David Ortiz and his 2011 Contract

By Blaidd Drwg

APTOPIX Blue Jays Red Sox Baseball — Is Ortiz the in the Red Sox DH plans in the near future?

I have never been a big fan of David Ortiz – yes, he was a very good hitter for a few years, but I never really bought into the entire “Big Papi” craze. Ortiz is the kind of one dimensional player that drives me nuts – even at his best, he couldn’t run, had no arm and was a defensive butcher, but he could hit, so you give him a spot in the lineup.

Over the last few years, Ortiz has been horrific in April and May and has generally struggled against left handed pitching, leading to people questioning whether or not it is time to hang it up for the slugger. I can forgive the slow start, there are tons of players who start slowly (Mark Texieria comes to mind), but the struggling against lefties is a concern. If you are an opposing manager and it is late in the game and close, you bring in a lefty to face Ortiz without the fear that he is going to take one deep on you. Here is a quick and dirty summary of Ortiz vs. lefties over the last few years:

	Vs. RHP			Vs. LHP
YR	PA	HR	OPS	PA	HR	OPS
2010	406	30	1.059	200	2	.599
2009	439	22	.828	188	6	.716
2008	370	18	.921	121	5	.741
2007	457	30	1.171	210	5	.852
2006	445	36	1.082	241	18	.988

At one time, Ortiz could hit lefties pretty well, but over the last few years, it has become painfully obvious that is no longer the case. The power numbers are dropping and the platoon splits widening and it looks like he is falling below replacement level against lefties. I am not suggesting that Ortiz is completely useless, he still does crush right handed pitching as well as anyone in the league. I am just suggesting that he is now really just a platoon player.

Why bring this up? The Red Sox have to decide in the next few days if they want to exercise the 12.5 million dollar option that they have on Ortiz for 2011. To me, that is a ton of money to be spending on a guy who will only be able to effectively hit in 75% of the games your team plays in 2011, but this is the Red Sox and they can afford 12 million for a platoon player. Ortiz is not happy about this. He wants a multi-year deal, which I don’t see the Sox giving him. Why does he want this, here is Ortiz explaining it

“I just want to cut out all the crap and go back to the guy I was before, a happy guy who doesn’t have to be answering questions that have nothing to do with anything but controversy. I just want to be able to play baseball and have fun, like I used to,” Ortiz told WEEI.com. “That’s where I came back to not wanting just one year, because I know it’s going to be just the same thing.

“As soon as you struggle for a week, it’s going to be the same thing. People saying you are old, saying you have no bat speed anymore. People talking all kind of crap. It’s hard to avoid that because it’s all over the place. You’re a regular human being just like everyone else. It’s not like you’re in a cage, locked up and you come to the field and that’s it. It’s not like we don’t watch TV, listen to the radio, read the newspaper. We are all connected to that stuff, especially here.”

My translation of this: I want a multi-year deal so that when I don’t rebound and the media is all over me, I won’t care because I know I am going to get paid even if the team releases me.

I can’t blame Ortiz – his is (supposedly) 35, has the body type of a typical Sluggardly Slugger which generally means that he won’t age well, and I think he realizes he is slowing down. Why not try to cash in on one more big payday before your career is over.

Here is how I see it playing out – the Sox exercise their option on him and make him a platoon player at DH (They should be able to find someone to platoon with him easily). The Sox then let him walk at the end of 2011 and go out and sign someone younger for roughly the same money they would to resign Ortiz.

Personally, I would love to see Adam Dunn in a Red Sox uni.

The Not Scottish Performances of the Week

By Blaidd Drwg

So who had the worst weekend of the Washington football teams:

Udub Huskies – they played like a puppy who has just been disciplined for peeing on the carpet in their 41 – 0 beat down by Stanford at home. They didn’t pass 100 yards of total offense until 3 minutes left in the game, had most of the fans leaving at halftime looking for anything that was more interesting, looked outmatched and outclassed, gave up a 51 yard run to the opposing QB on a fake handoff and were outgained 470 – 107 total yards. Jake Locker may have single handedly played himself right out of the first round in the 2011 draft with his putrid performance in front of 20 NFL scouts in this one. The Sled Dawgs have been a big disappointment all year for those who were drinking Sark’s cool-aid, but they still can make themselves bowl eligible by winning 3 out of their last 4. It is doable since they play @ Oregon (let’s face it, this one could get ugly), vs. UCLA (They have the same record as the Huskies and are actually a worse team), @ Cal (should be a winnable game, maybe) and @ Wazzu (heck, I think my HS football team could beat the Cougs). My prediction – the Pups get their act together and finish 6-6, saving Sark’s job; and if they lose to the Cougs somehow – Sark gets fired before he gets back to Seattle.

myers_father_01 — "Ay, the performances of the Washington Football teams this weekend were defintely not Scottish, so they were CRAP!"

Wazzu Cougars – They played like an old cat that is in need of being taken out back and shot in their 42 – 0 blowout at ASU. The Kittens were their own worst enemy, getting into the Red Zone 6 times (!) and not scoring once (!), turning the ball over 3 times and giving up 493 yards of offense. In all of this, they somehow managed to actually hold the ball slightly longer than ASU. Not that I think it would have made a difference, but it would have probably been a bit closer than the actual final if they managed to get a few points on the board. Let’s face it, WSU just plain sucks and will be lucky to end this season with more than one win (and that was a 1 point win against FCS Montana State), so this pasting really wasn’t much of a surprise.

Seattle Seahawks – Just a few days after being anointed the “best team in the NFC” by Tony Dungy, they go out an play like a bunch of canaries being chased by a cat in a 33 -3 embarrassment against the Oakland/LA/Oakland Raiders. The Chicks gave up 545 yards of offense and still couldn’t stop the Raiders despite the Black and Silver’s 11 penalties. If anyone thinks the Hawks are a good team, you haven’t been watching them. The offense, to put it nicely, is pathetic. The only way they stay in games is through defensive turnovers and special teams – if those two aspects of the game don’t come through for them, they don’t stand a chance. The really sad thing about this game is that the Hawks were only down 10 – 0 at the half and still never looked like they were in the game at that point.

My vote for this week’s inept performance – The Seachickens. No way should you ever give up 545 yards to a team in an NFL football game. On the bright side, they should still win their division as none of the other teams really seem like they are trying either.

Food Events Around Town

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few noteworthy events around Seattle in November for all you foodies out there:

November 8th @ Elliot Bay Book Co. – Mark Kurlansky, author of such memorable works as Salt and Cod (which combine nicely into one dish), reading from his new book Edible Stories. On a related note, I had not realized that his last book was actually about the impact of baseball in San Pedro de Macarois, so I may need to pick that one up.

November 20th @ Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park – Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking. You can be sure if the Iron Chef has no other plans, he will be there to see the man who wrote the seminal work on food and eating. There probably hasn’t been a food book written in the last 20 years that does not cite something from On Food. Yes I have read all 800+ pages cover to cover – it took me a year.

All Month – Dine Around Seattle. What more can you want – 30 restaurants, 3 courses, $30. Oh wait, Seattle Restaurant Week is better.

Don’t forget – November 14th is National Pickle Day.

Nuns and Honus Wagner

by A.J. Coltrane

I thought this one was fun — the nuns of the School Sisters of Notre Dame are auctioning a recently inherited Honus Wagner card:

The brother of a nun who died in 1999 left all his possessions to the order when he died earlier this year. The man’s lawyer told Muller he had a Honus Wagner card in a safe-deposit box.

When they opened the box, they found the card, with a typewritten note: “Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!”

The card was unknown to the sports-memorabilia marketplace because the nuns’ benefactor had owned it since 1936…

…The auction ends Nov. 4, and the highest bid was $60,000 as of Wednesday morning.

… That whole “exponential increase” didn’t work out like everyone would have liked, I don’t think.

In conclusion —

Wagner was known as “The Flying Dutchman.” His card is now owned by nuns.

Therefore:

The Flying Nun — It's Sally Field. I wouldn't have guessed it was her in a million years.

Old Popcorn Popper

by A.J. Coltrane

When I was growing up we had a popcorn popper like this one by the fireplace:

I don’t know what happened to it — maybe it’s packed away in a box someplace.

I don’t remember eating the popcorn, though I think I remember the process of sitting on the floor around the fireplace to make it.

It’s not really the popcorn maker you want to be using in the middle of summer. Eventually we got an air-popper, replacing the old-school oil-in-a-plastic-dome model. The hot air popper was cool enough anyway, since you could melt the butter in the plastic container on top of it while the popcorn popped.

According to the ebay listing — the fireplace version can be used to make smores too. Now that would be something.

Though geez — would you want to clean it after that?

Progress Is His Middle Name

by A.J. Coltrane

Colt McCoy (a.k.a. “The ManCrush”) had his NFL regular-season debut against Pittsburgh this past Sunday. Despite playing against one of the toughest defenses in the league, and losing both starting wide receivers to injury, he produced a respectable line: 23 completions on 33 attempts, 281 yards, 1 TD, 2 Int — good for a 80.5 Quarterback Rating.

Here’s some of the reviews:

ESPN – James Walker

I’ve seen a lot of quarterback debuts up close as a former Cleveland Browns beat writer, and Colt McCoy’s first NFL start was the best of the group. McCoy became Cleveland’s 16th starting quarterback since 1999 and threw for 281 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1). McCoy took a pounding and made rookie mistakes. But he also showed toughness, leadership and good accuracy. What does this all mean? McCoy deserves at least one more start this week against the New Orleans Saints until Seneca Wallace (ankle) or Jake Delhomme (ankle) are 100 percent healthy. Then the Browns (1-5) can evaluate two of McCoy’s games against the starts of Wallace and Delhomme during the bye week and figure their direction at quarterback.

SI – Andrew Perloff

Ben Roethlisberger‘s return was the story of the week for this game, but the more interesting development was Browns rookie Colt McCoy showing he’s a real NFL quarterback. The final numbers (23-of-33, 281 yards, 1TD, 2 INTs) may not necessarily prove that, but McCoy had a surprising amount of poise with the Steelers’ pass rush coming down on him all afternoon. The Browns never wanted to use McCoy this early. If he can survive in Pittsburgh, he’s good enough to start for this 1-5 team.

: Colt McCoy

The Cleveland Plain Dealer – Bud Shaw (not blockquoted in the interest of avoiding formatting issues next to the cool photo):

The most promising aspects of the Colt McCoy Experience were his poise in the pocket and his sense of self before and after. How else to explain his message when he addressed teammates Saturday night as the team’s latest starting quarterback.

“I just told ’em the hay is in the barn,” McCoy said. “For some of the city folks I had to [explain].”

As his head coach and a number of teammates said Sunday, the game didn’t look too big for McCoy. After his run-for-cover training camp, that was a welcome sight.

Give Eric Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll credit. They didn’t send the kid into the ring and tell him to clinch and cover up. They let him come out swinging. Where the Browns offense is concerned, this is a relative term, of course.

McCoy threw on first down early (or at least tried). He completed a dozen passes for 10 yards or longer. Six covered 20 yards or more. A chunk of his 281 yards happened late, but there was less garbage time than the final score indicates. He did more than dink and dunk.

“He took control of the huddle,” guard Eric Steinbach said. “That’s what a quarterback has to do. I don’t care if he’s a first-year guy or a 12-year vet.”

The Colt McCoy Experience — I like the sound of that.

———

Finally, two funny, if somewhat mean-spirited, Sprint ads:

“Injury” — “It means I’m dropping you from my fantasy team, that’s for sure.”

“Restaurant”

Mobile Chowdow V – A Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Last Friday, Mobile Chowdown V was held at the Qwest Field parking lot. I have to admit, I was very underwhelmed by it – and most of the reasons why are mentioned in this article.

Annie S. and I got there right at the beginning and made our rounds, we tried to hit places that we hadn’t been before. Here is the recap of what we had:

Bistro Box – Wagyu Beef Slider and Coconut Chicken Slider. The beef slider was fantastic – think Big Mac with actual edible ingredients. It scored bonus points for being bite sized (and a steal at $3), although I could have easily gone for a couple more. The Coconut Chicken was also great – think coconut shrimp with a chicken patty, a nice coconut breading which had great crunch around moist chicken. (and this coming from someone who does not care for coconut).

Fusion on the Run – Beef Tacos and Khalua Pork Tacos – the beef was wonderful and flavorful, the pork was bland and disappointing.

Where Ya at Matt – Gumbo and beignets. For a place that specializes in Cajun and Creole cooking, Matt’s gumbo was probably the worst Gumbo I have ever eaten. The spice was good, but everything else in the gumbo itself was horribly cooked to the point of being mushy, except for the rice, which was so undercooked it was crunchy. The beignes however were wonderfully gooey, sweet and hot and served in a paper bag (as they should be). I have read so much positive press on Matt’s but this experience left me wondering why they get such great press and why there was a huge line for their food.

Here and There Grill – Steak Sandwich. This was the best freaking thing we ate all night! Wonderfully tender flank steak, caramelized onions, gorgonzola on an Essential Baking Roll. Extremely flavorful and messy delight. I would have just eaten this all night if I had it first.

Now for the things that pissed me off:

• The original ad had the tickets being $7 through ticket master and $10 at the door, so I ordered through Ticketmaster. We get there and find out that it was $5 at the door.
• While it was nice to have all of the trucks in one place, there were only 2 non-local trucks there. I really don’t like having to pay for admission to go to places like Skillet, Maranation, Maximus and Molly Moon when I can go to those places without having to pay. A little more non-local variety would have been nice.
• How about more smaller bites? Unless you go with a group of people and share food, you can only hit a handful of places and it gets expensive really quickly. The taco trucks were great for this but most places were serving their normal sized portions which are meant to be a meal.
• Speaking of which, I know that most of these trucks are using top flight ingredients, but really, $12 for a hamburger, from a food truck? I can get a Wagyu burger at plenty of restaurants for that and not have to stand up to eat it. The idea of a food truck is supposed to be good quality, inexpensive food. If I want a $12 burger, I can go here.
• It was nice they had beer – but at $8.50 a pop. The beer was run by the Qwest Field Consessions and they charged the same prices as buying them in the Stadium. Tragic that they did this, especially since it was across the street from Elysian Brewing.

Pot Stickers

by A.J. Coltrane

Pot stickers are really easy to do. They’re somewhat time consuming, but almost impossible to screw up. Most of the time they’ll fool people into thinking that you can cook. I don’t use a recipe for them — something like this will work fine as a leaping off point:

The Filling — The filling - includes cilantro from the CSA box.

The “Recipe”:

1 lb Ground Pork

1/2 Large Head Cabbage, finely shredded

1/2 cup – 1 cup Scallions, finely chopped

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

1 package (4″ square) Wonton Wrappers — Buy two packages to cover overruns, they freeze just fine. Extra wrappers can also become Crab Rangoons if you have cream cheese in the house.

Other good stuff: Black Pepper, Sambal Oelek/ hot sauce, minced Bell Pepper, minced Cilantro, Ginger, minced Onion, Soy Sauce. Any of those in small quantities will be fine.

The Assembly:

Use a food processor, even one of the little cheap ones is highly recommended as a time-saver. I would also suggest that the assembly process happen while sitting down, in front of a television, with beer. It’s much more pleasant that way.

1. Cut all vegetables into pieces that the food processor can handle. Working in batches if necessary, pulse the food processor to finely chop vegetables. Do not puree.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

3. The Setup:

Two plates, one for folding the pot stickers and one for the finished product. A small bowl or ramekin with some water — the water will be used to seal the pot stickers. Plastic wrap for covering the finished pot stickers — the pot stickers can sit in layers on the plate, with plastic wrap between the layers.

4. Take one wrapper out the package and place on the “assembly” plate. (The wrappers will dry out quickly, make sure to keep the package covered, or at least mostly closed.) Place about 1 tsp+ of the filling into the center of the wrapper. I use two forks for this to keep my hands relatively clean. (Use one fork to pick up the filling, then scrape off with the other fork and onto the wrapper.) Lightly wet one finger in the bowl of water and moisten two adjacent edges of the wrapper. Fold the two “dry” edges over to meet the “wet” edges, removing as much air as possible. Crimp the filled wrapper a few times.

The Cooking Part:

Note: You’ll need a non-stick skillet that has a lid. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of canola oil. When the oil is hot add as many pot stickers as will fit in one layer into the pan.

Cook about 2-3 minutes. Resist the urge to poke, move, or otherwise disturb the pot stickers.

Add 1/8 cup of water to the pan and immediately cover. Watch out for splattering oil/water. It’s best to have the lid in your hand hovering over the pan when you add the water so that you can slap on the lid when the water hits the heat.

Cook about 4-6 minutes. The goal is to have the water finish evaporating just as you’re ready to remove the lid.

Remove the lid and cook an additional 2 minutes to crisp, finish browning, and evaporate any leftover water. Cut open one pot sticker to ensure that the pork is cooked through.

Repeat until all pot stickers are done.

Sweet and sour sauces go well with this recipe. Also good is the classic soy/sushi vinegar/ hot sauce combo (1 part soy, ~1 part sushi vinegar, and a dash of hot sauce. You can substitute white wine vinegar and a little sugar for the sushi vinegar.)

It looks like a big project, but it’s easy. Most of the preparation can take place in front of the TV. Painless.

Immutable Records and The Stars of ’79

by A.J. Coltrane

When I was in grade school we had the “Scholastic Book Club.” The program allowed students to buy small paperbacks for a nominal amount of money. Sports titles included “Winners Under 21”, featuring Muhammed Ali and Wayne Gretzky. I also bought the book shown below:

: Pre-teen football junkie gold.

Ebay listing here. Featuring: Walter Payton, Franco Harris, Harvey Martin, Bob Griese, O.J. Simpson, Greg Pruitt, Isaac Curtis, Lyle Alzado, Lydell Mitchell, Tony Dorsett, and Bert Jones.

One of the other books was a sort of “Legends and Record Holders” — that’s how I became familiar with guys like Night Train Lane, Jim Brown, and George Blanda. Brown and Blanda both held records that were never surpassed until the introduction of the 16-game season: Brown with his 12,312 career rushing yards, and Blanda with his 2,002 career points over a 26 year career.

All this time has gone by, and I didn’t have to look those numbers up. To my young mind those records were both eternal and immortal. Blanda passed away on Monday, and it reminded me of all of those Scholastic Club books. I got to looking at the cover of the All-Stars of Pro Football and I couldn’t identify the player in the center of the picture…

After some research, I think it’s Boobie Clark. The photograph was taken during the San Diego Chargers – Houston Oilers divisional playoff game in December 1979. Quarterback Dan Pastorini, Running Back Earl Campbell, and Wide Receiver Ken Burrough were all injured during the previous game against the Broncos. They represented the Oilers top offensive weapons, and each would miss the game pictured above. The modern equivalent would be the Colts losing Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai, and Reggie Wayne for a playoff game, and winning the game anyway.

Boobie scored on a 1 yard touchdown run to give the Oilers a 10-7 halftime lead. The Oilers went on to win 17-14, and Boobie cemented his own small piece of immortality on the cover a book purchased by ten year-old boys everywhere.

Final question: Did the publishers have a meeting and say to each other: “Let’s put the Oiler’s 3rd string running back on the cover of our All-Pro issue and we’ll confuse the hell out of some guy in 30 years.”

I’m guessing maybe they did.

Vegetable Suicide

By Iron Chef Leftovers

This is a bit of bizarre Japanese animation from an even more bizarre larger piece. Thanks to the wonderfully demented mind of Trevor Corson for originally posting this (he got it from a sushi chef friend of his). It makes very little sense, but yet I can’t stop watching it.