Month: July 2017 (Page 2 of 2)

Some All Star Game, huh!?!? So good that I waited a full day before sharing my thoughts on it.[1]

I’m being sarcastic: the game kind of sucked. Under most circumstances a tense, 2–1 game that goes 10 innings would be highly compelling. But it’s the freaking All Star Game in a year of the juiced ball. We want to see homers soaring through the South Florida air. We want runs, baby!

Worse, unlike a 2–1 game played during the regular season, this wasn’t a tight affair because two pitchers were throwing brilliance at each other. When the managers run a new pitcher out every inning, there’s no one to earn/deserve the credit or build the tension with the viewers.

Anyway, I found myself spending as much time scrolling through Twitter and Instagram, or otherwise checking things on my iPad as I was paying attention to the game. Of course, I might have been doing that anyway even if the game was exciting, so warped has my brain become by constantly flooding it with feeds.

A few observations:

• People love to talk about what’s wrong with baseball. The games take too long, there are too many strikeouts, not enough action, etc. etc. etc. I felt like MLB fed into those arguments with how they timed the pregame activities. During Monday’s Home Run Derby, the constant refrain was to watch the ASG “at 7:30 tomorrow on Fox.” Which we all know means the game probably starts right after 8:00, because there are going to be all kinds of extended pregame activities that require airtime. And that’s fine. But then they save the excellent honoring of the Latino Hall of Famers and group first pitch until after 8:00, too. So first game pitch doesn’t come until after 8:20 Eastern, nearly an hour after the broadcast began. When people have 1000 channels of other things they can watch, you can’t stretch shit out like that, especially when it’s just for an exhibition game.
• Worse, Fox runs a freaking ad for their own college football coverage immediately before the first pitch. Kind of sums up the current state of American sports.
• Fox is always going to push the boundaries in their broadcasts, especially when it gives them a chance to force players and managers to talk to them during the game. I thought it was dumb to have Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci ask the lead off hitters about their approaches seconds before they stepped to the plate. Neither player seemed super excited about it. Those moments summed up the current state of sports media: two of the best baseball writers out there are reduced to asking weak questions of reluctant-to-participate athletes. Having A-Rod walk around the field and talk to players between innings was also dumb.
• And I was prepared to think mic-ing up George Springer and Bryce Harper during their defensive innings was dumb. But that turned out to be kind of cool. I thought both players handled it well, gave interesting responses and observations, and – thankfully – it didn’t interfere with action on the field. Until Harper asked Joe Buck a football question. COME ON! You just talked about how great the future of baseball was with all the young guys coming up, then you willingly pivot to the NFL.
• I watch a ton of baseball. But 95% of it is the Royals. Without This Week In Baseball, a Saturday game of the week, The Sporting News, or me getting a morning paper with good MLB coverage, I honestly don’t have a great idea of what’s going on around the leagues. So there were several moments of “Who is this guy?” for me. That’s totally my bad. If I put the effort into it, it could still be like 1983 where I had deep knowledge of every player in the game.
• Both a shame and unsurprising that there seemed to be more Yankees fans than Marlins fans in the house.
• Also a shame that Aaron Judge seems like such a good dude. I always found it easy to root against Derek Jeter, for a variety of reasons. And maybe I’ll hate Judge in due time, especially if he leads the Yankees back to dominance. But for now, I kind of like the guy. You can’t deny being impressed by his unreal first half. We’ll see if he can keep it going.
• Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison wins the best shoes award, going with one gold cleat and one white cleat. Harper’s Jose Fernandez tribute cleats were solid, too. Yadier Molina’s C3PO catching get up was a little much, though.
• L watched about the first 7 innings with me. I didn’t really explain the concept of the game to her beforehand, and she doesn’t know a thing about the differences in the leagues. So she was pretty confused for much of the night. “Which team do we want to win? Why is Salvy catching for that guy on the Red Sox? Why isn’t Moose playing now?”
• I very much wanted the American League to win, just because that’s the way it’s been since I first watched the All-Star Game back in 1979. But it made me sad that Wade Davis gave up the game-winning homer.
• My man Dave V. had a fine comment immediately after Robby Cano’s blast, “That’s some sort of crazy 2012 irony.” For those who don’t get the reference immediately, Cano was booed mercilessly in Kansas City in ’12 when he failed to pick Royal Billy Butler for the Home Run Derby. To the delight of the booing Royals fans, Cano failed to hit a ball out in his turn. Davis may not be a Royal anymore, but as it hurt Royals fans to watch him fail, perhaps Robby got a measure of revenge.
• A rather boring game with few memorable moments. And now we have the extended break with no teams returning to play until tomorrow. MLB really knows how to screw itself.

Next week I’ll share some thoughts about the Royals prospects in the last two weeks before the trade deadline and through the second half. Things have changed a wee bit since the last time I wrote about them. Hopefully they haven’t swung back the other way before I get a chance to write.

Before I share another tidbit from our holiday week, we had kind of a crazy morning today. M and I went out to buy school supplies[1] and then grabbed some lunch. In the five minutes it took us to get from Target to the restaurant we caught a break in the storm. But the western skies looked pitch black.

By the time we got inside and had ordered, rain was coming down in sheets again. We got our food, began to eat, and I noticed the winds outside had really picked up. Moments later the power went off in the whole shopping area we were in. Strangely the restaurant’s audio system was on their backup power, so while all the main lights were off and the kitchen was completely shut down, we could still listen to the piped-in music while we munched on our food under the glow of the emergency exit lights.

Then, suddenly, it was like we were in the middle of a hurricane. We couldn’t see the Starbucks that was 50 feet away. Patio furniture was flying all over the place. The manager came out and asked us all to retire to the restrooms. We stayed in there for just a couple minutes before the worst had passed and we were able to return to our tables. When we left 10 minutes later, the power was still off. There were trees down here and there on our way home. Fortunately I didn’t see any damage to our home or property. It appears that we were just in a wave of the storm that had 60+ MPH winds; there was no tornado.

Totally crazy way to spend our lunch time.

We packed so much into the past week that I forgot to share one other kind of big element: I had my first ever photo shoot. A week ago we went up to S’s aunt and uncle’s house for a pool party and the aunt asked if I could bring my camera and take some pictures of her family.

That’s all I knew going in, so I was a little surprised when we showed up and her whole family had coordinated their outfits. Three generations, including a new grandchild and a new fiancé, and I was on the hook for documenting this for Christmas cards, wall calendars, etc.

I have to admit I got a little nervous when I realized that there was some pressure to get this right. I’m pretty proud of some of the pictures I’ve taken over the past two years. But, to be honest, my best pictures are of things and not people. It’s easier to get a picture of a cool building, an interesting aspect of nature, etc. than even one person, let alone nine people. My photographic eye tends to be better when I can focus on a small area of the viewfinder rather than examining the entire space, making sure each person is aligned correctly, the light is flattering to them all, all the kids are looking at me rather than the sky, and so on.

The beauty of digital photography is you can just fire away and you’re bound to get a few right. I shot a couple hundred frames that afternoon. About half of those of the entire family, then smaller groups of two of the sub-families. After editing I ended up sending back about 20 which I think looked pretty good. I was lucky that there was good light (we were outside) and we could also find an area where people weren’t blinded. The kids, who are 2 and 6 months, were both about as good as you could hope for. There was an occasional breeze that moved some hair into faces. But those were minor quibbles.

So I think I can call it a qualified success. I’m not ready to start taking family pictures for money or anything. I’m constantly reading photography books but I’ve never read a single one about portraits. Even if all I ever do are pictures of S’s extended family, I think I need to brush up on my portrait technique a little more before I try it again.

Time to get back at it. After the long holiday week, bookended by trips down to the lake house, we’re finally home for what should be a very quiet week at home.

Last week we had my brother-in-law, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter from Boston staying with us. It was good to catch up and hang out with them. The two-year-old, we’ll call her Little L, has reached the hilarious stage of kid-dom. She does funny things and then continues to do them when they get a reaction. Our favorite thing she did was calling me “Uncle Ken” and S “Aunt Cindy” all week. I’d go walking through the room and hear a little voice say, “Bye Uncle Ken!” Apparently she does have a great uncle Ken, but he and I have zero in common in appearance. And Cindy is the Asian lady who runs her daycare. So we’re not really sure how we got labelled with those names. It made us laugh all week, though.

She has a fun way with words because of her background and how she spends her days. Her mom is from Kuwait, so Little L has learned Arabic from day one. The daycare she goes to in Boston is run by Chinese women, so she learns Mandarin from them. She does the normal, two-year-old babbling where you can only pick out a word or two clearly from every 7–8. With her you wonder are those words you miss really either Arabic or Mandarin words and she just said something that makes perfect grammatical sense if you allow for three languages. She’s going to be one smart cookie!

This weekend we had three families from St. P’s down to the lake house, 18 people total. It was a busy and fun weekend.

C got to check out a little early as she headed down to CYO camp yesterday afternoon. This is her first time going and she was super excited. We’re a little nervous about her going away simply because every time she has a sleep over she gets herself worked up and ends up with a stomach ache or headache or sleeps weird and can’t move her neck without pain for three days or some other weird ailment.[1] She’s in a cabin with at least five of her classmates from St. P’s, so hopefully they’re getting so wiped out during the day that she can pass out at night.

L is camping it this week, too, although she’s just going to a half-day basketball camp five minutes from our house. She’s in a group with four classmates and apparently they are the only girls in a camp of about 100 kids. She claims they still “dominated” at today’s session, but she always says that. She was pretty excited to get her school shoes early so she would have new kicks for camp. She picked out some Kyrie Irving 3s with matching socks this year. But she also got a new Steph Curry ball so she’s properly representing her favorite player.

So M and I are home alone for three hours a day all week. She went shopping with S this morning, as S had no meetings today. But the next four days I imagine will involve her sitting in her room reading and listening to music on her iPhone while I sit in another room and read and listen to music on my iPad. Apples falling close to trees and whatnot.

As much as we love going to the lake and sharing it with friends and family, we’re kind of glad to be taking next weekend off. It’ll be nice to have a quick break and do some summer things closer to home.

“Summertime” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Still busy with family and prepping for another lake weekend, so just a vid this week. I heard this all-time classic this morning, which seemed like a sign. Enjoy your weekends!

How’s this for symmetry: when the calendar passed from Saturday to Sunday, we were officially on the backside of 2017. And when we passed from Sunday to Monday, we were officially on the downhill slope of our summer break. Weird!

We’ve been busy with several family events: gatherings, trips to the lake, visitors from Boston.

But I did want to check in quickly to share some words in which I try to figure out what the hell my man Kevin Pritchard is thinking.

In case you missed it, in a shocking deal last week, the Pacers traded Paul George to Oklahoma City for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Now Pritchard and the Pacers were kind of up against it, as George had said a couple weeks back that his goal was to sign with the Lakers next summer when he becomes a free agent. And, just before the trade, he further added that even if the Pacers sent him to another team this summer, he would still be most likely to head to LA after he plays out his contract. So the Pacers weren’t holding many good cards.[1]

Even when you consider that, this was a terrible trade.

First off, Pritchard didn’t get a single draft pick back in the deal. The way you rebuild in the NBA is collecting as many draft picks as you can. You can hoard them and draft a ton of players over a couple drafts, you can use them as chips in trades for other players, to jump from weak draft years to deep ones, or as several teams did in this year’s draft, you can take a couple low picks and turn them into a much higher single pick. But the Pacers, faced with a total rebuild, improved their ability to draft players zero percent when they moved one of the 10 best players in the league.[2]

You can only trust rumors so much, but there is a persistent rumor that Atlanta was offering four draft picks for George. None of them were potential lottery picks. But they were still four assets that can be used on or before draft night to augment what should be high picks for the Pacers anyway.

Shaking my damn head.

And then there is the return. Oladipo is a nice player. He was overrated when drafted #2 four years ago. He’s a good guy. He went to IU. But he’s making TWENTY ONE MILLION FREAKING DOLLARS PER YEAR. FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. He made $3 million more than Paul George did this year. And will make $2 million more than George will next season. And he’s not even 3/4 the player George is. Adding a guy who is guaranteed $84 million over the next four years and is a sixth-man talent is just dumb.

There’s been talk they went after Oladipo because of his off-the-court character and IU connection to be the new face of the organization. Again, they way overpaid if that is what they were looking for. Besides, Myles Turner is/should be the face of the organization. He’s the guy who is poised to be the Pacers’ next elite player, someone who lands on All-NBA teams, goes to All-Star games, and has his name amongst the game’s statistical leaders. Oladipo checks none of those boxes.

Banging my damn head.

Domantas Sabonis is an innocent bystander in all of this. Regardless of who they traded with, the Pacers were likely to get someone similar to Sabonis in the deal. He’s a young big guy with potential to be a role player. He also did little to impress during his rookie year. He doesn’t move the needle.

But the assessment of the personnel of the trade is all about Oladipo. Pritchard needed to do better there.

It’s hard to say anything about the trade is worse than the return in talent, but the timing of it is actually far worse. It feels like Pritchard panicked. There was no need to make the trade at the exact start of the NBA free agency period. You wait and see where all the big free agents go, what other trades are made, and let the market develop. Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, and of course the Lakers were all at least testing the waters on PG. Now that Gordon Hayward has signed with the Celtics, maybe Utah jumps in. You hold on as long as possible for the simple fact perhaps LA freaks out that PG signs with the Celtics or Cavs, plays there for a year, and then thinks, “Wow, this is great! I’m signing here for two years and I’ll worry about LA later.” That was the only leverage Pritchard had: getting LA to think the smart move was to offer players and/or picks now rather than just sitting back for 12 months and signing George then.

I will say this: none of us know for sure exactly what offers Pritchard entertained. Perhaps after PG’s public assessment of love for LA, no one was offering anything decent. Maybe Atlanta’s offer really was for four second round picks. Or LA was offering three guys from the end of their bench. Or Boston wasn’t really offering their #1 pick back in May, or a choice of two of their current starters. I will give him like 8% slack because of the overall difficulty of the situation and not knowing what his conversations with others were.

Still, terrible deal for the Pacers. Even if Oladipo and Sabonis were all he could get back in terms of current NBA talent, he has to get at least one draft pick back. And he needs to not bring over a player making $84 million. And he has to wait until the last possible moment, not jump at the first opportunity.

The Thunder are taking a huge gamble that PG and Russell Westbrook can coexist. I don’t think they entertain huge hopes that they can re-sign PG, but this may be more an incentive to get Russ to re-sign. Oh, and they shed a terrible contract in the process. In every single way, they killed it in this trade.

Oh well. I watch like five Pacers games a year anyway. My winters are spent watching KU and Big East and really any college ball before I watch the NBA. But I’d really be pissed if I spent my winter watching them and hoping they could climb back into the league’s elite. And it really sucks that it was a former Jayhawk who pulled the trigger on the deal.

June 2017

• The War on Drugs – 53
• Big Thief – 40
• Thunder Dreamer – 40
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – 36
• Frightened Rabbit – 34

Complete stats available at my Last.fm page