Monthly Archives: December 2009

From the Wikipedia: Empanadas

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I’m hungry. From the Wikipedia: Empanadas.

Empanadas are stuffed pastries originally from the Iberian Peninsula. They get their name from the Spanish verb “empanar,” which means “to bread.” They are most often filled with some form of meat, and are for the most part completely awesome.

The Wikipedia believes that empanadas were derived from muaajanat, savory pastries popular among the 8th century Berbers that invaded the area in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for muaajanat, but it’s safe to say they were delicious.

Empanadas were first brought to the Americas by European colonists, though I imagine they were stale by the end of the boat ride.

Today, 22 different nations can claim varieties of the empanada. Empanadas are made with a variety of ingredients and prepared in a variety of ways, and the empanada’s Wikipedia page is amazingly exhaustive. It’s worth a read, but I’d like to highlight a few details:

– Medellin, Colombia apparently boasts a city-wide love of pork and chorizo meats. I’m investigating accommodations.

– El Salvadorian empanadas are not really empanadas at all, but fried plantains stuffed with sweet cream. So probably still really good.

– Empanadas in the Mexican state of Hidalgo are known as pastes, and were brought to the region not by Spanish colonists, but by British miners. They get their name from Cornish pasties, which are also available in Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan and which are way too dry.

– The list of similar dishes includes stromboli, knishes and Hot Pockets. “Stromboli Knishes and the Hot Pockets” would be a decent name for a band.

Nearly every carnivorous culture has come up with some sort of way to wrap some sort of meat in some sort of bread: the sandwich, the meat pie, the burrito, the beef patty, the pork bun, the gyro, the pupusa, the corn dog, the schwarma.

I could continue, but you get the point. Meats wrapped in breads are about as universal as creation myths, and usually way more satisfying. Their ubiquity should be a source of pride for the human race.

And thanks to globalization, they are available in ever-increasing varieties. This is one of the reasons it’s great to be alive and hungry* in the 21st century.

*Not hungry in the starving sense obviously. Hungry like a guy who is about to enjoy an empanada.

Start the movement

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Rob Neyer passes along a list from Thomas Boswell proposing ways to speed up baseball games. One of them caught my eye:

Sorry about “God Bless America” at the seventh-inning stretch, but it needs to go. It was a fine idea after 9/11. But it has served its purpose. And it wastes two minutes.

I don’t know how much time it really wastes, especially since they don’t play it at every game, but I didn’t think it was that fine an idea after 9/11.

I’m not out to ever make this blog about politics, so forgive me if I tread a little close to the line here.

I get why parks started playing the song when they did. It was an emotional time, and one when everyone felt the need to do something — anything — to somehow pay homage to the horrifying things that had happened.

But the song itself always seemed like a strange choice. One of the big selling points on the ol’ U.S. of A. is freedom of religion, and “God Bless America,” coming on the heels of attacks closely tied to religious fundamentalism, felt like a reactive and potentially alienating choice.

Plus it’s just not that good of a song. “America the Beautiful” is like 100 times better, especially if it’s being performed by Ray Charles on video.

Also, I’m not sure there’s a more patriotic song than “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

And today, for better or worse, the playing of “God Bless America” at baseball games only serves to remind us of an awful thing that happened eight years ago, and to create situations like this one. If the pursuit of brevity forces its league-wide elimination, then so be it.

Man of straw

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The Daily News has more about the Mets’ pursuit of Jason Bay today. John Harper:

Though all of New York seems to be waiting impatiently for the Mets to make a big move this offseason, they are negotiating at a deliberate pace with Jason Bay.

Let’s edit that:

Though all of New York me and my colleagues at the Daily News seems to be are waiting impatiently for the Mets to make a big move this offseason provide us with easy fodder to write about, they are negotiating at a deliberate pace with Jason Bay.

Done.

The impatient Met fan, this year, appears to be a bit of a straw man. I thought he was out there a few weeks ago when I wrote this post, then I spoke to him again here.

But check out the comments section on Matt’s measured, reasonable post about the Mets’ offseason so far at MetsBlog. Nearly everyone agrees with him. And if you want a good barometer for the going sentiments among Mets fans, there’s no better place to check than the MetsBlog comments section.

Anyway, what’s more important is the rest of the Daily News article. It basically says that the Mets don’t know that there’s another bidder out there for Bay, so are resisting the urge to extend their offer to five years and are trying to feel out the market for the right-handed slugger.

That’s good. Heck, that’s great. If that’s true, that’s the best thing I’ve heard about any of the Mets’ offseason processes in a long time.

I’m still not sure Bay is the absolute best fit for the Mets, but I know he’s a terrific hitter who managed to mash AL East pitching for the last couple of years and tends to pull the ball, which appears to make him well-suited for Citi Field.

I don’t know if the Mets think Bay is a better fit than Matt Holliday or just feel he’s a better value play, nor do I know how they came to whichever conclusion they made.

Either way, their patience is probably a good thing. Provided Bay is willing to play in New York and interested in making the most money, I doubt his agent allows him to sign elsewhere without giving the big-market team with the hole in left field and a clear need for a strong right-handed bat ample opportunity to beat the deal.

Luckily, Mets fans seem willing to wait it out.

Items of note

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John Madden is living like a total baller. “Before him, nine 63-inch TV monitors flanked a 16-foot-by-9-foot screen, all provided free by DirecTV.” Sign me up.

Glenn Beck apparently made a good point about football helmets. Dashiell Bennett’s recap at Deadspin means you don’t have to watch it.

Joe Posnanski makes an exhaustive and convincing Hall of Fame case for Tim Raines. Bonus points for titling it “Make it Raines.”

I agree with Matt Cerrone and Eric Simon. Like I said yesterday, the Mets have not done anything to damage the team yet this offseason, no matter what the papers say.

Fair criticism

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I read the Daily News every weekday. I have an iPhone, so I could probably rely entirely on electronic sources at this point, but buying the paper is part of my morning routine.

I have a pretty long train ride, so I usually finish just about the entire thing by the time I get to Grand Central, and the paper is, I think, one of the best ways to get firm handle on the city’s news and the way it is being covered.

But I’ve been a bit disturbed lately by the way the News has covered the Mets. Not just the bizarre Bill Madden incident from last week, either. This, too:

That subhead says: “Time running out for Jolly Ol’ St. Omar to deliver.”

The small black font under the photo says: “Nine days until Christmas and there’s still nothing under Mets’ tree thanks to Omar Minaya’s casual approach to free-agent season.”

Interesting. I had no idea Major League rosters needed to be set by Christmas. Is that a new rule?

There are a lot of fair criticisms of Omar Minaya. I perpetuate most of them in this space.

His inaction this offseason? Not one of them. Sure, it does appear the Mets misread the market a bit and thought there’d be more discounted players available, but would Brad Penny and/or Rich Harden really have made the difference to the Daily News? And other than those two, have there been any deals made that the Mets absolutely missed out on?

John Lackey at five years and $85 million or whatever it was? I’ll pass.

Roy Halladay was never even an option.

I’ve been urging Mets fans to be patient this offseason, but the more Mets fans I talk to, the more I realize it’s mostly not the fans that are impatient. I haven’t heard any Mets fan use the term “dithering.”

If we want to criticize Minaya, we should talk about how he gives too much money to replacement-level players and appears to actually think Bengie Molina is good. Those are fair criticisms.

But Minaya has not done any irreparable damage to the Mets yet this offseason, by action or inaction. Let’s wait until he does before we tee off on him.

Culture Jammin’: Avatar

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I saw James Cameron on the street Monday night, outside of a bar on 51st St. in Manhattan.

I considered walking up to him and asking, excitedly, “Excuse me, are you the man responsible for Titanic?” and then, when he said yes, punching him in the face.

I realize that’s not a nice thing to do, plus James Cameron probably would spare absolutely no expense in suing my pants off, but on the other hand, Titanic sucked so hard. And I figure that’s a perfectly reasonable defense to present in court if I were to get sued for punching James Cameron.

“But your honor, did you even see Titanic? Why did Leo DiCaprio sink? Seriously. Dead people float!”

I opted not to do any bodily harm to James Cameron because, for one, it turns out he’s much bigger than me and, second, I remembered he also made the Terminator movies.

Also, I’m pretty psyched for Avatar.

I’m not certain Avatar will be good. In fact, if I had to bet, I’d guess it will suck. But because it’s the most expensive movie ever made, chances are it’s either going to be a towering epic or a complete catastrophe, and so, either way, it’s going to be awesome.

If you’re unfamiliar, the film opens Friday and is about a future in which humans are invading an alien planet to reap a mineral called — no joke — Unobtainium.

I assume there will be heavy-handed environmental allegory all over the place, which could be completely sickening or obvious but effective, depending on how much I like the movie.

Cameron himself has already produced some amazingly pretentious quotes about himself and his film, many of which are contained in this New York Times piece. Here’s my favorite:

My brother’s a Marine, and his friends are my friends, and this is how they think. Their idea is that the harder things get, the better it defines you. That’s something I understand. It’s why I make the kind of movies that I make. I’m not humping a 100-pound pack through 120-degree heat for 10 hours, but it’s the same kind of thing. I know I’m doing something other people can’t do.

You see, making a movie on a $250 million budget is the same kind of thing as BEING A MARINE.

With a master of simile like that at its helm, how can Avatar fail?

One particularly exciting thing about the movie is that it will feature an entirely new type of 3-D technology, which is described in the same Times article.

I’m on board with that. Say what you will about Cameron, the guy has always been dope at manipulating the best available cinematic technologies and creating new ones. Avatar stands to be a most awesome visual spectacle, regardless of whether it’s any good.

I’ll be seeing it in IMAX 3-D, because, as I’ve stated on numerous occasions, I like most things in ridiculous scale. Also because, as I’ve argued before, 3-D technology hasn’t really come very far since the old red-and-blue paper specs they used to hand out at 7-11 to promote sweeps week on FOX.

I think that’s crap, and so I’m hoping Cameron is the guy to usher in the next generation of making things in movies look like they’re flying off the screen at me. For that alone, I will be glad not to have punched him for Titanic.

Jorge Posada shouldn’t hold out for that extension

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Steve Lombardi at WasWatching passes along Baseball America’s Top 10 prospects for the Yankees, and four of the top eight are catchers.

Maybe the Yankees really heavily scout catchers, or maybe that’s just a weird fluke. There’s only one other position player on the list.

Granted, the top guy is Jesus Montero, who, as Steve points out, likely will not end up behind the plate. But Montero absolutely torched Double-A pitching at 19 last year and will probably move quickly.

Behind Montero on the Yanks’ list of top catching prospects are Austin Romine, a 20-year-old who topped out at High A last year, Gary Sanchez, a 16-year-old who has yet to play professional ball, and J.R. Murphy, an 18-year-old who played Rookie Ball in 2009.

So it’s not like the catchers are exactly banging down the door, but damn. The Yankees are to catchers under 20 what the Mets are to catchers over 35.

As for the Mets’ list of top catching prospects, I suppose it looks like this:

1. Josh Thole
…….
2. Francisco Pena

Today in Hot Stove language

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Omar Minaya “is thought to have signified a willingness” to offer five years to Jason Bay.

A deal between the Red Sox and Padres for Adrian Gonzalez “is not close, and might not happen at all.”

The Cardinals are negotiating with Matt Holliday, and “one Cardinals person expressed faith it could get done.”

But “a baseball source familiar with the negotiations” for Holliday said he and agent Scott Boras “are still looking for something that they’re not finding.”

Items of note

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I keep forgetting that Jose Reyes will ever play again. Sweet.

Will Carroll at Baseball Prospects passes along a fascinating video.

I love this. I absolutely love this. The media creates a bugaboo: Tony Bernazard is the source of all the Mets’ problems. Then the media gets Tony Bernazard (rightfully) fired, the Mets don’t magically improve, and now the media wonders if the Mets would be better off if they still had Tony Bernazard.

Sam Page examines the metrics surrounding Jeff Francoeur’s defense. Sam’s a lot more optimistic than I am, but I think mostly the research speaks to how we don’t have anything like a perfect defensive metric yet.