November 27th, 2007
Guess who’s back…back again
I’ve returned from Southeast Asia, where I explored the ruins of Angkor Wat, read of genocidal madmen, spent a day washing elephants, and watched four year olds shoot bottle rockets at each other. The region has a lot to rmend it…save, of course, for the lack of baseball and drinkable water.
As I slowly recover from jet lag I’ll wade back in here and get some thoughts and observations down about the departure of the Dentist, the return of Mike “Lunchpail” Lowell, and the A-Rod chronicles, part 814. For now, here’s my most recent piece, a profile of Doug Morris, the head of Universal Records. It focused on DRM - for those of you non-geeks out there, that’s digital rights management, otherwise known as the way record companies et al protect digital files. I have some more thoughts about the piece, and some thoughts on how it has been interpreted, but as they say, all in good time…
November 9th, 2007
Hello, I must be going…
I know…this is my second reference to the same Phil Collins album in a year and a half! Incredible. (Somehow, I didn’t make it to the Genesis reunion tour. I did see the Police last week at MSG. Not so good. But I digress.)
Anyway - I’m heading to Hong Kong. And Cambodia. And Vietnam. Not for an investigation into the state of semi-pro baseball in Asia; I’m actually heading out on my delayed honeymoon, which will keep me offline until after Thanksgiving… which means I won’t be able to opine on the Sox’s re-signing (or non-re-signing of Mike “Lunchpail” Lowell (nickname courtesy of reader Scott Laton), or on the anti-A Rod sweepstakes, or on Murray Chass’s ongoing effort to write the stupidest column in the history of the world. (Seriously - I have no idea where to even think about beginning with today’s effort. Every time I think he can’t get any dumber he writes something that impresses me anew.)
In the frenzy of planning, I also haven’t had a chance to congratulate the Gold Glove voters on getting at least one position right this year (Youk at first) or castigated them on ridiculously blowing what should have been a no-brainer (Coco in center). (Another aside: if, indeed, Coco ends up patrolling center for some other team next year, which wouldn’t surprise me, I will, as most of you likely know, be disappointed. I really love watching that little dude patrol the outfield…and I still think he made a huge difference this year. And I’m not just saying that because the wife had lunch with Jacoby yesterday and came away cooing about how “nice” and “smart” he is.) I also haven’t had a chance to voice my respect for the deal Curt took to stay in Boston. I know - anyone making $8 mil a year isn’t exactly roughing it - but Schill clearly could have made more on the open market. It’s rare these days that an athlete says “it’s not about the money” and means it; here was a situation in which one actually did. And despite my efforts to be clear-eyed about this whole business of baseball thing, I’m glad #38 will be retiring in Boston uni…and I hope when he gets elected into the Hall (and as far as I’m concerned, there’s no longer any real question as to whether he should make it) he’ll be wearing a Sox cap.
One last bit of housekeeping - any new commenters won’t be able to post until I get back. But by all means sign up and send those comments in; I’ll wade through them as soon as I pay my bills and get over my jetlag.
Mnookin…out.
November 7th, 2007
The seductive shimmering of Hawaiian goddesses…
OK, not really. But I’m taking care of some housekeeping, and I realized I hadn’t put up a link to this recent piece from Conde Nast Traveler about the largest hula competition in the world. So there you go.
November 6th, 2007
Schilling back for ‘08
This has already broken over the wires, but Schilling re-signed with the Sox. It’s a one-year deal, which, I’m assuming, means he really will retire after next year; otherwise, he would have/should have been able to find a longer deal from some other team prettily easily. I don’t know the terms, but I’d assume they’re close to the $13 mil or so he got this year.
