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

Michael Vick Guilty!… Criminal Aliens… and more

So I apologize for the lack of activity the past few weeks on this blog… I had been busy hosting a few friends visiting the area (which was so much fun) and with work in general. Additionally, I felt slightly bad about completely donking away my roll over the past three weeks playing cash games way outside of my limits. I’m going to redeposit and recommit myself over the next few days with just SnG tournaments because I know I’m a winning player in those.

MICHAEL VICK

The biggest news of the past few days, in the sports world and perhaps news world in general, is that Michael Vick has reached a plea deal with the federal government in regards to charges of dogfighting. I’ve said from the beginning that I would give Vick the benefit of the doubt (following the debacle in Durham last spring) before I wrote anything in depth about the situation. Now that we basically have a conclusion, let me offer some of my own thoughts to this whole ordeal.

First off, make no doubt about it, I think Michael Vick is a cruel, awful, terrible, indecent, retarded (insert any other horrible adjectives) human being for funding and being involved in dogfighting. Some of the allegations – how Vick personally oversaw the execution of these dogs by electrocution and drowning – are truly unimaginable. He deserves whatever jail time he will ultimately be sentenced to by federal judge Henry E. Hudson (who is notorious for giving out tough sentences). I won’t say that Michael Vick will never play another down in the National Football League, but it will take an owner willing to take one hell of a risk to go out and grab Michael Vick when he does come back from behind bars. Out of all the positions in the NFL, quarterback is probably the one that would require constant practice – reading defenses, memorizing playbooks, timing passes, etc. Also, the quarterback of a team is usually the face of a franchise. I don’t know a single owner out there in the NFL right now that would want to present a dog killer to his fans as that face. Finally, this just popped up on SportsCenter… a SportsNation poll to the question “Would you want Michael Vick to play on your team after a prison sentence” came back with a resounding 75% majority of “No”. Maybe the CFL or AFL can take a chance on Vick, but I just don’t see an NFL team doing it.

In some respects, this whole situation with Michael Vick is a bit depressing. We all know about Vick’s younger brother Marcus, who once stomped on a linemen in the crotch after a dead ball whistle. It seemed, at the time, that Michael was above his younger brother’s behavior. He was a superstar in the NFL, had just signed the richest contract in league history, and was doing his best to lead the Falcons to a championship season. Sometimes you just can’t get away from your past. It seems like that was the case here with Vick. His three co-defendants invovled with the dogfighting operations were all childhood friends and appear to have continued to provide a bad influence on his livelihood. I’m not saying that their influence exonerates Vick by any means… I’m just saying with all the money and fame that follows these athletes, there are some things out there that just can’t be changed. Let’s hope Michael Vick learns a lesson from all of this and comes back to society as a better person.

CRIMINAL ALIENS

In case you missed it, two weeks ago four students in Newark were lined up and shot execution style by a gang of men. Three were killed and one was critically injured. It has become apparent, since then, that at least one of the suspects is an illegal immigrant. Jose Carranza is an illegal immigrant from Peru. The crime itself was completely horrifying. What makes me even more enraged is the fact that some of those involved were in this country illegally. I won’t get into my own views on immigration policy, but obviously I am sympathetic to most immigrants as the child of immigrants myself. I also realize that this country probably does need illegal immigrants in order to provide cheap labor that many other Americans are unwilling to perform. My problem comes when illegal immigrants commit crimes within our borders and then are GRANTED BAIL (yes… Mr. Carranza was granted $2 million bail for his role in the shootings of these four teenagers). I think that if you’re going to commit a crime as an illegal alien in the United States, you should be punished to the fullest extent of the law and then deported instantly upon serving your required jail time (assuming it isn’t a life sentence). Rest in peace to the three kids who were murdered in these shootings.

BASEBALL

So I know in my Trade Deadline post, I was bitching and ranting about how Brian Cashman was such a dumbass for not getting Eric Gagne at the trade deadline becuase he didn’t want to give up Melky Cabrera. Well now I feel like a completely dumbass. Since going to the Red Sox, Gagne has essentially given the Yankees 3 games in the division race by sucking royal ass. I guess the transition from the non-playoff attitude in Texas to the championship attitued in Boston is proving tough for Gagne. Meanwhile, the Yankees are doing their best to keep pace in both the wild card and divison races. Although right now we are currently getting our asses raped by the Angels 13-5, I still like the way we are playing. If we can get our starting pitching to where it should be, I truly believe we will make the playoffs and be a serious threat to win it all. Two young arms – Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez – have proven to be critical in a few games so far when we’ve needed them. I’m especially excited for Chamberlain who simply has electric stuff. I know its a really small sample size (7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 11 K’s)… but just watching some games in which he has pitched gives me a feeling that this kid will be really special in the future. Also, how the fuck are the Mariners so good? Can anyone please answer that question for me please…

Fantasy Football

So I’ve joined my first ever Fantasy Football league for the upcoming NFL season. It’s with a bunch of friends from Lawrenceville, so I’m expecting lots of trash talking and fun. It’s a 10 team league, and I got the 6th pick. Here are the draft results for my team:

Pick 6: Larry Johnson RB
Pick 15: Carson Palmer QB
Pick 26: Reggie Wayne WR
Pick 35: Terrell Owens WR
Pick 46: Carnell Williams RB
Pick 55: Jamal Lewis RB
Pick 66: Kellen Winslow Jr. TE
Pick 75: Ben Roethlisberger QB
Pick 86: Jerricho Cotchery WR
Pick 95: LenDale White RB
Pick 106: Michael Turner RB
Pick 115: Packers D/ST
Pick 126: Neil Rackers K
Pick 135: Jerry Porter WR
Pick 146: Muhsin Muhammad WR
Pick 155: Eddie Kennison WR

A brief analysis of my draft. I actually just entered the live draft room for my first round pick and was in a hurry to figure out what the hell was going on and who was left. Tomlinson, Jackson, Westbrook (wtf DJ?), Gore, and Addai had all been taken. I was in a struggle between Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander. Both are great backs and due for big years in my opinion… the only question mark for LJ was his contract holdout and 400+ carries last season. I went with Johnson in the end because I think despite the 400+ carries last season, he’s the more explosive back and will have more opportunities to score TD’s with the QB situation in KC (compared to an established Pro Bowler like Matt Hasselback in Seattle). I picked Palmer for my second round pick because I felt there were no premium RB’s left in the draft. I hope Palmer will turn out to be the 2nd best QB in the league this year behind Peyton. The rest of the picks I think are pretty reasonable. I was stupid for taking a kicker in anything other than the last round (as I found out from Top 10 things not to do in a fantasy draft on SportsCenter), but in general I am satisfied with the way things turned out.

-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

Weekend Recap

Didn’t get much poker in at all this weekend. Went down to Coyle’s beach house, which signifcantly delayed my completion of Deathly Hallows, but it was a fun, relaxing time. That being said, I did finally complete the final installment of Harry Potter last night and I thought Rowling did a good job of wrapping up the series. There were some confusing parts that I’ve already discussed with friends who have completed the book, but I won’t write about what was confusing becuase I fucking hate spoilers.

Logging in to Pokerstars yesterday, I unregistered from a tournament becuase I was going to be playing tennis in the afternoon. I opened up the Cashier and was surprised to see that I had an extra 50-something dollars in the account. A little confused, I went into my history and there was one line that said “Credit Purchase $54.09″. Now, this is sad to admit, but I actually have a Pokerstars filter on my Gmail account since I get so many tournament result e-mails from them. I checked the filter and found the following e-mail:

Hello,

PokerStars has become aware of two players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players.  You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.

The players’ accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete.  Fortunately the problem was identified quickly and they had only played in a few tournaments before the accounts were closed.

In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders’ winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible.  To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the ‘Cashier’ screen and click the ‘History’ button.  Your share will be shown as a “Credit Purchase”, followed by the amount of the credit.

I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated.  Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question.  Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.

The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games.  We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances.  In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.

Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars.  Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.

Best Regards,

SteveW
PokerStars Support Team

So it looks like two fuckers tried to collude with each other and got caught. I was talking with Eric about this and we both found it quite impressive that Pokerstars does have the security in place to somehow track people down when they do cheat. My roommate and I once entered a SnG together – not with the direct intent to collude, but with the idea that we’d stay out of each other’s path when put in that situation. I think we both finished out of the money anyways and that’s when I got thinking about collusion in Sit N Go’s. In the long run, it doesn’t seem terribly profitable for two players to collude in SnG’s… especially if they’re not already winning players to begin with. If two losing players (where losing players basically means people with a -ROI) think that they’ll become superhuman and untouchable in SnG’s by colluding with one another, I think they’re in for a harsh surprise. Looking at the 25+2 SnG structure (just using this as an example, you could use any buy-in really), two people would have to put up a combined buy-in of 54 dollars. At least one person would have to get 2nd ($67.50 payoff) for this to be profitable. It just doesn’t seem to me that between two losing players, this operation would be profitable in the long run. The only way I see this working is if one of them goes all-in early on in the tournament (when blinds are 10/20 or 15/30) and the other guy calls, with whoever winning having close to 3000 chips and a distinct big stack advantage over the other players. This obviously has risks associated with it. The first one being that unless you are side by side in the SB/BB, there’s no guarantee that someone else in the tourney will wake up with AA-JJ or be a donk and call you with Ax or Kx and win. The second one being that Pokerstars will probably start to catch on to something fish if one person is going in with 72os and another is calling with 94os when blinds are so small, lol. I think the most profitable ( and safe) arrangement a winning SnG player could make would be finding another winning player, entering the same tournaments, and sort of having a non-compete pact where you basically don’t go heads up into a big pot with each other. Then again, having played close to 1000 SnG’s at the 25+2 level so far, I already have notes on most of the good players and make it a priority of mine to stay out of their way when they come in with big PF raises. It’s like the Big Game in Vegas… all the pros will play pots with each other, but when a fish does sit down, it’s a race to see who can take the fish’s money, not each other’s.

Other shit I’ve been thinking about:

• My first ever bold prediction on this blog was… quite the huge failure. I guess that’s what you get when you bet on Asians. On Saturday morning, I predicted that KJ Choi would win the British Open. As I was typing those words, KJ was at -5 and Sergio was at -7… by the time I finished my post, I think Sergio was at -8 and KJ at -3. Basically KJ misplayed a drive on the second easiset hole on the course and instead of having a good birdie opportunity, he had to scramble for bogey. I was, however, correct in my prediction that Sergio would be too inconsistent and ultimately unravel. Padraig Harrington ultimately beat Sergio in a 4-hole playoff, shooting E to Sergio’s +1. There was lots of fun to be had on the 18th, which was to be expected after Jean Van De Velde’s collapse at Carnoustie in ’99. I was only able to catch the last two playoff holes after driving back from the beach, but Harrington had a chance to win it in regulation and hit it into Barry Burn TWICE while Sergio’s championship-winning par putt just lipped out on the left edge and his bogey led him to the playoff. I’m happy for Harrington – not only cause he’s the cousin of famous poker player Dan Harrington (kidding…), but also becuase he was able to come back from what seemed like a devastating, Open-crushing double bogey and win the playoff playing composed, smart golf. He was starting to enter the Best Player to Never Win A Major chat, but he’s shown he’s got the stuff to win the big one.

• So this is just ridiculous. In Maryland, Mahamu Kanneh was charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year old. That trial has now been dismissed, due to the violation of the right to a speedy trial. What was the hold up? How about this:

“Charges against a man accused of raping and repeatedly molesting a 7-year-old girl have been dropped because the court took too long to find an interpreter fluent in his native West African language.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Katherine D. Savage dismissed the nearly three-year-old case against Mahamu Kanneh last week, saying the delays had violated the Liberian immigrant’s right to a speedy trial.

A court-appointed psychiatrist recommended that an interpreter be appointed and judges who handled subsequent hearings heeded that advice. But officials could not find a competent interpreter of Vai who would stay.

The first interpreter stormed out of the courtroom in tears because she found the facts of the case disturbing. A second interpreter was rejected for faulty work. A third Vai interpreter was located, but at the last minute, that person had to tend to a family emergency.”

The worst part about it, if you keep reading the article, is that the prosecutors DID find another translator, but the judge ruled it was already too late. I guess the key to getting a free pass from the American judicial system is to speak a really obscure language that no one will be able to translate – or one that will take a long time to find a translator for. I should start to learn Elvish and claim to not know English, then maybe I can get away with felony offenses. Fucking stupid judges.

-K