Beaneball

Having just finished watching The Cincinnati Kid on DVD, I have to ask why nobody told me that Ben Affleck looks just like the young Rip Torn (who plays a local rich kid, Slade). The movie itself isn't great. Steve McQueen is the man, and Ann-Margret's certainly the wo, but it was too bad that you could kind of predict the entire course of the movie by watching the first ten minutes.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Movies at 23:10 | |

I don't know what the hell Vladimir Radmonovic was doing in Park City, Utah, but he apparently slipped and fell there, separating his shoulder. He'll be out for about 8 weeks. By my count, that's until around the 17th of April. The Lakers' last regular season game is on the 18th. Fighting off rust, particularly on his shooting shoulder, is going to be a tough task to undertake during the playoffs. That's assuming the Lakers don't continue their slide right on out of the playoffs. They're now essentially out of small forwards, and big(-ish) men in general: Andrew Bynum is already carrying the entire load at center; Ronny Turiaf is a power forward who's having to play against centers because there is no one else after Bynum; Lamar Odom; and Brian Cook. Unless the Lakers go really small and push Maurice Evans into the starting lineup as a small forward-type, three of those four guys are going to be starting every night, which doesn't leave much for the bench. I really miss Chris Mihm. The rumors are swirling about Jason Kidd, but given the Lakers' size problems at this point, and given the fact that their most attractive asset is probably Bynum, I'm not sure he's a fit right now. No one's talked about Kevin Garnett in a while, but if he's still out there, he'd obviously help - except that it'd probably take Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to get him. I'm firmly convinced that things will get better when Luke Walton comes back. The Lakers are 3-8 since he went down, 3-9 if you count the loss to Charlotte on the night he got hurt. That's ugly.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in L.A. Lakers at 08:50 | |

I'm not sure it's disaster for the 49ers that Norv Turner is leaving to become the head coach of the Chargers, but it's not like I'm happy about it, either. The Niners have a young offense that still has some growing to do, and when you take away the guy that's been credited with a lot of the growth that's already been done, you certainly run the risk of retarding that growth. That said, as long as Frank Gore continues to get the job done, the offense should be fine, but it sure would be nice to see Alex Smith grow into the kind of quarterback that a #1 pick should be.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Football at 12:10 | |

I'm not sure it's disaster for the 49ers that Norv Turner is leaving to become the head coach of the Chargers, but it's not like I'm happy about it, either. The Niners have a young offense that still has some growing to do, and when you take away the guy that's been credited with a lot of the growth that's already been done, you certainly run the risk of retarding that growth. That said, as long as Frank Gore continues to get the job done, the offense should be fine, but it sure would be nice to see Alex Smith grow into the kind of quarterback that a #1 pick should be.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Football at 12:10 | |

Amazingly enough, pitchers and catchers report today for nine major league teams. I can't believe baseball's coming back around already. Just yesterday Frank Thomas was flying out to center field to end the A's hopes of a late rally against the Tigers. Which means, I guess, that it was only a few hours ago that Big Frank signed a Big Money deal with Toronto. Time flies.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 10:07 | |

Shannon Stewart is officially an Oakland A. It's just a million bucks, and it's just one year, so it's a deal I like. He's still not that old (33), and while he's had his injury issues, he seems like a good bet to put up a .340+ OBP, and maybe up into the .360 range. The problem, as with so many A's players, is the power. He's not likely to crack a .400 SLG, and that makes his utility limited. That said, he's clearly not being brought in to be a starter (is he?). For a benchie, I like what he could bring. And if he doesn't bring it, he's easy enough to cut loose. In a probably related move, Charles Thomas was designated for assignment. Thomas will be 28 this year and maybe someone will cling to that decent year he had with the Braves in 2005 and give him a shot. He never did much with the A's, putting up a .363 OPS (yes, .363) in 30 games in 2005 and not cracking the bigs in 2006. The "haul" for Tim Hudson is looking worse and worse, isn't it?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 09:31 | |

Here's a fanastic entry by David Luban at Balkinization applying a Marxist analysis to the structure of the big law firms. It's not a very hopeful picture, as the final analysis seems to be that the problems in the firms that lead to the horror stories and burnout and high turnover are systemic, inherently part of the way law firms work (and survive in the marketplace). As someone who's looking at the big law firm world as one possible career outcome (at least in the short term), it's certainly not a happy thought, that no matter how hard I look, how much I scour the cities, I'm not going to be able to find a big firm (with all the perks that come with working in a big firm) that's a pleasant place to work.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Law at 10:11 | |

The rabid wolves over at DailyKos are all over John McCain for an alleged "flip flop" (please, please, please, enough with that already, yes?) on George Stephanopoulos's program today. As some of the commenters there have noted, I just don't buy that as a "flip flop" at all. First response says, "No, thinks aren't going to be hunky dory by April. It'd be crazy to think that." Second response says, "I think in a couple of months, we'll be able to see how things are going and how they're going to continue to go in the future and be able to make some predictions." But I'm not sure how the second can be justifiably said to "flip flop" from the first, because it's entirely consistent to say that both things are true. Look, I'm just as much anti-McCain as the next Good Liberal. He's turned out to be completely disingenuous (which is really something, to be noticeably more disingenuous than other politicians) in stating his positions, but is it really necessary to pounce all over the guy at the slightest hint that he's saying anything silly? Particularly when he's not saying anything silly at all!

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in News at 15:16 | |