The Paperback Cafe

On the night of the tsunami hitting Japan, I gave a Facebook thumbs up to two comments from a person I used to know in 3rd thru 12th grade who is living on Redondo Beach California now, one he posted a story on surfers racing out to catch the wave, and two, “Now I know the difference between a tsunami warning and a tsunami advisory”. I thought these two comments were funny as hell and I never knew this guy had such a good sense of humor until we met on Facebook two months ago. I barely knew the guy in elementary school.

I’ve been feeling guilty since, because of course the next day the nuclear reactors had meltdowns and all the videos starting rolling in of the devastation and reports of 10,000 killed.

I’ve got 100 people I’ve met in my life following me on Facebook and you know at least one or two thought ‘boy that Lou, I didn’t know he was so insensitive’. But you’d never know it or find out.

Now I feel like I’ve got my pants down because 1) I used to be a FEMA shelter survey technician “surveying public and commercial buildings for their applicability as a bomb shelter in the event of a natural or ‘man made’ disaster”, and recently started a Facebook page to draw in some of the people who went thru the same experience as me, and post some of the old manuals, etc, maybe even reconnect with the people I worked with during two college summers, but haven’t had time to post anything on the site — it would sure be a hit right now, and 2) the product I help make at work can be used for such disaster recovery planning (they use it in Taiwan for this) but we haven’t made a big deal about it and now we would look like opportunists if we did so.

There is always this:

ARod hit his 600th homerun today — a two-run shot to centerfield in the first inning of an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium against the Blue Jays (they won 5-1, as Phil Hughes outpitched Shaun Marcum). Most folks, including ESPN’s Michelle Beadle and many fans at NYPost.com, are saying ‘so what’; it is a meaningless number because of the steroids.

Sure it is. All baseball statistics are meaningless. It is the stupid fans who have bought into statistics meaning something; that’s baseball’s schtick.

Babe Ruth’s records are meaningless. He played in a league that only allowed white players, and did his hitting in bandbox ballparks with a lively ball. Throw his numbers out.

Henry Aaron hit his homers in a bandbox ballpark too. He was never the premier player in the game, yet he at one point held the all-time homerun record for a long time. He was lucky to stay healthy for a long time, popping those little homers over the wall in his bandbox home ballpark in Atlanta. Willie Mays, on a Kiner’s Corner interview in the mid seventies, stated that back in the sixties, he, Roberto Clemente, and Frank Robinson wanted to play the whole 9 innings of each all-star game — they didn’t want Aaron out there because they felt he wasn’t in their class.

Roger Maris was booed unmercifully by Yankee fans in 1961. He was white and a Yankee, and yet was booed. Why? Because he had no business breaking the all-time homer record, felt the fans. He was a 30-homer guy, who happened to get hot the one year the American League expanded from 8 to 12 teams — meaning 33 percent of the pitchers he faced would’ve been in the minor leagues the year before. Plus Maris probably used amphetimines, the drug of choice back then to give players that run-through-a-wall mentality and tremendous concentration. So throw Maris’ numbers out too.

Who’s numbers are left?

Graig Nettles, that’s who — playing in the dead-ball seventies he still hit 390 career homeruns and STILL has the all-time record for most homeruns by an American League third baseman, playing all-time-great-gold-glove defense there as well.

 In any case, glad to see ARod get his 600th homerun. Even though I don’t like the guy.

Greatest NY Yankee Managers:

1. Joe Girardi (brilliant evaluator of talent, handler of pitching staffs, and of men)

2. Ralph Houk (two championships, three pennants, won 93 games in 1970 despite Jerry Kenny as his 3rd baseman; recently died, and no one cared)

3. Joe Torre (had the horses, and a doghouse; mishandled ballpen; won with the horses; great manager overall, but not fantastic)

4. Casey Stengel (hard to say how successful he’d be in the modern era)

5. Miller Huggins (also hard to say how successful he’d be in modern era)

6. Bob Lemmon (won with a team Billy Martin was losing with in 1978)

7. Bill Virdon (responsible for ‘band on the run’ season of 1974. Almost won with a rag-tag team; and had Orioles not won last 11 straight and 18 of last 21, maybe Yanks of Murcer/Munson/Nettles would’ve had ring)

8. Buck Showalter (very anal)

Dead Last. Billy Martin (burned out pitching staffs (see 1981 A’s); was an angry drunk who was drunk much of the time)

News Item: Macy’s Launches Madonna/Lourdes Clothing Line at 200 Stores

Macy’s has got it going on.

• Macy’s ’own’s Thanksgiving (parade) to Christmas (Miracle on 34th Street and the place to sit on Santa’s lap, even though most of the time these days this is done in a central place in a mall) — the most important months of year for retailers, when they make 75 percent of all their dough. 
• Macy’s ‘owns’ Fourth of July (fireworks in NYC broadcast nationally).
• Macy’s has high quality merchandise,
• Macy’s has great stores,
• Macy’s has great logo (red star),
• Macy’s has great shopping bags (the white with red star or red with white star), and
• Macy’s has a great reputation – when you buy someone a gift from Macy’s, the person receiving gift knows you thought well of them (even if they know you may have gotten it on sale); and it’s returnable.

Macy’s is ‘IT’ for retailers (unlike JC Penney’s, Sears, Walmart, etc – for which none of the above is true. Buy a gift for someone from Sears or JC Penney they think you’re a cheap skate).  

Hope it works but they’d have been better off with Lady Gaga from Great Kills Staten Island.

Reference story: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/fashion/strike_pose_ZYVjsLiGA7Pt5WqVOud2vK