Rodney Dangerfield

One of my regular websurfing stops is Baseball Musings, but I'm beginning to reconsider that. About a week ago, its author posted a brief look at the Padres, headlined "How Is This a First Place Team?" Well, okay; their no-better-than-average offense is not exactly news. But....

Yesterday, in a "Games of the Day" post, he recommended several games: Yankees/Toronto, Detroit/Seattle, Atlanta/Florida, Tampa Bay/Minnesota, and Arizona/Dodgers. He concluded by saying

Tim Lincecum and Roy Oswalt also pitch tonight, so it should be a great night for lovers of good pitching. Enjoy!

Oswalt did, indeed, pitch last night. His opponent was Mat Latos of the Padres. Latos is leading the league in Batting Average Against and tied for the lead in Walks/Hits Per Inning Pitched. His ERA is significantly better than Oswalt's; his W-L is much better; and though Oswalt has more strikeouts, on a per-inning basis they're about even. (Oswalt and Latos both pitched seven innings of shutout ball, as it happens; the Padres scored three off the Astros' bullpen and won 3-0.)

How is this a first place team? Because they've got the best damned pitching staff in baseball, is how.

Shopping

Today, I wandered over to Target to pick up some more blank DVDs and some jewel cases to put them in. I also bought another Beatles album ("Beatles For Sale"); there are only four more to get.

En route, I passed by The Chef Shoppe - the store where I bought my manual coffee grinder. Since then, it had moved and (as I learned in conversation with the woman at the counter) moved again. On impulse, I stopped in to look for a new kitchen timer and a big frying pan. (Excuse me; now they're "sauté pans".) They turned out to have a small number of mechanical timers, and a wide range of pans. I settled on an All-Clad pan, 12" diameter and 2.5" depth - much better than my old one, at 10"x2". (The old one is on its last legs in any case. The handle is attached by a screw, which I have had, on several previous occasions, to re-screw, but it appears now that the threads are stripped. I am not going to cook with a pan whose handle I cannot trust to stay on!)

All in all, a good - though expensive - shopping trip.

Righteous Ray

I'm listening to my Righteous Brothers anthology at the moment. I hadn't realized how many older songs they covered: "The White Cliffs of Dover" (which I didn't know was written as a song of hope in the dark days of the Blitz), "Ebb Tide", "That Lucky Old Sun", and quite a few others.

On a whim, I looked up that last song in Wikipedia. It's been covered quite a bit, notably by Ray Charles - and I'd love to hear that version. I see that the relevant album, "Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul", has been rereleased in a double CD, along with "Have a Smile for Me". I shall have to put that one on my list.

(On the subject of covers: I finally got around to listening to my Roy Clark album. There was only one song on it whose title I recognized - "Yesterday When I Was Young". Imagine my surprise when the very first song on the album, "Tips of My Fingers", suddenly began to sound familiar. I struggled to recall where I'd heard it, and it finally hit me: I have a cover by reggae master Desmond Dekker. Very interesting, and not a pair of artists one would normally link....)