Posted: March 17th, 2010 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 58 Comments »
Have you ever started a project and wondered: “Um, why did I start that?”
OK, have you done that about five times in a week? I mean, first I started that “Do a different player every day” spring training project (and yes, they will be coming in rapid fire soon) and then, right in the middle, I decided to chase down the happiest songs for no apparent reason.
Well, here’s my list. And I want to make that clear: It is MY list.*
Update: It’s now 270 songs. And it can keep going up.
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Posted: March 15th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 56 Comments »
March 15, 2010
Player of the Day: Johnny Damon, Detroit
I’m going to admit to you, right up front, that this doesn’t have a lot to do with Johnny Damon. But I am falling behind on my ill-advised Player of the Day plan, and so this will have to count. It was while watching Johnny Damon hit a home run in Lakeland that I came up with this idea to really break down the 2009 season. What follows is really and truly a technological miracle … and by that I mean that it is miraculous that someone as inept as I am was able to figure out a way to do this.*
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Posted: March 14th, 2010 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 315 Comments »
OK, so I was driving from Fort Myers to Tampa today, and I was iPod-listening today and, I heard these two songs back-to-back:
“Little Red Corvette,” Prince.
“Eye of the Tiger,” Paul Anka.
OK, so you ask: So what? Well … there’s no real point except that when I heard those songs I was really, really happy. I can’t explain it. Well, actually, I probably can. LIttle Red Corvette was the song that made me fall in love with Prince’s music, and it still makes me ecstatically happy every time I hear it. And Paul Anka’s version of Eye of the Tiger makes me laugh at first but then I find that I really l enjoy listening to it (I feel the same way about Matt the Electrician’s version of “Jessie’s Girl.”)
Anyway, it made me think: I need to make an iPod list of the 15 happiest songs ever recorded. I don’t mean the songs have to be happy — I mean they have to make the listener happy. For instance, I think Midnight Oil’s “Blue Sky Mine” is not a happy song — it was inspired by people people in the asbestos mines. But it SOUNDS happy, and it makes me happy, which might make it a failure on some level but not the level I’m hearing.
So have at it: We’re taking nominations here in the comments. Happiest songs ever.
Posted: March 14th, 2010 | Filed under: Other Sports | 27 Comments »
Something disturbing happened last year when I did my annual “Pick the NCAA tournament in 64 seconds” thing. I actually got some picks right. I picked North Carolina to beat Michigan State in the final, and that’s what happened. This led numerous people to make the remarkably absurd assumption that I actually know something about college basketball or making picks. I will simply say that this year’s picks should clear up that misunderstanding.
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Posted: March 13th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 65 Comments »
Before we get into Pedro Feliz — and I will admit you have to work through a few things before we get to him — I have a question for you: Let’s say you’re a manager of a Major League baseball team in 2009. And before the game, a genie says to you that you can have one of two things happen. (1) Your team could have more hits than the opponent or (2) Your team could hit three or more home runs.
Which of those two options would give you a better chance of winning?
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Posted: March 12th, 2010 | Filed under: Essays | 55 Comments »
Adrian Burgos Jr. is Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois and is the author of the fine book “Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos and the Color Line.” He has written an essay about Torii Hunter and his comments, which I post as follows. I will post my own comments feeding off this post in the next couple of days.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010 | Filed under: Essays, Other Sports | 62 Comments »
In this week’s Sports Illustrated, I wrote a little something about the Kansas Jayhawks and the challenge of being the tournament favorite. Along the way, I spent quite a bit of time with Bill Self. He’s one of my favorite people in sports. I actually think that Self is about as good a coach as anyone in America, any sport. I dropped this opinion at a dinner the other day. It’s fair to say that not everyone at the table agreed.
But to me, when you look at the whole coaching package — coaching, recruiting, building a program, selling the program, dealing with the media, building an atmosphere — Self is as good as anyone. The thing about coaches and managers (with Gardy being Exhibit A) is that you can always argue that it really isn’t about them. It’s about the players who actually do. A coach with great players should win. A coach with lousy players should lose. There will always be some serious questions about the worth of any coach because it’s hard to define what the coach actually does … and whether or not the team would have won or lost anyway.
In any case, I think Bill Self is terrific. And I find him fascinating. And so, I wrote the following insanely long piece about him.
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Posted: March 10th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 104 Comments »
I expect that this is one of the few places on the Internet — or really anywhere else — where Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire is proudly celebrated. And because of that, this has become a good spot for Gardy doubters and Gardy haters — and, apparently, they are legion — to congregate. That’s cool, of course. But I do find it striking that whenever I write even two consecutive nice words about Ron Gardenhire, I am guaranteed to hear from people who want the opportunity to bash.
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Posted: March 10th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 38 Comments »
March 10, 2010
Player of the Day: Jose Reyes, shortstop, NY Mets
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Posted: March 9th, 2010 | Filed under: Baseball | 38 Comments »
March 9, 2010
Player of the Day: Joe Nathan, pitcher, Minnesota.
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