Justin Timberlake went off-script in his All-Star Game interview to taunt Joe Buck, something very much appreciated in these circles. My favorite part is when Mark Grace sets up Timberlake with a heavy-handed question about the pool and Timberlake goes all meta. James K. has the transcript.
The Mets traded Francisco Rodriguez and cash to the Brewers last night for two players to be named later.
He finished 34 games for the Mets in 2011, 21 shy of the 55 needed for his $17.5 million option to vest. More to follow.
It boils down to getting a good pitch to hit. Why anybody would not want to get a good pitch to hit is beyond me. I’ve tried to poke holes in it, in my philosophy. I’m always trying to figure out, how can I do it a little bit better, how can I teach this a little bit better. But when you come down to it I don’t understand why anybody would disagree with getting a good ball to hit.
– Dave Hudgens.
It’s the Steve Buscemi dress, and it’s only $100:
I watched Saint John of Las Vegas last night. Weird movie, and not a particularly good one. Great Peter Dinklage work. But then, is there any other kind?
So I missed a lot of the discussion yesterday, but some dude, Christian Lopez, caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000 hit and gave it back to Jeter and the Yankees for a handful of autographed memorabilia, plus suite tickets for the remainder of the season. That earned him quite a bit of praise from some corners, especially those corners in which people worship Jeter — spirit of the game, right thing to do, thinking with his heart not his wallet, stuff like that.
But then came the inevitable backlash: Well wait just one minute, if this guy is so magnanimous, why didn’t he sell the ball — valued up to $300,000 by some — and donate the money to charity? You’re a (presumably) hard-working, taxpaying American, and a house just landed on your lap, and you’re just forking it over to the Yankees and Derek Jeter? And now we’re going to parade you around like a hero for that?
Now it turns out the guy could have to pay taxes on the season tickets, which just straight-up sucks. That’s the type of thing you should be thinking of when you make a deal like that, but unless you’re an accountant or a tax attorney, there’s just no way. Especially in the heat of the moment and all.
He did provide a pretty great quote, though: “I’m not going to let something like the IRS stand in my way from enjoying myself.”
Anyway, I’m wondering what you’d do if you were in this guy’s situation. Hell, I’m wondering what I’d do if I were in this guy’s situation. I don’t fault him for his decision; I think, especially given the emotions of the day, handing the ball over does seem like a decent thing to do even if it does equate to giving more money to the Yankee Empire.
[poll id=”28″]
Slacktory scours the “Local Favorites” feature on Netflix to create a nationwide map of movie tastes. Do they really like The Mist in Oklahoma, or are there few enough Netflix subscribers in Oklahoma that like two families renting The Mist make it count as a local favorite? Either way, it’s good on Oklahoma; that movie was badass.
So it’s the All-Star Break, as you know. That means all over the Internet, people are churning out halfway-point fare like “midseason report cards,” which never made a whole lot of sense to me. I mean, I get why they happen — they’re fun, and they’re an easy way to recap a half season’s worth of events.
But the grades are always all over the map. Check ’em out when you read through them today. Are players being graded for their actual performances, or for their performances against preseason expectations? David Wright will inevitably get a crappy grade and Ruben Tejada will get a good one, but how much more has Tejada contributed to the club than Wright?
Anyway, because I’m not interested in either creating my own report card or nitpicking over others’, here’s something both self-serving and lazy: Select Tweets from the first half of the 2011 season to serve as a recap.
April 2: Hey everyone, Mets derp dee derp derp bad heyooo amirite?
April 3: Terry Collins said “That’s my fault,” about something today. Can anyone find evidence that Jerry Manuel ever did that?
April 6: I know the concept of “rallies” seems weird, Mets fans. But this sometimes happens when you rid your lineup of out machines.
April 8: I’d rather have questions about Brad Emaus’ defense than no questions about Luis Castillo’s.
April 11: Some guy on the Mets vaguely reminds me of some notably bad guy from the past, so they should trade him because he is obviously the same.
April 14: Fun fact: Sandy Alderson makes every roster decision based on on-base percentage alone. Matt Stairs will be the Mets’ 2012 shortstop.
April 16: When Mike Pelfrey yields ground balls that find holes, that means he’s obviously feeble minded.
April 17: Mets win a game! Mets win a game!
April 19: Jason Bourgeois enters the game in left field, presumably because he’s finished eating at a strip-mall chain restaurant.
April 22: I’ve been sick of the K-Rod games-finished countdown since like the second night. He’s going to finish some games. Call me when it’s at 45.
April 26: I want to know which Mets hate America, but only if they overlap with the Mets that I already hate.
April 26: They should make Celebrity Wipeout and get Todd Coffey to go on it.
April 28: Problem with starting Capuano today is he’s not available to pinch-hit for Willie Harris here.
April 30: The Phillies have a great record in day games. Also: Night games.
May 1: Somewhere Steve Phillips is watching this game and saying something stupid about it.
May 3: Carlos Beltran should not have taught Jason Bay how babies are made.
May 5: We’d probably be a lot sicker of the “Hu’s on first” jokes if he ever reached base.
May 6: I’m hungry, there’s no food in the house and my wife’s out with the car. Not cool, Carlos Beltran.
May 10: Mental weakling Josh Thole sometimes takes 95 mph fastballs fouled off his face then leans back in to do it again.
May 10: The only reason Wright hit Ike there is he’s left handed and it’s early in the game.
May 13: Carlos Beltran is so awesome he’s making it difficult to ironically blame him for stuff.
May 16: Classless Mets announce David Wright injury at time that is legitimately inconvenient for me.
May 20: Just three seasons before the Mets signed him, Moises Alou played in 155 games. THE CURSE!
May 21: People compare Yankee Stadium to a shopping mall but I’ve never seen a shopping mall it was so easy to hit opposite field homers in.
May 24: Carlos Beltran shouldn’t have given himself such a big contract if he wasn’t going to surround himself with a deep roster of good players.
May 26: Mr. Einhorn, my newspaper had no idea this was happening until after it happened. Why do you hate America?
May 26: Mr. Einhorn, did you know that THE METS ARE CURSED?
June 1: Carlos Beltran only has one RBI since Terry Collins liberated him to be an RBI whore.
June 2: Ruben Tejada changes and steps around mob of reporters near his locker. “We’re here for you,” one says. He smiles sheepishly and returns.
June 3: If you’re a scout and you’re picking Derek Jeter over Jose Reyes in 2011, you probably shouldn’t be a scout.
June 6: When the Mets draft some guy tonight I’ll be PISSED! Then when he tears up A-ball next year, I’ll hype him up something fierce.
June 8: Miguel Cairo has out grand-slammed the Mets 1-0 this year, but every member of the Mets has out not-being-Miguel-Cairoed Miguel Cairo.
June 12: It’s funny to credit Omar Minaya for Justin Turner now when the Mets had Luis Hernandez starting games last year with Turner mashing in AAA.
June 17: The small bright side to Jose Reyes signing with the Yankees would be Derek Jeter’s hissy fit.
June 18: The RBI trick Beltran turned last inning traveled 460 feet, per the stadium PA.
June 29: Ronny Paulino batting cleanup!? OMG LOL! It’s like 2010 Opening Day again, only this time the Mets have scored 36 runs in the last 3 games.
July 3: If Reyes weren’t in his contract year, it’d be a grade 2 strain. Or he’d play with it. Or wait, no. HOW TO FILTER THIS THROUGH MY NARRATIVE?
July 6: Jason Bay is hitting .500/.500/2.000 since July 5.
July 8: Everyone says they’ve been writing all year that the Mets are unlikely to trade Reyes, but that’s not what I’ve been reading all year.
There is still significant debate about how even to begin to design a machine that might be flexible enough to do many of the things humans do: fold laundry, cook or wash dishes. That will require a breakthrough in software that mimics perception.
Today’s robots can often do one such task in limited circumstances, but researchers describe their skills as “brittle.” They fail if the tiniest change is introduced. Moreover, they must be reprogrammed in a cumbersome fashion to do something else.
Here’s a video of robots trying to fold laundry. Now I’m in no position to throw stones here because I’m usually content to take my laundry out of the drier then pull clean clothes from the pile as I need them, forgoing the whole folding-and-putting-away process, which I’m also pretty bad at. But I’m like 1000 times better at it than robots:
I’ll amount that those are some pretty frightening machines, and if 20 of them rolled down my street I’d probably be ready to surrender to our new robot overlords. Luckily, now I know I could simply beguile the whole regimen with a handful of dishtowels.
I’m out sick today. Nothing major, but not feeling focused enough to muster up anything substantive here right now. Maybe a bit later.
In the interim, here’s a sweet Taco Bell commercial from 1979. Note the shirts:
Tedquarters 