DLD 4/1/09: alien snuggies and verse from a not-so beautiful mind

1. A Wolff and Dellums powwow is set for mid-April. Marine Layer has yet to weigh in, but I think this quote provides the nuance and insight we’re looking for here is a quote I think usefully describes the conundrum [edited to eschew unbecoming passive-aggressive derision]:

“I’d love to see them stay in the city where they belong,” said Nico Pemantle, who manages a fan Web site called [redacted]. “But I have sympathy for the owners. There’s a lot of passion among A’s fans to keep them in Oakland, but there’s also a lot of empty seats at the Coliseum.”

2. Vegas Watch is running an MLB win totals over/under contest ($500 first prize). The A’s number is 81.5.

If the many pointy-headed (and I mean that in the most admiring and, frankly, jealous sense) denizens of Free Kraut choose to enter, I am certain they will dominate the competition.

3. Apparently Gameday data has made Questec expendable.

4. It is as if Russell Crowe is trying to be insufferable:

If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue, walk with kings but not lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much;

yours is the earth and everything that’s in it and what’s more, you’ll be a man.

5. This is an April Fools joke:

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper’s archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include “1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!”; “OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more”; and “JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?”

This, alas, just reads like one:

Spider-man III does manage to offer a timely critique of the socio-political world that characterized those times. As the ensuing election proved, Americans were indeed fatigued of their own arrogance and propensity towards global domination. Arguably, these sorts of films helped pave the way by building awareness of the need for, and utility of coalition and dialogue, which are so central to the new administration.

“Arguably”, indeed.

6. Lastly … well, no commentary could possibly measure up to the spectacle. You will just have to click the link.

DLD 3/31/09

Stuff to read through while you delay writing your dissertation…

Tigers release Gary Sheffield.

When Sheffield arrived at the Tigers’ clubhouse Tuesday, he knew something was up.

“People were looking at me funny,” he said.

Teammates or staff?

“Staff,” he said.

That’s because teammates didn’t know yet that Sheffield was about to be released.

When asked if he was stunned after it happened, Sheffield said, “I’m not stunned. But you don’t really know what to feel or what to call it.”

The Tigers will eat a delicious $14 MM.

Make sure you are well protected from the Conficker worm.

Security researchers are racing to head off an Internet worm that is scheduled to phone home for instructions Wednesday, possibly to cause widespread damage.

Researchers who have studied Conficker call it one of the most complex pieces of malicious code they’ve seen.
Known as Conficker or Downadup, the worm has been sitting dormant inside the 10 million to 12 million Windows PCs it has managed to infect all over the world since it emerged in November.

Obviously never spent time with the inner-workings of PECOTA.
World Series hero Cole Hamels will be out to start the season:

Hamels threw 65 pitches in a minor league spring training game Monday and allowed 10 hits and three runs in four innings. He walked one and struck out five.

“He was fine,” Dubee said. “I’m not looking at [how many] base hits he gave up or anything. His command is not there. That’s for sure.”

Dubee said he asked Hamels to throw more fastballs than he normally would and reported that his fastball was clocked at 85-88 miles per hour. In previous starts this spring, Hamels had raised concerns by topping out in the lower 80s.

So that’s Hamels, Lackey, Duchscherer…and, yet, my understanding is that Rich Harden is ready to go.  Speaking of pitchers, THT looks at Nick Adenhart of the dreaded Slegna:

• No swinging third strikes
• Fell behind often—1.6:1 ratio of 1-0 to 0-1 counts
• Barely ventured over the inside half against left-handed hitters
• Batters swung at only 35 percent of his curveballs when they were in the strike zone
• Other than that, he fooled no one—the swing rate on his pitches out of the zone (15 percent) was half the league average
• Even Adenhart’s change-up is below average in terms of missing bats (20 percent whiff rate, which is a good 10 points lower than league average for change-ups)

I wanna be…YOUR LINK DUMPER!  Why don’t you call my screen name?

DLD 3/30/09 Comments Hopefully in Correct Order Edition

Looks like the A’s won the big trade, with Holliday and others knocking Greg Smith around. I like Greg, but it seems like he could be in for some trouble in Colorado…
From Slusser:

Travis Buck made a trip to the emergency room Sunday morning because his left ear was plugged, and after a case of vertigo last year, he was worried about a recurrence. The ear was flushed out, Buck’s equilibrium is fine, and he won’t miss any time.

Perhaps pressure from high altitudes got to him after trying out this new business:

Our pilot is VERY discreet and all flights are handled with the UTMOST confidentiality. West Georgia Regional is a relatively “quiet” airport with little traffic, so getting in and out very discreetly is no problem at all.

Apparently, links are red with the current format. boo.

DLD 03/28/09: Is this thing on?

Post author: salb918

As long as we’ve got a new blog, we might as well get the action started. Vince Shlomi, of ShamWOW! fame, has been arrested on charges of felony aggravated battery:

According to Shlomi, 44, on Feb. 7 he met a prostitute named Sasha Harris at a nightclub and pre-paid her $1,000 for “straight sex.” When they returned to his $750-a-night hotel room (those infomercials really pay well), the couple began kissing when Harris suddenly bit Shlomi’s tongue and “would not let go.”

OK, let’s get this thing going! I imagine it will take a while for us to find our rhythm, but we’re all friends here and it’s my sincere hope that any disagreement you might have with me will not worsen my incipient cannibalism.