Okay, now that I'm back in town, it's about time for another entry. I suppose it's in order for me to at least say a little something about the ballparks to which I went (I think that's grammatically right?).

Well, we'll say a little bit about each in order.

First, I went to PNC Park in Pittsburgh - it felt like a cozier park than most (and it is with less than 40 thousand seats in the entire park - something it's probably easier to get away with in Pittsburgh than some other cities (no offense to the fine city of Pittsburgh)). Everywhere you walked seemed to offer an open view of the field, and around home plate was a neat circular ramp that connected the different levels. The view was one of the best - a view of the river (one of the three rivers I suppose, but I'm not honestly certain which) with a cool looking yellow pedestrian bridge (why doesn't New York have pedestrian bridges?) in the background. As one could at all the newer stadiums, I was able to circumnavigate the stadium and the outfield gave many excellent vantage points to stand from as well as a beautiful view of the river, if it was a really boring game, which, as a Pirates game, probably has a fair chance of occuring. This was the only stadium at which I got stadium food, a sub-par hot dog, which shouldn't be so much a negative, as a lack of positive, as stadium food is for the most part expected to be bad. While for the most part I was more interested in the parks themselves than the values of the tickets/seats on this trip, it bears mentioning that for about 20 dollars we were able to sit on field level only a few rows back from the field down the right field line (there actually only are really two levels). What also should be noted is the excellent out-of-town scoreboard which shows every game, who is pitching, what inning the game is in, and how many runners are on base.

After Pittsburgh, we next visited Cleveland's Progressive (ne Jacobs) Field (Progressive is a kind of ridiculous name, but what far beats that is the name of the next door home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is the Quicken Loans Arena, though they try to make it slightly more palatable by calling it the “Q”). This was the second oldest ballpark I saw on my trip, and was along with Camden Yards, one of the leaders of this new generation of ballparks, opening in 1994, replacing old Municipal Stadium (the Mistake on the Lake). The view is not quite as scenic as the bridge in Pittsburgh, but it’s a nice little view of some of the buildings of Cleveland. The outfield area has a bar and seating area as well towards left field a little Indians Hall of Fame with huge plagues of the best Indians of all time (Bob Feller, Tris Speaker, Larry Doby, etc) and a wall with many others, and many more modern Indians on it, and props always go to any park that honors its great players. In addition, Cleveland had the hippest scoreboard – the clips shown in videos were better than any other stadiums I attended, including Back to the Future and The Big Lebowski amongst others.

Like PNC, and most of the other parks we went to, the whole experienced seemed more outdoors than in, one of the positives that all of these stadiums have over parks like Shea where, for one, you’re indoors except when you’re outside of the stadium or at your seat, and two, there is absolutely no standing room, and no room to walk around to catch different vantage points of the game. While I’m at this point, let me make another point about the plusses of all of these newer stadiums compared to Shea. From getting into each park, to getting to the seats, to walking around, each offered a vastly more pleasant experience than Shea. With a couple of small exceptions in Detroit and St. Louis, people were courteous instead of rude – this is such a simple thing that makes such a big difference. I understand that I might walk into a section that is unbeknownst to me off limits, or that I may find myself accidentally blocking someone’s sightline – but it is not hard to just ask nicely for me to move and explain why rather than rudely demand that I exit. Another plus about all of these parks, is that I could, for the most park, walk freely around the stadium; at Shea, only ticket holders can access the field level.
Okay, back from my digression – a very positive experience at Progressive, or the Prog, as I’ll start calling it now. More stadiums (I think stadia would sound better) tomorrow.




Okay, this is an aside - through some random wikipedia searching - I was on the MC Skat Kat page (the animated cat from Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract) and found that according to the page, he died in 1991. How did an animated cat die? I don't remember that scene in the video. What continues to be remarkable about this is that the cat has a birthday - and was 14 when the video was released, and attempted a brief comeback in 1995, apparently four years after his untimely death.

I actually have a good reason for not posting in the past couple days, as I'm out of town on a baseball trip - going to 7 stadiums in the midwest - the Pirates, Indians, Tigers, Reds, Cardinals, Cubs, and Brewers in that order. I should have some pictures up when I get back.

In the mean time, I'll leave any reading this to decipher this amazing quote from Tim McCarver, after Mark Teixeixara hit a home run in last Saturday's game against the Yankees -
"That was a blast from the present"

If anyone can explain to me what that means, they get a prize.

Okay, I have a new blog activity (see: blogtivity). A while back, my brother obtained mp3s of the Top 100 Billboard Hits from every year since 1951. Contained within these classics are many classics, as well as not a few surprises and songs I've certainly never heard of. Anyway, I thought maybe I'd pick a year arbitrarily and listen to ten songs at a time from it and post some thoughts. Clearly, the first ten in any given year will mostly be huge songs everyone knows, and as the count goes on, the songs will likely become more obscure.

We'll start with 1970, because, well, I really don't have a reason, but why not.

#1: Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel

Wikipedia has a compendious entry on this one, and notes that this song is considered (officially?) Simon and Garfunkel's "swan song" - even though there are other singles afterward (Cecilia), perhaps because it was their last #1 hit. Apparently the song could be viewed as one big proxy for the falling out between Simon and Garfunkel as there was a bit of a fight over who got to sing, even though according to facts laid out later on in the entry, Simon wanted to sing, and Garfunkel also didn't want to sing it solo, yet somehow he ended up singing it that way. The best quote over the entry is the random assertion by Art that singing it in Madison Square Garden in 1972 felt "almost biblical." The other interesting (at least mildly so) fact is that apparently the first two verses were recorded in New York, while the last one was recorded in LA for some reason.

Not to be outdone, allmusic has an outrageously long entry for the song, adding another seemingly silly dispute which led to the breakup - the dispute over whether Bridge Over Troubled Water was the best song Simon had ever written (Simon said yes, Garfunkel no, for the record). In addition, allmusic writes a litany about Simon's influences (the Reverend Claude Jeter and the Swan Silvertones), describes Garfunkel's tenor as "angelic" and notes that piano player on the song was the replacement bassist in Bread (after If and Make It With You, but before Baby I'm a-want you), and that's just the second paragraph of three. The third mostly talks about similar songs, cover version, and every retrospective of Simon and Garfunkel's the song has ever appeared on.

Interestingly, both wiki and allmusic make references to Let It Be, which will appear soon enough.

Anyway, I have to stand with Garfunkel in that it is not the finest song Garfunkel
Slightly more sparse production I think would have highlighted the song's heartstring pulling qualities further I think, particularly in the third verse where the song adds a "The Boxer"-like strangely out of place drum sound, and a string section that I'm trying to think of a way it could have been used better, but all I can come up with is that the song would have been best with nothing but Garfunkel's aforementioned angelic tenor and Larry Knechtel's fine piano work. That said it's still sufficiently heartstring-pulling, and I like it very well. The lyrics are nothing brilliant, but nothing stupid either - standard-y stuff about helping down and out friends, and what could ever be wrong with that. Except for the "sail on silvergirl" part of the third verse, though allmusic has ideas about that, spanning all the way from a reference to the Swan Silvertones, to a reference to his prematurely gray fiancee to a reference to heroin. Crazines.

Okay, there's no way the other entries will be this long, so let's move on.

#2: (They Long to Be) Close to You - The Carpenters

Sadly this song makes me think of the Simpsons episode Maximum Homerdrive in which Marge insists on buying a doorbell that plays the first eight notes of (They Long to Be) Close to You. It's a Burt Bacharach and Hal David tune which was first recorded (as I assume, right or not, every Bacharach and David song written in the '60s was) by Dion Warwick, but wasn't a hit til Richard and Karen came along. In addition, this is just another song of many that makes the Carpenters seem creepy, sung by a brother and sister team.

The lyrics are a little sappy (you end up going this way anytime you start describing how angels created a person's features: "sprinkled moon-dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue") though I appreciate the song is also an explanation - because of these angelic features is why "all the girls in town follow you around" - it's purely superficial. I also love that it’s they, not she, who longs to be close to you. It seems more like infatuation than love.

It's a pretty solid song over all, very touching - we don't get an upbeat song til #3. And another song that gets tons of orchestration – starting with just the piano, we get plenty of strings, horns, and backing vocals repeating the chorus right after Karen sings it. It also probably goes on a minute longer than it needs to, and I would through into the garbage that part in the last minute where the chorus sings “why-yyyyy(this probably isn’t why actually, it’s probably just some sort of non-word sound I don’t know how to write)….close to you)

#3: "American Woman/No Sugar Tonight" - The Guess Who

Both our first Canadian group and our first double A side all at once! What a celebration.

American Woman is the real driver of the single here, but let's not give short shrift to No Sugar Tonight, even though I seem to be the only one amongst my friends who likes it. In fact what makes the No Sugar Tonight of the double A side version better is that it does not include the "New Mother Nature" part at the end which is not bad but drags down the song every time; I need to see if I can find this version or somewhere or cut it off myself.

American Woman is of course in the great tradition of Canadians bashing America, and according to Wiki, Randy Bachman claims the American Woman is the Statute of Liberty (lest any metaphor not be grounded strictly in reality). Apparently when the Guess Who played in the White House, Pat Nixon explicitly requested that they not play American Woman because of it's, true or not, anti-American sentiment (Why the Guess Who were playing at the White House is not answered).

Anyway, it's a pretty good song, far better than the Lenny Kravitz cover in the second Austin Powers, and I'm probably the only person on earth who actually likes No Sugar Tonight better than American Woman (It's good, really! Plus, it's probably a metaphor for not getting laid, and that's pretty rocking). But American Woman is good too, it’s got a great guttural grunt before the lyrics, and a righteous anti-American rant as only someone from Canada could do. I also enjoy a song that says “bye bye” four times.

Of course I knew several other Guess Who hits, but I did not realize they still had hits long after two-band chart topper Randy Bachman departed the group, included the #6 American hit "Clap for the Wolfman" that I look forward to coming upon in 1974.

#4: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head - BJ Thomas

The second Bacharach and David composition in the top 4 of the year, apparently the song was first offered to Ray Stevens, whose "The Streak" prevents me from ever taking him seriously. The song of course also won the Oscar for best song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It sounds kind of like it’s from before 1970 (maybe hence it’s placement in a Western?), very old timey. It’s good, and sends a good message, though I one I don’t often subscribe to – so relentlessly optimistic – no matter how much rain comes down, BJ won’t complain – so utterly convinced is he that good things are on their way. I actually really like the first few guitar strums before the vocal comes in, though I don’t really care much for the “But there’s one thing I know” part.

Also the thirty second instrumental outro is entirely unnecessary, though aside from that the brevity is appreciated.

#5: War – Edwin Starr

All anti-war songs should be as straightforward as this and maybe there would actually be some change.

Actually a few interesting tidbits from the wiki page on this one. First, apparently the song was written and recorded for the Temptations, but their version was not released as not to alienate their possible more conservative fans. Damn politics. I guess these conservative fans were too stupid to get the more subtle statements of Ball of Confusion. Backing on the Starr’s version was The Undisputed Truth, best known for their own Temptations cover and psychedelic soul masterpiece Smiling Faces Sometimes. Apparently Starr also released what became a minor hit the next year, “Stop the War Now,” building on the theme. I did not know that the song was covered on Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” or that the Small Soldiers soundtrack featured a remix of War by Bone Thungs-N-Harmony, Henry Rollins, Flea and Tom Morello. I’ve also never heard the Bruce Springsteen version which was a top 10 hit, which I probably should, and may even have on my computer somewhere. Sadly, I also remember that War was the theme to the short-lived CBS legal show Family Law starring Kathleen Quinlan, Dixie Carter and Christopher McDonald.

Til this day, Starr has set the bar for musical self-righteous anti-war rage, with the “good god y’all” in every other chorus being the finest moment. Great drum roll to lead into the song, letting the vocal really have a stunning effect when it comes in. Unfortunately, the verse is nowhere as good as the chorus, though lyrics as mentioned continue the most straightforward anti-war song that exists to this day, with the best lines being “the point of war blows my mind” and “Induction then destruction; Who wants to die”

Alas, more later (I know, I said 10, but, close enough)

Okay, about time to do my AL All-star team, slightly late edition. Since it would be far more of a pain in the ass to look just at stats before the all-star game, I'll use stats as of now, so if that changes things up, more fun for it, it's the 2/3s of a season all-star team now.

We start, as always with first base.

1B:

2006 MVP Justin Morneau leads the pack, leading AL first basemen with a .391 OBP and a 147 OBP+, as an important half of the Twins JM stars.

Backing him up is famed Greek God of Walks Kevin Youkilis who leads 1Bs with a .560 SLG, and actually has a higher OPS than Morneau, but plays in the far more hitter friendly Fenway Park.

2B:

Ian Kinsler far and away leads the pack here as the only 2B with a SLG over .500, and a 2B-leading .379 OBP. He has also swiped 25 bags while only being caught once for a remarkable 96.2 SB%. Kinsler also leads the AL in runs created with 96.

In an incredibly close showdown for backup, we'll add Brian Roberts over Howie Kendrick, whose numbers are extremely similar, and Dustin Pedroia who has been heating up. Roberts' .841 narrowly trumps Kendrick's .836, and well, the Orioles need a representative somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.

SS:

And here's where it gets tough. Honestly, there is no shortstop that belongs on the American League all-star team. Really. They are nothing short of terrible (by all-star standards, anyway). But we have to pick someone, and really, since there aren't people that are unbelievable slights at other positions, we ought to pick two. Unfortunate, really.

First, starting, is Cleveland's Jhonny Peralta, best known for his strange spelling of his first name, and the fact that he is the rare non-Grady Sizemore Indian to be outperforming 2007. He also has an AL SS-leading .493 SLG.

Backing him up, sadly, as well is Michael Young, who looks to be in serious danger of failing to reach 200 hits for the first time, but who is the only other AL starting shortstop with an OPS+ of over 100. Let's move on as quickly as we can.

3B:

Okay, here's the good stuff.

Starting is who will either be the first or second best third baseman of all time most likely by the time he finishes his career, Alex Rodriguez, having another stellar season with a 163 OPS+, 24 HRs, a over .400 OBP, an almost .600 SLG, and a 16-1 stolen base to caught stealing ratio to boot. Except for the fact that he missed some games on the DL, he'd be the leading MVP candidate, and he still has to be up there, even with the missed time.

Backing him up is uber-rookie Evan Longoria, who barring a collapse unanimous rookie of the year in the AL. Longoria has 22 HRs and 27 2Bs which help out his .535 SLG and has taken 43 BBs which help his .349 OBP. It looks so far like the Rays were pretty wise handing out the long term contract to Longoria before he got major league playing time.

OF:

There's actually a fair amount of depth in the AL OF as well.

We might as well have a real center fielder be one of the starters if it's feasible so Grady Sizemore, who has been the one ray of hope on an otherwise beyond abysmal Indians lineup, gets the start. Grady has hit 27 dingers while walking 73 times to combine with his .273 average for a fine .384 OBP.

The much talented but much injured JD Drew ought be rewarded with not only his first all-star appareance, but his first starting appearance after, well, staying healthy (about as healthy as anyone can reasonably expect Drew to stay anyway), but while doing that posted an AL outfield leading OPS of .945 and an AL OF leading .405 OBP.

Coming in the second corner slot is one of the biggest surprises and swipes of the year, the Chicago White Sox's Carlos Quentin, who has managed to keep up his pace with a month-high 9 HRs in July, and is third amongst AL OFs with a .357 SLG, and 6th amongst AL OFs in OBP with .379.

The first back up is fellow ChiSox OF Jermaine Dye, who is having the second best year of his career at age 34 with a 141 OPS+, 26 HRs, and an outstanding and AL outfield leading .569 SLG.

Story-of-the-year Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton is the center field back up with his AL outfield second .558 SLG and 27 HRs to go along with 25 2Bs.

In the no-longer-in-the-AL-but-still-did-enough-to-make-the-team department is of course perennial All-Star Manny Ramirez who posted a .398 OBP in his time with the Red Sox.

Finally, in a position which actually has fine candidates to spare, the last spot is taken up by our mandated one Tiger, Magglio Ordonez gets the spot with the highest OPS+ of any Tigers regular a solid 130 along with strong .380 OBP and nearly .500 SLG.

C:

Well, the starter is easy here, the reserve not so much.

One of the biggest differences from starter to reserve in any position if not the biggest, Joe Mauer of the Twins, who, with his outstanding .409 OBP, is second in the league in that category in any position, and leads the nearest catcher with over 100 at-bats by over 40 points.

Backing him up is newbie Tampa Bay Ray Dioner Navarro, who is one of few full-time catchers with an over 100 OPS+ with a 110 (Pudge has 100 exactly and Kurt Suzuki has 101). Kelly Shoppach and Gerald Laird are doing surprisingly well but with less playing time, so this is kind of a default pick, but Navarro could have a good career.

DH:

The last AL position is of course the DH, and as this position could be played by anyone, we'll only choose one, and that, of course, will be Texas Ranger Milton Bradley who annihilates the competition with his .446 OBP, all while being only second by 2 points to A-Rod with a .592 SLG. From another oft-hurt player who has been regarded as a bit of a basket case, it has really been a breakout year - Bradley has only once had a year with over 400 ABs, with LA in 2004, one of the 6 teams he's played on in 9 seasons.

Time for the pitching!

Starters:

Starting the game is Oakland Athletics 2nd time all-star (the first as a reliever) Justin Duchsherer who is first amongst AL starters in ERA+ with a 169, in WHIP with a .956 and who, while not having a ton of Ks with 78, similarly has low BB numbers with 31.

Next up are a couple of lone representatives for their teams, all at least decent, but some deserved and one probably not.

Roy Halladay represents the Blue Jays and should be a Cy Young contender with a brilliant 5.14 K/BB ratio, good for second in the league to go along with a 151 ERA+ good for third in the league. In addition, Halladay has rediscovered power pitching out of nowhere and is second in the AL with 149 strikeouts, his most for a season already since his Cy Young year with over 200 in 2003.

King Felix Hernandez represents the Seattle Mariners and is 6th in the league in K/9IP with 8.40 and 7th in ERA+ with 134, all while being the fifth youngest player in the league (in his fourth year, no less).

The Royals representative is Zack Greinke who is 6th in the AL with 131 strikeouts, and boasts a mere 110 ERA+, but hey, he's having a solid season, and an excellent one of the Royals, anyway, so I don't feel so bad rewarding him, especially after what he's been through (Mental disease is serious stuff!)

Back to teams with multiple all-stars.

Story-of-the-year-if-not-for-Josh Hamilton, Cliff Lee, who, although cooling off from his sub-2.00 ERA start, still has the 2nd best ERA+ in the AL with an extremely strong 168, leads the AL in K/BB ratio with 5.77/1. He's also 7th in Ks, and 3rd in WHIP with a 1.080.

John Lester of the Red Sox is another promising young all-star, who although he possesses a too-high high 1.312 WHIP, has an excellent 4th in the league ERA+ of 142 and a fine 101/46 K/BB ratio, along with 2 shutouts.

Scott Kazmir is one of two Rays on the pitching staff. Kazmir has an outstanding 147 ERA+, which would be good for 4th in the league if he had enough innings to qualify and a 1.197 WHIP which would be good for 10th in the league, and his K/9IP ratio of 9.30 would be best in the league.

James Sheilds joins him on the staff with a strong 117 ERA+, but makes the team largely because of his fourth in the league 1.110 WHIP and his third in the league 4.80 K/BB ratio.

The Orioles get a surprise second representative with a strong sophomore campaign with a 129 ERA+, 9th in the league, and 1.186 WHIP, also 9th in the league, while also being second in innings with 156.

Sure, John Lackey was injured at the beginning of the year, but since then he has been outstanding enough to merit a spot on the team, interestingly the league-leading Angels only spot, with a 136 ERA+ and a 1.099 WHIP along with an 85/25 K/BB ratio.

Lastly among the starters is White Sox youngster John Danks, 6th in the league with an ERA+ of 134 and with an excellent 106/35 K/BB ratio. He edges out fellow White Sox all-star contenter Gavin Floyd, whose peripherals are far more suspect.

Relievers:

Only room for three more spots, so someone big is getting bumped.

First, the legend himself, the Yankees' Mariano Rivera with an incredible .724 WHIP and a difficult to believer 58/5 K/BB ratio, along with not blowing a save all year.

Following him up is who I think has been the best closer of the past five years (an inch ahead of Rivera), the Twins' Joe Nathan who has an impressive .906 WHIP, and a fine 50/11 K/BB ratio.

Last, the Red Sox Jonathan Papelbon has a great .869 WHIP and a 57/7 K/BB ratio.

Left off, notably is saves-leader and also fine closer Fransisco Rodriguez. We don't give saves much regard around here, and K-Rod's ERA and WHIP are higher than these three guys, he has blown at least as many saves, and he walks far more batters. I'd rather add on the extra starter anyway.

By the way, why does everyone say Carlos Gomez is doing great in Minnesota? Carlos Gomez is doing terribly in Minnesota. Now, don't get me wrong, he's very young and could turn in to a quality player, but he's not now. OBPing under .300 will do that.