Yankees All-Time Win shares

Sporting Goods

Readers of my previous blog may remember my "fun with win shares" series, which sometimes didn't say much but hopefully helped to put the contributions of today's players in perspective. At my parents house in CT, I don't have access to my reference books to update all of those posts, but I can start by looking at the Yankees, with a little help from last year's post, and hardballtimes.com.

For a brief explanation of win shares, a useful measure for quantifying and comparing players' overall performance, see here. Note that Win Shares listed are only for the player's win shares while with the Yankees.

Yankees Career Win Shares leaders: through 2005

1. Babe Ruth - 574 - Shocking. It's only this close because he played for the Sox for so many years before coming to the Bronx.
2. Mickey Mantle - 565 - Mick's contribution to the pinstripes was almost as large as Ruth's, and well above anyone else.
3. Lou Gehrig - 489
4. Joe Dimaggio - 387
5. Yogi Berra - 375 - it doesn't get much more impressive than the Yankee top 5.

6. Bill Dickey - 314 - You think of the Yankees having scores of legends, but the rest of the old timers I would consider less than legends. The difference between the Yankees and everyone else is their top 5. Most teams are lucky to have 2 guys wih the impact of the guys in the Yankees top 5.
7. Bernie Williams - 303 - Last year I expressed shock that Bernie was #7 on the Yankee list, and despite a mediocre year, he crept closer to #6 in 2005. He would need to repeat his 2005 number in 2006 to reach Dickey. However, about 20% of his value came from his fielding, which will be significantly reduced assuming that our friend Mr. Damon stays healthy and Bernie stays at DH.

8. Red Ruffing - 265
9. Don Mattingly - 263 - I will not debate that he meant a lot to the team and Yankee fans, but his career win shares total is less than Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, Larry Walker, Jeff Kent, Jim Thome, Jim Edmonds, Chipper Jones, and John Olerud, to name a few. While some of these guys have probably held on a bit too long, others are still kicking along. Would you consider any of them but Kent and Jones even potential hall of famers?
9. Roy White (tie with Mattingly)
11. Whitey Ford - 261
12. Willie Randolph - 251 - Chill's favorite Yankee turned manager.
13. Derek Jeter - 245 - Captain Intangible tangibly climbed from 16 to 13 in 2005, and now holds a lock on "greatest Yankee SS of all time" rights. A repeat of his strong year, and we'll find him at #8 next year. No offense to Willie, but I'd think that Jeter already holds the title of greatest middle infielder in Yankee history.
14. Tony Lazzeri - 243
15. Phil Rizzuto - 231

I'm never sure what to make of closers and Win Shares, but Mariano is 4-5 years from making this list. In other words, it ain't gonna happen.

Mmmmm....meme-y

Whatever

Via Washington Monthly, via...well via at least 8 other people going back, so that I stopped trying to figure out where it originated, the meme of four.

What do you got?

Four jobs you've had in your life: Analyst, Chemist, Assistant Janitor, Camp counselor

Four movies you could watch over and over: Austin Powers, Spaceballs, Airplane, Star Wars

Four places you've lived: New York, NY; Madison, CT; Hanover, NH; Maynard, MA

Four TV shows you love to watch: The Daily Show, Lost, The Office (US), West Wing

Four places you've been on vacation: Grand Bahama Island; Montpelier, France; Geneva Point, New Hampshire; Puerto Rico

Four websites you visit daily: Surviving Grady, Hardball Times, Atrios, and Daily411!

Four of your favorite foods: Cheese, Ice cream, Sausage, Burgers (generic, I know)

Four places you'd rather be: Right now? My apartment, Madison, the Carribean, Costa Rica - pretty much anywhere but work.

Just Shut Up

Sporting Goods

Johnny Damon's father, on the departure of the Red Sox third best hitter to the Yankees:

"Mark it down: It's going to be another Babe Ruth. They sent Johnny off just like they sent off Babe Ruth. It's going to be another big, big mistake. They made the biggest mistake of their lives."

Even the ESPN News anchors were laughing at the old man last night.

For the rest of us

Whatever

Happy Festivus, everyone! My last day in the office until January 3...it's a Festivus miracle!

Underrated scenes in Simpsons history

SPORTING GOODS

During a game of sandlot baseball (may have the exact quotes a bit off):

Bart: (at bat) "I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
Milhouse: (pitching) "And I'm Esteban Yan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays!"
Nelson: (behind the plate) "And I'm the person at the baseball game that nobody likes!"
Bart: "Who, the umpire?"
Nelson: "No. Billy Crystal."

We'll forgive the writers for having Bart pretend to be a pitcher while batting.

A $ad Day

SPORTING GOODS

A transit strike, flu-like symptoms, no laptop, and a 4:55am wake up call left me finding out about Johnny Damon in the worst possible way - on my voicemail from an obnoxious Yankee fan.

I feel kind of the same way that I did about the Pedro Martinez farewell last year. Yes, I will miss him. Yes, I loved watching him. Yes, I think he'll continue to be a great player. Yes, his departure makes the Red Sox worse. No, I don't think the Red Sox should have matched the offer.

This isn't just an arms race with the Yankees, and although they can afford to, New York overspent on this one. But no Yankee fan is really going to care about that as they cruise to the playoffs yet again, and when the Red Sox are playing Graffanino, Loretta, and Dave Roberts (or whomever) up the middle, we won't care about that either. Even if economics make this the right move, it is still a move that makes the Red Sox worse and the Yankees better, and that can't ever be good.

I'll try to break out the calculator soon and see if I can quantify the difference Damon makes, to both offenses.

Mad Mel

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

The teaser for Mel Gibson's new Mayan-downfall adventure movie Apocalypto is up. I defy anyone who doesn't think he's nuts to look at this picture. He actually put a frame of himself into the trailer. (It's about 1:46 in, just before the monkey screams.) Jeffrey Wells describes him as looking like "a mad prophet from the outback on Ecstasy. Nutso smile, lit cigarette, eyes a-poppin', wild-ass hair..." No argument here.

Reason to Love New York #55

SPORTING GOODS

I was confused by the time I got to the third rule but knew deep down I would love this game if I were a nine year-old. From New York magazine's "123 Reasons to Love New York:"

Because You Can Give Kids a Ball and Some Concrete, and They'll Invent a Game Called Pegacide

If dodgeball and handball have proved anything, it’s that a kid doesn’t need much more than a rubber ball and a patch of pavement to have fun. This year’s playground sensation, Pegacide, is a cross between the two. Like all games kids love, its rules are byzantine and seem to resist adult understanding. Here’s how it’s played. Take a breath.

(1) Players gather in a circle about ten feet from a wall and toss the handball into the air. The person who catches the ball is “It.”

(2) The other players scatter, running to touch the wall before “It” can peg them—gently, of course—with the ball.

(3) If a player is pegged, he receives one out. However, if “It” misses his mark, he then must run to the wall to avoid being pegged by the other players. If he is hit, he gets an out.

(4) If a player runs to get a faraway ball, the other players can yell “challenge” and have him attempt to hit the wall from a distance. If that seems too tough, he can yell “safety” and have someone else take the throw, at the risk of getting pegged himself.

(5) Once a player has three outs, he can become a “ghost” and continue playing—without pegging anyone—by catching the ball and tossing it against the wall to keep it in play.

(6) When the game is down to two players, they take turns throwing the ball against the wall and trying to catch it. When Player 1 misses it, Player 2 will try to grab the ball and peg Player 1 before he can reach the wall. If he does, Player 2 wins.

(7) If you throw the ball too hard at someone, you get an out. If you throw the ball out of bounds on purpose, you receive two outs.

The game’s secrets? “You have to run fast and be able to dodge,” says Isabelle Romero-North, a 9-year-old Pegacider from Forest Hills. “You don’t want to nail the person,” adds fellow player Henry Schwartz, 9. Still, accidents happen. “I once threw the ball against the wall and it hit me in the eye,” says Henry’s friend, Diego Martinez, also 9. “Teachers don’t like Pegacide at all.”

Pegacide. That is one of the best game names I've ever heard. I would buy tickets to watch a game called Pegacide.

Blinding Them with Science

MANIFESTO

A Federal judge has ruled that "'Intelligent design' cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district." Thank Jesus.

Desperate Measures

MANIFESTO

Jonathan Alter at Newsweek reports about the Boy King's desperate attempt to stop the Times from exposing his shredding of the Constitution. On December 6th, BK held a meeting with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller in the Oval Office "in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story." Sure would love to have been a fly on that wall.

The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference...(he) was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story —which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.

Like most big political scandals (and this one is going to be waaaaaay bigger than Plamegate), Snoopgate should never have happened. The court that issues the warrants the White House was required by law to obtain is designed to respond almost instantly to government requests.

(It can approve) eavesdropping in hours, even minutes, if necessary. In fact, the law allows the government to eavesdrop on its own, then retroactively justify it to the court, essentially obtaining a warrant after the fact. Since 1979, the FISA court has approved tens of thousands of eavesdropping requests and rejected only four. There was no indication the existing system was slow —as the president seemed to claim in his press conference —or in any way required extra-constitutional action.

The retroactive thing is what gets me. If there really were a "ticking-bomb" scenario like BK implies, this part of the law is designed to be a contigency. Instead, the White House just ignored it. In 27 years, only four requests have been denied. Four. This law is practically a rubber stamp. Why did BK authorize a secret program that was wholly unnecessary?

As I said before, almost all major political scandals needn't to ever have happened. Nixon was a fool to break into the DNC because he was going to trounce McGovern anyway. Clinton shouldn't have lied to the Grand Jury because the American people would have forgiven his adultery. The Boy King should have just followed the FISA laws since they already gave him all the power he needed to investigate terrorist ties. Each of these Presidents made colossal errors in judgment and will always be haunted by them. I'd say I hope BK gets thrown out of office like Tricky Dick but then we'd be left with the guy who probably thought up the whole evil thing up in the first place.

Post #500

Whatever

Wow, who would have thought that we would have reached 500 posts so quickly. So I'm going to take this milestone and do a little self-congratulatory thing here. This little blog is 8 months old or so and I think it is now time to review the niches each of us has carved out since we began.

Monocle - Our newest member and the original godfather of this blog. Our resident coherent, rational, well-informed political blogger. Solely responsible for getting us to 500 posts about a month sooner than we otherwise would have.

Sergio - Our movie nut. Almost too knowledgable about movies. Also our photoshop genius.

Darlucky - Stat-head. Provides us all with better analysis and opinion about professional sports than you get from most other sources.

B - Food provider. Thanks to B, I'll never go hungry. The post about best take-out in Manhattan has probably been the most viewed post from this site. I go back to it all the time.

Chill - Thanks to me this site will never be without rants about sports and politics, and occassionally, movies. Long, bitter rants. Almost pathologically obsessed with the idiocy of the media. Left speechless by the idiocy of the current administration. Deeply saddened by the idiocy of the Democratic party.

Hopefully this will keep going. We've seem to have worked up quite a head of steam. I know I enjoy the comments more and more every day. So for that, thanks to those who read us every day. Even if it is barely more than those that contribute, at least it gives us all a way to keep in touch.

Lazy Sunday

Universal Remote

This is the best SNL skit I've seen in years. May be funniest to New Yorkers, but definitely the hardest I've laughed at SNL since the Will Ferrell days, or at least since Justin Timberlake hosted.

Worth the wait for the video to load. Of course, kind of sad that SNL's best output this year has not been "live," but I won't complain as it's brilliant.

Misleading headline

SPORTING GOODS

"Indians beef up bullpen with deals for Graves, Karsay."

Anyone who follows up NY baseball knows that this move is nothing more than a way to get some warm bodies who used to be decent into spring training. However, as I hold out hope that all the preseason hype that is building around the Indians for 2006 comes nowhere near fruition, the idea that these two clowns may take up roster space in Cleveland next year is enough to make me happy.

I just don't see any way that Cleveland doesn't have two guys in AAA (with no real shot of making the roster) that are better than Karsay and Graves. Some day teams will figure out the concept of replacement players - a player is only valuable if he cannot be replaced easily and cheaply. Indians fans can only hope that their manager has a good grasp on the idea.

Movie Review - King Kong

Universal Remote

When Sergio began his countdown of his ten most anticipated movies of the fall I hadn't even considered going to see King Kong. To be honest, I didn't care one whit about a love affair between an overgrown ape and a 30's vaudeville performer. And then the reviews came. It was called the best movie of the year one of the best movies of the year by Roger Ebert. The New York Times published a generally positive review. Everybody seemed to be on the same page. So I figured I would be missing out if I didn't see it on the big screen. I got tickets for 10:00 Friday night and headed out. This was going to be great.

It is not great. It is not good. It is awful. It is a bloated, self-indulgent, overwrought special effects mess. With all of these blockbusters, the story is supposed to be secondary. But at some point, every movie has to offer something more of a plot than simply that which is necessary to advance from one special effects set piece to the next. Oh a few story lines are advanced but they are quickly dropped. Instead we got special effects action. And lots of it. Scene after scene of Kong and humans fighting various creatures. Over and over. And each scene is longer than the next. And they never end. Moreover, ther is no reason to care what happens because none of the characters are ever developed in any way that you would care about them. So you are left to watch in awe at what Peter Jackson has created. At least, that is what is supposed to happen. It is hard to be in awe when some of the special effects look so horrible. For example, in the Pamplona like running of the Dinosaurs, the contrast between real and computer is so obvious that it completely takes you out of the movie. Perhaps it would not matter if it was thrilling and compelling. But there can be no thrills if you don't care about the characters. I simply didn't care.

It did not help matters that the theater was packed with Peter Jackson nerds. I knew I was in trouble when they started clapping at the opening credits. It got worse when they clapped when Kong appeared. It became intolerable when they oohed and ahhed at the special effects, and laughed at all the creepy creatures. It is impossible to build suspense when people are laughing at everything. The inability of the modern movergoer to discern what is irony and what is not might be a sign of the apocalypse. I thought for a moment that this might be the reason I hated the movie so much. Luckily, Time's Richard Schickel convinced me otherwise. He writes, "[a]nd our response to the ape's doom, once touched by authentic tragedy, is now marked by relief that this wretchedly excessive movie is finally over."

USA! USA!

SPORTING GOODS

I never really get into the Winter Olympics (or the "Winter Games" as former Apple II owners might know them), so the next time for me to display my battered patriotism appears to be the World Baseball Classic.

While there are some interesting subplots (Will Cuba be allowed to play? Does anyone want A-Rod on their team? Can I really root for Roger Clemens?), the main plot will be how will the center of the baseball universe (USA) fare against countries who put baseball at the center of their universe (Dominican Republic, Venezuela).

There are a lot of stars on those teams (how is Soriano/ Tejada/ Pujols/ Manny/ Vlad/ Ortiz for a murderer's row), the fun part for me will be watching to see how the US squad gets put together. It's hard to predict who might come on board, or who will drop out for health reasons, but the MLB has released a list of players who have said they will play.

Taking a quick look at who has said yes, here is the current US lineup as I see it.

Johnny Damon, CF
Derek Jeter, SS
Barry Bonds, DH
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Lance Berkman, RF
Eric Chavez, 3B
Jason Varitek, C
Vernon Wells, RF
Michael Young, 2B

Bench: Joe Mauer and Michael Barrett (catchers), Derek Lee (1B), Jimmy Rollins (middle infield), Craig Biggio (2B/OF), Chipper Jones (3B/OF), Carl Crawford (OF)

I hate to cut Adam Dunn, David Wright, and Juan Pierre, but I had to do it for the flexibility that Biggio, Chipper, and Jimmy Rollins provide. The team has to have three catchers.

Starting pitchers: Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay, Dontrelle Willis, Jake Peavy, Mark Buehrle
Middle relief: John Smoltz, Andy Pettite, Barry Zito
Short relief: Billy Wagner, B.J. Ryan, Brad Lidge, Huston Street, Chad Cordero, Jason Isringhausen

There are going to be some restrictions on how long pitchers can pitch, due to the MLB wanting to protect their players. So having a stacked bullpen, including some starters working out of the pen, will be a huge advantage. I wanted to keep Ben Sheets for sentitmental reasons (2000 Olympian) but just couldn't find him a place on this star-studded pitching roster. If 14 pitchers turns out to be excessive, the US could sub in Wright or Dunn for one pitcher, but they have to carry 13 per the rules.

In the end, the US will have by far the best pitching in the tournament. The DR has the best lineup in the tournament, although the US offers more depth from 1 through 16. It will be just if these two teams end up meeting in the final. Anything else would have to be considered a disappointment. No offense meant to Venezuela, Japan, and Puerto Rico.

30,000 Iraqis

Manifesto

I've often wondered in this space about the number of Iraqis that have been killed during the Iraq war. Well, apparently the number is about 30,000. There has been a lot written about this lately, including much about how the President cracked a joke almost immediately after, but I think the important thing is the context in which this number was revealed.

The President is in the midst of a tour of the country, making seven speeches about the merits and benefits of the Iraq war. In these speeches the President has offered much of the same rationales we've heard over the last two years. My favorite has always been the "flypaper theory." The "flypaper theory" is the "we fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here." That's great and all, but how in the hell did the Iraqis get so lucky as to be the chosen victims of our little preemptive war. There are now 30,000 dead Iraqis. As the President admitted, he is "responsible" for taking us to war on "faulty intelligence." As such, the President impliedly admitted that Iraq presented no imminent threat. There was no danger. There was nothing.

30,000 Iraqis are dead. And yet we have no investigation into how all of these decisions were made. Somewhere, the powers that be in the commentariat have determined that Americans are more interested in solving current problems and not "reliving past decisions." I wonder if the families 30,000 dead Iraqis might want to know why their loved ones had to die.

And maybe we, as Americans, might want to know what we could have done differently to prevent this slaughter.

I know nothing in this post is groundbreaking. I write this more because I can't believe this isn't being written in every paper, every day.

Don't Mess with Mahoney

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Steve Guttenberg, everyone's least favorite 80s star, tells it like it is and it is hilarious. The guys over at HBO should sign him up to play himself on Entourage, bro.

You had a string of hits in the 1980s. What have you been up to lately?
There are 100,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild. Only 2,000 of them make more than $75,000 (£42,000) a year. That means 98,000 actors make less than $75,000 a year. From 1980 to 1990, I shot more films than any other actor in the Screen Actors Guild apart from Gene Hackman. Everyone keeps asking me that stupid question: "What are you doing?" I say: "Why do I need to do anything? I'm rich." Do you want me to be poor again? Do you want me to go back to making tomato soup out of ketchup and water? Or would you like me to be a multimillionaire and be rewarded for all the entertainment I gave you for all those years? I'm enjoying life now. If I was a plumber and I'd done the most plumbing jobs between 1980 and 1990, everyone would be saying: "What a great plumber" - he says "f**k you to the world and he's enjoying himself." But for some reason, as an actor, you're not allowed to say: "I'm f**king rich, bro."

If you're so rich, why do you work at all any more?
I love the fame and the money and the power. You have to keep working to have that. Listen to Hugh Grant. He freaking hates acting but he still works to have the money, fame and power. If he didn't work, they'd forget about him - and when he arrived at a restaurant, a new Hugh Grant would have the best table. Fame, money and power: that's why people become actors, directors or producers. They love the juice. I don't care who you are. I'm sure if you dig deep, Joe and Ralph Fiennes do it because they want to be noticed. It's great to see people liking my work but [sigh] I'm just saying what the truth is.

Thanks, it makes a change.
I'm not going to say "I'm an actor and I'm changing the world." Ewan McGregor - who cares? God bless you, Ewan, you're cute and adorable but just do your job. Jude Law, Sean Penn, any of these guys, they'll tell you they're not doing it for free.

More Development?

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Arrested Development may not be dead after all. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are both reporting that ABC and Showtime are each in negotiations to take over the show from Fox.

Frozen bananas for everyone!

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: The Climactic Death of Dark Ninja

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I highly recommend this short film that is being shown on IFC this month. I stumbled across it by accident, after a family member asked me to record another short that IFC is showing this month.

I enjoyed the short I was asked to record, Right Foot, Left Foot, about a guy (who you'll recognize from commercials) with a crappy life and crappy job, who deals with it all with his imagination. There are some funny moments, and it's all very well put together.

But another short included in the same half-hour or hour, "The Climactic Death of Dark Ninja," steals the show. I don't know if it's the fantastic timing of (some of) the actors, the clever little twists that really made me laugh, or the fact that its plot (about a bunch of kids making a movie about ninjas) hit so close to home, but I highly recommend it. Especially if you've ever filmed, or been involved in the production of, an amateur ninja movie.

You can catch both short films on IFC, but because of the strange schedules, I suggest setting your Tivo.

Show times:
Wednesday, December 14 3:45PM
Tuesday, December 20 5:00AM
Thursday, December 22 5:05AM
Saturday, December 24 5:00AM
Saturday, December 24 3:30PM
Monday, December 26 5:45PM

Da Trailer

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

A few thoughts from the new full-length trailer for Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code.

1) Tom Hanks' hair is, well, unexpected.
2) Paul Bettany looks awesome as an albino.
3) No one speaks portentous dialogue better than Ian McKellan. (Ex: Lord of the Rings, X-Men, etc.)

I feel like a bit of a tool writing about what will be next year's least surprising blockbuster. (Does anyone not know the twist?) Movies like this are far more interesting to me six months before they are released than six months after.

Geniuses

MANIFESTO

Whoever set up the transit workers contract to exprire 10 days before Christmas was a genius. Between the holiday crowds and the temperatures in the teens, there really couldn't be a worse time for this strike.

Group of Death

Sporting Goods

Well, it looks like the US has ended up in the toughest group in the World Cup, being paired up with Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana.

Ghana is a good African side, but the Czech Republic is currently ranked second in the world, and Italy 12th. A group's tougness can really be measured by its top three teams, since only two go through. So, the US will have to either send Italy or the Czech Republic home early. What a disappointment as I sat with my coworkers and watched the draw come up - we had been strongly hoping against being put in group B, C or E, and almost squeaked through before seeing the US name get dropped down to E.

Italy always finds something to complain to FIFA about - I would say being picked as a number one seed and then being put in a group with two of the top 8 ranked teams in the world will give them a great chance to bitch.

What is very cool is that we can already see who we're playing and when:
Monday June 12, noon, US vs Czech Republic
Saturday June 17, noon, US vs Italy
Thursday June 22, 10am, US vs Ghana

I wouldn't be surprised if that Thursday game leaves us needing a win, and a win from the Czech Republic over Italy, for us to go through.

But for more bad news, if we come in second in the group, we are likely playing Brazil in the round of 16. So to have a chance to get as far as we did in 2002, we really need to win our group. Anything can happen, but yikes!

Bits and bobs

Sporting Goods

Sorry for the title, I've been talking to British people all day.

So is the rumor about a potential Miggy for Manny swap more than just speculation, or is an actual possibility? You can make me root for Tejada, but you can't make me like him! For those that haven't been subjected to my rant, he's on my list of top 5 players that I hate with Roger "Pass the Krispy Kremes" Clemens, Erubiel "I f***ing hate that guy" Durazo, Karim "who is Karim Garcia?" Garcia, and Jeff "That security guard is looking at me funny" Nelson.

World Cup Draw is today, I'll probably post on it later. Two notes on the US: the England coach has (smartly) listed the US as one of the teams he does not want to draw in the tournament, and it turns out that on the FIFA rating system, the US lost out by one measly point in getting a top seed (they had 43 to Argentina and Italy's 44 - Brazil was tops with 64).

HOLIDAY party last night, so it's going to be a long day for me. Already has been, actually.

Great Movie Dialogue

Universal Remote

Great movie speeches are awesome. This is from Stephen Gaghan's Syriana. I'm not sure this rises up to Michael Douglas' "Greed is good" speech from Wall Street but it's pretty good.

"Danny" is played by Tim Blake Nelson and "Bennett" is played by Jeffrey Wright.

DANNY

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he’s gonna run this up the flag pole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir.

(mimics prosecutor)

“But, Danny, these are sovereign nations.” Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? “But, Danny, they’re codified by the U.N. charter!” Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods!

(beat)

...Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of
fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets.

(beat)

Corruption... is how we win.

BENNETT

You broke the law, Mr. Dalton.

DANNY

Oh, who gives a shit!

I pulled this from Roger Ebert's four-star review. Check it out and see once again why he is our best film critic and I am not.

I'm officially a cranky old man

Sporting Goods

Maybe its because I'm in a pissy mood but this really bothers me. Two years ago Miguel Tejada flees the Oakland A's for the Orioles' money, 6 years for $72 million. Now the A's were in the middle of a streak of playoff appearances, a streak that ended only after Tejada left. The O's, well, not only have they been awful for the last half a dozen years or so but they play in the most competitive division in baseball. Tejada knew this when he signed with the O's. So you gotta figure that Tejada knew he was just doing it for the money. Well, now we have Tejada demanding a trade:

"I've been with the Orioles for two years and things haven't gone in the direction that we were expecting, so I think the best thing will be a change of scenery," Tejada told The Associated Press during a telephone interview in his native Dominican Republic.

I realize this is par for the course these days, A-Rod, etc. And as regular readers of this blog know, I'm not a huge fan of ownership or management on most issues. But this is just ridiculous.

Dear players,

You have every right to sign with any team that you want, for as much money as you can demand. You have no right to win. And there are no guarantees that your team will win, even if you, with all your greatness and talent, choose to sign with them. In fact, if you sign with a second-rate team that has been poorly run for years, take up 1/6 of the payroll yourself and they fail to turn it around, suck it up. What did you think was going to happen?

Just to be clear, it isn't the money that offends me. Hell, if I were a player I would find it really hard to take less money to guarantee that I would play for a winner. And I suspect most fans, despite the loyalty they expect players to have to
"their team," would do the same. But don't take the money one season and then claim you "just want to win" two years later. I have no sympathy for you. You knew what you were getting into.

Making sense

Sporting Goods

I am keeping faith that someone has a plan, as the Red Sox roster is very strange looking right now. The current infield is Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis at the corners, and Mark Loretta and (fill in the blank but for now Alex Cora is the only SS on the roster) up the middle. Meanwhile, the backup catcher is gone, the center fielder hasn't signed yet, the left fielder wants to be traded, and the right fielder was rumored in trades yesterday.

So there's no point in really trying to figure it out now, as there have to be at least three more significant moves on the way, even if one of the "moves" is not trading Manny.

At least we still have Papelbon!

MOVIE REVIEW: Syriana

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

They were right, Fat Clooney delivers. George Clooney's Bob Barnes is the heart of Syriana and he gives the best performance of his career. Conveying an undercurrent of despair absent from his previous performances, Clooney's weariness and disillusionment mirror the mood of the whole film. Syriana was #2 on my list of most anticipated films of the fall and perhaps that is why I was a touch disappointed when I left the theater. It is undoubtably an accomplished film worthy of great praise. It tackles issues movies rarely touch and doesn't pull any punches. (Given its politics, it was a small miracle the producers got anyone to pay for it.) It tells a complicated and sometimes confusing tale without really stopping to explain anything to the audience. Instead, it immerses us into a world where politics and business are one and the same and forces us to figure out the connections between each character and their actions. Few movies are this smart and treat their audiences the same.

Gaghan won an Oscar for writing the brillian Traffic and Syriana is an obvious companion piece. It you liked Soderbergh's see-how-everything-connects film about the illegal drug trade, then you will undoubtably like this film. But make no mistake, Traffic is a superior film. All three of its storylines were compelling and sometimes breathless whereas I would argue Syriana only has one (Fat Clooney) that really succeeds. The Matt Damon and Jeffrey Wright sections are interesting, but in the end, are missing the emotional component of say the Michael Douglas trying-to-find-his-daughter section of Traffic. Hell, even the Catherine Zeta-Jones part was more interesting and she was completely dispicable right from the start. It's not that Damon and Wright are not good, it's just that their stories seem a little lacking. Usually I think films are too long, but Syriana is one that may have been better a little longer.

I know this review sounds like a negative but it really isn't. In fact, in the week since I've seen it, my opinions of Syriana have only grown more positive. But I think if you see it with slightly lowered expectations (or at least not sky-high like mine), you will enjoy it more.

Brokeback Mountain

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

If anyone is interested, E. Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" is available online at The New Yorker. It is an absolutely exquisite piece of work and reading it is a far better use of thirty minutes than watching that re-run of The Simpsons for the eighth time.

World Cup update

It's been a while since the last World Cup post, after the US came through as group champions. On Friday, we'll find out who the US will have to go through to get to the second round of World Cup play, but we've got some clues, as the seedings have been announced.

The top eight seeds (for the eight groups) are Germany, Brazil, Spain, England, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy. That means the US will be paired with one of these teams.

I'm not shocked that the US is not included in that group. However, what is surprising is that US is not included while Mexico is. In case you forgot, US won the CONCACAF group over Mexico, have dominated them over the last several years, and beat them in the last World Cup. And before you think that the difference must then be their FIFA rankings, the second and third ranked teams did not get #1 seeds.

So that makes the US road slightly more difficult. But we do know that the US won't be matched up with any of the following teams: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago.

Great. So it will be the US with one of the #1 seeds, a European squad, and an African or South American side. We could realistically be in a group with France, Ecuador, and the Czech Republic (the second ranked team in the world). Or, we could be in a group with Spain, Toga, and the Ukraine.

Fingers crossed.

Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow

SPORTING GOODS

If you read Moneyball, then you have to read author Michael Lewis' "Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep" from this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach. He basically turned a piss-poor program into a Division-1 offensive powerhouse by throwing away the old playbook and rethinking how a football offense can be run. He is also a crazy eccentric who likes to give his players hour-long dissertations about pirates. (Very amusing.)

I watch football but know almost nothing about how it is played. That is to say I can recite old maxims like "you have to establish a running game in order to have an effective passing attack" but I have no clue about Xs and Os. Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow means nothing to me. But to Mike Leach, it is a whole new way to play football.

Like Billy Beane in Moneyball, Mike Leach has brought new thinking to a sport and a coaching establishment that doesn't really want it. And like Beane before him, Leach is seen as an outsider, as someone not to be trusted. But he is also someone who may revolutionize how the game is played. I don't give a lick about college football, but I will now play close attention to Leach. Not knowing about the intricacies of formations and play calling may make the article more interesting because you don't have any preconceptions to overcome. Kudos to Lewis for once again shining a light on a true innovator. (He is fast becoming my favorite sports writer anywhere.) This is truly fascinating stuff. Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow indeed.

The tape

Sporting Goods

No, not another "leaked" sex tape, this one you can access from the NY Times website. Click on video under the picture.

The Tape is of Reggie Bush's high school highlights. He often lined up as a receiver, so they could do more with him by getting him out into space. But some of his moves, including the first highlight, are just unbelievable. Make sure you watch on high bandwidth so it is fluid.

The funniest part of the article about this legend in the making:

When Bush was 9 years old, his stepfather put him in a Pop Warner league because the boy was too hyper to keep around the house all the time. In the first game, Bush reportedly finished with seven touchdowns and 287 yards. In the second game, he had eight touchdowns and 544 yards. "I couldn't believe what I saw," said his stepfather, Lamar Griffin.

Movie Review - Masters of Horror: Homecoming

Universal Remote

On Friday night, Showtime aired Homecoming, a psuedo-zombie movie that was basically a critique of the Bush war in Iraq and the politicization and exploitation of the war by conservative commentators.

I won't get too much into the plot because we've been living much of it. Short version: a conservative speech writer states on "Larry King" that if he had one wish it would be for those who have given their life in Iraq to come back and tell us how important their sacrifice was and what a good cause it was for. After the President uses this line at his party's convention, dead soldiers (only those that didn't believe they died for a just cause) rise from their graves with one solitary purpose, to vote. The movie tracks the conservative attempt to exploit these soldiers for political purposes, and then, when they realize that they oppose their party and the war, to intern the zombie soldiers and prevent them from telling their story. In doing so, the movie-conservatives parrot many of the things that have been said about all those who oppose them and many of the things used to sell the war.

In the end, the movie isn't very scary. In fact, it is a completely ineffective "horror movie." But one thing struck me as fascinating. As the first movie to address the War in Iraq, it offered something that needed to be done, but just hasn't yet. Because of the format, a one-hour short, they condensed all of the arguments that conservatives have used to support the war and attack their opponents into one neat little hour-long package. As such, all of the illogical contradictions and all of the pure hate were on display in one place. Even as somebody who has been paying attention and knows about all of this, I found this simple act to be very effective in exposing the simple-minded hate and the purely political nature of how the war was, and continues to be, sold. It simply reinforced my belief that the most effective opposition starts with somebody putting all of the facts together in one place, from the criticisms from Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill, to the statements about WMDs by Cheney, Rice and the President. Taken individually, it is easy to dismiss each of these pieces of evidence. But gathered together in one place, the truth is undeniable.

The Mets - 2006 NL East Champs?

Sporting Goods

Last year, the New York Mets finished in third place. It was their highest finish since they made the World Series in 2000. The season was all about growth: The emergence of young David Wright, who looks like he will soon be the best third-baseman in the NL. An injury free season from Jose Reyes, who is still young but has tremendous potential and is one of the most exciting players I've ever watched run the bases. The startling rise of Aaron Heilman, who went from failed prospect to effective starter to lights out reliever. (This is my favorite story of last season and the one that I think most Met fans forget. Heilman was just flat-out unhittable for the last 3 months of the season, with more than a K per inning and a .65 ERA after the all-star break. Why again didn't Willie make him the closer when Looper was blowing games?) And 100 good at-bats from rookie Mike Jacobs, which the Mets turned into Carlos Delgado.

Other than the emergence of those players, though, there wasn't much that went right for the Mets. Mike Cameron was injured most of the year. Carlos Beltran played with a hamstring injury for months and was never the player he should have been. Their first basemen, with the exception of Mike Jacobs for the last month (poised to be a monster for the Marlins), were the worst collection of hacks in the NL. Victor Zambrano and Kaz Ishii inexplicably started for much of the season, preventing the Mets from putting together a meaningful winning streak. Then there was the bullpen that blew more saves than I can remember. Despite this, the Mets scored more runs than they allowed, and based on run differential should have been in the thick of the wildcard race until the end of the season.

So what have the Mets done this offseason. They've addressed their holes at first base (Delgado), catcher (Lo Duca) and closer (Wagner). In each case, they've done so with former all-star players. And, as of yet, they haven't really given a whole lot away to get these chips. Moreover, every player they've added, they poached from a Division rival. On top of that, the Braves just lost Rafael Furcal to the Dodgers. So at this point, given the decline of their rivals and the acquisitions by the Mets, you have to say that the Mets are the prohibitive favorites in the NL East.

Which makes me wonder why the Mets want to keep making moves. Why trade Kris Benson? And why ravage the farm system to get Manny Ramirez? I don't get it. The Mets absolutely cannot mortgage their future by trading a 20 year-old phenom prospect, Lastings Milledge, or by giving away Heilman for a big name. Sure they may help themselves next year but in two years the Mets may look like the aging "superstar" laden team across the river in the Bronx. If anything, 2005 proves that young players, if given a chance, can perform better than imported veteran players. (And if the Mets didn't realize this from their own young players, they should have learned it from watching the Division Champion Atlanta Braves.) I can only wonder why the Mets don't realize this and continue to chase "names." If they do all the things that are being speculated by those in "the know," this team could get old real quick and whatever success they have will be short-lived.

The New York Marlins

Sporting Goods

Well, the Mets have continued their offseason trend of poaching players from division rivals. First it was Delgado from the Marlins. That was followed closely by signing Billy Wagner from the Phillies. And now, it appears, the Mets have taken Paul Lo Duca off the hands of the Marlins. I don't know yet what the Mets gave up, but this looks like a money move.

Here's why. Lo Duca is already a 33 year old catcher. So he's old. Yes, he has been an all-star the last three years but, a quick look at his numbers shows that he is clearly on the decline. Actually, with the exception of 2001, he has never been that good. He is a singles hitter, .380 slugging % last year (career .417), that doesn't get on base too often, career .339 on-base %. On top of that, he can't throw out runners. Last year he threw out 25% of runners, although his career number is much better (33%).

Now, admittedly, Molina and Hernandez aren't much better hitters or better behind the plate. Which means this is all about money. Lo Duca costs about $4.5 million for next season. Rumors have it that the Mets offered Molina and Hernandez about $7 million a season. So the Mets saved $2.5 million but gave up a couple of pitching prospects. So really, the Mets took $2.5 million in exchange for a couple of prospects. It is worth it? Depends on the prospects, I guess.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader O, it look like the Mets traded one of their best pitching prospects 19 year-old Gaby Hernandez. He struck out nearly a batter an inning in A ball last year. This is now a horrible trade. Especially since the Mets could have acquired a better catcher without giving up anything. This is just so short-sighted. See Above.

Get your War On

Manifesto

New Get Your War On. Start from the bottom.

That's Comforting

Manifesto

CIA Director Porter Goss gave a far-ranging interview about the "war on terror." It was the typical line, we don't torture, etc. But I found this quote both particularly interesting and ridiculous:

“We’re fighting a war on terror,” he said in response to a question about the prisons. “We’re doing quite well. Inevitably, we’re going to have to capture some terrorists and inevitably they’re going to have to have some due process. It’s going to be done lawfully.”

First, I like the way the quote implies that we are not capturing terrorists now. It also has a hint that of implication that we are a bunch of idiots but, inevitably, we are going to "capture some terrorists." Hell, we have to eventually. Even the sun shines on a dog's ass somedays.

While that may be a misstatement, the second use of "inevitably" is a little more troubling. "Inevitably they are going to have to have due process." That's the way we are conducting this war. I understand that non-Americans don't get all the benefits of the Constitution, but come on. Doesn't this imply a complete disdain for American prinicples and values. (Yes, I know this isn't the first time.) We fight the war for "freedom" but we continually conduct ourselves in ways that are completely contrary to our values and principles. While we constantly hear about examples of this reality, I don't think we really hear the disdain actually expressed that often, as I think we do here.

P.S. - I had been sitting on this post for a while. In the meantime, Don Rumsfeld completely outdid this pithy little quote. Check out Daily Kos to see what I'm talking about. I wish I had some outrage left.