Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
All the more appropriate title these days. While respecting the privacy his family has requested, all reports have been extremely positive lately. I've spoken to several people close to Peter and all gave things the best possible spin. Bud Selig is considering extending the trade deadline to allow Peter to recover.
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How do you really identify yourself? When asked "Who are you" in a real, not a metaphysical sense, how do you answer? Some will identify themselves by occupation or standing. Most of us are fathers or husbands, sons or daughters. Maybe our hobby or tribe defines us.
I've answered "baseball writer" to that question for the past couple years. Then again, more people know me for radio than writing and I write about football as well as baseball. Is my answer less valid or more telling?
How often should that answer change in one's life?
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I don't get Paris Hilton either. I like the idea that she's playing a role, as she's suggested, but if so, she's Marlon Brando without the eating.
Now, Lindsay Lohan ... I get. It's like finding a muddy dog, washing it off and finding that it's a show quality purebred. With Lindsay, if you could just get the muck off and out, I'm convinced that young Ann-Margret is still there. There's flashes now and again. Not that kind.
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I'm convinced the trade deadline is going to be less active than last year. GM's are playing scared. To use a poker analogy, everyone at the table is holding pocket sevens. It's not a bad hand, it could get better, but there's a lot that beats it. This week's the flop, the weekend the turn and Monday's the river. I have to quit playing online; everything's poker analogies.
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There is no Jamba Juice in Connecticut or Indiana. The world is NOT fair.
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The Braves are making me look smart. I think it was Matt Kleine's youthful enthusiasm that made me pick them as my wild card team when asked at the ASB. They're the Michael Myers of baseball. Do not take off your top or go off alone when the Braves are around.
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Is there a better team site than Larry Borowsky's "Viva El Birdos" right now? Not in my book and this despite the fact that everyone in his domain thinks I hate the Cardinals.
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I love my new Shure earphones. The downside is that they have such a good acoustic seal that I feel almost claustrophobic. They did help me realize that Muse's "Map of the Problematique" is painfully close to Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence." Painfully close. Anyone else have a set of Shures? Any tips for adjusting to them?
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There's no better airport in the US than Pittsburgh. There's no worse airport than Cincinnati. Guess which one I'm switching in tomorrow. Ugh.
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Mark Prior in 2003: 19 starts, 4.3 WARP3
Jered Weaver in 2006: on track for 21 starts, 4.4 WARP3
Rich Lederer should have stuck with his guy.
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Check out Adam Dunn's quotes about Austin Kearns' "miserable days" in Washington. Anyone get the sense that Dunn's statements might end up costing him in Cincinnati?
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More and more interest in the gyroball. I've had writers from three separate national publications asking me about the pitch. Now if I can just get one reasonable quality pitcher ...
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And with that and a more liberal Dennis Miller-style flourish of the electronic pen, I am out of here.
Thanks for introducing me to Jamba Juice. Found one right up the street from me- I think I've been there about twice a week since finding it...
She's very Warholian. Essentially you have this person who's rich beyond her wildest dreams, and yet, she's constantly out there showing us how empty being that rich is. Yet, she's completely unaware that it's empty.
Of course, there's the larger picture too—hotels are transitory places and fame, too, is fleeting. Even better, she's famous for nothing. Nothing except looking nice and, um, servicing other. Again like a hotel.
And, the ads for the Wardolf-Astoria (a Hilton Hotel) say something along the lines of "where privacy is jealously guarded." Now, we have an heiress to that fortune where who has no privacy of her own. The whole world has seen her intimate moments, whereas her family's fortune is based on guarding the privacy of others.
So, there you've got a hotel heiress losing her privacy in a hotel no less, and subsequently becoming famous, and that's not interesting?
If only Paris were the Eternal City, and not Rome, this whole thing would be even more perfect.
Lindsay Lohan is just some spotty actress.
Paris Hilton may very well be a cosmic joke.
What do you want?
As well, we have so much depths to our characters (one would hope anyway), that the answer to the question would really be different, depending on who does the asking.
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