Archive for September 29th, 2023

Firings watch.

Friday, September 29th, 2023

The baseball season’s ending, and we all know what’s coming: the ceremonial throwing out of managers.

The San Francisco Giants started today: Gabe Kapler out. SF Chronicle.

In nearly four seasons with the Giants, Kapler went 295-248, and overall, between the Giants and Phillies, he put up a 456-411 record.

The big problem seems to be that the Giants pretty much fell apart:

The Giants were still in the hunt for a playoff spot entering the month but are 8-17 in September going into their final series and have been outscored by 47 runs. They’ve been horrendous on the road in the second half, losing 28 of their final 34 games away from Oracle Park, and the offense peaked in June and tailed off dramatically — San Francisco is second to last in the league in scoring, with 668 runs, has the third-worst on-base percentage (.314) and the worst OPS (.699).

Sort of on the margin for sports firings (and from ESPN, who I have a high barrier for), but I’ll allow it: an oral history of Lane Kiffin’s legendary “tarmac firing” (which really wasn’t) from USC.

I’m allowing this because there’s a couple of quotes that struck me:

Kiffin
It’s 5 a.m. The sun’s getting ready to come up. I’m sitting in the backyard, and I said to my wife, “When I go to bed, I don’t want to wake up.” She’s got a little more perspective, and she said, “You have three children upstairs. Don’t ever say that again.”

Men: marry that kind of woman.

Kiffin
I saw a podcast the other day on the rapper Macklemore, and he’s talking about, he’s winning the Grammy. He’s on stage. He’s got everything. And he’s not fulfilled. And later, he’s in rehab. He’s making coffee in the morning for people. He’s serving others. And he says, “I felt more fulfilled doing that than when I was on stage.”

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: September 29, 2023.

Friday, September 29th, 2023

Dianne Feinstein. NYT. LAT. WP.

NYT obit for Michael Gambon.

This doesn’t quite qualify as an obit, but I don’t have any place else to put it (other than a separate entry, which I’d rather not do) and I feel like it is close enough for government work. The Las Vegas Police department has made an arrest in a 27-year old cold case.

Las Vegas police have arrested a man in the deadly 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, a long-awaited break in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago.

But:

…the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. They were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an expected indictment later Friday.

The other point that I think should be made: an arrest is one thing. A conviction is another. More from the tabloid of record.

Edited to add: A two-pack (see what I did there?) of additional coverage from the NYT and the LAT.

“Dwight, shouldn’t you be linking to the actual Las Vegas newspapers?” Well, yes, except: the Las Vegas newspapers are generally not great. Though they have had some good columnists working for them in the past…but for the record, here’s the Review-Journal coverage.

Also not quite an obit, but within this blog’s area of coverage:

The husband of Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola was ferrying more than 500 pounds of moose and antlers from a remote hunting camp in Alaska when his small plane crashed shortly after takeoff earlier this month, officials said.

This is just a very preliminary report from the NTSB: we probably won’t get the full report for two years or more. And no, I’m not noting it because moose. RoadRich can argue with me in the comments if he knows more, but I believe this is one of the biggest killers of pilots out there, especially pilots of small aircraft: trying to take off with an overloaded aircraft, or an aircraft out of balance.

“The meat was strapped into the rear passenger seat area with both the seatbelt and rope and was loaded into the airplane’s belly pod, which did not have tie-down provisions,” the NTSB said.

Posted in Law, Movies, Obits, Planes, Politics, TV | 1 Comment »

Super quick obit watch.

Friday, September 29th, 2023

I’m aware of Dianne Feinstein’s death. At this point, it’s breaking news, and I don’t want to blog much until this shakes out.

There will probably be more later on today.

Posted in Obits, Politics | Comments Closed