Barry Bonds Record Baseball(s)

Barry Bonds is such a divisive and polarizing figure amongst baseball fans. I am no fan of Barry Bonds’ character. I think he’s much too cocky and arrogant for his own good. He thinks he’s too good for the media and treats them with extreme disrespect. To his credit, the media probably treats him the same way… but that’s their job. You didn’t see Alex Rodriguez being a dick to the media all last year when everyone was calling for his ass on the trading block and calling him an overpaid, overrated superstar.

In any case, even though I don’t particularly like Barry Bonds as a person, I am still in awe of his accomplishments as an athlete. Those who think that Bonds should not be voted into the Hall of Fame because of all the steroid allegations and the general cloud around baseball during this era are retarded (and if they do have an actual BBWAA vote, it should be revoked). I understand that part of a voter’s consideration for the Hall of Fame is that player’s character, morals, and overall contribution to the well being of the game. But the numbers speak for themselves when it comes to Bonds. He was well on his way to becoming a Hall of Famer before all the steroid allegations came into play. Additionally, if you are going to exclude Bonds from the Hall of Fame becuase of the uncertainty of this era, are you going to exclude every single player from this era? It does not make sense to single out Bonds, although he is probably the easiest scapegoat to do so against. Some guy did a study on Bonds’ record 73 HR season, and made the assumption that steroids could at most give you a 5-10% power boost in distance. He took all 73 HR’s and applied a 5-10% “deflationary” measure and guess how many home runs would not have been home runs? A mere TWO would have stayed in the ballpark. It takes extraordinary skill and plate discipline to rack up a .370 BA and an OBP of .570+ in one season… steroids or no steroids.

Anyways, that was a slight rant off the real topic of this post. It has become well publicized that the two record baseballs that Bonds hit (755 and 756) went for a good deal of money in a public auction. The 755th ball went for something like $150,000 and the 756th ball went for something around $750,000 (higher than the expected half million by auction experts).  Marc Ecko, a fashion designer, was the purchaser of the 756th ball. He has now created a site where you can vote to enshrine the ball, brand an asterisk into it then enshrine it, or put it on a space shuttle into outer space. Some internet/computer guy bought the 755th ball and is using the same idea with a few twists: he’s showing real-time voting and selling adspace for 200 dollars a square.

While I think the second approach with selling adspace is probably more practical and a smarter use of the website, I still fundamentally disagree with both owners of the baseballs and the way they are handling the situation. Marc Ecko, in particular, is just making this ordeal into a huge publicity stunt. Probably a good move for his business and clothing lines – because any publicity is good publicity – but I still think he’s completely disrespecting the game by doing this. Either keep the damn ball, or give it to the Hall of Fame. It’s as simple as that. I hope both balls end up going to the Hall of Fame because for better or worse they are a part of baseball history and deserve to be in Cooperstown. Whether they do or not is up to the… public.

-K

Trade Deadline, Slow Drivers, Retarded Commercials

IF YOU DON’T LIKE SPORTS OR BASEBALL, SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT TOPIC.

MLB Trade Deadline

So the MLB Trade Deadline (well at least the pre-waiver trade deadline) came and went yesterday with a few notable deals – one that involved my favorite team (the Yankees) and another that involved least favorite team (naturally… the Red Sox). I’ll write about those two trades in a bit, but it would be an injustice to talk about the biggest trade of the deadline, which sent Mark Teixeira from Texas to Atlanta and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (yes, the guy with the long last name), Elvis Andrus, Nestali Feliz, and another minor leaguer from Atlanta to Texas. I think this is a solid move for the Braves, who needed production at the 1B position and also bring aboard a Gold Glove caliber defenseman at 1B as well. True, Teixeira’s numbers this season aren’t close to his 30+ HR 100+ RBI numbers from the past three seasons, but he provides the Braves another solid bat to go with Renteria and both Jones’. As for the Rangers, I think it could potentially be a good deal for them. I don’t claim to know much about Saltalamacchia or any of the packaged minor leaguers, but a talent evaluator for an NL club said that he thought Saltalamacchia for Teixeira straight up would have been a fair deal because of the potential Saltalamacchia has down the line. That’s a bold thing to say, given Teixeira’s numbers the past few years, but I think the verdict is TBD for the Rangers on this one. Also, for what it’s worth, Peter Gammons thinks the SS Elvis Andrus is a good minor league prospect.

Now, onto the two other trade which made me pretty upset and angry as a Yankees fan. First off is the deal that sent Eric Gagne to the Red Sox in return for Kason Gabbard and two minor league outfielders. Eric Gagne, after the multiple arm surgeries, is legit this year. His ERA+ (which is a ratio between the league’s ERA and his ERA) is at a very good 205 and his WHIP is decent. This essentially means that the Red Sox (who already have an extremely good starting rotation in Beckett, Schilling, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, and Lester) can shorten games for their starters to 6 innings. Their 7/8/9 inning trio is probably now the sickest in baseball with Okajima (who has a Papelbon-esque 0.87 ERA), Gagne, and Papelbon to finish their games. Wow, just writing that felt like someone punched me in the stomach. They’ll be a formidable foe (whether to the Yankees or any other team) come October.

So why am I so pissed off other than the fact that our most hated rivals got the best relief arm out on the market? Because apparently, the Yankees could have gotten that same arm if we had been willing to let go of a young CF by the name of Melky Cabrera. Yes, I think Melky is a decent bat and above average fielder, but no, I don’t think he’s the answer for the Yankees in the long term. In fact, he’s probably a 4th outfielder on a championship contending team. I understand if Cashman doesn’t want to get rid of young arms like Hughes or Karstens. After watching Hughes briefly earlier in the season, I’d actually be enraged if Cashman did so. But we’re not talking about trading arms for arms. We’re talking about trading a so-so OF prospect for a dominant relief pitcher (I mean, he did save 84 games straight just two years ago, Christ). Oh yeah, did I also mention that middle relief pitching is the ONE BIG GAPING HOLE in the Yankees right now? The offense is clicking on all cylinders, the starting pitching is coming around, Mo is being Mo… so yeah, WE NEED RELIEF PITCHERS. So not only do we not get Gagne, but we also just let him walk right to the Red Sox and create the most dominant bullpen in the league. Fuck you Brian Cashman.

Finally, the Yankees themselves just had to get into the action so we traded Scott Proctor to the Dodgers in exchange for switch-hitting IF Wilson Betemit. WTF?! No really, WTF?! So I did just say that relief pitching was our primary weakness heading into the last 1/3 of the season right? And so we decide to deal one of our better arms in the bullpen for a struggling utility infielder. This makes no fucking sense. Now I know that Proctor has been struggling, but when he has the right stuff, he’s an above average pitcher. Last year, his ERA+ was 125 and his WHIP was respectable as well. Barring any trades for relief pitchers over the next few weeks, our middle relief consists of Ron Villone, Kyle Farnsworth (who was a huge douche and nailed Posada on the wrist the other day), Luis Vizciano, Sean Henn, and Brian Bruney. Congratu-fucking-lations Brian Cashman. We have a shitty shitty bullpen for the rest of the season. Also… Wilson Betemit? With Giambi coming back from the DL very soon and an extra OF between Matsui, Abreu, and Damon/Cabrera, do we really need another bat on the bench? I think Damon, Giambi, and Duncan will do just fine for us Mr. Cashman. You suck.

Slow Drivers

People who have driven in a car with me know that I like to rev up that shitty Toyota Corolla of mine and drive fast. Then again, I haven’t driven REALLY fast since I got my speeding ticket for going both 56 in a 35 AND 63 in a 40 two and a half years ago. I understand that some people are risk averse and either don’t want to get a ticket or don’t like driving at such fast speeds (because it would thus increase their chances of getting into an accident). This is why I don’t really mind the slow fucks who drive in the right lane of highways and interstates – they can take 6 hours to cover a distance I’ll be done with in 4 hours, I don’t really care. What really kills me and gets me angry, though, is when people drive BELOW THE SPEED LIMIT on unpassable one lane roads (a prime example being Route 206). No one should ever be driving 35 or 40 in a 45, yet it happens all the time. I think part of the problem is the whole concept of a “speed limit”. When a road is marked with a speed limit of 45 MPH, I mentally bump that up to 55 and make sure I don’t go over 55. Why? Because unless you run into a huge douchebag ass of a cop, no police officer will pull you over for going <10 over the limit – even if they do, you can easily get your ticket reduced to a fine with no points. The fact that cops never pull you over for going <10 over the “speed limit” makes me wonder why the fuck we even have speed limits if not even cops take them seriously. Therefore, I’m totally an advocate for having a “speed minimum” on roads, along with a real, legitimate “speed limit”. If you set an actual speed limit that cops will enforce, I even think that fewer people will test the limits and receive speeding tickets. Right now, the whole concept of a “speed limit” is a joke, and that needs to change.

Retarded Commercials

No offense to my older sister Joyce, who graduated from Wharton with a Marketing degree, but sometimes I wonder how the fuck some people can go through college, attain a marketing degree, and put out some of the commercials that are out there on TV. Two commercials come to mind that will help illustrate my point.

The first one is the set of commercials recently put out by Miller High Life. In the various commercials, a distribution crew seeks out certain institutions (a gourmet deli, an upper class restaurant, a specialty foods store, etc.) which seem to be charging exorbitant amounts of money for their products. For example, the main distribution is shocked to see that one restaurant is charging $10.50 for a burger. He’s also shocked to see that one store is charging like $6 for cheese or something. Excuse me, but if you go to any established restaurant, burgers are probably going to be in the $9-12 range. Hell, even TGIF charges $8 for most of their burgers. But that’s not the main point about why these commercials are so retarded. After seeing these “high-class” establishments charge the prices they do, the distribution crew then goes into the establishment and takes away all the bottles of Miller High Life to represent a fight for the common man or fair value. Well now, that makes no fucking sense. To me, the message the makers of Miller High Life is trying to get through is “Our beer isn’t classy or good enough for nice establishments, so you can find us at cheap liquor stores and low class restaurants”. What fucking morons.

The other commercial I saw a few days ago on Sportscenter. It’s a commercial for Progressive Auto Insurance, and it has this father of 3 or 4 children talk about shopping for car insurance and how he saved $400 just by switching to Progressive. He goes on to explain how Progressive not only offers its own quote, but also those of its biggest competitors. Commercial is going well so far. Then it pans to a screen shot of his computer and the quotes that Progressive gave on its website. It has Progressive at like $195, and then Allstate at $290-330 and like GEICO at $330-380. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the difference between Progressive and the other two companies is NOT $400. At least the screenshot is shown only for a few seconds and then the commercial ends, but seriously, whoever was in charge of making that commercial should be shot. If you’re going to claim that a guy saved $400 using Progressive, try and make your evidence seem that way.

-K

Poker Results 7/25-7/27

So not much to report… didn’t play any SnG’s the past few days. Have been busy hosting Doorey, who was here for a few days from Chicago. In the past day, however, I have dabbled a bit in cash games and it’s been a harsh reminder why I’m going to stick to SnG’s for now. I was -40, then +80, then last night went on a sick run of +150, and then earlier this morning, went on a rollercoaster 1k hand session of -200. The swings are just something I don’t want to deal with at this point in time with my bankroll.

This was an interesting hand that came up last night. I called with A4s UTG and it was folded around to the SB who made a small raise to 3xBB. The BB called and I called (I will normally call small raises with a suited ace just to see the flop). The flop came down Qs 10s 9h. SB made a CBet of 1.50, BB called, and I called with the nut flush draw. Turn comes down an offsuit 5. SB bets again for 4, which is fine, he might just be doing another CBet. What really confused me was when BB raised to 10. I was 8-tabling at the time and really didn’t have an idea of who this player was (also… I don’t have PokerTracker or PAHud… which I need to get if I do decide to play cash for real). I decided to call the $10, and the SB called the additional $6. In my head (little did I know how not true this was), even if BB had two pair, a set, or maybe even a flopped straight, I still had 9 outs for the nut flush, so pot odds *I think* warranted a call – especially if you take into consideration my thinking that I’d stack someone if the spade did fall. Well the river was one of two spades I DID NOT want to see… the 5s pairing the board. As you can see from the link, SB pushed all-in, and BB CALLED (quickly). This is where, once again, I’m confused as shit. Did that 5 just fill him up for the boat? This is a $150 pot if I call… and I don’t see how I could possibly get away from it. If BB did have the boat, it would have been one hell of a laydown. I reluctantly called, expecting SB or BB to have the flopped set and then turn-river boat. Luckily, both players had baby flushes and I scooped up the pot. I probably still take down the 40 dollar pot before the river since I feel SB and BB would check if they missed their flushes. But a big bluff by one of them, and I’m probably folding.

This is why I don’t want to play cash right now. I’m in the SB with KK. I’ve got 3 limpers ahead of me so I raise it up to 6xBB, a pretty standard raise for me to get at least a few of the limpers out. UTG+1 and Button call. Flop comes down QJ5, two spades. I bet out about half of the pot, UTG+1 folds, and Button thinks about it for a while, and comes over the top. Turn 5 river J and I’m thinking maybe I’m safe cause Button pushed with pair of Q’s. Nope… J10os, no FD, and a runner runner SD? Christ, I can’t handle the calls some of these fish make. To make it worse, the turn eliminated 3 out of 5 of his outs… so I had 95% equity heading into the river.

So I’m pretty much even with cash for the past few days and won’t be revisiting it for a long while. SnG’s are a grind, but I’ve been hot recently and should stop fucking around with cash games.

-K