Chili's

Chili's, I served with intense flavor combinations. I knew intense flavor combinations. Intense flavor combinations were a friend of mine. Chili's, you're no intense flavor combination.

R.I.P

You never got the credit you deserved.  You saved many shoppers a few steps by refrigerating Mexican food items in the Mexican aisle.  Excuse me, I am going to walk all the way to the cheese section now to get Mexican cheese.  I guess you don't know what you got until it's gone.

Whatever happened to the twist movie ending?

Just think of all the great movies with a twist ending: primal fear, memento, fight club, the usual suspects, the sixth sense, signs, the prestige etc.. They all seemed to come out in around the same time.  What happened to that?  Now we get stuff like the transformers.  Let me guess, the robots are humans, whoopty doo, big twist (I have never actually seen those movies).  People were all up in arms about frozen.  Well the girl\snowman thawing out isn't exactly unpredictable.  I guess the twist ending era is officially over.   Thanks Obama. 

Your tax dollars at work

Seriously, what is with all these damn signs?  Everywhere I turn: here is the street you are on, here is how fast you can drive, there are some men working up ahead .  Does the government really need to tell me what street I live on?  Hell, I have been in this house for five years!  How about instead of wasting tax payer dollars for a sign on my street, the governor pays to recharge my air conditioning in the car.  Of course he does not do that, because that would make too much sense.  So here I am sweating in my vehicle and all that metal street sign is doing is attracting more heat.  Talk about something contributing to global warming.  How about instead of making us drive hybrids, we tear down some fucking signs!

Do not even get me started on this. 

We as tax payers are left completely in the dark about how much of our hard-earned paycheck goes to telling us such pertinent information as what state we are entering/exiting, who volunteers to clean a mile of the road, and semi truck weight limits.  DO YOU SEE ME DRIVING A SEMI TRUCK?  I did some googling to see how much signs cost and just about puked my guts out when I found the answer.  One "Pedestrian Crossing" sign is going to set Americans back between $106 and $183.25.  Of course, had I not seen that pedestrian crossing sign, I would have just assumed it was okay to plow into people crossing the road.

Where is that astronomical cost coming from?  It is a big piece of metal.  And its not like labor costs are high.  Some prisoner somewhere is getting paid a quarter an hour to bang out sign after sign after sign.  Still on the fence?  Think signs are worth it?  Try this on for size: $130.55-$183.75 for a sign that depicts a guy riding a tractor.  That's right, your sweat-stained dollars are being spent to tell you that that thing that appears to be a guy riding a tractor is in fact, a guy riding a tractor.

Crosby Jane here, just checking in

Hey there world, long time, not talk (get it?  I can't talk yet).  Anyway, I wanted to get on here and add some original content, as opposed to just copying and pasting a tl;dr school assignment across 50 different posts like some other people we know.

So, who do you all have in the world cup?  Dad has Brazil over Argentina in the finals, needless to say, he really went out on a limb there.  I am going to go a different direction and pick France, mostly because I have a wardrobe that features a lot of Eiffel Towers.

Told Ya

So what else is new?  Well, I am learning to eat.  I use this learning curve as an excuse to make the absolute biggest mess that I can.  Watching mom and dad scramble to clean up my dining area is a fantastic way to unwind in the evening.  I will admit though, sometimes I have to try really hard and throw my spoon a couple of extra times to ensure that I have a messier area than dad.  I get away with a huge mess because I am only 7 months old; your guess is as good as mine as to what his excuse is.

Sandwiches are still difficult.

On top of learning to eat, I have also gotten my own place.  That's right, no more bassinet in mom and dad's room, I am kicking it in my own room.  It feels good to be able to breath a little, plus I have room to roll around in my crib.  Unfortunately, I can only roll over onto my stomach and then I am stuck.  The only advantage to this is that if dad (I don't do this to mom) puts me down for a nap, I can roll over on my stomach, get mad, and then scream until he comes in to flip me back over.  

Uh oh, it is way past my bed time. I have very much enjoyed telling you all about my recent comings and goings.  Until next time, keep it real.

Partner and serious capital ($$$) needed for authentic pub investment

Aren't you sick of walking into your local "Irish (or British) pub" and it basically being a typical bar that  happens to serve Guinness and Fish and Chips?  When I was in London, I visited numerous pubs and none of them had a menu that resembled Applebees or turned into a dance club at night.  Soccer dominates the television screens, patrons order their food at the bar, and cask beer is a delicious option.  Sure, the NFL, chicken wings, and Miller Lite are immensely popular, but there are already numerous establishments catering to those tastes.  A pub should be a pub.  Why do we have to Americanize something that is by its very nature un-American?

The inside of our favorite pub in London, The Champion

So, this leads to my idea.  Louisville (and many other places) need an AUTHENTIC British pub.  That means curry on the menu, those weird mint peas served with Fish and Chips, and traditional British breakfast served for Premier League matches.  There will be no late night DJ, girls in referee outfits, or bang bang shrimp.  The food will be of high quality and moderately priced, as will the drinks.  Basically, imagine extracting a pub from London and putting it in Louisville.  

The idea is on point, but now I need a location, a huge wooden bar, a chef, employees etc.  That means I need start-up money.  I am willing to make whoever can provide such funds an equal partner.  This is going to be fantastic.  Serious inquiries can be emailed to me at eric.t.proctor@gmail.com.  

"My Skin is Against Me": Critical Race Theory & Baseball

Hello world,
Many (millions?) of you all may have noticed that I have not been blogging much at all recently.  This is partly due to typing three 20+ page papers/notes for school last semester.  Basically, I am typed-out.  However, I am going to share one of these school papers I wrote on here.  If you have any interest in baseball, race relations, or statistics, this will hopefully be of interest to you.  The class I wrote this paper for is called Critical Race Theory and is a very interesting area of study.

Due to the length, I am breaking up the sections into separate posts so you can read as many or as few as you would like:

Part I. Introduction

Part II. Baseball's White Elite

Part II. A. The Commissionership

Part II. B. General Managers and Ownership

Part II. C. "Color Blindness"

Part II. D. The Role of Minorities at the Top

Part II. E. Conclusion


Part III. Telling Baseball's Stories

Part III. A. Statistics Painted White: The Dominate Narrative

Part III. B. The Asterisk

Part III. B. i. Pre-integration player's statistics should be marked with an asterisk

Part III. B. ii. Statistical achievements of African American players who were subjected to racial abuse are under-valued in baseball's history.

Part III. C. Flaw in the "objective" Wins Above Replacement statistic

Part III. D. Conclusion

I hope fellow baseball and baseball history junkies (I do not like when people use "junkies" in this sense, but oh well) read, enjoy, and comment.

"My Skin is Against Me": Critical Race Theory & Baseball, Part III. D. Conclusion

D.  Conclusion

            Critical Race Theorists emphasize the importance of storytelling and developing a counter-narrative to oppose the dominate group narrative.  The current dominate narrative of baseball's greatest teams and players is supported by faulty "asterisks" and statistics.  Fan rankings, such as the EloRater, represent a widespread buying into the dominate narrative which tells of the superiority of  pre-integration players. 

            A proper counter-narrative disparages the dominate narrative by questioning both the objective and subjective aspects that support it.  By placing "asterisks" by the statistical records of pre-integration players, their lofty statistics are subjectively diminished.  Further, placing a "positive asterisk" by the statistics of African American players who were subjected to racial abuse emphasizes the difficulty of achieving such records.  Finally, a recalculation of advanced statistics that support the dominate group narrative, such as WAR, objectivity is given to the counter-narrative. 

            The story that emerges is one that properly tells the greatness of African American players in baseball's history.  Pre-integration white players are grouped with performance enhancing drug users in displaying that they were not playing in a fair game.  Racially-abused African American player records are shown to be even more remarkable than previously considered.  And even the great Babe Ruth's records are lessened, while it is objectively exhibited that Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were superior players. 

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"My Skin is Against Me": Critical Race Theory & Baseball, Part III. C. Flaw in the "objective" Wins Above Replacement statistic

C.  Flaw in the "objective" Wins Above Replacement statistic

        The placement of an asterisk leaves a lot to subjectivity.  Whether there should be an asterisk, how much weight to give the asterisk, and what the asterisk means (if anything) are all relative to the observer.  On the other hand, modern day statisticians have been working on complex mathematical equations that compare players across all eras objectively.  

        Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an estimation of the number of wins a player adds to his team in any given year.[i]  Basically, because you have player A on team B, as opposed to a replacement player (denied as a bottom-tiered major league/top-tiered minor league player), team B won X number of additional games than they would have otherwise.[ii]  For example, Miguel Cabrera had an estimated WAR of 7.5 in 2013.[iii]  Therefore, it is estimated that the 2013 Detroit Tigers won 7.5 more games with Miguel Cabrera than they would have had they called up their third baseman from Toledo (the Tiger's AAA team).

        WAR is a valuable tool when comparing any player's value to another.[iv]  WAR allows for shorter seasons, various size ballparks, "pitchers eras", contraction, and expansion by always comparing a player against a "replacement player" from the same year who was playing in the same number of games, with the same number of teams, etc.[v]  However, WAR has a fatal flaw when it comes to calculating the value of pre-integration players.  Pre-integration players "replacement player" is significantly worse than a post integration "replacement player" because the Major Leagues did not allow all of the best players to play. 

        For every African American player who began to play in the Major Leagues, there was one less roster spot to be occupied by a white player.  It follows that many players who were considered "replacement" caliber pre-integration were much worse, and many regular players were in fact, "replacement" level.  Thus, after integration, WAR compared players against a much better replacement player, and players would have to perform substantially better in order to get "wins above" what the replacement level player could produce.

        This hypothesis is supported by the significantly greater presence of pre-integration  players on all time WAR leader boards.[vi]  Six of the top ten players on the Career WAR Rankings (Ruth 183.6, Cy Young 168.4, Walter Johnson 165.6, Cobb 151.1, Speaker 133.6, and Wagner 131.0) all played their entire careers in segregated baseball.[vii]  Further, of the four post integration players listed in the top ten, two have been implicated as users of performance enhancing drugs (Barry Bonds 162.4 and Roger Clemens 140.3).[viii]  The two remaining PED-free, post integration players on the list are both African Americans (Willie Mays 156.2 and Hank Aaron 142.6).[ix]  Without the above criticism of the WAR calculation, an otherwise objective review of the top ten WAR players would yield a finding that the most valuable players of all time are, for the most part, white.  On the other hand, when accounting for the weaker "replacement player" for pre-integration players, pre-integration players WAR is diminished.

        WAR, as is currently calculated, provides supposedly objective evidence to the dominant group narrative of the superiority of pre-integration players.  However, a counter narrative emerges when the otherwise objective WAR calculation properly factors in a reduction based on the vastly inferior "replacement player" pre-integration players are compared to.  For this example, players who played their entire careers before 1947 have their career WAR total reduced by 30%[x], players who played before and after 1947 have their career WAR total reduced by 15%[xi], and players implicated in PED use are omitted.[xii]  The recalculated top ten career WAR players looks like this:

1)  Willie Mays                                                       156.2

2)  Hank Aaron                                                      142.6

3)  Babe Ruth                                                         128.5

4)  Cy Young                                                           117.9

5)  Walter Johnson                                                115.9

6)  Rickey Henderson                                           110.8

7)  Tom Seaver                                                       110.5

8)  Mickey Mantle                                                 109.7

9)  Stan Musial                                                      108.9

10)  Frank Robinson                                             107.2

        This is not a perfect ranking[xiii] but it exemplifies three important parts of a counter-narrative.  First, the greatest African American players are vastly under-rated in the number of wins they created for their teams within the traditional WAR calculation.  Second, many of the greatest post-integration white players (Seaver, Mantle etc.) are similarly under-rated.  Finally, Babe Ruth is not the greatest player of all time.  Ruth's maintaining third place on the list, despite a deduction, is a testament to his greatness; however, Mays and Aaron, whom played in baseball's true golden era, are markedly better in terms of career WAR.

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[i] War Explained, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/war_explained.shtml (last visited April 13, 2014).

[ii] Id. (The advanced statistical formulas used to determine WAR are outside the scope of this article).

[iii] Miguel Cabrera, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cabremi01.shtml (last visited April 13, 2014).

[iv]  War Explained, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/war_explained.shtml (last visited April 13, 2014).

[v] Id.

[vi] Baseball Reference, Career Leaders& Records for Wins Above Replacement, http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_career.shtml, (last visited April 13, 2014).

[vii] Id. (years played in career can be seen by clicking on an individual players name)

[viii] Id.

[ix] Id.

[x] This is a somewhat ambiguous number.  30% is probably not a great enough reduction, but is used here to simplify the illustration.  A proper reduction will be left to sabermaticians.

[xi] See footnote 113.

[xii] This is not to say these players are undeserving, rather to keep the example limited to one factor.

[xiii] Most glaring is the lack of any Negro League legends. 

"My Skin is Against Me": Critical Race Theory & Baseball, Part III. B. ii. Statistical achievements of African American players who were subjected to racial abuse are under-valued in baseball's history.

ii)  Statistical achievements of African American players who were subjected to racial abuse are under-valued in baseball's history.

            All of the "asterisks" listed above connote a tarnishing of the record in which an asterisk has been affixed.  However, an asterisk can be used to represent any additional information about the information in which it is attached.  After integration, African American players were subjected to a wide array of physical and verbal abuse on and off of the diamond.[i]  For example, Jackie Robinson was frequently deliberately spiked by players sliding into second.[ii]  Additionally, Robinson and other African American players were frequently the targets of racial epithets and taunts.[iii]  These conditions made playing baseball in the Major Leagues much more difficult than it already was for the first African American players.[iv]

            In a bedrock Critical Race Theory article, Richard Delgado outlines the detrimental physical and psychological effects for the victims of racial abuse.[v]  In fact, Delgado posits that the victims of verbal racial abuse should be able to bring a tort claim against their abuser.[vi]  Hate speech, such as the type African Americans were exposed TO post-integration can harm the victim physically, emotionally, and fiscally.[vii]

            First, victims of hate speech develop feelings of humiliation, isolation, and self-hatred.[viii]  Further, African American victims of hate speech are more likely to have health problems related to high blood pressure and hyper-tension.[ix]  Finally, many victims of hate speech see their careers suffer.[x]  "The person who is timid, withdrawn, bitter, hypertense, or psychotic will almost certainly fare poorly in employment settings."[xi]

            For baseball players, "employment settings" are in the clubhouse and on the diamond.  Acts such as hitting a 90 mile per hour fastball and fielding a hard grounder are difficult enough without the harms of racial abuse.  Thriving is such conditions would seem to be next to impossible.  However, many early integration African American players succeeded at the highest levels on the sport.

            There is not a better example of an African America player thriving soon after integration than that of Jackie Robinson himself.  Racial abuse started for Robinson in Montreal, where he played in the Dodgers' farm system for a year before making the Major League squad in 1947.[xii]  The Montreal manager, Clay Hopper, begged Branch Rickey to not hire him to manage an integrated team.[xiii] Hopper even asked Rickey whether he really thought that "a nigger's a human being."[xiv]  The racial abuse and pressure led to detrimental physical and mental effects for Robinson including abdominal pain and Robinson fearing a nervous breakdown.[xv]  Despite this, Jackie Robinson won the Rookie Of The Year award in his very first season in the Major Leagues.[xvi]  Two years later, in 1949, Robinson was named the National League's Most Valuable Player.[xvii]  What were already impressive feats, are even more so when accounting for the racial abuse Robinson encountered.

            On field achievements, represented by awards and statistical records, do not tell the whole story for African American players who were subjected to racial abuse after integration.  Racial insults lead to mental, physical, and pecuniary harm while making it difficult to excel in a workplace.  When comparing player's achievements against one another, it is imperative to consider the added difficulty racially abused African Americans endured while playing.  Unlike an asterisk that denotes a tarnishing of a statistical record, a "positive asterisk" should accompany the records of African Americans who were subjected to racial abuse.  Such an asterisk would remind fans that the playing field was not even for all players, even after integration.

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[i] Baseball:  Sixth Inning.

[ii] Richard Wormser, JACKIE ROBINSON INTEGRATES MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, PBS.com, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_jackie.html (last visited April 12, 2014).

[iii] Id.

[iv] Baseball: Sixth Inning.

[v] Richard Delgado, Words That Wound: A Tort Action for Racial Insult, Epithets, and Name-Calling, 17 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 133 (1982).

[vi] Id.

[vii] Id.

[viii] Id.

[ix] Id.

[x] Id. 

[xi] Id.

[xii] Baseball:  Sixth Inning

[xiii] Id.

[xiv] Id.

[xv] Id.

[xvi] Jackie Robinson, Baseball Reference, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/robinja02.shtml (last visited April, 12 2014).

[xvii] Id.