Does the universe have a purpose?

Okay the first minute is the most important. The last minute or so just conjectures about the irrationality of any purpose. Hey, if there is a Supreme Being who are we to know why It waited 14 billion years to make humans?

No, the real issue is that IF there is a purpose then how the hell can any one human know better than any other human what that purpose is? There is no empiric evidence of a purpose. If a purpose exists humans obviously don't  know it.... by definition.

Okay, the Holy Spirit can imbue us with the *feeling* of a purpose. Yes, that can be. We have a word for this: Emotion.  I have no doubt that some humans have a feeling that the universe has a purpose just like some humans might feel that the Cubs are a good baseball team.

It happens, but it's not based on anything observable in reality.

QOTD

Quote of the Day:

"No, do not carry me."
-Derek Jeter, Yankees Shortstop, being helped 
from the field with a fractured ankle. 

 The best of a generation (Note: he left with his glove on)

Hawk Harrelson wins an Award !!

...as the most biased announcer in baseball.

Way to go Hawk!

"You just made my day," Harrelson said when told of his place in the biased standings. "That's the biggest compliment you could give me, to call me the biggest homer in baseball."

NFL Refs: Call it Maybe

It looks like I picked a good year to give up NFL football, resigning from my fantasy league. The game has become too violent, with too many thug athletes, and now inept officiating.

Disclosure: I did watch the last quarter of MNF last night...a thing of beauty, pure poetry: the Packers coach (not) whining and Aaron Rodgers looking like the winsome 40 year-old virgin at his post-game presser after the team from Wisconsin got jobbed by non-union refs. Karma.

Maybe Roger Goodell should add Scott Walker to the labor negotiation team.

APM's Marketplace estimates that last night's blown call  will cost the town of Green Bay millions of dollars when adding the lost revenue of a home play-off game with concessions, parking, hotels, etc. And that's not including the perhaps quarter of billion dollars that were transacted in sports books.

According to Jonathan Mahler at Bloomberg, the referees want an increased salary and to continue their defined benefit plan, which would cost a few million dollars-- a mere "rounding error" to the $9 billion NFL. As Mahler points out, this is not a dying Midwestern city, it's the most popular sport in the wealthiest nation on earth.

The NFL will cave, as they should, after all this is football we're talking about, not just whiney school teachers.

Youk delivers in the 10th

The South Side's latest addition, Kevin Youklilis, hit the walk off single to score Alejandro De Aza in a come from behind win against the daunting first place Texas Rangers.





Care must be taken not to read too much into one game or one regular season series, but this one feels real good.  Tonight's win comes off last night's 19-2 drubbing the Sox put on the Rangers' ace Roy  Oswalt who gave up 11 runs in 4 2/3 innings.


Youkilis's at-bat tonight was a grinding affair of a dozen or so pitches that ended in a solid hit to left, but the preceding at-bat by De Aza was similar, including a foul ball off his knee that had sent him to the ground. In between, De Aza had the wherewithal to steal second to put himself in position to score.


This game, while not as flamboyant as last night's 19-run jobbing, was prettier. The White Sox struggled from behind, made some excellent defensive plays and toughed it out with base hits and base running. There simply is nothing prettier than a tough mano-a-mano at-bat that results in a walk-off win. That's baseball.


The bigger story is that so many sports pundits had picked the White Sox to come in last place this year. Yes, the season is far from over, but the Sox are also far from last place.  General Manager Kenny Williams, much maligned here and elsewhere on the interwebs, has a redeeming quality: he's the eternal optimist. Williams never stops trying to improve his team, never hesitates add a player who might help in some tiny way. To catch lightning in a bottle, you have to keep the lid open.


We've had some good baseball and the second half brings the White Sox another veteran hero in Kevin Youlilis, a bullpen full of kids to go along with their rookie manager, and lots of heart. We have a World Series to win.

Yo-o-o-ouk!!!!!! UPDATE 6-27

One of the President's many commendable traits is the loyal ownership of his fandom of Chicago sports teams.  Yes, some booed and others were cheering "Yo-o-ouk", but regardless, I'm sure the president doesn't care. The White Sox have a goddam World Series to win and f**k any bitter Red Sox fans who have a beef.


Of course, whiney pants Mittens does have a beef. He issued a press released titled: "Whether it's bad baseball cracks or bad policy, President Obama is striking out."


Get a life.

____________________________________________

UPDATE 6-27-2012:

From the Atlantic:  "As some wags pointed out, Romney has been much slower to articulate a position on immigration than on the [Youkilis] trade."

Curt Schilling to stiff taxpayers

Hall of Fame pitcher, small-government conservative mouthpiece, shill for Republican candidates, he of the bloody sock, none other than Curt Schilling asked Rhode Island taxpayers back a loan for $75 million...and you guessed it... He's defaulting.

 "Apparently smaller government, in Schilling's world, applies to other people, maybe city kids stuck in underperforming schools or disabled adults looking for help back and forth to medical appointments."

Welfare for the rich. Again.


I don't know who are more annoying, wealthy arrogant pricks who extol the virtues of independence and bootstraps only to hypocritically leave the rest of us with their mess, or the impoverished libertarians who willingly vote away all the entitlements to which they are entitled (because they paid for them) only to give tax money to wealthy arrogant pricks.

Let Wrigley Field crumble

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts

The Cubs can't get out of their own way.

The White Sox are relaxing today with a day off after taking batting practice on the Northside this weekend. There were so many balls bouncing on Waveland Avenue that some of the residents thought Iran had figured out their missile technology. The Sox completed the sweep of the hapless Cubbies behind stellar pitching, flawless defense and solid at-bats. 

 Before the season I really thought that the Cubs might turn their ship around with their new Chairman, Tom Ricketts , their proven General Manager from the Red Sox, Theo Epstein, and their stable of bright young talent, Starlin Castro, Bryan LaHair and Darwin Barney. I really thought they could compete, but alas, they look like the same old Cubbies crawling along the cellar floor of the NL Central.

As if having a crappy team isn’t distraction enough, Tom Ricketts seems to have gotten on the wrong side of the Democratic Mayor, Rahm Emanuel.  It seems that the Cubs are in dire need of $300 million to refurbish that relic that they call a ballpark. They’ve had their palm dug into the city coffers for the desired funding and then just this last week the news came out that the Ricketts family is funding a scathing anti-Obama political ad with SuperPAC money.

“I wouldn’t say it’s embarrassing. [But] it obviously was a distraction nobody wanted. I don’t think anybody in the family was pleased to see that article” in the New York Times about the ill-fated anti-Obama ad campaign, Tom Ricketts said.

Cubs prospect rests after a long at-bat

Of course, this begs the question: if the Ricketts have money to throw away on political ads, then why do they need public funds for their beloved privately-owned ballpark?  Are the people of Chicago best served having their dinner disturbed with political rhetoric and lies on TV while Wrigley Field gets a Jumbotron and new toilets at taxpayer expense?  Doubtful.


The miscalculation by Ricketts is that while Mayor Emanuel may not have the only say in this matter, he certainly has some influence....and he may just as well like to see the Wrigley crumble.

Phil Humber: Il Perfetto!!

Only the 21st perfect game in baseball history was pitched this afternoon as the White Sox blanked the Mariners in Seattle.

The Ace: Phil Humber admires the scoreboard on Puget Sound.

Best headlines: "The Humber Games" and "Flawless in Seattle"

"He's our Hitler", about Fidel Castro

Geez, now what did Ozzie do?

Merely calling sportswriters 'fags' may be remembered as the good ol' days for the Oz.

White Sox Prediction for 2012: Pain

The Sporting News today picked the White Sox to finish in the cellar of the AL Central and, not surprisingly, the powerhouse Tigers are slated to win the division (they won't).  Granted, the White Sox' General Manager Kenny Williams has made several awful acquisitions and a few inexplicable moves over the past few years, but I'm more sanguine about their prospects this year: third place.


First, allow me to dump on Mr.Williams. If you are going to re-build, then for chrissakes re-build. This would look something like trading Paul Konerko, John Danks, Gavin Floyd and Matt Thornton and cultivating a White Sox farm system which is among the worst in Major League Baseball.  On the other hand if you are going for a pennant this year, then why allow Mark Buerhrle to escape to free agency? And regardless of rebuild or not, what was the deal with trading Sergio Santos (30 saves last year) to Toronto for Nestor Molina (optioned to Birmingham this week). Duh.


I'll allow that the magnitude of the Adam Dunn debacle was unforeseeable, but acquiring the injured Jake Peavy from San Diego and signing  Alex Rios to a long term deal were a little more visible as evolving disasters. Reinsdorf somehow sees genius in Williams' commandeering of the club to the cellar. 


Enough Williams-bashing, it's just too easy.


This is the line up:


1. Alejandro DeAza, CF, solid defense and has good at-bats. He needs to see lots of pitchers this year and should stay at lead-off.


2. Alexei Ramirez, SS,  will bring his usual OBP of .328, but I'd keep him on a short leash in April and May and would not hesitate to move AJ Pierzynski in the 2-spot if Alexei has his usual poor cold weather performance.  AJ did well batting second during the World Series year.


3. Paul Konerko, 1B, great. 31 HR's, BA 0.300, All-Star.


4. Adam Dunn, DH. Ugh, it is what it is. He's had a good spring with only one strikeout and should improve on his 0.159 BA from last year, but don't expect him to hit AL pitching any better than maybe 0.230 this year with 20 HR's. I don't think he even sees Verlander's fast balls, he just listens for the catcher's mitt.  Barring a surprise recovery, he's broken and should retire after this year--but he won't since Kenny Williams is giving him $14 million/yr through the 2014 season. Ugh.


5. Brent Morel, 3B. If Brett Lillibridge keeps tearing it up like he did last year and has this spring, expect Morel to get challenged.  Lillibridge has intangibles like AJ and the Tigers' Brandon Inge; I'd personally like to see him start.


6. AJ Pierzynski, C. He can't throw runners out (maybe because of the pitchers' poor stretch release), but he should give the young pitching staff the best chance to perform confidently.  AJ is arguably the smartest player in the league and has a respectable OBP because he hardly ever strikes out.


7. Dayan Viciedo, LF. This youngster has the most potential to be a franchise superstar someday. He needs to get innings by playing everyday and learning the pitchers. I'll be watching his matchups against Verlander and other aces this year.  When he gets better he can take the 3 or 4 slot soon.


8. Alex Rios, RF. Nothing to say except it sure would be nice to have a prospect like Jared Mitchell get some at-bats instead. 


9. Gordon Beckham, 2B. Beckham was slated to be a power-hitting shortstop and now he's turning into a defensive second baseman. Disappointing.  I think he could benefit from the sanity of Skipper Robin Ventura, which is sure to be a welcome departure from the Guillen freak show.


The starting pitchers: 


John Danks and Gavin Floyd are solid but need to eat close to 200 innings each just for White Sox to finish the season.


Phil Humber and Chris Sale had strong outings at the end of last year; they are still huge question marks but represent the future of the Sox rotation.

Jake Peavy. I hope I'm wrong but I think anyone who views Peavy as anything but a struggling frustration is delusional.  Personally I feel bad for guy, but geesh is he hard to watch.



The bullpen: 


Trading Santos for 23-year-old Nestor Molina would be a remarkable gaffe on Kenny Williams' part if not for all the other head-scratchers the last few years.  Thornton is solid, but getting from the starter to the closer could be an adventure, and I think Santos is a better closer anyway-- look for him on the NL All-Star team this year.


Conclusion:


Fortunately, I've moved to Arizona and have a legitimate team that's fun to watch here, but I bleed Sox Black and White and this year has all the makings of a horror show in Chicago.  To survive, the pale hose need some pleasant surprises and the most likely sources will be the young SS Eduardo Escobar who's had a phenomenal spring, Hector Santiago, LHP who will go deep into the season unless opposing hitters figure out his screwball and Nathan Jones, RHP who has shown promising control.  Beckham, Dunn and maybe even Rios could see dramatic improvements at the plate... and don't forget Lillibridge. If all these stars align, then add breakout years for Sale and Humber, and the Sox have an outside shot at beating even the Tigers who have a fairly mediocre starting staff once you get past Verlander.  I can dream. 


Regardless, I see the Indians besting the Tigers this year, but that's another blog.

Will someone please fire Bud Selig already?

First he ignored steroids in baseball while statistics are demolished by anabolic behemoths, then he endured Congress nosing around the issue inflicting us with their faux outrage, finally he gets a "policy" about performance-enhancing drugs... which is most recently summarily screwed up in it's management and enforcement.

Please put Bud Selig out of his misery.

Why was Ryan Braun's positive pee test result leaked (bad pun, I know) to the public last fall? Why were we told that he had herpes? Who mis-handled Braun's urine sample? What possessed Selig to agree to an outside arbitration panel if the case was so clear? Why is nobody asking these questions of Major League Baseball?

Baseball is not under any compulsion to protect Constitutional rights, the players belong at the discretion of the League and agree to abide by the rules of the League, but on the other hand the players don't need to be harassed either. Braun either used steroids or he didn't: if he did, he should be suspended, if didn't then he should never have been impugned.

Major League Baseball, the solely American sport, has needed a commissioner for quite a while.

Pitchers and Catchers Report in SIX Days

...and I have my tickets. I have no delusion, this will be a tough year for the White Sox as divsional contenders like the Tigers re-load with Justin Verlander and new blood Prince Fielder, and the Twins, Indians and even Royals will challenge the Sox pitching, but there is nothing better than a cold beer in the sunshine.

From the South Side

To Glendale AZ

Go Sox.

The White Sox need Tebow

...or Adam Dunn (aka, Done) needs to find Jesus. Something.


Here is the redux on Dunn's dismal season:

Strange but truest player of the year

Did Adam Dunn's season really happen -- I mean, in real life? I've seen the numbers, printed on actual paper, so apparently it did. But really, friends, it ought to be impossible to do all this:

• On his road to hitting a mind-rattling .159, this guy had more trips to the plate when he DIDN'T put a ball in play (256) than trips when he did (240).

[+] Enlarge

Eric P. Mull/US PresswireAdam Dunn batted .159 and struck out 177 times in 415 at-bats in 2011.

• He had 52 multi-strikeout games but only 12 multi-hit games. Seriously.

• He got six hits all season -- six -- against left-handed pitchers (in 94 at-bats). Just for comparison's sake,Adrian Gonzalez (who also bats left-handed, last time we looked) got six hits off left-handed pitchers in one SERIES (June 20-22 against the Cubs).

• Other than May, when the Dunner hit a not exactly Ty Cobb-esque .204, he never had a batting average higher than .160 IN ANY MONTH.

• You realize that Dunn went into this season with a higher career slugging percentage (.521) than Gonzalez, Paul Konerko and Troy Tulowitzki (among billions of others), right? You can look that up. He then went out and slugged an incomprehensible .277. That was 50 points worse than Juan Pierre, 63 behind Willie Bloomquist, 69 back of Aaron Miles and 82 lower than Elvis Andrus. You can look that up, too.

• This man had 111 more strikeouts (177) than hits (66). So how many other American Leaguers in history have had 100 more whiffs than hits in a season? That would be nada, obviously.

• And one more thing: If you ignore little technicalities like decimal points, Dunn's batting average (.159) was lower than his strikeout total (177). Other than Mark Reynolds, who pulled that off in 2010, no position player has ever done that in a season where he got more than 40 -- yes, 40 -- plate appearances. And with good reason!

And the best part: we have him for TWO more seasons!

MLB: Milwaukee Franchise to Change name

Breaking News:

Ryan Braun sporting the new uniform for the Milwaukee Juicers

Pujols to Angels

 for 10 yrs/ $254m

He rejected the Cards' 10 yr/ $220m offer.  Mark my words, this is a mistake.  He will fail in the American League, certainly he will not be the mega-star he was in St Louis and at the end of the day his reputation and endorsements will suffer more than the nominal $34m he will make over 10 years. The one advantage is that he can evolve into a designated hitter in he AL, which I'm sure is part of the calculation, but by that time he'll be decrepit and fans will resent paying a DH $25m/yr.

The big winner is Prince Fielder who is next up in the free agent wars.  To offer the 32 yr-old Pujols a 10 year contract is generous to the point of silly and sure to mean that the 28 yr-old Fielder will get an even better offer.  If he's smart, he'll stay in the National League.

Packers selling more shares

The Green Bay Packers are offering new stock through February, which will dilute those shares owned by current shareholders.The new shares will mostly be sold to to the unwashed masses to fund new boxes that will allow millionaire season box-holders to have a more pleasant game experience.  


The reason stated in the article that Personal Seat Licenses (PSL), the usual way most franchises pay for stadium improvements,  won't be sold is that PSL's might lose money for the seat-owners.  Heaven forbid the titans of industry don't put their asses in soft cushy heated seats subsidized by working stiffs!  The cost of stadium upgrades instead is borne by poor folks who shell out $250 per share for... nothing-- no dividend, no tickets-- nothing.  The least they could do is rotate some seats in the end-zone for shareholders so that once in a lifetime the sawmill jockey from Fon-du-Lac can grope Kuhn's ass.  


If anyone chooses to waste money on Packers shares-- which by the way cannot be re-sold, thus making them worthless-- they should make damn sure that they've first 1) paid all their health care premiums for life, 2) funded their retirement with real investments and 3) covered their kids' education.  Only then is it allowable to throw your hard-earned money away so that CEO's can have a temperature controlled buffet and warm totties in front of the Jumbotron.  What is it that PT Barnum didn't say? 

Interestingly,  from the article:  "...only two franchises, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Bears, where PSLs were selling at a premium to their initial sale price."  That's called free-market capitalism, but why try it when you can get the hoi polloi to willingly give you money?

WE ARE: PENN STATE!

Um, no, we aren't.

I've read a lot of opinions on this scandal but none is more chilling than Christopher's at the conservative Catholic website Christopher's Apologies.  He made a video drawing the accurate analogy between this child abuse scandal and the Catholic Church's priest abuse scandal, and he makes a mild leap to the Gosnell case where a doctor was killing newborn infants and calling it abortion.  Okay, a gratuitous, albeit obtuse and inaccurate, jab at abortion, but I'd agree that Gosnell's office was also a similar hierarchy that eschewed outside oversight and covered up crimes.  Fine.

Christopher, for some unknown reason, goes on to draw a direct line from anal intercourse with a 10 year-old  to consensual sex between adults, as in the Tiger Woods and... wait for it... the Bill Clinton peccadilloes.  Bill Clinton analogies never get old for conservatives.  But Christopher gets whacky when he equates failing to report child sex abuse to keeping an extra hamburger that was mistakenly placed in your McDonalds bag.  Is this what goes for Catholic morality these days?

If Christopher is to be believed, we are all Penn State, we are all lax in our duties as citizens and human beings.  Not!!!  I was trying to imagine how graphic the image would be of witnessing an adult male raping a 10 yr-old in a shower, especially witnessed during an otherwise ordinary day at work.  The graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, had seen such a thing in 2002 when he was 28 years-old, certainly an age of knowing right from wrong.  Is it really within reason to merely report such an occurrence to Joe Paterno and then go about your career within the coaching hierarchy of a university for another nine years, never questioning why the cretin Sandusky is not just out of prison, but still working at the university!?

McQueary's grand jury testimony says that he told Joe Paterno the graphic details of the incident and then went about his career.  Paterno, for his part, told the athletic director but found nothing untoward about Sandusky, his long time former assistant, continuing to work at the university.

There are surely enough WTF moments in this saga to boggle the mind.  At no time did any member of the Penn State University athletic department or administration have empathy for the victims and future victims of this pedophile.  Does this sound familiar?  Is the Catholic Church's priest abuse scandal analogous?  You bet it is.

Nittany Lion

And the common denominator is that both institutions are examples of top-down hierarchies with little or no outside oversight.  One law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania remarked that nobody from the coaches to the athletic director to the university president himself-- nobody-- ever thought to notify the police of the crimes that were being witnessed and discussed.  Protection of the university and Coach Sandusky's reputation became paramount, with no apparent consideration for the victims.  Even JoePa's final statement "I wish I had done more" seemed more a plea for his own personal reputation than for any justice or empathy, echoing similar sentiments from various bishops.

Anyone who could for a minute analogize child abuse to keeping an extra nickel of change from a restaurant, as ersatz Catholic moralists seem to be doing, needs to do some re-evaluation.

My White Sox fantasy: Pete Mackanin

This has been a brutal year as a White Sox for no other reason than the immense expectations that greeted the season a few months ago. NOw the team is in tatters with Ozzie Guillen gone and the payroll full of mediocre performers locked into top salaries. What the Sox need is a total management overhaul. Yes, Ozzie needed to go, but so does Kenny Williams and from interviews it seems apparent that Williams will not be GM next year and likely will get bumped up the role of President of the organization. Fine, he may be an excellent businessman but his hand a picking talent has gone cold-- if ever it was hot in the first place.

Ozzie roaming SS in the 80's

 The emotions of seeing Ozzie go are decidedly mixed. His history with the White Sox is full of positives: a long career, beginning with Rookie of the Year (at left) and peaking with the only World Series win in Chicago for a century. But his demeanor grew as tiresome as was his handling of pitching staff puzzling.  In Ozzie's defense, was he responsible for trading Daniel Hudson and JJ Putz away for Edwin Jackson? Did Ozzie sign huge contracts for struggling Jake Peavey and the incomparably bad Adam Dunn? No and no. And I'll just mention briefly the brainstorm of releasing Aaron Rowand in favor of Brian Anderson in centerfield, and then doubling down by taking on Alex Rios' heavy contract as yet another questionable centerfielder. Maybe none of these transactions could have been foreseen to be miserable, but certainly at some point a GM needs to be held accountable for lack of results. Williams needs to do something else in or out of baseball. Booking National Anthem singers might be more within his skill set.

Pete Mackanin, Brother Rice HS alumnus

Here's my fantasy: The White Sox hire Terry Francona, not as field boss, but as General Manager. Nobody knows the talent around the league better than Tito and he might benefit from one layer of management away from the day-to-day machinations. And the new manager would be current Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin who has been tutored by greats such as Charlie Manuel and Joe Maddon. The former has been in baseball forever managing dozens of Hall of Famers and the latter has done nothing but bring some of the lowest payrolls of young players into the playoffs year and year. Mackanin is a Southside native who would be a solid addition and supplement Francona's stature. The White Sox ownership is dedicated to winning as evidenced by the consistently high payrolls, and Reinsdorf needs to put better management in place to make it all happen. Who knows, miracles could happen...maybe Dunn can hit .200 next year.

White Sox Rant

Adam Dunn sucks, but he didn't lose this game, Ozzie did. This is a management issue. A guy has 96 strikeouts in 227 at-bats, so when do you sit him down? I have no doubt that at one time Adam Dunn was a good hitter, I see the stats, I hear the legend, but this guy on the 2011 White Sox is not the Adam Dunn on the back of his bubble gum card. Sure, he's wearing #32 and his uniform says "Dunn", but we're halfway thought the season and he has 7 home runs. Seven. So, no, he's not going to hit 40 home runs this season. I could live with the 200 strikeouts every year, if he hit 35 or 40 home runs.

Word is Dunn is a "great clubhouse guy", then leave him in the clubhouse. He's a nice guy who strikes out a lot at the plate. So is Gavin Floyd, put him in to DH. Today's game against the Nationals is a case in point of how Ozzie does not know how to manage. In the eighth inning, Sox down by one run and Dunn is due up, after having struck out three times already today against righti pitching. The Nationals bring in lefty Sean Burnett just to pitch to Dunn who has waht 2 hits against against lefties all year, and has not ever gotten a hit against Burnett in 5 lifetime appearances. What are the chances Dunn will get a hit now? 0.0005%? The cameras pan over to Ozzie who is looking down at his scorecard (presumably, but it could have been iPad Scrabble, who knows) with his $2 Walgreen reading glasses. He-e--elloooo, Ozzie.... how about a pinch hitter, the game's on the line here, buddy.

No pinch hitter, three pitches, three strikes. Dunn is done, takes the collar the the umpteenth time this year. Oh-ferfour with 4 strikeouts. It's not Adam Dunn's fault. Sit him down, send him to Charlotte to work on stuff. Something. But losing games by giving away outs is insanity.