Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 211 Editor's Choice: 44
-
You're using the wrong standard for inflation
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I couldn't find salary information for him, but let's guess that in 1965, Juan Marichal was probably making about $50,000 a year. That might be high, actually. Using the assumption, however, a $1750 fine was thus about 3.5% of his salary. Today, a pitcher like Marichal would probably make about $6 million (he came up in 1960, so 1965 was his sixth season and he'd be subject to arbitration but not yet a free agent, but then again he was Juan Marichal). Thus, in today's baseball dollars, his fine would have been more like $210,000. Which, while not a huge sum if you're making $6 million, is a lot larger than $11,000.
-
Lazy Sunday AT&T Park Style
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]By chance, I happened to be at the same game. I was in San Francisco for a conference and I looked at my watch during a fairly boring presentation and realized if I left right then I could just make it down from Nob Hill to China Basin in time for the game. I didn't have a little boy with me, but there were plenty of little boys near my seat. And some good baseball fans, too.
It was, as King says, a gorgeous day for a ballgame. My forehead is peeling because I didn't want to pay for a cap and had no sunscreen. The ballpark is wonderful; you can talk to the kayakers in McCovey Cove and they talk back. The food is overpriced, but there is a decent selection, and there were water fountains I could refill my $5.50 lemonade with.
The really notable thing, though, was how electric--Electric!--the ballpark became the moment Barry came to bat. He was up five times, with the single King mentioned and an intentional walk and no particular excitement to his three outs, but as he walked to the plate, every head turned, cameras flashed, and everyone was on the edge of their seat. When he swung, there was a whoosh in the stadium. When his at-bat was over, everyone resumed normal activities until his next time up.
Love him or hate him, that's a serious, may I say "Giant"?, presence in a ballpark. Ballplayers may not be asking to wear No. 25 in 2057, but this father expects to tell his grandchildren one day about this trip to the ballpark, and Mr. Bonds will loom large for his presence and aura, not the size of his head.
-
How can you tell Giuliani is telling a lie?
[Read the article: After 9/11, Rudy wasn't a rescue worker -- he was a Yankee]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because his lips are moving.
-
Rod Carew with a bit more pop?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Are you out of your mind? Carew's career high in slugging percentage was .570, in his MVP year of 1977. Bonds, though 1998 (the "clean" years) topped that seven times, with a high of. .677. Carew's career high in walks was 74 in 1974. Bonds topped that all but one year from 1989 to 1998; his high was 151 and the year he didn't beat 74, he tied it--in the strike year of 1994. For his career, Carew struck out almost exactly as often as he walked; Bonds had exactly the same K and BB numbers in 1993 and had as many as 75 more walks in 1996. In Baseball-reference.com's similarity scores (invented by Bill James) for the years through 1998, Bonds is found most similar to players like Jack Clark, Tom Brunansky, Duke Snider and Frank Robinson. Carew is found similar to Harvey Kuenn, Tony Fernandez and (not surprisingly) Tony Gwynn. Most of the guys Bonds was compared to could benchpress the guys Carew was compared to.
-
The Central Theme is Restoring Democracy to the United States
[Read the article: Are Democrats really so lame?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Walsh covers a lot of topics, but the one that means the most to me is that the positive message of the Democratic nominee, whomever she or he is, has to be the restoration of the proper Constitutional order in the United States. Most of the campaign, so far, has focused on the bullshit that doesn't matter, like health care plans and energy plans and I simply want to wince whenever I see these debates. What I want to hear is the kind of things a President can do without Congress, which is to give back to the people all the things Bush and his cronies have taken away in the last six and a half years.
No more signing statements.
No more ignoring clear Congressional mandates.
No packing of the civil service with political appointments (though it would be just fine to purge Bush's illegal ones).
No White House control of policies by Cabinet departments and administrative agencies in violation of their clear Congressional mandate.
And of course an end to the mistakes of Iraq.
Not too much to ask. I hope not too much to receive.
-
It's a benign topic for a summer's evening
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fielding is both impressionistic and opportunistic. Derek Jeter finishing second among shortstops is a perfect example of this. The man has terrible range and a weak arm, but he plays for the Yankees, so he's on national television all the time, and when he does make a great play it gets replayed over and over and over. That anyone at all other than a Yankee fan could vote for him over Omar Vizquel is a joke, however.
Ken Griffey isn't even the best fielding center fielder in Seattle Mariner history; that would be Mike Cameron. That's not to knock Junior, who was wonderful in his day, but Cameron had both the flash and the stats to back it up. The 2003 Mariners had Randy Winn in left, Cameron in center and Ichiro in right, and while Winn doesn't throw well, you had three guys who could arguably play center field for any team without Andruw Jones on it.
Yaz gets a great reputation as a fielder because the only time you'll ever see a replay of a play by a left fielder, it will be in Fenway. Otherwise, there's nothing picturesque that left fielders do. Barry Bonds was a far better left fielder than Yaz, but of course no one is allowed to say that.
Bill James takes pages and pages and pages of Win Shares trying to make sense of fielding statistics. My own view has always been that if it takes that complex a formula, you're probably going about it the wrong way.