Daily Archives: February 15, 2010

If Frank Thomas isn’t a Hall of Famer, writes Joe Posnanski, who is?

The Big Hurt is the best player in White Sox history adds Tom Verducci.

Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid, by Johannes Vermeer (1670-1671).

I am pleased to announce the second annual “Banter Battle” fantasy baseball league over at Yahoo! Sports.  Can someone dethrone last year’s champs, the “Quadruple A’s“?

It’ll be a 6×6 (the usual 10 categories, plus holds and OPS) non-keeper roto league, with a live straight draft to be held on Tuesday, March 30th at 9:30 pm Eastern time.  (You can pre-rank your selections if you can’t be there live).

In order to join the league,  go to the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball 2010 page and enter the League ID# and password below.

League ID#: 143546
Password: karim

If you were part of last year’s league, you should have received an e-mail to join this year’s contest from me (unless your e-mail was hidden or blocked).

Its free to play, and we won’t be playing for any $.  However, the winner will get his/her (user)name mentioned prominently in a future post of mine. 🙂

The only requirement we insist on is that you not abandon your team in the middle of the season.  So, serious replies only please.

Play ball!

As requested by longtime Banterite, Ms. October, here’s a week of rap tunes and the songs they sampled.

First up, let’s segue from last week’s New Orleans tribute with the following funk:

Original:

Flipped:

Dick Francis, another one of my Old Man’s favorite writers, is dead. The name felt special to me as a kid. Dick Francis. I can’t explain why, exactly. Maybe it was the two first names. It sounded sure, terse, precisely what amystery writer’s name was supposed to sound like. I didn’t know that he was British until years later. What I recall were the book covers–the Dick Francis paperbacks in the Old Man’s library all had horses on them, or something to do with horse racing and robberies. I didn’t understand how horses figured with stealing only that they’d make a good getaway vehicle.  

Here’s the obit in the Times.

I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. Tried an espresso a few times and when I was waiting tables one of my fellow waiters occasionally me cappuccinos with chocolate sauce, but I’ve never had a regular cup of Joe. Never saw any reason to because for as long as I can remember, I’ve been a three-cup-a-day tea drinker (breakfast, tea time, and in the evening). Okay, three times a day for 35 years is pushing it, but that’s my routine more often than not.

I’m no tea connoisseur–I use tea bags more than loose tea and I don’t regulate the temperature of the water as some tea fanatics do–but I can’t abide horrible tea either. I like PG Tips and Barry’s but my favorite black tea is called Awake, made by Tazo. It’s my morning tea (I generally have Earl Grey in the afternoon, herbal tea in the evening) and a damned good one. I usually have it with just milk, sometimes with honey, sometimes with no milk but honey and lemon.

Anyhow, it does me good. Sometimes, people are surprised that I’ve never had a cup of coffee. So…Is there anything out there that you’ve never tried that seems so common?

Today’s update is powered by . . . chocolates, and Lucy:

• Tyler Kepner on Jeter’s next contract:

. . . In some ways, Jeter’s performance will affect the size of his next contract. If he has another standout season, churning out hits and moving nimbly from side to side on defense, he is clearly in a stronger position. But unless he pulls a George Costanza and drags the championship trophy around the parking lot from his bumper, Jeter’s legacy is secure. He is the icon of the franchise.

. . . Jeter’s value is different, and the Yankees understand they must treat him as a special case. Parting ways would be devastating to their brand, but no less so to Jeter’s legacy. The Yankees and Jeter need each other, and it is hard to imagine acrimony at the bargaining table.

. . . Jeter’s ability to stay above the fray, easily accessible to the news media yet out of the firing line, is part of his mystique. In Jeter, the Yankees know they have a dependable, well-spoken, maintenance-free front man for a global business. That is part of why they will pay him handsomely after this season.

The question is how much. Jeter has talked about wanting to own a team someday, and his next contract will help in that ambition. The value of the deal will also reveal something about Jeter and his true feelings about Rodriguez.

Will Jeter demand a contract that also takes him through age 42? Will he seek to make more than Rodriguez?

[My take: Give him three years/$60-70M and then a stake in the Yanks.]

• The GM on Damon, Jeter, Mo and Joe:

“The industry the last two free agent markets seems to be going downward and the player’s ages are going upward,” Cashman said. “It makes more sense to be patient. My attitude is if this is the place you want to be, you will make it happen. Johnny Damon professed his love for the Yankees, wanted to be here and was given every chance to be here. He’s not here anymore and I don’t feel that is the Yankees’ fault. They have to reconcile why they are not here, not me. If people want to be here and be a part of something, then find a way to work it out. Of course we want (Jeter, Rivera, and Girardi) back, but we choose to delay that until the end of the year.”

Cashman confirmed reports that Damon wanted the same two-year, $18-million deal that right fielder Bobby Abreu got from the Angels in order to re-sign with the Yankees, who countered with two years and $14 million. Damon reportedly has a two-year, $14-million offer on the table from the Tigers.

“I hope he does not sign for something less than our offer,” Cashman said. “That means he should have been a Yankee and that’s not our fault.

(more…)