Josh Hamilton got seriously close last year, but Miguel Cabrera had him beat on OBP by .009. Kemp isn’t particularly close on the AOS triple crown, but who cares. He’s very close to the traditional triple crown and a 40/40 season with only a handful of games to go.
Kemp also had this to say on ESPN 710:
“[We] haven’t started talks,” the MVP candidate told 710 ESPN, “but I plan on being with Dodgers rest of my career.”
Pardon my language, but Goddamn it’s good to hear that.
There aren’t a lot of bats, balls or rackets in northern Afghanistan. There are goats, horses, men and dusty plains, and they have been there ever since Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde swept into the neighborhood in the 13th century. Their game, then, is simple. Men on horseback grab a goat from a chalk circle, carry it around a pole and drop it into another circle. No downs, innings, line judges or refs. Sometimes there are teams, and sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes the field is 200 meters by 200 meters, and sometimes it isn’t. And the goat? The goat might be a calf, but it’s always dead, just lying there with its head and hooves cut off.
Grab the goat, bring it around the pole and put it in the circle. That’s buzkashi.
Over the past several years, the ancient sport of buzkashi—Dari for “goat grabbing”—has turned into a big business in northern Afghanistan. Instead of sporting-goods manufacturers, sponsors usually are rival warlords who bet on their favorite goat grabbers.
Afghanistan’s ‘Goat Grabbing’ Game
The buzkashi stars get a monthly wage, receive cars as gifts for a stellar performance and save enough money to afford a second or even third wife, the ultimate status symbol here.
“I used to practice buzkashi on donkeys, now I drive a Lexus!” said 33-year-old champion Jahaan Geer from his saddle covered in bright hand-woven carpets.
Mr. Geer used to play for Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of Afghanistan’s most brutal warlords in the 1990s civil war, but he recently switched to play for Kam Air, the Afghan airline, whose wealthy owner is one of the biggest buzkashi enthusiasts.
Absurdly amazing. Both articles are good reads. A lot of former warlords-turned-businessmen are involved and it’s become a big post-Taliban reminder of humanity (and sometimes lack thereof) in Afghanistan. Reminds me a lot of Pro Thunderball.
Circle of Justice has a better ring than gun circle.
The Scorekeeping Project donation drive ended on Tuesday at noon my time roughly and we finished just north of $3,000. I imagine everything should be paid for, barring some huge catestrophe, and we’re probably gonna be able to do some Spanish-speaking broadcasts as well.
The next few months will be collecting data. Adam and I have (well, OK, Adam has) done a good deal of it so far, but we have a long way to go.
If you’d like to become a coder–and receive a small stipend for your coverage–please contact me at sethamitin at gmail.
Today is the last day to donate. Officially we have 12 hours. It ends at about 11 a.m. PST, and I’m going to be at work–first day of school for high schoolers! Regardless, this is our final push for donations. We want to get a few extra in to help pay for a few extra items, including manuscript printing fees and covering the cost of the kickstarter. If we get enough, we’re going to look into coverage of Spanish-speaking broadcasts. In any case, please help out if you can.
We’re also looking for people that can watch the broadcasts. If you’d like to be a data collector, please contact me by posting in the comments here or leaving a comment on the kickstarter page.
I saw this on a forum and had to post it here. I think it was originally written by this guy, but if it wasn’t, show me the link and I’ll give proper citation.
Matt Kemp has joined the 30/30 club with 30 HR and 33 SB. Ted Lilly has given up 28 HR and 29 SB. if Lilly gives up 2 more HR and another SB, both of which are perfectly feasible, they would become the first batter/pitcher teammates to have gotten/given up 30 hr & 30 sb in the same season.
Notable combos who fell just short:
1999 Dodgers: Raul Mondesi 33 HR 36 SB, Ismael Valdez 32 HR, 26 SB
1998 Mariners: Alex Rodriguez 42/46, Jeff Fassero 33/24
1996 Rockies: Ellis Burks 40/32 & Dante Bichette 31/31, Kevin Ritz 24/27
1990 Braves: Ron Gant 32/33, John Smoltz 20/31
1987 Mets: Darryl Strawberry 39/36 & Howard Johnson 36/32, Ron Darling 24/33
1987 Reds: Eric Davis 37/50, Ted Power 28/20
1987 Indians: Joe Carter 32/31, Tom Candiotti 28/25
1970 Brewers: Tommy Harper 31/38, Lew Krausse 33/23
Tim Wakefield (BOS 1996 and 2000) and Joe Coleman (DET 1973 and 1974) are the only two to do it more than once and you can probably imagine why: anybody who does give up that many homers is probably out of baseball the next year.
In 1987, four pitchers (Jose Guzman, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris and Charlie Hough) gave up 30 homers and 30 SBs and that was because 1987 was a boom year for homers.
TrueBlueLA has a pretty darn good post (here) on how fast Matt Kemp got there and the prospects of him getting to 40/40, which are surprisingly not too bad.
I don’t know about you, but it’s been a lot of fun going to the ballpark to watch Kemp play this year.
Kemp is currently leading the National League in WAR at 7.7 and is only .2 behind Jose Bautista (JOEY BATS!!) for the lead in all of baseball. That difference can be within the margin of error, though, so take it with a grain of salt.
Ryan Braun is second in the NL with a 6.5 WAR, a full win behind Kemp. Knowing the voters, though, and how Braun’s team is currently in the playoff hunt, I wouldn’t be surprised if Braun won it.
This comes a little late, partially because I’ve had a lot of non-blog issues on my plate, but anyway. As of a week ago today, we are officially funded for the Scorekeeping Project. I’m very happy. I went out and had a couple of beers with friends this weekend to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who donated, spread the word and did anything to help us reach our goal.
Adam and I have talked about it and we still want to expand our scope to include Spanish-speaking broadcasts. There also seems to be a lot of interest in the soccer community and I’d be honored to lead that if someone were able to come up with the necessary info to create a project (lit review, reference variables, etc.).
In any case, we’re still looking for donations; we’re still looking for people who’d like to collect data. We have 11 days left. Thank you everyone for what you’ve done, let’s keep going.
This is our dull period, baseball fans. We have some basketball and some hockey to tie us over, but let’s be honest, both do nothing. In its stead, I offer the following. Click this link: http://youtubedoubler.com/3dNz Mute the video on … Continue reading →
I’m in the middle of a great conversation with my brother-in-law (a scientist) about steroids, PEDs, and the effects they have on baseball players. I think this may become a blog post (summer project!), but in the meantime, here’s this. … Continue reading →
Here is your list of Baseball Hall of Famers in offense. And here’s your Baseball Hall of Famers in pitching. You may notice two things immediately: First, Jimmie Foxx had a freaking awesome pitching career. But secondly, there’s a pretty … Continue reading →
Now that most of the back and forth is over, Kemp’s WAR wasn’t higher than Braun because of defense, it was higher because Kemp played in 161 games to Braun’s 150. That’s 11 more games, 60 more PAs, and a … Continue reading →
Buster Olney tweeted the following today: History tells us that young closers who blow postseason leads in big moments rarely recover… Well there haven’t been a whole lot of closers to give up walk-off home runs, so here’s just a … Continue reading →
