Month: May 2008

This is what happens when you throw strikes, Cabrera

I didn’t see the game, but it’s quite clear from the box score that Daniel Cabrera is a tremendously effective pitcher when he’s throwing strikes. He threw 76 of them versus only 40 balls. The result? A 4-1 complete game victory over the (hapless, I know) Kansas City Royals. He struck out seven, allowing only three hits and a walk. Lucky for the Orioles that Nick Markakis had a good game, hitting three run homer and scoring on a wild pitch to account for all four of the Orioles runs. Losing a complete game shutout 1-0 is kind of a kick in the teeth. The game also pulled the Orioles a half-game ahead of Toronto into fourth place in the AL East.

Man, Trent’s going crazy

It’s only been two months since Trent Reznor released his last album, and now he’s got another one. This one, The Slip is a totally free download. I was listening to it for the first time this morning, and I was wondering if there was a mainstream single on it. He’s releasing one track as a single so far, Discipline, and I have no idea if it will be a hit. I like it, but I like just about every Nine Inch Nails song ever, so I’m hardly a good judge of what others might like. I was talking to a friend and fellow NIN fan about the lack of a single, and he said, “That’s what Trent said about The Downward Spiral, and then ‘I want to **** you like an animal’ became our high school anthem'”. So I guess we’ll just wait and see.

And there we are

And the Orioles have lost their fifth in a row to fall into last place. I think everyone saw this coming, but some of us held out hope it would come a little later in the season. It’s pretty clear what the problem is – they’ve now scored fewer runs than anyone in the AL except Kansas City. Their runs allowed are tolerable, they just can’t score. Still, they’re nearly a third of the way to their predicted win total, and we’re not even a quarter done with the season. So that’s encouraging.

Excessive parking restrictions on my block

Councilmember Graham – I’m writing to bring to your attention the need for some sort of oversight on emergency “no parking” signs. The construction crew at 1462 Harvard St NW has now claimed a good quarter of our block with these signs, totally ignoring the 72-hour notice period required by the DCPD. At approximately 6PM this evening, they put up signs on both sides of the street to accompany the signs on the south side that went up recently. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t believe the first signs were up 72 hours in advance, either. Our block has already had to park around the dumpster at 1463 Harvard for months now. I understand that construction crews need space to work, but taking fifteen or twenty spots from our street for the next two weeks is utterly unreasonable. I would appreciate your attention to this matter. I don’t think the construction crew should be entitled to so much restricted parking, and I’m certain that neither I nor my neighbors should be subject to ticketing or towing until the 72 hour notice has been satisfied. Thank you very much Complaint Hub

People aren’t dumb, just bad at judging actual cost

High gas prices driving small car sales

The trend proves again what we already knew – that people respond to events that hit their wallet, not their conscience.

High gas prices driving small car sales Shocker – with gas getting more and more expensive, people are buying more small cars. While I agree with the above-quoted statement, I think what it really gets at is that people are inherently rational. We just aren’t always good at judging value. It goes well beyond over-valuing brand new Lincoln Navigators with 22″ chrome wheels and heated massage chairs while under-valuing small, efficient, reliable cars. Now, I know that I tend to over-value that feeling of smug self-satisfaction when I walk to work or take the bus home, laughing at the schmucks who drive two hours into Nowhereville, VA. But I also know that a lot of them over-value the sixth bedroom and second acre their house is on as they give up twenty hours a week commuting. Anyway, I hope GM an Ford can figure things out before the European and Japanese and Korean car manufacturers swoop in and totally wipe out the American manufacturers, who seem to have mortgaged their future on the mistaken idea that people would continue to buy high-profit SUVs forever. I hope that GM and Ford can quickly change with the gas prices, and perhaps bring some of the cars they make for overseas markets to the States as the demand changes. But I have to say I’m not that optimistic.

That was money well-spent

A little while back I sponsored two pages at Baseball Reference. It was mostly for fun, and because it’s one of my favorite sites on the whole internet, and it’s cool to give something back. So I thought I’d give a report on how that sponsorship is going in terms of referrals. My sponsorship of Mark Knudson has resulted in TWO new visits to the site. Since I’m surprised that two people have even looked at Mark Knudson’s career stats since April 7th, that seems like a good result. And my sponsorship of Chad Bradford has resulted in FOUR new visits to the site. Bradford’s status as an active player having a good year (Small sample size, but he’s got a 1.03 WHIP and a 297 ERA+ in 12 innings, can’t complain about that) means that he’s probably getting more traffic, so it makes sense that he’d drive more people here. To put the traffic in perspective, though, over the same time period, I’ve had 504 total visits (It’s been a slow posting time, so my traffic is down). 27 of those hits are from people Googling “vector security”. Five are from “mccain nude”. Six are from outside.in and twenty are from Facebook. Anyway, I’m certainly not going to quit my day job anytime soon and make a living here. Of course, since I don’t sell ads here, paying for traffic is kind of silly, but that wasn’t really the point of my sponsorship.

Man, who thought this was a good idea?

ESPN – Papa John’s to offer Cleveland residents 23-cent pizzas

Papa John’s Pizza issued an apology to Cleveland and the Cavaliers for making T-shirts with LeBron James’ number and the word “crybaby” under it.

Who’s the marketing person in Washington who decided this would be a good idea? I suppose I could probably find him or her by doing a resume search on Careerbuilder for marketing resumes added in the last two days. Since I’ve watched more basketball this year than any other year in my lifetime because of the Celtics-fan wife, I have a better idea of what a hard foul is than I used to. And the little montage ESPN put together of the Wizards pounding on LeBron was pretty ridiculous. So I don’t blame him for complaining a bit. And I doubt he’s crying now, as he’s headed to Boston on Tuesday while Brendan Heywood is headed to play golf.

What to do when your team isn’t local

So my little brother is heading to Arizona State for law school in the fall. I’m both happy for him and this opportunity, and a little sad that he’ll be across the country. But I’ll get used to it – the wife deals with siblings on both coasts and in between, so I can manage. But in his list of things to do, he mentions “Become an Arizona Cardinals fan”. This is where it’s clear that he needs some guidance from his older and wiser brother. I’m in a sort of similar situation. My football team is local (Well, sort of – they’d be local if the Washington Redskins actually played in Washington, but whatever), but my baseball team is not. The Orioles are far enough away that I can’t get to an evening game without leaving work early. But we have the Nationals. There are two important things about the Nationals that I think are nearly mirrored by the Cardinals. One, they’re terrible. They’ve pretty much been at the bottom of the standings since they were the Expos. And two, they have a beautiful stadium. What does this mean? Empty seats and a great place to watch the visiting team. The wife and I went to RFK before the Nats moved to watch the Nats play the Oakland A’s (As a baseball fan, I’ve of course read Moneyball, so of course I have a soft spot for the A’s. Plus they were my team in ’88 before McGwire was a cheater and when Eck and Stewart and Rickey were awesome). We saw Barry Zito before his arm fell off. A friend and I went to a game at RFK and watched Tom Glavine pitch for the Mets. Now, the Cardinals don’t really play anyone cool at home next year – they play the Redskins in Washington, they play in New England – with one exception. On October 12th, the Dallas Cowboys come to Tempe. This is a perfect opportunity. By attending the game as a Cowboys hater, you in effect become a Cardinals fan without disgracing your DC Metro Area roots by actually becoming a Cardinals fan. You’re free to root for the Cardinals, exchange high-fives with Cardinals fans, and generally have a good time rooting for the home team. But you get to keep your football soul. Everyone wins. Except the Cardinals. They never win.