… Some days, it rains.
The Yankees have been at this for years. A big bat comes on the free-agent market. They throw gobs of money at the batter. Then they sign another guy and another guy who will hit .280 with 30 home runs. Meanwhile, the Yankees starting rotation hobbles along with rent-a-wrecks. Sometimes those aging veterans have a [...]
The Athletics. The Orioles. The Nationals. The Rockies. The Blue Jays. These are a few of the teams ranked ahead of the Minnesota Twins by a pair of MLB writers in their power rankings, which moved on the wires Saturday. This is the last time we’ll chat about this. Promise. Let’s get the knocks against [...]
Slop. That’s how I would characterize the MLB standings and these rankings. Only one team, Philadelphia, has better than a two-game lead in its division. Boston leads New York by two in the American League East. Nobody else leads by more than a game. The Brewers, Braves and Cardinals all have 40 wins. All of [...]
There’s more than one way to bake a cake. But ask any pastry chef and you’ll hear there’s only one right way to bake a cake. That way, of course, is vastly different from chef to chef. Today, there is anguish on NoPepper.net. Clearly, I have a favorite baseball team. What kind of person would [...]
Dad was a 3M engineer. He did a bunch of things and refused multiple promotions because he didn’t want the stress that comes from being in management. For a while, he was a teacher in their classroom facility, a building straight out of the 1960s, complete with windows that were 6-inch slats. It sat next [...]
I don’t like things I am supposed to like. Also, I am cheap. I’m the Andy Rooney of baseball fans. So the odds of me enjoying an afternoon in the box seats at our local minor league park — provided gratis by my employer — were pretty low. But I had hopes of free beer, [...]
Sixty one. Remember when that was the milestone for baseball hitters? It was the Everest of statistical challenges: seemingly reachable, but only under a very specific set of circumstances. Maybe I just don’t like change. Sixty one still seems like the number to me. But that could start a debate. There’s no debating 56. Joe [...]
Pippa Middleton is kind of hot. That’s Kate Middleton’s sister, if you weren’t up at 4 a.m. to watch the Wedding of the Century. Are we that shallow of a society that this is what we have to talk about the day Osama bin Laden was killed? We are exactly that shallow. Almost ten years [...]
People smarter than me call it noise. A statistical sample needs a fair amount of data before it can be considered accurately. Translation: When you don’t play many games, you get some weird results at the start of the year. I’m a big Law of Averages guy. Two minutes into an NBA game, I’m fond [...]
It’s too easy to bash Bud Selig. And, honestly, I want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Mocking him is too easy. We could note his rumpled appearance. He doesn’t look right in a suit, but I can’t picture him wearing anything else. As long as he has clothes on, it’s safely [...]