Reminder.
August 27th, 2024Memos from the Sports Desk.
August 27th, 2024Lawrence and I have bet $5 straight across on the Houston Texans’s chances of making the playoffs. Lawrence is taking the pro-playoffs side, while I am skeptical enough about Houston sports teams in general that I am willing to put up $5 that they won’t make the playoffs.
This is probably a sucker bet, but I get more than $5 worth of entertainment out of my bets with Lawrence, and we haven’t done a bet in a while, so why not?
Lawrence also sent over a story from Not the Bee, though I was already on it and planning to cover it today.
Danny Jansen became a historical footnote on Monday. He was the first (and so far only) baseball player to play for both sides in a baseball game.
As a matter of fact, not just both sides, but both sides in the same inning.
How did this happen? He was playing for the Toronto Blue Jays on June 26th. In the second inning, he hit a foul ball off of Boston pitcher Kutter Crawford. Then the rain started and the game was postponed.
On July 27th, Mr. Jansen was traded to Boston for three minor league players.
The postponed game was resumed on Monday.
Before the game resumed at 2:06 p.m. ET Monday — a delay of 65 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes — Red Sox media relations coordinator Daveson Perez announced the changes in the Fenway Park press box: “Pinch hitting for Danny Jansen: Daulton Varsho. Defensive changes: Danny Jansen now at catcher.”
With Jansen behind the plate, Nick Pivetta struck Varsho out to complete the at-bat Jansen started. Then Jansen came up for the Red Sox with two outs in the bottom half of the frame, getting a nice cheer from a sparse makeup game crowd, and hit a lazy liner to first base to end the inning.
Toronto won, 4-1.
Loser update: August 26, 2024.
August 26th, 2024The Chicago White Sox lost their 100th game on Sunday.
The Sox are currently 31-100, for a .237 winning percentage. Projected out, that comes to 123 losses.
Put another way, in order to go 43-119, and miss tying the record set by the 1962 Mets, the Sox will have to go 12-19 in their remaining games, for a .387 winning percentage. They play Detroit at home tonight: Detroit is favored about 55% – 45%.
Duke, Duke, Duke…
August 23rd, 2024…not of Earl, Earl, Earl. I have two books by the late Mike “Duke” Venturino I want to get cataloged. And while I’m at it, I want to also hit another Samworth and another O’Connor. So why don’t we get started?
I think, before I insert the jump, that I do want to note: I know there are some people (including one reader here) who don’t care for Duke’s writing. I’m 100% okay with that. While I enjoyed reading him, I understand tastes differ. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that crap. Plus I don’t have a personal investment in people sharing my tastes. I remember having this discussion with one of my nephews once upon a time: I don’t want you to like the same things I do just because I like them, but I would like for you to be able to articulate why you do or don’t like things. (Again, that was one of my nephews. That’s not an issue with anyone here.)
Anyway, if you didn’t care for Mr. Venturino’s writings, you’re welcome to skip over the last two entries. Deal?
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#125, #126, and #127 in a series)
August 23rd, 2024Quel fromage!
Mike the Musicologist sent over a link from the Department of Justice: Trayon White Sr., who is a member of the DC City Council, was arrested Monday on bribery charges. (I know, a little old, but I missed this until MtM called it out.)
A corrupt DC city council member? What are the odds?
More from the WP (archived) which describes him as “a Marion Barry protege”.
Barry, for all his legal issues, never faced charges that he sought to enrich himself, although his associates were convicted of public corruption, including Ivanhoe Donaldson, a senior adviser who pleaded guilty to embezzling $190,000 in city funds.
“People looked at Marion’s issues as human frailties,” said Ron Lester, a veteran D.C. pollster whose clients included Barry. “Whether you liked or disliked him, Marion wasn’t someone accused of taking bribes. If these allegations prove to be true, Trayon doesn’t have a political future. It’s more clear-cut than anything Marion faced.”
In other news:
According to KXAN, she resigned from the district in March of last year, and went to work for…the City of Austin.
So just to be clear, that’s two former AISD employees, who seem to have worked in the same department, that have been indicted.
Yeah, the names are in the KXAN article, but I’m avoiding using them here. Why avoid using them, while at the same time naming Trayon White Sr.? Given the previous mess with an AISD employee, I’m not sure the district can be trusted to get it right, so I’m erring on the side of caution here.
Marooned.
August 22nd, 2024I am seeing reports that the Seattle Mariners are going to fire general manager Scott Servais.
Right now, this is all just “sources” and nobody’s reporting anything definite yet. The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network isn’t even covering the story.
Realistically, it was the culmination of two months of losing and failure following that apex day June 18.
Since that high-water mark above .500, the Mariners have posted a 20-33 record, losing their 10-game division lead in a span of 24 games and now trailing the Astros by five games. Only the hapless Chicago White Sox have had a worse record over that stretch (10-43).
Following Wednesday’s 8-4 loss in which they were swept in a three-game series by the Dodgers in Los Angeles to close out the trip, the Mariners fell to an even 64-64. The previous time the Mariners were at .500 was April 24 when they were 12-12.
When I see something beyond “sources say”, I’ll update here.
(I’m trying to keep the White Sox posts to one per week.)
Edited to add 8/23: official now. The Seattle Times story was updated in place, but here’s the ESPN story.
Art, damn it, art! watch (#62 in a series)
August 20th, 2024The art market is collapsing.
At least, according to the NYT. “Young Artists Rode a $712 Million Boom. Then Came the Bust.”
The paper of record gives examples such as Amani Lewis:
First came the meteoric rise. A haunting painting Lewis made in 2020 sold at auction just a year later for $107,100, more than double its estimate. Two other works had recently tripled expectations, and a collector offered $150,000 in cash for new pieces fresh from the studio. There were shows in Paris and Miami — Lewis had seemingly conquered the market at age 26, upgrading to a new art studio and a Tesla.
But when the original painting re-emerged at auction in June and its price plunged to $10,080 — losing 90 percent of its value — the party was over. By then, Lewis had stopped renting a $7,000-a-month luxury apartment in Miami and temporarily moved in with their brother.
“It was such a nice high and then it drops,” the artist, now 29, said. “It feels like, ‘We’re done with Amani Lewis.’”
More:
…
“…should go for $25,000 to $50,000”? Seems to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of how markets work.
The comments on this article are now closed, but from my review of the ones already posted, there’s one recurring theme (which may also explain why the NYT closed the comments): these emperors have no clothes.
Or to put it another way: “The art shown in the article is awful — not something I would like to see in 10 years let alone 100.” And: “I’m not interested in looking at any of these paintings for months or years. No offence intended, but what’s the point of collecting paintings unless you enjoy looking at them.”
Virtue. Rewarded.
August 20th, 2024Yes, another rare event in the history of the republic.
After many years (seriously: I’ve known him since Jesus was getting his hair cut at boot camp) of honing his craft…
…friend, fellow blogger, writer, and noted book dealer Lawrence Person has won a major literary award.
Specifically, the Grand Prize in the 2024 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
More from Lawrence here. Hearty congratulations to him on this achievement.
Sadly, I do not believe the award comes with any money attached. It used to come with a leather-bound set of Bulwer-Lytton’s books, but I have been unable to determine if that is still the case.
I did briefly consider buying him a leg lamp to commemorate the occasion, but an authentic leg lamp from the Christmas Story House is $300! Freaking! Dollars!
Can you get a ham hock bronzed?
Obit watch: August 19, 2024.
August 19th, 2024Loser update: August 19, 2024.
August 19th, 2024Sometime over the weekend – I’m not sure if it was Saturday or Sunday – the Chicago White Sox became the first (and so far only) team to be mathematically eliminated from post-season play.
The Sox are currently 30-95, for a .240 winning percentage, and are currently 42.5 games out of first in the AL Central. A .240 winning percentage projects out to 123 losses.
For them to lose only 119 games (which would make them not as bad as the 1962 Mets) they will have to win 13 out of the remaining 37 games, for a .351 winning percentage over the rest of the season.
They play in San Francisco tonight. SF is roughly a 70-30 favorite.
Obit watch: August 18, 2024.
August 18th, 2024Alain Delon, noted French actor. NYT (gift link).
Other credits include “Someone Is Bleeding” (aka “Icy Breasts”, based on a Richard Matheson novel), “The Assassination of Trotsky” (apparently, he was the assassin to Richard Burton’s (!) Trotsky), and…
…he didn’t have much of a US career, but he did play “Joe Patroni”‘s co-pilot and procurer in “The Concorde…Airport ’79“.
John Aprea, actor. Other credits include a movie that does not exist and is clearly a copyright trap by IMDB, “Renegade”, “Lt. Vince Novelli” on “Matt Houston”, “Mrs. Columbo” (but not “Columbo”), “The F.B.I.”, “The Seven-Ups”…
…and yes, he did do a “Mannix” (“Murder Revisited”, season 3, episode 23. IMDB lists him as “Thug (uncredited)”.)
Obit watch: August 16, 2024.
August 16th, 2024Peter Marshall. NYT (archived).
…
Also, producer Abe Burrows wanted Marshall to star opposite Mary Tyler Moore in a production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s aiming for Broadway. Marshall assured him that The Hollywood Squares would last just 13 weeks and he would be available after that. But when the show was renewed for another 13 weeks, Burrows informed him that he was going with Richard Chamberlain.
“Well, I ran 16 years [on Hollywood Squares] and Breakfast at Tiffany’s closed in Boston,” Marshall said. “You never know.”
Greg Kihn. NYT (archived). Is it fair to call him a 2.5 hit wonder?
…
(I would also give him half-credit for “I Lost On Jeopardy”, thought I don’t know how many people would think that was a hit.)
Jack Russell, lead singer and co-founder of Great White.