according to jim

All I want for Thanksgiving is... Jim Thome?

I haven't decided whether I like this acquistion or not, because the Konerko situation has yet to be consummated, so who knows. A highly unscientific straw poll of my Sox friends has resulted in two definite "no's" (from Jill and LeiGh, who have a strong affection for Aaron Rowand), one yes, and a maybe.

5 Good Things about this trade

1. We don't have to watch Jurassic Carl waste four at bats a game, especially when he hit a brutal .206 in September. Thome immediately upgrades the worst #3 production in the majors with his solid OBP (career .408) and his lefthanded bat balances out a mostly righthanded lineup. Granted, Thome will swing and miss a lot, but the dude can also hit 35-40 bombs in the Cell.
2. Konerko - Most people seem to think that acquiring Thome means Konerko is gone. I happen to think otherwise; Thome is not going to take away any of Konerko's playing time, since Ozzie wouldn't put a brutal fielder like Thome out into the field. If I'm Paul Konerko, I'm going to have a lot more runners to drive in, and more protection behind me since Dye and/or Iguchi will drop down in the order. Heck, even if Konerko doesn't sign, the Sox have made progress toward replacing his production. Tasty.
3. Organizational depth is strongest in the outfield, namely flowing blond rookie Brian Anderson (who has a strong defensive reputation) and AA hotshot Chris Young (both listed as top 10 prospects here). It is also possible to move Podsednik to center, where he played for two years with the Brewers. Selling Rowand high, knowing that adequate contingencies that match his strengths were in place, is a good fricking idea. This also eliminates the possibility of insanity like "Jermaine Dye playing first base" from happening.
4. Philadelphia will pay $22mill of the $46 mill Thome is owed over the remaining 3 years. Also, Thome has a "solid citizen" reputation, so he won't disturb the highly prized Clubhouse Chemistry (TM). No one can tell me he's more of clubhouse risk than when AJ signed last year. He's returning to his hometown, he's got doubters after his surgery, he's coming off a crappy year, he doesn't have a ring, and he doesn't have to be the Messiah because he's on a championship level team. He's not going to get any more motivated but still relaxed than he is in this situation.
5. Daniel Haigwood and (reportedly) Gio Gonzalez are excellent prospects, but Haigwood was in AA last year, Gonzalez in high A. Excellent lefty prospects, but not close to being guaranteed, can't miss, ironclad locks. The path to the White Sox rotation is decorated with the remains of Corwin Malone, Lorenzo Barcelo, Matt Guerrier, Jon Rauch, and Scott Ruffcorn. The path out isn't much prettier (Mike Sirotka, Jim Parque, James Baldwin). I'm saying, it's really hit or miss with pitching prospects; this isn't nearly as awful as missing on signing Clemens in '97 or even trading Kip Wells (ugh... I just had a Todd Ritchie relapse).

5 Bad Things about this trade

1. I think LeiGh put it best: "Don't we already have an injured guy that can hit home runs?" Thomas has been more brittle, and chronic foot injuries to a 280 lb guy isn't good news, but Thome has had a history of back issues, and was out last year with right elbow surgery. He's also 35, and I imagine the track record for 35 yr olds coming off surgery to have excellent years isn't stellar. A check swing on a cold April day and he might be back on the DL.
2. Everyone knew that Philadelphia was looking to get rid of Thome since rookie Ryan Howard showed he can handle first base. In a buyer's market, giving up Rowand, Haigwood, and Gonzalez is a lot of swag, especially so early in the buying season. Maybe if this is the end of spring training, but not when December hadn't even rolled around.
3. Rowand played wall-defying, pain-ignoring defense, and if Anderson/Podsednik fall short of it, there is going to be a very noticeable upwards tick in the staff ERA. I think Pods would wear down faster playing in center, and Anderson is an unknown quantity at the big league level. The acquisition of Thome notwithstanding, the Sox won because of run prevention, and even a small dropoff in the overall defense could tip the balance on the razor-thin margins the Sox skated by (35-19 in one run games).
4. Less risky propositions, like the equally old but healthy Carlos Delgado, and the younger, cheaper Lyle Overbay were still on the market when this deal was being talked about. Big spending teams like the Yankees and the Red Sox were also looking for good defensive centerfielders and had pretty shiny pieces for trade (I'm looking at you, Manny Ramirez).
5. Konerko, after the free agent golden treatment, may decide over the creme brulee that the Sox are trying to send him a message, and sign with the Angels/Red Sox/Dodgers. Konerko not re-signing, the perceived void in center, and World Series hubris may also lead KW to something truly horrific, like trading for Juan Pierre.

I'm personally having a great time dreaming of Thome crushing 38 home runs and the Great American Hero in center doing the memory of Rowand proud. I don't think the Sox will win 99 games again, but that has more to do with not being as lucky (the 35-19 in one run game stat evening out, and avoiding the injury bug) more than anything else. The roster still has all of the ingredients necessary for a long postseason run. The Sox had only one clear upgrade, in the DH slot. It could be a lot worse; we could be paying $23 million for middle relievers.

the city of champions

as a classmate called her hometown, Pittsburgh, in a poem she shared. Speaking of poems, I wrote one to express the depth of my emotion during one of my sessions at the English teacher convention:

Eyes too wide, smiles too set
Speech a little too slow and careful,
Your effervescence is too resilient to be believed.
Snap off your hope in the concrete of reality
Before I walk out.

But really, it was the only bad part of the weekend. I learned a heck of a lot, got a bunch of books for cheap, was reassured of my calling as a teacher, drank in a microbrew in an old church, kicked myself for not writing more, almost got shot near a bar but didn't even know it, earned a permanent red handprint on my forehead from slapping it so often at stuff that made so much sense (my favorite was "the telling board"), coolly eyed the booth babes on the exhibition floor, almost puked on the plane ride home. Happy Thanksgiving!

click click

Was flipping through a magazine recently, and my latent desire to take up photography was piqued by an article about print collecting. Here are a few of the more interesting pieces:

"Sunday afternoon on the banks of the Marne," 1938, by Henri Cartier-Besson.

"Mirror view of Yosemite Falls," 1600 feet, 1871, Carleton E. Watkins.

"Mario," 1978, Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

And my personal favorite:

"Two buffoons," 2005, Jill Meier.

peeling away

it's a little strange to think that you could live or be around someone for an extremely long period (decades even) and you still find out things about them that you'd never even suspected. Which is what happened when I took my dad out for dinner on Sunday. He was telling me about his business trips that he took all over the place before I was born, meeting the Shah of Iran and his wife in the 70s, touring Paris, visiting the Philippines. I didn't know he had this adventurous spirit within him to go out and see the world; his current configuration is that of a quiet, reserved, and hardworking father of two. He talked about growing up raised by my great-grandfather who wanted to make him into an educator, but my dad wanting to see the world and also improve the lot of his family. Korea in the 50s wasn't very luxurious. It made me wish very much that I talked to him more frequently, but at the same time, feeling really close to him in that moment.

This sort of tangentially relates to something I caught on the radio about a young woman who was retracing the past of her mother, who had escaped from Nazi Germany with the help of a Polish woman who'd carried her out. As she untangles the string of oral history to track down the family of the Polish who rescued her mother, and in essence rescued the entire family, she finds that there are deeper connections of guilt and shame and remorse than she'd anticipated from the glowing, heroic account she'd been given. I think what got me the most was the years the narrator spent trying to disentangle the conflicting stories she got about what happened, and how strong our own drive is to find out where/who/what we came from. Judging from how frequently my conversation with my dad rings in my ears, it's still something I want to know more about, especially that I now know that there is much more there than I'd assumed.

backing away from the ledge

Took my camera on my trip at the end of week to Michigan, but then I realized a funeral may not be the best place to have a camera.

At the funeral, I was trying to read expressions of the children who were present. Honestly, I think they handled things a lot better than the adults, and not because they were too young to understand what happened to Grandma. Their attitude was more, well, should we stop playing? Should we stop doing the things that we normally do? And they didn't, which was great. They drew pictures with love notes to Grandma, and prayed by the casket, and it was fine. I wouldn't want my kids to be afraid of death, either.

I was reminded, though, that there are so many ways to deal with it. There was a possibility that the wake could have been done in typical Irish fashion, with lots of wailing, beer, and the casket right next to the table where everyone is sitting and eating. Heck it's weird to me, but that's how the Irish do it. They want it all out in the open, and sort of pretending that the person is still alive.

I'm more afraid of not dying "well." The romance of a heroic death is appealing, but that could potentially involve a lot of pain, and who knows how one would deal with that, right in the moment?

It was weird to hear that some of my friends' parents have shared with their children on funeral arrangement. It's jarring to think that's more of a possibility. Yet another sign that I'm getting old.

Off to Madison on Saturday.

keeping it real

I was talking to Jill, and we both agree that it's weird not to have baseball to watch. But I guess I'll take that as long as we won the World Series. That's not going to get old anytime soon. By the way, totally fell asleep Monday night analyzing the Sox roster, which means none of you are as big of a nerd as I am.

Saw one hellacious set by Broken Social Scene on Friday. Crazy loud (who plays trumpets into microphones?). I tend to think of their songs as turning into chaotic sonic goo the further they go, but Durty thinks it goes the other way, from organic soup into a cohesive bang. You're deaf either way, but it's still great to listen to. I always think of BSS as perfect driving music for a sunny autumn afternoon. It has that dreamy, hammocky feel to it.

Ditched my civic duties of candy-distribution to minors by holing up in a bookstore and reading through Gabriel Garcia Marquez's latest, Memories of My Melancholy Whores. And the first line is:

"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin."

Priceless. Fortunately, he doesn't do, and finds himself re-living, and re-loving life, at the age of 90. It's good stuff, and got me to check out Of Love and Other Demons from the library.