I filed my Thanksgiving time off request a month ago. I don’t see any similar paperwork from any of you slackers.
Eventful week so far: Saturday rental-car nightmare (we’d decided to ditch the northern trip already, so when the right rear tire was at 20 psi and the driver’s seat started falling apart, I was quite happy to not be going over the Siskiyou pass), Sunday daytrip up to Healdsburg (trip here for dinner was nice — their homemade bangers were excellent, the Hop Rod was nigh undrinkable, the Big Black Bear Stout was … ok, but the Ryevalry was excellent), Monday daytrip down to the aquarium in Monterey, big shopping day yesterday with JP, and a trip today down to Fresno to visit relatives for Thanksgiving. Trying to get a batch of banana bread done and some stuffing to take, then hitting the road with a towel full of homemade breakfast burritos.
Only link for you lazy slugs: Berkman doesn’t want to DH.
“I’m not a DH-slash-first baseman,” Berkman told Rosenthal. “I’m a first baseman-slash-outfielder.â€
OK, one more: Jean Quan isn’t a mayor-elect-slash-ballpark-booster, she’s a mayor-elect-slash-scofflaw.
I’ve only ever been to Healdsburg to play football.
…too easy
Yesterday was the deadline to offer free agents arbitration.
Not surprisingly, Crawford, Werth, and Beltre were all offered arbitration, so signing them would cost a draft pick (2nd rounder for the A’s since our first-round pick is protected).
Of the potential DH signings, Dunn and Konerko would also cost a pick.
Berkman, Vlad, Matsui, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Pena, Manny were not offered arbitration.
Thome was not ranked, but reportedly the Twins are interesting in re-signing him.
How does it work if we sign two of these? Do we also lose a 3rd?
Yes. Not that that will ever happen, of course.
Right, just wasn’t sure on the rules.
Scientist bait.
This seems right to me:
Do you less-liberal FKers see that movie as anti-war?
Haven’t seen it, but most reviews I read seemed to agree with you and the blurb.
I can see how the “invasion was based on misinformation/lies, therefore the war is pointless” angle could be seen as anti-war. But it’s really more anti-administration than anything, from the sounds of it.
People like Palin are, in my mind, right for being grateful for what good soldiers do to make life safe for others (I’m not feeling up to debating whether that’s always the case). Where she errs, however, is in saying that any criticism of war or the motives behind war are essentially critical of the soldiers themselves.
I agree with “being grateful for what good soldiers do to make life safe for others.” In my mind, this movie is a depiction of that, with “government” types getting in his way. I’m actually a bit surprised she doesn’t praise it as pro-conservative.
Some uber-conservatives feel that any second-guessing of the war is inherently critical of the soldiers, since it delegitimizes them. A rational person can see that criticism of the administration does not equal criticism of the troops. Reviews I read when it came out talked about an apparent reverence for the troops in spite of the questionable intelligence that led to the occupation. My money’s on her having not actually seen the movie.
I’m guessing she watched it with her old ally, Kim Jong-Il.
K-Thug, validated (maybe).
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I know I’m a day early but it is almost midnight here. Enjoy the turkey.
iFSU, the turkey enjoys YOU!
Haven’t realized till now that FSU = FreeSeatUpgrade = Former Soviet Union. Coincidence?
You’d have to ask him.
Yes, coincidence. I also despise Florida State University.
hey, I drove through Tallahassee on my way here and will drive through again on my way back. I’ll spit out the window for you.
And thanks, good work on the bunting analysis.
Thank you. It’s been a fun series to do, but I think now is the time for a little break again.
Minor League Transactions
Notes that Lerew has been bad in his brief time in the majors, but has been stellar in the Venezuelan winter league, including a no-hitter.
Timmons has been at AAA for 5 years, without seeing the majors – he has a career .387 OBP in the minors, but not much power.
Well at least we managed to sign one 31 year old third baseman thus far…
This really, really sucks.
I’ll blame Comcast, because it’s easier and my experience with them in the past has been worse.
I bet DirecTV would back up the bargain truck if you called and said you were thinking about switching from Dish.
This is Dish’s response. And yes, this does really really suck.
It does seem like more of these carriage issues arise when it’s Comcast that owns the rights to the programming. Ask the fans of the NBA Blazers up in the Portland area about that; if you don’t have Comcast Cable you haven’t been able to watch the Blazers for several years now. The only time I’ve been directly affected was last year when Comcast and DirecTV got into a pissing match over carriage of Versus (which is owned by Comcast), so I missed a couple of Cal football games that were shown on Versus.
So I still have CSN California, for now. I’ve concluded, though, that if I’m blacked out of programming I want to watch due to one of these disputes, then my response needs to be to reduce my desire to watch that programming to zero and do other things with my time. At some point that may result in my not seeing A’s games for two weeks, two months or two years. Of course, the question then would be whether my desire to see A’s games on television would ever return. My Coliseum attendance, which was several games per homestand up until the summer of 1994, crashed after the 94-95 work stoppage and never recovered to a level of more than several games per year afterward.
I am thankful for FREE KRAUT!
Hear hear!
I am thankful for the effort MB puts into it.
who’s that?
Me too! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
…off to try and get my dad excited about vegan pot pie for dinner…
Seconded! Happy Thanksgiving, all!
Except that I heard TINSTAAFK. Still, praise be to fermentation in all its glory!
Long time, no kraut! Happy Thanksgiving, all. I’m thankful for your humor here; I still enjoy it whenever I get a chance.
FSU need to talk to ya..
email me…. linusalf(at)yahoo(dot)com
We excel at baseball:
What a bunch of babies. I see raccoons at close range just about every night, and all joking aside, they actually do scare me — but I certainly wouldn’t want them shot or even “removed.” They’re just doing their thing. Avoid them. If they get into your garbage can, secure it better or clean up the mess you enabled them to make. Accept the fact that if you want to live in the burbs instead of surrounded by city concrete, you have given an assortment of local animals nowhere else to live/forage/hunt but with you in your neighborhood.
Poor little raccoons…
I wonder if she does out-calls?
Every time we post that, I think, “What a lovely blazer that is!”
Plenty of raccoons (and possums) in concrete SF.
Roger Penrose claims he has found patterns in the cosmic microwave background left by supermassive black hole collisions in a pre-Big Bang aeon.
Nerd
If he’s right (which is extraordinarily unlikely), then everything else is wrong.
See, that’s what I needed.
Would a non-superstar scientist make that claim, provided the same data? (Serious question)
In cosmology, certainly. The chance of anyone spending any time considering the veracity (or even just the plausibility) of the claims is directly proportional to the status of the author though.
This is interesting, but (a) I don’t know that there are direct conclusions that can be applied to our Bay Area, and (/because of) (b) the methodology of this is not what I’d call comprehensive.
Wait, we don’t rank in the bottom of corporate sponsors? But we’ve only got a nebulous $500k promise from Clorox!
I just had a conversation with a guy from Philly yesterday about the Rays. Part of it is definitely where they play, the Trop, but the other part is the population here, even more so than California or even Arizona, is not from here. They’ve come with their own allegiances from Chicago and Cleveland and especially New York and Boston. The local team was only ever meant–only ever marketed–as a place where these people can see their team when they come to town; it was never marketed as a place to root for the stick figures the “away” teams play.
In one sense, this is smart marketing. The whole point of having a team here, from the Yankees perspective, is to have a place to see the Yankees games 10 times a year, to see the Red Sox come to town 10 times a year. The downside is you don’t build any continuity. There is no fan base–only jackholes who wanna come see the Yankees play the Washington Generals. When the Yankees play here, it is very like a Yankees home game. Not like when they come to the Coliseum. There are a lot of transplants and fair weathers that show up at the Coliseum–it’s annoying, for sure. But it’s a different scene here. The Rays are clearly the visitors here when the Yankees come to town, and that has to be ust a dagger in the heart of any Rays player.
So I can count you among the supporters of my theory that MLB is going to eliminate the A’s and Rays?
If that happens, mb, who do we switch to?
Whichever team Cust is on.
The SurfDawgs?
{searches MCC for dead horse ani gif}
Your contraction theory makes more sense than moving either of the teams to Las Vegas, which shares most of the issues relating to the Tampa Bay area described in the article plus the one mentioned by LB above.
I also think there’s a general sense of “get the fuck out of our stadium” when the Yankees/Red Sox invade the Coliseum–there’s not many of us, but we are quite rabid and not entirely safe/stable. I think most of the visiting fans sense that and are aware of it. That is not the case in St. Pete.
So, if we date the A’s development of a San Jose stadium from the beginning of their efforts, it’s already built! (The alternate conclusion from the SJ move is that a stadium in Oakland will be completed on an infinite timeline.)
Also, isn’t he legally required to not make these jokes any longer? I thought the terms of the divorce clearly stated…
I thought we got you for weekends and holidays.
You do. And for Breaking Bad season.
Ahhh, interesting — remember that “just PR” quote from Iwakuma’s agent regarding the alleged offer to Beltre? I guess we didn’t consider the possibility that he was referring to Boras, not Beane.
Yeah. Odd thing to make up though.
Joan Ryan is a guilty/limousine-liberal-slash-idiot
Also: she works for the Giants?
leslie Nielsen is a … ok, won’t go there. He’s dead.
Wow:
I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPad
Stevie Johnson
StevieJohnson13
“Yeah, we were in the game, til Jesus made me fumble.”
It wasn’t a fumble, it was a dropped touchdown pass. In overtime.
I know. At the risk of having Lookout Landing header thrown at me, he was starting on my fantasy team.
Super Bowls XXV-XXVIII
Music City Miracle
Dropped touchdown pass in OT
I think there’s a credible case that God hates the Bills.
He is a son of a bitch.
Refreshing. I’m still hoping for the day when a victorious athlete starts his post-game interview with “I’d just like to say that all glory goes to Satan, the Prince of Darkness…”
Should have been an XFL player gimmick.
Like all wise beings, God hates (American) football.
Booo
That’s awesome. It’s hard for me to stay mad at Stevie Johnson.
My favorite part is the “THX THO…”
Me too–he really ended on a high note.