Comments on: How to pitch

By: hughhansen

hughhansen — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:31:57 +0000

Don’t kill off Kiner, he still works a handful of games a year (normally only a couple innings).

Kiner has some great malaprops, but he also had decent analysis for a long time.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:58:28 +0000

Well, pretty much everything is data driven….so, even though there may be competing interpretations or extant data, people realize that at some point data likely will exist that may prove them wrong….so nearly everyone hedges and does not over-reach on their interpretation or you’ll get slapped down if the data isn’t sufficient to distinguish between competing hypotheses….being data driven is a huge plus compared to historical stuff….I would guess.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:53:26 +0000

Your zoo sounds nice, paperlions. I assure you, history does not work the same way. Our field centers around competing interpretations — you want to set yourself up as THE authority on whatever your little niche is and squabbles between experts are par for the course.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:12:53 +0000

In my experience, academics are polite in public….now….when it comes to reviews or ripping something as soon as they are safely out of earshot…yeah, that’s pretty common. I guess….for my general field (ecology) there are a lot of smart people….and no matter how smart you think you are…at some point, you have your ass handed to you…after that…nearly everyone is more polite than they were before, realizing that if you are a jerk or confrontational in public, you are asking for usually polite people to find ways to hand your ass to you in public.

Most everyone realizes that criticism of research is not personal (even though many people take it personally, at first), most people strive to ensure that their criticism is not presented in a personal manner (thus the lack of “well duh”s during talks/seminars.

By: Francisco (FC)

Francisco (FC) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:42:34 +0000

Cliff Lee could have used that run support advice last season…

By: Francisco (FC)

Francisco (FC) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:35:51 +0000

I’m guessing that in his time a brilliant mind was required to point out the obvious. Using history as a guide many a general has failed the “obvious” test.

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:54:09 +0000

Depends on the field, I think. Medical is just so big you can’t really develop an arch-enemy. Now, archaeology is another matter. There are these two guys who always seem to give me grief. Ever know anyone who can just make any question sound condescending?

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:48:12 +0000

I always get it the wrong way around. Having discovered, thanks to Mythbusters, that one can indeed shine shit, I keep trying to dazzle them with bullshit and, failing that, can barely baffle them with brilliance. It works much better the way you have it.

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:40:08 +0000

I’m taking my daughter to see “Life of Pi” this evening. I’ll get back to you on that one.

By: derklempner

derklempner — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:30:37 +0000

There is no argument. Cake > pie.

As long as you remember that pi > cake > pie.

By: nbjays

nbjays — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:19:43 +0000

Just remember Rule #1, Cur…. “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit!”

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:49:05 +0000

I can’t imagine McCarver being the way of anything.

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:30:22 +0000

There is no argument. Cake > pie. War of 1812 has more grit than pie. These are facts.

By: indaburg

indaburg — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:29:45 +0000

It’s the Tao of McCarver.

By: indaburg

indaburg — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:19:10 +0000

My first thought when I saw the Hideki post had over 80 comments was: Cur’s arguing about damn pie again. I wasn’t too far off. Pie = War of 1812. Both are overrated.

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:02:34 +0000

Much like in baseball blogs, in academia you’ll find the noisy obnoxious few drown out the polite many. For instance some utter cretin who is clearly bored, and should be getting on with some of the work he’s being paid to do, but isn’t because everyone else is on vacation, is over on the Matsui post making outlandish claims about Canadian military superiority and maple syrup. Everyone knows the Canadian Military is a peace keeping force and is about as likely to repel an American invasion as I am of advancing my favour with Jessica Alba (damn restraining orders!). However if you went by the traffic on the Matsui post you’d swear there was a vigorous and hard wrangled debate about Hideki’s HOF chances. See? Its not that lots of them are not polite its that one or two were raised barns and act like it.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:48:38 +0000

Ok, I read the words and understood them, but I did not understand that. Have a nice day.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:46:58 +0000

I want to know what this imaginary place where academics are polite is. What I’ve experienced is pretty much Kissinger’s version.

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:40:48 +0000

All going well, I shall be presenting some of my research findings at The Western Perinatal Research Meeting in February. I live in fear of the of . . .

“well, duh” out loud

By: kirkvanhouten

kirkvanhouten — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:10:45 +0000

I remain convinced that in 73 years of televised baseball broadcasts, there has been, collectively, no more than 2 hours of substantive analysis that actually made the viewer a more informed baseball player.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:48:48 +0000

I have observed the same thing. It seems to happen because 1) people love confirmation of things they already know, and 2) most people in academia are too polite to say “well, duh” out loud.

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:44:29 +0000

Among the many things baseball has taught me is how to state the obvious and make it sound profound as hell. Very useful in academia.

By: franklb

franklb — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:27:04 +0000

I’m just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballclub. I take ‘em one game at a time.

By: natslady

natslady — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:19:33 +0000

I liked “don’t bother unless you plan on getting run support,” and “go to the league to get rescheduled if you have to face good hitters,” and, “wait, Jared is right-handed…” So many gems there!

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:08:11 +0000

“Look at my watch.” Damn, that was funny.

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:04:28 +0000

Those thoughtful telecast graphics have always helped me better understand the game. That and all the negative reinforcement from my father. “No, I don’t think an 8 year old girl can make that throw, Dad!”

By: natslady

natslady — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:00:09 +0000

Funniest thing I’ve read in a long time!!! Read it three times and I was still laughing.

Wait—none of these “scouts” are Hall-of-Fame voters, right?

By: Baseball Beer Burritos In That Order

Baseball Beer Burritos In That Order — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:44:38 +0000

Reminds me of some of my favorite quotes from the late Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner.

“Solo homers usually come with no one on base.”
“There’s a lot of heredity in that family.”
“All of his saves have come in relief appearances.”
“The reason the Mets have played so well at Shea this year is they have the best home record in baseball.”

By: mrfloydpink

mrfloydpink — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:34:57 +0000

This reminds me of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” Based on the book’s reputation, I expected the contents to be truly brilliant. Instead, it was a bunch of stuff like, “The general who has the most men in the right place will tend to win the battle.”