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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 160 OF 914 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Mar-17-10 | | talisman: does anyone remember when 400 home runs meant the hall of fame? baseball stat from 1974...al kaline retires with 399...i wondered how can you do that? |
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| Mar-17-10 | | Travis Bickle: <talisman> I think I'd play until I hit 400, unless it took me another 10 seasons! LOL |
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Mar-18-10
 | | Phony Benoni: <talisman> Kaline also had 3000 hits, which is even a surer guarantee. And he was one of those rare athletes who knew enough to retire before he started embarrassing himself. |
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| Mar-18-10 | | Jim Bartle: The Toby Harrah comment is excellent. |
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Mar-18-10
| | Phony Benoni: Spring training is for mastering areas of the game where you failed last year. Just the other day, Brandon Inge came up with the bases loaded--and this time he was able to get hit by a pitch. Practice makes perfect. |
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| Mar-19-10 | | SugarDom: Hey drink your calcium man. That could be the onset of Alzheimers... |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: Any word from our Yankee watchers how Curtis Granderson is working out in New York? The Tigers have reason to be optimistic about his replacement, Austin Jackson, who is batting over .400 and showing speed and a good glove. But it's just spring training. Dontrelle Willis has been quite effective. Not only is he not walking people, he's actually getting them out without allowing runs. Right now, he's probably in the starting rotation when the season begins. So some of the question marks are straightening out, but I still fear the Tigers will finish sub-.500 this year. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't win the Central Division. |
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| Mar-19-10 | | A.G. Argent: Only one Yank watcher lurking among these pages I know of and that is our TDraw. However, I get the feeling he's only looking in on 'em in the fall. By the way, anybody ever see any of the three HBO baseball documentaries called When It Was a Game? Just Nflixed 'em. They are wonderful. Especially the third one. 98% shot in color by players or fans with home movie 8 or 16mm cameras and it's all in amazingly great condidtion. Dunno if it's digitally enhanced or not. Don't matter, it's footage you'll see nowhere else and with excellent narration. Ken Burns, eat yer heart out, you couldn't touch this. |
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| Mar-19-10 | | dakgootje: <but I still fear the Tigers will finish sub-.500 this year. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't win the Central Division.> The team-total at the bookies for the Tigers is around 80 so that would only just be under the .500 mark. The division is not the strongest of course, even though I am hoping for [and somewhat counting on] a good year for the white sox [aka .500+ :P]. |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: <dakgootje> Yeah, it's probably the White Sox's turn. But one of these years the Royals are going to get it all together! |
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| Mar-19-10 | | Jim Bartle: Rick Ankiel has been sent to the Royals? |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: It's been some time since we had a chess moment in these here parts. Better squeeze one in before Opening Day. This game is dedicated to all baseball players trying to make a comeback. Sometimes, you do get a second chance. I'm playing Black against the proverbial N.N. on the Queen Alice server. <1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Qf3 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Be7 7. d4 c5 8. Bb5+ Nc6 9. Ne2 O-O 10. O-O f6 11. exf6 Bxf6 12. Nf4 cxd4 13. Nxd5 dxc3 14. Nxf6+ Rxf6>
click for larger view
<15. Qxc3>
Well, gosh, if you insist.
<15...Qb6+ 16. Be3??> After 16.Qe3, Black cannot take the bishop without being mated, and the game is relatively even. Now, instead of just grabbing the piece, I blundered by thinking about the position. After 16...Qxb5 17.Rxf6 Rxf6 18.Qxf6, my king looks very exposed. Well, that's simple to fix; I'll just trade rooks first with check, so he doesn't have time to save the bishop. <16...Rxf1+?? 17. Bxf1> Oh, barf. At times like these I don't have a lot of fighting spirit, but would just rather get the game over with and forget about it. I couldn't see resigning, so I offered a draw hoping he would be so shaken by almost losing a piece that he would grab it gratefully. <17...Qd8 18. Bc4+ Kh8 19. Rf1 Bg4> No such luck, and White is probably winning: those bishops are monsters, and 20.Rf7 looks crushing enough for anyone. After White misses that, I desperately try to trade queens. White, trying to win with an attack, keeps avoiding the trade, but his pieces slowly get worse and worse. <20. Bc5 Qa5 21. Qe3 b6 22. Rf8+ Rxf8 23. Bxf8 Qe5>
click for larger view
<24. Qc1??>
Well, gosh, if you insist.
<24...Qd4+ 25. Kh1 Qxc4> No, I did not think about this move. Or for the rest of the game, either. I was taking no chances. <26. h3 Bf5 27. Qg5 Qf7 28. Ba3 h6 29. Qe3 Qe6 30. Qf3 Be4 31. Qh5 Qg6 32. Qe2 Nd4 33. Qa6> The painless route.
<36...Qxg2#> 0-1 |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: Looks like the Royals also picked up Scott Posedniuk and Jason Kendall. Are they actually trying to win? And look what their nonstarters are doing: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2... |
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| Mar-19-10 | | Jim Bartle: Well, really, how hard should it be to hit for the cycle against Bill Buckner? Aside from the symmetry of it, I've always wondered what the particular big deal about the cycle is. Or the definition should be "at least" a single, "at least" a double, etc. A player with a double, a triple, and a homer should stop at first on a drive off the wall, so he can hit for the cycle? Or when Mike Schmidt hit four homers in a game, he could have missed second base, third base, and home on three of them, and gotten the coveted cycle? |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: Symmetry is part of it, but there's also the relative rarity. Cycles aren't much more common than no-hitters. I doubt a player would risk a game trying to reach the goal. For example, say there's two out in the ninth with the score tied and the bases empty. In that case, a player would not try to stretch a double into a triple to get the cycle. However, if his team had a large lead he'd probably go for it. |
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| Mar-19-10 | | Jim Bartle: I understand. But I still think if a guy hits two doubles, a triple, and a homer, he should be given credit. Speaking of strange accomplishments, a young player in the NBA came very close to pulling off a unique triple-double a few weeks ago: 19 points, 12 assists, 9 turnovers. |
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Mar-19-10
| | Phony Benoni: Any player with double-digit turnovers should forfeit one of his other doubles. |
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| Mar-20-10 | | talisman: posednik was undefeated in high school track. 100, 200. and hurdles. who else but kenny williams would trade carlos lee for posednik(at the time .239) and win the WS the next year. |
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Mar-23-10
 | | Honza Cervenka: Hi Phony Benoni,
I don’t know whether you have read my recent messages at Kibitzer’s Café or not and so I am posting it here too. On Monday of last week I have become proud father of (the second) daughter named Aneta. You can see her picture on the site of regional newspaper “Kladensky denik” (Kladno’s Daily) at http://kladensky.denik.cz/miminka/m... where is just now till this Friday (12:00 A.M. CET) running a polling contest for the most sympathetic baby born last week in regional maternity hospitals organized by the newspaper. Personally I am not much interested in such a kind of competitions but my wife likes it very much and she would be much happy to see our little girl on the top. Right now we are on the second place in very tense and close race with two other contenders and so every additional vote is very important for the final outcome. If you would like to help me to make my wife even happier than she already is now, just click on the link above, flag “Aneta Cervenkova, Stredokluky” (the first name in gray box on the right side on the screen) and hit the “hlasovat” button below. It is possible to vote repeatedly always after 60 minutes from one IP address... :-D Thanks and warm regards, Honza |
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| Mar-24-10 | | playground player: So my wife and I last night were thinking about taking in a few games at Yankee Stadium this season, a pastime which we used to enjoy fairly often, years ago. The seats we used to get now cost $275 each per game. Miller Beer, $9.50; Heineken, $12.50.
Hot dog, $6. Box of Cracker Jack, $5.75. (Did not even bother to check the cost of parking!) What is this madness? For the two of us to go to one ballgame, it would cost more than my entire week's gross pay. So we decided to go to a Broadway play instead... not! Matinee seats, $150 each. |
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| Mar-24-10 | | Jim Bartle: Last year in the first months at least (don't know if it was corrected) Yankee Stadium was often filled or nearly filled, except for the very best seats behind home plate and the dugouts. These were so expensive people weren't buying them. Something similar happens every year at the French Open tennis tournament, where in matches up to the final weekend, the boxes closest to the court are largely empty, while the upper stands are nearly full. In this case the tickets are sold, but to sponsors and corporations, and the people just don't show up. |
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| Mar-24-10 | | Jim Bartle: From a review of "This Book is Overdue!" by Marilyn Johnson: Contemporary librarians are morphing into undisputed masters of the information cosmos. An Internet-savvy, database-crunching cohort of multimedia manipulators passionately dedicated to empowering the data-deprived, they democratically distribute all the fruits of the emerging hypertext universe. Johnson’s paean to this new generation of librarians demolishes superannuated myths and stereotypes of fusty librarians filing catalog cards and collecting fines for overdue books, and replaces that with a vision of the profession’s future where librarians serve as guardians and guides to information in cyberspace. These rock-star librarians maneuver their way through a labyrinthine network of glowing computer-terminal screens to retrieve whatever answers patrons may seek. If that’s not high calling enough, librarians stand tall as superhero sentinels bravely beating back every assault on civil liberties and Constitutional government. Johnson offers portraits of American librarians, both institutional and freelance, already achieving fame as cybrarians and informationists, and she affirms and celebrates their conquests. Take that, Nicholson Baker! --Mark Knoblauch |
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Mar-25-10
| | Phony Benoni: Yes, this change is happening even in my dingy little back room office.(Actually, I have a nice view). More and more, the resources I catalog are available through the Internet. I think the hope is someday the Library can be open 24-7 even if the building is closed. By the way, did you understand the Nicholson Baker reference? A few years ago, he wrote a series of scathing articles lamenting the demise of the card catalog at the San Francisco Public Library. He loved those little 3 x 5 critters. |
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| Mar-25-10 | | suenteus po 147: Nicholson Baker is one of those rare alarmists who is afraid of most change because it anticipates his own perverse and twisted fantasies about the future and new technology. He is also, apparently, a novelist. |
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| Mar-25-10 | | Jim Bartle: Yes, I read articles by Baker on the value of card catalogues in The New Yorker. Is that what you meant, PB? |
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