Bumgarner won't be Keuchel, I don't think, because of the World Series stats. They're insane: 5 games, 36 IP, 14 H(!), 0.25 ERA, 0.528 WHIP. In 5 games and 36 IP, he's allowed one earned run—a HR to Salvador Perez in the bottom of the 7th of Game 1 of the 2014 WS. He's LDS and LCS #s aren't great (ERAs > 4.00) but the Series stuff is insane, and he's got the rep as a big game pitcher. Teams will pay for that.
With the double caveat that 1) this falls under 'being the end of really bad things' and 2) is somewhat morbid, but the announcement that Bin Laden had been killed has to be up there. Extra points for the baseball tie in. Even though I'm no fan of the Phillies, I'll always remember that game and the crowd's reaction when the news filtered around.
Say whatever you will about Boras, but the man is good at his job. He definitely misreads the market for some of his lower-tier clients (Moustakas, Keuchel, maybe even JDM) but he's been a godsend for guys like Eric Hosmer who had no right getting paid as he did. I suspect that Cole and Rendon will both break records this winter. But JD Martinez and Keuchel will have a tough time again.
Coming up with big good news items that were not the end of something or sports, and in Joe's lifetime, is hard. It used to happen all the time: cure for smallpox, cure for polio, inventions of the light bulb and the wireless, the Wright Brothers' flight. But since 1966? I'm having difficulty coming up with anything. Maybe the announcement of Live Aid in 1985. I'm sure that can be topped.
The cure for smallpox & polio were the end of something bad.
I'd say the invention of the internet has - mostly for good - changed the world significantly. But it wasn't an aha! moment like the moon landing; rather it just slowly entered into popular consciousness.
Good point on the diseases. I tried to think of something Internet-related that was news, but couldn't come up with anything. It went from being an academic project to a consumer product so gradually over about a ten-year period (1990-2000).
But there were a few items that were very good news for me and people like me...
- The release of XMosaic in 1993 was I think the single biggest event in Internet history other than its initial approved grant proposal. I was already using Internet stuff at school like crazy, and then things exploded with the first graphical web browser.
- Then the release of Netscape for Unix, then Java for Unix, then these programs for home computers (I ran them on my Mac IIsi!) in 1994-1995 were also huge good news events.
- Next would probably be the release of 33.6k modems. I don't recall the exact year, 1996 I think?
- And then DSL and finally cable modems.
- Maybe the release of Microsoft's Internet Exploder, which was probably the main event in getting Windows people on the Internet.
Things the whole country loved in the last 50 years? Here are some thoughts. (Note that people's minds may have changed, but when these things occurred they were beloved)
(1) Michael Jackson moonwalking on Motown 25
(2) Whitney Houston singing the Star Spangled Banner
(3) Johnny Carson's second to last show (the one with Bette Midler)
(4) The first season or two of the Cosby Show
(5) Mary Lou Retton and/or Kerri Strug winning gold
(6) Mark McGwire hitting 70 homers
(7) Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker
(8) Cabbage Patch Kids
(9) We Are The World
(10) Fernandomania
(11) Michael Phelps (especially that relay where they won by .01)
I don't think any of the sports related things apply, with the possible exception of the Olympics (although I'm not sure on it either). Far too much of the population has no interest in sports whatsoever. The Super Bowl is always the highest rated event, and even it only gets about a third of the population to tune in.
Scott Boras is the devil, and he represents everything I detest about the salary structure in MLB. There has been too much money going to the wrong people (and yeah, the owners were very complicit in this). And I wish I hadn’t read this piece, because I now feel very nauseous.
Dropped somehow. Well, back in. Just in time for Browns season.
BTW. Not sure Bumgarner’s crying about all this. He seems to measure himself by a different standard than one with your attention.
How so?
Bumgarner won't be Keuchel, I don't think, because of the World Series stats. They're insane: 5 games, 36 IP, 14 H(!), 0.25 ERA, 0.528 WHIP. In 5 games and 36 IP, he's allowed one earned run—a HR to Salvador Perez in the bottom of the 7th of Game 1 of the 2014 WS. He's LDS and LCS #s aren't great (ERAs > 4.00) but the Series stuff is insane, and he's got the rep as a big game pitcher. Teams will pay for that.
The Berlin Wall falling. Has this been forgotten?
With the double caveat that 1) this falls under 'being the end of really bad things' and 2) is somewhat morbid, but the announcement that Bin Laden had been killed has to be up there. Extra points for the baseball tie in. Even though I'm no fan of the Phillies, I'll always remember that game and the crowd's reaction when the news filtered around.
Say whatever you will about Boras, but the man is good at his job. He definitely misreads the market for some of his lower-tier clients (Moustakas, Keuchel, maybe even JDM) but he's been a godsend for guys like Eric Hosmer who had no right getting paid as he did. I suspect that Cole and Rendon will both break records this winter. But JD Martinez and Keuchel will have a tough time again.
Coming up with big good news items that were not the end of something or sports, and in Joe's lifetime, is hard. It used to happen all the time: cure for smallpox, cure for polio, inventions of the light bulb and the wireless, the Wright Brothers' flight. But since 1966? I'm having difficulty coming up with anything. Maybe the announcement of Live Aid in 1985. I'm sure that can be topped.
The cure for smallpox & polio were the end of something bad.
I'd say the invention of the internet has - mostly for good - changed the world significantly. But it wasn't an aha! moment like the moon landing; rather it just slowly entered into popular consciousness.
Good point on the diseases. I tried to think of something Internet-related that was news, but couldn't come up with anything. It went from being an academic project to a consumer product so gradually over about a ten-year period (1990-2000).
But there were a few items that were very good news for me and people like me...
- The release of XMosaic in 1993 was I think the single biggest event in Internet history other than its initial approved grant proposal. I was already using Internet stuff at school like crazy, and then things exploded with the first graphical web browser.
- Then the release of Netscape for Unix, then Java for Unix, then these programs for home computers (I ran them on my Mac IIsi!) in 1994-1995 were also huge good news events.
- Next would probably be the release of 33.6k modems. I don't recall the exact year, 1996 I think?
- And then DSL and finally cable modems.
- Maybe the release of Microsoft's Internet Exploder, which was probably the main event in getting Windows people on the Internet.
Charles and Di's wedding? The Dream Team? Obama's election (I know: not for those who voted against him)?
Things the whole country loved in the last 50 years? Here are some thoughts. (Note that people's minds may have changed, but when these things occurred they were beloved)
(1) Michael Jackson moonwalking on Motown 25
(2) Whitney Houston singing the Star Spangled Banner
(3) Johnny Carson's second to last show (the one with Bette Midler)
(4) The first season or two of the Cosby Show
(5) Mary Lou Retton and/or Kerri Strug winning gold
(6) Mark McGwire hitting 70 homers
(7) Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker
(8) Cabbage Patch Kids
(9) We Are The World
(10) Fernandomania
(11) Michael Phelps (especially that relay where they won by .01)
(12) Hamilton
(13) Pac Man
I don't think any of the sports related things apply, with the possible exception of the Olympics (although I'm not sure on it either). Far too much of the population has no interest in sports whatsoever. The Super Bowl is always the highest rated event, and even it only gets about a third of the population to tune in.
I would revise #6. Some of us (and surely all Cubs fans) were rooting for Sammy Sosa instead. So it should probably be "Sosa vs McGwire in 1998".
Scott Boras is the devil, and he represents everything I detest about the salary structure in MLB. There has been too much money going to the wrong people (and yeah, the owners were very complicit in this). And I wish I hadn’t read this piece, because I now feel very nauseous.
If you are suggesting that the players are the "wrong people" in this scenario, I'd argue that feeling nauseous is getting off easy.
I think you completely misunderstood me. Everything about the process of doling out ridiculous contracts makes me nauseous, no one excluded.
The money is there. It's going in some split to the players and the owners. It isn't going away.
No kidding. Too bad I can’t afford to take my family to a game anymore.
Yep. And that is because enough other people are willing to pay those prices.
We landed on the moon? WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!!