Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Phillies righthander Kyle Kendrick has a spectacularly bad strikeout to walk ratio of 1/6 thus far in 2011. Despite this, Kendrick sports an impressive ERA of 1.80 (two earned runs in 10 innings pitched). Don't expect Kendrick's good fortune to continue.

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Phillies starting pitchers Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton have a combined strikeout to walk ratio of 4.57 (105/23). The all-time career leader in this category since 1900 is Curt Schilling at just 4.38 (3116/711). I think this means the entire Phillies rotation is better than Curt Schilling.

 

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Manager Charlie Manuel's winning percentage of .561 (555-434) is the highest in club history among skippers who managed at least 500 games with the Phillies. Manuel is just ahead of Pat Moran's .557 mark (323-257) of 1915-18.

My Ten Favorite TV Shows

I'm going to start something new with this blog today. I'll be having a series of top ten lists. Who doesn't love a top ten list? Today's list will be my top ten favorite TV shows of all time. Future lists will include my top ten favorite baseball players, my top ten favorite ballparks, my top ten favorite movies, my top ten favorite Phillies seasons, and others as I think of them.

 

So let's get this started. In reverse order from least favorite to most favorite:

 

10. The Sopranos. The show that changed it all for cable television. Every season was a must-see, although some seasons were better than others. Wonderful writing, a terrific cast, authentic north Jersey settings (even the Bada Bing is a real strip club; just not a very good strip club if you want my honest opinion from 2002 when I visited it), and a peak at a lifestyle we can only fantasize about. The Sopranos didn't hold anything back in its depiction of life in the modern day mafia.

 

9. Family Ties. I'm a child of the '80s and this was my show. Idyllic family life, but with an occasional tough issue to tackle. And some fantastic appearances from actors before they were famous like Tom Hanks as the alcoholic Uncle Ned, or Geena Davis as the total screw-up housekeeper. Michael J. Fox was the breakout star as Alex P. Keaton, but the whole family was great. And then Mallory started dating a dirty guy named Nick who claimed to be a struggling artist. And lots of good '80s stuff like Alex idolizing Ronald Reagan except that time where he fell for a girl who was a freak for the Equal Rights Amendment and he ended up in jail where he proclaimed, "I am a woman!" My friend Julio gave me an Alex P. Keaton for President in 2008 t-shirt. True story.

 

8. Homicide: Life on the Street. A gritty, often dreary show. It depicts the lives of a squad of homicide detectives in Baltimore. Real stories, often inspired by true events. Writers were required to live in Baltimore to help them achieve an authentic Baltimore feel in their stories. Fantastic cast, most notably led by the always brilliant Andre Braugher. And Ned Beatty. Ned Beatty makes everything better, even your life. Despite frequent low ratings, the show was so good that it survived for seven seasons and a TV movie. Later seasons weren't quite as good, but the first four seasons or so are as good as anything ever seen on network television.

 

7. The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason was awesome. Seriously. He could make anything funny, and he did. He was notorious for refusing to do rehearsals, yet he would show up to perform all these live episodes of The Honeymooners and give these hysterically funny performances with impeccable comedic timing. The so-called "Classic 39" episodes which aired in the 1955-56 season, might be the greatest single season of comedic television in the history of the medium. Countless classic moments, and truly hilarious, yet clean. Great stuff for kids (maybe not really little ones).

 

6. Taxi. How could a sit-com about a bunch of taxi cab drivers be great? When the drivers don't really do any driving. Most of the action took place in the garage before and after the drivers' shifts. One of the few truly great workplace comedies, we have a despicable boss in Louie DePalma, a lovable leader in Alex Rieger, a dimwitted wannabe boxer in Tony Banta, a pretty boy wannabe actor in Bobby Wheeler, the '70s sexy female cabbie and wannabe artist in Elaine Nardo, the spaced out guy who had done lots of drugs in the '60s in Jim Ignatowski, and the impish mechanic from a foreign land with the funny voice in Latka Gravas. So many memorable characters.

 

5. Sports Night. It only ran for two seasons from 1998-2000, but writer/creator Aaron Sorkin's first foray into series television was brilliant. A behind-the-scenes look at the production of a sports news show (think ESPN's SportsCenter), you need not be a sports fan at all to appreciate the genius of this show. Great characters and some intriguing storylines, but what really sets Sports Night apart is the quality of its writing. Sorkin's incessently smart dialogue, much as it is in almost all of his work, is a thing of beauty. Smart characters having smart conversations about any and everything. If I had one tenth of Sorkin's ability to write dialogue, I'd also be a successful Hollywood writer.

 

4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Oh, Mary Richards, I love you so. The world could use more people like Mary Richards. She was just so loveable. Yet she's really only a fraction of what makes MTM such classic television. From the curmudgeonly Mr. Grant to the clueless Ted Baxter to the good natured Murray Slaughter, MTM was teeming with classic characters. Hell, you can't forget Rhoda. Rhoda Morgenstern, the crazy neighbor we all love. Is it any wonder that MTM won 29 Emmy Awards? That's ridiculous.

 

3. The West Wing. More from Aaron Sorkin, incredibly, it's even better than Sports Night. It's pretty much the same formula as Sports Night, but stretched to an hour and the workplace is a fictional White House instead of a fictional sports news show. But the characters are even better, and with more depth. All of them interesting characters. What's amazing to me about The West Wing is that the show is populated with politicians who lean strongly to the liberal side and I do not, yet the issues are presented in a way that where you side isn't as important as rooting for these people you grow to admire. It's helped me realize that I don't have to agree with someone politically to respect them as a person.

 

2. Band of Brothers. Not a traditional television series, but I'm including it here because it's episodic in nature and it did appear as a series on a television network. Also because it's awesome, a phenomenal piece of visual storytelling that does justice to the horrors of war. Based on the book of the same name by Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers is epic in scale, with dozens of important characters, yet it's the individual stories it tells that are truly memorable. Incredible production values, faithful recreations of true events, and outstanding acting make this an unforgettable ten hours of television. I find myself watching the complete series at least once a year, not so much because it's so entertaining, which it is, but because it's inspiring to see how these young men handled such adversity for the sake of our great country.

 

1. Breaking Bad. We've only had three seasons thus far with a fourth premiering in July, but what a three seasons they have been. Quite simply the most gripping hour of television every single week. You have this high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, who upon learning he has less than a year to live, decides to go into business cooking crystal meth with one of his less than stellar former students. You know each week that it's going to get crazier and crazier, more and more messed up. Common sense would tell you the whole premise is ridiculous and that there's no way things would play out the way they do. But you keep watching because it's incredibly compelling and the performances of both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are commanding. You're drawn into their world and it all feels so real and intense. The most intense television you'll ever see.

 

Note that this list, and any list I post, is fluid. It can change on a daily basis. This list represents today, but generally these shows will always rate in the top ten somewhere.

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

The Phillies have hit just .204 with a .269 on base percentage the last eight games. Even worse, they have a .270 slugging percentage in that stretch. Somehow they're 4-4 in those games thanks to some great pitching.

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Since July 22nd of last season, the Phillies are 58-23 in their last 81 regular season games.

It's pleasing that I must be like Cary Grant

According to my Amazon.com Author Page, customers also bought items by Cary Grant. In fact, Cary Grant is the first item on the list. Using spurious logic, I must be more like Cary Grant than anyone else, or maybe Cary Grant is more like me than anyone else. Either way, I'm cool with that.

 

See, Cary Grant is my favorite actor of all time, ahead of even Matthew Broderick. He starred in four Alfred Hitchcock films, Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, and my favorite, North by Northwest. Heck, if it weren't for Cary Grant, I don't know that I would have even gotten into Hitchcock, and thus A Year of Hitchcock might not exist. And if that didn't exist, I might be sad. I'm glad I'm not sad.

 

But Cary Grant is more than just a few awesome Hitchcock pictures. He was often described as the man every woman wanted and every man wanted to be like. So when Amazon tells me I'm like Cary Grant, it makes me feel good because I'm human and I want to be liked and I like to be wanted.

 

Also, Cary Grant is cool because he died in Iowa. I, too, suspect I'll die in Iowa some day. It's just a feeling I have about things.

 

Isn't spurious logic fun? Thanks, Amazon!

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Roy Halladay has made 17 career starts against National League East opponents as a member of the Phillies. His record in those starts: 16 wins, 1 loss, 1.55 ERA, 133.2 innings pitched, six complete games, zero no decisions, and a 122/16 K/BB ratio. How good is that?

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Five Phillies, Ryan Howard (11), Shane Victorino (8), Placido Polanco (8), Ben Francisco (7), and Carlos Ruiz (7) rank in the top ten in the National League in Runs Batted In.  Jimmy Rollins, who has a .324 batting average has 0 RBI despite batting third in the order in every game. Baseball's a funny game when you look at small samples.

Six weeks of nothing but beer and water

So there's the guy, J. Wilson of Iowa, a newspaper editor, who is subsisting this entire Lenten season on nothing but beer and water, no food.

 

        "Wilson, who describes himself as a nondenominational Christian, says he’s drinking four 355 mL, 288-calorie Doppelbocks a day on weekdays, and five a day on the weekends."

 

I'm a long ago lapsed Catholic, but I can still appreciate the notion of giving up somthing for Lent, and I love beer enough that I'd consider a beer diet, but I'm afraid I couldn't do something like this. It sounds like he's drinking a good beer, Illuminator Doppelbock (I've not had the pleasure), but it's also killed his appreciation for it. "I’m completely sick of it. I was sick of it probably four or five days in.”

 

That right there is a pretty good reason that I don't think I'd ever try something like this, appealing as it may be. Hell, the guy has lost 15 pounds on this diet, but he doesn't like the beer anymore. Too much of anything, even the best of things like a good beer, isn't good. I also doubt my employer would allow me to keep a keg at the office so I really have no shot of even trying to do this.

 

But, hey, kudos to this guy for trying it and sticking with it. I'll drink a beer in his honor tonight.

Something new and exciting at Coca-Cola Park

So I had the pleasure of attending the Lehigh Valley IronPigs opening night for 2011 last night at Coca-Cola Park with my friends Julio, Mike, and Jess. I like going to the IronPigs games because the atmosphere is nice and relaxed and the baseball games are entertaining, but not compulsory because the games really don't matter. And field level tickets are just $9 each. It's a good, cheap time. Last night we discovered something new and exciting for the 2011 season: 32 oz. draft beers.

 

32 oz. beers are awesome because who wants to take a 12 or 16 oz. beer back to your seat? Before you know it, you're done with your beer and you have to get another. Not fun. 32 oz. will last you awhile. And if you have to drive home, like I did last night, it's just the right quantity for a one beer night. The folks who run the IronPigs really know what they're doing. There's a reason the Pigs led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance last season. Smart moves like this. Kudos to the IronPigs.

Amazing Phillies Stat of the Day

Phillies Ben Francisco, Ryan Howard, and Raul Ibanez have each scored seven runs in the team's first six games. The Tampa Bay Rays entire roster has scored a total of eight runs in the team's first six games.

My buddy Eric San Juan wrote another book

Good afternoon, friends. I wanted to take a moment today to tell you about a new book available today from my friend Eric San Juan, my co-author on A Year of Hitchcock. His new book, Stuff Every Husband Should Know, is available today at Amazon.com as well as many other online retailers and bookstores across the country. I've seen the book and it's a nice little pocket sized guide to being a husband, filled with all sorts of interesting tips and tidbits. You don't even need to be a husband, or even a prospective husband, to enjoy this book. It's even garnering good reviews. Check it out.

 

I'd also like to publicly congratulate Eric on having another book published. He's constantly working on different writing projects (I wish I had his drive) so it's nice to see more of his work available to the book-buying public. Nice work, Eric!