Wednesday April 14, 2004
QUICK TAKES
Good morning! Well, it wasn't intentional, but like the Twins, their AAA Rochester team and their AA New Britain team yesterday, I am going to take a day off (Rochester and New Britain were both rained out last night.). The Reason? Well, I sat down on the couch at 7:30 last night to watch the President's speech to the nation. I've got to admit, I fell asleep within about 2 minutes. I woke up 2 hours and 45 minutes later, about 10:15, flipped the channel to ESPN where they went to a Live look at Barry Bonds. I rubbed my eyes and watched Bonds' 7th inning at bat against Ben Ford. In that at bat, he hit a shot well into McCovey Cove for his 661st home run, one more than his godfather, Willie Mays. That was pretty cool to see!
Now , I think it would be in my best interest to go to bed and sleep, otherwise I will be unable to get back to sleep! Don't you hate that? You get home from work, take a quick nap, get up, and by the time you want to actually go to sleep, you can't sleep for like two hours? So, because I am being a bum and taking a day off (Hey, even my man Peter Gammons takes an occasional day off, right?), I want to be sure to give you just a couple of links to check out today.
First, check out this article on MSN call Baseblogs, by Josh Levin. In it, he discusses baseball blogs and the kinds of information that you can find in them. I think it's pretty cool because my name and this site are mentioned in it with a link. (So, if you happened to come to this site today through that link, please know that I do write new stuff Monday through Friday's, some weekends. So be sure to come back again, ok?) Anyway, that was a very interesting article, so be sure to check it out.
Do you want some good comical reading? Check out Mike Carminiti's article called The Uncertain Glory of an April Joe Morgan Chat.
Star Tribune Baseball Insider Jim Souhan writes today about the parity in baseball. It's funny because I was just having a conversation with someone at work on Monday about this very topic. The Yankees and Red Sox outspend everyone by so much that the rest of the teams seem to compete against each other, rather than worry about what those two teams are doing. So, they are making what they deem to be smart baseball decisions, and it has created this parity in the game. Is that a good thing? I'm not so sure. I certainly don't think it is a bad thing. Baseball will become like the NFL, where a bad team can become a good team in just a year's time period. Now, that said, it is still too early in the season to make any assumptions about teams like the Tigers and Devil Rays, but if they're still competing in July and August, we may have to take another look at this topic.
Garrett Anderson signed a four year, $48 million extension yesterday. Everyone thought that after his MVP performance in last year's All-Star game and winning the Home Run Derby, Anderson would become more popular. But he remains one of the most underappreciated hitters in baseball. He doesn't walk much, but hits around .300 with around 30 homers and over 100 RBI every year.
With the Anderson signing and the offseason signings of Vlad Guerrero, Jose Guillen, Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar, the Angels are showing a willingness to spend money to win. Arte Moreno is their owner, and I have written about him before on this site. He was in the booth talking with the ESPN crew last night when Guerrero hit a long two-run homer. He seems like such a quiet, down-to-earth guy who just gets it. He understands that ticket prices have to be reasonable. He understands that they have to market themselves to make people want to cheer for them. He realizes that you have to reach the kids too because they can be fans for a long time. Arte Moreno just gets it. Makes you wish that Twins owner Carl Pohlad would understand the importance of having the public on your side!
And finally, Ryan Maus has been frequent contributor to some of the Discussion Questions on this site. He just started a new Twins blog called Twins Chatter: A Better Way for Twins Fans. He calls it "Your source for insightful, thoughtful, and somewhat opinionated Minnesota Twins coverage. "Hey battabattabatta SWING!" So, add that site to your bookmarks.
Don't forget that the Minnesota Timberwolves will play at least their third "Biggest Game in Franchise History" tonight when the travel to play the Memphis Grizzlies. As I mentioned yesterday, the scenario is this: Wolves win... they earn the #1 seed in the Western Conference. If they lose and the San Antonio Spurs win, the Wolves will drop to the #3 seed heading in the playoffs. I just have a feeling that they will come to ready to play!
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, in his weblog, discussed the NBA's decision to disallow a rebound, taking away the Hawks' Bob Sura's third consecutive triple-double. Personally, I think that what Sura did was cheap, but I don't think they should be able to say he did not get that rebound.
Cuban also has an entry on the stock market that is very interesting. It discusses how he made his money and then how he made it grow.
And on that note, it is time for me to sleep! I invite any questions or comments you may have about this site, about baseball, about fantasy sports, about basketball, about me, about anything... by simply clicking here to e-mail me.
I hope you have a wonderful day! Be sure to check out the Archives to see what I choose to write about.