Monthly Archives: August 2013

Lagniappe

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Lagniappe: n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi

         1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.

         2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit.

I’ve just returned from a week on the ‘left’ coast, where everyone is younger, smarter, more beautiful, more athletic, and more hip (do people still use that word?) than those of us back east. I went to visit some friends and to cheer on my Red Sox in their games against the Giants and the Dodgers (my heroes did well for those of you who do not follow such important events).

But this post is not about baseball. It’s about an unexpected, and delightful, discovery.

Since I had a few days between games in SF and LA, I went to Portland to visit a friend and to observe the Thirsters, a group that has been meeting (almost) every Thursday of the year for the past 10 years to talk about whatever interests them. I had wondered about the possibility of getting such a group underway in DC.

It was in Portland that I received a lagniappe, an unexpected gift, a benefit: an afternoon at Lan Su Yuan, The Portland Classical Chinese Garden.

More than 25 years ago, on the first of several trips to China, I fell in love with the gardens of Suzhou and classical Chinese gardens. Tho I’ve never been particularly interested in plants, flowers, and the like, there was something about these gardens that fascinated me. So much so, that for the past 25 years I’ve thought about importing some aspects of these classical gardens to the two outdoor spaces at our home in DC.

When we recently redid our kitchen, I took the opportunity to create here something along the lines of what I found so pleasing about the gardens of Suzhou. With the work of a wonderful landscape gardener, Tom Virnston, and the help of my wife and several friends, we are nearing completion of our very own two Chinese-like gardens, The Fragrant Reader’s Garden and The Humble Blogger’s Garden. (In another post, at another time, I will write about what we have created and have Ellen take some pictures of it.)

But back to Portland and last week.

I had forgotten that in Portland, OR there was what is probably the most authentic  example of a classical Chinese garden that exists anywhere outside of China.  Portland, as a result of being a sister city to Suzhou and through the vision of its citizens, businessmen, and politicians, raised the money, brought artisans from Suzhou, and turned a former block long parking lot in the middle of the city into Lan Su Yuan.

It’s simply superb.

In fact, for me it had the one element that was missing from my visits to the gardens in China, the ability to get a feel of what these gardens are truly like. Because of their popularity in Suzhou, the gardens there are filled with visitors, and I always found myself wishing everyone would leave so I could experience them as they were meant to be.

While the replica in Portland was not devoid of visitors, it was possible to get a sense of the peace and harmony and splendor of a classical Chinese garden.

A few pictures below from my iPhone can serve as an introduction (Ellen was not with me so I didn’t have the benefit of her wonderful photography, tho I do plan to return there, with her and her photographic skills.)

If you’re ever in or near Portland, consider spending a morning or afternoon at Lan Su Yuan. You’re in for a treat.

photo.16

photo11

photo.19

photo.21

photo.12

photo.13

To see more of Lan Su Yuan, check out this 2:34 minute YouTube video.

To read more about Lan Su Yuan and visiting it, check out their website.

Share

Red Sox: Wrong, Dumb, & Foolish

19 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

A-Rod Answers Dempster

I don’t usually post about the most immediate events, whether sports or other, but Sox fans need to make their voices heard on this one.

When I learned last night that Dempster had hit A-Rod, I couldn’t believe it. I turned off the game and said to myself, “The Sox deserve to lose this one.”

I was on an early morning flight today to San Francisco (and later in the week will head to Portland and then to LA) to visit with friends and see two Sox games vs the Giants and two vs Dem Bums. So I don’t know what is being said about Dempster hitting A-Rod (except for the email I got stating disapproval from my long-suffering Sox cousin). But I can say I’m not as excited to see them tonight as I thought I would be.

Hitting A-Rod was simply wrong, despite his disrespect for the rules of the game.

Yes. He’s a cheater and a liar, amongst other things. But the best Sox players could do would be to speak out against him, not to hit him.

Because A-Rod is wrong doesn’t give the Sox the right to hit him. A-Rod’s peers should call him out publicly. That’s the best and most powerful way to respond to his behaviors and to send a message to other PED users.

Additionally, it’s dumb and foolish. You’re in a tight race, ahead in this game 2-0, and why do anything that takes the focus off winning and gives the Yunkees and A-Rod fuel?

Simply wrong, dumb, and foolish.

Sox got what they deserved.

Share

Three Films To See: The Act of Killing, The Spectacular Now, & Lee Daniels’ The Butler

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The Act of Killing *****

104668_gal

This film is probably the most unusual documentary I have ever seen.

Just trying to describe the ‘story’ is a challenge and so I quote from IMBd’s Synopsis:

When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar {Congo} and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands. Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.

THE ACT OF KILLING is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan genocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. THE ACT OF KILLING is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And THE ACT OF KILLING is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.

And film director Joshua Oppenheimer writes about his intentions in making the documentary:

“The Act of Killing reveals why violence we hope would be unimaginable is not only imagined, but also routinely performed. It is an effort to understand the moral vacuum that makes it possible for perpetrators of genocide to be celebrated on public television with cheers and smiles. It is a call to reexamine easy reassurances that we are the good guys fighting the bad guys, just because we say so.

“Some viewers may desire resolution by the end of the film, a successful struggle for justice that results in changes in the balance of power, human rights tribunals, reparations, and official apologies. The film alone cannot create these changes, but this desire has been our inspiration as well, as we seek to shed light on the darkest chapters of both the local and global human story, and to express the real costs of blindness, expedience, and an inability to control greed and the hunger for power in an increasingly unified world society. This is not a story about Indonesia. This is a story about us all.”

The Act of Killing was in DC briefly and then reappeared this weekend at the West End Cinema. If it shows up wherever you live, or becomes available in other formats, consider going out of your way to see it.

You will not be entertained, and I doubt if you’ve ever seen anything similar.

I suspect you will be stunned and long remember it.

I was, and I will.

 

The Spectacular Now ****

101871_gal

This one is entertaining, and its story is one you have seen, read, know, or perhaps have observed or have experienced yourself.

Two high school seniors, quite different on the surface, find themselves surprisingly involved with each other. I won’t spoil the film for you by telling you much more than that.

What I can say is that both leads, Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are two of the reasons the film is better than many ‘coming of age’ stories. With the direction of James Ponsoldt, The Spectacular Now draws you in with its humor, its honesty, and its tenderness. It is (mostly) believable and avoids many of the pitfalls of a story we all know. Although it is slowly paced (too much so at times?), both the story and the actors grow on you, and you almost don’t want the film to end.

 

Lee Daniels’ The Butler ****

o-THE-BUTLER-POSTER-570

A dilemma.

Tho a bit too long, both in the length of the film and in the time period it covers (1926-2008), I found The Butler involving and engaging.

The wonderful performances of Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey (and in a lesser role Cuba Gooding Jr.) make this journey through the civil rights struggles of 60s, etc. worth your watching, whether you were there then or are new to much of it. Daniels’ vehicle of portraying this time period through the life of one family is well done.

Spoilers:

My problem with the film is that many of the key parts of the movie are not true, more so than is often the case with a film “based on a true story.”  So if you are looking to know about the life of the man who served in the White House under eight presidents over three decades, the film fails (at least for me). From the opening scenes in which a young boy sees his mother raped and father killed to adding a second son to his family (he and his wife only had one son, not two) to the truth about his wife, and to the end where he supposedly has a personal audience with President Obama, Daniels sacrifices truth for drama.

With my ‘need’ to have things be (more?) honest, that spoils the film for me. I suspect a film based more truthfully on the life of ‘The Butler’ would never make it to the screen and be considered for various Oscars.

But Daniels chose to make a drama and not a documentary. Given that as his goal, then it is possible to enjoy the film.

(With thanx to AR, you can check out where Daniels departs from the truth with this article, ‘The Butler Fact Check: How True Is This ‘True Story.’)

*                         *                          *                           *

There are a number of films we/I saw in our film club and over six months which are now out in the theaters. Each of the films below deserve your attention. You can get to my mini-reviews by clicking on the title of the film:

  • Black Fish (Unrated, reviewed by guest blogger Elizabeth Miller)

For an expanded list that includes another half dozen or so good films, see an earlier post, Best in 2013 (as of July 3, 2013).

Share

MLB’s New Challenge System: The Right Call?

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

canstockphoto9695161(2)

As far as I understand, here are the key elements of a new review system that have been announced by MLB:

  • It is a ‘challenge system’ and not one initiated by an umpire (or a replay umpire).
  • Each manager will have three challenges in a game, one in the first six innings and two in the remainder of the game (no carry over from the first six innings into the latter part of the game).
  • If the challenge is successful (and the call overturned), then the manager gets back that call, potentially allowing many more than three challenges during a game.
  • The reviews will be done by humans at the MLB Advanced Media facility in NYC.
  • Balls and strikes cannot be appealed but most other plays can (89% of the umpires’ calls are to be reviewable, tho the specifics have not been announced yet).
  • Non-reviewable plays can still be argued by a manager who can request the four umpires meet to discuss a call.
  • The new system, if approved by the owners, the players, and the umpires, will be instituted for the 2014 season and will be reviewed for adjustments prior to the 2015 season.

There is also a report that the umpires will ask for what is being called a ‘doomsday trigger’ – the ability to request a replay themselves if a manager is out of challenges.

To read (and see) for yourself more specifically what MLB’s commissioner Bud Selig actually announced, see this link, MLB to Expand Instant Reply.

Apparently, MLB had to decide whether to go with a ‘challenge system’ or a system which would let the umpire or a replay umpire decide what would be reviewed. In deciding on the ‘challenge system,’ they chose a variation of what is already in use in other sports, particularly NFL football.

130815_SNUT_BaseballReplayChallengeUmpire.jpg.CROP.article250-mediumMLB believes that this new system will compensate for umpire error and will take only 1 1/2 minutes per challenge, less than the three minutes that it now takes when the umpires go off of the field to review a play themselves. Additionally, MLB seems to believe that there will be a reduction in time spent with managers arguing calls as the replays will be triggered immediately when a team asks for one.

One of the criticisms of this system is that it is only a ‘half step’ and that MLB should have gone with an umpire directed replay scenario if the intent is to get all of the calls right and not be dependent upon a manager asking for or being out of challenges.

The best article I’ve seen that argues that the ‘challenge system’ is only a partial response to getting calls right is Joe Posnasnki’s MLB Blows Call with Challenge System.

So, what do you think?

Is this system a good one?

Is baseball going to be better off because of it?

Will the ‘human element’ be taken out of baseball and so change what we’ve had up until now?

Will games be lengthened, shortened?

Is it the right replay system?

Please add your Comment below.

 

Share

Impeding the Right to Vote

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by in The Outer Loop

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

4440-400x2611

There are a number of national issues that I find disturbing, but most of them I keep to myself, and I don’t use MillersTime to rail against them.

Global warming, and the unwillingness to face it, is one. Money in politics, and what that is doing to our democratic system, is another. Then there’s Congress’s inability to function when we have issues that need to be addressed.  I could add the hatred and dishonesty spewed on talk radio, some of the cable TV outlets, and in other public places.  I could go on but will spare you.

But there is one issue that for some reason rises to the top of my list and provokes me to action. It is the reason I went to Ohio this past year for a week to canvas in the 2012 elections and to help get out the vote.

The more I followed various states’ actions at limiting voter’s ability to go to the polls last year, the angrier I got. I followed this issue closely, and it seemed to me that rather than protecting the integrity of our voting system, these actions were meant to discourage or to inhibit voters from going to the polls.  (In Pennsylvania, officials admitted to/bragged about using voting rights restrictions to make it easier for Mitt Romney to win in their state.)

For me, the cornerstone of our democratic system starts with the freedom to vote. When that is inhibited, whether by instituting a poll tax, disallowing certain classes to vote, or putting barriers in the way of voters, I think we head down a dangerous path.

Yesterday, the governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, quietly signed into law a voting ‘rights’ bill which, among other things, did the following:

  • Require voter photo ID at polling places.
  • Reduce the early voting period from 17 days to 10 days.
  • Prohibit counties from extending poll hours by one hour on Election Day even in extraordinary circumstances, such as in response to long lines. (Those in line at closing time would still be allowed to vote.)
  • Eliminate pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, who currently can register to vote before they turn 18.
  • Outlaw paid voter registration drives.
  • Eliminate straight-ticket voting.
  • Eliminate provisional voting if someone shows up at the wrong precinct.
  • Allow any registered voter of a county to challenge the eligibility of a voter rather than just a voter of the precinct in which the suspect voter is registered.

North Carolina’s new voting bill is just one of the many new laws that are working their way through state legislatures following the recent Supreme Court decision that declared Section 5 of the 1965/2006 Voting Rights Act unnecessary (unconsititutional?), saying there was little evidence of continuing racial discrimination in the states that were required to get preclearance before changing their voting laws.

If you think the Citizens United decision about money in the campaign system opened a floodgate, watch what is about to happen now as states begin to institute new voting rights restrictions under the guise of “protecting the integrity of our voting system.”

Share

Pardon Me If I Don’t Cheer

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by in The Outer Loop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

News articles (here and here) in the last week or so have claimed that Henrietta Lacks’ family has finally gained something from the use of her cells.

It isn’t enough.6493208

I know some MillersTime readers are familiar with the story of Henrietta Lacks because many of you cited Rebecca Skloot’s wonderful book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* as one of your favorite reads a couple of years ago.

From NBC News: “Over the past six decades, huge medical advances have sprung from the cells of Henrietta Lacks, a poor, African-American mother of five who died in 1951 of cervical cancer. But Lacks never agreed that the cells from a biopsy before her death taken could be used for research. For years, her own family had no idea that her cells were still alive in petri dishes in scientists’ labs. They eventually learned they had fueled a line called HeLa cells, which have generated billions of dollars, but they didn’t realize until this spring that her genome had been sequenced and made public for anyone to see.”

A week ago, NIH announced it had reached agreement with the Lacks family, according to NBC: “Under a new agreement, Lack’s genome data will be accessible only to those who apply for and are granted permission. And two representatives of the Lacks family will serve on the NIH group responsible for reviewing biomedical researchers’ applications for controlled access to HeLa cells. Additionally, any researcher who uses that data will be asked to include an acknowledgement to the Lacks family in their publications.”

OK.  A first step? Some scientific recognition?

But many careers, scientific advancements and untold numbers of dollars have been made because of the use of the cells taken from Henrietta Lacks’ cervix. Neither she nor her family knew about this for years nor has anyone in the Lacks’ family received financial recompense.

Pardon me, but I don’t think nor agree, as the NBC article and others are saying, that “that failure has now been fixed.”

(*Rebecca Skloots, at least, has tried to make amends. With some of the profits from her book, she established the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which, according to their website, “strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without personally benefiting from those contributions, particularly those used in research without their knowledge or consent. The Foundation gives those who have benefited from those contributions — including scientists, universities, corporations, and the general public — a way to show their appreciation to such research subjects and their families {my emphasis}”)

 

Share

A Few Pix of the 3rd Grandchild

12 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Family and Friends

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

You can blame/thank our friend FH for this post.

photo(73)She correctly wanted to know why I had not posted any pictures (other than those when he was born) of Ryan Samuel Orgad, the third grandchild.

Ellen has continued to take endless pictures every time we’re together, but I guess I have been a bit remiss in not posting them. So that’s my excuse for these pictures, taken when Ryan was one and two months old (the good ones are by Ellen, of course).

photo(74)

 

photo(75)

Ryan.1

Ryan.2

RAM_Ryan    Eli_Ryan

Share

If You Have Texted Even Once While Driving…

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends, The Outer Loop

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, ,

…consider spending the 34 minutes and 56 seconds it will take to watch this video, From One Second to the Next.

It was made and directed by Werner Herzog, the accomplished German filmmaker, at the request of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

From One Second to the Next will be shown to school groups and government agencies across the country.

But it seems to me that it is also worth all of us seeing this ‘scared straight’ documentary, whether we are an invincible youth, the 24/7 texting millennial generation, or the older and more experienced driver who also thinks that every text message needs to be read and answered upon receiving it or that we must call home to say we’ll be there in five minutes.

A few statistics:

  • In 2011, 23% of all auto collisions involved cell phones. That equals 1.3 million crashes.
  • Five seconds is the minimal time your attention is taken away when you’re texting. That means if you’re driving 55 mph, you go the length of a football field without looking at the road.
  • Text messaging makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. Dialing increases your chances of crashing 2.8 times. Reaching for your cell phone 1.4 times, and talking or listening 1.3 times.
  • 48% of young drivers have seen their parents talking on a cell while driving and 15% have seen them texting. It is not just a young person’s activity or problem.

(For more statistics and what the current laws are regarding this issue, see this link.)

I now put my cell phone away when I get in my car to drive. So far, I’ve done this for four days and hope to do so permanently. But I may have to see From One Second to the Next again every so often.

Share

Jeter: Tell Him

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

AROD_JETERI wasn’t going to post about the A-Rod suspension, etc. as MillersTime is not a place that competes with the various new and old media to be on the cusp of ‘breaking’ news.

But something occurred to me last night and this morning as I thought about what is happening here and as I’ve read most of the mainstream and not so mainstream media accounts of the A-Rod situation.

The good news, from my perspective, is that a group of important players have been caught and most of them have agreed not to drag us through their phony attempts to claim innocence. Ryan Braun for example last year.

The further good news is that more and more MLB players are speaking out and saying what they previously refrained from saying: there is no place for PEDs in our game.

Even the Players Union seems to have gotten the message for the most part, tho they have slid back a few steps in their defense of A-Rod. (Yes. Due process is central to our way of life, but in cases such as these, I don’t believe the accused should be allowed to play while the appeal process takes place.)

But there is one more piece that could help nail this coffin.

Derek Jeter needs to go to A-Rod and tell him to take his punishment now and not drag this out. (A-Rod has a three-day window in which he can still agree to abide by the suspension.)

A-Rod can’t do it by himself. He cannot distinguish between what’s good for A-Rod and what’s good for baseball. Even though he says he loves the game, basically he loves himself in the game. And if he really understood what was good for A-Rod, he’d take his punishment now.

Don’t hold your breath. It looks as if he’s going to drag everyone through months of ‘torture’ so that he can “get his day in court.”

No one is fooled. A-Rod knows this might be his last chance to play for the Yankees.

It is also his last chance to save anything good that is left of his name.

Jeter can help him and help baseball.

This situation is not about having your teammate’s back. A-Rod never had anyone’s back but his own.

If rather than ask A-Rod in the clubhouse, “How’s it going man?” Jeter took him aside and said what perhaps only a friend could say. “Do what’s right. Do it for yourself. Do it for baseball.”

Then we might well be on our way to putting the PED issue behind us.

Share

If You Love Animals…

03 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Blackfish, a film review by Elizabeth R. Miller

If you’re an animal lover, or even just mildly interested in one of nature’s most majestic creatures, you need to see the documentary Blackfish.

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film explores the treatment of captive orcas, in particular the story of the 12,000-pound Tilikum, a whale living in captivity since he was three-years old.

I first heard of movie at this year’s Miami Film Festival, and I’d followed its controversy in the mainstream press, most notably SeaWorld’s rebuttable and its plea to film critics.

So when I got an e-mail Friday afternoon from the Miami Film Festival photo that it was showing in the theater near my apartment, I figured, why not. With my fiancé ensconced in Chiefs’ training camp in St. Joseph, MO, it seemed like a good way to spend the evening. (Not to mention I’d recently checked my UP band and realized I was still short of my daily goal of walking 10,000 steps and I knew a walk to the theater would help me reach my goal).

The movie uses the story of Tilikum, and his association with three deaths,
including the 2010 death of 40-year old SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, as a device to further explore the repercussions of orca whales in captivity.

But Blackfish does more than meticulously document the signs of mental and physical torment that whales experience in theme parks, although it does that very well. It also details SeaWorld’s decision to continue breeding Tilikum, the misinformation it spreads to park-goers about the expected life span of orcas in the wild, the truth about collapsed dorsal fins and more. An excerpt I found particularly harrowing was an interview with a former whale hunter, John Crowe, who remorsefully talks about his involvement in capturing whale calves off the coast of Seattle four decades ago.

You’ll also hear first-hand accounts from former SeaWorld trainers who share how the park kept incidents involving orca whales under wraps and lied or intentionally misled the public. Blackfish uses rarely seen footage it obtained through lawsuits and research as well as documents a series of lawsuits brought against the corporation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. SeaWorld, a $2.5 billion dollar company, repeatedly declined to be interviewed for the film.

Tilikum remains a performer at SeaWorld in Orlando, FL though trainers have continued a court-ordered policy forbidding them to do in-the water work with him.

Share

Join Me

03 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Go Sox

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

More tickets available. Baseball and a talk. Let me know if you’re interested.

Baseball – Tho the Nats are struggling mightily, what’s better than a summer evening at the park? Final games available at no cost to you, other than perhaps buying me some peanuts and having to listen to my baseball natterings:

Wednesday, August. 7 at 7:05 vs Braves
Tuesday, August 13 at 7:05 vs Giants
Friday, September 13 at 7:05 vs Phillies
Sunday, September 15 at 1:35 vs Phillies
Tuesday, September 17 at 7:05 vs Braves
Wednesday, September 18 at 7:05 vs Braves

Sixth & I – Lee Child

If you know the name Jack Reacher and have read lots of Lee Child’s books, then you might want to join me Tuesday, September 10 to see and hear Child’s talk about his newest book, Never Go Back.

For those of you who haven’t had the good fortune to read any of Child’s thrillers, he’s a British writer named Jim Grant (Lee Child is his pen name). His 16 or 17 books all (?) featuring the ‘detective’ Jack Reacher are some of the best escapist books I know. Grant/Child’s books have won numerous awards, beginning with his first one, Killing Floor, which won a best first novel award in 1997, and on to his 2012 A Wanted Man which won a National Book Award for Thriller/Crime Novel of the Year.

First to let me know via email (Samesty84@gmail.com) or by leaving a note in the Comment section of this post, gets the ticket(s).

Share

At This Rate…

02 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , ,

Judging from what the Sox have done on August first, won two games in walk off fashion, one in the 15th and one in the bottom of the 9th (that one they were behind by five runs), the Sox could win 62 games in August alone. At least if they had two games a day scheduled.

I know. I know. Won’t happen. But maybe the usual August swoon won’t happen either. Enough players are healthy, there are some back up players available, they seem to have a good balance in their pitching-hitting-fielding, and the management and team chemistry, if those are factors, seem quite good. At their current winning percentage of .600, they would end up winning about 97 games. If they simply break even in their final 52 games, then they’ll end up with 92 wins.

Continue reading »

Share

A ‘Two-Fer’ and Another Reason to Love #15

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Go Sox

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Whenever I attend a baseball game or watch one via the various electronic mediums, I’m always looking for something I’ve never seen before. My ‘baseball bucket list’ is down to five: I want to see, live, a no-hitter, a perfect game, a triple play, an unassisted triple play, and a successful suicide squeeze play. (I may have witnessed a no-hitter, but I can’t swear to it.)

Last night, which actually includes this morning, I saw two ‘events’ I’d never seen before, ones that were not on my must see list.

My wife Ellen was out of town working (if you call being at Google-Land working), which meant I could watch the Red Sox-Mariner game with no fear of disparaging remarks or ‘that look’ that wives give when they suppress the urge to tell you what an idiot you really are.

I settled into a comfortable chair, and when in the bottom of the first, the Sox loaded the bases, I think with no outs, and then failed to score, I knew it was going to be a long and difficult night.

But I had no idea how long and how difficult.

Continue reading »

Share