so. They had to pay him whatever guaranteed money he had when they released him.
Thanks, and go As.
The Raiders. Hahahahahahahahaha hohohohohohoho
Pardon the idiom, but what’s so funny, in particular, about the Raiders? (Some of us are fans of the Raiders as well).
the roster?
do you really think it’s laughable, though? They’ve been competitive in all their games but one (in KC). Losing by 16 in Denver actually isn’t that bad – they were outplayed in the first half, but played well in the second. Pryor is exciting. He makes mistakes, but he also holds himself 100% accountable for every mistake, and wants to win very badly (he’s hard not to like). Like any football team, they have a number of excellent players, and a few who may even become hall of famers. The differences between the best and the worst really isn’t that big in pro sports (in terms of rosters), imo. Besides, the Raiders aren’t the worst (try the NYG or Jacksonville), and could easily be 3-3 right now (they almost beat the Colts on the road), or 4-2, if they hold the lead at home against Washington. They’re, in some ways, a “young” team that will get better.
Whoa you might want to slow your roll there friend.
(Woodson is old and on his last legs right now so meh but will probably make it and Sebass is a kicker so who cares)
why should I slow it? lol, and why do you care? Anyway, they really aren’t doing that badly on the field (as I’ve said, they’ve been competitive), so their roster really can’t be that bad. Anti-fans are sometimes harder to deal with than real fans, imo.
Your team is not the Jaguars. It is true. That doesn’t mean that they have excellent players of whom some are going to go to the HoF.
Mackenzi or however you spell his name has made some good decisions:
Firing Hue
Biting the bullet rather than trying to contend
Well see how it goes, especially with all the cap room available next year, but the Raiders are still a bottom 10 team in the NFL
Nothing, really. I’m from KC so it’s required to hate the Raiders.
gotcha. The Chiefs look a bit scary this year. Should be interesting to see who wins the first game: Broncos offense of Chiefs defense.
Hi there. Fellow Raiders fan here. And we’re not the only ones; I’d put it around 25% Raiders fans, 40% Niners, 10% other, 25% decline to state and/or hate football in all its forms.
And yes, what the McKenzie has done with the 2013 roster is remarkable, given how many holes there were to fill and how hamstrung the team was from previous salary cap mismanagement. The team is actually watchable this year, which is a great accomplishment.
I just wish they hadn’t bothered with Flynn, and used the money they spent on him for less sexy things like linemen who can block and stay healthy.
It was a good bet to take a flier on a guy that a lot of people thought had starting potential for a 5th round pick in a year where you knew you weren’t going to compete and had no clue what you were doing with the QB position.
I would peg it more at 25% Raiders fans, 75% WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY BASEBALL FIELD
Heh. So true.
Bwahaha!
On one hand it’s nice to see them somewhat competitive, on the other hand shitting the bed might help them in the future through the draft. But then so many other teams are doing that this year it’s probably a futile effort. But I’m not a fan of either team, so much as an admittedly bay area fair weather football fan. So yeah, definitely more watchable than in the past. But it still pisses me off if they’re going to not be good while tearing up MY fking field.
beat you by less than a minute
Not just tearing up the field. Also Mt. Davis.
and promoting the thug stereotype of Oakland.
hey, lol. Agreed. Plus, the penalty count is down (at least at home it is. They’re actually in the top ten at home in this category, I think, and just barely). At the beginning of the year, I said, “if they can get the penalty count down, that will be a step in the right direction.” Welp.
I have been alive 27 years, and Im pretty sure the Raiders have been in the top 5 of penalties my entire life. Changing that might help
1: Good for Parker waiting until spring training for his surgery.
Meh, it seems the discomfort is only more recent. Not everything requires surgery to heal. It may very well happen that he has surgery in the spring, but i don’t fault the decision. For all we know it’s not even recommended.
I just assume it’s a serious injury the A’s have failed to diagnose properly
The tip off: Parker was in the bathroom while his arm was being diagnosed in the training room.
Ump Wally Bell has died.
He was working last week, Pirates-Cards.
Heart attack at 48. That’s how old I am. Eep.
I think he had a heart history.
Oh no!
Too soon.
asvd
Stupid fucking BART unions and management. If they actually have another strike they both deserve every bit of the public hate they will get.
It feels like this has been going on for months.
It has…
WHAT?!?
Just kidding. I knew that. It threatened to ruin my vacation in July, but an awesome team of FKers came through and hauled my ass around for almost a week.
On a litter, preceded by guys in loincloths tossing rose petals.
Pretty much just like that.
You mean you FKers didn’t feed her grapes? What kind of half-assed hospitality is that?
Eh, I hear you, but this one looks like BART’s fault, pushing a ‘final offer’ completely out of the blue @ 4pm on a Sunday?
Pretty irresponsible if you ask me.
Even the city legislators are siding w/ the unions on this one, we have no idea from where or how the 12% breaks down, 12% over 8 yrs (8 yrs was how they measured the last increase ) is not much change from the last offer.
In the larger sense I definitely fault management more, since BART has run a surplus for a number of years and they still couldn’t cut a deal before the first strike. But in the cooling off period I really say a plague on both their houses (and I am a most definitely a union man). They’ve had 60 days of lower pressure and mediation, actually made significant progress, then still ran it down to crunch time when the posturing and need for face-saving once again start to work against a deal, not for it.
My sources suggest the last/best/final was a tactic of frustration because a few (not most) of the locals yesterday went back on previous agreements to ask for more. A poor tactical choice by management, it now seems clear, but not at all unprovoked.
Our local legislators always side with public unions, that’s who gives 50% of the campaign money and 80% of the election volunteers. If anything it was unusual and eye-opening in the early going that the local pols stayed so far away.
But in any case, if there’s a second strike coming after everyone already got badly burnt once it is just fucking pig-headed, and so very avoidable, and not matter how you parse the proportions certainly not completely the fault of management.
BART Management refused to meet during much of the coooling off period what did you want the unions to do
That surplus could/should go towards BART expansion/improvement instead of asking for a hand out through a tax. The same can/should be said of the bullshit management raises given out.
trains running today. So, if they were out ysterday (which I don’t know) then no harm no foul, no service on a holiday. no big deal.
The deadline passed last night, but the unions opted to keep working and stay at the negotiating table today since there seemed to be some progress.
Virus warning. If you see anything today labeled “25 years ago today” DO NOT OPEN IT! It may cause your computer/phone/tablet to be thrown across the room in a fit of rage.
Miss you all terribly.
Fuck that guy.
With a metal spork.
ASVD
It was everywhere down here. It was awful
Early World Cup qualifying roundup:
Yay Bosnia!
Egypt, I am so sorry.
Still holding out for last-minute England LOLs.
By the way, if people are looking for a hipster team to support in the November qualifying playoffs, may I recommend Iceland and Burkina Faso.
Plucky little San Marino … played 10, lost 10, scored 1, conceded 54.
Honestly kind of impressed they scored.
few surprises for the day.
so the second UEFA round is based on a draw, pairing 8 teams to come out with 4 after home-away games, with a draw based on seeding. i wonder how fair and square the draw will be. and i wonder what they’ll bend to make sure france (25) doesn’t end up playing croatia (10) or portugal (11).
oh wait, i guess if you make the highest seed play the lowest seed, you end up with france (25) matched up against sweden (22).
Are you basing your suspicion on UEFA generally preferring to send stronger teams to Brazil, or on Platini being in charge of the operation?
on paper, 4 of the 7 other teams are stronger than france…
on the other handball, ireland was probably stronger on paper too.
wait… what?
so because there were 9 groups and only 8 teams are going into the second round, they had to drop one team based on performance during the first round. but because there were smaller groups, they limited the number of games points that could count, capping it off at 8 games per team. denmark got left out. they played 10 games for 4W, 4D, 2L. the games that counted toward the 8-game cutoff left out 2Ws. anybody know how they determined which 2 games to make denmark drop? most other teams dropped 2Ws too. but iceland got to drop 1W and 1L.
I think that in all cases they dropped the two matches versus the sixth place team in the group. Iceland lost to Cyprus, which bizarrely ends up helping them.
ok. that makes sense.
suarez being suarez.
while my ecuador-chile tie is off the menu for the moment.
Argentina and Uruguay both going nameless. Who do they think they are, the Yankees?
they don’t want you to notice the stars are too hurt, too pretty, or too old for a borderline exhibition game. in other words, yes.
That was wrong what the USA just did to Panama. De nada, Mexico.
missed it all. why must the evening meal come right near the end of qualifiers day?? WHY?
and wow. 90″+2, 90″+3… to win?? who does the US think it is, brazil? (just kidding. brazil never would have been that sportsmanship naïve.)
Aron Johnasson is a beast.
Thanks, and go As.
He really is. He looked almost sad about scoring that goal, but it had to be done.
what happened?
Last day of North/Central American qualification, Mexico at Costa Rica and USA at Panama being played simultaneously. USA and Costa Rica had already booked their spots in Brazil, Mexico and Panama were scrapping for the right to play off against New Zealand (who kind of suck) for the last chance to go to Brazil. Mexico is three points ahead of Panama going into the day (thanks to a miracle win over them last match), so Mexico goes through if it either wins or draws in Costa Rica OR Panama loses to the US. Mexico hasn’t failed to qualify for 32 years. Panama has never qualified.
Mexico goes down a goal early to Costa Rica, ties it up, then gives up another goal and is essentially dead in the water, but for the fact that the USA is tied with Panama with five minutes to go. Panama is throwing everything it has at the USA and finally breaks through with a sweet goal that will send them to the playoff barring a late Mexico goal in Costa Rica (not happening, even the Mexican announcers are now paying more attention to the Panama game) or the USA storming back on them. The clock in Panama City hits 90 minutes, meaning Panama just has to survive three minutes of injury time. The stadium is going berzerk. They might actually be going to the World Cup. Their veteran striker, perhaps caught up in the emotion of the moment, dribbles the ball into the teeth of the US defense instead of taking it to the corner and wasting time like he should. He loses the ball, the USA counterattacks, hits a killer cross, bullet header into the back of the net, stadium wails and goes silent. 2-2. Panama is now out of the World Cup unless they can answer with a miracle goal of their own. Instead they give the ball away again and the US scores a dagger winner. 3-2. Mexico goes through despite shaming itself, USA gets a meaningless win, Panama is as crushed as it is possible to be crushed in sports. The USA has rescued its biggest rival, Mexico. USA players don’t even celebrate, instead trying to comfort the Panama players and then realizing they should just get the hell off the field and let them mourn.
Epic sportsness all around.
Correction/clarification since I can’t edit. To go through Panama needed to beat the US and have Mexico lose to Costa Rica. A draw in either match sent Mexico through, so Panama absolutely needed to win its match.
Yep. Check out the “celebration” that Johnasson does after demoralizing an entire country.
Thanks, and go As.
His first international goal, too, so kind of a big deal for him personally. Pretty classy.
The curler he just missed was FKing insane.
Like, I can’t even bend a ball like that playing Xbox.
Thanks, and go As.
Thanks, and go As.
That shot was ridiculous. To have even thought of it was ridiculous. It was right before the second Panama goal so it got overshadowed by the craziness, but yeah. Wow.
I also like the Panamamian defender throwing his arms up as if to say “Why? Why are you doing this to us?”
USA was down 2-1 going into extra time. Panama would have qualified for the World Cup with a win, and Mexico would have been eliminated.
Graham Zusi scored a minute into stoppage time to tie the match. The tie meant Panama was out and Mexico would go on to a home-and-home playoff against New Zealand for a spot in the WC.
About a minute later, Aron Johnasson scored to give the US the win outright. The Mexican announcers were absolutely going nuts, too.
Thanks, and go As.
yes nuts, but that’s not exactly joy nuts. there’s a lot of bile nuts there. paraphrasing:
the US puts us in. THEY give us a chance. THEY do. not YOU in the green shirt. YOU don’t put us in the cup. not YOU who make declarations all day. not YOU and your arrogance. … [2nd goal] [some joy] … so that we can keep autocriticizing. the US is more than us. the US has the luxury of playing with benchwarmers and give mexico a chance. this is for vucetich to puts his pants on. resign today, vucetich. put your pants on or put your resignation in. you’re failing as a coach. you’re not doing anything for the team. we need someone with pants on to __?__ from europe. (can’t quite catch what he’s saying about europe.) europeans don’t exist in this team nor at this moment. (but i don’t know what he’s alluding to.)
Oh, yeah I read a few translations. I actually like the guy blasting El Tri instead of being apologetic for them.
Thanks, and go As.
Hay que tener a alguien con pantalones que mueva a los europeos y que los saque de la convocatoria. No existen los europeos en esta selección, ni en este momento, doctor.
huh. i don’t know how i couldn’t hear that. clear as day once i have the text in front.
but i still wonder what he’s saying… (translation for the rest of you: there has to be someone with pants to move the europeans and to keep them out of the capping process. the europeans do not exist in this team or at this moment.) i guess he means the mexicans playing in europe are not pulling their weight, and the team needs someone to push them aside for mexicans playing in mexico to step in? and i wonder how this fits in with the 3 mexico-naturalized argentines who were capped for the last two games.
I think he is probably specifically referring to Chicharito (who has been playing like ass and horrifically botched an open goal chance last night), Guillermo Ochoa (who declined a call up for the Honduras and U.S. matches because he wasn’t guaranteed to start), and Carlos Vela (who had a falling out with the FMF and has declined call ups for the last two years while blowing up in La Liga). Mexico has historically tended to favor players playing in the domestic league, and there seems to be a sense that the Europe-based players are divas who don’t show up for El Tri.
vucetich out. herrera in.
i know it’s desperation time, but it seems a bit nutty to fire the guy after only 2 games.
4 coaches in five games! Even by Mexican soccer standards that’s incredible. There are all kinds of rumors floating around that Herrera will basically take his Club America team for the matches against New Zealand, replacing the odd Argentine as needed.
colombians are the big import for las águilas, including their captain, a cafeteros regular. but that makes sense. i was surprised at the lack of continuity, but is there any better continuity than bringing in the league-leading team in the middle of its season?
My lack of Mexican football knowledge kept me from providing my own translation. Oh, looks like I had a typo in my transcription, too.
Seemingly accurate translation of the announcer’s rant from a Deadspin commenter:
wow. thats amazing
It was essentially the soccer version of the Tampa/Boston/NY/Baltimore Game 162
Thanks, and go As.
yeah that really is incredible
Here’s a clip from Panama TV to really show how quickly the mood down there changed when the US tied it up. Not sure how the Panamamian version of the FCC is going to feel about the commentator shouting “Puta” like that.
I understood “silencio totale” and it was.
ALCS Game 3 delayed by stadium infrastructure failure. So the A’s did make it?
I didn’t realize there was still infrastructure left to fail in Detroit.
nor the saints
So how many consecutive scoreless postseason innings has Verlander thrown at this point? It must have long since blown away whatever the previous record was.
20.1 consecutive scoreless postseason innings at this point (5 scoreless today) and 31 consecutive scoreless ALDS innings (all against the A’s).
FKwiz – who was the last batter to score against Verlander in the postseason?
Just a guess: Belt. It’s gotta be someone from the Gnats.
No (and yes, of course).
Fkwibble: I don’t think outs gotten after already giving up a run in an inning are usually counted in those streaks.
Should be. It’s part of the consecutive nature of it.
An inning in which someone scored is not a scoreless inning.
Well sure, but they still got an inning’s worth in a row.
discussed here
Fair point – so 20 and 30 CS innings, or 71 and 111 CS batters faced (after 5 innings today).
Aaaand there it goes.
So 21 CSPI and 76 CSPBF.
Turns out no … Whitey Ford had 33 consecutive scoreless postseason innings from 1960-62, including 3 consecutive complete game shut-outs, the first 6 innings of another shut-out, and finally a run in the 2nd inning in the first game in 1962.
Technically the record is held by Mariano Rivera with 33.1 between 1998 and 2000, although that does include some inherited runners scoring.
Impressive on all counts. And I always love a good 1960 World Series story, what with NYY outscoring the Pirates by an aggregate 29 runs yet losing in seven games. Wikipedia shows me that Ford won Game 3 with a 10-0 shutout and Game 6 with a 12-0 shutout.
It is hilarious that the guy in a furry bear suit with a Dodgers shirt and hat doing (by most accounts impressive) dance moves and gymnastics on top of the dugout yesterday was an unauthorized fake mascot who ultimately was escorted out by security.
They should have “Unauthorized Fake Mascot Night” next year.
Dollar pruno at the WSC.
Perhaps starting with Fukuppy.
Can we have a winged baseball named FKuppity as our mascot?
Ooh yes. Someone with Photoshop?
If only..
how id Fookoo funny?
I like.
I would have thought the length of his pants would have been an immediate giveaway. But then I remembered the K-State mascot.
Jhonny B. Bad.
Suck it, rally
monkeytiger!I’m only watching on Gameday so I missed this Erin Andrews moment:
What’s the word on the strike, peeps?
No officially change, talking, strike could happen any day. But I think they’re close and will settle soon. The unions have realized just how hated they’d be if they struck again. Especially over work rules like the right to call in sick Friday then get paid OT Saturday.
Management is pushing for a strike though. They are trying to set up the ballot initiative that takes away local transit workers right to strike.
Actually, that’s the people who want that. They’re tired of being held hostage at their whim.
Dude do you really think that Bart Management doesn’t want to take away the one tool the union has to get a fair deal
I’m sure they do. But the public at large isn’t backing the union on this one. And their idea of a fair deal doesn’t mesh at all with them.
Yeah, thats because BART Management has spent millions of taxpayer dollars demonizing the union, not because the BART agreement is especially kushy.
That’s one perspective, sure.
No. It is a fact that Bart Management has spent millions of dollars on this negotiations. It is a fact that management was unwilling to even come to thee table for the first half of the cooling off period. It is a fact that management hired a labor negotiator to represent them with a long history of provoking strikes. These aren’t perspectives. They are facts.
It’s a perspective that all of those things are contributing to the public’s negative view on the union. Just because they did all that shit, doesn’t mean the it had an affect on the public’s perception. Quite frankly, no one looks good in all this.
I dont get this
Bart spent millions and influnced public perception
either < Bart wasted millions and it had no affect Regardless it makes Management the assholes
Wait, what?
Yes, shit like THAT is why people are starting (continuing?) to hate unions. That is way beyond workers rights/fair pay/safe work environment type of stuff.
Thanks, and go As.
Yup.
Thats not whats being fought about
I have a feeling you are going to be 100% in favor of the strike or whatever the union wants, and I don’t know enough about it to care or debate it.
Thanks, and go As.
Considering that I got jobbed by that union when I worked for them I don’t have a lot of sympathy for it. The public sector unions need to figure their shit out and be smarter. That being said this fight is about the fact that if you have to pay more for your health care and retirement you aren’t actually getting a raise.
Everyone has to do that. And no one’s getting raises. Why should they be any better off than the rest of? If they’re looking for sympathy, they’re not getting it.
Because if we as a society don’t say that we should pay the people that work for us well, who will say that people should pay us well.
Basically in a world where there are declining wages, shittier costlier health care, and growing insecurity around retirement, we shouldn’t be saying why do theses workers have things OK and it is hard for me, lets take things away from them. We should be saying lets make it so I get nice things too.
Yep.
The difference is these people are public employees who are using the public as hostages to get something that the public doesn’t have. Sure we all WANT those things. But on the open market, jobs are no longer warranting these things. There are reasons for that, specifically legislative ones. That’s where this gets fixed. BART fighting this won’t have any affect on the rest of us. None. And if that’s what you’re trying to sell, I ain’t buying it. The only real impact they could possibly have is the potential to cause another raise in transportation prices which helps no one.
Why do you think no one’s getting raises? Most sources I’ve seen say 3% is the average; less than that for government workers, more for tech. BART workers haven’t had a raise since 2009.
I have to say that most of my colleagues in the media are not doing a great job getting beyond the knee-jerk “Workers make too much money! Aren’t you outraged?!” story, which is interesting since nearly every journalist in the Bay Area is a union member.
That is, nearly every journalist except new media people who aren’t affiliated with a newspaper. But all of the major newspapers, TV stations, KCBS, and KQED.
I’ve gotten less than 1% every year except one for the past 6 years.
Thanks, and go As.
You are a government worker. If you want a raise suporting other government workers who want raises is probably a good idea
or I could support people getting raises when they do a good job and deserve one. I know a ton of people who are sacks of crap that don’t deserve what they are paid.
Thanks, and go As.
Bitching about how you don’t get raises, so other people that do your type of work shouldn’t is a great way to ensure that no one gets raises.
The work I do is nothing like driving a BART train. Like at all.
Thanks, and go As.
You are a public sector worker. Included at BART are network systems guys like you.
Also every company has a sack of shit that is a boss and shouldn’t be and makes more than they should, regardless of whether or not you have a union.
Yeah, it’s amazing how that works.
Raises can really mean two different things:
1) Increased pay based on promotion, added responsibility, or seniority (corresponding to increased productivity, at least theoretically). Most people expect these in both the public and private sector, and in many cases (especially for unionized workers) they are to some extent automatic, with pay scales tied to a particular title or amount of experience.
2) Increases in those pay scales, i.e. a first-year train operator makes $X this year, but a first-year train operator will make $X + 5% next year. Those kind of raises exist partly to keep up with inflation. (Or looked at another way, they are inflation.)
I think (but am not totally sure, so correct me if I’m wrong) that what’s at issue here is the second type of raise. With inflation low, and local governments generally starved for cash, it’s not clear to me that BART’s offer is unfair in any way, though obviously the health care and pension contribution changes complicate things as well.
The problems with this are many.
1 Inflation in the Bay Area, especially when it comes to housing is much higher than national inflation numbers. SF for example increased the living wage by 4.9% at the beginning of 2013 to adjust for inflation when taking into account local costs.
2 BART is not a typical local government starved for cash. BART has a surplus.
3 BART employees are asking for covering the increase in the cost of their healthcare and to continue the current situation for their pensions. BART management wants workers to pay a 9.5% increase in their health care contributions and is not offsetting that with increased wages. Honestly all the union barganing I have dealt with has basically not been about raises, its been about healthcare costs and employeers wanting to dramatically cut their employees take home pay by requiring them to pick them up in full. Even when workers get a nominal raise they usually lose by being forced to pay more for their healthcare.
Basically no one else in either the public or private sector gets a pension with zero employee contribution.
Right, but those costs aren’t actually increasing, they are statusquo.
My point is that BART Management is trying to sell this as a huge raise when infact they are asking workers to take a nominal raise that is dwarfed by increased healthcare and pension contributions. Its not like the workers are actually getting a raise.
The problem is that people dont knwo how much money they really make. Most people just look at their own salary not thier total cost to the company. While in this negotiation Management has done a great job getting the news the total cost so it seems like these workers are asking for the moon.
So what? Other people should (pensions are >>>>>> 401Ks), the private sector generally pays more salary, and the whole point of a union is to figure out what its employees care most about and get it.
(for example, I have a teacher friend who started teaching in Philly where the teachers were generally very young and their union got great continuing ed benefits, then moved to the east bay where the teachers are old and the continuing ed benefits suck)
Definitely true for white-collar jobs, not necessarily for blue-collar.
They have the right to do that, and the rest of us have the right to be sympathetic to those demands or not.
My point is that you’re saying “they have this thing I don’t have” when they only have it because they conceded on something else to get/keep it.
right. Espcially since private sector workers make more in salary
here’s an additional thought:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/176953/workers-under-attack-states
hugs
I disagree with that.
why?
I don’t think private industry makes more than public. I know they used to, but I don’t think that’s true anymore.
I mean are there other things that are supported by data that you just don’t believe?
You disagree with hugs???
I believe in kisses.
help me out. I think Boston is my choice.
1) craig breslow, jonny gomes, Andrew Bailey(to a lesser degree steven drew. I would be happy for those to win the world series. Plus the only people I root against, ortiz and pedroia and lackey already have rings.
2) the fans are already smug self confident and assholes. one more championship is not going to change that.
3) Napoli is hated by scioscia and CJ wilson. so, he is OK?
4)the alternatives:
4a) Detroit
Not terrible, but a super high spending team (Verlander, Cabrera, Martinez, fielder) bounced the A’s the past three times the A’s made it. Torii fucking hunter. really i think its hunter that pushed me over the line.
4b) St. Louis:
Second most championships in baseball, just won in 11, and 06. “the best fans in baseball” “the cardinal way” a bad shade of red. the way mike matheny was hired bugged me.
4c) Los Angeles
LA media slobbering all over these “plucky” kids, who took on enormous contracts to supplement their oether big contracts. the cult of ANdre Ethier. talk about fair weather fans? did you see dodger stadium in April? man could not give away tickets.
My mom’s side of the family are dodger fans, I may have ended up that way if punk rock girls liked baseball in the 80s. my grandma was a die hard, went to the coliseum after the dodgers drove her beloved hollywood stars away. listened to every game. even when she was in the nursing home at the end and completely zonked out on drugs and dementia, she talked about the dodgers and listened to the games. SHe died at 91, right before pitchers and catchers reported. in 1989. I maintain (although I do not believe) that she let go because she had lived through another Dodger world series and was not about to let another season come and disappoint her.
My aunt is about 90 and in a nursing home. she is a big dodger fan. I don’t want her to die. so I must root against them.
I think I am rooting for the red sox. ew.
Cardinals because it’ll encourage wrong-headed thinking, preferably over the Tigers to continue their WS losing streak.
I can get behind that logic
My take: FK ’em all. (Also, reply fail)
You sure you’re not rooting for the Dodgers? You sound like you want to be. You should.
I might be. I’ve enjoyed games at Dodger Stadium. I like watching Kershaw and Greinke pitch. I don’t hate Don Mattingly (I remember him as rare Yankee who managed to star for a long time and not win anything).
Mark Ellis.
Mostly though, it’s clear that this will be the rare year where I root for the NL in the World Series. Either of these teams sit much easier with me than Boston (fuck hell no) or Detroit (still hurts).
I don’t know. I don’t think I am rooting for the dodgers. Sure mark ellis. but my aunt! I want her to live.
Rule #1: fuck the Red Sox.
After much reflection over the last few days, I think the Cardinals are the least objectionable. Yeah, Holliday, and the whole “best fans” thing, but overall I just don’t care much about them either way.
Dodgers have a lot to like. Also LA beating the Sawx with a bunch of Boston castoffs would piss off Boston and SF fans simultaneously. But seeing Colletti and Mattingly rewarded for their management of that team seems wrong.
Boston and Detroit, what you said.
Oh, plus my cat is a fan. (She eats out of a bowl I got as a giveaway at a Cards game.)
Nah. We’ve got to catch them in the championship race
I don’t care at all about that.
The Yankees and their use of the A’s as a minor league team made that irrelevant.
This so this.
I mean how in the world do you fuck up that much for so long and then get to win a WS?
Rooting for the Dodgers or Red Sox is rooting for the House to win. So it’s either the Cards or Detroit. And I’m still pissed off about Detroit.
Yeah. But at least we could say we lost to the WS winner
frankly, i think y’all are putting waaaay too much thought into spring training. they’re meaningless games; too early to start hedging also-rans. so i’m gonna wait for the regular season to start before pitting my prejudices against each other. and even then, i’ll probably only root for the A’s.
hee
win
If you squint and cock your head, it almost looks like baseball, but there are nagging elements the mind keeps rebelling against. The colors are too garish, the fans too obscene, the games too Stepfordian and robotic. These are the motions of baseball surely, the ritual and surface movements, but these are not the essence of baseball. Baseball ended last Thursday, and this propped up Bernie isn’t fooling anyone.
B SEB LL.
SVD
H H H
I have had trouble rooting for Boston, even though they have players I like on the team and they seemed like charming underdogs when I was a child – a long time ago. But now, it’s just tough for me to root for them. And I don’t really hate the Tigers, except for Torii. But I’m tired of them, and right now they deserve to lose anyway after squandering two games they should have won.
I care even less about the Cardinals and Dodgers, but have been rooting for the Cardinals – but don’t really care. (I usually root against the Cardinals, so this has been odd.)
You make a fair argument for the Red Sox, and I even visited Fenway Park a few years ago, but I can’t do it. That said, I think they’re going to win.
Prices for todays game on Stub Hub dropped 80% after last nights loss.
If I don’t at least show some appearance of rooting for Boston, then my marriage might end in divorce (after less than four months).
sometimes you gotta get divorced. At least its better than rooting for the Red Soxs
Those are fantastic.
Thanks. I got tired of making and coloring the buttercream icing. There are four dozen cupcakes
Spooktacular
The cupcakes were a big hit. I became enraged before I went home, however, when I discovered someone had peeled the cupcake papers off most of the remaining cupcakes and put back all the strawberry flavored ones. Sitting in the peeled off papers. Really? Do you not see the difference in color between strawberry and vanilla? Do I go to your house, unfold all your clean laundry then leave?
My nursey friend S is getting a tattoo from another friend’s tattoo shop. While cruising the shop’s facebook page I spotted a nipple I recognized. It was another friend’s husband’s nipple. I think I won a prize.
Does it concern your friend that you know her husband’s nipple well enough to pick it out of a nipple line up?
Pretend my reply went here.
Not at all. I don’t recall seeing him with his shirt on very much in the few times I’ve seen him. At the hospital Christmas parties.
KQED is sponsoring a free screening of League of Denial Thursday night, with a panel, at the Kaiser Center (which sounds like the special public broadcasting edition of Clue, where all the homicides are committed by boring people to death). Whether anyone who wants to see it would rather see it there than on their DVR, I don’t know, but I thought I’d mention it.
So they’ll walk instead?
Someone in my office is using either a mouse or keyboard that has a button (the space bar?) that every fking time they hit it, it sounds like someone is dropping a fking paperclip into an empty plastic cup.
One sad thought yesterday. I took the day off for reasons not related to the A’s but realized that, had the team advanced, I could have gone to Game 3 of the ALCS in the beautiful sunshine and still made a school event in the evening.
Sigh.
Oh dear lord… was he dressed like a Keebler Elf on their wedding day???
Sneakers?!
With pegged pants.
Both slf and I wore chuck Taylor low tops. Mine black, hers white
#protohipster
What kind of ballplayer gets married during the postseason?
A shortish guy with glasses who spent most of the season in Sacramento and had no reason to suspect he’d have anything better to do on October 16?
Eric Sogard, Method Actor.
I haven’t seen him on TV since I ditched Comcast and lost the Berkeley Public Access channel, but apparently the legendary Frank Moore has died.
His TV shows were … interesting. For five minutes or so, at least.
As were those of his VP candidate.
There seem to be a lot of comments about pants in this Grill.
We are the blog of pants, or the lack thereof.
This business of being able to find and tag oneself in these crowd shots is totally creepy. I have an awesome wincing facial expression in the Game 2 shot, and for some reason everyone in my section is looking down the right field line even while Gray is delivering a pitch to Avila.
Game 1: tugging on beard.
Game 2: standing up watching flight of ball, possibly tugging on pants with both hands. (I’m guessing they’re slightly out of sync, and those parts of the shot are the Martinez flyout to right in the 4th, just before Avila came to bat)
Game 5: biting fingernail (not picking nose).
Yeah, I won’t be tagging myself in any of those.
Game 2: Behind the concrete barrier strategically placed so as to block the appearance of the open Loge Suites
One of the benefits of the LF bleachers: not being in these shots.
Game 1: Leaning forward in seat, striking railing with single drumstick. Friend on cellphone.
Game 5: Arms, folded, sitting back in seat, not hitting anything with sticks or blowing melodica, looking PISSED.
Game 1: Looking bored and unhappy.
Game 2: Apparently praying?
In Game 1 my facial expression says “I’m trying to contain an episode of flatulence here”. Nobody around me looks all that happy so perhaps I was not successful.
game two, looks like I was trying to convince Milo that one of the Churros in his hand was for his brother.
the 315 arrow is pointing right at me.
they must be stitched together. there’s no way that few people in my section were watching a 1-2 pitch with 2 outs. or that coco is off balance, looking at the ground right in the middle of the delivery. on the other hand, me with a mouthful of al pastor while sike-offering lil FSU-ette a burrito i will have been lucky to finish, that i believe.
From the link:
I couldn’t find myself yet. For game one I was trying to orient my location by finding the guy one section over who was dressed as a taco, but I couldn’t find him either.
Somebody (else) in Washington is off their meds?
what the?
It woz the freemasons wot dunnit.
When I saw that Esteban Loaiza was “Trending Now” on Yahoo! this morning I thought, oh no, what now. This seems to be the current thing.
However in searching I also found this from a couple months ago. I do understand “beber y escandalizar en la vÃa pública” y ” junto con dos sexoservidoras mujeres”.
Loaiza, still a class act. Per Google translate:
Piedmont?
No, but tagline en Español.
That shirt is awesome, though.
P.
O.
S.
Speaking of awesome outfits, Andre Ethier, ladies and gentlemen.