Out of the Past

By the agreement, they have to offer a certain amount of low-cost tickets for each game (I think it was 3-5000). Problem here is that they don't define what low-cost is; certainly it will be in relation with the rest of the available Marlins tickets and not in-line w/ low-cost tickets in MLB. From what I remember the supposed low-cost tickets to be offerd at the new stadium are a token amount, something like 1000, and they'll be $15 each. In other words, a bunch of crap.

Shannon went to Norland which is not Overtown or Liberty City or anything close to that... but I guess this makes the story sound better.

You are aware that Gameday is not 100% accurate? It's a judgemental thing... it's not evidence of what was a strike and what was a ball. Pretty sure it's based on PitchFX. PitchFX does not measure a players strike zone. Nothing will ever measure a players strike zone. And while it may be accurate, it's not 100% accurate. It will never be 100% accurate. Nothing is ever perfect. Pitch FX does measure each batter's strike zone. http://www.tangotiger.net/wiki/index.php?title=PITCHf/x PITCHf/x is a pitch tracking system developed by Sportvision. It was introduced in Major League Baseball during the 2006 playoffs. It uses two cameras mounted high behind home plate and behind first base to record the position of the baseball during its flight from the pitcher’s mound to home plate. A third camera located in center field is used to track each batter's strike zone [1]. The cameras record the position of each pitch 60 times per second, and software is used to calculate various parameters describing the trajectory of each pitch. The PITCHf/x data is used in MLB's Enhanced Gameday application to show the path, location, speed, and break of each pitch. It is also available for use by TV broadcasts. In addition, MLB has made the data freely available for downloading and research [2].

More Coghlan stuff here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/news/story?page=musictaste/092309

Fish tank: Looks as if the Marlins are leaning toward keeping Chris Coghlan in left field rather than moving him back to his original position at second base. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Dan Uggla gets to stick around. Our best guess is that the Marlins can only afford to keep one player from their arbitration-eligible trio of Uggla, Cody Ross and Jorge Cantu. And if Uggla wants to parlay all his arbitration leverage into an $8 million deal, it probably won't be him. http://sports.espn.g...rumblings090924 I call BS on this. Uggla I'm pretty sure we'll cut loose, but I don't think we'll get rid of both Cantu AND Ross. We can afford to keep both. That's dumb but they will probably do it just so Bonifacio can have a spot.

The ump blew the call on Baker but the ones on Howard and Hanley were correct. It's a shame Rich had become whiner ala Tommy. He used to be honest. I think what Rich meant to say was that if the pithces to Howard and Hanley were a ball, then this pitch should have definitely been a ball because it was WORSE. I don't know what they were thinking but by the time the ump blew the pitch to Baker they had already being going off for two hours about the pitch to Howard and the ump got that pitch right. They then started going off about pitch 4 to Hanley and the ump got that one right too.

The ump blew the call on Baker but the ones on Howard and Hanley were correct. It's a shame Rich had become whiner ala Tommy. He used to be honest.

So it was a ball and these idiots are still whining. How was I wrong?

I'm watching the ESPN feed ... even they thought it was a strike ... but K zone showed it a tiny bit outside, but still .... that was one amazing pitch to a great hitter .. should have been called I wish we had K-zone so these idiots (Rich and Tommy) would put an end to their whining. So you're just going to ignore the you were wrong about it being Rich and Tommy bias? Or ignore that Tommy called it boarderline, which is exactly what K-Zone said? Didn't k-zone and gameday show it as a ball?

I'm watching the ESPN feed ... even they thought it was a strike ... but K zone showed it a tiny bit outside, but still .... that was one amazing pitch to a great hitter .. should have been called I wish we had K-zone so these idiots (Rich and Tommy) would put an end to their whining.

that was one of the worst non-strike calls i've seen all year According to Gameday it was a ball. Gameday is not biased like Rich and Tommy.

So now the Obama administration is threatening insurance companies for informing their customers that they could potentially lose benefits under the proposed changes. How awesome is that?

I hate UM but love Jacory. If he keeps playing the way he has I don't see why he would not be a candidate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091703329_pf.html Does He Lie? By Charles Krauthammer Friday, September 18, 2009 You lie? No. Barack Obama doesn't lie. He's too subtle for that. He . . . well, you judge. Herewith three examples within a single speech -- the now-famous Obama-Wilson "you lie" address to Congress on health care -- of Obama's relationship with truth. (1) "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits -- either now or in the future," he solemnly pledged. "I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future. Period." Wonderful. The president seems serious, veto-ready, determined to hold the line. Until, notes Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, you get to Obama's very next sentence: "And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize." This apparent strengthening of the pledge brilliantly and deceptively undermines it. What Obama suggests is that his plan will require mandatory spending cuts if the current rosy projections prove false. But there's absolutely nothing automatic about such cuts. Every Congress is sovereign. Nothing enacted today will force a future Congress or a future president to make any cuts in any spending, mandatory or not. Just look at the supposedly automatic Medicare cuts contained in the Sustainable Growth Rate formula enacted to constrain out-of-control Medicare spending. Every year since 2003, Congress has waived the cuts. Mankiw puts the Obama bait-and-switch in plain language. "Translation: I promise to fix the problem. And if I do not fix the problem now, I will fix it later, or some future president will, after I am long gone. I promise he will. Absolutely, positively, I am committed to that future president fixing the problem. You can count on it. Would I lie to you?" (2) And then there's the famous contretemps about health insurance for illegal immigrants. Obama said they would not be insured. Well, all four committee-passed bills in Congress allow illegal immigrants to take part in the proposed Health Insurance Exchange. But more important, the problem is that laws are not self-enforcing. If they were, we'd have no illegal immigrants because, as I understand it, it's illegal to enter the United States illegally. We have laws against burglary, too. But we also provide for cops and jails on the assumption that most burglars don't voluntarily turn themselves in. When Republicans proposed requiring proof of citizenship, the Democrats twice voted that down in committee. Indeed, after Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" shout-out, the Senate Finance Committee revisited the language of its bill to prevent illegal immigrants from getting any federal benefits. Why would the Finance Committee fix a nonexistent problem? (3) Obama said he would largely solve the insoluble cost problem of Obamacare by eliminating "hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud" from Medicare. That's not a lie. That's not even deception. That's just an insult to our intelligence. Waste, fraud and abuse -- Meg Greenfield once called this phrase "the dread big three" -- as the all-purpose piggy bank for budget savings has been a joke since Jimmy Carter first used it in 1977. Moreover, if half a trillion is waiting to be squeezed painlessly out of Medicare, why wait for health-care reform? If, as Obama repeatedly insists, Medicare overspending is breaking the budget, why hasn't he gotten started on the painless billions in "waste and fraud" savings? Obama doesn't lie. He merely elides, gliding from one dubious assertion to another. This has been the story throughout his whole health-care crusade. Its original premise was that our current financial crisis was rooted in neglect of three things -- energy, education and health care. That transparent attempt to exploit Emanuel's Law -- a crisis is a terrible thing to waste -- failed for health care because no one is stupid enough to believe that the 2008 financial collapse was caused by a lack of universal health care. So on to the next gambit: selling health-care reform as a cure for the deficit. When that was exploded by the Congressional Budget Office's demonstration of staggering Obamacare deficits, Obama tried a new tack: selling his plan as revenue-neutral insurance reform -- until the revenue neutrality is exposed as phony future cuts and chimerical waste and fraud. Obama doesn't lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads -- so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness. Slickness wasn't fatal to "Slick Willie" Clinton because he possessed a winning, nearly irresistible charm. Obama's persona is more cool, distant, imperial. The charming scoundrel can get away with endless deception; the righteous redeemer cannot.

It depends on what the Marlins offer but unless it's a ridiculous generous offer (this wont happen) if I was JJ I would go through arbitration the next two years and then get an enormous contract after the 2011 season. With what he made this year and what he'll make next year his financial future should already be more than secure so he can be a little patient and wait for free agency to maximize his money. Depends how lavish of a life style you want to lead, really. I mean, he'll have about 7m combined from arbitration, that's but you could run through that really quickly. But really you don't even have to be frugal, if JJ were to live for 40 more years, that gives him a yearly allowance of 175k. And there's then investing it into something very safe with a small pay out. But if JJ wants to start MC Hammering it up ASAP taking the guaranteed 50m+ would be better And there's also securing his family's future. 7m secures him, 50m secures his grand kids If he invest the $7 million in safe investments getting a 5% return that's $350k a year without touching the principal.

It depends on what the Marlins offer but unless it's a ridiculous generous offer (this wont happen) if I was JJ I would go through arbitration the next two years and then get an enormous contract after the 2011 season. With what he made this year and what he'll make next year his financial future should already be more than secure so he can be a little patient and wait for free agency to maximize his money.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091503716.html?hpid=topnews According to this article the 10 million young people without insurance would probably get screwed by paying disproportionately higher premiums to help dilute the cost of covering the old and the sick. So out of the 46 million, the 10 million illegals get no coverage, the 10 million who can afofrd insurance but don't want it get screwed by being strong armed into buying insurance and the 10 million healthy young ones without insurance get screwed by paying higher premiuns than what they would pay without this bill.

I think we trade him before the tender date. If we haven't traded him by that date then I think we non-tender him. There's no way we would risk having to keep him at $3 million or thereabouts.

Even though there are 47 million of our citizens who go uninsured because they either cannot afford the outrageous premiums or they are denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition That's not true. Many people can afford to have insurance but choose not to have it. But my guess is your teacher will like that kind of BS so keep it in there and you'll get an A+. http://www.ibdeditor...333232530356809 Can you please direct me to some of these people you say exist? I have yet to meet one. According to the census 10 million of the unisured had income over $75k and another 13 million of the uninsured are foreign born the vast majority of which are illegals. That's half of the uninsured right there. With the changes made over the weekend Obamacare will now not cover the illegals. On the ones with income over $75k I guess whether they buy insurance will depend on what the fines are but I'm sure many of them will remain uninsured and pay the fine. That's a pretty big generalization to say that most of those 13 million that are foreign born are 'illegals'. Do you have actual proof of this? This seems like a right-wing stereotype/rumor or something. Let me see this census information you are talking about. Those $75K earners could be for an entire family, it's not specific enough. Obama's proposal was never going to cover illegals. I read it myself before they 'changed' it, and it's still the same thing. Who cares if they cover illegals in case of severe injury, anyway? Are they no longer human because they came into the country illegally? Google the 2008 census. I looked a while back and about 80% of the foreign born without insurance are illegals. I don't think those making over $75k that currently do not have insurance will get any assistance from Obamacare but will be stronged armed into buying insurance with the threat of government fines. Also, on the illegals, until last Friday Obama opposed the requirement to verify the ones getting assistance are citizens (or maybe legal residents, not sure). But now he favors it. Good move by him.

Even though there are 47 million of our citizens who go uninsured because they either cannot afford the outrageous premiums or they are denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition That's not true. Many people can afford to have insurance but choose not to have it. But my guess is your teacher will like that kind of BS so keep it in there and you'll get an A+. http://www.ibdeditor...333232530356809 Can you please direct me to some of these people you say exist? I have yet to meet one. According to the census 10 million of the unisured had income over $75k and another 13 million of the uninsured are foreign born the vast majority of which are illegals. That's half of the uninsured right there. With the changes made over the weekend Obamacare will now not cover the illegals. On the ones with income over $75k I guess whether they buy insurance will depend on what the fines are but I'm sure many of them will remain uninsured and pay the fine.

On Serena, she's has clearly being the best player since coming back in '07. I see nothing wrong with her having interest outside of tennis and concentrating on the big events. Her behavior last night was unacceptable to say the least. She's the best player, yet she hasn't won a non-slam in what seems like ages? So who do you think has being the best player since '07? Why does there have to be a single best player since '07? The right answer doesn't have to be one woman in this case. Elena Dementieva has been super consistent and won Olympic Gold, Venus has been decent too. And there are a few more I could name and give sound reasoning for. The women's game as a whole has been generally underwhelming since Justine Henin retired, I think this US Open is highly indicative of that. But the current batch of new players should be good, Cirstea, Wozniacki, Oudin are all cool. Oudin is a little overrated right now, her game doesn't match up with the first two I named, but those three are gonna be fun to watch. Venus is the only one close to Serena but is still behind her. This is based on majors won, total tournamaments won and overall winning percentage. I don't understand why tennis people think players should only focus on tennis. Last night they were critical of Caroline because she said she wants to take online college courses. Incredible. Caroline is great. If she was an American she would be a gazillionarire with endorsements.

Even though there are 47 million of our citizens who go uninsured because they either cannot afford the outrageous premiums or they are denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition That's not true. Many people can afford to have insurance but choose not to have it. But my guess is your teacher will like that kind of BS so keep it in there and you'll get an A+. http://www.ibdeditorials.com/CartoonPopUp.aspx?id=333232530356809

On Serena, she's has clearly being the best player since coming back in '07. I see nothing wrong with her having interest outside of tennis and concentrating on the big events. Her behavior last night was unacceptable to say the least. She's the best player, yet she hasn't won a non-slam in what seems like ages? So who do you think has being the best player since '07?

At what did they play the semifinals? Where they on TV anywhere? I was sure I read on the ESPN bottom ticker that they were moved to Sunday and put still put CBS on at 8:00 just in case and they had a TV show. All afternoon CBS just kept playing the rain delay repeats without informing anything. It was an amazing sports day but missing this pisses me off. I would've missed it too if I hadn't happened to put CBS on. I saw the ticker too. I was watching both ESPN football games and never saw a tennis score. Maybe they put them on the ticker and I didn't notice but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't put them (and fix their error on when the semis would be) on purpose so sports fans wouldn't tune away from their games. On Serena, she's has clearly being the best player since coming back in '07. I see nothing wrong with her having interest outside of tennis and concentrating on the big events. Her behavior last night was unacceptable to say the least.

At what did they play the semifinals? Where they on TV anywhere? I was sure I read on the ESPN bottom ticker that they were moved to Sunday and put still put CBS on at 8:00 just in case and they had a TV show. All afternoon CBS just kept playing the rain delay repeats without informing anything. It was an amazing sports day but missing this pisses me off.