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This is sort of a blog but unlike other crappy substitutes, mine doesn't have "Xanga" or "Blogspot" in the title. Consider this the evolution of The Rumor Mill. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to update this regularly (it's obivous I haven't been). I still like my cynical writings and occasionally feel the need to twist off on a topic. Well, you're in luck because this week I followed through and WROTE something. Aha! June 24, 2009 It has been over a month since my last blog entry. I’m posting at work, so the
formatting may look different than it normally does. I’ll fix this before my next
entry. Also, here’s an
update about the topics from last time.
First of all, Kim is doing very well in Second, the Dodgers are still in first place, and still have the best
record in the majors. I went to
all 3 games in Arlington last weekend.
Friday night with friends, Saturday with the whole family, Sunday with
just my dad. The Dodgers won the
last 2, and we had amazing seats right behind the Dodger dugout. Sitting so close to the field, I picked up on some rarely noticed
details about the game. Orlando Hudson stands way back in the batter's box. He actually stands outside of it - and
the first thing he does upon walking to the plate is to rub the rear chalk
line into obliteration. With no
line dictating the box, 20 year old rookie Elvis Andrus just seems giddy to be a Major
Leaguer. When he takes his first
at bat, he pats the umpire and the catcher on the back. It's a small gesture, but kind of a way
to say hello and "we're having fun here right?" As the Dodgers leave the field after an inning, first base coach
Mariano Duncan always tosses a ball to James Loney. This way, there is a ball in his glove
for warming up the infield before the next inning. It seems like such a simple move, but
I marveled at it every time.
Better to plan it now than be scrambling to find a ball when you're headed
to the field. The closer I am, the more details I notice. Baseball is such a game of
detail. I had a blast planning
strategy with my dad - wondering why a runner stopped here, or didn't tag up
there. It is such a perfect
conversation sport. I was
surprised at the number of Dodger fans in attendance as well. For Kemp's Saturday homer and Blake's
Sunday homer, the applause was quite loud. Andruw Jones also got more boos this
weekend than any normal Rangers game I go to - probably due to the Dodger
fans. I of course booed Andruw,
but because he sucked so bad, the Dodgers went out and got Manny. Even with Manny's suspension, I still
love him and love what he helped LA do last year. If Andruw was mediocre, LA probably
would not have gotten Manny. I've got all sorts of blog ideas now, so check back soon. And, not all baseball related. For daily (or hourly) updates, follow
me at Twitter. Search my name or
username of "voornstar". May 7, 2009 Why today? Why write again? Who knows. Mainly because it's my New Year's resolution every year and somehow it always gets put off. I don't know why...I usually have a lot to say, and I have the medium, so why not? Well, laziness, for one. Now when I want to say my piece, I can do it on Twitter (@voornstar) or on Facebook. Let's talk about today. Today was not a good day. It
started like a normal day, the alarm went off, I turned on the Ticket, I fell
back asleep, woke up, etc etc. I had some odd dreams, but that's about all I
remember. I wasn't looking forward to the day; a good friend is moving to The Dodger game went late, a little past my bedtime. I woke to find them the winners, setting a modern Major League record of 13-0 to start the season at home. Plus, 21-8 overall, best record in the majors. I completed some unfinished business by calling a local Champs Sports to see if they could exchange my size L Manny t-shirt for a size M. Yes, they can! Good news all around, keeping my mind focused on work (mostly) but off the sadness of having Kim leave. Then the wheels fall off. The Manny story breaks -
suspended for 50 games. That means he's back by July 3, so I'll miss him
during the Dodgers' swing through But what now? Should I crucify him with the So the day wasn't great. Plus, I was at work until 6:30 and had to walk home from the train station in about 90 degree heat. The package I'm expecting still hasn't arrived. And it's 12:18 AM and I just heard Juan Pierre ground out to end an 8th inning rally. Great job, overpriced Manny replacement. On the plus side, hopefully I'll continue to write for this site. I hate the word 'blog' - it was very much a media buzzword for awhile. I still remember hearing campaign managers say weird things like "we have someone reading the blogs at all times..." Why? So idiocracy can reign supreme in the comments section? (Read Gordon Keith's take on this) It was a rough day, but there are better days ahead. Please pray for Kim as she goes to Costa Rica. And on a much much much smaller note, pray for my sanity that maybe the Dodgers won't dictate my mood as much as they do. -Ian November 12, 2007 This used to be an annual column, but I've fallen lazy recently. But I'm writing this for one main reason: to appeal to the voters (although their ballots are already submitted) for one award in particular. I will get to this soon. (Asterisk denotes the player led the league in the category) But let's start at the bottom, sort of.
The race for AL Rookie of the Year comes down to two candidates, Delmon Young of the Devil Rays and Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox. Pedroia had about 100 fewer ABs, but overall Delmon Young has better stats on the year, especially knocking in 93 RBI. Pedroia is a close second, with KC Royals closer Joakim Soria turning in a nice season from the 'pen in 3rd. NL ROOKIE OF THE
YEAR
It was a good year for NL rookies. Tulowitzki played in the Series and had a great stretch run, but Ryan Braun burst on the scene in June with very impressive power numbers. What's more is his .324 average, good for #7 in the NL had he qualified for it (too few ABs). But that makes his power numbers all the more mind boggling. Tulowitzki was on the spring radar (I drafted him in my fantasy league), but Braun pretty much came out of nowhere. AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR 1. Eric Wedge, Cleveland Usually this award goes to the manager who outperforms his
expectations the most. In my opinion, only 1 Eric Wedge wins for piloting an Indians team that fell below expectations in '06 but competed well in what has been called (not by me) baseball's toughest division. And props to Torre as well for righting the Yankee ship enough to make the playoffs after seeing the cellar in early June. NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR 1. All 3 of these managers meet my litmus test for outperforming
expectations. I have to say I had
This is a tough one, and could be the closest race of the
awards season. No one pitcher dominated, with Beckett winning 20 games,
but Lackey, Sabathia, Chien-Ming Wang and Fausto Carmona winning 19.
The Cy goes to Lackey for winning the ERA crown and anchoring the NL CY
This isn't even a race. Jake Peavy won the pitchers' Triple Crown (W, ERA, K). Webb had a nice follow-up to his '06 Cy campaign and Saito dazzled in LA's bullpen with a 1.40 ERA and 39 saves. Note how all 3 top candidates are from the NL West, showing dominance in pitching. But that's nothing new for the West. This race isn't even close though: Cy to Peavy.
My MVP litmus test is basic: award should go to the player who provides the most VALUE to his team. The MVP's team does not have to be a playoff team, but must contend. I ranked the top 10 candidates like the BBWAA does. This award is clearly A-Rod's, but Magglio and Ichiro put up good numbers. I almost picked Ichiro since the rest of the Mariners had pretty poor offensive numbers and they fought for a playoff spot til the very end. Other impressive seasons came from the all-around awesome Curtis Granderson (not listed is his 23 triples) and Jorge Posada put up great numbers (.338 avg) as the Yankee catcher. NL MVP
Here is the award I'm most worried about. In my mind,
there is NO QUESTION - Matt Holliday is the MVP. He had an amazing
season, first in average, RBI, doubles, and hits. He hit 12 home runs
in September to propel the Jake Peavy is #2. I have no problem with a pitcher winning the MVP, especially one as dominant as Peavy was this season. Had Peavy won the 163rd game of the Padres' season...maybe he'd be the MVP. Maybe. David Wright had a 30/30 season with good numbers that got clouded by the Mets' September collapse. Chipper Jones finished #2 for the batting title and was a bright spot for the Braves. The East Coast Media Bias' consensus for MVP seems to be
Jimmy Rollins. He had good numbers and a career year - but not great
numbers. He didn't bat .300, plus he has a great hitting lineup, with
protection from Utley, Howard, and Rowand. The Phillies' success did
not hinge on Rollins, like the Prince Fielder had some MVP talk, but his .288 average and
home run drop off push him back to 6. Hanley Ramirez had an amazing
season in
October 3, 2007 Ah, playoff baseball. What a great topic to re-start this website of mine. And actually, my topic today isn't playoff baseball at all. It's tiebreaker games. The San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies tied at the end of the season with a 89-73 record, 1 game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Padres & Rockies were then scheduled for a 1-game, winner-take-the-Wild-Card, playoff. This is unique to baseball in that it's the only time ONE GAME decides who goes on and who goes home. These one game playoffs are rare, only occurring when there are 2 teams with the same record for 1 playoff spot. In 2006, the Padres and Dodgers tied with the best record atop the NL West, but the Dodgers ended up with the Wild Card (based on head-to-head record) and both teams went to the playoffs. One-game playoffs are the norm in the NFL, and in my opinion, one reason that the NFL is so popular - everything happens in one sitting. Granted, neither of these ML teams are based near my home of A little background...I've been in my new apartment for 2 months, but have yet to get cable TV. Hasn't been a priority, but for this game, it sure should've been. The ESPN website said it was on ESPN Radio - WRONG. As you may know, Monday night is also when ESPN broadcasts a national telecast of "Monday Night Football". TBS showed the Pads/Rockies. After Game-casting the game for 8 innings, it was a nailbiter. I realized I had to take action and find a TV. Stop one was my apartment lounge. No luck - it was tuned to MNF, a blowout and non-interesting game between the Patriots and Bengals (24-7 at that point). I ventured out of my apartment building, across the street to the West End Pub. I could see at least 6 TV's from outside. I went in, and all of them were on MNF. I asked the bartender if he could change the channel on one of them so I could watch a real game. (I wasn't as cynical to his face). "Sorry, we had it on, but the people here want to watch
the football game," he said, half-apologetically. I watched innings 10, 11, and 12 here while nursing a $4.50
Shiner pint (when I said "in the heart of the The bar officially closed at 11, and it was nearing 11:30. The manager said I could stay as long as I liked, but after 12 innings, I was feeling like it could go another 6. I decided to leave and find another bar with patrons. TGI Friday's it was. At this point (11:30), the MNF game was over. So on all 8 TVs at the Friday's bar, there was postgame action. The bartender graciously changed a channel on one, but no one in the bar seemed to care about the game but me. This part of the story you know - Pads go up by 2 in the top
of the 13th, then send Trevor Hoffman to the mound. Double, double, triple,
tie game. Sac fly, "OHMYGOD did you see that game??" Of course I did, Jose, who the hell do you think you're talking to? I paid my price for it though. We talked about the game as I walked 2 blocks back to my apartment. So all in all, what a GREAT GAME. THIS is what baseball's about. So if the rest of =========and some more twisting off================ ESPN has been running commercials for Monday Night Football lately; I'm sure you've seen them. They have to do with playing up the "rich history" that MNF has. What BS. In my 25 years on this earth, I still don't get why a game played Monday night gets so much attention. It's just another game, one of 16 for the weekend. Those games referenced in the commercials? Hell no I don't remember them! I've never watched a MNF game in my life, and I'm not sure I knew what it was until I was 16. File me under the "Not Getting It" column. I sometimes credit growing up in a non-NFL household as the cause. But regardless, MNF is not a transcendent program or game. And if it is, do I remember "that Cubs/Cardinals Sunday night game from 1998?" Probably not. December 3, 2006 Today I got on a tear for updating this site. Who knows why, perhaps it was Rob from Lobsterbush who kept pressing me to update the link to his site. I've also been wanting to upload old webcam videos to YouTube, so I finally got that done too. Here's the link - fun for all ages. And for old times' sake, here are a few photos that the
webcam took - Clark Hall room 341 in action. That's the notorious Ye
Olde Keg in the 2nd picture.
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The Voorn Project |
