Centerfield

And the comments are even working!

But are the comments working?

Nope, they're not. It's an open thread, so the comments have escaped and are sitting on an Acapulco beach, sipping mojitos and getting sunburned. Curse them! (It's cold and damp and windy here.)

Damp? Count your blessings. Here in California, we've got 5% humidity and wind -- and high temperatures besides. Which means that if you look cross-eyed at the (long-since dried out and golden) grass, you've got a fire storm. Not to mention what it does to your throat.

It's certainly damp here. I can't easily verify cold or windy from where I sit. Unpleasant weather to have to pick my son up in in a few hours. But as long as I don't wreck the car on a wet road, I think I'll be happy enough.

But in Acapulco it's 84 degrees with 70% humidity and scattered clouds, very light breeze. Perfect beach weather. :-)

Cold here. Rain and high winds due for the weekend. Looks like the Tigers are on life support. Too bad, it was a feelgood story.

We're 7 weeks into football season and the ranks of the "wait 'til next year" teams have already swollen to 13 teams at my count, plus 3 teams at 3-3 who are on life support, and NYJ at 4-3 who will have trouble making it into the playoffs even if they end up 10-6.

I sent this comment to Bull Moose:

I contributed to 20 campaigns and PACs this election season to help promote a centrist congress. I gave to Lieberman, Chaffee (in the primary then Whitehouse in the General), Schwarenengger and the rest mostly to Dems in close races to retake the Congress.

I wish I didn't have to work so hard to demonstrate my support for Centrism.
I wish there were a one stop shop to contribute to a "Centrist PAC".
I wish there were one source to hear from Centrist leaders: Colin Powell, John Danforth, Mark Warner, Lieberman, John Kerrey, Obama ...
I wish there were an organization where former centrist legislators could go to contribute.
I wish there were an ongoing national road show of centrists to raise money and awareness.
I wish trans-ideological Centrist organizations with similar aims worked together: DLC, Republican Mainstreet Partnership, It's My Party Too, Dems for Joe, Unity 06, HotSoup ...
I wish I could read discussions of policy recommendations that reconcile differences (Like the Senate solution to illegal immigration)
I wish major business donors had a place to put their money that promoted pragmatic, incremental progress.
I wish Centrist blogs pooled together to focus and refine our voice.
I wish all the political talk shows included a centrist point of view as one of the voices.
I wish Centrists nurtured a reputation for inclusive, balanced process rather than specific solutions.
I wish Centrists focused on redistricting and campaign finance reform to set in motion a process that made our government more centrist.

Paul
Austin Centrist Blog

Tully;
I believe your repeated "open threads" have pulled this centrist blog too far to the right. Where are the left of center "open threads" ?

OK, let's drop politics for baseball. Everybody knows that pitching makes all the difference. But who would have thought that it was the pitchers' FIELDING that would turn the World Series this year? The mind boggles.

Re: Baseball. Just finished reading "Moneyball". I've been a lifelong baseball fan. This book was a revelation regarding "conventional wisdom" and what the stats really say about what wins games. A key point; there's no consistent measure of defense. Another key point: unlike the regular season, the playoffs are a "crap shoot"; meaning the better team is as likely to lose as the lesser team.

I believe your repeated "open threads" have pulled this centrist blog too far to the right. Where are the left of center "open threads"?

I just got off the phone with our investigators, and it seems that the leftist open threads have hooked up with our escaped comments down in Mexico and made their way to Nuevo Laredo. Decorum and blog rules won't let me say how they're using their time, but it's not pretty. Warnings have been issued to Border Patrol and Texas law enforcement to institute health quarantine procedures if and when they re-cross back into the country.....

We are bracing for the storm that dumped the snow in Colorado. It's supposed to be too warm here in northeastern Maine to get snow, but the western mountains are supposed to. But, we are supposed to get wind gusts up to 60 mph up here while downeast along the coast they are expecting 70 mph winds. Should make for a verrrry interesting night!

Right now our temps have warmed up to the mid-30s. LOL

My buddy Dave is in Detroit these days, and though he's a loyal Red Sox fan, he followed and enjoyed the Tigers run. Prior to the first game, he told me that the Tigers went through periods where they had trouble scoring runs, and that he thought it had a lot to do with how aggressive they are as batters. If guys are swinging at a lot of 1st and 2nd pitches, they're not giving borderline pitchers a chance to get themselves into trouble.

I agree. Patient teams like the Red Sox and Yankees have chunks of guys like Jeffs Suppan and Weaver in their stool. I won't for a second dismiss the point that the Sox and Yankees can afford more talented hitters, but I think it's still a superior approach to grind out every at-bat and get a good pitch to hit. When we played St. Louis in 2004, we had every Cardinal pitcher at 80 pitches around the 4th inning, and took them 4 straight.

Errors certainly did play a role in the 2006 series, and you do have to give some credit to the St. Louis guys who really pitched well, especially Reyes and Carpenter. But if you grind against those guys, you get them out after 6 innings, like the Yankees often did to Pedro. Working pitch counts, tiring starters and earning walks, that's the way to go. The Tigers had a much more talented pitching staff, and they went out meekly in 5 games to a pretty average Cardinals starting rotation.

Chris, if you liked moneyball, pick up Baseball Between the Numbers by the Baseball Prospectus team. I believe it was Bobby who recommended it to me. If you like baseball, you'll marvel at the richness and depth of the analysis. They even come up with a decent measure for defense.

Oregon beats USC.

oh yeah! Now can the Bears go all the way?

Yeah, it's been cold and drizzly here in Missouri too, but the Cards have made my outlook a lot sunnier (for the moment).*
Go Cards!

*Although their pitcher's in the doghouse as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, but they still won!

Go Bears,,,,,,(and Giants)

In another thread there was a discussion of whether we should leave Iraq. Part of the debate centers around who our enemies are.

this might help define the greater force behind today's Jihadism.

The above is not something Democrats chose to talk about this campaign season. In fact, discussion of terrorism and proliferation were quickly labeled "fear tactics" early this summer. Yes, Bush ignored the clear warnings of Clinton and now Bush is listening to warmongers. Isn't this the similar to the concept of "chaos" in Shakespeare?

One of my posts at SF just got Instalanched by Glenn Reynolds. being proud of that (and the post) I urge you to take a look.

Yeah, but they still won!

Hey, I never said I had anything against the rest of the team! ;-)

(Especially not David Eckstein; he's been added to my personal pantheon of Favorite People.)

Great post about the desegregation, BTW. I wish we had something like that in Columbia, which had its own confrontation at the Minute Inn, but we probably never will. Blew all our money on a hideous new library. *Sigh*.

Aw, heck. Just have to teach the kids tor ead so they can find out about on their own, eh? Just make sure the research gets done while the people who were there are still around. Aren't any of us getting younger, not even the young.

Well, I'm all in favor of teaching kids to read, of course, but that's kinda hard when your local public library looks like this.

Nothing like designing your library to look like a giant wasps' nest/spaceship to send small children (and the young at heart) screaming in terror. No, those two yellow things in the foreground aren't trees with autumn foilage; those are metal sculptures representing our new alien insect overlords. Return your books on time or they'll zap you with their giant rayguns.