Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Longest MLB losing streaks

Thanks to SABR member Frank Vaccaro for this list (EndDate is the date of the win that broke the streak):

Rank Streak Team League Season StartDate EndDate
1 31 BKN na 1875 5/29-10/9
2 26 LOU aa 1889 5/22-6/23
3 24 CLE n 1899 8/26-9/18
4 23 PIT n 1890 8/12-9/4
23 PHI n 1961 7/29-8/20

6 22 PHI aa 1890 9/16-10/12
7 21 BAL a 1988 4/4-4/29
8 20 LOU n 1894 5/28-6/19
20 BOS a 1906 5/1-5/25
20 PHI a 1916 7/21-8/9

20 PHI a 1943 8/7-8/24
20 MON n 1969 5/13-6/8
13 19 BOS n 1906 5/17-6/9
19 CIN n 1914 9/5-9/23
19 DET a 1975 7/29-8/16 (Frank's wife's birthday!)

19 KC a 2005 7/28-8/20
17 18 CIN n 1876 7/11-8/25
18 LOU n 1894 8/15-9/6
18 STL n 1897 9/3-9/27
18 PHI a 1920 6/8-6/28

18 WAS a 1948 9/3-9/19
18 WAS a 1959 7/19-8/5
23 17 WAS n 1894 5/3-5/29
17 BOS a 1926 8/20-9/8
17 NY n 1962 5/21-6/8

17 ATL n 1977 4/23-5/12
17 SEA a 2011 7/6-7/27

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Monday, April 26, 2010

How bad are they?

We don't know yet, but the Orioles' 2-16 start through Saturday (they somehow won yesterday) does yield some comps:

thru 18 rest of season Final
Year Team Lg W L W L % W L %
1884 Indianapolis AA 2 16 27 62 .303 29 78 .271
1884 Detroit NL 2 16 26 68 .277 28 84 .250
1892 Baltimore NL 2 16 44 85 .341 46 101 .313
1896 Louisville NL 2 16 36 77 .319 38 93 .290
1904 Washington AL 2 16 36 97 .271 38 113 .252
1907 Brooklyn NL 2 16 63 67 .485 65 83 .439
1931 Cincinnati NL 2 16 56 80 .412 58 96 .377
1944 Chicago NL 2 16 73 63 .537 75 79 .487
1988 Baltimore AL 0 18 54 89 .378 54 107 .335
1992 Kansas City AL 2 16 70 74 .486 72 90 .444
1997 Chicago NL 2 16 66 78 .458 68 94 .420
2003 Detroit AL 1 17 42 102 .292 43 119 .265

This does not include five NA and two UA teams that also accomplished the
"feat".

Thanks to SABR member Mitch Soivenski for the research.

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Sunday, August 23, 2009

The PED delimma

Fascinating look into the mind of a marginal major leaguer as he recounts his struggle with the decision of whether or not to take HGH to save his career and privide for his family. Things may not always always neatly fit into the black and white, good and evil categories that keep fans and media from having to do any actual thinking. At least when there are human beings making them and whose lives are to be so profoundly affected.

I think he is actually a little too hard on himself here. He notes that HGH was not against the rules of baseball when he did it. For me the ethical concern would be violating the rules or ethics of your chosen profession, which in this case did not apply. There is even a discussion to be had, but one I will not have here because it would cause me to ramble on and waste half of my Sunday, over whether it is unethical to break a rule or law which you legitimately believe to be wrong (and, of course, does not hurt anybody else); did you ever smoke a joint or drive 70 in a 60, for example?

Suffice to say I see a lot of gray areas in this whole thing.

Of course, as you would guess from my libertarian and freedom-loving views, I have never had much of a problem with the whole PED in sports issue anyway. If an individual chooses to attempt to further his career and help his team win at the possible (since we don't really know the long term effects yet) expense of his long-term health, I have no objection to that personally.

Similarly, if a league chooses to ban the substances and penalize or ban players for breaking said rules, that is perfectly within their rights as private organizations - although I have a huge problem with Congress getting involved to preen in front of TV cameras, as we have seen in the past. It's between individuals and private business, and nobody else's damned business really, except for perhaps the customers who can make their feelings know one way or the other with their wallets.

But I just don't muster any great moral outrage at breaking non-rules. Or draw moral distinctions between, for example, taking PED's on the one hand or using technology to steal signs on the other. Ethics are ethics, and I reject fake moral outrage over one type because people want to impose their own morality on others.

At any rate, it's a thought-provoking article and argument, even if you're not a sports or baseball fan.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

All-.300 lineup

The Angels expected lineup tonight:

Figgins 3B (.308)
Abreu RF (.310)
Rivera LF (.310)
Guerrero DH (.313)
Morales 1B (.303)
Hunter CF (.307)
Izturis 2B (.300)
Napoli C (.300)
Aybar SS (.313)

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Can't tell the names without a program

Poor and/or rebuilding teams will sometimes have big turnover as they shed contracts and guys who can bring assets in return, but even so the Pittsburgh Prates' transformation over the last year plus has been remarkable. They have only three players remaining on the current 25 man roster (as of August 6) from their 25 man roster on July 24 of last year: Ryan Doumit, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke. The others and how they left, courtesy of research done by John Lewis:

LF Jason Bay: traded to Boston 2008
CF Nate McLouth: traded to Atlanta 2009
RF Xavier Nady: traded to Yankees 2008
OF Jason Michaels: free agency 2008
1B Adam LaRoche: traded to Boston 2009
2B Freddy Sanchez: traded to Giants 2009
3B Jose Bautista: traded to Toronto 2008
SS Jack Wilson: traded to Seattle 2009
1B-3B Doug Mientkiewicz: free agency 2008
2B-SS Luis Rivas: free agency 2008
INF Chris Gomez: free agency 2008
C Raul Chavez: free agency 2008
P John Van Benschoten: free agency 2008
P Franquelis Osoria: free agency 2008
P Damaso Marte: traded to Yankees 2008
P John Grabow: traded to Cubs 2009
P Sean Burnett: traded to Washington 2009
P Ian Snell: traded to Seattle 2009 via AAA Indianapolis
P T.J. Beam: on waivers to Toronto 2009
P Denny Bautista: to AAA Indianapolis
P Yoslan Herrera: to AA Altoona
P Tyler Yates: on Disabled List

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Monday, August 03, 2009

Congrats to Tom Ruane

Citation from the SABR convention in Washington DC on Saturday:

Tom Ruane joined SABR in 1991. He has continuously broadened his interests
and is now a member of 12 SABR committees! And his memberships are more
than nominal as he is a valuable and active contributor. His service to
SABR has included membership on both the Donors Committee and the Nominating
Committee, and as a judge at several SABR conventions

Subscribers to SABR-L are happily familiar with Tom's varied posts which are
both humorous and definitive. For example, this spring there was a question
about George Sisler's batting average in different months in 1922. Tom
replied promptly, not just with accurate information, but also with a clear
explanation of the source of some of the discrepancies in the official
record that are continuing to come to light. Of course, at the end of this
mini-treatise, he closed with his trademark "Thank you for your patience."
It is we who now, with this Bob Davids Award, thank him for his diligence.

The breadth of Tom's sophisticated research can be seen in the many articles
he has written for the research portion of the Retrosheet website. Tom has
also contributed to the Baseball Research Journal, Baseball By The Numbers
and Nine. Many of you are aware that Tom is also a member of the Retrosheet
Board of Directors and is responsible for the wonderfully interconnected
links in box scores and player and team statistics. The members of the
selection committee are unanimous that this tireless work has been of
tremendous value to SABR and to baseball research in general. The fact that
he can make such contributions to both organizations simultaneously is a
tribute to his unflagging enthusiasm.

In fact, enthusiasm, diligence, good humor, and dedication to detail are all
hallmarks of Tom's baseball research activities. As he explained to me once
when I marveled at how much he was doing: "I don't need a lot of sleep."

Our organization is much the better for the high quality efforts of this
fine man. It is my professional and personal pleasure to present Tom Ruane
with the 2009 Bob Davids Award.

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Fun with sims

From Beau Sharbrough:

"Gary Collard pitched 2.1 scoreless innings in 3 appearances in the Ichiro Suzuki League 1956 World Series for the Brooklyn Robins, who put the LA Angels out in 6 games."

After I was born I moved into the starting rotation.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Pair of 500 homer guys homering

Last night was a bit or a rarity (although all seven occurrences are in the last four decades) as 500+ home run hitters Ken Griffey Jr and Alex Rodriguez both homered in the Yankees-Mariners game. It was also the second time for the more exclusive feat of 550+ players homering in a game (not surprisingly, Aaron and Mays were the other).

The complete list, courtesy of the great David Vincent:

Two 500 HR Club members homering in the same game

06/17/1970 @ SFN Willie Mays 615 Ernie Banks 504 total:
1,119

05/08/1971 @ SFN Hank Aaron 604 Willie Mays 634 total:
1,238

06/12/2004 @ BAL Barry Bonds 675 Rafael Palmeiro 536 total:
1,211

06/12/2005 @ CIN Ken Griffey 512 Sammy Sosa 581 total:
1,093

06/13/2009 @ NYA Alex Rodriguez 556 Gary Sheffield 502 total:
1,058

06/26/2009 @ NYN Alex Rodriguez 558 Gary Sheffield 504 total:
1,062

07/01/2009 @ NYA Ken Griffey 612 Alex Rodriguez 554 total:
1,166

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Monday, October 06, 2008

Fun with stats

I have a backlog of statistical notes from the recently concluded baseball season that I will be posting periodically in the coming weeks. Many of them come from the SABR research e-mail list; if you are are interested in baseball history and not a member, shame on you.

In 2008, guys named Ramirez hit 120 home runs: Manny 37, Hanley 33, Aramis 27, Alexei 21, Max 2.

That tied them for fourth best all time:

1987 Davis - 158
1986 Davis - 129
2001 Gonzalez - 126
1989 Davis - 120
2008 Ramirez - 120

Manny and Hanley also became the 22nd pair to hit 30+ homers each in a season.

Thanks to Brian MacMillan for the legwork.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Yankees are dumb, etc.

No free play to recap this week due to lingering illness. Things should be back to normal for week 4.

******

In the emotional scene following the final game at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter fired off this genius malaprop to lead off his on field postgame interview with Peter Gammons:

"The fans here never seem to amaze me."

Me either, Derek; me either.

******

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin teamed up to block a vote on a bipartisan resolution "recognizing the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq" and thanking our men and women in uniform for their efforts.

It’s a shame that they aren’t man enough to admit that they were just completely wrong on this issue. To use a procedural to block a vote on a resolution is the height of cowardice and dishonesty.

******

This is just cruel: pretending to cry about the death of trees in order to make extremist environmental groups look silly. It’s claimed to be legitimate, but color me skeptical.

And this can’t be for real either, can it?

******

My new favorite athletes.

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So the Secret Service attempted to get copies of the stolen Palin e-mails from the Associated Press, but the AP refused to hand over what it had.

I find it fascinating that big media, who were apoplectic when the federal government attempted to “violate the privacy” of terrorists in order to save American lives, now have such contempt for the supposedly sacrosanct concept of privacy. Transparent hypocrisy there, as they no longer even pretend not to be part of the Obama campaign.

******

Josh Howard and Mark Cuban negotiate over Howard’s latest idiocy.
http://www.quickdfw.com/sharedcontent/dws/quick/columnists/gkeith/stories/DN-pg5--gordoncolumn_19ick.ART.State.Edition1.271c5bf.html

******

From Instapundit reader Kevin Burns, this deserves a high five:

Please remind your readers that the reason that so many Americans mistrust and dislike the "elite" is that the best financial minds that the Ivy League could turn out created the subprime and securitization of mortgages mess.

The best and brightest political minds [from] those same universities created Fannie and Freddie.

Either these people aren't nearly as smart as they tell us they are, or success requires more than an expensive education.

******

The latest PMS shenanigans: “comedienne” Sandra Bernhard warns Sarah Palin not to come into Manhattan lest she get gang-raped by some of Sandra’s big black brothers; corrupt and disgraced New York congressman Charles Rangel says Palin is “disabled.”

And the hits keep coming.

******

Some good shtick in a Dallas Morning News obituary:

Merritt, Edward "Bruce" Born April 3, 1951 in North Carolina. He was one of eight children. His older sisters regularly beat him up, put him in dresses, and then forced him to walk to the drugstore to buy their Kotex and cigarettes. After graduation from high school he went on to lead a life of luxury in the United States Air Force. After excaping from the government he spent most of his life as a mechanic, husband, and father. Bruce Merritt never met a stranger, and in many ways was stranger than most. He is survived by one daughter, two grand- children, two ex-wives, unpaid taxes, and many loyal loving friends. Services will be held on Tuesday, September 23rd at 2:00pm.

I regret that I never shared a beer with Bruce.

******

And some not so good shtick, propping a corpse up in the corner at his wake.

******

So…a Democrat Senatorial candidate (Al Franken) helped wrote a hit piece against McCain for Saturday Night Live. I’m amazed that this electioneering by a candidate is not a violation of FEC law; at the very least, as Ann Althouse says, they should have been required to run a “I’m NBC and I approve this message” disclosure.

******

Government 101: Up to 97% of former Long Island Rail Road employees apply for and get six figure government disability payments, leading to a shortage of tee times. This is classic union racketeering, the kind of thing that’s known as organized crime when practiced by Mafioso.

******

I don’t know whether to be scared or aroused:

Groups of rogue MILF fighters are wandering around the south, looking for food, and fighting back when they encounter police or troops. These MILF are trying to portray themselves as defenders … The rogue MILF groups (about ten percent of the total MILF) are improvising, but are unable to pull off this portraying themselves as victims bit. In the last ten days, the army has seized several MILF camps, putting over a thousand of their inhabitants on the run.

No comment on the MILF from the VPILF.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Somebody call Webster, etc.

Did Obama seriously say that Clarence Thomas did not have enough experience to serve on the Supreme Court? Wow. We need some new words, irony and chutzpah are no longer sufficient for some situations.

******

Kirk Mitchell has an idea of where to house current Guantanamo prisoners in the wake of Boumediene: “a minimum security facility should be established in Washington D.C., equidistant between the Capitol and the Supreme Court Building."

******

Another baseball tidbit, this one courtesy of Clem Comly.

Five players have played for both World Series teams during the season:

Jack Kramer, 1951 Giants and Yankees
Johnny Schmitz, 1952 Dodgers and Yankees
Sid Monge, 1984 Padres and Tigers
Lonnie Smith, 1985 Cardinals and Royals
Jim Bruske, 1998 Padres and Yankees

Only Smith actually appeared in the Series in question.

If this kind of research interests you, you might want to look into joining SABR. Disclosure: I was a longtime moderator of and now train and supervise current moderators of the research e-mail list, but I have no financial stake in recommending the organization.

******

Jack Kelly echoes my observation (first item) on antiwar hypocrisy:

Did you see the huge crowd outside the Russian Embassy protesting the war in Georgia?

Neither did I. Now that we have a genuine war of aggression, the silence on the Left is deafening. […]

It is scandalous to liberals that terrorists at Gitmo don't have easy access to lawyers, but most don't care how many Georgians the Russians kill.

Vladimir Putin is counting on this.

******

A couple of environmental factoids:

Glaciers are advancing in Northern California, Norway, Sweden, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Arctic ice has been thinning by 3% per decade, but Antarctic ice has been growing by 1% a decade. Antarctic ice is 20 times bigger, which means that overall global polar ice is growing by 8/10 of 1% a decade.

******

On a related note, the California legislature passed a bill that would have required the state’s public schools to teach “climate change,” which fortunately was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. An increase in such inconvenient truths has led greens to sense some urgency in their quest to indoctrinate our youth; gone are the good old days when you could wait until college to start the brainwashing.

******

Energy analyst Vinod Dar (Dar and Company) on why global action on climate is unlikely to happen: The US and Japan will not tell Asia and Africa to choose poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy over electricity. Europe might, but nobody will listen.”

Dar (sorry Ticket fans, his nickname is probably not “Eight Dollar”) lays out his vision of what we should do:

“Contingency planning should entail strategic responses to a warming globe, a cooling globe and a globe whose climate reverberates with laughter at human hubris.”

Indeed, the thing to keep in mind is that not only do we not know if the planet is going to warm or cool long term, we also do not know whether warming would be beneficial or harmful to man. We do know, from relatively recent experience (a little over a century ago), that a world more than a wee bit cooler would be harmful.

******

Is Rep. Jack Murtha ever going to apologize to the US Marines for his shameful “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” slander from May 17, 2006? His allegations, irresponsible at the time, have by now been conclusively shown to be false.

If Murtha is an honorable man, he will do the honorable thing. I won’t be holding my breath.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

The great game, etc.

Tom Glavine recently pitched in a minor league rehab assignment, his first minor league appearance since 1987 (21 years). Those kinds of rehabs are pretty common these days so it is very unusual for a player to go so long between minor league stints. You would basically have to be one of the better players in the era in order to play that long, and one of the most durable to go that long without injury.

It turns out that it was pretty uncommon even in the days when older players often ended up in the minors at the end of their careers.

SABR member Jacob Pomeranke looked into it and found that it was a pretty remarkable feat. His list:

24 years:
Warren Spahn (1942-66, never returned to the majors)

23 years:
Bobby Wallace (1894-1917) [found by Gerry Myerson]

22 years:
Bert Blyleven (1970-92)
Cy Young (1890-1912, assuming the 1890 Tri-State League to be minor)

21 years:
Glavine (1987-2008)
Eddie Murray (1976-97)
Tommy John (1964-85)
Tris Speaker (1908-29)

20 years:
Don Sutton (1968-88)
Grover Cleveland Alexander (1910-30)

19 years:
Robin Roberts (1948-67)

******

While on the subject, the 19-17 slow pitch softball game (they claim it was a real major league baseball game, but I don’t buy it) won by Boston over Texas on August 12, a game in which Texas came from 10-0 behind after 1 to later take a lead before losing, produced some historical oddities of its own.

- Rangers pitcher Scott Feldman became the second pitcher since 1900 to give up 10 runs in the first inning and stay in the game. The other was Mark Redman of Colorado, also (April 26) this year!

- Feldman also became the first pitcher to give up 12 runs and not take the loss since Gene Packard of the Cardinals, who was actually credited with a 16-12 win over the Phillies on August 3, 1918.

- The Rangers became the fifth team since 1900 to score 17+ and lose, joining the 2008 Marlins (17-18 to Colorado), 1979 Cubs (22-23 to Philadelphia), 1969 Phillies (17-19 to Cincinnati) and 1922 Phillies (23-26 to Chicago).

******

Tales from socialized medicine: Diagnosed with a brain tumor in Canada? Come back in six months, if you live that long, and they’ll let you see a neurologist. The author was one of the lucky ones, having the resources to be able to get care in the US instead of dying in line as so many others do.

Why would someone who lives in an industrialized country with a high standard of living and a promise of guaranteed health care need to go anywhere else? […]

Canada's bureaucratic health care system…put me on a waiting list and essentially told me to hope for the best. […]

My story, with all of its unfortunate twists and turns, is relatively simple: Stay in Canada and let the government gamble with my future or journey south of the border and benefit from an accessible, patient-oriented and compassionate facility that responds swiftly to medical emergencies. […]

I hope that American voters will remember my story when U.S. candidates this year begin touting the Canadian health care system as a role model for reform in their own country.

Americans already are being blitzed with a propaganda barrage that bashes their current private-public health care partnership as little better than that of an emerging Third World nation. […]

What they don't tell you is that both Canada's and Great Britain's routinely block or delay access to needed treatments and often treat elderly patients with cavalier contempt.

The national health care system in my country is racked by agonizingly long waits and rationing of many vital medical services, starting with a severe shortage of the family physicians who are gatekeepers of our care.

More than 800,000 Canadians currently are in long holding patterns for operations that would be done in the U.S. in a few weeks after the initial diagnosis. Sadly, many will die before they make it to the head of the line. Those who can find a way flee to the U.S. for the quality medical service so often lacking at home.

The benchmark question for any nation's health care system is whether their citizens are forced to go abroad for quality accessible health care treatment. The answer in America is obvious.

In the decades since World War II, millions of Canadians, Europeans, Asians, Africans and Latin Americans have flocked to the U.S. for life-saving medical procedures. With few exceptions, that has been a one-way flow.

While I work to reform Canada's creaking health care system, I sincerely hope that Americans won't destroy a system that is the envy of the world by placing it under the yoke of big government bureaucracy.

Until Canada breaks free from the "Alice in Wonderland" absurdity of its system, droves of Canadians, including me, will join millions of others around the globe in seeking medical sanctuary in the U.S.

If your "patient-first" system begins to crumble, we'll have no place to go.

Don't ever forget that "universal health care" is nothing but access to a waiting list for inferior care to what we get today.

******

The Green Party is always good for a few laughs, and this year’s convention in Chicago was no exception. It featured a workshop with the hilarious title "A Clear Path Towards Dismantling and Ending All “ism” (Racism, sexism, classism and white privilege) within the Green Party by 2012."

As James Taranto points out, “white privilege” is not an “ism” and it’s odd that the Greens, of all parties, would be getting rid of environmentalism.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

More random stuff

Ugh, I had forgotten how much of an ass-whipping it is to listen to Mickey Spagnola. I think I’m tired of football season before it’s started.

******

Dennis Prager's sobering take on why the existential enemy we face now might be even more dangerous than those we faced in the 20th century:

"[T]here are two unique aspects to the evil emanating from the Islamic world that render this latest threat to humanity particularly difficult to overcome. One is the number of people who believe in it. This is a new phenomenon among organized evils. Far fewer people believed in Nazism or in communism than believe in Islam generally or in authoritarian Islam specifically. There are one billion Muslims in the world. If just 10 percent believe in the Islam of Hamas, the Taliban, the Sudanese regime, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, bin Ladin, Islamic Jihad, the Finley Park Mosque in London or Hizbollah---and it is inconceivable that only one of 10 Muslims supports any of these groups' ideologies---that means a true believing enemy of at least 100 million people. Outside of Germany, how many people believed in Nazism? Outside of Japan, who believed in Japanese imperialism and militarism? And outside of universities, the arts world or Hollywood, how many people believed in Soviet-style totalitarianism? A far larger number of people believe in Islamic authoritarianism than ever believed in
Marxism. Virtually no one living in Marxist countries believed in Marxism or communism. Likewise, far fewer people believed in Nazism, an ideology confined largely to one country for less than one generation. This is one enormous difference between the radical Islamic threat to our civilization and the two previous ones."

******

You often hear that Barry Bonds hit many more homers late in his career than the other home run leaders. Does it stand up to scrutiny?

1st ten years of their career:
Player A - 292 HR
Player B - 238 HR
Player C - 342 HR

Years 11 – 15 of their career:
Player A – 202 HR
Player B - 232 HR
Player C – 168 HR

Years 16 – 22
Player A – 268 Homers
Player B – 262 Homers
Player C – 235 homers

Funny how not only is it not quite obvious, indeed it’s basically impossible to tell, which is the alleged steroid user when you just look at the evidence.

A is Bonds, B is Ruth, C is Aaron

******

A little more Raul Castro, from the BBC via Jay Nordlinger:

Cuba is to put more state-controlled farm land into private hands, in a move to increase the island’s lagging food production. Private farmers who do well will be able to increase their holdings by up to 99 acres (40 hectares) for a 10-year period that can be renewed. Until now, private farmers have only been able to run small areas of land...[T]his is one of President Raul Castro’s most significant reforms to date.

Imagine how much better off Cubans would be had Fidel died 50 years earlier.

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Coolest eBay item ever!

In case you missed it, Topps issued a single Allen and Ginter (a nineteenth century tobacco company that produced sports cards) replica card of Fidel Castro, complete with an authentic cut autograph of the mass murdering tyrant. Why Topps would do something so despicable is unclear, but what has happened to the card in question is glorious.

I first heard about it from Jay Nordlinger's column last week. Here's Jay:

I have a friend who’s a young Wall Streeter and a freedom-lover. A hobby of his is to collect baseball cards. And this is not just a hobby, but also a form of investing. [...]

[L]ast year, my friend noticed that Topps put out a Fidel Castro card. It shows him in a baseball cap, and is all cute and cuddly. My friend was disgusted at this sweetheart treatment of a murderous dictator. So what did he do? He bought the card. He didn’t want it in anyone else’s possession.

Then the question was, “What do I do with this card? Do I have some kind of ceremonial burning?” My friend decided against this — too much like book burning, and you can’t burn an idea. So he decided to deface the card and auction it — giving the proceeds to the anti-Castro, pro-freedom cause. [...]

My friend has noted on the Castro card that the man is a dictator, murderer, and tyrant. He has even noted that Oscar Elías Biscet, the imprisoned dissident, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom (from GWB, of course).

I hope that this card fetches a lot of money: drawing attention to Cubans’ suffering, shaming admirers of Castro, and helping out the Center for a Free Cuba.

Here are the pictures of the card from the eBay listing (which will expire on June 6):





Finally, here is the note accompanying the item from the auction page:

Please note that ALL proceeds for this auction are to be paid as a contribution to the Center for a Free Cuba, whose address I list below. (This portion of the auction is in compliance with eBay policy given that I have obtained written consent on this charity's letterhead, and included a scanned copy of that letter in this listing.)

As described on its website, "The Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) is an independent, non-partisan institution dedicated to promoting human rights and a transition to democracy and the rule of law on the island. Established in November 1997, the Center gathers and disseminates information about Cuba and Cubans to the media, NGOs, and the international community. The Center also assists the people of Cuba through its information outreach and humanitarian programs on the island. The Center has received a 501(c)(3) exemption from the Internal Revenue Service. Contributions to the Center are tax deductible."

To learn more about the Center for a Free Cuba, please check out their website at:

http://www.cubacenter.org/

or write to them at:

Center for a Free Cuba
1320 19th Street, NW
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036

ALL folks interested in bidding on this item should be FULLY aware that this item -- which contains an authentic cut signature of Fidel Castro -- has been substantially modified since it was manufactured by The Topps Company. Allow me to explain.

Since card manufacturers began including cut-signature items in their offerings, some people in the hobby have speculated as to whether or not any card company would ever cross the line of good taste by offering an inappropriate -- offensive -- product (for example, a cut-signature card bearing Adolf Hitler's signature). Although Topps in general should be commended for doing a good job with regard to most of the cut-signature cards it has created the last several years, Topps has clearly vaulted over the line of common decency by creating a cut-signature card of Communist dictator Fidel Castro, one of the most notorious mass murderers in the history of the Western hemisphere.

The card is clearly an attempt to portray Fidel in a positive light -- note, for example, the baseball cap that Castro is pictured wearing on the front of the card. What is the message Topps is attempting to send? That being a mass murderer is somehow "OK" and "acceptable" so long as that person is also a... baseball fan???

To more accurate reflect the true Castro legacy, the card has been altered so that it now includes numerous words and phrases pertaining to Fidel on both the front and back of the card. For example, phrases on the front of the card now include:

* mass murderer
* Communist
* El Manbu concentration camp
* Free Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Oscar Biscet!

And, phrases on the back of the card now include:

* firing squads
* author of the Camilo-Cienfuegos forced labor plan
* violator of peaceful journalists' free-speech rights
* Remember Pedro Luis Boitel!

Also, all bidders must be aware that the corners of this card have been damaged by whacking each corner against a rather hard table several times (these damaged corners represent the damage to Cuba done by Fidel). In addition, all bidders must be aware that the sides of this card have several small cuts in them made with a knife (these cuts represent the torture -- and worse -- suffered by thousands of political prisoners during Fidel's regime).

Please note that this auction is in full compliance with eBay's Offensive Material Policy, as this auction does NOT glorify hatred, violence, racial or religious intolerance, or items that promote organizations with such views.

In fact, this auction serves as a reminder that -- despite what the lamestream media, nitwit "celebrities," and ivory-tower university ostriches would have us believe -- it was Fidel who made a career out of glorifying hatred, using violence, and stoking racial and religious intolerance.

There is NO shipping/handling fee for this auction.

Show YOUR support for the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that every human being enjoys by bidding on this item today!

Greatest.eBay.item.ever.

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Scattershooting

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Ollie Mack:

Oh yeah, open borders is a great policy idea:
A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the last year.

And working to make getting a FISA warrant as difficult as possible is another bit of genius:
U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned.

Item: 46 percent of Americans feel that the US economy is in a recession, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll. You know, there are random idiots out there who are impressionable and gullible to believe that man walked the earth with dinosaurs, that the US or Israel of both either committed or had advance knowledge of and allowed 9/11, or that Bush lied about WMD in Iraq. But how can such a large segment believe something such a blatant falsehood? I understand that mainstream media propaganda in service of the DNC is relentless, but it still saddens that so many people can be so uninformed as to be so far off the mark on such a fundamental fact.

I turned on the Lakers opener and a Tennessee-Houston football game broke out.

Speaking of the new Lakers season, suppose you want to go to a home game and partake in the convenience of valet parking. Well…that will be $4510, up front (tips not included). Yep, you have to buy the entire 41 game season at $110 a pop. I’d just like to be one of the valets, I can catch the game later on TiVo.

And finally, thanks to (genius blog name) Kissing Suzy Kolber for perfectly summarizing my thoughts on the recently concluded baseball postseason.

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Friday, September 14, 2007

Look out, Juan Valdez

There's a potential new coffee pitch man in town. Courtesy of Lee Sinins:

Career numbers of Joe DiMaggio and Vladimir Guerrero, through 9/11/07:

BA DiMaggio .325 Guerrero .325
OBP DiMaggio .398 Guerrero .391
SLG DiMaggio .579 Guerrero .580
HR DiMaggio 361 Guerrero 362

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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Bonds will only be keeping it warm

From last night's All Star Game comes this jarring list:

Home Runs at 31 years, 348 days

Aaron 398 (Finished with 755)
Bonds 315 (Has 751)
Ruth 356 (Finished with 714)
Mays 370 (Finished with 660)
Alex Rodriguez 494

Wow. The guy will have 500 by very close to his 32nd birthday. It's to the point that the only questions are

Will he suffer a career-ending injury?
or
By how many will he break the HR record?

As with Bonds and Tiger Woods (and as I said with Federer and Nadal), watch and go see this guy as often as you can, he's the kind you will tell them about when you're an old man.

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Monday, October 16, 2006

Yogi Zumaya

We've been needing a ballplayer to throw out some interesting fodder, the series themselves have certainly been too boring to keep the attention of anything but the hardest core of fans (tonight's NLCS Game 5 finally brings some intrigue to this postseason for the first time). Enter Tigers flamethrower Joel Zumaya:

A colorful character, Zumaya does yoga, but has been more Yogi in this series. He referred to his wrist as "inflammated," topped only by the next exchange. Asked about his bloodshot right eye, he said: "It's allergies." So what are you allergic to, Joel? "I am not allergic to anything."

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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

True greatness

In case you don't realize the magnitude of what you're seeing this year, Elias notes that after last night's dominant performance Ervin Santana leads the major leagues in wins (17), strikeouts (219) and EA (2.84) and only trails Roy Halladay by 2/3 of an inning for the lead in innings pitched. The last pitcher to lead the majors in all four of those categories in a single season was Sandy Koufax in 1966 (27 wins, 323 innings, 317 strikeouts and a 1.73 ERA).

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

More Selig stupidity

Okay, so we've passed the All Star break, including the infamous "only days of the year with no major sporting events" on Monday and Weednesday, so everybody's appetite is fully whetted to go out to the ballpark or turn on the TV and watch a game. So, in their infinite wisdom, MLB decides to schedule...16 of the 30 teams to have an off day. This is just mindnumbingly stupid, but unfortunately such idiocy has become the norm in the Bud Selig era. It's a wonder there are still any baseball fans left.

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