The baseball book: Here's a whole bunch of it - draft form

For those who actually like reading online PDFs, here's a link to Bringin' Gas and Dialin' 9: 100 Years of Professional Baseball Development (1908-2007). It is not necessarily the lastest and greatest, but it includes all the chapters, appendices, structure and most of all, the research I did. For those who find baseball a bore, I understand. I don't expect you to digest a subject that upsets your stomach. (But if you look close, I included plenty of pictures, charts, graphs, tables that assist or liven the project up.)

There is plenty more I can do (as the linked post relates), but I think you can follow the structure of the book and understand what I was trying to accomplish.

Since more people stop by this site, I felt this might be a good way to get out the word. (In case I find a crackhead editor/publisher that wants it.)

I appreciate any feedback, complaints, or suggestions. In fact, unlike many authors, the more pointed the criticism or complaint, the more likely I am to reflect on it, possibly revised or investigate it.

(To get ahead of a complaint: the pictures are from various websites listed either in the Preface or the Bibliography. My placing of a copyright on the work is not legit:This is a draft. This is a forum to vet any concerns about the analysis/structure or mistakes....not to find a way to ruin a project before it gets published. Lawyers need not apply to this job.)

Realize this:
1) I used the local library for the research. This means, whatever the lending library had or I could access online, I used best I could.
2) No interviews or trips to Cooperstown (MLB Hall of Fame) or Kansas City (Negro League HOF). So, I don't get the words that I would have respectfully inserted from the original source. I could never leave "my post" because I was not properly relieved of my duties...(Mil people will get that.)
3) I did the bookstore reading too. However, once I lost my laptop's usage, hand writing notes was considered inefficient. Plus I could remember the gist of 80% of what I read.
4) Conflicting sources. As always, the stories told are not always the same, author to author. Many, many conflicts arise, even in 2007, over what exactly happened, whose fault was it or why was something done. Baseball has this problem in spades....The most vocal people usually win.

Enjoy Bringin'!!!!!

I do, Robot: Marriage, Sex and the slippery slope

I read Wonderland or Not's post on Robot Marriage and looked at a MSNBC and LiveScience article on it. To me it is an inevitability that comes with the course of our society. The slippery slope has long been greased and readily available by the ever failing partnerships many have.

I know this comment will strike a discordant note, but feminism and the infantilization of men has paved a way for poor relationships. After WWII, the rate of divorce climbed to stratospheric heights, and between bad marriages, selfishness and the broken homes, well, we might as well GO ROBOT.






The simple reasons this could work:

1. People that are unsuccessful in human relationships for a wide variety of reasons (appearance, shyness, poor interactions, poor lovers or instability.)


2. People that utilize technology in a vast array of ways to fulfill their needs (and sex is a need for many that I've stumbled upon in life.)


3. An alternative to socially unacceptable behavior ( you name them in your head...prostitution seems to be a bugaboo amongst people of faith.)


4. Robots could provide stimulation and gratification that simply isn't available from a person. (And the criteria most would have could be fulfilled via a robot.)

The rest of this is a modified comment of mine from Wonderlandornot.
When it comes down to it, we all have desires to act or choose not to act on. If there is a machine (or blow up) that provides a release and somehow satiates our desires, then it is a worthy enough path.
Artificial means are becoming the status quo in America/World society. Drugs to balance us, cosmetic operations to mold us and machines to do whatever we need them TO DO. Why would sex & companionship be ANY different?
Use Pills for sexual dysfunction.
Use Pills to "make us happy."
Use Computers to do our ‘mundane’ calculations. (Can any of you do a multi-linear regression or Laplace transform without it –in 60 seconds?)
Use all these PDAs to communicate, like, "how you your so not into him/her." How much of your current 'social interaction' now is on a keyboard or a video link? And that’s pretty impersonal, don’t you think?

DNA experiments above ALL our heads. (Clone me up, Scotty!)
We started this slippery slope with test tube babies, genetic mapping and other enhancements to our physical beings. This is just another avenue of exploration...one we've thought about for many, many years, going back to Greek Antiquity.

No, this isn’t what we should be doing - but as time marches on, these things are an inevitability… 20+ years ago, if you piddled with a computer TOO much, you were a geek, loner and a loser. Now all the “cool” people are computer savvy. Plenty of ignorant people (people you would never talk to normally) have plenty of technology in their hands that they avoided like a plague not too many years prior.

Hence, when a functional apparatus for partnership comes out, and people mock, deride or sneer at its usage (and permanent linkage to it), we will soon enough find that this ROBOT will become accepted as people eventually acknowledge it useful and wondrous nature. (And since the first users will be very comfortable with tech, it isn’t like they would be cheating on humanity that much…)

Yet, every prior generation loses something to tech.

I’ve met quite a few people that feel sex is a mundane task too. They’re usually married. So why not have it completed by something, a robot, that won’t piss you off if you suck literally and figuratively at it?

And no, I haven’t “blown up any date”......yet.

The Five B's of my female Robot:
Brains. This will be the easiest initially to satisfy. Obviously programming them with a compedium of knowledge is a cake walk. But the ability to facimilate a subtle and engaging personality will be the real trick.
Bible. Not in the traditional sense. But the do good unto others. Goes to the Isaac Asimov three laws of Robots. However, if you Robot partner "felt" abused, then shouldn't be able to abandon you?
Body. Both sexes want the penultimate in this area. Good side: they will always be in the same beautiful shape. Bad side: you won't.
Beauty. Inner beauty will be the hard part. You don't want a bore - else you'd go back to humans. Outer beauty: damn this could be made even better if the robot could morph into a variety of aesthetically-pleasing faces and skin tones.
Brawn. What's a robot if it can't do a whole lot more than you can? Like fix a futuristic car, or redo your house in a couple of weeks. These little tasks would be a snap for my robot honey.

I DO ROBOT.

Happy HalloThankMas: Let the Holidays Suck IN!

You gotta hand it to the Retail Section of the Captains of Industry, they know us all too well. Since people started abandoning Christmas and Thanksgiving, Halloween has become the commercial jackpot to flock to by these big-box, chain store and mall anchors we-shop-till-we drop at.

The Christmas season begins November 1st on WLIT in Chicago as they play Christmas music 24-7 for two months solid. I get to hear Amy Grant's "It's the Most Wonderful Time of THE YEEEAAAARRRR!!!!!!" until my ears bleed, if I let my mom pick the station on the RAD.

The Holidays have never been my cup of Joe. My mother no longer has the Holiday Cheer and I don't get much uplift from the usual fair of people I meet. I get more out of watching "Charlie Brown's Christmas" , Rudolph's "I wanta be a dentist" cartoon and "Jack Frost" trying to score a honey, on the money, sonny than any real closeness to goodwill to my fellow undercover brotha.

I'd like it to be different. I really would.

Long time ago, Halloween was just excellent. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, I scored candy better than a cocaine user looking for a kilo of Columbia dancing dust. We'd go out all night till 11 PM, make two-three trips, then eat and go to a haunted house at midnight. All the fake blood you could see. Coffins and just totally weird music and everything blurred by smoke. (Not pot smoke.) Everything about the experience seemed fast.

I also remember in my first years of school I was picked as the kid to get the crap scared out of by a teacher. I'd be sent to get something in a empty room --all dark like -- then bam! this teacher in a gorilla suit jump out and scare the piss literally out of me. I'd run fast as hell back to class, tell everyone a gorilla was loose and the class went out looking for him/her. It was a blast.

I know those days of fun are fin. Nothing is going to happen to me this holiday season that will stick in my mind. Not going to find love. Or a lottery jackpot. Or resolve some long-standing, but short-thrifted issue that could broaden my horizons. Sorry, that isn't what the holidays are for.

I'll "do the mall", window shopping items for myself and others, hoping a movie will be worth watching, probably go to Chili's, TGIF or some other eatery on a gift card obtained doing deliveries. It will get tiresome after a day. I'll think about church...Only think though. And soon enough the entire thing will be over. And another year will park in the NEW EMPLOYEE parking lot of our minds.

The Twelve Days of Demented Christmas -circa late 2005

1. Holding a séance to bring back Elvis Presley from the afterlife just to ask him, "Just what kind of psychedelic drugs were you take while filming 'Roustabout'? Because that movie sucked…Mr. Presley."

2. Crank calling Bill Gates (AKA Santa Claus or The Incredible Software Hulk) to say, "Hey where's my XBOX 360, punk? And why are the games $20 more… for the same fucking game!!!?"

3. Scheduling an appointment with Dr. Kevorkian for a Colostomy. During the procedure, he offers you Twizzlers, hands you Juju petals and says quite chipper, "Every time a bell rings, an asshole gets cleaned out. Time to Check out to Kott's Berry Farm, cocksucker!!!"

4. Holding a G13 Summit Meeting with such heavyweights as the Bush sisters, the Gore daughters, Christina Aguliera, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Nichole Richie. You discuss arms proliferation while playing a mean game of Strip TWISTER. Al Gore interrupts with an Inconvienent Truth: you ain't man enough to handle all these gorgeous, if emotionally fragile, women.

5. You and a best friend go dumpster diving in the swank neighborhoods of Aspen, Colorado looking for the best possible morsel tossed out by these fly-by-night YUPPIES. You encounter Kobe Bryant…looking for his "A" game.

6. After his long Christmas MASS, you wake The Pope abruptly from his slumber and tell him, in Latin, "Credo Elvem etiam vivere! Die dulci freure! - I believe Elvis lives! Have a nice day!"

7. You climb the Empire State Building (with Naomi Watts in tow.) At the top, you scream, "Look, I'm on top of the WORLD!!!" and bungee jump off, only to realize (too late) the cord is 5 feet too long. Naomi spends several hours waiting for a helicopter ride, then flags a cab to Peter Jackson's next film set of weirdness and Oscar 'potential.' Note: That's one more woman you won't be getting laid by....

8. You'll make a blood pact, hammered, with Bill O'Reilly to reduce the number of KFC franchises in NYC while swapping war stories of conquest, drunkenness and lecherous behavior at The Doll House, an upscale strip club in Atlanta. O'Reilly looks at new intern(s) possibilities and ferrets out a few "video resumes" from the candidates for perusal later. Later, Bill gets picked up for soliciting sex from a tranny… You testify against the prick.

9. You attempt to rob a 7-11 at the exact moment Gary Busey and Winona Ryder decided to do the same. You bond, and become the famed trio of Pistolero Bandits: Gary Ryder Harder Trio. You rob 7-11s, Speedways and Sonics from coast to coast and never get caught.

10. You wake up Christmas Day and find yourself as a CARTOON working as Beavis on 'Beavis and Butthead.' You get to rehearse, "The angle of dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the meat," while sitting in your STAR chair at Universal Studios. Everyone wants to draw you…Then you get transfered over to the Family Guy...and watch as they erase Beavis and Butthead.

11. While flying the U-2 spy plane (learner's permit), you run into Wonder Woman and set down in Aruba. Things ensue…you get married and have 50 super strong, but super dumb kids, and Wonder Woman needs full body lypo shortly after her 350th birthday. (Fountain of Youth discovered…but skin never quite stops drooping…)

12. And finally, each Holiday, you find one profound reason to give joy and happiness and peace unto men: You like the upside of monetary gain, personal attainment of materialistic goals and overall acceptance into the milieu of your peers and inferiors. …And it sure beats the Hell out of being a Fucking Scrooge!!!

And the beat goes on to 2008....

Music: When all else fails, put the needle on the record

I apologize for not posting Part III of On the Fly, Run the Table. Seems writing about other things sapped my brain of juices. Since I have a habit of the unfinished (whether it's procrastination or just inability to complete tasks), I will try my best to post it by Monday.

But you know how promises are: only as good, as the motivating factor to keep them. (Money & Sex are pretty good motivators for most mammals.) So instead, here's some music and thoughts surrounding the choices

M.A.R.R.S. - Pump up the Volume. Late 80's dance hit. My best friend at the time in high school totally loved this one-hitter. He was a classic heavy metaller. It is a dance club mix favorite.



Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down. I love this ditty from 1979. Jeff Lynne became the lesser member of the Traveling (Stoners?) Wilburys - Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison. ELO was an 8-track legend as far as I am concern. Another friend had a 73' Olds 98 hoopty that sucked gas like a $20 whore does - but kept on a runnin', 8-track and all.


Material Issue: Valerie Loves Me. Classic early 90's pop ballad. They started in Chicago - where I heard them in the late 80's on the fringe rock station - but they fell out with God knows how many other bands. Toad the Wet Sprocket and Sister Hazel come to mine...as others.


The Why Store: Father. Another semi-big Midestern act out of Indianapolis. They performed at a frat house I happened to get invited into one night back in 1993 or 94. It was the first time I had to carry my then drunk best friend (6'4", 240 lbs. to the car I was driving, along with two women that wanted a ride.) Neither woman was interested in us...You might notice the Father in the video..supporting actor in "Seabiscuit" and "A Time to Kill", I think.


Gravity Kills: Guilty. Hell, I didn't know they would get into a Harry Potter vehicle. This song is about 12 years old or more.

I was going through a phase in music. Along with NIN, Ministry, Stabbing Westward, Manson, Tool and probably a dozen other fucked up bands of the genre, I listened to the this "cutting edge" garbino. (Only NIN had a message I could "relate" to.)


Stabbing Westward: What Do I have to Do?

And finally....

Johnny Cash: Hurt. Probably a better cover than the original NIN's version. At least, Cash had a sense of what made this song...special enough to record. I can't imagine what it was like for him to do it.


KEEP IT FRESH TO DEATH!!!!

2007 MLB Playoff Predictions: Is it the Cubs Year?

On July 1st, I put my predictions in print for the 2007 MLB playoffs.

American League:
AL Playoffs: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Los Angeles.
AL Championship: Boston vs. Detroit.
AL WS: Boston.

National League:
NL Playoffs: Chicago, New York, San Diego and LA Dodgers.
NL Championships: New York and Chicago.
NL Series: Chicago. (Biased ain't I?)

4 (or 5) out of 8 isn't too bad. Considering that, the Yankees finally played to their talent and payroll, after trailing by as much as 14 1/2 games in late May. Detroit suffered tons of pitching injuries and gave up. The New York Mets were up 7 games with 17 to go, only to collapse monumentally down the stretch, allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to utilize their 13 for 17 stretch run. Colorado has won 13 of 14 games to force the 1-game playoff with the San Diego Padres tonight.

But that's old baseball. Now we look at the series coming up.

Season stats tell you something, but it is the playoffs, and anything can happen...as history usually tells us.

Boston v. Los Angels - Boston still puts plenty of guys on base. They have David Ortiz, who is the hero for the Beantowners. Boston has the best pitching in the American League, though it struggle in the bullpen area the last two months, even with Eric Gagne added.

The Angels are a well-balanced group. They pitch decent, have some good hitters (Vlad, Figgins, Cabrera) and can run top starters (Lackey, Escobar) and K-Rod out to stop the Boston attack. Experienced lineups on both sides, plenty of post season salt and savvy. Lackey though is 0-2 in 2007 versus Boston with an 8.38 ERA. But he also pitched well in September (3-1, 2.32ERA).

This series could be a real close battle. 3-2 Boston, but the Angels might surprise folks.

Yankees and Cleveland. I really like Cleveland - Sizemore, Martinez, Garko, Sabathia and Carmona - are guys I'd love to root for on a daily basis. However, I just think the Yankees will be a match for them. I could be wrong - the youngsters might topple the Yankee vets - but to look at the comeback the Yanks accomplished in August and September, I have my doubts.

The TV Gods are praying for Yankees v. Boston.

Boston in 7.

Chicago v. Arizona. I love Chicago to go all the way and win.
Here's why, with unimportant history and trivia:

Boston: For years, these two franchises were connected by their ineptitude in winning big games and choking. In 2004, the BoSox broke that with a trade flurry and smart money ball. In 1918, the Cubs gave them their last taste of joy before becoming the AL laughing stock for 15 years. During 2004, SS Nomar Garciaparra became a Cub, to the eventual delight of the Sox...

Yankees: From 1929-1938, these two franchise were the tops in wins in their leagues. They met twice in the World Series, with the Cubs getting stomped twice. Babe Ruth hit the called shot in the 1932 World Series. Babe Ruth from Boston way....

Cleveland: In the 1940's, Bill Veeck Jr. took the Indians to their only WS title. Bill Veeck's dad ran the Cubs in the 1920's and into the 1930's before dying suddenly. Veeck Jr. planted the Ivy at Wrigley.

Los Angeles: The 1st Wrigley Field was in LA, not Chicago. In their first season, the Los Angeles angels played in Wrigley Field, marking the only time 2 Wrigleys existed. Before that, the Angels were owned by P.K. Wrigley in the mighty Pacific Coast League.

Phillies: The real most inept franchise lost 10,000 games before the Cubs. In 1984, the Cubs were Phillies West as they had nearly a dozen men on their roster that played for the Phils.

San Diego: 1984 Playoff heartbreak. Nuff Said.

Arizona: For years, Hohokam Park has hosted the Chicago Cubs in the Spring. The Cubs are beloved in Arizona, making this matchup a home away from home contest.


Chicago v. Phillies. Chicago in 7 games.

Chicago v. Boston. Boston in 6 games. Sorry, Chicago.