I don't know whether I should be encouraged or frightened by the fact that the President and I have the same final four (in my non-risky bracket):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/18/March-Madness-At-the-White-House/

Here's hoping we both win big so Jay Kelly can get demolished in our bracket pool. YES WE CAN!

Only one thing on my mind today:



In Tomlin we trust.

All the Risk Managers in the house say "HOOOOO!"



BEAT MICHIGAN.

I hadn't heard the words "Alberta Clipper" in a while before the dulcet tones of Ben Gelber told me about one coming this way Monday. Yeah, the high for Monday is 42 with a chance of snow. Jigga What?

Be careful what you wish for during all those years you spend in the South going "I actually miss the winter."

Speaking of things I miss, remember when the Buckeyes didn't crap the bed in every single important game? There's only one more game that matters this season, and I'm not optimistic at this point. If OSU loses to this god-awful Michigan team, I'm considering moving. Again. That's mostly because I'm tired of nobody wanting to go out on Saturday night after the Buckeyes lose in primetime in embarrassing fashion.

Bring on the Canadian winter storms. I'm ready to grow a beard again.

Wait, Chuck Klosterman is writing something (short) about baseball? Count me in.

http://www.esquire.com/features/chuck-klostermans-america/baseball-klosterman-0908?src=rss


I'm in Cleveland until Friday. Place your bets in the comments on whether or not Hatgas big times me again.

Usually when I post a link about fighting in Ohio, it involves Youngstown. Not this time, however:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2008-07-20-crew-west-ham-friendly_N.htm

That's right, it's the fightin...Columbusites? Columbians? Columbusts? I grew up there and I have no idea what "we" should be called. Those of you who have been to a Crew game probably know the "hooligans" that are involved here. We used to buy tickets for the South end of the stadium because they were cheaper, then walk over and sit on the North side behind these guys while they led tasteful chants for Dante Washington like:

"He's big! He's black! He leads the Crew attack! Dantaaaaay! Dantaaaaay!"

This was when I was in high school, before the Blue Jackets arrived. At that time soccer was the only professional game in town, and these 100 guys were the biggest Crew fans there were. They all have towels with their names and a specific number on them. I'm guessing it some kind of fan power ranking or something. Who knows? I hope they still have "Buck a Brat" night at the Crew Stadium, though.

No matter what, the British will think twice before they come back to Central Ohio.

There's a lot about the Pirates, and baseball in general, that I would like to use this space to write about, but really, it's not exactly the place for it. I know it gets a little annoying for 99% of you to be reading about dudes playing baseball for a "professional" team that you definitely don't follow, so I've decided to pack up my Pirates-related thoughts and move them across town.

From now on, I'll be setting up shop here: InClemente Weather. You can visit it on the regular to get updates on all things baseball as seen through the delicate prism that is my mind.

I'm not planning on slacking here, so don't worry, this is still the first place to go for updates on 30 Rock and all things Pat Manning.

For those of you who have not yet heard, MLB commissioned someone to design and build replica statues of liberty to be placed around New York City for this year's All-Star Game, which is being played at Yankee Stadium in its final year before the new Yankee Stadium opens.

Don't get me wrong. I love baseball. I love New York, and like any good American (pronounced "Ah-murr-can"), I love the Statue of Liberty. Most teams have classic colors and logos, but these are the most god-awful things I've ever seen:

http://shop.mlb.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3149639&cp=2811795&view=all

The only one I don't hate is the Yankee team one halfway down the page on the right-hand side. The ONLY one. The Pirates' one is terrible, all of the Mets' ones are disgusting, and there are many, many others that should just be locked away in a warehouse somewhere. Too strong? Perhaps, but you can't deny they're pretty awful.

First off, thanks to those of you who have already donated to my Race for the Cure collection:

http://race.komennorthtexas.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1020&px=1223653

However, I upped my goal to $200 thanks to the generosity of viewers like you, and now I'm $35 short going into the race on Saturday. If you could find some extra change lying around, and would like to support a very worthy cause, I'd welcome your donations. Thanks!

Secondly, I thought about putting some coherent thoughts together on the Penguins' season and tragic loss last night, so close to forcing a Game 7 and another chance to bring home Lord Stanley's Cup. Unfortunately, I'm fried at work and cant think of much to say other than that the Red Wings were clearly the better team (as they were all season). They executed brilliantly on defense, and it took a lot of guts for the Pens to even muster the offense they were able to. Detroit played about as well as I've seen a Cup winner play in a long time, and they had the Pens dead to rights after Game 2, so I'm proud of our boys for coming back and taking it to six games.

I got quite attached to this team as the season went along. Ray Shero did a FANTASTIC job putting the team together, and I hope they manage to retain a good portion of Hossa, Malone, and others that are free agents, but I guess we'll have to see what happens. Either way, good on the Pens for playing hard throughout the year, especially in the playoffs, and I hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship, so to speak.

Ain't nothing like overtime hockey in the playoffs. I was putting on my running shoes towards the end of the third period, planning on exercising out my unhappiness with the Penguins when Max Talbot decided to extend my evening and the Penguins' season. Once the game went to overtime, I knew the best hope for the Pens was MAF making two saves for every one that Osgood had to make, and hoping that something crazy happened on the crappy ice in OT.

Lo and behold, Fleury got peppered for 58 shots, came up huge in the extra periods, and Sykora called his shot with the 3-OT game-winning PPG. Fantastic. I know it's still really, really unlikely that they'll win The Cup, but at least the Pens are still alive and headed back to Pittsburgh for Game Six. Let's go Pens!

Your friend and mine, Josh Wilker, posted the other day his all-time Mets lineup on Cardboard Gods:

http://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/archives/996724.html

That of course got me thinking about who the all-time Pirates lineup should be, and in trying to figure it out, I realized that there have really been some excellent players that have come through the Pirates' organization. Too bad none of them were pitchers. I realize no one except maybe youngstownpride will care about this, but I'd rather not be working right now, and I heart baseball. Anyway, according to Josh's criteria (8 starting positions, 1 right-handed starter, 1 left-handed starter, 1 reliever, and 1 wild card) here is my all-time Pirates lineup:

C - Manny Sanguillen
1B - Willie Stargell
2B - Bill Mazeroski
3B - Pie Traynor
SS - Honus Wagner
LF - Barry Bonds
CF - Max Carey
RF - Roberto Clemente

RHP - Vern Law
LHP - John Candelaria
RP - Kent Tekulve

Wild Card - Paul Waner

I'm somewhat cheating, since Stargell played most of his games in left field and not at first, but whatever, I couldn't leave him off the team. Kiner loses out to Bonds because Bonds won two MVPs in 1990 and 1992 (and he should have in 1991 as well), though Kiner put up great numbers. I couldn't leave Waner off to make Kiner the wild card. Tekulve over Elroy Face was also hard; I chose Tekulve because his best was better than Face's best, and he was the only one of the two to get Cy Young votes. I also own a shirt with Tekulve on it. No one knows who Max "Scoop" Carey is because he played almost a century ago, but he's in the Hall of Fame, and was at least moderately better than Lloyd Waner. The starting pitchers are much less than the quality you'd see for other franchises, but at least there's two guys nicknamed "Deacon" and "The Candy Man" involved.

Aren't you glad you read that?

EDIT: B raised a comment about Andy Van Slyke, so I decided to revise this lineup to only include the best players from my lifetime. Since the Pirates have been terrible for most of that time, it should be pretty easy. Here goes:

C: Jason Kendall
1B: Willie Stargell
2B: Johnny Ray
3B: Bobby Bonilla
SS: Jack Wilson
LF: Barry Bonds
CF: Andy Van Slyke
RF: Dave Parker

RHP: Doug Drabek
LHP: John Candelaria
RP: Kent Tekulve

Wild Card - Jason Bay

It's been a really crappy work week. I actually had a gruesome dream the other night that my boss's boss (the President of the company) and various others in his employ were trying to kill me. I bolted out of bed at 5:30am and gave up on any effort to fall back asleep before I had to go to the gym.

Anyway, I saw this on CNN and it was interesting enough to provide a little pre-lunch sunshine, so I thought I'd share:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/22/scope.project/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Tomorrow brings one of my favorite weekends of the year, the annual "JCU and Me" Memorial Day excursion with most of my good friends from college. Sadly, our usual location, the "luxurious" Pennellwood Resort is no longer in existence thanks in part to an overwhelming fox problem, so this will be our first year at Punderson State Park in Geauga County, OH. Luckily, the name spawned something minimally clever enough to fit the name scheme, which is apparently based on the "Look Who's Talking" movie series:

2004: JCU and Me
2005: JCU and Me Too
2006: JCU and Me Three Times a Lady
2007: JCU and Me Four the Memories
2008: JCU and Me 5: Punder and Lightning

This is all by way of saying I'll be gone all weekend, so I wouldn't expect to hear from me until at least Tuesday.

My only regret about this weekend is that I will not be able to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and probably Game 2, as I'll be airborne on Monday night. Let's hope the Pens can steal a game or two at the Joe. Sidney Crosby was on Mike & Mike this morning, and they asked him what advice Mario Lemieux has given him about playing for the Stanley Cup since Sid the Kid lives with Mario and his family during the season, and Crosby said that they haven't talked about it at all. My theory is that it's because they're always too busy trying to beat Grand Theft Auto IV. I mean, Crosby's 20, so he has to play video games, and he has to be doing it at Mario's house at least some of the time. I'd argue that two of the best hockey players ever occasionally play video games together, and that's awesome. Alright, I'm rambling.

Enjoy the holiday weekend, everyone. Let's go Pens!

A hefty amount of time and energy has been spent discussing the "Spygate" scandal involving the New England Patriots' taping of opponents' signals during games and the subsequent fallout after they were caught doing it against the Jets last year (those of you unfamiliar with this can crawl out of your caves and catch up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spygate). It was even incorporated into a South Park episode. Obviously, as a Steelers fan, the Patriots have been responsible for some of the more disappointing defeats of my Steeler-watching career, and so although I have perhaps more of a vested interest than most other NFL fans, I've neglected to spend much time thinking about it.

But, now that Matt Walsh, the former Patriots employee responsible for at least some of the videotaping of opponent's signals during the Belichick reign of terror has met with the NFL and turned over some of the tapes from his tenure with the team, it's difficult for me not to be a little pissed off about it. One of the games Matt Walsh taped was the 2002 AFC Championship Game, in which the New England Patriots surprisingly defeated the favored Steelers in Pittsburgh, which gave them an opportunity to win the first of their three Super Bowls against the Rams and start their "dynasty." (Information on that game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_playoffs%2C_2001-02#AFC:_New_England_Patriots_24.2C_Pittsburgh_Steelers_17)

I understand that taping signals was a practice that was probably done by other teams, possibly even including the Steelers, but the Patriots are the only ones to get caught doing it, and (to my knowledge) the only ones whose cheating has been corroborated by actual video tapes. I have several problems with the taping of this game in particular:

1. The guys on ESPN this morning were talking about how Belichick said that they only taped divisional opponents in the regular season because they knew they'd play those teams regularly. Obviously, Pittsburgh and New England are not in the same division (though they do play each other somewhat regularly), so I don't buy that.
2. This is also obviously not a regular season game, and though the Steelers and the Patriots played each other in Week 1 of the following season, as most football fans know, the schedule for the upcoming season is not announced until well after the Super Bowl, so there was no way the Patriots could have known they'd be playing the Steelers to start the following season (the AFC North and the AFC South were paired together in 2002, not the AFC East). This leads me to another point:
3. Belichick has also said that the tapes were never used for halftime adjustments. Well, then riddle me this: Why else would you tape an opponent's signals in a crucial playoff game when you had no guarantee that you would be playing them the following year? Doesn't it seem a lot more likely that you would be doing it so you could tell your team at halftime what to expect in the second half? Again, I don't buy it.

I don't actually care that much about this, but the fact that no one is talking about how this was done in a game that decided who went to the Super Bowl is a little off-putting. I remember that game fairly well, as I was at home in Columbus that weekend, and had to drive back up to school all pissed off that the Steelers had blown it to a team with Drew Bledsoe doing most of the work (remember, Brady got hurt in the first half). If you read the recap of the game, you'll know that Kordell Stewart threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter to seal the Patriots' victory. Those could have resulted from him being a bad quarterback (which he was), or the Pats could have had a little video help. I don't really know the answer to that, but it does bother me that one of the games which decided who gets to play in the most important sporting event of the year could have been at least partially determined by the fact that one of the teams was cheating.

When this story broke, everyone was up in arms wondering whether or not the Patriots cheated in any of their Super Bowl wins (or their loss, which is nice to mention), and how big a deal it would be for the NFL if they were found to have cheated. I realize this is less of a big deal, but it can't be that much less. It's just one step down the ladder, but all I hear is how the issue is basically closed unless someone can provide something that shows they cheated during the Super Bowl wins. As a Steelers fan, it bugs me, but I'll get over it.

Now if we could just find evidence that Larry Brown and Neil O'Donnell were in cahoots with each other in Super Bowl XXX, I'd be happy to move on from that.

When the Pirates fired Dave Littlefield last year after almost seven seasons of complete ineptitude, an understated descriptor of my reaction would be to say that I was "relieved." I realize that the Pirates, like the other smaller-market teams, have a more difficult path to the playoffs than their free-spending brethren in New York and Boston, but I am not among those who believe that small-market teams can't compete for championships (see last year's Indians team for an example).

The challenge is to do it the right way, to focus on scouting and development, as well as shrewd evaluation and sound business practice when deciding whether or not to sign/draft/release a particular player. It goes without saying that over the last 15 (losing) years, the Pirates have failed disastrously in all those areas.

So, when Neil Huntington was plucked from the Inidans' organization to be the Pirates' new GM, I at least felt somewhat optimistic about the chances for the Pirates to improve in the relatively near future. The reason I felt that way was not because I knew a lot about him, but I did know that the Indians have been on the leading edge (along with the Red Sox) of the "new" style of baseball analysis, which incorporates a lot more (and much, much better) statistics. This all started with Bill James back in the 1970s, but has begun to gain much more steam over the last decade thanks to the internet, and the availability of quite a bit of game data going back well into the 1900s.

Though a wonderful sport regardless, baseball in particular has always been preoccupied with statistics and records. I can't tell you how many touchdown passes Jerry Rice caught in his career, but I can tell you that Willie Mays hit 660 home runs and made 20 all-star teams, and that Clemente hit .414 in the 1971 World Series with a 1.211 OPS. This is by way of saying that with baseball in particular, because the sample sizes are so large after a 162-game season, there is a great deal of "new-school" fan preoccupation with statistics and other evaluative tools, because we like to know as much as possible about the game. For us, it contributes to the enjoyment.

There is tension, however, with the "old-school" baseball writers and fans, who have disdain for statistics because they frequently fly in the face of conventional wisdom. It's difficult to cling to ideas like a player being "clutch," when someone like Alex Rodriguez (who the CV says is decidedly not clutch) hits .333/.460/.678 with runners in scoring position last year. Some complain that paying attention to the numbers makes things less interesting, because in statistics, given a large enough sample size, things will most likely even out, and they almost always do in most statistical categories.

The lesson of baseball is obvious and trivial: every player has only a certain amount of skill. Those skills can be measured with statistics, but that makes for a boring story. People want to believe that baseball players are capable of success at any moment, and that by really trying (or not trying), they can succeed (or fail) greatly. It's the American dream played out on grass in the middle of summer, who wouldn't want to feel that way?

I in no way want to invalidate the fantasy involved in baseball (not to be confused with fantasy baseball); it's part of why I love the game so much. However, I do think it's interesting to know how and why one player is better suited for his job than another, mostly because I want my team to win. I think that information would also be particularly valuable to the men who write their million dollar contracts, and that's why I think the work being done to constantly come up with better ways to quantify and measure their performance is interesting. That's why I was pleased to know that this happened (scroll to the bottom under "And Now for Something Completely Different):

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7380

This is exactly the type of people that the Pirates should be hiring, because God knows they haven't been able to evaluate anyone effectively over the last fifteen years. Scouts are very valuable, but if you don't quantify their opinions with statistics and other evaluative tools, you basically have just the opinion of some old guy who wishes everyone played like DiMaggio.

Hopefully this is a trend, and though it will take much more to get me optimistic about this year's team, I at least feel better about the future of the organization, and I can't say I've felt that way in a while.

Anyone who is not already familiar with the blog Fire Joe Morgan, feast your eyes, because this is exactly why I love reading this every day. Also, I like to make fun of people:

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/04/stand-back-and-watch-pros-blog.html

Also, the guy who posts as "Ken Tremendous" is a producer for The Office, as well as the guy who occasionally plays Mose Schrute. Yep, this guy:

This off-season more than others, I've been drowning myself in all things baseball in preparation for tomorrow. This immersion in America's game is definitely not Pirates-centric, mostly because they've been so incredibly futile for the last 15 years. I'm sure at some point I'll talk myself into thinking that the Pirates can do something constructive this year, but it hasn't happened yet.

One of the blogs I've come across in my travels is Cardboard Gods, which has less to do with baseball than you might think. He basically tells various stories from his life, while loosely relating them to an old baseball player via his collection of cards.

As an example, here's his entry for Willie Stargell, which has helped ensure that I read this blog as soon as it's updated:

http://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/archives/609915.html

omainnin and shetheliving might be the only people interested in this, but I think it's a good way to spend 3 minutes or so every couple days.

In a shocking but welcomed turn of events, I have the following to report to the people of Ohio:

I will be in Columbus on Friday, 3/21 through the following Wednesday, 3/26.

Why, you might ask? Well, my company is opening new offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh in the next two months. In typical fashion, they've decided to jump in head-first with little prior planning and/or strategy in order to get these offices open as soon as possible. This is of course evidenced by the fact that I'm being sent to open the offices in Columbus and Cincinnati on 3/24 and 3/25, respectively. At least my boss was nice enough to suggest that I be flown out on Friday so I could spend the weekend with my family. It's not quite Cleveland for St. Patrick's Day, but Columbus for Easter isn't so bad, right?

So, if you happen to be reading this and reside in Central Ohio, and you're at least moderately interested in meeting up next weekend, let me know.

In other news, I spent some of last night with this guy:



The L.A. Galaxy and FC Dallas played a charity match last night, and someone came up with the bright idea to go and gaze upon the public spectacle that is David Beckham. The game itself was fairly boring; they ended up playing to a 0 - 0 tie, but it was interesting to watch all the flashbulbs go off in the ends of the stadium every time "Becks" had a corner kick to bend. Also, I ate a pretzel.

Not much else to report before tomorrow, when I get drunk at lunch and deny it all afternoon. Enjoy your brackets, hoez.

When I left NYC on Thursday morning, the temperature was roughly 15 degrees.

When I got back to Texas about four hours later, it was about 35 degrees. Not bad for January.

Right now, it's 70 degrees. I'm putting away my Christmas decorations today and it's 70 degrees. Bizarre.

Yesterday evening I went to the grocery store to replenish the shrinking supplies here at the apartment. I had a good time listening to various inappropriate rap songs on my new iPod while the other shoppers were entertained by holiday music. My first three were "Doggy Dogg World," "Big Pimpin'," and "What's Your Fantasy?" Three songs that I don't think will be making it on to Kroger's store playlist anytime soon.

I think there's a collective shrug being performed by Steeler fans right now regarding tonight's playoff game with the Jaguars. Since Aaron Smith and Willie Parker are both hurt, and the team's played like crap the last four weeks, I think expectations for playoff success are uncharacteristically low this year. My sister, aunt, and cousin are going to the game tonight, since they were not able to go to the first Jacksonville game, so maybe that will help inspire a win. I have to admit, my own expectations for this team are pretty low, considering the injuries, the opponent, and the fact that first-year coaches don't often (if ever) find playoff success. I guess stranger things have happened, but it admittedly doesn't look good for the black and gold.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Well, we've officially entered the Christmas season, with the passing of my 27th birthday (Tuesday, for those of you who don't care about me), and the end of the school semester. Now all I have to do is drop a bunch of money for Christmas on the people who were kind enough to love on me on Tuesday. Justin Timberlake coasters for all of you!

Speaking of Tuesday, I did not get lit up as some of you would hope and/or expect, but I did enjoy a handful of adult beverages in Denton with some of my co-workers and assorted members of their cliques. We had beer and food at this place called The Green House, which would be nice to go back to if it wasn't 20 minutes away. We were there until about 10:30, and then went to another bar where I proceeded to play "Bump 'n Grind," "Grillz," and "Juicy" on the jukebox while the entirely white crowd gasped in horror, having expected something more similar to Hoobastank. We drank some more and threw darts for a while and told stories about stupid things that we've done. I ended up getting home around 1am, which I guess isn't too bad for a Tuesday night.

I've got four hours of tutoring on the agenda this weekend, then it's another short week of work before I go home Thursday evening. I'm trying to see people as much as I can, but bear with me, as I don't want to short my family on their share. I'm such a giver.

Anybody want to place a bet on whether or not any of the Pirates will be named in the Mitchell Report today? Given their performance the last 15 years, I'd say if any of those guys are on steroids, the effectiveness of those drugs needs re-evaluated.

Seriously? That was pathetic. I know the field was in horrible shape, and the weather sucked, but seriously?! A 3-0 win on a field goal with 17 seconds left, I can't believe that. How awful. At least it still counts as a win.