Double bad news for Oakland fans, murder, an unsurprising but appalling lack of journalistic ethics, NIMBYs, robot sports writing, and social media, 1907-style.
I only listened to/watched a few A's games, but Fosse was always great as part of one of the better broadcast teams. (The Bay Area has it good that way.) And because I knew him as a voice of the A's, my brain somehow compartmentalized and forgot he was THAT Ray Fosse. The Ray Fosse in that famous photo, the one whose career was almost ruined because Pete Rose treated an exhibition game like the World Series. Brains are weird. Anyway, RIP Ray.
Cancer sucks. RIP Ray Fosse and fight like hell, David Hess.
But can we talk about “majorly”? It’s a word that will soon be in the dictionary if it isn’t already, I guess, but where did it come from? TV? Movies? Somewhere else? I am a huge fan of slang and catchphrases, but this just feels like an error that is coming into general use solely through repetition.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go yell at these clouds.
Maybe it’s true that AI is chasing you, Craig. I read a few years ago of a service introduced in the UK that automatically supplied defenses to parking and traffic citations. Is criminal defense more amenable to robots than sports reporting? Will we need physicians, if one can tell a robot one’s symptoms and simply wait for the machine to spit out a diagnosis & treatment plan? Which method will be more accurate?
I always liked Star Trek and go all the way back to the OG series.
So I am very proud of William Shatner doing an extended ad for Jeff Bezos, who really needs the hype, by shooting off in a rocket and then doing spots on morning shows during which he talks about "saving the planet." The money and jet fueled burned in these efforts don't trigger me at all.
Old newspapers are great, and I hope that something of 2021 will be preserved for residents of 2121 to spend their time on.
My favourite offseason baseball activity is reading very old SABR biographies (free on the web). The same themes keep coming up..."after his career ended, he ran a saloon. He spent a short time in prison after the death of a man whose wife he was seeing."
Here's one- Lee Richmond. He pitched the first perfect game in 1880. More significantly, he spent his college summers playing professional baseball. This annoyed Yale so much that they basically invented the NCAA. He didn't run a saloon, but he became a high school teacher in Ohio, where he taught Addie Joss' son and told him “Your father pitched a perfect game. Well, so did I. It doesn’t mean anything around here and it isn’t going to help you with your geometry.”
That's Addie Joss, who died at 31 and was elected to the Hall of Fame without meeting the usual 10-season requirement...I could do this all day.
How did the social news reporting happen back then? Did the person going out of town or coming into town contact them newspapers? Or did the host having the party that was being attended by out of town guest call up a reporter? I don’t suppose reporters would hang around train stations and inquire about the purpose of incoming passengers visit to their fair town, but maybe?
Fodder for future newsletters: I am not devious enough to think about this, but the current MLB has had no issues messing around with the rules of the game for "speedier" outcomes. As gambling continues to rise in baseball, what types of rule changes could MLB make to ensure a more gambling friendly sporting product? I can't think of any myself, but I am sure Craig could spend 1500 words on all the ways MLB could make that happen. Such fun times we live in!
I was born in a small, Illinois town in 1973. My birthday's events were in the newspaper for the first several years of my life, descriptions of the Raggedy Ann or Holly Hobbie cake and napkins and guest list included. Same with all my Letters to Santa. I prefer to believe it has my kids believing I was kind of a big deal, when they probably think I'm just old.
I got a subscription to newspapers.com about a year ago for a work matter, and pretty soon I was stuck going down rabbit holes every day. It's an amazingly awesome site. I got into things like reading about local history from 150 years ago, which is fascinating. But the most fascinating thing was one day I got the bright idea to read about how New Jersey papers addressed DW Griffith's "Birth of a Nation", and that led me to find out how newspapers in New Jersey talked about Black people at the time. It is unbelievable -- not in a good way. Like in a really really bad way. Kids should be required to read that stuff and understand that this notion that we're taught about the northeast not being racist like our brothers and sisters in the south is utter nonsense.
Thanks for sharing the Ray Fosse news. Another player from my teen years passes. Glad to still be kickin' but this is another reminder of my advancing years. NIMBYism bit was spot on.
What will Delaware County do if Amazon wants to build a warehouse? They cover the parking lot with solar panels. They do all the other odious things local councilmen love though.
I live in an old part of town. A while back a guy knocked on the door and had a newspaper page from a long-defunct paper with a little blurb about how the Saturday Evening Supper Society had their monthly dinner at my house. Once she realized that we could own this newspaper, my wife could not go find her wallet fast enough. Women be shoppin'. Amirite, fellas? But seriously it is pretty cool. It is framed and on the wall.
I only listened to/watched a few A's games, but Fosse was always great as part of one of the better broadcast teams. (The Bay Area has it good that way.) And because I knew him as a voice of the A's, my brain somehow compartmentalized and forgot he was THAT Ray Fosse. The Ray Fosse in that famous photo, the one whose career was almost ruined because Pete Rose treated an exhibition game like the World Series. Brains are weird. Anyway, RIP Ray.
I wonder how many irate letters to the editor that old newspaper got after failing to capitalize the T in “the O.S.U.”
"Earl ... has been attending the O.S.U."
And here I thought referring to it as "*The* Ohio State University" was of relatively recent vintage.
Cancer sucks. RIP Ray Fosse and fight like hell, David Hess.
But can we talk about “majorly”? It’s a word that will soon be in the dictionary if it isn’t already, I guess, but where did it come from? TV? Movies? Somewhere else? I am a huge fan of slang and catchphrases, but this just feels like an error that is coming into general use solely through repetition.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go yell at these clouds.
Maybe it’s true that AI is chasing you, Craig. I read a few years ago of a service introduced in the UK that automatically supplied defenses to parking and traffic citations. Is criminal defense more amenable to robots than sports reporting? Will we need physicians, if one can tell a robot one’s symptoms and simply wait for the machine to spit out a diagnosis & treatment plan? Which method will be more accurate?
I always liked Star Trek and go all the way back to the OG series.
So I am very proud of William Shatner doing an extended ad for Jeff Bezos, who really needs the hype, by shooting off in a rocket and then doing spots on morning shows during which he talks about "saving the planet." The money and jet fueled burned in these efforts don't trigger me at all.
Old newspapers are great, and I hope that something of 2021 will be preserved for residents of 2121 to spend their time on.
My favourite offseason baseball activity is reading very old SABR biographies (free on the web). The same themes keep coming up..."after his career ended, he ran a saloon. He spent a short time in prison after the death of a man whose wife he was seeing."
Here's one- Lee Richmond. He pitched the first perfect game in 1880. More significantly, he spent his college summers playing professional baseball. This annoyed Yale so much that they basically invented the NCAA. He didn't run a saloon, but he became a high school teacher in Ohio, where he taught Addie Joss' son and told him “Your father pitched a perfect game. Well, so did I. It doesn’t mean anything around here and it isn’t going to help you with your geometry.”
That's Addie Joss, who died at 31 and was elected to the Hall of Fame without meeting the usual 10-season requirement...I could do this all day.
How did the social news reporting happen back then? Did the person going out of town or coming into town contact them newspapers? Or did the host having the party that was being attended by out of town guest call up a reporter? I don’t suppose reporters would hang around train stations and inquire about the purpose of incoming passengers visit to their fair town, but maybe?
Fodder for future newsletters: I am not devious enough to think about this, but the current MLB has had no issues messing around with the rules of the game for "speedier" outcomes. As gambling continues to rise in baseball, what types of rule changes could MLB make to ensure a more gambling friendly sporting product? I can't think of any myself, but I am sure Craig could spend 1500 words on all the ways MLB could make that happen. Such fun times we live in!
I say with as much ardor as I can summon on a rainy Chicago morning: Fuck Pete Rose.
I was born in a small, Illinois town in 1973. My birthday's events were in the newspaper for the first several years of my life, descriptions of the Raggedy Ann or Holly Hobbie cake and napkins and guest list included. Same with all my Letters to Santa. I prefer to believe it has my kids believing I was kind of a big deal, when they probably think I'm just old.
I got a subscription to newspapers.com about a year ago for a work matter, and pretty soon I was stuck going down rabbit holes every day. It's an amazingly awesome site. I got into things like reading about local history from 150 years ago, which is fascinating. But the most fascinating thing was one day I got the bright idea to read about how New Jersey papers addressed DW Griffith's "Birth of a Nation", and that led me to find out how newspapers in New Jersey talked about Black people at the time. It is unbelievable -- not in a good way. Like in a really really bad way. Kids should be required to read that stuff and understand that this notion that we're taught about the northeast not being racist like our brothers and sisters in the south is utter nonsense.
Had to click on the “extraordinarily ethically compromised people” link just to be sure…
Thanks for sharing the Ray Fosse news. Another player from my teen years passes. Glad to still be kickin' but this is another reminder of my advancing years. NIMBYism bit was spot on.
What will Delaware County do if Amazon wants to build a warehouse? They cover the parking lot with solar panels. They do all the other odious things local councilmen love though.
I live in an old part of town. A while back a guy knocked on the door and had a newspaper page from a long-defunct paper with a little blurb about how the Saturday Evening Supper Society had their monthly dinner at my house. Once she realized that we could own this newspaper, my wife could not go find her wallet fast enough. Women be shoppin'. Amirite, fellas? But seriously it is pretty cool. It is framed and on the wall.