That Special Day
Posted: September 8th, 2009 | Filed under: Media | 30 Comments »
This is on the front page of Yahoo today.
Sigh. And no, I’m not sad because Oprah is losing her go-to guy or because the U.S. lost its most competitive title. And I’m definitely excited about the lost world that was found in a crater.
It’s just that … that was supposed to be our day.
Loading ...
Circle me Oprah?
Why would Yahoo! rub it in like that?
I’m sure they’ll do a similar story for 9/15/09. I’m sure.
Do you at least refer to Joe Morgan as “Pea” in the book?
Joe,
Please do a comparison on carpenter vs lincecum.
Carpenter I thought was a lock.
Ordered 9/15/09
“U.S. loses ‘most competitive’ title”
I guess we don’t care.
I’m sorry, Joe! If it makes you feel better, I’ve got the book on pre-order. 9/15/09 doesn’t have the same ring to it, but it’s still special to me!
All of the a-hole 1st posters who want to be circled will from now on be known as circle jerks.
Shouldn’t you just be happy the Royals signed Lenny DiNardo? I mean, doesn’t he have a World Series ring?
I’d tell Joe to aim for 10-10-10 but it falls on a Sunday. 11-11-11 is a Friday and is 26 months out. Plenty of time to hit that one, unless he gets bumped by Spinal Tap.
GOT IT today in the mail — preordered from Buy.com! Can’t wait to start reading it tomorrow just so that I can keep the 09/09/09 thing going.
I plan on visiting every bookstore within ten miles on 9/9/09 and protesting loudly to the clerk when I can’t find the book. Because if anyone is to blame for the delay, it’s hourly workers.
I say indulge the melancholy and the frustration for today and tomorrow – they are good in small doses – and then get on with doing the great stuff you do. If nothing else, the frustration has led to three great jabs at Smoltz on facebook tonight!
Don’t feel too bad Joe. You do get the honor of having your book come out the same day as Mark Knopfler’s next great CD, “Get Lucky”.
Next post: a look at Tony Pena Jr.’s quest to become a MLB reliever.
This is off topic, but…I was checking in on Billy Butler’s stats and this thought popped into my head: At least we didn’t trade him for Yuniesky Betancourt.
Remember when Dayton wanted so badly to make that happen? What a buffoon.
Anyway, that was a happy thought. But as so many happy thoughts about the Royals do, it quickly turned sour. I started to get worked up about Dayton’s trade and free-agency valuations; I started to think, why on earth would he have wanted to trade Butler for Betancourt?; what about Mike Jacobs enticed Dayton to trade for him? Etc etc etc.
I just don’t get it. And I don’t think I can take four more years of his tenure. But at least Greinke will be there, and Butler too, I hope.
Just a thought about AL MVP and your poll. As of right now, Joe Mauer is leading the AL in OPS, with 1.041, but he has been fading as catchers tend to do late in the season, and he’s not on a playoff team.
Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are Kevin Youkilis, Miguel Cabrera, and Kendry Morales. All are big boppers for playoff teams. Texeira is 5th, not particularly close to Youk, but he does play in New York and gets lots of RBI.And ARod is closing in on Tex fast.
My personal feelings are that Youkilis is the AL MVP. He’s a great fielder and he is the best player on a team in the playoffs. But he didn’t even make your list. Cabrera is a fun guy, but he’s nowhere near the fielder Youkilis is, and he’s behind Youkilis offensively. And Kendry Morales also isn’t on your list.
I’d hate to think you tilted your poll towards the Mauer versus Texeira argument by leaving off the other three first basemen having better years than Texeira for playoff teams.
I was driving in listening to NPR as usual, and they always have an “on this date” segment where it lists something interesting about this date in history. And the best they could come up with for today was the birth of Esther Cleveland, the first child born in the White House to a sitting president. September 9 must be a pretty lame day after all.
I hate Yahoo! now.
OK, I think I may have figured something out. We have been speculating for two years that the Royals offense would be better off when Greinke was pitching using the DH for Pena and letting Greinke hit for himself.
The rule, however, specifically requires the DH to be used for the pitcher.
Would it be possible to start the game with Pena on the mound and Greinke at short – he played there through high school – let him go a batter or two, with the lineup card having Greinke playing short and batting ninth – and then swap them? Would the DH continue to replace Pena in that circumstance?
You can tell it’s been a boring day at work ….
On 09.09.42, Japanese planes dropped incendiary bombs on Oregon. This factors in somehow. 09.09.91? Cleveland drew a brisk 1,695 fans to watch an Indians-Bosox tilt. September 09, 1970: Bowie Kuhn suspended Denny McLain for carrying a gun. 09 September ‘66? John met Yoko.
I kind of randomly came across a gentleman who turns 99 on 09/09/09 … inevitably it made me think of Mr. Posnanski and how his publisher smashed his dreams of the perfect publication date for a book I’m nonetheless very excited to read.
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57858/To-the-nines.html
I preordered the damn thing in June, what’s a couple more days I guess.
It’s not you Joe, it’s me.
I’m intrigued by the NL Cy Young poll, mostly because I’m surprised that Carpenter is getting as many votes as he is. If I had to pick any NL pitcher to start a game tomorrow that my life depended on, Lincecum, Carpenter and Wainwright would be toss-ups. But the Cy Young is about performance over the whole year.
Lincecum and Carp have similar ERA (though Carp has a slight edge) and wins (y’know, best stat ever), but Lincecum has many more IP, many more K, much higher K/9, one more CG, and one more shutout. Some of those are counting stats, of course, and Carp was injured for a portion of the season, but that’s kind of the point–shouldn’t Lincecum get credit for being just as good for a longer period of time?
If you want to look at more advanced stuff, Lincecum has a better FIP and a much better WAR. I realize he’s winning the poll by a wide margin, but I guess I expected the readers of this blog to give him a more dominating victory.
Of course, things could change if Lincecum is hurt and Carpenter continues being Carpenter for the remainder of his starts.
Richard Aronson… but he does play in New York
So? What’s your point?
Historically MVPs are likelier to come from teams in New York, or teams that beat a New York team in the playoffs, than they deserve. This could be because all the television networks, not to mention Sports Illustrated, are based in New York.
Richard:
NY bias is a popular argument, but it is wrong, especially in recent history.
(1) The Mets have zero MVP awards.
(2) The NY Giants won four; the Dodgers won eight while in NY. But that was over 50 years ago.
(3) Since 1964 the Yankees have four — yes, four — MVP awards. Of course before that they won 16, which is massive, but before that they were also in the World Series almost every year, and guys like Ruth, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle and Maris were driving the team.
(4) Voting occurs before the playoffs but is not announced until after the World Series.
Still, just for fun:
(5) Only three MVPs have played for a team that beat the Mets in the playoffs: Chipper Jones, 1999; Kirk Gibson, 1988; and Reggie Jackson, 1973.
(6) Since the modern award was created in 1931, only eight MVPs have played for teams that beat the Yankees in the playoffs: George Brett, 1980; Joe Morgan, 1976; Ken Boyer, 1964; Sandy Koufax, 1963; Dick Groat, 1960; Hank Aaron, 1957; Roy Campanella, 1955; Mort Cooper, 1942.
Only one of those guys was the AL MVP: George Brett. The other were all NL MVPs who played for World Series champion teams.
(7) Finally, for contrast, since 1990, five AL MVPs have played for teams that lost to the Yankees in the playoffs: Ichiro, 2001; Giambi, 2000; I-Rod, 1999; Juan Gonzalez, 1998 and 1996.
But, of course, the voting occurs before the playoffs. That bears repeating.
I like to hate on the Yankees too, but this NY bias chrous really gets old.
Ted — Thank you.
You should embrace September 15, Joe. After all, Ernest Byner was born on that day.
Richard @ #16: One other note on Youkilis in Boston…
Not only is he a solid defensive 1B, but he’s also played 50 games at 3B this year, a much tougher position to play…
How many MVPs have won the award playing a second position in at least 40% of their games? Not that Youk will finish at 40%, but right now he’s above it (50 games out of 124)…
Not that defense carries much weight in the voting, but I think that separates Youkilis a bit from other first basemen–like Tex–no matter their skill…