peter

Fantasy baseball advice for those who ask.

Vick takes class in respect for animals

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Yahoo! Sports

The course was given by PETA, the funloving group of animal lovers who abjure publicity. Dan Shannon, PETA publicist said: “We made it clear to [Vick] that this was something he needed to try to get something out of. We weren’t interested in some kind of PR ploy.”

The source for this story is clearly PETA, which isn’t a problem. Just funny.

Funloving, funny, prone to show pictures of slaughtered animals. It doesn’t quite add up. I agree with PETA about our need to recognize when we’re hurting animals. As a society we’ve shunted the abatoir into the shadows. We eat meat, but we don’t often think about what that means, for the dead meat or us.

PETA is constantly finding ways to dramatize what it means for us humans and the animals we like to eat (or fight) because Ingrid Newkirk and Dan Shannon are most excellent PR people who are putting their passion to their skills. This story about Vick is part of that practice, and it doesn’t bother me at all.

Not until they start messing with my local cockfight.

Still Waking Up

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Baseball Musings

I spent some time yesterday reading accounts of the final play in the Padres-Rockies playoff and talking to friends, trying to reconcile the various strands. For instance, mightn’t Brian Giles’ looping throw been an indication that he didn’t think Holliday would run with no outs? Certainly Holliday shouldn’t have.

David Pinto seems to have done the same thing and his explanation is similar to what I’d worked out.

Colorado v. San Diego Playoff

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The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Boxscore

Peavy versus Fogg? What are the odds?

I didn’t see the first seven innings, so I’ll leave them to others. What was clear is that the pitchers who had nothing got shelled, but the rest did okay. So, Julio and Hoffman are the villians.

In the end, an excellent baseball game. And what’s the rule about catcher interference?

NOTE: The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.

I think Holliday wins, even as he eats dirt.

Play Like the Pros: And in the end… – Fantasy Baseball

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ESPN

One of the roto writing highlights this year was Nando DiFino’s Play Like the Pros column at ESPN. Given the task of covering the stultifying business of expert league waiver claims he found wit and insight by the barrelfuls. The season’s last entry is a compilation of what the rest of us had to say about our mostly miserable seasons.  Not as witty or insightful perhaps, but a measure of what some of us think made or broke our teams this year.

Race for NL Batting Title Goes to Extras

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Newsvine

This story has a concise rundown of the major records for this year, but it’s notable for some other comments. Chipper Jones says he’s going home to prepare for a nice postseason, a funny choice of words for a guy who should be used to playing in the postseason.

Also, to say that “Detroit’s Curtis Granderson legged out 23 triples, most in the major leagues since Cleveland’s Dale Mitchell had 23 in 1949,” ignores the fact that 23 and 23 are the same. When did someone have 24 triples? The correct sentence would be: Detroit’s Curtis Granderson legged out 23 triples, most in the majors since Pittsburgh’s Kiki Cuyler hit 26 in 1925 (Cleveland’s Dale Mitchell had 23 in 1949).

Of the Top 25 triples totals only Granderson, Mitchell and Stuffy Stirnweiss (1945, NYA) rank from the post World War II era.

Probables

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Major League Baseball : Scoreboard

I was in a bar tonight having a beer with someone I’d just meant. He said that his father was rolling in his grave while the Mets faded, and you can see why. A collapse befitting the Cubs has befallen the Mets and I never realized how many die  hard Mets fans I knew.

Apart from the historic size of the crash, which is unprecedented, the stinging moment comes when one recalls how the “easy” Mets schedule in September would allow them to wrap things up  early.

Recent  history is no tonic for a Mets fan, but in this weekend’s matchups the Mets pitcher has a better ERA than every Marlin pitcher, and each Philly pitcher has a worse ERA than the Nationals pitcher he’s facing.

That isn’t a guarantee that my new friend’s dead dad can lie easy, baseball doesn’t work that way, but despite their recent travails I still like the Mets. (Just as I did when I got Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda’s autographs on the LIRR Mr. Met Whistle Stop Tour, nearly a lifetime ago.)

It’s Not Getting Any Ethier

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Bleed Cubbie Blue

I believe this story, which is why I’m linking to it. I’m not sure how much it matters, but I feel it does.

My experience with ballplayers is that they feel very privileged, which major league players are, and protected, which they usually are, that all the inhumanity that falls on them erupts in surprising ways.

Surprising because you can’t predict who is going to blow.

Assuming the facts are right, Ethier was an asshole. I know from watching queues of autograph seekers that ballplayers have good reason to be suspicious of every aspect of them.

I’m don’t have a solution. I guess players who can figure out when they’re being exploited and resist it will do better than those who mindlessly conform. But the player who does best of all is the one who presents a solid facade, gives what’s asked, but can recognize a scheme.

In any case, as fans we’d like ballplayers to be real people. My advice, if you want that, is to go watch Cape Cod League games.

Once they get on treadmill, only the most extraordinary are going to show human characteristics. At last admirable ones.