Baseball season continues...

I don't think anyone around here notices, what with the Pirates suffering their 15th losing season in a row or something, the Indians season in the dumps, and the Seawolves long since done...but they are still playing baseball in other parts of the country. Being a Yankees fan and a proponent of the Giardi hiring last year, this has been a great year for me. I thought we might be one year off from making a big run, but Sabathia, Teixeira, and even Swisher have integrated themselves into the team faster than I would have thought - and with big comeback years from some of the old guys - Posada, Jeter, and Matsui, we've got the best record in baseball. Go Yanks!

Anyhow, last night the Yanks pull off another stirring comeback win. For some reason, I have just started being able to get WCBS - AM 880 on my radio (I know, an archaic way to catch a game, but baseball is kind of archaic anyhow) and tuned back in in the bottom of the eighth just in time to hear John Sterling's great call - "There's a drive to deep right center, it is high, it is long, it is gone...an thrilla' for Godzilla!" as Mastsui hits a two-run homer to tie the game in the eighth. The 39-year old Rivera comes on and does his job in the top of the ninth and then Brett Gardner, this kid the Yanks have been using part-time in center field the last two years, singles, steals second, goes to third on a grounder by Jeter and scores on a single by our rookie catcher. Great win.

Even better, the Red Sox pulled off a topsy turvy back-and-forth win over the Angels. For some reason it looks like were headed for another Yankees-Red Sox showdown in the ACLS. I know that will make a lot of people sick, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Ralph

WSJ Article on GE Transportation

I guess anyone who read this article a few weeks back wasn't too surprised by yesterday's news. The locomotive market is apparently pretty weak right now, but similar to what was said in the Erie paper today, there is some hope for a few years out.

The Art of Losing

If losing is an art form, the Bills can certainly make their claim to being Michaelangelo. (Perhaps the Bengals are De Vinci after their horrific last second debacle on Sunday, but Bills' loss tonight was equally bad. I think in Bill Simmons' meter, it's called a stomach punch game.) I mean we were winning all night- a game nobody thought we could win - and we blew it with an incredibly bonehead play at the end. When the announcer tisks as the kick-off returner decides to bring the ball out of the end zone late in the fourth quarter while you're protecting a lead - and then the return man promptly fumbles and sets up one of the NFL's all-time clutch quarterbacks 30 yards from the winning score - I mean, the pain! Would it have been better to have been blown out?

So, let's rank this one in the pantheon of heartbreaking Bills losses:
1. Loss to the Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl - that kind of set the tone for all the misery that has followed.
2. The Music City Miracle - That was the last time the Bills were in the playoffs
3. That Cowboys loss on Monday night two years ago - I was at the Mannechor watching the Yankees get eliminated by the Indians in the playoffs on the other screen.
4. Tonight's fiasco.
5. The Browns loss at home last year - especially significant to me because of where I live.

Alright, the fifth one might not be included as one of the toughest losses of all-time for any team, but the other four certainly are. In each instance, twice on Monday Night and twice in the playoffs, the Bills managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in front of a national audience. What have we done to deserve this? (and this gets me back to my question about why am I a fan - I like that explanation about the rituals of fall). I feel like we are cursed by some sort of Greek god, like perhaps we harmed or insulted one of Zeus' children at some point and he has damned our team to public failure. Right now, I feel like Raskolnikov in the beginning of Crime and Punishment when he is wondering around St. Petersburg in a half-coherent, feverish state. I keep telling myself I don't care about this stuff, but then the season starts, and I realize my hopes get irrationally up for some glory for the Blue and Red. Then, they even tease me by taking the hated Patriots to the brink, only to blow it and practically hand the Patriots the game on a sliver platter. Woe is me! Woe is the city of Buffalo, Western New York, and all the sorry-ass Pollack Bills fans all over the world. Say it ain't so Joe Ferguson, Cribbs, or whoever you are....

Ralph

Hope Springs Eternal - NFL Kick-Off

Despite the fact that I've told everyone who's asked to take the Patriots and give the points (like 11 1/2) against the Bills tonight, I still find myself getting excited about watching the red-and-blue take on New England. There's at least some chance - maybe 1 in-a-thousand that we can win and probably a 1-in-100 chance of the Bills being competitive - but I'll take it. Why? I have no fuckin' idea. Why should I feel loyal to a bunch of football playing mercenaries carrying the banner of a team I have rooted for for 35 years. What's the attraction? Any ideas? (I need help.)

Thanks.

Ralph

The Iliad as spoken art

Don't know where this guy is, but he'd be fun to hire for a party.

Great Headline

Remember the late 1990s? This is an article from Inc. Magazine in 1998 that features one of my favorite business-related headlines. (What made it extra humorous at the time is that the company I was with actually worked with the guys featured in the lead paragraphs. [I don't mean the heart attack was funny, but just the coincidence...]).

Cheers.

Hilton Head-Fresh Fish

Met this guy yesterday - what a treat.

Bronson Arroyo- outspoken pitcher

Yes, it's still baseball season - even if most NW PA people are more excited that football is just around the corner. Let's not forget the pennant races (actually "divisional and wild card races" is more correct these days. My Yankees are red hot, which is nice, although the thinness of the pitching staff may be starting to catch up with them.

One of the rumored guys that they were going to pick up, but haven't yet (maybe he'll clear waivers) is Bronson Arroyo of the Reds. I have a friend who is a Bosox fan and rues the day they traded his favorite player to the Reds for the forgettable Wily Mo Pena. I never really understood his attraction to Arroyo who is a bit of a flake, but a decent-to-good pitcher nonetheless. However, today I read this great interview with the guy. He really tells it like is regarding performance enhancers. Go Bronson. You've earned a fan of this former sportwriter who knows how hard it is to get athletes to say interesting shit.

Ralph

Hotel View

I can't stress how nice it is to have a great view when you are working out of your hotel room. Above is pretty much the view (it's a picture I copied from someone else's Web site) I have today at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago. If you want to see what it looks like at night (and higher res), try this link and go to the last of the "exterior" shots. Anyhow, it's awesome to be able to look up and see that shit every couple minutes.

New Post

What do you know, I'm still out here and still alive. Have had a lot going on and not able to focus on posting. Having a nice summer, but like everyone else, this sucky weather is kind of bringin' me down. Hope all is well with you.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Really looking forward to the 8 Great Tuesdays show tomorrow at the Liberty Park Amphatheater.

Yankees pitching

It's fascinating the way teams manage pitchers and pitch counts these days. Imagine this type of thinking 20 or even 10 years ago, where the Yankees are concerned about moving former starters who have been working out of the bullpen recently, back into the rotation, because their arms can't get "stretched out" enough to throw more than 50-65 pitches. I'm reading Joe Torre's book about his Yankee years and one of the early stories is how David Cone threw like 150 pitches in his last start of 1995 (in the playoffs vs. the Mariners) and suffered from an aneurysm at the start of the next year.

I'm hugely in favor of this type of micro-management of younger pitchers, but agree with Nolan Ryan's theory as well, that pitch counts need to be increased and/or even eliminated as pitchers mature. Of course, the Yankees, because of their vast resources, can afford to be careful, as they can always afford to bring in more decent players to cover for pitchers that need to be pulled because of pitch counts.

I've been cringing when I hear that the Washington Nationals want to bring up their recent top draft pick, Stephen Strasburg, to the majors this year if possible, pretty much to try and drum up some more fan interest in the team. Wasn't this what the Texas Rangers did with David Clyde all those years ago? I was just a kid back then, but I remember one of my buddies being all excited when the Indians traded for Clyde. Unfortunately, he was pretty much washed up by then and out of the majors by the age of 25.

Anyhow, I applaud the Yankees micro-management of their pitchers and hope it leads to long and productive careers for the likes of Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes.

Ralph

GE Stock

Interesting article on why GE's stock has taken such a beating in the last year.

Tiger Grinding

I love to watch Tiger Woods golf... and I've probably said this before, because he never quits. I think he was down more than 10 strokes in this year's U.S. Open, and instead of mailing it in, he just keeps grinding - trying to make shots. He just made a birdie to go to one under on like the 14th - putting himself under part (at 1 under) for the first time in the tourney. He's still four off the lead with a handful of holes to play, but he gave it a big fist pump, like he had just taken the lead. He's clearly not giving up - which is why he gives people their money's worth, which is why we love him. Go Tigger!

Bills Marketing

As a Bills fan, I get a ton of questions about what I think of the T.O. signing. As a football move, it's probably not a bad one, as the Bills are only committed to one year. As a marketing move, it looks like it's turning out to be ingenious. Apparently, despite the bad economy and a team that hasn't made the playoffs in almost 10 years, season ticket sales are going great.

It's worth noting here that the Bills GM, Russ Brandon, has a marketing and P.R. background. And last year, despite a pretty lousy team that didn't even have T.O. )and slapped the fans in the face by playing a game in Toronto), the Bills sold their second most season tickets ever! Now, everywhere I go it's T.O., what do you think of T.O. - even though we completely overhauled our offensive line (which was somewhat offensive last year) and not in a good way, all everyone wants to talk about is T.O. So, from a football standpoint, the team may still suck, but if they're selling tickets, more power to them I guess, because that's really the name of the game. It's "professional" football after all, as a GM of an entity that is designed to make money, Brandon seems to be doing a great job.

NBA Finals

Have been great in HD- with the tremendous turquoise of the Magic and yellow and purple of the Lakers. Magic play some pretty entertaining ball too. Not the mention that Pau Gasol reminds me of the caveman on the Geico commercials. Go gekos.

Finally getting back up to speed after what seems to be my annual spring bout with colitis.

Cheers.

Ralph

Buzz-TV

How exactly did this guy get his nickname?

Cringely on IPTV

Great Cringely column on where the medium we currently know as television is heading...

Chauncey Billups

If you haven't noticed, with all the hype Cleveland and Lebron have been getting around here, the Denver Nuggets have been playing really good basketball. Carmelo Anthony, he of the Syracuse fame- where as a freshman he led the Orange through the NCAA championships -- hit a fairly controversial three-pointer the other night to give the Nuggets a 3-0 lead over the Mavericks in their Western Conf. semi-finals. Apparently, the Mavs had a foul to give and tried like heck to grab Anthony before he shot, but the refs would have none of it. Maverick (pun intended) owner Mark Cuban even stormed onto the court to argue after 'Melo's shot went down. The Nuggets are just one game away from the Western finals, while the Lakers are in a battle, tied 2-2 with the Rockets. The Rockets killed them last night even though Yao is now out for the playoffs with a broken foot - and Tracy McGrady, he's been out for months.

Anyhow, don't be surprised to see 'Melo duplicate his college feat and lead the Nuggets to a surprise NBA championship. I know Lebron is great and all, and Mo Williams has been a great pick-up for the Cavs, but the Chauncey Billups trade (for Alan Iverson) has been even bigger for the Nuggets. Check out this great story on Chauncy if you get a chance. It will give you some idea of what the Lakers and Cavs could be up against.

Cheers.
Ralph

ERE Tire Plant: Alternative viewpoint

It was nice to hear from someone aside from K.E.E.P. for a change regarding this tires-to-energy plant or whatever you want to call it. In today's ETN, Victor E. Gatto, owner and COO Erie Renewable Energy (ERE), the firm proposing to build this thing at the old Hammermill site, writes an editorial defending the safety of the plant - as it relates to pollution. In my view, these guys have been inept at public relations from the start, but at least this is a well-written, easy to read article that makes some good points. I'm not going to get into all of them, but it quantifies some of the pollution this thing will emit - and makes it sound like a pretty small amount. It also provides a reference of an energy plant near Bethlehem, which is apparently turning tires into energy. Of course, it doesn't get into too many details about how similar this plant is to the proposed Erie plant, or how many tires are being gassified per day vs. plans for Erie, etc...

And that's indicative of the shortcomings of this article (although I will say again, it is better than anything else I've seen come out of ER, so far.) It's written by the guy planning to build the plant, so it's very one-sided. That said, the stuff coming out of the Green Party people at K.E.E.P. has been fairly one-sided as well. So, I guess this is the ETN's version of fair and balanced reporting.

Anyhow, typical of the way ERE handles things, they've contracted some guy to do an air pollution study - obviously, there were paying him - and what do you know? He found no problems and minimal impact on the environment. Well, no duh. Granted, he may very well be a valid source, but when presented as such, by the owner of the company that wants to build the plant - well, it just doesn't appear to hold water.

The bottom line is that I would like more information on this whole thing, before it is decided if it's built or not. Honestly, everything coming out of the people against it seems like radical hippie, off the cuff, blathering, while that stuff in favor is all coming from the company that wants to build the plant. Can we get a truly independent researcher in here?