December 8, 2008
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I’ve got a couple of different topics for you today. First up, a little bit of hot stove news (Yikes, I can’t believe I’ve been drawn in enough to actually use that terminology). Sometime last night, it seems the Tigers went ahead and eliminated “catcher” off their list of needs by acquiring Gerald Laird from the Rangers. For all their pitching problems, Texas always seems to have had good catching (at least for the last 15-20 years or so), and Laird seems to fit that mold. He’s not an All-Star or Hall of Fame type, but he’s a good defender, an excellent thrower who routinely throws out around 35% or so (always a plus in my book), and a decent enough hitter. And he’s a veteran, but he’s only 29 years old, so he’s plenty young enough that the Tigers could potentially hang on to him for a while if they need (like if Dusty Ryan doesn’t pan out or gets hurt or something like that). I approve of this trade (and considering my usual lack of enthusiasm for American catchers, that’s saying something). Then again, I also approved of the Edgar Renteria acquisition last year, so make of that what you will. Then again, I wasn’t real crazy about getting Kyle Farnsworth, and I turned out to be right about that, regardless of the reasoning behind it. Also, while everyone else was drooling over the big Cabrera/Willis trade last year, I just got a bad feeling that I couldn’t shake (If you go back to the initial posts I made last year on December 4th and December 6th, you can definitely sense it). That’s a weird one though, because while the season didn’t exactly work out, I’m not sure if that trade was what did it (unlike Farnsworth, who pretty much sucked from his first appearance, and by the time he was able to put together a decent string, the Tigers were long out of the running). I mean, Cabrera had a slow start, but so did everyone else except Brandon Inge, and Cabrera ended up leading the team in home runs and RBIs AND he won the home run title (and probably would’ve been a serious contender for MVP had the Tigers done better overall), and I am glad that he’s with us for the next few years. Dontrelle Willis didn’t pan out, but his de facto replacement (Armando Galarraga) completely surpassed expectations and was outstanding. If anything, the Renteria deal was more of a backfire than the Cabrera/Willis deal, cuz Renteria struggled offensively until about August and his range factor dipped dramatically. So there’s a little bit more food for thought on how reliable my intuition actually is. At any rate, as it stands now, I’m feeling good about Laird. Now onto getting the shortstop and closer situations worked out…
I watched the season finale of The Amazing Race last night, knowing full well that it’d be anticlimactic since I didn’t really have an ounce of enthusiasm for any of the teams left. The winners turned out, unsurprisingly, to be Nick and Starr, the brother/sister team whose praise of each other tends to sometimes border on creepy. By the way, I recently learned that their last name is Spangler. Which means the sister’s name is Starr Spangler. Her parents need to be arrested for that. Ken and Tina finished second (though I suspect not as close as the editors would have you think) and decided to give their marriage a second chance (or, at least, they did so as long as the cameras were rolling). For being pegged as this season’s bickering couple, they really didn’t bicker all that much. I’ve seen far worse. I know several people online don’t like Tina cuz she’s kind of a nag, but really, most seasons we get subjected to the Screaming Jackass and His Whiny, Submissive Wife/Girlfriend, so it’s about time the genders were reversed on that archetype (although it should be noted that Ken and Tina, for the most part, were respectful to the citizens of the various countries). By the way, what was up with the lack of geographic range this season? They never set foot in the Middle East, Africa, or Western Europe. I mean, on any given season, one geographic region (either Africa, Central/South America, Middle East, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia/South Pacific) usually gets skipped, maybe two, but never three. And there was a lot of clustering together and several countries that featured two legs. This season’s countries were Brazil, Bolivia, New Zealand, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Even that’s a little on the low side (there’s usually nine countries…I think). Geographically, they just about skipped over an entire hemisphere. Was the budget for this season really crappy or something? It could’ve been, cuz last season they went to Japan, and that’s a rarity cuz apparently it’s really expensive to film there. Oh well, hopefully next season will be better. I have to wonder about one thing, though. The producers of The Amazing Race are very, VERY fond of sending the racers to India. India shows up nearly every season. There’s a very good reason for this. Geographically, India is situated at a point in the race where the contestants are all physically and mentally exhausted (usually about one half to two thirds of the way through). Between the extreme heat, large population, and widespread poverty, India is known for being a stressful country even to the well-rested traveler. Add those two facts together, and you’re bound to get what the producers love to refer to as Good Television™ (to their credit, though, they try to expose the contestants to the positive side of India as well, as they try to do with all the countries they visit). However, with the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I wonder if CBS executives will shy away from sending the contestants back to India any time soon (whether that caution is warranted or not). In previous seasons where they don’t go to India, they’ve used Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam as “stand-ins,” but those countries usually don’t create as much stress as the producers are looking for. Personally, I’m getting just a little bit tired of India (and Thailand, for that matter, since it seems to be the preferred “India stand-in” and I believe there was one season where they went to both countries, but I could be wrong). In the meantime, I’ve kind of gotten on an Iron Chef roll.
I just realized a few days ago that in the combination of Wolfe Hall and Bowman-Oddy, there are no staircases in the middle of the building. All the staircases (and there are many of ‘em) are near the exits. I guess if there’s a fire and you’re in the middle of the fourth floor, you’re just screwed.
