An open letter to all of my colleagues:
It’s called the HOME opener because the team is at HOME. That team’s HOME is 2.3 miles from our office. So if you’re really a fan of that team, why aren’t you there (or at least somewhere nearby), instead of making me watch your goddamned fool broadcasters on the TV at WORK?
Besides, for all the slobbering that local hacks do over your stupid ballpark, it is NOT the ballpark that is the home of the Bloody Mary garnished with a slice of cold pizza. You fail again!
Kawakami’s presence at the Merky news really makes me question why I still subscribe.
That interview is really gross.
Every now and then he has an insight worth sharing, but he would benefit from an editor to slap him upside the head repeatedly. Unfortunately, the Merc seems to have allowed him to hit the publish button on his own.
As a fan of both Bloody Mary’s (Maries? Marys?) and pizza, I approve of that drink
I initially started to retch when I saw the season opening of HBO’s Silicon Valley — it’s set at AT&T — but it turned out to be fairly amusing, depicting the Gnats whoring themselves out to venture capitalists, and the tech bros who the VCs are trying to court not giving a shit. Even more entertaining: the number of Giants fans on Twitter who thought it was AWESOME.
I am betting a lot of the writers are dodgers fans
Could be. They might also just be decent human beings, I suppose.
This episode was full of people not understanding that the joke was on them.
Going to my first concert in what must be 10 years tonight. Was expecting that the opener would be some band I’ve ever heard of since I’m woefully out of touch. To my delight, it’s John Doe. Now if only it was an outdoor show at about 2 in the afternoon, no more than 5 blocks from my house, we’d really be on to something!
Nice, love John Doe, the sober ying to Exene’s raging yang.
He was soooooo good! They did some X songs too. It was only marred by the fact that the guy next to us would not stop talking to my friend during their set. It was so annoying. The guy comes with a date and then insists on talking to my friend. Such an ass. Thankfully during the Replacement’s set one of the lesbians in the row ahead of us took her top off while dancing, so that shut him up toot suite.
Damn, I gotta get out to more shows!
You wanna hang out with me and the hitchhiker? Michigan this weekend!
So, youre saying you will be topless at some point?
Not for the hitchhiker. FSU? Meh. Maybe.
hi.
Thanks, and go As.
If some asshat is yapping away next to me during a show, I’m not sure what I’d do – either kiss or kill.
did they finally figure out who it was?
Nice way of casually mentioning you’re at the REPLACEMENTS show.
Haha! I had never been to the Masonic before. It is great! Love the horseshoe shape of the seating and that cool stained glass when you come in the main door.
Raise the flag, then get shut out … by the Rockies.
I wonder how many Panda hats were in attendance today.
being offered at $10 at the friday pre season game
Ooh – Tonight’s Skanks/O’s game is a HATEFEST
“Chris Young homers on a line drive to left-center field”
“Manny Machado doubles on a sharp ground ball to left fielder Brett Gardner, deflected by third baseman Alex Rodriguez”
We’re now just sticking total randos next to Vince.
Who?
According to his twitter profile:
What the hell is a Bask nut?
Spanish separatist?
zonker harris, working up the ranks to professional tanner.
Hmmm, he’s a former Astros PBP guy.
what about vince?
Maybe we can get dueling Milo Hamilton impressions.
Wait wait wait, Cotroneo’s Twitter handle is @vincebaseball? That is incredibly lame, in a very specific, difficult to describe but you know it when you see it kinda lameness, like giving yourself a nickname that serves only to illustrate how truly lame you are. Damn, that’s really bad. I am embarrassed for him.
The Twins are 1 and 6, losing their home opener today to the Royals by the score of 12-3. The only game they’ve won was pitched by the #5 starter we traded them last year, prompting this witticism:
I didn’t make it to the Twins home opener because it was at 3pm and I was still in meetings. I’m flying back to Boston tomorrow, so no Twins baseball for me.
That’s a shame. Target Field is worth seeing, even when the Twins are not.
I did go to a game there once before, in the first year after it opened.
Oh well, that’s all right then. Have you had anything good to eat?
I went yesterday to a new Surly Taproom near the the university, then I went to see Caribou playing at First Avenue. Just had some decent pizza from Punch tonight. And back on Friday I got completely obliterated at Palmer’s, which is pretty high on my list of all-time favorite bars.
Did you get to Cheetos or the electric fetus or northern lights?
no. Also, I don’t know what those are. Punk bars?
Record stores. Maybe extinct
The Fetus is as electric as it ever was, not sure about the others.
Leaveno tern unstoned
Indeed
Indeed:
Couldn’t you tell Clem you had to go see a man about a tree-house?
Oh man, I would probably be dead now but it would have been worth it.
From an email I got today from a friend:
“Went to the store today.
SÖGARD Dining Room Set
ZOBRIST Bedroom Collection
VÖGT Shelving Solutions
CANHÂ Sofa & Loveseat Set
PHEGLEY Lighting & Ambience Series
LADENDORF Blankets & Throws
FÜLD Towels & Linens
GENTRY Coffee & Side Tables
BUTLER Storage Boxes & Baskets
IKE Bookcases
Our 2015 IkeA’s”
Get that person an account
, before their charge card bills put them in an early GRAVEMAN.
Awesome.
Read it:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/a-s-beane-finds-2015-moneyball-version-in-canha-041315
Down as I am on college athletics, I’ll admit to being pretty excited to watch Oakland’s Ivan Rabb play in Berkeley next season (and then wish him a fond farewell and good earnings).
Apparently this is his mom’s restaurant, where he made the announcement. Looks like a pretty cool place, funny name aside.
So the Grizzlies have a guy on the team named Preston Tucker. This will kill me all season because I am the only one with the combo of old/dorky/baseball fan to want them to do a promotion for him:
#HoldThatTiger
Assholes
hi.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/15/dont-make-bicyclists-more-visible-make-cars-stop-running-them-over/?hpid=z10
If the car can’t see you, then it’s kind of hard for them to stop from running you over. And the whole point of paved roads was for vehicles to run through quicker. People, horses, horse-drawn carriages, and bikes, by and large, don’t *need* roads to travel on and never had. And today, roads are just currently the only option for bikes in major cities besides sidewalks which come with their own hazards. Honestly the entire argument is a major whine fest. I’m not anti-bike and I don’t disagree that there needs to be genuine concessions to make bike safety *from* cars a priority. But let’s not be naive about it either.
No, sidewalks are not a fucking option for bikes. At least not a legal, or safe (for pedestrians) one. They belong in the street with other vehicles.
This.
Re-read what I said: “which come with their own hazards.”
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-76-the-modern-moloch/
Oh yeah? Well I’m not too excited about your article!
How dare you disagree with KATOH, whatever that is.
I think it’s basically a statistical system that uses MiLB data to project prospects’ chances. And yeah, there aren’t a lot of 26 year old 1b who set the world on fire. But maybe there can(ha) be one.
Maybe
redpop
I think that Shelton is exactly the type of player that KATOH has in mind when it sees Canha. His entire major league career was 4 WAR in a couple seasons worth of PA spread out over five years.
Ha! Sez you.
Seems most of the comments agree with you
Poor JD having to play on that crap.
Only a couple more years and it’ll be grass.
Yo Soaker: How much are you enjoying the right wing conspiracy theories on what happened to Harry Reid’s face? I’m enjoying them quite a bit myself.
Wait, we’re seriously allowing this?
Try that against Vogt and he’ll get called for traveling.
Eurostep
I never understood how you get away with the smacking the ball in the glove before you deliver out of the stretch like I think john rocker used to do and ryan cook I think does
There are exceptions to the balk rule that just kind of happen when it’s something you do 100% of the time (which always struck me as generally non-objectionable because they aren’t really deceptive). This, however, is pitching from 55′, which shouldn’t be allowed.
I disagree on non-objectionable. Balking on every pitch is still balking on every pitch.
But the reason we don’t allow balks is to avoid unfair advantages in the running game. Those set/consistent deliveries don’t really connect to that reasoning.
That said, reasonable minds can certainly differ.
For me all it takes is just a slight difference and you’re causing confusion. Do we count the number of pumps/rocks each time? What happens if the runner leaves while the rocking, etc. is going on causing the pitcher to stop? There’s too much ambiguity over intent. The best course is simply to follow the rules in place and not allow it at all so there’s no argument or confusion.
Fuck it, if that’s allowed them so is running up to the catcher’s glove and sticking it in like skeeball.
That’s not how you’re supposed to play skeeball, cheater.
My point exactly ;)
If I ever win the lottery, I’m totally putting a skeeball machine in my living room.
If you even win the lottery, I’m totally going to your place so I can cheat at the skeeball in your living room.
OK but I’m setting the machine so you don’t get any tickets to use at the prize counter.
I played skeeball recently at the Boardwalk and its just as fun as I remember except holy crap are the prizes crappy.
When I was a kid, my brother and I would spend every Friday night with my grandma and grandpa so my parents could have an adult evening alone. We had the same routine every week. Friday after school we picked up her dog from the groomer and then went to Dunkin Donuts. At night we watched Dukes of Hazzard. On Saturday she took us to The North Pole. I was too short to ride “The Witches Brew” so while my brother and grandma rode it each weekend, I played skeeball. I saved all my tickets one summer and at the end of summer I carefully chose my prizes: a turquoise blue rabbits foot keychain, a small plastic figurine of a bull covered in purple flocking, and a two-foot yellow comb.
That is an awesome story. Do you still have any of those items? I remember those huge combs well.
I don’t :( I wish I had that comb!!!
It’s worse than what Walden’s done. MLB actually told Capps only to lessen the hop, basically. That’s it.
I enjoyed this clip package from last night’s Mets-Phillies game for the way the editor immediately followed up Anthony Recker: Pinch Runner with a shot of a confused looking Bob Geren.
I was at a game where Geren used Landon Powell as a pinch runner.
To be fair, a confused-looking Bob Geren is rather natural.
Frenchy’s still playing?
God bless him. A national treasure he is.
If only karma was always this swift:
Yes, please
67 wins for the Warriors. Never thought I’d live to see the day.
Wins: the Warriors or the A’s?
Bite your tongue!
Including the playoffs?
Yes. So the top possible value for the Warriors is 83.
Tough call! The A’s preseason over/under was around 81 – that may have gone up a tick now, but let’s say 80-83 is likely range. The Warriors right now are about even money to win the West and 2 to 1 to win it all. I’d put their expected wins around 81 (hard to see them getting swept in the Finals if they make it there).
I’ll take the A’s, but it’s close.
The Spurs are looming in the WCF. That’s a scary match up.
Very scary. I’m hoping the Clippers or the Rockets take them out early. There was a moment last night where it looked like they might end up on our side of the bracket and I was sweating.
Psh. The A’s will have a higher winning percentage. They only need to go 129-23 the rest of the way.
Please, place your bets NOW.
To beat the winning %, the A’s only need to go 121-11. Or an 11 game win streak for every loss. We got this.
(I still think the A’s best 67 wins by a long shot).
I’d still take the A’s by a nose. The Warriors are capped at 83, and they’re probably a little less than a coin flip to reach that number. BP projects the A’s for only 79, but there’s more potential there.
Of course, I bet BP’s projection assumes our bullpen lack-of-clutch is meaningless noise.
This guy is too good to be true.
It’s totally fake. There’s no guy named Tom “Friend.” If you’re going to come up with a fictitious reporter, you’ve got to come up with a better name than that.
I was talking about elcroata.
no game? WTF?
There is an A’s game playing in my mind… and that game is full of Sam Fuld triples!
As I recall, Sam Fuld triples are what Kubrick’s 2001 monolith was full of.
Sam Fuld triples are what’s in the trunk of the ’64 Chevy Malibu.
Sam Fuld had a lobotomy in the end
Mr. April!!!
Keepin’ our mojo fresh for 7-in-a-row tonight.
Mojo risin’
whats the matter with willy?
whats the matter with sergie?
don’t act like you’ve never heard of copa bridgestone libertadores.
two perfect streaks on the line, back to back. boca (15pts/5 games) faces palestino, the small chilean side i left a link about recently. then, at corinthians (12pts/4 games) faces san lorenzo who needs to keep pace with sao paulo, winners last night.
the things you hear during the pregame show sometimes… tevez has signed a pre-contract to come to boca in june. and [calling mr mundy, g mundy to the disbelief counter please] he’s trying to convince pirlo to go with him.
Would definitely watch Pirlo’s Argentine Adventure.
Tevez to Boca…seems like just yesterday he was leaving them for Corinthians. That was a big deal at the time. Lots of people in Brazil were unsettled by a highly paid Argentine tearing up their league.
do you have a brazilian team?
Vasco
huh. i gotta imagine you inherited that. not a club that’s super known outside latin america.
Hey, that’s the third best team in Rio De Janeiro you’re talking about! (Can say that now that they got promoted back to Serie A and Botafogo got relegated.)
I had no choice in the matter whatsoever. It’s a tribal thing I signed up for.
one of, now, three teams in copa america history to go through libertadores groups with all Ws!
though eliminated at quarters by the eventual winner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Copa_Libertadores
They won the thing in 1998. That 2001 team featured Romario, I think.
Speaking of 1998, do you remember this goal? They still sing songs about it.
nice. never seen it before.
those years i was watching mostly italian and mexican soccer on RAI and univision. the internet has definitely made my life better.
Champions of Rio!
felicitaçao! (or the word i mean that i can’t quite spell.)
and you missed a chance to alliterate andrea!
Cazzo!
boca, 6 Ws for 6 games, with a 19/2 goal difference.
kinda doubting corinthians can catch up to take the 1 seed, which is nice.
however, river plate looks like it’s going to hold on to that 16 seed, and that means superclásico at the round of 16, which could be trouble — even though boca is a better team right now, river can always FK ’em up extrafutbolistically and win the round somehow. especially since the regular-tournament superclásico is about the same time.
the key though? gago. don’t hurt yourself anymore!
well well well…
10 weeks into the 30-game tournament, there’re 2 teams tied at 1st. (there was a 4-way tie for first last week, but i didn’t want to brag.) now that the two hanger-ons dropped points though, what this tournament is about is starting to emerge: boca and river.
AND they meet for their tournament date this coming weekend, with the two copa libertadores legs quickly apace. so (if the front offices of the two teams stop fighting over the dates) we can set our calendars. may 3, 6 (or 7), and 13 (or 14), for three rounds with the heavyweights, and this time every bit of it all counts.
above, i probably exaggerated a touch about boca’s superiority right now. especially with cavenaghi’s efforts to retain startership. but not by a whole lot, when this is boca, even with gago resting up for the clash. this is rad.
ugh game last night. 1-0 to river on a penalty in a blocked frictive game.
zero love was lost.
Don’t get the last one.
late hit, cleats up. the angle from across the field shows how late the kick starts compared to when the ball is cleared.
Got it.
Enough about Lawrie’s slide already.
Did your brand new high dollar player tear his meniscus effectively ending his season after like 7 games?
Ours did. :(
Thanks, and go As.
why he’s almost… a fan. harumph!! guess i’m never watching the WC final at this guy’s home again.
I’m watching Mets and Marlins and they just cut to a guy in the Marlins dugout wearing a Marlins cap who looks *just* like Ichiro. Weird.
Whoa, there he is again. This dude looks exactly like Ichiro! For a minute I actually thought that Ichiro was on the Marlins, but that would be insane.
Not a bad place to go if you’re hoping to be traded to a contender.
oh, he’s actually on the team.
this is how jerry ghets a blown save
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/63817564/v76672583/mianym-ichiro-out-call-overturned-at-home-in-7th
there’s a fake ichiro guy.
This could be the greatest day of my life. I won pre-entry passes to my concert in Michigan. That means me and 29 other people get in 30 minutes before everyone else in line.
Is it General Admission?
Yep.
Nice! Bring in a big blanket and take up a lot of room so you can laugh at the regular people behind you.
Stand right in front and film the whole thing on the biggest iPad you can find.
Connected to an oversized selfie stick.
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Wow.
LOL the Cubs are calling up Kris Bryant on the very first day where he won’t accrue a full year of service time. Very subtle.
That’s quite a nice fuck you to the union.
Don’t agree to the terms if you don’t like it.
Lucky for them Olt broke his hand. Legit excuse.
Thanks, and go As.
0-4, 3K, 5 LOB.
Only two weeks and two days until the Kentucky Derby!
Better start juleping the mint!
We’re having a hat contest at work. Thank God I’ll be at a concert.
We’re having a Derby party at Golden Gate Fields (Golden Gate Fields, Golden, Golden Gate Fiiiieeeelds) but unfortunately I’m going to be out of town.
Hey, the hockey playoffs are on! Who am I supposed to hate, Detroit?
Hate Anaheim; always a reasonable default response. Hopefully they’ll get upset by the Winnipeg Jets.
Absent the Sharks and the Flyers I’m rooting for a Canadian team to win the Cup for teh first time in 20 years. Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary are the others this year.
I think I’ve already adopted Winnipeg. How could I not?
Although I have many friends from there, you cant root for the flames because:
Their uniforms are really ugly too. White and orange shirts with black shorts? Yuck.
There are quite a few ugly uniforms on display this round. Nashville’s home yellow sweaters are awful, and I contend that the Minnesota Wild’s combo of green and red is the ugliest in all pro sports.
Man, I like the Minnesota colors. That shade of green is nice.
I’m looking at the Nashville getups right now. You certainly can’t miss them.
Yuck:
Oh. They looked better last night when the red wasn’t on display quite so much.
Yeah, either color alone isn’t so bad, but together they’re intolerable.
This Nashville-Chicago game is exciting.
I think we can at least agree that they aren’t as bad as the orange Giants jerseys.
Goals!
Is there no unwritten rule in hockey that you don’t shoot when up three goals and two skaters with 10 seconds left in the game?
Shut up you hoser.
The green Wild alts with the diagonal MINNESOTA are nice though.
these guys are from Winnipeg
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Unlike many Bay Area transplants I was not shocked by the panhandlers the first time I went to Union Square, because I’d already been to Winnipeg.
whoa. i just realized marcel dzama is hipster, and possibly saner/safer, for henry darger.
Being an NHL ref looks incredibly difficult. I don’t understand how they don’t get laid out 5-10 times a period.
Pennington doing his best to stop the Giants losing streak
Ay, but even Mighty Penny is but one man.
And even after all that, for the Giants this was an improvement.
Ronaldinho is retiring :(
Thanks, and go As.
what?
I always think of this commercial when I see Ronaldinho’s name:
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awwww!
not!
So much this:
Editing old code (even your own!) can be harder than re-writing sometimes. Because who comments anything? And who optimizes code once it’s working?
Yes, no-one, and we do all the time.
Once you’re playing with hundreds of thousands of cores and a finite allocation of CPU-hours, system- and even concurrency-specific optimization is a constant challenge (though increasingly we’re building in auto-tuning).
Real programmers never comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
A couple years ago, I TA’d a “data science” class where all of the assignments were written in python, but at the same time it wasn’t really a CS class so we weren’t supposed to heavily penalize students for bad style. Grading those assignments was so FKing painful.
not many people got a code to live by anymore.
I mean, say what you want about the tenets of MATLAB, Dude, at least it’s a code.
only an asshole gets graded down for style.
Awesome
ordinary fucking people. I hate em
Our CS classes didn’t have a style element. Professors just ran programs with various parameters and tested output.
Kareem is the absolute best.
I managed to persuade even my sports-is-not-real-news colleagues that we should do an interview about the Warriors. I arranged for a very articulate longtime fan who writes good stuff. A couple of hours before the interview, my colleagues started getting cold feet….are we really talking to this guy who’s just a blogger and not even a professional? he isn’t even accredited with the team? Was the ESPN guy not available? etc. I said no no, he’ll be great, don’t worry…. So we call the guy up at the appointed time. His voice sounds a little thin, my engineer asks if he’s on a regular phone. No, he’s on a cordless. Do you have a hardwired phone available? Yes, he says, I think so, just a moment….and we hear him call “Hey, Dad? Can I use your old phone?”
(But he was great.)
Ha ha!
That’s awesome. Which blog, if I may ask?
The Diss. Here’s the audio.
(And if you’re thinking “that doesn’t sound like any kind of phone”, we often do this thing now where the guests record themselves on their iPhones and send us the audio to match up with our recording of the host in the studio. But the phone recording has to sound good for backup.)
Whoa, really? That’s awesome. He sounded great.
Someone at Aspen Public Radio made this instructional video which we send out to guests. It’s great because the guy who plays the guest is perfectly cast as a schlubby academic/policy wonk, and the method assumes that of course, you have access to a big pile of books at your desk.
Not many (parents’) homes have a land-line in the basement.
this easter, mrs AV did the hiding of the eggs, but it was raining, so the hunt was in the house. a little girl was looking for the last egg, and she asked for hints, hot or cold. mrs AV said, i’m not going to tell you hot or cold, but i’ll tell you that if it got so hot the house was burning you might find the egg when you call the fire department. she looked in her mom’s purse.
the egg went unfound, sitting on the cradle of the wall phone till an adult fetched it, because what IS that thing on the wall??
Bwah hah hah hah!
Your stories are the best
what’s the matter with
peaveyvogey” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
early 2000s? circa 1997, bitches!
•
•
ooh! notice shadow of film camera selfie!
Looks like your getting ready to throw your circle changeup.
i don’t know why people think it started with cellphones. The end of envery roll was usually pictures of my cat or a selfie
selfiestick!
I got a letter yesterday from the Illinois state treasurer saying that they have some “unclaimed property” that might belong to me — specifically a $300 check from the University of Chicago that spelled my last name as “Bischopp” and was addressed to an apartment that I last occupied in 2003. Windfall!
Can I have $10?
wait.
I had this happen years ago, state of CA tracked me down five addresses later about a check I was owed from a Prop 103 car insurance settlement. $150 as I recall. And for about three years after that I kept getting letters from shady for-profit companies promising to connect me with “unclaimed property the government owes you!” for a nominal fee of 50% of the amount I was owed.
why am i reading this in the voice of chuck d with a sample of hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic running over it?
It said they were suckers.
I see that the Warriors get the same prime time slots for their playoff games as the A’s do.
Not expected to be much of a series.
That kind of was the prime Saturday slot. It’s the only one of the day on a broadcast network. Sunday afternoon is probably the prime prime spot, but that was always going to LeBron.
C’mon Reading!
Ouch.
Sigh.
It’s the weekend and time for a first: a double dose of anniversary goodness, courtesy of one of the world’s foremost songwriters. These could each pass for legitimate live records and document his tours for I’M YOUR MAN and THE FUTURE… I imagine him being the first guy to play sold-out stadiums at age 100+. So let’s blog down to a place by the river with the venerable Leonard Cohen, in two killer sets from 1988 and 1993… and both taped on April the 18th :P
Extra-innings walk-off for JD in Toronto.
3 HRs in two games.
THANKS AGAIN, BILLY
Thanks, and go As.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah
Good thing for him the Kings aren’t in the playoffs.
Doesn’t really sound like he’s complaining. Mostly he’s just complementing the fans and their enthusiasm.
And pretty much ensuring it will be even louder tonight.
wait, there is an NBA tewam called the pelicans?
The New Orleans Pellicans. They used to be the New Orleans Hornets. Before that, they were the Charlotte Hornets. Now Charlotte has another team called the Hornets. They used to be the Charlotte Bobcats.
and the supersonics are no more, right?
Sadly, right. That still makes me mad.
FK Seattle though.
Thanks, and go As.
At the Sunday finale against the Mariners (which I think was also the anniversary of the last SuperSonics game), a guy in front of me was wearing a Sacramento Kings jersey. I applauded the subtlety of his trolling.
One of my little great-nieces collects snow globes, but I’ve quickly learned not to buy her expensive glass snow globes because they get broken almost immediately. Just like Ben Zobrist, apparently.
He’s had only one 15-day DL trip in his last 6 years with Tampa, the A’s get him as a one-year rental, and two weeks in surgery for “existing cartilage issues” is being mentioned as a possibility. Argh.
Also leaves us without a backup infielder at all, so not only will Sogard be in the lineup against lefties, but Lawrie can’t take the day off that was planned even before his plunking.
It would probably be a good idea to get Ladendorf or someone else back on the roster, and cut bait on Cody Ross. I didn’t mind that signing so much, as he used to be a pretty useful platoon player, but so far he really hasn’t offered very much. (Prove me wrong, Cody.)
Yeah, that IF situation is pretty desperate. Who’s our backup 2B tonight…Canha? Gentry?
The Joey Wendle era in Oakland is fast approaching.
We have that stud SS prospect, right? Whasisname, Addison Robertson or something?
A clear corresponding move:
They’re also forbidden in carry-on luggage (>3oz liquid) … quite a pile of them at Fairbanks airport security after the conference I went to where they gave them out as party favors.
I was on the muni the other day with a whole lot of giants fans who had left their game around the fifth inning clutching their “world series snow globes.” I wanted to “accidentally” smash all of them.
Batting around means 10 guys hit. Does anyone besides idiots doubt this?
Nine.
You didn’t used to be wrong about everything. What happened?
I fear for our planet, that a Harvard degree should fall so low. Batting around means that the lineup has come back around to the man who led off, the 10th man. If the 9th guy makes the last out you have not batted around.
This is clearly correct.
reply fail to andeux, yeah?
I would subscribe to a newsletter containing similar thoughts.
I have read your comment several times and it still makes no sense. Once the ninth guy bats, the batting order has come back around to the man who led off, and you have batted around.
Not if the ninth guy makes the last out. You’ve only batted around if the lineup comes back around in the same inning. Hence 10. As a commenter there noted, you haven’t batted around until you’ve messed up my scorebook.
If you spin around in a full circle, does it matter if you stop at place where you started or do you have to go past it?
You don’t bat full circle. That’s different
Thanks, and go As.
Relevance.
It’s more like if you’re running a race around a track. 9 guys = stopping right as you’re getting to the finish line. 10 guys = crossing the finish line. If the 9th guy makes the last out, you haven’t “broken the plane” of the finish line
But when it comes to the distance of the track, you only include up to the finish line. So in your scenario of the 9th guy making the last out, the circle is completed and will be resumed with the next guy (i.e. crossing that imaginary line you speak of). Whether that next guy ever steps into the box becomes irrelevant just as how far you run across that line makes little difference so long as you *reach* the line. Photo finishes only look at what point the line was reached, not the point where the line was surpassed.
The word “around” suggests returning to the starting state. Reaching the end isn’t equivalent to returning to the beginning.
Think of it more like a typewriter. 9 PA is like typing until the end of a line. The 10th guy stepping up is resetting the typewriter’s position to the beginning of the next line. There’s no additional typing done between those two states, but only one qualifies for the word “around”
No, simply hitting the return key is going to that next line. You actually have to hit a key to have started a new line. Just the fact you’re sitting on that new line is more than enough for your previous line to have turned over. The stat of being the next player up constitutes a return to the start and doesn’t necessitate actually stepping into the box.
“Next player up” isn’t good enough. It has to be “player actually up.” In your description, your end point is the end of the previous inning, not the start of the current inning. To bat around, you have to get back to the state that represents the start of the inning fully within the encapsulation of one inning. The end of the previous inning or the start of the next inning are irrelevant states
Except the moment the 9th player is out, the 10th player IS *actually* up. Whether he’s allowed to bat because the inning is over or not is irrelevant to the fact that he’s currently “up” for that team. They’ve literally put themselves back into the exact same position as what started the inning, that the current batter if the team were allowed to bat at that moment would be the player who led off the inning.
Yeah, but up again in the same inning vs. up in a different inning is the key difference.
Another way to look at it is that you haven’t batted around until you’ve messed up the scorecard (e.g.)
So, when does a clock hand go around, starting at noon? When it comes back to twelve or when it goes to one for the second time?
I think that if we go to the analogies and logic, 9 PA clearly wins. “It has always been said that way, and it’s not meant in the exact factual way” is the only point where 10 PA version can win.
If the 10th guy doesn’t come up again, you haven’t returned to the starting point. Your starting point of the loop is when the leadoff man steps into the batter box. If you don’t get back to that leadoff man in the batter box again, you haven’t completed the loop.
In your clock analogy, you’re arguing that going from 12 to 11:59 is a full loop. With 9 PA, the starting point and ending point are different states
I disagree. A full circle never “returns to the starting point”, because no part of the circle has two points on top of each other. In the clock analogy that would be the infinitesimal point just before reaching the 12 (or the state where we started the loop).
It is very easy to discard your theory with batters themselves. If you claim that the full circle is 10 PA, tell me how many times has a team batted around in an inning where they had 900 PA (everybody bunts against Garza, eventually it gets too dark to keep playing).
Your theory would say that the team batted around 90 times (10 PA per batting around), yet every player would have batted 100 times.
Yeah, the clock analogy doesn’t really work here. And I shouldn’t have brought PAs into it. It’s not about 10 PAs; it’s about 10 guys. The 10th guy has to get up to bat again, but as soon as he does, what happens from there is the start of a new loop, so to speak.
So 9th guy strikes out to end the inning =/= batting around.
9th guy walks then gets picked off before a pitch is thrown to the 10th guy == batting around.
You have to get back to the top of the lineup within the same inning, regardless of what happens from there
For me it is pretty simple. If the next inning starts exactly the way the previous one did it means the previous one went the full circle (regardless of the distinction you make). The 1st guy should be in the box only once in the same inning, just like the any given point of the circle needs to be drawn only once for the circle to be complete.
For me, it has to all happen within one inning. The next inning and previous inning are completely different self-contained universes as far as this goes. If you don’t get back to the “start of the inning” state within that inning, then you haven’t batted around
There’s a nebulous point where the 10th guy is “up” without having stepped up to the plate. That point is after then 9th batter has finished his AB. Saying you need that 10th guy to step in the box is like saying you need 361 degrees to complete a circle.
The nebulous point is the hinge of the whole debate. My position is that the 10th guy isn’t up until he’s actually up at the plate. When the 9th guy makes the 3rd out, the 10th guy isn’t up, the other team’s leadoff guy is
And I fundamentally disagree with that stance. If you were track the batting order, as many sites do, the 10th guy is the one who, for that team, would be considered “Up” for that team. Just because the other team is now batting is irrelevant. Going back to your “self contained universe” thought, they’ve returned to the original state of the universe by the time that inning had ended, hence the batting order has come around to it’s original state.
The original state of the inning-universe was the leadoff guy batting. When the 9th guy makes the 3rd out, the inning-universe implodes and the leadoff guy is never batting again. You’ve gotten back to the end state of the previous inning, but not the start state of the current inning.
Unlike a clock or a race or a circle, the batting order isn’t an unbroken line. There is absolutely a gap between each batter-state, and the end of the 9th guy’s PA and the start of the 10th guy’s are not equivalent. That’s why entire half-innings can happen between them. You’re disregarding the gap between 9th guy and 10th guy, while I’m saying that to bat around, that gap has to be passed through in the same inning
I’m on team FSU here. This is clearly one of the problems arising from a school that lacks Lux.
Agreed.
I’ll bite. What is Lux in this context?
A reference to the respective mottoes of my and nevermoor’s alma maters, who have a rivalry dating back a few centuries. (Recent by European standards I know, but around here that’s a long time.)
Harvard and?
He is a Yalie.
True story. When I did my SAT (or ACT, I don’t remember what was what) I could write down codes of four universities they would send the results to. I don’t remember exactly, but I think my choices were Cornell (the one I wanted to go to), Princeton, Harvard and MIT. But, being myself, I mistyped one of the codes and it landed in, I think, some public university in Hawaii. I kept getting mail from them and sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I did indeed go there.
Harvard’s motto is “Veritas” while ours is “Lux et Veritas”
If you’re at Harvard, that makes us an unoriginal knockoff. If you’re more sensible, it means that Harvard Lacks Lux.
You know who else lacks Lux?
this thread till now?
Harvard and not Harvard is the defining rivalry of our nation.
Tough one.
On one hand I have sailing, where sailing around the world is clearly defined as being on the same longitude twice, which would support FSU interpretation.
On the other we have the issue of the function repeatability. The way andeux defines batting around, if his team does that every inning, he will have no hard time saying that his team batted around 9 times. Team FSU will have 90 PA, meaning that they actually went through the lineup 10 times, but “batted around” nine.
I guess it comes down to whom does the space between the 9th and 10th batter belong to.
The FSU interpretation is literally the same as the guy insisting there are 8 days in a week.
If you are looking at a calendar:
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat
If you start on the first Sunday, “next week” is not Saturday, it’s the 2nd Sunday.
Batting around is the same concept. The 9th batter is not batting around, the 10th batter who was also the 1st batter is.
Thanks, and go As.
The question is what “around” means, whether it is “complete” or “overlapping”.
Around means in a circle.
Which is vague enough that my original point stands
My personal view is that the 9th batter must complete his AB in such a way that the “10th” man is now “up” for that team whether the inning ends or not. So it’s not enough for the 9th batter to simply step in the box. So a pick off while he’s up isn’t batting around, but him ending the inning by grounding out would be. It’s the completion of the “circle,” not necessarily the the start of a new circle. 10 batters means more than 360 degrees, 9 full batters means 360 degrees.
I’m inclined to see it the same way
I knew I liked you.
Thanks, and go As.
I like you, too, but I’m not sure we agree on what seems a better description, do we?
“Batting around” is a term of art, with a specific meaning in the field. Laypeople don’t have meaningful opinions about what it means, any more than I would have a meaningful opinion about the term “capital gains” in a discussion with the IRS.
Baseball Reference considers it to be 9 plate appearances in an inning.
Well, there goes a point for andeux.
Thanks, and go As.
He’s on Free Kraut?!
If he’s not, he obviously should be.
I totally beat him
So it’s up to ptbnl and me to solve this one observationally then.
And then present FSU with a bottle of champagne ;-)
A fan of accounting could certainly discuss capital gains with the IRS since they have experience with terminology, history, etc. So a fan certainly can speak to what it means to baseball. But if you really feel this way, you can leave the discussion any time you’d like since you don’t feel qualified to have a meaningful opinion.
And this is exactly the thing. It is a specific expression, and the logical explanation of the name’s components needs not be what has come to be the accepted meaning. As stated above, logical explanation for me would be that 9 PA are enough, but that doesn’t mean that this is the “correct” definition.
However, in absence of a such universally accepted definition (at least known to me), I think that trying some logic is not necessarily a bad thing.
what if the 9th guy gets in the box, and with no pitches thrown a runner gets picked off?
Not batting around, since the 9th guy will lead off the next inning.
9th guy must complete his AB. Even if the 9th guy has a 3 – 2 count and saw 50 pitches, if the runner is picked off, his AB isn’t completed and instead is reset so it’s not batting around. The 9th batter reaching the plate in and of itself doesn’t constitute batting around. It’s the point *between* the 9th and 10th batter that constitutes batting around.
Flip the scenario a bit. What happens if the 10th batter gets to the plate, but with no pitches have been thrown before the runner gets picked off. How is that not batting around? You’ve crossed that proverbial finish line.
I think the latter is batting around. The leadoff hitter comes back up in the same inning.
If that’s the case, he doesn’t matter since his plate appearance in all records won’t have existed. For intents and purposes, the runner could be thrown out while the batter is walking up to the plate. And in either case, only 9 hitters have batted.
We disagree.
For me, the triggering event is the leadoff hitter returning to the plate. In other words, batting around is when > 9 batters step in (and batting around twice is when > 18 batters do).
The reason, if I’m being honest, is that appearing twice in one inning is cool/unusual for that hitter whereas appearing once is what happens 3-5 times every game.
You’re right that what we’re marking by naming here is something cool/unusual. What is in dispute is whether that thing is
(a) all 9 batters having a PA in the same inning, or
(b) at least one batter having 2 PAs in an inning.
a) batting once through the order.
b) batting around.
these are the names given to those different events. one’s midnight. the other is happy new year.
Yeah, we’re all agreed there. The 10th guy doesn’t have to register a PA, but he does have to get to the plate
I think I’ll state the obvious here: what time does the game start today?
7:05
Did your front row seat tickets arrive yet?
Not yet–probably in my mailbox as we speak!
Not all.
unrelated but i’ve been meaning to ask. in germany and other countries in your area, what day does the wall-hanging, typical calendar begin with? monday, or sunday?
Monday all around
all around? wait. is that 7 mondays in a row? or 8???
—
seriously though, US calendars… where does the sunday start come from?
No facts to back this up, but I’ll say church.
sure. it’s probably religion-related, maybe tenuously or coindicentally, but how exactly?
there’s, yada yada yads, rest (and keep holy/go to church) on the 7th day… which makes monday 1st right? unless you have sabbath on saturday, which makes sunday first. but how does the hebrew week get adopted into US culture? were the first printers in the US jewish and they made calendars that made sense for themselves, which got used widely, and the tradition stuck? was there some reform-type movement among christians/puritans to reset the week to a more scripturetimes-like format and that stuck? were there 140 bits at the end of the week that rolled over into monday??
I’m seeing it as some Calvinist asshole made the calendars and he decided nothing was more important than church so it should be the first thought on your mind; hence first day I’m going to show you.
Oddly related; Companies that start their week on a wierd day. Evil Empire bank was that way-well they still are I just dont have to deal with it. They start the week on Saturday for payroll purposes and it never ceases to screw something up for scheduling or coordinating with vendors, etc.
And their year in November.
I remember being very confused about this as a kid, because TV Guide started with Saturday so I figured that was the real first day of the week.
Well, go no further than your own language. Sabado does seem to come from Sabbath.
If people haven’t read that bodybuilding forum thread, I encourage you to do so. I have rarely laughed so hard at the Internet.
If someone who calls himself milfhunter is calling you a “fuking moron,” you should reconsider some things in life
Love this.
Actually, doesn’t that guy insist that there are 15 days in two weeks? So, 7.5 days a week?
I don’t think it’s 10 PAs/batting around. I think batting around twice in an inning happens when the leadoff hitter steps in a third time.
FSU is correct. If the 9th guy makes the 3rd out, then you’ve run through the lineup, but not batted around. The leadoff man of the inning has to come up to bat again
With “FSU is correct”, you mean that you share his interpretation?
This is the Internet. I don’t think we’re allowed to have interpretations. Only blindingly obvious correctness and misguided horrible wrongness permitted
this.
Thanks, and go As.
Well, I’m not sure you like me anymore ;-)
:shakes fist:
Thanks, and go As.
So when they throw the ball around the horn and they fail to throw it back to the catcher, they’re not actually throwing the ball around the horn?
There’s not even a horn.
Thanks, and go As.
heh
Doesn’t matter since those assholes decided to cut out the first baseman years ago.
my only quibble here is with the word hit. some could walk. a couple could be out. and the new guy with a name like the old guy’s would be IHBP.
This linguistic debate is fun and interesting, but my position is that “batting around” has to mean that the guy who led off the inning comes to bat again in the same inning (or, I suppose, a pinch hitter for him comes to bat in the same inning) because otherwise who cares.
That is in fact what “batting around” has traditionally meant. If you surveyed broadcasters with 20 years or more in the biz I am certain that 100% would subscribe to this definition. To the extent that younger literalists want to deconstruct the language and bring in a new definition per changing common use, that, um, begs the question.
This is simply factually wrong. In fact directly contradicted by your original link.
The reality is, 20 years as an MLB broadcaster does not necessarily establish authority (7 years with the Astros, 6 with the Rangers and this is his 10th with the A’s).
10th?
oh god
No, but that kind of tenure does confer some knowledge of the games norms, and the requirement to describe them. I stand by the assertion that a poll of broadcasters would overwhelmingly say 10 guys bat.
my impression comes from listening to vin scully in my youth, when the 9th batter came up he would say “and the “X” have batted around.
I may be mistaken, but that is my impression
Nope
then I made a wonderful hedge
Yeah, that’s complete and utter BS. The very fact that there’s no defining term specifying this and no consensus within the industry fundamentally contradicts this stance. You bat around based on the definition of what “around” means. There’s nothing fundamental about baseball that gives this some special/new meaning. We’re not talking about foul pole really being a fair pole. We’re talking about how the English language works and how it applies to a baseball event. Even if the original person to use it referred to as 10 hitters, they’d still have been inherently using the term “around” wrong. It’s like people who are using the word “literal” as “figurative.” You can use it wrongly all you want, it doesn’t make it’s use correct.
A picture being worth 1000 words (or in this case, my horrible picture done in powerpoint being worth maybe a couple hundred words), here is the clock analogy for an inning in which all 9 players bat.
My view of the world is the top two pictures.
The tenthers seem to believe the bottom two, nonsensical though it may be.
I mean, your view of the world isn’t completing the circle. The #1 batter should be at the 12:00 position, since he is starting the inning just as 12:00 starts the day.
The lower image is also incorrect, because your numbers aren’t in the right spots.
An inning cannot begin until the first batter has seen a pitch. That’s why the announce the official start time after first pitch. In the first picture, the arrow is pointing to between at bats.
Thanks, and go As.
Even if so, you do not need to draw a dot tow times on any given position to complete a circle.
Correct, but you need to actually start a new one and not just complete the first.
Thanks, and go As.
And this is where we will just have to agree we have differing opinions. As I said before, I see what completing a circle is with high certainty. If the opposing view does not actually dispute when a circle is complete, but posits that “around” implies a start of the new circle, then I can definitely be agnostic about whether “tradition” and “baseball specific circumstances” supersede geometry.
makes sense.
Those guys are still wrong though. :D
Thanks, and go As.
This.
thing is, just because you didn’t write the number in, doesn’t mean you’re not pointing to the 10th position.
alternate title, in your world nobody says happy new year.
What followed was a five-minute, 34-second expletive-filled tirade. The final tally was 77 uses of the “F” word or a variant and 11 uses of a vulgar term for feces (two bovine, one equine).
So the lilest Ace has to do a solar system project for school. I really want to black out a shoe box and put a little dot in it. “This is our solar system just before the big bang”.
Gah … ack … but … gahhhhh.
Please excuse the crudity of this model. I didn’t have time to build it to scale.
It’s the “before the Big Bang” bit that’s giving me conniptions.
When would everything be in a single point? I’m sure I’m saying it as horribly as possible. (feel free to edit to make me sound smrter as well if that is easier on your mind than re-explaining to me).
If the Universe is infinite, never. If the Universe is finite then (maybe) at time zero.
To me it makes most sense to think of time as logarithmic, in which case the Big Bang happens at time minus infinity. We can theorize (and even observe, albeit indirectly) further and further back in time but we’ll never make it all the way to the Big Bang.
Nope, that one broke my brain.
Thanks, and go As.
Logarithms are just the powers of 10, so
log(1000) = 3
log(100) = 2
log(10) = 1
log(1) = 0
log(0.1) = -1
log(0.01) = -2
log(0.001) = -3
etc.
Smaller and smaller fractions have more and more negative logarithms, culminating in log(0) = -∞
So if the Big Bang is at (conventional) time zero then in log-time it’s at minus infinity, which I think more accurately reflects its distance from us.
Especially makes sense if you are dumb enough to consider an early period of exponential growth in the size of the universe.
:blinks:
Thanks, and go As.
Right?
So out of genuine interest, it is the math or the cosmology that’s the stumbling block?
It’s a concept I often use in pop-cosmology because to me it makes things clearer than thinking about time having a beginning or what “before the Big Bang” means, so it would be good to know if it is actually adding to the confusion, and if so how.
What pop-cosmology bands would you recommend?
Alpher and the B-Modes “Insane in the M-brane”
asvd
Math. I hate math.
Thanks, and go As.
when does the universe bat around?
LOL
Once I had logged off and was trying to go to sleep I got my head to this point (without the actual intelligent description of course). But by then I figured I had done enough damage to the scientific community for one night.
Originally I was going to say just after the Big Bang, but I figured that had it’s own set of problems.
Of course this is a lot of joking for a bad joke to make to a perfectly nice 3rd grade teacher.
Somewhat related note: if I was a craft store, I would contact every school district in my area andfind out when they are doing projects like this so we dont run out of “model the solar system” kits. While I actually prefer that we are going to have to make it all ourselves, as a business I would want everyone coming to me last minute for a big mark up.
oh. i woulda thought it was about confusing the universe with the solar system.
No see that one is straight forward. Our solar system is in there. Just with a bunch of extra stuff too. I may ask Mrs. Davis to give him extra credit for that.
The seed of our solar system, as a quantum fluctuation, sure.
Just draw a picture of Pluto.
an unprecedented tsunami of hyperbole
Speaking of Hal McRae, Grant’s SBNation piece on the weekend fracas had an excellent reminder about his “sliding” technique.
Wow, those were the slides, my friend.
Rate is a terrible metric here … any time a coach said “Fuck” would tie the record.
Five to qualify?
Well I really feel there needs to be some other quality that will unfortunately be subjective. I can say fuckity fucking fucked up fuck heads and destroy them all. But it isnt very interesting.
I often overlook Elia since I don’t personally remember it. But I think it is still the winner when I try to be objective.Telling your own fans to get a fucking job is something else. And to not have Lasorda’s Bevacqua tirade listed is a crime.
Elia, Lasorda/Bevacqua, and Lasorda/Kingman will always be the classics to me. And, yeah, probably Elia as the champion of those, for its pure unhingedness.
Weaver’s “Managers Corner” bit is the one that really cracks me up, but it’s not quite in the same category, since it was done tongue-in-cheek.
I will definitely list this in the positive column for Libby Schaaf.
Only five games for Herrera
Seems about right to me, honestly. He’s an RP, so it actually matters and he didn’t actually hit anyone.
If he hits someone next series, that’s when you drop 25 on him.
I would have thought the head thing would have upped it to 10 games, but if TPTB are discounting that for whatever reason, then 5 makes sense
And it’ll get cut down to 3 or 4 via appeal.
WTF Champions League Porto shipping 5 goals in the first half defending a 3-1 lead from the first leg.
sad, but true.
2015 NFL schedule has the Raiders on the road on October 4, when the Coliseum is available because the A’s are in Seattle, then at home on October 11, creating a potential conflict with the AL Division Series. There’s also a potential conflict with the World Series on November 1.
Also for Raiders season ticket holders: Don’t plan on doing any last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve.
If that ends up being the last game ever in Oakland, expect a lot of Mark Davis-Grinch mashups.
Heh heh, they also play at home on my anniversary and my daughter’s birthday. This is gonna be tricky.
The Raiders and Broncos have reportedly been told that they could flip-flop home games if the A’s are in the playoffs, as opposed to having the Raiders play a late-night game as they did a couple years ago. If that happened, the Raiders would have four straight home games in December…great if they had a shot at the playoffs, not so much if they were 2-9 going into that stretch.
Fortunately us Niners fans don’t need to worry much about the playoffs.
FIVE 10am east coast games?
Fuck the NFL.
Thanks, and go As.
A no-hold-barred plummeting tailspin will do that for you
Uh, ouch.
Thanks, and go As.
Still going.
Thanks, and go As.
Chris Young + Gregorio Petit = Murderer’s Row
Once Alex Rodriguez got a hit, that was the cue to pull Price.
As if we weren’t already like the 2009 A’s…
Your challenge is to name the A’s pitcher without looking too closely at the name on his back.
My guess was that guy we got for Swisher but I couldn’t remember his name (FDLS) and it is wrong anyway.
It’s TARE, right?
NO
Angel Castro’s goal is to not be the obscure answer of a similar question 6 years from now.
I’m afraid Chad Smith has missed his best chance to be the obscure answer of a similar question.
Who?
This guy.
*glances nervously in Vin Mazzaro’s direction*
Was it Ron Flores?
I cheated. What the heck is a Cedrick Bowers?
It’s the name of the guy who I thought killed Matt Carson, but apparently not.
Yeah, I looked it up too. I feel like I’m a fairly obsessive A’s fan, but there are so damn many players who I just never paid attention to.
Looking at Matt Carson’s Fangraphs page, and he put up one of the all time insane SSS seasons for the 2013 Clevelands: .636/.692/.909 with three steals in 13 PA. Hasn’t been in the big leagues since.
If he’d just played a bit better…