DLD 2-18-09: Fremont On Ice
by Englishmajor on Feb 18, 2009 7:56 AM PST
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PrintThe SanJoseMercuryNewsOaklandTribuneFremontArgusWarmSpringsPennySaver is reporting that the A's have told the city of Fremont that they are indefinitely postponing a presentation to the city council and chamber of commerce that was planned for next week. Marine Layer says that the COO of Major League Baseball was scheduled to be at the presentation, and the A's didn't want him to be pelted with rotten tomatoes by the locals. It's not clear whether this represents the end of the Fremont experiment or just another bend in the road. Also unclear is whether Ben and Nate will revise their previous statement to "a parking lot with an ineffectual mayor".
However, it's unlikely that the team will be relocating to Morgan Hill. Just in case you were wondering.
Also probably an unlikely spot for the stadium: the Albany Bulb, although the left field bleachers would fit right in:
"It's self-regulating, with no authority controlling it. And we like it this way," said Oakland lawyer and artist Osha Neumann, who's created many of the sculptures there. "It's an urban wilderness. It's benign, positive anarchy."
Susan Slusser's daily report from spring training is all about Jared Lansford:
Lansford said it's funny to see the A's longtime support staff, like Vucinich and director of team travel Mickey Morabito, after all these years. "I haven't seen them since I was 8, sometimes they don't even recognize me," he said.
And in my home town, baseball (of the Northern League variety) is also on ice -- the Saint Paul Saints are playing an exhibition "iceball" game later this month. It will only be five innings, which is good because the average temperature for February is 18 degrees F.
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Can't says I am surprised
The move to Warm Springs was really a bad idea. Maybe we should start a letter drive, let’s pick the site we want to A’s to have a enw stadium at democratically and then fire up the letter writing campaign.
Saints
I saw that too, Its cold enough here in St. Cloud, not gonna head to the cities for that
Wouldn't it be easier to just let the A's be drifters and just play a little here and a little over there at this point?
Wait for the the 2009 Oaklands A's season to start I can not. Herh herh herh.
...renamed "The California Barnstormers"
I didn’t want to use “Globetrotters” as that IMO is strictly BB.
Even if they move to Boise and play on a blue diamond, I’ll still root for the A’s.
If we can have “The Fighting Irish”, certainly we could tolerate the “Boise Blackfeet”.
The Cleveland Indians then would have to get more specific: Cleveland Punjabis??
Journalistic frenzy over “White Sox vs. Blackfeet” would provide much entertainment.
Officially awaiting the 2009 season.
by One won lost won on Feb 18, 2009 4:47 PM PST up reply actions
Not "California", "Golden State"!
That’s the origin of the name for the Warriors.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
You're correct
“Golden State Barnstormers” is far more lyrical.
Officially awaiting the 2009 season.
by One won lost won on Feb 18, 2009 8:59 PM PST up reply actions
Mathematics and gerrymandering
Mathematics and gerrymandering
I think this article requires an academic subscription, but I thought it was interesting enough to link and quote a few excerpts.
To a mathematician, contiguous means connected—i.e., you can travel from any point in it to any other without leaving the region. Compactness is trickier. Various definitions have been proposed, including one presented at the session by Alan Miller, a graduate student in social science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California.
Miller’s method, developed with Caltech economist Christopher Chambers, quantifies the “bizarreness” of geometric shapes. (The word “bizarre” traces to a 1993 ruling in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down several oddly shaped congressional districts. Politicians’ attempts to handpick their constituents invariably create convolutions in district lines.) In essence, bizarreness is the probability that the most direct path between two randomly chosen voters within a district crosses district lines. The higher the probability, the more bizarre the district is. (The path is required to stay within the state, to avoid penalizing districts that sit on ragged state boundaries.)
My favorite quote:
Says Pildes, “Math can give you tools for creating processes that are likely to lead people to feel that the process is fair and that the outcome is therefore something to be respected.”
Clearly, Pildes hasn’t hung out with baseball fans.
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
Example of compact vs. non-compact district
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
Some in Southern California are not much better
I don’t have a map to post, but, trust me, it is terrible…from a long while back.
Officially awaiting the 2009 season.
by One won lost won on Feb 18, 2009 6:01 PM PST up reply actions
Actually, to a mathematician, compact means something entirely different than that.
black dirt live again
"Compact," like "health skill," is probably and error in terminology.
A real mathematician would never make that mistake, but it’s probably the case of a non-mathematician using mathematicians’ language. From the article, it’s not clear whether the mistake is made by Miller and Chamber or whether it’s an error on the writer’s part.
It’s interesting that you point that out, though. I would have guessed Science would have somebody catch that.
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
I think they’re just using common, rather than technical language. The notion of “bizarreness” seems to be trying to make the districts as close as possible to being convex, within the constraints of the state boundaries. But even that is missing something, as a very long, thin district could be convex / non-bizarre, but still fail the eyeball test of being “compact.”
It sounds like (as they say later in the article) it’s an attempt to find a technical solution to a social problem. We can all look at that Maryland district and agree it’s ridiculous, and quibbling about the details of the formula used to determine exactly how ridiculous it is seems to me to be kind of beside the point.
It’s not even clear to me what the right goals are. One person in the article suggests that one goal should be to “maximize the the number of ‘competitive’ districts.” But that could still easily lead to results in which a state’s congressman, as a group, do a very poor job of representing the political makeup of their constituents.
black dirt live again
yeah
the goal of competitive districts is in conflict with the idea which is fundamental to the congress to represent local sentiments, and it’s not at all obvious which way to go with that. A similar issue is controversies about race based redistricting. A white majority could either set it up so that very few to none of the districts have minority representation, or stick all the minorities in a few districts, which would lower overall representation, and those strategies would lead to completely different ways of drawing districts. It’s not clear how the districts should be drawn without choosing a specific goal that a lot of people won’t agree with.
With stout hearts, and with enthusiasm for the contest, let us go forward to victory. ----Hero Defector Montgomery
What I think is happening
Is that they’re trying to convert legal terms into mathematical concepts. Both compact and bizarre are words courts have used on the issue.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want" -Bill Watterson
To be even more pedantic
“Compact” is a specific term in Topology / Set Theory.
I’m sure some other branches of Mathematics use it in some different manner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_space
In mathematics, a topological space is called compact if each of its open covers has a finite subcover.
by MobiusKlein on Feb 18, 2009 11:15 AM PST up reply actions
I think you're just being 'dense'
I don’t have a subscription so I couldn’t read the article, but there was a seminar at the Joint Meetings in DC this year about the redistricting problem that included both legal and mathematical requirements/views. I think the Supreme Court has put out a call for papers on it from the mathematics angle to aid in some future case(s). It’s a pretty cool math problem to investigate.
I like important stuff just as much as the next guy, but please, for a little while, deliver us from meaning, baseball. That's your greatest glory, and we thank you for it very, very much. -- Craig Calcaterra
FYI, this was a report from the Joint Meetings.
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
Ah, good to know
Oh well, I still have my math joke.
I like important stuff just as much as the next guy, but please, for a little while, deliver us from meaning, baseball. That's your greatest glory, and we thank you for it very, very much. -- Craig Calcaterra
Wouldn't a better definition of "compact" be the average distance between two randomly selected voters' homes?
Seems like that principle, plus a principle of contiguity, would resolve the issues. Or at least the “congressional districts look funny” issues. As people have pointed out, there are plenty of other issues.
Many countries, of course, don’t have geographical representation at all. In Italy, say, it’s entirely on the basis of interests rather than geography.
Many years from now, when his name's recalled
Everyone will say, "He should have passed the ball"
-- Al Stewart, "Football Hero"
Interests?
Like you could be the congressperson from the petunia fanciers society? I’m nominating PaulThomas as state rep from AN.
"...in baseball you wear a cap." -- george carlin
In Italy, if you can get 30,000 votes for the Petunia Fanciers' Party, you've got a representative in the Parliament
Many years from now, when his name's recalled
Everyone will say, "He should have passed the ball"
-- Al Stewart, "Football Hero"
I've never tried this before, but, well, here goes:
In Italy, the petunias fancy YOU
?
Brainless Automaton #439
by rubin sierra on Feb 18, 2009 4:38 PM PST up reply actions
"In Italy, say, it’s entirely on the basis of interests rather than geography."
Not really how it works over here.
The proportional system is district-based, rather than nationwide as in some smaller countries. Italy is divided into a certain number of districts for the Chamber of Deputies, and a certain number of districts for the Senate. Each district is assigned a number of seats proportionate to its total of the population of Italy. Within each district, voters choose between lists of candidates which parties or coalitions have registered in advance, and each list is awarded seats based on its percentage of the vote in the district.
For the Chamber of Deputies, Italy is divided into 26 constituencies: Lombardy has three constituencies, Piedmont, Veneto, Latium, Campania, and Sicily each have two, and all other regions have one. These constituencies elect 617 MPs. Another one is elected in Aosta Valley and 12 are elected by a constituency consisting of Italians living abroad.
…
For the Senate, the constituencies correspond to the 20 regions of Italy, with 6 senators allocated for Italians living abroad. The electoral system is very similar to the one for the lower house, but is in many ways transferred to regional basis. The thresholds are also different, and applied on a regional basis.
I don't think so
First, you would certainly have to normalize for total size of district (which would be easy)
Second, you would get dramatically different outcomes in thinly populated districts than you would in thickly populated ones.
For my money, I’d like a circumference vs. area ratio limit but recognize the difficulty that jagged state borders cause in that context.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want" -Bill Watterson
Official: Ziggy on Team USA
SuSlu in the last hour:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=21&entry_id=35936
congrats
Nice! Go Ziggs!
Also, nice little bit on J-Lans there. Sounds like he should turn out to be a nice bullpen arm in the wings.
94 mph power sinker….mmmmmmmmm!
"God made Majnun love Layla so much that just her dog would cause confusion in him."
The Many Wines-Rumi
The difference between a sinker and a "power sinker" is what exactly?
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want" -Bill Watterson
I think it's the difference between Jim Corsi and Kevin Brown.
Root for the Giants? Not even if they're playing al-Qaeda!
By the way
is anyone else going to the Warrior-Laker game tonight?
"God made Majnun love Layla so much that just her dog would cause confusion in him."
The Many Wines-Rumi
I'm no fan of the move to Fremont
but, somehow, I don’t think this bodes well
"The Athletics at Fremont" is wayyyyyy bad
The Cambridge A's.
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
Imagine: "ArakSOT and salb918, RAFS."
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
and here I was thinking Cambridge, UK
That would be an AWESOME road trip…
There's no crying in baseball!
I just found out that Derby County FC
played for nearly 100 years in a stadium called The Baseball Ground.
I know Nico would be a big fan:
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Nico doesn't like the Rams
Competition is hard on the guy
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want" -Bill Watterson
with the economy as it is
I’d be surprised to see any ballpark construction site approved and started on anytime soon — and I think that goes for BART extensions as well…
by OaklandSi on Feb 18, 2009 11:29 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
then
when people get nostalgic for converted multi purpose stadia, the coliseum will be a vacation hot spot. Revenue will flow.
Tourists will flock to the Flea Market at the old Drive-in
I am Ray Fosse's infatuations with Clay Wood and high-definition television.
by franks a lot on Feb 18, 2009 11:53 AM PST up reply actions
I'm kind of curious
to know if Lew views the current economic climate as an opportunity to make the jump to SJ proper rather than be satisfied with a humble chalet on the fringes.
"You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat."--The Boys of Summer
I don't know on BART
Especially with bids already being collected for Warm Springs, by the Summer the State Budget, stimulus package and sales tax hike in Santa Clara county will set it up nicely.
no, but I can believe that BART extensions are not likely to be priorities
to keep in the budget that finally gets approved.
I disagree.
Infrastructure = good.
"I’m Joey Devine, I’m what Joba Chamberlain would be if he was good and nobody had ever heard of him."
not "shovel ready"
in the popular parlance.
BART won’t cooperate to expand in the context of their own money-losing ways.
Officially awaiting the 2009 season.
by One won lost won on Feb 18, 2009 4:52 PM PST up reply actions
I agree that infrastructure is good
but I don’t think BART extensions will happen in a problematic budget…I would love for it to be built, don’t get me wrong…
Plus, not all infrastructure improvements are equal
They will have priorities, and it may very well be rational to upgrade & maintain existing lines so they don’t crumble in the next earthquake.
But it really is sad that I remember in my childhood, thinking that BART would go down to San Jose . . . and now 30 years later, it’s not even to Millipedes.
A journey to a thousand legs begins with a single step
Many years from now, when his name's recalled
Everyone will say, "He should have passed the ball"
-- Al Stewart, "Football Hero"
I vote for the A's to move to Morgan Hill...
My parents live there and I grew up there, and would thus probably be able to walk to all the games. Which would be sweet. Now, Morgan Hill is a small little town who’s residents do not want it to grow, so this is a ludacris proposition, but still funny to think about.
Also, if the A’s were in Morgan Hill, I wouldn’t have to answer the question “where the hell is Morgan Hill” everytime I go somewhere and talk about it.
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." ~Rogers Hornsby
I thought all of Ludacris'
propositions were in the Red Light District. Didn’t realize there was one in Morgan Hill.
I know Morgan Hill...
That’s where my maternal grandparents were from.
I have ferns from my great grandmother’s house in Morgan Hill planted in my backyard in Sacramento.
"The magical goblins who live in my shower told me that Bobby Crosby's gonna have a good year this year" - The Reverend Billy Lard
by Gaijin_Suketto on Feb 18, 2009 2:58 PM PST up reply actions
Nationals prospect refuses to take the Jairo-ad, Esmailyn it in.
Why is it always the guys with the best names who are revealed to have falsified their age and identity?
Can Boof Bonser be far behind?
"There is a sense of tragic destiny associated with people who have large noses." --Bucky Wunderlick
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 18, 2009 2:02 PM PST reply actions
How did he deposit the signing bonus at the bank?
Perhaps he acted dumb (but was really smart) and asked for it all in Krugerrands??
Officially awaiting the 2009 season.
by One won lost won on Feb 18, 2009 4:56 PM PST up reply actions
JoePo
But the general consensus seemed to be that the big loser was a giant red-headed slugger named Mark McGwire. Nine times that day, McGwire said: “I’m not here to talk about the past,” or something very close to it. Twice he announced that he was taking his lawyer’s advice about not talking. Twice more, as you see above, he said he was not qualified to determine if using steroids was cheating, and he later added that he was not qualified to determine if records broken by steroid users should be allowed to stand.
…
Looking back, though, I realize that he probably could not have done much to save himself that day in Congress. Looking back, I believe McGwire was probably true to himself in his own way. He did not ask for forgiveness. He did not lie. He did not tell the truth either. He did not even claim to know the truth.
Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch.
I agree
In fact, I spent a half-hour composing a rambling blog post about this for my own navel-gazing Web site. It’s funny how the media’s ongoing fascination with Rodriguez (and in turn Rodriguez’s fascination with being the center of that attention) is making me positively nostalgic for McGwire and Bonds.
Actually, I’m less annoyed by A-Rod than I am by the media’s reaction to him. “Hi, I’m Joe Sports Writer (note: every other Joe but NOT Joe Posnanski) and when I look at this steroid scandal, I take the broad view regarding who it’s about: It’s about me! McGwire, Bonds and Sosa deceived me by getting me to write like a giddy school boy about them when they broke home run records. Now I have to wreak vengeance upon them by keeping them out of the Hall of Fame, and rooting for A-Rod to break the tarnished home run record.”
Now it’s like they’re trying to come up with a new strategy, given that not only would A-Rod fail to “save” the record, but the discovery about him raises the possibility that the Hall of Fame exclusion game will keep out so many guys that it’ll make Cooperstown kind of irrelevant. And so I see all this breathless coverage of A-Rod’s press conference, and I think that they want to say, “A-Rod came clean, ergo he’s still eligible for our little club, but we can continue turning our noses up in the air proudly at any mention of McGwire or Bonds.” Thus, the nostalgia for McGwire and Bonds.
Brainless Automaton #439
by rubin sierra on Feb 19, 2009 2:21 AM PST up reply actions
The media reaction isn’t rooted in the quality of sports writers or interest in steroids or baseball for that matter. Its because the guy is obviously BSing and doing it rather badly. Its sort of surprising who his consultant is. Posnanski’s point is presented with a different flavor, but its relevant for anyone engaged in criminal activity – don’t talk. Is McGwire happy? He wanted to be a hitting coach and that may not happen, but either way its better than the legal process or being forced to lie to deal with earlier lies.
As far as I know,
McGwire hasn’t lied. He hasn’t said anything one way or another, other than to reiterate that he has no intention of making a direct statement regarding his use or knowledge of steroid use. I respect his position much more than I respect the pond scum who pose as sports reporters. As far as I’m concerned, they’re a bunch of sanctimonious bastards who were gleeful to write about the homerun exploits when they happened, yet are oddly retiscent to acknowledge their duplicity in the whole steroid affair. I wasn’t fooled by the players for a single minute, and yet the writers expect me to believe that their hands are clean, that they hand no knowledge of what the players were up to and that the players took advantage of their naivete? Please.
"You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat."--The Boys of Summer
Is anyone else getting just a little concerned?
Giambi still not in camp. He’s now officially late in reporting.
You know what's really disturbing about that article?
The bizarre placement of random “(See pictures of…)” links.
The 14-year-old chimpanzee latched onto Nash’s face and tore it apart. (See pictures of animals facing extinction.)
“They are not pets. This is tragic, but it’s not surprising.” (See pictures of animals in space.)
(WTF?!)
“An adult male chimpanzee is a formidable animal. I would not want to be standing next to one.” (See pictures of animals with prosthetic limbs.)
Ray: "How fun is it to be up here playing in the Big Leagues?"
Gio: "It's *SUPER* fun!!!"
doesn't Jason live in Arizona
he couldn’t even swing by and say hello?
You have to include smiley faces - Poppy
;- ) :- ) :-O : -> : -] : -}
I thought he lives in Vegas
Not too far from AZ, though.
"Dispatch knuckleheadedness with Bond-like aplomb." –74mk
Nobody's "officially late in reporting" yet
Article XIV of the CBA says:
No Player shall be required to report for spring training workouts more
than thirty-three (33) days prior to the start of the championship season.
With the silly length of spring training this year, if I were an established veteran, I’d think about communicating to management that, no hard feelings, but I just don’t see the need to be in camp on February 18.
And if I were management, I'd say,
“Get your lazy f*ck*ng ss down here and pretend you want to play baseball and be a leader on this horsesht team you f*ck*ng f*ck!”
Then I’d trade him for Joey Votto and Johnny Cueto, ‘cause I’m that good.
Oh I know how people would react
“Nobody except Manny Ramirez acts like that.” I’m just a little surprised that more of an issue wasn’t made of the extension of spring training due to the World Baseball “Classic”. A few of the quotes I’ve read suggest that some of the individual players aren’t totally thrilled with the extended spring training time.
I would just stare at management and then yell
“PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!”
"Camelot sure fell apart, didn't it?"-Steve McCatty
My cousin injected me with peanut butter and jelly that I bought over the counter in the Dominican Republic
m*****f***ing c***s***ing peanut butter and jelly!! f*** f*** f***!!!
I would have preferred the A's signed a dancing banana than Jason Giambi this offseason
Dancing Banana for shortstop!
by thejd44 on Feb 18, 2009 11:10 PM PST up reply actions
I approve the Dailyness of our Link Dumps.
m*****f***ing c***s***ing peanut butter and jelly!! f*** f*** f***!!!
I approve your general awesomeness
Seriously. The nostalgic, optimistic voice you bring to this blog is refreshing.
m*****f***ing c***s***ing peanut butter and jelly!! f*** f*** f***!!!
random spring training pics (from yahoo)
Byrnes practicing his ballet skillz
David Wright: Look, no legs!
Danny: “I believe I can fly…”
well then.
apparently this angels fan thinks the A’s still have no chance…. I would LIKE to answer, but I don’t really want to get banned from there and it would sorta lose the effect if I got rid of the offending words… so you guys feel free. :P
and nice pics, Whiteshoes!! I can’t believe Spring Training is ALMOST HERE!!! {screams in happiness and celebrates}
Awww… Unicorn's optimistic. And a cheeseball. That’s cute. ~Whiteshoes40
In terms of helping the team win,
that’s probably not a very good signing.
But I don’t think it’s about that. If the A’s had signed Rickey to a one-year contract in 2006, I’d have been ecstatic. If Mariners fans feel even one-tenth of that about Junior, then OK, I can see the logic here.
"Dispatch knuckleheadedness with Bond-like aplomb." –74mk
I don’t know how often he’ll play…but i’ve never gotten to watch Griffey in person before. Hopefully this gives me the opportunity to do just that.
Yay! This just helps the A's. Griffey is below replacement at this point, especially if he's playing the outfield.
The M’s fans will be wishing they had Ibanez back in left field.
by thejd44 on Feb 18, 2009 11:12 PM PST up reply actions
I just threw up a little bit.
"Hot Goat Kraut Pants Day"--Monkeyball
by Leopold Bloom on Feb 18, 2009 6:14 PM PST up reply actions
I hate the long pants, especially over the shoes. Lame.
Root for the Giants? Not even if they're playing al-Qaeda!
I know
He should totally be wearing capris.
Don't sweat it. I'm illiterate.
by methodrampage on Feb 19, 2009 4:03 PM PST up reply actions
D:
That just doesn’t look right.
F’n Yankees.
by walkoff baltimore chop on Feb 18, 2009 9:21 PM PST up reply actions
+1000000000000000000
:( :( I miss the old Swish. {attacks the Yankees for making him look all weird}
Awww… Unicorn's optimistic. And a cheeseball. That’s cute. ~Whiteshoes40
Fremont on Ice. I was thinking...
wow, that would be some Ice Capades theme show!
alaska A residing in colorado.
The final act is worth the price of admission by itself.
Ghost riding the Volvo on ice!
"Camelot sure fell apart, didn't it?"-Steve McCatty
With Special Guest Star
Dan Johnson.
In search of a new signature. Say something funny and you may see your comment here!
What about Fremont on Water?
Chicago. Where the Dead can Vote. Where the Voters of Tomorrow are found in the Obituaries of Today.
duhduhduh duhduhduhduh
duhduhduhduh duhduh.
"Hot Goat Kraut Pants Day"--Monkeyball
by Leopold Bloom on Feb 18, 2009 11:03 PM PST up reply actions
i have always said that GGF (or the bulb) would be a great spot
best views in the bay, lots of land, the only issue would be BART service.
pacbell would pale in comparison.
get ’er done!
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