Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- What some bands cost in England in 1969.

- Pat Riley on the remarkable power of getting 1% better.

- Ichiro was my favorite non-Red Sox player

- Jonathan Turley on the Democrats weaponization of the justice system in NYC. One has to wonder if the ruling by Judge Engoron should now be an automatic appeal for any client he's ruled against in the past as proof of his bias.

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Great Tom Brady story from Ichiro.

- Google is more toxic politically than even Twitter was under the old regime. To think the new AI chatbots are going to be any less biased is naïve.

- Funny because its true!

-  Steven Pressfield on Creating Your Own Wilderness. Circumnavigating Ireland sounds pretty cool.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

What does Taylor Swift think about Trump cancelling the Iran Deal? Why hasn't she spoken up? What is she hiding?... "A million Marines could not take Tawara in a hundred years" Japanese admiral shortly before the Marines took the island in three days... Heh heh... In the drink V8 - is one of the 8 ingredients ass? Sure tastes like ass to me... I love Ichiro! (And I love Tom Brady).. Just saying but this New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman scandal reminds me of how karma came back to bite all the people who went after Tom Brady and the Patriots during Deflategate. Grab some popcorn because karma is a bitch... Interesting look at the impact electric cars could have on the electric grid.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Barack Obama should announce that he's become a Scientologist. That way if anyone criticizes him he can have the Church threaten to sue them... The things you learn on the Internet: According to Mental Floss the flags of Liechtenstein and Haiti were once identical - a fact that wasn't known until the flags were displayed at the 1936 Olympics... What an absolutely beautiful photo... Not sure about you but I was disappointed that the Olympic opening ceremonies didn't end with Lane Pryce from Mad Men hanging himself... I would love to listen to a podcast by actors pretending to be Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali doing movie and TV show reviews... Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien had a clause in his contract that extended his deal a year for every year Penn State was put on NCAA sanctions. So with 4-years of scholarship reductions and bowl bans - Bill O'Brien's contract went from a 5-year deal to a 9-year deal... How to break the Internet - 1. Take all the Troy McLure scenes from The Simpsons 2 Have Ichiro record them in live action and 3 Post those scenes individually to YouTube...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Boyd Crowder could not be reached for comment... I would love to hear Jon Lovitz read Obama's "You didn't build that" speech in his Master Thespian's voice. That would get a million YouTube hits easy... 18 Awesome Household Tips... Not sure who I find more heinous - Joe Paterno's son or Ted Williams' son. And yes I know John Henry Williams has passed away but he's still heinous... Very interesting story on Sherman Hemsley who just passed away. And by interesting - I mean bizarrely compelling... Orange barrel re-route! Orange barrel re-rout! Have you seen my baseball? Have you seen my baseball?... It would be cool if TV shows could trade actors the way MLB teams trade players... So it turns out that Ichiro was the player to be named later in the Jay Buhner deal... This is a real milk commercial...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Why does Orange Crush need to point out that it is "Caffeine Free"? Do people expect Orange soda to be caffeinated like a cola? I do think a Caffeinated Orange or Caffeinated Grape soda might actually have some market potential...  This is an awesome man cave. I am so jealous... Wait - the movie Rosemary's Baby was supposed to be a metaphor for a woman's right to choose? It was about abortion? Really? How come nobody ever told me that? With abortion so readily available today - is that why you never see the movie on re-runs any more?... Santa Claus will not take the War on Christmas sitting down... Ichiro has homered against every team in the AL except the Mariners (which is understandable) and the Blue Jays (which is a bit of a head-scratcher)... Really looking forward to House Party 6 - The Pimp Goblet of Fire... Another reason to like Drew Brees - he bought Ted Williams WWII and Korean War flight logbooks at auction for $35,600....

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- I agree with Old Hoss Radbourn - This should be Jorge Posada's at-bat music for the rest of the season.

- In case you missed it - Adrian Gonzalez mimicked Ichiro's batting stance against CC Sabathia the other night and hit a HR. Here's a GIF of them side by side - incredible!! The A-Gon legend grows and grows.

- Heh heh: Thor finishes on top of Bridesmaids

- This is a photograph, not a painting - unbelievable! National Geographic's photo of the day

- Very nice tribute on Harmon Killebrew

- Schwarzenegger proves he's no Kennedy - Kennedy's don't publicly take responsibility for their love children

Jason Bay

Very cool first person account of attending the All-Star game by Jason Bay. I loved this part:

Or coming to realize that they just played a recording of the Canadian National Anthem instead of having somebody come in and sing it. That seemed strange, that they couldn’t find anybody in St. Louis who knew ‘Oh Canada.’ Morneau and I could have done it if they really needed somebody.

The bit about Ichiro was also funny. I'm guessing that Ichiro used a different word than "mess".

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

I'm amazed that some people still debate whether Ichiro Suzuki is a Hall of Fame Player or not. Ichiro has been in the league for 8 years and each year he's been an All-Star and won a Gold Glove. He's also had over 200 hits in each of his seasons and won 2 batting titles. This year Ichiro is batting .342 and shows no sign of slowing down. To top it off - when you see him play in person he's simply mesmerizing. I've seen him play a few times and you can't take your eyes off him... Bobby Abreu's batting average dropped 65 points in May. He hit just .221 for the month (not including today's game). I just don't seem to like Bobby Abreu... Speaking of Bobby Abreu - of the minor leaguers that Philly got back as part of the Cory Lidle/Abreu trade - only Matt Smith made an impact. Too bad for the Phillies that the impact was to have an 11.25 ERA in 9 games back in 2007. That trade between the Phillies and Yankees will go down in history as a textbook salary dump trade... I'm not a fan of collusion but I'd be willing to set aside my scruples for a minute to get the MLB owners to agree to block the Washington Nationals from drafting San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg. Scott Boras is going to have a field day with the mess that is the Nationals front office and the money Strasburg will get will unbalance the pay scale an unprecedented amount. Then again - this could be the perfect storm that leads to a rookie pay scale... In Nick Carfardo's notes column today - he asks, "How about Omar Vizquel as a fill-in shortstop for the Red Sox until Jed Lowrie comes back?" I love that idea but there are two problems - Jed Lowrie is almost back and why would the Rangers give up the versatile Vizquel?

Ichiro's New Contract

Ichiro Suzuki has a new 5-year $100 million contract. Here are two very good blog posts on the subject.

- The first is from USS Mariner who makes a the sabremetric case that the new contract is a bargain.

- The second is from Kevin Hayward who is on the fence whether Ichiro is worth the money.

I've seen Ichiro play in person 4 times. Each time I saw him play - I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Ichiro is a dynamic fan favorite who is also a game changer. It is near impossible to keep him off the bases and once on - his mere presence disrupts a game more than any player since Rickey Henderson in his prime.

Three things to keep in mind when considering that $20 million per year price tag.

1. Hiroshi Yamauchi (of Nintendo) owns the Mariners and Ichiro is a fan favorite not just in America but also in Japan. The Red Sox just paid a similar amount for Daisuke Matsuzaka but with $51 million going to the Seibu Lions and $52 million going to Dice-K (over 6-years) but Ichiro is more of a proven quantity. I wouldn't worry about the team getting a good return on this investment.

2. The Mariners revenue is just a bit south of the Red Sox. They can well afford the contract. In comparison to Beltre and Sexson - this contract is a bargain.

3. Judge Judy makes $25 million per year and in my opinion Ichiro is a better entertainer.