Dispatches is up — the Iowa caucuses are a week away.
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Baseball trivia on a rainy afternoon
A little trivia to bide the time:
- Only one team has won World Series titles in three separate cities. Which one?
- Of the 16 franchises in existence in 1901, seven have moved. Which ones?
- Which of these teams was the first to move?
- What team has the worst winning percentage in history?
- Which three managers have won Manager of the Year in both leagues?
- Who are the only two former MVP players to win Manager of the Year?
- Who is the only Manager of the Year to have a losing record for the year he won the award?
- Who is the only manger to win Manager of the Year with three different teams?
Answers:
- The Braves — Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta
- Braves, Orioles (were the St. Louis Browns); Giants (from New York), Dodgers (from Brooklyn), Yankees (from Baltimore, where they were the Orioles), Athletics (Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland), Twins (from Washington Senators)
- Yankees, in 1903
- Tampa at .399
- Tony LaRussa (White Sox in 1983, Oakland in 1988 and St. Louis in 2002) and Bobby Cox (Toronto in 1985 and Atlanta in 1991, 2004 and 2005) and Jim Leyland (Pittsburgh 2002 and Detroit 2006)
- 6. Frank Robinson and Joe Torre
- Joe Girardi with the 2006 Marlins
- Tony Larussa
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Runner’s diary, Thursday
Four miles in 33:16 on the treadmill, increasing my pace progressively until the finish. Then I hit the weights — upper body.
Music: a mix.
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The year in music: A to Z
As promised, here is my musical overview of the year that is fast coming to a close.
The year in music: A to Z
A: The Arctic Monkeys and Art Brut release outstanding sophomore discs.
B: Mary J. Blige tears it up on the Grammys with a performance of “Be Without You” and ends the year with a great new disc (Growing Pains).
C: Cover albums by Dwight Yoakum (Dwight Sings Buck) and the Smithereens (a song-by-song remake of Meet the Beatles)
D: Dylan, more specifically, the new movie based on Bob Dylan’s life, “I’m Not There,” and its brilliant soundtrack.
E: Steve Earle moves to New York City and records a wonderful album about it
F: John Fogerty’s Revival torches the Bush administration
G: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon
H: “Hate on Me” by Jill Scott
I: The White Stripes explode on Icky Thump.
J: Justin Timberlake’s single, “What Goes Around … Comes Around,” is sexy and danceable — and would have been song of the year had Alicia Keys not issued an album..
K: Kala by M.I.A.
L: Lyle Lovett, It’s Not Big, It’s Large
M: Magic, by Bruce Springsteen, is the best political album of the year
N: “No One” by Alicia Keys is the song of the year
O: Old-guard rockers — along with Springsteen, Fogerty, Robert Plant and Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Paul McCartney issue solid discs.
P: Robert Plant and Allison Kraus make an unlikely pair, but great music on Raising Sand
Q: Queasy, as in, “Tweener pop stars (Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, etc.) self destructing make me a bit queasy.”
R: Rilo Kiley’s Under the Blacklight, which produced one of the year’s best songs — “Silver Lining.”
S: Son Volt’s The Search — both the album and its title song
T: Joss Stone says “Tell Me ‘Bout It”
U: “Umbrella,” by Rihanna — a song that is both funky and sweet.
V: Vintage — as in Amy Winehouse channels Motown and Stax-Volt on Back to Black, offering a legitimate reason to ignore her baggage.
W: Wilco and Lucinda Williams both release great discs and put on great live shows.
X: XPN is now the only broadcast radio station worth listening to, as the rest of the music world grows more and more formatted and satellite radio becomes more popular.
Y: Neil Young issues a live album of a 36-year-old concert and a new disc, Chrome Dreams II
Z: Zeppelin – that’s Led Zeppelin – reunites for a benefit concert and issues a new compilation.
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Deconstructing the fair tax
Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers a pretty succinct dissection of Mike Huckabee’s fair-tax plan, showing how it is really nothing more than conservative fool’s gold and bad news for working people.
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