Billy Wagner Gets Tips From Sandy Koufax!

Koufax got a call and couldn’t wait to help Wagner who just came to the Mets from the Nats in the off season. Koufax was a personal favorite of mine from childhood.

There was no one finer than Koufax. The lefty had a winning percentage of .655. He struck-out 2,396. His career ERA was 2.76.

At the age of 36 he was the youngest player ever elected to the Hall of Fame.

He was a minor league pitching coach for Dodgers organization from 1979 until 1990 but quit. Some said it had to do with a poor relationship with manager Tommy Lasorda. Ironically Lasorda was sent down to Montreal of the International league to make room on the Dodger roster for Koufax in 1955.

Koufax was formerly married to Anne Widmark daughter of the renowned actor whose family just today announced his passing. Their marriage ended in divorce.

Wagner admitted he was a little in awe of the Dodgers great.

"It’s hard. You’re trying to work on stuff and listen to what he says," he said. "But in the back of your head you’re thinking, ‘This is Sandy Koufax. This guy was great.’ So it took a lot of willpower not to get caught up in wanting to talk about him and what he had accomplished and let him work with me." *

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Happy Dyngus Day and Happy Birthday Tony Pena, Jr.

Pena will offer good fantasy value in 2008, and here’s why.Tony Pena is making the transition to small ball with the Kansas City Royals to make himself more valuable to the team. Link.

In 2007 the son of all-time great Tony Pena walked an irresponsible 10 times for the season, while batting .267. Pena wanted to be a free swinging SS and it was retarding his development as a productive major leaguer.

This spring manager Trey Hillman has Pena working on patience at the plate to garner more walks and also on bunting for base hits.

Pena is a free swinger, when he walked last July 26 against the Yankees, he had set a franchise record with 65 games and 244 plate appearances without a walk.

Pena .284/.356/.640 has great range as a SS. With his quickness on the base paths his batting average and steals stats will improve this season.

Use Pena. Jr for your rotisserie or ESPN Baseball Challenge team.

pussy willow shortage..oh my!

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Live blogging some results

5:39 Numbers have been on TV for about an hour an and a half now. Some observations:

+ DPP's worst performances --in Taipei city and Taoyuan -- are looking like 36% of the vote. Best performances are hardly over 55% in Chia-yi County. Kaohsiung, Pingtung, and other places where the greens are leading are still split almost 50:50.
+ Percentages at this time are about what I thought before I started to pull the numbers closer in the final week. Apparently, a lot of the "change" in electorate mood was in my head. Numbers stand at about 41%:59% for Ma at this moment.
+ Ma's rapidly nearing the 6.5 million mark of getting more than half of the voters. It's a lock. Hsieh is stuck at 4.5 million at this moment.
+ Turnout was slightly lower than expected, closer to 70% than the predicted 75%. That's a good deal lower than 2000 and 2004 where you had 82% and 80% respectively.
+ Referendums won't be counted until after the presidential election, so it'll be a while before we know what happened.
+ I already got too drunk last night to do it again tonight.

5:49 The current lead is about 1.6 million votes. The KMT itself was predicting a lead of 1.3 million. They outperformed even their own expectations.

+ Ma's leading in 20 cities and counties, with Hsieh leading in 5 -- all south of Yunlin.

+ Taichung didn't go well for us.

+Ma's already crossed the 50% threshold for voter turnout.

5:58 Jiande li ???, a small area with a few hundred voters, is historically uncannily accurate at producing over all results. This election was no exception. 215 votes for Ma to Hsieh's 147 , so Ma got 59% ... identical to the current margin.

6:01 Goddamn it, why couldn't the DPP run a real campaign? Why did they basically give the economic issue to Ma by using fear mongering as their only response? And why didn't they spend more time talking about Ma's real flaws and leader sip issues? Why talk about a green card for two months when you don't have any proof?

6:09 Most stations are putting a little victory stamp by Ma's name or otherwise calling the election for him is basically live broadcasting the Taichung KMT headquarters celebration. Most other statiosn are doing analysis and trying to avoid being too boring when reading large strings of numbers.

6:16 Thanks to everyone commenting. I also think there's been an absurd amount of blame for everything bad that's happened in the last 8 years on the president -- political, economic, social, everything. Where else in the world does the president get blamed for old people committing suicide?

6:20 Nothing is going to happen until we see just how badly the referendum did, I think. I will force myself to stop posting until we start seeing some referendum numbers.

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Girl dies 9 months after horrific pool injury

Guys, I am so bothered by this story. I remember hearing about it when it happened but never heard any follow up. Sadly, here it is.MINNEAPOLIS - A 6-year-old girl whose intestines were partially sucked out by a swimming pool drain, leading to tougher safety legislation, has died, her family's attorney said Friday's parents were with her when she died Thursday at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where she had surgery to receive a new small bowel, liver and pancreas several months after she was injured. She suffered setbacks, including a cancerous condition sometimes triggered by organ transplants, family attorney Bob Bennett saidA hospital spokeswoman, Kara Haworth, confirmed Abigail's death but said she could not comment further and Abigail's doctors were not available Friday. Abigail, of Edina, was injured June 29 when she sat on a wading pool drain at the Minneapolis Golf Club in the suburb of St. Louis Park; its powerful suction ripped out part of her intestinal tract. Her parents, Scott and Katey Taylor, lobbied for tougher regulations to help prevent similar injuries, and in December, Congress approved legislation in December to ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that don't meet anti-entrapment safety standards.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23744434

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Suspense is over

The announced its much-anticipated field tonight, with Washington one of the 16 teams selected to the upstart postseason tournament.
Remember, it features reseeding for the semifinals and a best-of-3 series for the championship.
"This tournament is something a little different. It’s cutting edge,'' Houston coach Tom Penders said. ``Given the choice between the two (the CBI and the NIT), I would much prefer the CBI.''
Here's the complete field:

East Regional
March 18
(4) Richmond @ (1) Virginia, 7 PM ET
March 18
(3) Rider @ (2) Old Dominion., Time TBA

West Regional
March 18
(3) Houston @ (2) Nevada, 9 PM ET
March 19
(4) Valparaiso @ (1) Washington, 9 PM ET

Midwest Regional
March 18
(3) Brown @ (2) Ohio, Time TBA
March 19
(4) Cincinnati @ (1) Bradley, 7 PM ET
South Regional
March 19
(4) Utah @ (1) Texas- El Paso, Time TBA
March 19
3) Miami, OH vs. (2) Tulsa, Time TBA

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Bread at Desk

It is 5:16am.

At about 4:45, I walked into Senior House. I had been at East Campus working on a 5.111 (chemistry) pset with a friend. I actually enjoyed doing it, despite the very obvious fact that I spent all night doing it because it's due tomorrow. Although I have to admit, I think I've drawn enough Lewis structures to satisfy me for awhile. When I walked in, there was tons of bread at desk. Even baguettes, and I love baguettes. Usually when there's food at desk, it's free for the taking, but I thought since it is almost 5 in the morning, maybe it actually belonged to someone and they were going to come get it.

At 4:58am, an email was sent to the Senior House mailing list. It said "please help yourself to the many loaves of bread at desk."

I was excited - free bread! - but I didn't go downstairs right away, I was in the middle of something important. Probably checking facebook.

About ten minutes later, there were only two loaves of bread left at desk. An email gets sent out at four forty freaking five in the morning, and the stuff is nearly all gone ten minutes later. Things really do move fast at MIT.

It's like the Reuse mailing list, which is the only mailing list I ever took myself off of, because I stopped reading the emails after about a day of constant ads. People just send out emails like "pink lamp in 2-232" or "one and three quarters of a gallon of seagreen paint next to the X office" or "cute cat, call xxxx for more information" or "box of packing peanuts need good home." I know a lot of people who scan reuse for computer parts to build random cool things.

For real.

It's all free, too.

But the thing is, you have to move fast. Running is best. If it's on the other side of campus, though, you're probably out of luck. Anyway. That's how fast all this bread went.

But it's okay, I still got some.

I'm not sure what the point of this entry is. When we blog things, we get a drop-down list of categories to choose from. If this isn't "miscellaneous," I don't know what is. Except for like eighteen of Snively's entries. They seem to be the very definition of miscellaneous.

Hmm. In two and a half hours, I will be attending the "Petit Dejeuner Francophone et "Reseautage" Science et Technologie." Mmmm, free French breakfast, sponsored by the Club Francophone. But I must finish some things before I go. Like my Arabic homework. And this blog, I guess.

I would almost consider not posting this because it's so random, but I haven't posted in awhile, and hey, I don't think I was hired because I'm the most efficient writer in the world. Or was I? Hmmmm.

So today is pi day. It's 5:30 am and already there are two entries up.

pi day.

It's a good excuse to eat pie. Which I did today. At midnight. It was delicious.

But as for memorizing the digits. Well. I mean. Personally, I think there are better uses of brainspace. Like memorizing the periodic table, if you're really feeling compelled to memorize something. Now that's useful. At least for chemistry. At least, more useful than knowing 67 digits of pi is for math. But if that's what you want to spend the time until decisions come out doing, I'm not going to stop you.

Oh yeah, decisions. Those are tomorrow. It's pretty exciting. No, really. In fact, the last time I slept (I'm too disoriented to figure out when that was), I dreamt about a certain prefrosh I know getting waitlisted. Wow. What does it mean when you start dreaming about other people's decisions?

I also dreamt that those robots from Battlestar Galactica (cylons?) were taking over the world while I tried to finish my 5.111 pset, and then I "woke up" and thought I woke up too late for class, then I woke up for real and was relieved. Until I remembered I had to go to class. Then I tried to block out the noise from my alarm by covering my head with my pillow.

Sometimes my suitemates can hear my alarm, but I don't wake up.

The other day, the fire alarm went off at 1am at Senior House. Minor cooking fiasco or something. I woke up, but I wasn't entirely asleep, so I'm still not sure if I'd wake up for a fire alarm in the middle of a deep sleep.

Right. Back to what I was going to say about decisions. MIT is a just place - a set of buildings.

"But Karen, it's more than that, it's a community."

Well, gee, you're right. But communities are made of people. They're made of you! There are tens of thousands of people who have regretfully been rejected from MIT in the past simply because we have a small, small undergraduate population. Which means that, in all of those other colleges you applied to, there is the potential to create a community and find a sense of belonging, if you really feel that this place is your calling.

I'm not articulating myself very well. Sorry, it's really early. What I'm trying to say is that YOU make the place. So you want to be a hacker?

Hey, guys, there are buildings at just about every college in any country that can be explored. You want to do research? It takes initiative. Even here at MIT, UROPs don't fall from the sky and land in your lap. You have to look into what's available, contact professors. Professors love it when students take initiative, I suggest trying it anywhere you go. Don't let red tape that isn't even there get in your way. You want to be challenged more than you've ever been challenged before? Well, you can do that for yourself, too. Set goals. Work towards them.

Yeah, MIT is a cool place. But what makes it cool is people like you, and I want you to know- no matter what happens tomorrow, that you have SO much potential. Don't let other people keep you down.

[My alarm just went off - at 5:45. That's what time I was supposed to wake up...24 hours ago]

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Pi(e) No. 5

March 14 ...

Once upon a time there was ‘a kynde of Melones’ called ‘pompones’ or ‘pompion’. Certainly the pompion was known in England by 1526, when it was described this way in the Grete Herball of Peter Treveris. The term may have been used fairly loosely for a number of edible gourds, but let us stay in the spirit of the day and consider a pompion was close enough to what we would call a pumpkin today (or maybe a squash). There are many recipes for pompion pie in English cookbooks, and when the early seventeenth century English went to the new colony across the Atlantic , they took their cookbooks with them. The pompion/pumpkin pie thrived in its new home so well - as it simultaneously slipped into an elegant decline in its ‘old’ - that it all but forgot its heritage.

Its heritage was not pure Anglo of course (but then the English are a mongrel race if ever we were one) – it seems it had an Italian parent. An ancestor of the pumpkin pie appears in a book published in Venice in the sixteenth century – an ancestor containing cow’s udder - but a recogniseable pumpkin pie nontheless. The first edition of Epulario was in 1516, but it is accepted to be a plagiarised copy of the work of Maestro Martino of Como at least half a century before. The recipe I give you today is from the 1598 English translation, grandly entitled Epulario, Or, The Italian Banquet; Wherein is shewed the maner how to dresse and prepare all kind of Flesh, Foules, or Fishes. As also how to make Sauces, Tartes, Pies, &c. After the Manner of all Countries. Translated out of the Italian into English..

To make a Tart of Pompeons.
Take Pompeons and make them cleane and grate them as you doe Cheese, and boile them a little in broth and milk, then take as much Cheese as aforesaid, adde to it also a little old Cheese, take also a pound of the panch [paunch] of a Hogge, or a Cowes Udder well sodden [boiled] and chopped small, and if you will you may use Butter instead of those two things aforesaid, or Suet, adding to it halfe a pound of Sugar, a little Saffron and Sinamon with a quart of milk, and Egges, as need requireth. And when you thinke the Pompeons are sodden, take them up and straine them, and colour it with Saffron, then make a crust of past under it, put it in a pan, and make a soft fire both under and over it, and being half baked, cover it with Wafers or such like stuffe instead of an upper crust, and being thorow baked, straw it with Sugar and Rosewater.

Monday’s Story …

A dispensation for St Pat’s Day.

Quotation for the Day …

Her washing ended with the day,
Yet lived she at its close,
And passed the long, long night away
In darning ragged hose.
But when the sun in all its state
Illumed the Eastern skies,
She passed about the kitchen grate
And went to making pies.
‘The Wife’ Phoebe Cary (1824-1871)

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Respect for Jackie Chan

I really hate Rush Hour. But I especially hate Rush Hour 2. But especially Rush Hour 3.

And wasn't I pleased to find out that Jackie Chan hates them as well:

Chan said when he made the first installment of the "Rush Hour" series in 1998 he only wanted to test the U.S. market and didn't have high hopes.

"When we finished filming, I felt very disappointed because it was a movie I didn't appreciate and I did not like the action scenes involved. I felt the style of action was too Americanized and I didn't understand the American humor," Chan said in a blog entry on his Web site seen Sunday.

Right on.

The actor said he made the sequel because he was offered an "irresistible" amount of money to do it and made the third installment, which was released recently, to satisfy fans of the series.

Chan said "Rush Hour 3" was no different from the first two installments for him.

"Nothing particularly exciting stood out that made this movie special for me ... I spent four months making this film and I still don't fully understand the humor," he said, adding the comedic scenes may be lost on Asian audiences as well.

The comedic scenes were also lost on me.

"The movie I just shot with Jet Li, 'The,' actually isn't that great," Chan was quoted as saying by the Web site of China's official Xinhua News Agency.

"'The' is a movie made for Americans," the report quoted Chan as saying. "Chinese viewers may not like it. If I say it's a good movie now, then many people will be filled with overly high expectations and be disappointed when they see the movie."

It's refreshing to see someone be honest about making shitty films for a change. But if anyone says anything bad about The Tuxedo, I'll bash your fucking face in.

Jackie Chan was also friends with a young Kevin Rudd.

Respect....fading...
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US Soldier Throws Puppy off Cliff (Video)

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A while another two filmed his sins in Iraq! Are these three US soldiers from Blackwater? How brutal they are! Click here to view the video make animal lover puke.

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Oakland Raiders: Remaining Targets in Free Agency

When it comes to free agency in the NFL this time of the year is highly anticipated and almost as big as the draft itself. A lot of us football fans can’t wait to hear that our team has brought in a big name free agent, can’t wait to see the picture of him signing his new contract rocking a new lid adorned with your teams logo on it. We can’t wait to hear the new team members’ press conference with him answering questions from reporters and telling how he will change the teams’ outlook this season. It must be said that this is also the time that almost every team will grossly overspend on players for various reasons, good or bad.

The best thing to do is to sign your own free agents and then go after free agents that will fill huge needs for your team that will be difficult to accomplish with a drafted player due to the fact that it will take time for a rookie to develop or due to it being a weak year in terms of prospects for your teams position of need. So far the Oakland Raiders have been successful accomplishing that task this off – season. The Raiders did have some bright spots in the 2007 season that did not reflect on the scoreboard in terms of winning more games. The Raiders are re-building and re-building is as painful as a root-canal and takes time. It took more than one season to be in this position and will take more than a season to get out of. The building process starts with several baby steps and small accomplishments that will add up and help build the team for the short & long term path to success.

Going into Free Agency & the Draft the Raiders needs are DT, OT, WR, DE, RB. Franchising CB Nnamdi Asomugha was a good move and hopefully the Raiders can sign him to a long term deal that will keep him in silver and black for the rest of his career as well as lower his salary cap number for 2008. Re-signing RB Justin Fargas was another good move that brings back an integral part of the offense & solidifies the RB position of Fargas, Michael Bush, Adimchinobe Echemandu, and Reshard Lee. RB Lamont Jordan & Dominique Rhodes are currently still on the roster likely to be traded or released freeing up at least $9 million in cap space. Even though the Raiders grossly over PAID DT Tommy Kelly signing him was a high priority; he is a versatile player that can play DT & DE and is currently the teams best DT. The Raiders are still thin at the position that they haven’t addressed in a while. The Raiders did sign Terdell Sands to a large contract last year after he was being pursed by Kansas City and overspent of him as well. I feel that Tommy Kelly; coming to the Raiders as an undrafted free agent and sticking will work his butt off to prove worthy of the deal and hopefully urge Sands to do the same. Snagging the best free agent SS available Gibril Wilson is a huge upgrade. He will solidify the defensive secondary for the Raiders; he’s active, aggressive player, solid tackler & playmaker near the line of scrimmage versus the run, blitzing or in coverage.

The Raiders did lose DE Chris Clemons who did a good a job registering 8 sacks while starting only two games and parlayed that performance into a 5 year deal with the Eagles. The Raiders also as expected lost WR Jerry Porter to the Jaguars. The Raiders still have a need at WR. The good news is that they didn’t overspend on Bernard Berrian, Donte Stallworth, Devery Henderson. Benard Berrian was a free agent target for the Raiders and other teams but he was after far more money than the Raiders could afford. Having Berrian would’ve been nice but the Free Agents Wide Receivers of 2008 are really nothing special. There are still a few free agents that are still available that could have a major impact this season and would provide a tremendous return on their investment is the Raiders are able to sign them they are as follows:

1)

1) OLB Calvin Pace – 6’4" 272 lbs. former 1^st round pick of the Cardinals in 2003 who made a successful conversion from Defensive End to save his career & posted career high’s in tackles and sacks. In my opinion a solid under the radar Free Agent that brings great versatility to a team and would provide the Raiders the ability to consistently rush the passer.

2) WR – 6’3" 216 lbs. former 1^st round pick of the Cardinals in 2003. A speedster who grew into the no.3 WR position and makes catches for big yards.

3) DE Bobby MCray – 6’6" 261 lbs. former 7^th round pick of the Jaguars in 2004. After Reggie Hayward was injured, McCray got the opportunity to play regularly and took full advantage as Jacksonville’s starting left defensive end. He registered 10 sacks in 2006 in a break out He registered 10 sacks in 2006 in a break out season in his third year in the league. He is a long lean defensive end with an athletic build, great height and long arms. McCray is a fine edge pass rusher who is peaking in all areas of his game and should only be getting better. He has become quite reliable and has worked hard for his success. He is athletic with a fine motor and competes well. He has very good straight line speed and closes well with a burst. When McCray arrives, he is a powerful jolting tackler. He is an attacking player can chase running plays down from behind. He is a fine pass rusher who shows good power on impact, but really excels at getting low, dipping his shoulder and bending the edge on an offensive tackle's outside shoulder.

4) WR Drew Carter – 6’3" 200 lbs. former 5^th round pick of the Panthers in 2004 who is a downfield threat and was the no.2 receiver for the Panthers that last years 2^nd round pick Dwayne Jarrett was drafted to replace.

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