I liked Matt’s rebus post last week. I decided to make my own.
Hint #1: Famous line from a movie
Hint #2: My rebus will not win points for precision
If anyone can guess this, either you are amazing, or I am bad at determining how impossible this will be.
Angels slugger Mark Trumbo is famous for his power potential and his power potential. Insofar as musical tastes are concerned, however, Mr. Trumbo embraces a pregame oeuvre at which the discriminating aesthete, who is always too much with us, might pshaw and snort:
The best I can say for his selections is that, unlike Wagner, they don’t make me feel as though something sweeping, organized and racist is about to happen.
URGENT UPDATE: Commenter Grant points out that Mr. Trumbo was merely having a go at us. He is once again a Young Man of America in good standing.
Shortstop Brad Woods, future Hall of Famer.
Vitals
Game: MLB 2K12
Platform: Playstation 3, XBOX 360, Wii, PC, etc.
Developer: 2K Sports
Modes: Franchise, Superstar, Online, and MLB Today
Cool Features: Unique pitching system, MLB Today game mode, and highly customizable players in Superstar mode.
Here’s a video of some gameplay — not mine own, do note, so I cannot say with certainty what platform this is from.
Read the rest of this entry »
(click for purposes of embiggening)
Minor League Guy, shockingly, is not related to Unknown.
[h/t @bubbaprog]
When Chipper Jones announced yesterday that he would be retiring after the 2012 season, a nation of cats named Chipper Jones shed a little extra fur in anticipated sadness.
Chipper Jones the cats watch baseball. Chipper Jones the cats have have lost weight. Chipper Jones the cats are under an umbrella. Chipper Jones the cats are entertained by doctors. Chipper Jones the cats are being squeaked. Chipper Jones the cats wanted something different. Chipper Jones the cats have owners who are so glad they named their cats after Chipper Jones, but for all the wrong reasons. Chipper Jones the cats are Mr. Jones and me. Chipper Jones the cats are stuck with you, too. Chipper Jones the cats are broken images. Chipper Jones the cats are animated little fellows (or are they?). Chipper Jones the cats have been fine ever since. Chipper Jones the cats would love to help you with that quilting. Chipper Jones the cats truly are the pimp shit.
Phoenix, AZ — Before 2011, Adam Dunn had long been known as a three-true-outcome hitter. Unfortunately, last season, one of those outcomes occurred almost to the exclusion of the other two.
But Dunn believes he’s found a way to remedy the contact issues that sabotaged his 2011 campaign.
By hitting off a tee.
“It’s way easier,” explained a noticeably unburdened Dunn. “You just go out there, set up the tee, put a ball on top, and go. The base of the tee is even shaped like home plate, which is a real convenience.”
Dunn practices his new technique at the White Sox spring-training home.
The left-handed slugger has some idea as to why his strikeout rates have been so high in past years. “It’s pitchers, mostly. What I’ve noticed is, is they’ll impart different spins to the ball or change speeds — that sort of thing. As a result, it’s hard to know where and when exactly to swing the bat.”
Dunn is optimistic that the batting tee will help considerably. “I think, with this new arrangement, you’re going to see my strikeout numbers drop a lot. I don’t want to put a precise number on it — that just creates expectations and pressure — but I’d be real surprised if I didn’t at least half my Ks this year.”
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“North Korean baseball players are the new market inefficiency.” — Dan Duquette
It took a while – sources were exhausted, as they say – but the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team has delivered, for your reading pleasure, an exclusive interview with Baltimore Orioles general manager Dan Duquette, about the international incident that was the signing of 17-year-old Kim Seong-min.
NotGraphs: Mr. Duquette, thanks for your time, and for taking our call. We appreciate it.
Dan Duquette: Who is this? How did you get this number?
NG: Let’s get right down to business: Kim Seong-min. Today, Baltimore Orioles scouts are banned from South Korea. What the hell, man?
DD: Look, it began innocently enough. All I asked for was Korean food for lunch. Some Bulgogi. I love Bulgogi.
NG: Me too. It’s delicious.
DD: I thought it would be good for morale, a company lunch, for the front office. You know, a big spread, we all sit down and break bread together. I passed the information down the ladder, and one of our interns was put in charge. The next thing I know, we’re eating Thai food for lunch, we’ve got a 17-year-old signed out of South Korea, and both the Korean Baseball Organization and the Korean Baseball Association are up my ass. Not to mention Bud Selig. Trust me, we had no intentions for this to blow up the way it did.
The nomination process, which hurt so good, is now complete. And now comes the business of voting. The Sergeant-at-Arms, who wears a zippered, latex mask and is known only “Maximum Jones,” has whittled the list down to 10 finalists. From these you may choose, albeit at great personal hazard …
Shit just got real.
Bronson Arroyo, “aspiring musician” and erstwhile starting pitcher, knows that he is getting older (he’s 35, now). He says he’s worried about his “23-, 24-, 23-year-old” competition. He says he’s worried that he might not look good as an old man. With these concerns in mind, Mr. Arroyo has forayed into new territory this spring: the kitchen!
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No chef’s hat!
Let it be known (mostly to the ladies) that Bronson Arroyo, “seasoned” “veteran”, still got it:
Like most of you, I strongly believe that nicknames can never be too many nor too frivolous. Also, like you, I believe that many if not most of the kabbalistic secrets of creation were uncovered by Steve Jobs and are continually and carefully dispensed from Cupertino for the good of all humanity. Therefore, I’ve just spent longer than I care to admit thumbing the name of every qualifying ballplayer into an iPod Touch, and being gently yet firmly enlightened about what each man’s parents or forebears really meant for him to be called.
There has been a first cut. Some names were simply too searingly revelatory; I chose to shield your eyes. Now, I need your help in paring this down to a manageable roster. Which of these will stick? How much truth can we handle?
