A win, and a phenom on the way
Last night, the Royals came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat the Rangers 7-6. They did it by mashing. This year's team was built to hit the long ball, but they haven't been successful doing that. But last night, the Royals got a 3-run shot from Matt Stairs, a 2-run homer from Beltran, and a solo shot from Sweeney. Juan Gone didn't go yard, but did go 2-3, raising his average to .280.

And today, it is being reported that Zack Greinke will be promoted to the big league club and will start this Saturday in Oakland.

The sports talk guys on the radio have been suggesting that the Royals should call up Jamie Wright and Zack Greinke for the rotation and move Jeremy Affeldt to the closer spot. I'm beginning to think this might be a good suggestion. Last year, as a closer, Affeldt was absolutely dominant. As a starter, he hasn't quite been as impressive. With Affeldt in the back of the bullpen, the Royals might have a few more wins right now (several leads have been blown in the ninth). The rotation has been abysmal. I don't think having four (or five, counting Reyes) lefies in the rotation is going to work (and it hasn't yet this season).

I'd like this rotation: Anderson, Gobble, Grienke, May, Wright.

Anderson
When the Royals traded for left handed pitcher Brian Anderson last year, we were told that he is an innings eater. He had given up a lot of runs, but several were unearned. In checking BaseballReference.com, I see that during his time in Cleveland last year, he gave up 88 runs, and only 61 of those were earned. This means he was a "hard luck" pitcher whose defense let him down.

So far this year, Anderson again seems to be a "hard luck" pitcher. In his last start against the Blue Jays, he gave up 6 runs in the top of the first, but only 2 of those were earned.

I'm curious though. Why would one pitcher give up so many unearned runs? Is it an indication of his stuff? I'm beginning to think that Brian Anderson may not be as effective as we thought. Unearned runs are a result of errors. Errors, commonly, are the result of balls hit hard that fielders get a glove on, but can't handle. This happened in the Blue Jays game, when a hard grounder shot to Joe Randa at third and got through him to left field. I don't think Anderson is fooling anybody right now. Batters are hitting the ball hard, and the Royals are giving up mass quantities of runs when he starts. In his last two starts, the opposing team scored 10 and 9. He's given up 46 runs in just 8 games (10 of those are unearned runs).

It will be interesting to see how Anderson fares in his next few starts.

Are things getting better?
The Royals just completed a dismal road trip, winning only 2 of 9 games. The second win came yesterday against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Some of the losses on this trip were excruciating. In Toronto and Boston, the Royals had leads going into the late innings, only lose the games. In Boston on Friday night, the Royals looked to have an easy win, but Mike MacDougal entered the game in the ninth and gave up the game-tying home run. The Red Sox later scored the winning run and the Royals were crushed. The Royals tied a franchise record for their worst start.

Yet, I am optimistic. I'm probably crazy, but I think things will start to turn around for this team. I can't say why, really, but I just have a gut feeling. If you look at the standings, they are only 7.5 games behind. That actually isn't an insurmountable lead. (Royals fans may recall that KC had a 7.5 game lead at the All-Star break last year, and the Twins ended up winning the division).

I think also that Tony Pena and the management has learned a great deal about what they have this year. You will see less of Mike Sweeney at first base. You will see less of Mike MacDougal in save situations. You will (hopefully) see less of Juan Gonzalez in right field. In the Toronto game, Pena moved Gonzalez down to the sixth spot. I think moves like that will continue until his players can show they can perform. Zack Greinke will be with the team soon (by the end of May, I predict). And, in the last few games, I've started to see things beginning to come together. Yes, they have lost games, but the team is started to put the pieces together (better starting pitching, better relief pitching, more timely hitting).

I expect the Royals to win, if not sweep the next two series at home. By this time next week, that 7.5 game lead will be more like 5 games. Please - cross your fingers.

Sports Movies
What's your favorite sports movie? The other night, I slipped Bull Durham into the DVD player. That's a great movie. It's funny, and portrays a somewhat realistic view of life in the minors. Who can forget Annie's opening monologue: "I believe in the church of baseball... I've tried them all, I really have. And, the only church that feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."

Another of my favorites is Caddyshack. This one is just pure comedy. There are so many quotable lines in that movie. "So I got that going for me... which is nice."

Media Ramblings...
I heard a rumor that Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski has put an offer on a house down the street from me. Wouldn't it be fun to sit in the driveway, have a few cold ones and chat it up with JoPo? I think so. In fact, I really enjoy Joe's columns. I seem to be in the minority there, however. I also enjoy reading Rob Neyer's comments on the Royals, and he invariable slams Joe for sugar-coating everything. Hey, sometimes I like to read a little sugar.

Joe's column in today's Star is a great one. In it, Posnanski discusses his disgust for all of the advertising in sports these days. Here's a snippet:

Then, there is the latest news that Major League Baseball has decided to put a Spider-Man logo on the bases to promote the movie “Spider-Man 2.” (Starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst! Opening in theaters on June 30!) They say this is an effort to get younger fans involved, a brilliant plan because, as you know, many younger fans were very upset with the general blandness of the bases.

I mean, how many times have you heard kids on skateboards wearing their I-Pods and listening to Hoobastank and Outkast say: “Dawg, who is going to watch a game with all white bases? Unless they get some movie advertising on those sacks, there is no way I'm watching.”

Great stuff.

I also seem to be in the minority on the Royals' play-by-play guys. I keep hearing folks (again, Rob Neyer and also Greg Hall) criticize the work of Denny Matthews and Ryan Lefevre, the radio guys for the Royals. Callers to the radio talk shows slammed Denny after opening day, because they felt he wasn't excited enough when Carlos Beltran won the game with a homerun in the bottom of the ninth. I say get a life. Come on. The guy has been doing Royals broadcasts since the team's birth. Everybody knows his style. It's obviously worked well enough to earn him a berth in the Royals Hall of Fame. Live with it. I also hear a lot of criticism of Denny's partner Ryan. I like Ryan. He's knowledgeable, had a good voice to listen to, and has a good rapport with Denny. It's a quality broadcast.

Which differs from the TV broadcast. Bob Davis is a legend in Kansas City sports broadcasting, but I can't stand him. Fortunately, I'm not a big KU fan, or I'd have to listen to his football and basketball broadcasts all winter. He just yells so much. And he over-uses phrases. Next time you watch a Royals game, count how many times he says "oh boy."

But, I'd still rather hear Bob and his partner Paul Splittorf. (this blog is getting pretty negative, isn't it?). Paul is really annoying. He was a great pitcher for the Royals, and obviously knows the game as well as anybody. But his broadcast style is bad. Everything he says is broken up into small phrases, usually 7 words or less. Then he alternates his inflection on these phrases. One ends with his voice going up, the next ends going down. Up. Down.

But have you seen a White Sox game? Their announcer (I only know him as the Hawk, I don't know his name) is terrible. He never says anything. The batter hits the ball, the shortstop fields and throws to first to get the out, and you will hear nothing. After the play, he'll say "one down." On a strike-out of an opposing hitter, he'll throw out this annoying "He Gone!" phrase. Terrible.

Gobble
Jimmy Gobble pitched a freakin' gem last night. He was perfect into the sixth, and had a chance to complete a shutout in the ninth. The guy looks about 12 years old, but he is by far the best starter the Royals have had this year.

But, of course, since the Royals are struggling so much this season, we must second-guess the manager. The radio guys were saying that Gobble's pitches were elevated in the eighth - a sure sign of a pitcher getting tired. I understand wanting to give Gobble the opportunity to get the complete game shutout, but the guy's tank was empty. He went back out in the ninth, got the first two batters out, but then gave up a double and a single to lose the shutout. Closer Mike MacDougal entered, gave up a single and 2 walks to allow the Jays to tie the game. Pena then summoned Nate Field to get the third out of the ninth.

The good news is that the Royals got a run in the top of the tenth on Aaron Guiel's homer, and held on to win. The bad news is MacDougal's failure to secure the save. Mac spent the first month of the season on the DL recovering from the flu, and had only one appearace before last night. I felt like MacDougal would have been better served to enter the game starting the ninth to give him a clean slate. Of course, he may have still given up two runs, but until he gets comfortable it seems like it would be better to avoid situations like that. Then again, that's what he's paid to do.

It was nice to get the win, and hopefully the Royals can string a few together and get out of their funk.

One other interesting thing about last night's game. Two Royals hitters wore the Golden Sombrero. Both Benito Santiago and Angel Berroa struck out 4 times last night. That's quite an achievement. I wonder how many teams have had multi-Golden-Sombrero games, and how many of those actually won their games.

BTW, I'm still trying to figure out why Eduardo Villaces got the start Saturday against the Yankees...

Shake Up...
Just heard that the Royals have shaken up the line up for tonight's game against the Blue Jays.

Here's the top 6:

Guiel
Randa
Beltran
Sweeney
Harvey
Gonzalez

Interesting. Harvey bats below Sweeney and Juan-Gone gets a demotion. This sends a message to Gonzalez - he's not been getting the job done. Guiel's back, which may signal the end of the road for DeJesus at the ML level. He's been bitterly disappointing.

It's Over
Well, it was fun to dream about an American League Central Division title, but now the dream is over. The Royals have gotten off one of the worst starts you could imagine. I won't go into all the details, but over the weekend, they were swept by the Yankees. What really has me irritated with this team, is that it looks like they themselves have given up.

Injuries have killed the team. And I can live with struggling through injuries (though the Royals' injury problems are another issue altogether). But, can anybody explain to me why they bring up a pitcher from AA who has thrown a total of 59 innings in his entire career to start a game in Yankee Stadium??? Eduardo Villasis (sp?) started Saturday ahead of Kris Wilson (in AAA and has ML experience), Jamie Wright (in AAA and has ML experience) and even Zack Greinke (in AAA, the pitching phenom who the Royals refuse to bring up because they want him to develop). They want him to develop??? Why is David DeJesus in KC? He obviously isn't developed (currently hitting .050). Why do they bring up Villases? He's hasn't been above A ball until this spring. The Royals had 66 players in Spring Training, including a country singer, but Villases wasn't one of them! And he starts against the Yankees???

And then, even more irritating, the manager of the team guarantees a division title. Excuse me, Mr. Pena, but your team is currently playing .304 ball, and you are 7.5 games behind in last place, and 9 games under .500. Let's worry about stringing together a win or two before promising division titles. The team looks lost this year. They aren't playing with any enthusiasm. They don't look interested in winning.

But the story, for me, is the injuries. We are about a month into the season, and already the following players have missed playing time due to injuries:

• Kyle Snyder, pitcher - out for season, arm surgery


• Miguel Ascencio, pitcher - out for season, arm surgery


• Kevin Appier, pitcher - started on DL, came back, rehurt his arm


• Angel Berroa, SS - out 3 weeks, migraines


• Mike Sweeney, 1B/DH - out 1 week, sore wrist


• Darrell May, pitcher - missed 2 starts, groin injury


• Desi Relaford, 2B - out 3 weeks, hamstring


• Juan Gonzalaz, RF - out 1 week, flu


• Tony Graffanino, 2B/UT - currently on DL, knee


• Curtis Leskanic, pitcher - currently in KC getting treatment on shoulder


• Mike MacDougal, pitcher - out 1 month, flu

Struggling through those injuries has thrown the team into a tailspin that they can't get out of. Now, they don't know how to win. It's just sad.

Goodbye ODBC
While working with a client recently, I learned that Microsoft is planning to cut out support for ODBC data sources. In the case of this client, they still have some data in older, proprietary data sources that are only accessible through an ODBC DSN. They are attempting to move forward with some newer Microsoft technologies (SharePoint, for example), but cannot seem to link to this data source. I worked with Microsoft on this issue, and they directed me to this article.

The article states thats that it is strongly recommended to move to native OLE DB components. I thought the OLE DB provider for ODBC was a native OLE DB component (just one that has to communicate through the ODBC layer). This will make it difficult for companies who are still using older proprietary systems to move up to the newer technologies. For my client, they wanted to display data in a SharePoint web part, but this lack of support makes it impossible. In my opinion, it's still a little early to discontinue ODBC support.

Foul, then fair
They say that at every baseball game, you will see something you've never seen before. This happened last night at Kauffman Stadium during the Royals/Rangers game.

It was the bottom of the fifth, the Royals were down 1-0. Two were on base, and Harvey was up to bat. He pulled a ball down the left field line that cleared the wall for an apparent homerun. Harvey circled bases when the third base umpired ruled the hit a homerun. The umpires then met to discuss the call, and overruled the call and ruled the hit a foul ball. Apparently, replays showed the ball passing just to the left of the foul pole, so the call was correct.

Harvey returned to the batters box, and Kenny Rogers and his catcher prepared to pitch to him again. They couldn't agree on a pitch, and then the Rangers' pitching coach Oral Herschiser came to the mound. The three met for a moment and agreed on a strategy for pitching to Harvey. The pitch came in, and Harvey promptly deposited it into the left field bullpen, clearly a fair ball and a three run homerun. That makes two "homeruns" on two consecutive pitches by the same batter. It's a crazy game.

Fortunately, the Royals pulled off a 5-3 victory. They'll play an afternoon getaway game today, so hopefully the Royals can build some momentum.

The Fenway Project
One of the best benefits of being a member of SABR, is that they send along a copy of each book they publish. So far, I've received two or three books, mostly collections of essays on the history of the game.

Yesterday in the mail, I received the latest SABR book, "The Fenway Project." This looks like an interesting book. According to the back cover, "On June 28, 2002, over seven hundred members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) descended on Fenway Park for an interleague contest between the hometown Boston Red Sox and their National League rivals, the former Boston - now Atlanta - Braves. Sixty-four of these avid fans, historians, statisticians, and game enthusiasts recorded their experiences for this book."

So, what we have is a collection off essays from 64 different folks watching the same game. Some from the grandstands, some from the press box, the clubhouse, and behind the famous scoreboard. I'm looking forward to reading this collection.

Royal Weekend
It was another frustrating weekend for the Royals. On Friday night in a steady rain, my kids, mother-in-law and I watched as the Royals' bullpen refused to throw strikes. The relievers gave up 6 walks and 6 runs in the final two innings, losing their lead and the game 7-5. The late inning breakdown came after Jimmy Gobble pitched a gem in emergency duty. Kevin Appier got the start, worked a 1-2-3 first inning, and left the game after the first batter of the second inning. It appears his elbow is again hurting him. I have a feeling I witnessed the final pitch of Appier's great career. The Royals were up 5-1 after the fifth, and with the rain coming down, I was hoping the umpires would call the game giving the Royals a rain-shortened victory. But the rain let up and so did the pitching, letting the Twins steal one.

On Saturday, my wife and I enjoyed dinner at George Brett's restaurant on the Plaza in KC. Brett's is a very nice restaurant with excellent service and pretty good food. Of course, a small collection of photos, trophies and other artifacts are on display. We purchased a set of beer glasses that feature Brett's famous signature logo. And, at the stadium, the Royals got some offense and pounded the Twins 10-1. However, another emergency pitching performance was needed as Darrell May left with a groin injury. Sean Camp came into the game and pitched great to earn his first major league victory.

With the combination of shaky pitching and injuries, it seems logical to bring Zack Greinke up from Omaha. GM Allard Baird admits his stuff is ready for the majors, but wants him to get more seasoning in the minors.

Sunday was a real treat. My son's baseball team went to the game as a group. It was reunion day for the Fantasy Week participants, of which their coach was one. We sat in the left field outfield seats, and the Fantasy Campers hung out in the Royal Pavilion. The boys stood by the fence separating the regular concourse from the Pavilion, and coach Bill tried to bring various Royals Alumni members over to sign autographs. So, the boys ended up with their caps signed by guys like John Mayberry, Kevin Seitzer, Al Fitzmorris, and Brian MacRae. Of course, no matter who came over, the boys insisted on seeing George Brett. Finally, John Mayberry told the security guard that the boys in their Indians jerseys were with him, and to let them all into the Pavilion. I stood outside the gate until they finally returned with their caps signed by the great George Brett. They all had a blast, and it was neat to see those old players that I watched growing up. Maybe next year, I can go to Fantasy Camp....

Oh, and the Royals finally got some decent pitching Sunday, but couldn't hit in the clutch. Three times they had a runner on third with less than two outs, and yet failed to score. The Royals had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but could only get one across and they lost 4-2.

Pocket PC Phone Update

After about 3 weeks, I must say I'm very happy with my Pocket PC Phone from T-Mobile. I had blogged earlier about problems with ActiveSync, but those seem to be going away, with only an occasional error. With this phone, I always have my current Inbox, Contacts and Calendar in my pocket. When a new email comes in (like the 30 or 40 spam messages I get a day), the phone will ding-a-ling at me, using the new push technology of Exchange 2003 and PocketPC 2003.

Dan apparently is still having no luck with ActiveSync on his phone. His is an older PocketPC 2002 phone that he upgraded to the Pocket PC 2003 OS.

The only complaint I have at this point is that the phone comes with only 32MB of memory. That's substandard for today's Pocket PC devices (most have 64MB). The Pocket PC I replaced with this phone had 64MB of memory, and I've found it much more difficult to have all of my apps loaded.

The newer devices have a built-in camera, which I've never considered very useful. That is, until I was in Memphis last week. I attended a Memphis Redbirds game at AutoZone Park. While wandering around this beautiful ballpark, I realized that I was wishing for a camera. If I had the camera/Pocket PC/Phone, I could have snapped some shots and sent them off via email right then and there.

A 15-5 Blow Out
It was nice to see the Royals finally get an easy win last night. They faced ex-Royal Chad Durbin and scored 5 in the top of the first. The offense continued and eventually scored 15 for the game. Interestingly, they didn't score at all in the 9th, when Laker, the Indians' backup catcher, pitched because of their depleted bullpen. He was tossing 75MPH BP balls up there, but the Royals couldn't do anything with them.

I doubt they'll have as much fun tonight against CC Sabathia. He's always tough on the Royals.

When to bunt?
Interesting discussion at Rob & Rany on the Royals. I didn't see the game, so this was the first I had heard of the play. But with the game tied, Pena decides to bunt with Santiago at the plate and the AL's fastest man, Rich Thompson on first, in an attempt to trade an out for a base. Bad move. It was late in a tie ballgame where runs are much more valuable, no outs. Thompson is pretty much a sure bet to steal the base (80% in the minors). Why give away an out, when you can get the base without giving up that out? Then, with a man on second, it's much more likely he will score with no outs than with one out (he could score without having to get a hit).

Instead, the bunt went right back to the pitcher, who turned and fired to second for the force and double-play. Pena is a great manager, but sometimes his infatuation with the bunt is too much. In this case, it may have cost them a win.

The Promise of Technology

Finally, technology has realized its promise. I give you.... the The Subservient Chicken.

Baseball Is...

A few years ago, the Sunday edition of the Kansas City Star included a column by Greg Hall. In the column, Hall would cite comments made by various KC media (radio talk show hosts, sports anchors, play-by-play announcers), and provide his commentary on what they said.

He left the Star to pursue a radio career which was quickly ended when he was fired for a questionable skit he did on his show. He bounced around in various forms, and now his "Off The Couch" column can be read in the small Platte County Landmark newspaper. You can read the column on line at http://plattecountylandmark.com/ghall.htm.

Recently, Hall posted a verse that he wrote after the 1994 baseball strike. I'm reproducing it here for you to enjoy. (Mr. Hall, if you are opposed to my copying of your work, please let me know).

Baseball Is…

Baseball is grass, chalk and dirt
Displayed the same yet differently
In every park that has ever heard the words, "Play ball!"

Baseball is a passion that that bonds and divides all those who know it.

Baseball is a pair of hands stained with newsprint,
A set of eyes squinting to read a box score,
And a brow creased in an attempt to recreate a three-hour game from an inch-square block of type.

Baseball is the hat I wear to mow the lawn.

Baseball is a simple game of catch
And the never-ending search for the perfect knuckle ball.

Baseball is Willie vs. Mickey,
Gibson vs. Kofax
And Buddy Biancalana against the odds.

Baseball links Kansan and Missourian,
American and Japanese,
But most of all - father and son.

Baseball is the scent of spring,
The unmistakable sound of a double down the line,
And the face of a ten-year-old emerging from a pile of bodies
With a worthless yet priceless foul ball.

Baseball is a language of very simple words
That tells unbelievably magic tales.

Baseball is three brothers in the same uniform,
On the same team for one brief summer,
Captured forever in a black and white photo on the table by the couch.

Baseball is a glove on a shelf,
Oiled and tightly wrapped,
Slumbering through the stark winter months.

Baseball is some Elmer's glue, a couple of finishing nails, a hammer and some black tape,
Lovingly applied in an attempt to coax a few more innings out of a splintered Louisville Slugger.

Baseball is the foreign sensation you get when placing your hand in someone else's glove.

Baseball is Mark Sawatski swiping his mom's Oxydol
To "chalk" the lines for our neighborhood sandlot game of the week.

Baseball is the smell of a freshly screen-printed jersey,
In the hands of an 11-year-old who just made the team.

Baseball is the way generations compare themselves and their idols.

Baseball is molding the bill of your cap to your own personal specifications.

Baseball is a breast pocket bulging with a transistor radio.
Baseball is the reason there are transistor radios.

Baseball is a fifth-grade history class huddled around Sister Irma and her Philco,
On a sunny October afternoon.

Baseball is sitting in your car on a humid summer night,
Listening to the play-by-play on the only radio that will pick up the game.

Baseball is a voice in a box,
Describing men you've never met,
In a place you've never been,
Doing things you'll never have the chance to do.

Baseball is the potential for a no-hitter with every national anthem.

Baseball is 90 feet of anticipation.

Baseball is my dad hollering score updates upstairs after mom had long ago sent us to bed.

Baseball is the acquired art of extending the life of a hard ball,
With knots, tape and spit,
Until the round rubber center reveals itself and ends the day's game.

Baseball is a shoestring catch,
A booted ground ball,
And even a Clete Boyer.
But it's not a game for loafers.

Baseball is the numbing sting of a fastball off the fists of a batter on a cold April night.

Baseball is knowing when to run,
When to stop,
And when to slide.

Baseball is a thinking man's game that takes no brains to excel at.

Baseball is a tear rolling down the cheek of a child in uniform,
As he watches a thunderstorm wash out the day's game.

Baseball is a scribbled and blotched scorecard,
That can make 6-4-3 look like a ballet.

Baseball is fireworks at the ball park every Fourth of July.

Baseball is experimenting with the grip of a baseball,
In the hopes of inventing a new and unhittable pitch.

Baseball is pepper, three-flies up, five-hundred and home run derby,
Played by kids in every schoolyard since before Babe Ruth.

Baseball is imitating every nuance of the stance of your favorite player.

Baseball is determining who gets "first-ups" by strangling the neck of a bat.

Baseball is the anguish you feel when a Yankee gets traded to the Red Sox.

Baseball is how I learned my geography.

Baseball is the four-inch-high trophy that I have never thrown away.

Baseball is taught by dads to sons,
In hopes that the boy will master the game that the man did not.

Baseball is a dream that you never really give up on.

Baseball is precious,
Baseball is timeless,
Baseball is forever.

By Greg Hall of Kansas City, Missouri

Pitching
In fact, I did have a beer last night. I had dinner with fellow Quilogy employee Jon Box, Microsoft RD for Memphis and co-author of Building Solutions with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework.

We had a good discussion about some upcoming Microsoft items, including the Whidbey release of Visual Studio. Of course, the conversation ultimately turned to baseball in the end.

Upon returning to my hotel room, I found that the Royals pitching again was poor in yesterday's game against the White Sox. This game was especially painful, since the Royals were down 6-0, came back to take the lead in the top of the ninth, only to lose it in the bottom of the ninth when interim closer Curtis Leskanic failed to close it out.

Jeremy Affeldt got the start, and struggled again. Today, soft tossing lefty Brian Anderson gets the start, and I have a feeling it will be another big day for the Sox offense. The Royals pitching has me wanting to move up from beer to the hard stuff....

IsPostBack in WebParts
I just finished a research project for a client. The issue involved dynamically creating a DataViewWebPart object, tying it to some data (using XML files) and displaying it in a custom web part.

The client was able to build the web part just fine. When he tried to use some of the functionality of the DataView, like Sorting or Filtering, the DataView would not behave correctly. It would simply refresh itself in its original state.

I started looking at this, in my case I decided to use a DataGrid control to test it. With the ASP.NET DataGrid control, it's pretty easy to bind some data to it, and then to implement column sorting using the SortCommand event of the DataGrid.

I built my web part, implemented the SortCommand event and tested and got the same behavior. When I clicked a column to sort, it simply refreshed itself as it was originally.

Since I was creating the DataGrid and doing the binding in the CreateChildControls event of the web part, this event was firing over and over, essentially rebinding the control to the original data each time.

I figured I could then check for IsPostBack to avoid this databinding once the page had already been requested once. This didn't work either. I found in this MSDN article a discussion about how IsPostBack doesn't work in a WebPart, even though web parts are simply web user controls.

So, in the Load event of the DataGrid, I did a simple test to see if the grid already had data in it, and if not, then did the databinding. This way, the grid is being reloaded with ViewState instead of my databinding.

Private Sub _dg_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _dg.Load
    If sender.Items.Count = 0 Then
        sender.DataSource = CreateDataSource() 'CreateDataSource creates & returns a DataView object
        sender.DataBind()
    End If
End Sub

This fixes the issue, which causes me to want to drink a beer. :)

More Pitching Woes
Right on cue, the Royals illustrated my point in my previous blog about Royals Pitching. Yesterday, Darrell May had another poor start, giving up 7 earned runs in 5 innings. So far, no Royals starter has a win. Their combined ERA is 7.07. Only one starter, Jimmy Gobble, has had a "quality start."

Today, Jeremy Affeldt will try to improve on his previous performance when he faces the White Sox. In his last outing, Affeldt gave up 9 hits, 6 earned runs, 2 walks and most surprisingly, no strikeouts. The rotation is a major concern for this team.

I only hope that getting Appier back into the rotation (he pitched with in a rehab start in Wichita, and is scheduled to start against the Twins this Saturday) will help. I'm not a big fan of the all-lefty rotation. I also look to see pitching phenom Zack Grienke called up from Omaha soon if the rotation doesn't show signs of life.

Bud Selig Fan Club

Check out Doug Pappas' Bud Selig Fan Club Blog ("All B.S. All The Time"). Pappas is an author for Baseball Prospectus. Some very funny stuff...

Importance of Pitching
The Royals are 4-2 and in second place in the AL Central. The main thing I've observed with the Royals is their lack of pitching. They've gotten "lucky" in a couple of games, tying or winning in the 9th. But the pitching is concerning me. The Royals started the season with a rotation of all left-handed pitchers. So far, the starters are struggling.

Brian Anderson - 0-0, 10.00 ERA
Darrell May - 0-1, 7.20 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt - 0-1, 9.53 ERA
Jimmy Gobble - 0-0, 0.00 ERA

Gobble is the only starter to have a good outing. The staff "ace," Anderson, has had 2 poor outings. The pitcher that everybody expected to do especially well, Affeldt, struggled in his first start, giving up 9 hits, 2 balks, and no strikeouts.

Dennys Reyes had a spot start yesterday and pitched well. But if the starters don't begin pitching better, this could be a very long season. So far, the bullpen has done well. Five relievers have an ERA of under 2.00, and 4 have an ERA of 0.00. But this bullpen can't keep up this pace for long, especially when the starters are leaving games in the fourth or fifth inning.

This rotation was patched together after injuries to Kyle Snyder and Miguel Asencio. Also out for the year is Runelvys Hernandez, who pitched well early last year. Kevin Appier will be starting in a rehab game for AA Wichita tonight, and if all goes well, he should start for the Royals on Saturday. That will give the Royals a much needed right-hander in the rotation. But Appier is nearing the end of his career, and the Royals can't expect him to be the savior.

For the Royals to contend this season, the top three starters need to begin getting more outs and giving up fewer runs. Affeldt especially needs to begin pitching to his ability. For years, he's been touted as a dominating pitcher. With the blister problems solved, it's time for him to step up and become the stopper for this team.

The offense will play well this season, and should have little trouble putting up runs. Looking at the pitching so far, they will need every one of those runs.

My day at the ballpark
On Monday, my family and I ventured out to Kauffman Stadium for the Opening Day game between the Royals and White Sox. Our seats were about 4 rows from the top of the upper deck, straight up from first base. It was a glorious day, sunny and 73 degrees.

The pre-game ceremonies included Royals Alumni players holding an oversized American Flag, an Air Force fly-over, and a bald eagle flying into the stadium to the pitching mound.

The game itself was great in the end, but for 8 innings wasn't too great for Royals fans. Royals starter Brian Anderson struggled, and the Royals found themselves down 7-3 going into the ninth inning. After several moves by both managers (pinch hitters for Pena, relievers for Guillen), the Royals had two runners on and light-hitting Mendy Lopez at the plate. Mendy worked the count to 3-1, then put the next pitch over the left-center field wall to tie the game. Angel Berroa followed with a single, which brought up Carlos Beltran. Beltran found a pitch he liked, and hit it over the left field wall, off the Mountain Dew sign. The walk-off homer secured an opening day win for the Royals for the second consecutive year.

Of course the stadium went nuts. Last year, after Sweeney hit a game-winning hit, his neck was injured when his teammates pounded him on the head in celebration. On Monday, Beltran threw his helmet off before reaching the mob of players at home plate. He later acknowledged that he didn't want the guys to pound him on the head like Sweeney.

A new feature of MLB broadcasts this year is in-game interviews. In this case, the Royals radio broadcast was able to interview Beltran live right after he hit the homerun. You could hear the excitement in his voice. It's nice to hear the raw excitement in the players, in contrast to the normal, pre-determined cliche comments they usually make when interviewed in the clubhouse.

Office Development
Yesterday, I presented at the Microsoft Office System 2003 event in Wichita, KS. The thing I like about doing these presentations is that I usually learn new things in the process. In this case, I was introduced to the Office Tools for Visual Studio.

Using these tools, I can write managed code to work with an Office document. Currently the tools support Word and Excel, but other products are in development. As an example, I could write some code that queries a Web Service for some information when an Excel worksheet opens. The code can take the results of that query and place the data into the sheet, so the sheet always opens with the most current data.

In another demo for the presentation, I added two command buttons to a spreadsheet, then wrote managed code to respond to the click events of those buttons. One exports the spreadsheet data as an XML document, the other loads XML data into the spreadsheet.

Using the VS tools for Office and the Office System's new XML support, it becomes very easy for developers to build solutions with Office that can also share data with other systems.

Opening Day
Opening Day is finally here. Forget Japan. Forget "opening night" on ESPN2. This is the real Opening Day. It begins, as tradition dictates, in Cincinnati, and is followed up with games throughout baseball. Here in Kansas City, the Royals begin their season with a 2:10 CDT game against the Chicago White Sox. The weather is going to be perfect (clear and about 70 degrees), the stadium will be packed (even the standing room only tickets are sold out), and the Royals will get a win (at least I hope so).

Last year was my first Opening Day. I've been wanting to go ever since I was a kid. It didn't disappoint. It was the most glorious day in recent memory. The weather, like today, was beautiful, and the Royals came away with an impressive win.

Here's hoping today lives up to the billing.

Everything but the Sync

Well, I've been playing around with my new Pocket PC phone for about 3 days now. ActiveSync has been working about 50% of the time. When the sync works, it's the best device I could ever imagine having. When the sync isn't working, it's irritating.

I'm trying to use the phone to do over-the-air sync's to my company's Exchange server. Most of the time, I will get an error on my device that says my account does not have permissions to do the operation. Then, suddenly, it will start working. That's happened twice. Yesterday, around lunch time, it started working and it worked fine for over 24 hours. This afternoon, however, I needed to reset the device after installing a game that wouldn't run properly. After the reset, no sync.

Here's an oddity I found though. If I go into the ActiveSync properties, and enter an invalid password, then try to sync, it will stop and request a password. I enter the correct password, and it will sync okay. Subsequent sync's however, won't work. At least not until I save an incorrect password again.

If there are any Exchange experts who have worked through this problem before, please email me. I'd love to try to get this thing figured out.

SmartPhone again...
I made the purchase. I'm in Des Moines teaching a class, and over lunch yesterday, I decided to roam the local mall. I found a T-Mobile store, and so I wandered in and asked if they had the PocketPC phone. "This is your lucky day," said the fellow behind the counter. They had gotten one in that morning, the only one they've had in the last six months. This is the new version with Pocket PC 2003 OS installed. I plunked down my $400 and walked away with a new toy.

I've been trying to become accustomed to this new device. The obvious advantages of having this thing are many. If you use a PDA, it's great to have your calendar, contact information and inbox all accessible on this small device that you can carry with you wherever you go. The problem I've found is that I end up not carrying it around everywhere, and as such, I don't use it like I should. The device that I do carry with me everywhere I go is my cell phone. So, if the cell phone were also a PDA, wouldn't that force me to start using it? I would hope so.

The PocketPC phone edition is capable of sync'ing to my company's Exchange server. So, no matter where I am, I have access to my inbox, calendar and contacts. When new emails arrive, my phone notifies me, and I can respond.

This works great - when it works. I've been having difficulty with getting the sync to work with our server. It was failing everytime I tried a sync, but then this afternoon, it started working. I foolishly reset my device, and now it's failing again. :(

So, after about 24 hours of tinkering, the jury is still out. So far, I do like the device. It's compact, fits nicely in my pocket, works great as a phone. It came with a case for clipping it to my belt, but I'm not sure I'm ready to announce my geekdom to that extent just yet. If the sync issue can be worked out (and hopefully, my company's admins are willing to work with me on it), I think it'd be the perfect tool. Especially for someone who finds himself in airports fairly frequently.

Stay tuned, since I do have a 14 day trial period...

SmartPhone Update


I visited the Verizon store yesterday to learn more about their PocketPC Phone. Verizon offers the Samsung SCH-I700 PocketPC phone which, to me, is the best device on the market today. I saw the device in the store. It's fairly slim, small and light for the functionality it packs (PDA, phone, camera, etc).

The price of the phone is similar to the Hitachi G1000 that Sprint offers - around $600. I was ready to purchase until I checked into the monthly service fees. Verizon, like T-Mobile, offers a calling plan and then you can add internet access to the plan. T-Mobile's internet add-on runs about $20 per month. Verizon's internet add-on runs $80 per month. A huge disparity there. The total monthly charge for Verizon (calling plan plus internet) would run around $120 per month, compared to T-Mobile's $60 per month.

I may go with T-Mobile, since their phone is the only one running the new Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition and their monthly service is reasonable.

Stay tuned....

Affeldt

Last night, in a rare night game in Arizona, the Royals played the Angels to an 8-8 tie in 11 innings. Jeremy Affeldt got the start for the Royals, and while he got knocked around a little bit (11 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts in 5 innings), the good news is that he threw 88 pitches with no sign of irritation on his troublesome middle finger.

It was interesting to hear his remarks during the radio broadcast of the game last night. He said that he feld good and that the curveball was coming out of his hand good, but the dry air prevented it from breaking the way it should. He was confident that once they head to KC and get into more humid air, his pitches will all be working well. When we saw him pitch in Surprise a couple of weeks ago, I noticed his curveball wasn't quite as good as it normally is.

It might be interesting to look at how pitchers do at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, compared to other, more humid cities.

Smart and Smarter Phones

After spending a few days in Arizona with Dan Fox, I began to realize how nice it would be to have a smarter phone.

Dan has the T-Mobile PocketPC Phone. We were both in the desert to get away from work and enjoy some Cactus League baseball, but we also both needed to periodically check email.

I have a Samsung N400 on SprintPCS. With my phone, I can access the "wireless web" and log into Quilogy's wireless intranet. From there, I can access a company directory, look at recent sales numbers, etc. I can also access my Exchange Inbox and read, delete and reply to emails. Sounds fine, however it actually quite difficult. One issue is that when I access the intranet, I need to peck in my username and password. My user name consists partially of my last name, which is 9 characters long. Using a numeric keypad to enter that is quite cumbersome. Additionally, I need to re-enter my username and password to log into Exchange. I can then read and delete emails easily enough, but replying presents the same problems with typing. (as an example, to type "Quilogy," I would have to peck 77884445556664999.)

Meanwhile, Dan was checking email on a device that presented a larger, easier to read screen. Also, the device is pre-configured with his username and password, so he simply needs to "sync," and the device automatically syncs his Exchange information. Not just email, but also contacts and calendar information, which I have to keep separately if I want that information on my phone. His phone also includes the convenience of being able to dial directly from his Exchange Contact list.

Of course, the downside is that I had a nice, small phone that clipped to my belt. He had a larger device that he kept in his pocket.

So, since returning from Arizona, I've been researching various phone/PDA combinations to see if one of these devices would be right for me. Off the bat, I felt I wanted a PocketPC phone. I've been using a PocketPC off and on for a couple of years. There are things about it that just can't be beat. Now that the Microsoft Compact Framework and other development tools for mobility are available, I'm also excited about being able to write custom applications for my device. My current carrier is SprintPCS, so I checked their web site to see what kind of PDA Phones they had available.

The options with Sprint are basically the huge and heavy Hitachi G1000 and the poorly reviewed Toshiba 2032. The Hitachi has a builtin thumb-board for easier input, but adding that makes the device really too big to carry everywhere you go, IMO. The Toshiba doesn't run PocketPC Phone Edition, rather it runs the standard PocketPC OS with proprietary phone softward built on top of it. I've seen nothing but poor reviews for this Toshiba.


Another carrier in my area, Verizon, seems to be ahead of the curve on devices. They are currently offering both a PocketPC phone as well as a SmartPhone. The SmartPhone is a newer device. Like the PocketPC, it can sync to my Exchange so it has my calendar, contacts and email, but it has a smaller form factor, much like a standard cell phone. It doesn't have a touch screen, so unlike the PocketPC where you tap the screen to interact, the SmartPhone uses buttons and the numeric keypad for input.

Verizon is offering the Samsung SCH-I600 SmartPhone and the Samsung SCH-I700 PocketPC Phone. The I600 is the only SmartPhone available in my area, that I am aware of, and the I700 is the most advanced PocketPC phone available.

Finally, TMobile, who was the first to offer the PocketPC phone, is still offering their phone, but now offers it with the new PocketPC 2003 OS.

After muddling through all of the information, I'm not sure I've decided what device is right for me. It seems all devices offer something of value, but none seem to offer everything.

In the meantime, I'll keep pecking away...

Hot Dogs

Here's a pet peeve for me. You're at the stadium enjoying a game. You decide to head to the concession stand for a hot dog and a drink. You agree to also pick up some extra items for your friends or family.

So you wait in line, and finally order 3 or 4 hot dogs, a few sodas, and some nachos. The hot dogs are nicely wrapped in foil, keeping them warm. The problem is that you want some ketchup and mustard for your dogs. No worries, right? You'll just grab a few packets and head back to your seats.

But, no...

You find that to get mustard and ketchup, you need to walk to the condiment station. There, you wait for the other folks to finish so you can elbow your way in. Then, you have to unwrap all of your hot dogs and squirt the mustard and ketchup on them. But the mustard is usually on the opposite side of the table from the ketchup. And one of the two is usually empty or otherwise non-functional. Once you get the condiments dispensed, you then wrap your dogs back in the supplied foil.

When you get back to your seats and unwrap your dogs, the mustard and ketchup is no longer on the dog, but all over the foil.

Annoying! Is it really that expensive to provide ketchup and mustard packets so folks can apply their condiments at their seats?

Interestingly, Surprise Stadium (where the Royals play their Spring Training games) implements the condiment station described above, however, their hot dogs are served unwrapped in a paper basket. That's a little better, since the unwrapping/rewrapping/unwrapping process is eliminated.

Spring Training
We just returned from Arizona where we took in some Cactus League ball games. On Sunday, we arrived and drove straight to Scottsdale to see the Cubs take on the Giants. Since we had just come from KC, the 90 degree heat was pretty tough to take. Plus, our seats were way down the third base line in the bleachers. We ended up spending most of the game walking around in the shade and smearing on the sun screen. The Giants ended up winning the game 11-3.

On Monday, we drove to Mesa and arrived early enough to see the Cubs Minor Leaguers in their workouts. My son Joey was pleased when they tossed a couple of balls over the fence to him. We then took the long walk to the stadium to see the Cubs take on the Royals. We had great seats, thankfully in the shade. Jeremy Affeldt pitched well for the Royals, but the Cubs prevailed 3-2. Before the game, we saw the great Buck O'Neil. My son took a ball down for him to sign. Buck told Joey he had to catch the ball before he'd sign it. He made Joey go up the steps, and he then tossed the ball and Joey caught it. Buck then signed it. He's a very charming man. After the game, we drove up to Usery Pass and walked through the desert. It was an enjoyable walk, even though we didn't quite make it all the way to the top of the mountain.

On Tuesday, we drove to Surprise and arrived early enough to see the Royals work out before their game. It's fun seeing these guys in this relaxed atmosphere enjoying themselves as they prepare for the long season. During batting practice, Joey and I moved out beyond the left field fence to try and snag a home run ball. Juan Gonzalez hit one that was coming right toward me. I thought I would have a chance and grabbing it until it went over the fence - into the next field. The shot had to be about 430 feet. He can really mash. We got Garth Brooks' autograph and then headed into the stadium for the game.

The Royals played the Rangers and they hit well against Kenny Rogers. The Royals ended up winning 12-7. We saw Mike MacDougal wandering around the concourse, so we got his autograph.

What a great trip. I'm really anxious for the season to start, and am already planning next year's trip to Arizona.

Dev Days

Microsoft's Dev Days event passed through KC this week. I was pleased to have been asked to present at the event, and enjoyed the experience a great deal. In the final web app track session, Rick Kight and I split a presentation discussing Microsoft's entry into eWeek's OpenHack competition.

In 2002, eWeek sponsored a competition in which applications could be submitted, posted on the Internet, and opened up for hackers. Oracle and Microsoft both submitted applications, and Microsoft's withstood the challenge. (The Oracle application did allow cross-site scripting. This isn't a weekness of the Oracle product, just careless coding).

It was interesting digging into a "secure" application and learning various techniques. Most important to me were the input validation and scrubbing techniques. Basically, on any web form, using ASP.NET's validation controls can help prevent a malicious user from submitting script into our application by validating the input to limit what characters are allowed. To prevent malicious input through the query string parameters, a "CleanString" method is used for any and all input. This method scrubs the input before allowing it to be passed to a stored procedure. Also, any output to the pages is passed through a method that HTML-Encodes it.

I also enjoyed visiting with friends and co-workers Dan Fox and Jon Box.

The Ordinary Man's Game
Here's a great snippett from Buck O'Neil's book, I Was Right On Time:

"The black kids were just playing basketball and football. This is why RBI (Riviving Baseball in the Inner-Cities) is trying to rejuvinate baseball in the inner city. And we want these kids to play baseball. Right now the majority of blacks in the majors are from Latin countries. There are a lot of kids in our cities who are good atheletes, but they'll never play pro basketball or pro football because you have to be big and quick to play those sports. But in baseball you can be five-foot-nine and be a superstar. It's the ordinary man's game."

I've not had the pleasure of seeing Ken Burns' film Baseball, so my knowledge of Buck O'Neil comes from living in his adopted hometown. Even at 93, he's still a very visible fixture in this city. I see him at just about every Royals game I've attended, sitting in his same seat behind home plate, scorecard in hand. Last year, my son Joey and I were fortunate enough to get some seats right behind home plate for a Royals game. Joey was on the aisle, and we were filling out our scorecard before the first pitch. Suddenly, Joey's cap was flipped down over his eyes. He pulled the cap up and looked up to see a grey haired old man walking down the steps. Buck turned around and gave my son a wink.

After we return from Arizona, Joey and I plan on visiting the Negro League Museum, located right here in KC. It's amazing how you just never bother to appreciate the things that are in your own backyard. Joey has been interested in visiting the museum ever since our trip to Atlanta earlier this year. We were strolling through Underground Atlanta, and there was a cart selling Negro League merchandise. Monarchs caps, Clowns jerseys. They had everything. The "cool" factor was enough for Joey. I'm looking forward to the visit and learning more about these great players.

Baseball Survey
In an earlier blog, I mentioned a survey in the latest issue of Baseball America. It's an interesting survey, which asks about the popularity of baseball compared to other sports. Here are my thoughts...

Yes, Baseball is my favorite sport. I like baseball because it is relaxing. I can count on baseball everyday of the summer. I can listen to games while I work around the house. I can take my son to baseball games and we both enjoy it without having to put up with a large, drunk, obnoxious crowd (NFL anyone?).

My next favorite sport is NFL football, probably just because that's the other major league sport in my town (KC). Football is a great sport for TV. For over 12 years, I've had season tickets to the Chiefs, but over the last few years I've found it less enjoyable to go to the games. With tailgating, it can be an 8 hour affair. Without tailgating, you get to the stadium and have to park way far away (and pay $20 to do so). Then you walk to the stadium and wait in a mob to get in the gates. Then, almost without fail, drunk loudmouth fans will be around you. My son is 10 years old, and I still do not feel comfortable sharing this experience with him.

I don't believe MLB needs to do anything to make it more appealing. The biggest mistake MLB can make is to try to make baseball more like football or basketball. I'm afraid that baseball will get desperate to remain a popular sport and will start tinkering with rules to try to make it "less boring." The "boring"-ness of the game is what is so appealing.

This reminds me of the steroid debates that are raging this year. I keep hearing the argument that "fans want to see more homeruns." I disagree. The beauty of the game is the strategy, the gracefulness, the chess-match moves that managers make throughout the game. It isn't a game for huge brutes. I would argue that it's more exciting seeing a runner try to go first to third on a base hit than seeing a bulked up monster trot around the bases.

Spring
Last weekend, the Royals Radio Network broadcast their first games of the season - two Spring Training games on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Here in KC, the weather over the weekend was beautiful - sunny, and warm. Having the Royals on the radio while I worked around the house in the warm weather had me in paradise. My favorite moments in life involve taking care of household projects with the voices of Denny Matthews and Ryan Lefevre in my ears.

In only 4 days, I'll be heading to the Phoenix area to take in some Catcus League baseball...

Baseball Survey

There's an interesting survey in the latest issue of Baseball America. Here are the questions:

• Is baseball your favorite sport? If yes, why? If not, why not?


• Besides baseball, what is your favorite sport? Why?


• What does MLB do that makes it more appealing than the NFL? The NBA? The NHL? NASCAR?


• What do the following sports do that make them more appealing than baseball: the NFL, NBA, NHL, and NASCAR?

If you have thoughts, send me an email. I'll be posting my thoughts in a blog to come...

Rotation News

Miguel Asencio is experiencing tightness in his elbow - the same elbow that was operated on last season. Though the Royals are being cautious, I don't think he will pitch again. Even when healthy, I'm not sure he could be a consitently effective pitcher.

I think it's starting to look more and more like Zach Grienke will open the season in KC. He's the young pitching phenom who has been outstanding in A and AA ball. He's with the team in Spring Training and has impressed everybody. In an inter-squad game today, he got out of a jam by getting Juan Gonzalez to ground into a double play. Beltran reached base on Ken Harvey's error and Mike Sweeney hit a single setting up an interesting match up with Juan Gone. After working the count to 2-2, Juan hit a grounder back to Grienke who started the double play.

The Royals keep saying that they want to make sure Grienke's ready before promoting him to the big league team. Allard Baird has said that he wants him to experience failure so we will know how well he can bounce back. My feeling is that if he can help the team win now, let him pitch. Injuries are mixing up the rotation to start the season. They've already lost Kyle Snyder. Asencio is questionable. Appier supposedly won't be ready for opening day. Affeldt's blister problem may keep him in the bullpen. That leaves several lefties for the rotation (Gobble, May, Anderson, George). Grienke would be a nice fit.

Royals BLOG
Just found a Royals blog at Bradford Doolittle's Page.

There's some pretty interesting stuff there. Bradford writes a correspondent's column for ESPN's fatansy baseball page.

Royals Lineup
The Royals lineup is beginning to take shape. Yesterday, Tony Pena announced that Angel Berroa will begin the season batting leadoff. I think this is a good move. Berroa was the leadoff man late last season, and hit .333 and had a .371 OBP hitting first. Berroa's not a real patient hitter, but he may not have to be. In an interview, Carlos Beltran announced that Pena had told him he would bat second. That means Berroa should see some pretty good pitches as pitchers try to get him to make contact to get an out instead of potentially walking him with Beltran coming up. Following Beltran, we should see Sweeney and Juan Gonzalez. That's a pretty good bunch of hitters at the top of the lineup. Here's how the lineup looks:

Berroa - SS
Beltran - CF
Sweeney - 1B
Gonzalez - RF
Randa - 3B
Stairs/Harvey - DH
Santiago - C
Guiel - LF
Relaford - 2B

It also looks like Brian Anderson will begin the season as the number 1 starter, pitching against the White Sox for Opening Day on April 5. Spring Training reports also indicate that Affeldt's finger is doing just fine, so far. Personally, I'm hoping the blister problem is behind him and that he can give us 200 innings this year.

BC Scorebook

Last summer, I purchased an eBook called "Feeding the Green Monster" by Rob Neyer. It was great because I was travelling a lot, and I could carry the book on my PocketPC without having to carry an actual book. Of course, as is my luck, my PocketPC has crashed, and I don't have a copy of the book file on my other computers. I want to talk about the book, but I'll be going from my memories of reading it last summer. (And by the way, I will always buy books with actual pages from now on).

I discovered Rob Neyer back in 2000 or 2001. In 2000, the Royals had a very promising year. They won 77 games, and had a fantastic offense that year, but struggled with their pitching. They had a healthy Jermaine Dye, a promising young Johnny Damon, "Dos Carlos" - 1999 AL Rookie of the Year Carlos Beltran and Carlos Febles, the promising second baseman. I was regaining my interest in the Royals and stumbled upon the Rob & Rany page. If you're not familiar with them, Rob Neyer is a baseball columnist for ESPN.com and Rany Jazayerli is a doctor who also writes for Baseball Prospectus. It just so happens that both of these fellows are fans of the Kansas City Royals. So, every so often, they get together to banter about the Royals, and they post their discussions at Rob's site. (I was very disappointed in October of 2001 when Rob quit writing about the Royals. He was fed up with the team after GM Allard Baird announced that Tony Muser would return as manager in 2002. Of course, Baird finally wised up in May of 2002, fired Muser, hired Pena, and the team started to turn around. Rob has since resumed writing about the Royals, to the delight of Royals fans everywhere.)

In addition to his ESPN columns, Neyer also occassionally authors baseball books. Most are statistical analyses, but "Feeding the Green Monster" is different. In the summer of 2000, Neyer, who lives in the Northwest, moved into an apartment 4 blocks from fabled Fenway Park, and went to every Red Sox game in Fenway that season. He wrote about his experiences in the book.

There's an interesting twist to this book. When he presented the final manuscript to his publisher, they hated it and refused to publish it. Neyer was finally able to get it published by iPublish.com, and the book is available in paperback at Amazon.com.

I enjoyed the book very much. It reads like a journal that describes many of Neyer's experiences that summer. Periodically, he will discuss the details of a game he watched, questioning Jimy Williams' moves, or describing a great play.

Since Neyer was writing about his experiences nearly every day, it is natural that many aspects of his personal life came through as well. I've read reviews that criticized the book for going into too much detail about Neyer's personal affairs, including his girlfriend (since it's been a while since I read it, I can't remember if he found a new girlfriend, lost his old girlfriend, or maybe a little of both). While I didn't enjoy the girl talk quite as much, I didn't mind it because I was learning a little more about Neyer's personality in those passages. Throughout the book, I found myself realizing that Neyer and I are very much alike. We both hate conflict, we are generally quiet, etc. I really began to relate to Neyer and his experiences.

There were several good stories in the book about how Neyer had to deal with scalpers to get tickets. He started the season with no tickets, so every day he had to find a way to get tickets and get into Fenway. Also included is a funny story of arriving at Fenway only to realize he had forgotten his tickets. He described Fenway in great detail, which he could since he sat in just about every section of the stadium. He told the story of how he and a friend stayed in the ballpark after a game, and spent the night there touching the Green Monster, going into the scoreboard, and fighting off the rats. He also spent some time travelling to New York and told stories of Yankee Stadium (which even though is a storied venue, does not retain any of its charm).

Since Neyer is a Royals fan, he of course discusses his (and my) favorite team when they played the Red Sox. He also described a trip to KC to see a game at Kauffman Stadium.

Now, the reason I'm writing about this book is because I was reminded of it recently. In the book, Neyer tells the story of how he lost his scorebook when he left it on a commuter train. He describes how he scores almost every game he sees, and his favorite scorebook is the Bob Carpenter Scorebook. I decided last summer while reading this that I would try to get a BC Scorebook for this season, since I was growing tired of scoring games on those Budweiser ads they sell as scorecards at the stadium. Yesterday, my BC Scorebook arrived in the mail. It's a fairly small book (7" x 8 1/2"), and is well laid out with plenty of room for notes and substitutions. The book includes enough pages for 100 games and is spiral bound so it's easy to hold while at the stadium. Its arrival is another signal of the upcoming season. Since Spring Training is for fans too, I'll be taking my new scorebook to Arizona and testing it out so I'll be ready for opening day.

I'll be sure to mark it with my name and phone number so should I leave it on a commuter train, the nice person who picks it up will be able to return it to me, just as Neyer's was.

Royals Team Doctors
Rob Neyer - Rob and Rany

My favorite Royals commentators, Rob & Rany, just posted a new installment in which they discuss the latest injury to Kyle Snyder. For several years now, the Royals' medical staff has been criticized for not treating injuries properly. Several examples from last year support the point:

• Jose Lima - pulled a groin, came back too early and made it worse


• Runelvys Hernadez - injured, came back and though the team tried to force him to pitch, he insisted he was still hurt. After a second opinion, he had Tommy John surgery.


• Jeremy Affeldt - it took 2 years of fighting the blisters before they finally wised up and had the fingernail removed, thus wasting valuable innings.

And now Kyle Snyder is going under the knife for the same injury that he had surgery for last season. I'm pretty ignorant about all things medical, but it seems to me that there are a lot of "redos" involving Royals and their injuries. I'd like to see a medical staff who can diagnose and fix the problems the first time around.

Fay's Book

After having finished Fay Vincent's book "The Last Commissioner," I loaned the book to Dan Fox, who commented on the book in his blog.

My final thoughts on the book are here.

I found Fay's retelling of the World Series Earthquake in 1989 very interesting. I was at home, preparing to watch the game on TV, so I remember the event well. Fay's insight into the decisions made, and how they were made, were fascinating. Vicnent also fondly recalls the police officer who took charge at the stadium after the quake, and how he also convinced Vincent to postpone the game.

Vincent's love for the game comes through throughout the book. Even though Fay has bitter memories of dealing with owners such as Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, as well as struggling with George Steinbrenner's "lifetime ban" and Pete Rose's Lifetime Ban, he still loves the game with all of his heart. That is the strength of the game. While sports like football and basketball can have a huge number of fans, no game has the number of lovers that baseball has. Baseball evokes history, memories, emotion and love like no other sport. There is no trouble that can't be soothed by an afternoon at the ball park.

Snyder Surgery
Kansas City Royals News

Looks like Royals pitcher Kyle Snyder will be out with another shoulder surgery. This further clouds the picture for the Royals starting rotation this year. Snyder has been a fairly effective pitcher when healthy, but he missed quite a bit of last season to injury, and this was after missing at least a full season prior. Part of me thinks that we will not see Snyder again, however, he has vowed to return. We will see...

So the candidates for the starting rotation are...

Kevin Appier - though he's rehabbing and isn't expected back until late April or May
Jimmy Gobble - a young lefty who showed some promise late last season
Jeremy Affeldt - if the blister problem is solved, could be a dominate lefty
Brian Anderson - free agent signing, solid lefty
Darrell May - veteran lefty who pitched better than his ability last season; I'm looking for a return to earth for May this year
Chris George - another lefty, struggled last season, will try again this year
Zach Grienke - young phenom prospect; probably won't make the team out of spring training, but should be called up sometime this year
Miguel Asencio - coming off surgery last year, pitched well in 2002, and 2003

Plenty of lefties for the starters. The bullpen was light on left handed pitchers, so the Royals signed Greg Swindell to possibly be a left hander to come out of the bullpen.

Only 3 weeks until I travel to Surprise to see some spring training...

ARod
One of the highlights of our upcoming Spring Training trip to Arizona was going to be seeing ARod (The Rangers share Spring Training facilities with the Royals). That was nixed this weekend when the Yankees completed their trade of Soriano for ARod. At first glance, you would think the Yankees are taking on a huge payroll burden with this deal, but they are losing Soriano's salary (around 5.5M), and will likely get out of Aaron Boone's contract since he nullified it by injuring himself in a game of pickup basketball. The Rangers were also willing to help with some of the money owed ARod just to get out from under his contract.

This presents an interesting scenario. On the one hand, we see a team paying the price for vastly overpaying for a player. I think it is safe to say that we will no longer see any 10 year contracts signed in baseball. Because of the money going to ARod, the Rangers were unable to build up the rest of their team (their pitching has been awful), and subsequently they have ended the last 3 seasons in last place. Proving once again that baseball is the ultimate team sport. Having the best player in the game could not help them compete.

On the other hand, we have a team in the Yankees who are willing and able to spend as much as it takes to get the players they want. The Yankees' payroll is now around $190 Million. Add in the revenue sharing money and the luxury tax and they Yankees will spend well over $200M this year. The Royals, as a point of reference, will spend about $45M on payroll this year.

So the question is: Is this good for baseball? As a fan of a small market team, my first reaction is to say no - this is a perfect example of all that is wrong with baseball. My team has absolutely NO CHANCE of signing a player like ARod. However, when I look at the Royals this year and compare them to the Yankees, I think I'd rather have the Royals. The Royals are a collection of young, talented players who are thirsty to play and win on the Major League level. We saw that last year - the Royals started the season 9-0 and was contended into August. The team should not have done that well. With basically the same team, the Royals lost 100 games the year before. But last year showed how energy, enthusiasm, and a love of the game can propel a team. This year the team returns with some obvious gaps from a year ago plugged. Will they do better than last year? Who knows. I have a feeling they will equal or even better last year's 83 wins. Even if they don't, they will be fun to watch.

In New York, they've assembled a group of older, more grissled veterans - all of which are making a huge salary. What is their motivation? How hard will they work? Will they become baseball's rendition of this year's Oakland Raiders? Only time will tell, but this season will have lots of interesting twists and story lines to follow. The Boston/New York rivalry will be more intense than ever. It will be a fun year.

Baseball Season
Tonight, back in KC (this is my last night in Atlanta), my son had his second practice with his new baseball team. The team is made up 10 year old boys who are all pretty good ball players. This team will be our first "serious" foray into little league baseball. We will be travelling to Omaha and potentially St. Louis to play in tournaments. The normal league play is typically made up of about 10-15 games and then a post season tournament that could be up to 4 or 6 games. With the tournaments, we expect to play 40 to 60 games this year. That is quite a bit. The fact that we began practice in January indicates the level of competition for this team.

Joey is extremely excited. I am very pleased that he has taken such an interest in the game I love so much. He has played two leagues every year (spring and fall) since he was 6, and has enjoyed every bit of it. He has never complained about having to go to practice, and always gives his all. While I love sitting out at the K and taking in a Royals game, it pales in comparison to watching my boy and his teammates compete. I'm am looking forward to seeing more of his games this year since I won't be travelling as much as I was last year.

Affeldt

Yahoo! Sports - MLB - Royals: Nail removal fixes Affeldt's blister problem

For the last 2 years, Royals lefty pitcher Jeremy Affeldt has shown flashes of brilliance. When he's truly "on," his stuff is absolutely unhittable. The problem is that over the last 2 years, Affeldt has had chronic blister problems on the middle finger of his pitching hand. He had tried everything to try to toughen the skin around the nail, but the blister kept returning. The blister last year forced Affeldt to bullpen duty, though he and the Royals both would love to make him the "ace" of the starting rotation.

So, it seems that drastic times call for drastic measures. This offseason, Affeldt had a procedure that killed part of his fingernail. He essentially had to dip his finger in acid, thus killing the nail and preventing it from ever growing back. In this article, he is quoted:
"I've got half a nail for the rest of my life… So it'll be one of those things where I'm losing body parts but, hey, whatever it takes to be out on the mound."

Last year, Affeldt struggled at times. I feel he was gripping the ball differently to avoid the blister. If he can comfortably grip the ball and throw like he knows how to throw, then we can expect to see him emerge as one of the best pitchers in the AL this season.

The Last Commissioner
I am currently reading Fay Vincent's The Last Commissioner. So far, it is a fascinating book. The book is not so much an autobiography, but more a collection of stories and information about baseball. The sub-title, A Baseball Valentine certainly fits.

I would like to re-read the book with a highlighter and bookmarks handy so I can mark the more interesting tid-bits of the book.

Fay was involved in the Rose controversy and had a hand in imposing the lifetime ban. His version of the story is fascinating, and should be read by every person who bothered to read Rose's recent book.

Vincent grew up as a fan of the Yankees, and had the pleasure of knowing Joe DiMaggio. One of the best stories involves the 3 hour breakfast Fay had with DiMaggio and Ted Williams. A dream come true for any fan of the game.

I just read Fay's retelling of DiMaggio's memory of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech. In early 1939, Gehrig finally took himself out of the lineup (after 2,130 straight games), and was then diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease. On July 4, the Yankees had a ceremony honoring Gehrig. Lou was not scheduled to speak. Just before he went to the field, he changed his mind and ad-libbed the now famous speech ("Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the planet.") Babe Ruth was standing nearby, having been retired for 4 years. It was rumored that Babe and Gehrig didn't get along, but DiMaggio says it was the two men's wives who had issues. After the speech, Ruth hugged Gehrig, and DiMaggio saw that Ruth had tears streaming down his face and that he was crying like a baby.

I have yet to finish the book, but look forward to reading the story of how the owners eventually pushed Fay out of baseball.

Atlanta
I'm in the middle of a trip to Atlanta. I was summoned to the ATL to do some training for a large telecommunications firm. I taught 3 days of advanced .NET development last week, and will teach it for another 3 days this coming week. The class is a shortened version of Quilogy's Atomic.NET class. I stayed in Atlanta over the weekend, and my family flew down to spend some time with some friends we have in the area.

On Saturday, we toured the studios of CNN. It was interesting to see the place where the news gathering happens as well as the desk where the on-air talent does their thing. I found the tour to be a bit disappointing. I did enjoy seeing the studios of CNN, CNN Headline News and the other CNN networks. But I would have like to have seen a bit more about the history of the network. I think the tour should have begun with a video that discusses the history of the network and how world events helped to launch the all-news network format - especially the first Gulf War.

After CNN, we took the MARTA to Underground Atlanta, an underground shopping area. We had some dinner and wandered around until it was time to head back to Philips Arean (next door to CNN) to take in Hawks game. It was fun seeing Yao Ming (from our up-high seats, he was clearly the biggest man on the floor, but also the slowest. When we left he had only 4 points). The Hawks lead into the 4th quarter but ended losing the game.

On Sunday, we relaxed a bit, then headed back to downtown to check out the World of Coke. This Coke museum was interesting, and at the end, we had the opportunity to try all the various flavors that Coke produces. Some international flavors were less than tastey.

I just dropped my family off at the airport and they are headed back to the snow of KC. For my own part, I'm ready to return, and Wednesday can't come soon enough.

Friends in Low Places
I recently learned that Garth Brooks is going to be going to Spring Training with the Royals this year. At first, I was upset. What in the world is this old guy doing? Just trying to garner some more publicity for himself?

I've since learned he intention is to raise awareness and money for Brooks's Teammates 4 Kids Foundation.

As long as Garth's parcipitation doesn't get in the way of the development of the Royal's younger players or the preparation of the team, I'm all for it. Plus, it'll be one more autograph that we'll be hunting for when we go out to Arizona.

Jacko

MSNBC - Spike Lee calls Jackson's flash a 'new low'

It's time for the entire Jackson family to just go away. Here's a news flash folks - America is sick of seeing Michael's messed up face. America is sick of hearing about Michael's relationships with children. America is sick of seeing LaToya and Janet's breasts. America is sick of hearing Tito rail on the media. We've had enough. Enough cookie cutter pop songs. Enough over used dance moves. Enough crotch grabs. This is it - enough already.

The entire family should just go into seclusion (Michael may have no choice, come to think of it) and remove themselves from our society.

HT Update
It's been a while since I've written about the home theater.

Everything's working great, and I continue to be pleased with the PLUS Piano DLP projector. HD channels are clear and brilliant. DVD movies look great. By far, this projector is a better choice than a rear projection television, if you have a room dark enough for it.

I recently installed LUTRON Spacer Light Dimmers. These are dimmer switches that control the lighting in the theater. They can be controlled by remote control. LUTRON sells a proprietary remote control for these controllers, but fortunately my HT dealer programmed my universal remote with the proper codes. So, while sitting comfortably in my seat, I can start the movie and dim the lights via remote control. They dim slowly providing a nice effect.

I recently found and purchased a Pac Man arcade game. Unfortunately, the monitor went blank a few weeks after we got it. I found a used monitor and replaced it, but the machine still isn't working. I found an arcade game repair specialist in the area, and he is coming to the house tonight to take a look. Hopefully we can have the game up and running for our family get together this Sunday.

Windows 9x
Interesting article in eWeek on the lifespan of Microsoft's older operating systems. Developers' Take on Win 9X.

Fellow Quilogy employee, Jon Box is quoted in the article.

Stupid Bowl
Why? Media Day at the Super Bowl? What is the purpose of this? To hear coaches say "Whichever team executes best will win?" To hear players discuss their favorite movie?

DSL
Several years ago, when SBC was still Southwestern Bell, I ordered DSL service from SWB. One option with the SWB DSL service was your choice of ISP's. So, in effect, SWB provided the wire, and the ISP provided the service. I selected Grapevine at the time because they had a better web site hosting service for hosting a personal site.

Later, SWB changed to SBC, and somewhere in there, my DSL service was transferred completely to Grapevine. Instead of paying some money to SWB and some to Grapevine each month, I sent the entire amount to Grapevine. That worked great for a few years until this month when Grapevine folded up their tent and left town.

They sent me a letter a month ago advising me that they were discontinuing their residential DSL service and that I needed to find a new provider.

I called SBC and placed my order. The problem is that as long as Grapevine has the line, SBC cannot do anything. The customer sales rep described it as a one car garage. You can't pull your car in until they take their car out.

Yesterday, out of the blue, my DSL was turned off. I tried to call Grapevine to verify that they had switched me off, but their numbers are disconnected.

My next call to SBC resulted in that verification. They can now turn on the SBC DSL service since the Grapevine car had left the garage. But, of course, it's not as easy as turning on a light switch. It takes a week to turn it on. So, I'm without internet service at my house until next week.

It's a crazy business. Hopefully things will be smooth once the new service gets switched on.

Speed-Up Rules
This past Saturday, I attended a meeting of the Monarchs Chapter of SABR. The guest speakers were Brian McRae and John Sickels.

You can learn more about the meeting at Dan Fox's Blog, so I won't bore you with the details. But, Brian McRae did say something that interested me. Someone in the audience asked a question about the strike zone, and MLB's efforts to expand the strike zone and make it more consistent across the board. McRae's response began with a question: "Are you married?"

His point was just as your wife may have tried to change you when you were first married, you may have changed for a while, but eventually resorted back to who you really are. Same with umpires. The league may say "do it like this" and the umpires may do that for a while. But, umpires being umpires, they will tend to resort to their old ways. After all, if an umpire's been calling a game a certain way for 25 years, why change now?

The thing that really interested me was when McRae started talking about "speed-up rules." He said that in certain situations, like in a blow-out game, umpires will tend to call games in such a manner as to end the game more quickly. So, pitches that may normally have been balls are then called strikes. Or, a runner who would have been safe at second on a close, but missed tag, would be called out.

I've never really noticed this before. This is something I'll try to look for this season, while I'm watching the Royals run away with the AL Central.

Great Off-season

The Royals are wrapping up one of their best off-seasons ever.

Today, they signed Darrell May, thus avoiding arbitration. They also signed Carlos Beltran before reaching arbitration.

It's been a positive off season with some key free agent signings (Graffanino, Sullivan, Gonzalez, Santiago, Stairs and others), as well as convincing guys like Leskanic and Randa to stay in KC.

Now that everybody's signed, let's get the season started.

Tuesdays

I just finished Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. I've seen Albom on ESPN off and on over the years, and was vaguely aware that he had written this book. I grabbed it on a whim while in the bookstore the other day, and read it in about 2 1/2 hours.

The book is building a reputation for "changing lives," and I can see how that can happen. The book recounts Albom's experiences as he spent each Tuesday over about 6 months with his dying professor from college. In the book, Albom describes how he had buried himself in his busy life and work schedule and how spending time with Morrie began to reshape his views on life - and death.

It's a quick and easy read, and wasn't quite as in depth as I would have liked. Each visit is briefly described by the topic of the day and a short description of the conversations. Many stories are only touched upon. I'm sure this is somewhat intentional. The goal of the book is to document what Morrie wanted to say about life, culture, marriage, death, and other heavy topics. By keeping the chapters to only a few pages, I found it easy to read through the entire book without feeling bogged down. Morrie's message was successfully delivered to this reader.

In the end, any reader is sure to be touched by Morrie's attitude and love for life - even when facing his own mortality.

Commish

Here's an interesting question to ponder: What would you do if you were baseball commissioner? I have a short list of items:

• Make it illegal for the commissioner to have any interest in a ball club


• Settle the Expos situation


• Move a little closer to revenue sharing


• Enact a world draft


• Adjust the World Series game times so my son can see the end of at least one of the games

Molitor Hall-Bound
In September of 1996, I decided to attend a Royals game with my neighbor Kent. I remember sitting at the game complaining that the crowd was so small. It's not surprising that the crowd was small - baseball was still in the shadows of the '94 strike season and the Royals were among the worst teams in baseball. But in this series against the Twins, KC fans had a chance to see a future hall of famer get his 3,000th hit.

It happened at that game. After Paul Molitor smacked his 3,000th hit, ushers distributed "I Was There" certificates to the small crowd. I still have mine with the ticket stub attached, framed and displayed in my home office.

Now, 7 years later, Molitor has been elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It's starting to make me feel old. To me, Hall of Famers were always great players from the past, who I only saw on grainy old highlight films. Now, Hall of Famers are guys I actually saw play. In my adult life.

My Football Season Ends...
Chiefs lost...

Now on to baseball! This is the worst time of the year. There's nothing in sports to be interested in until Spring Training opens up in late February.

Because of that, I'm officially in count-down mode. In exactly 2 months, I will be in Arizona to check out some Cactus League baseball. I'll be going with my brother, my friend Dan and his father-in-law, and my son Joey.

I went out to Surprise last year for a Royals game. I flew in, drove to the stadium, watched the game, drove back to the airport and flew home. After that trip, I knew that I wanted to spend a couple of days out there with Joey and friends.

It should be fun. We'll be checking out the Giants, Cubs, Royals, and Rangers in our 3 day whirlwind trip. I hope it's like I remember last year, where the players are very relaxed and willing to spend time with the fans. We're excited at getting an early peek at the '04 Royals, including slugger Juan Gonzalez. Not to mention Sosa, Bonds, ARod and all the others.

Tough to be a Parent
Last week, my 10 year-old son Joey came home from school all excited about a band called Pomeroy. It seems the school music teacher is friends with this regional band, and she had them stop by the school for a short concert assembly.

Seeing a real live band perform up close and personal can really spark fandome. That's why performers tour - assuming you'd be so impressed that you will then go buy the CD.

This is what happened. Joey loved Pomeroy so much that he wanted to go buy the CD. The band, of course, encouraged the kids to do so, mentioning that it's available at the local Best Buy store.

So, we bought the CD. As we were driving home from Best Buy, we put it in the CD player to check it out. Much to our surprise, we heard language that isn't appropriate for kids. Now, the language wasn't awful (no F-words and no mention of killing cops or anything like that), it was just innapropriate.

It just proves that as a parent, you must be very diligent about what your kids are doing. Imagine if I hadn't bothered to listen to the CD, and it did have worse material...

Royals Sign Juan Gone
Kansas City Royals : The Official Site

The Royals are looking good. Today they signed Juan Gonzalez, completing a very impressive lineup. I'm excited about this season. It's January and the Chiefs are in the playoffs, but I'm thinking baseball. I am pumped about a lineup that includes Juan Gone, Sweeney, Beltran... I'm loving it.

Potential Lineup:

Angel Berroa - SS
Carlos Beltran - CF
Mike Sweeney - 1B/DH
Juan Gonzalez - RF
Ken Harvey - 1B/DH
Joe Randa - 3B
Aaron Guiel/Matt Stairs - LF/DH
Benito Santiago - C
Desi Relaford/Tony Graffanino - 2B

SP: Appier, May, Anderson, Gobble, Asencio, Greinke, Affeldt
RP: Leskanic, Grimsley, Sullivan, Carrasco, Wilson, MacDougal

Not So Rosey
Interesting opinion on the Pete Rose Situation:ESPN.com - MLB - Caple: Charlie Hustler

Personally, I think he should be in the Hall of Fame in recognition of his great career as a player (and as Caple says, with mention of his gambling on the plaque). But that should be it. He should never be allowed to participate in the game again. He's still a gambler, and nothing he has said or done has convinced me that he believes what he did was truely wrong and damaging to the sport.

He says he never fixed a game or let his bets affect his managing. I find that hard to believe. But even if that's true, his activities did affect the game. If the manager of a baseball team suddenly does not bet on his team one day, what does that tell the bookie? I don't like this situation at all, and I'm afraid that Rose's confession comes now only to promote his book, which of course leads to $$$.