Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Saturday, May 12, 2018


That was a big Yankee win.

51 comments:

13bit said...

THAT one was important. Would have been a devastating loss.

TheWinWarblist said...

Every Yankee win is a big w ... W ... Wi ... winAAAaAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHaaaa-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaAaAaHaHaHaaaAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh shit. Now Walker will be in the lineup for at least another month.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Yeah, I guess we can't get rid of Walker or Gardner as long as they're like, y'know, winning the game.

Anonymous said...

Oh, yeah--like, y'know, in Walker's case winning ONE game while playing like total shit otherwise over nearly one third of the season. THANKS, Mr. Micro Sample Size, for displaying your brilliant baseball acumen yet again.

Anonymous said...

Again, to brain-damaged HC66. Who the fuck mentioned Gardner? He at least has a .340 OBA, which is decent for a leadoff hitter, and he plays first-rate defense and is an asset on the bases with his plus speed. Walker is a total STIFF, ranking nearly at the bottom of AL players (484 out of 491) in total WAR. And against this you counterpose one game-winning hit from yesterday. Really--what was it, HC66, was your skull clamped a little too hard during childbirth? Did a safe fall on your head? Please explain the origin of your cognitive impairment.

Anonymous said...

Mull this: Neil Walker IS A SWITCH HITTER. THAT MEANS HE NEVER FACES A PITCHER WITH A PLATOON DISADVANTAGE, YET HE IS STILL ONE OF THE WORST HITTERS IN THE MAJORS. You know that that means? It means he should be DFA'ed yesterday--no, last week. Close to the same consideration applies to Hicks, model 2018. When a pinch-hitter is chronically struggling to stay above the Mendoza line, it's time to retire or be retired.

Anonymous said...

Sorry-switch hitter, not pinch hitter.

Anonymous said...

Here is Hicks's slash line against left-handed pitchers:

.105/.182./158. No--that is not a typo. That is a calamity. Shouldn't he at least sit against left-handed pitching? The problem is that Gardner's numbers against lefties are equally appalling. That means Clint Frazier should be promoted and Hicks DFA'ed, since Gardner is the more versatile and all-around more valuable player. If presents trends continue to the end of this month--the one-third mark of the season--Gardner should become a bench player and Frazier put in centerfield until/unless he shows that he can't do better over a meaningful sample size--at least one month's worth of plate appearances. The Yankees cannot continue to indulge sentiment over two-thirds of their outfield--including the critical up-the-middle position of CF--swirling to the bottom of the toilet on both offense and defense (Hicks's defensive WAR this year is ZERO; Gardner's defensive WAR is just slightly less horrible at 0.6).

TheWinWarblist said...

Um, Stats Anon? I don't think you're getting the Ethos of IIHIIFIIC. Maybe you should post your insights over at River Ave Blues.

TheWinWarblist said...

And also: 1) You're ugly. And 2) Your mother dresses you funny.

Parson Tom said...

well, that ought to fix him.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I hate to give Bitter Buck Anon any oxygen whatsoever. It's like providing rain to a poisonous mushroom, or scrumptious insects to a lizard.

But I should have been clearer. Just so there is no mistake:

if it were up to ME, I would get rid of Walker immediately. Hell, if it were up to ME, I never would have picked him up.

I agree that it's time to seriously consider greasing the skids for Hicks, too, though he has been hurt this spring.

I even remain less enamored of Gardner than most anybody here. Yes, he is probably the one to keep, since he does a lot of different things and can be plugged into all sorts of roles. But he has not had a good season, and he has a long history of playing much worse and hitting the DL once the second half comes.

By all means: let's bring up Drury and Frazier, and see what they have.

But my point—which, again, I should have made clearer—is that the Yankees ain't doin' that as long as these guys are looking better than they have been, occasionally getting key hits or walks this past week.

I saw Anthony McCarron on SNY last night dismissing how "fans always love the young guys."

Sadly, sportswriters and baseball brass always love the veterans. They're always waiting for them to "come around" and get back to where they were, five or six or seven years ago. The idea that players decline with age never penetrates.

TheWinWarblist said...

See!? You tell 'em, Hoarace! Who says you're still brain damaged??

Anonymous said...

The WinWarblist--You toss off the same old tired canard that gets passed around among other habitues of this blog--that there's something wrong with "stats." But that is arrant bullshit--people on this blog use stats all the time. But they just use the inept traditional stats devised a hundred years ago, stats that reveal little or nothing important about player performance because they fail to take into account crucial variables like team factors, park factors, etc., etc., etc.--just primitive stuff that gets recycled because that's what your grandfather talked about--it's like being in an entertainment blog that talks about nothing but Fred Allen and Fibber McGee and Molly--that's what this blog is like on the topic of baseball.

TheWinWarblist said...

HC66, you are so correct; this anon palooka is more puckered than Bitter Buck's hemorrhoids.

Anonymous said...

WinWarblist--how does it feel passing you waking hours as a dumbass preadolescent asshole?

HoraceClarke66 said...

Bitter Buck Anon, we wave the white flag.

There is no possible way we can ever so much as comprehend your brilliance, never mind match it.

What's worse, we fear that we are cramping your style here. Why should you, someone who is obviously smarter than all the rest of us combined, be confined to a mere comments section?

Isn't it far past time that you started your own, statistics-only blog? That way, you can share the glory of your wisdom not just with us undeserving peons, but with the whole world?

Call it "Ozymandias Anon." We all promise to read it religiously.

Anonymous said...

HC66--It's not about statistics. I just explained that point in my previous comment. You're too fucking dishonest and stupid to acknowledge that point.

TheWinWarblist said...

I don't know how it feels, Puckered Anon. I'm board certified in three medical specialties and am currently on call at our regional medical center for one of the largest single specialty medical practices in New York State. How does it feel sitting in your underwear in your mom's basement eating hot pockets and ranting on the internet?

TheWinWarblist said...

HC66, don't tell Puckered, but I can keep this up indefinitely.

TheWinWarblist said...

And really Puckered, if your gonna keep posting would you at least get a proper screen name. Bitter Buck is good. With all due respect to Hoarace , I think Buck's Puckered Hemorrhoids is better. Either way, join the party, you walnut!

HoraceClarke66 said...

I meant thee no offense, Ozymandias Anon!

Thou shouldst pontificate on the entire span thy knowledge commandest on thy own blog. Yea, verily, 'twould be a mighty thing!

TheWinWarblist said...

I think we scared him off. Was the hot pockets mom's basement thing too harsh? Think I hit too close to, ahem, home?

TheWinWarblist said...

Come back Puckered! Come back!!

TheWinWarblist said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lAY-rRRa4o

How the fuck do you embed video!?

Anonymous said...

Warblist--Mom's basement? Did you think that up all by yourself?

You have a rich fantasy life. Your endemic stupidity is too brazenly evident for your Walter Mitty posts to pass muster.

You're a moron. Fuck off.

Anonymous said...

Hey Warblist--why don't you post a link to your "largest single medical specialty practice"? I'd be only two happy to forward to them your psychotic burbling on this blog as a contribution toward having your imaginary medical license revoked on grounds of mental unfitness. Deal, asshole?

Anonymous said...

Warblist is the guy who correctly identified himself as an idiot in an article in a major metropolitan newspaper--right, Warblist?

Can't wait to forward your psychotic Internet ramblings to your colleagues.

Anonymous said...

Of course, if you skulk away and never stain this blog again with your scummy vitriol and inane dribblings, I might take mercy on you, Warblist.

Anonymous said...

Before Parson Tom and other assorted snorting hypocrites mount their high horses to admonish the world about comity and polemical decorum, let it be known that the psycho-doctor WinWarblist was the guy who popped up out of nowhere--and in response to no personal attack against him from me--to launch volley after volley of demented personal abuse in my direction. This is how it's been in EVERY SUCH EXCHANGE--some rah-rah mediocrity can't stand even a faint allusion to the kind of analytical frameworks that have become SOP in every MLB front office, so they start spitting up like enraged infants over their own ignorance, over this intolerable affront to their hard-earned aversion to, you know, actual THOUGHT.

Warblist betrays a particularly troubling propensity for unprovoked, snarling sociopathy . . . over nothing. And this is a guy with people's lives in his hands--a third-rate money-grubber who spreads himself WAY too thin by maintaining board certifications in three specialities, a gambit that would get him downgraded to official "hack" status among serious physicians of the kind who spend their lives honing their expertise in just one area--the kind who serve as professors at university hospitals and accumulate a lifetime of awards and research achievements, of which Warblist can claim exactly zero. The only distinction he has earned is the kind of review from a patient on the Internet that faults him for a missed diagnosis that killed her husband--that kind of thing. Yet he has time to compulsively string out endless volleys of malice and deranged strings of vowels and consonants on the Internet. (By the way--I initiated no investigations into the identity of Warblist or anyone else on this blog--I could care less. Warblist was stupid enough to allow himself to be provoked into revealing just enough details about himself above to allow any third-grader with access to Google to figure out who he is--that's on him, not me.)

That's all I have to say about this vile specimen. I will not forward his muck to his colleagues or patients nor have anything else to do with him, here or anywhere else. The harm he has done in the real world, to real people, in his mercenary "practice" is sufficiently damning that I need add nothing more in the way of judgment on his character or intelligence. End of story with the miscreant Warblist.

Now if anyone else on this misbegotten list wants to compensate for a lifetime of personal frustration and intellectual mediocrity by baring his teeth and foaming at the mouth at anyone who doesn't confine himself to batting average, RBIs, and ERA when discussing baseball, then go see a psychiatrist. I'm sure Warblist can recommend a good one in his thriving upstate mass practice.

TheWinWarblist said...

Puckered!! You're back!! Yaayyy!!

TheWinWarblist said...

Wow, I just reread everything that Puckered posted. He's sounds mad. Like really mad. Really really REALLY mad. I mean I'm not particularly proud of my posts here, but "arguing on the internet" isn't a criteria for disciplinary action with the New York State Office of Professional Conduct. And arguing with a walnut like Puckered? I'll defend that in any forum you choose. I oughtta get a commendation.

TheWinWarblist said...

And, oh boy, does Buck's Puckered Hemorrhoid [BPH] have some odd ideas about how medicine is practiced. Most doctors in my specialties are board certified in two or three specialties. It's commonplace for academics and those in private practice to have multiple board certifications; sometimes it's mandatory. I'm not sure who BPH thinks I am, but my colleagues wouldn't be the least bit surprised by my posting here. And many of them will still want me out to care for them when they become ill. I'm what you call a doctor's doctor. Despite not practicing at a university medical center, BPH. Despite being a "vile character." Despite the "endless volleys of malice and deranged strings of vowels and consonants on the Internet." Despite knowing that RBI doesn't have a "s" at the end. [Shrugs]

Anonymous said...

Hey, Warblist--You know that I know who you are. We both know that you killed at least two patients through mis-diagnosis, as reported by patient reviews on the Internet--the result of stretching yourself thin among too many specialties instead of responsibly honing your competence in one.

Now let's examine the self-serving lies and representations of this money-grubbing hack:

1. It is NOT common for top-rated specialists at elite university teaching hospitals to have multiple board certifications; in the rare cases when they do, those multiple certifications are in closely related fields, like gastroenterology/endoscopy. A mercenary quack like Warblist desperately maintains THREE certifications in tangentially related fields--internal medicine, pulmonology, and critical care--in order to maximize his income rather than the interests of his patients, who are the ones who suffer from his thinly stretched competence. Just go to the doctor bio pages at places like New York Presbyterian, NYU/Langone, Mt. Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, and Mayo Clinic--NOT ONE of the chiefs of service or full professors at those top-ranked hospitals has marginally related certifications of the kind that a hack like Warblist has--one of the reasons you won't find his name in the Castle Connolly roster of Best Doctors.

It is true that in third-rate mass group practices of the kind you inhabit you might find mercenaries grabbing as many patients as possible to line their pockets as amply as possible through multiple certifications--but this does NOT go on in serious medical circles--the kind of circles from which Warblist is excluded, for good reason.

2. Warblist thinks he came up with a brilliant "gotcha" on the plural of RBI--but just as incompetent in English mechanics as he is in medicine. Here are two authoritative sources--the AP style manual and the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

https://twitter.com/apstylebook/status/588068089465589760?lang=en

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/RBI

Fuck you, hack. How many patients did you kill today with your mercenary overstretched incompetence?

I might just circulate some of your more diseased outpourings on this blog for the delectation of your colleagues and superiors, just for the fun of it, asshole, and possibly to protect any further innocents from your medical butchery.


Rufus T. Firefly said...

Puckered sounds like the only medical training he's had involved pull up diapers.

*Every* critical care specialist I've ever met has been an internist also. Pulmonary medicine is also not all that unusual. Puckered is a joke.

Also, Gastroenterology (GI) and endoscopy are the *same* thing.

Can someone please get this ass-hat an appointment with one of Dr. Kevorkian's protege's? And be sure to double dose him. The world would be a better place for it.

Anonymous said...

Hey sick puppy Rufus T. Fuckup--gastrotenterologists receive endoscopy training, but not all endoscopists are gastroenterologists. That's why I stressed CLOSELY RELATED fields. Many other physicians, including otolaryngologists

And your anecdotal evidence on critical care is laughable. SOME critical care specialists are also internists, but far from all. "Physicians with training in critical care medicine are referred to as intensivists. In the United States, the specialty requires additional fellowship training for physicians having completed their primary residency training in internal medicine, pediatrics, anesthesiology, surgery or emergency medicine." That's OR, not AND, moron."

And endoscopy is also commonly used in otolaryngology, urology, and other medical specialties--NOT just gastroenterology, moron.

Well now we know that you know even less about medicine than you do about baseball, which I know seems impossible.

Do you routinely call for the murder of people on the Internet? Get help, you sick fuck, before you end up in jail or an asylum. And if you post any more death threats on this blog, I will contact duque privately and ask him to have you arrested.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rufus T. Fuckup--just curious: have you figured out yet which teams are in the National League and which are in the American League? Should I re-post your comment in which you demonstrate that you have no idea about this? Maybe you can get this figured out during your upcoming stint in jail or a mental hospital, whichever the sentencing judge deems the most appropriate form of confinement for a snarling, demented animal like you.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Puckered, did you forget your Ritalin today? You seem a little excited.

If your doctor is using an endoscopy for your laryngoscopy, you should find a new doctor. Or did you take it to heart when so many people tell you to eat shit?

Kevorkian advocated suicide. I was hoping you would do the right thing for humanity.

Please read more carefully and explore google a little longer before attempting to claim medical knowledge. Like your 'beloved' Racist Townie Asshole (tm) RedSocks, you fall just a little short.

TheWinWarblist said...

Oh, okay, we're posting here still? Okay then. Starting to sound like "frogs in a well" if you grock my metaphor. But whatever. Now Puckered, many doctors are board certified in multiple specialties. And yes, Rufus, excellent point, they are usually related specialties like Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. You have to be board certified in Internal Medicine before you can sit your sub-specialty boards. So there you go. Three isn't a big stretch, nor all that impressive. At least among us medical types. Every doctor in my practice has at least two board certifications. A couple have four. So don't be all that pissed off about my boasting. It ain't much of a boast. The fact that I drive a bitchin' car and the beautiful intelligent ladies all love me and my hot moves is much better as far as boasting goes. At least I think so. When will the hot pockets be ready later? Room for one more tonight? :-D

KD said...

Funny thread. Sorry to have missed this one. Was on vacation in New England, home of LBJ and the demonic red socks and their chuckleheaded fans.

Love you guys, with but one exception.

Anonymous said...

Hey Warblist--how many patients have you killed this week with botched diagnoses? Does that woman's husband still keep you up at night?

Why didn't you ever make it into Castle Connolly's database of Top Doctors? I'll tell you why--you're an emotionally diseased, money-grubbing hack.

Who on this list would want to be treated by this snarling psychopath? Hands?

Anonymous said...

Rufus T Fuckup--endoscopy is ANY internal scoping of the body, including the scoping done by ENTs. You're a moron, an illiterate, and a scowling psychopath.

You make Caliban look like Noel Coward by comparison.

TheWinWarblist said...

Puckered, you are a colossal moron. I was offered a spot in Top Doctors. Every doctor is! I turned it down because I don't think having to PAY to have your name listed is ethical.

TheWinWarblist said...

And you are completely wrong about the usage of endoscopy. And again I will repeat these important fact: A) You are ugly, and B) Your mother dresses you funny.

Anonymous said...

You're a fucking liar, Warblist. People do NOT pay to be listed in the Castle Connolly best doctors listings. Castle Connolly does extensive polling of physicians, nurses, and administrators to arrive at their listings--the one for the New York City areas serves as the basis of New York magazine's annual best doctor's issue. You probably don't even know about the Castle Connolly ratings and are confusing them with some corrupt pay for play operation, BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO FUCKING STUPID AND LAZY TO be literate in such matters.

Second, I am NOT wrong about endoscopy--it is not, per Rufus Psycho Fuckup, only a GI procedure, but is also applied by urologist and otolaryngologists.

So you're radically wrong on two counts--both directly bearing on your own profession. No wonder you killed at least two patients through misdiagnosis. You should be in jail, not in a mediocre suburban third-rate group practice.

Anonymous said...

To avoid embarrassing yourself any further about the details of your own profession, MORON and KILLER:

http://www.castleconnolly.com/about/NomProcess.cfm

Anonymous said...

So now, Killer Doc Warblist, you know why you're not listed in Castle Connolly Best Doctors--your peer group regards you as a shitty doctor. Please let me know if I can be of any further help in remediating your ever-proliferating misconceptions and stupidities about this and that.

TheWinWarblist said...

2:14 AM on the last post? Look, kid, you gotta get to bed earlier. It's making you cranky. But please keep calling "Killer Doc." It's starting to grow on me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for checking in, hack. We now know that you don't have a clue about the Castle Connolly best doctor listings, but we do know that you're not in them--that your peers view you as a shitty doctor, along with the families of the patients you've killed with your misdiagnoses. Keep it up, asshole. You also have no idea of the correct rendering of the plural of RBIs, the use of "doctor heal thyself" in ancient literature, the fact that stats are used ALL THE TIME by duque on this blog, etc., etc. You're a walking solecism, a gallumphing incompetent and moron. Your parents must be very proud of you, Killer.

Isiyku Abdulahi said...


I really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
God bless you
I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.