Hey, I love being wrong ... Go A's!
by McP on Jul 29, 2007 3:19 PM PDT
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PrintThe A's are putting up a fight in Seattle, after falling behind 6-0 early.
It's now 7-5, Mariners, and the A's have the bases loaded with one out. One of their few good hitters is at the plate. This could be HUGE for the A's psyche ... Come on, Swisher!
This is what I like to see: fire. Something that says "We still want to win," whether in the form of a great effort from a middle reliever or with some clutch hitting by some veterans.
Fire. That's all I ask, Mr. Beane. Ship out the guys who have no fire; bring back the Eric Byrnes-types who drive a team to its best results. Even with minimal talent, the A's can still play above their heads. Maybe it is time for Dan Johnson to go; maybe it is time for some rookies to play more.
Just never quit, A's.
Don't.
Ever.
Quit.
I have no problem with being wrong; I just want to see some effort.
[As I type this, Swisher comes through with a bases-clearing double. See? My little clubhouse speech worked ...]
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I agree. . .seems like the guys with passion
get shipped out. I want glass-half-full, let's go type players even if they occasionally do silly stuff (aka Byrnes). At least they have a pulse. I love Chavey's defense but I sometimes get the feeling he would prefer to not be on the field. I do not want a red-ass type guy but I want some demonstration of competetive fire.
Maybe I should post a new diary about it
This would be better off as a game thread comment
you should have your diary posting privileges
revoked.
go away
At least McP is enthusiastic
I don’t know what is more boring this seasons A's offence or AN. It seems all the interesting people don't post here anymore or were chased off. BBG and Blez aren't posting as much anymore along with many others. The only one thing McP can do a bit better is post in the comments or dld as some of the things he writes diaries about is covered in other threads. AN used to be a much friendlier place. The way some people are talking to McP in previous threads and this one is disgusting.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 5:45 PM PDT reply actions
Tips on writing good diaries:
Some of the qualities that the most popular diaries often have in common are:
* They expand upon the main idea with supporting examples, or statistical data, or a link to a relevant article, or a "thinking question" for others to consider, etc.--something beyond just the main idea itself.
* They explore a topic, idea, or question that has not been explored recently, or at all, on AN.
Keep in mind that if your diary contains only one point or idea that is not developed, expanded on, or supported with arguments or data, it is really not a diary--it is a comment that should be posted in an existing thread or diary.
Yes agree 100%
Just why don't people tell McP that in a nice, friendly, giving advice manner, instead of being rude as hell? That’s my beef. Manners and kindness cost nothing.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 6:10 PM PDT up reply actions
We did say that in a courteous manner
About 5 diaries ago.
Patience is a virtue
I'm running out of clichés here ;-) Been reading McP diaries missed that I guess. What I haven't missed is the rude comments since. They're uncalled for in my opinion. Come on people AN needs to try and live down the rude and obnoxious American stereotype that prevails so extensively in the rest of the world. (Unfortunately AN proves it correct in too many circumstances)
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 6:42 PM PDT up reply actions
There are rude and obnoxious people...
...in all parts of the world, just as there are polite and courteous ones as well.
There is no stereotype to apply here.
Of course there is
Who's really been courteous and kind in this thread to McP? I think your comment was curt at best and not constructive at all. Reading non USA based blogs and non-english language blogs everyday, I can honestly say AN "at times" has a rude and harsh tone that U.K. and French and European blogs just hardly ever have when it is adults talking. Sports, politics or whatever the topic is. It’s just an observation of mine.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:02 PM PDT up reply actions
Fine
I'll be courteous and kind to McP.
McP!
You're no oaktoon.
Everyone happy now?
QOTM
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 7:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Good
because he hasn't come close to anything oaktoon said or did. That's exactly why I have chosen to defend him because it seems people are starting to jump on him like he is oaktoon. Yeah he can improve in the way he posts but let’s not chase off a enthusiastic, passionate A's fan,okay!
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Funny thing is
Oaktoon is still a legend around here. I didn't think ALL of his diaries were bad, he had good points from time to time. He sure didn't believe in the idea of moderation though....
You gotta admit though
Flip-flopping diaries was a step in the toon-ish direction.
"You're no oaktoon" made me laugh. I wasn't
considering it as being rude to McP. Sorry for that one. I have been on that end of a grover post and took it with a grain of salt.
As long as your offended... I will say that I don't care for the "American stereotype" part of your post. I love my country and most from the outside don't know a thing about individual citizens. There isn't a whole lot that most of us can do to change hearts and minds. We don't hold the power to do so.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 7:27 PM PDT up reply actions
The America part has
nothing to do with politics, geography or culture. It has everything to do with behaviour and manners. It's very easy to be nice, kind, formal and considerate in others words being a lady or gentleman.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:33 PM PDT up reply actions
lmao
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 8:00 PM PDT up reply actions
oaktoon had a higher
interesting diary percentage than this dude (and i bashed oaktoon on a daily basis).
oaktoon
actually, he is. see #1.
Either you're overly sensitive
or I'm mellowing with age.
This guy has come nowhere near the inane depths once frequented by our former associate.
Let me see if I get you.
"This would be better off as a game thread comment" is curt at best and not constructive at all?
It seems to me you're actively looking for what you perceive as rudeness just so you can call it out in an attempt to make your point that we're all just obnoxious Americans. If that's the case, just let me know.
I'm not really interested in carrying on with this train of thought any further, so if that means you win (or something like that) go right ahead and claim victory.
Sheesh
I just want people to be more civil to one another.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:20 PM PDT up reply actions
P.S.
I was born in Berkeley, California with English and Normandy blood. Like they say there is no better way of seeing your country for what it is than from far away.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:27 PM PDT up reply actions
I just think you're baiting in your attempts...
...to stick up for McP. That's how the whole stereotype thing is coming off as to me.
That's all.
You think too much off me
I just tire of people not being kind to there fellow man, that's all. But the USA does take rudeness to another level. Leave the country for a year and you'll see exactly what I am talking about.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:39 PM PDT up reply actions
Actually, my brother spent 4 years
in England. Your fellow Londoners have a thing or two to teach about rudeness. He coudln't get petrol at one station merely because he went in to ask for directions and the owner could tell from his accent he was American. There is rudeness all over the planet. Don't restrict it just to American, and don't try and pretend that France, the UK and other European countries are the bastions of kindness. Paris is known for its rudeness.
by IndianaAsfan on Jul 30, 2007 8:20 AM PDT up reply actions
I've lived in other countries
The biggest differences I see are a sense of entitlement (which actually exist in other forms in the other countries), and a general lack of cordiality. Then again, a lot of that depends on the area that you visit. In the southern states, strangers will often greet you on the streets or in a store. Not so much in California-- though there seems to be more friendliness in northern California than in southern, perhaps due to the blue-colarness. In Sacramento, for example, you can stop just about anybody and ask them if they know the score of the Kings' game.
France is famous for rudeness, though a lot of the hostility towards Americans has been attributed to the American tourist's general unwillingness to try to communicate in French.
Where am I going with this? Eh, who knows...
lol
When we visited France, we made every effort to communicate in French. The response from the locals was usually a sneer and a response in English. SSS, but I got the feeling they would rather we speak English than butcher their language with good intentions. Spain was the opposite; our broken Spanish was greeted with enthusiastic efforts to help us along.
I find the thought that Americans are more rude than their international compatriots hilarious. In my experience, that's simply not true. I do find that small towns and communities - whether in the Netherlands or Tennessee - tend to be friendlier than big cities, but also less accepting of differing cultures and lifestyles.
When I was in Paris several years ago,
I stepped into a tourist information office (where you would expect to find staff that are willing to be helpful to tourists) to get directions. I asked in French, and the guy started firing off this very rapid answer and I could only follow about every fourth word. I apologized (in French) for my inability to follow, and asked him (in French) if he could please speak more slowly. He rolled his eyes and repeated himself at exactly the same pace. I apologized again, profusely (and in French), for not speaking French very well, and asked him (in French) if he spoke English. And he said, "We speak French." In English. So I asked him, again in French, if he or someone else would mind please giving me directions in English, and he said flat out, "Non, Francais." At which point my Dutch friend cussed him out in Dutch, which he understood and fired something back at her (in Dutch), and they were yelling at each other in Dutch for a couple of minutes until she & I decided to just go buy a better map.
Granted, my "experience" is anecdotal
Things look "cooler" in "quotation marks".
You're "right".
No AN was NEVER friendlier
Ive been on here 4 years now, and the only thing that has changed is that AN has grown, and the overall quality of writing has gone down as a result. I dont know if it has anything to do this season with Oaklands declining performance( Now THERE is a diary idea, the degressing quality of A's baseball, compared to the degressing quality of diaries on AN...lol) point being, is that people have always self policed this site for useless Diaries like this one and the other one this guy posted. There is no need to flood the site with useless diaries that are much better suited for the game thread that was currently going on.
What is your recommendation?
If you were the admin, would you delete diaries like this? And are you suggesting the quality of writing on the front page is similarly decreasing?
Given this isn't the first time McP has..
..done this, I'd say yes - delete it until he gets the point of posting it within a game thread when it's something related to the game, especially when the game is in progress.
Don't see
any rules that you can apply to him in the CG. Writing nicely and kindly suggesting a change in posting patterns will get you allot farther than deleting his diaries. He is enthusiastic about posting and contributing it should be encouraged not discouraged.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 6:46 PM PDT up reply actions
Don't look at me.
I already told him this is better off as a comment in a game thread, and there was nothing rude in it.
Please look at "Tips on writing good diaries"
and everything below it. Most of McP's diaries fail to meet this. This isn't necessarily a "strikeable" offense, nor do I think anyone here is asking for one to be made. But a gag order on diary writing until he gets it wouldn't hurt, though that may be going too far.
The quality of the writing on the front page is
not similarly decreasing. You, Blez, BBG, Nico and Monkeyball all do a great job. I think Shippee33 is talking about the newer members of AN when mentioning the "quality" of writing.
One thing that bothers me about AN (and I love this place) is that some of the "original" members believe that they are somehow above some of the newer ones. Comments like "I miss old AN when there were less people" seem to be more of the stuff that is uncalled for IMO as it feels degrading to those who had not yet discovered AN when it began. I have been a fan of this team for 22 years and I would never say that a younger or newer fan had less of an allegiance than me. This is a place for A's fans not necessarily ones that are brighter than others, fans with more longevity than others or fans that attend more live games. That is why the place is called Athletics NATION. Our commonality is that we all LOVE the A's.
This is not a defined version of a diary by McP but he/she probably didn't mean to offend anyone. I think he/she gets the point and if it happens again then the diary should be deleted IMO.
Keep up the good work! I hope my comments don't offend anyone else because that is not why I posted them.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 7:06 PM PDT up reply actions
When I talk about the quality of writing
It has nothing to do with "new" members, there are new people coming here all the time with diverse and interesting opinions. What my point was saying more, was that with every new one person who writes qualities diaries, maybe 2 people join who are more fringe fans, which is awesome; its just that alot of their diaries are not very interesting because they are newer fans. And alot of diaries are really better off as comments. That was what I was trying to say, Diaries should be reserved for a well thought out, well written article or essay. Random thoughts of emotion based upon the current games score should be placed in the open game threads...
Thanks for the post. The sad thing is that less
fans come around here when the A's are losing games. There is only ONE recommended diary right now and membership has never been higher. There should be plenty of diaries about possible trades and thank goodness we have grover going out on a limb and trying to project them.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 7:19 PM PDT up reply actions
Aw Hell
People have been bitching about the "quality" of AN going downhill since Year 1.
Basically... since I showed up.
Go write a new freakin' trade analysis.
Seriously it would be great if you could update some of your thoughts to go next to the only recommended diary.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 7:59 PM PDT up reply actions
No as far as the front page writing goes
I think that it has gotten much better over the years, due to the diversity of writers, and each of their styles and opinions. I do think that the overall quality of Open game threads, and diaries went down in the sense, that since the blog has grown in size, there are alot more users who don't have as great a knowledge base as the core of AN used to have in its first few years. There have always been useless diaries being posted, it just feels like recently there have not been as many interesting ones.
rude?
- this guy wrote a negative diary at 2:10:26 PM when the a's were down 6-0 and a "don't give up hope" diary at 3:19:44 PM when the a's came back.
- look at his other diaries:
http://www.athleticsnation.com/user/McP
note the average number of comments. barely double digits aside from the "a's should acquire teixeira" diary, 80 comments of some of the more intelligent ANers telling him it's a dumb idea.
- he claims: "I may be a scout for a midwest MLB franchise that shall remain nameless"
dude, if that's the case, why don't you write better diaries?
another thing he has in common with oaktoon
i bet most of those comments are from his own diaries.
hmm, this guy is supposedly a MLB scout, oaktoon was "one of the leading observers of public opinion and campaign strategists in the country", and yet there are 15 year old high school kids on this site who write more useful diaries. i'll just post a link to one of them, hoping mr MLB scout gets some ideas...
That is a good Point In Time diary
Looking back, could we have had Cust and Frank Thomas in 2006?
Actually yeah
crazy isn't it. Could of had Bonderman, Brynes and Tehan too. The could of been game, it will drive you nuts everytime.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 8:22 PM PDT up reply actions
What kind of scout would suggest...
...blowing up the future for someone like Teixiera when it's obvious he'd be a short-term replacement?
Um...
He says midwest, so he could be a...
...Royals scout.
Actually, that would explain a few things.
Should we pity him then?
Not saying that his diaries are
great. Just saying the comments can be more constructive and cordial like MikeA was. McP seems enthusiastic, that’s a good thing. He needs encouragement not insults.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:43 PM PDT reply actions
enthusiastic?
some diary titles:
Worst 5-through-9 hitting order in the major this year?
Team has no character or fortitude
Fundamentals? Not on this team's offense
I feel like this season is over already
Makeshift Rotation Has Lost Its Wheels
Enthusiastic about posting
and contributing. Many A's fans need to be talked off the ledge now. I am very Zen in my fandom of the A's. I don't expect others to be. I learned to be Zen about the A's way back in '95. Really to tell you the truth, I learned when I went to my first game in '81 at 4 years old.
by Athletics Fan In London on Jul 29, 2007 7:56 PM PDT reply actions
All right, then, maybe a Churchillian paraphrase?
by The Dogfather on Jul 29, 2007 8:36 PM PDT up reply actions
Most of us take care in writing a diary
Almost everyone here doesn't post a diary unless they feel they can really contribute to a discussion or if there is a piece of news that hasn't been discussed yet. McP's diaries are like the really dumb guy in chemistry class piping up during a review session for the final and asking what an atom is. There is absolutely nothing of substance in any of these diaries. I could sum them all up in the following outlines:
Negative diary (99% occurrence)
-A's suck
-Beane sucks
-Wolff sucks
-Trade everyone now for good players
-Go A's
Positive diary (1% occurrence)
-A's showing good effort (and other generalized platitudes)
-More platitudes
-A's showing fire (x 1000)
-A's still suck, trade bad players for good ones
-Go A's
If you don't want to be criticized, then write something worth reading. McP is not a cordial fan; most of his diaries involve bashing the A's. Nobody has a problem with enthusiasm here, whether it's positive or negative; just please contribute something instead of wasting space and 10 minutes of my life.
He IS enthusiastic.
It's in his bashing, but hey. It's something.
Yeah, I suppose
Embracing enthusiasm without substance though is like taking the screaming red-faced drunk guy in the upper deck seriously. Which I do of course. What part of "WOOOOO!!!!" is there not to like?
Hey
At least this thread got people talking, not bad for a sunday night.
I was just thinking "someone should post a diary"
and then realized that it's actually accomplishing the same thing.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 29, 2007 9:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Well the recomended diary section
Was very bare, and I thought the discussion was Interesting, and hopefully informative to potential future shitty diary writers.
I found this nugget in a previous diary
This is why a guy like David Eckstein is better than any player the A's have on their roster.
That should be 3 CGVs right there.
Nick Swisher.
Dan Haren.
Eric Chavez.
Mark Ellis.
Travis Buck.
Jack Cust.
Shannon Stewart.
Mike Piazza.
Chad Gaudin.
Joe Blanton.
What do they all have in common?
they're not Mexican enough either
Jeopardy! style:
Uh, who are 10 people who have never been in my kitchen?
1 CGV
to jedileroy for not including about 10 other a's on that list. sadly, bobby crosby is not one of them.
Czechs Gone Vild!!!!!
Bork bork bork!
and yet, it gets recommended
You clog the diaries
worse than Barry clogged my bases.
by Dusty Baker on Jul 30, 2007 9:19 PM PDT reply actions
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