Forecast calls for games
Hickey writes about getting out of town, but the big news is it’s game on. Hopefully we get a game tomorrow at 11:05 (no TV) and then, oh yes, Matsuzaka versus Hernandez on Wednesday (Baker, Hickey, Brad Lefton in the Times on Ichiro-Matsuzaka)
Now, it’s my experience that whenever there’s a matchup that looks like it’ll be great, I tune in and end up disappointed. One pitcher gets scratched, or they don’t have their best stuff and you get the kind of 6-5 snoozer you might expect from the back of the rotation. The matchup of the week seems to turn out to also be the week’s worst disappointment.
But this – this could well be the best game we see all year. Really. The Mariners and Red Sox, in Fenway, King Felix versus Dice-K, in a matchup so amazing our heads might well split open while we sit at home, jaws open in disbelief at the quality of play before us. Oh yeah. I’m excited.
On the same day, I’m doing a Cheater’s Guide event at Third Place Books. 7 pm. Hopefully Felix makes quick work of the game. Deanna’s promised to show up and heckle me, among others.
Anyway, how about that world we’ve created? Pretty wacky, huh.
Dear DMZ,
The CBS guy is dumb.
Sincerely,
Mike
I offered to send him a copy of the book.
Ha! I cant believe they are making such a big issue about you. This was bound to happen anyways.
You’re the original, and even after 1000 more complaints are made in the coming seasons, nothing beats the original. Down the road, fellow Bloggers will point to you as inspiration.
You’re like Spencer Haywood. Only shorter. (im assuming)
Felix vs. Matsuzaka will be great, especially after the mess in Cleveland.
Douchebag. He must be “Zu Long”.
Nobody actually read your book did they? Why does everybody miss two key points:
1). It’s still illegal.
2). You don’t care that he was cheating.
The book has an entire chapter devoted to the glory that was Gaylord Perry. No where in that chapter did you damn the man for cheating by greasing up the ball any chance he got. Your glowing rendition of the goings-on of baseball from the spitball era, to the end of an era with Perry’s retirement, to the modern pitcher needing all the help he can get, should pretty much tell everybody that, if anything, you’re giving K-Rod a thumbs up!
READ THE BOOK, FUCK-FACES!
I love when print writers use condescending language like “an obscure blog” or “some internet blogger.”
Dice-K vs. King Felix match-up should be good, though Felix will be pitching for the first time in over a week, so he might be rusty.
How exactly is that excerpt of your book’s acknowledgements supposed to be damning?
Don’t get too optimistic about games being played. Supposed to be crazy rain and/or snow on Thursday in Boston. And I have tickets. Grrrr.
OMG! WE’VE CREATED A MONSTER!!!!
Imagine people, having fun with baseball in ways that some random writer from CBS Sportsline doesn’t approve. Why do we allow that?
I thought you were referring to the global warming related (probably) late snow storm in cleveland.
This is the world we’re trying to trying to change: Some lazy, overpaid, home-boy journalist who likes to sit in his little insular office sipping his coffee and make-up hatchet pieces without actually doing a little work to RESEARCH!!!
HELLO?!?! Hello!?!? Does he take the time to actually view the video clips of K-Rod not going to the Rosin bag but repeatedly to his cap (I don’t know about you all, but how do you get Rosin on the brim…a new one at that…without actually going to the Rosin bag behind the mound)? Does he not know that this has been going on for YEARS in golf? It’s about time other sports started taking advantage of the other eyes and cameras available to them.
Uhhh…Duh!!! When I asked my wife about this quote, she rolled her eyes and essentially said, “Of course they’re going to say that! Tell me something I don’t know already, stupidâ€, that from an admitted non-sports fan.
Oh, and as for author Scott Miller’s credibility on attempting to be a legitimate journalist, here’s an except posted on Miller’s internet profile: “A native of Monroe, Mich., Miller graduated from Hillsdale (Mich.) College in 1985 and soon thereafter began covering sports for the Los Angeles Times, San Diego edition. After covering the San Diego Padres and the then-California Angels…â€
Hillsdale College?!?!?!
If you want to be negative…you can make anything sound bad! And I’m just some guy…submitting a comment on a web site…I should get paid to be smarmy!!!
Nice! A plug is a plug! Got your name and a book reference (sort of) out of it, can’t buy that stuff!!
I’m confused, what is the point of pushing Felix back to Wednesday if they are staying in rotation and having Weaver go today?
I’m not saying its a bad thing, Felix versus Matsuzaka will be cool, and there might be a legitimate reason but I am over looking it.
Nevermind, Hickey had me confused. They are staying in rotation one hundred percent and not pushing Felix back a day.
In other news this is Tuesday and my schedule change at work has me all confused.
Well, I hear that Hillsdale (Mich.) College does have an outstanding Underwater Basketweaving program. That must count for something, shouldn’t it?
well, obviously Scott is just consumed with envy that his agent isn’t as helpful in lining up those book deals ….
got the book from amazon yesterday…good so far…best news…baseball today…bout frigin time…
I love when print writers use condescending language
Thing is, is he a print writer? Or does his material appear only on the internet, just like a blog? Derek’s more of a print writer than he is.
Thing is, is he a print writer?
Spanky above said that he writes for the LA Times. I don’t know anything about the guy.
Wow, that drive-by was dumb. I’m going to send him an email asking him to do some research next time. Also, I’ll tell him that DMZ is a primary contributor to the most popular blog in Seattle, and so isn’t exactly “obscure.”
Speaking of obscure – I’d like to see the hits of his online article vs. this blog…
DMZ,
Do you have any other bookstore appearances on the horizon? Say, in the city?
AARRGGGHH!! Why is it that every time a “big-time” media source reports on the cheating thing, they always fall back on the “haha bloggers blah blah moms basement too obscure and stats suck blah blah!” argument?
Do they not know that he literally WROTE THE BOOK on it?
sigh. I know Felix versus DiceK is supposed to be exciting, but you can’t convince me that Hargrove won’t call for Mateo in the event of a 1-1 tie in the seventh or eighth inning.
Are you “some internet blogger” “with a book to promote,” or a published author with an blog to accompany the book? In this particular instance, I’d think it’d be the latter.
He falls back on the blog-mocking ploy for three reasons.
Third, he thinks blogging is the mark of a geek, and he’s still mentally a jock from school and assumes his whole audience his.
Second, he’s a member of a club, and sees the relevance of his club threatened by all the attention non club members are getting. He’d have been one of the guys mocking Bill James back in the day.
And first, he has no other argument to make.
I sent the following email to Scott Miller. Hopefully it didn’t turn out too cranky.
Your takedown of Zumsteg in the last “Weekend Buzz” was rather ill-considered. The most egregious problems seem to be (a) taking the statements of baseball executives at face value, (b) being unaware of who Zumsteg is, (c) being unaware of what Zumsteg’s book is about.
With respect to (a), baseball executives, what else can I say? Haven’t they done enough to forfeit all credibility? (And didn’t Zumsteg predict their exact reactions ahead of time?)
On (b), you call Zumsteg “some Internet blogger” (plainly an attempt at disparagement given the “drive-by” at the end) which is rather disingenuous when, first, he has published a book, which is more than most of us can say, and second, he has been published in the 2007 _ Best American Sports Writing Annual_. That is, it would be fairer to describe Zumsteg as a “writer” than as a “blogger” – that is, unless you are attempting to take someone down without doing the necessary research. Or, if you are to describe him as a blogger, you might want to note that Zumsteg is a primary contributor to what was voted the most popular blog in the Seattle Metro area (ussmariner.com), as voted upon in “Metroblogging Seattle” a few months back.
“Credibility”? I question your ability to judge what you haven’t read more than I question Zumsteg’s ability to watch video of a ballgame.
On (c), perhaps you didn’t realize this, but Zumsteg is a _fan_ of cheating pitchers. He thinks it is a great thing (as do all true baseball fans).
But I do need to ask about one thing. The final paragraph is completely puzzling to me. Why is this supposed to say anything about Zumsteg’s credibility? Isn’t that exactly how these kinds of things go? I’m in the process of writing my doctoral dissertation and this is the way that advising works here as well: Find something interesting, find something doable, etc. Is this supposed to impugn everyone who publishes their dissertations then? Or does it only impugn their ability to watch film of baseball games – or perhaps only film of baseball games played thousands of miles away? I don’t quite understand how this is supposed to go.
Vive le baseball, vive la tricherie.
I’m not quite clear on how the excerpt Miller cited from “Cheater” is supposed to undermine DMZ’s credibility.
Moron that Miller may be, don’t make that point by capping on the guy’s college. Plenty of idiots come from big schools, too. Would he be any less likely to say something stupid if he were a U-Mich grad?
That article made me upset for like an hour yesterday, I cannot get that time back. Then I realized I was having my mood altered by some internet columnist and I could laugh it all off. He’s just a guy sitting at his desk writing articles on the internet. I hope he has something better to do than mess with people, I mean I don’t even know who he is…
29: I think Miller was implying that DMZ is just looking for sales by actively seeking a topic which he could sell. I’m not exactly sure why this is a bad thing. Regardless, Miller is a gigantic tool.
This is quickly turning into “Moneyball” by Billy Beane.
Which is to say, humans are a strange species.
#29: You made my point perfectly! My attack on his alma mater is no less idiotic as his attack on the process that DMZ and his agent went through to come up with a good book idea. It has no merit whatsoever!
But, point taken. I shouldn’t have impugned his alma mater but rather the knuckleheaded state he was from! (tongue in cheek!!)
“Some internet blogger in Seattle…”
He must not have an editor to point out how unprofessional that makes him look.
This guy’s a complete tool. He’s not only petty, but he doesn’t understand the concept of humorous self-deprecation.
Scott Miller…that’s one byline I’ll bypass from now on.
Disparaging comments about baseball internet bloggers and statheads by print “sportswriters” is nothing new. Murray Chass in NYC not only jeers at bloggers but has the temerity to claim he doesn’t know what VORP is nor does he WANT to know. And Dan Shaughnessy (Shagnasty to his Boston Red Sox fan critics) writing for the Globe in Boston has harassed and reviled Curt Schilling for over a month now, ever since Schilling started up his blog March 7th.
Schilling’s blog serves a variety of purposes, talking up: his 38 studios GMG site, his gratefulness at being successful in baseball as an occupation as well as doing something he loves, honoring his family and Christianity, his work for ALS, cancer research, and childhood/disabling diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy, and many other topics.
Shaughnessy has sneered repeatedly at Schilling’s direct-to-the-fans remarks after each game he’s pitched, his observations on his team and other players in MLB (nothing controversial), and his stated purpose in his first blog entry being avoidance of creative editing by Shaughnessy and others: “…that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said–with the entire contents of my comments included.”
I bet this was what it was like in the early days of radio, with vaudeville guys making fun of radio broadcasters.
It must be hard for sports writers, who have defined themselves as “journalists” and have the related restrictions on what they can do, to see this wave of blogging, where people can just say whatever they want without worrying about players ignoring them in the clubhouse and messing up their deadlines. Hence the “it was just rosin” this year, and “it was a dirt stain” during the playoffs last year.
I’ve seen or read more than one reference to this story that called Derek “some blogger” or “an internet blogger” but I’ve never heard them call the New York Times “some print newspaper” or ESPN “some TV network.” At some point they’ll have to pull their heads out of the sand and acknowledge that bloggers can have a valid opinion and aren’t just all making stuff up to be controversial.
I think we’re all in violent agreement that Scott Miller is a douchebag. Any sports journalist who starts a commentary with ‘Some internet blogger in Seattle…’ probably is not about to unleash any great pearls of wisdom.
What I really enjoyed today was the Brad Lefton article (note: Lefton is described as “a bilingual journalist who covers Ichiro and the Mariners for the Japanese media”). Lefton gives us this all-time classic of Ichiro quotes, regarding the upcoming matchup with Dice-K.
“I hope he arouses the fire that’s dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul,” he says. “I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.”
This raises a number of questions in my mind about fires in Ichiro’s soul which may or may not still be dormant, and also about the extent of bilingual journalist Brad Lefton’s translation skills. Also, why does Japanese media need Brad Lefton to cover Ichiro from St Louis, when there are dozens of Japanese media following him everywhere he goes? Mostly I hope Ichiro was just talking about baseball when he gave that quote.
God I love Ichiro. I’ll root for him wherever he goes.
(long-time lurker, first-time poster, married to dw)
Among other things, the columnist is displaying his ignorance, because that’s a huge part of a literary agent’s JOB. They’re in it to help talented writers figure out the business side of publishing, which includes deciding which of a set of ideas is most marketable and suited to the writer’s abilities and putting together a proposal to showcase that idea to publishers. There’s nothing remotely strange, embarrassing, or credibility-reducing about it. I know because I’m an agented, though as-yet unpublished, fiction writer, and my agent and I have these kind of discussions all the time. It’s not about selling out by chasing trends that don’t interest me, but rather strategically considering what kind of book would make a good follow-up if the manuscript she’s currently shopping sells, which of several ideas I’m enthusiastic about is best for the current state of the market, etc. It’s NORMAL. It’s what agents and writers do all the time because writing may be art but publishing is BUSINESS.
Your K-rod post was great, Derek. Great pictures and context. I don’t know if Miller was jealous, but I sure was! Stuff like what Miller wrote – wear it like a badge of honor.
Yes and no. As others have said about Miller, it never hurts to do a little research. Just because some of us may not have heard of Hillsdale College doesn’t mean that it’s a place not worth knowing about.
Because Hillsdale College is a school that does something … well I don’t know whether to call it notable or infamous.
It is one of the very few colleges in the country (the only one that I know of) that refuses to accept Federally based student financial aid money. Because schools that accept such aid are required by the Federal government to comply with Federal regulations.
http://www.hillsdale.edu/CollegeHistory/
One might admire Hillsdale for its independence. On the other hand, among the regulations that Hillsdale objects to are “Title IX” regulations, which prohibit colleges from discriminating on the basis of gender (with certain exceptions, such as single-sex colleges). They also decline to report their student body’s ethnic breakdown, or at least I don’t see it on their website nor in their College Board data.
Hillsdale’s website strenuously stresses its policies of non-discrimination.
It is for you the reader to interpret all this as you will.
That policy of non-discrimination I believe also includes a strong refusal to pursue affirmative action policies. Hillsdale College is a darling of social conservatives:
http://tinyurl.com/2ytp4n
Or for more details on the soap opera-ish melodrama of the school’s President and his affair with his daughter in-law:
http://tinyurl.com/2boc5u
Granted, none of this applies directly to Miller. But a student who has chosen to go to Hillsdale has made a distinctive choice, just as (or even more so than) a student who chooses Reed College, Caltech, or Oral Roberts University.