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Saturday, September 20, 2003 |
Ted Williams of the M.F.L.
As I mention below, I just read Jim Bouton's fantastic Ball Four. My
son Richard read it before I did, and kept asking me if I'd gotten to
the Ted Williams story yet. It's great. Here it is:
In the bullpen tonight Jim Pagliaroni
was telling us how Ted Williams, when he was still playing, would
psyche himself up for a game during batting practice, usually early
practice before the fans or reporters got there.
He'd go into the cage, wave his bat at the pitcher an start screaming
at the top of his voice, "My name is Ted fucking Williams and I'm the
greatest hitter in baseball."
He'd swing and hit a line drive.
"Jesus H. Christ Himself couldn't get me out."
And he'd hit another.
Then he'd say, "Here comes Jim Bunning, Jim fucking Bunning and that little shit slider of his."
Wham!
"He doesn't really think he's gonna ge me out with that shit."
Blam!
"Im Ted fucking Williams."
Sock!
Well, I guess I it's obvious why so much of baseball despised Bouton.
And a lot of people still do. But gad that story's funny and
there are a lot of others in the book (if you're squeamish, they're not
all as raw as that one).
5:56:03 PM Permalink
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Recent Reading
I haven't posted in while about some of the books I've been reading. Here are some of them:
After the Ice Age by E. C. Pielou. A good rundown of what is known
about the transition out of the ice age in North America. A little dry,
and probably pretty dated by now, but I learned a lot from it.
Wild Wives
by Charles Willeford. I always enjoy Willeford's stuff quite a bit, but
this one is pretty slight. An out of work private eye is hired as a
bodyguard by a rich woman, who has her own secrets. It's a fast read,
with a terrific ending, but so short I didn't really get into the
characters.
Ball Four by Jim Bouton: A fantastic book, every bit as good as I remember from reading it when
it first came out. Bouton is pitching for the hapless Seattle Pilots,
having fallen from his years as a Yankee, but on the way up from a year
in the minor leagues. This is a diary of that year, from spring
training to the end of the season (by which time he's with the Houston
Astros). He's gifted at characterizations, and capturing what goes on
between ballplayers on and off the field. There are places, lots of
them, where I laughed out loud (I'll post a good quote later). At the
beginning, as he's talking a lot about money, it seems pretty dated.
But from what I see little in the character of ballplayers has changed
as they've become richer. Highly recommended.
Illium by Dan Simmons: This is the best Simmons I've read in a while, since the final Hyperion
book, but it's still something of a disappointment to me. It tells
several stories that only come together very briefly at the end,
involving what appear to be time travelers studying the Trojan War,
robots from Jupiter on a mission to Mars, and some post-humans on a
future Earth. They're all good stories, though many of the characters
don't come together for me. Most interesting is the story about the
intervention in the Trojan war, and Simmon's portrayals of the Greek
Gods (and Goddesses!) and heroes of the war (and especially the women
of Troy). I'll certainly look forward to the obvious next book, but it
didn't grip me the same way that Hyperion did.
5:44:04 PM Permalink
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Election rigging for pleasure and profit.
Read his excellent post by Charles Stross and follow the links to
see just how truly scary this switch to electronic voting is. In short:
There is no way that you can be assured that the vote you "cast" is the vote that is counted. There can be no recount because there is nothing to count.
It would be pitifully easy for programmers to write code that displays
one result, then records a totally different response. Is there any
reason to believe that there are not those who would take advantage of
this? A single scandal could undermine what little respect we have
today for democracy, and literally destroy confidence in elections.
It's a disaster waiting to happen.
5:08:24 PM Permalink
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Come Out Fighting. Boxing George Bush into a corner in 2004: "t is an unlovely fact, but a fact nonetheless. The surest way to win a presidential election is to successfully scare the bejesus out of the voters about what will happen if the opponent becomes, or remains, president of the United States. Not a pleasant thing for Democrats, who like to be nice, to have to ponder. Fortunately for the squeamish, they will simply be telling the truth. George W. Bush is scary. Going negative against him, early, even right out of the box, might be not just a winning strategy. It will also be the patriotic thing to do. Just ask Rand Beers." The Village Voice [Follow Me Here...]
5:00:40 PM Permalink
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Ghost Radio in the Sky. Reader Douglas Fletcher passes along a great story about a mysterious radio station in Arizona and a reporter's efforts to track down the man behind it. [Hit & Run]
Little things like this give you hope in the world.
4:52:20 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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