It seems lately, that this has turned into a Yankees blog. Today marks the 25th anniversary of Thurman Munson’s death. For those of you who wouldn’t know, Thurman Munson was the catcher for the Yankees in the Seventies. He was a remarkable player. On a team full of leaders and veterans, he was the captain, an honor that might mean more on the Yankees than any other professional sports franchise. (Derek Jeter is the current captain.) I can remember the day, twenty five years ago, when my father walked in the side door of our house, and announced that Thurman Munson had died in a plane crash. At first I thought he was kidding, our family has this odd sense of humor, and I thought he was pulling my leg. It, however, was true, and I was crushed. So, today I remember him fondly, a hero of my youth, a quiet, humble man, despite his myriad of onfield achievements. Today, his locker still sits empty at Yankee Stadium.
Update: There is a great tribute piece on the Yankees Web site.
So, the Yankees traded Mr. Unreliable, Jose Contreras, for Esteban Loaiza, in essence getting reliability but trading a player with four years left on his contract for one who is a free agent at the end of the season. I think it’s a fantastic, and unexpected move, and it should shore the starting rotation up going into the stretch run. The moral of the story is that the Yankees want to win it all this year, and are willing to continue to mortgage the future to do it. In many ways, this was a better, smarter deal than any one involving Randy Johnson would have been. Kudos to Mr. Cashman.
After this week’s DNC, and a lot of soul searching, I am quite close to making a decision about who to support in this year’s election. For a moderate, it’s not the easy clear cut decision that it is for the Dems and Pubs in the house. Interestingly, in my case, it seems like the places where the current administration has chosen to get more conservative are almost universally where my hot button issues are. I don’t see, however, how I could possibly make my mind up before the RNC. Another thing, after watching about 25 hours of DNC coverage this week, mostly on Fox News, I can say without hesitation that I have little or no interest in ever being credentialed and attending the conventions. It’s like a four day infomercial.
Gothamist: New Yankee Stadium Is In The Works I have very mixed feelings about this. It’s a shame that the older parks, with only a couple of exceptions, are being phased out. I’m happy that I have gotten to see as many games at the current Yankee stadium as I have seen. Thinking about Ruth, Mantle, Dimaggio, Gehrig, Maris, Berra, and all the others playing on that same field makes the place seem magical. I was just up there, and saw a game about three weeks ago. The stadium is not as nice as the modern facilities, like Turner Field here in Atlanta. Turner Field gives you ample opportunity to spend more money, and I would guess that would be part of the reason for a newer, yet smaller, Yankee Stadium. More luxury boxes mean more revenue. What is going to happen with Monument Park?
I’ve been watching the FNC coverage of the DNC last night and tonight. The theory being that I will hear the most critical voice possible from Fox News, since they are terribly biased, not towards true conservatism, but towards the Republican party. Listening to the comments after Theresa Heinz Kerry’s speech tonight, I feel somewhat bad for Fox because they came off seeming quite ignorant with their analysis after her speech. One of their analysts could not resist the temptation to make comments that had a distinct xenophobic tone, primarily referring to her accent. Barack Obama definitely stole the show this evening.
The 2004 Atlanta Falcons Schedule looks pretty tough considering the fact that the Falcons only won five games last year. There are virtually no assured wins on the schedule, part of that being because their conference is so tough. The mood here in Atlanta, thus far, has been one of expectation. I realize, of course, that all but four of the games last year had Atlanta starting a second or third string quarterback.
I’m sure a lot of Miami Dolphin fans are positively reeling from Ricky William’s unexpected retirement. The article I linked to, sort of a summary piece, does a good job of creating some perspective. He doesn’t love the game of football, and certainly doesn’t love being a celebrity the way people would expect him to love it. Football has been very financially good to him, and he really doesn’t need to play more seasons. I’ve read his blog sporadically, and was always impressed with his perspective. If he has other interests, and doesn’t really have his heart in football, good for him. It had to be a very difficult decision to make. Professional football is an incredibly dangerous career, and the position of running back is an especially brutal one to play. Did he have a responsibility to the city of Miami and to the Dolphins? I would be upset if the key player on one of my teams just up and quit like this, and there are definitely better ways of dealing with things. On the other hand, his first responsibility is to himself.
Pipe Bomb Suspect Denied Bomb Um, I think they mean “bond.” Usually, they don’t give the suspect their weapon back. Update 07/26/2004: They finally fixed the headline. It was wrong for over 24 hours.
After seeing this review of the Tivoli PAL on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools site, I purchased an “iPAL” (the one that matches my iPod in color). It has totally lived up to my expectations, being the perfect bedroom companion to my iPod. It’s nice because it takes up very little space on my nightstand, but still has fantastic sound within the volume range I want when I am in bed or getting ready to go somewhere. The bonus is the built-in radio, which I have found myself using more than I thought I would. I haven’t used the battery to take it elsewhere, but I could see taking it to the pool, or using it in a hotel room on the road since it is fairly small. If you are looking for a small speaker output for your iPod, this item may very well be the perfect item to fill your need.
As you doubtless know, Apple updated the iPod line today with a different, smaller form factor, and cheaper prices. Of course, since I already have a 40 GB 3g model, I’m more interested in finding out if they plan on updating the OS on my iPod to add the new menu functionality we can see on the 4g models. They have previously not updated the OS on earlier models when they went from 2g to 3g, but there were a lot fewer iPods then than there are now. It’s an operating system, and we deserve operating system updates, within reason for our hardware, in my opinion, for our investment. The most recent update does not add the new menus.
Steven Johnson puts his finger on the features missing from this new generation in light of the newly shipping Airport Express units. I seem to remember that Jobs hinted that this was a gap that Apple planned to fill.
Now that Kobe has re-signed with Lakers, and the stupidest trade in the history of the NBA has sent Shaq to Miami, and Phil Jackson is relaxing on a ranch somewhere meditating, maybe we can go a couple of days without having to hear about the team that lost in this year’s NBA finals. History will look unfavorably on all this stuff in a few years, I guarantee. Even if Kobe is acquitted, and there is no way to be certain about that, the Lakers are one of the lower echelon playoff teams in the West now. Miami should be the third or fourth best team in the East now, depending on matchups and injuries.
I've been a Lakers fan since I was twelve years old. Growing up in New England, I think I gravitated to the Lakers simply because everyone around me was a Celtics' fan during the great rivalry run between the two teams. Now, I feel like I want to break one of the cardinal rules of sports, and switch to being a fan of a different team out of disgust and revulsion. I've only done this once before, when the Whalers were moved out of Hartford, but under those circumstances, I felt it was justified.
House Votes to Block Aid for Saudi Arabia. What? Why are we giving the Saudis money in the first place? They can’t afford to train their own troops with all that oil money?
I spent the weekend up in the big city; went to a Yankees game, did some shopping in Soho, and spent a lot of quality time with my younger brother. I always seem to come back to Atlanta from these trips exhausted, but mentally recharged. Anyway, I’m now trying to catch up with email, rss feeds and a work plan for the week. I will probably not get caught up with posts here until tomorrow or Wednesday.
I had to have a repairman come yesterday and replace the fan in the HVAC system at my house. The prospect of even another day in the hot Atlanta summer without AC, or even a fan to move air, was a dreadful one. I called the HVAC company up, and set up an “afternoon” appointment. The polite and helpful operator told me that they would come by “some time after noon,” and that they would call me about twenty minutes before their arrival. I decided to work from home so that I would be sure to be there when they arrived.
Around 2:30p.m., I called them to make sure that my appointment was definitely scheduled. I was told that it was and that they didn't know at that point when, exactly, they would be arriving. Around 6:30 p.m., I called again to make sure that they were still coming out, and they were. Around 8 p.m., there was a knock at my door, and the repairman was outside. At this point, he then made the repair, and I now have working HVAC and a much more comfortable house. Grand total of time between the waiting and the repair, just over nine hours.
What I don't understand, is why this method of scheduling home repairs, cable appointments, etc.. is still acceptable in this age of technology. Not only did I have to spend about 8 hours of my time just waiting around that were not necessary, but I then had to pay them for the repair. It's not that I don't understand that there is some level of variation in the amount of time things like HVAC repairs take, but rather that that variation is within a set of easy to establish parameters. Given those parameters, it should be pretty easy to give people a one or two hour window, still keep all of your repairmen busy, and not waste too much gas doing so. All I know is that I would have appreciated the ability to go into work for the full day, which I could have done.
The sad thing about this, to me, is that Moncrief, the company in question, did great work. Everyone was polite, answered my questions honestly, and the price I was charged was reasonable. I don't think I will call them again though, I don't have have enough extra time to wait around that much, this is compounded by the fact that I am a single guy trying to keep up with the responsibilities of a hous eby myself. Am I wrong to find this sort of thing disrespectful to me and the value of my time?
I am certain you will never read this, but it would have been ten years today. I’m not holding on, just waxing sentimental, as I have a tendency to do. Some of the best years of my life so far, to be sure, but certainly also some of the worst.
