I’ve reached a new low in my attempts to beat L.A. traffic- I’m literally sitting in my car right now waiting to go home, but watching the SigAlert signals for more “green” than “red” to show up on the screen. Unfortunately, in doing so I am also missing Game 3 of the Bulls and Cavaliers. Damn. If there’s any game that they could win in the series, it’s this one, and I’m missing it. C’mon, Joakim, do me proud!
So recently our law school alerted to us that at a prominent cross-section on USC’s campus (let’s call it Disposition and Figgins), police are giving out tickets to people who cross on the red “flashing hand” sign, instead of the white “pedestrian, it’s OK to go across sign.” Now, I vaguely knew that you’re not supposed to start crossing on the flashing hand sign from my jaywalking days in Champaign, attending Illinois, yes, the rough-and-tumble days when I rebelled by riding my bike on the sidewalk and being out late after midnight. But I’m SURE there’s some people I know who are not aware of this rule and just cross whenever it’s not a red light. I was barely aware of this earlier, and it seems like a weird thing to ask people to do especially since the pedestrian crossing on Disposition and Figgins has a countdown to when it turns red. I mean, it doesn’t take a highly-educated law student or business student at USC to be able to time your crossing so that you don’t get stuck in the middle! And even if you do find yourself running out of time, it’s a little thing called “get on your horse” and giddyup and go!!!! You can make it!!! But what really steams me about this whole thing (and I’m getting a little worked up about this for no reason, I think) is that THERE ARE ACTUALLY POLICE REGULATING THIS???!!! I’m all for police roaming the streets randomly and taking breaks and getting the police equivalent of the Business Judgment Rule ( a biz orgs class term, this is like, the police themselves get to decide what is actually “police business”), but I think waiting in the streets making sure people cross on one sign and not the other is a little absurd. You know what it’s like? You know how everyone’s parents have that overprotective stage at one time in your teen years, O I don’t know like around 14 or 15 when they want to have you report every little detail to you when you’re not with them, or come home right on time or they get worried? Yea, this is what it is. Like helicopter parents, the police here are in the territory of “overprotective”--- they really need to just chill out and let us do our thing.
The previous rant was possibly (but not probably) related to my stance on government intervention in the marketplace, which is “STOP REGULATING US SO MUCH,” there’s smart people in both environments who know what they’re doing, and what is most efficient will work itself out………Uh. (Feel that I need to put in a disclaimer here to avoid lawsuits that fantasysportguru is not a political blog and does not advocate taking a similar political stance as the author). Ah there we go.
Baseball. Ever watch Bull Durham? Pretty classic movie, and there’s a lot of stuff I like in there, like Crash telling the batboy to shut up, calling everyone meat, and Tim the producers passing off Tim Robbins’s 55-MPH fastball as “really nasty stuff” that can strike 18 guys out in one game. But the best scene in that movie is when Crash laments the fact “Nuke” gets to go to the big leagues (“the show”) and not him, and indirectly blames it on Nuke’s talent and Crash’s lack of talent/luck. “You know what the difference between a .250 hitter and a .300 hitter is? One lucky duck base hit per week. That’s all.” It’s a great point from Crash (via the writers of the movie), and here’s guys who could really use Crash’s logic to become fantasy powerhouses:
1.) Dan Uggla: O, Uggla, how much prettier you’d look w/ a .300 avg. Probably gonna be a .250 hitter the rest of his life, this guy could probably hit .280 or something if he cut down, but those 30 HR’s would go down to 20 as the tradeoff. Given the choice, I’ll take Dan in Real Life.
2.) Troy Glaus: Same huge swing, same problem w/ strikeouts as Uggla, but the same tremendous pop. He’d still be like a 4th-round draft pick if he could bat .300….o how sweet that’d be.
3.) Chris Young (D’Backs)- one of the most promising prospects in baseball doesn’t even bat .250, he bats like .225.
4.) Mark Reynolds: All the other stats are there including SB’s……take away his 200 strikeouts a year and he’s batting like .575.
5.) Adam Dunn: perennial guarantee for 40 HR’s would make Washington Nationals more valuable if he could move them along more……instead, most of his dingers are solo and he’s like a black hole when he’s not hitting.
Fantasize on, Robert Yan
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