Rox Talk

A 0-6 road trip against the Royals and Tigers. Regardless what the pundits say, I think this is the end of the season. To be swept in two separate road trips this year is deplorable. Why is Hurdle still managing this team? Fire him, won't it be embarrassing enough for him to show up at the All-Star break with the worst record in baseball rather than dealing with the alternative? Which by the way is what? Can an interim manager manage the All Star game? The Roxs currently stand at 32-50. Nine games back from division leading D-backs in fourth place. Currently 20-19 at home and 12-31 on the road, the Roxs have been outscored by its opponents 341-417 (expected wins is 34 versus historical wins at 38). On pace for 63 wins with 674 runs scored and 824 runs against.

Weekly WPA leaders (overall as well):

This Week in Comics

New Avengers #42 and Mighty Avengers #15
Have to hand it to Bendis but I like the backstory fill ins that he has been posting in both the New and Mighty Avengers books. Granted supposedly hints have been laid throughout but to actually see how it transpired is well worth it. Realistically this is a very tight cross over event. It doesn't feel has random and thrown together has House of M or Civil War. Little less shock and better story telling which is always good (and welcomed)!






Daredevil #108
Who cares about the story its got Matt and Dakota fighting side by side! Come on now, you know Dakota has been as misunderstood as Dazzler. She is a great character (ok a little tongue in cheek). Thank goodness she has been updated...oh yeah when does the Lady Bullseye come into play?

Uncanny X-men #499
Can't we get to Issue #500 already? Actually this latest storyline did establish a new start for the team. Moving to San Fran (no more East Coast Bias!) and it does portend what I believe to be inroads to the return of Hellfire Club. You know with Emma that this has got to be a storyline.

Ultimate Spider-Man #123
Ultimate Spidey has been kind of boring lately. Ever since the clone saga storyline (gee almost 2 years ago?), the stories have been kind of one shot with no real compelling understory. I love the 3 - 5 issue set stories but I also like hints of a bigger underlying story and it is just not there and thus it has been boring. Guess Bendis has been paying more attention to his invasion, let's up he gets back to Spidey sometime.

Captain America #39
Too many Captains are running around! We've got Bucky, we've got Skull's Captain, we have a Captain showing up at the end of Secret Invasion #4, we've got the Skrulls Captain from the '70s, and whoever else. We need a cleansing or maybe just promote one to Major! Anyway I am sure that Brubaker is getting tired of trying to mesh his story to the rest of the marvel universe. Guess next issue is the big showdown.

Haiku Wednesday

Sparks

A shower of light
Much like seeking fireflies
Surroundings ignite

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson is by far my favorite poet.  His sweeping works are magical.  Born in 1809, he became England's poet laureate in 1850.  My favorite work is Ulysses and the final lines  of this poem which read

     One equal temper of heroic hearts,

     Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

     To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Other good works is his Arthur and the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Rox Talk

Another 4-3 week against the Atlanta (1 Game!), Indians, and Mets. The Roxs currently stand at 32-44. Seven games back from division leading D-backs in third place. Currently 20-19 at home and 12-25 on the road, the Roxs have been outscored by its opponents 322-380 (expected wins is 32 versus historical wins at 36). On pace for 68 wins with 686 runs scored and 810 runs against. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey).

Weekly WPA leaders (overall as well):

Well at least we still have a bullpen. No real movement by the offense or starting pitching. Hard to believe we were 4-3 last week. Interesting to note is that last year at this time we had the Fuentes meltdown. Maybe we can still get there?

Running Records

Okay after looking at Pre's records I decided to look at the mile progression The above graph shows the mile and 800 meter progression over about 86 year period. The first line is the mythical 4 minute barrier and the second line is the two minute period (not so mythical). Anyway it would appear that an average of 0.36 seconds was taken off per year in the mile and about 0.13 seconds in the half mile. Both graphs are relatively linear and both records have now stood for 9 and 11 years respectively. This is the longest the mile record has stood and quite sometime for the 800. I wonder if no one runs the mile anymore? Has the metric mile taken over? In the interest of comparison the chart below shows the mile for swimming. I have no knowledge of swimming but the curve is very different (almost logarithmic) from running races?

Geoff Hollister - Out of Nowhere

I am a huge Nike fan. Have always worn Nike gear and I guess you could call it an obsession. Read about this book somewhere and ordered it immediately because I wanted the inside scoop. Unfortunately this book really isn't about Nike (which is probably good) and actually more about America's distance running form the early 70s through the 80s (which makes this book good). Fascinating tale of America distance running. I grew up with these names and it was interesting to read about them.

Pre?

Below is Pre's PRs. For two years he was at the top of the world. Pre's legend has been ingrained into any runner's psyche. He was a free spirit who ran with a passion that few in the US can comprehend. Many have tried to grab hold of that spirit and some with varying degrees of success (Bob Kennedy) made a run at it. It is interesting to me how parts of the world seem to be granted running success. In the 70s it was the US, 80s probably Britain, and the 90s the Kenyans. Throw in New Zealanders too. Below the table is the current world records and American records. Pre could have stayed up with them until the 5 and 10K were run...wow those races have really had a tremendous surge in record times....

World Record American Record

3:26.00 3:29.30

4:44.79 4:52.44

7:20.67 7:30.84

12:37.35 12:58.21

26:17.53 27:13.98

3:43.13 3:46.91

7:58.61 8:07.07

Haiku Wednesday

Splash

Diving board antics
Jackknives, belly flops make waves
Do not get mom wet!

Clyfford Still

Clifford Still was a leading figure in the development of Abstract Expressionism. The art world claims this to be the most important movement in the last 75 years and thought to be the US's greatest contribution to the art world! That is mighty impressive sounding so why haven't I ever heard of this guy (he is grouped in with Pollack and Rothko). During Still's life he got fed up with the art world and politics and began withholding his works. When he passed in 1980, roughly 94% of his work had been in his estate awaiting a city to present and preserve the pieces. Well Denver stepped up and in 2010 a new museum will open showing these works. A few pieces are currently being displayed at the D.A.M and it is pretty impressive.

I am anxious to see his work and a new building is going to go with it.