Helpful Links for Research

The following links are listed here as a reference for myself in my extensive research on sports history.

1) Montreal Canadiens 100-year history examining each decade

2) Cleveland Indians history listing seasons and star players

3) Knuckleballs and knuckleballers - the best in history

4) San Diego Padres history

5) Juan Guzman and his sliders

6) Tom Candiotti's career bio

7) The complete list of all major-league knuckleballers

8) The dangers of signing Roy Halladay

9) A directory of Canadian libraries

10) Donna Candiotti's interview

11) SI Inside Pitch ('83 pennant race), 87 Indians, 88 Indians, 94 Dodgers, Vault

12) News (Google)

13) Busch story, 92 Dodgers futility, 92 Gruber's boast (Key almost started ahead of Guzman in playoffs), Ramon 92 Opening Day

Random Baseball Thoughts I

Well, the 2009 season has started. Last season, I started taking shots at the Detroit Tigers when they stumbled out of the game, mainly because they were one of the AL contenders who passed up on signing Home Run King Barry Bonds.

This year? Maybe my target is the Texas Rangers.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/154116-opening-week-random-baseball-musings

Why? Well, it's because when they started out 3-0, some of their players were talking about "expecting to win" this year. Hello? It's still early!

Marlon Byrd: "This team has a different feel. We go out there and we're expecting to win now."

"The team chemistry in here is second to none, and right now it's a special team to be part of," said pitcher Brandon McCarthy.

Funny. McCarthy didn't even pitch all that well (2 HR, 4 BB, 3 R, 5 IP). And it's not like he's been in all MLB clubhouses to know that. (To steal a line from Rick saying that anyone who listed Toronto as the top 10 cities in the world had only been to 9 other cities.. hahaha)

Well, in their 2nd and 3rd wins, Texas pitching allowed 13 runs (but scored 20 runs total).

In their 4th game, the Rangers lost 15-2. Okay, no perfect season after all.

In their 5th game, today, the Rangers lost 4-3. Their pitcher (someone named Harrison) gave up four runs, nine hits, and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Well, I wonder what happened to their winning attitude.

The bottom line is, they can't pitch (as usual), so it doesn't matter whether they expect to win or they have good chemistry. They're still going to have a rough year.

Of course, after that 3-0 start, there were people blogging on the Internet about how the Rangers have "proven" they're the team to beat in the AL West.

What a joke.

And oh, in that link I posted above, I also talked about former Jay A.J. Burnett. Wonder if he'll be injury-free this year...

Boston-Montreal ?

The Boston-Montreal tilt Thursday night at the TD Banknorth Garden was a thriller, to be sure, with the B's coming out on top with a 5-4 overtime win.

Sure, the Bruins have shown they can beat the Canadiens, and the Habs themselves have shown they're vulnerable this year, including in goal and now with injuries to their defense.

Boston won the last five meetings against Montreal this season, and are the Eastern Conference's top seed. And though the Canadiens lost this contest, they still (finally) clinched a playoff berth by earning a point in the defeat.

Thus, the Habs will be in the playoffs, and if the postseason started right now, Montreal (eighth seed) and Boston (first) will clash in the opening round.

Sure, there's one more game to go in the regular season, and Montreal and the New York Rangers are tied for the seventh position. However, the Blueshirts own the tie-breaker by virtue of having more wins.

If the Habs (against Pittsburgh) and Rangers (in Philadelphia) both win their finales, New York would get the seventh spot, with Montreal being the eighth seed.

Now, I've talked about this before earlier in the year, but Boston-Montreal in the playoffs... doesn't favor the Bruins.

If you believe in 'hockey gods', then despite the regular-season records, you'll probably believe Montreal has some sort of an edge.

The Habs have owned the Bruins in the playoffs throughout hockey history. Yes, in 1971, the B's outscored everyone by over 100 goals and were clearly the league's best team, but they fell to rookie Ken Dryden and the Habs in seven in the first round.

It was in the spring of 1984 when an unknown named Steve Penney (another rookie) helped Montreal upset Boston in the opening round in a shocking sweep.

And who can forget 2002, when Boston was the top seed in the Eastern Conference, only to see Jose Theodore make miraculous save after save to help the eighth-seeded Habs on to the next round with a six-game triumph? When Joe Thornton was sent to the penalty box for a double-minor in the sixth game with the score tied, you just knew Montreal was going to score. The Habs did, and it turned out to be the series-winner.

Yes, the players are different now, the teams are different now. But once the playoffs start, throw out the season records. Everyone starts 0-0 in the postseason.

Goalie Tim Thomas--who will be 35 next week--may be the MVP of the Bruins and may be the top netminder in the league, but weren't we all raving about Byron Dafoe years ago?

In the playoffs, it's all about matchups. During the last Cup run for the Habs in 1993, yes, Patrick Roy was the savior, but you can't overlook the fact the Canadiens had somewhat of an easy ride without playing some of the top teams in the league. Those Habs faced inferior teams like the Sabres and Islanders on their way to the Finals. Oh yeah, matchups are important in the playoffs, and I just don't feel comfortable, being a B's fan, seeing Boston-Montreal in the first round.

And, let's not forget, this is the Canadiens' 100th season, and it looks like they've overcome a lot of adversity--with the mid-season slump and Carey Price's poor play and some players being mentioned hanging out with a gangster and Guy Carbonneau's firing--and have finally made the playoffs.

Oh yeah, and the Habs' Alex Kovalev has turned it around after being sent home earlier in the season for a couple games. Kovalev led all skaters a week ago with nine points (with seven assists) and was named the "first star" in the NHL on Monday.

Perhaps the Habitants will come together and win at least one round, led by the rejuvenated Kovalev?

Boston-Montreal also will undoubtedly bring out a lot of emotion on both teams, and in an emotional series between two long-time rivals who have already played seven times during the season... there's just no edge for either team, regardless of seasonal records.

Thus, as a Bruins fan, I desperately want to see Montreal finish seventh so the B's avoid a first-round matchup against the hated Habs. Pray for the Rangers to stumble in Philly in their final game of the regular season, and for the Habs to beat Pittsburgh.

Let's take our chances with the Rangers in the first round instead.

TEYC Day 2

Well, since I've been spending / will be spending a bulk of my time teaching, revamping curriculum, doing market research, and prepping for lessons this week, I won't have time to do any writing. :-(

Thus, no point in updating the blog.... but, since I don't want to leave it for months (just as some people on the zonk), I've decided to list the game plan for Day 2 the TEYC program that I've 'revamping.' At least it will help me to reflect on how the lesson goes if I get to teach it again next time.

Day 2:

Game Plan:

-Songs
a) Go over "Make a circle" with Ss (ie. Demonstrate) / talk about the purpose of the song & routine / talk about the vocab that needs to be pre-taught (ie. This will be an example)
b) Split class up into groups: One group gets "Clean up!", another gets "If you're happy...", etc. Ss have to demonstrate PLUS explain purpose of the song & routine AND vocab to be pre-taught
c) Re: "If you're happy...", go over "IQ" vs. "EQ"

-Emotions
a) Elicit emotion words
b) Have Ss make an emotions poster

-Helpers
a) The importance of helpers

Well, that's the game plan anyways... We'll see how it goes.

[But damn.... no time this week to write.... :( ]

TEYC Day 1

Well, class is over now. It was a fun first day of class for "my" new TEYC program.

I go into any class with the simple attitude that I will be successful, and I'm going to teach students things that will be useful for them. Personality is a big thing too; be friendly, positive, especially in a teacher-training course such as this one.

Things I went over Today:
-Policies of the program
-Introductions / interview a partner and share with the class
(Award "stars" for each successful introduction of partner)
-Go over mark distribution and when each assignment will take place
-Elicit what "routines" mean / give personal examples / elicit examples from students / talk about why routines are important for children / give examples of various routines that are helpful for children's learning
-Have students do an activity involving "classroom rules" / explain why "classroom rules" are important
-Give students examples of HOW to encourage children for having done a great job
-Have students think of WHEN "stars" (rewards) should be used in a classroom / give examples of situations
-Explain words such as "elicit", "TPR", "visual aid", "realia" and give examples.
-Ask students to work in groups to prepare a very short lesson at the front of the room using one of "elicit", "TPR", "realia", etc.
-Critique what students did during their demonstrations

Lunch!!

We'll see how it goes the rest of the way.

TEYC on Monday!

After teaching the Business program for years, I've been assigned a new task starting Monday:

Teach TEYC and revamp its curriculum.Last week, the school let go the TEYC teacher when another instructor who was due to return from vacation came back. However, the returning instructor doesn't each TEYC (but neither do I), so that meant reshuffling was needed.

I was told there were a couple candidates to be the new TEYC teacher, and ultimately the owner and management decided I was the one who should do it.

In reality, the TEYC program has been in decline--or so I've been told--and the school was at one point considering dropping the course. However, they'd like me to teach it, look at the curriculum, revamp it as much as I could, so that it could become a stronger program.

For me, it's like trying to study a new offense, like a quarterback who's run the same offense for years but goes to a new team and has to start over. The TEYC book is thick and I've had a chance to look through its pages and figure out a plan of attack.

Their idea is for me to revamp it so that not only it becomes a stronger program, but also any teacher could look at the curriculum and figure out how to teach it (and thus I could one day return to the Business program).

We'll see how it goes.

Interestingly, I've been subbing for Writing class the last couple weeks and have to give up that class starting Monday. The interesting thing is that I'm kind of a writer and I'm not teaching writing class. Haha! (It's like having the slugger sitting on the bench instead of being asked to pinch hit in a key spot--or Gretzky not used for the shootout in the Olympics; ha ha!)

The good news is that this week, including the weekend, I finally had a chance to do some serious writing. When I am in a groove, I just keep writing--I wrote about 10,000 words this week--and don't stop. It's a story about a hockey player.

The bad news: Apparently, the estimated release date for "Replacement Pitcher" has been pushed back several months. :-(

Hope to have more positive news next time!

Next up: TEYC?

I was pulled aside by Steve for a quick meeting earlier today, and was briefed about a few things:

Seems as though one person will be laid off next week, and of course, it's not me, since I am high on the depth chart (hahaha). The reality is that the student numbers will be the same for the next semester, and ordinarily, that would mean everyone (ie. staff) gets to stay. However, Giles has been on vacation for a month, so in fact, that would mean when he does come back (at the start of the new semester), there will be one extra teacher.

Thus, I was asked if I could teach TEYC, something I've never done before. I was told that James and I were the two candidates for this, and if neither of us could, then "Teacher E" would have to be retained to teach it, while the popular Kyle would be gone (since he was the last person hired). I was asked to think about it, see whether or not I would want to teach TEYC, and not try and "save" someone's job, in this case, Kyle's. (If Kyle's job was saved, then "Teacher E" would be the one out of one.)

Here's the thing though: Even if I do try and "save" Kyle, it's not like it will be recognized. It's like one of these hush-hush internal matters, so it's like it stays within the few of us and doesn't get out to everyone. So, even if I try to be the 'good guy' here, so to speak, no one will know or care. Whatever.

I was told that James was briefed on this earlier (before I was ever told about this) and had apparently said he wouldn't mind, though he wasn't all pumped up for it. I'd told myself repeatedly, learn to say no, learn to think about myself and not whatever is convenient for everyone else (because sometimes it ends up with me doing more work). However, with the fact that one of the candidates (James) had already consented, I wasn't about to reject the idea. And of course, it's all about the competitive nature in me; if James could do it, obviously I could do it too, and likely better.

So, I could be the person teaching TEYC. Who knows... Well, the decision will be made in a day or two, so it's up to the decision-makers now. To use one of my sports quotes, two quarterbacks vying for the one job on a team with no defense... Who's going to win the job?

Random Thoughts X

The ECHL, the fantasy hockey league I've involved in for the last couple years, is no longer a fun league.

Don't know if it's because the commissioner team has been changed or what, but the league is getting to be less interesting.

First off, it was suddenly not okay to make fun of other teams, which was part of the fun to begin with. Whenever I made fun of the Atlanta franchise losing, Mike (who was not even the GM of said team) was intent on picking fights with me on the message board. Repeatedly.

Secondly, when I publicly decided to root for other clubs, that wasn't okay either, with two of the four current commissioners jumping in to attack me. All in good nature, I'm sure, but again, I don't see why I needed to have multiple people bashing me. It's just like, there's a minor problem with the photocopier, let's say, and we have two people there to fix it. Unnecessary. Add to that, there are several making fun of the quality of my team, which is fine. However, there are a few teams right now that are worse than or on par with mine, and yet I don't see anything negative said about them.

Now, suddenly I am told I am a useless GM, with apparently all four commissioners questioning my trades.

This is supposed to be a fun fantasy league. Suddenly this league just isn't fun anymore.

* * * * *

On another note, back to work:

I'd been teaching the Business program for years now, and with the fact the current student numbers aren't high, I've been asked to take on curriculum development for half of my days. So, morning time it's Business, afternoon time it was supposed to be curriculum stuff for the whole school. (And believe me, I was handed a long list of things to fix.)

However, as luck would have it, some teachers had been sick, or most recently, quit suddenly, and I've been subbing for, and now teaching, afternoon English classes.

When I was teaching Business full-time, it was all a balancing act. Most of the time, be strict, but sometimes, be coddling. Now, it's being strict in the morning with Business students, and being coddling with the afternoon students.

I was invited to a party on Saturday, and normally I wouldn't be going to these student-teacher get-togethers. See, Business students didn't want to hang out with their teachers after school, while English students did. Thus, at these parties, Business students usually weren't around. However, it was not cool to skip these functions for an English teacher. Thus, in my afternoon classes, my students were already asking me to commit to attending. And, because you try to provide a friendly and encouraging atmosphere, it would be uncool to say no. Therefore, I promised I would attend, and I did.

At the party, Chan expressed his appreciation for my being there, and also thanked me for being a great teacher, for explaining things clearly, and my geniune kindness. It was an alright party overall; I hung out for a couple hours before taking off.

It's certainly refreshing to hear people thank you and be appreciative of your efforts... unlike situations where people stab each other's backs in highly competitive work environments. Just a comment.

Top 5 ?

This "top 5" thing on FB must be a new thing or something; lots of people have it now.

But the one category I saw on someone's profile was just plain nonsense.

Ken picked their (5) for "Pick Your Five Favorite NHL Teams". What are yours?

Okay. Seriously?

Five favourite teams? For the record, this person selected Dallas, Anaheim, Philadelphia, Washington, and San Jose.

Okay, no offense, but that's really dumb. This would be something if it said "top 5 logos", but it doesn't.

How can one like five teams? (NO, this isn't a shot taken at Rick. As you can clearly see, the person in the example above is called "Ken.") Is it like, each weekday of the week you like a different team? Or is it like if one team loses, you disown them and claim support for the others?

What about the playoffs? Suddenly you have five shots at winning the Cup?

Even if you wanted, say, a team from each division, that's still pretty dumb. And I can't see how any Stars fan, for example, could also be a Ducks and Sharks fan.

Crazy.

Random Thoughts IX

CBC Marketplace aired this story two weeks ago about "Lawless Loan Companies", and my response to that is: Those awful banks are partly to blame too. If not for the fact those banks rejected their customers, those customers wouldn't have to resort to seeking out those scammer online companies. Thus, blame in on the CIBCs, the RBCs, and the TDs of the world. Of course, just a couple weeks prior to this particular story, CBC Marketplace had also reported about banks (namely, RBC) and credit card companies that scammed customers of their own by charging extra credit card fees! Shame on those big bad banks.

People are talking about Brodeur vs. Roy because of the fact the Devils goaltender has surpassed St. Patrick's wins record. But hold on a second; Bob McCown has said let's put an asterix beside Brodeur's record (for now), as his win total includes 27 shootout wins... something that Roy never had a chance to get. (Shootouts were introduced after Roy had retired; back then, once overtime was over, the game was a tie and that was it.) But all this talk of "who's the greatest of all-time" crap is just pointless. Fans who grew up in this generation had never seen Jacques Plante or Terry Sawchuk play. (And I've seen numerous articles which laughed at people who claim Sawchuk as No. 1 all-time as being old, etc.) With different eras, different rules, and so on, what's the point of comparing different goalies (or any other position, for that matter)? Goalies before the expansion era played against tougher teams and players (since there were only six teams in the leagues), played under tougher travel conditions, played fewer games in a season, and so on. To suggest goalies of this era was better than ones in the past would be silly. A pointless discussion.

Did you hear about Chipper Jones' comments about Toronto? Jones left the WBC (a joke of a tournament, by the way) to return to the Braves' spring facility at the start of the week because of an injury, and then blamed the tournament format because they didn't play on a regular basis. He then suggested the city was boring. "I don't know if you ever stayed in Toronto, but it's not exactly Las Vegas," he told an Atlanta newspaper. It's one thing to knock the WBC, but then to take shots at the city of Toronto at the same time?

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Check out my latest sports book too, on Lulu.com.**

What if...?

I like these "what-if" scenarios, and this book is all about that.

Only $19.95!

The cover might suggest it's all about baseball--and a whole chunk of it is indeed about the game on the diamond--but it's got info on teams like the 1993 and 2002 Maple Leafs, and the 2004 Flames and 2006 Oilers.

Oh yeah, a few stories about Kerry Fraser too.

Weird Slogans, Annoying Fans...

Last week, I was emphasizing "Slogans" in class, about how the right ones were needed to pitch products.

And then I googled and came across a, well, shall we say, weird, slogan.

The Florida Marlins were dead last in the National League in attendance last season, drawing just over 1.3 million fans. (Still, this was more than what the Marlins had in 2003, their last championship season. By contrast, in their heyday, the Blue Jays were getting over 4 million per season.)

Yes, the Marlins have won two World Series championships (1997, 2003) in their very brief existence in the majors. (They began play in 1993.) However, their low payroll, stadium issues, etcetera, are probably some of the reasons fans aren't filling Dolphin Stadium. In fact, since 1999, the Marlins have finished in the bottom three in attendance every single season!

So, guess what the Florida Marlins' official slogan is?

Get ready for this....

"IT'S WHERE YOU WANNA BE!"

Nice slogan... except not many in Miami actually agree with that...




You never want to wish ill will on someone, so I say hopefully they are able to draw more fans with that catchy slogan. After all, they did finish above .500 last year and are sort of an up-and-coming team.

****************

On to the topic of annoying fans:

Thanks to the Internet these days, anybody (such as myself and House) can have a blog (hahaha - no doubt one of Trout's pet peeves). I thought it'd be interesting to check out what other sports fans' blogs look like, so I took a random peek at some.

• "I can say without hesitation that I am the biggest (name of football team) and (name of baseball team) fan that has ever lived. I even worked for the (name of football team) in the 2007 season (as an usher)."

Okay. What the heck does that mean?? "I'm the biggest (blah) fan that has ever lived"??? How can you quantify or measure that?? Oh yeah, and this dude says on his blog he's 19 years old. Okay.

How about this one:

• "I will see (name of football team) win a Super Bowl because I refuse to die until they win one."

Okay, you're not kidding me, right? Sounds like an arrogant SOB. This next one, however, is more humble and sounds better:

• "I could die a happy man if the (name of baseball team) could just once win the damn World Series. But I refuse to die until they do, which ensures a long life, come to think of it."

It's all about how you say it; the first guy sounds like a jerk, the second sounds rational.
"The (name of football team) were better than your team in 1948, 1949, and 1960."
So???

This one:

• "I think that (name of city) fans have been given an unfair rap by just about everybody since one particular incident (example given). In reality, there is no city in the world that displays passion for its teams like we do. We are the most knowledgeable fans in the world. We want perfection, and if you don't give us perfection, we will let you know. We may boo our players, but do we ever stop going to the games? No. Those that criticize us are simply jealous of our unbelievable passion."

I underlined a few phrases on there - because I wanted to know: How on earth can you measure or quantify that?? How??

Hogwash, I say.

Sometimes, fans are just annoying... or as Trout says, a lot of times, this blog is annoying...

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Candiott, Jerseys, and more...

A few weeks ago, CBC Marketplace aired an episode on how a certain well-known magazine company is sucking in seniors on the 'sweepstake scam.' The episode can be found here.

Over a decade ago, I'd subscribed to that magazine company too, and had once entered their dubious sweepstakes. I remember they said on the sweeptakes entry form to write down the name of a celebrity you'd like to hand you the grand prize cheque should you win the big one!

I wrote in "Tom Candiotti."

Of course, I never won the prize but I gave up soon enough.

Now, I still haven't gotten a chance to meet with the pitcher, unlike guys such as Rick, Rick, and House, who've all met their favourite athletes at some point. However, I did manage to get a Candiotti Dodger jersey. He was kind enough to send one to me this past week. Nice!

That brings me to the topic of jerseys...

It's obviously an expensive hobby, but this "anthentic, autographed" business sounds a bit over the top. Example?

Here's an autographed Andy Moog Bruins jersey, which, according to various sites, costs over $500.









The problem? Moog never wore this jersey before... Moog played for the Bruins from 1987-88 to 1992-93, and Boston never used this jersey until the mid-90s, well after he was gone.

So, it's like having a Gretzky jersey with the current Kings logo. Strange!!

How about this one, also listed at over $500?





Again, when Moog was in Dallas, the Stars had a different uniform. Moog was a Star until the end of the 1996-97 season, while this black and green jersey wasn't introduced until the 1999-2000 season.


When Moog was in Big D, this was what the team wore:



Too bad these things cost that much but aren't even the "real" thing.

(PS: I don't own these pictures; they are from Grandstand Sports and GameWorn Jerseys.)


Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Easy work!

One month ago, I had the feeling that there were going to be fewer students registered at school, and I was proven right. At that time, I approached the head teacher (SL) and the counsellors and mentioned I wouldn't mind going part-time if necessary. For a while, it looked like that was what they were going with. (I'd explained to them that I was trying to 'help out' by volunteering to go part-time.)

However, now with fewer students and classes indeed, I was kept on as a full-timer (despite my generous offer; not that I'm complaining or anything...). I am teaching my career program in the morning, but am now doing mostly curriculum development in the afternoon. (The school chose to lay off one teacher and reduce the hours of another.) Doing curriculum prep stuff is okay, but I got a chance to hang out with my morning students when they came out to do Steve's in-class assignment on the computer. Good times.

Today I got to substitute conversation and writing classes in the afternoon, something I hadn't done for years. And it was a big contrast indeed. In the career programs, it's serious and academic. In the ESL programs with conversation and writing, it's more about having fun and being friendly with students, making jokes and laughing. Totally different.

What the normal writing teacher had taught the day before was how to write party invitations. Thus, my task was to follow up with that, and what I did was review the students' work, encourage them, and then teach them how to respond to an invitation, formal vs. informal responses, sample sentences, and then a 10-minute game to cap off the lesson. Easy. Anyone can do it. Sounds like a $10 an hour job, as opposed to what these teachers actually make.

My conclusion? Yup - ESL teachers are indeed paid too much. It didn't take me much time to prep for those classes and deliver good lessons. For my career programs, it's about being prepared with hardcore materials, marking papers, and evaluating presentations and offering constructive feedback--more work involved.

Well, we'll see how it goes next week...

Crazy, crazy last few weeks

No time to do much updating on here, because things have been HECTIC!

Two weekends ago (Jan 3-4), I was supposed to be off and could work on my writing. But alas, the Saturday (and Sunday) Team Leader (yes, I call her that to her face too, so it's not like I am talking behind her back) was sick, rendering my weekend meaningless. I had to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday and help out while she recovered. Oh well.

Monday (Jan 5th), a supervisor was laid off, so that meant as Team Leader, my role became worse (ie. I had more duties to do). Add to that, I had to train a newbie the last couple shifts, so that added to my list of responsibilities--yikes, tough to complete all my tasks with added stuff to do!

At school, I've had to train Marcel in teaching my business program (because the other teachers were shifted to another course) and have had to meet up with him every day and chat about things and how to handle the classes. Not a bad thing; I don't mind it, honestly, because I know what I'm doing--I designed the entire half of that curriculum from scratch, basically--and everything about the course.

And this afternoon, I had to be part of a meeting with the administrators and head teacher because students apparently were complaining about the class sizes. (Some were complaining they wanted ME to teach them instead--hehe--but of course I took the professional route in handling their comments.) There were 12 students in one (veteran) class and six in the other (which is a brand new class), so it was my idea to mix them up, with Marcel getting half and me getting the other.

I'd intentionally split them up in a while which gave Marcel the good and active students, while I kept some of the quieter students--mainly to help Marcel out. But alas, what can I do? I tried to help out the other teacher and actually make more work for myself, but the students don't like it... oh well. We'll see what happens.

Hmm - no time to write and continue my little projects. But we'll see what the next day or two brings.

Simpson on Crack?

Some of the Baseball Hall of Fame votes have been made public.

Only one HoF voter hasn't selected Rickey Henderson for the Hall so far - and it's a retired writer named Simpson.

Simpson contradicts himself when he selected Tim Raines for the following reason:

• Tim Raines, a seven-time All-Star outfielder, 1986 National League batting champion, and four-time (NL) base-stealing champ.

People like Simpson should have his voting previledges revoked....