Mitchell Report for Dummies

If you want to read the whole entire Mitchell report, you can download it on ESPN.com. It's 409 Adobe pages. Double spaced. Mitchell report.

This link is a very comprehensive analysis of the investigation by Howard Bryant. It will take about 20 minutes to read, but very worth it. Howard Bryant article.

This is a breakdown of some of the key listed, who they are and what the report says about them. Thumbnails of key players.


This is a list of all the players named. All the players named.


It is hard to open any web page today and not see an op-ed piece by some columnist taking shots at the report or the people around it. So I will do my best to avoid that. The report is more than just the name-listing that is making the headlines. It outlines MLB's previous drug policies and events that occured concerning MLB and all drugs, not just steroids. It lays out a timeline of steroid related incidents that led ultimately to this report.
It also gives recommendations as to how to go about fixing the problem and implement a stronger drug testing system.

The juice, pun intended, of the story comes from two former Team employees. Both "testified" with law enforcement present because both are believed to be facing charges stemming from their activities. Not exactly the forthcoming volunteers Mitchell and his crew were probably hoping for.

Op-ed (couldn't help it): We will no doubt read headlines of denials. Similar to the ones we heard from Pete Rose and Marion Jones (and CJ Hunter) . And to a lesser extent, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi and Michale Vick. You really can't believe anything anymore, unless it comes from The Loop and The Lou. We have fact checkers workinng around the clock.

R.I.P. Chip Reese (1951 - 2007)

Poker great David "Chip" Reese died of a heart attack at age 56 last week (as usual we're breaking the story).

Some facts about Chip Reese:

• The casual fan has most likely never heard of Reese. Although he played for years in the biggest cash games in the world, he preferred to avoid the spotlight (for the most part, spotlight = tournaments). This was mostly due to the fact that a) he cut his teeth in a Las Vegas with a heavy mob influence; a town in which you tried your best to hide your winnings, and b) he's always found the cash games more profitable (I once read a story about Chip using the dinner break of one of the rare tournaments he played to jump in a cash game. He won a pot in the game that was bigger than first prize for the tourney). He entered a few tournaments later in his career for his children, who wanted to see him on TV.
  
• Reese went to Las Vegas in the early 70's on his way to Stanford Business School after graduating from Dartmouth. He arrived with $400 and planned to stay the weekend. After 5 weeks he and a partner had built their bankroll up to $60,000. It was at this point that he noticed some of the best of the best (Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss) playing a game of Stud Hi Lo Split. Having played a lot of this game in college, he noticed that the pros weren't playing that well - at least he thought he could beat them. He convinced his partner to let him take most of the bankroll into the game (the minimum buy-in was $30,000). He bought in on Thursday afternoon and didn't leave until Sunday night. With $364,000. Suffice to say, he never made it to Stanford.
• Many of the top pros consider Chip to be one of the best players to have ever lived.
• He was known for his ability to keep his cool. He had excellent "steam control". He also knew how to push it when he was winning (it wasn't unheard of for him to play multi-day sessions), and leave when he was losing (he once left a game when he was $700,000 behind to go see his son's Little League game).
• I heard Reese tell the story of his longest session ever - 5 days. At the end of the marathon session, he called his girlfriend up to cash his winnings and drive him home. As he hit the winter air on the way out to the car, he got a 16th wind and took his girlfriend out to dinner and a movie.
  
• He had a 13,000 sq ft house in Las Vegas (as well as other homes around the country).
• For all his success in poker, he and Brunson had many business ventures together that failed. Fortunately for them, they always had poker.
• He won the 2006 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. H.O.R.S.E. stands for limit Hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, Razz, Stud, stud Eight or better. The games rotated every 40 minutes. The diversity in games as well as the $50,000 buy-in made for probably the most elite tournament field of the year. 1st prize netted him $1.8 million.
  

Putin to Chavez: Don't Be Player Hater

In recent news, Russia and Venezuela both held democratic elections for new dictators. Russians enthusiastically elected Vladimir Putin to an indefinite period of dictatorship, but a similar post was not awarded to dictatorial candidate Hugo Chavez by the Venezuelan public (or as Chavez refers to them, "los estupidos").

Asked if he would ever consider relinquishing any power, Putin chuckled, "It will be warm day in Siberia before that happen, comrade."

When asked for thoughts on Chavez's defeat, Putin mused, "How can he expect to be dictator when he can't even fix election?" Asked if Putin had any words of advice for Chavez, Putin reflected for a moment, then offered, "Start with basics. Kill journalists if they question you. Poison rivals in other countries. Rewrite history and make your country hate United States."

"Done, done, working on it, and done," responded Chavez while feeding his pet bird Pancho Villa. "These things take time, man." Asked how he was taking the defeat, Chavez sighed, "You know, man, you take it one day at a time, man. Senor Ahmedinejhad gave me a call and told me a couple Bush jokes. I watched some episodes of Bill Maher I had Tivo'd. I executed my campaign manager. You know, man."

"But it's not over. There will be another dictator election in a few years, maybe next year if my death squad does its freaking job."

Until then, most of us can rest assured that Venezuela will not be an autocracy in the near future, and that alone may push the light sweet crude down to dirt cheap levels of $85 / barrel. Thank you, citizens of Venezuela, thank you. (Thank you means Gracias).

A-ROD Wins MVP, Opts Out in Search of Bigger Award

In a story that will make even Barry Bonds shake his head in befuddlement, Alex Rodriguez has opted out of the AL MVP award he was awarded yesterday.

While Rodriguez refused to comment, his agent, Scott Bora$$, had this to say, "To present A-ROD with an award like the MVP is akin to spitting in the Pope's eye. I deserve - I mean my client deserves better. Something at the Nobel-level, or at the very least a few Purple Hearts and some General's Stripes. We And we will settle for no less."

After learning the news, second-place finisher Magglio Ordonez shrugged it off, "He did have a pretty good year. It is an honor to finish second to him." At which point Scott Boras (also Ordonez's agent) jumped in, "Oh no, no. Magglio is also opting out of his second-place finish. Magglio deserves the MVP, Manager of the Year, and next year's Cy Young. And we will settle for no less."

If you don't blog for something . . .

It's hard to believe it's November and we've been at this blog thing since February. Almost 10 months. Well, 9 for me because I took that month of for my cosmetic surgery.

When Roller and I first started bloggin', we left our focus pretty much open ended. We were going to write what we were thinking. When we felt strongly enough, when our creative "juices" were flowing, or when we were to bored to find the remote, we would take to the keyboard to set the Internet ablaze.

Since that time, it's been interesting to see the stylistic developments of the two of us. Roller has got info. You want to know about Saudi private schools. BAM! You thought Google was just for searching. No way sister! Do people still do the Rubik's cube? Uh, huyeah! This is a long way from one of his first posts. A semi-fictional diddy about Ryan Howard and my dad. Still a must read.

I on the other hand have mostly been a commentator. Drumming up questions for discussion. Mocking celeb sightings. Rapping about the weather. And apparently an apologist. In addition to the one above I also sent one apologizing to both fans of TATL. I really need to stand up for myself.

Roller has commented as well, like about the Cardinals. And together we have brought the still to be completed series on Law and Order. Lots of bloggy talk about this series on the blogs where they talk about blogs.

So the question I ask myself and all of you is "What does TATL do, besides an expose on hot Spanish speaking weather ladies, to better itself in 2008?"

The first answer is easy. I, Coovo, need to carry more of the load. I think back to discussing this with TATL commenter Ryan, and he told me that the most important thing was to find stuff to write about and not worry about the quality as much so you can get a high frequency of posts, thus an audience. Let me grade myself on these three qualities: 1) finding topics: C, 2) Frequency of posts: F- 3) Assessing writing: F. Lots of times I sit down to write and I don't like it. So I scrap it, get frustrated and don't write for another week. e.g. I've already gone back and changed the wording of the sentence in red 4 times. I have been busy with work. That is true, but Roller also works and has a family. No excuse. More frequent, less proof-read posts. This is my New Year's Blogalution.

The other answers are up for debate. I think some new serial topics would be good where Roller and I team up for hard hitting assessments. Maybe more issues relating to the two cities that inspired the name of this blog. The sky is the limit. Well, maybe the smog layer below the sky but that is pretty high when you think about it.

Please pass along recommendations. We'd love to hear them.

Daily Fixes for the Podcast Junkie

Some of you may know that I'm somewhat of a podcast junkie. I listen to podcasts of many a different topic, length and episode frequency. This post will be the first installment in a three part series on my favorite podcasts. Today I'd like to list my favorite daily podcasts. My other posts will include my favorite weekly podcasts and my favorite podcasts that aren't delivered with a defined pattern. All are free, and subscriptions to all of these podcasts are available in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader by following the links below (or searching in iTunes).

In no particular order:

The Onion: A quick dose (1 minute) of the "news" from The Onion.

The Washington Post's Baghdad Briefing: A ~3 minute piece by one of 7 or so Post correspondents in the Baghdad bureau. Most correspondents are Iraqis. Topics range from day to day life in Iraq to politics to terrorism.

NY Times Front Page: A 5 minute overview of the stories on the front page of the NY Times.

Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing: This podcast actually has a morning and evening edition, each about 5 minutes. If you're a geek and interested in the stock market, this is a concise way to stay current.

Buzz Out Loud: CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. ~30 minutes. For true geeks, an entertaining review of the day's top tech stories by Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.

KEXP Song of the Day: Some of it is great, some of it is ok, some of it is skipped before the song finishes. But a lot of it is music I normally wouldn't stumble upon myself, so it's a great outlet for finding new music. And KEXP is based in Seattle, so it must be cool.

60 Second Science: Length as advertised, a "did you know" type tidbit from Scientific American.

Update 02/08/08:

There are a couple others I have found to be great daily resources:

BBC Global News: This podcast comes in twice a day and usually lasts somewhere around 20-25 minutes. Yes, ~45 minutes a day for one podcast is a lot, but they begin each show with a summary of the stories for that podcast, allowing you to skip to what you want to hear or cut it short altogether. I usually find at least the top story interesting though, and sometimes listen to the whole thing. The BBC has excellent reporting in all corners of the world, and I haven't found a better way to stay informed.

The Real Story with Frank Curzio: As of this posting you will actually find this under the title "The Real Story with Aaron Task". The show is a product of TheStreet.com, and Task hosted it until the end of 2007, when he left for a job with Yahoo!. Task was good, but not good enough to make the original list of my daily favorites. Curzio has picked up the job, and does it very well. He delivers sound analysis in a manner that is easy for the amateur investor to grasp. He does great interviews, isn't cocky, and most importantly, isn't boring. And while this has nothing to do with the quality of his content, there's something believable about listening to a guy with a thick NYC accent talk about money.

Geno in the news (finally)

Friend of TLATL and Right-Winger for minor-league hockey team The L.A. Barges, Gene explains why breast-feeding makes kids smarter.

Anonymous donor to TLATL and Left-Winger for major-league political party The Democrats, Hillary contends that the phenomenon is not isolated to kids.