The SoapBoxers

Today I will profile the Man of Steel himself, Mr. Andrew Carnegie.  Carnegie is probably my all time favorite billionaire, as he donated much of his fortune to libraries.  Given that knowledge is power, libraries are a cornerstone of society and serve to improve the lives of future generations.  Those who donate to  libraries serve as a benefactor to many, but those who benefit must work (read) to reap the benefits of the gift.

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Scotland, where his father worked as a  weaver.  After falling on hard times, the family emigrated to Alleghany, Pennsylvania in 1848.  Carnegie was soon hard at work in a cotton mill.  A couple years later, he became a telegraph messenger boy, where his hard work caused him to rise quickly through the ranks of the Ohio Telegraph Company until he is the superintendent of the Pittsburgh branch of the company.  He moves on to work at Pennsylvania railroad and eventually becomes the superintendent of the company’s western region.

During his youth, Carnegie had the good fortune to be given some opportunities that others might not have enjoyed.  Colonel James Anderson allowed Carnegie and other boys to borrow books from his private library (which Andrew take great advantage of) and one of his bosses at the railroad company helped him with his first investments.  No doubt that Andrew remembered the help he had received, and that this was a basis for his philanthropic philosophy.

A large chunk of Carnegie’s early wealth was gained by investing in railroad-related companies.  After the civil war, Carnegie turned his energies to steel.  Carnegie Steel was able to efficiently mass produce steel rails from railroads and also controlled suppliers of all necessary raw materials.

Carnegie was an incredibly successful business man, but also found the time to write several books and contributed to several magazines.  He often wrote about social subjects.  While Carnegie always had philanthropic intentions, he began donating sizeable chunks of money in his 1840s, beginning first with gifts to his home town in Scotland.

In the 1883 the first “Carnegie Library” was opened in his home town of Dunfermline, Scotland.  Carnegie funded a total of 3000 libraries in the US, spread across 47 states.  He also funded libraries in foreign countries – in countries as close as Canada and as far away as Fiji.

The libraries, though, were just the tip of the iceberg.  He funded the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now part of Carnegie Mellon University) and, of course, Carnegie Hall.  He donated ten million dollars toward the construction of the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson.  He gave money to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskeegee Institute.  He funded construction 7000 church organs.  Perhaps most interestingly, he attempted to by independence for the people of the Philippines.  The United States had purchased the Philippines (along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam) for twenty million dollars at the end of the Spanish-American War.  Carnegie offered to pay the same amount to the US government in an effort to gain independence for the Philippines.  Unfortunately, his offer was not accepted, and the Philippine-American war resulted.

Andrew Carnegie was the second richest man in the world – second only to John Rockefeller of Standard Oil.  When he died, only a small fraction of his wealth remained – he had given the rest away during his lifetime.

Oh – the “small fraction” the remained … it was thirty million dollars … in 1919 dollars.  Not surprisingly, his estate was donated, as well.  Some of our current billionaires (such as Warren Buffet) do their best to follow in Carnegie’s footsteps.  Let’s hope that more of them join in the philanthropic works.

Wikipedia was a source of information for this article.

Another month in the books – where do we stand?

Number of readers

Slow and steady wins the race, right?  We haven’t seen a monstrous explosion in traffic, but we are seeing slow growth in number of regular visitors.  If you have a friend who would like the site, have them swing by for a visit.  I’ll try to set a pitcher of lemonade and some chocolate chip cookies on the back porch.

Content

For the first time the blog featured at least one post on every single day of the month!  I missed a couple of days in April, but with the full team in place for May, we had 100% coverage.

We were able to stick much closer to the schedule than we had in past month.  Our goal is to stick as close to the schedule as possible, so that our loyal readers will know what to expect each day of the week.   Obviously, life will throw a monkey wrench into the plans from time to time.

We’ve rebranded The Soap Boxers as a “web magazine” as opposed to a “blog”.  What’s the difference?  Many blogs tend to be focused on a specific niche.  Clearly, this does not deascribe us, as our content covers a broad range of topics.  Nothing has actually changed in regards to the type of content we are delivering; we’re simply choosing to use a different term to describe ourselves.  Is it much ado about nothing?  Almost certainly.

We have been talking with a number of potential guest writers, from a variety of backgrounds.  Hopefully at least 1 or 2 of these folks will produce articles that will be ready in June.  I think they all have interesting stories to tell.

Site design

You may have noticed  a few minor changes to the sites as we try to improve the experience for our readers.  First, you might notice the “Browse The Archives” link at the top.  This links to a page that will show every article in the history of The Soap Boxers.

The “share” bar at the bottom of each article (right above the box that contains “categories” and “tags”) allows you to share articles with friends via email or by using a variety of social networking sites.  Previously, we were using a different method for this functionality, but we like the bar much better.  If you like one of the articles, share it with others!  If I’m ignoring a particular social networking site, let me know – I might be able to add it.

We live in an electronic world, and hopefully many of you refrain from printing most of the time.  However, when you do print articles, they will look much nicer than they have in the past.  Blogs typically look pretty lousy when printed, because of some of the gobbledygook that prints along with the main text.  I’ve worked to de-goobledygook things so that only the good stuff prints.

What’s next?

We’re excited about a giveaway what we’ll be doing at some point in the neat future – hopefully July.  We’re still keeping things under wraps, but if you like The Soap Boxers, you should enjoy the freebie.

We’re also actively soliciting ideas for Fiction Friday stories.  Leave a suggestion in the comments section (or drop me an email).  Bear in mind that I try to keep the stories around 800ish words, so a couple of sentences would be a sufficiently long suggestion.

This Wednesday, Randy Johnson will make his first attempt to win his 300th game, as he sits perched on the doorstep with 299 wins.  Johnson’s climb up the all time wins chart has created a lot of buzz in baseball circles as to the chances of someone else replicating the feat of 300 wins.

Records show that since the decade of the 40’s, our current decade is the second only to the 1980’s in number of pitchers reaching the 300 win milestone.  During the 80’s, Tom Seaver, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton joined the elusive 300 win club. Nolan Ryan was the only one in the 90’s, and in the new millennium, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and now soon Randy Johnson – make it a nice quadrilateral

Johnson has been a unique pitcher among this list.  He has a career 3.29 ERA to go along with his 299 wins.  That alone does not seem to be unusual.  I mean, you have to be pretty good to get this far in the win column.  The amazing part is he has consistently gotten better with age.  He is second on the all time strikeout list behind just Nolan Ryan.  He has gotten better and better and better with age.

Since turning 30 years old, Johnson has won 235 of his games and struck out more than 3700 batters.  If you measure his Earned Run Average against the league average (this is an advanced statistic called ERA+), he is +147 during that time.  Some baseball pundits say if he is not the greatest old pitcher in the history of the game, then he is right there with the likes of Lefty Grove and Hoyt Wilhelm, both Hall of Famers.

Johnson had won 49 games entering 1993, his 5th year with the Seattle Mariners.  Then he went on a historic 10 year run which included a record of 175-58 along with 5 Cy Young Awards.  He will become the 24th pitcher to win 300 games and just the 6th left hander to do so.  Johnson’s 72 victories in his 40s would rank fourth behind Phil Niekro (121), Spahn and Cy Young, with 75 each.

But enough about the Big Unit for now…..

The other side of the conversation is “can anyone else do it?”  Will there be another to reach 300 wins?

In order to get there in this day and age you need to have a number of things going for you as a Pitcher.

1-      You have to get to the bigs early

2-      You almost need to be on a good team who can help you get some wins

3-      You have to pitch for a lot of years

4-      You need to avoid injury

As the game has continued to advance through the ages, there is more specialization of pitching.  Pitchers all seem to be on pitch counts.  Five days rest is the norm.  Long gone are the days of Cy Young who won an impressive 511 times to go with his 316 losses……  So the guy who has his name on the award which goes to the best pitcher in each league very year has more losses on his record than all but as select few have in terms of wins.

….the magical 300.

I’ve heard people refer to ESPN as a 4 letter word in the sports world.  Today, I wondered if they might be right.

Today’s poll question, on the heels of Jamie Moyer’s 250th win, was whether or not Moyer should be in the Hall of Fame.  The options were “yes”, “no”, and “he needs to get to 300 wins”.  An incredibly high number of people (50%+ had chosen the “yes” and “he needs to get to 300 wins” answers when I checked in the early afternoon).

The correct answer is “no”, even if he manages to get to 300 (which would mean pitching until he was 50).  Moyer has been a successful pitcher and has enjoyed great longevity.  However, he simply falls short of the excellence needed for the Hall of Fame.  It is not the Hall of Pretty Good For a Really Long Time.  Moyer has won more than 15 games in a season just four times, and had never finished higher than 4th in Cy Young voting.  This does not scream “dominance”.

If Jamie Moyer wants to get into the Hall of Fame, he’ll need to buy a ticket.

I do, however, extend my sincerest congratulations to Jamie on the achievement.  I remember him breaking in with the Cubs back in the mid 1980s.  I never imagine that he would still be pitching in 2009.

Back On April 15, we  launched  a Stock Market contest (click link to see insights from the participants) in which a team of Goliaths (personal finance bloggers) were matched up against a team of Davids (people who were not personal finance bloggers).  At long last, we unveil the first monthly update.

At the end of the day on April 14th (the 104th day of the year), the Dow was at 7920.18.

At the end of the day on May 31 (the 151st day of the day), the Dow was at 8500.33

This is a gain of 580.15, or 12.34 points per day.  If we assume that the market will contain to gain at exactly the same rate throughout the rest of the year (yes, a ridiculous assumption), the Dow will be at 11,140.92 at the end of the year.

How do our contestants stack up?

I also invited visitors to play along at home.  Let’s see how they are doing.

Visitor Mike missed the  April 30 cutoff, but submitted a guess of 11,600 – a projected difference of just 459.08.

At this point, team Goliath seems to be off to a strong starts as the Dow has been fairly strong over the last 6 weeks.  There are still 7 long months ahead of us before the end of the year – a lot can change!  Check back each month for an update.

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.

Do you need to get something done? Maybe something that seems scary or difficult to accomplish?

I don’t have a magic bullet, but I do have a bit of energy for you. I keep this one posted at my desk, referring to it occasionally in tough times:

[read in the cave in “Dead Poet’s Society”]

Ulysses

…Come, my friends,
`Tis not too late to seek a newer world…
for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset,…
and tho’ we are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven,
That which we are, we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find — and not to yield.
– Alfred Lord Tennyson

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.