"In Liberty City, Or Overtown, Or Even Brooklyn Center"

This post is about police violence. But first, if you care to... Listen to this song.

"Miami". It's a song by the old punk band the Pink Lincolns (remember them?). I always loved the song, but never stopped to think about it much. I just thought it was a kinda sneering, acerbic punk rock song about "the dangerous big city, maaannnn, you wouldn't last a minute!", that kinda stuff. You know, like "Dirty Alleys, Dirty Minds" by the Zero Boys, or even "Toughest Street In Town" by Thin Lizzy. Well, here I am, visiting in Miami - Biscayne Park, to be precise. So I went back and listened again and read the lyrics. And... whoa.

The first verse - not the primary focus of this essay, but an interesting verse nonetheless - concerns the events surrounding the trial of Ronnie Zamora, who at the age of 15, shot and killed an elderly neighbor in their Miami neighborhood, then relieved her of her money and took a trip to Disney World with it, or some theme park. You may not remember all the details, but a collective cultural memory persists of the unique defense his lawyer offered: Zamora could not be found guilty, because he was made unable to distinguish fact from reality by watching TV too much (specifically: Kojak). This was the first time anyone ever took the "brain is hypnotized by television" general humorous angle which has been around since pretty much Howdy Doody to its logical extreme. The trial was a press/media circus, and the murder and trial are also referenced in the great Australian punk song "Television Addict" by the Victims. Anyway, I never connected those dots, and I bet a lot of others who came into punk in the late 90s (as opposed to the 80s when "Miami" was written) didn't either, but stay tuned, folks, because of verse two. It's about something horrible and too-relevant, something I never knew about.

In (correction, original post said 1980) December 1979, Miami police stopped the Black man, Marine veteran, and insurance salesman Art McDuffie on his way home from work (ok, depressingly enough you probably already know where this is going, but keep reading) for either a minor traffic infraction or driving with a suspended license. There were many inconsistencies in the initial police report about what happened during the stop, but I'm going to cut to the chase: in the trial, it came out that the several police involved actually may have grabbed him after a short chase ended in McDuffie putting up his hands and shouting "I give up!", removed his helmet, and proceeded to beat him to death with nightsticks and heavy flashlights. Gruesome and horrible. In those days, there was no police camera digital footage, not even the kind of video which existed during the beating of Rodney King in the early 1990s. The Miami police planted and created false evidence to make it looks like McDuffie had done things he hadn't. Then came the trial in May 1980, the six-man all-White jury verdict, and the aftermath.

All officers involved were acquitted, and the Black neighborhoods of the city of Miami exploded in some of the most violent riots ever seen in a modern American city. Nearly 20 people died as a direct result, and hundreds more were injured. Literally exploded, in the case of a giant tire warehouse in the heart of a middle-class mostly-Black community. I don't need to tell you that the National Guard was called in and the city of Miami became an occupied zone for days. Sniper fire on the freeways. A pillar of smoke from the aforementioned tire warehouse loomed over the city for weeks, even after the violence subsided and city was quiet enough once more.

Remember, you comfortable-living friends and family of mine, perhaps in small towns with good community-police relations, that this is how it is if you're Black in a city police jurisdiction. All of the above (except the Ronnie Zamora story) is how it is. You get pulled over because you're profiled because of your skin tone. You get the citation that a White driver doesn't get; instead, if that driver even gets pulled over, that White driver gets a verbal warning. Then down the line, you get pulled over because of that citation. And then you fucking pray. Or you might panic, in the moment. Fight or flight. Might you panic? You just might.

In 2007 or 2008, I went to see the Reigning Sound play in Brooklyn, with whatever fresh horrors of the second US-led coalition invasion of Iraq in the news at the time. Greg Cartwright, the singer and main man in the band, gave the signal and the band kicked into a song called "Viet Nam War Blues" which he had done back in his days with the Oblivians. The song was by J. B. Lenoir, an old Chicago bluesman. "How can you be happy when your brother's in Vietnam", goes the first of many searing lyrics. They played the song with surprising Oblivian-style fury, and then Greg went to the mic and growled "that song was called Viet Nam War Blues. It's as true today as the day it was written."

As true today as the day it was written. How often do we just... not change? To fail and fail again to make things right which are so deadly, viciously wrong? I don't know but today I know which way I'm leaning on that question, I'm sad to say. Justice for Daunte Wright. Justice for Adam Toledo. Justice for George Floyd. Justice for whoever's next, because some young man, perhaps as so often happens a Black man, but maybe not, will be next - and thus, justice for Peyton Ham. I don't know if police culture can be saved at this point, because what is wrong in it today has always been and, if that culture continues to exist, may permanently be.

A Life Lesson From A Sandwich

(I wrote this on Facebook, but it has tangential baseball and rock'n'roll content, and it's pretty long, so I count it as blog entry-worthy! And the formatting? I can't do anything about that. Next time I'll write the post here, and copy it to social media, or something. Anyway: enjoy!)

(this is literally the first result for "sandwich" according to google)

I'm going to talk about the sandwich I ate earlier today, and the lesson I learned from it.

I woke up in the late a.m. as I do, and for whatever reason I felt absolutely zero hunger. This isn't abnormal for me, as some of my friends know - it's not that I feel nauseous or sick, I'm just not hungry when I wake up very often. I made coffee with the last of the beans in my house, then drank it while reading the news. 2 small mugs' worth. It was nice. (The Saints are going to become the Twins' Triple A team! I have thoughts, which my previous post discusses.)

So, out of coffee after an hour or so, I walked to my neighborhood coffeeshop for a depth charge and as I walked, I did begin to feel a slight hunger for something. But what?

Arriving at the coffeeshop, I walked in and said hi to the barista/worker, with whom I am acquaintance-friendly. She and I bantered a bit, as I looked at the menu and she finished up the order she was working on. And I saw several ok-looking options for sandwiches, but nothing really jumped out at me as Exactly What I Wanted.

It was time to order. I knew I needed to eat something. So I chose to order a salami, pepperjack, olive oil, lettuce, and giardinera pepper sandwich on focaccia, hold the mayo, extra oil. This is not an unusual type of sandwich for me to eat, by the way - it's very much in my sandwich comfort zone. The barista/employee made the sandwich and my depth charge, and I thanked them and left and walked home.

(pictured: the greatest potato chips on earth)

I poured myself a glass of milk, added a handful of Old Dutch Crunch kettle chips for a side, and sat down to eat my sandwich. I picked it up. I took the first bite. And you know what?

It was fucking GREAT. It didn't just hit the spot - it annihilated it, like when you're driving and you hit play on Pleased To Meet Me on a sunny afternoon on a country 2-lane with no traffic, volume cranked, windows down (see: Figure A). Like Giancarlo Stanton guessing and swinging perfectly on a 92 mph fastball with no movement, look out Mars because that ball is headed your way (see: Figure B).

Figure A

Figure B

And here's the funny part - it was nowhere near the best sandwich I've ever had in my life, it just happened to be EXACTLY the right sandwich for EXACTLY the right moment! I enjoyed every bite, and was a little sad when there was no more sandwich left to eat. I was completely satisfied by this sandwich in a way that doesn't often happen with sandwiches, or other food that isn't taco truck-related.

There's a lesson here. In life, you don't always have to be the perfect sandwich. You just need to know when to be a very good sandwich. And that is all.

Return Of The Blog! (To paraphrase Buxton's walkup song)

Hello, folks - looks like we're going to have a dark Coronaviriffic winter, so I'm kicking my ass in gear and I'm going to start writing posts here at Rock And Roll And Baseball again. It's been almost a decade since I was actively posting here, but why not again? I'm feeling it.

Today, in the Twin Cities, we learned that the Minnesota Twins are considering taking over the St. Paul Saints and making them their Triple-A affiliate. I have thoughts, but first, here's the link to the Star-Tribune article which discusses this. Twins drop Rochester as AAA affiliate, eye St. Paul as replacement

(I initially posted this at my facebook page - with a few small edits, I'm reposting here) The Star-Tribune reports that the Minnesota Twins have dropped Rochester, NY as their Triple-A team, and are talking with the St Paul Saints about stepping into that role. Now. This seems appealing on the face of it. Who could argue with both the fun for fans of seeing top Twins prospects play less than 10 miles from Target Field, and the according sweet travel/other logistics for players and employees? The "Rochester Shuttle" becomes the Green Line, if you will.

But on the other hand, I'm wary. Mike Veeck's vision for a baseball experience is about a different from that of Rob Manfred and company's as I can imagine. Now, it's possible my concern is in fact obsolete in 2020. It's possible that the "Fun Is Good" attitude, which the Saints sort of brought into the baseball universe, has now permeated MLB-affiliated leagues to the point where the team would still operate in most or all of its wacky ways. Indeed, as I've watched the Saints over the past decade-plus and especially move from that crummy, uneven-field, shitty-bleachered, loose, fun and wonderful park in Midway to that beautiful, much more luxurious, better concessioned, ultimately stuffier and less enjoyable ballpark in downtown St Paul, I've also noticed a downtick in the super wacky stuff and more of just regular garden-variety wacky replacing it. For example, when an opposing pitcher is warming up, the crowd is no longer exhorted to make silly slide-whistle sounds as the ball is pitched and then tossed back to the pitcher by the catcher. I would spell the sound in question thusly, first the pitch, followed by the toss back: "BEEOOO! ...woooooeeEEEP"! If you ever got to be a part of this, you know how awesome it was! I'm sure someone on another team complained, though, and so into the sunset rode the crowd slide whistling. Anyway, that's what I'm talking about when I say the Saints have backed off on the super wacky and are more emphasizing regular wacky.

So maybe the Saints as crown jewel of the independent American Association as opposed to flagship minor league Twins franchise would be at this point a difference without a distinction (this would not have been so in 2010, let alone the freewheeling late 1990s/early 2000s when so much of what made the Saints so cool was at its peak). But I remain wary, and thus does extreme ambivalence turn into a longish post for you, my friends, to read, consider, and to offer your own take in the comments should you wish to do so.

Perhaps it's gonna be Summit, not Gennessee, in that beer cooler for when the Twins Triple-A players celebrate their wins.

Impeach Rob Manfred.

That is all. (PS this will hopefully be the last post I do with the stupid wrong background color which results from copying and pasting from Facebook. I do not know how to fix this and I'm sort of interested in preserving the stupidity anyway. Thank you!)

All I Wanna Be Is The Goddamn MVP (plus bonus thoughts)

With about a week and a half of regular-season baseball left to play, I think it's safe to start talking about who we, the disenfranchised non-BBWAA members, would vote for in the American League and National League MVP races. I also plan to write an article about the Cy Young awards sometime in the next two weeks. The NL Cy Young race is very close, the AL race not so much in my opinion... anyway, that's another article for another time. This is MVP talk here.

The 2011 MVP race in the American League is particularly interesting, because among the four or five players that stand out, there is a pitcher who has a legitimate claim to the award - not a common thing, as many folks will only vote for an everyday player for MVP. Meanwhile, in the National League, the race is more conventional but no less contentious. There are three players in the NL who should be given serious consideration.

Here's my take on both MVP races, then.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The NL MVP award will be given to one of these three men: Justin Upton, Ryan Braun, or Matt Kemp. Justin Upton is the right fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ryan Braun is the left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Matt Kemp is the center fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. All three have played extremely well this year, and all three are worthy of recognition and consideration for the award.

At the plate, Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun have virtually identical and absolutely stunning stat lines: .320/.398/.565 for Kemp, and .336/.400/.597 for Braun. It gets even better when you add their baserunning into the mix: Braun has stolen 31 bases in 37 tries, and Kemp has swiped 40 in 50 attempts. When it comes to power, speed, and plate discipline, Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun are the class of the National League. Justin Upton has batted .293/.374/.537, nothing to sneeze at, but not as good as Kemp and Braun. And stealing 21 bases in 30 attempts is costing his D'backs valuable outs.

One last metric: ranked by baseball-reference.com's Offensive WAR (wins-above-replacement player, a handy stat which calculates how much more a player contributes to his team than an average Triple A minor league replacement would), Kemp is in first place at 8.2, Braun is second at 7.0, and Justin Upton is all the way down at number seven with 5.0 wins, behind Joey Votto, Lance "Lazarus" Berkman, Jose Reyes, and Prince Fielder.

Offensively, it's clear that Braun and Kemp are more valuable to their teams than Justin Upton. Meanwhile, when measuring their defensive contributions on baseball-reference.com, it seems that Matt Kemp has played well enough in center that his fielding can't be held against him, and that he is better than the average NL center fielder when playing at Dodger Stadium. That's pretty good stuff, what with the importance of center field and all. Ryan Braun has a deserved reputation as a below-average defender, but this year he seems to have figured out his position well enough so that I can't cite his defense as a negative. He catches the balls he gets to, he's been getting to the ball better than years previous, and... well, he plays left field, so let's leave it at that. Last, we have Justin Upton in right field. His defense there is slightly but measurably below average.

At this point, Upton can be removed from the NL MVP discussion. It's a two man race. And it would seem that Matt Kemp, playing center field, should win the award over Ryan Braun, who plays left field, since both are essentially each other's equal at the plate. Matt Kemp has the slight edge in WAR as well. If batting average matters, then Ryan Braun gets the nod there. They are both statistically tied in on-base and slugging percentage. If stolen bases are a factor, Kemp has stolen more but been caught more and at a higher rate than Braun. Hmm. I'd still give the award to Matt Kemp, all else being equal.

But all is not equal. The Milwaukee Brewers are charging towards their first-ever division title, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are trudging towards an idle postseason. Does this mean that Braun's play has been more "valuable" than Kemp's because it has pushed his team over the top and into the playoffs? There are folks who would argue that this is the case, and there are folks who would argue that this at least could be used as a tiebreaker. I am in the latter camp - I would use overall team success as a tiebreaker. However, this is not a tie. Where offensive prowess meets offensive prowess and the result is an immoveable stalemate, center field trumps left field every time.

My choice for National League MVP is Matt Kemp of the LA Dodgers.

AMERICAN LEAGUE:

The central question facing voters for the AL MVP award is this: can a pitcher win? And following that: how good must a pitcher be in order to win?

The AL MVP for 2011 will be given to Jose Bautista, Adrian Gonzalez, Curtis Granderson, Jacoby Ellsbury, or Justin Verlander. Four position players, and a starting pitcher. Four men who take the field every day they can, rain or shine, and give their all in pursuit of the win. And one man around whom the entire game revolves, one man who has as much to do with his team's performance as all the other eight put together... but who only plays one day out of five.

Jose Bautista is the prodigiously-powered slugging right fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays. Adrian Gonzalez and Jacoby Ellsbury play for the Boston Red Sox, first base and center field respectively, and both have torn the cover off the baseball this year. Curtis Granderson has played quality center field for the New York Yankees while hitting tons of home runs. Justin Verlander has, simply put, been the best pitcher in baseball and the ace of the Detroit Tigers rotation.

Let me begin by saying that I don't believe Adrian Gonzalez should win MVP. As measured by traditional stats (batting average and RBIs) and OPS lines, the award would go to Gonzalez (.333/.402/.537 vs .319/.376/.539), and make no mistake, his on-base percentage is really remarkable. Adrian knows how to handle the bat. But Jacoby Ellsbury makes it all up on the basepaths. He has swiped more bases, that's for sure: 37 against Gonzalez's 1 measly base stolen. Equally important is that Ellsbury leads Gonzalez in total bases: 330 to 325. They are #1 and #2 in the AL in total bases, by the way. However, defense matters. Adrian Gonzalez plays first base. Jacoby Ellsbury plays center field. Thus, offense being roughly equal, defensive prowess gives the nod to Ellsbury over Gonzalez for most valuable member of the Red Sox. One last thing: as the Red Sox have stumbled down the stretch, Jacoby Ellsbury has not been the reason why. His line for September is .361/.413/639. It's as if he's trying to put the entire Red Sox team on his back.

So it's a four man race between Ellsbury, Jose Bautista, Curtis Granderson, and Justin Verlander. Of these players, only Bautista plays for a team not in contention for a playoff berth. But man, does he play. Nobody hits home runs quite like Jose Bautista. Hell, nobody hits like him, period. Oh, sure, there's some guy named Pujols in the National League, but he's having a bit of an off-year, and so I feel confident in saying that Jose Bautista is, today, the elite batsman in all Major League Baseball. He leads the AL in on-base, slugging, OPS, and OPS+ (park-adjusted OPS). His line is .304/.448/.623. Nobody else is close to that. He leads the league in home runs with 42. He leads the league in walks. Of his 123 walks, 23 were intentional. That's insane! And of course, that leads the league. Opposing managers would rather give up the automatic baserunner than face Bautista at an incredible rate. That's a testament to the fear his bat instills in his opponents. On defense, he plays right field and plays it just fine. He's definitely worthy of the award. But should we win it?

Curtis Granderson is hitting very well this season, too. He's got 40 home runs, and has been neck and neck with Bautista for the lead in that category all season. He's also an immeasurable clubhouse presence, and the center fielder for the Yankees. For some faithful pinstripe boosters, this would be enough to put him over the top already, and I'm sure Granderson will win the NYC-area MVP vote. However, his center defense is below league-average, and honestly, there's a center fielder in Boston who is better in just about every category than Curtis. Therefore, I would not vote for Curtis Granderson for American League MVP. The race is down to three men.

And now we come to the most interesting man in the world: Justin Verlander. When I began writing this entry, I honestly had no idea how I should approach his candidacy. Certainly, he's been very valuable indeed to the Tigers, but is he actually as valuable as, say, his teammate Miguel Cabrera, who is one of the top three first basemen in the American League? I needed to think about this. So, I took my roommate's dog (a sweet and energetic pooch named Winnie, a chocolate lab/pit bull mix) for a walk. And in between restraining Winnie from chasing rabbits, and picking up after her, as I thought about Justin's case for MVP, it occurred to me that I could approach the Verlander MVP candidacy as follows: did his presence on the Detroit Tigers allow them to make the playoffs, or would they have made the playoffs with the pitcher that they would have if they didn't have Verlander? (This is different than the "is he playing on a playoff team?" argument that some people would use to give Ryan Braun the MVP award over Matt Kemp in NL, because it would be tough to argue that the leftfielder the Brewers would have if they didn't have Braun would be so awful that they'd have missed the postseason - the Brewers are a well-rounded team, but the Tigers are mediocre except at first base and, of course, for Verlander.)

Here's what I mean by this: Justin Verlander is the AL Ace of Aces. He will win the Cy Young award this year. He's won 24 games, may win 25 (which nobody does anymore), and his Tigers team isn't the Yankees - those aren't CC Sabathia-style wins with guaranteed run support. Strikeouts, innings pitched, baserunners allowed, he is the king of all those things, and moreover, he is the absolute anchor of that team, the rock around which Jim Leyland can manage differently, giving his bullpen rest, not worrying about the days when Verlander takes the ball.

So who is the pitcher the Tigers would have if they didn't have Verlander? This isn't a WAR thing; the Tigers have enough money and savvy that they would definitely have an ace at the top of their rotation if they didn't have Verlander. So, arbitrarily, I have decided that if Detroit didn't have Justin Verlander, they would have the 10th-best starting pitcher in the American League. And arbitrarily, using a gut-check mix of ERA, WHIP, K:BB and K:9, I have decided that the 10th-best pitcher in the American League is James Shields of the Tampa Bay Rays, "Big Game James" as he is known these days. Please don't argue with me on this - if you wanted to substitute Brandon McCarthy or C.J. Wilson or Ricky Romero or someone else, I'd be fine with it in a different article, but for this one it's going to be James Shields.

Well, how good would the Tigers be with James Shields instead of Justin Verlander? James Shields has allowed 10 more earned runs than Justin Verlander. He's allowed 17 more hits, four more walks, and hit 5 batters versus Verlander's 3. He's given up two more home runs than Justin has, 24 to 22. All this translates into an oppnent on-base percentage of .240 for Verlander, and .273 for Shields. Batters slug .308 against Verlander, and .350 against Shields. Defense-independent pitching (DIPS) would have Verlander's ERA at .307 and Shields at .349, but if Shields was pitching with Detroit's defense then... Ok, ok, you say. Enough with the numbers. Translation, please!

It is my belief that if James Shields was the ace of the Tigers rotation, they would have won two or three fewer games than they have or will have by the end of the season. Let's use the high-end estimate, because Verlander is the best pitcher in baseball, and that's got to be worth a mythic "intangible", right? Three games worse, the Tigers would still win the AL Central. They might not be as fearsome going into the playoffs, but they'd be IN the playoffs. This wasn't always a given, by the way - the AL Central was a tight race all the way into August, before Cleveland gave way to troublesome reality and sank back in the standings.

And so we come down to it: Justin Verlander, Ace of Aces, did not singlehandedly pitch the Tigers into the playoffs. He gave them supreme confidence every fifth day that they would win if they even plated a mere two or three runs, he gave Jim Leyland the certainty that his bullpen would get much-needed rest at least once a week, but he is not singlehandedly responsible for their playoff berth and division title. So how did they make the playoffs? Sure, Miguel Cabrera hit like a monster, but the sub-par AL Central opposition gets the gold star. Now here's a thought: If the Tigers were in the AL West or East, and the season ended right now, three wins would be the difference between a playoff berth and an idle October.

Therefore, Justin Verlander makes the Tigers an elite team at least capable of competing in the tougher East and West divisions, and currently the playoff team most others would least want to face in a short series. Hmm.

So, who would I pick for my American League MVP?

After careful consideration of the top three choices - the best hitter in baseball, the best all-around player in the league, and the best pitcher in baseball who also may have single-handedly won his team a division title - I have come to the conclusion that the hypotheticals involved in Verlander's case loom too large for my vote to go his way. And after a lot of thought, I have weighed Jose Bautista's batting against Jacoby Ellsbury's all-around play, and since no one number is persuasive enough to give the outright win to Bautista, and conversely the numbers, defensive metrics included, do not give Ellsbury a runaway decision once his position at center field is factored in, I am forced to with the dreaded all-around Wins Above Replacement stat to make my decision. Bautista has the lead here. Joey and Jacoby go down to the wire...

And my choice for AL MVP is Jose Bautista. Barely.

And as I finish this entry, the Red Sox have slipped to a half game ahead of the Rays for the wild card playoff spot. If WAR can be trusted, then Bautista's presence on the Red Sox would be worth some insurance against this terrible Boston losing skid, and when all is said and done, perhaps Joey Bautista would have made the difference between making the playoffs and sitting at home watching them, were he on the Red Sox.





*title of this post taken from a song by my friend Jub, who plays in a couple great local bands here in Minneapolis such as Sundowners/Little Hazy (there's a name change pending), and Apocalypse Meow (no need for a name change on that one!)

North Park Awesome Fest

It's getting towards the end of August, and among the many activities I have planned - pleasant and less-than-pleasant - I am taking a vacation to southern California to play North Park Awesome Fest with my band ( fest: awesomefest5.com ... band: natocoles.bandcamp.com). We're all truly and massively excited about this! And the lineup, oh the lineup...

Scared of Chaka
Mean Jeans
Bananas
New Creases
White Wires
Shark Pants

You see what I mean? I didn't even list a couple of the bands that are playing, because you deserve to be surprised when you click on over to the Awesome Fest 5 website.

Of course, nothing this awesome could be expected to be problem free.

Number one, our bassist (Kyle "Yukon Blond" Sando, who runs this little bloggy: theyoungandtheheadless.blogspot.com) couldn't make it - so we're rush-training Matt Army from That's Incredible, inducting him into the ranks of Blue Diamond Bandmates. Naturally, That's Incredible are playing IMMEDIATELY after us, at a different venue. I assume Matt will be whisked away into a plush limo with motorcycle cop escort, lights flashing and pistols drawn, and zoomed across the neighborhood to make it onstage in time to play "Aquanet".

Number two, the Mean Jeans and the Bananas are basically playing at the same time! Having seen the Bananas a handful of times, and never having seen Jeans in action, I think I'll pick the Portland trio. I imagine this will create a massive headache for a whole bunch of other gap-toothed punk rockers, though.

Finally, I have been absolutely unable to practice my foosball lately. Those who keep track of these things know that I won the NPAF 3 Foosball Championship back in 2009, but you may not know that since that day, J Wang (of Dan Padilla, Tiltwheel, more greatness) has beaten me fair and square/hungover on a Tornado table. So, I need to get my ass in gear and start doing 100 wrist snaps twice a day. J Wang, I'm gunnin' for ya!

And of course, an entry in this blog about San Diego would not be complete without recalling that it was indeed in San Diego where Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter while tripping on LSD, way back in 1970 on the 12th of June. Watch this great animated video of an interview conducted by NPR, and be happier and wiser for having done so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUhSYLRw14

Hello Again

Hey, sorry I've neglected this blog, but it's been a crazy busy summer. This is a good thing. I've been on tour with the Blue Diamond Band, on vacation with the family to Oregon (and I got to hang out with Jon Hands-on, too!), and on a road trip with the significant other to northern lower Michigan. Yup, lots of vacation time. Over the course of these past few months, it seems that a few things have become apparent: 1. If you live in Minneapolis and you don't own either of these two items yet, you should get the Frozen Teens/Street Legal* split 7", and the In Defence "$7.98 LP" LP immediately! Both have been on somewhat constant rotation on my turntable. If you don't live in Minneapolis and you don't have either of these two items, you're on a slightly less pressing schedule to get them, because it's ultimately more important that locals support all the good local bands. However, as of this entry, you have officially been warned! You'll need both these records within the year, to be sure. *Street Legal are technically from Kansas City, so I guess you could sort of read this blog entry backwards if you happen to be from that badass bastion of barbeque and before-integration Black baseball? 2. The pumpkin fell from the sky at midnight, splattering across the western edge of downtown Minneapolis. Although July looked good, as of this date it sure seems as if the Minnesota Twins will be spending October with their families, working on model airplanes and catching up on their reading. Filming more commercials, maybe. At least Twins fans have Jim Thome's march to 600 home runs to cheer for. 3. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers are starting to pull away from the pack in the National League Central. From the start of the season, I have maintained that the Brewers and the Reds are the two best teams in this division. However, apparently the Cincinnati Reds starting rotation didn't get the message, and the team seems unlikely to make a run. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates were everyone's favorite little engine that could. Hey, they even started selling out at PNC Park! But the underlying fundamental numbers of the defense and pitching told a different story - numbers like strikeouts-to-walks ratio, the batting average of opponents' balls in play. And just like that, the ship has sunk below .500. Last but not least, the St Louis Cardinals seem determined to overachieve with a patchy offense (propped up of course by the dynamic trio of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and the rejuvenated Lance Berkman), which makes me (and no doubt many citizens of Redbird Nation) wonder what could have been achieved had Adam Wainwright been able to even pitch for half a season... well, anyway, as I type this, the Brewers are in St Louis, beating the Cardinals for a second straight night, and it looks like the Brewers are on their way to their first-ever NL Central Division title. Knock on wood. 4. If you're wondering where to be on Labor Day weekend, there is one answer and only one answer: NORTH PARK AWESOME FEST. Check out the lineup! Or let me just toss a few band names at you: Scared Of Chaka. The Mean Jeans. The White Wires. The Bananas. And of course, all the usual suspects, the people in bands who are often heard to make comments such as the following: North Park Awesome Fest is like Gainesville Fest, except you don't have to wait in line forever and there aren't any shitty screamo bands. See ya there! 5. Oh, the Future Virgins LP? "Western Problems"? Perhaps the album of the year thus far... We'll see what happens for the rest of 2011!

Excuse Me While I Dash Off A Quick Letter To Ron Roenicke

Dear Mr. Roenicke,

Now that Nyjer "T-Plush" Morgan has come off the DL, the Brewers lineup is complete and ready to fire on all cylinders. The Cardinals will fade, and the Reds are tough but not tough enough. We can catch them, and I'm confident your leadership will be tested in the NLCS against the Phillies come October.

But speaking of Nyjer Morgan... ok, this might sound a little crazy because it goes against the grain: I think Nyjer Morgan should bat leadoff, and Ricky Weeks should bat second. At least for a little while. Morgan seems to have found his stroke and his discipline at the plate is that of steely on-base determination, while his speed is perhaps even more nitro-boosted than Ricky's. The one thing he lacks is power, power to drive in runners.

Ricky has this power. Let Morgan bat leadoff (assuming he's truly become an offensive force to be reckoned with), slashing singles and stealing bases. And then let Ricky Weeks bat. And then Ryan Braun. And then Prince Fielder. Bar none, that would be the top 1-2-3-4 in the National League (again assuming high level of production from Nyjer). Hell, bat Corey Hart and Casey McGehee 5 and 6, and that's the top 1-2-3-4-5-6! If Lucroy continues to hit, and Betancourt maintains his 2010-level batting, that lineup is worthy of a Joey Ramone shout: "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8!"

I'm not saying we can't make the playoffs with the Weeks/Hart/Braun/Fielder lineup. But we can do better. I'm sure you've considered T-Plush in the leadoff spot. I say go with it.

Sincerely,

Nato X Coles