Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Happy Labor Day! When I was a kid Labor Day was the official end of summer and time to go back to school. Now kids have been in school a week already and the significance of Labor Day has been diminished. How ironic that the significance of Labor Day was probably destroyed by a labor union - the Teacher's Union... Speaking of teachers - this time of year you always see stories about teachers who end up spending their own money to buy supplies for their students. How come you never see any stories about salespeople who have to travel for work but can't expense all the drinks they consume? Much of the costs for that alcohol comes straight out of their pockets yet you never see any Go Fund Me pages for people like me. Life is unfair... Two years ago this was the biggest controversy in the country.  Now look where we're at... Some enterprising person at a charity in Buffalo should host the Dildo Throwing World Championships with first prize being two tickets to a Buffalo Bills game. This could expand into a whole Dildo Olympics... I'm an awful person for laughing at this... As an aside - Red Sox fans truly dislike the Yankees but we always respected Mariano Rivera as a player and a person. There's no current Yankees even close to his level now - so the whole team remains unlikeable... 

Linky Links

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

- I'm an awful person for laughing at this.

- Cool - Dragonfly the nuclear powered drone NASA is sending to Titan (one of the moons of Saturn)

- Speaking of cool stuff.

- Nice appreciation of the recently passed Ric Ocasek

- What a great Fenway moment

- Annotations in copy of Shakespeare's First Folio may have been written by John Milton

- Another cool baseball moment. (Thanks Ted)

Mariano Rivera and the Hall of Fame

Yesterday I stopped at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for the first time and as luck would have it so did Mariano Rivera.

It is often said that even Red Sox fans admired and rooted for Derek Jeter and while that is true to an extent - the Yankee player who had universal respect and admiration was and is Mariano Rivera.

Have you ever heard of a negative thing about this man? The closest you'd get is silly grumbling that he never went to a Metallica concert or that he was "too Christian" for some people's tastes. I think those criticisms speak volumes more about the poor souls who would utter them than Rivera. 

I had the honor of watching Mariano being led to various Hall of Fame plaques starting with Roberto Clemente. There was fellow Panamanian Rod Carew and various Yankees. The one that touched me the most was when he stopped at the plaque for Jackie Robinson. Mariano understands the debt all players of color owe to Jackie and he knows that it is an honor to be the last player in MLB history to wear Robinson's retired 42. Baseball could not have picked a more humble and respected ambassador to be the last player to wear 42.

The final question Mariano fielded from the press was about 2001 and 2004 in which the Yankees lost to the Diamondbacks and Red Sox respectively in the playoffs. The way Rivera handled the question made me love him all the more. He pointed out that he gave his all every time he put on those pinstripes and every time he took the mound. Sometimes his best wasn't good enough to beat the other team's best. "That's baseball," he pointed out. He had "no regrets" for his career. He had to know the lows of losing to appreciate the highs of winning championships. He was pure class.

Mariano Rivera is the rarest of human beings. An adult how has no regrets for the life he's led. And a New York Yankee who is beloved by Red Sox fans.

2019 Hall of Fame Ballot

Picking 10 names from that list is difficult. I'd break my choices into two categories; "No Doubt" and "Had to Think About It but Yes."

Here's my picks:

No Doubts:

Mariano Rivera, Fred McGriff (long been a supporter of the Crime Dog), Curt Schilling, and Larry Walker (people forget how crazy good he was)

Had to Think About It But Yes:

Roy Halladay (sentiment will make his selection easier but is his case actually better than Curt Schilling's?), Mike Mussina (but only after Schilling gets in - Schilling was the better pitcher who is now being punished for being a crazy uncle), Omar Vizquel (guy had 11 Gold Gloves and was every bit the fielder as Ozzie Smith).

That's only 7 choices but that's all I'd feel comfortable with.

As far as steroids guys like Bonds and Clemens - my view is these guys did steroids to get paid which they did handsomely. They knowingly sacrificed their chances to make the Hall for the opportunity to make millions with big contracts. That's the choice they made and they got paid. And now that's all they should get.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Tom Brady is 33-4 (89% winning percentage) when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Aaron Rogers is 16-5 (76% winning percentage). These guys just win in cold weather... Hail Flutie... Yesterday was both Vin Scully's (87) and Mariano Rivera's (45) birthdays. MLB should acknowledge the importance of the birthdays of two of the greatest ambassadors the game has by making their birthday the day when the new Hall of Fame class is announced... Heh heh... So will Colt McCoy replace RGIII in those Subway commercials too?... Matt Damon vs Ben Affleck. I was amused by this more than I should have been... Just a reminder about all those MLB trade rumors columns you read - not one writer had the Josh Donaldson trade from Oakland to Toronto. Take all you read with a grain of salt...

Linky Links

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

- Floyd Mayweather tweeted "'Congrats @JManziel2 for putting on fantasy show' He may nt b able to make $ off himself and I can" and he attached this betting slip.

- Mariano Rivera is a great man. A great man.

- Cool photo of lightning in the Grand Canyon

- What does it look like when you put a camera on the back of a Bald Eagle? It looks awesome!

- Cool - how far did Rocky run during his training sequence in Rocky II?

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Two very interesting pairings this past weekend. You had the Mariano Rivera and Joba Chamberlain story and then Tiger Woods vs Sergio Garcia story-line at TPC Sawgrass. In both cases the younger player came off as bit of an ass... "Give us just the audio feed from Erin Andrews" said no TV producer ever... I read the subtext to this Dan Shaughnessy rebuttle by Red Sox part-owner Tom Werner as "I gave your daughter a job in Hollywood you ungrateful jerk"... God bless the Richard family. I cannot image the pain and grief they must shoulder every day... I still say that Tim Tebow would be a useful back-up to the Patriots. Tom Brady likes those one-yard goal-line plunges too much. He's getting older and there's no reason to risk him in those situations when you could have a guy like Tebow... Part of me thinks the Westboro Baptist Church is just some real elaborate hoax being pulled off by an not-dead Andy Kaufman... Playing off the success of ChristianMingle.com - I'd like to start a site ChristianDivorce.com. Jesus want you to separate!...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Mariano Rivera is an awesome person.

- News you can use - why do people get emotional when they drink?

- Heh heh

- I would so pay to see this Calvin and Hobbes movie

- Excellent analysis of second tier QB shuffling in the NFL. Thank God New England has Tom Brady.

Jonathan Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon has signed with the Phillies pending a physical. The deal is reported to be 4-years for $50 million with a vesting 5th option year that would be for another $13 million.

I wish Jonathan Papelbon nothing but the best. I'm guessing most Red Sox fans feel the same way. Papelbon had 219 saves for the Red Sox to go along with a career 2.33 ERA. Papelbon gave his best every time he took the mound and he always took the mound - never injured or begging off. That didn't go unnoticed by the fans.

Papelbon made no secret of what he wanted to accomplish regarding his contract. When he was under team control he publicly said he wanted to get the highest arbitration award amount ever for a closer. He publicly spurned the idea of a long-term deal because he wanted to set the record contract amount for a free-agent closer as well. Which now he has. Papelbon signing elsewhere for a mega-deal was easily predicted by anyone paying attention.

The Red Sox paid Papelbon $12 million this year and I'm guessing they didn't have any issue with that given the fine season Papelbon gave back in return (4-1 2.94 ERA with 31 saves). It was the 5-years that I'm guessing gave the Red Sox pause. The unwritten baseball 11th Commandment is "Thou shall not give a pitcher a 5-year deal." There's good reason for that. The problem I see is the fact that Papelbon's career numbers through his first 7 seasons are scarily similar to Mariano Rivera's first 7 seasons. Would you hesitate to give a 31-year old Mariano Rivera a 5-year deal?

It is easy to argue that any comparison to Mo Rivera is unfair because Rivera is one of a kind. But the same can easily be said of Jonathan Papelbon. He's much closer to Rivera in fact than to guys like Frankie Rodriguez or Joe Nathan. Having said that - Papelbon and his 8 blown saves were a big reason the Red Sox did not make the playoffs in 2010 and I don't think you can lay a claim like that at the feet of Mariano Rivera for any of his 17 seasons.

In the end I predict that the Red Sox will move on from Papelbon with some success and some failure. Papelbon will probably finish his career with 300+ saves and a World Series ring with both the Red Sox and Phillies. His case for the Hall of Fame when he retires will be very strong. I also predict that after Papelbon retires that he'll miraculously find the ball from the final out of the 2007 World Series that supposedly his dog ate.

Flotsam and Jetsam Brett Favre Edition

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Brett Favre is not the most interesting man in the world no matter what ESPN says... Wow - the Phillies getting Cliff Lee was a move that nobody saw coming. I wonder if they try and move Joe Blanton and his remaining $17 million over two years contract to try and make the money just spent more livable for the organization. The irony is the Yankees would be the most likely suitor for Blanton... According to ESPN - people hang on every word from Brett Favre - even the prepositions... In case you haven't seen the Yogi Bear parody alternate ending... According to ESPN - Brett Favre once won connect four - in three moves.... It would be cool if his was how Santa delivered presents... According to ESPN - Sinatra considered Favre to be the chairman of the board... Maybe just as surprising as the Lee signing is the revelation that Mariano Rivera initiated contact with the Red Sox... According to ESPN - the blood of Brett Favre smells like cologne... With Brett Favre's consecutive starts streak over, here's a quiz on the other QBs of 1992... According to ESPN - Brett Favre was born in a log cabin which he had built with his own hands... Very cool - The longest zipline in North America... Speaking of ESPN - Tom Jackson is the guy with tons of seniority at your company who sucks at his job but nobody can get rid of

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I didn't realize until this morning but Mine that Bird was Calvin Borel's only mount yesterday. That's unusual... On this day in 1892 Benjamin Harrison became the first President of the United States to attend a baseball game... According to Stats Inc - Mariano Rivera of the Yankees has already allowed 10 runs this season. In the entire 2008 season, he allowed just 11 runs.... Today would have been Dean Martin's 92nd birthday. Martin was always my favorites among the Rat Packers. Martin had a license plate DRUNKY which I'm guessing you couldn't get away with today... Exhibit A why people are going away from traditional print sportswriters. Mark Bradley writes a column / blog post - I don't what to call it other than crap - regarding John Smoltz's criticism over the way the Braves let Tom Glavine go. Bradley consciously or unconsciously makes the column all about Mark Bradley. He uses a variation of the word "I" and "me" close to 30 times in the article which ends in Bradley trying to make a joke by calling John Smoltz a dog. Here's the thing a guy like Bradley doesn't get - nobody gives a rats ass about you and how you deemed it OK to congratulate John Smoltz on his 200th win. This was the first time I read something Bradley wrote and it will be the last if I can at all help it. Sportswriters who think they are the story - is there anything more ridiculous?... Happy 58th birthday to Terry O'Reilly...