Reading USA today gave me an insight of where the two teams in the World Series were made. Baseball has almost always enjoyed a unique position in sports. Early on it was deemed by the courts not to be subject to the antitrust laws that effect businesses and other sports. This means that teams can get together and exchange players and contracts without fear of being charged with conspiring to effect trade. Other sports are not allowed to do this.
Baseball has no cap on collective cost of teams. The New York Yankees can and do spend more than any other team in baseball. It does not always result in capturing a World Series or for that matter even being in one. Sometimes the best players do not yield the best results. Ask the Giants about the history of pitcher Zito. He is one of the highest paid pitchers in the major league baseball and he did not even make the playoff roster.
Each baseball season is a long one. The endless travel and athletes have to work hard to maintain physical abilities to keep them in the premier baseball league throughout the season. Its come down to this. They World Series. Can one team from the National League (the San Francisco Giants) beat one team from the American League (Texas Rangers.)
The Texas Rangers have never been to the World Series. Why? Because Texas as a whole is more focused on football. If you catch the Disney Dennis Quaid movie "The Rookie" the poor kids in small town Texas could not even buy basball socks mid 60s. They certainly have had a beautiful new park since the 90's. Still they were not fielding a competent team for World Series play until now. It takes an owner with clever vision to bring that about. They are here this year after clubbing the Yankees over the head.
So how did the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers get into the World Series. In both cases they traded and acquired a number of players at the trading deadlines and a parlayed them into a winning team. The San Francisco Giants are dependent upon their pitchers and have a park that is very pitcher friendly. the Rangers have invested in offense and scoring many runs with big batters. Their park is a pitchers nightmare but a hitter's delight.
In both cases, both teams traded to increase their strengths and build against their weaknesses.
Here is the rundown on how these teams were made.
Texas San Francisco
Drafted 7 9
Acquired in Trade 13 4
Signed as Free Agents 3 10
Selected in Rule 5 draft 1 0
Signed as amateur free agent 0 1
Claimed on waivers 1 1
Source USA today research
Despite this, the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers take great pride in the number of significant players they have developed through their farm organizations. As USA today notes,"both teams would not be their without wheeling and dealing that continued as long as the rules allowed."
The Rangers acquired high profile pitcher Cliff Lee in early July. The Giants fine tuned their bullpen at the July 31 trade deadline to waiver claims and deals all the way through August. Onlookers to the scene claimed that both clubs were headed to overkill in particular areas.
The major players in this shift and gamble were the Giants Brian Sabean and the Ranger's Jon Daniels.
The Giants manager Bruce Bochy said "I compare them to the Dirty Dozen. That's the way they they play, they've coalesced into a team that goes out there to win. Its nice to have a group of unselfish players who have one agenda and that is to get to postseason. There is no complaining. They have accepted their roles, which they probably were real happy (about).
The San Fransico Giants have won two games in their home park. The question remains can they do it in Texas? Or as my mother-in-law would say can they "mess with Texas."
: ) Pat
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Making Photo Books
How do you share your photos?
In the 60's we pulled out the Kodak carousel projector when we had people over for dinner and we needed some after dinner entertainment. Slides were loaded in and photos were shared. Pet peeves were blank spots in the carousel when the screen went blank. Some people got tired and feel asleep and snored loudly after the dinner meal. The slide show became a poor way to share your treasured memories.
Affordable hand held photography followed. The audience could look in a more intimate setting the photos to be shared. The media was still 35 mm or newly invented "disks" and hand held photo albums. The photographer could share photos in any light with a friend or two without getting out the projector and waiting until dark to share the memories.
Slide shows made a come back when web pages were designed.When I was making them, I even figured out a code to put multiple photos timed through the webto make a slide show. The audience needed to be sitting at a computer however to see the photos that were displayed along with the text. The computer got personal photography back to the setting of commentary with the photos as slide show and photo albums had done before. The computer screen took the place of the projector. The computer screen usually made this photography more intimate and user interactive. Now people use facebook or twitter to share their stories and photos instantaneously. The sagas are short and the photos are quick and often poorly formed.
Dad has been real good about framing my favorite travel photos. My Epson stylus photo 1800 does a great job of cranking out photos that are 13 by 19 inches. We have been rotating framed photos of our trip and it is really great to have these beauties on the wall. Not everyone has a lot of wall space or a good framer. Wall space and big framed photos is another mode to share your memories.
Along the continuum back around the horn, personal photo books are starting to bring back the element that the photo album had. Their advantage is that the photo books are usually edited and contain a printed story in parts that many photo albums were missing. Again we are morphing into the stand alone from the personal annotated works of the 80's and 90's. They can be fingered with photos not being ruined by their display. They are more expensive but multiple copies may be made and shared.
I have just completed two personal photo books. Both of the books were printed by Apple directly from Apple's professional photography program Aperature 3. The product is shipped off electronically to Central Point Oregon and the books arrive in beautiful printed form in about a week.
There are other players in the photo book world besides Apple. Snapfish is a favorite vendor for my friend Tom who makes photo books of his light house quests. I see that Costco is also getting into the personal photobook business too.
Some books are hard bound and very large. My first one is of that nature. It is 23 pages of Glacier National Park in July. Some photos stretch across both pages. In this book because it is a photo/picture book without a significant amount of writing has no more than one photo per page. The second book that I made is a book that celebrates the various stops and attractions along the way. It is a much smaller book and it has some pages were two or more photos and considerably more text is used. I am going to make sure that all of those participants on the cruise will get a copy. It is softbound, smaller overall, and reflects more of the journey than the single subject Glacier Bay book affords.
I can hardly wait until the second book arrives. The Glacier Bay book I feel is a real success. After all our homes have only so much room for framed photos. Glacier Bay is truly a special place. Its magnificence can barely be shown in a book. I am hoping that the trip overall will be nicely annotated by the photo book.
Consider making a photo book with your latest trip photos.
: ) Pat
In the 60's we pulled out the Kodak carousel projector when we had people over for dinner and we needed some after dinner entertainment. Slides were loaded in and photos were shared. Pet peeves were blank spots in the carousel when the screen went blank. Some people got tired and feel asleep and snored loudly after the dinner meal. The slide show became a poor way to share your treasured memories.
Affordable hand held photography followed. The audience could look in a more intimate setting the photos to be shared. The media was still 35 mm or newly invented "disks" and hand held photo albums. The photographer could share photos in any light with a friend or two without getting out the projector and waiting until dark to share the memories.
Slide shows made a come back when web pages were designed.When I was making them, I even figured out a code to put multiple photos timed through the webto make a slide show. The audience needed to be sitting at a computer however to see the photos that were displayed along with the text. The computer got personal photography back to the setting of commentary with the photos as slide show and photo albums had done before. The computer screen took the place of the projector. The computer screen usually made this photography more intimate and user interactive. Now people use facebook or twitter to share their stories and photos instantaneously. The sagas are short and the photos are quick and often poorly formed.
Dad has been real good about framing my favorite travel photos. My Epson stylus photo 1800 does a great job of cranking out photos that are 13 by 19 inches. We have been rotating framed photos of our trip and it is really great to have these beauties on the wall. Not everyone has a lot of wall space or a good framer. Wall space and big framed photos is another mode to share your memories.
Along the continuum back around the horn, personal photo books are starting to bring back the element that the photo album had. Their advantage is that the photo books are usually edited and contain a printed story in parts that many photo albums were missing. Again we are morphing into the stand alone from the personal annotated works of the 80's and 90's. They can be fingered with photos not being ruined by their display. They are more expensive but multiple copies may be made and shared.
I have just completed two personal photo books. Both of the books were printed by Apple directly from Apple's professional photography program Aperature 3. The product is shipped off electronically to Central Point Oregon and the books arrive in beautiful printed form in about a week.
There are other players in the photo book world besides Apple. Snapfish is a favorite vendor for my friend Tom who makes photo books of his light house quests. I see that Costco is also getting into the personal photobook business too.
Some books are hard bound and very large. My first one is of that nature. It is 23 pages of Glacier National Park in July. Some photos stretch across both pages. In this book because it is a photo/picture book without a significant amount of writing has no more than one photo per page. The second book that I made is a book that celebrates the various stops and attractions along the way. It is a much smaller book and it has some pages were two or more photos and considerably more text is used. I am going to make sure that all of those participants on the cruise will get a copy. It is softbound, smaller overall, and reflects more of the journey than the single subject Glacier Bay book affords.
I can hardly wait until the second book arrives. The Glacier Bay book I feel is a real success. After all our homes have only so much room for framed photos. Glacier Bay is truly a special place. Its magnificence can barely be shown in a book. I am hoping that the trip overall will be nicely annotated by the photo book.
Consider making a photo book with your latest trip photos.
: ) Pat
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Flop.. Good for Sports?
I was listening to cry babies, a pod cast from This American Life. It highlighted the advent of the pro athlete version that has taken all of the sports by a storm. The flop.
In its most pure form and perhaps the originator of the flop comes from World Soccer. These injures or "fake injuries" help to slow down the play. The subject claims dramatic injury from a minor or no infraction. The sport of soccer has a way of dealing with this. Additional time is added to the end of the game when time is taken and cards are displayed. Cards are displayed for inappropriate play. It is still a theft of the audience time when half the team spends time withering in pain on the field of play.
This segment from This American Life cited that even baseball and Derek Jetter were not immune to such antics. Derek faked being hit by the pitcher to get on base for the New York Yankees. Vladi Devak, the 7 foot 1 inch former center for the Sacramento Kings and later the LA Lakers had perfected the flop and introduced it to the whole National Basketball League. Its inception was exasperated by a rule change that did not allow any hand checks in the game. Fear of the flop resulted in more passing in the game and more interesting play by outside shooters.
The flop in football is fairly prolific. The quarterback fakes the smash after the ball is thrown. The receivers and the corners play with the referees on pass interference. The ultimate flop is recorded for a punter that gets hit after kicking the ball. There is even an anti flop provision that would recall the play if the kicker intentionally flops.
So where is flop when you consider sportsmanship? Does it effect games? Is it fair to effect play with acting?
I really think overall the flop is cheapening the sports experience. I have no problem with good acting. It should however not be in sports. It should not slow the play or give unfair advantage to an athlete or a team who is beaten in the play and this is the only recourse to make it even. I think that in televised pro sports the flop is inappropriate.
In its most pure form and perhaps the originator of the flop comes from World Soccer. These injures or "fake injuries" help to slow down the play. The subject claims dramatic injury from a minor or no infraction. The sport of soccer has a way of dealing with this. Additional time is added to the end of the game when time is taken and cards are displayed. Cards are displayed for inappropriate play. It is still a theft of the audience time when half the team spends time withering in pain on the field of play.
This segment from This American Life cited that even baseball and Derek Jetter were not immune to such antics. Derek faked being hit by the pitcher to get on base for the New York Yankees. Vladi Devak, the 7 foot 1 inch former center for the Sacramento Kings and later the LA Lakers had perfected the flop and introduced it to the whole National Basketball League. Its inception was exasperated by a rule change that did not allow any hand checks in the game. Fear of the flop resulted in more passing in the game and more interesting play by outside shooters.
The flop in football is fairly prolific. The quarterback fakes the smash after the ball is thrown. The receivers and the corners play with the referees on pass interference. The ultimate flop is recorded for a punter that gets hit after kicking the ball. There is even an anti flop provision that would recall the play if the kicker intentionally flops.
So where is flop when you consider sportsmanship? Does it effect games? Is it fair to effect play with acting?
I really think overall the flop is cheapening the sports experience. I have no problem with good acting. It should however not be in sports. It should not slow the play or give unfair advantage to an athlete or a team who is beaten in the play and this is the only recourse to make it even. I think that in televised pro sports the flop is inappropriate.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Flight of Passage a book to read
I know you inveterate book readers will scoff at the idea that I have finished my fourth book since retirement. I must fully commit to a book to read it because so few get completed. They better be good and pretty easy to read.
Sue picked this gem out of the costco paperback group and it is one right down my alley. The book is Flight of Passage a memoir by Rinker Buck.
With a name like that you just have to read it. It happened in the same era that I went to high school, 1964-1968. Its flight occurred 1966. While there is a lot of flying in the story, there is really very limited technical jargon needed to understand the book,
The story is of the interaction of two high school aged boys with their father. Their father was a hyperbolic magazine editor and leader of many civil rights demonstrations. Their family was a large catholic family that lived in New Jersey and flew planes. The father lost a leg in an aviation accident. This shaped some of the experiences of the boys.
Rinker's older brother, was really the idealized pilot of the two. He is the good student, but lacked the social skills his younger bother possesses.
One summer after working the entire winter restoring an 85 horsepower piper cub, the two flew cross country in 6 days, from New Jersey to California. This book covers many of their experiences in this flight. At the time others claimed that they were the youngest pair to fly coast to coast. They had no radio in their plane and limited knowledge of how temperature and altitude could interact with their flight.
Its a very nice easy read.
: ) Pat
Sue picked this gem out of the costco paperback group and it is one right down my alley. The book is Flight of Passage a memoir by Rinker Buck.
With a name like that you just have to read it. It happened in the same era that I went to high school, 1964-1968. Its flight occurred 1966. While there is a lot of flying in the story, there is really very limited technical jargon needed to understand the book,
The story is of the interaction of two high school aged boys with their father. Their father was a hyperbolic magazine editor and leader of many civil rights demonstrations. Their family was a large catholic family that lived in New Jersey and flew planes. The father lost a leg in an aviation accident. This shaped some of the experiences of the boys.
Rinker's older brother, was really the idealized pilot of the two. He is the good student, but lacked the social skills his younger bother possesses.
One summer after working the entire winter restoring an 85 horsepower piper cub, the two flew cross country in 6 days, from New Jersey to California. This book covers many of their experiences in this flight. At the time others claimed that they were the youngest pair to fly coast to coast. They had no radio in their plane and limited knowledge of how temperature and altitude could interact with their flight.
Its a very nice easy read.
: ) Pat
Monday, August 30, 2010
Shrimp the New Tuna
It used to be that all cooks had a can of tuna around for emergency meals or to get fish in the diet once a week.
My experience was that tuna over toast was a regular growing up. I kind of drew the line on this when my creative mom decided to make it green for St. Pat's day.
Tuna dishes given way to the shrimp meal.
Tonight we had a shrimp meal. Starting with frozen 31-35 sized shrimp from costco, I let them thaw appropriately with a couple of changes of cool water. I dropped in a little olive oil and some butter, a couple shredded cloves of garlic, and some very dry sherry. As it heated up I chopped up some of dad's famous tomatoes and used a paper towel to soak up the juice. A half a fresh lemon went in just before the shrimp. Using a little bigger shrimp (the last of the previous package) we each had 8. I upped the shrimp to 10 (still a few too few) for each of us and sauteed them in the liquid. When they were done, I dropped in the chopped tomato and it was done!
The rice cooker was making the rice. The microwave was having a go at the small artichokes. It was a pretty good dinner out of just a little bit of nothing. That was what creamed tuna on toast was in my day.
For my part I will take the shrimp any day!
My experience was that tuna over toast was a regular growing up. I kind of drew the line on this when my creative mom decided to make it green for St. Pat's day.
Tuna dishes given way to the shrimp meal.
Tonight we had a shrimp meal. Starting with frozen 31-35 sized shrimp from costco, I let them thaw appropriately with a couple of changes of cool water. I dropped in a little olive oil and some butter, a couple shredded cloves of garlic, and some very dry sherry. As it heated up I chopped up some of dad's famous tomatoes and used a paper towel to soak up the juice. A half a fresh lemon went in just before the shrimp. Using a little bigger shrimp (the last of the previous package) we each had 8. I upped the shrimp to 10 (still a few too few) for each of us and sauteed them in the liquid. When they were done, I dropped in the chopped tomato and it was done!
The rice cooker was making the rice. The microwave was having a go at the small artichokes. It was a pretty good dinner out of just a little bit of nothing. That was what creamed tuna on toast was in my day.
For my part I will take the shrimp any day!
Friday, August 27, 2010
What can you pass down?
Last week when we were celebrating my birthday, Sean, Lindsay's husband asked me a question that made me pause and reflect a little.
His question was,"After 34 years of work, is there anything that you learned that you could pass down to others that could help them in their occupational journey?" You can see that I am paraphrasing a little here, but that is essentially the question.
It took me a moment to figure it out an answer. My answer was this:
Throughout your professional career you are looked upon for your professional advice. Throughout the beginning of the career you think that you are somewhat unsure of what you are doing. At the end of the your career you do not have these doubts. Professionally you are more self assured in your decisions. If you can lengthen the time that you felt professionally self assured you would fell more comfortable with your job.
That was my advice to Sean. Also, remember that not every pause in a conversation needs to be filled.
Best wishes to you and all of yours
Pat
His question was,"After 34 years of work, is there anything that you learned that you could pass down to others that could help them in their occupational journey?" You can see that I am paraphrasing a little here, but that is essentially the question.
It took me a moment to figure it out an answer. My answer was this:
Throughout your professional career you are looked upon for your professional advice. Throughout the beginning of the career you think that you are somewhat unsure of what you are doing. At the end of the your career you do not have these doubts. Professionally you are more self assured in your decisions. If you can lengthen the time that you felt professionally self assured you would fell more comfortable with your job.
That was my advice to Sean. Also, remember that not every pause in a conversation needs to be filled.
Best wishes to you and all of yours
Pat
Iphone and Netflix a great pair
Good news for Iphone users and Netfix users! I tried it out today and it really works!
Here is a short review that an apple company in Vermont, Small Dog.com put out in its mail review:
After months of silence following its announcement at the iPhone 4 keynote, Netflix for iPhone has finally landed. Coincidentally, its arrival came less than 24 hours after I posted an article on Barkings regarding its whereabouts.
The entire experience had an uncanny quality to it, and I couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out upon seeing it in the App Store the next morning. Now if only iOS 4.1 would come out and make my iPhone 3G usable again…
But I digress. Though the app was not released in the timeliest of fashions, Netflix clearly took the extra time to fix bugs. While performance is somewhat slow on the iPhone 3G (what isn’t lately?) 3Gs and iPhone 4 users have been reporting smooth and snappy experiences. The app is entirely oriented around Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature as opposed to DVD searching and queue management.
The app’s home screen offers suggestions based on your existing viewing or rating history, and a shortcut button to resume your last viewed video where you left off. You can also browse titles by genre or perform a manual search. The app also provides subscribers with access to their Instant Queue and allows titles found within the app to be added to it. Similar to other platforms featuring Netflix streaming capabilities, the app saves your location within a video, and allows you to resume playback where you left off, even on a different device.
Though this app is essentially the same as what iPad owners have been enjoying for months, it is a very big deal for iPhone and iPod touch users. The ability to stream over 3G is a huge perk placing a vast library of titles at your fingertips nearly anywhere you go. All in all, Netflix for iPhone is a very solid app and an absolute must have for Netflix subscribing iOS device users.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)