Goodbye, house with the pink roof
Watching the local news last night, I heard a late breaking report of a fire in my old hometown. Obviously, my interest was piqued, but they gave no update before the end of the newscast. I almost forgot about the whole thing until something reminded me to check out my hometown online newspaper.
I clicked on the appropriate article link, and to my shock, saw a picture of a firefighter shooting water into my old childhood bedroom window. (Take a
look.) Fortunately, nobody was in the home when it caught fire, and nobody was hurt putting it out. But unfortunately for the family that lives there now, the home has been destroyed.
It's amazing some of the things to which we maintain attachments. It's been years since I've been in the house (my family sold it in 1989 when I was 15), but suddenly all the memories came rushing back. Holidays, birthdays, everydays...I even vaguely remember the people who sold us the house, old Mr. and Mrs. Miller. It must have been about 1978 or 79, I was about 4.
While my memories are rich and varied, many of the best ones are rooted in baseball. Summer days were spent playing, practicing, thinking, dreaming baseball. Those were the days when about 40 games a season were on tv, so when a game was on, I was glued to the tv for every precious pitch. I think the best times I ever had, or ever will have, were the times my dad would pitch batting practice to me in the back yard. It wasn't a large yard, so we'd have to pretend to be upset when I got a hold of one that went smashing off the aluminum siding.
Those days, and now that place, are gone forever. Thanks for the memories, house with the pink roof. See you tonight in my dreams.
Groundhog day
FYI...G. Ogden Nutting emerged from his board room and saw his shadow, which means another season of below .500 baseball in Pittsburgh.
(Now you know what the 'G' stands for.)
Smizik smack down
Bob Smizik wrote a bitingly humorous article on the failures of the McClatchy era in today's PG. Essentially, Smizik takes McClatchy to task for his recent belly-aching about other owners' spending habits by rightfully pointing out some of the ridiculous spending McClatchy himself has perpetrated.
Faster than you can say Kendall, Meares, Young, and Bell, Smizik makes the point that McClatchy is himself guilty of overspending for mediocrity or less. Of course, this is not covering new ground and Smizik's hindsight is 20/20.
I searched the Post Gazette's archive to see what Smizik had to say about the decisions he was now mocking. Unfortunately, the archive only dates back to late 2000 which predates the Meares and Young signings. I wasn't able to find any instant analysis of the Bell contract, but I did find the following
article written about Kendall's 'new' contract. Smizik certainly didn't criticize it then. He went so far as to say, "They had to sign Kendall, and if it took $60 million over six seasons to do it, so be it."
Anyway, it's all a bunch of crying over spilled milk. None of those players will have anything to do with the success/failure of the Bucs in 2005 and beyond. It's fun to make light of an easy target like McClatchy (and I do it all the time), but I wish the folks who get paid for this stuff could give us real
information. But I doubt that Smizik even knows where the Bucs high A level team is located (it's in Hickory, NC).
State of mind
Being away from the blog for a few weeks, I've really come to notice that being a frequent writer really affects the way you think. Writing is something that sort of builds on itself. The more often you write, the easier it becomes to write more often. When you are writing frequently, you find yurself thinking about your next 'bit' during dinner, or at the mall, or in the car, or in the shower, etc.
Don't get me wrong...I never was obsessive about this blog! But whenever you hear or read something topical, you find yourself forming an outline of your take that eventually winds up on your blog. Having been away for a couple of weeks, I've discovered that I've lost that tendency. I'm sure it will come back soon enough, hopefully around the same time that my ability to put on my socks returns.
Player arbitration
There is an excellent article over at the hardball times detailing the history and mechanics of the arbitration process
(here).
Because of economics, the Pirates will always be forced to field a relatively young and inexperienced team. Therefore, arbitration has a huge impact on the team's finances (larger than free agency imho) and in turn a large impact on the quality of the team. If you are a Bucco fan and find that you don't have a grasp of this process, take a couple of minutes and check the article out.
