A Terrible Global Warming Article

Friends, today I was accosted at my wage-slavery containment facility by a close colleague who sent me a link to a story in Philadelphia magazine entitled: Al Gore is a Greenhouse Gasbag. The article was basically a hit piece on the former Vice President. It was also badly written, and it seems that hardly any legitimate research went into it at all. After I read it, I let my colleague know exactly what I thought. He got insulted. His reaction seemed a bit too defensive, but then I remembered that he is a Republican, and he thinks that global warming is a hoax. Apparently he is unaware of the ongoing UN Global Warming Summit. I gave him a less than subtle education about that, but to no avail.

Anyway, let's review the article:

It’s the last day of November, which means winter begins in three weeks. Yet the temperature on the Penn campus is nearing 70 degrees, and it’s muggy. Walking to the offices of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science from a remote parking lot makes me sweaty. Global Warming.

Driving here this morning, I heard a report on WHYY from National Public Radio that the International Ski Federation was canceling races because there’s no snow in the Alps. Got to be Global Warming!

Yesterday, down the road in Washington, where the temperature was 16 degrees above normal, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case in which 13 state governments are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to force the government to begin controlling carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the decades-old Clean Air Act. If that doesn’t happen, the states claim, the rising sea levels caused by greenhouse gases will rob them of coastline. GLOBAL WARMING!!

Let's see. That would be the same Clean Air Act that Preznit Know-Nothing chose to ignore once he stole the keys to the Oval Office.

And this is just one ordinary day in the new normal. Even if daily weather has nothing to do with global warming, and even if the scientific debate about it is not quite done, its cultural moment has certainly begun. Insurance companies have stopped writing policies for coastline residents. A government report out of England warns that global warming may be so economically deleterious that it will make the upheaval of the Great Depression and World War II seem benign.

Michael Crichton has already dramatized the issue in a best-selling novel. Leonardo DiCaprio is working on a documentary on the subject. A recent Time magazine cover featured a polar bear in danger of drowning and the warning: “Be Worried. Be Very Worried.”

I’ve come to Penn to see the skeptic. In Room 100 of the classic Christopher Wren-inspired Towne Building, Robert Giegengack seems much less than worried. The 67-year-old professor is preparing to give one of the semester’s final lectures to his 150-student class in environmental analysis, a popular science elective among Penn’s arts and sciences undergrads.

For decades, Giegengack was content to be a relatively obscure geologist who taught more than he published. Recently, though, he’s stepped into the swirling tempest surrounding global warming, in part because he says it’s not even one of the top 10 environmental problems we face. To make that point, he occasionally joins in a panel discussion, or gives a quote to a science writer. He’s thinking about writing something for one of the smarty-pants magazines. “I’ve always been interested in this question,” he says, “but when I first started working, no one cared — you couldn’t get an article published if you wanted to.” Now, though, “The public appetite for all this crap seems to be insatiable.”

Okay, here we go. The author reveals his contempt for scientific inquiry with that "He’s thinking about writing something for one of the smarty-pants magazines" quip. Gee, the tone seems a lot like the one adopted by President 31% Approval Rating.

Giegengack is a slim man of medium height, with a prominent nose and a very high forehead. “I traded my hair for eyeglasses,” he’s been known to say. In this weird late-fall weather, he’s dressed as if he might run off for a round of golf or a sail — khaki pants, striped dress shirt (short-sleeved) and boat shoes. His name is pronounced “GEEG-in-gack,” and over the nearly four decades he has taught at Penn, students have developed the habit of simply calling him “Gieg.”

Gieg is situated at a lectern in the pit of an amphitheater classroom. As the seats fill, he fiddles with his Mac laptop, where he has stored a PowerPoint presentation that covers today’s lecture. Before that, though, he runs a short clip from a Simpsons episode in which Bart and Lisa argue over whether water drains in different directions in the Southern and Northern hemispheres. Though Gieg has long been known as an entertaining lecturer, he’s not The Simpsons. The students laugh out loud at the clip, as does their professor. When the lights come back on, the professor assures them: “Bart will probably not be on the final.”

The class is a typical-seeming group, heavy on girls, some of whom wear ripped jeans and do-rags, others of whom are carefully made up and snappily dressed, pulling their notebooks from designer bags. Midway through the class, Gieg says, “Now it’s time for us to talk about the number one political/environmental issue of our time.” He reads a snippet from a New York Times editorial about the Supreme Court global-warming case.

“What I’m going to try to do the rest of today and also probably on Tuesday is bring you up to date on this. I’ll try to avoid editorializing or politicking. I’ll just tell you some stuff. Give you information. There’s lot’s of stuff, and it’s very complicated.”

Gieg gazes upward toward his young charges. “Every single one of you knows more about this than Al Gore,” he tells the undergrads. “And vastly more than anyone in this present administration.”

YOU REMEMBER AL GORE. Congressman, then senator from a political dynasty in Tennessee. Vice president for the eight years of the Clinton administration. President-elect of the United States for about 10 minutes, before being waylaid by the dangling chad. Since his bitter, disputed loss to George W. Bush, Gore has gone through some changes. He tried sporting a beard, reinvented himself as a media entrepreneur, hosted Saturday Night Live, gained a lot of weight. Then, last May, he burst back into the public eye as the star of a surprisingly successful documentary on global warming called An Inconvenient Truth. In a way that sometimes happens in America, Al Gore has come to personify an issue that until recently, most of us didn’t know we needed to know or care about. Oprah calls him “our Noah.” But if she’s going to get all ancient on us, Cassandra might be the better comparison.

So apparently because Al Gore: A) Gained weight B) Grew a beard, and C) Hosted Saturday Night Live automatically disqualifies him to speak about environmental issues. It seems that we still have to refer to Al Gore as if he was still running for President in 2000. Don't question the substance of his remarks, just slam his physical appearance.

Gore’s film has become the third highest grossing documentary ever, way behind Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 but closing in on number two, the equally surprising March of the Penguins. An Inconvenient Truth is basically the video of a PowerPoint presentation that Gore had been giving for years, jazzed up with animation and film clips, but weighted by some treacly autobiographical segments that seem to have been left over from an Al Gore for President campaign film.

The new Al Gore, visibly more relaxed and likable than during his last campaign, basically says this: Our world is habitable because some of the heat from the sun is held here by gases in the atmosphere that are descriptively labeled “greenhouse gases.” Carbon dioxide is one of the main components. Unfortunately, measurements over the past 30 years show a steep climb in carbon dioxide concentrations and happen to track closely a concurrent rise in the average temperature of the Earth. All that extra carbon dioxide, a.k.a. CO2, isn’t produced “naturally”; it’s mostly a result of mankind burning fossil fuels.

If the profligate use of fossil fuels continues and the carbon dioxide levels keep rising, the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans will rise to calamitous heights, melting glaciers, disturbing water systems, and causing droughts, crop failures, and much stronger hurricanes and cyclones. Gore forecasts the worst-case scenario as “a nature walk through the Book of Revelation.”

But the real worst case that the once (and future?) politician presents is the breakup and melting of the two massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica, an event that would raise global sea levels so much that many coastal areas would be under water. Using an animated seeping blue stain that’s reminiscent of how filmmakers once illustrated the progress of the Nazi regime, Gore shows large parts of San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and New York becoming submerged. The result, he says, will be tens of millions of “climate refugees.” It will make the upheaval caused by the flooding of New Orleans and its displaced persons seem like a walk in the park.

"Using an animated seeping blue stain that’s reminiscent of how filmmakers once illustrated the progress of the Nazi regime..." Are you shitting me? What s THAT noise? Even if that was true, why not just ignore it and move on to analyze Gore's point, namely that the sea levels will rise if the polar ice sheets melt?

There’s no way to watch An Inconvenient Truth without getting worried — at least a little worried.

There seems to be no way to read this article without getting worried — at least a little worried.

Not Bob Giegengack. He has described Al Gore’s documentary as “a political statement timed to present him as a presidential candidate in 2008.” And he added, “The glossy production is replete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and appeals to public fear as shamelessly as any other political statement that hopes to unite the public behind a particular ideology.” This from a guy who voted for Gore in 2000 and says he’d probably vote for him again.

Well why not list and discuss these inaccuracies and misrepresentations?

Geologists by nature and training take a long-term view. The professor clicks a slide onto the classroom screen. It reads: “In 1958, Robert Giegengack first heard about Global Warming!” There are a few chuckles in the classroom. Giegengack waits a beat for comic effect. “I said, ‘Big deal,’” he tells the class. “I lived in New England.”

He’d been born in Brooklyn, but spent much of his life in New Haven. After a false start studying civil engineering at Yale, Giegengack discovered geology and got hooked. He got a master’s degree in Colorado, then returned to Yale for a doctorate and focused his research on rocks and climate change. He arrived as a young assistant professor at Penn just about the time the first Earth Day in 1970 was reflecting — and driving — an interest in the environment. Giegengack got the assignment to set up the university’s environmental studies program, which he would run for more than three decades.

A few years ago, Giegengack told the Pennsylvania Gazette, the school’s alumni magazine, that the environmental analysis course he’s teaching today often attracts students who want to be environmental activists and carry picket signs outside the offices of the bad guys in the military-industrial complex. “But I want them to understand that these questions are enormously complex,” he went on.

Yes, they are. I ask Gieg for a private tutorial based on the lectures he gives his students to make them consider the scientific complications of climate change. We sit one afternoon at a conference table near his office, his laptop open and the PowerPoint ready to go. Charts appear, one after another.

Giegengack may have a personal 50-year perspective on global warming, but the time range he prefers to consult is more on the geologists’ scale. The Earth has been warming, he says, for about 20,000 years. We’ve only been collecting data on that trend for about 200 years. “For most of Earth history,” he says, “the globe has been warmer than it has been for the last 200 years. It has only rarely been cooler.” Those cooler periods have meant things like two miles of ice piled over much of what is now North America. Nothing to be nostalgic for.

That's funny. Most of the information I have indicates that the last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago, so Mr. Giegangack seems to be wrong on this point.

The professor hits a button on his computer, and the really long-term view appears — the past 650,000 years. In that time, the Earth’s temperature has gone through regular cycles of rise and fall. The best explanation of those cycles was conceived by a Serbian amateur scientist named Milutin Milankovi´c. Very basically, Milankovi´c said this: The Earth’s orbit around the sun is more or less circular, but when other planets align in certain ways and their gravitational forces tug at the Earth, the orbit stretches into a more elliptical shape. Combined with the tilt of the Earth on its axis as it spins, that greater or lesser distance from the sun, plus the consequent difference in solar radiation that reaches our planet, is responsible for long-term climate change.

Is this man serious? Let's use Jupiter, the Solar System's largest planet as an example. Jupiter is 318 times more massive than Earth. It's gravitational pull is 2.4 times as strong. The closest it gets to us is about 390 million miles. By contrast, the Sun is more than 1.3 million times as massive as Earth with a gravitational pull 28 times stronger than Earth's, and lies a mere 93 million miles away. This man claims that Jupiter and the other gas giants (as well as the smaller, rocky worlds) have more influence over our planet's orbit than the single largest object in the Solar System. Where is Carl Sagan now that we finally need him?

NOW TO THE CRUX OF THE Al Gore argument — the idea that rising carbon dioxide levels are causing an increase in temperature. To determine temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the distant past, scientists rely on what they call the “proxy record.” There weren’t thermometers. So researchers drill deep down into the Antarctic ice sheet and the ocean floor and pull up core samples, whose varying chemical elements let them gauge both the CO2 levels and the temperatures of the distant past.

Gieg clicks a button, and three charts come together. The peaks and valleys of the Milankovi´c cycles for planetary temperature align well with the ocean-floor estimates, and those match closely the records of carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature indications from ice cores. So, the professor maintains, these core samples from the polar ice and ocean floor help show that the Earth’s temperature and the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been in lockstep for tens of thousands of years.

Of course, that was long before anybody was burning fossil fuels. So Giegengack tells his students they might want to consider that “natural” climatic temperature cycles control carbon dioxide levels, not the other way around. That’s the crux of his argument with Gore’s view of global warming — he says carbon dioxide doesn’t control global temperature, and certainly not in a direct, linear way.

Oops, our author has slipped up by admitting that there is a distinction between the time before we started burning fossil fuels and after.

Gieg has lots more slides to show. He points out that within his lifetime, there was a three-decade period of unusually low temperatures that culminated in the popular consciousness with the awful winter of 1976-77. Back then, scientists started sounding the alarm about a new ice age.

Of course, it’s long been thought that the world would end either in fire or in ice. These days, the scientists are shouting fire. And in all his years around environmental issues, Giegengack has never heard so much shouting. “I don’t think we’re going to have a rational discussion of this question in the present environment,” he says. “The scientists are mad because they think nobody in Washington is listening to them. So it’s all either apocalyptic disaster or conflict of interest. If you suggest that we’re not going to hell in a handbasket because the rate of global warming is low compared to so many other environmental issues that we’re enduring, then you’re accused of being in the employ of the oil companies and you’re labeled a Republican.”

Well, duh. When you consider that Preznit Numbnuts scuttled the Kyoto Protocol and handed the keys to US energy policy to the oil lobby, then yes, it's not exactly a stretch to accuse someone who thinks global warming is either a fantasy, or not worth the time of day to consider seriously, as being in the employ of the oil companies, or being labeled a Republican.

Giegengack says things started to get this way around 1988. There was a horrifically hot summer season that year, and drought led to seemingly apocalyptic fires in Yellowstone National Park. Something in those fires was galvanizing. Al Gore, who made his first run for president in 1988, published his first environmental jeremiad, Earth in the Balance, a few years later. Around the same time, the newly formed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was making noise, and governments met first in Rio de Janeiro and then in Japan to forge agreements on “targets” for carbon emission cutbacks. The resulting Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by most of the countries on Earth — none of which are doing very well at actually meeting the target cutbacks — but very notably not by the United States.

“WOW," SAYS GIEG AS Al Gore struts onto the stage of The Oprah Winfrey Show. “He looks like he’s had Botox or something.”

Wow, there's some spot-on scientific analysis...

It’s afternoon in America, and Oprah is offering her millions of viewers a class with Dr. Gore that the producers are calling Global Warming 101. I’ve asked Gieg to watch it with me. The show turns out to be pretty much a synopsis of An Inconvenient Truth, with Gore clicking through his hyper-produced PowerPoint program and Oprah exclaiming “Wow! Wow!” with dramatic concern. To dramatize the melting of the floating ice cap at the North Pole, Gore has inserted an animated clip of a polar bear swimming desperately to a tiny ice floe that isn’t strong enough to hold him. Global warming is drowning helpless bears. Oprah thinks it’s the coolest and saddest thing in Gore’s whole movie.

Gieg starts shouting: “We don’t know that. We don’t know that! We don’t know that polar bears haven’t drowned in every interglacial period. Nobody was watching them back then.”

So just because polar bears may have drowned when we weren't paying attention apparently makes it okay to let them drown now when we know that we are impacting the environment in a negative manner.

It’s got to be a frustrating experience, seeing a topic you’ve spent some 50 years studying turned into an Oprah episode. “I like her,” Gieg says. “She’d beat Al Gore if she ran for president.”

Again, tight, scientific analysis!

Then Gore clicks again to dramatic footage of a collapsing polar ice shelf. “That’s irresponsible,” Gieg says. “What he’s doing is no less than the scare tactics used by people like Karl Rove.”

Apparently showing footage of actual polar ice shelves collapsing is now a scare tactic. Well, maybe it is. I'd sure as shit be scared if I lived near a place where this was happening.

Oprah says she had no idea all these terrible things were happening until she interviewed the noted authority Leonardo DiCaprio. Gore is now into his segment on the melting of glaciers and the possibility of catastrophe if Greenland goes, or parts of Antarctica. The deadly blue water seeping over the world’s great lowland cities comes onto the screen.

“Sea level is rising,” Giegengack agrees, switching off the sound. But, he explains, it’s been rising ever since warming set in 18,000 years ago. The rate of rise has been pretty slow — only about 400 feet so far. And recently — meaning in the thousands of years — the rate has slowed even more. The Earth’s global ocean level is only going up 1.8 millimeters per year. That’s less than the thickness of one nickel. For the catastrophe of flooded cities and millions of refugees that Gore envisions, sea levels would have to rise about 20 feet.

So the apparent December flooding of the island of Sumatra was faked in the same Hollywood studio that created the Apollo Moon landings...

“At the present rate of sea-level rise,” Gieg says, “it’s going to take 3,500 years to get up there. So if for some reason this warming process that melts ice is cutting loose and accelerating, sea level doesn’t know it. And sea level, we think, is the best indicator of global warming.”

By now, Al Gore is taking Oprah on an anti-global-warming shopping trip, buying compact fluorescent light bulbs and programmable thermostats.

We should all buy those things, the professor says, but he’s had just about enough of Dr. Gore. “See,” Gieg says, “the thing he doesn’t mention is that there are 2.4 billion people in India and China who have launched a campaign that will increase their energy consumption by a factor of 10. No matter what we do. If we somehow cut our CO2 emissions in half, you wouldn’t be able to measure the difference because of the role played by India and China.
“It’s over. If CO2 is the problem, we’ve already lost.”

When Gieg gets to this point in his argument, as he often does when talking about global warming, he gets a little frustrated. “I always get sidetracked because, first of all, the science isn’t good. Second, there are all these other interpretations for what we see. Third, it doesn’t make any difference, and fourth, it’s distracting us from environmental problems that really matter.” Among those, Gieg says, are the millions of people a year who die from smoking and two million people a year who die because they don’t have access to clean water.

So why not tell us what exactly about the science is not good? And why not also tell us about the other interpretations for this phenomenon? And I see he only named two things out of the original 10 biggest environmental problems we face today. Smoking and bad water. Bad water? Hell yeah, I'll give it up for that, but smoking? My most recent ex-girlfriend is a meteorologist who works for an environmental impact study organization. When we last comminucated, she told me she was working on a project that had to do with the Salton Sea in Southern California. I should send her this article to see what she thinks. Oh, but wait. She's a smoker. Probably not a good idea after all...

Bob Giegengack likes to point out that there was a time when people like him were called natural philosophers, and he wouldn’t mind a return to the days when scientists spent more time asking questions and less time testifying before committees.

But that won’t happen soon. Now that Democrats run Congress again, they’re likely to ramp up the hearings to chide the Republicans for what they see as nearly a decade of stonewalling and misinformation on global warming. After all, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, ignited a wildfire in the groves of environmentalism when he called the idea of catastrophic global warming a “hoax.”

Inhofe is a religiously insane nutjob who has made a career out of stonewalling and dispensing disinformation.

Movie stars will continue to move in on the action. And look for Al Gore to keep rolling along as the Energizer Bunny of global warming, beating his drum incessantly, powered by a carbon-neutral battery.

In the long view, a geologist like Giegengack can take some comfort in, well, the long view. “There’s all this stuff about saving the planet,” he says. “The Earth is fine. The Earth was fine before we got here, and it’ll be fine long after we’re gone.”

That will probably be on the final.

John Marchese is a contributing writer. His book The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop will be published in the spring.

John Marchese should be ashamed of how poorly researched this article is. I've never heard of Mr. Giegengack, but, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think simply portraying him as an advocate of a Velikovskyan scanario in which Earth is tugged to and fro in its orbit to cause temperature fluctuations does the man a disservice. After all, he has been a geologist for over thirty years, and probably has something of value to contribute. As such, I'd have been more interested to have read about specifics. Instead, all I saw were lame attempts by the author and the professor to ridicule Gore without actually pointing out what was wrong with Gore's work. Perhaps Mr. Marchese should have left this assignment to one of those "smarty-pants magazines" he was so quick to dismiss.

Anyway, for those interested, here's the Full Story Link.

Brother, Can You Spare An Extra $2.10?

Hot on the heels of yesterday's post about CEO fatcats and their obscene compensation packages, we have the Senate voting today to increase the minimum wage by a whopping $2.10 an hour over the next two years. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to boost the federal minimum wage by $2.10 to $7.25 an hour over two years, but packaged the increase with controversial tax cuts for small businesses and higher taxes for many $1 million-plus executives.

The increase in the minimum, the first in a decade, was approved by a 94-3 vote, capping a nine-day debate over how to balance the wage hike with the needs of businesses that employ low-wage workers.

A top priority of Democrats, the wage hike has both real and symbolic consequences. It would be one of the first major legislative successes of the new Democratic-controlled Congress.

"Passing this wage hike represents a small but necessary step to help lift America's working poor out of the ditches of poverty and onto the road toward economic prosperity," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

President Bush urged the House to support the measure, including the tax help for small business. He said, "The Senate has taken a step toward helping maintain a strong and dynamic labor market and promoting continued economic growth."

The bill must now be reconciled with the House version passed Jan. 10 that contained no tax provisions. House Democrats have insisted they want a minimum wage bill with no strings attached, though some have conceded the difficulty of passing the legislation in the Senate without tax breaks.

Republicans stressed the importance of the business tax breaks in the bill, though it was a significantly smaller tax package than Republicans had sought during previous attempts to raise the minimum wage.

"The Senate's reasonable approach recognizes that small businesses have been the steady engine of our growing economy and that they have been a source of new job creation, a source of job training," said Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., who helped manage the debate for the GOP.

The bill presents a challenge to Democrats who must navigate between the demands of labor and other interest groups and the realities of the Senate, where Republicans hold 49 of 100 votes. House and Senate Democrats will try to negotiate a way out of the potential standoff.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said she supports some of the tax provisions in the House package, but she also has said she would prefer they be put in a separate, House-initiated tax bill.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the tax breaks are necessary to overcome a potential GOP filibuster.

Harry, are you serious? You are now in the MAJORITY! START ACTING LIKE IT! MAKE THESE TROLLS BEND TO YOUR WILL AND THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!!!

"Of course, Democrats would prefer to pass a clean increase in the minimum wage," said the spokesman, Jim Manley. "The fact is that Republicans have made it very clear that the only way we will pass a modest increase in the minimum wage is with tax breaks for small business."

Besides increasing the minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour, the bill would extend for five years a tax credit for businesses that hire the disadvantaged and provide expensing and depreciation advantages to small firms. The tax breaks would be paid for by closing loopholes on offshore tax shelters, by capping deferred compensation payments to corporate executives and by removing the deductibility of punitive damage payments and fines.

Senators also adopted an amendment that would bar companies that hire illegal immigrants form obtaining federal contracts. That measure was designed to encourage companies to participate in an employee identification program that can weed out undocumented workers.

While the tax breaks have won the support of small business groups as well as retailers and restaurant owners, they have drawn opposition from larger businesses that would bear the brunt of the revenue provisions. Several business groups also opposed the immigration measure.

After the House passed its bill on Jan. 10, the White House issued a statement insisting that final legislation include small business tax breaks. It subsequently issued a statement supporting the Senate version, but said the revenue measures were not necessary.

According to the Labor Department, 479,000 workers earned exactly $5.15 an hour in 2005, the most recent estimate available. Most are young and unmarried and more likely to be women, minorities and part-time workers. According to the liberal Economic Policy Institute, the increase would affect 5.6 million who make less than the proposed minimum of $7.25.

More than two dozen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal level. The political potency of the issue was evident last November, when proposals to raise statewide minimums passed in all six states where they came to a vote.

Not much else to add here, except that we can expect the Fox News ghouls to spew venom about how this measure will wreck the economy and put small businesses at risk of going bankrupt. False panic aside, we should acknowledge that a HUGE economic gap still exists in a country of plenty in which we pretend to congratulate ourselves on boosting those living in poverty to a slightly higher level of same.

Full Story

Brother, Can You Spare $1,000,000?

Rather then delve into the silliness of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "hoax" that has seemingly turned Boston into Nazi-era Paris, I'll share President 31 percent's warnings to the American people about CEOs and corporate board members to crush the spirits of us little people a bit more slowly. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

NEW YORK - President Bush challenged corporate America on Wednesday on the lavish salaries and bonuses paid to chief executives, saying their pay should be tied to how much they help their companies' shareholders.

"America's corporate boardrooms must step up to their responsibilities," Bush said in a speech on Wall Street addressing the state of the U.S. economy. A few executives' extravagant pay packages, recently in the news, have disgusted millions of U.S. workers who will never come near such deals.

"You need to pay attention to the executive compensation packages that you approve," he said. "You need to show the world that American businesses are a model of transparency and good corporate governance."

Bush's comments came during a White House push to get people focused (distract us into thinking we are in great fiscal shape) on the economy at a time when other issues command attention — including the Iraq war and all the candidates running for his job. He spoke at Federal Hall, a venerable site just blocks from where terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. Bush caused a frenzy with an unannounced stop on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, joining Ronald Reagan as the only presidents to do so during trading hours.

Too bad the dumb brute didn't wait until October. That way he'd have given this talk on the 20th anniversary of Saint Reagan's stock market crash.

Attention to corporate pay has been fueled by some notable cases. Recently, Home Depot chief executive Bob Nardelli was earning an average of $25.7 million a year — excluding stock options — before he was forced out in a furor over his compensation. He left with a severance package worth about $210 million.

The New York Stock Exchange faced an uproar over former CEO Richard Grasso's $187.5 million severance package. Former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, now governor, sued NYSE board members over the package Grasso got when he quit as chairman in 2003.

Beyond targeting golden pay packages, Bush reiterated the themes of his economic message these days — trade, health care, energy and education. All require help from a Democratic Congress, which is fashioning its own plans for a mainstream domestic agenda.

"Criticizing CEO pay won't do anything to raise the wages of average Americans," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the new chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. "Middle-class families would be best served if the president joined us in crafting bold policy solutions that address the real insecurity they feel in our changing economy."

Jesus, Chuck, are you, like, stupid or something? You couldn't just do the simple thing and be quiet so Preznit Brian Dead could hang himself with his ignorance. No, you had to make him the second dumbest guy in the room with that thoughtless, callous remark. Are you trying to out-Lieberman Lieberman?

Sure, criticizing CEO pay in and of itself isn't going to do a thing, but here's why criticizing CEO pay is important. My company's CEO has seen his compensation rise from a little over a million Greenspans a year since 2001 to over 58 million in 2006. In the meantime, I, who have been at my company longer than he has (I've been there since 1995) have gone from an average raise of 6-10 percent a year from 1995-2000, to this: 2001, no raise. 2002, no raise. 2003, no raise, but a shitload of useless stock options. By the way, since this officer took over, our stock has plummeted to 1/8 what it commanded before he started driving the bus. 2004, 3 percent, 2005, 3 percent, 2006, 3 percent. Now, I'm pretty good with figures, and I can tell you with complete and utter confidence that my CEO wasn't going no three goddamn years with no fucking raises.

Oh yes, and if that wasn't amusing enough, our most recent set of layoffs threw 1,300 people into the ranks of the unemployed between Thanksgiving and lunch time today. These holiday surprises have been an annual event, courtesy of the ascent of this man to CEO in 2000. I, and most of my colleagues, feel as if we are living in a real-life version of the classic cult film Office Space.

Trying to work with this idiot of a President is not going to work. This is the same ass-clown who wants to kill hikes in the minimum wage. So, in closing, Chuck, please, wake the fuck up, remember that you are a Democrat, and get your ass back to working for us drones.

Full Story

Ancient Village Uncovered Near Stonehenge

Today, the National Geographic Society announced that an ancient village was uncovered near Stonehenge, and it appears to have been a contemporary site to the mysterious monument. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

WASHINGTON - A village of small houses that may have sheltered the builders of the mysterious Stonehenge — or people attending festivals there — has been found by archaeologists studying the stone circle in England. Eight of the houses, with central hearths, have been excavated, and there may be as many as 25 of them, Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society.

The ancient houses are at a site known as Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge. It is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle.

The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

Julian Thomas of Manchester University noted that both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls have avenues connecting them to the Avon River, indicating a pattern of movement between the sites. "Clearly, this is a place that was of enormous importance," he said of the new find.

The researchers speculated that Durrington Walls was a place for the living and Stonehenge — where cremated remains have been found — was a cemetery and memorial.

Stone tools, animal bones, arrowheads and other artifacts were uncovered in the village. Remains of pigs indicated they were about nine months old when killed, which would mark a midwinter festival. Stonehenge was oriented to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, while the wooden circle at Durrington Walls faced the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset.

Durrington appears "very much a place of the living," Parker Pearson said. In contrast, no one ever lived at the stone circle at Stonehenge, which was the largest cemetery in Britain of its time. Stonehenge is thought to contain 250 cremations.

The research was supported by the National Geographic Society, Arts & Humanities Research Council, English Heritage and Wessex Archaeology.

It looks like we may be one step closer to finding out who built this fascinating structure. I've never been there, but I've been to Knowth and Newgrange in Ireland, and these places are just as ancient, and just as incomprehensible when one considers the amount of sophistication that went into the work that produced these wonders.

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Bing Devine, Former Cardinals GM (1916-2007)

Major League Baseball lost a legend this past weekend as Bing Devine, former general manager, and architect of three National League pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals teams, died at age 90. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

ST. LOUIS - Bing Devine, the St. Louis general manager who helped build Cardinals teams that won three National League pennants and two World Series in the 1960s, died Saturday. He was 90.

Vaughan P. "Bing" Devine, was general manager of the Cardinals from 1958 to 1964 and again from 1968-78, and was credited with acquiring Hall of Fame players Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. The Brock trade with the Cubs, which cost the Cardinals sore-armed pitcher Ernie Broglio, is considered his best.

I'll say. Broglio was an 18-game winner in 1963, had won 70 games for the Cards (including 21 in 1960), but was just 3-5 when he was shipped to the Cubs for a young, speedy outfielder named Lou Brock. Brock had struggled as a Cub, but he quickly began to turn his career around. He stole 33 bases and hit .348 for the remainder of the season, as he became the best base stealer in the NL until 1979 (he broke Maury Wills stolen base mark in 1974 with 118, and retired with the career standard of 938 until Rickey Henderson came along). Brock also hit .391 in 21 World Series games with 14 steals (only having been caught twice) as the Cardinals catalyst. Broglio went 7-19 as a Cub, and was out of major league baseball after the 1966 season. Yeah, I'd say Bing got the best of that deal...

Many of the players Devine acquired led the Cardinals to World Series titles in 1964 and 1967 and the pennant in 1968, among them Curt Flood, Dick Groat, Bill White and Julian Javier.

That was a monster of a team. Brock, Gibson, a later acquisition Orlando Cepeda, and the young Steve Carlton are all Hall of Famers. Bill White, Curt Flood and Ken Boyer aren't too far away from HOF-quality themselves. Christ, Tim McCarver was the catcher for these guys, but you'd never know it the way he gushes over the Yankees and Derek Jeter. I wish Timmeh had a little Joe Morgan in him, that way we'd hear more about what a great team that was (and then probably get quickly sick of it, just as we do when Joe shamelessly drops Big Red Machine-Johnny Bench-Tony Perez into all his broadcasts).

There is a terrific book, October 1964 by Bill Halberstam that outlines the respective league pennant races through the eyes of both the Cardinals and the Yankees. It showcases how the men mentioned above matured into stars and clutch performers just as the great Yankee team was falling apart as age and injury began to catch up with icons like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Roger Maris all at once.

The book also details how Devine put that team together, but how that first championship in 1964 was a bittersweet one as the Cardinals got off to a slow start, with Devine having been fired in the middle of the season, and replaced by co-GM Branch Rickey (who was, according to the book, trying to undermine Devine's efforts). Obviously, the Cards brass realized their mistake as they brought him back into the fold a few years later.

There are two sets of Cardinals clubs in my lifetime that I consider classic baseball teams: Whitey Herzog's Runnin' Redbirds of the 1980s and the 1960s teams that Devine helped to build. Here's a salute to a true baseball man and legend - Bing Devine.

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CD Review: Tribe of Gypsies - Dweller on the Threshold

Dweller on the Threshold is Tribe of Gypsies long-awaited follow-up to 2000's Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Since that release, band leader/guitarist/producer Roy Z has been busy with other projects. He produced, wrote and played on Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson's solo albums, and those of Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford, to name just a couple of projects. Apparently Roy's busy schedule was too much for some of the Gypsies, as there have been a bunch of lineup changes.

Gone is vocalist Gregory Analla (though he makes a guest appearance on one track here), replaced by Chas West. Gone is drummer David Ingraham (though he makes guest appearances on three tracks here), replaced by David Moreno. Also gone is bassist Juan A. Perez, replaced by Christian Byrne. The rest of the band, Roy Z on guitar, Ray Rodriguez on keyboards and Elvis Balladares on percussion is on hand for this outing.

There are 14 songs on this baby, so let's dive right in...

Big Sky Presence starts things off with about 90 seconds of atmospheric keyboards, percussion and guitar that goes into Ride On, a mid-tempo rocker with urgent verses and slamming choruses. West starts off well here with a soaring vocal performance. Roy Z plays a short, multi-tracked solo before the keys, drums and percussion batter the sonic landscape to bits. This song has single written all over it.

Desolate Chile is another mid-tempo tune with a deep groove punctuated by the strong bass and percussion. Roy Z's solo and fills winds their way through the beat, but never completely dominate. West's vocals are strong here as well. Original ToG drummer David Ingraham plays the drums on this track.

Stop Bombing Each Other is a slow, rhythmic song dominated by a strong bass line and deep percussion. Guest Penny Wanzo delivers some nice backup vocals as an urgent counterpoint to West's words of warning about the futility of war.

Halos is a mostly acoustic ballad, and West shows that he is up to the task of singing in a more gentle voice. Roy Z provides some nice understated fills on both acoustic and electric guitars.

Zoot Suit Mardi Gras is an upbeat party song that has a groove reminiscent of "Lowrider" by War. Tetsuya Nakamura is featured here on the harmonica as the bass, drums and percussion provide the pump. Nicol Mecfrova does the singing on this track, and she sort of sounds like the singer for the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Ingraham plays the drums on this track.

Go Your Way is a rambling mid-tempo rocker that features former ToG vocalist Gregory Analla on backing vocals and guitar. West is also strong here, showing a growling fierceness in his voice. The rhythm section provides a strong background for the gliding, multi-tracked Roy Z guitar solo. Ingraham plays drums on this track as well.

After the Summer starts as another acoustic ballad. Like in Halos, West shows the gentle side of his voice, but here it is tinged with more than a bit of sadness. Roy Z takes a nice acoustic solo in the middle before West and the band bring it all back home.

Flying Tigers, Crying Dragons is an instrumental that starts off with some understated guitar over the haunting organ. The bass, drums and percussion quickly kick in as Roy Z takes over with a multi-tracked intro to some fiery licks and solos. Roy finally begins to dominate with his trademark burning guitar, as he makes it cry with slow bends, then turns it up with lightning fast runs. Too bad the song ends so suddenly just over three minutes.

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love is a cover of a Van Halen song that ToG makes all theirs. West takes a subdued approach, similar to that used by Rob Thomas on Santana's "Smooth". There is a distinctly Latin feel to the piano, drums and percussion. The backing vocals, sung in Spanish, punctuate the choruses. Roy Z drives the main riff along with Byrne's pounding bass line. Elvis and guest Sal Rodriguez (on timbales) provide plenty of punch on Latin percussion, especially on the ending riffs.

Never Will Be Mine is another ballad that shows West in a longing vocal mood. The bass line is strong under Roy Z's simple, crying solo and fills.

La Hora is sung completely in Spanish over a churning, heavy riff that goes from grinding to soaring. The atmosphere then changes as Roy Z takes a long, fiery solo over the organ and manic drums and percussion. The whole band is in top form here as Z loses his mind in the fury of his solo that calls up images of Hendrix and Santana.

Hands to Eternity starts as an up-tempo acoustic number with popping percussion and bass over the crying organ before the slamming chorus driven by Roy Z's heavy riff. West's voice soars from mid-range in the verses to a high urgency in the choruses. Roy Z takes care of business with a chaotic solo that showcases all of his considerable talent as he glides, speed picks and wails with overdriven effects before the song settles back into the groove.

En El Mar is a Latin percussion showcase that ends the CD. This track is also sung completely in Spanish.

It's too bad we had to wait so long for this CD, but it was well worth the wait as the songs are strong, and the individual performances are ridiculously tight throughout. Chas West has proven himself a worthy successor to Mr. Analla. The rhythm section of Byrne and Moreno picks up where Perez and Ingraham left off. Elvis is his usual quirky self, while Rodriguez provides plenty of fire and atmosphere. Roy Z is simply amazing when he lets it rip, but he also has the discipline to know when to let the song guide him and hold back when necessary. I've been waiting since 1998's Revolucion 13 for these guys to become HUGE. Maybe Dweller on the Threshold will finally make that happen.

Tribe of Gypsies Web Site

2,500-Year-Old Olmec City Uncovered in Mexico

Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,500-year-old Olmec city near Mexico City. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

MEXICO CITY - A 2,500-year-old city influenced by the Olmecs, often referred to as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica, has been discovered hundreds of miles away from the Olmecs' Gulf coast territory, archaeologists said.

The remains of Zazacatla are providing insight into the early arrival of advanced civilizations in central Mexico, while also providing lessons about the risks to ruins posed by modern development that now cover much of the ancient city.

Archaeologist Giselle Canto said Wednesday that two statues and architectural details at the site, 25 miles south of Mexico City, indicate that the inhabitants of Zazacatla adopted Olmec styles when they changed from a simple, egalitarian society to a more complex, hierarchical one.

"When their society became stratified, the new rulers needed emblems ... to justify their rule over people who used to be their equals," Canto said of the inhabitants, who may not have been ethnically Olmec, but apparently revered the culture as the most prestigious.

Zazacatla covered less than one square mile between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. But much of it has been covered by housing and commercial development extending from Cuernavaca, a city popular with tourists just seven miles north. "There are 10 housing developments, a gas station, a highway and a commercial building on the site now," Canto said.

Authorities hope to excavate and preserve other pre-Hispanic sites before they are forgotten or covered over. Since excavation of Zazacatla began last year, archaeologists have unearthed six buildings, and two sculptures of what appear to be Olmec-style priests. The sculptures appear to have headdresses portraying the jaguar, which the Olmecs revered, and other symbols of status and authority. The Olmecs dominated areas around the Gulf coast states of Veracruz and Tabasco from 1,200 B.C. to about 400 B.C.

This story clearly shows that ancient America had a hell of a lot of people in it. More, in fact, than we've been taught about over the years. Not only that, but they were quite sophisticated--unlike the traditional portrayals of bloodthirsty savages we've been led to believe.

This particular story speaks to the influence of the Olmecs on the non-Olmec inhabitants of the land in those times, and can be construed as being analagous to any of the European empires with regard to the way the Greeks and Romans influenced the peoples they encountered far from their home bases.

Let's hope that these researchers can uncover more evidence like this before modern development wipes it all out.

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Happy Australia Day!

Friday, for those of here in the United States, where I sit typing this, it will be Australia Day, but, the Aussies, especially my friends in the Sydney area, start out 16 hours ahead of us this time of year, and will begin their celebrations of this national holiday Thursday morning at 8:00 AM EST. Here's the Wikipedia entry about the occasion:

26 January 1788 was the date on which the First Fleet, under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove and set up the Colony of New South Wales. Formal possession, including the reading of Phillip's Commission, took place on 7 February.

By 1808, the day that the Rum Corps arrested Governor Bligh, it was being celebrated as 'First Landing' or 'Foundation Day'. In 1818 (the 30th anniversary) Governor Macquarie had a 30-gun salute at Dawes Point and gave government workers a holiday - a tradition that was soon followed by banks and other public offices.

In 1888 all colonial capitals (with the exception of Adelaide) celebrated 'Anniversary Day' and by 1935 all states of Australia were celebrating January 26 as Australia Day (although it was still known as Anniversary Day in NSW).

The 1938 sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) of British settlement in New South Wales in 1788 was widely celebrated. Preparations began in 1936 with the formation of a Celebrations Council. In that year, NSW was the only state to abandon the traditional long weekend and the annual Anniversary Day public holiday was held on the actual anniversary day - Wednesday 26 January.

In 1946 the Commonwealth and State governments agreed to unify the celebrations on 26 January as 'Australia Day', although the public holiday was instead taken on the Monday closest to 26 January.

Since 1994 all states and territories have taken the Australia Day public holiday on 26 January.

I had the pleasure of celebrating Australia Day 2005 at the source as part of my three-week sojourn to the suburb of North Ryde as part of a wage-slavery training/hiring assignment. North Ryde is located about a half-hour west of Sydney, and the pleasure of being outdoors on Circular Quay in Sydney Harbor with temps hitting close to 90 (32-33 Celsius) was amazing.

The harbor, already a place teeming with activity, was a mass of humanity and activity as the many boat shows and activities of retelling the story of the original landing took place. The only other activity of its kind to which I can compare it was when the Tall Ships event came to Boston Harbor years ago.

Anyway, to all the friends I met Down Under, have a terrific Australia Day, and be assured that I will be back amongst you as soon as I can manage it!

Australia Day History

The Future of the Penny -- Is a Copper Rush Coming?

Hola Amigos,

Today I found a story that touches on the future of the penny as a form of currency in these United States. Yahoo News Reuters excerpt:

A potential shortage of coins in the United States could mean all those pennies in your piggy bank could be worth five times their current value soon, says an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Sharply rising prices of metals such as copper and nickel have meant the face value of pennies and nickels are worth less than the material that they are made of, increasing the risk that speculators could melt the coins and sell them for a profit.

I can see it now. Homemade smelting units will replace the homemade whiskey distillery as the targets of the New Prohibition...

Such a risk spurred the U.S. Mint last month to issue regulations limiting melting and exporting of the coins.
But Francois Velde, senior economist at the Chicago Fed, argued in a recent research note that prohibitions by the Mint would unlikely deter serious speculators who already have piled up the coinage.

The best solution, Velde said, would be to "rebase" the penny by making it worth five cents rather than one cent. Doing so would increase the amount of five-cent coins in circulation and do away with the almost worthless one cent coin.

"History shows that when coins are worth melting, they disappear," Velde wrote. "Rebasing the penny would ... debase the five-cent piece and put it safely away from its melting point," he added.

Raw material prices in general have skyrocketed in the last five years, sending copper prices to record highs of $4.16 a pound in May. Copper pennies number 154 to a pound. Prices have since come down from that peak but could still trek higher, Velde said.

Since 1982, the Mint began making copper-coated zinc pennies to prevent metals speculators from taking advantage of lofty base metal prices. Though the penny is losing its importance -- it is worth only four seconds of the average American's work time, assuming a 40-hour workweek -- the Mint is making more and more pennies.

Velde said that since 1982 the Mint has produced 910 pennies for every American. Last year there were 8.23 billion pennies in circulation, according to the Mint. "These factors suggest that, sooner or later, the penny will join the farthing (one-quarter of a penny) and the hapenny (one-half of a penny) in coin museums," he said.

Ken Kanniff, Connecticut's Most Wanted Gangsta, is the point man on this topic. For the past several years Ken has not only warned us of this impending shortage, but has begun to collect a large amount of the pre-1982 Abe Lincoln coins in anticipation of such an announcement as this one.

My first observation about the homemade smelting units notwithstanding, there is a serious environmental impact dynamic that comes into play here. If people insist on melting pennies, it stands to reason that much of the post-1982 zinc filled coins will be part of the mix. The question becomes what to do with the zinc, assuming of course that the homemade smelters know enough, and know how to separate the copper from the zinc.

In any event, Mr. Kanniff is poised and ready to become the Copper King of Connecticut, finally shedding the gangtsa image, once and for all!

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Trot Nixon Signs With Indians.

As if we didn't know that the signing of JD Drew to that hideously expensive contact in December signified the end of the Trot Nixon era in Red Sox history, it has become official as the Cleveland Indians have signed the former Sox outfielder to a one-year, $3 million deal. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

CLEVELAND - After agreeing to sign with Cleveland, Trot Nixon turned an important task over to his 5-year-old son. I let Chase pick the number," Nixon recalled. "He first picked 32, and I was like, why?" "Because you're 32 years old," Chase said. "Well, in two months, I'm going to be 33," his father replied.

With that, Nixon decided to wear No. 33 with the Indians, who agreed Friday to a $3 million, one-year contract with the oft-injured outfielder. Nixon wore No. 7 with the Red Sox, the team he had spent his entire major league career with. No. 33 is just fine with him. "That was my high school baseball number," he said.

Nixon, who will be joined in Cleveland by former Red Sox closer Keith Foulke, batted .268 with eight homers and 52 RBIs in 114 games last season. He was sidelined from July 31 to Sept. 4 because of a strained right biceps, which he first hurt in June, and a staph infection. Nixon has gone on the DL in each of the last three seasons, including two stints in 2004, and has not had 500 at-bats since 2002.

"Obviously, I don't want go out and play hurt and eventually hurt the team," he said. "No. 1 it's going to effect the team. No. 2, it's just going to put me more in a hole, meaning having to go on the DL."

He remembered back to when he hurt his back in his first year of professional baseball. "I don't think I regained my swing for like three years because I was scared," he said.

Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro said the Indians wanted Nixon for his experience and the club did its medical due diligence on him. "We felt comfortable that with the burden we're looking to put on him, we felt comfortable with his health," Shapiro said.

During 11 seasons with the Red Sox, Nixon hit .278 with 133 homers and 523 RBIs in 982 games. In 2001, he was selected the club's MVP after batting .306 with 28 homers and 86 RBIs in 134 games.

Nixon will likely bat second and platoon in right field with Casey Blake, who also will see time at first. Shin-Soo Choo had been set to platoon with Blake. Cleveland had talked with Nixon's agent last fall, then backed off after agreeing to an $11.5 million, three-year deal with David Dellucci.

"It gives us a tremendous amount of depth that should protect us against injury and poor performance," Shapiro said. Nixon can earn $2 million in performance bonuses: $250,000 each for 200 plate appearances and every additional 50 plate appearances through 550.

I remember when Nixon was the Sox number one draft pick in 1993. The Sox brass told everyone that Nixon would become a perennial 20-homer, 20-steal guy with solid defense. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. He struggled in his first couple of seasons, but manager Jimy Williams stuck with him, and hitting coach Jim Rice (who should be in the Hall of Fame) helped him get his swing in order. Nixon did enjoy three 20-homer seasons (2001-2003 with 27, 24 and 28 respectively), but the last three seasons saw him hit a total of 27 homers, mostly because of the missed time due to the injuries outlined in the excerpt.

Nixon was a no-nonsense player who seemed to play with an angry intensity that the Sox seldom see in their players. He had a knack for big hits, especially against the hated Yankees (and particularly against Roger Clemens). His bases-loaded two-run double off of Jason Marquis on a 3-0 count in Game Four of the 2004 World Series increased the Sox lead in that clinching game from 1-0 to 3-0 as the Curse was finally broken.

The future in right field now belongs to a man who is a mere year-and-a-half younger, but who is just as injury prone as his predecessor. I can see the Sox looking at a guy who has missed as much time as he has, and think that, as he enters his mid-30s, he might not get less injury prone. But why throw him aside and replace him with a guy who is not only just as likely to get hurt (or still be hurt), but whose attitude makes Manny Ramirez look like Ryan Freel?

Anyway, good luck to you Trot. You and your filthy hat always gave it your best!

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Have You Seen Me Lately?

Hola Amigos,

I'm back at the keyboard after a hectic holiday season. Of course, I come back and get ready to do some business, and what do I find but that Blogger put out a new beta version that didn't seem to want to cooperate with me. Then, a bunch of wage slavery organization requirements crept up to keep me from better exploring how to fix these problems.

I seem to be past most of this shit for now, so I'm sending this little post out to let all six of my readers know I'm still alive, and will be updating this baby as best I can. Hell, there's a lot of shit for me to catch up on as 2007 stumbles out of the gates. Anyway, I changed the format and added the excellent Fire Joe Morgan website to my links list. Because Joe Morgan really should be fired. Seriously. He's a Hall of Famer who says almost as many idiotic things as Preznit Flight Suit Fantasy does.

Quick Thoughts:

1. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken both deserve their respective elections to baseball's Hall of Fame. Goose Gossage, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven and Alan Trammell should also be in, and no, I'm not touching the Big Mac "controversy," thank you very little.

2. This year's NFL playoffs have been characterized by sloppy play and idiotic actions by individual players that have led to HUGE penalties. Is this the best the NFL can do? Has the desire for parity driven the excellence out of what is supposed to be a showcase of the best teams? Or has the NFL caught whatever disease inflicted the 2006 World Series? I swear, I still refuse to believe that actually happened. Let's just move on...

3. Mitt Romney is a clown. How about that billion dollar deficit you left us? Balanced the budget my arse. I can't wait to here the screams of agony from the trolls about what a commie new Governor Deval Patrick is as he attempts to straighten out the fiscal mess that Governor Absentee Showboater left is here in the Bay State. Thanks a pantload Mitt, and say goodbye to your silly Presidential aspirations.

4. Preznit Flight Suit Fantasy STILL doesn't get it. Iraq is a bloody failure--HIS bloody failure. It is good to see that some members of his own party, like Senator Chuck Hagel are openly ridiculing this stupid "surge" idea of sacrificing more of our troops into this disaster. Even better, it has exposed idiots like Senators John McCain and Joementum Lieberman as the deluded simpletons they are.

5. What the eff is the deal with DVD region codes? Do we really need this? To whom do I complain to straighten this shit out? Does anybody have any ideas?

Oh well, that's all for now. I have a copy of the latest Tribe of Gypsies CD, Dweller on the Threshold, and will be posting a review as soon as I can.

Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot...Who Will Get A Plaque?

The 2007 baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released today, and two sure-fire HOFers, and possibly a third will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer. Yahoo News AP wire story:

NEW YORK - Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. headline the first-time candidates on the 2007 baseball writers' Hall of Fame ballot released Monday, sure to spark debate on Big Mac's place in history as the steroid era comes under renewed scrutiny.

Gwynn and Ripken are the absolute shoo-ins. Big Mac, not so much. He may get in, but then again, he may not, at least not this year, as the story continues...

Jose Canseco, whose book last year led to a congressional hearing on steroid use in baseball, also is on the ballot for the first time. Canseco said he used steroids along with McGwire when they were teammates.

McGwire denied using illegal performance-enhancing substances, but when he appeared before a congressional committee, he evaded questions. "I'm not here to talk about the past," was his repeated response.

McGwire finished his career with 583 home runs, seventh in baseball history while Canseco, a former MVP, is 30th at 462. Dave Kingman, 34th with 442, has the most home runs for a player who has been on the Hall of Fame ballot and was not elected.

If Canseco had been as serious about studying the game as McGwire was, HE would probably be the all-time home run leader right now. As it turned out, he wasted his enormous talent. He was a Hall of Fame talent back in 1988 when he was the AL MVP, but instead of building on that, he got lazy, especially on defense. He could have been mentioned in the same breath as greats like Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle, as one of the greatest all-around players ever, but most of the time, he played, and acted, as if he just didn't give a shit. If he's a Hall of Famer, I'm an astronaut. Kingman, on the other hand, all he could do was hit home runs. He struck out a ton, and played lousy defense. I'm surprised he was able to stay employed long enough to hit 442 homers. Maybe he deserves to be in the Hall on that basis alone? Nah...

Gwynn, an eight-time batting champion with San Diego, and Ripken, a two-time MVP with Baltimore, are considered likely to gain election on the first ballot. Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive games, breaking Lou Gehrig's record.

Agreed. Both Gwynn,a magician with the bat, and Ripken, who broke an "unbreakable" record, should be writing their acceptance speeches right this minute, if they haven't already done so.

Bret Saberhagen, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, and former MVP Ken Caminiti also are among 17 players on the ballot for the first time along with Harold Baines, Dante Bichette, Bobby Bonilla, Scott Brosius, Jay Buhner, Eric Davis, Tony Fernandez, Wally Joyner, Paul O'Neill, Devon White and Bobby Witt.

Jim Rice, who was 53 votes short of election last year, heads the 15 holdovers. Rich Gossage finished one vote behind Rice.

Both Rice and Gossage should already be in. The fact that they aren't is idiotic. Rice was the dominant right-handed power hitter in the AL from 1975-1986. Gossage was the 97 MPH closer who didn't get these one or two out saves that have become a staple of the LaRussa Era of Bullpen Management. Goose got his saves in two and three inning stints. The fact that Bruce Sutter was elected last year (and deservedly so), and Gossage was not is a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

Reporters who have been in the BBWAA for 10 or more consecutive years are eligible to vote, and the totals will be announced Jan. 9.

The complete ballot:
Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Dante Bichette, Bert Blyleven, Bobby Bonilla, Scott Brosius, Jay Buhner, Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco, Dave Concepcion, Eric Davis, Andre Dawson, Tony Fernandez, Steve Garvey, Rich "Goose" Gossage, Tony Gwynn, Orel Hershiser, Tommy John, Wally Joyner, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Paul O'Neill, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Bret Saberhagen, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Devon White, Bobby Witt.

My analysis of the players on this year's ballot:
Baines - No. Not enough years as a dominant offensive force. But could prove a test case for the DH, since he did that extensively after knee problems took him out of the outfield.
Belle - No, at least not this year. Belle was a jackass, but he was a jackass who could hit. It will be interesting to see if he gets the same treatment Rice has been getting for the past several years, especially since Rice was much nicer, AND was a better defensive player.
Bichette - No. His dominant years came in Colorado, and his numbers at sea-level were decent, but not HOF-worthy.
Blyleven - Yes. Longevity counts for something. Besides, he pitched for some pretty crappy teams (as well as for a handful of good ones, like the 1979 World Series Champion Pirates). Best curveball of his era.
Bonilla - No. He was a shaky third baseman, a decent outfielder, and a good hitter, but apart from a handful of seasons, he doesn't quite have the legs to carry him all the way.
Brosius - No. Aprt from his Yankee years, he was little better than average. Call him Joe Randa only with the luck to have played on good teams.
Buhner - No, and it's a tough call, but he did have huge holes in his swing, even though he had as much power as any hitter of his era. He was also fine defensive outfielder who seldom made a mistake.
Caminiti - No. He had only a couple of dominant offensive seasons, although he did have the strongest arm of any third baseman in the NL when he played.
Canseco - No. See above.
Concepcion - Yes, but not before Alan Trammell. Trammell could the same things on defense as Concepcion, and he was ten times the hitter Davey was. Still Davey was a terrific shortstop on one of the best teams of all time (just ask Joe Morgan).
Davis - No. World class talent, but missed too much time with injuries.
Dawson - Yes. He put up big numbers as an Expo and a Cub, and was a terrific defensive outfielder, even after his knees started to go.
Fernandez - Yes, but after Ripken, Trammell and Concepcion.
Garvey - Yes, but just barely. His consistency and clutch hitting put him ahead of most others with his statistical profile.
Gossage - Yes. See above.
Gwynn - Yes. See above.
Hershiser - No. Burned out after his magical 1988 season.
John - Yes, but only because pitchers like him have already been enshrined. See Blyleven. Guys like Don Sutton. Not exactly ace material, but they won. Besides, he had a medical procedure named after him...
Joyner - No. Not enough big years at a high-offense position (first base). Had a good start to his career (56 homers his first two seasons, but just 145 the rest of the way), but didn't improve.
Mattingly - No. Had four great years in which he played at a Hall of Fame level. The rest of the time he struggled with back problems that hurt his numbers. Don't agree? Here's a name: Cecil Cooper. He has almost the exact same statistical profile as Donnie Baseball, but I don't see anybody shouting from the rooftops to support him the way they do for Mattingly.
McGwire - Maybe. See above.
Morris - Yes. He was a big winner, and a clutch performer for the Tigers, Twins and Blue Jays.
Murphy - Yes. Might be hurt by his sudden decline, but he was a good all-around player, as good as anyone in the game at his peak, as his two MVP awards surely show.
O'Neill - No. A great player, but not a dominant offensive force. Nobody was more intense.
Parker - Yes. Another world class talent, but he got sidetracked in mid-career with drugs and injuries, then kicked it back up a notch to finish with some HOF type career numbers. Could be an arrogant jerk at times, and that could hurt his chances given some of the choices he made during his "sidetracked" years.
Rice - Yes. See above.
Ripken - Yes. See above.
Saberhagen - No. Similar to Hershiser except he had two magical years (The Cy Young seasons of 1985 and 1989).
Smith - Yes. All time saves leader.
Trammell - Yes. See above. And why isn't his double play partner Lou Whitaker available? Oh right, the pinheads in the BBWAA failed to give him 5% of the vote to keep him on the ballot. They should go in as a duo.
White - No. Terrific defensive center fielder, but never put it all together as a hitter.
Witt - No. Why is he even on the ballot? He walked a ton of hitters, and never did learn to harness what everyone thought was great "stuff".

Well, that's how I see it. Of course, with the requirement that a player has to appear on 75% of the ballots to gain entrance, there is no way all my Yes Men will get in this year. I just think these guys are HOF material. And who knows, maybe my No Men will get in someday. Any thoughts out there in blog land?

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Justin Morneau Wins American League Most Valuable Player Award.

The 2006 American League Most Valuable Player award was handed out today, and in a surprise to many, Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau came away with the hardware. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

NEW YORK - Back in June, Justin Morneau walked into manager Ron Gardenhire's office with a .236 batting average and was benched. Though he didn't realize it at the time, he walked out an MVP.

"It woke me up," Morneau said Tuesday after edging Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees to win the AL's Most Valuable Player award. "He lit a fire under me."

Morneau received 15 first-place votes, eight seconds, three thirds and two fourths for 320 points in voting by a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Jeter got 12 firsts, 14 seconds, one fourth and one sixth for 306 points. It was the 16th-closest MVP race since the current format began in 1938, and the 10th-closest in the AL.

Gardenhire benched Morneau on June 7 and spoke with him at Seattle's Safeco Field. At the time, Morneau was hitting .236 with 11 homers and 38 RBIs. After listening to his manager, Morneau batted .362 with 23 homers and 92 RBIs. "There wasn't too much said that was bad or anything," Morneau said. "It was just, `Your focus needs to be on the field. You can do a lot of things in this game that people can't do.' ... Gardy helped me realize that I can be a lot better than I was."

Morneau finished with a .321 average, 34 homers and 130 RBIs, helped the Twins win the AL Central for the fourth time in five years. Three Twins finished among the top seven in MVP voting. AL batting champion Joe Mauer was sixth, followed by AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.

Jeter batted .344 with 14 homers and 97 RBIs. In the batting race he finished three points behind Mauer, who became the first catcher to win an AL batting title. "While I know that voting for these awards is primarily based on differing opinions and statistical debates, it's also part of what makes baseball such a great sport," Jeter said in a statement issued by the Yankees. He called Morneau "a special player" and added: "I suspect this won't be the last time you will hear his name mentioned when awards are being passed out."

Boston's David Ortiz was third with 193 points, followed by Oakland's Frank Thomas (174), Chicago's Jermaine Dye (156), Mauer (116) and Santana (114), who received the other first-place vote.

Morneau is the fourth Minnesota player to win an MVP, following Zoilo Versalles (1965), Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Rod Carew (1977). Killebrew attended Morneau's news conference. "I don't have any doubt in my mind he's going to come back and have a good year," Killebrew said.

Versalles 1965 award was one of the all-time fluke seasons for any MVP in either league, but it happened to coincide with Minnesota's first pennant since they moved the franchise from Washington DC, where they were the first incarnation of the Senators.

Morneau became the second Canadian-born player to win an MVP following Colorado's Larry Walker in 1997. He is the third Canadian-born athlete to win an MVP in a major pro league this year, following Phoenix guard Steve Nash and San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton.

Walker phoned Morneau as the first baseman was arriving at the Metrodome. "He just wanted to call and say, `Congrats,'" Morneau said. "He said he thought he was more excited than I was. He said, `Just wait, it's going to be crazy.'" Walker, a coach for Canada at the World Baseball Classic, autographed a bat for Morneau in March. "To Justin, make Canada proud," Walker wrote. "I thought that was pretty cool," Morneau said.

Earning just $385,000 in his third season as a regular, Morneau proved a bargain. Philadelphia's Ryan Howard, voted NL MVP on Monday, made $355,000. Morneau is eligible for salary arbitration this winter. Howard is not. "He's going to be rewarded. There's no doubt," said Twins general manager Terry Ryan, who sat next to Morneau at the news conference.

Two MVPs who made a combined $740,000? In a game in which the median salary hovers around $3 million, I'd say that these guys were the very definition of most valuable.

Ortiz earned a $100,000 bonus for finishing third. Thomas, who left the Athletics last week to sign with Toronto, received a $100,000 bonus for placing fourth. Dye got $60,000 for fifth

A lot of people, especially Yankee fans, will be pissed off that their idol, Derek Jeter did not win this award. Christ, the ESPN Baseball Tonight crew was practically creating a plaque for the guy. Jeter is a terrific player, but he is one star on a roster of stars. Morneau had a monster season on a team with few other offensive weapons. Sure Torrii Hunter hit 30 homers, and Joe Mauer won the batting title, but they had little else. Jeter, on the other hand, had guys like Johnny Damon in front of him, Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Jorge Posada, A-Rod, and Robinson Cano behind him. Which lineup would YOU rather face?. I'd say the right man won the award, given the definition that is supposed to apply. Well done Justin!

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Romney Shoots Self In Foot. Throws Hissy At Not Getting Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Vote Passed.

No longer 2008 presidential hopeful, lame duck Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney is unhappy in the extreme that commonwealth lawmakers failed to add an anti-gay marriage amendment measure on the state's ballot. Capital News 9 story:

Governor Mitt Romney says if lawmakers don't vote on placing an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot, he'll ask Massachusetts' highest court to order that the issue be put to voters.

Romney made the announcement Sunday on the statehouse steps in front of other opponents of same-sex marriage. Gay-marriage supporters staged a protest across the street.

Romney has criticized the legislature for delaying a vote on the issue. In November of 2003, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal.

Mitt, baby, what are you thinking? Are you playing to the neo-con base? The same base that was forced to eat it raw two weeks ago? Or are you sincere in your belief that the voters should decide this issue? Somehow, I get the feeling that, if this issue made it to the ballot, and the vote didn't turn out the way you want it to, you'd throw another hissy on your way back to Utah, or Michigan, or DC, or wherever the hell else you go to think up more ways to divide the people you claim to want to serve.

The bottom line is that you are an absentee Governor who came into office with an agenda of pettiness that crippled your Lt. Governor, Kerry Healey, to the point where she had NOTHING upon which to run. And as a result, she got rolled. Maybe if you'd spent more time here in the Bay State, and less time in DC polishing the knobs of the soulless GOP gargoyles, none of whom, by the way, have ANY intention of backing you for a White House run in 2008, you'd see that, even though we do have a few knuckledraggers who agree with you, we don't have nearly as many as you think we do, and that such stupid notions as this belong in history's dumpster, along with your political career.

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Ryan Howard Wins National League MVP Award. Former Red Sox Roundup.

Today was a busy day in baseball. The National League Most Valuable Player Award winner was announced, and several ex-Red Sox players signed new deals, re-signed old ones, and a key member of their 2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP team retired. Stories below. Links at the end of the post.

Ryan Howard Wins National League MVP Award

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player of 2006 in an announcement made this afternoon. Yahoo News AP Wire excerpt:

NEW YORK - Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player on Monday after leading the majors in home runs and RBIs, beating out the St. Louis Cardinals Albert Pujols for the honor.

Howard received 20 first-place votes and 12 seconds for 388 points in balloting by a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Pujols got 12 firsts, 19 seconds and one third for 347 points.

Howard, the 2005 NL Rookie of the Year, had 58 homers and 149 RBIs while batting .313. He had the most homers in the major leagues since Barry Bonds hit a record 73 in 2001. He set Phillies records for home runs and RBIs, producing the highest totals in those categories in big league history for a second-year player.

Twenty-three of Howard's homers put the Phillies ahead and five tied games. The Phillies went 32-18 in games in which he homered. Howard didn't make it up to the major leagues for good until July 1, 2005, when Jim Thome went on the disabled list.

Howard may have been helped by Philadelphia's surprising second-half push. He hit .355 with 30 homers and 78 RBIs in second half as the Phillies fell three wins short of the NL wild-card berth.

Pujols, who hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBIs, defeated Atlanta's Andruw Jones 378-351 in last year's voting after finishing second in 2002 and 2003. Stan Musial and Ted Williams (four times each) are the only players to finish second more often than Pujols, who matched three-time AL MVP Mickey Mantle with three second-place finishes.
Pujols was third in the NL in batting average behind Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez and Florida's Miguel Cabrera, and second to Howard in homers and RBIs.

Stan Musial (four times), Ted Williams (four times) are the only players to finish second more often than Pujols, who matched three-time AL MVP Mickey Mantle with three second-place finishes.

Houston's Lance Berkman was third with 230 points, followed by the New York Mets Carlos Beltran (211), Cabrera (170) and Washington's Alfonso Soriano (106) — who on Sunday reached a preliminary agreement on an eight-year contract with the Chicago Cubs worth about $136 million.

Pujols gets a $100,000 bonus for finishing second, Berkman $250,000 for placing third and Beltran $200,000 for fourth.

Howard is an imposing presence in the batter's box. He has unbelievable power to all fields. He reminds me a lot of David Ortiz, in that he is a patient hitter who, when he is going well, simply crushes the ball. And, as the excerpt noted, he is building a resume of being able to do so, like Ortiz, in the clutch. Well done Ryan.


Stanton and Gonzalez Sign With Reds

The Alex Gonzalez Era is over in Boston, as last year's Red Sox shortstop signed a three-year deal to play for the Cincinnati Reds. Former Sox lefty setup man, MikeStantonn, who pitched a total of 82 games in 1995-6, and 2005 also signed a two-year deal, with an option for a third year. Yahoo News AP Wire excerpt:

CINCINNATI - Needing a shortstop and a late-innings reliever, the Cincinnati Reds committed roughly $20 million to fill two of their bigger holes. Later, they spent a little more to get rid of their logjam behind home plate.

Shortstop Alex Gonzalez and left-handed reliever Mike Stanton finalized multiyear contracts Monday with the Reds. Cincinnati then traded catcher Jason LaRue to Kansas City for a player to be named, agreeing to pay part of his $5.2 million salary next season.

The light-hitting Gonzalez, 29, committed only seven errors last season with Boston. Stanton, 39, split the season between Washington and San Francisco, where he had eight saves and proved he can still pitch effectively on short rest. Together, they'll fill a couple of big gaps.

Gonzalez is expected to improve a defense that had the second-most errors in the National League last season. He hit .255 with 24 doubles and nine homers for Boston. Gonzalez gets $3.5 million next year, $4,625,000 in 2008 and $5,375,000 in the third year. If he wins the Gold Glove in either of the first two years, the third-year salary increases to $5.5 million. There's a $6 million mutual option for 2010 with a $500,000 buyout.

Felipe Lopez started at shortstop last season, but was undependable on routine plays and was part of an eight-player trade with Washington in July to restock the bullpen. Cincinnati got shortstop Royce Clayton as part of the deal, but he hit .258 and started only nine games in September.

Clayton has been an enigma for his entire career. He's a guy who seemingly has all the ability in the world, but somehow never seemed to be able to put it all together. He'll be 37 when the 2007 season starts, and he'll be looking to catch on with his seventh team in six seasons. Jesus, I hope Theo doesn't get any silly ideas...

The Reds also have been trying to upgrade their bullpen since the middle of last season. Left-handed closer Eddie Guardado, acquired from Seattle in one of those midseason trades, had reconstructive elbow surgery in September and won't be ready to pitch at the start of next season.

Stanton gives the Reds a proven option for late in games. He went 3-5 with a 4.47 ERA in 56 games last season for Washington, which traded him to San Francisco on July 28 for a minor league pitcher. Stanton was 4-2 in 26 games for the Giants with eight saves and a 3.09 ERA. Stanton gets salaries of $2 million next year and $3 million in 2008. There's an option for 2009 at $2.5 million, with a buyout of $500,000. If he appears in 140 games over the next two seasons, the option-year salary vests at $2.75 million.

Good luck next season guys. Alex, we hardly knew ye...


Nomar Gets Two-Year Deal From Dodgers

Former two-time AL batting champ Nomar Garciaparra will remain a Dodgers as he was shown the money after his Comeback Player of the Year season. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

LOS ANGELES - Six-time All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed Monday to an $18.5 million, two-year contract.

The 33-year-old Garciaparra, the NL comeback player of the year, will get a $2.5 million signing bonus, which is deferred until 2009 and 2010, and salaries of $7.5 million next season and $8.5 million in 2008. He would get an additional $250,000 each year for 500 plate appearances.

A two-time AL batting champion, Garciaparra shifted to first base with the Dodgers last season, his first with the team. He hit .303 with 93 RBIs and 20 home runs to tie J.D. Drew for the team lead in homers.

Garciaparra earned $8.5 million last season, including $2.5 million in performance bonuses. He signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers last winter. Injuries limited him to a total of 82 games in the previous two years. He was slowed late in the season by quadriceps and oblique muscle injuries.

Garciaparra had five game-winning hits last season, including his two-run shot in the 10th inning in an 11-10 victory over San Diego on Sept. 18. The Dodgers tied a major league record but hitting four consecutive homers in the bottom of the ninth.

After playing mostly shortstop in his previous 10 big league seasons, Garciaparra made a seamless switch to first in Los Angeles. He made only four errors in 1,124 chances for a .996 fielding percentage, the NL's second-highest for a first baseman last season.

Garciaparra was AL Rookie of the Year in 1997 and won his first batting title in 1999. He was considered one of baseball's best shortstops for several years while playing with the Boston Red Sox. He hit .283 with nine homers and 30 RBIs for the Chicago Cubs two seasons ago, when he earned $8.25 million. With the Cubs, he tore his left groin running out of the batter's box and was out for several months.

Garciaparra, who grew up in nearby Whittier and graduated from St. John Bosco High in suburban Bellflower, had said he was interested in staying with the Dodgers. "I've loved every minute of it," he said last month.

Garciaparra became all the more attractive to the Dodgers after Drew opted out of the final three years of his contract earlier this month, making him eligible to become a free agent.

Ah, sweet vindication! Way to go Nomar! I still remember what you did for this franchise.

Let me sound a cautionary note here. No, not about Nomar and his health, but about JD Drew and HIS health, namely his mental health. This is a guy who, as an amateur, let his agent, Scott Boras, talk him into sitting out a full year rather than sign with the Phillies out of college. He spent that summer playing in the independent Northern League before being re-drafted, and was finally signed by the Cardinals. Since then, he has shown flashes of brilliance, but he plays as if he has no pulse. His boneheaded baserunning (when he tried to score after an already tagged out Jeff Kent was barely picking himself up off the ground near home plate) cost the Dodgers in the NLDS against the Mets. Drew also has a world of talent, but his on-field actions resemble those of a sleepwalker. My cautionary note is to Sox GM Theo Epstein, who is rumored to be interested in obtaining Drew to replace Trot Nixon in right field. Theo, please, DON'T DO IT!!! There is a reason this guy has bounced from the Cardinals to the Braves to the Dodgers from 2003 until now, he is simply more trouble than he is worth.


Bill Mueller Retires. Takes Dodgers Front Office Job.

Former AL batting champ, all-around dirt dog, and the man who, with a hit off of Yankees closer Mariano Rivera in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS, drove home pinch-runner Dave Roberts after his historic steal of second after a Kevin Millar walk, is retiring after yet another year of knee problems to take a job in the Dodgers front office. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

LOS ANGELES - Former AL batting champion Bill Mueller, limited to 32 games with the Dodgers last season before undergoing what turned out to be career-ending knee surgery, retired Friday and will serve as a special assistant to Los Angeles general manager Ned Colletti.

Mueller, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the Dodgers last winter, hit .252 with three homers and 15 RBIs while striking out just nine times in 127 plate appearances. "He's a very smart guy," Colletti said. "He'll be involved with us in scouting, evaluating players, player development areas, amateur draft areas. He'll be a great sounding board for me."

Mueller finishes his career with a .291 average, 85 home runs and 493 RBIs in 11 seasons with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox' and Dodgers. The 35-year-old third baseman hit .326 and had career-high totals of 171 hits, 19 homers and 85 RBIs with the Red Sox in 2003, when he won his batting championship. He was a member of Boston's 2004 World Series championship team.

Mueller said he realized as last season went on that he'd never be able to play again because of the damage to his right knee. "It's something I'm definitely going to need work on in the future, whether it's done with one surgery or two separate surgeries," he said. "It's something I'm basically going to have to live with the rest of my life, without being able to run or jog, without high-impact activity. It's unfortunate, it's crazy. I'm just trying to deal with it now, living day-to-day life."

Mueller and Colletti have known each other for several years. Mueller began his career with the Giants, where Colletti served as assistant GM for nine years before being hired by the Dodgers last November. "He's someone that I trust and know, and really most importantly, respect," Mueller said. "I think that's what created even more interest in staying in the game of baseball. Once I understood there was no chance I would ever be able to play again, I called Ned. When both of our interests were high, I thought this was a great move and a great decision."

Mueller said he has no regrets concerning his playing career. "I'm happy with the next chapter," he said. "My (job) description is a work in progress. As of right now, I'm very interested in learning under Ned. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for myself to be able to listen and really get tutored on the aspects of the front office."

Mueller was a no-nonsense, heads-up, do whatever it took to win type of player. He cared little about personal stats, and his hustle was part of the charm of that 2004 championship team. It's too bad he has to end his playing career this way, but he will have lots of options within the game due to the respect he garnered as a player. Good luck Bill!

Ryan Howard-NL MVP

Gonzalez Signs with Reds

Nomar Re-signs with Dodgers

Bill Mueller Retires

Santana Unanimous American League Cy Young Award Winner.

The American League Cy Young Award winner was announced today, and it should come as no surprise that Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins came away with the hardware. Yahoo News AP wire excerpt:

NEW YORK - Johan Santana swept the Cy Young ballot the same way he buzzed through batters all season. Santana won the AL Cy Young Award on Thursday for the second time in three years, and the
Minnesota Twins ace was a unanimous choice once again.

Santana received all 28 first-place votes for a perfect total of 140 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Chien-Ming Wang of the New York Yankees finished a distant second with 15 second-place votes and 51 points. Toronto's Roy Halladay was third with 48 points.

The left-hander separated himself from all others during a dominant season, going 19-6 with a 2.77 ERA and 245 strikeouts to propel Minnesota from a poor start to the AL Central title. With a baffling changeup and excellent control, he tied Wang for most wins in the majors and led the AL in ERA, strikeouts and innings pitched (233 2-3).
Forget the Triple Crown — it was the pitching version of a Quadruple Crown.

"I was trying to show people that what happened in 2004 wasn't a fluke," Santana said. And here's a scary thought: At 27, he thinks he can become even more effective, because there's more to learn. "In the future, I want to be consistent from Day 1. We're still making adjustments," Santana said. "I still believe that I can be better."

Jesus, that IS a scary thought. How much better can this guy get? He's like a lefty version of Pedro Martinez in his best years with the Red Sox. And by the way Johan, thanks for giving up David Ortiz's single-season club record 51st homer.

Santana also was a unanimous winner in 2004, when he was 20-6 with a 2.61 ERA and 265 strikeouts. He is the fifth pitcher to win the Cy Young Award unanimously at least twice, joining Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, who did it three times.

The award was established 50 years ago, and there was only one selection from both leagues from 1956-66.

Like Pedro in 1999 and 2000, when he went 41-10 with an ERA of 1.90 and almost 600 strikeouts, Santana is getting to the point where his starts resemble little more than private games of catch with his catchers. He's fun to watch, because, especially in this high-octane offensive era, he makes the game better just by using his head as well as his nimble left arm. Well done Johan, and please, take it easy on the Sox in 2007...

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