The SoapBoxers

Back in October, I first wrote about our experience with DirecTV.  Seven months later, how do I feel?

Positives

• The DirecTV DVRs are far superior to the DVR we had with Mediacom.  The Mediacom ones would flake out and need to be powered down at least once a week.  It was replaced several times, but all the units acted the same.  The Mediacom DVRs store about 50 hours of programming.  The DirecTV DVRs have been relatively trouble-free, and they store 200+ hours of programming.  That comes in really handy when there is a need to have lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes on hand.
• Aside from the fact that baseball’s blackout rules suck, I absolutely love having access to MLB Extra Innings, which was not available through Mediacom.  I can’t blame DirecTV for the blackouts, as these are imposed by Major League Baseball.  I have been able to catch a lot of Rockies games this year.
• The ability to program your DVR from the internet is great.  If you forget to set your DVR, you can go to a computer (or smart phone), access the DirecTV web site, and set the show to record.

Negative, but not really their fault

• We have our TV, phone, and internet bundled through Qwest.  A couple of months after doing this, we realized that they had not been bundled properly, and that we weren’t being given one of the discounts.  The multiple charges and discounts on the bill can make deciphering it difficult – especially since cryptic phrases are attached to the charges and discounts.  I had actually reviewed the bill and was under the impression that we were getting that discount.  Alas, the credit I was assuming was related to that discount was actually related to something else.  This was eventually resolved and we got credit for the un-discounted months.  I’m blaming Qwest for this instead of DirecTV.  The Qwest representative wasn’t willing to fix the problem; the DirecTV rep was.

Negatives

• Bad weather can create problems.  Our service was completely knocked out for periods of time during a recent system of severe thunderstorms.  This is an area where dish-based service is always going to lose when compared to cable companies, due to the fact that cable is hard-wired.
• At times, the signal can be a bit garbled.  This comes and goes, but can be annoying when it happens.  The picture gets scrambled a bit and the audio can get distorted.

Please, please, please add these features

• There doesn’t seem to be a way to truncate a saved program.  This can be especially problematic with sports programming.  MLB Extra Innings allocates six hours for a baseball game – an absurdly long time period.  I haven’t found any way to shorten this timeframe, other than manual halting the recording when the game is over.  The inability to truncate means that I may have a 2 ½ hour game that takes up 6 hours of space on the DVR.  I’d like to be able to fast-forward to a particular point in the programming and just delete the rest.  Even better, I’d like for the DVR to be smart enough to know when the game ends.  How would that be possible?  Have the TV stations transmit a unique program code as part of the signal.
• Picture-in-picture.  I’m stunned that this doesn’t exist.  My TVs have PIP capability, and I know how to set it up … but there doesn’t appear to be a way to get it to work with DirecTV.  When I had digital cable, I’d split the coaxial cable before it got to the digital box.  I’d run one split through the digital box and then on to the TV.  I’d take the other split and run it to the TV.  The second split carried just the analog signal, but it gave me PIP functionality.  However, you can’t do this with DirecTV, because the out-of-the-jack signal is scrambled.  The only apparent way to set up PIP would be to have two converter boxes tied to the TV.  Am I missing an obvious solution to this?
• I’d like to have the ability to create a custom playlist.  I often listen to TV while I’m doing yardwork.  I’d love to be able to set up a playlist that would allow me to watch a saved NCIS episode, a saved espisode of The Office, and then jump to channel 742 to join the Rockies game when it begins.  If that’s not possible (which, really, it should be) at least let me choose the order of the NCIS episodes.

Overall, I’m happy with the product.  The disruptions have been relatively rare at this point and DirecTV give me access to programming I can’t get with cable.

There is nothing quite as sad in sports as unfulfilled potential.  This team consists of players who fell short of their full potential for a variety of reasons.  For some, it was a simple twist of fate.  For others, the road was paved by their own actions.  Some still managed to achieve greatness even with the obstacles; the circumstances caused others to fall short.

Catcher – Thurman Munson – Munson was an All-Star seven times between 1971 and 1978 and won three gold gloves during this span.  Munson’s career came to an abrupt end when the private plane he was piloting crashed on August 2, 1979.  Munson ended his career with a .292 batting average and hit .300 or better five times.

1B – Lou Gehrig – Gehrig’s durability was legendary – he played in 2130 consecutive games.  After twelve straight seasons with a batting average higher than .300 and eleven straight seasons with an OPS of higher than 1.000, Gehrig fell off to .295 and .932 in 1938.  Those were still very good numbers, but not Gehrigesque.  Gehrig started the 1939 season very poorly and knew that something was physically wrong.  In June of 1939, Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which later became known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease (the only disease to ever be named after a patient).  He was elected to the Hall of Fame via a special election (the standard five year waiting period was waived) on the merits of his .340 career batting average and 493 home runs.  On June 2, 1941, at the age of 38, Gehrig died.  Had Gehrig remained healthy, he could have threatened Babe Ruth’s 714 career home runs.

2B – Chuck Knoblauch – Knoblauch was a five time All Star and was coming off a season that included 62 steals and a gold glove award when he traded to the New York Yankees.  A little more than a year later, Knoblauch contracted a severe case of the yips – the inability to throw accurately to first base.  The once stellar fielder’s throwing because an embarrassment, leading to his movement first to the outfield and later to designated hitter.  Eventually, his offensive game also fell off, and his career was over at age 34.

SS – Ray Chapman – Chapman was an excellent defensive shortstop with good speed – stealing 52 bases in 1917.  The 29 year old Chapman was hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch on August 16, 1920.  Twelve hours later, Ray Chapman died.  A lot of people here would probably give the nod to Nomar Garciaparra.  Garciaparra was off to a great start to his career, but the fact that Chapman died from injuries suffered during the game gets him the spot.

3B – Ron Santo – Santo played his entire career while battling diabetes.  He was a ten time All-Star and hit 342 career homers.  The Cubs third baseman was traded to the White Sox before the 1974 seasons.  After a disappointing season with the Sox, he hung up his spikes for good at age 34.  A large contingent of baseball observers is pushing for baseball’s Veteran’s Committee to elect Santo to the Hall of Fame – but he is still waiting.

OF – Joe Jackson – You know the story.  Jackson was banned for life for throwing the 1919 World Series.  He has many defenders, but his lifetime ban keeps him out of the Hall of Fame.  Shoeless Joe’s .356 career batting average ranks third all time behind Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.  Jackson was 31 when he played his final game.

OF – Ken Griffey Jr. – In the early 1990s, Griffey established himself as the best all-around player in baseball.  During his 10 years in Seattle, he had 1742 hits, 398 homers, ten All-Star game selections, ten gold glove awards, and an MVP award.  He had hit 40+ homers six times.  At age 30, he signed with his hometown Cincinnati Reds.  It seemed that 3500 hits and 700 homers were well within reach.  After a 40 homer season in his first season with the Reds, injuries began to mount.  More than ten years later, Griffey has added just 232 more homers to his numbers, and is still short of 3000 hits.  His career seems to be very close to an end.  It’s likely that his 630 homers will get him into the Hall of Fame – especially since he was never linked to steroids –  but you have to wonder what sort of numbers a healthy Griffey could have accomplished.

OF Darryl Strawberry – Strawberry was a rising superstar with the World Champion 1986 Mets.  Between 1983 and 1991, he hit 280 homers.  Over the course of the next 8 years, Strawberry battled a drug addiction and added just 55 homers in 1189 at bats.  The man threw away a Hall of Fame caliber career.

Pitchers

Babe Ruth – Ruth was a dominant left-handed pitcher.  Ruth compiled a career record of 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA – low even by the standards of the time.  Ruth was traded to the Yankees after the 1919 season.  He was 24 at the time of the trade and only toed the rubber  five more times in his career.  It’s quite likely that Ruth could have been a Hall of Fame player as a pitcher.  As it ended up, he became one of the greatest hitters in history.

Sandy Koufax – From 1963-1966, Koufax compiled a record of 97-27 with a 1.86 ERA.  He also nabbed three Cy Young Awards during this span (finishing third in his “bad” season with a record of 19-5 and a 1.74 ERA).  At age 30, Koufax had a career record of 165-87 with a 2.76 career ERA.  After battling traumatic arthritis (that’s the medical name for the condition) for years, Koufax retired in his prime.

Denny McLain – McLain was the last Major League pitcher to win 30 games, compiling a 31-6 record with a 1.74 ERA in 1968.  He won both the Cy Yound and MVP awards and for an encore grabbed another Cy in 1969 with a 24-9 record.  McLain was just 25 years old.  McLain’s gambling and affiliations with organized crime figures earned him a suspension from commissioner Bowie Kuhn.  Arm injuries hastened the end of his career.  McLain was  17-34 over the next three years and was out of baseball at age 28.  That would be a sad enough end to the tale of Denny McLain – but it’s not the end.  McLain has run afoul of the law many times since – for charges of drug trafficking, embezzlement, racketeering, and mail fraud.

JR Richard –   Between 1976 and 1979, Richard won more than 18 games each year, topping out at 20 wins in 1976.  He also topped 300 strikeouts in two seasons, while also leading the league in walks three times.  During the 1980 season, Richard began to complain of health ailments.  On July 30, while playing catch before a game, Richard suffered a stroke.  He would never again pitch in a major league game.  By 1994, Richard had been divorced twice and was broke and homeless.  He sought and received help from the minister of a local church.  Later, Richard himself became a minister.

Dwight Gooden – Dwight Gooden’s career numbers are very good – 194 wins, 112 losses, and a 3.53 career ERA.  However, 119 of those wins (and just 46 losses) were recored before Gooden turned 26.  Injuries and drug problems derailed his career.  His record for the rest of his career was just 75-66 with a 4.32 ERA.  However, there was one more shining moment – on May 14, 1996, Gooden threw a no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners.  Gooden pitched his final major league game in 2000, at the age of 35.  A healthy, drug free Gooden would have likely won 300 games and be awaiting induction to the Hall of Fame.

Do you have any suggestions for the team?

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 (with Thomas and Scalia dissenting) that the federal government has the power the keep some sex offenders behind bars indefinitely if officials determine that those prisoners may “prove to be sexually dangerous in the future.”  (Note: this affects only inmates in the federal system, not those in state prisons.  See United States vs. Comstock for more information).

I think that most people would agree that sex offenders do pose a threat to society and that they should be dealt with harshly by the justice system.  I agree with this, and the rest of this article should not be construed as condoning any of the actions of the offenders.  I most certainly do not condone their actions.

I do, however, have a problem with this Supreme Court ruling.  The primary building block of justice in this country is the jury trial.  The accused is entitled to a trial, and if convicted, is sentenced appropriately.  At the end of the sentence (or, more often, earlier), the prisoner rejoins society.

This SCOTUS ruling appears to subvert the decision made by the jury.  The ruling makes a complete mockery of the sentencing process.  Why should the jury waste their time determining an appropriate sentence when, in the end, it really won’t matter?

I understand the severity of sexual crimes, and also am familiar with research that suggests that it may not be possible to rehabilitate these criminals.  However, murder is also a severe crime, and we do set some murderers free after they serve their sentences.  This will continue to be standard operating procedure for all other crimes – criminals will be arrested, be convicted, serve their time, and then rejoin society.  Only sex offenders in federal prisons will be at risk of having their sentence extended indefinitely.

Are the current sentences handed down by juries too short?  If that’s the case, there is a better way to fix this.  Have congress and state legislatures impose more strict punishment for those crimes.  Then, from this date forward, impose those sentences upon those convicted of sex crimes.  However, I do not feel that it is appropriate to retroactively impose the law upon those whom have already been sentenced.

Am I defending sex offenders?  No, certainly not.  I am, however, defending justice.  It brings to mind a line from the movie Ghosts of Mississippi.  The defense attorney, defending the killer of civil rights leader Medger Evers, reminds the jury that “if the system doesn’t work for Byron De La Beckwith , it doesn’t work for anyone.”  If the system doesn’t work for sex offenders, does it really work at all?

I have discussed his ruling with several people, including a couple of hard-on-crime guys with backgrounds in law enforcement.  At this point, everyone seems to agree that the prisoners should be set free when their sentence is complete – while at the same time acknowledging the serious nature of the crimes and the high probability that the criminals will re-offend following their release.

I expect this Supreme Court ruling to remaining in place for many years.  The fact that it was a 7-2 decision means that change 1 or 2 members of the court will not swing the court to the other side.  The president’s Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, actually argued the case on behalf of the government in her role of Solicitor General.

It seems, then, that it would be left up to congress to pass a law that would neutralize the impact of this ruling.  I’m not holding my breath – supports of such a law would no doubt be painted as supporters of sex offenders by their opponents.  I doubt that any politician is willing to risk being slapped with that label.

I have always been afraid of being in a hospital.  I cannot explain why, but my wife has a theory.  I was born two months premature.  I had to stay in the hospital for three months to get back to my birth weight just so that I would be strong enough for the surgeries that I needed.  I was born with a half clef palate.  My wife believes that my fears are based on those earliest memories.  I can see no reason that she is wrong.

I don’t even like visiting hospitals.  It took all of my courage to stay with my wife when my children were born.  I had not been over night in the hospital except to visit others until last fall.  Sure, I had had several medical procedures including wisdom teeth removal, vasectomy and radial keratotomy, but all of these were out patient procedures performed at a doctor’s office.  This last September I had to go.

I woke up around midnight with heart burn, or so I thought.  By two in the morning, I could no longer lay down.  When my wife woke up at three and saw me sitting in a chair in pain she asked what was wrong.  When I told her that I did not know, she asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said yes.  She moved very quickly, since she knew my fears.

The drive was only twenty minutes, but I begged her to go to the closest hospital.  This is rather funny as in my home town there are only two hospitals and they are on five blocks apart.  You can literally see each one from the other.  Since I am a 45 year old man, the emergency room nurse immediately hooked me up to see if I was having a heart attack.  As I sat there, the pain began to subside.  I notice this as my feet slowly settled down to the floor.  I had been sitting hunched over so tense that my heals were off of the floor.

After verifying that it was not my heart, they wheeled me back to hook up even more machines.  The attending doctor instructed the intern and left.  The intern probed, pushed, and questioned.  He got an ultra-sound set up to look at my internal organs.  By now, I was feeling much better, but I could still tell that something was wrong.  The attending doctor picked on the intern when he couldn’t find all of my organs.  I was sent off to a specialist.  That specialist found that my liver and my pancreas were enlarged.  So, I was spending the night.  They had no specific cause for this inflammation, so we wait and monitor.  I was officially checked in at 8:00 a.m.

I spent a very nice day talking with nurses, having my kids and wife visit, and eating Jello.  They wanted me for a full twenty four hours, so the next night I was still in the hospital.  I wanted to go home in the worst way.  I listened to the people in the nearby rooms.  I was allowed to wander around, so I got to see other families.  There was one older man whose only movement was to be moved into an almost sitting position in the morning, then back down at night.  There was an older lady whose cough sounded like she was choking.  Other than them, the rooms were closed, most empty, but some with people who really had problems.

I watched as much TV as I could stand, and finally tried to sleep.  If you have ever been in a hospital, there is one thing you never get; privacy.  I was awakened every couple of hours as the nurse checked on all of the patients.  She checked all of the instruments and was nice each time.  At about three in the morning, it started again.  I am an engineer, so I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started detailing my sensations with time tags.  I held off pushing the button to get the nurse for as long as possible.  I was afraid that they would keep me another night.  I stood up and walked around to ease the pain, but finally, I had to call for help. 

The nurse took about ten minutes to get to me, she had much sicker patients to care for.  By the time she got to my room, the pain had begun to subside, just like the previous morning.  The nurse laughed when she saw my notes.  When the doctor arrived at five, he actually liked the write up.  He looked it over along with all of the test results from my twenty four hours.

The conclusion was that I had pancreatitis from passing a single gall stone.  The second flair was an aftershock, my body reacting to the major event similar to an aftershock from an earthquake.  I went home with no ill effects. 

So, I survived a whole day in the hospital.  I was so relieved to be leaving that I almost sang on the way out.  I never want to go back.  Am I still afraid?  Yes.  Why?  I still don’t know.

I am a grown man, educated and some what experienced.  I have unreasonable fears, just like everyone else in the world.  I have no basis to fear the hospital and I really appreciate all of the people who cared for me, so I do not want to get any health care people mad at me.  Over the years I have found it hard to criticize people with phobias, I have my own after all.  I can only hope for the same treatment from others as I deal with my fears.

This week, many media outlets reported that the farm from Field of Dreams is up for sale.  The asking price for the 193 acre farm (including the 13 acres that encompass the field) is $5.4 million.  This amount has raised a lot of eyebrows.  After all, this is Iowa, not Manhattan!

Is it worth $5.4 million?  I don’t know.  One thing for sure is that there are several factors that come into playing when placing a value on the property.

First, the majority of the property is active farmland.  There is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 170 tillable acres.  Farmland in Dubuque County can sell for as much as $4500 per acre, placing the value of the cropland at as much as $765,000.  Then there is the house and the six outbuildings.  Put this all together, and you’re going to be getting close to $1 million.  Note that the farm is currently rented out to other farmers – so there’s already a cash flow in place from rents.

The there is the “cool” factor of living in a movie set.  If you’re a big fan of the movie (and have a lot of money) what is this worth?  There is only one Field of Dreams movie location (although there are many knockoffs) – so the sellers have scarcity on their side.

It’s also very likely that the new owners would want to make some money off tourists.  Although it has been 21 years since the movie came out, it still draws 65,000 visitors each year.  How much does it cost to walk around the field?  Absolutely nothing.  The Lansings are happy to let you do this for free – banking on the fact that this will give you a warm feeling when you visit the souvenir stand.

What could the new owner do to attract more tourists?

The obvious moneymaker would be a hotel on the site.  This would require a zoning change, though, as the location is currently zoned agricultural.

Baseball camps would be another good way to make some money.  In fact, actual baseball has been played on the field quite a bit over the years.  In 1991 and 1992, there were charity games on the site featuring Hall of Famers such as Bob Feller (a native Iowan) and Reggie Jackson facing off against Hollywood celebrities.  I remember that Reggie smacked one into the corn for a homer.

The Field of Dreams casino is probably not an option – there’s another casino a short distance away in Dubuque.

Some other tidbits:

• The field was originally owned by two different families.  The Ameskamp family owned left and center field.  After the filming was done, they plowed it under to plant corn.  Later, they realized that tourists were more profitable than corn.  Until the Lansings bought them out a couple of years ago, the two families maintained separate concession stands.
• In the book Shoeless Joe (upon which the movie was based), the angry writer was J.D. Salinger.  Salinger wouldn’t agree to having his name used in the movie – and if you see how he is portrayed in the book and movie, you can probably figure out why!  Of course, this is probably a blessing in disguise.  If the character had remained Salinger instead of the fictional Terence Mann, it’s very unlikely that James Earl Jones would have been picked for the role.  I’m a big fan of Jones.
• I grew up about 10 miles away from the Field of Dreams, so I’m biased in thinking it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.  But if you do decide to visit, check out some other sites in Iowa when you’re here.  You can refer to this handy guide I wrote several months ago.

My wife recently bought an item on eBay.  She has purchased a number of this type of item in the past.  This particular transaction wasn’t particularly noteworthy, aside from the fact that the seller shipped the item in a normal envelope, in contracts to most of the other sellers who had used some sort of padded envelope.

Since she had no real positive or negative feelings about the transactions, she left a “neutral” feedback.  At this point, the seller began a string of multiple emails.  At first the seller tried to strong arm her into changing the feedback to positive or removing in entirely.  When my wife refused, the seller accused her of trying to ruin the seller’s business.  (Remember, this was just a neutral feedback, not a negative).  The seller even mentioned that the two other times a buyer had given her neutral feedback, she had gotten the buyer to retract the feedback.  Yes, she actually took pride in bullying someone into removing honest feedback.

A key point to consider is that the purpose of eBay feedback is to provide accurate information about the seller (or buyer).  The purpose is not to boost the seller’s feedback count to some sky-high number.  The feedback my wife left was accurate and reflected her neutral feeling about the transaction.

The seller was quite rude in her response and it was very clear that she had no desire to improve the experience of future buyers – she simply wanted more positive feedbacks.  In the process of overzealously protecting her feedback score, she has managed to alienate a customer and ensure that my wife never buys another item from her.  The seller wasted significant time actively cutting off a source of future revenue.

Can you imagine this scenario unfolding in the brick-and-mortar world?  Imagine that a food critic eats at a restaurant and rates the establishment as “average.”  Do you think the restaurant owner would use the review to try to improve the experience for future customers or would they instead waste valuable time browbeating the writer in an effort to get the writer to retract the review?  The restaurant that focuses of pleasing the customer is going to be more successful in the long run.  The restaurant who attacks the writer will only ensure that the critic doesn’t give them a second chance.

This seller –and some others on eBay – aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.  If your feedback isn’t what you think it should be, don’t blame the feedback.  Instead, take a look at closer look at how you are doing business.  While you may think that your communication, shipping time, packaging, and fees are exceptional, this might not be the case.  You may be lagging behind your competitors.

In closing, I’d like to point out that I’m not trying to paint all eBay sellers with the same brush.  In general, eBay sellers are great.  I’ve personally bought tons of stuff over eBay and have had very few transactions that weren’t positive experience.  This particular seller is definitely the exception and not the rule.

Kevin cursed as he saw that the side mirror was once again coming loose from the door.  This car was a cheap piece of plastic – nothing like the classic metal Detroit used to produce.  He had been getting the mirror fixed at least once a month for the last year.  He put the magenta sports car into gear and floored the accelerator as he exited the parking lot.

Kevin slid around the corner on two wheels and once again accelerated into the long straightaway.  When he popped up over the hill, he saw livestock roaming at the bottom of the hill – four cows, a pig, a few chickens, and something that appeared to resemble a buffalo.  The fence that typically restrained the animals was laying flat in the ditch – the apparent victim of the mid-day windstorm.  Kevin took evasive action, slowing the car slightly as he roared by on the shoulder – which had, fortunately, not become home to the mobile menagerie.

Kevin’s foul mood worsened when he realized that his mother-in-law was still at their house.  Was this woman never going to leave?  It seemed that she was constantly at their house.

“Leah, we must put a stop to this.  Your mother has to leave!”

“Stop yelling, Kevin.  It will just be a few more days.”

“It’s always just a few more days.  It’s been just a few more days for the last month!”

Kevin stormed upstairs to change into some comfortable clothes.  His head nearly exploded when he entered the room and saw that bedroom was missing the king sized waterbed.  An air mattress was now in its place.  To make matters worse, the twins’ bed and toys had all been transported into the room.  It was impossible to walk in the room without tripping over something.

Sarah had to be stopped.  It was bad enough that she was overstaying her welcome, but she was not going to steal his bed.  The woman was going to sleep on the air mattress and share a room with the kids.  If she didn’t like the accommodations, there was a hotel two blocks down the road.

Kevin finished tying his shoe laces and returned downstairs for the inevitable confrontation.  He spotted his mother-in-law in the kitchen.

“Sarah,” he began.  “You must stop –“

Kevin lost his train of thought when he looked around the room.  The refrigerator and stove had been torn loose from the wall, and the entire kitchen was in disarray.  What on earth had happened in here?  Had the old woman completely lost her marbles and attempted to destroy the house?

He had only a moment to ponder the question before he felt the earth move under his feet.  He made eye contact with Sarah and saw fear in her eyes.  This was an earthquake – a very bad one.  The house shook uncontrollably – debris flew in every direction.  This was the end – Kevin knew that he was going to die.

“Jennifer,” called out a voice from downstairs.  “Have you put your dollhouse away yet?  Supper is ready.”

Beat reporter Scoop Chevelle comes to us from a secret facility deep beneath the Grand Canyon.  This palatial subterranean complex, powered by a series of dams on the Colorado River, houses the research lab of Andy Seiler, baseball draft guru.

After a two-day hike through the most remote reaches of the canyon, Scoop reaches the hidden door of the facility.  After an iris scan confirms his identity, he is allowed in.  We join Scoop and Andy as they begin the interview in the formal dining room.

Scoop: Let’s start off with the question that everyone is clamoring to know the answer to.  Are you related to Marv Seiler, the man who was unjustly denied the 1992 Heisman trophy despite his heroic performance in Iowa State’s 19-10 victory over 7th ranked Nebraska?

Andy: I could be, but not that I know of. Most in my family aren’t athletic in the football sense. That’s why we like baseball.

Scoop: You’ve been called the Mel Kiper of baseball.  How do you feel about that comparison?  More importantly, how does your hair feel about it?

Andy: I don’t know how I feel about that. My hair is insulted, but if he’s the guy most turn to for draft information in the NFL, I’ll take that as a compliment. There always has to be a Todd McShay, though…

Scoop: The draft is quickly sneaking up on us.  How many hours a week are you spending on research?  How are you managing to balance this with the other priorities in your life?

Andy: I probably spend more time on research and writing than anything else in my life right now, including sleep. I keep telling everyone that as soon as the last pick of the 50^th round is announced, I’m going to go into a sleep coma for 36 hours. I’d say the average week in the last three or four has included 80+ hours of research and writing, though that includes weekends. Luckily, this is my wife’s busiest time of the year, too, so it’s not like there’s any pressure to reign it back in.

Scoop: A lot of people are excited about your book, which will contain 750 player profiles and well as information about each organization.  Some of us – including me – have already pre-ordered it.  Several publishers sell guides to the NFL draft, but baseball’s draft has historically been nearly ignored by the mainstream media.  When did you get the idea to publish such a comprehensive guide?

Andy: I’ve had the idea for a couple years, but I didn’t feel strong enough with my information and contacts to know that I’d put out a quality product. My handle on the information and the depth of it have really matured over the last year, so I feel it’s going to be the go-to resource on draft day for those who buy it. I think people will be pleasantly surprised by how the quality of my product and depth of information is as good as or better than any source out there on the Internet, and the price is a fraction of what you have to pay for it online.

Scoop: Bryce Harper is the most hyped prospect in this year’s draft, and many observers feel that the Nationals will grab him with the top pick.  Grab your crystal ball and take a look into the future.  How long do you think it will take Harper to reach the majors, and what do you expect him to accomplish in his career?

Andy: I would say mid-2013 at the earliest is the best possibility. Think of 2011 spent at Low-A ball, 2012 split between High-A and Double-A, then 2013 between Triple-A and the Majors. That’s a best-case scenario, but I think he has the talent to make it happen. I see him becoming a perennial all-star, but he’ll probably follow the career path of more of a Craig Biggio, who had to move off catcher to lengthen his career relatively early in the game. He could also turn out to be J.D. Drew if injuries creep in, and that’s a question that few can answer years in advance.

Scoop: Do you ever get burned out on baseball and just want to sit on the couch and watch reruns of 2 ½ Men for a solid week?

Andy: Definitely. I think the one thing I dislike most about what I do is that I can’t sit on the couch and just watch baseball for enjoyment anymore. I’m always looking at it from a different angle, through the lens of an evaluator rather than a fan. I’m not saying I’m the best scout or anything, but the mindset changed at some point, and I’m not really able to turn it off, even at a little league game watching a cousin’s kid. That being said, though I get tired of it, I always seem to enjoy what I do in the long run.

Scoop: OK, final question, and a very important one.  What sort of cuisine do you partake in when you go to a ballgame?  Personally, I try to grab a Pepsi, bratwurst, and nachos before the game and then try to grab some cotton candy around the 6^th inning.

Andy: I’m pretty basic. I get the hot dog with mustard and a Dr. Pepper or Sprite, depending on if I need the caffeine. Once you go to enough high school games, you realize that the caffeine is necessary. Since I’m glued to my seat or wherever I’m standing to scout, I don’t get anything during the game, so I have to get it all down between infield practice and the lineup announcement.

Scoop: Thank for your time, Andy.  I’ll let you get back to your work in the bowels of the Draft Cave.

Be sure to check out Andy’s draft blog, MLB Bonus Baby, where you can find his 2010 Draft Guide for sale (PDF format).  It will contain profiles of 750 potential draftees as well as organizational previews of all 30 Major League teams.  The book will be delivered via email the Saturday before the draft, but you can order yours today.  At ten bucks, it’s a steal for die-hard fans.  Want a preview before you buy?  Check out a couple of draftee profiles and a team organizational profile.  Note – I am not being compensated in any way for endorsing the book – I simply truly believe that it will be a top shelf publication.

This week, we found out that President Obama’s nominee will be current Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Let’s get one question out of the way. What, exactly, does the Solicitor General do? She represents the government of the United States before the Supreme Court in cases where the government is one of the parties involved in the lawsuit.

Kagan is coming under fire on a few different fronts. Kagan hired 32 tenured and tenure-track professors when she was Dean of Harvard Law School. Only seven of these faculty members were female, and only one was a racial or ethnic minority. This could be explained by a relatively small sample size, or simply by the overabundance of white males in the law school ranks. Or it could be indicative of bias during the hiring process.

Kagan’s lack of judicial experience is also a concern to many. Although Kagan has considerable experience in academia, she has never presided over an actual trial.

Despite this, it is quite possible that Kagan will be confirmed by the Senate. If she joins the high court, it would have three female justices for the first time ever (Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor being the other two).

Perhaps more important is her age. At 50, she would be the youngest justice currently serving on the court (although she’s considerably older than Justice Joseph Story, who was just 32 when he was appointed by President Madison in 1811).

Age is an important consideration in a Supreme Court Justice because the justices are appointed for life. A justice cannot be fired. There is a good reason for this, of course – to insulate a sitting justice from political pressure. An influential senator cannot strong-arm a justice with any threats.

While the judicial branch is separate from the executive and legislative branches, it is nonetheless affected by those branches. Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The end result is that the justice often represents the views of the president who appoints them. It would be nice if justices were selected based solely on merit, but this simply is not the case. Every president attempts to influence the court with the justices they appoint.

Appointing a Supreme Court Justice is perhaps the most impactful thing a president can do – influencing important judicial decisions for decades after the president leaves office. I’m not a big fan of having the other two branches exert so much influence over the judicial branch, but I’m also not sure how this could be achieved in a more fair manner, aside from setting the confirmation bar very high (80%?) to ensure bipartisan support? I’m not sure if even the ghost of George Washington could get 80% approval in the Senate.

The justices are also not oblivious to political ramifications. Justices will often time their resignations to occur during the tenure of a president who is likely to replace them with a similar justice. When a justice is unable to this – for example, if they die suddenly – there can be a seismic shift in the makeup of the court.

From a partisan perspective, then, the perfect justice would not only align with the beliefs of the President and Senate, but would also be young and in good health in order to influence the direction of the court for many years to come before voluntarily stepping down at the perfect time for a suitable replacement to be seated on the court. The next step in vetting a nominee (if it isn’t already being done) may be a deep look into the medical history of the nominee and the nominee’s family, in an effort to determine the nominee’s susceptibility to heart attacks, strokes, and other ailments that could kill or incapacitate a justice.

I wonder what sorts of birthday presents a justice gets? Perhaps a health club membership and a fruit basket from the leader of the party that aligns with their beliefs – and an annual membership at the Gorge Yourself 24 Hour Buffet from the leader of the opposing party?

Big 10 … errr … 11 … errrr 15 … errr … 16?

Big news that has been speculated for awhile hit the ESPN newswire yesterday afternoon.  According to a radio affiliate in Kansas City, the Big 10 conference has extended offers for Missouri, Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Nebraska to join their conference.  If all schools say yes, it is also reported that the conference will extend an offer to one more school.

The Big Ten is a conference I have disliked forever.  For a group of institutions with such alleged high standards of academics, they can’t even count to 10 (they have 11 member schools currently).  Doesn’t this make them the Big 11?  And why do you want to add 4 schools to make 15 … just get it to 16, which is where you will need to be for any sort of competent divisions and scheduling of any of your sports teams which is why you are making this move in the first place.  But truth be told it is time for my beloved Huskers to make the move and stick it to the University of Texas on their way out the door.

Will it happen?  I hope so.  Texas has run the show, literally, since the Big 12 conference was formed, using their mightier than thou attitude and pushing through a variety of things that favor the University of Texas in particular, and not necessarily the other member schools.  If Nebraska and Missouri leave the Big 12, Colorado is reported already to being courted by the Pac 10 conference.  This would leave the “old” Big 12 high, dry and screwed.  They would either have to disband the conference entirely, or add some schools such as perhaps, Houston, TCU, and SMU?  Boy that makes up for losing the likes of Nebraska and Missouri on the national scene.

All of these schools should move as it would mean much much more revenue.  The Big 10 has its own television contract in place that covers EVERY football game played by every team in the conference.  Nebraska is the largest grossing pay per view college football team in the nation.  Although it is a very small state by population, it has a national following second to likely Notre Dame, who also is being discussed in the mix.  Missouri gains you the St Louis market, and Rutgers adds another East Coast team to bring even more TV sets into the game.  Notre Dame needs to join a conference anyway, and get away from NBC – the Notre Dame broadcasting network – who I am sure is really excited they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars the last 10 years to exclusively cover what has been a .500 ball club.  No patsies Golden Domers, you would have to play some good teams on your schedule.  No room for the service academies three weeks out of the year. 

The moves of these schools would shake up the college football landscape and send a few other schools scrambling and left holding the bag.  I sincerely hope it happens.

My only question is … would they have to change their name to THE Notre Dame?