Speaking of 'Fine Literature' ...
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The Counselor thanks us all for the insight we've provided on the Oakland A's this year. That's a little bit like Pete Carroll thanking Dave "Softy" Mahler for his suggestions on cornerback play.
But Mojo has not a single Muhammad Ali / Richard Sherman bone in his body, which is in sharp contradistinction to the shtick loudmouthed by that TIC "Dr. Detecto" character. :- )
Hey, if Richard weren't flanked by charming, humble Russell Wilsons and dour, silently menacing Beasts, he wouldn't be half the fun. Like Chuck Knox said, paraphrased, "Nothing wrong with a Richard Sherman in the locker room. Whether you need 20 of them is another matter..."
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This site has transcended the moniker "blog". Perhaps calling it a "Publication" or a "Journal" might be more fitting with the quality of materal that is produced here. If it were up to me, I'd award SSI the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in sports trash talk.
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Gracias Counselor... and as to the "blog" remark, how right you are. Field Gulls, Lookout Landing, Prospect Insider, etc. bear no resemblance to "weblogs" other than that you use your mouse to navigate them.
As it happens, Klat used to call these here thingies "posts" before SSI re-cast its own shtick in dignified terms. Dignified shtick? Precisely the kind of wry paradox on which our fave baseball community turns :- )
Originally a "WeBlog Post" was similar to a personal diary. You told the world what you had for breakfast. Maybe you put in a few tips and tricks: "Have you ever had sliced bananas on Raisin Bran? It's a mouthful of rainbows!" THAT, gentlemen, is a "blog post." Facebook has made a $billion or three, shamelessly exploiting our need to indulge ourselves. Who'da thunk diaries were so liberating.
An "article" contains weighty analysis and explanation. It is coherent, revolving around a worthwhile theme, and it completes its investigation of that theme with a satisfying punch line (or the equivalent). It has value to its readers, which is why "articles" generate traffic and "blog posts" generate catharsis. Articles info-tain and are about the audience; blog posts are contemplative and are about the author.
Or not.
As you know, the comments at SSI are frequently articles. No tongue-in-cheek need apply on that point. Mojo, Gordon, Rick, and Mo' Dawg have made an art form out of burying Articles in the comments thread, but there are times when all the comments contain serious content and coherency. Sigggghhhhhh
The best reads in the Mariner blog-o-sphere are the comments at SSI. Blows mah min'.
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The thing that makes SSI special, is that it uses a blended approach to baseball analysis. We favor an approach that uses scouting, stats, kinetics and psychology in our work and we don't get particularly hung up on any one factor. That is why we saw the fall of the Athletics before it happened. Other sites were so busy Googling over the Athletics' fancy stats that they couldn't see that the Orcs were wussies.
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And one of the best things about the SSI community: peeking out of the corners of our eyes to see other sites, and very fine analysts, rubbernecking the action. These lurker amigos are all single-angle writers (scouts vs sabes vs "access" people, etc), mesmerized by our verboten methods while carefully avoiding any admission that they ever hit the site.
Did you know that Las Vegas has started offering odds on how many Richard Sherman targets this week? What's the over/under on links to SSI, then?
;- )
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Back to the Counselor's point -- Dr. D has always fancied the term "e-zine." :- ) The meta-coherency, across the magazine, comes from predictable columns and flavors in the analysis ... we could use some work here. But there are guest posts, By The Numbers, Zen, Sports-Political Commentary, Postgames, POTD's, and what have you ...
Guest posts, as you know, are absolutely first on this list. 'Tis precisely the synergy that provides the spark for the Frankenstein Monster over whome the mad scientist has obsessed so bizarrely...
Dr. D has no love for elitism, as you might have noticed. But he admits to a certain bemusement with the fact that SSI has somehow collected the surgeons, attorneys, biology editors, novelists, and math majors/meteorologists of the Northwest sports scene. Sometimes we simply marvel at the ferocious quality of the idea exchange.
Five, six years ago Dr. D bowed out of the baseball scene. By a crazy series of miracles, he was lured back in rather reluctantly. All reluctance has long frozen over, as Oakland pretensions to championships in the brisk autumn air. Now SSI is a large fraction of all the human interaction, and friendship, that occurs in his rather trivial existence. Recently, he found himself in the hospital convalescing ... and wondering how to get onto SSI. Um ... somethin's disconcerting about this picture ...
The "theme" of this (old-school) blog post? It's weird how much you can grow to value friendships with people you would not recognize if you walked past them in a Starbucks.
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Announcer:"For accurately predicting failure for the Oakland Athletics when most considered the Athletics to be the finest team in baseball, for denigrating the Athletics in a series of articles through a blended approach questioning the Athletics' psychological makeup, manhood, team composition, hygiene, taxonomy and intelligence, for engaging in undercover investigative reporting into Athletics blogs, and for calling the Athletics "Orcs", which so aptly fits, Seattle Sports Insider is hereby awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for excellence in sports trash talk."
Doc: Thank you so much on behalf of everyone at SSI. You know so much of sports is ephemeral and as fans we tend to overemphasize whatever the box score was the night before. For three months in 2014 Oakland was on top of the world. The Athletics' run differential was the best in baseball and it was widely assumed they'd be winning the World Series. Then, one of our bloggers, known as SabrMatt predicted that the Orcs would fade in the bright lights of September and October. Everyone thought this was a crazy joke at the time, but Matt stuck to his guns, and now we see that he's something truly rare. An analyst who can accurately predict the baseball future with confidence: avant-garde, as it were.
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Sometimes we don't give Matty enough credit. Especially considering that of all seats in the peanut gallery, his is the one that is occupied by a bloke who has been certified MLB(tm) employable... we shouldn't put it that way. SSI is stuffed with people who could add tremendous value to any MLB franchise. Many of them are too busy doing more important things.
The little inside joke is Mojician thanking Matt for "sticking to his guns." True indeed. But see the very first paragraph :- )
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Announcer: And now a few words from Felix Hernandez who has PWNED the Athletics like no other pitcher in history.
Felix: (Shedding a tear) "Destrozando Oakland es mi gran trabajo. (LOL - Dr D) Me ha inspirado siempre estoy pensando en nuevas formas para derrotar a destruir y denigrar a Oakland. Mientras vivo, y mi brazo derecho funciona correctamente, Dios mediante, se aplasta y subyugar a Oakland.
Announcer: (Choked up) Thank you Felix.
Audience goes home crying.
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You got no idea, my friend.
Bring a kickball at recess,
Jeff