August 4th, 1993. Bo Jackson takes part in the now infamous Nolan Ryan & Robin Ventura brawl between the Rangers & White Sox. I love this photo as this brawl was one of my favorite Baseball moments from my childhood. If you wanna watch a great video of the incident, click HERE. I believe that this is some of the best Baseball entertainment you can find and the fact that Ventura got thrown out while Nolan stayed in the game only adds icing to the cake.

Also, it’s amazing to watch this brawl and see all the guys in the heat of the battle that catch my eye besides Ryan and Ventura. I swear that a huge chunk of my childhood Baseball cards were on these teams: Mickey Hatcher, Bo Jackson, Frank Thomas, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Ozzie Guillen, Dean Palmer, Jack McDowell, Rafael Palmeiro, Ellis Burks, Wilson Alvarez, Kirk McCaskill, Tom Henke, Craig Lefferts, Lance Johnson, Alex Fernandez, Tim Raines, and Joey Cora. The list goes on as I know their are guys I am missing too.

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Corky Miller is awesome. Not long ago, I read an article that suggested if Crash Davis (Bull Durham) and Jake Taylor (Major League) were both molded into a real-life baseball player, it would be Corky Miller. I cant disagree with that statement whatsoever.

Here’s to you Corky Miller and your awesome facial hair, I wish you the best of luck in making the Reds team out of Spring Training in 2012. To check out a home run he hit earlier this week, click HERE.

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Ted Williams during the 1999 All-Star game at Fenway park. I can watch the footage of the All-Century team introduction over and over again without getting sick of it. It still gets to me when Ted Williams was circled by his peers which consisted of players from both the past and present.  It must have been been an honor to be greeted in such a fashion.

I don’t care what anyone says, Williams is without a doubt the greatest hitter of all-time.

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Jamie Moyer, 2012. The moment he officially makes the Rockies team (assuming he does), I am going to look into the dates that Colorado come to San Francisco to play the Giants. There is no way I am going to miss him pitch before he retires.

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Keith Hernandez smoking in the dugout during his years with the Mets. No real reason to share this besides the fact that I find it funny and kind of interesting.

On a related note, yesterday I picked up Keith’s book “Pure Baseball.” I recently watched his interview on “Talking Baseball with Ed Randall” which is currently on Netflix Instant. The majority of the interview is discussing the book and what went into writing it, very interesting stuff I must say. If you have Netflix, check out that interview. By the way, I scored the book for $2.50 at a Goodwill. Picking up cheap Baseball books will never not make my day.

Tuesday, March 29 – Global Brands Breweries Events @ The Pony Bar, Manhattan:

Global Brands is a fine distributor of many of our favorite craft breweries:  North Coast, Acme, Stoudts, Clipper City and Elysian.  They’ll be taking over the taps with a fine potpourri of their favorite brews from these distinguished breweries and will have to of their best reps on hand to answer all of your craft brew distribution questions.  So shuffle up to the Pony, order a brew from each brewery and find Dean Palmer and Susan Greene.  Maybe if you’re lucky and charismatic enough you’re pitch to get them to distribute your line of homebrews to the rest of New York City.  We all know how hard it is to get carried out in Queens.

The Pony Bar is located on the Northwest corner of 45th Street and 10th Avenue, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

Tuesday, March 29 – Barrier Brewery Event @ Bar Great Harry, Brooklyn:

Barrier Brewery represents the newest, youngest and one of the most creative breweries in New York State.  They will be bringing their “regular” (i.e. awesomely delicious) brews to Bar Great Harry out in Brooklyn.  In between the dominoe games and meat pies that BGH (their nickname, duh) is famous for, make sure you are aggressively sipping some Ruthless Rye IPA, Greenroom Pale Ale, Lights Out Stout, and Buffalo American Red.  Expect some rare and unique brews on top of those as well.

Bar Great Harry is located at 280 Smith Street between Degraw and Sackett Streets, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Tuesday, March 29 – $10 Tuesday Tastings – Spring Seasonals @ Jimmy’s No. 43, Manhattan:

Well Mother Nature, as you may have heard, I am currently at odds with you.  It’s mostly because I find you untrustworthy at the moment.  Maybe if you kept your word and gave us spring instead of tricking us with your warm weather and already-blossoming-flowers I’d be more accepting of you.  At the moment however, I’m more inclined to trust my spring feelings with Jimmy’s No. 43.  On Tuesday they’ll be embracing the season by giving you a selection of spring seasonals to taste and discuss for just $10.  What goes in to making a spring seasonal and do all spring seasonals have to look/taste alike?  You’d be surprised.  Head on over to Jimmy’s this Tuesday to embrace the side of spring that mother nature is determined to keep from us.  Maybe she’ll get jealous and throw some nice days our way.

Jimmy’s No. 43 is located at 43 East 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, East Village, Manhattan.

Wednesday, March 30 – Captain Lawrence Night @ The Blind Tiger Ale House, Manhattan:

We are proud of Captain Lawrence for making such a strong showing in the Beer Friends Final Four – Liquid Gold, welcome to the second round! You beat the refreshing hops of Sam Adams Noble Pils, but can you stand up to the aggressive herbal hops of Smuttynose IPA?  Either way, we enjoy your presence in the BFF4 and we love your beers.  Head to the Blind Tiger Ale House on Wednesday for the full range of Captain Lawrence brews.  They’ll be pouring Nor’Easter Winter Warmer, Golden Delicious, Five Years Later, Winter Rye, Espresso Stout, Rosso e Marrone, Xtra Gold, Captain’s Reserve Imperial IPA, Black & Brown Sour #1, Funky Sour Cherry  #2, “Chilli” Lambic 2008 and Spring Blend 2011.  Captain Scott Vaccaro will also be there to talk about all things Captain Lawrence and sailing the high seas of the Hudson.  If that’s not enough to entice you, every Wednesday at 6:00 the Blind Tiger lays out approximately 4 lbs. of cheese from Murray’s Cheese Shop for you to nibble at liberally.  Includes baguettes.

The Blind Tiger Ale House is located at 281 Bleecker Street between Jones Street and 6th Avenue, West Village, Manhattan.

Wednesday, March 30 – Big Beer Night with Lagunitas @ The Stag’s Head, Manhattan:

What do we love?  Big beer.  Who do we love that brews them? Lagunitas.  We’re talking the excellent recipes of the biggest brews that Lagunitas has to offer.  We’re talking Fusion Five, Lil’ Sumpin Wild, Brown Sugga and Hairy Eyeball.  We’re talking free tostada’s to fill your belly alongside hops and higher ABV.  We’re talking Stag’s Head on Wednesday.  We’re talki….stop your talking.  Start eating and drinking.  Get big.

The Stag’s Head is located at 252 East 51st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, Upper East Side, Manhattan.

Thursday, March 31 – Thornbridge Brewery Night @ Bierkraft, Brooklyn:

Thornbridge huh?  Where are they from?  Never heard of em’?  They don’t sound the usual American craft brewery.  That’s ’cause they’re not.  Thornbridge hails from the UK and they will be joining us at Bierkraft with some of their finest brews straight from Auld England.  This won’t be the usual Thursday Night Tap Takeover that we’re used to at Bierkraft however.  CEO Jim Harrison will be on hand and will be giving a lecture to help guide you along the Thornbridge brew selection.  They will be pouring several brews on draft and cask as well as a few straight from the rare bottle selection.  Enjoy meeting Jaipur IPA, Kipling IPA and Petersburg Stout.

Bierkraft is located at 191 5th Avenue between Union and Sackett Streets, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Thursday, March 31 – Speakeasy Brewery Night @ Dive 75, Manhattan:

I hear they already have spring out in San Fransisco.  What a glorious life people must lead out there…  That’s probably the brews from Speakeasy taste so delicious.  Some of your favorite brews from San Fransisco – White Lightening, Big Daddy IPA, Prohibition Ale and the Double Daddy Imperial IPA – will be pouring at Dive 75 this Thursday.  The best part?  While you’re drinking one of Speakeasy’s Brews you can close your eyes and it will actually feel like you are drinking it in Golden Gate Park wearing nothing but a t-shirt, shorts and sandals in 80 degree weather.  Eat that mother nature.

Dive 75 is located at 101 West 75th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, Upper West Side, Manhattan.

Some of the positions on the Rangers Non-Stars team were hard to fill because, believe it or not, the Rangers/Senators have had a history of exceptional players at those positions. Specifically, a lot of years in team history were filled with Pudge Rodriguez and Jim Sundberg behind the plate. Buddy Bell, Bill Madlock and Dean Palmer spent quite a few years on the hot corner. And recent Rangers history has seen quite a bit of quality at first base with Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark and Mark Texeira.

When you get to the outfield, it becomes a lot easier to pick among the Non-Stars. For every Juan Gonzalez there were dozens of Oddibe McDowells. We once had Ruben Sierra but countered with more Pete Incaviglias and yes, even Tom Grieves, to mention.

So it is with pride that we hand out the first outfield slot on the Non-Stars team to George Wright.

Huh?

Exactly. Diehard fan as I’ve been for 40 years, George Wright barely made a blip on my radar when I think of all the years I’ve rooted for the Rangers. Yet Wright not only played for the Rangers, he was a starter for two years and one of the main guys off the bench for three more. Still, if I were to come face to face with him tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t know who he was.

George Wright was drafted out of high school by the Rangers in the 4th round of the 1977 draft. Hailing from Oklahome City, Wright wound his way through the minors from ’77 to ’81. Following his 1981 campaign at AA Tulsa, where he hit .260 with 11 HR, 58 RBI and 22 steals, the Rangers felt he was ready for the big time.

Wright mostly manned center field in his rookie year, when he played in 150 games and came to bat 599 times, mostly as the lead-off man in the Rangers order. So he must have walked a lot, right? Nope, only 30 walks. Stolen bases? Guess again. He was caught stealing on 7 of 10 attempts. Scored a lot of runs? Wrong again. He only had 69 for the year. And he batted a merely mortal .264 with a .305 On-Base Percentage. No wonder the Rangers were a dismal 64-98 under managers Don Zimmer and Darrel Johnson.

As if to prove 1982 wasn’t a fluke (!), Wright played in all 162 games for the Rangers in 1983, all but two as the starting center fielder. New manager Doug Rader decided maybe lead-off wasn’t the best place in the batting order for George, so he rotated between 3rd and 8th in the order throughout the year. Actually, Wright’s sophomore year wasn’t half-bad for the Rangers. He improved his average to .276, with 18 HR and 80 RBI and was feared enough to have even garnered nine intentional walks. In fact, Wright finished 24th in the AL MVP voting. 

In 1984, Wright had a hard time living up to the new expectations from his earlier success. He got off to a horrible start in ’84, bottoming out at a low .185 average by the end of May. In mid-June he was sent back down to Oklahoma City for a month to find his stroke again. When he returned to the club in July, the Rangers saw a vastly better hitter. Wright brought his average up from .203 on June 9th to an end of season .243, while dividing his time equally between center field and right field.

1985 was a mirror image of 1984, except it was even worse. This time, Wright was hitting a feeble .175 at the end of May when he was once again returned to Oklahoma City for some seasoning. This time, he was gone for a quarter of the season and was still only hitting .254 in the minors when the Rangers called him back up. This time, Wright didn’t really recover, ending the season with a paltry .190 average. The power he had shown just two seasons earlier had also vanished. Now he hit only two home runs for the Rangers compared to the 18 of 1983.

You would think by now the Rangers would have someone new in their sights for the outfield (true), but Wright still managed to stick with the Rangers one more year. Now he was strictly a utility player. While he managed to appear in 105 games, over a third of those appearances were just as a pinch hitter and he started only 45 times in the outfield, replaced as a fulltime starter by the incomparable Oddibe McDowell (at least everybody hoped he’d be incomparable at the time). In his final full year, Wright hit .202 for the Rangers.

Still managing to hold a big league job, Wright once again stuck with the Rangers to start the ’86 season, but only played in 49 games for Bobby Valentine before being shipped mid-season to the Montreal Expos, where he played the final 56 games of his major league career. After being without a job in 1988, Wright bopped around in the minors from 1989-1991 in the Giants, White Sox and Royals farm systems before calling it a career.

Wright’s career line in five seasons with Texas: .248 BA, 42 HR, 203 RBI 

Matt Walbeck: Being the backup catcher on the crappiest team in franchise history was enough for Walbeck to see the light and retire at age 33 following a season where he went .174 from the plate and caught 24% of runners stealing in 59 games. The Tigers offered him the manager position at Low A West Michigan in 2004 and all he did was win the league title in his inaugural season. He followed with another league title in 2006 and was promoted to AA Erie for the ’07 campaign. After being named Eastern League manager of the year and Baseball America’s Minor League Manager of the Year the Texas Rangers gave him a shot to be third base coach in 2008. Obviously he didn’t impress because he was fired after only one year of service. He landed back on his feet, being hired as manager by Pittsburgh AA affiliate Altoona this season leading them to a  45-65 record, good enough for last in the division. Would you expect anything less from a Pirates team?

Andres Torres: The centerfielder played in 59 games in ’03 and managed to squeak out just 1 HR and 9 RBIs while hitting .220. Torres spent the majority of the next 5 seasons in the minors, playing just 11 games in the majors over that time. After playing in three other teams’ systems and a return trip to the Tigers, he has found a home in San Francisco. Despite time in Rookie ball and AAA this season most of his time has been with the Giants. He has played in 53 games hitting .247 with 2 HRs and 13 RBIs. This officially counts as a 2003 success story.

Ben Petrick: Petrick came over in a July trade that sent Adam Bernero to the Rockies. It’s like trading crap for crap. He spent 43 games with the Tigers and hit .225 with 4 HRs and 12 RBI. He played three games with Toledo before being released. After 24 games with San Diego’s AAA Portland team the same season he retired at 27. He cited Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2000, as the primary reason for his retirement. I was going to make a joke here but decided to get as far away from this as possible. Let’s move on.

Gene Kingsale: Like many of his brethren, Kingsale’s 2003 season was his last in Major League Baseball. There was a good reason it was his last, he hit .208 with 8 RBI in 39 games with the Tigers. It wasn’t the last we saw of him however. He accomplished the rare minor league trifecta of playing in A, AA and AAA in the same season in 2004 in two different systems (Baltimore and San Diego). He spent ’05 in Baltimore’s system before taking off 2006. In 2007, like many below average MLB players, he moved across the Ocean to play. No he didn’t go to Japan or even China. He went to…wait for it…the Dutch Major Leagues. That’s right the Netherlands. After playing for Almere and hitting .140 he moved to the powerhouse of the league, Neptunus. He hit .326 for them in 2008 and lead them to 3rd place in the league. Now here is where it gets a little crazy. In the 2009 World Baseball Classic he played for the Netherlands, which is strange because he is originally from Aruba. Not only that but he drove in the game tying run and scored the game winning run in the Netherlands’ 2-1 upset over the steroid laden Dominican Republic. This has to count as another success story right?

A.J. Hinch: The third string catcher on that team, Hinch played in 27 games hitting .203 with 11 RBIs in the midst of catching a staggering 12% of batters. Not feeling confident with his abilites (can you blame him?) he went to the 2003 winter meanings looking for a job in the front office. After playing with Philadelphia’s AAA team for two years more years Hinch retired and got his wish as he was promptly hired as the manager of minor league operations for the Diamondbacks. In 2006 he was promoted to director of player development for Arizona. He took over the managerial position on May 8, 2009. They have gone 23-45 under his tutelage. Still a better record than the 2003 Tigers.

Dean Palmer: Playing in just 26 games for the Tigers, primarily as a DH, Palmer rivaled David Ortiz for the most feared hitter in the game that season. Wait, no he didn’t. He hit .140 that season and averaged over a strikeout a game. Palmer retired after the season, tried to comeback in 2005 and got cut so he retired again. This time it was for good. He is currently the hitting coach for Tallahassee Community College. You mean to tell me that someone who played 14 seasons in the majors couldn’t even get a head coaching job at a community college? Wow, the economy really is bad.

Danny Klassen: Keeping with the trend of most of these Tigers, 2003 was the last time Danny Klassen even thought about playing in the major leagues. After playing with Toledo in 2004 he signed with the Cubs but was traded to Houston before even playing a game in the Cubs’ system. He spent 2005 with Houston’s AAA team in Round Rock and then lost the 2006 season to injury and/or being absolutely terrible. 2007 and 2008 was spent in Round Rock as well but Houston decided they didn’t need his .219 average and let him walk. Technically he is still a free agent but let’s be honest no one is going to sign him.

Craig Paquette: For some reason Craig Paquette sticks in my mind. Why that is the case is beyond me. It wasn’t his .152 average in 11 games. It definately wasn’t his o-fer in HRs and RBIs that year either. Maybe it was his mysteriousness. He did fall off of the face of the earth after 2003 year, only to return to baseball by way of Camden in the Atlantic League where he hit .229 in 106 games. He has since disappeared once again. Craig, I know your reading. Tell us what you’re up to, I would really appreciate it.

Hiram Bocachica: Here he is. The man I promised you would blow your mind. He played just six games and hit .045 (1 for 22) that season but that doesn’t matter. He journey after that is more fascinating than Fu-Te Ni. After playing a full season with Seattle in 2004 he bounced between the minors and Oakland for 2 1/2 more years (a major chunk of that was in AAA). He was claimed of waivers by the Padres and spent time relatively evenly between San Diego and AAA Portland. After that season, he split to play for the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan. He only led the team to the 2008 league title in his first season, belting a home run in the seventh game of the  Japan Series, no big deal. He is Hiram Bocachica after all. Around the same time he became a national hero in Japan, he created his fantastic website. Now it looks like he spent about five minutes on it but that is not the point. It’s complete with pictures, his blog and his very own fan club. A fan club! It even consists of people outside of his immediate family. Mark Abbott is the founder and president of the fan club. I don’t know if I should shake my head at him or stand up and applauded. UPDATE: I’m applauding. Boca (as he is known in his fan club) also made Puerto Rico’s WBC roster. He went 2-for-5 in the tournament. He has played in 54 games this season with Seibu and is hitting .239 with 12 HRs and 28 RBIs.

Hiram Bocachica, national hero, all around good guy. Photo by Mark Abbott - August 16, 2008

Cody Ross: It doesn’t matter what has happened to Cody Ross is not going to live up to the legend of Bocachica. Ross, who hit .215 in just 6 games in 2003, has done what Bocachica could not do. Keep a spot in the big leagues. After ’03 he went to the Dodgers and then to the Reds. He was purchased from the Reds by the Marlins in 2006 where he has developed into the everyday centerfielder. In 102 games already this season has put up respectable numbers: .260 BA, 18 HRs and 58 RBIs. Maybe he should have played a little more in ’03.

Ernie Young: To end the four part series I leave you the with the anticlimactic Ernie Young. Young played just 5 games with 2003 as a DH. He hit .182 (2 for 11) and the Tiger’s let him walk after the season. The three games he played for Cleveland the following year were in his last in the majors but he played 3 more crappy seasons in AAA starting in Cleveland’s and ending in the White Sox organization with a .214 batting average. The season after his retirement he became the hitting coach with Chicago’s rookie ball team. He was promoted to manager for the A ball Kannapolis Intimidators (can you get an more transparent name, how about the North Carolina Mean People?) this season where he has them atop the division at 23-15.

With that it ends. Simultaneously the most productive and worthless thing I have ever written is over and what did we learn? Japan loves Hiram Bocachica, bench players are the most interesting players, backup catchers are the best coaches and the 2003 team is worse when you go back and look at the miserable players that were put together. Thank you, good night.

–With my interest in the Tampa Bay Rays now rivaling even the most exciting Expos seasons ever, I’ve found myself becoming more and more immersed in the team’s roster of blogs. Fortunately, the Rays have some good sites on the case. I’ve recently tossed RaysIndex and RaysDigest onto the short list of sites on my Google Reader. The one Rays blog I’ve been reading longest is DRays Bay, run by friend of the site Tommy Rancel. Rancel, R.J. Anderson (also a contributor to the excellent FanGraphs site), Erik Hahmann and company provide an excellent mix of Rays news and numbers-driven analysis that’s well worth reading, even for non-Rays fans.

One of my favorite recent DRays Bay posts is Hahmann’s look at the birthdates of some of the team’s top players, through the prism of Malcolm Gladwell’s date-of-birth analysis in his new book, “Outliers”. I have few immutable rules in life, but this is one of them: Any time you can combine the terrific work of my fellow Canuck Mr. Gladwell with David Price analysis, you’re going to get linked.

–Speaking of FanGraphs, I’ve really enjoyed the recent work done there by Dave Cameron, Tom Tango and others. The Wins Above Replacement stats they include on the site, when combined with payroll data, offers a quick and easy way to settle debates on player value. FanGraphs is now on my go-to list for research, along with Baseball-Reference, BaseballProspectus and a handful of other sites. Cameron’s work in particular is always a good read. Check out his latest on Neifi Perez, a seemingly low-cost signing that actually rivals Andruw Jones in terms of sheer suckitude.

–This MLBTradeRumors post from the tireless Tim Dierkes continues the theme of examining player value, by looking at the biggest free-agent bargains and busts of 2008. It’s pretty safe to say that Three True Outcomes overlord Russell Branyan will make the Bargains list again in 2009, by the way.

–I’ve heard all kinds of wildly different opinions on the work of my (sort of) Page 2 colleague Gregg Easterbrook. I give him mixed reviews myself. But one area in which he’s always spot on is his harsh criticism of football coaches who are obsessed with managing risk and avoiding getting second-guessed (and by extension saving their own butts) that they punt in almost any game situation. They do this despite a mountain of compelling statistical evidence that suggests that punting is very often a bad idea–much the same way bunting with a non-pitcher in a major league baseball game is almost always a bad idea. Kudos then to this Pulaski (Arkansas) Academy, a high school football team that NEVER punts. PS: Pulaski won the state title (h/t Rob).

–Uh-oh. Looks like the saber-rattling between India and Pakistan is getting worse by the day. I can only hope this is just posturing and not something more. We’ve already seen terrorists play rope-a-dope with foreign powers before, prompting the U.S. to not only hunt down al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan, but to wage a completely pointless, deadly and brutally expensive war in Iraq–thereby building support for global terrorism more than any unaided propaganda efforts ever could. If Indian leaders and citizens let themselves scapegoat the entire Pakistani nation over the Mumbai attacks waged by a small group of wackadoos, and if Pakistan responds in kind by escalating the simmering conflict with its neighbor, both nations will have fallen into the same trap.

Not to oversimplify centuries of regional strife and complicated global attitudes toward terrorism but…dudes, stop being so stupid.

–Liked this Slate piece on media stars who snub TV invites, and the reasons for their snubbery. In some cases I agree with this stance. If you want to stage a true protest against the small-minded or even dangerous views of a certain individual or group (“…doctors’ organizations will often refuse to appear with paranoiacs who say vaccinations cause autism”), I can understand that. But people who reject media invites because they think they’re too big to debate an issue with someone below their perceived stature are just asking to be hated–both by media outlets that will stop inviting them, thus lowering their fame, wealth and power, and viewers who see them as snobs whose ideas will soon fade into irrelevance.

Not that I’ve ever had to deal with this issue. When ESPNews or other TV outlets invite me on to talk with other guests, it’s pretty much a given that I’m going to be the low man on the totem pole. So if anything, I’m grateful to my colleagues for not refusing to share the stage with that loopy dude in the bottom right corner of the Quad Box, the one who finds excuses to slip Nelson Santovenia references into every second sentence.

–Nate Silver points to changes in the Change.gov Web site, with President-elect Obama apparently stepping up his office’s efforts to reach out to the gay community, especially after all the backlash that resulted from his inviting gay-bashing megachurch leader Rick Warren to preside at his inauguration. Nate notes that this is a stark departure from Obama’s previously stated views, when he never even mentioned the word “gay” on the Civil Rights section of the BarackObama.com site during the election. As the fivethirtyeight.com post explains:

What to make of the difference? On the one hand, this would seem to demonstrate Obama’s (over)sensitivity to the politics embedded in gay rights issues. A waffling, now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t attitude toward gay rights is exactly what many in the community fear from the administration. On the other hand, one can argue that Obama is moving in the right direction, now willing to make a more explicit and comprehensive series of commitments to the gay community than he was while in campaign mode.

I believe it’s the latter. Obama’s won the election, and now he’s using his mandate to make sorely needed moves in many areas, repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and other anti-gay discriminatory practices being just one of them.

I’m hoping we see this more aggressive style of governance spill over to many other subjects too. I’ve vented about Obama’s caving on FISA during the election, worrying that he might be just another politician able to go only so far with his convictions before yielding to political pressure. Obama’s shift on gay rights issues makes me hopeful that he’ll follow through elsewhere too, warrantless wiretapping being one of those domains.

–I hate romantic comedies. They’re completely vapid and pointless, and offend me as a consumer of entertainment. Believe me when I say that I thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster every day that I have a wife who shares that healthy contempt for these supposed “chick flicks” that no self-respecting chick should ever want to watch. With that said, if we need romantic comedies in our lives to inspire awesome McSweeney’s posts like this one…I think I might go along with them anyway.

–I admit it. I occasionally talk during movies. Only in whispers, and mostly when really wound up, like when I’m getting my Megatron geek on. After reading this unbelievable story, though, I think I can safely say that I will never utter a peep in a movie theater again (h/t Rob, again).

–Finally, Keith Law’s entertaining blog The Dish passes along this jaw-dropping college football recruiting tale from The New York Times. My attitude toward the shenanigans that ensue in these recruiting battles falls roughly into the category of “Meh.” Everyone knows this stuff is happening, and I’ve seen “Blue Chips” a dozen times. Still, you have to pause for a second after reading Jamarkus MacFarland’s account of a Dallas-area party held in an attempt to woo the star defensive lineman to the University of Texas:

Alcohol was all you can drink, money was not an option. Girls were acting wild by taking off their tops, and pulling down their pants. Girls were also romancing each other. Some guys loved every minute of the freakiness some girls demonstrated. I have never attended a party of this magnitude.

The attitude of the people at the party was that everyone should drink or not come to the party. Drugs were prevalent with no price attached.

This never really came up when my buddy Elan and I cracked the starting five at Marianopolis College. The halftime orange wedges were excellent, though.