Well Suffering Bruin, when you get that interview, it'll be your job to explain this joke to him . . .

AD and HSC...together at last!

Maybe we can start referring to HSC as "Annyong"...

2 - Hello ...

What's the Korean word for "goodbye"? That might be more appropriate in this case...

I think what the Hee Seop Choi story demonstrates is this. You have (among others) three types of players: Those who (a) have impressive scoreboard stats but poor unconventional stats; (b) have impressive scoreboard stats and impressive unconventional stats as well; and (c) have unimpressive scoreboard stats but impressive unconventional stats. Now, from a pure public relations standpoint, you're going to have a hard time selling fans and the media on type (c). The semi-informed fan makes absolute judgments based on a primitive understanding of scoreboard stats. Much of the media look on unconventional stats with fear and loathing. From a public relations standpoint at least, the unconventional stats are useful in distinguishing between types (a) and (b), and if you get enough type (b) players you can ignore fan and media sentiment in favor of the type (a)s (i.e., ultimately you will look better signing a J.D. Drew than a late career Shawn Green). If you fill too many roster spots with type (c)s, however, you are going to take a lot of flak, and things are going to get hot for you if you don't win.

According to two sites I checked, "goodbye" in Korean is "ahn nyung hee ka se yo" if the speaker is the one staying and the person spoken to is leaving.

If the speaker is leaving, the phrase is
"ahn nyung hee ke se yo"

Hello is "annyǒng hashimnikka" or "annyong haseyo".

So hello and goodbye might sound the same to English speakers.

Even though I don't have cable (or a cell phone, or a CD player in my truck, or a working cassette player for that matter) I am glad to see this happen. The AD deal, not the Hee Seop Choi. Although I was glad to see them go out with style, I would love to see this show keep going. Easily the best comedy in a very long time.

Great line from a comment on interviewing Bonds but not asking about steroids in the last thread: "It's like interviewing Charles Manson about his early career as a songwriter."

Hah.

Sam,
There are pictures now for most of the players on the Gamedays for the WBC.

But the AUS-DOM one is stuck.

9 Good to know Bob DuPuy reads the comments at the Griddle.

I have always pictured Drew McCourt in a Star Wars video, and I think we have our comp.

Though that would make Frank, Michael, and that doesn't make any sense, so perhaps Drew is Buster.

What? They didn't include his alter ego Saenz? How can you have one without the other?

Jason Phillips ::: Hee Seop Choi
Skating with Celebrities ::: Arrested Development

All you need to see was a couple of Hee Seop Choi commercials and you could tell he would never make it on the Dodgers. The laughs are too slow to keep up with the America's fast paced humour. Time after time with the ratings on the line Hee Seop Choi's gags strike out. I would rather watch re-runs of that Saenz Show or even better let us bring in the animated series Nomarama. He's been out on DVD awhile, but the audiences are clamoring for a return. Send Hee Seop Choi down to basic cable where he belongs and bring in a big leaguer fitting of the prime time Dodgers.

And to bring it full circle, I learned "Annyong" from Arrested Development!

Nats ownership news. The leading groups are LAT's buddy Tom Lerner (and his family) and a group led by a game named Fred Malek, which did a lot of the legword to get baseball back to DC in the first place.

Malek is a controversial figure and Wash Post columnist Colbert King has taken it as a personal mission to make sure he doesn't get the team. Highlights of the columns linked below include Malek's past as a "jew counter" for Nixon and his youthful indiscretion of barbecuing a dog. Wierd stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/llfvg

http://tinyurl.com/ooky3

Anyhow, Malek is all proper and rehabilitated these days (although he had some SEC trouble in 2004 -- not the sports conference SEC mind you), but I for one spend a decent amount of money attending Nationals games and I sure do hope its not lining this fella's pocket.

And I don't even know what he thinks about Jim Bowden and Frank Robinson.

probably obvious but one of the links above is to the second page of an article . . .

Let's try up here.

the infamous bluetahoe on the official boards is arguing that the BEST way to measure a pitcher is by his W-L record. WOW.

even had this quote: "I'll take all the 14-10 pitchers I can get, even if they run 4.50 ERA's and disturbing Moneyball numbers. You can have the 2.50 pitchers with the career 88-114 career win-loss records. IMO the games are played to win, not to produce dazzling statistics."

the reason I'm throwing this out there is I want to ask here: is there ANYONE who really thinks that W-L record is the best way to tell a pitcher's worth? Anyone? Discuss.

20

Russ Ortiz did and he is cashing a very large check every month because of that.

20

Bluetahoe is just one of 345,748,385,269,053,369,432,950,421,830 people over there that have absolutely no clue.

Indobilly is another.

I've been kicked off that board several times for argueing with these guys and not using any vulgar language.

Even the moderators are biased towards those people who have no clue such as bluetahoe and indobilly.

Koufax through age 24: 36-40, 4.10 ERA
- I guess he just didnt know how to win.

If you can explain to me why we should credit a pitcher for the hitting prowess of his teamates, then Ill pay attention to W-L records. No attention is paid to W-L records in the minors for pitching prospects, why does it suddenly matter in the majors? How about if we give a quarterback credit for what his defense does (hello Kyle Orton)? Or better yet, why dont we give credit for the wins and losses to the leadoff hitter, or the cleanup hitter? If the pitcher can get some credit for his hitters success, why cant hitters get some credit for what the pitchers are doing. Its very discouraging for me to see that sportswriters and fans cant see why arbitrarily giving pitchers the credit for what is really team performance.

6 "Ka" vs. "ke." Kaseyo=go, keseyo=stay. Actually, English speakers are more apt to be understood if they used a hard "g" sound instead. So, instead of "Kim," "Gim." would sound more accurate, and likewise, instead of "Park," "Bak" is more faithful to the Korean pronunciation. It is really strange how the letter "r" made its way into "Pak."