Nothing much going on with the C’s (or TBirds), so I figured I’d ramble a little about anything going through my mind.

And the first item in my head is a good’un.

WE’RE EXPANDING!
Barely a week goes by without me referencing Jeremy over at the Roadkill Sports Blog, as he’s a hardcore info geek who always manages to get the scoop on some player being let go, or some formerly let go player catching on at another team. And it struck me that we both seem to spend a lot of time doing the same work, about the same players and team. Even though we share info, it seems silly to spend time maintaining and growing two blogs, so I asked if he’d consider coming aboard NFTN, and bringing his back catalogue of content with him. He’s agreed to do so, which means we’re going to expand like crazy-go-nuts.

As Jeremy covers UBC games as well as C’s games, we’ll be doing more work on that front. He also covers Vancouver Giants minor league hockey games as well as BC Lions CFL games, so you’ll find that stuff here as well going forward.

My plan is to set up a front page for each sport, which will show posts relating to that sport – baseball.natnotes.com for baseball, for example, or cfl.natnotes.com for Lions games, etc. The regular site will show everything, regardless of sport, but for more focused content, people will be able to pick and choose what they see.

All of which means, this blog, as of now, is no longer mine and mine alone – Jeremy will be an equal partner.

What that means to you is MORE content. MORE interviews. MORE game reports. MORE live-blogging. MORE variety. And MORE Vancouver sports. And probably MORE arguments about whether Stephen Harper is a buffoon or not (I say ‘is’).

Welcome aboard, J.

 
THE C’S NEED A SPEEDGUN.
I’ve been bitching about this for a
few years now, but perhaps with new owners in place, now’s a good time
to reiterate it – the Canadians need to install a speedgun behind home
plate with an electronic display on the outfield wall, so fans can see
how fast the pitches are coming in. I tried to get this happening last
year – even offering the blog as a sponsor to cover part of the cost -
but the investment would come to about five grand to do it right.

Is
it worth doing at that cost? Hells, yes. Anyone who has sat behind the
off-day pitchers and scouts and heard the endless barrage of fans
saying, "How fast was that one?" and "What’s been the quickest of the
day?" will tell you that the fans want to know whether the pitches
they’re seeing are quicker than usual, or slower than molasses. It
gives them one more thing to look at, which is a big deal when there’s
so much downtime between pitches, and it also gives the team one more
place to slap an advertiser.

And that’s how I propose the team
makes it happen – give Coke or Pepsi (or Granville Island Brewery) a
call, ask them to pay for the electronic display, and let them put
their logo on either side of it. Heck, Coke will put an electronic sign
outside a local grocery store, so you can’t seriously tell me they
wouldn’t fork out five G’s to get a permanent ad on the outfield wall.

In fact, if memory serves, wasn’t that how we got the existing electronic scoreboard? I seem to recall it used to have Molson Canadian logos on either side, from the old days when they owned the team…

Anyways, make
it so, ownership! Otherwise I’m going to have to spend a hundred bucks
and get a handheld radar gun so we can post some pitch speeds on the
blog and fill this informational void once and for all.

 
TRAVIS BUCK RIPPED IT UP IN SPRING TRAINING
2005 Vancouver Canadians outfielder Travis Buck absolutely belted all comers in Major League spring training, posting the best batting average by far in the Oakland camp, and knocking around a ton of doubles and runs batted in. In fact, he’s looked so good that a lot of fans were beginning to wonder if he might actually snare a spot on the A’s roster.

Buck hit his first homer of the spring Saturday against the Rangers, and his oozing potential has generated much buzz in his first big-league camp; he was batting .368 with a .457 on-base percentage in 16 games entering Saturday.

"He’s the real deal," says A’s outfielder/first baseman Nick Swisher. "That boy can swing it!"

Buck, 23, swings it so well that he’s drawn some lofty comparisons during his time in the desert. Keith Lieppman, Oakland’s director of player development, and manager Bob Geren have said Buck reminds them of a young Jason Giambi.

Rest assured, he will before the year is out, joining other ex-Canadians Nick Swisher, Dan Johnson, Rich Harden, Jason Windsor, and Joe Blanton.

RYAN GOLESKI SENT BACK TO CLEVELAND
I hate this. Ryan Goleski was picked up by the Oakland A’s as a Rule 5 draftee in the off-season. That means Cleveland didn’t protect him, Oakland wanted him, but the A’s had to agree to carry him on their Major League roster for at least one season, or he reverts back to Cleveland (who don’t want him and have no place for him). Well, Cleveland didn’t tell anyone pre-draft, but Goleski had a hurt wrist and needed surgery. Major faux pas on their part, but he had the surgery and the A’s decided against making a big deal out of it, because they like the kid.

But, of course, recovering from wrist surgery isn’t a great way to lead in to a leap from AA ball to Major League spring training, so Goleski struck out a bunch and racked up a low batting average that wasn’t troubling Senor Mendoza any. The A’s couldn’t keep him in the big league roster as a mop-up pplayer, what with outfielders Kielty and Kotsay both out injured and T-Buck pushing for a regular spot, but they wanted to put Goleski in AAA to season, so they decided to negotiate with the Indians on a trade. Basically, "we’ll send him back, but you trade him to us for old rope, and that will allow us to put him in the minors and you can keep the Rule 5 money and not get crap for not disclosing his injury."

Cleveland said no, and will instead keep Goleski, even though they don’t have room for him in AAA, and may not have room in AA ball either, considering their glut of outfielders. Frankly, it’s sheer bloody mindedness. And Goleski seems to agree.

"I thought the whole Rule-5 thing was a way to get out of Cleveland. . . .I wonder why Cleveland wants me back. I don’t even know if they have a spot for me at Triple-A or Double-A. It doesn’t make sense — don’t say you want to to hold on to me and then say you don’t have a position for me."

Will Cleveland hold out for a larger trade? Will they take a longer look at Goleski, now that they know the Moneyball crowd likes what they see? Or will they trade him to someone else, or even cut him out of spite?

Either way, it sucks for all concerned.

PEOPLE WHO BUY EXTENDED WARRANTIES ARE DUMBER THAN YANKEE FANS
I just went to Best Buy to pick up an MP3 player and the clerk kept me there for a solid three minutes telling me that if I didn’t pay an extra ten bucks for the extended warranty, I’d regret it. Five times I said "NO", increasingly more forcefully each time, until finally I just said, "You know what, if you’re telling me this thing is going to break within a year, keep it. I’m not interested." Then, all of a sudden, she was happy to put through the sale in quick time.

All of which annoys me to no end. First, leave me the hell alone if I say "no", don’t keep at me to pay your damn protection money, Best Buy. Second, if you’re selling me a product, STAND BEHIND IT. If it breaks, replace it because it SHOULDN’T break, don’t ask me to pay an extra 25% just for the assurance that you’ll stand behind the product you’re selling.

And third, you know why they work so hard to sell you that extended warranty? Because only about 5% of people ever keep them – the rest forget about them, lose the paperwork, upgrade what they bought before it breaks, or just can’t be bothered taking them in for repair/replacement when they do break. That means the company is getting free money every time you take out that extended warranty. If you fall for it, frankly, you’re a fool.

In my case, I know that MP3 players are going into just about everything you buy now, so I don’t even CARE if the thing doesn’t last a year because you’ll be able to buy them for $9.95 in six months time. They’ll have the things in Corn Flakes boxes before long. I only bought it in the first place because it was the last one in stock of that line, and thus was discounted heavily ($69.95 down to $39.95). That said, I decided to take out the extended warranty after all, and here’s why: I was really f’ing annoyed at being harassed to do so.

Doesn’t make sense? Read on and it will.

According to the policy on the extended warranty, if your purchase breaks and needs replacing, and they don’t have any more of that model, they have to give you the next one up. In my case, I was buying the last 1MB model they had, and the next one up is a 2MB model. So, sufficiently angry at being badgered, I paid the ten bucks for the extended warranty, walked into the parking lot, wrapped the MP3 player in a bunch of tissues, and slammed it to the ground a few times. No marks, no scuffs, completely non-working MP3 player.

I took it back in and complained that it wasn’t working, and they begrudgingly gave me a brand new 2MB player.

And that’s how I got a $129 MP3 player for $49.95.