The SoapBoxers

If you are are much of a baseball fan as me (a 35 of a scale of 1-10) you may know a lot of these.  But if you are a casual fan, these facts might be new to you.

• Each park’s dimensions are different.  In most every sport, there is a regulation size to the field.  For example, a basketball court is 94 feet long.  Not 93 feet, not 95 feet.  In baseball, there are no such standard dimensions.  The differing dimensions can create advantages for either the hitter of the pitcher.  Fenway’s left field wall is very close to home plate, but the massive 37 foot high left field wall (the “Green Monster”) keeps a lid on the numbers of homers – while at at same time dramatically increasing the number of doubles.
• The amount of foul territory in a park affects offensive numbers.  This isn’t blatantly obvious, but it is logical when you stop to think about it.  A park with a lot of foul territory allows more foul balls to be caught.  If a park has less foul territory, some of these balls are going to drop into the stands, allowing the hitter to remain alive in the at bat.
• There are 50 rounds in baseball’s amateur draft.  Yes, 50 rounds!  There are a couple of reasons for this.  First, unlike other sports, baseball has a deep minor league system, with each major league team stocking a half dozen minor league teams with players.  Second, unlike most sports, a significant percentage of players do not sign.  A lot of the drafted players are high school kids who opt to attend college instead of signing with a team.  A player can be drafted multiple times.  Players can be drafted out of high school, after their junior year of college, and again after their senior year of college.  College players are not eligible for the draft after their freshman and sophomore seasons unless they are attending a junior college or a division III school – or unless they are 21 years old.  Wow.  Pretty confusing.
• The draft is not a worldwide draft.  Only players from the US, Canada, and US territories (Puerto Rico) and college players playing within those countries can be drafted.  Teams can freely sign players from other countries at age 16, with no regard to the draft.  The best of these players sign for million of dollars.  Michael Ynoa (Inoa) of the Dominican Republic signed a $4.25 million deal with the Oakland A’s when he was 16 (Ynoa is now 17)
• The Baseball Hall of Fame is just the room with the plaques.  The full name of the facility is the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.  The plaque room is the Hall of Fame, the rest of the facility is the museum.  However, this is a technicality that very few people realize, so feel free to use the term Hall of Fame to refer to the whole building.
• If the DH is forced to play defense, the team forfeits the DH for the rest of the game.  The most logical way that this could happen is if your DH was a catcher.  An injury to the starting catcher could force the DH to play catcher (since some teams do not carry 3 catchers on their roster).  The pitcher would then take over the injured catcher’s spot in the batting order.
• Carlton Fisk’s homer didn’t win the 1975 World Series.  OK, the majority of baseball fans realize this.  Fisk’s homer won game 6 for the Red Sox, but they lost game 7.  I just find interesting that one of the most dramatic plays in baseball history did not actually affect the outcome of the series.
• The Colorado Rockies store their baseballs in a humidor.  The Rockies face a unique challenge – a ballpark this is 5280 feet above sea level.  Although the park’s dimensions are large, the thin air allows the ball to travel further than in other parks.  This is compounded by the fact that the balls dry out faster due to low humidity – resulting in a baseball that is lighter than the average ball – and thus able to travel further.  The Rockies could not simply make the park’s dimensions larger, as this would cause a very high number of doubles on balls that drop in front of the outfielders.  After many years, the Rockies determined that storing the balls in a humidor would keep them at the ideal relative humidity.  Major League Baseball is aware of this, and approves of the practice.  In fact, I find it a bit strange that all teams don’t do this.
• The pitcher’s mound was lowered in 1969.  By 1969, pitcher were dominating batters dramatically.  Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson record a 1.12 ERA and Detroit ace Denny McClain won 31 games in 1968.  In order to help hitters, the pitcher’s mound was lowered 5 inches to the current height of 10 inches.
• Draft picks cannot be traded.  Not only that, but drafted players cannot be traded until after the following season’s draft (a year after they are drafted).  This really frustrates me.  Many times, we see the top draft prospects fall in the draft due to concerns about their “signability”.  In other words, they want more money the the teas with the top picks are willing to pay.  If teams could trade picks, they could maximize the value of their picks, instead of settling for a player who was more signable.

Randall Baker stubbed out his cigar and stood to address the room.  He cleared his throat and eight eyes focused on him.

“Our people have been talking discreetly with the clerks.  It appears that if the panel were to rule today, we would lose by at least a 5-4 margin and possibly 6-3.  MacFarland is difficult to read, but there’s a strong chance that he would vote against us.”

“That’s not a surprise,” replied Harvey Colan.  “Nonetheless, it’s disturbing.  That would be a disastrous result.  It would cost our companies billions.”

“Disastrous” concurred Prescott Fitzpatrick.  He did not look well – his face seemed a bit green, as if the news was about to make him physically ill.  In truth, Fitzpatrick did feel a bit sick to his stomach, and he was pondering the question of whether or not he could make it to the bathroom if a fit of nausea overcame him.  Probably not.

“There is a possible course of action.”  Again, the men focused on Baker and he continued.  “The man in charge is sympathetic to our cause.”

“Fat lot of good that does us” piped up Colan.  “He can only fill vacancies, and it’s quite unlikely that a vacancy will occur in the timeframe we need.  Much less two vacanices.”

“Gentleman,” smiled Baker “We are men of action.  There are steps that can be taken to expedite the process.”

The five men huddled, and Baker shared his master plan with them.  The plan was expensive, and it carried an element of risk.  However, it was the best chance to win.  With billions of dollars at stake, the quintet reached a unanimous decision.

Three days later, the funds were in place, and Randall Baker retained the services of Bob Herndon.  Herndon enjoyed his work, and the plan unveiled by Baker greatly interested him.  It was interesting work, and the impact of his work would be felt across the country.  Herndon prided himself on professionalism and spent a considerable amount of time on the preparations for the project.  When the preparations were complete, he jumped into his pickup and headed for some hunting ground upstate.  It was deer season.

Herndon settled into a spot on the hill that overlooked the clearing.  When his quarry finally entered the clearing, he took a close look through his rifle’s sight and fired.  He aim was true and he scored a kill.  A man rushed into the clearing.  Herndon waited, and held his fire.  Two other men followed in quick pursuit.  Yes, the fat one, this was the man.  Herndon took careful aim and fired again.  He watched the man topple to the ground and slowly eased back into the woods to make his escape.

Randall Baker was settling in for a cup of tea and a plate of scones when the television broke in with a special report of the good news.

“Shocking news tonight” declared the vacuous (and physically attractive) anchor.  “Supreme Court justices Alfred Morris and Clarence Casey were fatally shot today while deer hunting at Casey’s farm in upstate New York.  Police believe that foul play may have been involved.”

Baker smiled.  There were now two vacancies on the Supreme Court.  The president’s nominees for the court would certainly be sympathetic to his client.  Herndon’s work would save the companies billions of dollars, and Baker himself would reap a generous bonus.

This is the first in a periodic series of reviews of other blogs.

One of my favorite blogs on the whole, wide web is Jonna Wibelius’ SHEinChina.  I stumbled across it innocently enough.  Back in the old days (early 2009) when The Soap Boxers was on blogspot, I would check out the “Blogs of Note” and SHEinChina was featured one day.  I was hooked from the first day, and have been a daily reader and frequent commenter (to her credit, Jonna has not yet told me to shut up).

Jonna is from Sweden, but has spent a good chunk of her life living in other countries.  She currently lives in China, hence the name of the blog (by the way, the “SHE” stands for Seen, Heard, Experienced – it is not simply the word “she”.)  Jonna’s goal is to eventually speak  Chinese at a native level.

From my perspective, I actually get to learn about two countries when I read her blog.  Of course, China is the prevalent topic, but the expectations she brings from Sweden also teach me about Sweden.  She also has a worldwide audience and you can often learn a lot from the people who leave comments, as well.

What sort of adventures does Jonna experience?  Here are some examples:

• She has a recurring issue with exercise.  Specifically, the fact that she exercises regularly and tones her muscles.  This is really not the norm in China, and she has been told that she has “big” muscles.
• A Chinese wedding tradition is to have the bride and groom have pictures taken in costumes.  Yes, actual costumes, not just the wedding attire.  This is done before the wedding.  I had never heard of this, and honestly was a bit surprised.
• Tales of how laowai (foreigners) are treated differently (usually worse) by vendors – but also tales of how she is treated very well by other vendors.
• Photo blog posts (pictures that are worth 1000 words)

This is a small sample of topics.  Jonna posts nearly every day and covers a broad spectrum of topics.  Not only is the subject matter interesting, but her writing style also makes the blog very easy to read.

Jonna will be off to Finland for a couple of months this summer (before returning to China), allowing us to learn more about yet another country.

Check out SHEinChina at http://sheinchina.blogspot.com/

Update, July 11, 2009:  Jonna is joining the staff of The Soap Boxers.

Welcome, visitors from Atom!  Don’t be a stranger – please explore The Soap Boxers when you are finished reading this article.

A reporter recently discovered the fact that Detroit city council member JoAnn Watson had been paying just $68 in annual property taxes for about a decade.  Her home was incorrectly classified as a vacant lot by the city, when in fact there had been a house on that property since 1926.

Watson said that she noticed the change in taxes, but believed it was due to the fact that a tornado had hit the house.  Let’s digest a few points of the story.

Did she know?

If Watson had escrowed her taxes (as many people do) , then it would be somewhat believable that she simple wasn’t aware of the amount of property taxes she was paying.  Although I can probably guess my property taxes to within $50, I suspect that a lot of people don’t pay a lot of attention to what individual amounts make up their escrow payments.  Watson did not escrow her taxes, though, so she would have been very aware of the amount, since she would be physically writing a check for the taxes.  Watson does freely admit that she was aware of the amount of her taxes.

I find it a bit strange that her tax accountant wouldn’t have pointed out a disparity when comparing her mortgage interest deduction to her property tax deduction – but perhaps she did her own taxes.

The tornado

The tornado is a fascinating aspect of the story.  Watson says the the tornado did great damage to the home, specifically to the roof and foundation.  She felt that this damage caused her home’s assessment to be lowered.  A few question about the tornado remain unanswered:

• Watson says that the tornado occurred in either 1993 or 2002.  I have never suffered a direct hit from a tornado, but I have come frightening close.  I sincerely doubt that I’ll ever forget that the tornado that passed about a block from my house before ripping through another part of town was in 2006.  It made enough of a lasting impact that I doubt I’ll err by nine years on an estimate.
• Watson also says that she never informed the city (assessor), nor did she file an insurance claim.  Why on earth would you NOT file a claim?  I understand the logic of not filing small claims for fear of higher premiums.  However, a tornado directly hitting your house is a near worst case scenario – it’s the reason why you would buy insurance in the first place.  If you aren’t going to file a claim in such a situation, why ever bother to have the insurance?

Mortgage

Watson obtained a mortgage in 2002 (after the tornado, apparently) for $60,000.  It never dawned on her that the fact the  the appraisal was high enough to warrant the loan was an indication that it had regained value (for reference, she paid $40,000 for the home in 1990).  Watson says that she thought that appraisers used their “financial wizardry” to help her get the loan.  That’s a great quote, because I wasn’t aware of the fact that appraisers used financial wizardry, nor did I realize that it is their job to try to get you a mortgage.  I thought they were simply trying to estimate the fair market value of the house.

The future

First of all, Watson should probably stay away from neighborhood barbeques.  The neighbors are not happy that they were paying roughly 40 times what she paid in taxes.  I suspect that her time on the city council (along with the $80,000 salary and use of a car) is also coming to an end.  Watson has informed the city of the error and is prepared to pay back taxes that are owed on the property.

You can read more about this in the Detroit Free Press.

GOP infighting

A battle continues within the  Republican party, with Rush Limbaugh lining up on one side and guys like Colin Powell lining up on the other side.  Some feel that this is a necessary battle being fought in order to separate the chaff from those who hold the true Conservative Repblican ideals at heart.  This might be true if you’re simply trying to build the most united party possible.  However, there is a large contingent of unaffilated voters in the middle of the political sprectrum.  It is difficult to win a national election without snagging a large chunk of these voters.  Will the GOP infighting make many of these voters stay away, for fear of jumping onto a rudderless ship?  I’ll admit that I’m biased, as I am a unaffiliated centrist and probably overvalue our importance as a voting block a bit.

Dancing with the Stars

I’m not a big fan of the show, but it was nice to see fellow Iowan Shawn Johnson on the show.  It was even better to see her win.  On the first night of the show, I declared to my wife that Johnson would win, because the balance and footwork she uses in gymnastics would serve her well on the dance floor.  Obviously she still had a lot to learn, but it seemed like she had a leg up on the other competitors.

I was disappointed to see Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak sent packing early, though (and pretty much stopped watching after that show).  Woz is just a cool guy.  Not only is he a technical genius, but he does a lot of good works in the community.  It would have been cool to see him stage an unlikely upset.

Racing

Helio Castroneves picked up his second biggest win of the year  by winning Sunday’s Indy 500.  His biggest win of the year, however, was his recent acquittal on tax evasion charges.  Danica Patrick finished third, the best ever finish for a woman.  I think it is just a matter of time before she wins an Indy 500 – unless, of course, she bolts to NASCAR first.

NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte was scheduled for Sunday but was bumped back to Monday because of rain.  The race got started on Monday, but was interrupted several times by rain.  Finally, the NASCAR gods decided to call the race on account of rain.  The win was awarded to David Reutimann, who was in first place at the time the rain began.  Reutimann’s crew chief gambled and decided to forgo a late pit stop when other cars were getting tires and fuel.  The gamble paid off, as Reutimann was  able to hold off the pack until the rains came.  It was Reutimann’s first win in the Nextel series.  I understand the reasons for the decision to call the race, but I still hate to see a race end this way.  Perhaps domed race tracks are in the future.  (Kidding, just kidding.  Maybe.)

Baseball

Fans were treated to a great pitcher’s duel in Milwaukee on Monday.  Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter took a pefect game into the 7th inning.  He was nearly matched by Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who still had a no hitter alive into the 6th.  The winning – and only – run finally scored as Brewers rookie Casey McGeHee scampered home on a Bill Hall pinch hit in the 10th inning.  The batters combined for 5 hits and 5 walks in 10 innings (along with 18 strikeouts – 10 by Carpenter).  And for those who like quick game, it was completed in a zippy 2 hours and 26 minutes.

Per some good advice from Darren at Problogger, I am forming a focus group.  The focus group would essentially serve as a sounding board for ideas related to direction and content, as well as providing input on what they would like to see.  Here are a couple samples of the types of questions the focus group might see:

• Do children’s story such as “Bob The Turtle” provide entertainment value for the audience, or should they be excluded in the future?
• Would you like to see more or less political news?
• Are we providing enough content on international issues?  If not, what issues deserve more attention?

If you are one of the daily readers, consider joining the focus group.  You can respond or ignore question as you wish, so it should not take a large amount of your time.  I would like to get at least one person from outside the US to ensure that we are serving the international audience.  Perhaps my loyal reader in Belgium would be a good fit for this?  I’m looking for about a half dozen members at this point.

If you are interested in becoming a focus group member, send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com

In your email, tell me some basics about you – where you live and some basic demographic information (age, gender, occupation, interests).  You can be vague on the age, if you wish – I’m just want to make sure we have a reasonably diverse group (instead of having six 25 year old computer programmers from Salem, Oregon).

Even if you don’t want to be in the focus group, feel free to make comments on specific articles, either via the “comments” function, or by sending me an email.

thanks,

Kosmo

The Soap Boxers is taking a day off from article writing to observe Memorial Day.  Stop for a moment to think of – and thank – the brave soliders and sailors who have given up their lives for their country.

If you really NEED to read a TCO article today, delve into the “categories” (on the right side) or take a look at the Best of The Soap Boxers.

Kosmo turned 34 years young last Friday.  If you want to give him a birthday gift, give him the gift of a new visitor – simply send an email to a friend who might enjoy The Soap Boxers and urge them to pop in for a visit.

We will go back the the normal schedule tomorrow.

Recently, there have been some scientific studies suggesting that lack of sleep may shave some years off your life.  I have no concerns with the methods they used to reach their conclusions.  It is very likely that the data do indeed prove their hypothesis.

However, this brings me to a key question.  Are we simply trying to maximize the number of years that we remain on earth, or are we trying to maximize the amount of “living” we do?  I am going to take a look at our post college years.  Let’s assume this would span from age 22 to 82.  40 of the years will be in the workforce and 20 years will be in retirement.

In phase 1, we are going to be busy with work, family, and household chores.  If we sleep 9 hours, this might leave 2 hours for pure leisure during the  week and perhaps 7 hours on Saturday and Sunday, if we’re lucky.  That’s 24 leisure hours in a week, along with 63 sleep hours and 40 work hours.  The remaining 41 hours are spent eating, commuting, shopping, mowing lawn, paying bills, etc.  24 leisure hours X 52 weeks X 40 years = 49,920 leisure hours during our working years.

After retirement, we gain a bit more control over our lives, although advancing age eventually sneaks up and grabs your leisure time.  Let’s says that, on average, you can spend 8 hours per day on leisure activities during your retirement years.  That’s 56 hours per week.  56 X 52 weeks X 20 years = 58,240 leisure hours during our retirement years.

If we add  these two numbers, we get a total of 108,160 leisure hours during our post-collegiate years.  This is an average of 1803 leisure hours per years.  Let’s call this chunk of fun time a “leisure year”.

Now let’s assuming that we reduce our sleeping hours from 9 hours per night to 6.  We further assume that we do this with no short term impacts, just the long term impact of dying sooner.  This is likely to be a somewhat flawed assumption, but there are a lot of people who function at very high levels on 6 hours of sleep.

If we reduce sleep by 3 hours per day, we should increase leisure by the same amount.  3 hours X 7 days X 52 weeks X 60 years =   65,520 extra leisure hours, or 36 extra “leisure years”.  In essence, we gain the “fun part” of 36 extra years.

Would you trade a few years at the end of your life for 65,000 extra leisure hours spread out over your adult years?

This article is completely fictional.  I have a great deal of respect for the real-life Strasburg.  Strasburg transformed himself, through hard work, from an undrafted high school player to the consensus top prospect in this year’s baseball draft.

San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg is certain to be a top selection in June’s baseball draft.  We at The Soap Boxers are big baseball fans, so we had reporter Scoop Chevelle hop on the first plane headed west to catch up with Strasburg in San Diego.  The interview got off to a bit of a rough start, as Scoop was unable to find Strasburg at the Aztec training facility or his apartment.  Finally, Scoop’s bloodhound instincts sniffed out Strasburg at the beach.  Strasburg was hesitant to interupt a leisurely day in the sun, but Scoop prevailed and Strasburg eventually agreed to an interview.

Scoop: Stephen, there have been reports that your agent, Scott Boras, is asking for a contract upwards of $50 million.  Many observers consider this to be an obscene amount of money for a kid who has never toed the mound in a professional game.  What do you have to say to those critics?

Strasburg:  Well, Scoopy,  it’s definitely a boatload of cash.  On the flip side, though, take a look at some of my newspaper clippings.  Oh, darn, I left my scrapbook in my room.  Well, anyway, there are a bunch of writers who are saying that I’m a once-in-a-decade prospect.  Last year’s #1 pick, Tim Beckham, signed for $6.15 million.  A once-in-a-decade talent is obviously worth ten times that amount.  The math is pretty simple – my fair market value is $61.5 million.  Who can blame Mr. Boras for asking for $50 million?  In my opinion, he’s being rather generous with the discount.

Scoop: Well, that’s definitely an interesting way to look at it.  The Washington Senators, er Nationals, have the top pick in the draft.  Do you expect them to select you with that pick?

Strasburg: No, certainly not.  Mr. Boras had some preliminary discussions with the team, but negotiations broke down over the non-financial terms.

Scoop: Wow, that’s incredible news.  Tell us, Stephen, what was the sticking point?

Strasburg: Well, as you know, I have always had an interest in politics.  I’m a public administration major, and always wanted to leverage my education into a spot in the US Senate.  Washington, as it turns out, is the home of the federal government.  Since the Capitol has spots for 100 senators, I thought that the Nationals could find a way to get me appointed to one of the seats.  Perhaps the vacant Minnesota seat.  They kept yammering about things like “abuse of power” and “age requirements”.  After a while, Mr. Boras and I realized that the Nationals simply weren’t going to negotiate in good faith, so we broke off the talks.

Scoop: Well, then, where might we  expect to  see you land?

Strasburg: The Pirates, Scoop.

Scoop: The Pittsburgh Pirates, Stephen?  Is that some sort of a joke?

Strasburg: Well, they wouldn’t be the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Team officials are working with the mayor to change the name of the city to Strasburg, Pennsylvania.  Clearly, this is a team that has been fighting a lot of bad luck over the last few years, and they are destined for a breakout.  Hopefully I can pitch well enough down the stretch to get them to the World Series this year.

Scoop: Yes, that would definitely be quite the achievement.  Well, Stephen, it has been great talking to you.  I’m absolutely famished.  Where’s a good place to eat around here?

Straburg: Well, there’s Tony Gwynn’s bar and grill.  They have a half pound burger – all lean meat with no bull.  They call it the Strasburger …

Like this article?  You might enjoy Scoop’s interview with Manny Ramirez from last winter.

Club Deli is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  As the name may suggest, the main fare consists of deli sanwiches, although they always have two soups cooking (one of which is chili), as well as pasta.  Cookies are available for guests with a sweet tooth.

Customer service

I eat at Club Deli perhaps once every two weeks, and sometimes the gaps are even longer.  Nonetheless, the guy behind the counter always knows what I want – 1/2 a #17 (ham and swiss) on croissant.  The half sandwiches are a good size, expecially if you’re having soup with your sandwich.  When the sandwhich gets passed along to the gal who does the toppings, she usually knows the correct toppings as well – mayo, onions, salt, pepper, and a pickle spear on the side.  I’m not an exception, either – they remember these details for everyone in my group – quite impressive.  The guy who serves as order taker and meat and cheese provider often tries (jokingly) to convince me to change my predictable order to something different.  Nope – there’s no point messing up a good thing.

Quality ingredients

Many delis use meats and cheese that are pre-sliced.  At least one large national chain even has the meats in pre-measured quantities.  There is none of this at Club Deli.  When you order your sandwich, they slice the meat and cheese right there.  I’m particularly fond of the swiss cheese.  I’m a big fan of swiss cheese, and it can be hard to find in a lot of places, with many delis using provolone as their token “white cheese”.  The sandwiches cost a bit more than you would pay at one of the fast food sub places, but the fresh, high quality ingredients more than offset the cost difference.

The chili is flat out awesome.  There are hundreds of different ways to make chili, and the chili at Club is made precisely the way I like it.  If you’re ever at Club Deli, definitely give the chili a try – you won’t regret it.

Other cool stuff

You just might bump into a celebrity.  A few months ago, we were eating our lunch and college wrestling legend Dan Gable walked in.  Gable lost only one bout in college at Iowa State (in the national title match as a senior).  He then ran roughshod over the competition in the 1972 Munich Olympics en route to a gold medal.  He followed this up by building a college wrestling juggernaut at the University of Iowa (to the dismay of Iowa State alums).  Wrestling is not my favorite sport, but since Iowa has two great wrestling programs, I do pay attention to it.  Seeing a living legend was very cool.  Nope, I didn’t bug him for an autograph.

If you didn’t have a cookie earlier – or even if you did – you can buy some candy as you leave.  Toss a couple of quarters into the jar and snag some chocolate or even a Tootsie Pop.  Does anything chase down ham, swiss cheese, and chili better than chocolate?