Monday, October 31, 2011

The Castaways of Revis Island

This is just plain sick (and very enjoyable for Jet fan like myself). Pro Football Focus recaps the only 10 passes completed by the opposing team through the first seven games of this season to a receiver being covered by Darrelle Revis, resulting in a mind-boggling 2.9 QB rating on passes thrown in his direction.

Deion Sanders was a dominant cover corner but I haven't seen a defensive back this complete since Darrell Green.

Pictures of New Wall and Dimensions at Citi Field - Metsblog.com

They're bringing back the Blue Walls!!! ESPN.com has some great pictures too. The issue of the blue walls is something that was widely discussed and endorsed by the fan base on Metsblog.com and other blogs. In fact Alderson was surprised in September when a beat writer asked him about it but seems like his team did their research on the fan support for this.

Hopefully they can bring back winning baseball too. (That will probably take more work but at least they seem to be on the right track.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Happy Diwali!!!

Diwali at the White House | The White House

Why Obama Should Pay Attention To Occupy Wall Street’s Critique Of Higher Education | The New Republic

Interesting op-ed in The New Republic:

"...for most college students, debt is a legitimate and growing problem. As recently as the early 1990s, most undergraduates didn’t borrow. Now, two-thirds emerge from college with a loan. Over the last three decades, college tuition has grown far faster than inflation, in good economic times and bad. Even health care costs have grown slower by comparison. Colleges like to blame feckless state legislators who won’t financially support higher learning, and in states like California they certainly have a point. But much of the guilt lies with higher education institutions themselves. They have spent billions on vanity building projects, administrative overhead, and money-losing sports programs in order to compete for status and fame. Students and parents have been left with the bill.

At the same time, the economy has increasingly organized itself so that people require a college degree in order to pursue a decent career. Unemployment rates during the great recession have been catastrophic for the uneducated even as graduates have mostly kept their jobs. So students and parents have little choice: pay what colleges choose to charge you, and if you don’t have the money in the bank, take out a loan.
"

For what it's worth, the White House is trying to get the message out that it's making an effort to Help Americans Manage Student Loan Debt.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

New York Mets Do Wright Thing, Plan To Move Fences In At Citi Field | Rich Coutinho « CBS New York

WFAN's Rich Coutinho gives yet another explanation as to why it makes sense to move in the fences at Citi Field:

"Players talk to other players. I firmly believe most major leaguers knew the Mets were spooked by this park. If for no other reason than they were spooked by it as well. I remember Alex Rodriguez looking out at a screaming line drive he hit to left-center and appearing shocked when it did not leave the yard. And so the baseball world knew what a player would be up against offensively if he came to call Citi Field home."

I remember watching that game this season and as much as I enjoyed the look on A-Rod's face when he went into his home run trot only to watch the ball hit high off the wall and force him to hustle it to second base. However, the Yankees were only there for a three-game series and once the weekend was over A-Rod was going back to his little league ballpark in the Bronx to hit 40+ homers on a bunch of half swings again.

Climate change skeptics running out of excuses...

Eugene Robinson's column today talks about a climate change skeptic that decided he would disprove all the global warming science and ended up proving it himself.

I'm guessing the Republican Party will disavow this guy pretty quickly now that he hasn't fallen in line with the ideology. The future will talk about today's Right Wing like the way the church is described today for executing Copernicus for saying the sun is at the center of our solar system. Of course, if there is a future since we may not survive it based on the science proven in the op-ed.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Jose Reyes, David Wright, and that Great Wall of Flushing

This year's World Series is a brutal reminder for Met fans that the National League representative is the same team that knocked the Mets out in that magical 2006 season just five years ago. Joel Sherman acknowledges that reminder and takes it further by laying it out as a reason for letting go of both Jose Reyes and David Wright. Sherman writes:

"Losing both of their signature players this offseason might be too large a hit for an organization already in bad stead with its fan base. However, plugging the leaky ship around Wright and Reyes since that fateful 2006 NLCS has not worked. It might be time to build a new boat."

Sherman doesn't connect the two dots that, in my opinion, what happens with Reyes will determine what the Mets do with Wright. As I've said before, the current top prospects in the organization would not be ready for the MLB until Wright is past his prime and I'm begrudgingly starting to agree with the premise (as Sherman says in his column) that Wright is a great player but not the cornerstone player that Albert Pujols is.

Speaking of Wright, David Lennon of Newsday first reported/tweeted that the Mets should be making an announcement on the walls at CitiField shortly after the World Series. As reported on Metsblog.com:

"Lennon says to expect the left-field wall to be ‘shortened and pulled in,’ the right-center bullpen fences to be ‘pulled in,’ and Mo Zone ‘fenced off.’

The last day of the season, while broadcasting from Citi Field, WFAN’s Mike Francesa reported ALL fences in the outfield will be 8 feet tall next year. Also, he said both foul poles will remain exactly where they are, but the walls in center and by the Mo Zone in right field will be 390 feet.
"

I also had another thought when I was watching the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS this year. When they brought in the left field wall at Comerica Park, they moved the bullpens to the newly formed space between the old wall and the new wall, allowing the Tigers to add additional premium seats in right field. Considering the easy access to the current bullpen area in CitiField, it's worth investigating if the bullpens can be moved to left-center field and the current bullpen area turned into a picnic area like the one that used to be behind the left-field bleachers in Shea Stadium. I hope the team considers this, although it would be a shame if they do this and then trade Wright before he has a chance to play in smaller dimensions.

What Investment Bankers Can Learn From Stand-Up Comedians - Kevin J. Williams - Harvard Business Review

Great blog post at the Harvard Business Review, written by someone that quit investment banking to become a stand-up comedian. (I can sort of relate to that.)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Poverty And School Performance


Matt Yglesias has a great post at Think Progress about how parents' socioeconomic factors are a very large component in a child's educational success, as typified by this picture that is posted with the caption "This only works if mom can read."

This post is worth the time to read even if you're not a regular Matt Yglesias and/or Think Progress reader.

Jon Huntsman makes no one happy...

In an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, former Utah Governor, former US Ambassador to China, and current Republican Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman complains about Too Big To Fail and the Dodd-Frank Act. However, he says the following, which will not be well received on the Right:

"Congress should explore reforms now being considered by the U.K. to make the unwinding of its biggest banks less risky for the broader economy. It could impose a fee on banks whose size exceeds a certain percentage of the GDP to cover the cost they would impose on taxpayers in a bailout, thus eliminating the implicit subsidy of their too-big-to-fail status. Congress could also implement tax reform that eliminates the deduction for interest payments that gives a preference to debt over equity, thus ending subsidies for excess leverage."

Hmm, a model based on one from a European country? Strike 1 says the Republican Party that prefers fake "American exceptionalism" over logic and reason any day of the week (and twice on Sunday). Impose a fee on banks that are too big? This is Socialism (as they see it) by having the government try to limit the size of a business; strike 2! Tax reform that eliminates the deduction for interest payments? Hey, that's a corporate tax increase! Strike 3!

Then he says the following:

"Once too-big-to-fail is fixed, we could then more easily repeal the law's unguided regulatory missiles, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. American banks provide advice and access to capital to the entrepreneurs and small business owners who have always been our economic center of gravity. We need a banking sector that is able to serve that critical role again. Otherwise the sector's endgame will be continental Europe—an unsustainable socialist state and the death of entrepreneurship."

This very obviously misses the point of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose job is akin to the Better Business Bureau and protects consumers from those de-regulated companies that are allowed to profit from taking advantage of consumers since there is no regulation to prevent them from acting unethically. So the Democrats that liked you (like the guy that appointed you Ambassador to China) won't like this op-ed piece either.

You're usually a reasonable sounding guy Jon but the policy analyst that wrote this piece for you (FYI, politicians don't write op-eds for themselves. Someone writes it for them.) clearly doesn't share your sense of reason.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Pro Wrestler Interrupts Wedding

Count on the awesome improv troupe Improv Everywhere to take the opportunity to turn the wedding of two troupe members into another stunt:

Take a Guided Tour of Citi Field

This is pretty cool. Nifty little way to make some money on the side from diehard fans like me too.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Why Occupy Wall Street is Not the Tea Party of the Left | Foreign Affairs

This piece definitely makes you think deeply about how Occupy Wall Street is different:

"If Occupy Wall Street resembles any movement in recent American history, it would actually be the new women's movement of the 1970s. When that struggle emerged in the wake of the civil rights movement, it shocked conservatives and befuddled liberals. The first saw the activists as a bunch of bra-burning anarchists; the second considered them unladylike, or, well-meaning liberals gone off the reservation. Although the leaders of the new women's movement had policies they wanted on the agenda, their foremost demand was for recognition of, and credit for, the gendered reality of everyday life. Likewise, when the Occupy Wall Street activists attack Wall Street, it is not capitalism as such they are targeting, but a system of economic relations that has lost its way and failed to serve the public."

Protests And Power: Should Liberals Support Occupy Wall Street? | The New Republic

The New Republic is skeptical about whether liberals should support Occupy Wall Street. However, The Monkey Cage is skeptical about the motivations behind The New Republic's skepticism. Got that?

Monday, October 10, 2011

1963 Ford Thunderbird magazine ad with unfinished Shea in the background (Pretty Cool!)


From Metsblog.com: A great ad in the October 1963 issue of Popular Science magazine with an unfinished Shea Stadium in the background.

Simms to Bavaro against the 49ers - December 1, 1986

In yesterday's Giants-Seahawks game, Eli Manning had a pass play to Tight End Jake Ballard, who rammed through some Seattle defenders to gain a few extra yards. The announcers calling that game said it was Bavaro-esque (it was not). It got me thinking though if there was a YouTube clip out there of the catch Mark Bavaro made in a Monday night game when he plowed through the San Francisco 49ers defense. I found the clip, which is below. The picture and sound quality are weak (it looks like the guy was recording it with a camera pointed at the TV.)

Even though I'm a life-long Jet fan, I never hated the Giants (unlike the way I despise a certain baseball team in the Bronx) and this clip of Bavaro, which I remember watching live when I was 13-years old, is still my favorite Monday Night Football highlight of all time. ENJOY!

Trading David Wright: What You Need to Know

Howard Megdal of The Journal News' LoHud Mets Blog writes a primer on what trading David Wright would entail for the Mets. He repeats a point I made about a week ago about trading Wright becoming a possibility of Jose Reyes LEAVES rather than re-signs:

"Look, Wright is obviously a good fit with the Rockies- like Jose Reyes, he’s a good fit pretty much anywhere, since he’s one of the best players at his position. Still, that doesn’t mean it won’t make sense to trade him, given certain other realities. Here are some things that are worth keeping in mind:

“Should the Mets trade David Wright?” is not a binary question. I cannot stress this first point enough. Trade him or don’t trade him has everything to do with what the Mets can get for him in return, and what the overall plan for the roster is. I would actually argue the opposite of what Renck does- that it is precisely if the Mets don’t sign Jose Reyes that the prospect of dealing Wright starts to make more sense.

(And let’s not pretend this wasn’t all avoidable, by the way. It only makes sense not to keep your developed superstars in their 20s if you are suffering from the kind of financial problems that the Mets are.)
"

Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest suggests some interesting trade scenarios if the Mets choose to move Wright (and possibly Mike Pelfrey) to the Colorado Rockies. A Pelfrey and Wright for prospects trade sounds similar to the one made by the Tigers and Marlins in December 2007. Even though that trade has had mixed results for both teams, you can make a case for it having an equal impact on both teams involved.

Colbert Super PAC ad on the NBA Strike

You know Mark Cuban has more up his sleeve than just this ad with Stephen Colbert's Super PAC:

Thursday, October 6, 2011

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

Just came across this Apple ad that never aired when it was created in 1997, which was voiced over by Steve Jobs:



"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

Likewise, The Rachel Maddow Show re-ran the clip of the introduction of the Apple Macintosh from 1984, which was fun to see again after so many years:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why Steve Jobs' death matters

Much is being written today, and will likely be written for a few days, about the life and death of Steve Jobs. I was wondering why I felt so sad about the passing of Steve Jobs. Then I remembered the quote about the guy who fell to his knees crying at FDR's funeral. When a man next to him asked him, "Did you know the president?", the man replied,"No, but he knew me."

That's what the passing of Steve Jobs feels like. This man was given up for adoption as a child, led a fairly ordinary life in his early years, dropped out of college (which is probably something many more of us thought about doing than actually admit to thinking about doing) to lead a much more "adventurous" life, and always followed his own path. He lived the life we all hope to live even if we know we have the slimmest of chances of actually accomplishing all that he did.

The question is, why does it matter? As Matt Bai explains in The New York Times (and as The Onion, in its typical fashion, more succinctly and accurately puts it), Steve Jobs had an ability to understand how people could benefit from something they never thought of before. Many people say he was all about marketing but even the best marketing people can't get people to buy something they don't need or don't like.

More than anything, as the obituary in The Economist pointed out, he utilized his experience in the regular, everyday layman's world to viscerally understand what people do and don't like at a time when the technology world was almost entirely populated by people who only knew technology and very little of anything else. He didn't give the customer what they were asking for; he thought about what they could use and found a way to give it to them in a way that the average person can use anytime, anywhere. In fact I'm even typing this on the pre-installed 'Notes' app on my iPad as I wait for my NJ Transit train to pull out of NY Penn Station. (Although I have the 'Wi-Fi only' iPad so I had to copy and paste this into Blogger when I got home.) That explains why he was such a pioneer in education, where a child's curiosity can naturally get piqued if he or she can quickly and fundamentally grasp the device or program they are using.

He wasn't a perfect person but perhaps that's the most important part about Steve Jobs. He accomplished so much not despite his many imperfections but because of them. He was quoted as saying he's been a lousy father (then again, supposedly so was Gandhi), he was called a micromanager, he was considered egotistical (to the point that the New York Times reported there are 317 patents with his name as one of the co-creators). Yet he understood people in a way very few people really do.

It was because he embraced his imperfections that he understood the imperfections in all of us. It was because he understood that we are imperfect beings that he sought to give us things we could understand (such as the point-and-click usability of the Mac) but knew where to draw the line when it crossed over into something we would never get (like the restriction on users accessing the operating system on a Mac).

The world will miss Steve Jobs because he was so unique. But the fact that he was unique and there aren't many people in the world that can see things from the average person's point of view is the saddest reality of all and why we will miss him. He had such a profound impact on our lives while exemplifying talents that we all assume we have yet none of us really do (again, as The Onion astutely points out.) The official White House statement hit the nail on the head when it said:

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

We will all miss not just Steve Jobs' contribution to the world but his fundamental ability to understand the people in the world both as individuals and as a collective society.

Fortunately the world he helped create gives us the ability to keep his digital memory alive, such as his commencement speech at Stanford University six years ago.



Rest in Peace Steve Jobs. As a Buddhist, I hope you have found nirvana.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Why the Proposed Changes to Citi Field Should be Made - Rising Apple

All great points. Now let's see it happen soon.

1986 playoffs still resonate 25 years later – USATODAY.com

Probably the greatest baseball playoffs of all time.

Reagan Called For An End To ‘Crazy’ Tax Loopholes That Let Millionaires Pay Less Than Bus Drivers

Great video showing Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan essentially saying the same thing:



Sshh! Don't tell any conservatives Reagan was a pragmatist. For them it's like a kid finding out there's no Santa Claus.

"...if it weren't for the politicians, the economy would have a fighting chance."

The Economist explains how politicians are getting in the way of, rather than spurring on, a recovery:

"In America, the biggest policy-related threat is the fiscal tightening that will happen automatically in the next four months as prior stimulus expires and legislated cuts to discretionary spending bite. Barack Obama has proposed $447 billion in new or renewed stimulus to neutralise that threat, but it requires an ambitious deal in Congress’ super committee, and odds of such a deal by its November 23rd deadline are shrinking. Democrats are reportedly trying to get it to consider tax hikes immediately, and Republicans are apparently saying that puts a big deficit reduction deal out of reach."

Blue-collar Republican voters vote against their self-interest. It was only a matter of time before Republican politicians started doing the same. Old habits die hard, I guess.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Rico Brogna: New York Mets Should Say Goodbye To Free Agent Shortstop Jose Reyes « CBS New York

Finally, someone that said what I was thinking! Former Met and MLB first baseman Rico Brogna writes this in his opinion piece on Jose Reyes:

"I have seen this young talent rise through the minor leagues, scouted him in his rookie and sophomore seasons in New York, and now have finally seen his development take him into his veteran years (free agent years) as a major league baseball player. My opinion and belief as a scout and front office executive (baseball ops) guy is to say “thank you” to Jose, but we are moving in the proverbial different direction.

Wish him the best, and start growing your roster with other players … and yes, I would trade David Wright as well (for pitching, pitching, and more pitching!).
"

My personal belief is Reyes is the tipping point that determines the Mets philosophy over the next five years. If they re-sign him, they should keep Wright and build a championship-caliber team in 2-3 years while both are still in their prime.

If Reyes leaves, the current top prospects in the organization would not be ready for the MLB until Wright is way past his prime. In that case they should trade Wright and hope to build the team around Ike Davis, Brandon Nimmo, Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, Zack Wheeler, and whatever haul Wright brings in to be playoff caliber squad in 3-5 years.