Bleu-Tooth

Tonight I went back to the ol' Alma Mater for a graduation party. It's sad, it was really the last time I could go there because the rest of the people I really know well are graduating. Ah, good times. Anyway, I'm on the way over there and I park my car on Amsterdam between 115th and 116th, and I'm walking over to the Wien Gate and I notice this very fancy bus stop on the northeast corner of 116th and Amsterdam. Az I walk over there and all of a sudden my phone starts to go nuts. I check it out, and apparently it's picking up a bluetooth signal from nearby. I look at the poster on the bus stop and it says that if your phone is set to pick up a signal, it can download data from Pepsi. Az I told my phone it was okay to download the data, and it turned out to be this weird video. I watched it once and then deleted it, but it was still pretty cool. Looks like Mikey B is trying to revamp the transportation system. See my last post for other bus stop nonsense.

Anyway, I get to the party and I'm chillin' out there for a while. I rocked a game of Beirut; yeah, I really showed those college kids how it's done. It wasn't really my crowd, lots of strange non-frummies, az I left at about 12:30. While I'm picking up my driver's license from the guard in the lobby of EC, I bump into two upstanding members of the Columbia community, both former Yavneh board members in fact. One of them said something like, "it's comforting to see Noah Schmutter at Columbia." Now I dunno exactly what he meant by that, but it really made me feel good. I guess he meant that I was a stable presence during his formative college years, and seeing me there gave him that sense of normalcy in which he found comfort during that time. I completely understand what he was talking about. I'll give you an example. I worked over the summer between my junior and senior years of college at an insurance company in Jersey City. Since there was no kosher food near my office, I often found myself PATHing it back to Manhattan for lunch. Speaking of which, I dunno if this still happens in the Path train, but when I was taking it every day there was always this commercial type deal going on in the tunnel under the Hudson River, sorta like one of those flip books that makes it look like the pictures are moving. I never understood whether the commercial was actually painted/drawn onto the wall of the tunnel or if it was projected from a camera on the train. Never could figure it out. Anyway, the point is, I used to go to the Broadway Cafe a lot to get pizza, and for some reason I enjoyed the pleasant bubbling of the water draining when I went to wash netilat yadayim. It became my favorite sink. Even to this day, whenever I'm interviewing down in the financial district and I go to the Broadway Cafe for lunch, I smile a little when I go over to the sink to wash. I still feel that sense of normalcy, like everything, for a very short while, is the way it's supposed to be.

Last post, I ended with a seemingly innocuous line, "P.S. this is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated." Now, it was highly callous of me to toss that line in there without telling you whose line it is. Anyone who's hung out with me over the past couple of months can probably guess that it's a Mitch Hedberg original. Before I move on, I just want everyone to observe a moment of silence for our fallen hero.




Thanks. Anyway, I hope to insert some of his brilliance in here from time to time. I thank you for your indulgence in advance.

I was listening to the radio today on the way to tutoring, but instead of listening to the Michael Kay Show, I put on the Mike and the Mad Dog Program because Michael was still announcing the Yankee game, az Steve Phillips was filling in for him. As much as I love Steve Phillips, I don't think he knows anything about baseball. Actually, let me rephrase that. If one were to adhere to his philosophy on baseball, one would think he was a genius. I believe, however, that his outlook on the game is inherently flawed, az I can't really handle him. Anyway, I usually listen to Michael Kay anyway, because at the very least, he's quite entertaining. Plus, the ESPN Go Patrol girl, Christina Stoffo, who does the traffic during Michael's show is so hot. Yes, her radio voice is hot, but she herself is also hot. I once heard a guy call in to the show to ask Michael about Christina's measurements. That's a little bizarro, but still. Ehenyway, I'm listening to Mike and the Mad Dog, and a Mets fan calls in to ask about the Yankee pitching rotation. They get into a discussion about which staff is better, the Mets's or the Yankees's, and those freakin' morons don't even entertain the idea that the Mets staff is any good. Seriously, the Yankees have had one pitcher pitch into the 8th inning, and they're scoffing at the idea that the Mets's staff even approaches the talent of the Yanks's. The caller couldn't stop raving about John Maine, but M & the MD could only talk about Andy Pettitte and his body of work. They asked the caller who he would rather have pitch for his team this year, Andy or Johnny. Now when it comes to stats and fantasy baseball, there's no one who's less partisan to his team than I am. Seriously, among my three teams, I only have one Met, and that's John Maine. But still! This year, I'd rather have John Maine on my team than Andy Pettitte. Let's look at the stats:
(BABIP = batting average on ball in play, WHIP = walks + hits per inning pitched, BB/9 = walks ber nine innings, K/9 = strikeouts per nine innings, VORP = value over replacement player in terms of runs, WARP3 = wins above replacement player taking stadium into account.)

Andy Pettitte: 2005: 17 - 9, .272 BABIP, 1.03 WHIP, 2.39 ERA, 1.5 BB/9, 6.4 K/9, 72.1 VORP, 9.9 WARP3.
2006: 14 - 13, .333 BABIP, 1.44 WHIP, 4.20 ERA, 2.6 BB/9, 6.8 K/9, 30.3 VORP, 6.1 WARP3.
2007: (Some stats not yet available. Thanks baseballprospectus.com) 2 - 1, 1.42 WHIP, 2.72 ERA, 4.0 BB/9, 5.7 K/9.

John Maine: 2006: (In merely 90 IP) 6 - 5, .225 BABIP, 1.13 WHIP, 3.60 ERA, 2.9 BB/9, 6.5 K/9, 19.3 VORP, 3.0 WARP3.
2007: 5 - 0, 1.17 WHIP, 1.79 ERA, 4.8 BB/9, 8.14 K/9.

The point of these statistics is to show that even though Andy Pettitte has been outstanding in the past, his best days are behind him; he's on the long side of 30 years old. Meanwhile, Johnny Maine has his best days ahead of him, and it's extremely hard to tell who will prove to be a better pitcher this season. It seems that Andy Pettitte's 2005 numbers were a fluke. His BABIP was low, which means he was getting lucky. Regardless of the fact that Maine's 2006 BABIP was ridiculously low, it seems likely that Pettitte's BABIP will return to normal this year. His BABIP last year was a bit high, but it appears to be closer to his career average than his number from '05. It also appears that Pettitte's BB/9 should return to the mid twos, and thus afford the opposing team at least one more baserunner per game. That should add at least half a run to his ERA from '05.
Whatever. What I'm trying to convey is that even though Andy Pettitte has been a terrific pitcher throughout his career, it's very difficult to say that Pettitte will definitely have a better year this year than John Maine. I couldn't handle the fact that Mike and the Mad Dog would so easily reject the caller's assertion that Maine would have a superior year. I wanted to call in to share my thoughts, but it's so tough to get through to WFAN in the middle of the day, az on the way back from the party tonight I called in to Steve Somers's show. As luck would have it, they answered my call right away, and two callers later, there I am talking to Steve live on the radio. Now I love Steve Somers's program, especially when he says things like "It's 10:35 and 40 seconds and we're here for a quick thursday night schmooze. Steve Somers here and of course, you there." Az I'm talking to Steve and I share my thoughts about what Mike and the Mad Dog said, and how I feel about John Maine. Steve obviously didn't want to blatantly disagree with his co-workers, but at least he stated plainly that John Maine has looked good so far, and there's no reason to think that he should get much worse as the year goes on. Az that was pretty cool that I got to talk to Steve on the radio. Okay, enough babbling for one night. Thanks for reading, ya'll, it's been a busy week.