Nov
21
Open Thread: It was 75 years ago today…
ByOn November 21, 1934, the Yankees purchased the contract of Joe DiMaggio from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League. He’d debut two year later, posting a .323/.352/.576 line in the cavernous Yankee Stadium. The rest, as they say, is history.
Sorry for the shortness, but the RABbis are out and about this evening. So, have fun with the open thread. I’m sure there are some good college football games on tonight.
54 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
Devils play….
…where idle hands doth lay?
L’chai-im.
To life!
I suppose this would be the wrong time to make a Jew joke?
FUCK YEAH!!! GOT ALL 5 OF MY PAPERS DONE!!!!
I submitted them exactly at the 5:50 deadline!
Time to sleep as I have gotten only 2 hours sleep in the past 50 hours.
6 weeks of freedom!!!!!
[Golf clap]
I feel so relieved right now. As relieved as starters/setup men feel when Mo comes in to clean their mess up.
/Bad analogy?
Congrats!!
http://deadspin.com/5410058/
I’ll forget that the Nets just went to 0-13…
Atleast they’ll get the highest % chance to get the #1 pick
I don’t really know much about basketball, but damn, losing to the Knicks? For shame.
It would ne kind of cool if they lost every game, actually…
Greatest. Website. Ever.
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/
Best quote:
Dude #1, while crossing Yankee stadium: Dude, are we in Staten Island yet?
Dude #2: Are you retarded?
–4 Train
….You *just* found this?
Yep.
This may become my second Bible.
Girl #1: So I should just break up with him over e-mail?
Girl #2: Yeah, this is New York, transportation’s not easy!
Dude #1, looking at Yu-Gi-Oh! cards: Oh man, opening a new pack is pleasurable. Like having sex.
Dude #2: How do you know? You have sex?
Dude #1: Trust me, I know. I have sex.
Ditzy-looking middle aged woman on cell: The funniest thing today with the kids! They slammed me to the door and one of them bit my arm and I drew blood! (pauses) Yeah, I know, I’m going back tomorrow!
–F Train
I could do this all day:
Little boy: Where’s my hat? I need my hat!
Mom: Where’s some manners? You need some manners.
Little boy: Actually, they’re in my hat.
Haha that’s the best one so far
NY sounds like an amzing place.
amazing
Suzyn, you just can’t predict New York
/Sterling’d
My novel’s nearly at 77.000 words/280 pages!
What’s it about?
A sports-obsessed woman who drops out of grad school to pursue her dream of book writing. Its a novel about writing a book, which may be the first of its kind.
Very funny.
It’s about baseball, and kind of about Syracuse without really being about Syracuse.
At Swim Two Birds. Look into it.
Don’t talk to me until the month is over.
*sobs*
I started this in 2007.
Now I feel better!
Jorge Posada is finished, he just doesn’t know it yet.
http://www.theyankeeuniverse.com/?p=9353
This article seemed well researched and written to me. Not sure what you’re getting at.
I’m just goofing around. That’s me.
Ah.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....ly-martin/
This is a great article if you never saw Billy Martin manage, and an even better one of you did. He was one of a kind, the ultimate ‘Fans Manager’ and was a blast to watch.
Here’s an excerpt, about how Billy was having players (even slow footed ones) stealing home every 5 minutes in Minnesota and Oakland.
One does not have to be particularly skilled at sabermetrics to know that, according to the math, everything just described was insane. Yet while the Minnesota experience was extreme, it was by no means atypical for Martin. Since 1956, the most stolen base attempts by any team with runners on second and third was seven, by the 1980 A’s, whom Martin managed. Only four other teams had more than four—two with Martin at the helm (the 1977 Yankees and 1969 Twins). Stealing home is such a dangerous gamble it is rarely worth trying, and certainly not trying as often as Martin did it. By the numbers, Martin’s moves were terrible.
Therein lies the rub. Instead of getting worse, his teams got dramatically better despite all these reckless maneuvers. If his moves should have hurt them, why did Martin’s presence cause teams to improve dramatically? To solve the riddle of Martin, you have to take a step back from what he did, and understand why he did it. The base stealing makes him sound like a Whitey Herzog protégé. Not really. Carew, despite his thefts at the plate, had only 19 swipes overall in 1969. For Martin, steals were not the ends but the means. He wanted to instill a specific mindset in his players: do whatever it takes to win every game. No manager had as little use for a second place finish as Martin. Players gave it their best effort as a matter of routine, but that was the problem—it was a matter of routine.
There is nothing quite like having a lunatic boss to cause employees to reach deeper within themselves. No one wanted to face a hostile Billy Martin in the dugout. Tellingly, almost all of the Twins’ wild base running came in the first half of 1969. Carew’s last home plate steal came in Minnesota’s 19th game. Once Martin had installed the desired mindset in Minnesota, there was no need to run the risky home plate steals. For the rest of the season opponents played back on their heels, wondering what Minnesota would do next.
The man most comparable to Billy Martin was not Herzog, but Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs. In 1519, he landed in Mexico to face the hemisphere’s mightiest warrior nation with only 600 men. Upon arrival, he burnt his boats, giving his men no way to leave. That move was pure Billy Martin. Safe to say, that in the military science version of sabermetrics a general would be poorly regarded for intentionally destroying his communication lines, supply routes and exit strategy. It was possibly even worse than having two men steal home with Killebrew batting.
Imagine bases loaded, no outs, Gardner on third and anybody else on 2nd/first/batting. Early in the game, early in the season. Nah-Joe G’s got that binder……no steals of home in there
Imagine doing it TWICE during ONE At-bat!! Talk about getting your money’s worth at the ballpark.
Back then, nobody in the press criticized Martin for burning out his pitchers. I think lots of reporters were afraid of him. He was very confrontational and would have been very hostile to stats that made him look like he was burning out pitchers. He wanted to win NOW…. The internet would not have been kind to Billy
anyone vote on the sportsnation poll on ESPN.com about who is the best pitcher?
They seem to be missing an option and everyone seemed to have voted incorrectly
A website with a Boston, Chicago and Dallas edition, but without a New York edition, would slight a certain large lefthanded pitcher in NY? Shocking….
CC Sabathia was included. The pitcher I felt that was missing was Felix Hernandez
The list was:
Greinke
Sabathia
Santana
Lincecum
Halladay
Out of that group I voted Greinke. But I would have voted Felix if he were there. Tim Lincecum is the current vote leader.
So the I’m guessing the options are:
A) Josh Beckett
B) Jon Lester
C) Clay Buchholz
D) Tim Wakefield
?
Broncos gonna get their ass kicked tomorrow with Chris “I throw worse than your little sister” Simms at QB against the Chargers.
I am optimistic but I am trying not to be to avoid being dissapointed.
My brother went to high school with Simms.
My cousin (who was big for his age) knocked Chris down in a pee-wee game. His mom then demanded my cousin go play with the 4th-6th graders as a 3rd-grader – and so he did.
Your cousin lived in north jersey?
Like father like son..
Not!
At least we got Phil/not Chris
We didn’t get the better Manning brother however…
I’m gonna spend the break trying to get ripped in 4 weeks.
Haha, me too!
OK. But don’t waste your money on protein powders or creatine. Beer is fine.
80 days to p & c…