Monthly Archives: March 2011

Beloit Snappers @ Quad Cities River Bandits, September 3, 2009

We’ve straightened out the pitching situation–Scott McGregor’s magically appeared on the mound. And we’ve released Ingram from his baserunning duties so he can return to QC’s CF. emBut: We’re still lost track of one out. That will haunt us.

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Bureaucratic Whimsy

When I began this journal, my main purpose was to document the things I did for a living. I wrote these work-triggered essays so for about a year, then stopped. A few months later, as I moved the site to a new server, I removed most of the work-related pages, leaving only a handful of job-related pages which didn’t directly touch on my job. I always planned to recover and repost the removed pages at some future date, and have now done so. They can be found in the site’s Bureaucratic Whimsy category. A few have minor edits, and I’ve added an occasional explanatory note. Please be aware that all names (except mine) have been changed, though in most cases the identity will be obvious to folks who worked with me.

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Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon: a review

That said: Moon is a master plotter, an efficient writer, and truly excellent at character creation. This is a complex novel on several levels. Besides the warfare, there are two very different political environments, fleet politics, family disagreements, on-board relationships, and a young woman finding herself. Moon integrates these various threads more effectively than anyone else writing military SF. I like this stuff; wish she’d return to it.

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Wrigley Field by Stuart Shea: a review

This is a book mainly about the northside ballpark, and about the team executives who’ve been responsible for maintaining it. Although many ballgames are described, and seasons are summarized, the Cubs (and the ChiFeds who first resided here) are not the book’s subject. This is not a shortcoming, but is occasionally disconcerting.

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1980 Baseball Abstract by Bill James: a short review

There’s still some refining to do, but this is the first edition that feels like the commercial versions. Great fun.

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Play by Play

In May of 2006 Jeff Sackmann announced that he’d begun publishing splits (left/right, day/night, home/away, etc) information for minor league players. His Minor League Splits (MLS) website became one of the most valuable minor league stats sources. He’s no longer providing the information in an easily accessible form, but he’s made the underlying data available. This is potentially an immensely valuable resource, as it may enable folks to study the disparities in performance between players taking the field at different levels of professional competition.

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Asylum for the Insane by William Decker: a review

All that said: Worth reading if you’re interested in either the Kalamazoo asylum or the history of mental health treatment in America. There’s lots of interesting material here, despite some issues in its presentation. I’m planning to read Decker’s book about the Traverse City asylum, where he never worked; I expect to learn interesting things.

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Thousands of Broadways by Robert Pinsky: a short review

Except I’m not sure what the point is.

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