Tag Archives: BlogForAYear

Irony and Sincerity are Actually Both Good

It struck me a couple days into the Every Simpsons Ever marathon.

On Twitter, I follow many people who fall into the category of “Weird Twitter.” Now, these people groan and make jokes at the very idea of a “Weird Twitter” and at any attempts to properly describe what they tweet. But I think it’s safe to say there is a lot of trafficking in irony. They’re funny.

These people fill my timeline with jokes and rants mostly based around not liking something or someone. But when The Simpsons started airing Golden Age episodes every half-hour, the mood changed. Were the people who operate so consistently in apathy and antipathy actually… ((gulp)) enjoying something?

They were! They loved The Simpsons! And they were talking about it! Put aside the fact that I love The Simpsons too, but I was quite refreshed to see Weird Tweeters (some of them, at least) expressing their approval of something.

The question must be raised: do we need more sincerity and less irony? Would we improve from expressing more of our satisfaction and approval instead of our complaints and displeasure?

First of all, I certainly don’t think life requires this all-or-nothing mindset. If you are sincere about everything and have so sense of ironic humor, you sound like a bore to be around. I don’t want to be BFFs with my grandma. But if you’re always ironic and like nothing, well, what are we going to do together?

I believe in sincerity, and truly liking things. I am going to write more “Things I Like” Thursday posts, because as I put it, “Let’s spend a little less time railing about what we hate and a little more time sharing what we love. It’s the only way a meritocracy will work.”

I also believe in irony, as un-ironic as this post is becoming. I like @mattytalks and @woodmuffin and @robdelaney and a bunch of other people who make me laugh and happy. I like the sarcastic, witty shows that are out there. God this paragraph is terrible and I want it to end now.

Where am I going with this?

Unlike Aaron Sorkin in The Newsroom (a show I like!), I don’t think we need to “overcome the terminal irony.” But as with many things, be mindful of yourself.

Don’t just speak up about the things you hate, although there is a place for that. Don’t just talk about the things you like; you are more than the things you like.

And text me. We can watch The Simpsons marathon. I have 79 episodes on the DVR that I really should watch.

Read These Stories: Labor Day Weekend Edition

The long holiday weekend seems like a good time to start a new series — Read These Stories.

Clearly I am not committed enough to write something tangible every day, particular this past week when a family member was getting married. So when I am low on time, I will dip into my Pocket archive (remember when I named Pocket a thing I like?) to recommend a few stories you should read.

Is Softball Sexist? (by Emma Span)

You can probably guess how Span answers, but the joy comes in the journey to that answer.

I have taken it for granted that boys play baseball and girls play softball. But why? Girls in soccer don’t play on a smaller field. Girls in basketball don’t get a bigger basket. Girls in tennis aren’t forced to serve underhand. Why do we separate baseball and softball by sex for kids?

Span explores the unfortunate sexist history of this question in an editorial that took on new life after Mo’Ne Davis dominated male counterparts in the Little League World Series. Mo’Ne’s strong play can be a turning point that encourages more girls to play (and stay with) baseball, if we let them.

What’s Wrong With Baseball (by Tim Marchman)

Marchman does not write your typical “World Series television ratings are down; baseball is doomed” trolling column. He is far too good a writer for that.

Major League Baseball faces legitimate questions as it tries to maintain a large slice of the sports pie. Problem is, those questions, those issues, were largely of MLB’s own making. And the sport may be continuing to dig its “regional sport” grave.

Rob Manfred isn’t Bud Selig (by Jayson Stark)

The man who will be forced to answer those questions will be new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. I didn’t think of the guy as much more than Selig’s right-hand Manfred, expecting him to act largely the same as ol’ C. Montgomery Selig.

Stark talks to team executives who paint a different picture. Sure, Manfred will not be a “steward of the game” commissioner like Peter Ueberroth was or Bob Costas would like to be. However, the team execs reveal a few ways Manfred will differ from Selig, and how that fact could change the game in the coming years.

On a glorious night for the Royals, Ned Yost manages to dump on the fans (by Sam Mellinger)

You need not be a Royals fan, nor even a baseball fan, to enjoy Mellinger’s evisceration of the Royals manager’s tone-dear comments.

It may help to be a sportswriter, though. I greatly appreciated Mellinger’s ability to stitch together his reporting, research, opinion and prose to write a fantastic column, all on a newspaper deadline. He’s also dead-on about the issue of attendance shaming, an act I’m sure you will see plenty of in September.

Exclusive: How Josh Shaw Fooled USC (by John Walters)

The saga of Josh Shaw breaking his ankles saving his drowning nephew, then oops not actually became an embarrassment to the USC athletic department, which put its full faith behind Shaw’s boy-who-cried-pool story.

But then, strangely, the outraged public packed up and headed out in time for the holiday weekend. But it is worth it to read the story of how Shaw fooled a group of very smart people, and the surprising character who called in to request a correction in Shaw’s original story.

Bad Wedding Jokes: Part 2

You said there would be Cake at this wedding, but I haven’t even HEARD “Short Skirt Long Jacket.”

((Me looking at the ten bags of makeup the makeup lady has)) “Yeah, I have all that too.”

“Dad, will you be getting your makeup done, too?”

—

((Doing the Love Train)) “People all over the world, join in! Start a love train!”

“I hate Train. Hell with Hey Soul Sister.”

—-

A Few Bad Wedding Jokes

I would like to present a few bad wedding jokes on the precipice of a wedding I will be attending Friday:

 

  • “Why do I need to go to this rehearsal dinner? I know how to eat dinner.”

 

  • “If this other guy’s the best man, why is she marrying the dude who cuts the dog’s hair?”

 

  • From my sister to the bride: “Good thing you’re having this wedding before Labor Day so you can wear white.”

 

(If the wedding is on a Friday)

  • Loved one:  “I’ll see you Friday.”
  • Me: “Probably.”

I like to put across an air of mystery.

 

  • “The priest said you can’t have alcohol on your breath when you get married. He said nothing about cocaine on the nose.”

And if you don’t like ’em, this is a free blog.

Catcher Deterioration: Projecting Russell Martin’s Starts the Next Four Years

Russell Martin Pirates

Can Russell Martin continue to retain value by staying healthy behind the plate? (Natalie Litz/Creative Commons)

One of my projects still on the table is to determine a proper contract value for Pirates catcher Russell Martin. There are so many aspects to evaluating a catcher, not the least of which is how many runs and wins his defense is worth.

I want to consider one factor in this post: deterioration. We all know that catcher is the toughest position (other than pitcher) on a baseball player’s body. Guys get knocked around by foul balls and wild pitches, must crouch and stand for all nine innings, and even still, get occasionally pummeled by world-class athletes running full-speed into home plate.

How long can Russell Martin continue to start 100-plus games per season at the catcher position? To get some idea, I looked for catchers over the last 30 years who have made 1,000 starts by age 32, as Martin has made 1,050.

Here were the results and season-by-season start totals for those players, with thanks to the indispensable Baseball-Reference Play Index:

Starts at Catcher

 

Focus on the average/median starts for age 34 and 35. One could easily project that Martin will make only 160-170 total starts over those two seasons.

A few conclusions I want to make:

  • The catchers stayed healthier than I anticipated.

Two of the 10 catchers flamed out, as Charles Johnson and Todd Hundley both retired before their age-35 seasons. But Hundley dealt with major elbow surgery and a Piazza-led move to left field in 1998. The fact that 8 of 10 catchers made at least 60 catcher starts at age 34 showed decent sustainability for older catchers.

  • Props to Jason Kendall.

His season-ending dislocated ankle at age 25 could have lingered and shortened his career. But for the next 11 seasons, he started at least 118 games at catcher in a showing of remarkable longevity. He probably could have extended that streak if he didn’t become an awful hitter. Still, what a bulldog.

  • Ultimately, catcher deterioration should be factored into Martin’s contract.

Catchers like Benito Santiago, Ramon Hernandez and Javy Lopez had similar offensive metrics and health levels to Martin through age 31. All three struggled to make as many starts in their following four seasons. All catchers are not equal, but it’s safe to expect Martin will not average 115 starts at catcher per season for the next four years.

How much should one considered deterioration into the contract? Depends on many things. Do you think Martin is built differently than older catchers? Can your training staff can keep him healthy through age 35? Will Martin’s offense (at near-career-highs this season, but should regress) be enough to hack it at third base or first base?

Those are just a few of the questions Neal Huntington and 29 other general managers must consider before offering a four-year contract to Martin this offseason. And it wouldn’t hurt for fans to think about it too.

Sports Event Bucket List: 8 Events I Want to See

With the start of the U.S. Open this week, I began to think of the sports events I most want to see before I die. Let’s do it. I’ll set up the Kickstarter later.

 

Wimbledon/French Open/U.S. Open

What an amalgamation: major tennis tournaments, at historic venues, in three of the world’s most exciting cities. Yeah, I could spend two weeks in London, Paris and New York. I also think top-level tennis, like hockey, benefits greatly from watching live as opposed to on television. When the top players are on the court, the sway of the crowd seems infectious. And I haven’t even got to the Berries and Cream at the All-England Club.

 

College World Series

We’re talking about 11 straight days of baseball played at its highest leverage (two games per day quite often). Even if you don’t recognize the names, you can’t deny how pressure-packed the CWS is. Eight teams enter Omaha, only one team can win. And for most of the seniors, it is their last gasp of competitive baseball. I would have liked to go to Rosenblatt before it was torn down, but at least the new place seems a bit more comfortable.

 

Rose Bowl

There are many college football games I would like to see in-person: the Iron Bowl, the Red River Shootout, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, the Sequoia Bowl, the Battle of Bull Run, the Lebanese Civil War, the Potato Cup. But can you beat The Granddaddy of Them All? Can you beat the Tournament of Roses? Can you beat being in Pasadena on January 1 while the rest of the country is snowed in? It is the last postseason bowl people actually care about, and that alone is significant.

 

FIFA World Cup

If you watched even a little bit of the World Cup this summer, I don’t need to explain why this is on the bucket list. It is the pinnacle of international team sports, a worldwide passion packed into one tournament. While I wouldn’t dump out the savings account to attend Russia 2018 or Qatar 2022, I will start counting the pennies for the next time the World Cup returns to the United States or Western Europe. Those are the ideal venues.

 

The Masters

Watching a golf tournament in person is not my idea of a fun time. Being on my feet all day in huge crowds and often-sweltering heat? Yeah, I would rather take my own clubs and play a quick 9 at Divot Hills. But The Masters is different. Augusta National blooms off the television screen, and I can handle Georgia in spring. The history there grows like loblolly pines. Even if you don’t love golf, you can enjoy the Masters. There is a small part of every man in America that dreams of spending the first week of April with his dad at Augusta.

 

World Baseball Classic in Caribbean

As much as I adore baseball, it will never have a tournament that comes close to the FIFA World Cup. The importance of international play is just not deeply ingrained like it is for soccer. But in a few nations it comes close, mostly the Caribbean nations, which are used to international competition with the Caribbean World Series. Did you see the craziness of Dominican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan fans in the San Juan pool of the last World Baseball Classic? More significantly, did you hear them? What a frenzy. I would love to witness it.

 

Winter Olympics

Well, I have already been to the Summer Olympics, so this would naturally follow. The hockey tournaments are some of the best action the sport has to offer. I want to watch speed skating with oranged-out Dutch people, biathlon with whacked-out Norwegian people, curling with kind Canadians. C’mon, Oslo, bid for it. That would be a damn-near-perfect Winter Olympics.

 

A World Series in Pittsburgh

Pretty, pretty please?