Miscellaneous
Posted: September 4th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball, Cleveland, Other Sports | 111 Comments »
I fully appreciate that I do this blogging thing all wrong. I love and appreciate the Internets, and I want to be on the cutting edge, but truthfully I still think a lot like an old ink-and-newsprint hack, which is why I post really long items and also why, instead of turning the following into about 14 different posts, I am throwing it all out at once like it’s an old-fashioned newspaper notebook. Its just in my blood.
Here then are a series of entirely unrelated thoughts.
* * *
A couple of brilliant readers made this point in the comments, and I think it’s well worth mentioning because there really hasn’t been much to cheer for Kansas City Royals fans this year.
Alex Gordon has been good against righties this year. He’s hitting .278/.377/.490 against righties with 13 homers in 302 at-bats. That does tell me that I have probably been a bit harsh when judging Gordon … I fully expected him to make a big splash like young third basemen Evan Longoria or Ryan Braun or even Ryan Zimmerman (who has tailed off offensively though he hasn’t been helped by his balpark much).
In the end, though, everyone advances at his own pace, and Gordon is 24, and he has started to show some plate discipline which, numerous scouts believe, tends to lead to a power surge. I think the Adam Dunn comparisons a couple of people have made are way, way, way premature (Dunn at 24 walked 108 times and hit 46 homers) but I’m happy to admit that I should be more positive about Alex. His numbers against right-handed pitchers and recent walk numbers are a good reason to hope for a breakout season in 2009.
Meanwhile, Billy Butler has been absolutely mashing lefties. I had no idea. He’s now hitting .345/.408/.611 against lefties with seven homers in 113 at-bats. Again, with Butler, the hope was for a Miguel Cabrera type introduction into the league, but when when you consider that Butler is only 22, and he won’t turn 23 until after Opening Day, and he’s crushing lefties like that, well, again there is a plenty of reason to expect good things.
Now, if only someone could morph them into one player.
* * *
There’s something sort of touching about Jason Giambi running into a bathroom door and gashing his right eye. That, really, is what the Yankees season has been missing … a theme. Now, when Yankees fans look back on the 2008 fiasco, they can at least call it by name: The Year Giambi Smacked Face First Into A Bathroom Door. Expect three books on it this fall.
* * *
Why is it that whenever any politician gives a good speech, the announcers say they “hit it out of the park.” Now, I want to say something to Wolf Blitzer and the rest speaking only as a sportswriter: You know how hard it is to actually hit a ball out of a park? It’s REALLY hard, OK? I mean, it happens at Fenway and Wrigley but that’s because of those park’s dimensions. If you want to say, “He hit that one out of Fenway” … OK, fine.
But hitting it out of the park suggests a titanic bomb out of Yankee Stadium. And, it should be noted that no Major Leaguer EVER hit it out of that park. None. Not Mantle. Not Ruth. Not DiMaggio. Not Reggie. None of them. Now, it is said that almost 70 years ago Josh Gibson hit it out of Yankee Stadium (though it should be noted that it is also said that Josh Gibson once hit a fly ball that didn’t land until the next day).
And this is my point. Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, MIke Huckabee (I’m not exactly a Hucka-disciple, but I have to say I think he gives a terrific speech), these people might have hit HOME RUNS. But for “out of the park,” you need a Josh Gibson blast that is so incredible it may be true and may be myth. I say no American politician has hit it out of the park, since, I don’t know, maybe Abe Lincoln in Gettysburg a long time ago.
* * *
Sure, I thought it was a cheap one, but honestly I thought the ball hit against Sabathia WAS a hit. I mean, let’s be honest. C.C. ain’t exactly Baryshnikov out there. Maybe if he could have Kenny Rogers or Greg Maddux field his position for him, OK, but realistically the big man ain’t making that play.
* * *
OK, being a Cleveland guy and being a reporter, I have my own feelings about Bill Belichick. But I did do a double-take when I saw these lines in the Associated Press story about quarterback Tom Brady.
“He’s practicing this week and I expect he’ll be ready to go,” Belichick said Wednesday during a conference call with Kansas City reporters.
Asked if that meant that the quarterback, who has had an injured right foot, would play, Belichick said …
OK, see, whoa, whoa, whoa. See, why did we ask him AGAIN if he would play when he very clearly said, “I expect he’ll be ready to go.” What exactly are we hoping to get him to say? That he is willing to personally guarantee it or your money back? (And I say “We” because I feel like I probably would have asked the follow up question too … it’s what we do).
We all know that Belichick is a pain in the neck, he acts like football coach is one security clearance step above CIA director, he appreciates the benefits of bullying, and he is obviously willing to push and bend the boundaries of fair play to win. But I do suspect that we media folk sometimes bring out the worst in him.
* * *
The single most troubling moment of the Olympics for me came during a press conference with Ukranian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska. You may ask why I was AT a press conference featuring Ukranian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, and I could not give you a good enough answer* except to say that it is the Olympics and you often find yourself in odd and unexpected places.
*It’s an interesting philosophical question: Is there a good enough answer? What if Blonska was my sister?
In any case, apparently Blonska had been suspended for two years for steroid use. Then she was reinstated for these Olympics, which troubled some of her fellow competitors. I was unaware of all of this, of course — now I remember, I was waiting for the Usain Bolt press conference to begin — and I was taken aback a little when a British reporter (well, he sounded British) asked Blonska pointedly if she felt like it was right she should be allowed to compete and if she felt ashamed of her drug use.
“It is very painful to be asked this,” Blonska said softly — or maybe it was the translator who spoke softly, I’m not entirely sure. But you could see there was great pain on her face. She looked agonized, haunted, like someone who had made a mistake a long time ago but understood that she would never be allowed to live it down. Even though I had no idea who Blonska was, no idea about her past, no real understanding of the heptathlon, I found myself feeling with her.
“I don’t think you have to ask it at this moment,” the translator translated. “Now everything is in the past. I’m not ashamed and those who think I should not be here should look at themselves. It was a mistake in my life, and I have managed to prove that I can compete again. And I am competing.”
It was so affecting because Blonska was not crying, she was not asking for us to forgive her, she was not pleading for mercy. She was just saying that we are human, all of us. She was saying, in her own Ukranian way, that life is like the 17th green in the U.S. Open and maybe you should not criticize a golfer for reading too much break in the putt because, hey, in those conditions you might do the same yourself.*
*I call this my “Johnny Miller philosophy of life.”
Point is, I watched her speak and with no previous connection to her, I believed in her, I was happy for her that she competed and won silver, I trusted her.
Six days later, Lyudmila Blonska had her silver medal stripped and she got booted out of the Olympics because she tested positive for drugs. She promptly blamed her husband. And I walked away thinking the most cynical though: How can you believe anyone anymore?
* * *
What are the Yankees going to do with Derek Jeter? He’s had a very mediocre offensive season. He’s going to be 35 next June — which is old for his kind of player. His top Baseball-Reference comps — Roberto Alomar, Frankie Frisch, Ryan Sandberg, Bobby Doerr — were all more or less done at 35, and others like Alan Trammell and Barry Larkin had one good year left in them.
He has long needed Karl Rove and Paul Begala like spin doctors around to convince people that he isn’t a huge liability at shortstop, and you have to figure that’s only gonna get worse. And that’s a real problem for the Yankees because at some point, when they look to see what went wrong this year, they will realize that their defense is absolutely dreadful* — and I can’t imagine there’s a worse defensive keystone combo than Jeter and Robinson Cano** — and if they want to fix things that might be a good place to start.
*The New York Yankees really are a dreadful defensive team. Baseball Prospectus compiles a beautiful and simple statistic, invented of course by Bill James, that is called “Defensive efficiency.” It is simply this: How often does a defense turn a ball hit in play into an out? Period. That’s all. The BP formula looks a bit complicated …
1 – ((H + ROE – HR) / (PA – BB – SO – HBP – HR))
… but the beauty is they figure it out for you. The basic concept, as you know, is that pitchers have quite a lot of control over walks, strikeouts, plunks and dingers. In every thing else, they rely on their defense.
1. Tampa Bay, .715
2. Cubbies, .714
3. Oakland, .713
4. Toronto, .710
5. MeetTheMets, .709
(tie) Brew-has, .709.
There are the top defensive teams in baseball. And, for the most part, those are really good teams. Oakland is a bit of an outlier, but I think the A’s have a ballpark with more foul territory than Alaska and anyway their problem is not pitching and defense it is that they are dead last in the American League in runs scored. Toronto’s problems are also on offense.
The Bottom five:
30. Cincinnati, .678
29. Texas, .681
(tie). Pittsburgh, .681
27. Seattle, .686
(tie). Yankees, .686
You really don’t want to be down here in defensive efficiency
**A quick glance at John Dewan’s plus/minus system shows that Jeter-Cano is the worst defensive keystone combo even though Jeter’s -11 (which is still terrible) is a big improvement over previous years. The numbers show he’s AWFUL on balls hit to his right (-19) and no good on balls hit to his left (-1) but he has been very solid on balls hit at him (+10). Jeter, I think, is excellent on balls he has to charge and throw quickly on the run.
Worst keystone combos
1. Jeter/Cano, -41
2. Betancourt/Lopez, -28
3. Young/Kinsler, -26
4. Kent/Berroa, -12
5. Peralta/Carroll, -11
* * *
One more Jeter thought. When I talked with Pete Rose (Did I mention I’m writing a book about the 1975 Reds … come on, you knew I couldn’t make it through a sprawling blog post like this without mentioning it), I asked him if he thought Jeter had any chance to catch him on the hit list.
I wish I’d had a camera at that moment because the look of pure disgust on Pete’s face was beyond priceless, it was worth more words than every blog post I’ve ever written. He said, “Come on.”
I said, “Well, he has about as many hits as you had at his age.” And if anything Pete’s look became MORE disgusted, and he smirked and he said what might be my favorite quote of the year, and one that (sadly) I probably won’t be able to get into the book so I give it to you now:
He said: “You tell Derek that the first 3,000 are easy.”
* * *
So the name is the Oklahoma City Thunder. First off, I like Oklahoma City, one of my best friends is from there, and I’m thrilled they have an NBA team. That’s only about a four and a half our drive from Kansas City. But, OK, seriously, has there EVER been anything that sounded more like a made-up-movie-name than “Oklahoma City Thunder.”
Who coaches that team in the movie? I say Robert Duvall doing the Southern accent thing he has not been able to shake since The Great Santini.* The move has to have Robbie Benson reprising the role of Henry Steele (as the former college basketball star who has been disillusioned by the game) and Denzel Washington (as the old man trying to get one more year out of his creaky body). I’m giving you gold here, Jerry. Gold.
*Seriously, Duvall is brilliant, one of my favorite ever actors, but the guy was born in San Diego and he went to school in like Maryland, Missouri and Illinois — why does he sound like Foghorn Leghorn in every movie now?**
**And that reminds me: Why does Joe Namath sound like Vince Dooley? The guy grew up in Pennsylvania and lived in New York. You’re telling me four years at the University of Alabama gave him THAT accent?***
***And speaking of that, can anyone please identify Monica Seles’ accent? It’s like the United Nations of accents — one minute she sounds Hungarian, the next she sounds like a Valley girl, the next she sounds like she just arrived from Serbia. I mean, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s like the whole world has come together inside one former great tennis player. I’m just hoping we can get a ruling at some point.
* * *
I apologize for missing the anniversary … Last Friday was the 31st anniversary of Duane Kuiper’s solo home run off of Steve Stone. Happy 31st to Duane, the most awesome baseball player ever, and in your honor here is the Indians lineup that day.
Paul Dade, cf
Duane Kuiper 2b
Buddy Bell, 3b
Andre Thornton, 1b
Bruce Bochte, lf
Rico Carty, dh
Ron Pruitt, rf
Fred Kendall, c
Frank Duffy, ss
It’s like my childhood reborn. Thornton blasted two homers, Bochte one, and Duane hit his in the first inning, nobody on, pulled it down the right field line, Chicago’s Wayne Nordhagen (from Thief River Falls, Minn.) could only watch it go.
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Joe:
My first thought on the Okie City Thunder was similar. Basically it sounds like the name of a Minor League team. When you are a minor league city trying to play with the Big Boys, picking a minor league sounding nickname isn’t a very good idea.
Always great to hear your thoughts. Keep doing it “wrong”!
A thought on the man-crush issue from earlier in the week: I think the term, coming out of sports as it has, has its root in a reflexive homophobia that is part of the fabric of our sports world. Guys can get close– bordering on intimate– through the mutual celebration of sports and then comes that moment of self-consciousness…
“Man-crush” is a product of our ironic times, intended to create the separation that eases the embarrassment of that self-conscious moment.
That’s my theory, anyway.
“Dead heat” is another misused term by political people. The race can’t be in a dead heat until the end, yet between now and Election Day, that term will be used hundreds of times.
I watched that game Joe, but 1977 unforunately was 31 years ago, not 21. I believe it was a Monday Night Baseball game on ABC. Wonder who the crew was.
As a Yankee fan I’ve been wondering what they are going to do with Jeter for a while now. It’s funny that you say that the statistics show he is solid on balls hit right at him, because those are the ones that have me on the edge of my seat. That seems to be the time that he is wildest to 1st base. I dunno.
A friend of mine suggested moving him to the outfield as a way of keeping him healthy and in the lineup. He will certainly have to produce a hell of a lot more in the OF than he does now.
The talk is that he was injured a lot worse than acknowledged earlier in the season and he played thru it which has affected his numbers. I hope so, but the Yankees are going to have to decide if they can continue to let him play hurt in the future because an 80% Derek Jeter just ain’t getting it done. A big problem is that he is a gamer and he hates admitting he isn’t at full strength. Commendable, I guess. Except when it results in the numbers he put up this year.
I always thought DJ should move about 20 yards to his left. I have thought that since they obtained ARod. But of course they have the great Cano playing that position
Mmmmm…this post will produce a nice buzz when I can properly complete playing this game later…
http://www.royalsreview.com/2008/9/2/560907/the-joe-posnanski-drinking
I’ve heard mentioned a couple times recently that Jeter profiles as a pretty good defensive center fielder. It makes sense to me as if memory serves whenever someone talks about the defensive stats for Jeter or someone else gives a “naked-eye” assessment, Jeter’s strength on fly balls always seems to come into play.
Frankly, I’d love to see it happen, and I think they should pair it with a move of A-Rod back to SS (seriously, if they are wiling to play a terrible defensive SS like Jeter for so long, isn’t it worth seeing if A-Rod can still hack it?). That leaves them looking for a 3B which maybe Posada can try when he can’t catch anymore (letting you go after Teixeira without worrying about Jorge’s future position) or you try to get Adrian Beltre or someone of that ilk (Ty Wiggington?).
I don’t watch much Yankees ball so maybe I’m way off base but I’d sure like to see the Yanks be gutsy enough to try something like this to maximize their talent on hand as well as taking advantage of the relative surplus of 3B versus CFs (or SS).
As an Indians fan I think the Yankees would be crazy to move Jeter. He should be penciled in as their SS for at least the next 5 years. Maybe 10.
First, Oklahoma City needs to drop the “City”. Only one other {NBA,MLB,NFL} team has “City” in their name, but they too were treated like a minor league town for quite some time (at least in my opinion). Perhaps they still are?
So you’re down to “Oklahoma”. The “Sooners” name is claimed — which is a great name and story — so how about 66ers (for Route 66)? Ah, but then they’re not as good, value-wise, as the 76ers. Scratch that.
I’m stuck. The problem is “Oklahoma”. I can’t take it seriously as a professional sports name. Sorry.
As a Yankee hater I hope Jeter is a fixture at SS for the next 5 years.
I think the really interesting thing about Jeter is what the Yankees are going to do about his contract situation. He is owed $20m in ‘09 and $21m in ‘10, which is the last year of his contract. As of right now he has 2513 hits. If he finishes the season on a tear, he is still is shy of 2600 hits heading into next season. There will be tremendous pressure from the press and NYY fans for the organization to re-sign him, especially seeing as how he will probably be shy of 3000 hits at the end of 2010. The Yankees organizational philosophy seems to be moving away from long term deals for older players (Posada and Mo re-signings notwithstanding), but they will almost have to re-sign Jeter after 2010 when he will be 37.
The real question is how many years will they give him, and how much of an albatross will he be around their organizational neck for that contract. The Yankees can afford a bad contract financially, but they cannot afford to keep a subpar player in the lineup, and they will be hard pressed to bench Jeter or make him a part-time player.
It will be real interesting to see how it plays out.
Damon:
I guess for P.C. reasons Cherokees is out. Oil names are probably too Texas (but how about Oklahoma Oilmen, it’s alliterative at least)
So Jeter can’t go right and he can’t go left. But he can play balls in front of him, and he’s always been good going straight back. Front and back good, side to side bad. Maybe he should stand facing third base when the pitch is thrown.
I’d pay to see that.
Forget the name. “The Thunder.” Sure, it’s a little derivative, but, hey…we’re not really asking much in a league that has the Magic, Heat and Hornets, and a team called the Jazz playing in Utah.
What really gets me is the logo. It is GOD-AWFUL. Man. You know what it looks like? If you ever played MADDEN 94 on N64 you know that you could create a league and stock the teams by using a fantasy draft. Except all of the teams were made up. Apparently technology hadn’t reached the point to where you could stock your favorite team with players. You had to use fake teams.
Anyways, all of the teams were called awful names and had equally hideous logos that looked like they were designed by the artists that were fired when the Zooba Pant fad of a couple of years earlier collapsed.
Looks like they found work again with the OKC Thunder.
No, no, no. Robert Duvall did NOT have a Southern accent in “The Great Santini”. That movie was set in the South (Beaufort, SC, to be exact), and his wife in the movie (Blythe Danner) had an incredibly thick Southern accent, but Duvall himself did not. I believe Duvall (who raises horses in Virginia, which may account for part of it) has been stuck with a Southern accent since he did it so well in “Tender Mercies”.
Every time someone in the news is from MN or ND (my home states) I say a little prayer that they don’t have a name like Wayne Nordhagen. I bet he was a great post-game interview, dontchaknow.
In the Defensive Efficiency formula, I think there should be a negative sign before the HR term in the numerator. The numerator is supposed to reflect the batters who reach base on a ball in play, so you need to subtract HR from H (which includes HR).
Reference: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/glossary/index.php?search=def%20eff
Even the Oklahoma Wranglers would sound better than “Thunder.” And that took me 15 seconds to think up.
Joe –
Thanks for mentioning Wayne Nordhagen in your Kuiper memory, because I just love hearing the name “Thief River Falls”.
It’s one of my favorite place names in the world, and not just because I have been there (the previous two generations of my family hail from the Fargo, ND area; TRF is about a 2-hour drive). I can only imagine the history that led to that name.
The defensive efficiency formula is wrong. You need to SUBTRACT HR in the numerator. (wrong on first glance, and wrong when I looked it up.)
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/glossary/index.php?search=DEF_EFF
It’s not the four years in Alabama. It’s the liquor.
When he’s sober, he sounds like a Kennedy. Shocking, I know. But he does.
Too soon?
Pete Rose, giving an interview on Derek Jeter? Good lord, I’m surprised that didn’t cross the critical mass threshhold of ego resulting in some sort of black hole of self-promotion capable of sucking up the known universe.
How did you ever escape, Joe??
[Pete Rose] said: “You tell Derek that the first 3,000 are easy.â€
And the last 194 are really easy when you can pencil yourself in the lineup every day while putting up sub-.350 slugging percentages.
Wouldn’t that BP formula just be the complement (I think that’s the right math word, but I’m not sure) of BABIP? Like, BP formula + opponent’s BABIP = 1?
The long posts are great Joe. That’s what separates you from the rest of the blogosphere. Keep up the good work!
I think political reporters will give up ‘hit one out of the park’ when sports reporters give up ‘dominating’ to describe everything from a no-hitter to a 14-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half.
(Yes, the latter actually happened, during last season’s ‘Manning v. Manning’ game — the Colts were leading the Giants 14-0 with the first half winding down, and the announcers were falling all over themselves talking about how ‘dominant’ everyone wearing a horseshoe was — until Manning found Plaxico Burress down the sideline for a touchdown just before halftime, and then the Giants took the second-half kickoff and drove for what would have been the game-tying touchdown, if not for a missed extra point. After that, no talk of ‘dominant’.)
“Only one other {NBA,MLB,NFL} team has “City†in their name, but they too were treated like a minor league town for quite some time (at least in my opinion).”
My question is whether it’s the Chiefs or the Royals that are being snubbed here?
Awesome bits on Jeter, Joaldo. The Rose questions and response are PRICELESS. Quintessential Rose all the way. And so true for Pete. As a Red Sox devotee I agree with others, may Derek stay right where he is for another 5 years! And with due respect Mr. Denby – I think Pete is acknowledging the difficulty of the last 194 in his reaction to the Jeter question. No contradiction there.
Thanks Joe.
How about paying homage to the large native american populations in the state?
“The Oklahoma Chiefs”
“The Oklahoma Indians”
“The Oklahoma Cherokees”
“The Oklahoma Red”
And before I’m crucified for suggesting such a thing, let’s consider the following questions: If none of those are acceptable in today’s world, why do we still have the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, Florida State Seminoles, Illinois Illini, Kansas City Chiefs, etc.?
I know the quotes by Rose are funny, and Im a big Rose fan…but, Joe…Pete Rose talking about Derek Jeter? Come on. I know the on going joke about Jeter, but come on … Maybe you can tell Pete, on behalf of Derek, that the first ballot for the HOF… now that’s easy.
Speaking of the Washington Redskins. How on earth is a team allowed to have that name in this day and age?
I’m sure it wasn’t easy. But my point was that Pete had pretty iron-clad job security on his way to the record, much better than most first basemen who hit a home run every six hundred or so at bats.
Steve B, while I am not a Native American, and thus cannot comment on whether or not it is offensive, there have been a few surveys such as this one
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2004/sep/25/20040925-121238-9407r/
that suggest that the ethnic group in question does not find it wholly inappropriate. Survey is by no means be all, end all, but is definitely skewed toward the majority opinion.
“You tell Derek that the first 3,000 are easy.” ….I love that! I’ve been thinking the Yankees should convert Jeter into a First Baseman over the winter. It would be bad publicity if they got rid of him, he’s as close to this generation’s Mr Yankee as we’re gonna get. He deserves to stay a Yank… but the only way that really makes sense, is if he can turn himself into a 1B… like Rose. This move would also allow the Yanks a way to drop off all the heavy 1B salary of Jason Giambi for some prospects who can actually pitch. Probably sounds a little crazy but I think it could work IMHO.
In all fairness, some other speeches probably reached “hit it out of the park” status since the Gettysburg address. Two come immediately to mind:
FDR – “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”
JFK – “Ask not what your country can do for you…”
The reporter should have rephrased the question to Rose: “What odds will you give me on Jeter breaking your record?”
A proud Oklahoman, let me say that I feel bad not only for the basketball fans of Seattle, but for my silly Oklahoman compatriots who actually wanted a pro sports team. Do any politicains or citizens actually look and see what “benefits” pro sports teams bring. Stupidity. I love pro sports, but they are the always ripoffs for the city dumb enough to lure them in. But I’m sure they won’t screw over OKC!!!111 That never happens!!!!
As one of the people (or perhaps both) sticking up for Gordon, nice job on coming around. I’m not saying he’s going to be a stud for sure, but he has shown steady improvement in plate discipline (even against lefties) and power from half-season to half-season. Any Dunn comparisons (not sure if I made them, but if I did) were not saying Alex is as good a hitter as Dunn, but simply to point out that the same things you and others rightly point out in defense of Dunn are the same things people are criticizing in Gordon. Oddly, while Gordon’s defense was awful this year, he was +4 UZR last year. Hope that’s not a trend, but a slump…
Law of Jeter’s defense: His defense will always be terrible, unless the buzz around his awful defense hits ESPN and the papers, in which case he will have a temporary less-bad year. However, that year will also be down offensively.
The Paradox of Jeter and Awards: The media will only give him awards he doesn’t deserve (Gold [Gload?] Glove), but, despite their fawning will screw him out of the ones he does deserve (MVP 1999, 2006).
Matt’s right, I am wasted…
http://www.royalsreview.com/2008/9/2/560907/the-joe-posnanski-drinking
HOW MANY HOF’S DO YOU THINK BET ON BASEBALL?
Love the Giambi bit. Can we use this for other teams too? I’d rather remember 2004 as “the year Kyle Farnsworth lost a fight with a fan (air-circulating kind, not crappy pitcher-booing kind)” than “the year the Cubs had a feud with their announcers.”
I’m pretty sure the Gettysburg Address was widely hated, at least in the press, when Lincoln gave it. Took a while for it to be properly appreciated as the best speech in American political history.
“I mean, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s like the whole world has come together inside one former great tennis player”
anna k. or ashely h. should have been involved in this…
Someone related to Rpbert Duvall’s accent and I know this won’t go over well on this site, but I’ve lived in Philly all my life and I’ve never heard anyone from Jersey talk like Bruce Springstein. I respect him musically, but he’s got some sort of manufactured southern/mid-western accent which I’ve never understood.
JFK – “Ask not what your country can do for you…â€
I remember watching an interview with a political speechwriter (don’t remember the name) who said that he hated Ted Sorensen with a passion for writing that line, because nothing he (the interviewee) could ever come up with would match that.
As for Jeter… well, the Yankees were handing out DVDs describing The New Yankee Stadium before last Thursday’s game, full of the usual self-promotion etc. (i.e., why we think you’ll love paying $2,500 for one ticket). At one point, the narrator is intoning about the Yankee history and Yankee legends, and lists some of the greats whose ghosts will be haunting the new stadium or some such. The list goes something like this:
“From stars like Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, and Mantle, to their modern counterparts like Munson, Jackson, and Jeter”.
Wow. How the mighty have fallen.
When almost anyone says “hit it out of the park” I think all they mean is “hit a home run” and that is true whether they are making an analogy or speaking literally (i.e., referring to an actual home run). Broadcasters say “out of the park” all the time when what they mean is “over the fence.”
The problem is not that people overuse the phrase “hit it out of the park” per se –those analysts did not think Sarah Palin gave one of the greatest speeches in the history of speeches, nor did they mean to imply that– it’s that they are genuinely unaware that there is a distinction between “out of the park” and “homerun.”
“Only one other {NBA,MLB,NFL} team has “City†in their name, but they too were treated like a minor league town for quite some time (at least in my opinion).â€
My question is whether it’s the Chiefs or the Royals that are being snubbed here?
*******************
Sorry, I mean city, not team. So one other city’s teams have “City” in their name. There, I’m now snubbing both the Chiefs and the Royals!
I miss the Warriors’ old uniforms that said “The City” on them. When they left San Francisco, they left those behind.
“You tell Derek that the first 3,000 are easy.â€
And that I am laying 4 to 1 against him reaching 4000.
Joe,
I thought you might write something about Cliff Lee becoming the first Cleveland Indian to win 20 games in 34 years. Any thoughts?
I never thought I’d see a reference to my hometown on your blog. That is AWESOME!
For nearly fifty years I’ve been puzzled (or unhappy or disturbed or something) about the “Ask not what your country can do for you . . . †line.
I remember hearing the speech (not live, but in full and within a day or two) and being stirred by it — both the content and Kennedy’s oratory. The “born this century, tempered by war” phrases really struck a note and as someone in another country the international content was reassuring. The “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship” seemed the words of a true friend.
Some of it, of course, was corny, as good speeches, in common with poetry and music, often are (“Let us never negotiate out of fear; but let us not fear to negotiate”).
Anyway, Kennedy’s got this great speech rolling, both concilliatory and cautionary, full of metaphor and declamation, and he has to wrap it up.
And he goes for the jingoistic, hand-on-heart patriotic “Ask not . . .” bit. Didn’t spoil the whole thing but definitely took the edge off it. He did soften the blow somewhat with a similar question for his international audience but in my book the damage had been done. And then he almost went the whole pig’s ear by getting all religious at the finish.
Then again, maybe it’s me. I’ve been cynical all my life and whenever someone appeals to my good nature I figure they want a loan of me.
Joe, I wouid suspect that the Peralta/Cabrera keystone combo (which the Indians have had pretty consistently for the last month or so) ranks better than the Peralta/Carroll one.
Beaver Falls may be just north of Pittsburgh, but James Carville had it right when he said Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.
It’s not related to this post, but next week, Joe, I will be citing Pixifoods in one of my social psychology classroom lectures.
Going waaaaaay off topic… if you’ve ever eaten the topping off of a piece of pizza and left the crust to wither and fade, you have to vote for toppings as the key ingredient. Oh what, you scrape off the sausage, cheese and bacon into the trash so you can chew on the bleached, refined wheat? Puh-lease!
“ALEX
The defensive efficiency formula is wrong. You need to SUBTRACT HR in the numerator. (wrong on first glance, and wrong when I looked it up.)
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/glossary/index.php?search=DEF_EFF”
too many picayune losers comment on this blog. give it a rest
“Why is it that whenever any politician gives a good speech, the announcers say they “hit it out of the park.â€
that is so funny, because i was JUST thinking that last night, after all the pundits were praising palin for “not just hitting a home run, but a grand slam”
i can’t stand it!!
Did you ask Pete Rose about Ichiro’s chances of breaking the career hits record? 3000+ and counting . . . .
So every tater ever hit at Yankee Stadium was an inside-the-park home run?
I see the NBA returning to its roots: the Syracuse Nationals, the Rochester Royals, the Fort Wayne Pistons, the Providence Steamrollers…
Charlotte, Sacramento, OKC…? The NBA is going to places Greyhound won’t. And the coastal desert town team is called the Lakers. And the team next to a big ol’ lake in Mormon country is the Jazz. It’s as if Lamar Hunt had moved his fledgling AFL team and called it the Kansas City Texans.
It would’ve screwed up a whole generation of geography students.
I liked team nicknames that reflect something about the region, or the vernacular. New Jersey Devils seems like a natural. The “Trolley-Dodger” was a step up from the “Superbas” in Brooklyn (but, as with the SuperSonics, was too long and became truncated into the relatively-meaningless “Dodgers”). Pittsburgh Steelers works (but why is their logo on only one side of their helmets? I never could figure that out).
I suspect the Kansas City T-Bones really wanted to call themselves the Kansas City Strips but it was deemed non-family-friendly (although “Go to the ball game! Come with the cheerleaders” night would’ve been a helluva promotion. The 7th Inning Lap Dance!),
Weren’t the Thunder a Roller Derby team?
Oklahoma is the state that came up with the slogan “Oklahoma is OK”, so my thought is Oklahoma City Thunder is doing pretty good for the state.
Re: OKC Thunder, I’m too lazy to link to it, but the “Uni Watch” page at ESPN.com (just google “Oklahoma City” and “Uni Watch”) ran a story with reader submissions on what the name of the team should be, complete with reader mock-ups of potential logos and uniforms. Some of the names were Settlers, Barons, Wranglers, Frontier, Rattlers, Roughnecks, etc. Almost all of them were loads better than Thunder and that generic logo they came up with.
Monkeyhawk:
“So every tater ever hit at Yankee Stadium was an inside-the-park home run?”
Nicely played.
I know this isn’t the place for political discourse and I don’t intend to discuss them, but one part of Huckabee’s speech confused the bejeezus out of me, so I looked up (AP) and sure enough:
“FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.â€
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.â€
I was thinking of the OK team this morning while driving my child to school and came up with the Oklahoma City T-Boones.
OK, maybe not.
“James
Did you ask Pete Rose about Ichiro’s chances of breaking the career hits record? 3000+ and counting . . . .”
Actually 1700 and counting. Why not add up Rose’s minor league and high school hits while your at it?
I have a question about Southern accents. Is it true Oklahomans have a Southern accent? If so, then, looking at the map, it stretches from Oklahoma (it stops at New Mexico) all the way to North Carolina (Carol-ah-na)–actually it stretches up into Virginia and I would even argue West Virginia–all the way down to Florida and back over to Texas. (I understand that the Texas accent is its own thing, and there are probably variations in several states, I don’t have a trained ear for Southern accents. But a Texan still says ‘North Caro-lah-na’, so close enough). I want to say that I like the southern accent; there was a time in my life when I most definitely sought out women who had one.
But that has nothing to do with my question. That’s a huge area covered by one accent. Take that whole area, stand it on its end, and it would stretch from Texas up into Canada. How is it that the same accent permeates such a large area? I understand there are socio-economic factors, such as plantation culture, but as far I know, there weren’t sugar or cotton plantations in Oklahoma (were there?). So maybe it’s more generally an agriculturally-related accent, but that wouldn’t explain why Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, etc, don’t have it. Maybe it’s related to hotter weather? Then how do you explain why New Mexico and Arizona don’t have it? The accent must fall along the Civil War divide, which explains why only half of Missouri has it. But Oklahoma was a Union state.
Is there an Oklahoma historian in the house?
Don’t feel bad about doing longer than average blog posts, it’s one of my favorite things about this blog.
Man, Palin has an annoying voice. I think in order to enjoy that speech, you’d have to employ the method they used on That 70’s Show, where Hyde was trying to show Eric why he was dating Jackie – he described a desert island fantasy with her in coconut bra, etc. – she’s there complaining and being a general female gendered dog – which naturally enough, Eric finds unpleasant – Hyde gives him a tip, same scenerio happens except her voice is drowned out by music – instantly, Eric finds that – wow, Jackie’s hot!
Yo, Denby…aka Rose Hater. Rose had an OBP of .395 in 1985 (the year he broke the record) which is pretty good. Jeter hasn’t had an OBP that high since 2006.
Also, please name the player on the 1985 Reds who deserved to be playing 1st base instead of Rose. Before you say that they could have brought up Eric Davis at the beginning of the season and put Nick Esaski at first, keep in mind that Rose was just the manager…not the GM.
I definitely think JFK’s inaugural has to qualify as one hit “out of the park,” if only because the subsequent historical events seem to have backed it up. Philip Caputo writes in his memoir, “A Rumor of War,” that the disillusionment of our misadventure in Vietnam affected volunteer soldiers like him so strongly because JFK’s speech had so stirred them to believe in the rectitude and ambition of their missions. In short, that had the clarion call to national action, to “undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free” not been so striking and resonant, our failures to live up to it would not have been so pointedly disheartening.
(Of course, if JFK had had any say in it, he would not have been assassinated. And there were signs before his assassination that he was moving toward withdrawal in Vietnam. Unfortunately, only someone like him, who had a record of military service, a record of running as a Cold Warrior and a record of taking assertive action in the Cold War — e.g., the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis — could have had the gravitas necessary to take a step back and suggest detente with the Soviets. And indeed that’s what he’d begun doing. It was on the same cross-country tour during which he was assassinated that he was promoting nuclear non-proliferation and more normalized relations with the Soviets. It would have been interesting to see if, bolstered by a strong reelection, we could have entered the sort of detente we enjoyed in the 1980s as early as 1965-1966. Johnson didn’t have JFK’s anti-communist or “elected president” credentials to do this. But if we stop to imagine that JFK were never assassinated and had the opportunity to follow through on scaling back the arms race and withdrawing from Vietnam, perhaps that inaugural speech would be seen today as the inauguration of a new age free from fear, rather than one last hopeful comment before descending into another 20 years of twilight.)
It’s also an incredible speech by dint of the numerous biblical invocations made in the name of pursuing universal and humanist goals. Secularists rightly complain that Bush’s speeches feature too many christian code words, because those code words energize an evangelical demographic and agenda at a remove from — and sometimes at odds to — the remainder of the population.
What’s interesting about Kennedy’s speech is that he invokes the words of the prophets openly and repeatedly, easily as much as Bush has ever done. But those quotes and religious ambitions are subordinate to the goal of elevating the fortunes and prosperity of all mankind, irrespective of faith. Christian faith is expressed inclusively and cooperatively in the name of ideals applicable to both the faithful and faithless, rather than covertly/allusively to mobilize an audience whose agenda can be exclusionary. The close of the speech (which people tend to forget exists, remembering instead the “ask not” lines) is extraordinary:
“Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”
I’d say he hit it out of the park.
Oklahoma City Twixsters.
The Royals can dump their current name and become the Kansas City Kit Kats.
Now we’re talking.
Tank:
How about the 43 year old 1Bman they had named T. Perez? His OBP was .396 and his SLG was about 150 points higher than Rose.
“…please name the player on the 1985 Reds who deserved to be playing 1st base instead of Rose.”
Easy, Tony Perez.
Perez in ‘85:.328/.396/.470, 138 OPS+, 207 PA’s
Rose in ‘85: .264/.395/.319, 99 OPS+, 500 PA’s
Perez was even a year younger than Rose at the time.
Jackie B, New Mexico is not a hot weather state due to elevation. Moved from KC to ABQ area and enjoy the much milder summer and winter compared to the heat and humidity of KC. Now southern NM gets hot, but not the majority of the state.
As for baseball, I was suprised that the Royals were not in the nottom 5 defensively, escpacially after all the unearned runs during this past stretch……..
“…Perez was even a year younger than Rose at the time.”
In retrospect, considering the fact that Perez has been and always will be a year younger than Pete Rose, the inclusion of “at the time” may make this the dumbest thing I’ve ever written (which is saying something).
Paul:
I have a defense for you on the age thing. Given that TP, Sr. was born in a Latin American country and given that players from Latin American countries have been known to “adjust” their birth date on occasion, it is entirely possible that TP, Sr. could have been older than Pete Rose at one point in his career and younger than him at another.
Paul:
Another excuse would be to say that you were just channeling Yogi Berra, as in his (in)famous response to “What time is it?”
“You mean, right now?”
The Tigers are 6.5 games ahead of the Kansas City Royals, with plenty of time to catch them.
I know the Tigers weren’t as good as the hype said they were, and I know the pitching has been worse than expected, and I know things happen. And Joe’s blog, of course, has a Kansas City emphasis.
But what do people think? Do they still think Leyland is a good manager? Detroit has some genuine starts and lots of good players and they can barely beat out KC? Since September of ‘06 they’ve been disappointing during the regular season. If you take out the 06 LDS & LCS, they’ve been mediocre. Joe praises Gardenhire, I think Ozzie deserves credit too, but if a good manager helps…
[...] that I forgot to link to a Joe Posnanksi article last week? What was I thinking? Here is a bit of an all over post from the Pos that it rather [...]
As a Brit, the only non-weather, non-bombing related association I could think of would be:
The Oklahoma Exclamation Marks*
But then I’ve never been to Oklahoma the state, let alone the city (or even to Oklahoma! I’ll hasten to add).
* If the Exclamation Marks isn’t quite catchy enough, you could always go for the Oklahoma Musicals instead. I quite like the idea of the New York New Yorks for a NY franchise as well.
Platoon them as a DH, and you’ve got yourself a seriously good DH.
“A friend of mine suggested moving him to the outfield as a way of keeping him healthy and in the lineup. He will certainly have to produce a hell of a lot more in the OF than he does now.”
I’m fairly convinced that Jeter would make a good centerfielder, and if he can OPS around 800 or so, that would be acceptable. Melky Cabrera HAS to be placed on waivers after this year, right? (I should find out how many trade offers the Yankees have had for Cabrera. It’s been at least a dozen or so. It’s unbelievable just how bad they mis-evaluated that kid)
The two things Jeter has always been excellent at is charging a ball and fielding it (great for a center fielder) and catching flyballs over his shoulder. (great for a center fielder).
Whether his lack of range to his left or right would still exist in the outfield, I’m not so sure. I think Jeter has a terrible first step, which isn’t really a very big deal in the OF.
In any case, Cabrera has to go, and Jeter has to get off short. Sign Adam Everett to play short, his lack of a bat should not be as noticeable in a big Yankee lineup (assuming that lineup ever returns.)
I think Everett at short and Jeter in CF saves ~40 runs on defense.
And for all you people sniffing your noses at Oklahoma, we’ve got the cheapest gas in the country! Take that! HAHAHAHAHAHA…
(still $3.45 a gallon)
The Oklahoma Cheap Gas sounds like a great name for an NBA team. Ofcourse, if I owned the team, I’d just call ‘em the Sterners.
Ah, the ol’ “JFK was pulling out of Vietnam!!!!111″ thing again… (sigh)
Most. Overrated. President. Ever.
‘Cept Lincoln
I agree the “City” in the name needs to go. They could have thought a little harder about the name. What about the Oklahoma Huckleberries (Hucks for short), and the stadium can be called the “OK Corral” Then they can relocate the team to a state where the NBA players will want to hang out in.
Most overrated president is Reagan by a wide margin.
Actually 1700 and counting. Why not add up Rose’s minor league and high school hits while your at it?
Please. Ichiro has averaged more hits per year in the US than he did in Japan. His total would most likely be higher if he’d been able to play his whole career in MLB. Playing in the highest Japanese league is not like playing in high school. Run some MLEs if you’d like.
But sure, let’s count minor league hits. Rose had all of 427 of them. I still like Ichiro’s chances.
Most underrated president is James K. Polk!
Times on Base record should be cooler than the Hits record. Why are walks and HBP so disrespected?
I doubt Ichiro! catches Charlie Hustle in that stat.
Paul-
Rose’s past history earned him the playing time!
To be fair… after Robert Duvall did “The Apostle” with the big thick Southern accent, he then did “Falling Down” as an LA cop with an LA accent.
And then not long after that, he did “Deep Impact,” with possibly the greatest/worst name of a character he’s ever done, Capt. Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner.
And speaking of Deep Impact, of course that year also saw the release of Armageddon, the other a-big-asteroid/comet-is-coming-we’re-all-gonna-die movie. Did anyone else ever notice that you could tell which movie was directed by a woman and which by a man?
Deep Impact was directed by Mimi Leder. The plot is pretty linear, with a long dramatic build up that culminates in a large wave (tsunami) washing over the Eastern Seaboard (which happens right after Tea Leoni says “Daddy”), which is then followed by a second dramatic climax when the crew of the spaceship sacrifice themselves for the good of the planet, ending with a reassuring denouement speech by Morgan Freeman how everything will be all right.
Armageddon was a Jerry Bruckheimer-Michael Bay picture with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck that featured an asteroid the size of Texas, but also had several small collisions and explosions happening in the movive at the average of about one even ten minutes.
Someone please tell me I’m not the only one to notice this …
He said: “You tell Derek that the first 3,000 are easy.â€
Yeah, good luck finding a gig that lets you pencil your own name into the starting lineup long after you’re washed up…
I’ve been pushing for “Oklahoma City Outlaws” for some time now. Of course, the USFL got there first…
Oklahoma City Thunder sounds like one of two things:
a Roller Derby Franchise
or a Toby Keith Song…
Perhaps they can salvage the name and add Cats to the end of it. HO!
Sonic (“America’s Drive-In”) is headquartered in Oklahoma City. I was kind of hoping we’d see the Oklahoma City Sonics. They could have brought back Oliver Miller and Sean Kemp.
Loved you slipping in the Kenny Bania line with the OKC Thunder discussion.
I thought the same thing about the “Thunder” name – and I think the reason is because that they picked that name the same summer that one of the biggest movies in theaters is “Tropic Thunder”.
I agree, it’s a totally bush league name. Then again, I said the same thing about the Wizards, and that’s just sort of normal now.
[...] player’s who seem to be the biggest culprits for these bad stats are Jeter and Cano (check out Joe Posnanski’s blog: Jeter/Cano are -41 in outs made (scroll down a ways)). Jeter is no surprise, but Cano ranked as one of the top second basemen in [...]
I agree with Damon Rutherford, the TOB record should be way more looked at than the hits record. All arbitrary counting stat benchmarks are silly, but 4000 TOB is a much better one than 3000 hits; you add Bonds, Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Mantle, Hornsby (those are the 6 best hitters ever, by the way), and a slew of other greats make 4000 TOB without 3000 H, and you don’t have to include Lou Brock, which is nice!
Th e OK Dokies
The OK Temps
The OK For Now
The Oklahoma Dust
Reagan is overrated. Bad at the time, probably only seems less bad to me now, given the last eight…
But not amongst the intelligensia. And Kennedy (and Lincoln) despite, at his best, being carried along by history, while, when following his own instincts, doing things that those same members of the intelligensia rightly deride in other presidents.
As far as Kennedy goes, never underestimate the willful bad faith and irrationalty of professors who conceive of themselves as part of the “real” Greatest Generation — the baby boomers. The same savants who decided to listen to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan rather than MIles Davis, John Coltrane, and Frank Zappa.
Given the way things have gone for the Royals lately, if Gordon and Butler morphed into one player, he’d hit like Gordon against lefties and Butler against right handed pitching. But if Trey was as good a manager as Tony LaRussa, he’d find a way, some way, to platoon those two.
My family has had season seats at Dodger Stadium forever. Once this led to us having the chance to hear Tommy Lasorda speak at the Friar’s Club. Definitely not safe to repeat on a family friendly web site. My dad asked me if I wanted to come and although I didn’t much respect Lasorda as a manager, I thought it would be interesting. And I have to say, Lasorda is one hell of a speaker. I didn’t much like him (over used his starters, bunted too much, didn’t platoon enough when it mattered and platooned too much with guys who didn’t care about platoon advantage, you know the old time manager kind of stuff) but after hearing Tommy speak, I decided that there is another skill to managing. There’s the Earl Weaver, who keeps every statistic ever and puts up hitters who are likely to succeed, and they believe that he’s put them up there because they’re gonna succeed even if he’s really forced to use them because his bench his empty. And then there’s the Tommy Lasorda, who makes players believe in themselves and thus do better, thereby getting the most out of his players even if he isn’t using them optimally. I suspect that Ron Gardenhire has some Lasorda in him. That batting average with runners in scoring position can come from effective motivation as well as effective game management. And from what I’ve seen (all those at bats TPJ has gotten when Angel Berroa was sitting there waiting to be rehabilitated, Alex Gordon getting 156 at bats versus LHP, ditto Butler the other way) the Royals don’t have the motivation they had earlier in the season. Yes, you have to let the young players have a chance to prove they can hit every day before relegating them to platoons. But some of the time you should try to win the game, no?
For a couple of years I worked for the IRS as a Contact Representative. Since Fresno was the only call center on the west coast, it meant that from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. we got all the calls made in the USA, no matter where. And I can say with some assurance that there are multiple southern accents. Virginia and the Atlantic coast is milder than Tennessee and the mountainous states in there, Texas is distinct, and the area around Louisiana, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle was widely accepted as being the hardest to understand accent in the country. I once had one call reviewed from a guy in Louisiana (everybody working at the IRS is subject to review at any time) and my boss told me, “I’m giving you full marks on handling this call and really hope that you understood what he was saying, because I have no idea”. Some folks I know from those areas would break them down still further, but my ear isn’t good enough to say. And yes, I know all the state names, but felt too lazy to type more than necessary.
If you’re going for great political speeches, I think any short list has to include lots of Churchill. “Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.” “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. ” And many others. This is the World Wide Web; we don’t have to limit ourselves to Americans. And I think “Bring down this wall” deserves mention, just to bring in a good speech from a Red President (Republican rather than Democrat, in case there actually is somebody from outside the USA who didn’t know that). We’ve come a long way from that to “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, we won’t be fooled again.”
Brent–I’m no English major, and I hate to sound like such a pedant, but I believe that the proper description for “Oklahoma Oilmen” is assonant, not alliterative. Alliteration is what you it when two words have the same consonant sound, while assonance is what you call it when you have two words with the same vowel sound, at least as I understand the terms.
if anything Reagen is underrated
And John McCain is a “mavrick.”
RE: JFK’s speech…potential unfulfilled, maybe; promise, definitely not.
“the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
– MLK
[...] Joe Posnanski is writing a book about the 1975 Reds: When I talked with Pete Rose, I asked him if he thought Jeter had any chance to catch him on the hit list. [...]
One of the greatest presidential speeches ever came from someone not noted as a great orator. But when Lyndon Johnson went to Congress in 1965 and called on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, and concluding with what was then a pretty radical phrase to many people—”We Shall Overcome”, it made Martin Luther King, Jr cry (which his close associates say he never did). It also resulted in a law which changed America greatly (and, as LBJ forecast, let do dominance by the GOP in the South, since white southerners flocked to the party of Goldwater and Nixon in reaction to the Democrats finally embracing basic human dignity and constitutional rights for black Americans). He certainly did hit that one “out of the park”.
And on Namath’s accent—many people in Pennsylvania sound quite Southern. Bluegrass great Del McCoury lived there much of his life, for example, and no one sounds twangier than Del.
hey putzie!
most baseball press and most fans…still don’t know much about the game when they say either Jeter’s overrated or on the way down…if u watch him play and see all the lil things he does…(last nite he shielded 1Bman ’s view of ground ball while leading from 1B to give Abreu a hit that lead to 1st and Third Situation)
But if u just look at his stats as most people do who dont watch him play and come to ur conclusions about him compared to other SS in AL…then ur STILL clueless:
Top 8 SS in AL in 2008 and their stats(Jeter 1st in Avg,OBP, 2nd in OPS and slugging,3rd in RS,HR,RBI…and only SS w/ double digits in HR and under 100 K’s
Reap and awake fool
American League Sortable Stats: AVG 2008
Click on column header to sort by that category.
NAME TEAM P AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS SF SH OBP OPS SLG AVG
D. Jeter NYY SS 579 86 176 25 3 11 68 51 83 11 5 4 7 .366 .781 .415 .304
O. Cabrera CWS SS 613 87 172 31 1 7 54 54 68 18 6 8 2 .336 .705 .369 .281
J. Peralta CLE SS 566 99 156 39 4 22 84 41 117 3 1 5 2 .326 .801 .475 .276
M. Young TEX SS 619 95 171 32 2 12 76 52 106 10 0 6 0 .331 .724 .393 .276
Y. Betancourt SEA SS 515 58 140 33 2 6 44 15 35 3 2 6 6 .292 .671 .379 .272
E. Renteria DET SS 479 66 129 19 2 9 53 37 62 6 3 5 2 .319 .693 .374 .269
M. Scutaro TOR SS 481 71 126 18 1 7 55 56 62 7 2 7 5 .341 .688 .347 .262
B. Crosby OAK SS 520 59 126 37 1 7 60 43 90 6 3 2 0 .299 .657 .358 .242