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Chrysler says its Pacifica can't be binned into any existing automotive category. Indeed, the Chrysler Pacifica can't be neatly classified as a minivan, SUV, or station wagon. Chrysler calls it a sports tourer, claiming the Pacifica is a segment buster. We aren't exactly sure of what to call it, other than terrific. It does represent a new kind of six-seat family conveyance.
Pacifica combines the best elements of Chrysler's sporty sedans and pioneering minivans and enhances them with Mercedes-Benz engineering. Pacifica was introduced as a totally new vehicle for 2004. For 2005, the price of entry has dropped with the addition of a new entry model: the five-seat front-wheel-drive model is aggressively priced below $25,000 MSRP.
Pacifica doesn't look like other crossovers, a term usually applied to vehicles that blur the lines between car and sport utility. The Pacifica is roomy and comfortable, whether upholstered in fabric or leather, easy to get in to and out of. In its three-seat configuration, it offers 79.5 cubic feet of cargo capacity; new five-passenger Pacifica offers 92.7 cubic feet with the second-row seats folded.
A 210-horsepower V6 powers the five-passenger model. Touring and Limited models get a 250-horsepower V6 from the sporty Chrysler 300M sedan. On the road, Pacifica is smooth and quiet, with a rear suspension that comes from a Mercedes E-Class sedan. All-wheel drive is available, making the Pacifica a good choice for the snow country. The ride is smooth and supple, and the four-wheel antilock disc brakes do a good job of bringing Pacifica to a smooth stop.
All three Pacifica models have a V6 engine and four-speed automatic transmission. The five-passenger model gets a 210-horsepower 3.8-liter V6, while Touring and Limited are powered by a 3.5-liter V6 engine rated at the 250 horsepower. Computer-controlled all-wheel-drive is available on the base and Touring models and comes standard on the Limited.
The 2005 Chrysler Pacifica will be available in five models: the new, five-passenger with front-wheel drive ($24,315, not including $680 destination) and all-wheel drive ($27,295); the Touring with front-wheel drive ($27,570) and all-wheel drive ($30,370); and the Limited, with all-wheel drive ($36,315).
The list of standard equipment even on the basic front-drive model is quite substantial, from dual-zone air conditioning, to all the usual power assists, cruise control, a tilt wheel, eight-way power driver seat and four-way power front passenger seat, a total of four 12-volt outlets around the cabin, and a lot of other family amenities that buyers will like. The Touring and Limited add as standard equipment such conveniences as automatic, dual-zone air conditioning; a dash-mounted, analog clock; a programmable garage door opener; a mini-trip computer; and 10-way power driver's seat.
Options for Touring and/or Limited models include heated first- and second-row seats ($550); a 385-watt Infinity Intermezzo sound system with eight speakers ($700); Chrysler's Uconnect wireless hands-free communication system with Bluetooth technology ($275); a navigation system ($1,695); a DVD video rear-seat entertainment system ($990); CD/DVD changer ($555); Sirius satellite radio ($195), which includes the first 12 months of service; high-intensity discharge headlamps ($550); a huge power sunroof ($895); a cargo convenience package with cargo net, rear scuff pad, tonneau cover and adjustable roof rail cross bars ($335). Chrome 17-inch wheels are available for base ($400) and Touring ($750) models and chrome 19-inch wheels are available for Touring ($1,225) and Limited (no charge) models. The power liftgate that's standard on the Limited is optional on the Touring ($400), as is rear park assist ($285). Available on the Touring only is a full-size spare ($195). The base Pacifica offers an options package with an in-dash 6-disc CD/DVD changer, fog lamps, power liftgate, the AM/FM/cassette/CD with changer control and leather trim ($1895). Another package adds to above package: five supplemental side curtain airbags; automatic headlamps; memory settings for outside mirrors, stereo presets, driver seat and pedals; auto-dim driver and inside mirror; heated and fold-away outside mirrors; and heated front and second row seats ($2280).
Standard safety features comprise dual, multi-stage frontal airbags; driver-side inflatable knee bolster; three-point seatbelts at all seating positions and front seatbelt pretensioners and load limiters; and child safety seat anchors. Side curtain airbags are standard on the Limited and optional ($595) on the base and Touring. Traction control is available only on the Touring fwd ($175). Tire pressure monitoring system is standard on the Limited and optional ($70) on the Touring.
The Chrysler Pacifica doesn't look like anything else on the road and we think it's a home run. Its design is less radical than that of the Nissan Murano and INFINITI FX45 crossovers, and its glass-to-steel proportions are new and different. Yet the Pacifica looks unmistakably like a Chrysler, a result of its grille and other design cues traceable to the Chrysler Town & Country.
The Pacifica doesn't look that big from the outside yet it's as much as 18 inches longer and 6 inches wider than some of its crossover competitors. At the same time, the Pacifica is almost 3 inches lower to the ground than a typical minivan, and that makes it easier to climb inside. The expanse of sheet metal aft of the rear side doors adds visual mass that looks ungainly, but this isn't reflected in the Pacifica's handling.
The Chrysler Pacifica is rife with Mercedes-Benz parts and technologies, including a complete rear suspension system borrowed from the Mercedes E-Class sedan. Indeed, the vice-president on the Pacifica program worked for almost three years in Stuttgart and Berlin on the Mercedes-Benz GST, or Grand Sport Tourer, before being reassigned to the United States. While the pricier Pacifica Touring and Limited models edge into the lower part of the E-Class price range, the vehicle is still a Chrysler, as evidenced by its homegrown powertrains, boasting the biggest, most powerful V6 Chrysler has ever made, which offers a 3500-pound tow rating.
Climbing into the Pacifica is easy because it sits relatively low to the ground. Once ensconced, our first impression was one of spaciousness. The cloth upholstery in the new five-passenger model is nice and looks more expensive than expected. Stepping up to the Touring and then the Limited incrementally adds appointments approaching luxury level. Wood, brushed aluminum and quality soft-touch materials create an attractive ambiance.
The bucket seats are thick and deep and supportive with enormous side bolsters that may not be comfortable for some larger frames, but fit even 6-foot, 4-inch statures like the proverbial glove. Between them is a center console trimmed in a soft-touch material that gives it a quality feel. There's a pair of cup holders conveniently located immediately aft of the shifter and they work well; fortunately, the German influence only goes where it's beneficial. All four doors feature map pockets and cup holders. The high-waisted design means the window sills are too high for comfortable arm resting.
The leather-wrapped steering wheel is thick and chunky, a small-diameter interface with the car giving the impression you're directing the movement of something substantial. Redundant controls for the cruise control and sound system are conveniently integrated into the steering wheel spokes.
The instrument panel is done as one swooping enclosure that goes from the back of the left door around to the back of the right front door. The dash features a major hood and a minor hood to keep the sun off the instrument faces. Under the sweeping hood, there's an interesting-looking set of instruments and controls; when the optional navigation system is ordered, the display is positioned right in the center of the speedometer, exactly where it should be for safest use. The DVD-based navigation system is set up and run by a circular switch panel to the right of the steering wheel.
Heating and air conditioning controls seemed fussy at first, but we loved having the Auto Hi and Auto Lo switches for those times when we don't want the climate control blasting away at full fan speed. All power windows can be lowered at once by pressing one button. There's a nice analog clock for quickly telling time. And you can program convenience functions such as auto locking, lock notification (horn, lights, nothing), lighting when doors are opened and so on to tailor the car the way you want it to operate.
The second-row seats in Touring and Limited models are as handsome as the front seats. They're not quite as cushy as the front-row seats, but we found them roomy and comfortable. Between them is a center console similar to the one in front, with a similarly elegant center console with cup holders as the one in front. Fan controls and vents, a power plug and a tray for a bag are provided to keep back-seat passengers content. The second-row seats are split 50/50 in Touring and Limited models so one can be folded over to handle lengthy cargo while the other accommodates a third occupant. The five-passenger model's second-row seat is a bench-type and splits 65/35. We found it easy to fold the second-row seats down the first time out. The seatback tips down then the seat tumbles forward. This is accomplished by moving levers that are numbered to tell you the proper sequence. This increases cargo capacity, but it's not a perfectly flat cargo floor and, of course, there's a gap between the second-row bucket seats.
Third-row seats fold down 50/50 and disappear to create a flat floor for large cargoes. That's the best configuration because the third row is not a comfortable place to sit, particularly for adults. There's no headroom, no hip room, no shoulder room, no knee room. Access to the third-row seats, while not requiring extreme contortions, was best attempted by small-stature frames.
The Chrysler Pacifica handles more like a car than a sport utility. We were impressed with its handling in Northern California, where the paving is excellent, the roads are twisty and interesting, and the traffic is relatively light. It also impressed as a daily driver, hauling friends around and out on the town and making routine trips to the grocery store.
The 3.5-liter V6 is powerful and torquey. The four-speed automatic is smooth and quiet in operation, though we wish it was a five-speed. We enjoyed using the AutoStick feature for manual shifting: Pull it back to select the manual mode, then left to downshift, right to upshift.
The all-wheel-drive system works transparently and helps the Pacifica sail through corners like a sports sedan, rain or shine. Under normal conditions, the all-wheel-drive system sends all of the power to the front wheels. But it can transfer up to 90 percent of the power to the rear wheels. It does this whenever the front wheels lose grip (under hard acceleration, for example). The all-wheel drive uses a viscous coupling in the center differential and an open differential at the rear. We found the all-wheel drive worked well in the dry weather of California's wine country and northern Central Valley, and our experience with all-wheel drive in other Chrysler products leaves us confident it'll not disappoint in a blinding rainstorm or in 12 inches of snow.
While the steering system is not race-car communicative or direct, it's better than many, and the steering wheel feels good in the hands. We found the suspension a willing partner in the vehicle's performance, smooth and supple while controlling lean and wallow. The isolated front and rear subframes, the long wheelbase and wide stance really help to deliver a quality ride. As a bonus, the interior is very quiet at cruising speeds.
Overcoming the substantial weight of the Pacifica and its contents seemed easy for the combination of the Michelin all-weather tires and four-wheel disc brakes. The brakes got a workout from us, and they responded every time without fade or smell or any sign of distress. ABS comes standard, allowing the driver to maintain steering control under panic braking.
Chrysler Pacifica corners well and accelerates quickly. Whether the Pacifica really is a whole new kind of family transportation device or not, it's very versatile vehicle for the money. And the new, more-affordable, five-passenger model gives us even more to like about this sports tourer.
New Car Test Drive correspondent Tom Lankard is based in Northern California.


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I spent the weekend driving around Beverly Hills and B.o.B's "Nothin' On You" was blasting from four different cars at every single stoplight.
It's the hottest record in the world right now and it's the #1 most added song on Urban Radio this week. That hook'n flow combo is tearin' up the charts like the Chicago Fire in 1871. That bitch burned to the ground.
Also, if you live in Huntsville, AL - get in your car and come out and meet B.o.B @ Bench Warmers tonight! Where you at?

subset: commoncrawl


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We have good news in Massachusetts that validates the important work done by many of us in the fight to reverse childhood obesity ("Obesity rate drops for Mass. children," Page A1, Oct. 17). I am proud of the efforts by diverse stakeholders throughout the state — scientists, health care providers, policy makers, public health officials, community and business leaders, educators, and parents — to ensure that healthier environments and policies for children growing up in Massachusetts are the norm.
As an academic researcher, I have conducted obesity prevention research with children across the Commonwealth to expand the base of evidence upon which strong policies can be enacted. We now see that statewide efforts to reshape environments pay off in the short term, and eventually we will appreciate the longer term impact on the health of our society.
At Tufts University, we have formed ChildObesity180, an organization working to blend the evidence base with innovation from the private sector so that effective strategies can be scaled up nationwide. We must all stay the course, reach deeper to address disparities, and resist the temptation to declare victory with the first signs of progress.
The writer is vice chairwoman and director of ChildObesity180 and an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.


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I have routing case shown on picture, SP=start point, EP=end point.
Routing result is BC, CD and DE. My points are not on route. I think that line direction is the key of problem. If line AB has direction AB than my SP will be on route and source will be in point A, but if line AB has direction BA than my start point is not on route and source is in point B.
How to determine line direction to draw by myself segment SP-B?


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Russell, Massachusetts
|This article is a stub. Help us to expand it by contributing your knowledge. For county and town page guidelines, visit U.S. County Page Content Suggestions.
Russell is a town in Massachusetts. It was formed in 1792 and was previously called Westfield/Montgomery. It can be found in Hampden county. For more information, contact the county at 65 Main St., Russell 01071. On the attached map, Russell is shown as 3 in Hampden county.
For information about the state of Massachusetts see Massachusetts Family History Research.


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- Parent Category: News
USDA projects record corn crop, fall in prices
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects a record corn crop this year, topping the previous high by 11 percent.
That could be good news for livestock producers relying on corn for feed and consumers who could see a slight drop in food prices.
For farmers, lower prices are also likely. Corn for December delivery was down 9 cents per bushel Thursday to $5.07. It was trading as high as $6.60 in September.
The USDA expects farmers to turn in 14.8 billion bushels, up 2.4 billion from the current year and 11 percent more than the previous record of 13 billion bushels in 2009.
Farmers are expected to harvest 5 million more acres and get a record 166 bushels per acre, 2 bushels above the average of the last decade.


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Publication information
Bibliographic Citation
Doddridge, Joseph, Narcissa Doddridge, John S. Ritenour, and Wm. T. Lindsey. 1912. Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783 inclusive, together with a review of the state of society and manners of the first settlers of the western country. Pittsburgh, PA: [s.n.].
Electronic Source
Preface to 1912 edition
p. v and vi
This is the third printing of " Doddridge's Notes." The first was in 1824, by Mr. Doddridge himself, at the office of the Wells- burg, Va., Gazette. It consisted exclusively of the " Notes." Hon. S. W. Pennypacker, former governor of Pennsylvania, well- known as a lover of old books, says, in a few lines inscribed on the margin of a first copy which he owned, that Dr. Doddridge " folded the paper on which it was printed and tanned the leather with which it was bound."
The second edition, edited by Alfred Williams, of Circleville, O., was printed at Albany, N. Y., in 1876, by Joel Munsell. Miss Narcissa Doddridge had designed personally undertaking this enterprise herself, but death prevented. Her family then took it up, and at their request it was completed under the supervision of Mr. Williams.
Miss Doddridge's memoir of her father embodies much important historical information respecting the foundation of the Episcopal church in Western Virginia and Ohio. The liberty has been exercised of somewhat abridging its unessential fullness for this edition, but it has not been thus deprived in any degree of either interest or value. The elisions have been confined to prolixities in the correspondence of Dr. Doddridge and his friends. The text of Miss Doddridge is practically untouched. The reminiscences of Rev. Thomas Scott in the second edition are omitted from this edition because all the information they contain has been written into the memoir by Miss Doddridge. In addition to the memoir, the 1876 edition contained an appendix comprising a number of sketches bearing on the pioneer life of this region in the closing years of the eighteenth century. These are all preserved in the present publication, excepting three which are of comparative unimportance. Fresh contributions, however, are numerous valuable and enlightening footnotes by the late James Simpson, of Cross Creek, Washington county, and others; a list of the frontier forts of Washington county; a compilation reciting the story of the origin of Logan's " Lament," and detailing concisely the later unhappy career and tragic death of that celebrated Indian; a sketch of the short life and early death of Michael Cresap, and the final enforced withdrawal of Simon Girty, the renegade, from American soil, to die in his old age in poverty, intemperance and obscurity, on the Canadian farm near Detroit with which he had been rewarded by British gratitude for his countless bloody crimes against the white settlers of the western frontier; an account of the noted frontiersman, Capt. Samuel Teter, and his descendants, together with a brief description of the notable brick mansion raised on the site of Fort Teter by Isaac Manchester a hundred years ago on the skirts of civilization, and still preserved near West Middletown in as good condition as when built.
There is also a pertinent statistical table from E. Dana Dur- and, Director of the Census, showing the estimated Indian population of the United States at various periods from 1789 to 1910, inclusive, and how this population is now distributed among the several states. The elegy by Dr. Doddridge in the appendix is preserved merely as an example of early western frontier poetry.
The footnotes in this 1912 edition are all original with it excepting the eleven which Dr. Doddridge himself prepared to accompany the first printing. These eleven are indicated with a bracketed capital D (D). The second edition contained no other footnotes. J. S. R. W. T. L.== Usage Tips ==
May be ordered through the nearest Family History Center.
FHL film numbers


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QuoteI just got back yesterday from a 6 day vacation to London with my female parental unit. Oh......my.......GOD........if anything could have gone wrong, it went wrong on this trip. Read the ridiulous details in my article. I'm warning you, it's a long one!
Said By wilkgot a bug, cant log onto games site
Said By wilkIt said my username or password was wrong but i just logged on here with the same one. and no i really dont have to be more specific in this case, cus i was pretty exact with my problem
Said By wilkwell ar eu going to tell what to do and avoid answerign the problem because u actually have no way of knowing teh problem or what?
Said By wilkyeah i know how aron is with his source code but hey, i would be protective of my code if I had any good code to protect. whatever, il just have to hold on to my ... horses.... but hey, hes done enough for the day with updating the whole site and all
Said By wilkhey sry bout that im just tired and i want to be able to post on the gaimign site cus i got some stuff to say in response to ur articles. BTW nice articles, ur a good writer
Said By JaegoLooLooWell I didn't know about it. So how could it be KNOWN, HMMM?!


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Digital Publishing: Knight Foundation Funds Mobile Ventures
During the events of Hurricane Sandy, social networks were flooded with images of the storm-battered East Coast by residents instantly sharing their unique experiences. One popular image that was picked up by a number of news outlets was of Marines dutifully guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, despite the pouring rain and deteriorating conditions.
There was just one problem — the picture was taken months before Sandy became a blip on anyone's radar.
It's a familiar problem for most editors — leveraging content produced by readers while attempting to verify its authenticity, a task complicated by staff cuts and the speed of the news cycle.
The human rights organization Witness aims to make that process easier with a new app called InformaCam, which addresses the issue of authentication for editors working with user-generated digital media. The app was one of eight Knight News Challenge: Mobile winners in media innovation and will receive $320,000 from the Knight Foundation to partner with The Guardian Project to build the app.
"InformaCam is our way to respond to this question of media authentication and model some solutions we hope people will adopt," said Sam Gregory, program director for Witness.
According to Witness technology manager Bryan Nuñez, the app will allow metadata to be inflated on an image or video captured by a user, giving editors an easy way to verify the origin of photos in numerous ways, including GPS coordinates, cell towers, and even the signatures of neighboring devices.
By working with the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), InformaCam will help set industry-wide standards, and Nuñez said he hopes the app will make it easier for journalists and stringers to conform to verification standards for digitally produced media.
Another Knight News Challenge: Mobile winner, Wikimedia Foundation, received the largest chunk of the $2.4 million in prize money doled out to the winners — $600,000, which will go to improve access to Wikimedia's massive database of information, available for free — no data or network charges — on the low-end mobile phones found most often in poor or developing countries.
"Knight Foundation's funding will support us making the mobile version of Wikipedia easier to use, as well as enabling us to expand Wikipedia Zero, our project with mobile operators that lets their customers access Wikipedia for free," said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
The objective of Wikimedia's mobile program is to reduce barriers to accessing free knowledge, which in most developing countries is the cost of data usage and network speed.
"Wikipedia has helped define the way that people collaboratively create content," said John Bracken, director for journalism and media innovation at the Knight Foundation. "Making the site available to more people across the world will help foster and spread that culture."
The Knight Foundation's mobile grants are one of three rounds of funding given out every year to help grow community-oriented projects. Many of the winners this year are products that serve developing countries, such as Digital Democracy, which won for an initiative called Remote Access, aimed at providing "off-the-grid" communities with a digital toolkit to enable documentation of environmental and human rights threats.
According to Gregor MacLennan, who is leading the Remote Access initiative for Digital Democracy, long-term change requires overcoming technological hurdles in order to empower individuals to report information in their community.
"Remote Access will make it easier for our partners to engage in evidence-based advocacy: telling stories and visualizing data in order to influence decision-makers, policy, and development plans," MacLennan said.
Another Knight winner looking to help empower citizens is Textizen, which expands the government's ability to gather citizen input by placing survey questions in public places, such as parks and bus stops.
"You know, having in-person meetings is a really great way to gather in-depth data, but a lot of people don't have the flexibility or the time to get to those meetings," said Textizen co-founder and chief operating officer Alex Yule on Philadelphia NPR-affiliate WHYY. "And so we hope that this will be a tool that will connect those people."
Textizen launched as a Code for America project with pilot programs in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Boston, and the Knight Foundation award will allow it to expand to 500 communities. Working with the Philadelphia Planning Commission, the project grew citizen input from a small handful of people to more than 700, all responding to questions found on bus shelters and subways.
One winner that wants to enable better information sharing is WeFarm. A project of the Cafedirect Producers Foundation, WeFarm is a platform that enables farmers in developing countries without Internet access to seek advice and feedback through even the most basic mobile phone, and help answer relevant questions in real time.
"WeFarm is our vision to bring the Internet to people without Internet," said Kenny Ewan, program manager of Cafedirect Producers Foundation. "To bring the power of peer-to-peer information, idea and knowledge sharing to the people who could really benefit most from it."
RootIO is another Knight winner that aims to provide relevant information to people without access to the Internet by literally putting radio stations in the hands of individuals. The pilot software, currently being tested in Uganda, allows people in areas where radio is the primary media source to turn their basic mobile phones into DIY micro radio stations, ensuring broadcasts are relevant to the citizens they serve.
"(RootIO) gives small community stations access to some of the information and lubrication that the Internet allows," said Chris Csikszentmihalyi, founder of RootIO and a professor at Art Center College of Design. According to Csikszentmihalyi, the ultimate goal is to take the peer-to-peer functionality of the Internet and allow people to share at the level of radio media.
In contrast to the sophisticated approaches of other winners, Abayima provides a simple, low-tech solution to a problem journalists face often — communicating in a crisis. Abayima's goal with its Knight Foundation award is to develop an open-source tool kit that will provide journalists and individuals an easy way to "hack" their smartphones and store data on their SIM card, allowing it to be transferred in a crisis situation or when an oppressive regime is monitoring or controlling information networks.
"Think of it as an analog to paper," said Jon Gosier, founder of Appfrica, the company developing Abayima. "The pen becomes the device, and the paper becomes the SIM card."
Relevant information doesn't have to be limited to data or breaking news. Sometimes, oral histories can be just as enlightening and relevant to a community. That's why TKOH built a prototype app for mobile devices called Thread that makes it easy to collect, archive, and share family stories in a casual way. Preserving that shared experience of storytelling and making it accessible to everyone is vital to TKOH's Kacie Kinzer.
"We use stories to understand ourselves, to understand others, and really develop a sense of community," Kinzer said. "It's sitting down and telling these stories that we practice empathy and develop a sense of connection and understanding of the diversity of human experience."
Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor & Publisher and can be reached at email@example.com.


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Later in the article, however, we were disappointed with a comment made by a New England bookseller and co-chair of the New England Children's Booksellers' Association. From the article:
"The other, Judy Blundell's Strings Attached (Scholastic), is so well-written, says Hermans, that it could be shelved with adult titles."*cringe*
One would think that someone so involved with selling books would be aware enough of the variety and depth of children's writing that a poorly worded comment like that would never make it into an influential publication. Perhaps the bookseller could expound upon that comment and tell readers which genre of adult fiction it's well-written enough to be shelved with. Has it earned a place with paperback genre books or could it be put within throwing distance of award-winners? After all, if young adult is all shelved together, that must mean the writing is all the same i.e. substandard. Is all adult writing, therefore, superior to children's?
It's a common misconception that children's book writers already have to overcome; that writing for children is easier, inferior and less valued than writing for adults. I think about Sherman Alexie, who has successfully written for the adult and young adult market and how his writing isn't different across the genres, only his subject matter is. How do we begin to value children's books as at least equal to adult titles if the influential sellers of children's books persist with outmoded notions and opinions? You tell us, does this comment get your back up as much as it did ours? Do you read more children's (young adult) books than adult and why? If you read both, do you see a marked difference in the quality of writing across the board?


text: The Baby Jogger Cooler Bag is designed to keep your food and drinks cool. This accessory is large enough to hold six 12 oz. drink cans or baby bottles and attaches with Velcro to the frame of your stroller. The Cooler Bag is compatible with any single or double Baby Jogger model.


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A-Rod And Miami: What We Know
I broke the news here yesterday that representatives of the Yankees and Marlins – later identified elsewhere as New York team president Randy Levine and Miami owner Jeffrey Loria – had discussed a trade that would send the crumbling Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez to the Marlins.
As the supplemental reporting of others indicates, this may have begun as a sarcastic response by Levine to a chimerical wish by Loria. But the ownership groups of both clubs know damn well this is no longer a joke, and they can ameliorate if not solve each other's problem. A lot of the blockbuster transactions in baseball history have begun as jokes or expressions of exasperations (Manager Leo Durocher's stunning move from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Giants in mid-season 1948 comes to mind).
My sources have little else to add today, except to suggest that the Marlins might be willing to swap more of their overpriced stock for Rodriguez and the net differences in salary than previously indicated (say, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle for Rodriguez and 60 million or so). That will all depend, I'm told, on just how much Miami season ticket sales drop after the disastrous 2012 season.
As to the key players, only Rodriguez is talking, saying after the Yankees' ignominious finish in Detroit that he wanted to remain in New York and would not waive his no-trade clause.
After Yankees' Senior Vice President/General Manager Brian Cashman had dismissed Wednesday's report as "100% not true," reporters Andrew Marchand and Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York and Jon Heyman of CBS then revealed the Levine-Loria conversation, and the sad fact that Cashman apparently didn't know about it, nor the hotline it created.
Today, another embarrassed executive who was clearly out of the loop – Marlins' president David Samson – insisted there had been no negotiations, while Heyman and others ran with the explanation that the Rodriguez talk was just a joke made last April during the Yankees' stadium christening exhibitions at Miami and that was that.
My primary source says Marchand and Matthews have it right. It was an offhand remark that has turned into at least an avenue to discuss an anything-but-offhand trade:
What began as a casual, joking conversation between New York Yankees president Randy Levine and Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria about the possibility of Alex Rodriguez playing for the Marlins may develop into serious trade talks this offseason, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.
Others have dismissed the story because no team is talking trades while it is in the process of being humiliatingly swept out of the playoffs. Of course they don't. But nor does planning for 2013 freeze just because 2012 games are still being played. Anybody pay attention to the weekend of Yankees' bench coach Tony Pena? Sunday he had to manage the last three innings after Joe Girardi got ejected. Tuesday he was back in his adjunct role at Girardi's side. In between, on Monday, he was in…Boston. To interview for the Red Sox manager's job.
The off-season trades, free agent signings, hirings and firings – and the possible trade of Alex Rodriguez – are all starting now. Right now.
The logic behind moving Rodriguez to Miami is impeccable. Whatever damage A-Rod did not himself do to his reputation, the Yankees have – both on and off the field. They have devalued him as a player (he helped) by the extraordinary step of benching him while the team collapsed. They benched him even against Justin Verlander, against whom he could claim a career 8-for-24 mark with three homers.
They may have even baited him into insubordination. Supposedly by accident, the now imperiled-manager Joe Girardi submitted two different lineups for the rained out Wednesday night ALCS Game 4, one featuring Rodriguez, the other without him. A former major leaguer told me today he wouldn't be a bit surprised if A-Rod hadn't seen his name on the initial card and told Girardi where to go – which could easily have been what the Yankees wanted him to do. If you don't buy that bit of conspiratorial sci-fi, how about weighing whether it's more likely that for a game that could decide whether or not they kept their jobs Joe Girardi and his coaches 'accidentally' wrote out two line-up cards, or the Yankees decided to try to further mess with A-Rod's head?
It is also speculative, but the Yankees (particularly through the nefarious Howard Rubinstein Public Relations Agency) have long employed the Strategic Leak, with the receiving end usually being The New York Post (for whom Rubinstein also works, in a relationship that mainlines directly to Rupert Murdoch himself). What better and more authoritative source could there be for the Casablanca-like "I'm shocked, shocked, that gambling is going on in here" quality to the Post's splashy story that Rodriguez was trying to get the phone number of an Australian bikini model during Game 1 of the ALCS, than the Yankees themselves? Who would know she was there? Besides the principals, who would know what the ballboy saw? Who would know all of it? The Yankees. As I alluded to yesterday the autographed-ball-as-groupie-troll bait is probably attempted ten times a day in organized baseball.
But why hurt A-Rod when you're trying to get rid of him?
Well, that's easy. You don't just have to find somebody willing to take him off your hands in a trade that doesn't humiliate you. You have to convince Rodriguez to drop his no-trade clause. And nothing makes that likelier than being able to say to him 'did you like the last two weeks? The sports pages? And the gossip pages? Would you like five years of that?'
As many columnists noted today the Yankees have no choice but to put Rodriguez in another uniform ASAP. The reason they gave him a contract through his age 42 season – the pursuit of the career home run record – is now a pointless irrelevancy. The 2009 admission of steroid use has made the 'clean alternative' to Barry Bonds into a pathetic joke. And, given his rate of decline and frequency of injury, Rodriguez is a less-than-even-money bet to hit the first home run milestone for which he would get one of those $6,000,000 bonuses. It's Willie Mays' total of 660 and Rodriguez ended the 2012 season with 647. A-Rod needs thirteen. He had thirteen as of June 26 this past season. He would hit exactly five more thereafter, in 199 regular season at bats.
You know how many homers a rate like that produces over 500 at bats? Twelve. Thirteen if you round up with a vengeance.
But more relevantly, even if Rodriguez has some sort of Jeterian renaissance ahead of him, the Yankees have spent the last week all but neutering any chance it has of blossoming in New York. They have made him – and many of the other stars – into damaged goods. Ten days ago Girardi was extolling the pricelessness of a consistent line-up. Since that moment he used seven different batting orders in seven games. In the process, he threw virtually everybody in his line-up except Jeter and Russell Martin under the bus.
The Yankees ownership can thus, with fake mournful looks plastered onto their phony faces, not pursue free agent Nick Swisher, and unload Rodriguez at any price, and sign a bunch of cheaper alternatives, because of the crisis they themselves have facilitated. For weeks they've been reminding me of the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies.
This is not one of the great teams of history but it was one of the most instructive. The Phils cut through the slightly-favored Dodgers in the NLCS (1-0, 1-4, 7-2, 7-2). Ever seen that Gary Matthews homer slamming off the facade of the second deck at the Vet? That sealed Game 3 and it hit about two feet below my auxiliary press box seat and it sounded like a bomb exploding.
The Phils walked into the Series as nominal favorites over the Orioles. Baltimore seemed to have a slightly better offense but Philadelphia had the pitching. Back of John Denny and Al Holland the Phils took the opener on the road 1-0. But when the Orioles took game two, Manager Paul Owens pulled a stunning move. Even though first baseman Pete Rose had gotten within shouting distance of Ty Cobb's all time career hits record, and had gone 6-for-16 in the NLCS (5-for-9 in the last two games), Owens benched Rose, citing Rose's 1-for-8 start in the Series, and swapped in Tony Perez against lefty starter Mike Flanagan. Perez got a weak single and looked like a statue in the field, and Owens undid his move for Game 4, but by then it was too late.
In dropping the last three games, the Phillies scored six runs and they had to blow up the franchise. They released not just Rose but Joe Morgan, too. They sold Perez back to the Reds. They offed veteran reliever Ron Reed. And in the last week of Spring Training they purged Matthews (sending him to Chicago for almost nothing, where he led the Cubs to the 1984 NL West title) and reliever Willie Hernandez (sending him to Detroit for even more almost nothing – and Hernandez won both the Cy Young and the MVP as the Tigers rolled to one of the most dominant seasons of the last 50 years).
The Phils would bubble up to the surface for a fun 1993 NL Championship (the Joe Carter World Series). But excluding that, it would be nine managers and 24 years before they would again finish first.
And the dominos all began to fall when they benched a controversial superstar who was pursuing one of the seminal records of baseball. Now why does that sound so familiar?
Exclusive: Yanks, Marlins Talk A-Rod Trade (Confirmed)
Updated 10:45 PM EDT: ESPN New York's Wallace Matthews has the moving parts of the Jeffrey Loria/Randy Levine conversations that kicked off the trade talk between the Marlins and Yankees about Alex Rodriguez.
According to the source, Loria said in his conversation about A-Rod with Levine, "Alex is Mr. Miami; it would be great if he played here for us."
To which Levine is said to have replied, "You can have him."
Included in there is the bombshell detail that explains the unfortunate Brian Cashman's denial this afternoon. He might be the Senior Vice President/General Manager of the Yankees, but he doesn't make all the deals and some of them they don't even give him a much of a heads-up on.
Updated 4:04 PM EDT: Yankees' Senior Vice President Brian Cashman has denied to MLB.Com's Yankees' beat reporter Bryan Hoch that there have been any A-Rod trade talks with the Marlins.
Cash – whom I like – is, say, incorrect.
I'd also like to point out that the last time Brian Cashman denied something involving me, it was to tell me and a crowd of reporters that my tweet showing Rodriguez receiving post-pitch detail signals from the stands on Opening Day in 2011 was not an issue for the ballclub and the team was just fine with me and had no problem and everything was just fine.
Three months later they threw me out as Bob Wolff's assistant at the P.A. microphone for Old Timers' Day and leaked it to The New York Post.
UPDATE 4:19 PM EDT: I'd also point out that Cashman may not know about any of this – yet. Not two years ago ownership – by his own admission – essentially signed a free agent without telling him. Cashman said the other 29 GMs would have loved to have "their owner force Rafael Soriano down their throat."
Original Post:
The New York Yankees have held discussions with the Miami Marlins about a trade involving their third baseman in crisis, Alex Rodriguez.
Sources close to both organizations confirm the Yankees would pay all – or virtually all – of the $114,000,000 Rodriguez is owed in a contract that runs through the rest of this season and the next five. One alternative scenario has also been discussed in which the Yankees would pay less of Rodriguez's salary, but would obtain the troubled Marlins' reliever Heath Bell and pay what remains of the three-year, $27,000,000 deal Bell signed last winter.
None of the sources could give an indication as to how serious the discussions have already gotten, but one of them close to the Marlins' ownership said he believed the trade made sense for both sides, and would eventually be made in some form.
Not only are the Yankees one loss away from elimination in the American League Championship Series (and as of this writing, one loss away from an ignominious sweep), but in the post-season Rodriguez is just 3-for-23 with twelve strikeouts, has been pinch-hit for twice, and was left out of one of the Division Series games against Baltimore entirely. He last homered on September 14, and has only one extra base-hit and six RBI in the 24 games since that date.
Rodriguez has become a Gordian Knot for the Yankees. As the roster grows old and the farm system is in a fallow period for position players, the Steinbrenner family wants to reduce payroll, not increase it. And while the precise salary numbers are not known, Rodriguez is scheduled to earn approximately $28 million next year, $23 million in 2014, $22 million in 2015, $21 million in 2016, and $20 million in 2017 – when he will be 42 years old. His physical fragility and declining power now make him just slightly less valuable than the average American League third baseman (by one calculation, Rodriguez's WAR number – "wins above replacement player" – was 2.0, seventeenth best among Major League third basemen, just behind obscure rookie Luis Cruz of the Dodgers).
Nevertheless, paying Rodriguez $114 million not to play for them would seem to be against the new – cheaper – thinking at Yankee Stadium.
But to a Marlins' franchise facing financial calamity after the failure of its combination of splashy free agent signings, a high-profile new manager, and a brand new downtown stadium, a "free" Alex Rodriguez has serious upside. He grew up in the community, owns an incredibly high-priced home there that he has been unable to move, and might be refreshed by both the release from the New York cauldron, and a possible move from third base to first base with his new club. Such a position change would be blocked in New York by the presence of first baseman Mark Teixeira and the club's self-perceived need to rotate the aging Yankee regulars in the Designated Hitter spot.
The degree to which the cauldron was heating up was underscored by a dubious story in Tuesday's New York Post, which claimed Rodriguez was trying to get the phone numbers of two women seated behind the Yankee dugout during Saturday's American League Championship Series opener by utilizing the age-old athlete trick of having autographed baseballs delivered to them.
This followed last week's episode in which tv game show host Donald Trump – tweeting last Wednesday from a team-provided freebie seat in a Yankee Stadium suite – also heated up the cauldron by resuming his online attacks on Rodriguez. Trump invoked Rodriguez's admission of steroid use during his time with the Texas Rangers by using the more generic and damning word "drugs," and admitted he had a personal animus towards Rodriguez dating back to what had also tweeted were "dishonorable dealings with me on an apartment deal."
Trump was sitting in the team suite at Yankee Stadium – on the ballclub's dime as usual – when he tweeted this:
But the "drugs" tweet was only the culmination of a day of off-and-on attacks on Rodriguez by Trump.
For more than a year the club has been aggressively retaliatory towards those – like Trump – who have invoked Rodriguez's admission of steroid use, and others who have been critical of him in any other way. Over the past summer the team suspended team Advisor and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson for questioning what impact Rodriguez's confession would have on the legitimacy of his career statistics. Later in the season, a Yankees' media relations staffer bypassed a new formal appeal procedure and was heard shouting at an official scorer who had given an error to an opposing player rather than a base hit to Rodriguez. Yankees' media relations director Jason Zillo was described in a 2011 book as being "close" to Rodriguez. In the same book Rodriguez called Zillo a "friend." In 2011, Zillo and the Yankees had similarly tried to squelch stories about the seeming deterioration of the play of Derek Jeter.
Trump's call for the Yankees to "terminate" Rodriguez's contract for "misrepresentation" is not a practical solution in a time with a strong players' union, and given the fact that in the off-season of 2007-08 the Yankees happily kept Rodriguez from leaving for free agency by giving him a new ten-year contract that ensured that his pursuit of the career home run record would come while wearing their uniform. More over, the confession came in February, 2009, and if any claim to void the contract could ever have been made, it would have been then, and not now.
The Yankees presumably are not happy with Trump's tweets. But they are less so with Rodriguez's vanishing adequacy. And if the Marlins provide an escape hatch – even an escape hatch costing them either $96,000,000 (if they were to swap Rodriguez for Bell) or $114,000,000 (if they just give him away, or obtain low-cost players or prospects in return for him) – the Yankees are prepared to ignore the business consequences to offload a formerly great player who with each week seems to turn into simply a more and more painful headache.
The Winner Of The Debate: Mike Trout
I am so old that the previous two Triple Crowns were won in a) the first year I had any awareness of the game, and b) the first year I was a true fan.
I got kinda spoiled.
It was – and is – a singular accomplishment. Miguel Cabrera deserves all the praise. He deserves to be in the company of F. Robby and Yaz and all the rest. He does not deserve the Most Valuable Player Award.
I know, I know, I'm the traditionalist and the one who whined here about Felix Hernandez getting the Cy Young last year. And I'm not going to hang this entirely on the idea that historically there was nothing automatic about a Triple Crown equaling MVP (ask not just Ted Williams, but Lou Gehrig). But I also have an appreciation of (if not a slavish dedication to) all the statistics that have come into the game since Carl Yastrzemski's matchless September got him his place in history in 1967. And the thing being left out of the arguments about Cabrera versus Mike Trout is that the reason "The Triple Crown" was such a big deal all that time was that it wasn't just the imaginary title we gave the leader of three Glamor Batting Categories – it was the imaginary title we gave the leader of the only three batting categories we had.
I exaggerate only slightly here. The years that the baseball cards were horizontal and not vertical, we also got Games Played, At Bats, Hits, Doubles and Triples printed on the back. Well, those were just for us kids, right? What about the grown-up stuff?
Who's Who In Baseball – the softcover handbook, still printed, the last vestige of the fabled baseball publishing industry of the 1930's – offered exactly what the baseball cards did…plus stolen bases.
Still, that was nowhere near official. What about the bible of the game? The veritable New Phone Book of the season ahead and the season behind? What about The Sporting News Official Baseball Guide? It dated to 1942 and its antecedents stretched back to Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player edited by Henry Chadwick in 1860.
Here's exactly what were considered baseball's official stats the year Yaz did The Miggy:
(Sorry for the warping. My '68 guide still has some spine left to it)
This is way more sophisticated, no? Games, At Bats, Runs, Hits, Total Bases (ooooh, Total Bases), Two Base Hits, Three Base Hits, Homers, RBI, Sacrifice Hits, Sacrifice Flies, Stolen Bases, Caught Stealing, and "Percentage" – Batting Average.
By the way, Caught Stealing was a revolutionary statistical addition.
Notice anything missing there? I don't mean WAR and VORP and OPS and UZR and RISP and Percentage of Pitchers Faced With ERA under 4.00. I mean:
In 1968 baseball's OFFICIAL STATISTICS DID NOT EVEN INCLUDE ON BASE, OR SLUGGING PERCENTAGE.
The Triple Crown was The Triple Crown because it was the most sophisticated measurement of a batter's total impact on the game. And in terms of historical placement, it was a gold mine. When Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski won their Crowns we were still a couple of years away from The Baseball Encyclopedia. What those of us who did not have complete runs of The Sporting News Guide, The Reach Guide, The Spalding Guide, The Players' League Guide, and Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player had, was The Official Encyclopedia Of Baseball.
In one fan's lifetime, in my trip from an eight-year old going to his first Yankee game to the 53-year old sitting in the front row last night going deaf from the excessive PA system, who used to host the telecasts of the World Series before the turn of the century (!), we went from what you see to the left, to WAR and PZR.
That – Full Name, Birth Date, Birth Place, Date of Death (sometimes), Batted/Threw (sometimes), Games Played, Won-Lost Record, and Batting Average – was all that we had for the official baseball historical record the last time somebody won the Triple Crown before Miguel Cabrera did it last night. No homers, no RBI, no Slugging Percentage – no hits, no runs, no errors!
And – you're right – Ruth's entry is the most sophisticated one in the book because he was a pitcher and a position player!
So I applaud what Cabrera did, and I want to buy him something to thank him for doing something that merely reminds me of the excitement of a player sweeping the statistical board – as we thought we knew it – when I was a kid.
But I've grown up (somewhat) and so have the statistics. And I won't labor them anew here but Mike Trout had a remarkable season according to the closest thing we have to an all-encompassing number, WAR:
1. TROUT, Los Angeles (10.72)
2. CANO, New York (8.23)
3. VERLANDER, Detroit (7.44)
4. CABRERA, Detroit (6.95)
5. BELTRE, Texas (6.66)
6. PRICE, Tampa Bay (6.47)
7. GORDON, Kansas City (6.28)
8. HARRISON, Texas (6.09)
9. SALE, Chicago (5.80)
10. ZOBRIST, Tampa Bay (5.6)
11. HUNTER, Los Angeles (5.5)
12. JACKSON, Detroit (5.30)
In short, Trout was about 30 percent more valuable than the runner-up (and that's with Robinson Cano's explosive finish), and he doubled the value of the 12th best player in the league. For contrast, the top five guys in NL War finished in a grouping of 0.5 (Buster Posey 7.2, McCutchen 7.0, Braun 6.8, Molina 6.7, Wright 6.7) allowing room for interpretation and argument. To get down to half the value of the WAR champ, you have to go to Carlos Beltran and David Freese and a tie for 33rd.
That room for argument is non-existant in the American League. Miguel Cabrera won a Triple Crown, and Mike Trout's season was 54 percent more valuable.
Which is, at minimum, the added value of all the new statistics, since Yaz won, and I was a kid, and there were only 20 teams – and "The Triple Crown" was the best we had.
FBI: "The" Honus Wagner Was Trimmed
In 1991, I got a call from my friend Matt Federgreen, the proprietor of the Beverly Hills Baseball Card Shop and my co-host for a little segment I did on each of my half-hour-long Sunday night sportscasts on KCBS-Channel 2 in L.A.
Matt had been approached by Bruce McNall, the owner of the Los Angeles Kings and at that time the rising figure in hockey ownership and L.A. sports moguldom. McNall had made his millions buying and selling (and as the jury later agreed, often selling and re-selling and re-re-selling) antique coins, and he was fascinated by the upcoming auction of the Jim Copeland sports memorabilia. Big-money auctions were nothing new to the baseball card world, but this one was being handled by Sotheby's, meaning the hobby was being mainstreamed into investment-grade collectibles.
The centerpiece of the Sotheby's Auction was an unbelievably pristine copy of the 1909 American Tobacco Company card of Honus Wagner, hardly the scarcest, but handily the most famous, card in the landmark series we collectors call by its catalogue number "T-206." McNall and a then-unidentified partner (who proved to be his star player, Wayne Gretzky) wanted the card and they wanted Federgreen's expertise. The card looked brand new. It bore no earmarks of being a clever counterfeit. But it also bore no signs of nearly 92 years of aging. Unless somebody was standing at the printing press when the card was finished drying, and stuffed it between the pages of a book, and kept the book in a climate-controlled room from the opening days of the Presidential administration of William Howard Taft, and had only taken it out after the inauguration of George H.W. Bush, something seemed wrong.
Something was very wrong. I couldn't go with Matt to the inspection of the Wagner that McNall had arranged for him. But Matt took a bunch of pictures, and the next time he came in to the studios he brought them.
Matt has a sly smile that usually gives him away. "Whaddya think?"
I took one look at the photos and said "It's been trimmed."
Matt laughed. "That's what I told Bruce. He said thanks very much, he said he thought so too, he said he'd probably buy it any way, and he walked me to the door, and he paid me a very generous fee, and I left."
I asked him to show me the photos again. They had rung too loud a bell. "I've seen this card before."
Matt's eyes lit up. By the following Sunday I had found in my rabbit's warren of card-related stuff, photos of a Wagner that had been offered for sale in the early '80s by a fellow who owned a baseball card store on Long Island outside New York City. I had no doubt and neither did Matt. Between his photos and mine we were looking at before-and-after shots of the same card.
Before and after somebody with the guts of a burglar and the skills of a circumcision specialist had trimmed the thing.
In its previous state the Wagner was an anomaly. It had very large white borders, and the card was thus perhaps 10% bigger than the average T-206. It looked like it had been hand-cut from a sheet of cards, and not done by a machine. Some of the corners were stubbed and worn from age. But the "face" of the card, the player's image, the bright yellow background, the lettering, were shiny and virtually perfect. It had been handled, and handled an appropriate amount, since 1909. But whoever had done the handling had been very, very careful not to touch the face.
And then somebody bought it and actually cut away all the damage on the sides and sold it to Jim Copeland who had turned it over to Sotheby's which would shortly sell it to Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky for $451,000. When McNall was exposed as a crook who would sell the same priceless coin to several different collectors (throwing in secure storage of it for a small additional fee – so that it was always around for him to show it and re-sell it to another collector even though he didn't own it any more) Gretzky got full possession of the treasure and sold it off to Walmart as a publicity thing, basically at a break-even figure. The price has gone up and up and up, and "the" Wagner was finally sold to Conservative political figure and Arizona Diamondbacks' owner Ken Kendrick, who five years ago paid $2,800,000 for it.
It's not a fake. But it's also not an original.
And for years, collectors and experts have murmured about the process by which a really nice Wagner had been altered, and the alterations hidden from the public (even receiving the stamp of approval by the presumptive "final word" of a card authenticating company which got enormous publicity – and undeserved credibility – for encasing the card in the first of its plastic "slabs"), and the card became the image of the sports memorabilia hobby.
But who was behind this? And, Heavens, who cut the card?
Now we have the answer, courtesy the FBI…
According to the indictment, in advertising portraying Mastro Auctions as the premier seller of valuable items, including the world's most expensive baseball trading card, a Honus Wagner T-206 card, Mastro allegedly failed to disclose that he had altered the Wagner T-206 card by cutting the sides in a manner that, if disclosed, would have significantly reduced the value of the card.
The "Mastro" in question is Bill Mastro, who I have known since we were both teenagers. At age 19, he had bought a Wagner for $1,500 and thus completed his T-206 set. Those of us whose own massive collections might have been worth a total of $1,500 were aghast. My friend and mentor Mike Aronstein told me that some of Mastro's relatives had actually gathered together to consider what we would now call an "intervention" or forcing him to seek psychological help. It was believed that no Wagner had previously sold for more than around $250. At the left is how this startling development was contemporaneously covered by a monthly publication I used to write for called The Trader Speaks.
Mastro was already buying and selling cards that were not intended for his own collection. By the '80s he had gone from card dealer to the founder of one of the first sports memorabilia auction houses, Mastro Auctions, and would regularly work the phones to try to drum up publicity for his auctions.
It eventually became a $50,000,000 business. And now it's gotten Mastro and some of his colleagues indicted. And not just for the deception regarding the Wagner.
More from the Department of Justice's press release:
CHICAGO — Online and live auctions of sports memorabilia and other collectibles conducted during the 2000s by the former Mastro Auctions, which was based in suburban Chicago, routinely defrauded customers, according to a federal indictment unsealed today. William Mastro, who owned the former business that once billed itself as the "world's leading sports and Americana auction house," together with Doug Allen and Mark Theotikos, both former executives of Mastro Auctions, were indicted on fraud charges for allegedly rigging auctions through a series of deceptive practices, including so-called "shill-bidding," designed to inflate prices paid by bidders and to protect the interests of consignors and sellers at the expense of unwitting bidders.
In short, if you bought from Mastro, you stood an excellent chance of bidding against people who were there only to drive up the price.
For that part of the story, I refer you to the whole press release at the Sports Collectors Digest website. The New York Daily News has even more detail on the extraordinary tale of "the" Wagner, which after two decades of whispering, we can now shout: has been deceptively altered.
Just for fun, I should note here that the entire story of what originally made the Wagner card scarce in the first place also doesn't add up. The timeline is so messy that it has the card being withdrawn at Wagner's behest (supposedly because he didn't want to be involved in selling cigarettes to kids) after he saw an advertisement for it in a national sports magazine. But the ad didn't appear until July, 1909 and the card was supposed to have been withdrawn in March, 1909. But I'll save that tale of what might've been the first card made deliberately scarce, for another time.
Also, this isn't the scarcest card of all time, nor even in this set (there are at least 75 of them; there may not be as many examples of the T-206 card of an A's pitcher named Eddie Plank, and there are only three or four copies of a rare T-206 variation of a Yankees' pitcher Joe Doyle, and there are unique examples of eight minor league T-206 'proof' cards featuring players who never got into the issued set, and based on recent developments there may yet be a 525th card to add to the checklist). More on that some other time.
Lastly, if you're ever actually talking about Honus Wagner – the immortal shortstop or the card or now the FBI Fraud Case – the name doesn't rhyme with "bonus." Honus was short for the Germanic version of John, Johannes. So he answered to "Honnis," not "Ho-nus."
Bye, Hanley. Bye, Marlins. Bye, Rays.
The Miami Marlins have dumped all of Hanley Ramirez's contract ("an original Eovaldi – how lovely"). They have traded Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez for a Detroit Tigers' can't-miss pitching prospect (how well did that work out when they offloaded Miguel Cabrera for Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin?). They threw Randy Choate overboard and might flip Carlos Lee. They are begging somebody to take Heath Bell off their hands. They might still deal Josh Johnson (update: there's now even a rumor-let today about trading Jose Reyes).
But unlike when Wayne Huizenga did it in 1998 and 2004, owner Jeffrey Loria claims with a straight face that this is not a fire sale.
"It's no secret I love [Ramirez]," Loria told Fox Sports and MLB Network reporter Ken Rosenthal. "He needs to have a fresh beginning, a new beginning … This is a very painful moment for me. But we had to do something."
Uh-huh. The people who are having the "very painful moment" and who "need the fresh beginning" are Florida baseball fans. If any.
In the new stadium, the Marlins have averaged 28,397 fans per game, which is 12th in MLB in terms of percentage of capacity (that's about three-quarters full). But a) it's not as big as it seems (the Brewers have averaged 83% of capacity) and the raw numbers are below need, not growing, and disturbingly static during the most marketable moments. Since June 3rd, Miami has hosted 10 marquee games against divisional rivals Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington, and three more against the Red Sox. They've only drawn even 30,000 fans on four of those dates.
Check, please.
The Marlins' billion-dollar bet – that people would go to an area with no parking and little public transportation to go see a sparkly new ballpark and an all-star team – was failing even before the team began to stumble on the field. The sadness here is that I don't know what you do with a great new ballpark that can't draw enough customers to permit you to make money off it. Crate it and ship it to San Jose for the A's? Airlift it to Montreal and try that again?
Of course the Marlins' failure will kill the Tampa Bay Rays, too. Only a miracle would've given the state of Florida or the local governments the kind of political cover necessary to even chip in to a new baseball stadium (well, a baseball stadium) in St. Pete or Tampa. The Rays have excited an initially ambivalent fan base with a superior job of planning and growth and innovation. And their new loyal fans can't figure out the equation. They're a little hurt that the team expects them to pay to get into the park.
So Florida baseball, 20 years old, isn't going to get much older – at least not as we know it now. The Marlins are stuck there, doomed to live forever in a mansion with no furniture. The Rays aren't. They're almost certainly going to have to move. It's a shame, too, because in those two decades the two clubs have produced three World Series trips, which is exactly one less than the five California franchises have produced in the same span.
The other shame here is, it's not as if some of us didn't see this coming. This is the blog entry from last November 15th (and that was before they'd actually signed Reyes or Bell, and before Guillen's Castro gaffe):
Miami In A Vice
They have gone out and spent the money on what looks like a fabulous and distinctive new ballpark.
They have gone out and spent the money on what is an often fabulous and alwaysdistinctive new manager.
They are evidently willing to go out and spend the money ("in the range of five years, $18-$20 million a year," per Buster Olney on ESPN) on Jose Reyes and might be able to snare Albert Pujols as well.
They even went out and spent the money on rebranding themselves as a city, not a state, and on some decent looking new uniforms (although the basic premise of the attire struck me as an adaptation of the original 1977 Toronto Blue Jays' unis, with orange substituted for powder blue).
And I think it will all end in disaster.
As the 20th season of Marlins baseball looms, there is still almost no evidence that South Florida is a major league baseball community, or that it wants or needs big league ball. The entire dynamic could be changed by the new roofed stadium, but the certitude about that – and the willingness to wager literally hundreds of millions of dollars on that certitude – is, to me, unjustified. With the caveat that I know from sopping-wet experience that Joe Robbie/ProPlayer/Whatever Stadium was a miserable place to watch a ballgame, I still think that it's mortifying that the Fish averaged 37,838 fans per game in their inaugural season of 1993, and 33,695 in 1994 – and never came close to that figure again.
I mean, not close. The World Champions of 1997 played before an average house of 29,190. Otherwise they have had just five seasons of more than 19,007 paid admissions per game, and four that were below 15,766 a year.
Team president David Samson thinks some improvement on the squad and the ballpark will convert a city that has for two decades been saying 'you fill me with inertia' will suddenly convert into producing "30 to 35,000 every single game."
This was a city that could not support AAA baseball in the '50s, and never again tried higher than A-ball. And I don't buy the idea that a high-priced indoor facility in Miami proper rather than it a remarkably hard-to-get-to corner of Fort Lauderdale is now going to entice 37,000 fans away from everything else the city offers, especially at night. Pujols and Reyes would be hard to resist. Then again the Marlins fans of nine seasons ago resisted the 2003 World Champions (except for 16,290 of them each game). I'm not even sure how a $95,000,000 investment in Reyes and lord knows how much in Pujols would translate into profitability or even break-even status.
Reyes alone will not do it – ask the Mets.
As if these doubts were not enough, late last night the impeccable Clark Spencer of The Miami Herald tweeted something to make Miami fans shiver:
Source: H. Ramirez is not at all pleased at prospect of changing positions if
#Marlins sign Reyes; the two aren't the friends many portray.
When the Reyes rumors first started, Spencer had quoted Hanley Ramirez with words that bring honor to the role of wet blanket: "I'm the shortstop right now and I consider myself a shortstop."
One can easily see where all this will go if a) Ramirez and Reyes squabble; b) Reyes gets hurts again; c) the Marlins don't sign enough new talent to compete in a daunting division; d) the fans don't show up; or e) all of the above, in any order you choose. When the '97 Marlin World Champs did not yield a new stadium, 17 of the 25 men on the World Series roster were gone by mid-season 1998 and three more by mid-season 1999.
Imagine Jose Reyes being traded in a fire sale in the middle of 2013. Or Albert Pujols.
So: What Does Bryce Harper's Hitting Coach DO?
Hadn't visited with my friend Rick Eckstein since he worked with the kids on the anachronistically named Vermont Expos of the New York-Penn League in 2006. Tonight, as for all this year and in spring training of 2011, Eckstein now works with Bryce Harper with the Washington Nationals.
Well what exactly can you DO with Bryce Harper?
"His swing gets a little big sometimes. I point that out to him," Rick said with a smile, not long after Harper hit a seemingly low line drive that appeared to just clear the batting practice pitcher and then wound up around 440 feet away, and 30 feet up, on Shea Bridge in right-center here at CitiField. "He's great about it. He constantly asks. He constantly wants to know if I'm seeing any little things he's not.
"And of course I work with him with his prep for each night's pitcher. Talking knuckle balls in advance of R.A. Dickey tonight, for instance," added Eckstein, who is whipsaw smart and has a kind of directed version of his brother David's frenetic energy. "But your implication is correct. I don't have to fix a lot with him. And," he interrupted himself with a chuckle, "obviously I don't have to motivate him."
There is, however, one fascinating component to The Care And Feeding Of Bryce Harper that figures to keep Eckstein busy, at least as long as the Nats continue to rank somewhere near their current fifth in NL team slugging and fourth in NL team OPS and he remains content to be their hitting guru: "People forget he's still growing. I mean, he's nineteen. He's likely to grow another inch at least, and with that he'll fill out and when he fills out he'll add power. There will be adjustments to make."
Which leaves Rick Eckstein trying to come to grasp with the intimidating realization that the 19-year old who has opened his career with 75 games of 9 homers, 29 RBI, and a .272/.343/.449 and as fast a pair of hands as anybody in the bigs is actually just the compact version of Bryce Harper.
Jose Bautista's Injury: The View From 25 Feet Away
I haven't witnessed something like this before. I haven't even seen something like it live on television since Moises Alou cracked his ankle doing nothing more risky than rounding the bag at first.
Jose Bautista of the Jays took a mammoth swing and put a ball – foul – into the furthest reaches of left field at Yankee Stadium tonight, 400 feet away, easily. And then he crumpled over in pain.
At first this looked to be a hamate bone break in the wrist. The Jays have since indicated there is no fracture and the injury seems to be a tendon. It isn't necessarily that much better news for the battered Jays but psychologically it's better than a break. We'll see what the MRI says tomorrow
It does, however, bring invoke anew the endless accusations that Bautista is/was on Performance Enhancing Drugs. I've addressed this twice before with some first-hand recollections of the day a really knowledgable baseball man forecast all of Joey Bats' success.
I'd like to re-post here what I wrote in May of last year, with a slight update on the whereabouts of the source. There are a lot of reasons a guy's tendon might be strained or stretched or torn, but I think there's something akin to "provenance" for Bautista that merits re-telling.
And while pausing only to thank you for again making this blog Top 10 in the MLB.Com "pro" division despite its spotty schedule, here's what I wrote a season ago:
I first told this story in the fall of 2010 as Jose Bautista crossed the 50-home run plateau and was victimized by assumptions about PED's or corked bats or, I don't know, deals with the devils. With the Jays' slugger now having crossed the 20-home run plateau before the first of June (2011) I think I should tell it again.
I used to run into Jeff "Mickey" Manto all the time when he was the journeyman infielder (he played in 11 major league seasons and changed teams 10 times; he once went from Boston to Seattle and back to Boston in one season; he played for 15 minor league teams). Manto averaged 26 games per stint in his big league career, so whenever I'd see him on a field somewhere one of us would say "uh-oh – about to change uniforms again."
So on March 3, 2007, I stepped off a flight from New York and went directly to the Pirates-Yankees exhibition game in Tampa and who's the first person I see? Pirates batting coach Jeff Manto (naturally, it was his last year on the job). I asked him what he could tell me about his Pirate hitters that I didn't know; who I should watch for; who might surprise me.
He pointed at the guy in the batting cage. "If we can get him to replicate his swing three days in a row, Jose Bautista could hit 25 homers a year. In fact, I think he could hit 40. He is just so easily frustrated when it doesn't go right that he blames himself and forgets what he's learned. Or ignores it. But of all these guys I have, if you want one of them who will eventually do something special in this game, I'd pick him. I wouldn't be very surprised."
Bautista had 569 at bats last year in Toronto and ended at 54-124-.260. If you took his rates of production during his first four full seasons and gave him 569 at bats each year, he'd have averaged 20-73-.238 – so the power was there; this was not Brady Anderson coming out of nowhere. As I noted last year, until George Foster suddenly hit 52 homers for the 1977 Reds, his career high for blasts was 29 – and he was already in his seventh season in the National League. Cecil Fielder spent four years unable to crack the line-up of the Blue Jays, topped out at 14 homers, went to Japan for one year, and came back to hit 51 for the 1990 Tigers.
It is a rare thing to see a slugger grow from good to great – but it's not impossible. So lay off Bautista. And if you see Jeff Manto (the 2011 minor league hitting instructor for the White Sox) say hi for me, and congratulate him on his prescience (oh and the other kid he really liked back when he was his first manager in the minors, some guy named Ryan Howard), and tell him the Pirates shouldn't have dumped him as battng coach, nor should they have dealt Bautista for catcher Robinzon Diaz.
Update: Manto was promoted, this year, to batting coach for the White Sox. You may have noticed he helped Adam Dunn re-find his mojo. The man knows his batters.
Of Hype And Baseball Cards In The Attic (Updated)
Sometimes – whether you merit it or not – you seed the Publicity Storm Cloud just right with the chemicals and you get eight inches of rain.
Such it was yesterday when a respected memorabilia auction house put out a story about the discovery of some hundred-year old baseball cards in an attic in Ohio. I have a little less than 400,000 followers on Twitter and it feels like half of them sent me a link, wondering if I would be buying what each and every article described as three million dollars worth of cards. As near as I can tell, the story was picked up by ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox, AP, Forbes Agence France Presse, TASS, and Pravda. As I washed my face before bed last night and flipped on the radio, the story was on the CBS hourly newscast.
I've dealt with the auctioneers – Heritage – for years with nothing but professional results, and I'm accusing them of nothing but professional success here, but boy oh boy oh boy did they hype this thing.
Now, don't get me wrong. Finding 1909-10 baseball cards in pristine condition in an attic at Defiance, Ohio, is a wonderful story and the cards are worth a lot of money. But comparisons to unique artwork ("It's like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic," said the finder) and the three-million dollar pricetag are ludicrous.
Here are some of the cards, and then I'll explain why the pricetag is nonsensical:
There are 30 cards in the set, issued by an anonymous candy manufacturer during the baseball card craze of 1909-11. Labeled within our hobby for cataloging purposes as "E-98" (the "E" is for "Early Candy and Gum") the cards are scarce compared to other more plentiful issues of the time (yet there are 15 of them available right now, in lesser shape, on eBay). They also just aren't that popular. In an era in which the candy companies produced extraordinarily beautiful lithographs of players stylized to look like Greek Gods with blazing sunsets behind them, E-98's are pretty bland colorized black-and-white images set against one-color backgrounds. The set is also full of careless errors (if you look at the card of "Cy" Young, lower left, you'll notice it shows a lefthanded pitcher. Cy, who only won 511 career games, was a righthander. The photo actually depicts a very obscure contemporary named Irv Young).
Here's what I mean about relative attractiveness. The Mathewson and the Wagner below are from the E-95 set issued by Philadelphia Caramel in 1909. Find me 700 copies of them in superb condition and we're talking.
:Nevertheless, baseball card price guides agree that a full set of all 30 E-98 cards should be valued at about $125,000 in near perfect condition. The 37 cards that the auction house, Heritage, plans to sell next month, are the best of the bunch, real beauties with sharp corners, the kind investors love.
The problem is that there's only one thing that investors react to more than beautifully conditioned old cards. That would be the sudden "find" of a large lot of previously hard-to-find cards.
From the time it came out in 1953 or 1954, a Dormand Postcards issue of Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers was wildly scarce. In the days when regular cards from the series fetched a dollar or two and even a Mickey Mantle cost only $5 or $10, Hodges was "worth" $400. Then a few years ago somebody found a stack of them. I mean, like 750 of them. Like, however many they made and didn't distribute for whatever reason back in the '50s. Right now on eBay you can get your average Dormand postcard for $25 to $45. Hodges? Well, you can buy-it-now for $750. That's $750 for 42 copies of the Hodges card (some poor guy, meanwhile, is still trying to sell his one pristine-looking Hodges for $2,000).
If you read the entire story of the "attic find" in Ohio you'll notice that what they discovered wasn't just 37 old cards, but 700 of them. The family and the auction house aren't saying specifically what the rest of them are, but the way these things work, if there weren't a lot more of the E-98 cards (presumably in lesser condition) than they'd be auctioning them off, too. If they were more valuable, or more intriguing, or just from a more collected or beloved set of cards, they'd be publicizing them.
So, congrats to the owners of the "find." The estimate for what an auction next month at the national collectors' gathering in Baltimore – $500,000 – might be a little high, but it's probably in range. Investors will invest in anything, especially if they've read about it in the news. But even some of the news articles indicate that there are less than 700 of these E-98's registered and encased in plastic (as in the illustration) with an unknown larger supply in "raw" (that is, not encapsulated) condition. If you introduce 700 new ones into the market, the price will initially go up, and then way, way down.
The family and the auction house have a stack of 700+ cards from a set nobody really collects and which investors might begin to doubt.
Don't forget to wave to the Gil Hodges Dormand Postcard when you pass it.
UPDATE 5 PM EDT: A tweeter raises an important point. Javier Cepero writes: "Doesn't the guy have a Honus Wagner 10 rated card?"
Yes. But not the Honus Wagner. The Honus Wagner – from the American Tobacco Company 1909 set called "T-206" has been sold for $3,000,000 by itself (in perfect, albeit altered condition) down to the $300,000-$400,000 range for the crappier ones.
"The" Wagner is on the right. "My" Wagner meets baseball historian/Braves pitcher Tim Hudson last year, in the middle. The E-98 Wagner is on the right.
Why Does MLB Put Players In This Position?
As Kansas City fans boo Robinson Cano during his live interview, sitting next to Derek Jeter, on MLB Network, this question:
Why does MLB put the onus of who doesn't participate in the All-Star Game Home Run Derby on one of its players each year? Then-NL Captain Prince Fielder got booed in Phoenix last year for leaving Justin Upton off his four-man team, and now Cano has earned the eternal enmity of Kansas City for not picking Billy Butler.
I'm not talking about the merits of the Butler decision here.
I'm talking about the merits of the Captaincy decision.
One player does not select the All-Stars, and one player does not hand out the awards, and one player does not vote in the Hall of Famers. Why does one player pick the Derby participants? Or, if the novelty and even nostalgia are worth it (remember, in the 19th Century the team captain picked the line-ups and often made the trades), why not make this really easy on him?
The Home Run Derby is necessarily a hometown event. It makes perfect sense to have a home team player in it. I mean David Ortiz just said he hoped to take just one at bat tonight and then let Butler take over as DH. Further, in these days of universal slugging it's not like you could name a team whose candidate for the role would be an embarrassment in the contest. Why not simply say that each year, the captain of the home league team has to select a player from the host club?
Not difficult, not unfair, and not a player's fault. I know Robinson Cano is a grown-up and can take the booing. But why in a day when fan sportsmanship is draining away, is the game encouraging people to act with frenzy towards a visiting star?
The Epic Battle For World Series Home Field Adv…zzzzzz
In the nine years since baseball's Think-of-Something-Anything response to the embarrassing 2002 All-Star Game tie, the gimmick – deciding which league would secure World Series home field advantage for its playoff champion – has been annually hammered into our heads as not just a Rationalization for a decreasingly relevant concept, but The Rationalization. It's personal, it's for pride, it's for home field advantage, it's not a break, a diamond is forever, promise her anything but give her Arpege. The sad part is, some people have now heard it so often, they believe it.
In point of fact, in those nine years The Rationalization has directly and personally impacted only seven players.
Only All-Stars Lance Berkman, Yadier Molina, and Albert Pujols of the 2011 World Champion Cardinals, and All-Stars Josh Hamilton, Alexi Ogando, C.J. Wilson, and Michael Young of the defeated Rangers, were even winged by what happened in an All-Star Game. When the N.L. won last summer, the Cards got Game 7 and the Rangers didn't. But one can argue convincingly that a team blowing a three-run lead and then a two-run lead in Game 6 could've done just as badly at home as they did on the road (and we don't even need to address the possibility that the Cards might've won the Series in Game 6 if Tony LaRussa hadn't forgotten how to phone his own bullpen in a noisy stadium).
The simple fact is that since the Butt-Covering Home Field plan was instituted in 2003, we've only had one seventh game, and thus we've only had one seventh game whose venue was decided by what happened in the All-Star Game. Other than last year, we haven't gotten close. Only two other Series even reached Game Six.
There is absolutely no recent evidence that home field advantage is even keenly influential, let alone decisive. Twice the American League All-Stars gave "their" winner home field advantage only to see the National League teams (the 2006 Cardinals and 2008 Phillies) still wind up playing more home games than their A.L. rivals, and prevailing in the Classic. The 2010 Giants had home field, and didn't need it. They won even though they played more games on the road than at home. In all the other Series (save for last year, of course) winner and loser played the same number of home games.
There's no measuring for the psychological impact of knowing you have that 7th Game in your yard, and there's an obvious advantage to the front end of the equation in which you are in strong position to win the first two at home (as did the '04 and '07 Red Sox, '05 White Sox, and '10 Giants). But did the Red Sox and White Sox pull off their three sweeps because they started in their own ballparks, or because they were decisively stronger clubs than the '04 Cardinals, '05 Astros, and '07 Rockies?
Besides which, although they've been on a great run since the 1979 Pirates won at Baltimore, last year's Cardinals victory only improved the home team's record to 19-and-17 in the sundry Games 7 of the modern World Series. Whichever method gives you that decider – All-Star Stunt, Alternating Year Rotation, or something new – it just isn't a guarantee you're going to win it.
The All-Star Game was doing just as well (or just as badly) as that of any other sport until the Tie Disaster Of 2002, and that could've been remedied by keeping a small reserve of emergency pitchers for each team. It didn't require a decade of selling as an ultimately decisive advantage, a not-at-all decisive advantage, decided by players making cameos under rules designed to insure they're still just playing an exhibition, that has only come in to play once in all that time.
Let's end this "Home Field" farce, now.


text:
If I rest, if I think inward, I go mad.
Outfit Details:
peplum lace blouse – Anthropologie (old)
denim skirt – American Apparel
belt – thrifted
socks – TJ Maxx
Rachel Antonoff for Bass shoes – gift from Lauren
glasses – c/o Lookmatic
lipstick – MAC Absolute Power (from their Strength collection)
Girls, girls everywhere, reading books.
I have this habit of becoming a shut-in, a hermit whose daily social interactions cease past the point of one-sided relationships with characters in books or films. It's a habit worth breaking, unlike other harmless quirks that are a part of my package deal (and there are many). This one is self-destructive and pops up every now and then – but sometimes, every few years or so, it sticks for longer than I care to admit. Last night, I was sitting around in my pajamas, bare faced and zombie-eyed from perpetual insomnia, when I realized: I remember this all too well. And if I don't put a stop to it now, I know exactly how this story goes.
Upon my initial move to New York, I knew hardly anyone. I barely even knew my roommate; we met a handful of times prior to signing a lease together, but for some reason, I was always in a costume. She was probably half-expecting a girl dressed as Snow White to inhabit the room I rented. I wonder, if not for our modern social networks and profile pictures, if she would have known what I looked like without panda, geisha, or doll makeup. Despite the strange girl that I am, we coexisted quite nicely and found a friend in one another. But normal girl that she was, she worked outside the apartment, had a healthy social life and also a boyfriend, and was generally a pretty high functioning adult with seemingly few hangups or phobias. I, prone to serious depression and forever floating in clouds above my head, found myself retreating evermore into the depths of sheets and infinite pillows, of pajamas and ratted hair, of books and songs that could make you want to draw a bath and drown in it. I even fancied myself a rather adept builder of blanket forts, seeking further a tangible hiding place that provided both infantile comfort and a shield from the outside world. Because they were all judging me, weren't they? Just silently picking me apart – every physicality I could and could not control. Or, at least, that's what I told myself to give a reason for my illogic, to victimize myself in the name of faceless, nameless, critical people who didn't actually exist, except in my paranoid mind. Remember, I didn't really know anyone at the time. So who was judging me, save for me?
In short, it/I was pathetic. It took awhile (and the patient persistence of people who love me) for me to coax myself out of that one, and I swore I wouldn't let myself go back to that level of reclusion. Well, I failed for a minute or two but I'm not letting myself stay there – and that's, at the very least, something. This week was difficult. I started spiraling out of control, and couldn't even put on a brave face to pretend otherwise. Whatever resilience I've had through the years seemed to abandon me, and I'm disappointed in myself. I know I'm better than this, and I am taking it all back. This new year starts today, and this past week – it just doesn't exist to me anymore.
I'm taking a few days to get out of the city with Bobby and Miku; we're leaving today. I'll still be around, but please don't be offended if I haven't responded in the last week or two. I plan on catching up next week. I'll be back to normal, or maybe even better than ever, in due time. I just need a moment to catch my breath.


text:
Jamie Utt offers the Georgia Tech student who called women "rapebait" a sex-positive view of masculinity and party culture.
My brother,
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
I'm not sure you deserve it, and a lot of people are going to give me hell for it, but I'm going to try. Because when you wrote the email "Luring your Rapebait" to your Georgia Tech fraternity brothers at ΦKT, you touched on something much bigger than yourself.
You touched on a problem we see in masculinity and party culture on every single college campus.
It's ironic. In the email you expressed the exact cognitive dissonance that I see with college men I work with all over the United States: You explicitly said, "NO RAPING." Yet everything you described encourages rape!
So it makes me wonder: Have we sent you that many messed up messages about sex, consent, rape, "blurred lines," partying, and alcohol that you don't actually know what is and isn't rape?
Have we, as the men in your life, taught you that many terrible messages about masculinity that you honestly think this is how men are supposed to act in order to get laid?
Have we sent you that many messed up messages about your own self worth and the personhood of women that you think it's actually normal and acceptable to refer to women as rapebait (or any other terrible, objectifying term) when you think you're only talking to your brothers?
If the answer to any of these questions could even possibly be a "yes", then I have a responsibility as your brother to offer you some perspective.
Again, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, and despite what your letter tells me, I am going to assume that you don't actually want to rape anyone – if not because you value the personhood and autonomy of your sexual partners then because you don't want to be expelled, go to jail, and register as a sex offender for the rest of your life.
So let me throw out an absolutely crazy idea: if you actually want to "get laid," and you want your sex to be in any way better than a sloppy drunk encounter that may actually be sexually assault, forget about your 7 E's of Hooking Up.
Instead, consider the 7 A's of Hooking Up:
- Ask – See someone at the party that you're interested in? Ask her a bit about herself (or him about himself – no need for heteronormativity here, but I will use the female pronoun since your letter seemed pretty focused on female "rapebait"). Get to know her a bit. And do so genuinely. I promise – should your night end with a hookup, your sex will be a hell of a lot better if you've talked and felt out the chemistry.
- Ask – Ask your newfound friend if they'd like to come with you to go get a drink. Don't offer to get a drink for her, as there are some really messed up people out there (of which you're not one, right?) who would drop something in someone's drink. If she doesn't want a drink, no need for "aww, that's no fun" – sometimes sober sex is the best sex.
- Ask – Ask her if she'd like to dance. If she doesn't, see if she'd like to play a game like bags or just hang out and talk some more. If she does want to dance, don't do that creepy "rub your penis against their ass" b.s. that you described. I promise that showing off your ability to actually dance is going to a lot further in impressing her than grinding against her like a dog in heat. Then, if you want to grind a bit, ask! A simple, "Is this alright?" can suffice. Also, don't just run your hands all over her body without her permission. Check in. I promise, asking is sexy.
- Ask – As the night progresses, if you have some chemistry and are getting along, ask her if she'd be interested in leaving with you. If she's not, respect that. If she is, great! Just don't assume that means you're getting laid.
- Ask – Ask where she'd like to go – her place? Your place? Out on a date another time when you're both more sober and can appreciate each other's company a bit more?
- Ask – If it looks like you might hook up, make sure you check in along the way. Ask if you can kiss her. Ask if you can remove your clothing or hers. Ask. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Consent doesn't have to be plastic and boring. The single sexiest question someone can be asked is, "Tell me what you want." Not sure how to make asking sexy? Check out this article.
- Ask – So you've hooked up. Maybe that means you just made out all night. Maybe you had oral or you "went all the way" (whatever that means). Rather than being a creep ("Expunge, send them out of your room and on their way out when you are finished"), consider this: Sex gets better over time with every single partner. The more you know each other's bodies, the more you and your partner will know what will make for mind-blowing pleasure. Ask what they'd like in the future. Be honest, and let her be honest. Not really feeling something long-term? Say so. Really like her and want to pursue a relationship or at least a date or two? Communicate that. And respect what she wants.
Follow the 7 A's of Hooking Up, and I promise your sex will be better and you and your partner will have a much better night. Oh, and you won't rape anyone.
One last thing. If you're interested in throwing parties where every person has an amazing time, where those who want to hook up can meet someone, and where sexual violence is not the end result, let's have a conversation about sex-positive party culture.
I want to see you and all of my brothers and sisters have the kind of amazing, mind-blowing, sex positive experiences that are possible if we leave behind this toxic, rapebait bullshit.
In Sex Positivity,
Also read, Want the Best Sex of Your Life? Just ask!
Editor's update: In a press release given to CNN, Cole Yearwood, Communication Director of the Phi Kappa Tau national office, explains, "the chapter has suspended the member in question and placed itself on suspension. An investigation remains ongoing by both the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and Georgia Institute of Technology. The chapter is cooperating fully.
The referenced email is extremely inappropriate and does not reflect the values of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity, Alpha Rho chapter or Georgia Institute of Technology. The Fraternity takes any activity seriously where its members or chapters are not in line with its commitment to learning, leading and serving."
Photo: Flickr/James Emery
*An earlier version of this post listed the wrong fraternity name, based upon information from one of the original sources of this letter. This error has since been corrected. Thanks to a commenter for the tip-off!