Elite Eight

Books, history, movies, reality TV, pop music, dining out, God and family . . . my Elite Eight

Disrespect

A summary of the media's disrespect for Alex Rodriguez (courtesy of BTF)

1996: 9.31 WAR, just behind Griffey (crazy credit for defense to Griffey that year) but 2nd in MVP to Juan Gonzalez despite a higher OPS, scoring 52 more runs, and playing SS instead of a poor RF.

1997: despite a 846 OPS and 5.6 WAR he didn't get even a 10th place vote while Tino Martinez came in 2nd with a 948 OPS at 1B and 5.08 WAR. Even a guy with negative WAR got 2 votes (Deivi Cruz for Detroit)

1998: 919 OPS, 8.50 WAR but Gonzalez gets his 2nd MVP while A-Rod comes in 9th. Yes, ninth! He even had a 40 HR, 40 SB season that year. He led in WAR for hitters by nearly a full win over Jeter (3rd place).

1999: 943 OPS, 4.76 WAR (injured) and 15th place, about right for that season

2000: 1.026 OPS, 10.29 WAR and 3rd place behind 2 1B who cannot field (Giambi and Thomas)

2001: 1.021 OPS, 8.36 WAR and 6th place, Ichiro's year.

2002: 1.015 OPS, 8.81 WAR 2nd place to another SS who had a 861 OPS and 5.6 WAR (Tejada) who got it due to his team having that amazing 20 game winning streak

2003: Voters give in and let him win at last - He is 2.2 WAR ahead of all other hitters (Pedro had a great year again, Loaiza also had more WAR than non-ARod hitters) but he gets just 6 first place votes while a guy with 3.12 WAR (Shannon Stewart) gets 3 first place votes (yes, voters can be pretty dumb).

2004: In NY now, 4th in WAR but 14th in voting

2005: Wins again, led in WAR by over 2 wins so hard to ignore but 16 first place votes while Ortiz who hit worse than A-Rod by almost any measure (Avg/OBP/Slg/HR/SB) gets 11 first place votes

2006: poor year ('just' 4.46 WAR)

2007: Wins again, led in WAR by nearly 2 wins again, gets all but 2 first place votes

2008: 6.8 WAR, 2nd among hitters but 8th in MVP voting

2009 to now: 4.2 is his best WAR since and hasn't finished higher than 10th in MVP voting.

Awwwww

Last week we took the kids out to eat and mentioned to YaYa that it was the same place [Neds] where, as a 5 year old, she cried and wailed when Lisa told her she wouldn't be able to marry me when she grew up. When she was told the story YaYa  nudged me in the ribs and said "The offer still stands Dad." :)

My Thoughts

Absolutely no disrespect to the kid who walked into the Greenfield police station and donated his hard earned $10 in change - great story and  his heart's in the right place -  but where were his parents? Sure, no matter where it goes ten bucks isn't going to move mountains, but if one of my kids wanted to do something like that I'd gently direct them to donate the money where it could do some real good for the community, like the food bank, homeless shelter, etc. Use the moment to educate them about where they can make a difference in the world, even at their age.  Letting your kid walk into a police station and hand over his allowance  seems . . .well, I've leave it at that.

Health Nut

If you go by Lisa's obscene definition of 'healthy', then I guess I made an error by baking chocolate chip cookies for the kids' breakfast.

it wasn't even even breakfast, it was "pre-breakfast snack" I think you called it.... - Lisa

A Shooting in DC

At least 12 dead at the Navy Shipyard in DC; rumored to be two shooters, one or both still on the loose . . .

At least 3000 people in DC are being told to "shelter in place". CBS ID'd one of the gunmen as a Naval officer, then retracted the claim.

Congrats!

Belated congrats to Floyd Mayweather on schooling Canelo Saturday night. :) I was working but followed it round by round on the internet. 

Daddy's Back

Wide-eyed Junie, upon seeing my newly regrown goatee today: "My Daddy's back, my Daddy's back!" then skipped away

You've had it so long, I totally understand her sentiment :) My hubby's back my hubby's back ...lol - Lisa

Taylor Swift Concert, 2011

This is Yaya writing again.

In 2011, my dad was supposed to pick us up to go spend our Super Reader subs coupons. My dad came late, and the whole family had to wait on the porch. Being my normal self, when my dad did pick us up, I had to say something about the wait.

'' Ugh, dude... why'd ya keep us waiting so long? Did you get in an accident along the way or something? '' I said, plopping into the car. My dad turned around, and handed me a piece of paper-

'' I was late because I was picking these up. ''

As soon as I new what the paper was, I squealed. My dad had gotten me tickets to the Taylor Swift concert! Plus, it was in an hour... I didn't have to wait forever! My mom was going with me, too, and that made it even better.

Here's some pics.

Posing by a Taylor Swift Cover Girl ad

Smiling like the Cheshire Cat once we got to our seats

I'm not sure which song this was, but I believe it was ' Back to December ' 

Halfway through the show, Taylor walked down the aisles and got on a spinning tree- playing a BANJO.

At the end of the show. Taylor soared above the crowd in  fake balcony, singing Love Story- even got close to us, and we were in the nosebleed seats. I regret I didn't get a picture of it, but the concert itself was amazing.

The Yanks Return

I've been gaga for days after hearing that my beloved Yanks are returning to Miller Park next year (their last visit was in '05, when an infant Parker had the privilege of watching A-Rod hit his 399th and 400th home runs). I have already informed Team Slap that even if it means skipping the mortgage in May we WILL be there for the three game series, dressed in Yankees apparel and cheering them on to an easy sweep of the Brewers. 

This last point brought protests from Lisa & LuLu, both of whom said they wouldn't go if they had to root against the Crew. "Fine," I said. "You don't have to root for the Yankees . . . but if you don't, you don't eat or drink at the game. I don't feed the opposition." Lisa simply flipped me off and moved on, but Lu wisely caved and was embraced in the loving arms of the Evil Empire . . .