Phoenix.BloggersPub

I’m on a bit of a singles kick of late, and, thanks to HBO, my wife has been a bit of a Singles kick. Big difference. Anyway, in Arizona, when the weather cools down and you can drive with windows down without scorching your skin, I want to listen to h…

It was back to the Island of Lost Toys for me with a discontinued cigar that I probably wasn’t going to care for.

We had a department contest for best Jack O’Lantern.

I haven’t listened to DJ Shadow’s The Outsider enough to form any sort of opinion on it. It’s not that I don’t own it, because I do. It’s sitting here, kinda staring at me. If I’m honest with myself, I’d say some of the lukewarm reviews have me a littl…

For an epicurean undertaking as complex as the state fair, I needed to prepare a checklist. My record of completion and comments below.

þ Indian fry bread with beans and cheese. This is my state fair tradition. I can’t recall a time when we went to the fair and I didn’t get a Navajo taco.
þ Funnel cake with strawberries. Had a few bites of this. Perfectly crispy and delicious. Makes me want to sell the house, buy an RV, a funnel cake machine, and roam the country with my carny bretheren.
þ Fresh roasted corn on the cob. Mmmmm, corn.
þ Deep fried Snickers. This was my first sampling of the deep fried sweet craze. I have to admit, although tasty, I would not order it again.
þ Fried zuchini, onion rings, mushrooms, and artichokes. I mistakenly ordered this veggie platter from a place serving fish. The vegetables were big and fresh, but the batter was flavorless and non-descript. As Robyn would say, “You didn’t like it because the vegetable-to-batter ratio was too high.” Indeed.
þ Deep fried Coke. I expected this. What I got was something that looked like a soggy corndog and tasted like warm, flat Coke.
þ Deep fried cookie dough. After three offerings, I’ve decided I don’t like the fried sweets. I like my fried salty, meaty, and on a stick. Preferably of the pork variety.
þ Spicy cajun corndog. There is nothing like a true state fair corndog. A foot of some sort of spicy meat, dipped in corny batter, and served on its own souvenir stick.
þ Polish sausage corndog. This needs some explaining. I wanted the cajun ‘dog because I wanted the true creole experience. I had not finished turning the stick horizontally to gnaw
the last batter remnants, when across the fairway I did spy the elusive Polish sausage corndog. Back to back ‘dogs? Could it be done? I sidled up to the counter, slapped down my fin, and asked for a Polish. The carny looked right at me and asked incredulously, “Didn’t you just eat one?” Yes I did, brother. Yes I did. This is a true story.
þ Frozen banana. The crown jewel of stick-based cuisine. God’s perfect fruit made even more perfect through the magic of refrigeration, chocolate, and of course, the stick.
o Grilled turkey leg. The line was too long. I’ll catch you at Thanksgiving, Mr. Turkey.

Until next year, I leave you with these words of gratitude from Homer Simpson.

“He’s not just some guy, Marge. He’s a Carny and part of a noble tradition. Carnies built this country–the carnival part of it anyway–and though they may be rat-like in appearance, they are truly kings among men.“

Well, that didn’t take long - neither for the contacts to happen, nor word of them to reach the media. The Tribune reports that San Francisco and Texas have already shown interest in Gonzo. The former is not really a surprise: the Giants are preparing a backup plan in the (likely) eventuality that they won’t be able to sign Bonds. Works for me: while there’s no doubting who is the better person, community leader, and all-around good guy, the Giants with Gonzo instead of Bonds in LF would be much less threatening - though anyone short of Babe Ruth in left would be much less threatening, much though it pains me to admit it. And it’s not as if Luis would be a major defensive upgrade.

More surprising is the Rangers’ interest: according to the piece, Texas “appears to be interested in Gonzalez not only as a left fielder and designated hitter but also as a clubhouse stabilizer.” The Rangers are currently managerless, having fired Buck Showalter, and Adam at Lone Star Ball is less then enamored of the scenario:

Since teams and players can’t yet discuss money, I imagine the main subject of these early discussions was exactly this: the amount of playing time he gets. As is well documented, it seems to have been Gonzo’s public refusal to accept a part-time role which led to the Diamondbacks organization declining to enter negotiations for a contract extension. It would seem unlikely that Gonzalez would enter any kind of serious conversation - serious enough to attract media attention - without first getting assurances that he would not just be a bench-warmer.

Gonzalez was on the radio this morning discussing the situation, and apparently came off as really wanting to come back and show the Diamondbacks they made a mistake in letting him go. San Diego is his preferred destination - one reason given was the ballpark, though I think his opinion there would change radically when he starts hitting there. Though the usual warnings about small sample size apply, in the three years Petco has been open, Gonzo is only 22-for-94, with a line of .234/.351/.426 for an OPS of .777. That compares to an overall OPS, across all parks during those seasons, of .824 - 47 points higher than he’s managed in Petco during the same time.

Projecting this, given Gonzo’s OPS for the last three years have been .866, .825 and .796, it seems fair to assume he’ll lose about 30 points next year due to age. If he joins San Diego, we should then take off a further 24 points “Petco factor”, for having to play half his games there. Gonzo as a Padre in 2007 would seem likely to be round a .740 OPS. Not good. It’s a walk in the park, compared to what might happen playing for the Giants, however. Since 2004, Gonzalez is just 20-for-90 by the Bay, with no home runs, and a line of .222/.327/.278 for a dreadful .605 OPS. It all seems to indicate Gonzo may find life tougher elsewhere in the NL West, than at Chase.

[A tip of the hat to the phenomenal Baseball Musings database, without which the above paragraph would not have existed. It’s a fascinating tool which allows you to specify start and end dates for any player, and will then give you the game logs for the player, along with the total. You can choose the venue too, and that’s how I constructed the above statistics. A permanent link to this service will be added; thanks to Shoewizard for pointing me in its direction.]

I still think that San Diego is probably where he’ll end up. Padres’ GM Towers holds something of a grudge against AZ, for a perceived snub over the Arizona GM position, and this would be a brilliant chance to rub the Diamondbacks’ noses in it. Though I suspect, such a move is about as likely to backfire as a pair of used rocket-propelled roller-skates, bought on Ebay from a member called “Wile-E.Coyote”. It’s somewhat sad to say, but playing full-time for another team in the NL West is perhaps the best thing Gonzalez could do to help his former club in 2007…

Finally, random weirdness of no significance, but which deserves a paragraph of its own. The last six World Series champions, have not just been six different clubs, they’ve also come from six different divisions. Should mean that the 2007 champions come from the NL West again. Oh, and remember my comparison of David Eckstein to Craig Counsell? Both have now won a pair of World Series rings, the first one with a wild-card team when 27 years old, the second four years later, with a division champion, at age 31. Has anyone seen them in the same room?

This is unreal. Props to the Cambodian Government for sponsoring a fight between an African Lion and 42 midgets. After 12 minutes, 28 of the midget fighters were declared dead and the remaining fighters were severely wounded. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

In the ongoing saga of Amare Stoudemire and his surgically repaired knees, the Phoenix Suns are reporting that STAT will come off of the bench to start the season.  Amare’s offseason has been filled with good days and bad, so he doesn’t seem to be comfortable playing a lot of minutes yet.  With the amount of money the Suns paid him for the future, they should be letting him come back slow as well.  If he comes back too quickly, he could end up like Chris Webber or Penny Hardaway.

Stoudemire will come off the bench to start the season, with D’Antoni expecting to play him 15 to 20 minutes a game.

Stoudemire was an All-Star in 2004-05, and a dominant force in the Suns’ Western Conference finals series against San Antonio. But Stoudemire missed all of last season, except for an aborted three-game comeback, because of microfracture surgery on his left knee. He later underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to address wear and tear that occurred during his rehabilitation.

That has led to an uneven recovery, with recurrent pain sending him to the sidelines from time to time. Each setback is closely watched and Stoudemire has grown weary of the scrutiny.

Steve Nash has noted that the offense has changed over the past two years, but Stoudemire said that adjustment is no big deal.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “It’s just that I haven’t played in a year. It’s not really hard to fit into this offense. It’s not hard at all. It’s just that I haven’t played in a full year, so it’s just a little rust.” - Associated Press, FoxSports.com

The Suns are the early favorite to win the NBA Championship (along w/ the Spurs), but everything hinges on Amare’s return and his ability to contribute late in the season.  If he’s there, the Suns should be in the NBA Finals; if he’s not there, another Western Conference Finals could be in their future, but they’d have to get through San Antonio or Dallas to get there (new rules allow best teams to meet up in the later rounds).

Lemon Grass has joined my regular lunch rotation so I’ve been there a few times since the last time I wrote about them.

Apparently our second visit to Zinc Bistro made an impression because it came to mind pretty quickly last night when Lynn, DJ, and I were thinking of a place for dinner.