Vic Sage

Vic Sage wrote: .245 / 25hr / 85rbi - 175k, and everybody will be glad to have it. he's currently on pace for around this [.240 / 23hr / 75rbi - 160k]. And i'm glad to have it. But he's hitting leadoff more now, so while his RBIs will probably not reach projections, his RS will exceed them [probably in the 90/RS range]. Plus, he's got the whole towel-waving thing to his credit. so there's that.

i continue to hope Colon pitches well enough to be a tradeable asset next month.

Like i said, they need to give Mr. Young another shot.

well, we need both, but it'll certainly be easier to find a LFer who can hit as compared to a hitting SS.

why? because his teams have had losing records in 6 of his 8 years at the helm of the Pads? or because you know something about his health generally?

i took your meaning. i'm just sayin'...

CF is, as almost always, correct. You know how i know? Because he agrees with me.

1) Let's accept for the moment that taking the extra base and stealing and leaving your best/hottest/older players in when a team has a substantial lead in the late innings is a bad thing. By a Western version of a Japanese code of honor, it is good to honor your opponent by not being aggressive while your opponent is down, by forcing plays that would not otherwise occur, and heck, may risk injury. but i don't accept that premise (not that i'm saying its YOUR view, or criticizing you for raising it, since it is very much the current understanding). As i said i agree about not risking your best/oldest players late in such games, but that's just about protecting assets for future use, not about "honoring" the opponent. But the idea that taking the extra base or stealing in that situation, or otherwise playing aggressively, is verboten out of a sense of honor, is what i reject. I think its dishonorable to your opponent (and to your fans, and employers) to to give less than your best effort at all times, regardless of score or situation. I recognize that this is not the accepted view, and running with a big lead in late innings could end up with a pitcher putting his next pitch in the hitter's ear. But i look at like guys who don't bother to run down hard to 1b on an a lazy fly ball. Yeah, hardly any of them do it, so its unfair to call out Robbie Cano (for example) for doing it, but it still sucks and disrespects the game. All that fans have a right to expect from their teams is maximum effort, all the time. You can't always have the best players, or the best team, but there is no reason everybody shouldn't be doing everything they're supposed to do, and when they don't (out of respect for some sort of jock fraternalism, or out of laziness or stupidity), i get pissed off.

i don't think it will irk anybody, or at least it shouldn't... it's a ritual the players engage in while in their own dugout, not out on the field. It's not directed at anybody but themselves. It's got nothing to do with the other team, or with the fans for that matter. It's not like Grandy jumps up on the dugout roof waiving his towel to exhort the fans, while shaking his ass at the other team's dugout indicating they should kiss it. It's not even like hitting a HR and then cadillac-ing around the bases, which a pitcher may feel is a public slight aimed at him. If a player comes into the dugout after a good play and high fives everybody, or fist bumps, or chest bumps, or engages in some ritualized dance/handshake with some of his teammates, i've never heard of the other team feeling like they have to retaliate, like they're being shown up or something. They know its not about them, and their team does it too, so everybody just moves along. Why should towel waving be treated differently?

Zvon wrote: Zvon wrote: Joe West displaying that high-energy that he's known for from coast to coast. How did that not hurt? 75 pounds of padding up front? Plus the padded Bro� he must be wearing. i thought that was called a "Manssiere" and the "not bunting because of unwritten rule #14" thing...? I think that shit sucks. Hey, if a team is getting beat and doesn't want the opposing team to pile it on, i have an idea... instead of requiring the winning team to take their foot off the gas, how about the losing team showing some sack and play better? "Sportsmanship"? Where is the sportsmanship in not playing your best at every moment, and doing all you're supposed to do? Frankly, i think that "showing pity" is more disrespectful to the losing team than continuing to play the game correctly. No, you don't want to play your best players (or older, more vulnerable players) every inning of such games, but that is proper marshaling of resources for a long season. Its about winning more games over the course of the season, not about giving the losing team a break in a particular game. I think bunts are mostly stupid, but if its the pitcher, and you've got a substantial lead, then its appropriate to bunt to add on another one. You don't have to reserve the out in hopes of a big inning; 1 run will do, so bunt. And base stealers should continue to steal, if that's their game, and people should continue to run hard, and slide hard into bases, and run down hits in the OF, and pitchers should continue to throw breaking balls (if they have them) and not just lay it in there. Or are they supposed to stop all that, too? When? If your up by 10 runs or 12 or 8? By what inning? And who do you fire if a team comes back on you after you've stopped playing? The manager, right? And what if he said, "but i was only following the unwritten rule!" Hopefully his GM would laugh in his face and kick his ass out the door. The reason some rules are unwritten is because they are not rules.

i'd prefer to see some combo of Nieuwey, Campbell and EY out in LF rather than one more AB from CYoung.

Frayed Knot wrote: In fact they say he was over Tokyo in 30 seconds. That one didn't even make the list: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21369

4 x 8 - or - 8 x 4 NL East Conference North: Montreal (new) NYM Phi Pitt --- South: Cinn Wash Atl Miami NL West Conference Central: Milw ChiC St.L Hou (moved from AL) --- Far West: Col SD LA SF AL East Conference North: Tor Det Bos NYY --- South: Cleve Balt TB Carolina / PR (New) AL West Conference Central: Minny ChiW KC TX --- Far West: AZ (move from NL) LAA Oak Sea These are based on time zones, which is the most important factor, for broadcast purposes. I would also suggest Houston switch back to the NL (so each league has a Texas franchise) and AZ go to the AL, so each league has a "mountain time" franchise. You could also split each conference into regional divisions (with the Ohio teams in the South of each conference), if 4-division leagues (with no wild cards) are preferred over 2-conference leagues (with wild cards).

Not quite sure how he even managed to give up 8 runs. he's not clutch.

Has he passed Crash Davis?

Totally agree with Edgy's analysis. I may have just liked this more. Growing up in a beach community, it resonated with me. And i liked the Andersonian tone [some folks don't]. Maybe i'm gay for Sam Rockwell. [NTTAWWT]. I just watched MOON and loved that, too.

They should give them ALL plaques; Tino, O'Neill, Oscar Gamble, all of them. every single guy who ever donned the pinstripes, no matter how unexceptional, should have a lasting tribute to their unspectacularity put up on a wall somewhere. So archeologists can have a good laugh some day.

At least when we traded Gomez away, we got a few great years from Johan in return. But Minny gave him away for one partial season of JJ Hardy. Kudos to the Brews for allowing him the time (and drugs) to blossom over the last few years. It's strange to realize that, after so many years in the majors, he's still only 28 and in his prime.

i always thought of him in conjunction with Satin, as in "Satin and Lutz... you know, those AAAA corner IFers; decent bats, positional flexibility -- could be solid UT guys". Then Satin got the shot (succeeding last year, failing this year) and Lutz didn't. When Lutz was passed over again this year, for Campbell, I guess he saw the writing on the wall and took Greeley's advice to "head west, young man, and grow with the nation" ... though he went so far west that it became the east, and the nation he will grow with isn't his. best of luck, Lutzie.

Edgy MD wrote: Interesting that he blew his marriage up not over some gimlet-eyed climbing starlet, but over somebody funny. Arden was just one of the women with whom he had affairs. It was also rumored that his wife was not thrilled by Mr. Kaye's homosexual affairs, either. Its been a long-standing theory that Kaye and Laurence Olivier had a 10-year affair throughout the 1950s, while Olivier was marred to Vivien Leigh. She claimed it was Kaye who broke up her marriage (but she was mentally unstable, so who knows). NTTAWWT

Edgy MD wrote: Well, by all means, take the day off from work and watch The Court Jester. I remember seeing footage of Kaye entertaining destitute European children during the post-war relief period, doing the mock-European accents that he (and Sid Ceaser) did so well. I don't know how well such humor would go over today, but you must pretty damn funny to make kids crack up by talking a jibberish version of their own language to demonstrate what it sounds like to you. Pretty funny how many of his performances were of the dual role/milquetoast-bully variety. yes, I'd agree that COURT JESTER is the one to watch, if you're only going to watch one (if you were willing to watch 3, I'd also recommend dd INSPECTOR GENERAL and HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON). Kaye worked a lot with kids, through UNICEF and other charitable work. Kids were his primary focus. As to the gibberish, kids have always found funny sounds funny, and i think it'd still be true today. Maybe his and Sid Ceasar's talent for it could be accounted for by the fact that they both grew up poor in NYC, living in polyglot enclaves where they were exposed to the sounds of foreign languages and dialects all day every day. Or not. Just a thought. There were many other entertainers from that background who never employed the technique. As for the dual role motif, yes, its the primary narrative device in many of his films (even his first one, UP IN ARMS, while primarily a rom-com and a service comedy, has a story that turns on his impersonation of an enemy general). I think it allowed him to demonstrate his range, playing the weakling and the hero simultaneously. He was like the comedy teams of his era -- Hope & Crosby, Martin & Lewis -- but all in one. He was the both the lover and the clown, and the conflict between those 2 roles often provided the comic, dramatic and romantic tension for his films. I do think, however, he became too reliant on the conceit, and rather than demonstrating his range, i think its success as a story device ultimately limited him to that formula more than was good for his film career.

We need to send d'Arnaud down to work on his game; he continues to be as overmatched against major-league pitching as he was last year. Teagarden is hitting with pop; he can share time with Recker for a while and we're bound to get more production from those 2. If even I could see it, it was just a matter of time.

no. Larry was a "Feinberg" from Philly; she was a "Fine" from Brooklyn.

David Daniel Kaminsky was a child of Ukranian Jews living in Brooklyn. He became a Borscht Belt entertainer and a vaudevillian in the 1930s before starring on Broadway in Lady In the Dark (1941, K.Weil / I.Gershwin) and Lets Face It! (1941, Cole Porter). Both were successful productions, allowing Kaye to use all his comedic and musical gifts. The fast patter songs (many later written by wife Sylvia Fine) became a staple of his performances. He would only appear on Broadway once more, 30 years later in the failed Richard Rodgers show, Two By Two (1970). Also during the 1940s, he had his own radio show, The Danny Kaye Show (CBS, 1945�46), made hits records with the Andrews Sisters, but mostly he spent the decade becoming an international movie star. Up in Arms (1944) - This dated service comedy co-starred Dinah Shore and got Oscar nominations for a Harold Arlen song and for its score. It also had Virginia Mayo, who would later co-star with Kaye in many of his films. Wonder Man (1945) - Playing twins (one a ghost), up against gangsters, with Mayo and Vera-Ellen. The twin theme, where Kaye plays both a coward and a hero, was a common trope in his films. More music nominations, and some songs by wife Sylvia Fine. The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) - With Mayo and Vera-Ellen again, this time as a milquetoast milkman who becomes a boxing champion. He continues to develop his screen persona as a weak male who unexpectedly backs into heroism and wins the girl. Kaye performs a Sylvia Fine song, �Pavlova�, but otherwise it's not a strong score. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) - This time Kaye is a daydreaming, henpecked milquetoast whose fantasies cause him to stumble into a spy ring and save Mayo again. Many of Fine's funny patter songs, including �Anatole of Paris�. The films was a big hit, with a still-strong critical reputation, but it was not one of my faves. A Song Is Born (1948) - Howard Hawks' musical remake of his earlier Gary Cooper film �Ball of Fire� with a script by Billy Wilder, stars Kaye as a shy musicologist who falls for a girl (Mayo) hiding from gangsters. This familiar setup features supporting performances by the leading jazz musicians of the time (Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey). But Kaye had separated from his wife, Fine (he had been having an affair with Eve Arden), and she would not write songs for the film, and Kaye wouldn't perform anyone else's songs, so he didn't sing in the film. Needless to say, it was a flop. The Inspector General (1949) - The cowardly Kaye impersonates a govt official in a small corrupt town. Fine is once again writing his songs (though technically remaining married, they stayed separated from then on). They songs comprise a terrific score, particularly "Happy Times". The twin personality trope is in full bloom. This is one of his very best. After "The Inspector General", Kaye cemented his international appeal with command performances for England's royal family at London Palladium. In 1952, Kaye's fame was such that he hosted the Academy Awards that year. Having left the nest of his long-time producer Sam Goldwyn, he created his own production company, and some of his best films were still to come. On the Riviera (1951) - A hit he made for Fox, this "backstage musical" has Kaye once again playing twins (lookalikes, actually), this time in Paris, opposite Gene Tierney, with songs by Ms. Fine. More music nominations resulted, but a ragtime oldie, "Ballin' the Jack" was the hit. Hans Christian Andersen (1952) - Back with producer Goldwyn, Kaye stars in this entirely fictionalized "bio" (offered as more of a fairy tale than a historical work) of the Danish storyteller, with a script by Moss Hart and a terrific score by Frank Loesser. Garnering 6 Oscar nominations, this is one of the best films of Kaye's career. Maybe THE best. Knock on Wood (1954) - Kaye produced this one; a neurotic ventriloquist falls for his psychiatrist and goes on the run from a spy ring, with songs by Fine, but the formula is getting old here. Still, it was a hit in its time. And the co-writers (Melvin Frank & Norman Panama) got an Oscar nomination for their script, and they co-directed as well; this was the first of 3 films they would do with Kaye. White Christmas (1954) - This service comedy/buddy movie/Rom-Com teams Bing Crosby with Kaye in a holiday musical for the whole family, co-starring Vera-Ellen and George Clooney's aunt Rosemary. It's saccharin, but the Berlin numbers are winning, and it has become a holiday staple (and a seasonal touring stage production). The Court Jester (1956) � In their 3rd try, The Frank/Panama team turns out one of Kaye's best in this Robin Hood spoof/homage, with Kaye as a cowardly jester hypnotized into becoming a dashing hero to save the kingdom (and Glynis Johns) from the evil Basil Rathbone. It features some of Fine's best songs, written with Sammy Cahn (including the lovely "I'll Take You Dreaming"). Though a financial bomb on its initial release, it became a TV staple and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." After all, the vessel with the pestle has the pellet with the poison... After the pinnacle of �The Court Jester� its lack of financial success signaled a turn in Kaye's career, and his final films left much to be desired. Merry Andrew (1958) - Musical misfire about an English professor and a circus, with songs by Johnny Mercer, and directed by famed choreographer Michael Kidd. Me and the Colonel (1958) - Kaye�s first non-musical, this WW II comic drama adapted a Broadway play about anti-semitism in Europe and was originally well received (Kaye won a Golden Globe for his performance) but has become largely overlooked since. The Five Pennies (1959) � this overly sentimental biopic about 30s� big band trumpeter Red Nichols garnered some Oscar nominations, and has Louis Armstrong, too, but hasn�t stood up. On the Double (1961) � Kaye goes back to the well once too often with this totally derivative �service comedy�, with Kaye playing lookalikes (a coward and a British general), as D-Day approaches; naturally, he becomes a hero and gets the girl. Fine's songs don�t help. The Man from the Diner's Club (1963) � Frank Tashlin,(Jerry Lewis�s collaborator) directed this awful grand finale for Kaye�s movie career. No songs, just slapstick. Telly Savalas steals the show. Kaye�s films no longer made money so he started to transition to television in 1960. His first solo effort was a 1-hour special produced by Sylvia Fine, with similar specials in 1961 and 1962. He then hosted a variety hour on CBS television, The Danny Kaye Show, from 1963 to 1967, which won four Emmy awards and a Peabody award. In 1976, he did excellent TV musical adaptations of Peter Pan (with songs by Bricusse and Newley) and Pinocchio (co-starring Sandy Duncan), and a few years later, did the TV drama, Skokie (1981), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. After that, all he did was guest appearances on various TV episodes. His later years were primarily involving charitable work he did with UNICEF, conducting orchestras, becoming a professional quality chef, flying planes, and living life. He died in 1987. As a poor kid from Brooklyn who never finished high school, he made himself into a modern renaissance man, as an actor/singer/dancer/comedian/tummler/philanthropist/chef/pilot/ambassador, who was successful in clubs, on stage, on records, on radio, in films, on TV, in concert halls, in kitchens, at the UN, and in the sky� without a peer in his time. But his wide range of talents and interests was not demonstrated by a long list of great films; there weren't that many (15 films over a 20-year movie career, before moving on to TV), with most of them following a narrowly defined formula, and only a few still worth seeing today. But the complete range of his creative life is still something special to appreciate. Best of: Wonder Man (1945) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) The Inspector General (1949) Hans Christian Andersen (1952) White Christmas (1954) The Court Jester (1956)

Maybe Dodger management was just guessing about PEDs and LoDuca was simply buying kiddie porn --