Chapter 71.1: Easing Into 2008

Excuse me. I didn't mean to make all that noise as I sat down into a comfy chair to relax for four days. I'm sure I'll move again before the year is out, but I need these days off to regain some energy and the prospect of heading out for Amateur Night isn't making me all warm and fuzzy.

I have much to be happy about that I accomplished in 2007. I "refinished" my novel and I'll make some changes in early 2008 before actively pursuing representation. I also reached several other goals that I had set for myself. So, all in all, I feel pretty good about the passing year.

But 2008 will be mighty different, I believe. Politics will dominate every day discussions, as it did in 2006. The Iowa Caucus takes place in less than a week, for crying out loud. And given the dramatic, tragic assassination yesterday in Pakistan, I can't imagine that international politics -- and God forbid, terrorism -- will become another issue that becomes an increasingly common concern among thinking people.

Of course, there's only so much a person can worry about such things before becoming paralyzed by fear. So we deflect our concerns with meaningless things. Some choose popular culture, and while I'm not averse to a nice movie to divert my mind, I can't tolerate the current crop of morons who seem to captivate so many people. Instead, I'll enter 2008 the way I ended 2007: reading, writing, and solving puzzles.

I may blog again before the year is out, but if I my little thoughts don't cross your paths before the calendar page turns, may you all have a Happy New Year!

Chapter 71: Post-Christmas Wake-Up Call

I hope everyone out there who celebrates Christmas had a wonderful holiday. I know we sure did! I got a bit too comfortable sleeping past 6:15, so this morning was a little difficult. But it's back to the grind for the rest of the week.

The Christmas holiday weekend was quite busy, and I won't bore those five or six readers out there with the gory details. (If you want gory details, read the Charlie Parker books by John Connolly. I'm nearly finished with the first one, published in 1999, and I'm amazed at how well he structures the plot and develops the characters. He's fantastic!) But my legs and mind are tired, so I'll save my deeper thinking for this coming weekend, when my siblings and I will get a head start on a New Year's resolution to write together.

If you've happened upon this site or the Elephant's Bookshelf because you're a fellow writer, feel free to suggest ways to get a group of talented, imaginative people of different levels of writing experience to work together on exercises and develop as a writing group. I'd love to hear from you, because I'm new at the group thing. Writing's usually a pretty solitary task for me.

Chapter 70.9: The Mitchell Report

There's something I must admit about steroids: I've not read the Mitchell Report. I've downloaded it, but it's 409 pages long, and I simply haven't had the time to devote to it yet.

But I've read several news stories, including this one about the Todd Hundley and David Segui connections to the former Mets clubhouse guy, Kirk Radomski, who was dealing the drugs. As a baseball fan, I'm pretty pissed off that so many players -- and you know that it wasn't only the ninety or so that are list -- were using human growth hormone or a variety of steroids. Lots of people talk about how this is a victimless crime; "No one got hurt." Personally, I think they have no idea what they're talking about.

If I were the last cut for my position and didn't make the team because the guy above me was cheating, I'd be furious. It might even be enough for me to stoop to the same level. That's one argument about why Barry Bonds started taking the clear and the cream; he was so jealous of the accolades that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire received that he said, "Just wait to see the numbers I put up if I took that stuff."

I used to be in the camp that would argue for including Bonds in the Hall of Fame because he played like one of the all-time greats before using. But my sentiments are changing. With Roger Clemens too. I've never liked either of these players, but I had respect for their abilities. Clemens was always the guy who worked harder than everyone else. I don't doubt that he retained that work ethic; the problem is he took advantage of a substance he had no legal right to use. Who wouldn't want to heal faster than usual and gain strength when your career depends on it? Before Clemens left Boston, he was a fading great; then he went to Toronto, won a couple of Cy Young Awards, and placed him on the path toward more than 350 wins. Better than Greg Maddux? No. Maddux, Glavine, these guys were (and are) true ball players, not bullshitters. I think it's telling that a group of Little League coaches in Texas may disinvite Clemens for a speaking engagement.

One of the articles that I read recently that surprised me was by Murray Chass of the New York Times. He pointed out that sixteen years ago Commissioner Fay Vincent issued a memo to teams. The following is from that article:

Mitchell, however, cites one development in his report that may be its most overlooked element. Mitchell mentions a June 7, 1991, memo Vincent wrote to clubs when he was commissioner in which he added steroids to baseball’s list of banned substances.

After the enactment of a federal law, Mitchell wrote, Vincent advised clubs that baseball’s drug policy prohibited the use of “all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual” doesn’t have a prescription.

The memo should have gotten the clubs’ attention, but it didn’t.

“My memo was totally ignored by all,” Vincent wrote in an e-mail message Sunday. He added: “The point was to alert the baseball world to the recent inclusion of steroids as illegal prohibited substances under federal law. But the union did nothing to underscore my memo and I think the clubs ignored it as irrelevant.”

I don't know what effect this will have to counter the argument that "no one knew" what was going on. If nothing else, it should shut up the stupid fans who say "they weren't doing anything illegal." Yes, they were. Steroids were -- and are -- illegal to possess without a prescription. Perhaps some players received legally prescribed steroid kits, but if they're acquiring it through guys like Radomski, then it's still illegally obtained.

Perhaps my anger will be assuaged with time, but this is not a story that will be quieted by spring training. This is a cloud over the game for the forseeable future. For at least five years and probably more. Rafael Palmeiro will never be elected to the Hall of Fame. Neither will Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa, and even Bonds and Clemens will probably miss out on being elected in their first year of eligibility.

One last note for now: The Mitchell Report is effectively an argument; the players basically kept their mouths shut, so the court of public opinion is decidedly against the quiet ones. But the Mitchell Report can't be taken as the definite truth -- not yet. But I think all of the named players will have a difficult time proving that Mitchell was wrong.

Chapter 70.8: Keep the Journey Going!

I have heard some bad news about a TV show that I've come to enjoy. Journeyman on NBC apparently is being cancelled. I'd miss this show, which is well written and entertaining. If you've not seen it, it may sound a little predictable: it's about a man who travels back in time. Yes, time travel has been done -- many times, some not as well as others.

I think I've seen each episode -- which this the third in a row of entertaining Monday night shows on NBC, Chuck, Heroes, and Journeyman -- and with each episode I like Kevin McKidd more and more. I honestly think he's become one of the best television actors going. Those of you who watched Rome on HBO know him as Lucius Vorenus. He made that potentially dour character into a truly captivating everyman (if we were living in Julian and Augustan Rome, that is). And in Journeyman, he does the same thing with Dan Vasser, a talented journalist with a gambling past, a "late" fiance who is a time traveler too, and a wife and child. His brother is a by-the-book cop who used to date Dan's wife, Katie. And Katie is a once and future TV news reporter. While struggling to write enough stories to keep his job, Vasser goes back and forth tracking people who need help. And his departures do not go unnoticed. Once when and his wife are on a plane, for example, he vanishes causing the plane to be returned to the airport since this is post-9/11 America. And that disappearance is often referenced in subsequent episodes.

Anyway, it's well written and it deserves not only to continue but to command a devoted audience. Clearly, such an audience has started to emerge, as people are writing blogs calling for NBC to save Journeyman and starting a petition to send Rice-a-Roni (the show takes place in San Francisco) to the decision makers.

I don't know that my sending a box of rice at the holidays will do anything to change someone's mind, but I don't mind writing a blog entry myself saying Yes, Save Journeyman! I'll keep watching, and I encourage others to do the same. And whatever Kevin McKidd does next, I'll be watching.

Chapter 70.75: Oh, the Deep Places You Will Go

I was fascinated by an article in Tuesday's Science Times about the eating habits of baleen whales. Apparently, a group of marine biologists were studying several baleen whales and trying to record the latest hit Fin Whale Song. But the whales they found weren't singing, they were hungry.

Their study may have been considered wasted time except another biologist recognized that this was the first analyzable data of these whales feeding. It turns out that most of the suppositions about how these giants feed were all wrong. What they do is launch themselves hundreds of feet down into schools of krill -- tiny shrimplike creatures that are the favorite meal of fin whales -- but as they approach, they open their large mouth, which acts like a parachute to slow the whale down. This massive creature can stop on a dime -- well, it takes three seconds, which is mighty fast when you're talking about an 80-ton finback; your train doesn't do that. This is pretty interesting stuff to a whale geek like me.

I might have let it go at that, but then I received an email from one of my brothers noting the excellent crossword puzzle word that the article included: "rorqual," which is a group of baleen whales that includes the fin whale, the Minke whale, the humpback, and the blue whale. I went to Wikipedia to learn a little more about rorquals and discovered that there's another type of whale in there that I'd never heard of. It's called Balaenoptera omurai and it was only discovered four years ago in waters outside Japan. Whether it's a distinct species has yet to be determined, but it resembles a fin whale, only smaller. According to the wikipedia entry, it's likely to be called Omura's Whale, after the Japanese cetologist who discovered it.

To me, this little experience is a perfect example of how newspapers, simple curiosity, and the Internet blend to educate the world. Pretty deep stuff.

Chapter 70.6: Holiday Spirits

Though I enjoy reading the New York Times, I don't usually expect to find much that's funny. But I just came across a NYT City room blog entry that left me laughing and wondering whether I could find this party next year: SantaCon NYC.

It took place this past Saturday, but it sounds like an easy thing to put together. Take one part Christmas spirit (full Christmas regalia: a Santa Claus outfit -- not just a hat -- or some associated costume such as sexy elf, horny reindeer, etc.), add a dose of Christmas secrecy, and cap off with copious amounts of alcohol.

To be honest, I'm too old to party like that for eighteen hours. I don't even do that on St. Patrick's Day anymore. So I probably won't be joining the party, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Lots of Ho Ho Ho-ing, although there may also have been too many scenes that would remind folks of Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places.

But if anyone cares to share what they did this past weekend while partying in New York or anywhere, feel free to do so here. Photos requested but not mandatory.

Chapter 70.5: Mickey Mouse Trial

Oh, the things we lose when television writers are on strike! You may not have heard about this, because Letterman, Leno, and Jon Stewart don't have people putting words in their mouths currently, but Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were issued summonses to appear in court in Italy.

No, they have not been accused of any terrorist act or mooning unsuspecting children from the back of an Alfa Romeo. They were asked to defend themselves in a case of a Chinese man who allegedly counterfeited their images. The man is accused of peddling toys with the images of the Disney characters. (Note, the image used above is not one of those being peddled. But it was so disturbing, I just had to borrow it to illustrate the point that unauthorized usage of cartoon characters can be dangerous.)

Mickey and the Donald were expected to appear yesterday; apparently someone didn't realize they are fictional characters. (I can picture it now: "But your honor, I met them both when I took my children to Disney World last year!") No word yet on what the hell Goofy was doing.

Chapter 70.4: Shoot the Moon

I would love to go to the moon. Ever since I was a little kid and NASA was sending guys up with the Saturn rockets, floating around the world in Skylab, and 'rendezvousing' with the Russians, I have been a space-ophile.

So the latest announcement from the X Prize Foundation that a team has registered for the $30 million Lunar X Prize is a cause for celebration. The goal of the Lunar X Prize isn't merely to return to the moon, it's to make it more accessible and commercially viable. I don't expect to have the cash to put a downpayment on a flight any time soon, but if these folks or others are able to succeed, perhaps it will be possible one day to venture off this wonderful planet and explore the neighborhood.

Good luck to the Odyssey Moon team. Ad luna!

Chapter 70.3: Hall of Almost

Somehow I missed this piece in the New York Times about the "Hall of Merit." Years ago, I had a similar idea -- that is, I consider some players members of the "Hall of Almost Famous."

What these folks are doing is admirable: they're trying to evaluate players from the whole of baseball history using the benefit of a broader array of statistics. No one really cared about on-base percentage until the mid-1980s, for example. Correction -- most baseball writers didn't care about on-base percentage. Or WHIP for pitchers. That is, walks plus hits per innings pitched.

It's not as though people didn't think of those things, however. I remember listening to Ralph Kiner announcing Mets games when Jerry Koosman was pitching for them in the late '70s. He'd talk about how his record was bad, but he was pitching well. "You can tell that because he's given up nearly a hit an inning," the ol' power hitter said. I've often felt Kiner was an underrated announcer. I'd like to see him considered for the Hall of Fame as an announcer as well as a player.

But back to my point. The Baseball Think Factory has reevaluated all the game's players and allowed their small group to vote players into their own Hall of Merit. Players like Joe Adcock, Bert Blyleven, Jim Kaat, Tommy John, Vada Pinson should be reconsidered. I think they'd probably all remain in the Hall of Almost; I've not checked yet what Baseball Think Factory has determined. I'd say Gil Hodges too, though I know there's a strong contingent of Brooklynites and Dodger fans who'd like him in the actual Hall of Fame.

I've read several arguments about whether Tim Raines belongs in the Hall of Fame; he's eligible this year for the first time. I watched him play a lot when he was an Expo, and he was an excellent ballplayer. I'd have loved to have him on the Mets. Back in the '80s. I don't know if it was all the running he'd done early in his career, all the years on the turf in Montreal, or the drugs he did in the '80s, but once he turned thirty, his career went into a slow but steady decline. When he arrived in New York as a Yankee, he remained a solid complementary player. The question, then, is whether his years as the best leadoff man in the National League were enough to warrant his induction into the Hall.

The Hall of Merit says yes. Matt's Hall of Almost Famous puts him on the bubble. If I were a voter, I'd strongly consider him. But I don't think he should gain immediate induction. Others disagree with me, but I think players voted in during their first year of eligibility are more special, more worthy. I think there's a major difference between Tom Seaver and Phil Niekro. Niekro had more wins and played mostly on worse teams, but Seaver was simply on a different level. And it's not simply because Seaver threw a great fastball and slider and Niekro was a knuckleballer. Lots of people don't even think Niekro should be in the Hall at all.

The article also says Dave Stieb should be in the Hall of Fame. I thought he was a very good pitcher, and it's a shame that he just missed out on a perfect game, but I just don't think he's a Hall of Famer. He pitched in an era with lots of mediocre pitchers, it's true, but he never came close to winning the Cy Young Award, never won twenty games in a season... How can you say he was one of the best pitchers of his era? Because he had a good WHIP? That's true, but is that really enough? Ask Jerry Koosman. His ERA was better than Stieb's, posted a nearly identical WHIP, won 222 games (while playing for some really abysmal Mets teams), and came in second in the 1976 Cy Young Award voting. Where's the hue and cry for putting Koos into the Hall?

Koosman was a darn good pitcher. But he's not a Hall of Famer. Neither is Dave Stieb. Was Tim Raines better than Lou Brock? There's lots of statistics that would say yes. But Brock may have been a more important player. I think that matters too -- at least to Hall of Fame voters.

Well, I suppose I should read the Factory site. I'd enjoy a good baseball argument tonight.