20 days until pitchers and catcher report.* Not that it's news to my daily readers, but I'm a complete idiot. I have this feeling that I had to do something this weekend, and I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I know Sunday I have a broomball game, but I was thinking it was something on Saturday. If I told you I was going to do something on Saturday, please let me know. I feel like a complete idiot.
Speaking of, I'm screwed because for some reason the spell check on Firefox isn't working. So, you may see some really silly, stupid words misspelled.
* Baseball Prospectus has its PECOTA projections up, and has the Reds finishing second in the NL Central with an 82-80 record, trailing the 89-win Cardinals.
* Keith Law of ESPN has his top 100 prospect list (it's for insiders), Aroldis Chapman is No. 16, Todd Frazier is No. 66, Mike Leake is No. 72, Yonder Alonso is No. 76 and Chris Heisey is No. 88.
Law has Zach Stewart at No. 55, Stewart was the key piece of the Scott Rolen trade.
* Jim Edmonds has signed with the Brewers in his attempt to play for every NL Central team. I guess he knows all the stadiums well enough to know just which balls he can dive for when he doesn't need to dive.
* Nick Markakis has an awesome beard.
* Did Mike Bacsik grove a pitch for Barry Bonds' 756th? Bacsik says he didn't, he was "just crappy enough to do it without trying."
* Another Cuban player defects, this time a 26-year old first baseman/outfielder.
* Chad Ochocinco wants to kick in the Pro Bowl, Bengals fans wish he'd have kicked in the playoffs.
* This is one of the coolest pieces of college football memorabilia I've ever seen -- Joe Paterno's glasses.
* RIP J.D. Salinger. I know it's cliche, but I read The Catcher in the Rye
at least once a year.
* An interview with Michael Chabon about one of my absolute favorite books, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
* Suzanne Vega is back, she has one of the more underrated albums of the early 90s, to me, 99.9 F
.* Vanity Fair looks downs its nose at the Creation Museum and Cincinnati.
* My favorite Top Chef contestant, Kevin Gillespie, has dropped out of the Bocuse d'Or.
I don't mind people ripping the creation museum, because the information and exhibits are non sense. They have a right to be there if they want and people certainly have a right to go, but I read an article where a scientist basically said it's a shame this place exists.
What I do mind though, is the total bashing of KY. It always amazes me how outsiders from these large magazines and newspapers portray KY. I am a Northern Kentuckian, and I know most that live around here think there is a distinction between the North and the rest of the state. However, national media will always portray it as some hillbilly place, where tennis is played by foreigners and rich people.
I read an article about Fidelity in the Boston Globe once. It started by saying the Mayor of Covington was driving up a hill in his Dodge Shadow. Then it went to mention how Covington KY was connected to Cincinnati by a 130 year old suspension bridge. It boiled down to them being hacked off that Fidelity left Boston to come to Covington, but still. This stuff always kills me when I read it.
A lot of people look down their noes at Cincinnati. It honestly says a lot more about them than it does this area. This area has a lot to offer and a lot to be proud of. It has it's blemishes, but who doesn't? Its ashame something like that is able to be published in a national publication.
I may not agree with the message of the Creation Museum, but that doesn't mean it is a bad thing to have in this area. That kind of closed mindedness is exactly what that author would rip the people who defend the museum with I bet.
My family has land out near where that musuem is, and I'll be honest every time I drive past it I shake my head. I will not go into that place, I don't want them to get a dime from me. To me it's the equivalent of Ripley's believe it or not.
I just hate when I read garbage like that though like KY is some wasteland of bible thumpers and ladies who fix eyeglasses that are too stupid to know the guy is making fun of them.
What exactly is a Barren and uninspiring piece of scrub? He makes it sound like it's desert wasteland of the surface of the moon. And everyone knows how important it is to bring the man who played Charles Darwin in a movie. Actors are always up on their facts of the world. I'm just surpised us simple tuckee folks were able to avoid the urge to be star struck that a movie star graced us with his presence.
I was visiting a friend in California and this commercial came on with this guy who was on a farm, then he moved to San Diego. It basically ends with him doing all this awesome stuff and says Then it hits you, you aren't in Kansas anymore.
My friend, who is from Kansas says, I hate that stuff. Why do they always do that. I said Chantel, don't complain, I'm from KENTUCKY!
That same baseball prospectus projection has the Nationals finishing 82-80 as well, ahead of both the Mets and Marlins. I am all for being optimistic, but I'm not sure how much stock I would put in a computer that spits that kind of nonsense out. A season a lot like last year is probably much more likely (*sigh*).
It's a shame how people do way too much looking down on people that aren't exactly like them in general. I happen to believe in intelligent design, and though I have never been to the creation museum (so I don't know much about it), it's silly to stereotype people based on a place of business in their area that is based on a viewpoint they may not agree with. I love the Cincinnati area, and taking a job out of the area after school was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do because it really is one of the best places to live in the entire midwest. Anyone who looks down on the area just hasn't experienced what it has to offer, or is too high brow to get it.
Seriously, all they could find was the Creation Museum ... not the Underground Freedom Museum, or Union Terminal, or the Zoo, et al. Apparently they had a conclusion (about Cincinnati) and sought to prove it through omission.
My favorite thing to do is just drive around Cincinnati (downtown area) with friends who have never been here. They're amazed at the complex and quaint outlining neighborhoods, all the unique non-chain restaurants, how hilly it is, amazed at the best introduction to a city in the US (through the cut in the hill) and that's actually fairly large. Cincinnati gets a bad rap because it had a bad rap and people by and large are too stupid or lazy to think other than what the likes Vanity Fair or Colin(pinhead) Cowherd tell them.
i love the cut in the hill and remember the first time i saw it...
but will say, pittsburgh's got it beat
Not to get to religious/political, no one ever said that evolution couldn't be God's creative design. But apart from that, the Creation Museum is not a good example of place that helps explain an alternative possiblity to evolution. Not to mention, it can be proven that people existed longer than 6000 years ago which is older than they think earth is.
Anyway, other than one dig at Cincinnati not having much to boast about, he was pretty easy on the city. He nailed Kentucky though. And people who read that from other places will say wow, Cincinnati is close to Kentucky? Then, yeah that sounds about right for what I expected out of KY.
This quote sums it all up to me. There is no reference to Cincinnati here.
Here in Nowheresville, Kentucky, tennis is considered a game for Europeans and other sexual deviants. I can’t imagine what they think of English actors
The guy did come down hard on Cincy and Ky both. Kind of crummy to judge an entire area based on a museum that I'm guessing less than 1% of this populous has actually visited or even taken seriously. Can't take a guy like that too seriously, no matter how many adjectives he uses in his article.
A more serious subject: Reds, 1st winning season in 10 years, and the best rotation in the majors in 2012.