1880 was so long ago, the mound was 45 feet from the plate.jose melendez said:
Pedro's adjusted ERA+ in 2000 was 291 second best ever, best since Tim Keefe in 1880.
1880 was so long ago, the mound was 45 feet from the plate.jose melendez said:
Pedro's adjusted ERA+ in 2000 was 291 second best ever, best since Tim Keefe in 1880.
Sure, but ERA+ adjusts by comparing him to the league.joyofsox said:1880 was so long ago, the mound was 45 feet from the plate.
curly2 said:A-freakin-men. This is great, except for maybe the P.S.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/pedro-martinez-letter-to-clayton-kershaw/
It helps that Ryan and Greenwald have been friends since they were kids, I guess. Their podcast is pretty entertaining, and I've been a fan of Greenwald's writing for way longer than I'd like to admit.NatetheGreat said:
I like Andy Greenwald and Wesley Morris a lot. I think they're two of the better critics in their respective mediums. Chris Connelly is pretty good on the podcasts.
Chris Ryan is...fine. Never says anything that memorable, but he and Greenwald bounce off each other reasonably well.
Molly Lambert is awful.
curly2 said:A-freakin-men. This is great, except for maybe the P.S.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/pedro-martinez-letter-to-clayton-kershaw/
The Social Chair said:http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-dead-ball-century-mlb-baseball-playoffs-john-thorn-mlb-historian-baseball-decline-articles/
Enjoyed this piece on the history of "baseball is dead"
Thanks to “Thunderstruck” and “Moneytalks,” this became the most successful AC/DC album since Back in Black. But I have an alternate, completely unsubstantiated theory for explaining why The Razors Edgewas a hit, and it centers on Julia Roberts playing a prostitute in a starmaking romantic comedy six months before the album was released.
The Pre-’90s Country Album: Back in Black (1980)
A.k.a. the first AC/DC album after Bon Scott died and Brian Johnson took over. A.k.a. the only AC/DC album that moms like. In the semi-decent biography AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, there’s an unsourced aside about how it’s commonplace for Nashville recording engineers to check the acoustics of Music Row studios by blasting Back in Black. I have no idea if that’s true, but this is part of the public record: Lange followedBack in Black by producing a bunch of blockbusters for Def Leppard, and then in the ’90s he hooked up (professionally and personally) with Shania Twain, ushering in country as the new arena rock. Since then, Back in Black has become a totem for every country singer with vaguely “edgy” rock aspirations. (For modern country artists, Angus Young overshadowed Faron Young long ago.) I swear I’ve heard at least one song from Back in Black playing over the PA before every big-time country concert I’ve ever attended. Not once was it “Givin’ the Dog a Bone,” which should never be played publicly anywhere, even in animal shelters.
Did Harbaugh have a legitimate gripe? Yes and no. There’s nothing illegal about what the Patriots were doing. Running unbalanced lines, moving blockers around a formation, and confusing a defense is all legal, and given the importance of the moment, this was a great time to unleash something confusing. At the same time, defenses are supposed to have the right to make substitutions if the offense makes a late change, with the umpire standing over the football until the defense has had the opportunity to substitute accordingly.
The loophole in that logic comes from the fact that the Patriots really weren’t making mass subs; they were replacing Kline, an offensive lineman, with a skill position player, Hoomanawanui, and then repositioning their skill position players in ways that were deliberately confusing to the defense. The Patriots weren’t technically doing anything illegal, because the rulebook doesn’t account for a change in receiver eligibility, even if the spirit of the law would seem to suggest that the Ravens should have had more of a chance to identify the Patriots’ formation. I suspect that the league will quietly tell the Patriots to cut that out and make an according change to the rulebook this offseason. I also suspect the Ravens will probably not find that to be a satisfying conclusion.1 I can’t fault the Patriots for employing the tactic, but if you thought it had the faint whiff of some tactic you’d see playing Madden online, I wouldn’t disagree.
"There’s a possibility that, in terms of winning percentage, Fox might be the most successful head coach since the AFL-NFL merger to get fired.I went through the coaching history at Pro-Football-Reference.com and tried to identify coaches who were similar to Fox, guys who were wildly successful in a brief stretch before leaving. Virtually all were coaches who retired or left of their own accord. Among post-merger coaches who spent at least 40 games with their organization, Fox has one of the best win-loss records of all time:"
When we talk about the best Super Bowl halftime shows of the modern era, we tend to dwell on legacy acts that seized the moment to make a grand gesture (U2 in 2002), to exhibit face-melting musical ability (Prince in 2007), or to stage a ridiculous, one-of-a-kind spectacle (Madonna in 2012).
drleather2001 said:Even his first sentence sucks.
He names one of each "type" of legacy act. He could just have said, "U2, Prince, and Madonna had some of the most talked about shows." But he tries to draw some conclusion about 'what makes a special performance' based on those acts, when the first two were totally unique performances, which is why we talk about them.
Also, why was Madonna's spectacle "ridiculous" and unique? Wasn't that type of show pretty standard fare (albeit updated) for the 1990s?
Cellar-Door said:I accidentally started reading this: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/courtney-barnett-writes-all-the-best-songs/
without realizing it was Steven Hyden.
The first two paragraphs may be the worst two paragraphs ever written about music for public consumption. EVER.
She’s like a journalist embedded in her own life
Although WAR reveals that Pierre and Dunn were equally valuable to their teams, their teams weren’t equally generous to them. From a financial perspective, it was far better to be Dunn, who retired with $112.7 million in career earnings, almost twice Pierre’s $57.1 million take. When economist Matt Swartz studied spending on free agents in the Hardball Times Annual 2013, he found that defense, baserunning, and contact were all undervalued skills, and that walks weren’t, which helps explains the disparity. More’s the pity for Pierre. On the other hand, WAR reveals that Dunn and Pierre were both lucky to be as well known as they were; given that an average player amasses roughly two WAR in a single full season, Dunn’s and Pierre’s career totals aren’t particularly impressive. As Bill James once wrote, “Specialists and players who do two or three things well are overrated; players who do several things well are underrated.” Dunn’s power and walk rate and Pierre’s contact skills and speed made them more visible than the more well-rounded (but less eye-catching) recent retiree Mark Ellis, who produced far more WAR in far less playing time.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
Ugh. I hate writers who think that they're clever.
Hyden has two problems:
1. He is not Chuck Klosterman
2. He does not get out of his own way
One of these problems can be solved.
Steven Hyden is a staff writer at Grantland. He is currently writing a book on pop-music rivalries.
JBill said:Thought this was a great, tightly written piece about Rembert meeting Obama right before Selma, and getting the chance to ask one question.
http://grantland.com/features/barack-obama-selma-50th-anniversary/
Of late, as always...I'll forgive the typo.Skeesix said:I would note that Charles Pierce has been on fire of late.
Kliq said:I don't know if Bill greenlights all the Entertainment stuff, but how, how is this an article that gets written: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/merkin-pubic-wig-hollywood-rooney-mara-patricia-arquette-evan-rachel-wood-kate-winslet-heidi-klum/
A good “bad” album is a record that falls short aesthetically (the songs are subpar, the production is ineffectual, and the overall product is uninspired) but is nonetheless entertaining and even enlightening as a portrait of an artist working through a crisis...
"Initially, I devised the good “bad” albums theory in reference to the Rolling Stones. (1976’s Black and Blue is my favorite good “bad” album ever.)"
Here’s the thing about “Kokomo”: You can’t defend it, but you can’t hate it, either. Hating “Kokomo” is like hating Hawaiian Shirt Day at the senior’s center. It’s good, clean fun designed to distract the populace from impending death
I have to respectfully disagree. To me, the first five words justified Kliq’s reaction:Cellar-Door said:
It was pretty well written, what's the issue?
Right, but the conclusion put forward an argument that was not supported--at all--by the content of the column. An analogy:Tartan said:The ending is no a non-sequitur; it's a reference to earlier in the article when it mentioned that the Egyptians pioneered the art of completely shaving one's pubes, It ties in nicely to the ending quote about shaving one's pubes completely to wear a merkin. Not the most elegant ending, but as articles about pube wigs go it'll do the job.
Christ, I didn't expect to be writing these words tonight.