| |
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Tillman Killed by Friendly Fire
This makes it a bit more tragic, but it does not diminish his sacrifice. Anybody care to bet that the moonbats will be barking?
Don't take the bet. It's already happening.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
The Greatest Minnesota Twin of All Time
It's a pretty good field among the hitters--Killebrew, who won many home run championships versus Puckett, who got lots of hits versus Carew who won many batting average titles, plus guys like Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek and Gary Gaetti.
The pitchers don't stand out on this team quite as much. Jim Kaat got 189 wins, but the only other guys over 100 are Blyleven (149), Perry (128) Radke (116) and Viola (112).
Let's take Killebrew, Puckett and Carew as the best players. They are currently the only members of the Hall of Fame based mostly on their performance as Twins. Carew has the highest batting average at .334, while Puckett hit.318 and Killebrew only .260. Despite this, Killebrew was by far the best offensive player of the three. He knocked in and scored a total of 2372 runs, over 200 more than Puckett and almost 700 more than Carew. Much of that was due to his incredible power (475 career homers).
The Faces of the Enemy
If you recognize any of these people, contact law enforcement immediately!
Hat Tip: Rambling's Journal
Not Anti-War, Just Anti-American
Best of the Web Today points us to this letter from a Sherry Franzen of Eugene Oregon (6th letter down).
In response to Tabitha Perkins (letters, May 11) encouraging us to tie a yellow ribbon to support the troops no matter how one feels about the war, and to everyone else of like mind: I do not support the troops who are willing to kill for their government, for the money it pays, for the education they may receive later - if they make it home alive with their brains intact - or any patriotism they claim to represent. A yellow ribbon should denote cowardice in the case of welcoming these people home.
I say tie a blood-red ribbon on your arm, ...to show support for those willing to save blood for worthy endeavors.
Yes, Sherry, why don't you tie that blood red ribbon on your arm nice and tight. Don't worry, the tingling sensation will go away eventually.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The Greatest Chicago White Sox Player of All Time
The pitchers are basically Ted Lyons and Red Faber. Lyons had 260 wins, while Faber had 254. But Faber did much better overall--17 fewer losses in his career, a lower ERA, fewer hits and 1/2 the home runs allowed, a few more walks, but far more strikeouts. Faber must clearly be considered the class of the White Sox pitchers.
Among the hitters, Luke Appling had the most games, with Nellie Fox and Frank Thomas behind him. Thomas has passed Fox in runs scored and will probably pass Appling this season. Thomas also holds a rather ridiculous lead over those two with 418 round-trippers compared to a combined 80 combined between Appling and Fox. Not surprisingly, Thomas is way out in front among Pale Hosers in RBI, leading Appling by almost 200 and everybody else by 400.
So it's Faber or Thomas. A complicating factor is that Thomas is still playing, so he has the opportunity to add to his totals. You have to go with Thomas, who has frequently been compared to the greatest sluggers of all time. Red Faber is in the Hall of Fame, but Thomas will get there.
What's This Blog All About?
I was thinking about this on the way home from work this evening. If this blog has had any central theme, it's about heroes, and I use the term somewhat loosely. Sometimes I'm talking about real heroes like Brian Chontosh or Pat Tillman and sometimes I'm talking about sports "heroes" and sometimes I'm talking about superheroes like Batman (yes, I know he's not "super") and the Flash. I got some attention in the blogosphere on the Pat Tillman issue, particularly for the Ted Rall Unemployment Project, but it was just an oddball synthesis of four things I talk about constantly on this blog--sports, comics, politics and the war.
I will probably be covering the war a little less, although I will try to continue to find good stories of the heroes in uniform. Blackfive and Marine Corps Moms do a great job.
I'll continue the Greatest Player in the History of Every Team series later tonight. I haven't decided about doing other sports than baseball. I'm really only qualified at that and football, and football I suspect I'd just end up picking the best quarterbacks of all time for each franchise.
I'll probably start doing more posts on comic books, although it will be mostly comic book history. I have been reading a lot of the very old Batman stories lately thanks to abpc, to the point where I feel like more of an expert on the subject.
Monday, May 24, 2004
A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Fortunately Not Near Here....
Uberblogger and hardcore conservative AlGoreSucksEvenIfHeDidSaveOurAssesOn9-11 revealed today that Libertarians had arguably cost George Bush the Election. Consider:
Florida: As we all know, Florida barely went for Gore on the 17th recount by a mere 27 votes. However, if Libertarians had voted Republican at only a 55%-45% margin, Bush would have won Florida by 1500 votes.
Oregon: Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne got 14,000 votes between them; Bush would have needed about 11,000 or about 79% of those votes to go his way to have stolen seven electoral votes from Gore.
New Mexico: Gore won by a mere 366 votes out of almost 600,000 cast. If Bush had gotten 60% of the libertarians to vote for him instead of Gore, Bush would have won five more electoral votes.
Wisconsin: Buchanan and Browne combined for 18,000 votes; Bush lost by 5,700. If Bush had gotten 2/3rds of those voters, he would have beaten Gore.
Yes, folks, if it hadn't been for those damn libertarians (and Pat Buchanan), Bush would not only have been president the last few years, but he would have won handily.
At this point, operatives from the FBI, moving under authority from the Patriot Act, arrested the proprietor of AlGoreSucks... FBI Head Janet Reno credited alert local librarians with assembling the case against the website operator...
Sunday, May 23, 2004
The Greatest Player in the History of the Cincinnati Reds
Lots of good players. The pitching crop is a little thin, with Eppa Rixey leading the way with 173 wins. Lots of guys who were good for awhile, but nobody who was good for long.
The hitters are much more impressive. Pete Rose had 3,358 hits, 601 doubles and scored 1,741 runs as a Red. Johnny Bench played great defense at catcher and hit 389 homers and had 1,376 RBI. Despite the apparent advantage to Rose, Bench was a far superior offensive player. Rose consumed 7,861 outs in his career while Bench used up only 5,854. If we just look at (Runs + RBI)/Out, Rose is at .353 while Bench is at .421. Bench was a significantly better offensive player per out consumed than Rose, and of course defensively there was no comparison.
Barry Larkin must be considered very close with almost 200 more runs scored than Bench, and 200 more hits. But Bench whips him in the power stats with almost 200 more homers and over 450 more RBI.
Ragtime Author Gets Ragged
E. L. Doctorow, who wrote one very famous book about 30 years ago, decided to use the occasion of a college graduation speech to deliver a rant on the Iraq War and President Bush. Apparently it did not go over well.
Booing that came mainly from the crowd in the stands became so intense that Doctorow stopped speaking at one point, showing no emotion as he stood silently and listened to the jeers. Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz intervened, and called on the audience to allow him to finish. He did, although some booing persisted.
They bring up the Chris Hedges speech from last year, at which I believe the power was cut off from the microphone. I covered that speech here and here.
The Greatest Cleveland Indian of All Time
The Indians have been around since the inception of the American League in 1901; despite their longevity as a franchise, their hitting records are remarkably mundane. Terry Turner played the most games, with 1619. Earl Averill scored the most runs with 1154. Nap Lajoie leads in hits with 2,046. Jim Thome hit the most homers with 334; second place belongs to Albert Belle with 242. The RBI title is held by Averill with 1084.
The pitching records are rather more impressive. Feller leads the way in wins, with 266; clearly absent his service in WWII he'd be over 300. Mel Harder (223) and Bob Lemon (207) are the only ones even close.
|
|
