After an inauspicious exit in 2009, Brian Wilson is back on Twitter. When did this glorious event occur?
To be precise, Feb 2. I didn’t find out about it until yesterday, March 2nd – when I investigated who Charlie Sheen is following.
Good to have Brian back and currently tweeting shout-outs to area codes and developing Twitter relationships with other crazy guys.
Simply, MLB wants to add a staffer tasked with watching every single contest of the 2011 season. Here’s the pitch:
I don’t have half the drive nor the passion for this. However, I’m deeply interested in how this plays out.
The most interesting bullet points in the job responsibilities:
Location on display, perhaps MLB? As an NYer, that would be well worth strolling by on occasion to see this person living the dream in action – say during a Kansas City-Baltimore double-header in mid-August.
I applaud anyone with the fan fortitude just to fill out the application. Good luck, baseball lunatics.
Wow Mr. Met, what a mischievous grin you have across your face…
That’s not the Mets dark new approach to promoting their Holiday Three Game Pick-A-Pack. It’s fiction, perhaps created by the guys behind The Apple, probably the funniest (maybe the only) satirical Mets blog out there. I wonder what Matt Cerrone thinks about this holiday message.
Seriously though, who’d want to blow up Citi Field? Their tacos are delicious.
(Video ℅ Darren Rovell)
This is probably more for the benefit of music fans who like the eclectic brand of indie music coming out of San Fran than for a Giants fans. Still, it’s cool and for a good cause.
To keep commemorating the World Series, a group of San Fran-based bands and record label True Panther have put together a victory mix called Finally Champions. It features mostly unreleased tracks with , such as Giants Defiance by Vinnie Rat, Finally Champions by Dominant Legs, and Book It by Ezeetiger & The Sound Guys – a group I could see Brian Wilson subscribing to for his pregame relaxation mix.
Heed that ‘Donate $1′ button, and donate a buck to the SF Coalition On Homelessness.
(via Stereogum)
I’m not going to lie. I was indeed looking for the truly sensationalized to post this April Fools Day. What I ended up finding – on my old stand-by for the startling, ebay – is equal parts nostalgic and…heartless?
This is not an April Fools joke.
Those dastardly auctioneers, Memory Lane Inc., are selling Thurman Munson’s pilot license for the buy it now price of $16,500.
OK. Thurman Munson died in a plane crash in 1979, at age 32 as the captain of the Yankees. He was baseball’s Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I’m not so much sickened that someone’s trying to make a buck off this (maybe because of my coarse hatred of the Yankees), but this is pretty atrocious.
True geek alert #199: If you type Mark McGwire into your Google search, this is what shows up…
I think we’re going to be able to add ‘Mark McGwire and crying’ real soon.
At the moment, when you type Mark Mcgwire cr…Creatine is prompted before crying; I searched for Mark Mcgwire on Google, ask me anything.
The payoff to all this nonsense…hilarity.
I bet you thought that was going to be all legitimate, what with the AP chyron in there, right? Wrong again. To make up for it with something informative on the matter, check out SportsRadioInterviews.com’s post of Dave Henderson’s, former Mcgwire teammate with the A’s, interview today with ESPN 101 in St Louis:
Take it from someone who peruses frequently – there is never a shortage of asinine behavior happening on the sporting goods and sports memorabilia listings on Ebay. Take for instance, this joker, who’d ideally like you to pay $14 million dollars for an autographed pair of A-rod turf spikes. Or, if that’s too rich for your wallet, there’s a guy in Dallas who will sell you a two-field baseball complex for the Ebay buy-it-now price of $425,000.
Not far down the list from those featured items, you’ll find a serviceman from Fort Bragg, NC who, for the all-in price of $50,000 will sell you his arm - specifically, the space on it to buy advertising. This may well fit the profile of yet another dimwitted attempt at auctioneering, but at least hear this guy out…
I am trying to sell space on my arm, the complete and full arm. I have been having some small financial issues and I am really in need of some funds to help out my family and eliminate a few debts that have accumulated. My vehicle is running into the ground and I don’t make enough nor do I have the credit to just get one and start new. Please take this into consideration when reviewing this listing. I travel alot because of my job and I see many many people in many different places all over the country. But what I’m trying to accomplish here is to just raise a little money to help out my wife and my son with a little better of a life other than living from paycheck to paycheck every month.
The buy it now is what I’m asking for the entire arm covered in your own personal art advertising your business. This is what I wish to obtain for the entire arm, total. So if you want the entire arm then we are gonna have to talk along the BUY IT NOW price. If you don’t want the entire arm, but just a portion of my arm, then email with any questions and we can quite possibly work something out about certain areas. The only thing that I ask is for you to be respectful, I WILL NOT TATTOO ANYTHING THAT IS RACIST, GANG RELATED, OR COMPLETELY DISRESPECTFUL TO INDIVIDUALS OR ANY NATION ESPECIALLY OURS. I am in the Army and I do have regulations that I have to adhere by, also being in the Army allows for mass advertisement. Every time someone you know gets new ink it is always the talk of the town. Please if you are interested send me a message and we will talk about specifics. Thank you and happy bidding or buying.
The only other hard facts we know about this guy is that the person who posted this, presumably his wife, goes by armywife8606 – and she’s received a 100% customer satisfaction rating on ebay. That, and the $50,000 is pretty much nonnegotiable if you want the whole arm, but if you only want quote: “a certain measurement of your logo to be plastered on my skin” he’s willing to discuss pricing.
I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around this guy’s desperation. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s sincere in his extreme measures – assuming such, doesn’t $50,000 for a permanent advertisement seem a little low? This is the age-old problem with buying online and ebay specifically, it’s hard to get the full-story on what you’re bidding on.
This is probably as good an example of a misuse of an e-commerce website as someone trying to sell a baseball diamond. And unfortunately, I believe that the likelihood of arm ads getting sold online is as likely as someone shilling out $15 million for that lipstick wearer’s turf shoes. Still, I won’t call your methods asinine, armywife8606′s husband. Weird, clearly. But regardless, whatever your situation I hope things start looking up for you and your family, and you can take your forearm off ebay.
A team of crack geniuses from the blog No Mas produced an animated short about the no-hitter that Dock Ellis threw while trippin’ on acid. The audio is taken from an interview Ellis conducted with writer Donnell Alexander.
100 H/Tees to my man @AsilentFlute for sending this to me, because it is just so great.
One time I covered first base, and I caught the ball and tagged the base all in one motion. I said, “OOH, I just made a touchdown.”
If the title of this post in anyway comes off as a slight of Gene Autry, or his prowess as a baseball man, then I apologize, and concede to it being cheap humor at that.*
The OC Register and AP report that Gene Autry is amongst this year’s candidates for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former and original owner of the Angels is part of a special “executives and pioneers” ballot that includes several other team owners as well.
Autry bought the expansion Angels in 1960, persuaded to do so by the management who were impressed by him buying the exclusive radio rights to the team. The OC Register’s Angels blog writes:
Autry was the Angels’ owner from the franchise’s inception in 1961 until his death in 1998, bringing many star players to Anaheim with his willingness to spend (particularly in the early years of free agency) — but only three division titles and no World Series appearances in that time.
The results of the Angels blog poll question: “Should Autry be in the Hall of Fame” are falling resoundingly in his favor.
Autry also served as Vice President of the Amercian League from ’82 until he died. In ’92, the Angels retired the #26 in his honor – baseball teams keep a 25-man roster, I think you can figure out why they gave Autry 26.
A 12 person committee of Hall of Famers, baseball writers and current and former executives will vote on the nominees, and the results will be released on Dec. 7. Separate voting and different committees decide the players’ and coaches’ ballots. Funny how it took Gene Autry for me to bother to figure out how Hall-of-Fame voting is decided.
*That disclaimer seemed necessary, given the wide readership of metalheads on this site.
(some information found via Wikipedia)
Depressed about the prevailing of evil last night? Suggesting cockamamie like: the Phillies should have pulled Pedro with an 0-2 count on Matsui in third? Well, it gets worse.
Before you go into your no-good Yankee-loving boss’s office and try to shatter him by asserting that rooting for that organization lowers him as a businessman, you should unfortunately know that the Yankees haven’t been operating under the commonly failed business practices that some of us assumed all along.
David Goldman, of CNNMoney.com and loyal Red Sox fan, reluctantly reports this morning that the Yankees ran one of the most efficient operations in the league this year:
Adding up the dollars and cents. Applying a Society of Baseball Research metric, the Yankees were actually more efficient with their payroll this past season than were the hapless cross-town Mets, Cleveland Indians and basement-dwelling Washington Nationals.
The World Champs were only slightly less thrifty with their salaries than the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals, all of whom missed the playoffs.
By those calculations, the Yankees paid $3.2 million per “marginal victory.” That’s nearly twice as efficient as the Mets, who only won 70 games despite their $149 million payroll and paid $5.8 million per marginal victory.
In addition, a rough estimate of the team’s revenue in 2009 shows the Yankees cashed in on their success more than any other team. Multiply the number of people coming to games by the average ticket price ($73),and the Yankees took in about $270 million this season, or $69 million more than they shelled out for their payroll.
Sigh. However, if you’re a New Yorker and a Yankee hater – the pinnacle of the unbiased majority in this debate, right? – take solace in an undeniable fact. What primarily helped the Yankees develop this business model are the ticket, food, and merch sales contained within that billion dollar stadium. And, if the stadium doesn’t get built, the Yankees wouldn’t be able to leverage the astronomical price mark up of those items. And if the government subsidies for the stadium that came down don’t, then the stadium don’t get built. Whether you’re a Yankee fan or not, if you’re a New Yorker you’re unwillingly paying down that grant money, and in turn fueling the stadium funds that helped pay player salaries and the luxury taxes attached to those salaries.
And, as Goldman points out, it’s a sad reality and it’s working – but on paper, in no less evil of a fashion than before.
