Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
On a quiet, pre-Spring Training day, I commend this piece by Times editorial writer Karin Klein to you. I can't pick a portion to excerpt without spoiling the exquisite flow of the entire story. Indulge me and follow the link to read the whole thing. ...
For Dodger content, some recent photos by team historian Mark Langill of the ongoing Dodger Stadium renovation are available at Dodgers.com. They've really root-canaled the seats, which were definitely decaying in spots - or misaligned, if what so many people said about the baseline sections was true. Here's hoping the new seats are comfortable.
Update: Nuts, I meant to link this Baseball Analysts guest piece by Will Leitch of Deadspin about newspapers and blogging earlier today:
This is not to say that beat reporters are lazy; far from it. It's just that the world of newspapers, when compared to blogs, does not give them the freedom (or, more accurately, the space), to delve into what actually mattered in the game, accounting for context, complexity and ultimate impact. Baseball blogs are the most fun sports blogs to read because great ones have multiple entries every day, and they provide perspective and talking points; they are great because they assume you have already seen the game. We are no longer in the days of radio; if you have MLB.TV, or even freaking cable, you can watch every game. We do not need reporters to tell us the facts; we need people to tell us what it means. Or, more specific, to ask us what we think it means.
Thanks to Baseball Think Factory for the reminder. In a way, Leitch's column picks up where the musings of Times reporter Bill Shaikin left off about a year ago.
You should know how I feel already. Newspapers and blogs are both filled with lazy thinkers and brilliant thinkers. There are different skill sets for each job (yes, blogging has a skill set), but when the system's working right, reporters and bloggers compliment each other wonderfully.
Most bloggers depend on mainstream coverage to some extent, for basic information or for conversation launching points. A nice, recent development is how some reporters have decided that the feeling is mutual.
Bottom line: Great writing is great writing, wherever you find it. Exhibit A is at the top of this post.
As for the seats at Dodger Stadium, one reason I had a hard time getting anybody to sit with me in the season ticket packet I bought was that the seats were so uncomfortable.
I think that's why Icaros broke into my apartment five times. He wanted revenge.
One of my favorite lines
4 X 6 =
a. 24
b. XX
c. XX
d. 26
e. XX
Despite always being among the best math students in school, when I arrived at this question, it confused me and I went up to the teacher to tell him that the answer choices included not one, but TWO correct answers. Somehow, inexplicably, I thought that both "24" and "26" were the correct answer to the question.
She didn't get the joke.
With the exception of geometry, I was great at math until calculus knocked me upside the head. In eighth grade, everyone in school participated in a 40-question contest. Prizes were to be awarded to the top five finishers.
When the results were announced, six of us had tied for first place. Instead of giving out six prizes, or having a tiebreaker, they gave prizes to everyone but me.
When I asked why I got left out, my teacher said, absolutely seriously, that it was because they awarded the prizes to the top finishers alphabetically.
I was not meant to be a mathlete.
If I'm not mistaken, she's in her 13th prime.
12
I was great until high school calculus too. I got "As" in my classes, but I didn't really know what I was doing. I took a year of calc in undergrad as well, and was completely lost. That pretty much marked the end of my math career, until I started having to learn statistics.
I took statistics later on and breezed through it.
Then I joined SABR and realized that compared to most people I know squat about math. So I tend to stick to the historical/biographical stuff.
BTW, which is worse: knowing squat or not knowing squat?
When I was 48 I would tell people I'm only 30 in hexadecimal and then I'd watch them look at me strangely. Now I'm 32 in hex.
I took the AB components of calculus in my junior; decided not to bother with C in my senior year. Got called into Dr. Dworkowski's office to discuss this poor choice, and the whole thing turned into a general warning not to get all dissolute in my senior year.
The warning didn't necessarily take, although we all came out in one piece.
I think I took Calculus BC in 11th grade and scratched out a B. Freshman year in college, I cashed in only half of the AP credits and more or less retook the class.
One of my brothers took algebra in 8th grade, so he got to take calculus in 12th. When I was a senior, that was the same year that the students at Garfield High all aced the AP test unexpectedly and we all got to "Stand and Deliver". My trig/math analysis teacher knew about Escalante's teaching style and said he wasn't surprised at how everything turned out. But he said it would be hard to copy in other schools, which seems to be the case.
http://tinyurl.com/7vv5t
(I wish I could make up stuff like this)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Michaels was traded from ABC to NBC for a cartoon bunny, four rounds of golf and Olympic highlights.
Reminds me of a friend who traded his car for $50 and a bag of an unnamed leafy substance
I was listening to Dick Ebersol of NBC explain the Michaels deal to Mike Francesca on WFAN, including all the stuff about Oswald the Rabbit. So very strange. You really can't make this stuff up.
I took three calculus courses in college, and I did OK, but I found it was like teflon in my brain. It would never stick, so every time I started a new course, I felt like I had to start over from scratch and learn it all over again.
vr, Xei
I've used the stats courses I took in college; I never took calc and I've never missed it.
Yes, I can still read Russian (see above).
In second grade, my dad would quiz me on the multiplication tables while we were stuck in traffic leaving the Dodger Stadium lot. Everytime I leave the stadium via that exit, I end up thinking "6x6=36, 7x9=72..."
I never missed a question on any of my quizzes. Needless to say, any kids I end up having will have their multiplication skills tested on Stadium Way.
That's the fewest points UCLA has given up in a game since 2/17/1967 when they beat Oregon 34-25 in Eugene.
Great article. I'm proud to say I actually read it before you linked to it here. But then, I've been spending my extra time reading 40-50 pages of math education papers, learning all about why the "investigations" style math program is a lousy thing. This program was dropped by California a while back, but our school district loves fuzzy math and thinks it's great. I don't recommend trying to combat the backward policies of a school district in your spare time.
I guess Drew McCourt must have done better then anyone here on his calc classes other then our own Hobo. Now that he's in marketing instead of astrophysics maybe he should have taken statistics instead.
I once wrote the State Attorney General, begging him to sue my school for improper labling. He sent me an autopen-signed 8x10 picture of himself.
DEADBEEF
C0EDB00B
600D10AD
DEADC0ED
...
Oh! The list just goes on and on...
And that's why I hate people.
That reminds me of the time in 5th grade when we had to write a story and read it to the "little kids" (i.e. the 1st and 2nd graders) who each gave one of the following grades to our stories: Smiley Face, Straight Face, or Frowny Face. The kids gave my story ("Tommy and the Land of Cookies") all Smiley Faces except for one, Crystal Szyspanski (sp?), who gave me a Straight Face.
And that's why I hate Crystal.
(Wait, isn't Underdog supposed to rhyme? What rhymes with "Thurston"? "And on this scene I will be a-burstin'" Er...)
almost rhymes with Ja(y)son
Given the 5-Tuple descriptions from DFAs M1 and M2 over the same alphabet sigma, construct a NFA of the following functions
1. M1 union M2
2. M1 intersection M2
3. M1 xor M2
Had M1 and M2 gotten actual defintion, I would have been fine. As it stands, I haven't a clue how to this.
"We handled it the way we usually handle these things — I deal with the agent and Mike deals with the player."
GMs do not talk to players about business. If players want to talk to GMs, they can fire their idiot agents and retain their power of attorney. When GMs talk to players, and not agents, they get Luke Hochevar. Which is why they do not talk to players. This is such simple logic, correctly unremarked upon by the author of the piece, that one wonders why days and months were wasted worrying about whether Adrian Beltre received a phone call. Of course he didn't.
In any case, signing Molina was a terrible idea before, and now after this embarrassment, thank goodness he'll be enjoying his cheetoes somewhere else.
Alfonso Soriano = $12M
If I had more time I'd really pay attention to the SABR-type stuff. But on the face of it I love reading about all the metrics that have been advanced in the past decade.
I don't think you have to love dealing with numbers to be a Plaschke-hater.
No, more likely you have to hate dealing with idiots.
Nationals fans -- who I believe all hate Soriano (and will right up until his first big HR) -- blame the Dodgers for overpaying Furcal, which they think will lead to Soriano getting $12 million instead of $10 million. My thinking is, who cares. What exactly is Bowden going to do with an extra $2 million anyhow -- sign six more mid-tier infielders?
Jim Bowden cried himself to sleep on the night Ramon Martinez signed with the Dodgers.
Though "mid-tier" is an awfully kind description of any of these guys.
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