Weekend Notes
Catching up on the weekend and some girls notes as we wrap up a sleep-over. We swapped daughters with our neighbors last night. C. went next door to sleep with her 7-year-old buddy while M.’s 9-year-old pal came to our home for the night. Our evening was uneventful. We ate dinner, then the girls watched the newest American Girl Doll…
Books
Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I was never a comic book guy. I did have some Star Wars comics1 and dabbled in GI Joe comics in the early 80s, but that was about it. I think because I was never into comics, I was also never into super heroes. So while it has become fashionable in some circles…
Sports Notes
The promised thoughts on a few of the biggest sports news of the holiday week. Brad Stevens to the Boston Celtics. I was walking into a local brewery to fill growlers for the weekend last Wednesday when I got a text asking what I thought about the move. My first response was “Holy shit!” There were no rumbles here in…
Holiday Weekend
Our long holiday week went pretty well. We had visitors from Denver, including the girls’ two cousins that they loved seeing. The cousins are three years and 15 months, and our girls think they’re the best things ever. M., C., and L. could not have been happier than they were playing with them, helping the little one up and down…
Weekend Notes
Some weekend notes. They did it! The Royals finally made the right moves and designated Jeff Francouer for assignment and called up second baseman Johnny Giavotella. Gio responded by going 3-4 Sunday and making a couple very good plays in the field. Eric Hosmer is warming up, David Lough has been fantastic. If they can just get Moustakas going they…
2013 NBA Draft
My first blog post, on the first version of this site, ten years ago was a Bill Simmons-like breakdown of the 2003 NBA Draft. Now, as I watch the 2013 draft, Bill Simmons is manning the ESPN table with Reece Davis, Jalen Rose, and Jay Bilas. Does that qualify as coming full circle? I won’t mince words: this is a…
Books
The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First – Jonah Keri. It is too tempting, and too easy, to call this Moneyball 2.0&. Where Michael Lewis examined how the Oakland Athletics built a winner on a meager budget through the use of (then) obscure, advanced statistical analysis, Keri details how the…
Finals Follow Up
I’m sure this will suffer a bit for having waited through the weekend to put them together, but some thoughts about LeBron and the Miami Heat winning the NBA title thursday night. It was a lot to ask but still slightly disappointing that Game Seven didn’t live up to the standard set by Game Six. It wasn’t a blowout, but…
Writing For Fun And Profit
All kinds of stuff going on today, not the least of which is another important mid-June anniversary that must be celebrated.1 I’ve been sitting on this magnificent ode to PNC Ballpark in Pittsburgh by Charles Pierce for a couple weeks. It seems like the perfect day to share it. If you offered me a first-class ticket to a decent paying…
Thank You Basketball Gods
I’m dragging a little but this morning thanks to that epic Game Six of the NBA Finals last night. In case you missed it, San Antonio controlled the first 36 minutes of the game wonderfully. They stretched out leads, responded to Miami runs, and seemed to be utterly in control of the game as it went to the final quarter.…