RealityChuck

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]Anyway I had the sound down trying to put down Jr. and missed the whole interference thing. SNY seemed to have went to a commercial, then cut back in just as Reyes was singling. I was awfully confused by that. When they cut to the commercial, I thought that Vargas had grounded out. When they come back, he's advancing to second and Reyes is getting to first. No "while you were away" explanation from the announcers. I suspect they may have been broadcasting the whole time, not knowing they were off the air. I rewound back to Vargas' ground out to see if I had missed anything. It was eerie; like I had skipped to another dimension somehow while those commercials were playing. I'm starting to think that our season has come; when the Mets score four runs AFTER the third out, it's the old time magic again.It's very weird. I couldn't get the game and the ESPN play-by-play indicates Vargas was out and that there were four outs in the inning. Somehow, Vargas ended up on first despite being called out. Strange.

Willets Point wrote: Cutting Delgado would be the utmost in stupidity. No. The utmost in stupidity is cutting him and expecting Mike Carp to pick up the slack.

Shows what happens if you depend on statistics for all your information.

Piazza once wore green on Thursday. What more proof do you need?

Yeah. You tip things if it's apparent before he goes into his windup. Once the pitcher starts to actually throw the ball, there's not enough time to process the information.

Found one: Elmer Valo. Came up with the Athletics (where he played most of his career), moved to Kansas City, and finished up with the Phillies.

Frayed Knot wrote: Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Babe Ruth have a lot of things in common - but what unique "accomplishment" do their careers, along with that of Dutch Zwilling, have in common?You poached my Zwilling question. SDMB? Others who finished their careers in the city they started, but on a different team include Bob Aspromonte (Brooklyn -- which was part of New York City at the time -- and the Mets).

It's all a matter of perception. On Friday, the headline at ESPN.com said "Red-hot Mets defeat Arizona." I doubt many fans here would have characterized the Mets as "red-hot," but really, as of Saturday morning, they were 4-1 in the previous five games. Mets fans are concentrating on the loss (which was awful) and not on the wins. And now they're 5-2 in the last seven. Not too shabby.

]The Mets have signed 21�year-old German C Kai Gronauer to a two-year minor league contract. He tore up the German leagues and had a ridiculously good record of throwing out runners. Whether he can perform at a major league level in the US is unknown, but it seems a good gamble.

Benitez was overall a good reliever, but with the unfortunate tendency of blowing saves at particularly bad times.

But Hartung really wasn't all that big a flop -- six years and 192 games in the majors and a world series appearance. He was part of the Giants starting rotation for two seasons -- including one after his bonus baby status had expired and he could have been released or sent down. His pitching stats are poor, but not so horrible that the Giants didn't think he could contribute, and they liked him enough to try him out as a reserve outfielder for two years. Frank Leja, OTOH, appeared in only 26 games and 23 ABs. Paul Martin only got in 7 games with a 14.14 ERA. Jim Brady pitched in six games, generally as a mop-up man, and had a 28.42 ERA. Leroy Powell wasn't even credited with an at bat (and appeared in only two games). Dave Hill only pitched in two games and had a 27.00 ERA in 2 1/3 innings. Hartung's reputation is built on the fact the he was was a modest success (in terms of a career), but never a top player. Ironically, if he had been a total flop, he wouldn't have been remembered, but because he was good enough to hold on for respectable number of years, he was.

I seriously doubt Hartung is more famous than Sandy Koufax, Al Kaline (the most famous battery in baseball) or Harmon Killebrew.

I was just checking out his stats on Baseball reference and spotted an interesting name (to me) on the most similarity by age score: Hal Goldsmith. I knew Hal Goldsmith: he taught for many years in my school; everyone knew him as "Goldie." Never had a class wit him -- he retired before I got to high school (our school was K-12). He used to talk about facing Babe Ruth, though it would have had to have been in spring training, since he pitched in the NL. Interesting connection.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="AG/DC"]Hens love roosters; geese love ganders Everyone else loves Ken Sanders Ogden Nash?Doesn't sound like Nash, but it's likely to be something from Stan Isaac's Left Field Grab Bag contests, which often featured two-line poems with a player's name. For instance: People won't know (until he's famous) That Amos Otis isn't Otis Amos.

Jim Gray (on the left) is a former NBC announcer/interviewer. According to Wikipedia: "Gray has worked on many major sporting events including numerous Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals, NCAA Final Fours, Olympics, The Masters and World Boxing Title Fights." Charlie Todd (on the right) organized the event. Eric Appel (the field interviewer) is a TV writer.

Can we give points to Bruntlett? Pelfrey 4 Pagan 2 Delgado 1 Sosa 1

More seriously, I think it's too soon to start castigating him, but too many fans would jump on any pitcher who shows a few bad outings. He made a bad pitch yesterday, and it cost, but if the team could have scored a run before he was called, it wouldn't have been an issue.

He already was on opening day.

Note that you are now John Pacella, for whom a haircut was an alien concept. He also had trouble keeping his cap on.

Number 6 wrote: Who will be the new number 6? I feel like I'm without a home.Nonsense. Just move to the Village.

As I said, no one plays Stevie's music. People sing it. I don't see either of those clips as being an instrumental -- which is what I specified. The quality of his lyrics (which are definitely clever, if a bit superficial) obscure the fact that he just can't write music. It's all just a vehicle to showcase the words, and if it's tuneless and unmemorable, Stevie doesn't care, because the music isn't all that important to him. And without the lyrics, there's nothing there. Compare him to great Broadway composers like Bernstein, Cole Porter, John Kander, Marvin Hamlisch, Claude-Michel Sch�nberg, Frederick Lowe, Adler and Ross. People play their music. They don't play Stevie-boy's music -- they sing his lyrics and let the music limp along. Hell, Andrew Lloyd Weber -- who is generally a hack -- can put together a good melody once or twice a musical, a track record that Stevie should envy. Most orchestras play the music of perhaps the greatest of Broadway composers -- George Gershwin. Do they ever play Stevie's? Without singers?

Simple. Sondheim couldn't write a decent tune if his life depended on it. His music sucks dead rats. All those big Broadway shows and only three memorable songs: Comedy Tonight, Send in the Clowns, and Everybody Ought to Have a Maid. The rest is either tuneless chanting or third rate melodies that have been turned unmemorable by the need to fit with his lyrics (which are clever, but unsophisticated). Sondheim doesn't know the meaning of the word "subtle." Now compare Sondheim's entire output with that of West Side Story and Gypsy, where he worked with a first-rate composer. West Side Story are more great songs in the first act than in Stevie's entire career, and Gypsy, while not quite as good, still has some great ones. Plenty of people sing Sondheim songs. But who ever played them as intrumentals? Because, without lyrics, they are just plain mediocre.

Good job -- it let me update choices for films I've seen since the thread was created.

Good drama, and Affleck was terrific. Also, it handled the solution to the central mystery nicely -- no sensationalism crap.