soapbox

This past week, a minor league baseball team (Calgary Vipers) traded pitcher John Odom to the Laredo Broncos for 10 maple bats with a value of $650 (Odom was unable to get into Canada due to a minor but unspecified infraction). Odom appeared to have a good attitude about the trade, saying “hopefully I can turn it into a good thing. I mean I might be able to turn it into a feel-good story. … It’s just one of those funny stories that will go down in history and that I’ll be able to tell my kids about.”

Actually, he’s in pretty good company - check out the trades listed below, courtesy Jim Caple and the internet.

Ernie Harwell: The Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the broadcaster from the Atlanta Crackers in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper.

Lefty Grove: Traded by a minor league team for the repair costs of its outfield fence that was knocked down in a storm.

Dave Winfield: The Twins traded him to Cleveland during 1994 strike for a dinner between the GMs if the season did not resume.

Randy Winn: Tampa Bay traded him to the Mariners for right to sign Lou Piniella as manager.

Harry Chiti: The Mets traded the catcher to Cleveland in 1962 for a player to be named later. The player wound up being Chiti, who went back to the Mets.

Tim Fortugno: Minor league Reno traded him to Stockton for 12 dozen baseballs and $2,500 in 1989.

Johnny Johns: Traded for a 25-pound live turkey.

Joe Martina: Texas Leaguer traded for two barrels of oysters.

Al Michaels: To sign the announcer, NBC traded ABC/Disney the copyright to Disney’s old cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit.

So, yesterday was the first time that I didn’t go to work on Memorial Day in a long long time, if ever.  In fact, I wasn’t allowed to go to work (well, not go and get paid for it).  While I appreciate the taking of a day to honor those who have served our country and paid with their lives, I’m not entirely comfortable with how the “day off” has turned into a day of beer and grilling and baseball, much as I like those things.

This NYT article echoes this sentiment and provides a bit of history of the holiday, for those interested.

Having not served in the Armed Forces, I feel like I need to be careful, but my personal feeling about Memorial Day is that I’m not comfortable just not showing up for work, hosting a party, getting misty-eyed during the national anthem shown on TV before the game, but that’s about it.  We as a nation do a shitty enough job taking care of those veterans who make it back with a heartbeat - I think those that don’t deserve a bit more remembrance, y’know?  On the East Coast I would always try to make it down to DC to visit the Vietnam Wall for Remembrance/Memorial Day; somehow that seems more appropriate.

That said, were I to number among the fallen, I would want my kids, wife, family and friends to have the day off and have a good time, maybe place some flowers on my grave while on their way to take in a minor league baseball game.  Hmm, that sounded a bit morbid, but I think the sentiment is clear.

I will start by urging everyone to at least consider watching the Stanley Cup finals, starting this evening. This is a fantastic matchup and should make for some high-quality and exciting hockey.

Anyway, I thought that the season deserved at least some mention. San Jose was perhaps the best team in the league, but choked and got their coach fired, four months after Ottawa similarly imploded.

But that is much less interesting than the awesomely-titled but disappointing website: Hot Chicks with Lord Stanley. I like the concept, but it’s not really a great collection of photos.

Finally, I’m significantly biased against the stupid Red Wings, but I really do think that the the Pens have what it takes.

So I was channel surfing this evening on our new couch (come visit!) and stumbled across this guy:

I knew the actor looked familiar but couldn’t place him.  If you answered “Don Flack from CSI:NY”, then good for you.  Or if you came up with “Lords of Dogtown”, then nicely done.  But no, I thought for a couple seconds and then came up with “Jim Craig, I mean, Eddie Cahill”.  My TV/movie/pop culture IQ is really not that good, sometimes.

IMDB is a beautiful thing.  Apparently Cahill made a guest appearance on Dawson’s Creek? and showed up in seven “Friends” episodes as Tag Jones.

I think the title and the photo below should be enough inducement to read an article.  If not, I add my endorsement.

Big ol’ cheaters who lie sometimes do get caught, I reckon…

(1) a 5.4 earthquake in southern ill. wow.  In other news, a recent study reported that there is a 99% chance of a 6.7 quake in CA in the next 30 years.  Given Californian’s laziness, this was met with derision instead of preparedness.  (For those unfamiliar with decade-math, a 6.7 is 20 times stronger than a 5.4.)

(2) racist cubbies - not cool. maybe they can blame the earthquake for disrupting their sense of right and wrong?

(3) Red Sox pitchers are cheaters!  clearly they have taken some weird potion to turn themselves into Mr. Stretch.