Grit: not just a measure of athletic prowess anymore

I was reading The Boston Globe's endorsements (today is the Boston mayoral election in which Tom Menino, the 16-year incumbent, will stand for an unprecedented fifth* term; there are also several city council and local races) and came across this tidbit I could not resist sharing. With a nostalgic nod to the glory days of FJM:

[The Globe urges] readers in Newton to support Ruth Balser for mayor. Currently a state representative, Balser has shown a commitment to her community and much-needed grit.

Emphasis on grit added.

*I like Menino well enough. Having recently moved out of the Hub I no longer have a horse in this race but the very idea of five terms in office is an insult to the ideals of good government.

I mean it's not like the most powerful federal legislative body can stay in office for life, right? That would be absurd.

Fare Thee Well, FireJoeMorgan

It's a sad, sad day. FireJoeMorgan.com is closing up shop. Since 2005 this has been one of my favorite blogs. Aside from my friends' blogs (which I'm obligated to follow, despite content highly variable in frequency, quality, logic, and entertainment value) this has been a must-read for three years now. During baseball season, FJM's weekly breakdown of Joe Morgan's ESPN chats were the ultimate in sports meta-criticism; the innumerable other posts on broadcaster and sportswriter idiocy were just as enjoyable. The crew at FJM demonstrated a passion for baseball rivaled only by their admiration for logic, rationality, data, and facts to back up (or more often, refute) claims made by people paid ridiculous sums of money to expound upon sports incorrectly for the common man.

I can only hope that they will reconsider, or find another outlet for their dedication, panache, joie de vivre, and limitless other foreign catchphrases that deserve italicized font.

RIP FJM April 2005 - November 2008

Good Luck Next Year(s), Mets Fans!

Via FJM.

On his first full day as the Mets' long-term manager, Manuel forcefully attacked the SABR-type mathematical analysis some have fixated on in recent years.

"You get so many statistical people together, they put so many stats on paper, and they say, well, if you do this and you score this many runs, you do that many times, you'll be in the playoffs," he said.

"That's not really how it works, and that's what we have to get away from. And that's going to have to be a different mind-set of the team in going forward. We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people. We have to win because we have baseball players that know and can understand the game."

Stats & logic, we hardly knew ye.

Addendum: Yes, chezmrhe.com is just an RSS reader for your FJM subscription!

Would you care to rephrase that, Mr. Stairs?

From, of course, FJM.

Home Runs = Rally-killers!

Via FJM.

"That's a good play," Cooper said of Berkman's decision to bunt with the third baseman playing him deep. "That's a baseball player's play. It's a nice job. We need baserunners. If you hit a ball out of a ballpark, I call them rally-killers when you get down like that. We need to keep a rally going, and that was a nice play to me."

I mean really. This is getting to be ridiculous. It's one thing to say a well-executed bunt when the 3rd baseman is giving it to you is a free base hit and thus a good play (even Big Papi's done this a couple times) but it is a world of difference to say that it was a better play than an MF home run! "When we are down by several runs the last thing we need is the single most effective run-producing play in the game!"

Also I like how said bunt was a "baseball player's play" as opposed to, say, a line drive, home run, fly out, or strikeout, which are basketball, bocce, jai alai, and curling player's plays, respectively.

There's been some great stuff over there recently. JoeChats etc. Check it out.

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Now I'm off to enjoy this gorgeous day. Trying to figure out what to take to the park...methinks The Great Shame is a bit heavy for this afternoon.

Beware all A. Rods.

I don't believe in ghosts, curses, or old souls.

But - this is pretty redonk.

Coming via a layup excoriation from FJM.

Wares, Various & Sundry

• If you had told me before yesterday's game that Beckett would fan 13(!) and only allow 2 runs (1 earned) over 7 IP, I would not expect that the Sox would go on to lose 3-zip. Swept by the G-damn [Devil] Rays. Grim. Back home tomorrow to offset this 5-game losing streak.
• Next time you have some bacon lying around, put it on top of your onion bagel smothered with cream cheese. It will change your life, and make Monday morning immeasurably better.
• I got a hit from someone in Cali searching for "joe chat 2008." This makes me very happy.
  

First JoeChat of the Season: Anticlimactic

Not gonna lie: I've been itching for the first JoeChat of the season to be torn asunder as only Ken Tremendous can do it. But this installment was very disappointing. Hopefully Joe's a bit rusty coming out of Spring Training and he'll get back into the zone over the next couple weeks.

Also: Tonight at 8:05 EST on ESPN it's the World Champion Boston Red Sox vs. the MF New York Yankees! Dice-K vs. Hughes! Multiple Emmy-winning Sports Analyst Joe Morgan in the booth! Amusing sound bytes for all! Exclamation point(s)!!!

GoSox,
MRhé

Tremendous job, Ken.

A tremendous piece of sports criticism criticism from Ken Tremendous over at FJM. An excerpt on why Boston is the Hub of the Sports Universe presently:

[T]he NE Patriots are about to play in their fourth Super Bowl in seven years, and feature a quarterback who is somehow handsomer at the end of each game than he was at the beginning; the Boston Red Sox have won two of the last four World Serieses; the Boston Celtics are 33-6; and also there is a hockey team.

Fire Joe Morgan

Ken Tremendous et alia need your help.

Cast your vote today!

Support Sports Criticism Criticism!

If you are a reader of FJM (which you should be) then you need to go here and vote for Ken Tremendous et al.

F. Joe Morgan!

(The "F" stands for "Fire.")

Idiocy Is Fun!

Wow. After a couple weeks of lackluster chats, Joe knocks it out of the park with this one (as does the ever-insightful Ken Tremendous with his thoughtful critique). Joe reaches new lows in using meaningless baseball clichés, equivocation, general lack of committing to any real opinion and, as per usual, as close to zero actual analysis as one can expect from the multiple Emmy award-winning number one baseball analyst on the number one sports television network in the country.

From Joe:

"this OPS stuff they do."

My laughter almost made me lachrymose. Enjoy.

What Do You Think About x? x is x!

Sweet Jiminy Christmas, Grady's at it again - my favorite baseball platitude!

What do you think of baseball player Russell Martin? He's a baseball player.

Amazing.