I haven't been skiing since the early 90s, but I have heard that new ski technology (i.e. the curved skis) make skiing significantly easier.

If I took up skiing, I would think that the Kaiser Permanente Orthopedic Group would be getting a lot of business.

As a 36 y.o. soccer player who didn't pick up the sport again until age 30 after a 12 year hiatus (after playing all thru childhood), one who still feels like he's learning, and feels like he more easily forgets after not playing for a week how to play the game, and whose knees feel like they're going (tendinitis?) when walking up stairs or hills or running on pavement but can still somehow get it together to play twice a week, I am dreading the day when I can no longer do it. I can't ski worth a darn. I hate golf. I can play softball but don't find it the vigorous workout of soccer. Anyway, I... wait, what was I talking about? Who are you people? Eh? You'll have to speak up louder, sonny.

I haven't played any sport that requires running in probably 5 years or so. One thing I have noticed is that (at age 33) I get injured much more often while lifting weights than I did in my 20s.

I hope you are properly stretching.

And remember to stay well hydrated.

When you turn 40, you start to pay attention to those pharmaceutical ads that they run during baseball games more.

You know which ones I'm talking about.

It's those ads for toenail fungus.

The difference between skiing and basketball, especially when you are 40, uh, I mean 39 and three months, is summed up in one word: Gravity.

That was a promising first episode for the Black Donnellys.

I was just going to say that I need a ruling from the commentariat on The Black Donnellys.

I thought it started out very derivative, but ended up being derivative and pretty good.

I can't believe how much TV you people watch.

There, I said it.

10
It is pretty much everything I expected.

8 - Yeah, that explains a lot of things.

I saw such bad reviews for TBD that I didn't watch.

Jon wasn't kidding when he said he would be back to posting on 2/26. He is back with a vengeance.

As for Tommy, I hope he knows what he's saying. When threatening to sue for defamation you better be right because truth is an absolute defense.

BTW, if I were Bruce Willis I would be pretty upset about this whole Babydoll Trick Book thing. Sheez, losing his hair, not having a hit movie in a while and now having shared a woman as Tommy Lasorda.

As Brock said, it is nothing original, but it works for fans of the genre.

13 It was very by the numbers, "Close Irish brothers, one nutball." Michael Corleone-style "Good Kid sucked in to a life he didn't want." But it wasn't bad.

One more comment about the Babydoll thing. My wife used to be head of marketing for a division at Guess and worked fairly closely with the Marcianos, especially Mourice. She got a pretty good laugh when I told her the story. There have been similiar rumors for years. They hit on every woman to walk through the place. It was great money but she quit becasue it was such a sleezy place.

Oh, and fantasy casting disguised as "casting rumors" has Matt Damon, Adrien Brody, Gary Sinise, Daniel Dae-Kim, and James McAvoy lined up for the new JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot. I'll believe that on the twelfth of never. And Aaron Eckhart is Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the Dark Knight.

And I snuck in movie tv talk before being crushed by Xeifrank. I'll stop now.

A Barry Manilow reference! That must be for the James Taylor fans from the previous thread.

Dog farts are almost always worse than people farts. I think she is trying to tell me to change her food.

Do cats fart and if so is it bad? Bob?

It's funny, Jon, I was just thinking the other day about the old Ted Williams quote, "By the time you know what to do, you're too old to do it."

I played basketball a lot as a kid, but the pounding that jumping took on my knees and back made me give it up in my 20s. I turned to soccer instead--the angles are similar, so a lot of the fundamentals are similar, but the surface is much more forgiving.

For years, I just relied on my quickness and speed--I'd just run past my opponents. But in my mid-30s I started noticing that my opponents were running side-by-side with me. Now I'm 41, and younger defenders now routinely beat me to where I want to go. I don't feel any slower, but it's obvious I am.

Because I lost my one big weapon, I've had to make a Frank Tanana-like change from speed demon to junkballer. I now play slow, slower and even slower, just waiting for the right angles to open up. The transition has been quite fun to make. I'm probably not a better player than I was before, but it sure feels like it, because I'm so much more mentally aware of what I'm doing. I'm probably just holding steady for awhile, as my mental improvement stays pace with my physical decline, but I'm sure I can't keep up the pace forever. I'm enjoying while I can.

Oops--the point being, sometimes there is plenty of room for improvement, but you don't make it because you're not forced to. For example, I'm confident Bobby Kielty could be a solid, everyday player, if not a star, if he gave up switch-hitting. But he still has a job, he's getting paid $2.1 million this year to platoon. He probably won't change until he can't find a job. And then, when it works, he'll be like all us other old farts looking back at wasted youth, wondering, how good he could have been if he had known what to do while he was still able to do it.

19 James Taylor fans have no use for Barry Manilow.

I'm 46. I know I can still do everything I used to in my 20s, if it weren't for this nagging sports hernia, that little bit of fluid building up on my knee, the shortness of breath after 120 seconds of strenuous activity....

As the unwelcome 22 year old in this discussion, I have a question: Is the lesson I should be taking from this is that I should take advantage of my youth while I can, or wait until I've learned enough to use wisdom and guile? I swear, sometimes you old folks are so difficult to understand... [ducks to avoid the dentures, empty viagra bottles, bedpans and cans of old spice being flung in my general direction]

So I guess it's fitting that Jon posts this a week before I turn 30 -- and a few weeks after I tore my calf playing baketball. I feel much worse, er, better now.

For what it's worth, until the rather painful ripping of muscle matter, I was improving my game pretty steadily. (I'd worked my way up from "plays like a short fat guy" to "plays pretty well for a short fat guy.")

Looking good Billy Ray?
Feeling good Louis.

Meanwhile, the last thread reminded me that I'm excited because I found this at a garage sale: http://www.amazon.com/Costello-Nieve-Elvis-Steve/dp/B000002NCJ

[18] what's this? new star trek?

As we age past our physical primes, our brain never fully recognizes our body's dimenishing abilities. We throw a football and it is short of its mark and it is not obvious why. Moral: Teach your brain to match up to your current body otherwise it remembers what your body use to do when it was doing it most often. More good news is that many with age become more intuitive and less analytical, see the big picture more often, and unless they are a GM understand that Loney should be starting at first.

24 Young Ryan: The answer -- no matter what the age -- cardio workout.

"The Black Donnelly's" was pretty solid I thought. It isn't the most original work ever, but if you watch the pilot you will definitely come back for the second episode. Plus it fits together with "Heroes" a lot better than "S60" ever did.

It's amazing how much Jon's third paragraph applies to the game of golf as well. I don't ski but I can tell you that from that description, they have a lot of similarities.

I turn 21 on Saturday, but this guy really makes me feel old.

http://tinyurl.com/2mzpgl

All my athletic abilities seemed to drop off a cliff the minute I turned 40, so Jon, enjoy the next 9 months :)

A long-gone Times executive was rumored to be in Heidi Fleiss' black book.

Nice article by John Beamer at Hardball Times about batters K rates. I feel a little better about JP seeing he has a remarkably low K rate, close to Tony Gwynns.
Of course Beamer qualifies this ,saying K rate tells very little about overall hitting ability. I had just assumed amid the gloom that JP struck out a lot--awful in a no. 2 hitter. At least if he puts the ball in play 2 speedy guys get a chance to cause some havoc. Thats better than a strike-em out throw-em out double play.

For some unexplainable reason at the age of 45 I had my best season in softball as I went back to playing SS for the 1st time in 10 years on a regular basis because our regular SS had left. I made plays I had never made before, and I hit as I had never hit before. The very next season in our 1st game I went back to playing like I was 46, so I hung it up choosing to remember the previous year as my last year. Strangely, after having played some type of baseball/softball since I was 7 I don't seem to miss it one bit. I always envisoned myself as one of those old farts playing in senior leagues but now I'm not so sure.

32
I hear ya. I'm 21 plus a few months. Felix, and especially Lebron, make me feel worthless. These guy are awesome athletes and way rich and I'm contemplating springing $14.95 to watch "over 150 games" of Spring Training games on MLBtv. What have I done with my life?! Just in the past few years I've started to see awesome athletes who were born after I was excel in the pros and each time I feel little older.

Tony Jackson is channeling Steve Lyons.

http://www.insidesocal.com/mlb/archives/2007/02/dodgers_alleged.html

Congratulations, Jon. The last time I went snow skiing was before I even met Helen, probably approaching 20 years now.

Those two idiots deserve each other.

From BP quotes section. Loved the 2nd quote.

In 1995 when I was with the Marlins, we had a really young team and I was about the only established hitter in the lineup and they kept walking me, which got really frustrating."
--Sheffield

"Then one day, we were playing the Giants and Bobby Bonds, who was their batting coach, was standing at the batting cage and as I talked about my frustration he said: 'You have to realize that by taking a walk you make it easier for your teammates.' The next year I walked 142 times and had my best season. What was funny about it was that Bobby was one of the all-time strikeout guys when he was playing. I guess it was a matter of teaching something he couldn't do!"
--Sheffield, who hit .314/.465/.624 that season. (Bill Madden, New York Daily News)

Wow, PECOTA is a lot more optomistic about Luis Gonzales than I would have possibly assumed. His 90th percentile numbers are off the charts. Heck even his 75th percentile projections put him at .286/.365/.477, with a 20.7 VORP.

Raise your hand if you think LuGo is .286/.365/.477 this year...

Take away his fluke year and I wonder what Pecota would say. The output is only as good as the data that goes in. My hands are firmly tied behind my back and I expect LuGo to post 260/350/400 which would put him only ahead of JP in production for a starting player.
Betemit on the other hand is going to surpass the Pecota medium projection and lead the 2007 Dodgers in HomeRuns.

Well, this is of course because Dodger stadium inflates offensive statistics. It's the new Coors. All because the foul lines have been moved.

I tried to raise my hand but I think Ijust blew out my aging rotater cuff!

44 Next time, instead of hand raising, I'll ask people to do The Charleston, and 23 Skidoo!

Anyone interested in some fantasy baseball? Sabertooth Dodger III is a 20-team, keeper league with "moneyball" stats on Yahoo Fantasy Baseball PLUS. All DT posters are welcome, no charge. This is the third year of the league, but the first year we plan to keep players from one season to the next. So we will have a fresh draft on March 11th, then next year each team will carry 10 players over from this year.

To join, go to http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b2 click the "Sign Up Now" or "Get Another Team" button and follow the links to "Join a Custom League". When prompted, enter the League ID# (1625) and password (scully). Public email required.

T Jackson came perilously close to joining the "Home Runs kill rallies" club in his blog today.

47 - Duly noted in 37.

Jon - there is probably no way to interject a Condi Rice quote here without violating a number of rules but let's just say that her favorite sports moment of all time involves Stanford but not the Big Game.

Hint, it was 10 years ago while she was in the private sector.

47, 48
A homerun is a rally just that the hand clapping comes after the hit instead of before the scoring ground ball.

49
Thanks for the much needed information.

49 - I met Condi at a party during the Sweet 16, just before Stanford rallied to beat Rhode Island to go to the Final Four. Does it have to do with that?

26 Did you get a good deal? I have one that I bought new (I shoulda bought two!); it's a good listen, but as I recall there isn't that much to the packaging - outer box, 5 slim CD cases with cover sheets inserted, no book of any kind? Burn a copy, scan the cover sheets, and resell! (I audio-taped the radio broadcast of the LA show from 101.9 KSCA, I think; what a geek, eh?)

52
So is Jack Donaghy angry at you for horning in on his girl?

54 - I was clearly no match for Jack. But Mark Madsen might have given Jack a run for his money.

In the spirit of this post:

"The Dodgers will hold an open tryout at 9:00 a.m. this Thursday to which any professional or amateur free agent can attend. The event will take place at Dodgertown on Fields 5 & 6, with registration beginning at 8:00 a.m. Participants must bring their own equipment and be dressed in baseball attire. For more information, call (772) 569-4900."

52 Last comment, at least from me, actually from Condi herself.

Your favorite sports moment, either as a participant or a fan?

Stanford. Sweet 16. St. Louis. 1997. Stanford comes back from 11 down with 1:34 to play to beat Rhode Island and go to the Final Four. I was provost, and I got to go out and cut down a piece of the net.

And I am guessing Jon was not out there holding the ladder. And do you think she remembered all that without looking up, she has a good memory.

"People play baseball. Numbers don't."

http://tinyurl.com/36fdjg

57 - My friends and I ran down from the top level down to court level as the buzzer sounded. We didn't storm the court, but we stormed courtside!

58 - Yeah, I know. I dreamed up several different responses to that while in the shower this morning.

I guess I am just an evil stat monger.

61- Just be glad Mr. Chass, finding himself in a charitable mood this afternoon, hasn't seen fit to call your mother and badger her about it.

People with bad numbers shouldn't though Murray.

People play baseball. Sportswriters don't.

Pretty, pretty numbers...

57 She got the year wrong, didn't she?

Reminds me of the time I once had to edit an article wherein Al Gore recalled his favorite baseball moment. He said something like, "I'll never forget being in Atlanta to watch Game 7 of the 1991 World Series in person. Joe Carter's home run that night was an unforgettable moment."

Still nothing on Lasorda's blog on his life as a John.

37 48 Damn--your post may be why I looked at Jackson's, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together. Getting senile stinks.

So what are we supposed to make of Kemp's spring training numbers (whatever they may be)?

>>> Matt Kemp in race for Dodgers' fifth outfield spot

Kemp is amazed at how well he can see the ball while wearing his new Nike MaxSight contact lenses. But he realizes they won't be of any help during most games.

"They are only for during the day," he said. "They brighten everything up and are great for spring training. But they don't do anything for you at night."

http://tinyurl.com/3d6tz3 <<<

68 - But it also fits with the theme of this post :)

speaking of life after 30, approcahing 40..did anyone else get POLICE tickets for June 23 at DS?

People play baseball. Rock stars don't.

58 - Still I'd like to see a numbers race at Dodger stadium a la the sausage race. We could have VORP and OPS and AVG racing down the field. That is until Randall Simon intervened and pulled a Gillooly on VORP's kneecap of course. You could also add an angry mob in Joe Morgans masks.

Apparently Al Gore has a $30,000 a month electricity bill.

http://tinyurl.com/3ahmb9

71 - I didn't, but I'm willing to take some off someone's hands.

74 Borderline rule 5? (Unless you're going to follow up with argument regarding the statistical analysis?)

71 Will Sting appear in a sequined Dodger uniform, à la Elton John?

No, I didn't get tickets.

71
I must confess that I snagged 4. Sometimes being a season ticket holder has decent perks. I just heard the FooFighters are opening so it should be a fun night at DS in June.

58 Why was the mainstream press so willing to swallow the QB passer rating with its arcane and arbitrary calculations, but so hostile toward "new" baseball statistics?

Perhaps if a key statistic were simply called "batter rating" it would be more accepted?

People don't play quarterback. Statistics do.

79
I think many baseball people feel threatened by the evil stat mongers. They see these guys who are all highly educated and they probably hate them (jock nerd rage) and are worried they will take all their jobs and make them irrelevant. They think these egg heads will ruin their beloved game.

80 - How does Aaron Brooks fit into that aphorism?

82
He has to get a job first.

81 - It's preposterous.

80 - Getting a wee bit old now.

I think most people are just put off by the arrogance of the evil stat mongers who tell them how their game should be played and discount the experience that people in the game have.

84
Jokes don't get old. People do.

74
BTW, I meant year not month.

Who's to say lasted months. I think this has definite Who's to say potential.

But then again, who's to say?...

79 81 - I don't know that it is a jobs issue.

They ram QB rating down our throats on every single football broadcast. Most baseball announcers don't touch any of the more advanced statistics. They could ram VORP down people's throats in the same way without explaining what it is and why it may or may not be good in the same way. It would be reporting VORP as a relatively arbitrary number, but it would be an improvement.

There seems to be some institutional inertia in terms of switching to new stats on television and I think that is the big barrier. Anecdotally though I feel like we may have reached a tipping point in the last year or so and things might start picking up speed soon. (hope hope)

90 - During the first year of DT, I wrote about whether something as simple but new as OPS could gain acceptance. And generally it has, mostly just as people got to see more and more of it.

67. So when Babydoll Mistress called him "Tommy John" she wan't referring to the pitcher?

The QB rating I think works for a lot of fans, because it tends to backup their own opinions. In football you can watch a QB for so long and can generally tell if they are performing well or not.

VORP on the other hand can completely contradict their first hand views. A fan can watch Pedro Feliz hit home run after home run and they think he is great.

87 and you meant gas and electricity.

I still think we're in rule 5 territory.

94 - Me too, essentially.

As someone who recently sat through a six hour training seminar on change in organizations, I think baseball's resistance to adopting new ideas comes from its organizational culture.

Throughout its history, the sport has always resisted change unless there was some major economic reason for it. The DH and interleague play were reactions to declining AL attendance and declining attendance after the strike, respectively.

Baseball does not have a structure where innovation is encouraged. Winning and making money is encouraged. And people only really look at short-term gains. Who wants to root for a baseball team with a far-reaching five or ten-year plan for success?

It seems baseball fans just value different things, so they do not trust these stats. Obviously, the fact that they are new to most people makes it worse.

I'm really into baseball stats..I think they're the absolute truth when it comes to building teams and eliminating inherent bias.

However, I'm probably the exact opposite in basketball and football. In those two sports, the individual stats really dont tell how effective a player is.

I dont care how good Lamar Odom's stat line, he's not a star player. He's passive..and the stats wouldnt bear that out.

Football--same thing. Defensive stats are really hard to measure.

91 Ugh - I wish Pete Palmer hadn't decided to weight OBP and SLG equally.

93 Fans watched Dave Kingman hit home run after home run and knew that he wasn't great.

VORP is probably too much for the average fan to accept, but a scaled, weighted OBP/SLG based rating could work, I think.

98
http://www.Footballoutsiders.com