Carnival of Madness

The funny thing about having both LaRoches in the Pittsburgh Pirates line up is what the hell are they gonna put on the back of their jerseys. For Andy, it might have to be An. LaRoche and for Adam, it’d be Ad. LaRoche. Hahaha. Maybe it should be for Adam Add. LaRoche, or so I heard. I think the best solution that it should be Adam L. and Andy L. I mean, they let Ichiro Suzuki put Ichiro on the back of his jersey. Of course that’s Seattle.I might tune in to the Red Sox game to see how Jason Bay is doing there tomorrow night since the Pirates will be on from Wrigley during the afternoon. Of course the Red Sox made a pretty good pick up, they’re losing a 36 year old player and getting a 30 year old player in his place. Of course they’re rich, they can afford to do that.

The Dodgers are stupid. They have a full OF already, it would have made sense if they sent Matt Kemp to the Pirates, but they didn’t. They sent LaRoche, who’s a 3B and only 24 years old and a 21 year old pitcher who is considered an elite prospect. Of course, Sportscenter watchers said the Dodgers got the best out of this trade. So there’s millions of Buster Olneys out there voting in ESPN polls. I thought that the Pirates got the best end of this deal, which I can’t remember happening in a long time. They used the Red Sox and Rays to make this whole thing work. They basically spent the last two or three days telling the Red Sox and Rays: You better trade for Bay, I might send him to the other team! Getting both teams to give up decent prospects was a real coup. In case you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about it. Hate losing Bay, love seeing younger talent come in. And best of all, the Red Sox aren’t in the same division nor League as the Pirates, so no 18 visits a year (like with Aramis Ramirez) and slamming balls in to the left field loony section. I just hope they can get at least one win this weekend. Bad time to face the Cubs again. Can’t belive it’s been over two months since the last Pirates-Cubs game, during the wedding weekend.

Oh yeah and the ESPN guys going on about how Jason Bay is fucking shitty. Who needs that .829 OPS? Who needs a guy with 2 more HR than Manny? Who needs a guy who won’t use a change in pitchers to grab his cell phone and make some calls? Worthless, he’s only playing with the Pirates because they suck…

The coolest thing of all: I got to see Bay’s last home run as a Pirate a week ago today. I’ve already decided that McLouth is my new favorite Pirate. Easy pick there…since I got to watch him homer as well that night.

Ah yes, I’m sure that’s the kind of trade Billy Beane made as a teenager.Sadly, the Pirates don’t have Billy Beane as the brilliant GM leading the way. But we do have Neal Huntington and he’s pretty much the 10th or 11th best thing out there, I suppose. He’s way better than Ed Wade, who is insuring that the Houston Astros become the worst team in baseball for at least a decade. Which I don’t mind. After spending about a decade watching the Astros own the Pirates year after year, the Pirates are starting to own the ‘Stros which is pretty sweet. Now they just have to own the Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers and Reds and they’d be set.

So the Pirates got done a huge deal and picked up four big prospects, including the much hated Pirates 1B Adam LaRoche’s little brother Andy LaRoche. When I left the trade center (hanging out at MLB Fanhouse Live Chat and with ESPNews on the TV), there has been lots of talk between the Rays and Pirates. Specifically the Pirates trading Bay to the Rays for Hellickson and some SS, I forgot his name. Well I had to go to work for the man and missed the big story. I kept my eye on the clock and wondered what the fuck happened. When I got in a little while ago, I wondered what, if anything had happened. The whole thing is that the Dodgers get Manny “Asshole” Ramirez and the Red Sox get Jason Bay. The Pirates are sent four top notch prospects from both organizations (two from each). I can’t say I like the idea of Jason Bay leaving the Pirates, but you can’t really argue with the fact that the Pirates just made four big pick ups, all of whom are just what the Pirates need right now. They add real depth to the system and give the Pirates a long term solution at 3B if Pedro Alvarez doesn’t sign and even if he does, he could possibly move to first. Or LaRoche could move to 2B, Alvarez to 3B and if Matthew Hague works out, he could be at 1B. Anyways, lots of possibilities…

Jim Nussle talks about the budget and the deficit. This is my favorite quote from it by Dana Perino:

I remember that back when we were discussing the stimulus package, both parties recognized that the deficit would increase, and that would be the price that we pay in order to help improve the economy,

Oh, I get it, they’re paying the price. Yeah, tax payers aren’t paying any price at all, just our fucking money! And they don’t really know if it’s gonna really improve the economy, they’re just using the tax payer’s money to guess that it’s gonna improve stuff. Treating the economy like a voodoo doll, if they stick it enough with a knife, they’ll eventually fix everything. Keynesian economics at it’s most bullshittingest (if that’s a real word).

Now it’s looking like the Yankee’s GM is having a bout of Buyer’s Remorseafter getting X-Man and Marte for three major league caliber pitchers and Jose Tabata, a potential superstar OF. After the trade was called a disaster by a majority of Pirates fans on the internet within minutes of Nady and Marte leaving the field Friday night, it’s beginning to look better and better for the Pirates. If the Yankees GM is having buyer’s remorse, it’s pretty clear that the Pirates got something good out of it. Of course the talking heads on ESPN and Fox Sports says the Yankees got a steal, they usually don’t think long term about prospects. Baseball America thinks the Pirates got the upper hand in the deal. It’s funny because if you look back at the Scott Kazmir trade 4 years ago, everyone said the Mets got the upper hand and the Rays were screwed. I wonder who thinks that today?

Oh boy, what a weekend. Flying in to Pittsburgh, I expected the Pirates to win the first two and lose the third one. Turns out, Zach Duke is still terrible and the Pirates lost two of the three I came to see. But I’m just happy I got to see one win, which was important to me. And in that one win, they just crushed the Padres. But the 2nd one was dissapointing because they should have won. The third game here they could have won, if they kept in their good players (they took out Bay, McLouth and Sanchez early). Yeah, great idea. Put “F Troop” in the game while the hottest players on the team sit it out…at least they weren’t traded tonight…Of course that’s the big thing, X-Man and Marte were traded to the Yankees for a 19 year old prospect who’s in AA ball already and some pitchers who will could turn out to be helpful short term.

I think the trade was ok. Not great, but not terrible as most fans seem to think it is. It could have been better, but no where near as awful as previous trades, such as trading Ramirez to the Cubs for two bleacher seats and a case of Old Syle or the salary eating Matt Morris trade of last year. I will give the Pirates new management one thing, they are willing to take big risks on prospects and that’s something the old management team of a year ago didn’t do.

But I have to say the coolest thing about this weekend was seeing in real life five former Pirates players. Ya know, players who were with the Pirates during the really good times (the 70′s and the late 80′s-early 90′s). First I walked by Manny Sanguillen’s grill every time I entered the park and he was there signing autographs like usual. On Thursday night, I got autographs from John Smiley, Grant Jackson (who was the winning pitcher in game 7 of the 79 World Series) and Barry Jones (a reliever with the Pirates during the late 80′s). The best part of that, besides the autographs was that I saw Grant Jackson’s World Series ring up close. That’s pretty cool by itself.

Last night was Al Oliver bobblehead night. This morning I went and got breakfast, but the lobby was full, not an empty seat in the house. I went along and brought my breakfast back upstairs. Some kids were in the elevator with me along with a hotel employee on the way back. She asked the kids if they got bobbleheads yesterday and then asked if that was their grandfather. I was kinda surprised and they said yeah. They said he was in his room. I went back to my room, thinking it was pretty cool that Al Oliver and I were staying at the same hotel. After the game tonight, I walked in to the lobby and waited with about 50 other people for the elevators. I wasn’t in a big hurry so I let people walk by me and get in. I just stood there and waited. I looked around the lobby after 5 minutes of waiting when suddenly, I saw Al Oliver sitting in a chair in the lobby. I decided not to bother him. Most of the people with Pirates stuff on waiting to get back to their rooms didn’t even notice him sitting there. I got in to an elevator after the room cleared out with two other guys. I asked if they saw Al Oliver and they said something like “No, where?” and I said he was just sitting in a chair down there in the lobby. The reaction by those guys was “That’s pretty cool, he’s staying here another night, just like us.”

Other stuff. Yesterday, I went on the Heinz Field tour thing. It was fairly awesome for a low price of $6.50. I got to sit in one of the luxury suites (along with the rest of the tour), I got to try out the bleacher seats. Got to see the club seating chill room. I got to see the security room, which had two guys screwing around with the cameras. They showed us the old lockers from Three Rivers Stadium; which the Pirates also used, so they have some real history there. They showed where the team official offices were (in the sense they showed us a door that the tour guide said went there and I assumed thats where they went). But the coolest part was seeing the Steelers Game Day locker room. Of course it was empty and they said that for all but those ten home games (2 preseason and 8 regular season); along with any playoff games, the room is clean and empty for 355 days of the year. then we go to walk from the locker room on to the field level, so we got a sense of what the players do when they leave the field at half time and how they come back on the field. Of course being on the field level was very cool. We couldn’t walk on the grass or anything, but we were able to walk on the cement on the outside of the grass. After the gigantic mess they made last year during the Dolphins game, it looks like they have it in pretty good shape again. We weren’t allowed to step on or touch the grass. They said the cheap seats were $60. I think I like the PNC Park cheap seats better. I mean $9 is pretty good for a major league game. You can’t get that at Yankee Stadium or Fenway. And there’s almost always lots of room at PNC Park…

I think I’m ready to call it a night. Gotta be up at 4:00 in order to catch my flight back to Iowa.

After 740 days and five loses; I finally saw the Pirates win another game! It was awesome, a 9-1 victory over the Padres. It felt good. Also, before the game got to meet John Smiley, Grant Jackson and Barry Jones during the autograph session. It was pretty awesome. Got a few autographs. That’s the kind of the thing they should be doing instead of fireworks and bobbleheads. Not that I won’t take the Al Oliver Bobblehead tomorrow night. Or the Free Hat on Saturday Night.As for the game, it was easy for former AA pitcher Yoslan Herrera to shut down the worst hitting team in the NL. Meanwhile, the Pirates made mincemeat of the Padres pitching. Before the game, a guy near me kept saying that the Padres pitcher had a 0.00 ERA and Herrera had a 19.50 ERA so clearly the Pirates were gonna get shut down. Of course, both are new major leaguers, so those stats are very skewed. Combine the fact that the Pirates are good hitters and the Padres are bad hitters and we get a 9-1 shutdown of the Padres. Also, the Padres are playing in the worst division in baseball and they’re still on pace to lose 100+ games, so this was an easy win for the Pirates. Awesome that I picked out such a good series to go to this year. Pending on what happens the next two days.

Tomorrow, it’s off to do the Heinz Field stadium tour! Whoo! I got my cash and camera ready for that thing.

A few years ago it was a report about parasites in planes. This time, it’sThe Airport Police State. Of course this comes out the day before I go through Airport Security.If they do the wand thing and lift up his pant leg, that would have shown he wasn’t hiding anything. But that’s just not enough for the Nazi war criminals running the airports these days.

But yeah, I’m just excited about flying again. I just love planes, they’re fun. The TSA and airlines: not fun…

The thing about people is that when it comes to money, they usually don’t listen to other people on how to spend it. Of course the government seems to think the best way to keep the economy working is to just hand out $300 checks and lower interest rates. Encourage more spending instead of savings and complain that if you buy something cheap, you’re causing a recession.Of course considering the government is run by a bunch of Keynesians, it would make sense to say that. Keynes was a paranoid moron who suggested that recessions were caused by excessive savings and that the best way to get out of a recession was to have the government deficit spend it’s way out. It’s a lot like saying that we should just charge up our credit cards until we’re rich again.

Recessions are part of the business cycle. Trying to have the government stop them won’t work because it’s like delaying the inevitable. Eventually, there will be a market correction that will change the way the market works. Recessions are usually deeper and longer if the government’s raising taxes, raising spending and going to war with half the world. I think the best example of market correction was back in 2000. During the late 90′s there was a lot of Venture Capitalist money being thrown at new Internet Companies. The Internet was still pretty new back then and everyone wanted in on the next big thing, the next Yahoo! or Amazon.com or eBay. Some of these companies got millions of dollars and hired offices full of people, but didn’t accomplish much of anything. Eventually companies that weren’t doing anything or providing a useful service were shut down. Thus, the market corrected problems that existed from easy money being thrown around at questionable businesses.

Really the best way to fix the economy is to cut spending, cut taxes (both by about 95%), bring all the troops home from overseas (not just the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in military bases around the world), cut tariffs, open up to more free trade, allowing more drilling for oil in the US, and real deregulation. In other words, let people have their money and spend it, save it or give it away as they see fit.

That would be part one of fixing the problem. The second part should be the disbanding of the Federal Reserve and the restoration of the gold standard in the US Currency. The fact is that without something to give the money value, inflation will continue on until a cup of coffee and a donut will cost us $150. The truth is that gas and food prices haven’t gone up as much as the value of the dollar has gone down.

So to sum up:
1. The government should stop spending so much fucking money
2. The government should get out of the way of the market.
3. The government should stop pissing off most of the world and bring our troops home, then establish good trade relations with the rest of the world.
4. The government should restore value to the money we use…

Maybe this is all a bit too simplistic to really fix the economy. But I think most of this would be a good start.

Hmm…. So that’s why we “need” to take our shoes off at airport security. Of course they don’t mention how many terrorists have been stopped by screening everyone’s shoes. The official explanation is probably that it will stop terrorist because they won’t try it that way.That is all for now.

Yep. I didn’t even notice the game was on tonight. Sounds like the same old shit.

The first reason was there was a new, great episode of Bullshit. In the past, I’ve sort of felt like they kinda went off topic a bit too much and at times seemed to lack focus. But this season, they are really on fire. I mean, tonight it was about Sleeping. Specifically all the bullshit that’s supposed to make us sleep better. Like pills that do nothing except kill people…like Heath Ledger. There was one lady selling these heating pads for $4200. Holy shit, you could buy a car for that much and if you wanted you could probably get just as good of a sleep in the car. And in the morning you can wake up and drive to work. Then there were bed salesmen who made the insomniac try out their beds. The insomniac guy was a riot. This guy is complaining he doesn’t get much sleep. He spends a lot of time drinking and eating big meals a few times. No wonder he isn’t sleeping well. At the end of the episode they gave us the obvious advice for sleeping well: go to bed at the same time every day, have a routine, don’t nap during the day, don’t eat and drink alcohol right before bed. Ya know, the stuff I do every day for the most part. Today is an exception and I feel sorta bad about it.

So in the big fucking news, I saw The Dark Knight tonight. It was so worth it too. It’s a movie that exceeded every high expectation I had when I walked in. The first half hour is spent setting everything up. After that, the movie doesn’t let up until the very end. It’s just an amazingly tense and thrilling movie. I can’t say more than that without giving too much away.

So in conclusion, I offer this little bit of Bat-History: