The Taxman

Sister Blog

2009-10-15T10:57:00.001-04:00

There has been more action at my sister blog Fire Dick Jauron than over here. Do go check it out and pray for the demoralized fans of Buffalo that their deliverance from Dick will soon come.

A Breath of Fresh Air from Bronson Arroyo

2009-07-31T11:42:00.004-04:00

This is really great. Bronson Arroyo not only admits he used Andro until 2004 and would not be surprised if his name was one of the "magic 104". He also has some of the most level-headed comments on the whole situation I've heard from any active player. No moralizing, just honest. Like this:

"In my mind, I think you have to lump the whole era together," Arroyo said, according to the report. "A lot of people were doing it, a lot weren't. I think pitchers probably gained 3 or 4 mph on their pitches and power hitters got some more power.

"But guys like David and Manny, if they did something, it didn't make them who they were. Did it make them a little better? Probably"

And this:

Before 2004, none of us paid any attention to anything we took," he said, according to the Herald. "Now they don't want us to take anything unless it's approved. But back then, who knows what was in stuff? The FDA wasn't regulating stuff, not unless it was killing people or people were dying from it.

Mike Schmidt, who I love, noted in his book Clearing the Bases (which came out in 2006) that while he didn't try steroids, he could imagine being tempted, especially if everyone else was doing it - due to the competitive edge it may provide (or simply to keep up with the Joneses). It's time for everyone to stop acting surprised that a major league baseball player, particularly one who is paid to hit home runs, would do what the likely majority of his peers was doing, especially when it wasn't banned in baseball, especially when the rules weren't clear on what you could or could not do, and especially where if the roles were reversed, nearly every one of us would have done the same thing (or at least have been tempted).

I also liked this take by Jon Couture.

The Bad Samaritan (and the daily, o.k., weekly updates)

2009-07-30T22:08:00.004-04:00

The other day, I was stupidly wondering if there was such a thing as a "Bad Samaritan". It doesn't seem to me to be a phrase that is in common usage. I wouldn't say that a Bad Samaritan is necessarily someone who doesn't stop to help another - the help was what made the Good Samaritan good - if he had continued walking down the road, he would have been an Apathetic Samaritan. No, a Bad Samaritan is someone more insidious, someone who actively throws someone else under the bus (think T.O. with the Eagles or Linda Tripp viz a vis Monica Lewinsky).

Come to find out that, of course, the Bad Samaritan already exists in popular culture. Indeed, besides the eponymous DC comic character, we have the book by economist Ha-Joon Chang, decrying capitalism and identifying "rich countries" as bad samaritans (timely!).

Despite these minor cultural references, the phrase is not commonly used. I promise to change this. I hereby am instituting a new "feature" on this here blog, in honor or Marv Albert's "Close Plays of the Month", I will begin the "Bad Samaritan of the Week" award.

Well, next week.

On to the updates.

The Taxes Update

The McCain/Levin Options Bill

Not much new to report since my last post. There are some reactions from the interwebs:

OMB Watch, while noting that the bill is unlikely to reach the Senate floor (not so sure about that), thinks this is a good start to reducing book-tax differences. Well, it may reduce a book-tax difference, but it results in a massive windfall for the IRS, at the expense of corporations who are using stock options to presumably incentivise their employees. It's a stealth tax on corporations (and by extension their shareholders)

The Health Care Tax Update

Lots has happened since my last post on this topic.

Surtax = explicitly limited to millionaries, and probably a nonstarter in the Senate

Repeal of tax exclusion for employer-provided health care = dead, in terms of direct tax, but back-door tax (sorry, "fee") on employers who provide "gold-plated" insurance

Sin taxes on soda, fatty foods, lipo, abortions... = all on the table., although Megan Mcardle hates the idea and the NY Times economix blog questions whether they work.

They probably don't work, at least not at any level that will be politically palatable. Also, they're regressive and I'm not generally a fan of taxes on such personal behavior when it is not precisely clear that the failure to tax is costing society at large.

Some more good links on the tax debate:

Conor Clarke at the Atlantic thinks taxing health care will lower costs in the long run (he's right).

This Washington Post piece is contra.

I linked to it above, but this piece by Len Burman at the Tax Vox Blog is remarkable, going over whether a fee imposed on health insurers, rather than a direct tax on health insurance benefits (with some subsidies for lower income people) is a regressive tax. Really a brilliant post.

Finally, another post from the Tax Vox Blog pointing out, as I have before, that Obama has really painted himself into a corner by promising deficit-neutral reform that also brings costs under control, without imposing taxes on the "middle class".

Unfortunately, this is all a bunch of silliness since there won't be any real vote on any real bill until after the August recess. Still, the level of detail into the tax policy issues is fantastic.

Especially for a tax geek.

The Baseball Update

Yeah, Papi tested positive for steroids. Here is the piece by Michael S. Schmidt (can't believe he is only 25 years old). Here is Papi's statement. Here is some video from NESN.

I don't really care, except that I guess I wish he hadn't been so strident in some of his statements following the A-Rod disclosures. Perhaps he really was blindsided by this as he says.

Anyway, Nomar Garciaparra gave a fascinating (and wide-ranging) interview today after the Sox-A's game. He noted something I had never heard before - that some players essentially told the testers to mark them down as positive for steriods (apparently by refusing the test) so that the overall positive tests came in above 5% (the threshold for mandatory testing starting in 2004). If you listen carefully, it sounds almost as though Nomar is intimating he is one of those guys. Either because it's true, or because he tested positive and is setting up his cover story now.

Oh, and go to hell Dan Shaughnessy. Wonder what the odds are that CHB had this column sitting in his rusty file cabinet for the past 4 years, just waiting, panting, foaming at the mouth, hoping the day would come when he could finally publish it.

The Death Update

Harry Patch, Britain's last living WWI veteran, died this past Saturday, July 25. He was 111. This comes just a bit after WWI's other surviving WWI veteran, Henry Allingham died.

Every once in a while I'll see an article or short piece of the "last" veteran of something, sometimes a war, sometimes, the last person who did a particular job, whatever. If you do the math (WWI ended in 1918, soldiers should have been about 18 minimum to serve), all remaining WWI vets must be at least 109. Actually, god bless Wikipedia, here is the list. Nearly 70 million men served. There are 3 left.

Anyway, the obit is here

Diiii Heard That - R.I.P. Les Lye

2009-07-23T21:59:00.004-04:00

Les Lye, known to people of my generation (at least those of us who lived in or near Canada) as "Barth" from the Canadian TV show You Can't Do That on Television died Tuesday at the age of 84.

He actually played most of the adult characters on the show, notorious for the "sliming" of people when they answered "I don't know" to a question. But chief among them was dirty, crusty diner cook "Barth":

Here is a gallery of various of his characters, strangely hosted by a german tribute site.

I have an odd memory of a particular episode where each character he portrayed smoked - and bad things happened as a result. Apparently he wasn't a smoker and as a coda to the episode, one of the kids interviewed him out of character - he wheezed and coughed like he couldn't breathe to emphasize the evils of tobacco, I guess. I bought it (of course I was 11).

Anyway, I was able to establish my Canadian street cred having watched the show and I'm grateful for his work.

The obit is here

The taxes update was earlier today. The baseball update is off for today as the Sox are off.

I'll end though with the quote of the day, courtesy of Shysterball (describing the Jays-Indians series):
And man, between the Indians putridity and the sense of foreboding surrounding the Jays at the deadline, this series is more depressing than watching "Requiem for a Dream" while listening to a Morrissey box set.

Brilliant.

Finally, DeWayne Wise's amazing catch:

McCain, Levin Introduce Bill to Alter Tax Treatment of Stock Options

2009-07-23T08:52:00.008-04:00

Senators John McCain and Carl Levin yesterday introduced legislation (S. 1491 - see below for link) which would radically change the way corporations deduct compensation paid to their employees in the form of stock options.

I note that we've been down this road before

Under current law, (Section 83 of the Code), a corporation deducts compensation related to a stock option granted to an employee at the time the employee exercises the option (this is correspondingly the time the employee recognizes the income). The amount of compensation expense (and therefore the amount of the deduction) is the "spread" at exercise - i.e., the difference between the fair value of the stock upon exercise and the exercise price the employee must pay.

The accounting treatment is different - and is the reason for the bill. Under accounting rules, corporations are required to book expense related to stock options upon grant and book the "fair value" of the option (determined under Black-Scholes or some other option pricing model) at the time of grant.

The book expense will often (nearly always) be less than the tax expense. From a financial accounting perspective, companies like this - they show a small expense for book purposes, which has a minor impact on earnings and then get to monetize a much larger expense via the greater tax deduction.*

a few years ago, companies were allowed, for GAAP purposes to book zero expense upon grant, on the basis that the options had no "intrisic" value at grant if they were granted out of the money or "at the money" (i.e., the exercise price was at least equal to the value of the underlying stock at grant). This changed a few years ago and now companies are (rightly) required to book comp expense based on the fair value of the options

The Levin/McCain bill would change current law and limit companies' tax deduction to the amount reported as compensation expense for book purposes.

This makes no sense to me. The employer's tax deduction is based on the compensation its employee includes in income - you have yin and yang. It's fundamental in the tax law that corporations are entitled to deduct compensation paid to their employees (so long as it is not "excessive"). This would alter that fundamental law on the basis that the accounting treatment is different; however, there is no dodge here.

Perhaps the Senators want to steer companies away from making large option grants in the first place:

By eliminating what Levin called an “excessive and outdated corporate tax deduction,” the Michigan senator said, “we would not only eliminate a tax incentive that encourages corporate boards to hand out huge executive stock option pay, but also ensure that profitable corporations do not use outsized tax deductions to escape paying their fair share of the tax burden.”Breaking that parity and tying the comp deduction to the accounting treatment

The deductions are not "outsized". They match the income that employees are reporting and paying tax on. If the link between the employee's income and the deduction is broken, the IRS will have a windfall (unless companies begin to report much higher comp expense for accounting purposes, which seems unlikely).

Perhaps I am missing something, but this strikes me as particularly unfair and silly. If the Senators want to limit stock option grants, then they should limit stock option grants - just make the $100,000 limit applicable to incentive stock options applicable to all stock options (or perhaps choose a greater limit).

Update: Man, the Tax Prof is fast

Further Update: Here is the legislation.

Big 100th Post Extravaganza

2009-07-22T22:52:00.005-04:00

... Not really - I'm pressed for time.

The Baseball Update

Sox picked up Andy LaRoche from Pittsburgh - should slide in to a 3B/PH role and hopefully help out against righties. Sox also picked up Chris Duncan from the Cards for Lugo. Duncan seemingly replaces Mark Kotsay as 5th OF/general 1B utility guy. I hope he does well. Here are some reactions:

Neyer

ShysterBall

Via Leitch on why Sox fans will enjoy Duncan

Jere Smith

Update: More from the Hardball Times on the Duncan deal. And More from Pinto on the same deal.

My take? LaRoche has done much better in the second half than the first half and does reasonably well against righties, and makes a natural platoon w/ Lowell, but this is the definition of a marginal move - how many more runs will Laroche create than Kotsay (who is basically who he is replacing on the roster?) The Duncan move I guess has some upside if he can capture his '07 power, but the Sox did not improve themselves appreciably.

Meanwhile, we have these opposing tweets:

Sports Guy

John Henry

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Sox are down 3-1 as I write this, looking tired. Didn't most of these guys just have a few days off?

The Taxes Update

USA Today got Nancy Pelosi today to say that she could lived with a scaled-back surtax to fund health care. President Obama seemed to be o.k. with that in his presser tonight (while definitively killing the idea of scrapping the tax exclusion for employer-provided health care benefits).

What does this mean? Your taxes will not go up to fund health care unless you make > 500K (for individuals and gay spouses) or 1M (for hetero married couples).

The Death Update

R.I.P. Gidget.

Words fail.

Commando (and the daily updates)

2009-07-21T23:04:00.004-04:00

The movie Commando (which happens to be on AMC tonight) stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alyssa Milano, Rae Dawn Chong and Dan Hedaya, among others. Alyssa Milano was 12 when the movie was filmed. Now both she and Governor Schwarzenegger are prominent Californians (Milano has her own clothing line for Chrissakes).

I wonder what it would be like to now be 36 or so, looking at a time capsule of sorts, that is continuously rerun on basic cable. If you didn't like the performance, or the way your rockin mid-80s outfit looked:

Here's the deal - Commando will be shown in heavy rotation on TNT, AMC, Spike, whatever mid-tier basic cable station decides it needs Testosterone Week. I'm sure Milano is getting nice residuals from the movie being shown so much, but it must be at least a little awkward to see your 12 year old self, a bit awkward, definitely not thespian-developed, trying to deliver silly one-liners across from the future Governator.

Maybe the money is really good.

The Baseball Update

Ugh. Sox get knocked out of first by the immortal Tommy Hunter and Jason Jennings. Time for the return of Three things I noticed:

(1) Jacoby Ellsbury will never be a fully successful major league hitter until he learns to take a pitch or two. The 0-4 tonight was partly a product of lack of discipline, particularly on his last at bat - a weak first pitch floater to CF.

(2) I think Francona has gotten a bit tentative with his 'pen in close games. I was surprised he left Beckett out there for the 8th after already getting through 100 pitches (particularly since in the 7th he let the first 2 guys on).

(3) Jere Smith is typically optimistic about the Sox, particularly given that they're sitting in the wild card, even after the loss, and that there is almost half a season yet to play. And yet.. and yet..

it is not traitorous to point out that the Sox have legitimate flaws. They haven't settled on a leadoff guy who can get on base with regularity (the indispensable John Couture pointed out on his blog the other day that the Sox haven't exactly been lighting it up from the leadoff spot. There are other flaws too - obviously the pen is in a bit of a funk. The 5th starter situation isn't fully sorted out. Lester still has bumps (witness last night). Drew and Bay are in a funk. And Ortiz, despite the semi-strong last month, still is not consistently getting the job done.

This is not to say that the Sox are in any danger of missing the playoffs, but a criticism of obvious weak spots and a hope that something is being done to address them (giving Buccholz a longer look is a good sign) is not inconsistent with being a fan.

The Tax Update

On hiatus for tonight.

The Death Update

I honestly had forgotten that we had female pilots in WWII. These were the WASPs (when the WACs were much more well known). Virginia Sweet, who passed away on July 12 at the age of 88, like her fellow WASPs, flew mostly transport and non-combat "ferrying" flights, sometimes in beat-up planes, so male pilots would be available for combat flights. A somewhat sad story, the WASPs didn't get the recognition they deserved (and apparently weren't eligible for the GI Bill when they were done - because they were civilians, but still). Here is an example of the shabby treatment they received:

Thirty-eight WASP fliers lost their lives while serving their country during the war. Because they were not considered to be in the military under the existing guidelines, a fallen WASP was sent home at family expense without traditional military honors or note of heroism. The military would not even allow the U.S. flag to be put on fallen WASP pilots coffins.

The obit is here

John Smoltz and the Big Inning (Plus the Daily Updates)

2009-07-20T22:04:00.004-04:00

John Smoltz wasn't exactly mowing them down tonight (although he did get his FB in the low '90s with movement), but he was plenty effective, through 5 IP he had allowed only 4 hits, 3Ks and no walks. Then it all fell apart - 2B, HR, K, 1B, K, HR, HR and he's gone. He ended up throwing 96 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.

This is not a new thing for Smoltz. In his July 6 start against the A's he allowed 4 in the 4th inning (although with less violence - no home runs). And in his first start of the season, against the Nationals (!!!) he allowed 4 in the first.

Scott Baker of the Twins is another guy who's been snakebitten by the curse of the "one big inning". In his 18 starts this season, he's allowed 3 runs or more in a single inning 10 times (including a 5 spot against the Royals). Baker's problem has mostly been the home run ball, with his HR/9IP rate way up over last year.

Now my gut reaction when I see something like that is to say, "well, take away those bad innings and Baker's got a 3 ERA" or "Smoltzy just needs to minimize the damage and he'll be an effective 4th starter".

But that's wrong.

Joe Posnanski makes the point today in a great post that is ostensibly about the Royals injury issues this year, and whether you can lay any of the blame for their horrible year at that door. Joe concludes not.

We will have to get better or make some changes, there’s no other way.”

Trouble is: That’s not the vibe I get from the Royals. Here’s the vibe I get: “Injuries killed us.” And, plainly, that just makes me ill. There’s an old saying: “Winners win and losers meet.” Well, I think it’s also true that “Winners win and losers complain about injuries.” Or “Winners win and losers gripe about umpires.” Or “Winners win and losers make excuses.” Or simply, “Winners win and losers lose."

The One Big Inning is like that. It seems aberrational until it's not. Eventually, the One Big Innings can't be excluded from the calculus. Sometimes a 5.4 ERA is a 5.4 ERA, it's not the product of bad luck. With Baker, yes, his high FB/GB ratio will get him in trouble when the wind is blowing out, and that's a fundamental flaw that will hold him back from his ace status. With Smoltz, it's still too early to tell and the Nats game can be explained away due to first game jitters, but it's not a good sign that the third time through the lineup tonight he wasn't fooling anyone.

The Baseball Update

As I write this, the Sox are down 6-2 and likely heading for the loss. The Yanks won on a walkoff from Matsui tonight. AL East = TIED.

Soxaholix said it best today. I dread the next 3 months if the Yanks pull ahead.

The Taxes Update

Really the Health Care Update, but the National Journal had a great exchange today about the proposed "surtax" on high earners to fund health care. Really good back and forth and enlightening for the views of left of center guys like William Gale:

It is poor leadership because it furthers the myth that we can solve our fiscal problems by taxing “other” people or with gimmick taxes. It has been said many times already and will be said many times again: we are going to need broad based tax increases and spending cuts to bring the fiscal house into order and the more politicians continue to act as if we can just foist the financing on a small group (be it rich people or foreign corporations or obese people or people who drink soda, etc.) the worse are our prospects for solving the problems.

As they say, read the whole thing.

The Death Update

Of course, Walter Cronkite's passing is the most prominent. Kottke.org has a great tribute up (probably over by the time you read this) to Cronkite, an online viewing of the Apollo 11 moon landing with Cronkite's commentary, at exactly the time it happened 40 years ago.

There are plenty of other appreciations of Cronkite on the web - the Atlantic's writers had some good ones.

In other death news - Gordon Waller of the '60s group Peter and Gordon. I have fond memories of listening to "A World Without Love" on the oldies station my dad listened to for a couple of years in the late '80s (Buffalo peeps - 104.1 or 103.3?) on the way to school in the mornings. It is a McCartney song. But despite the poppy, sing songy melody, the lyrics are kind of dark. Sample lyric:

Birds sing out of tune
And rain clouds hide the moon
I'm OK, here I stay with my loneliness
I don't care what they say, I won't stay
In a world without love

I read something the other day asserting that McCartney's songs were lacking in angst. I challenge anyone who's heard "For no One" or "World Without Love" to defend that statement.

Anyway, back to poor Gordon. The obit is here.

Lu-Gone

2009-07-17T15:54:00.004-04:00

Our long national nightmare, yadda yadda yadda...

Julio Lugo has been designated for assignment.

Sox still owe him about $4 million for this year and of course $9 million for next, but it's great to see a major league GM recognize the concept of sunk costs. Truly addition by subtraction.

No Lugo post would be complete without a pic of his stellar defensive skillz:

More Health Care Tax Reax

2009-07-17T10:18:00.004-04:00

Matt Yglesias wants to cap deductibility of itemized deductions and double the federal alcohol tax. I think this would be more expensive for me than the surtax.

Ezra Klein, in an otherwise snarky set of "rules" for commenting on the CBO's testimony yesterday thinks health insurance benefits should be subject to tax.

Conor Clarke likes both.

Awesome takedown by The Awl of a ridiculous NY Post story yesterday on the effect on NY taxpayers of the surtax.

And Seton Hall law professor Frank Pasquale arguing that the 5.4% surtax on millionaires is not high enough!!!.

Hysterics aside, what he means is that we should have more tax brackets and not tax someone earning $350,000 the same as someone earning $35,000,000. I.e., there's the "rich" (although reasonable people can disagree whether a family bringing in $350,000 is "rich" or just "well off") and the RICH (think Bill Gates or Warren Buffett). Even the most dedicated redistributionist can see differences between those words (for one, I capitalized the second version of "rich"). (via Tax Prof Blog)

Fill it to the Rim... With Brim..

2009-07-16T22:00:00.009-04:00

Some random thoughts while wondering what the hell ever happened to Brim coffee...

The Taxes Update

Head. Spinning.

More fallout from the House's "surtax" proposal. Another great post by Howard Gleckman at the Tax Vox blog. Here is a sample:

Why take cash compensation that could face a top rate of more than 45 percent when you could easily get more tax-free health insurance? Forget Cadillac plans. Now we’re talking Lamborghini coverage

A micro example of the macro problem - it's entirely possible that high earners will seek to shift their income into non-taxable income or deferred income arrangements - more expensive health employer-provided health insurance is just the most ironic example.

Which leads me to the other big piece of news - CBO head Douglas Elmendorf testified in front of the Senate Budget Committee today and essentially told them that the plan put forth by the House yesterday not only will not control costs, but will raise health care costs due to the public plan proposed, and as a result, they will not be paid for.

So how did he suggest tax reform be paid for? He dropped the bomb:

Asked what provisions should be added, Elmendorf suggested changing the way Medicare reimburses providers to create incentives for reducing costs. He also suggested ending or limiting the tax-free treatment of employer-provided health benefits, calling it a federal "subsidy" that encourages spending on ever-more-expensive health packages.

Of course the problem is the administration is dead set against such a change (it would be a tax raise on people earning <$250K which Obama foolishly promised not to do when a candidate). Senator Baucus blamed the Obama administration for limiting the Senate's options in taking this option off the table.

Some other reactions to the surtax:

Robert Reich likes it.

Nancy Pelosi says the rate is negotiable.

The Baseball Update

Very strange that so many teams are off after a 3 day break, so no Sox game to report on tonight. So here are some random thoughts on some random happenings today:

Ryan Howard fastest to 200 home runs (in terms of games played). As David Pinto pointed out today, in terms of age, he's nothing special. My prediction on lifetime home runs for Howard? 389.

This piece by Allen Barra came out a few days ago, but I can totally get behind the premise. After all, my twitter icon is a doctored '77 Mike Schmidt baseball card.

Finally, if you aren't already checking out Jon Couture's brilliant blog Better Red than Dead blog, well.. what are you waiting for. Best recaps on the web.

The Death Update

Ron Nicolino, 69, of San Francisco. A very interesting gentleman/artist. Some choice bits from the obit:

"And as an artist, Mr. Nicolino achieved international attention for his work with breasts and brassieres, including most notably the "Big Giant Bra Ball" - like a rubber band ball, but bigger and made of undergarments."

"In the mid-1990s, he got the idea to string bras across the Grand Canyon."

"His efforts also included creating a milelong line of sand breasts along Stinson Beach in 1994, with hundreds of volunteers using Size 34C plastic molds.

"When the tide came in, it washed it all away and the sand was smooth again. It was a very nice day," his mother said."

Now if Jeff Koons would adopt a bit of Mr. Nicolino's vision, I could get behind his "art".

Finally, a classic Brim commercial for your enjoyment:

Seeding the Tip Cup (and the daily updates)

2009-07-15T22:46:00.003-04:00

The other day, I was buying some groceries in my neighborhood C Town (149th and B'way!). All grocery stores in Manhattan are local, but C Town is local-er than most. All of the checkout girls (and they are all girls) live in the neighborhood and on Sunday there was at least 1 teenage boy bagging at each checkout aisle.

Now I remember reading a story in the Times a while back exposing a "scandal" prevalent in neighborhood grocery stores - baggers working purely for tips and not getting paid minimum wage. It's not clear if the kids at C Town are volunteering, looking for some spare coin to buy soda and comics*, or whether they are getting paid under the table, or what. What is clear, however, is that each station has a little plastic dish for tips.

*Do kids still buy comics? I bought pretty lame comics when I was a kid - mostly the conventional superhero type - Superman, Green Lantern, Spiderman, with lots of ads in the back for direct sale programs. I never got into the X-Men or Fantastic 4 or certainly not any of the alternative comics. If not comics these days, what are kids spending their hard earned grocery bagging tip money on?

There is a psychology to tipping that I learned as an oyster shucker in Faneuil Hall in Boston - this is called "seeding the tipjar". Lounge piano players, subway performers, panhandlers, all know that people are more likely to give someone money when they either see someone else giving, or see (via the seeded tip cup) that someone else has already. Now I am not the first to notice this, but it is not a staple solely of your local Starbucks.

The nudge blog asks what is the optimal amount seeding the tip jar to get the ball rolling. In my experience, it's not any particular amount - its more important to have a reasonable volume (but not too much, lest people think you've been tipped enough!) of small bills. A few crinkled ones in a 16 oz plastic cup usually was the routine when I worked at the Walrus and Carpenter 15 years ago.

Unfortunately the C Town kids didn't get the memo. Their tip bowl was empty when I arrived and empty when I left.

Of course, I didn't have any cash on me at the time.

The Baseball Update

President Obama did not bounce the first pitch. I don't care where Pujols was standing. President Obama's candor in the announcer booth was much more interesting ("we're out of money").

Hey, some Red Sox Blog links:

Red Sox Chick (blogging at Weei!!) on the relative lack of Red Sox participation in the ASG.

Red Sox Dad on the Sox all stars meeting the Prez.

Jere from Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory with a nice remembrance of watching the '83 ASG with his dad.

The Taxes Update

Seems like there may be some sort of tax hike proposed to fund health care reform? Anyone else know anything about this?

Recent coverage on other blogs:

Citizens for Tax Justice release (warning - pdf file). Editorially, the idea that it is tax justice for certain (but not all) taxpayers to be forced to "give back" some of the tax cuts they have received over the past decade is not "justice". That's a retroactive tax.

Don't Mess With Taxes also pointing out the multiple states in which a 50% marginal rate will be the new high.

Tax.com predicting that the surtax will never be enacted (I agree - and so does the taxgirl, I believe.

Finally, Megan McArdle with her thoughts.

The Death Update

After not blogging about my dad for a long long time, I had a weird dream last night - one of the increasingly rare dreams where he is an active present, walking, talking, like nothing ever happened - and I am always grateful that somehow he is among the living again. But this time, in my dream, I was reasoning with my brother, my mother, trying to get at whether he was really alive or not (again, in my dream). In my dream, we all saw him and thought he was there, but it turned out that we were each, separately, having Sixth Sense moments, when one of us saw him, it didn't mean the others did. We each were dreaming within my dream.

I feel like my subconcious had some sort of resolution.

Either that or I've got to cut down on the gin at night.

Your obit of the day belongs to Reggie Fleming, a hard-nosed hockey player from the 60s. He easily could have been the inspiration for Reggie Dunlop in Slap Shot, but apparently the first name was just a coincidence. He played professionally for 20 seasons (12 in the NHL) and led the league in penalty minutes his last season. Now that is dedication.

The obit is here

The Economist on the Surtax

2009-07-15T09:19:00.003-04:00

From the Economist's Free Exchange blog today:

For me, the biggest concern is that Congress seems to have followed the path of least resistence here and it may do so again in the future. Recall that America has a fairly significant structural deficit, which will only grow as the population ages. American also has fairly significant need for large-scale investment in things like infrastructure and education. Revenues are going to have to rise to avoid a budget crisis somewhere down the road. And that means that taxes will have to rise.

Exactly. Some very good comments to this piece as well, including this:

if I were in the upper 1.2% (I'm not), with the fungibility of money, I'd be left with the feeling that my surtax might just as well be apportioned to subsidizing ethanol producers, or some other tremendous waste of resources.

Olbermann is much smarter than McCarver

2009-07-15T08:48:00.004-04:00

Keith Olbermann provides one possible answer for the AL's recent dominance over the NL:

Finally, the All-Teams-Represented anachronism -- a rule left over from the days when it was assumed television viewership in each city depended on a representative from the team in each city -- clearly hurts the National League. It might not show up in a given game, but over the course of the twelve years since the 16/14 split began, this must have an impact: the NL is stuck with two more Mandatory Choices, each year, than is the AL. Tonight, the question was, which of the four solo NL guys - Francisco Cordero, Ted Lilly, Brian McCann, or Ryan Zimmerman - was ultimately of less use to Charlie Manuel than, say, a Mark Reynolds pinch-hit appearance might have been?

Well, it's 2 of the four, actually, and Manuel certainly did have some flexibility to take a Mark Reynolds (??) or Matt Kemp (yes) over Ryan Howard, Ryan Franklin or Jason Marquis, each of whom were manager's picks. Still, a brighter analysis than McCarver's

Prince Fielder, PETA and the Truism about Publicity (and the daily updates)

2009-07-14T22:18:00.006-04:00

Darren Rovell twittered last night that PETA would be happy with noted vegetarian Prince Fielder's win in the Home Run Derby.

They were.

Is it just me, or doesn't it seem like 80% of PETA's news releases are what people would call "puff pieces". Perusing the last 20 or so news releases on PETA's media center, I see the following hard hitting stories: Prince Fielder's home run derby win, Carol Liefer coming out as a Vegan, Woody Harrelson doing god knows what, Playboy playmate hosting veggie dog lunch, bikinis, sexy lettuce, and something called "bloody syrup" (apparently an objection to seal killing in Canada - yeah I don't get it either).

Are these actually successful press releases for PETA? Do they actually get attention? Do they raise money? At some point the cuteness factor must wear off, no? Yes, we liked the first 20 or 30 spots of a supermodel promising to go naked before she would wear fur (with Pics!!!), but eventually, the tongue-in-cheek too-cute-by-half copywriting and ultimately silly messaging (hey, maybe you should stop eating meat to be stronger!!!) would seem to be counter-productive. They undermine the seriousness of PETA's mission and raise questions about its credibility.

PETA has to walk a fine line. Its mission is basically to improve animal welfare and reduce animal cruelty. Most animal cruelty takes place on the factory farms and in the testing labs. People don't want to hear about that though - I imagine PETA has decided they get more traction with puff pieces than with exposes, or even worse, guerrilla operations against farms. The pieces though distract from PETA's message and in some cases seem to make light of it (nobody really thinks that Fielder's vegetairianism helped him win the Derby - so what's the point besides a cheap laugh?)

It seems like the ASPCA walks the line better - affecting spots with Sarah McLachlin, tugging on people's heartstrings with the shots of the poor abused puppies. Yeah, that's not exactly PETA's mission - I think PETA's plank technically would not allow for domesticated animals either - but it is a credible approach, not snarky and was a proven money maker.

This is a long way of saying I wonder if the old truism of all PR being good PR is still true? For an arguably "fringe" group like PETA, is it more important to make sure people know you're still around than to provide a credible argument/release (whereas ASPCA is surely more well regarded than PETA so does not care as much about exposure)? Or are today's consumers so well informed and looped in that they will tune out obviously hacky BS like the Prince Fielder PR linked above?

The Baseball Update

Short one tonight - just a classic case of Tim McCarver idiocy.

President Obama asked McCarver and Buck why they thought the AL had won the last 12 all star games. Now the answer was probably simply a combination of luck and the talent in the AL being somewhat better than the NL the past decade. McCarver said that he thought the NL was catching up, but that the AL had a head start due to the DH. Just let that sink in for a second.

This was idiotic on so many levels. First, the DH has been around since '73. Second, the DH is used by both leagues in AS games played in AL parks. Third, the NL went 13-1 from '72 to '85, during which time the AL had the DH. I really can't imagine what McCarver was thinking. Actually, I'd rather not try.

The Taxes Update

I've already blogged on taxes today. I note though that Taxgirl noticed something I didn't - the surtaxes suggested by the House today apply to investment income as well as wages - basically, once again, resulting in a 45% max marginal rate on wages and a 25% max rate on cap gains and dividends (if Obama's proposals on cap gains and dividend tax rates come to fruition).

Greg Mankiw adds sales and state/local taxes to arrive at a top marginal rate above 50%. I think we're already there in California by that math, actually.

Update: Howard Gleckman at the Tax Vox blog has a very good post on the topic.

The Death Update

Samuel Genensky, a near blind inventor and mathematician for the Rand corporation who invented a precursor technology to the magnification devices currently in use by the partially sighted.

I thought this quote from him was interesting:

“When the partially blind went out in the world, they found that they either got no services at all or services that were appropriate for people who were totally blind,’’ Mr. Genensky told an interviewer this year. “Neither of these alternatives made much sense to me.’’

I find it is true in all walks of life that the benefits we provide people are at the margins - the high achievers and the low achievers. I guess the idea is that the rest will muddle through - not a perfect analogy because here we are talking about the somewhat disabled (partially sighted) vs. the obviously disabled (the blind), but I do think as a society we provide more accommodation for the obvious cases than the harder, less obvious cases.

Oh, and as a parent who hated the mandatory ointment requirement for newborns, this is haunting:

His eyes were burned shortly after birth when a delivery room nurse accidentally administered the wrong eyedrops to guard against infection.

Yeah. Um, sorry? The obit is here.

Health Care Reform to be Funded with Evergreen Proposals

2009-07-14T14:29:00.003-04:00

According to a briefing service I get at work, the $1 trillion health care overhaul bill just released in the House would be paid for mostly by the surtaxes on the "rich", but also with a few other offsets that keep finding their way into various legislation from time to time.

The offsets are as follows:

--$540 billion from a surtax on households earning more than $350,000 (starting at 1% for couples earning >350K, 1.5% for couples earning b/w 500K and 1M and 5.4%!!!! for couples earning more than 1M. This would bring the top marginal rate post-expiration of Bush's tax cuts to 45%;

--$8.1 billion from the codification of the economic substance doctrine;

--$22.3 billion from a delay of the implementation date of the worldwide interest allocation provision put into law in 2004; and

-- unclear amounts from provisions relating to sale-in, lease-out transactions.

Now, I'm no mathematician, but those numbers aren't going to add up to $1 trillion, which makes me think that included in the offsets must be the limitation on itemized deductions for high-earners. We'll see once the bill comes out. That 45% top marginal rate will be the headline in tomorrow's news though.

Update: More here at the taxprof blog.

Death, Taxes and Such

2009-07-13T22:44:00.006-04:00

Well it's been too long since I've updated, and it may be months again since I do another update, but I have a few minutes, so here goes..

The Baseball Update

David Pinto is doing a quick series over on Baseball Musings, reviewing each major league team at the all star break. So far, he's tackled just the AL West, but eventually he'll get to the Sox. He presents how a team ranks in several stats, OBP, SLG, etc. I remember as a kid noticing the Sox always seemed to be at the top of the league in AVG and 2Bs, but at the bottom of the pack in SBs. This is not news.

The interesting thing (to me) is how much the team has changed since those days (and even since '04 or so). Now, Sox are middle of the pack in AVG, but toward the top in SBs (the perennial success in 2Bs must be a function of the park).

Again, this is not news. Everyone knows that Theo Epstein has made a point of emphasizing OBP and, apparently, has embraced the speed game more than his predecessors (of course, it helps that he has Ellsbury who has by himself more than 1/2 of the team's stolen bases). This is to his credit, but I don't think he gets enough credit. It's one thing to espouse a philosophy, it's another to successfully implement it. And Epstein's been able to do that in spades.

The Taxes Update

For me, it's all health care, all the time. Taxgirl, the Tax Vox Blog, Kausfiles and Robert Ross at HuffPo all had interesting posts in the past few days regarding the various tax initiatives being put forth to fund health care reform

David Brooks had a great op-ed last week noting that the combination of the various tax increases leave Obama with precious little dry powder for future domestic spending initiatives.

I agree with this. To review the bidding, Obama has already proposed/assumed that the Bush tax cuts on individuals earning over $250K will expire in 2011. Added to that since he ran are: (i) a cap on the deductibility of itemized deductions for high earners, (ii) a "surtax" from 1% to 3% on income over $350,000 (ramping up based on income) which Rangel introduced last week (iii) a potential cap on the tax exclusion of employer-provided health insurance (for plans that cost > $25K/year in premiums) and (iv) rumblings about imposing payroll taxes on capital gains and dividends (i.e., nonwage income).

Neither Obama nor Congress has seriously considered any tax increases on the middle class (such as the total repeal of the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance).

The price tag for the increased coverage Congress is discussing (which would *not* be universal) is ~$1 trillion (CBO estimate from July 3 reported $600M, but the $1T number is still the one that is most widely reported). Apparently gone is the argument that reform will actually save money (probably for good reasons politically, there was already too much discussion of which end of life interventions would not be covered by government provided health insurance due to lack of "efficiencies" - see below).

I am not morally against a tax hike to fund comprehensive health care coverage, but so far, the plans put forth would not accomplish that goal. It seems to me that if you are willing to wager the rest of your domestic policy agenda (because that is what Obama would be doing if all of the above tax hikes are necessary for a credible plan to be passed, which would leave room for no further hikes, probably including the expiration of the Bush tax cuts), then the payoff had better be more impressive than even the most recent CBO estimates of the increase in the number of people covered in this country. It had better be damned close to universal coverage (Medicare for all, as Mickey Kaus calls it).

I don't think that's what we will see.

The Death Update

Michael. Farrah. Ed. Oxy-Clean. Karl. Robert. Steve. And Waldo.

That would be Waldo McBurney, America's oldest worker. He was 106. He worked from age 13 to age 104. He took up distance running when he was 65.

I was listening to an Adam Carolla podcast on the way home from work tonight and in it he said he had asked his friend Dr. Drew, what was with the health care reform debate - what all the controversy was about, why costs were rising so much. Dr. Drew's answer was simple(istic). Everyone is living longer than expected. This *can* partially explain shortfalls in corporate and public pensions and of course the coming disasters in Medicare and Social Security. The cost issue though is extremely loaded when you start to bring patient age into the equation - issues of rationing and treatment decisions made by reference to the efficiency (or necessity) of a given treatment. Who knows how much "extra" costs we all bore to help Mr. McBurney live to 106. Surely he wasn't getting there solely on "juices and berries".

It's a difficult question. When dad finally accepted his likely fate (late stage small cell lung cancer), he decided he didn't want to pursue more chemo or crap that would just make him feel sicker than he was. That was his decision though. I can't imagine (and we're a LONG way in the discussion from this) someone else making that decision for him. Obama alluded to this in a discussion of his grandmother - even when it was clear she would not make it, she had a hip replacement. He admitted that he would pay for the procedure himself, but what if someone can't pay. As a lawyer, I hate slippery slope arguments and believe that we as rational humans don't need bright lines because we should be able reason between different cases based on their own facts, but that's much easier to do in the dry world of tax where it's just money, ultimately, and not someone's cancer-infected dad.

Addendum

This conversation on Slate.com is a good primer on where the Obama Administration (and Stephen Colbert, er, Peter Orszag in particular) thinks the cost savings will come from.

In addition, this blog post by Orszag lays out the ground rules for health reform being "deficit neutral". This is the corner they've painted themselves into.

Great Trivia Question (courtesy of Rob Neyer)

2009-07-13T13:10:00.003-04:00

Who is the only MVP to never have made an all-star team (for MVPs named after the introduction of the ASG, obviously).

Check out Neyer's post to find out.

O.k., I'll tell you: Kirk Gibson. My first guess would have been Willie Hernandez from '84. Right team, wrong guy.

The Obligatory Best Music of 2008 Post

2008-12-21T10:05:00.004-05:00

I cross-posted this on the Tripletters blog that I co-write with a couple of friends. But here it is for your "entertainment". To clarify one thing, I didn't listen to enough music in 2008 to have much of an opinion on the "best" songs of 2008 - the 25 below are just songs I enjoyed.

Here are my Top 5 albums of 2008 and 25 songs I really liked and think you would too. A word of explanation on the albums - I've fully made the jump to downloads and am rarely listening to albums all the way through. I'll need to defer to Engaged Boy [former Boston friend who was recently engaged] since he's still buying vinyl, I think.

Albums

Hold Steady, Stay Positive

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend

R.E.M., Accelerate

Kings of Leon, Only by the Night

Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes

Honorable Mention: Play, Brad Paisley

Here is where I give a shout out to the best radio station in New York City, 101.9 WRXP, FINALLY, a station to replace my beloved 'FNX. Why am I plugging a random NYC radio station? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret Triplets, NY radio SUCKS. Sure, Fordham has a decent college station, but if you want to here anything recorded after 1994 that isn't Beyonce, Kanye or Nickelback, you were SOL before WXRP came along. WXRP is where I first heard new Kings of Leon, R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Pretenders, The Hold Steady, Flobots...

Some of these for the first time - yes, having kids and working a job with unreasonable hours has the side effect of not getting out and getting to know that bands like The Hold Steady and MMJ are out there. So there you go - my new favorite band? The Hold Steady. Stay Positive is excellent from the roota to the toota, as Yacc is wont to say. My old favorite band, Kings of Leon also had a great release, but you can't top Stay Positive.

As for Fleet Foxes, I wanted to hate them since I saw their album for sale at Starbucks, but they are too good. Not every day music, but perfect for unwinding at the end of the day, or background to, I don't know, writing blog posts... My Album of the year - Fleet Foxes, S/T.

Songs (with vidoes embedded - enjoy!)

A-Punk, Vampire Weekend. Hey, I live near Washington Heights.

Oxford Comma, Vampire Weekend. No, no serial comma necessary.

Salute your Solution, the Raconteurs. Better than the last White Stripes tracks.

Horse to Water, R.E.M. Wow.

Man-Sized Wreath, R.E.M. Wower. Stipe is Really Energetic Michael after all.

I'm Amazed, My Morning Jacket. Yup. And this made me buy Z. Awesome.

Gettin' Up, Q-Tip. Check out Believe too. Tip's still got it.

Use Somebody, Kings of Leon. Sorry. I love these guys. Sex on Fire sucks, but 17 is good too.

White Winter Hymnal, Fleet Foxes. Best secular hymn of 2008.

Put On, Young Jeezy (feat. Kanye West). Autotone Kanye w/ a keffiyeh? Hell yeah.

Cath..., Death Cab for Cutie. "You were living someone else's dream." Saddest lyric of 2008.

Lost!, Coldplay. [sheepishly grins] I liked Viva la Vida too [/sheepishly grins]

Saved by Old Times, Deerhunter.

Magick, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals. I never really liked this guy, but this song is solid and short (2:20 or so).

Constructive Summer, Hold Steady. Yes. Let's raise a glass to St. Joe Strummer.

Sequestered in Memphis, Hold Steady. A business trip never sounded so good.

Magazines, Hold Steady.

Come on In, Brad Paisley (feat. Buck Owens). From the Streets of Bakersfield to the best guitar player in the USA. All of Play is tremendous.

Never Miss a Beat, Kaiser Chiefs

Sometime Around Midnight, Airborne Toxic Event. Much love for the De Lillo reference. Song is good too.

Handlebars, The Flobots. All-K, These guys are Cake, if they decided to rap.

Moab, Conor Oberst. Hyperliterate and Correct.

Boots of Chinese Plastic, The Pretenders. Some comeback.

Anything 'cept the Truth, Eagles of Death Metal. You sure this isn't QOTSA?

Take Back the City, Snow Patrol. Anyone else hear Mike and the Mechanics before and during the chorus?

By the way, if Paper Planes by M.I.A. is an official 2008 release? That wins HANDS DOWN.

Groups who released acclaimed albums I just can't get into:

Bon Iver - The mythology is a lot to get over. Saw him on Letterman. Meh.
TV on the Radio - I'm trying. It's not working. Sorry Brooklyn!
Portishead - Engaged Boy - Help me out here.
M83. Huh?
Fucked Up - Yes - I guess I'm not hardcore enough. Go Canada!

Off to macrame myself a pair of jean shorts.

-J-Dogg.

Kickoff Thoughts

2008-09-07T11:53:00.004-04:00

... Some random thoughts and predictions while waiting for Trent Edwards to throw his first 7 yard out...

-- This was the best news I saw all week.

-- I strongly recommend this piece at the Goose's Roost on what being a Bills fan is like.

-- Speaking of the Bills, I was back home a couple of weekends ago, visiting family and friends and was a little surprised at how economically depressed the general region is. Particularly the rural area where I grew up. The local grocery store (once upon a time Bells) closed up shop making the closest supermarket a 15 minute drive away. The closest movie theater to my mom is a 45 minute drive. You pass 3 different Wal-Marts on the way. Cause and effect?

-- And my mom is one of the lucky ones - owns her house, minimal debt, has my dad's pension to live off of. Most are much less fortunate.

-- Some quick predictions... AFC Division winners - Pats, Colts, Steelers, San Diego. Wildcards - Bills and Jags. NFC Division winners - Eagles, Packers, Saints, Cardinals. Wildcards - Cowboys and Vikings. Pats vs. Eagles in SB XLIII. Pats win.

-- Marshawn Lynch will rush for more than 1400 yards.

-- I will go under .500 picking against the spread.

-- I will enjoy several rums and tonic today.

-- Here are the quick picks (trust me, I had the Giants Thursday): Saints (-3.5), Eagles (-8), Dolphins (+3), Chiefs (-15.5), Steelers (-6.5), Ravens (+1.5), Lions (-3), Bills (-1.5), Jags (-3), Browns (+6), Panthers (+9), Cards (-2.5), Colts (-9.5), Packers (-2) and Broncos (-3).

-- The Sox will catch Tampa. They seem to be getting healthy at just the right time. Beckett looked strong Friday. Masterson has developed into a dependable 7th/8th inning guy. I would much prefer the Sox win the division and face the Central winner than get the wild card and face the Angels (although the Sox seem to have their number in the playoffs).

-- That's all for today. More interesting stuff later today or tomorrow.

Go BILLS!!!

Suck it Wilbon

2008-08-09T19:10:00.001-04:00

I don't care if it's an "EXHIBITION" - it's football. Bills-Skins right now and the Bills are wearing the sweet throwbacks. To start off - great hit by Digiorgio on the opening kickoff followed by Bills recovery.

Have to say, it kind of snuck up on me this year.... Enjoy the football.

You Can Stop the Sox...

2008-05-07T22:37:00.003-04:00

You can stop them and contain them.

Funny story. I had an etire post written celebrating the Sox' 7th straight win. A funny thing happened on the way to victory. Julio Fucking Lugo. That's what happened.

Seriously, when is Theo going to get some grief for Lugo (not to mention the short leash on Renteria, A-Gone, etc.)? This guy is a freaking joke. He can't hit. He can't field. He doesn't even tug on his jock anymore so he even FAILS at comic relief.

I mean, seriously:

Anyway.... Might as well get it over and do Three things I noticed: (1) Youkilis is a baby. Nothing new here, but man, get a grip. Going that batshit crazy in the 5th inning over what really was a close pitch is asinine. He's a whiny player generally, but take stock of the situation. Getting thrown out in that situation (and it was close) would be like a defensive lineman getting a stupid unsportmanlike after stopping an offense on third and long.

(2) I think Ortiz's knee is actually o.k. Not sure if he had a cortisone shot and nobody's telling or if he's just working out whatever kinks he had, but he's looking more "normal" at the plate and was definitely hustling down the line tonight on the grounders he had.

(3) [Yes, I actually had the hubris to write this before the game ended] I actually feel a little bad for Tigers fans this year. I was one of the deluded who thought they'd tear through the season with a sick offense (every position player save one a former all star). I didn't realize how much their pitching would regress. D-Train is no surprise, but Verlander and Bonderman becoming (more) average were and that pen is just atrocious. The new guy (Cruetsa) wasn't that impressive tonight either. Shaping up to be a long season for them.

Some linking around:

Jere at Red Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory has an interesting history lesson on the '04 (that's 1904) Sox. Great blog - very interactive, if a little focused on Yankee misery. He also has the most comprehensive Blogroll of Sox blogs I have seen (although sadly not mine).

Looks like Red Sox Chick had the same thought process I had while writing this post. From "looks like the Sox are taking this one" to "WTF Lugo you !%#^$&!"

Not much else of interest in Red Sox blogdom tonight. So it's on to....

The Taxes Update

I'm a bit late with this, but New York City is looking to tax carried interest in hedge funds and other private equity funds. Right now the "unincorporated business tax", which taxes partnerships and LLCs at a 4% rate, does not apply to profits from investment partnerships, so carried interest is currently not subject to this tax.

Not sure about the Journal's take on this. Most hedge funds already operate out of CT to minimize taxes on the management fee (which the UBT already applies to). Those that remain in NYC do so because they obviously see a business reason to do so, regardless of the already MUCH higher taxes in NYC. Not sure an additional 3 or so % tax on income that, for the most part, makes up less than 1/3 of an investment fund manager's comp is going to spark a massive "head for the hills" response.

The most interesting aspect of this is that it will serve as an incubator for the larger federal initiative of taxing carried interest as comp. If investment funds do not, in fact, leave New York after this tax is applied, that may convince some legislators to back additional federal taxes on carried interest (some legislators are reportedly concerned about driving funds offshore).

The Death Update

Today, a titan who nobody has ever heard of. Morgan Sparks was 91.

He invented the "practical transistor." Why is that a big deal? It's only the precursor technology to basically every electronic device in use today.

An appreciation is here. The obit is here.

It's Been Such a Long Time...

2008-05-06T23:14:00.005-04:00

.. I think I should be blogging.

With apologies to Boston (the band), I should either shut this thing down or actually make an effort to keep it updated. So. Here goes.

The Taxes Update

Lots of fun stuff has happened since the last update - we had Wesley "don't call me Wellesley, Jack Williams" Snipes sentenced to 3 years for criminal tax fraud. He is appealing. (obvious joke - his lawyers are also filing an appeal in his case. Heh).

What else? Oh yeah, the silly gas tax holiday. Real cute idea. Doesn't stand a chance of passing congress anyway. Wouldn't result in a reduction in gas bills more than a few dollars a month. I've been a full-on Hillary supporter throughout this process (see this for my initial long-winded concerns with Obama), but between this, her exploitation of the Wright issue, her cribbing famous Holocaust poems as anti-trade riffs... not much left there to like.

Except Chelsea. Mmmm.

That's it on taxes for now. Superficial I know. More detail will be forthcoming if I can manage to update this blog more than once every 3 months.

The Baseball Update

When I get my shit together, I'll post some pictures from opening day at Fenway. It was tremendous. Meanwhile, the Sox have been mainly as advertised, although it feels like they are on the verge of breaking out and having a nice 7 or 8 game winning streak, it hasn't happened yet. Only worrisome spots so far:

-- middle relief. Only Okajima has been really dependent. Delcarmen, Timlin, Hansen. Where's the second arm to pitch the 7th and 8th innings?

-- Dice-K. The command has been troubling all year, but he's just flat out getting lucky now. He happened to be pitching against a not-very-selective team last night (only Sheff, Ordonez and Guillen are particularly selective in that lineup), which bailed him out. Still, long-term, he's not going to be successful with a 1.5:1 K:BB ratio.

-- Ortiz. He seems to be coming around, but a chronic knee injury that doesn't seem to respond to surgery, treatment, days off is cause for concern.

That's about it. The other "disappointments" - Lugo, Drew, well we knew what we were expecting there, didn't we?

The Death Update

Taxwife has had a rough month. She lost both her grandfathers in April. One expected (cancer). One not. She is usually extraordinarily reserved and this was no exception. It is a tough thing - knowing "how to act", especially if you are the kind of person who worries about that on a daily basis. She was very strong through both services. Her grandfather (mom's dad) had an amazing turnout at his wake (or viewing hours). I learned many things I didn't know about him - president of local rotary club, many business connections in town - this was a guy who wasn't extraordinarily "connected", but a good man who naturally made friends and put people at ease.

But that made me think - why is it that there is always some surprise, some secret that we learn of people when they pass away. It's often something quite mundane, not the "he once killed a man for snoring too loud" kind of secret. Obviously everyone has aspects of their life and character and works that they want to keep secret, but these are often little nuggets of a person's character that you'd expect some people to wear as badges of honor. I don't have a ready example except for Taxwife's grandfather, who had these business connections and relationships, and all these friends who came out, but who was the most unassuming guy you'd meet. Something I found interesting. No more, no less.

That's it for tonight. More light stuff tomorrow hopefully. Take care.

Quick Wednesday Update

2008-02-20T16:51:00.006-05:00

Quick links while I marvel at the continued idiocy (and mad IT skillz)of Yankees fans...

Goose's Roost has a preview of tonight's Sabres-Lightning slobberknocker. Serves me right to go and blog about how great the Sabres are playing and then watch them get pegged by the Pens and Rangers.

A couple of the Deadspin guys have a new baseball blog - Walk off walk. Looks good so far.

What the hell is it with movie stars who cheat on their taxes? First it was Wesley Snipes. Now good ol' locust-eating, molar-extracting-with-no-novacaine Nic[k] Cage?

Hey, if the Wicker Man can't get away with cheating on his taxes, what hope is there for the rest of us?

GOOSE!!!

2008-02-14T10:16:00.002-05:00

Yep, Gaustad put home a sweet pass from Daniel Paille last night for the Sabres' only goal in a 1-0 win over the Leafs (watched in beautiful hi-def on the HHL network).

Figured the boys over at The Goose's Roost would be happy about this one.

Oh yeah, Miller was a stud too. Suck on it Wilmer Valderrama.

Odd's 'n' Ends

2008-02-06T09:48:00.001-05:00

Getting back into this "blogging" thing -- thought I'd fill out a few odds and ends I noticed the past few days...

Thoughts and prayers go out to Joe Ferguson and his family (Joe is battling complications from Leukemia). Joe was the first QB I remember for the Bills, and I distinctly remember that while he was generally mediocre, he had some great hook-ups with Frank Lewis and Jerry Butler (and, IIRC, set a record for most attempts without an interception). Best wishes Joe.

Derek Jeter apparently has settled his tax dispute with New York state on undisclosed terms. He clearly agreed to pay something - wonder if we will notice that Derek will be less of a presence in NYC (see this post for some background on the case)

Shhh - the Buffalo Sabres are coming. Look out NHL. I've been saying all season that they have had a positive goal differential and just a matter of time before they would creep back into the playoff hunt. Haven't lost since the AS break.

Tax news -- Sen. Grassley said in an interview with Reuters that the Blackstone Bill is essentially dead, but that he thought the deferred comp bill introduced by Rahm EMmanuel last year has some legs.

That's all for now - the Beatles' yogi passed away - I guess that's the big obit for the day. Still having dreams about dad, although not that often.

Always Bet on Black!

2008-02-05T11:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's my main man Wesley Snipes' line from Passenger 57. Apropos given the recent news of his exoneration of some nasty felony tax fraud charges (his bankroll will still take a dent - he's not off the hook for paying taxes).

Essentially Wesley had been filing returns and paying with bogus checks (so not paying at all), basing his argument that he is not subject to tax on what is called the "861 position", named after a provision of the Code that deals with sourcing of income. The argument is that Section 861 and its regulations define "taxable income" in such a way as to exclude most income from being subject to tax. See the Wikipedia entry.

This is an extraordinarily oft-promoted position that has been repeatedly shot down in the courts. So why did Snipes win?

For a typically arcane reason. In order for Snipes to be convicted for criminal tax fraud, it had to be proven that he did not believe that he was acting in good faith in avoiding paying taxes. Essentially, the jury believed that he was a victim of "bad advice".

Lots of commentary on this at the TaxProf Blog.

Still, it's not all roses for Wesley - he still owes 8 figures in back taxes and penalties and interest stands to serve some jail time for the misdemeanors that he was convicted of - failure to file returns (up to 3 years).

And Always Bet on Black? Seems to be true given that Richard Hatch was not as successful.

Peter King is an idiot

2008-02-01T09:14:00.001-05:00

I usually try to refrain from criticizing prominent "MSM" sports journalists. Awful Announcing and Fire Joe Morgan (not to mention Bruce Allen at Boston Sports Media Watch) do a tremendous job already. But I couldn't let this statement by Peter King go by without comment:

"1. I think this was about the dumbest thing I've heard this week so far. When ESPN's Emmitt Smith was asked on TV about Plaxico Burress' prediction of a 23-17 Giants victory, Smith said: "His prediction will get him double-coverage.'' I can only hope Smith either mis-spoke or was somehow exaggerating, because to imagine that the Patriots would be moved to change their defensive plan against Burress because of something he said prior to the game is ridiculous."

Short memory Peter?

"Goat of the Week
Pittsburgh FS Anthony Smith. After his ill-timed guarantee (is there ever a good time to inflame the overwhelming favorites to win the Super Bowl?), Smith got beat for two long Brady touchdowns. I'm not sure anyone cared much about his statements, but why antagonize a great team?"

And from Jackie McMullan's game day story:

The latest victim of their motivational frenzy is [Anthony] Smith, the former Syracuse star whose aggressive defensive style was expertly exploited by the Patriots.

"We knew he plays that way, so we put some stuff to take advantage of that," said receiver Jabar Gaffney (seven catches, 122 yards).

"Lesson learned," said Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs. "A hard lesson learned."

Nah... The Patriots would never target a single player on the opposing team. They'd never design plays specifically to embarrass a player who called them out. Never happen, eh Peter? I mean, seriously, has he not watched Belichick, Brady, et al go for the jugular every possible opportunity? Now obviously the Pats won't triple team Burress out of spite, but you can be sure that they'll be all over him all game. What an idiot.

Bills Recap

2007-11-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

That was just sad. There was about a moment's hope in the first half when Losman hit that bomb to Parrish, but the Patriots are so brutally efficient that hope turned to a dawning horror in about 6 plays and 70 yards. And then the rout was on.

Losman for the most part did not look horrible. Put it this way, with about the same level of talent at WR, he put up better numbers than Manning did. He was able to harness the power of the hair (seriously, even Marino is amazed by the flowing locks) to pull a Romo impression on one busted play, completing a great pass to Gaines for a first, and then scrambling out of trouble a couple of other times against a brutal rush. Unfortunately, that is about the only good thing that can be said about the offense (well Lindell's 52 yarder off the camera was pretty impressive)

Unfortunately the defense just gave up in the second half. Hard to blame them, but they couldn't even come close to containing the third and fourth string RBs for the Pats. When Kyle Eckel is running through your defense like a Navy Admiral running through some female colleagues at the Tailhook conference, you know you're in trouble. Unfortunate effort from the defense (I thought Dick Jauron always got his underachieving squad up for games?)

The only silver lining is that the Bills can't possibly be that bad. It's that the Patriots are exactly that good. Bills have a real tough one against Jacksonville on the road.

And to top it all off, it's snowing here in the City today.

All Apologies

2007-11-18T11:49:00.000-05:00

Not just a great Nirvana song, but what I am offering to anyone who came here from the Goose's Roost or Bflo Blog (or anywhere else) and got stuck reading the last few lame posts. What can I say? My dedication has been lacking. Also, the TaxWife has had me on this crazy diet the last week that has sapped my energy. Now that I've discovered cocaine, it's all good and I'm back to bloggin'...

The Taxes Update

Of course this week's big athlete tax news was Derek Jeter's tax woes. The taxman is coming after Mr. Clutch for his position that he is a nonresident of New York State and City, despite the fact that he maintains an apartment in the city and lives here half the year. The rest of the year he apparently lives in Florida.

The law on this is not actually all that clear. The first test is whether someone spends 183 days in the state. Assuming Mr. Worst Defensive SS in the AL actually spends the offseason in Florida and given the number of days he is on the road during the season, he probably is not physically present in New York State for the required 183 days.

The state is asserting that even though he does not meet this test that New York is still his primary residence based on his affinity for the city (e.g., his business ties in New York, holidays spent in New York, and, particularly, keeping items he holds "near and dear" to him in his New York apartment). This filing from the Admin. law judge in the case is illuminating. In taxgeek parlance, New York is his "tax home".

The idea is that while he may physically spend fewer than 180 days in New York, his home in New York is a home while a house in Florida is just a house - more like an offseason rental to which he has no connection. It's an interesting theory and to be honest, I haven't dug into the black letter law in New York to know if it would be enough, but we'll follow it.

The Tax Foundation notes that this is differernt than the "Jock Tax" that taxes a portion of every athlete's income in the state in which the game is played. New York is going after endorsement income, income earned in other states, etc.

Don't Mess With Taxes has a good piece on New York revenue officials' clutch performance in past cases.

The other big tax news was the continuing saga in DC of AMT relief. After some conflicting stories (it appeared for a day that the Senate would at least vote on a bill to provide a 1 year AMT patch with limited offsets solely for popular tax extenders), this do-nothing Congress continued to do nothing. So, it's at least December before any AMT relief is passed.

NFL Picks

No commentary needed (or necessary). You should be reading the Jamboroo for a funny NFL preview column.

Chargers (+3) over JAGUARS. Yes, I know people are jumping off the Philip Rivers bandwagon and that San Diego barely held on against Indy last week despite 6 picks (like Dallas against the Bills), but that defense is still solid and I think Garrard will have some rust in his first game back in a month.

Browns (-2.5) over RAVENS. Yeah, the Ravens really really suck.

Steelers (-9.5) over JETS. I almost took the Jets, but I cannot stand them. I mean, look at this guy:

Washington (+10.5) over COWBOYS.

DOLPHINS (+10) over Eagles. The Dolphins have played almost everyone close this year. They're the best 0-9 team I have ever seen.

Raiders (+5) over VIKINGS

Cardinals (+3) over BENGALS

Chiefs (+14.5) over COLTS. I don't care what Dr. Z says, Peyton is not the same without all of his toys. Just like the TaxBoy. If he's surrounded by the rattle, the horse on a string, the plastic balls that make noise, he's happy. If he has just the stupid fake phone? He throws six INTs.

LIONS (+2.5) over Giants. I'm a little surprised that the Lions are getting points at home, but then again, last time I went to Vegas, I came back looking like this:

Saints (-1) over TEXANS. This is where I call BS on one of the SportsGuy's theories - that early in the season nobody knows anything about the teams and that Vegas struggles just as much as the regular gambler. O.k. First, I don't believe Vegas struggles at all, ever, as compared to the regular degenerate gambler. Second, we're in week 11 and I still can't tell if the Saints, Chargers, Panthers, Washington, Seahawks, Cardinals and about 3 other teams are going to play halfway decent football or stink it up worse than Northrax.

Packers (-9.5) over Panthers. Case in point, although with Vinny starting and Steve Smith maybe not, this should be an easy one for the Favrers.

(Which reminds me of something else annoying - some moron talking head was talking about how Favre was doing this "all himself". I'm sure that Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Nick Barnett and Charles Woodson were all happy to hear that. This team does have the second best rushing defense and fifth best defense overall in the NFC).

Rams (-3) over NINERS

Bears (+5.5) over SEAHAWKS

Titans (+2) over BRONCOS

BILLS (+16) over Patriots. Hell Yeah! This game being on Sunday night is great for a whole bunch of reasons. 1. I get to do work during the day and not feel guilty about watching the game (which I will be doing totally sober due to the aforementioned f*cked up diet). 2. I get to hear John Madden talk about Turducken and Buffalo Wings at the same time. 3. Now I can watch the MLS finals without missing any important NFL game action (score update: 0-0).

Bonus: I get to bust out my Marshawn Lynch "Money" t-shirt, recently purchased from 289 design, even though he won't be playing.

Score Prediction: Patriots 31, Bills 20. (Hoping for the upset though).

That's it, all. Enjoy the games.

(I notice that I missed calling the TB game. Let's just say that I did not have Atlanta. That one is going in the win column)

For Avoidance of Doubt

2007-11-11T14:29:00.000-05:00

Here were my NFL picks. And unfortunately, I took New Orleans in the Kissing Suzy Kolber suicide pool. not looking good there...

Vikings (+6.5) over PACKERS

CHIEFS (-4.5) over Broncos

Bills (-2.5) over Dolphins (ugh)

Rams (+11.5) over SAINTS

BROWNS (+9.5) over Steelers

Jags (-4.5) over TITANS

WASHINGTON (-2.5) over Eagles

RAVENS (-5.5) over Bengals

Lions (+1.5) over CARDINALS. Incidentally, this really seems strange to me. The Lions are getting no respect from Vega$

GIANTS (+1.5) over Cowboys

RAIDERS (-3.5) over Bears

Colts (-3.5) over CHARGERS

SEAHAWKS (-9.5) over 49Ers

That's it for now.

Friday Afternoon Update

2007-11-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

Relatively quiet afternoon at work.. so on to the updates.

The Bills Update

YES. This guy is doing the Bills-Dolphins game this weekend:

Since Eagle/Wilcots are off this week, I guess that makes them officially the Z-team of CBS broadcasters. And if I had an HDTV, I could watch the game in hi-def.

Seeing that Gus is doing the game made me wonder if I would remember differently some of the famous and infamous moments in Bills history if he had been calling the games.

Wide Right: Norwood lines up for the kick. This is at the EDGE of Norwood's distance. Marv Levy is putting his faith in the young kicker out of JAMES MADISON. It's all on the line for the Bills. The snap, the hold is down. The Kick is UP... And... It's NO GOOD!! NO GOOD!! WIDE RIGHT! And TIME HAS EXPIRED! The GIANTS WIN! Somehow the Giants are able to carry Parcells OFF THE FIELD. OH MY, Scott Norwood will carry this moment TO HIS GRAVE. SLEEP TIGHT SCOTTY! HA HAAAAAA"

Frank Reich comeback against Houston in '93: "Forget about the Nazis, here in Buffalo it's the RISE OF THE FOURTH REICH as the Bills unleash the stormtroopers aganist the Oilers. Ha haaaaaaa." "Christie lines up for the winning kick. And it's GOOOOOOOD!!!!! Christie drives a STAKE through the hearts of the Oilers as the Bills win in DRAMATIC FASHION!! DIE NOSFERATU!!!

(sidenote: this game was NOT televised locally in Buffalo because the Bills actually did not sell out the game. A playoff game. I had to listen to freaking Van Miller on the radio).

Music City Miracle: The kick is short to Neal. Neal hands off to Wycheck.. and Oh, Wycheck HEAVES it to Andre Dyson, and Dyson is RUNNING. OH NO, IT's A CLEAR PATH TO PAYDIRT. OH NO. NOBODY's GOING TO CATCH HIM. And Dyson is IN. And it's PANDEMONIUM in Tennessee. Rob Johnson can't bear to look. Wade Phillips is STUNNNED as the Titans RIP THE BEATING HEARTS out of the Bills's chests. KALI MA, they'll SEE YOU IN HELL!!!!!"

No, that still would have sucked.

Last Second Jason Elam Field Goal: Oh wait, he actually did call this game:

I'm surprised he didn't refer to it as a "CHINESE FIRE DRILL!!!!"

Anyway, it's always a "SPECIAL GAME" when Gus is announcing.

-- As for actual analysis? Happy that Losman is starting. He's like Brett Favre, except without the joy. Or much of the talent.

For actual analysis, go to Bflo Blog for the Tailgate.

Goose's Roost has an interesting post on Jim Kelly and Jack Kemp being potential white knights in a future sale of the Bills.

That's it. My prediction? (not that it matters): Bills 21, Miami 17

The Taxes Update

-- The House today passed a bill providing for a one-year AMT patch and extending a bunch of popular tax deductions, the cost of which is offset by changing the tax treatment of carried interest in private equity funds and eliminating offshore deferrals of compensation (where the payor is tax-indifferent). The Senate has not introduced a bill addressing AMT relief and apparently won't until December.

Which really is an abdication of Congresional responsibility. You see, even if a bill is introduced in December, debated, passed, harmonized with the House and signed by Bush, it won't be in time for the IRS to make changes to tax forms necessary to allow taxpayers to file returns correctly. This means that millions of taxpayers will end up overpaying their taxes and seeking refunds later (because they will be forced to file based on the law that is in effect now which sucks millions of taxpayers into the AMT. I think the House is probably more to blame for waiting so long to introduce a bill when EVERYONE KNEW ABOUT THE ISSUE.

-- One other interesting story from last week that is semi-sports related: The IRS has announced an initiative targeting foreign golfers, tennis players and entertainers who work in the U.S. That's right - Roger Federer is a tax cheat* The concern is that foreign entertainers are not paying their "fair share" of withholding taxes on income earned in the U.S. (there is a 30% withholding tax applicable to nonresident aliens performing services within the United States). The focus apparently is on the structures through which entertainers earn money within the United States and making sure that withholding takes place somewhere along the chain. This is all part of closing the tax gap.

*May not actually be a tax cheat, but this commercial is ridiculous:

And what the hell is Henry saying? "I nevuh fthk about ystdy".... Thanks Thierry, er Terry. Go back to playing with your ball.

No Death Update right now. Maybe later.

I've Been a Bad Bad....

2007-11-07T23:07:00.000-05:00

blogger.

Anyway... here are the updates...

The Taxes Update

I didn't want to comment on any of Charlie Rangel's tax machinations (he is, after all, my congressman), although he has gotten superficial coverage in the Economist, the NY Times, and elsewhere. (Edited to note: I was glib - A Taxing Matter has had great coverage on this and other recent tax issues. Much better than I, anyway.

Bottom line: The AMT is scheduled to apply to a shitload of middle-class families in '08 absent at least a "one year patch" extending prior laws exempting more and more American taxpayers. The patch is a political necessity. Rangel proposed (and the House W&M committee passed) a bill that offset the cost of the patch and some popular extenders with (1) a change in taxation of carried interest and (2) a change in the taxation of deferred comp.

Grassley, et. al., have said that they did not view an AMT patch as requiring revenue offsets because the AMT was never intended to have the bite it now has (which is odd since it was never indexed to inflation).

Thus, we find ourselves in a bit of a stalemate. Although not that much of one as Rangel has already basically caved (via Tax Notes) and agreed to look at other possible revenue offsets besides the carried interest raise. See this also from Rep. Emanuel.

Here is my view: (1) A change in legislation allowing tax-exempts to invest in funds that borrow to fund their investments will pass, (2) The carried interest and deferred compensation bills will be deferred to '09, but then pass and (3) Whatever happened to the "Blackstone Bill"? It was not included in Rangel's bill. Would have thought that would be a great revenue raiser.

Lots of other interesting tax stuff, but, it will have to wait.

The Death Update

I realized today as i was writing an entry in my "bricks and mortar" journal that the book I was writing in was intended to be used as a book of remembrance for Dean Gordanier, a brilliant tax lawyer who passed away about 4 years ago in Boston.

He was a great man, a great tax lawyer. A brilliant guy, one who touched all who came in contact with him. He was always there with a hug or a clap on the shoulder and while a bit prickly, was the first to share with you a wide, kidlike grin when things were right in the world.

He also thought accountants "whores and charlatans". Of course, this was before the Andersen meltdown. Now he'd call them scurrulous and scaredy-cats. That was Dean.

So I should be careful to make sure my bricks and mortar journal is sturdy. For Dean.

The Rest Update

Since baseball season is over, the rest of the updates, will be the... um... "Rest" Update, like Paul Harvey says.. the rest of the story.

-- The Bills - Losman back in again. Damn. And I just got my hair cut. Seriously though, the team is more suited to a QB with his particular skills. Speed, dangerous long ball, acrobatic catches. It's not a possession receiver team. Hopefully they can keep the 'fish winless this week.

-- The Sox - Schilling resigned yesterday (have you noticed that the same word means two absolutely opposite things? resigned/re-signed. EERIE). Anyway.. Great K with Schill. Hopefully they'll sign Lowell and a spot starter for the rotation, and perhaps some backup IF help. Otherwise, not sure what else they need (except for a new starting C of course, but that's not happening).

That's it for tonight. I'm tired and my Sapphire and Tonic is empty.

Oh, almost forgot. This makes me happy.

Quick Picks

2007-11-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged all week (post Sox comedown, I think). But here are the quick picks with Tax and Death Updates to come today (and a postgame report on the Bills).

BILLS (+1) over Bengals Yeah, Losman in again (as he should have been last week anyway). He should be able to complete at least one bomb to his own guys today. And what's this I see? Fucking Solomon Wilcots is calling the game? Good Christ - I get to listen about how well the "Bee-ills" are playing today. Maybe I'll listen to the NFL audio coverage at nfl.com.

LIONS (-3) over Broncos

TITANS (-4) over Panthers David Carr on the road? No thank you.

CHEIFS (-2) over Packers I have to believe arrowhead is good for something.

Chargers (-7) over VIKINGS

FALCONS (-3.5) over Niners Simmons's "sleeper" is comatose, but the Niners are Schaivo-tose at this point.

SAINTS (-3) over Jaguars

Washington (-3.5) over JETS The Jets can go straight to hell.

Cardinals (+3.5) over BUCS

Seahawks (+1) over BROWNS

Pats (-5.5) over COLTS

Texans (+3) over RAIDERS

EAGLES (+3) over Cowboys

STEELERS (-9) over Ravens

Go here for the best NFL preview going.

And here is Bflo Blog's tailgate.

Enjoy the games, and don't forget - this guy is the WORST commentator going. God he sucks.

Taking a Deep Breath

2007-10-29T14:41:00.000-04:00

Lots to talk about today, first and foremost:

The Red Sox

It's amazing how something can go on for more than 6 months, night in, night out, and then be over in a flash - like the previous 6 months never happened. That's how I feel today after the Sox swept the Rockies. Forgotten are the calls to bench Pedroia for Cora, to trade for Jermaine Dye at the deadline and bench Drew, to go back in time and reverse the Beckett/Lowell for Hanley Ramirez/Anubal Sanchez trade, to inquire whether Ortiz and Manny have been juicing all these years. Forgotten are the picayune and picky - whether Beckett should have pitched Game 4 of the ALCS, whether Tito should have pulled him in Game 1 after 5, whether Julian Tavarez should have been on the postseason roster instead of Gagne. Today, there is just joy and relief and the fulfillment of expectations. That is the biggest change since '04 and the reason why many people now think the Sox are the new Yankees. Becuase we expect success and are gratified when it is achieved, instead of hoping for success and overwhelmed and surprised when it happens. A great change.

some wrap up thoughts:

-- This team was built, as Joe Posnanski so aptly pointed out before the ALCS, on imrpoved starting pitching, an improved bullpen and an improved Mike Lowell. Those three things, plus the emergence and contributions of Ellsbury and Pedroia were on full display the last week.

-- Someone at MLB - PLEASE order FOX to replace McCarver and Buck with an announcing team that actually is involved in the game, doesn't just promote the hot storyline and isn't reduced to spouting totally empty platitudes (actually Buck was not that bad this year, but McCarver has been reduced to a caricature of his already shopworn self).

-- I was not at all interested in the World Series last year - partly because work was absolutely insane, but more because the Sox were not involved and my dad had just died. I didn't think of him a single time last night. I'm not sure if that's progress or just life, but there it is.

The Blogs

Soxaholix are note perfect

Jere has his head in the clouds and has a really cool recording of the call of the end of last night's game. Give it a listen. Man, I miss Castiglione.

Away Team has a cool set of pictures celebrating last night's win.

If this video doesn't bring tears to your eyes, I don't know what to tell you (via Sox & Dawgs)

That's it on the Sox. I'll leave you with one picture (woke up this morning and had this greet me on the cover of the NY Times):

The Bills

Is it o.k., as a fan, to be extremely happy your team won, but still have dissatisfied, wondering how they did it, and worried for the rest of the season?

That's how I felt about the Bills 13-3 win over the Jets yesterday.

It's as though Jauron and the coaching staff (more Fairchild than anyone else) was trying to take away the Bills' chances of succeeding as well as screwing up. It's like when you're raising a kid (I can say this now that I have one) - you can't put them in a bubble - yeah, they'll fall, bump their heads, get hit by a car, whatever, but they'll also have a chance to succeed. Watching the first 3 quarters, it was apparent that while Edwards had been designated the starter, he wasn't "A Starter". Some examples:

-- Calling a shovel pass on 3rd and 8 in the Red Zone on the Bills' first successful drive. Yeah, they were in field goal range, but again, what is the risk of taking a shot at the end zone there? You throw a pick, you throw a pick - they're not making the playoffs so they should take more chances (note, this is exactly the OPPOSITE of the horrible call against the Cowboys when they were AHEAD by two scores to pass on a similar down, distance and situation).

-- Another conservative call in the third quarter when they were driving - 3rd and 4 and they call a flanker screen - it was busted anyway.

-- 3rd and short late in the game, and they run straight up the middle for no gain - the third consecutive handoff up the middle. A run is the right call, but why not a sneak, or an inside handoff (they got a FG to go up 6-3, but could have sustained the drive with a better call).

Luckily, they called a few downfield passes for Losman which put the game away - one which Roscoe Parrish should have hauled in, one that Evans improbably did.

Like I said, I like the result, but I doubt the plan.

The Bills blogs:

Goose's Roost has a great picture of Losman.

The prolific Brian Galiford over at Buffalo Rumblings has the game story and a piece on the "QB controversy".

My take on the "controversy" is that the team was built to run an offense that features a lot of downfield passing and a power running game. It was not built for a game manager, dink and dunk style game such as they have tried with Edwards. That woudl argue for Losman to start; however, either way, they HAVE to pick one guy or the other and run the offense they think gives the team the best chance to win WITH THAT GUY.

I'm happy they're 3-4 with the injuries they've had, but they should be 5-2, and that failure is due to a failure of process.

Quick NFL Picks

2007-10-28T12:18:00.000-04:00

Real quick this week, I have $hit to do around the house...

Browns (-3) over RAMS. Norm van Brocklin is spinning in his grave.

BEARS (-5) over Lions. I believe in the power of Griese.

BUCS (-3.5) over Jags. Yes, feel the power of the favorites this week.

Panthers (+7) over COLTS. I really want the Colts to lose to take some of the craziness out of next week's Pats-Colts matchup.

Bills (+3) over JETS. Seriously, how could you ever root for a team that presents this guy as the face of the franchise?

Also, this is the first real "test" for Trent Edwards as it seems he now really has a handle on the starting job. I'm worried about Kelsay possibly not playing, but I like the Bills to come on strong in the second half this year and get to 6-10.

(by the way, the Goose's Roost had this excellent piece on the whole QB "controversy", which was ridiculous in the first place.

BENGALS (+3.5) over Steelers . Pittsburgh was exposed last week and Cincy has been playing better. By the way - there haven't been any stories this year about how the Bengals are staying out of trouble, have there?

Eagles (-1) over VIKINGS . Because Philly just can't be this bad.

Raiders (+7.5) over TITANS. I don't think Tennessee is built to blow teams out.

Saints (-2.5) over 49ERS. So who was the Saint who posted this craigslist ad? (link via deadspin). My money's on Aaron Stecker.

Dolphins (+9.5) over Giants. (neutral field). I'd say the Dolphins win outright if the Jason Taylor robot can find a way to get into the game.

PATRIOTS (-16) over Washington. 7-0 ATS this year and this is the week everyone is giving up on them. Um, inexperienced QB on the road against Belichick? check. Richard Seymour getting back into the game for the Pats to stabilize run defense? check. I say DC pots no more than 10 points on the board. 31-10 Pats.

BRONCOS (-3) over Packers. Farve continues his seasonal transition from God to Moron - as the leaves turn, you can count on it.

CHARGERS (-9) over Texans. QB situation is nasty in Houston, otherwise I would take them. I don't see Norv as a "bring the boys together" coach - he's more a "what play do I call again?" coach.

The Baseball Update

2007-10-28T09:38:00.000-04:00

Last night, for only the second time this postseason (first was right before Game 5 of the ACLS), I was nervous that the Sox would not win the game. That did not last long. Ellsbury and Pedroia said "oh yeah?", kicked dirt in the faces of the Rockies and their fans and walked off with their girlfriends and the win.

I opened my big mouth in the third inning and asked the Taxwife whether it was too early to start considering WS MVP. After she punched me in the face, she said "yes". She was right. Although this morning - let's look at the candidates (As you will see, I take into account intangibles):

Jacoby Ellsbury: .417/.500/.667, 3 2B, 4-5 last night and the Stolen Base that Launched A Million Tacos.

Dustin Pedroia: .357/.438/.643, 1 HR, 4 RBI, clutch hit last night and the worst hairline I've ever seen on a 24 year old.

Josh Beckett: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 9 Ks, 1 BB and a huge set of huevos.

Jonathan Papelbon: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 Ks, 2 SV and some sick dance moves.

Hideki Okajima: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6 Ks, 0 BB and a head jerk to third (thanks, Timm-ay).

I think if it goes 5 and Beckett gets another win, he'll be the MVP. If it's a sweep and Paps saves a close one tonight, it will be him. Otherwise, it's wide open and a clutch hit by Pedroia or Ellsbury (or Lowell or Drew (!) for that matter) will win it.

Of course, the Rockies could come back.

Some random thoughts from last night's game:

-- The best Rockies fans could do was a sign that said "Big Papi eats boogers"? That seems more appropriate for College Gameday.

-- Ditto the Halloween costumes - the Cat in the Hat and the Jolly Green Giant? WTF?

-- McCarver busting out the phrase "a bevy of fastballs" - I prefer a "veritable cornucopia" myself.

-- Okajima worked through trouble like the pro he is and struck out Atkins in the bottom of the 7th with an absolutely nasty splitter. I read time and tie again how breaking pitches don't break as much in the thin Colorado air, but Dice-K's curve was working and Okie's splitter was nasty.

Cruising the Blogs:

Red Sox Chick had this up pretty quickly after last night's game. I'm not sure anymore who McCarver and Buck root against. They seemed relatively fair and balanced last night - McCarver even gave Manny props on the slide into home (after I yelled at the tv for a minute or two).

Peter has his summary of last night's game - including mad props to Dice-K who was in command throughout (although I didn't realize until this morning that he topped 100 pitches).

Joy of Sox has all of the Sunday morning headlines.

NFL Picks in a bit.

Untitled

2007-10-27T19:24:00.001-04:00

Always wanted to do that.

Anyhoo, crazy work day on Friday and G-D computer problems today delayed the bloggin' goodness.

So what did I miss?

-- Schilling coming up huge again. I didn't get the people who said he was washed up - he only had the one bad start against Cleveland. Otherwise, here is his postseason line:

19.1 IP, 16 H 3 ER 3BB 13K 3-0, 1.40 ERA.

F U Curly Haired B, I don't care how he's getting it done. He's getting it done.

-- McCarver again informing me about the length of various players' strokes. Keep it to yourself Timm-ay.

-- One worrying trend - lots of guys left on base by the Sox. This team loses games it shouldn't when it gets guys on and can't drive them home. Happened a bit in the Cleveland series (DPs) and happened in Game 2. Luckily the pitching was strong enough to overcome it. It won't be tonight.

My prediction for tonight - Dice-K goes 5+, but first guy in (Delcarmen) allows two inherited runners to score. Rockies win 5-3.

I hope I am wrong, but I did pick the Sox in 6.

Some blogs before I leave to finish my third drink of the night:

Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory has a good post taking apart CHB.

Red Sox Chick went to Game 1. Hereare the gory details.

Joy of Sox has the open thread and the headlines for tonight's game.

Peter notes that if the NL had home field, the game could be rained out, and Dice-K is the first starting pitcher from the land of the rising sun in the World Series.

That's it. Enjoy the game. Off to change into the lucky "Why Not Us" t-shirt. To wit:

The Baseball Update

2007-10-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

Once again, I am late this morning with the update, but what a game. Even Buck and McCarver couldn't ruin my enjoyment (although they still caused me to talk to myself a lot more than I normally would).

Like Jere, I thought the Royce Clayton/Coco conversation was the humor highlight of the game, at least until McCarver told me that "usually the bigger you are, the longer your stroke". I think he meant it in terms of Matt Holliday's impressive short swing, but I could be wrong.

Three Things I Noticed: (1) Ed Montague was decent behind the plate, but actually had a rather small strike zone, except in the first when Beckett was pitching, and then toward the end of the game when he started calling the belly-button strike. He was giving Francis a few calls he wasn't giving Beckett which just shows you how great Beckett was last night. (2) I know from statistical data that Troy Tulowitzki is an excellent defensive shortstop, but did you see the highlight reel that Fox ran? You could not have come up with a mor anodyne set of clips if you tried. Basically they were "run to the left, plant feet, fire to first". None of the leaping grabs that he's actually made in the NLCS. Anyway, it immediately reminded me of Letterman's "Close Plays of the Month" when Marv Albert would come on and narrate a ridiculolusly average play as though it was something special. Unintentional comedy - thy name is Fox baseball coverage. (3) I was openly rooting for Tito to pull Beckett in the 6th. I mean, 13-1? I guess he's already made up his mind that Lester will be the game 4 starter, but that was a little curious. Allowed me to set up the TaxWife for a good joke, however. I told her that they should bring in Gagne in the 6th. She said no matter the score she doesn't want Gagne coming in in the 6th of any game. So she went to bed before the 9th inning and when she woke up asked me what the final score was. I told her, "you wouldn't believe it, they brought in Gagne and he gave up 6 runs. Paps had to close". She immediately yelled "I told you, I knew it, that guy sucks... etc". (she didn't actually say "etc"). I said, actually it was 13-1. 1-2-3 inning. Good times.

Some Good Blogs

The aforementioned post from Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory.

Keep Your Sox On is rocking Freddy Mercury this morning.

02145 says to keep a little perspective, Red Sox Nation (I agree, this is how we started the ALCS, remember?)

Joy of Sox has the front pages.

Soxaholix. No words necessary.

Pinto says it came down to throwing strikes. See above on the ump. Tight zone last night.

That's it. Busy day. Huge Tax Update should be due, but not sure if I'll get to it.

Oh Yeah

2007-10-24T20:20:00.000-04:00

Sox in 6.

MVP: Manny just like in '04.

Number of dumb things McCarver will say? Too many to count.

World Series Limerick:

They've conquered the Angels and Tribe
Down three to one they survived
With the Rockies in town
Even if they get down
We know they will come back and thrive.

Sorry - I only had 10 minutes.

Enjoy the game!

A Day Late...

2007-10-23T09:35:00.000-04:00

But we'll do the Bills update anyway.

I knew it would be a close game, but I had it coming out the other way - with Baltimore grinding away at the Bills D and coming out on top on a late FG. I was pleasantly surprised.

Overall, Edwards did fine given (i) the defense and (ii) the playcalling. As I thought, they took about 3 shots downfield. One connected with Evans. One resulted in a pass interference play. One was woefully underthrown.

He's still not crisp on intermeidate routes - especially to the sideline - what got him in trouble against Dallas and caused his 1 INT in this game. As the TV guys noted, he doesn't look off coverage and so gives defenders time to jump routes (although his INT was just a bad throw).

I was originally of the opinion that they should stick with Losman. He showed enough down the stretch last year to get another shot. But he clearly isn't Levy's or Jauron's guy and Ralph himself seemed to have ordered the switch. He won't himself beat any good pass defenses, but he'll pull a Trent Dilfer and allow Lynch and the D to keep them in close games. All that said, I agree with Brian Galiford at Buffalo Rumblings that they need to stick with one guy or else Jauron should be fired.

Speaking of Lynch - that kid is going to be good, especially once the Bills get a good O line. He has excellent patience for a rookie, sticking behind the line until a hole opens up. Excellent draft pick.

Playcalling and clock management? Meh. Not nearly agressive enough on the drives in the red zone (a draw on 3rd and 10 from your opponent's 10? Really?) And then once again, down the stretch, much too conservative on offense (running out the clock is fine, but contrary to Easterbrook, repetaed runs right up the middle won't get it done - especially with this O line) and on defense (it was more a case of Boller missing plays - Bills were once again willing to give up yards). It worked because Baltimore's defense is so inept, but they've got to be more agressive when in TD territory.

Game recaps:

Goose's Roost

Buffalo Rumblings

Bills Gab

Tito is a Good Manager

2007-10-22T15:22:00.001-04:00

I was not among the Tito bashers when he went with Wakefield over Beckett in Game 4. The numbers were on Tito's side. Wakefield was fresh. Wakefield did not pitch a gem in Game 4, but he also was not the reason the Sox lost. Beckett then went on regular rest in Game 5, Schill was Schill in Game 6 and the Sox blew the Indians out of the water in Game 7.

And then there is this (from Buster Olney's ESPN chat today)

brendan(ny): What happened to Travis Hafner? How come he doesn't get the same treatment as ARod despite a miserable postseason?

Buster Olney: Brendan: His bat was incredibly slow the last three games. And there is some thought in the Cleveland family that facing Wakefield's knuckler may have fouled up some of the Indians' hitters for the last few days of the series

Excuse? Doesn't matter. Good call Tito.

The Baseball Update

2007-10-22T14:20:00.001-04:00

Really, just a tour of pieces from the interwebs this morning. They're all saying it better than I can.

Charles Pierce defends Manny better than anyone I have seen so far.

You knew Keep Your Sox On would choose "Don't Stop Believeing" for their tribute to last night's game.

Peter is overjoyed.

Soxaholix has the first Flowers for Algernon reference I have seen in a long time.

Call of the Green Monster has the scoop on baseball lessens for Rockies fans.

Bills update and maybe Death and Taxes Updates later. I'm behind the 8 ball at work after watching so much baseball over the weekend.

This is nice

2007-10-22T09:50:00.000-04:00

Evidence that Sox fans generally are good people, like fans everywhere. From Art Martone's indispensible ProJo Blog

BOSTON -- As the Indians' players made their way from their clubhouse to the team bus, which was parked in right field, they found themselves being honored by an unlikely group of people.

Red Sox fans who had stayed behind at Fenway Park for the post-clinching celebration stood to the sides and created an alley for the players to walk through. And as they passed, the fans applauded, making comments like, ''Good series,'' and ''Good luck next year.''

Ex-Sox right fielder Trot Nixon was the first to pass, and he seemed surprised by the ovation. The other Cleveland players passed stoically, but Travis Hafner had a smile on his face.

It all occured at around 1 a.m.

And at 1:04 a.m., with the field finally clear of Red Sox players but the lights still on and the grounds crew beginning its work, the Fenway Park organist began playing ''The Impossible Dream.''

Stay Classy, Boston

Job Well Done

2007-10-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

Squanders in the first 3 innings. Nail biting in innings 4 through 6. Dodging a bullet in the 5th - with a little help from the second base ump. Then a breakthrough in the 7th, aided by an error and some luck. Then the floodgates opening in the 8th.

The Sox did it with a little more execution (specifically the pen), a few breaks (the Manny grounder off the lip that went for a single instead of a DP) and one bad call by the second base ump and an historic mistake by Joel Skinner.

Check the archives. I was never more than moderately nervous, and was actually pretty confident all through the series. Even in the dark day after going down 3-1. Team has too much talent and the breaks were due to even out. Now, the Sox get to face God's team. Good luck to them.

Enjoy the celebration. I am f-d at work tomorrow.

Quick NFL Thoughts

2007-10-21T09:55:00.000-04:00

The Bills play the Ravens today in Buffalo. It's homecoming for Willis McGahee. There has been quite a bit of trash-talking by Bills fans this week, in anticipation of McGahee's return. Some of it has been over the top. However, let's take a look at what this classy guy said on his way out of town last year:

Coming from Miami, I was used to partying, going out, just having something to do every night. Restaurants, whatever. Going to Buffalo, it was like hitting a brick wall. Like, Damn. Can't go out, can't do nothing. There's an Applebee's, a TGI Friday's, and they just got a Dave & Busters. They got that, and I'm like, 'What the' And, you know, the women?

You see, when I was in college that's what I used to thrive off of. The better you do, the more fame you get. So you know, it was like, I was used to that. And then you get to Buffalo and no matter how you do, it's the same. It's no big city. You know what I did every day? I came home and played video games.

That's nice. Typicl grad of The U. Anyway, hopefully the Bills' Run D will get up for the game - unlikely given their record thus far, but a fan can hope.

BfloBlog has the tailgate report.

Buffalo Rumblings breaks down the Ravens.

Goose's Roost has a better takedown of McGahee than I could muster.

My prediction? This will be a close game. The Ravens offense, McGahee notwithstanding is gross. Boller has his last week in there and will be pressing to try to get another week as the starter. This will result in some takeaways for the Bills.

On the offensive side, Edwards will throw deep and hopefully link up with Evans for a couple of long plays. If he connects, they will win. If he doesn't they will lose. The game will come down to one or two big plays (because the Bills will not be able to move the ball with any real regularity) and takeaways.

The score: Ravens 16, Bills 14

The Quick Picks

COWBOYS (-9.5) over Vikings

BILLS (+3) over Ravens

Bucs (+2) over LIONS What have the Lions done the last 3 weeks to inspire any confidence?

Patriots (-16.5) over DOLPHINS

SAINTS (-9) over Falcons

GIANTS (-9) over Niners This is the week that Eli reverts to last season's Eli, of course.

WASHINGTON (-9) over Cardinals Well there goes my theory that the SG doesn't use the racist nickname. Wonder why it said Washington last week and Redskins this week.

Titans (-1) over TEXANS

BENGALS (-6) over Jets I hate the Jets

Chiefs (+3) over RAIDERS

Rams (+8) over SEAHAWKS I thought Qwest Field was supposed to be a tough place to play?

EAGLES (-5) over Bears Wow, I am taking a lot of favorites this week.

BRONCOS (+3.5) over Steelers For avoidance of doubt, I also hate the freaking Steelers.

Jags (+3) over COLTS I hope.

That's it - enjoy the games.

Also, Paul Byrd is a cheating cheater.

6 Down, 1 to Go

2007-10-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Just. Wow. This is why I love baseball. Well, this and the dingers. J.D. Drew, a guy who couldn't buy a big hit all year, who had fans mocking him, actually pining for Trot Nixon (!) after Game 2, who apparently had personal problems off field that may have contributed to his relative lack of production this year, was redeemed in a big way. All of a sudden, curtain call, standing "Os", possible chants of "Drew, Drew" (I couldn't quite hear them).

Some commenters on Deadspin were complaining about "Sox Fans" - to quote one:

You Red Sox fans are f*cking pathetic - rip J.D. Drew and then he saves your season like that so he's a God.

Yeah, that's about right. But you see, that is a fan's prerogative. I don't necessarily agree with booing your own players (well, I will make an exception for Gagne), unless they have come out and maligned fans or teammates, or generally acted like jerks. However, fans are absolutely entitled to complain about a guy, whine to talk radio, bitch and moan and then, when the moment is right, turn on a dime and cheer cheer cheer.

It's not two-faced. It's called being a fan. And last night Drew got to experience the good side of the equation. As did Sox fans everywhere.

Three things I noticed: (1) Schilling was actually pretty masterful. The picture of efficiency. He threw 90 pitches over 7 innings, never more than 18 in an inning. He never was in any real trouble, despite Joe Buck and Tim McCarver's fevered hand-wringing in the third inning when Cleveland cut it to 4-1 and had the tying run at the plate. He was the epitome of crafty. The only people who should have been surprised are people with poor memories. He pitched the exact same way against Anaheim. Too many people let the one bad start against Cleveland color their views.

(2) Speaking of McCarver. He's become downright unlistenable (I know - this is news?) What I mean is, I used to be able to listen to him at least for the unintentional comedy effect - like the other night when he expressed surprise that a lead-off home run will lead to more big innings than a lead-off walk. Something has changed, though. I don't know what - seems like he's forcing himself to find things to say. He actually said last night, apropos of nothing that the word "gameplan" has been used in football for a while and is now being used in baseball. Huh? What does that even mean? That people use gameplans in baseball now, or just the word? There were countless other examples, but he's not even funny anymore. He's just sad. Like the drunk uncle who goes from funny to quiet and distant. Sad.

(3) I've talked about it over and over again, but it was finally nice to see it acknowledged by a real baseball person. After the game, Eric Wedge noted that the breaks that had been going the Indians way, went the Sox way last night. Some borderline pitches by Carmona were called balls. A couple of little infield hits in the first loaded the bases. Drew's grand slam cleared the wall by about a foot. And then the late miscues came - lack of execution. The series has done a 180 since i wrote this, and I think it's 25% execution and 75% breaks falling in a different way.

Touring the blogs

Jere is luckily going to Game 7 tonight. He's too fixated on the Yankees though for my taste. I did not once think of the Yankees last night.

Sox Nest knows the meaning of redemption.

Keep Your Sox On echoes the theme of little moments making the big difference.

Peter has the money quote from Schilling about Dice-K ready to go out there tonight.

That's all for now on the baseball front. Unfortunately this is a work day for me, but I'll be back in a bit with quick NFL picks.

Friday Randomness

2007-10-19T16:00:00.000-04:00

1. Sabres I have not had the time to really get down and dirty with the Sabres this year (wait, that came out wrong) - to really follow the Sabres this year. I had expected they would be down following the loss of Drury (Go BU) and Briere. After the first two games, I looked to be right, but they bounced back nicely.

Of course, Goose's Roost and BfloBlog cover the Sabres much more closely (and betterly) than I could hope to.

For example,

Goose's Roost has this excellent breakdown of the Jochen Hecht deal - a great signing, and great sign, that Drury and Briere notwithstanding, Regier is going to try to keep the young core together.

And BfloBlog has this hilarious Daily Show-esque mock interview. I don't want to spoil it - just check it out. The funniest thing I've read all day (especially since Deadspin has turned into one hell of a whine and bitch-fest the past few days).

2. Bills The enterprising soul who set up the Fire Dick Jauron blog has a new post tying the potential Toronto games and the benching of J.P. Losman (and his flowing locks) to the ineptitude of Mr. Jauron. (Note: Goose's Roost also weighed in on this)

As far as this weekend's game is concerned, the Bills D should keep it close - there will be some revenge factor against McGahee and Boller is atrocious. The Ravens D is still scary, but not the stout squad it has been in the past. I'd take the Bills and the under - then again - I am a horrible handicapper.

3. Miscellany Joe Posnanski's blog is tremendous, although the commenters are crazy.

In local news, TaxBoy is nearing 9 months now and is standing - not unassisted - he needs to hold on to something to keep from falling. I can't believe it. He also weighs about 20 lbs - so now he's noticeable when I carry him around.

St. John - 5 weeks away. Can't wait.

The Taxes Update

2007-10-19T12:57:00.000-04:00

The bill I mentioned yesterday was introduced today by Senator Kerry - S. 2199, the "Offshore Deferred Compensation Reform Act of 2007". Rep. Emanuel's bill apparently will be introduced in the House later with identical language.

(note - haven't found the bill yet online, but here is a press release from Kerry's office)

In substance, it is as I described - it would prevent nonqualified deferred comp arrangements by companies located in low tax jurisdictions. The definition of low tax jurisdiction for this purpose, however, is not quite clear. The bill requires that:

substantially all of the income of [the offshore] corporation is subject to an income tax imposed by [the offshore country]

It is not clear whether this means that a corporate income tax must be on the books of such country, or whether the corporate income tax must actually apply to the actual income of the company. In either case, however, it does not say that the rate needs to be high - so the idea I mentioned yesterday - domicile in a country with a legit corporate income tax, but negotiate for a low rate (Zug, Switzerland comes to mind) could still work. Treasury regulations (which are authorized) would be necessary to refine details like this.

I know that someone did a client alert on this yesterday, but I have not found it. I do not expect to do another one. There's nothing new here that I didn't already mention in my prior alert.

The Baseball Update

2007-10-19T09:30:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhhh... back to business, back to Boston.

I watched the game last night from the bar at Morton's here in the city with a good friend from Boston who was down. Reminded me of the '04 ALCS when I watched the comeback games in San Francisco with the same guy, plus some other guys. Good transplant karma, I guess.

It still started out frustrating - like games 2-4 - the Sox were getting lots of chances, but not capitalizing - the Manny throwout at home, the long single, Lugo's DP (which I called). But the worm obviously turned and some of those breaks I've been talking about went the Sox' way - miscues in the field, ball 4 calls that were close - and timely hitting (not clutch, just timely).

Three Things I Noticed: (1) It was the curveball that did it for Beckett. The hook was nasty all night and the Indians just couldn't figure it out, even upon third viewing in the 7th and 8th. (2) Lugo is just terrible. I didn't get the infatuation last year when the rumors were heating up that the Sox would not resign Gonzalez and go after Lugo. He doesn't hit. He doesn't field. He's a 30 steal guy with a penchant for GIDPS. The only entertaining thing about him is his passion for cup adjustments, which he doesn't even seem to be doing as much. Ah well, I shouldn't be negative after a game like last night. (3) Joe Buck and McCarver were actually excellent last night. I had the sound off and can say that they have never sounded better.

Let's go to the Blogs....

Jere has a typically passionate take on the game and golden goblets.

Keep Your Sox On says that Beckett goes to 11.

Peter says that Beckett was Santa Claus (he has a lot of Mrs. Clauses, apparently).

Surviving Grady is calling for the Randy Johnson move from Beckett if it gets to 7. He also finds the hidden meaning in the art of holding a microphone.

Soxaholix say let the "real Indian" play.

Back later. Busy morning.

The Baseball Update

2007-10-18T15:40:00.000-04:00

Here we go...

In under 4 hours, Dustin Pedroia will step into the box against CC Sabathia in the biggest game of his life. For all of the "we've been there before" stuff we've been hearing from Yoooooouk and others, for some of the key players (Pedroia, Lugo, Coco, Papelbon, Okajima), they haven't been there before. This isn't a post about pressure though. It's a post about how, in a season that lasts more than 6 months, over two hundred games, counding pre- and post-season, that goes from cold to hot and back to cold again, everything comes down to three or four chances at the plate and a half dozen chances in the field. How exhilirating must that be?

Mike & Mike this morning (shut up, I was getting dressed) were talking about this phenomenon - how casual fans sitting in the stands say things like "I'd kill for that guy's job" or "those players don't know how good they have it", when the player's perspective is, well, it's a job. Still, Golic admitted that there were times when he would step back, look around and say, "wow. This is pretty damn cool. I'm in the NFL."

I imagine tonight is one of those nights. Even on the road, even with the expectations. You have to think that when Pedroia steps in at 8:07 to face the real Hefty Lefty (sorry Jared, CC has you beat), he'll close his eyes and shake his head, as he does, step out, adjust the batting gloves and wait, just for a second, before stepping in and getting back to his job.

Bring it back to Fenway, guys.

Some pre-game blogtalk:

The Mighty Quinn reminds us that the Sox have faced this situation before. Often with worse odds (who thought Schilling would be able to pitch again in '04 Who thought the Sox would beat the Indians in '99 after going down 0-2 with that dead-ass pitching staff?)

Joy of Sox has the salient quotes for tonight.

Peter says it's Beckett or Bust and (rightly) defends Manny. Let's give the Manny-bashing a rest and YES, Mike No Talent Adams, I'm looking at you.

Triumphant Red Sox Fan thinks we need more Millar.

Red Sox Dad (wait that could describe me as well) thinks the Sox look nice and loose.

Go Sox.

The Death Update

2007-10-18T10:34:00.000-04:00

There hasn't been one in a while.

A very sad day in Macedonia, Croatia and the greater former Yugoslavia as Toshe Proeski died Tuesday in a car accident. He was 26.

Proeski was an extremely popular (apparently) pop singer who, in 2004, participated in the prestigious Eurovision singing competition (think Idol, then multiply by the EU).

He was buried yesterday in Macedonia with full state and religious honors.

Here is a sample of some of his work.

Here is an excellent article explaining better than I can why Proeski was an important figure in an area that has suffered extremely.

And here is the obit.

Some Common Sense

2007-10-17T18:14:00.000-04:00

From David Pinto writing at the Sporting News. Basically, the series has come down to timely hitting by the Indians, lack of same from the Sox and superb fielding by the Indians.

Hopefully those trends will reverse themselves soon.

(via Baseball Musings)

The Taxes Update

2007-10-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

I referred to this a month ago when it first came out, but Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), along with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) tomorrow will introduce legislation in the House and Senate that would limit deferral by hedge fund managers (among others) of compensation paid offshore. The bill would impose a limit equal to the amount people are allowed to defer into 401(k) and Roth IRA accounts (approximately $20,000).

Some background - Hedge fund managers receive management fees for operating their hedge funds equal to 2% of the NAV of the funds. In addition, they receive a performance based fee equal to 20% of the net appreciation of the funds (called, "2 and 20" in industry parlance).

It is common practice for fund managers to defer receipt of the 2 and 20 fees, avoid current tax on these amounts, invest them back into the funds they manage, and then receive them later, having compounded tax free in the interim (kind of like what happens to your 401(k) - you defer tax on the amounts you contribute into a 401(k) account, it earns a return tax-free while it is in there and then you pay tax at ordinary rates when you pull it out).

The perceived abuse is that this deferral opportunity is not available to regular taxpayers - only managers of offshore hedge funds. From a tax policy standpoint, so long as the deferred amounts are at risk and may be lost (which they are - the amounts are usually reinvested back into the hedge funds the managers run), I do not see how this is any different than any other deferred compensation plan. It's simply a matter of quantum.

Here is the press release from September when he first announced his intentions.

And here is my client alert on the same topic.

Update: I should have mentioned in the above that one of the reasons given for the "fairness" aspect of the bill is that deferrals of comp made by employees of US-based companies result in a economic detriment to the employer, as the employer loses the deduction until the employee is ultimately paid. By contrast, the deferrals that Kerry's and Emanuel's bill will apparently target, are made by employees of hedge fund management companies domiciled in tax havens (Cayman, Bermuda, etc). Thus, there is no lost deduction and no economic detrminent to the employer of allowing the deferral.

However, this grossly misunderstands why hedge funds are set up offshore in the first place - they are set up offshore to allow tax-exempt and non-US investors invest in hedge funds without becoming directly subject to US tax. Tax-exempt and non-US investors, of course, would also have no use for the tax deduction associtaed with payments of compensation to hedge fund managers, because they do not ordinarily pay US federal income tax. Thus, even if the hedge fund managers engaged directly with investors in these deferral arrangements, there would be no lost deduction.

It's a function of the nature of the taxpayer, not the domicile of the management company that creates the mismatch.

My personal view on the topic (which I should have included above) is that this is a small issue in the larger scheme of taxation of private equity funds and their managers and is a distraction from the larger debate. This bill (along with Rep. Sander Levin's bill on UDFI) would probably at least encourage hedge funds to come back onshore.

It's all moot, however, because no tax raises will be signed by President Bush, in my opinion.

Further update: The bill apparently has an easy workaround - organize the fund and management company in a country that can be low tax, but not a tax haven (e.g., Switzerland). The summary of the bill (no actual text yet) says that the cap on deferrals does not apply where the corporation is domiciled in a jurisdiction that imposes an income tax on corporate income, has deductibility rules that work similarly to the US rules and has a tax treaty with the US. Thus, an offshore fund manager could be set up in Switzerland, obtain a ruling to negotiate a low local rate of tax, and continue deferring as usual. There would be some tax slippage, but presumably the tax benefit would outweigh the slippage if the return on the deferred amounts was high enough.

The Baseball Update

2007-10-17T10:12:00.000-04:00

Well that was frustrating. Really, in both games 3 and 4, the emotion was one of frustration. Frustration that the Sox were not coming through in big moments like they seemed to have in the regular season. Frustration that the breaks in the game were not going the Sox' way. Frustration that each game lost was there for the taking, but for a mistake in strategy (Game 2 - bringing in Gagne, leaving Tavarez off the playoff roster), a mistake in execution (Game 2 - the pen, Game 3 - Dice-K and the Double Plays, Game 4 - Wakefield knocking down the grounder that could have ended the horrendous 5th and Youk dropping the popus), or breaks gone the other way (Lofton's home run that barely made it over the fence, Wakefield's gaffe last night, the wide strike zone that cause Dice-K's pitch count to soar).

Still, after being down 3-1, I am disappointed, but still cautiously optimistic. Beckett goes in Game 5. If the Sox win tomorrow, Schilling goes at home in Game 6 (and don't forget, he was dominant in Game 3 against the Angels). I still firmly believe that the Sox bats will come back, in moments that matter (not the backtobacktoback or Varitek's homer), and that the breaks will start to even out. If the Sox lose, they will lose because of the lack of execution and the lack of breaks, not, because of some ridiculous half-baked "Sox have become the Yankees" hypothesis. Please.

This is the comment I left on Deadspin's page when i read that post.

Why does every sporting event need a meta-theory? This series does not need one.

Touring the Sox Blogs:

Jere is relatively optimistic, and points out something ridiculous McCarver said last night, reminding me of the time Steve Lyons said he'd rather a batter hit a triple than a home run in an inning because it "keeps the rally going".

Over the Monster is asking for it from the baseball karma gods. The Taxwife would not approve.

That's it for now. Taxes update and Death Update (really) t/k.

One more quick link

2007-10-16T11:59:00.000-04:00

Check out this post on the always good Bflo Blog. It's a 5 minute youtube compilation of last night's Sabres-Leafs game (which the good guys won 5-4).

Not Alot of Time This Morning

2007-10-16T11:06:00.000-04:00

So this will be a quick one.

Kenny Lofton -- Really?

Dice-K -- Actually did not pitch that badly. The Lofton Home Run was just barely over the fence, and the 4th run scoring on the Hafner fielder's choice was similarly unlucky. Pedroia missed the DP by about 6 inches. That said, he had a case of Scott Kazmir-itis throwing over 100 pitches through less than 5. At times I was yelling for him to throw more fast balls, but his curve was his out pitch in the 3rd and 4th. I am not too worried, but I am hoping the Sox can take it in 6th so we don't need to see Dice-K out there in the 7th.

Brian Gorman did a horrible job behind the plate. YOu know the ump is lousy when Joe "Milquetoast" Buck is openly questioning balls (heh) and strikes. I do think that Fox's strikecast, or whatever the hell it is called, is not an accurate representation of the strike zone.

Silver Lining? The bullpen was once again nasty, going 3 1/3 of scoreless ball.

Sox Blogs:

Keep Your Sox On with a tour de force post from last night's game. I especially liked the joke about "Grady's Ladies". They were so ugly even McCarver wouldn't throw them a bone.

Sox Fan In Hell advises calmness. Serenity now! (note - I agree 100%).

Red Sox Chick is also trying to stay positive (after an angry post last night - I felt the exact same way during and after the game.

Peter, I think, wants Francona to skip Wake. He also has some choice words for Dice-K's start.

More to come.

Sunday Morning Updates

2007-10-14T09:38:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Well, you win one, you lose one as the Sox swapped 7 run wins and losses with the Indians. To be honest, I went to bed as soon as I saw Gagne come out to pitch the 11th.

Three Things I Noticed: (1) Schilling actually did not pitch that badly, except for the mistake to Jhonny "don't spell my name right" Peralta. Unfortunately "not that badly" doesn't cut it in the ALCS. He wasn't his "all time best ERA in the postseason" best last night. (2) Papelbon was a stud as usual, which is good to see in case the Sox ever have a 9th inning lead needing protecting. (3) Manny Ortez is still hitting the cover off the ball. Ortiz is hitting .615 with an OBP of .783 and Manny is hitting .429 with an OBP of .652. Unfortunately, Manny blew a goldent opportunity in the first inning to bust the game open early (and get Carmona out of there early) by GIDPing.

Bonus Thing I Noticed: MEMO TO TITO, JAVIER LOPEZ CANNOT GET OUT LEFTIES. They hit .293 against him in the regular season. He's not a LOOGY. Stop using him as if he were one.

Bonus Bonus.... Varitek? Must be hard catching with that fork sticking out of his back. He is totally lost out there - 8 Ks in 21 ABs. Unfortunately, we have no other options unless Youk gets out the big glove again (would be nice to have Kelly Shoppach right about now - If we hadn't taken back bard in '05 in the Crisp trade, we might still have him. Big mistake by Boy Wonder).

A look at some blogs:

Soxnest wishes that Game 2 (like Rocky V and the 1994 NBA season) never happened.

Keep your Sox On has a typically lucid recap of last night's debacle.

Peter's Red Sox Forever had the same sick feeling when Gagne came in.

As an aside, it's hard to know why Gagne has been this bad since joining the Sox. Pitching coach? Injury? Mental issues playing in Fenway? Whatever it is, I have zero confidence that he'll be able to straighten it out this season. He should simply not be a late inning option.

Sox & Dawgs are also scratching their head at bringing in Gagne in a 6-6 game. Maybe in addition to my sister site, I should start Fire Tito soon.

Game 3 tomorrow night in Cleveland. Dice-K (yikes-K) vs. Westbrook. Should be a slugfest, although the way the series has gone so far, who knows.

NFL Picks

Once again, quick picks as the Taxwife has breakfast ready. (as a reminder, using the same lines as the SG and Home Teams in ALLCAPS). Edited to note that the Saints are on the road and Seahawks at home this week

CHIEFS (+3) over Bengals

Jaguars (-6.5) over TEXANS

BROWNS (-4.5) over Dolphins

BEARS (-5) over Vikings

Eagles (-3.5) over JETS

Rams (+9.5) over RAVENS

Washinton (+3) over PACKERS I like that the SG uses the team nickname for everyone except Washington. Not sure if that's an ESPN editorial choice or not, but I like it.

Titans (+3) over BUCS

CARDINALS (-4.5) over Panthers Let's see. Delhomme out, Carr questionable. Oh my god... That.. that's Vinny Testaverde's music!!!

CHARGERS (-9.5) over Raiders

SEAHAWKS (-6.5) over Saints

Giants (-3.5) over FALCONS

Patriots (-5.5) over COWBOYS After last Monday night's disaster, I'm hoping for 38-3 Pats, but I'll expect 27-17 Pats.

That's all for now, taxes and death update later today.

Late Thursday Night Update

2007-10-11T23:16:00.000-04:00

First off, again, a shout-out to my boy Kevin Pritchard at Bflo blog for slapping a link to the Taxman up on his site. For those of you from WNY, I grew up in Newfane (north of Lockport), went to HS at Willy North (go Spartans) where my dad was an English teacher (Mike Naylor) and now live in NYC. Still root (painfully) for the Bills and Sabres and want to hear thoughts and suggestions for coverage of Buffalo sports. Please email me.

No posts yesterday as I was out golfing.

Please head over to Fire Dick Jauron to see my breakdown of how Dick Jauron, despite all evidence to the contrary, still has a head coaching job. It's a sordid story of secret societies and school ties (with apologies to Brendan Fraser).

Anyway...

The baseball Update

Just linking around tonight to some friendly blogs.

Jere at Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory is talking about Suzyn Waldman's crying jag.

A good back and forth from Fire Brand of the American League between a Sox blogger and Indians blogger. Y'all know where i stand - Sox in 6, mostly scoring early runs, the Sox win the battle of the bullpens.

Keep your Sox On's breakdown of the Sox-Indians.

An awesome post from Surviving Grady wherein he hopes that the Sox win the series so the Repo Man won't come take his furniture away.

And it comes with this awesome picture:

Go Paps.

So that's it for the baseball update for now. Again, for the hard of reading (i.e., Yankees fans), Sox in 6. Manny = MVP.

The Taxes Update

No Taxes update tonight as I have lost access to my work email with my summary of tax notes updates.

The Death Update

Red Shipley passed away last week. He was 70. I note his passing because of his promotion of bluegrass music, the same kind of music that led my dad to move to Missouri in 1973, pregnant wife in tow. He had some crazy idea that he and some buddies would start a bluegrass band and make their fortune (or at least fame). It didn't work out, and southwest Missouri was apparently desolate. Amish or fundamentalist Ozarkians ruled the area and my parents were woefully out of place (even though, as Vermonters, they should have been used to that). Anyway, he kept listening to bluegrass, but didn't live his dream.

As for Red, like my dad, he died from cancer, but lived a long productive life promoting the art he loved. The obit is here.

Rainy Tuesday Night Update

2007-10-09T22:27:00.000-04:00

The Bills Letdown

It was quite strange when I turned to the Taxwife not 10 minutes after the Bills lost last night and said "well, they deserved to lose that game - if you can't win getting six turnovers, you deserve to lose". In other words, serenity now.

This morning, before even going on the blogs to check out others' reactions to the games (links below), I thought a little more critically about the game...

-- The Bills gave up an easy 3 at the end of the first half by attempting a 53 yard field goal on a 4th and 3. Not to go all Gregg Easterbrook or anything, but going for it on 4th and 3 has a higher positive outcome than attempting a 53 yarder. Punting may have been the best move there.

-- They sent Roscoe Parrish on an end around (it may have been a reverse) on 3rd and 2 in Dallas territory. It was predictably blown up and the Bills needed to punt. A simple run up the middle or toss over the middle to Lynch or Royal (who was a great weapon in the game (would have obviously been much more productive).

-- Jauron misused times out in the second half, resulting in a bad onside kick defense formation.

-- Defensive playcalling down the stretch was atrocious, giving up easy yards over the middle and then the inexcusable 8 yard sideline route with 7 seconds left. Again, they could have called a time out if they had the wrong personnel on the field, or to make sure the young defense was on the right page.

-- The decision to pass on third and medium deep in Dallas territory in the 4th quarter is inexcusable. That should have been a fireable offense.

I realize that most of the above decisions were not made directly by Jauron, they were made by his coordinators, Brian Fairchild and Perry Fewell (Dr. Z really tears Fewell a new one in particular). Still, Jauron is the HEAD coach and has to ultimately take responsibility for the overall schemes and the decisions to try trick plays on third and short. Most importantly, it is clear that the Bills young players are trying extremely hard and giving it all they have, but they are young. They need a solid gameplan that will not let them down and a coaching staff that knows when to take a breather, settle the troops down and focus that energy. That is sorely lacking this year and it is clear to me that Jauron is not the right man for the job.

Others' more precise takes on last night:

Bflo Blog (special thanks to BfloBlog for linking to the Taxman, by the way)

Buffalo Rumblings

The Goose's Roost

I guess the silver lining I was looking for is that Jauron can't screw up the Bills this Sunday.

In happier news....

The Baseball Update

The ALCS and NLCS are set. Word from Boston is that Schilling will start Game 2 for the Sox, with Dice-K going in game 3. This makes sense insofar as Dice-K has been about 3/4 of a run better on the road than at home this year; however, the way the series lines up, that would have Dice-K going in game 7. I'm not sure how I feel about that, except that the Cubs-D-Backs series showed the fallacy of planning too far ahead in the tournament (although fundamentally, I think Lou was in the right pulling Z).

I'm sticking by my previous prediction of Sox in 6 over the Indians. I only got half of the NLCS teams correct, but I'll stick with the team I did get right - Rockies in 7.

The Taxes Update

Senator Reid announced today that no carried interest legislation would make it through the Senate in 2008. No surprise. Makes for an interesting election year issue. Romney has already pledged no new taxes if he is elected.

The Death Update

A rather obscure one today. Nolan Herndon passed away Sunday at the age of 88 from pneumonia. He was a member of the famed Doolittle Raiders who engaged in one of the most daring aerial missions of World War II. The mission, a bombing raid over Tokyo in the Spring of '42 was memorialized in the book and film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, with a screenplay by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (ironic that a writer of a film known as borderline propaganda was later blacklisted for refusing to name names).

Anyway, back to Mr. Herndon, he retired from the military shortly after the war ended and passed away apparently at his home in South Carolina. The obit is here.

FIRE DICK JAURON

2007-10-09T17:38:00.000-04:00

All I can say after last night's game is that the Bills' coaching staff is an abortion of an enigma of some bad sea urchin.

Go here for a blog advocating the termination of Coach Jauron, forthwith.

And take Fairchild and Fewell while you're at it!

Are You Ready for some.... Bleeech

2007-10-08T19:01:00.001-04:00

Yeah, it's a nice story and all that MNF is coming back to Ralph Wilson for the first time since 1994, but let's be real, it's bound to be ugly.

Here's my humble breakdown:

When the Bills pass: It's hard to know what to expect. Edwards is starting his second pro game and although he looked decent last week, he was dangerously off-target with a lot of his completions - the WRs bailed him out. The Jets' pass defense was soft so he was able to get away with it - i.e., the WRs had room to adjust. Dallas is middle of the pack in passing YPG against (19th), but is tied for the league lead in INTs (9). Now, given they've faced Grossman, Trent Green, Bulger (last week) and Eli, we are talking mistake-prone guys, but still. Not auspicious. Inauspicious, even.

Conclusion: Bills passing need to throw deep early to try to loosen up the Cowboys' D and then try to push down the field with controlled middle-range passes. Hoepfully Royal will be a target.

When the Bills run: I got some flak on a Bills message board this week from a Cowboys fan for calling the Cowboys' run D "soft". Stats-wise, they are anything but soft, ranking 10th last year in rushing YPG and even better this year (4th overall). My point was more that they hadn't faced any legit offenses, but I guess the Bills would also not constitute a real offense. It's going to be a tough go for Lynch.

Conclusion: Bills need to get lucky.

When the Cowboys pass: Romo has not been particularly accurate this year, but Owens and Crayton have impressive YPC stats. Jabari Greer has the unenviable task of covering Owens (I would have thought he'd be on Crayton and McGee would be on Owens). Hopefully Schoebel and Kelsey can get some pressure on the edges, but then again, Romo's mobility could counteract that as he works well outside the pocket. Word is that the Bills practiced all week against a guy who continually rolled out, so hopefully that will help. But I doubt it. They are, after all, dead last against the pass.

Conclusion: Bills need to get serious pressure on Romo and LBs need to be disciplined in coverage. Also, Jabari Greer needs to be the Greer of week 4, not the Greer of week 3.

When the Boys run: It's all about MBIII. Bills' 22nd rated run D will probably have trouble containing him as his bruising style doesn't mesh well with the Bills' 4-3 setup which matches up better against quick backs. In addition, the Bills will constantly be dropping extra guys back in coverage to cover Witten out of the backfield which will give the linemen less help against the run. I predict that the Cowboys come out and run on 75% of the plays on their first drive.

Conclusion: Bills are facing the best RB they've faced all year. It probably won't be pretty unless they can strip him (but he's never lost a fumble in his career).

The Prediction: Cowboys 38, Bills 13

Other Bills links:

Bflo Blog's open game thread

The Goose's Roost also can't find many positives about tonight's game.

Buffalo Rumblings' open game thread

Buffalowdown's silver linings, such as they are.

Oh, and this is nice. Way to represent, Buffalo. MNF stayed away from Foxboro for like 20 years because of idiocy like this.

Enjoy the game!

Who Will Lose First?

2007-10-08T14:16:00.000-04:00

Ed. Note: Normal programming will resume around 6

So the knuckleheads on Weei this afternoon (Smerlas, Ted DeOssie, etc.) were joking around wondering who would lose first, the Patriots or the BC Eagles? The consensus seems to be that the Eagles will lose first.

Not so fast my friend - let's take a look and add the Celtics to it for good measure.

Patriots: Upcoming schedule: 10/14 - at Dallas, 10/21 - at Miami, 10/28 - Washington, 11/4 - at Indianapolis, 11/18 - at Buffalo, 11/25 - Philly, 12/3 - at Baltimore, 12/9 - Pittsburgh, 12/16 - Jets, 12/23 - Miami, 12/29 - at Giants.

On paper, looks like possible losses are at Dallas, home against Indy, at Baltimore and home against Pittsburgh. My guess, assuming Indy has gotten healthy, is that the Pats lose at Indy on 11/4 and then run the table.

First loss: 11/4

BC Eagles: Upcoming schedule: 10/13 - at ND, 10/25 - at Va. Tech, 11/3 - Florida St., 11/10 - at Maryland, 11/17 - at Clemson, 11/24 - Miami.

Eagles should take care of ND, but the road game in Blacksburg should be tough. Ditto at Maryland. They're on fire now, though, so I'll say they beat Va. Tech, but lose an upset on the road at Maryland (bookies in Cleveland Circle will rejoice, however).

First loss: 11/10

Celtics: Upcoming schedule: 11/2 - Washington, 11/4 - at Toronto, 11/7 - Denver, 11/9 - Atlanta, 11/10 - at NJ

Enough. They'll get dusted by the Nuggets at home on the 7th. Garnett will blow out his achilles and the Celtics will head for another out of the playoffs finish.

First loss: 11/7

I'm predicting the first loss will go Pats, Celtics, BC Eagles (unless any of Indy's weapons are hurt in which case the Pats will lose to the Ravens on the road on 12/3).

I'll keep track as the season progresses.

The better question is whether the above 3 teams will have more losses combined than the Bills by the end of November. I say no. Unfortunately.

Update, 11/9: The Eagles lost to Florida State on 11/3. As of this writing, though, the Bills have double the losses (4) the 3 Boston teams have (2). Note also that I said the Pats would lose to Indy UNLESS Indy's weapons are hurt. Score

Real quick

2007-10-07T22:33:00.000-04:00

I've updated the link list to include Joe Posnanski's new blog. Good stuff. Check it out.

Also, Sox = Awesome. Yankees = Annoying. I haven't seen any game stories of the sox win, othert than the usual suspects. The Projo Blog, as usual, kicks the Globe and Herald's "blogs" asses. Go there to see post-game reaction.

My NFL picks (below) are horrible. Don't ever look to me for gambling advice. That said, take the over tomorrow and lay the points (despite the fact that I never bet against the Bills).

Enough tonight. More tomorrow. Go Bills.

Quick Sunday Updates

2007-10-07T11:41:00.000-04:00

Poor blogging the past couple of days. Of course, the Sox are now up 2-0, the Yanks are down 2-0 and the NLCS is set with the old-school clash of the D-Backs and Rockies. I plan on doing an "ugliness breakdown" of the other series to see if my theory holds (that the ugliest team usually wins). That will come later. For now..

The Baseball Update

I've never experienced such a (so far) stress free playoff series as the Sox-Angels has been. Massive confidence going in, no stress when down or tied and a feeling of knowing they will pull it out in the end. Is this what it was like to be a Yankees fan from '96-'00?

Anyway, Game 3 is in 3+ hours - Schilling v. Jered Weaver. Again, from an uglieness standpoint, it is:

vs.

Come on. Who can resist those flowing blonde locks, and Schill, the Jack Bauer look ain't working for you.

Advantage: Sox

Three things I noticed: (1) The bullpen was sick. Thank god. Delcarmen has been pitching well for a while now, but it was great to see Okajima looking solid and Papelbon, while not getting strike calls he should have gotten, keeping it together and shutting down the Angels. (2) Dice-K looked awful. Some folks have been saying that he would have righted the ship, given the chance, but extremely hittable, still nibbling, missing spots. Not a Game 2 starter. If the Sox advance, he should be the Game 3 guy. (3) Again, the TBS crew was about a step or two behind during the game. Better than Game 1, but, for example, they made no note of the fact that Stephen King was clapping the back of 17 year old Joe Vinik when the latter stole a foul popup from Jeff Mathis. A detail that would have made the catch that much cooler went unnoticed. On the bright side, at least Jose Mota could string a sentence together. We'll see how they fare during Game 3.

Checking in with the Sox Blogs over the past couple of days:

Jere at Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory has another spectacular photo gallery from Game 2. Check it out - good quips on Joba falling apart.

Keep your Sox On has some help from Tawny Kitaen and David Coverdale in describing the feeling of watching this team. It's kind of like what I said above - supreme confidence so far (hope we're not Icarus).

Over the Monster has thoughts from Game 2.

Joe McDonald at the projo blog has the weather report from Anaheim (windy) and the lineup - same as Games 1 and 2.

Sox and Dawgs has the report, via ESPN.com that Torre will exit stage left (via the hook) if the Yankees don't win the ALDS. Stupid move, but understandable.

Quick NFL Picks

Seeing as how it is 12:30, just time for quick picks (same lines as the SG, home teams in ALLCAPS):

SAINTS (-3) over Panthers
CHEIFS (+2) over Jaguars
REDSKINS (-3.5) over Lions (I still don't believe)
TITANS (-8) over Falcons
TEXANS (-5.5) over Dolphins
Seahawks (+6) over STEELERS (Pittsburgh is not that good. I'll believe them when they beat someone good)
Browns (+16.5) OVER PATRIOTS (I mean, the Pats have to blow one of these big lines one of these days, right?)
Cardinals (-3.5) over RAMS (Frerotte? Frer-no)
GIANTS (-3.5) over Jets
Bucs (+9.5) over COLTS
Chargers (+1) over BRONCOS
NINERS (+3) over Ravens (Ravens offense falls apart this week). This one looks like a push to me
PACKERS (-3) over Bears
BILLS (+10) over Cowboys.

Bills are clearly not a good team, but (1) I always take them, and (2) I think their D will stand up and they will put enough points on the board to stay close - have the Cowboys really shut down a good offense this year?

On the Bills, here are the links (spotty so far since it's a Monday night game):

Nothing from BfloBlog so far.

Brian Galiford at Buffalo Rumblings has a breakdown of the Cowboys and confirms my assumption (above) that the 'Boys haven't really shut down a solid O yet (not that the Bills O is solid, but less to be afraid of).

Goose's Roost has no football news thus far, but does have a great photblog of the Sabres' home opener which, of course, they lost 6-4 to the Islanders (and they lost the second half of the home-at-home series last night 3-2).

Finally, in a post that warms my heart, Brian at Bflo Blog reports that longtime Buffalo sportscaster Ed Kilgore has a blog. Far be it from me to disparage anyone's blogging efforts, but I sense a little of "Kings Things" in this endeavor.

Enjoy!

Thursday Morning Update

2007-10-04T10:01:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

The Sox dominated the Angels last night behind Josh Beckett's historic gem, winning 4-0.

Three Things I noticed: (1) The TBS broadcast was an absolute train wreck. First, they repeatedly came back from commercial late and missed pitches or plays. Second, Ted Robinson should absolutely stick to tennis. He said some things that didn't even make sense - describing the right field roof seats as "temporary", calling a grounder a double play ball when there were already 2 outs, etc. Third, maybe Steve Stone was a good analyst once, but last night he made the kid from Major League seem incisive. Fourth, who let Guierrmo Mota's brother do sideline reporting? Just awful, I was waiting for him to yell "Boom goes the dynomite". The only redeeming part of the telecast was Tom Collichio doppelganger Cal Ripken showing us how Beckett's two seamer has nasty sideways motion (that sounds particularly dirty).

(2) Not new news to anyone who has followed the Sox recently, but Ortiz is back. He never really left, actually. His runs created the past 3 years are 136, 127, 136 and his win shares are basically identical over the past 3 years (I would do a chart to show this but for some reason I end up with huge gaps on the page when I do - help anyone?)

Update: I was able to figure out how to do the table - it is below

Yr	2B	HR	OBP	SLG	RC
05	40	47	.397	.604	136
06	29	54	.413	.636	127
07	52	35	.445	.621	136

Anyway, Ted Robinson was saying that it was a "down year" for Ortiz, looking solely at the HR/RBI numbers, not noting that he actually was more productive this year than last. Lazy, guys. More Dingers!

Second update - Joy of Sox had a good piece on this Tuesday.

(3) Varitek continues to look terrible at the plate, grounding into a DP and having a bad strikeout. He just looks lost. Hopefully he won't need to come up in a big situation.

Some Links:

Sox Nest wants Josh Beckett to hook up with Alyssa Milano after last night's effort.

Keep your Sox On is Thunderstruck over last night's game.

Art Martone at the projo blog has an unbelievable link dump with all kinds of coverage from last night's game.

Surviving Grady notes the awful umpiring.

A Sox Fan in Hell has an apt haiku summarizing last night's game.

Death and Taxes Update to come.

Late Night Updates

2007-10-02T23:21:00.000-04:00

The Tax Update

No major news today (I'm not going to link to the tax cases the Supreme Court is hearing this term), so here are some blog posts from the past week:

Victor Fleischer on Senator Levin's bill to eliminate the book/tax disparity in employer compensation deductions for comp. paid with stock options (as a reminder, for financial reporting purposes, companies generally expense the cost of options upon grant, or sometimes over an exercise period, but can include the deduction for tax purposes only when the employee includes the comp. in its income - generally at exercise when the deduction will be greater than the initial financial reporting expense). I still am missing the "abuse" this is trying to get at there is tax parity on the employee/employer side for comp paid with stock options - not sure why GAAP and tax need to agree in all respects - GAAP is frequently a more realistic measure of economic reality than tax - there is nothing inherently wrong with that.

The Tax Policty Blog notices a bill proposed by Rep. Obey (D-WI) that would impose a "war tax" on the American people - progressively based. Good luck with that Obie.

And from Taxalicious is this clip from the Simpsons of Homer interacting with the IRS.

Check them all out.

The Death Update

Of course, the big name yesterday was Queens' own Al Oerter, who passed away from heart failure at 71. He, like Jim Ryun was frequently referred to as a "schoolboy champ" of his sport, the discus. He famously appeared in, and won golds in, four consecutive Summer Olympiads, a feat that has been matched only by Carl Lewis. The obit is here.

A less-known name belongs to Ralph Sturges. Anyone who has been to Mohegan Sun, however, has him to thank. He helped the Mohegan tribe achieve federal recognition, a precursor, in most cases, to receving a state license to construct and operate a casino on tribal land. I've been to Mohegan once - it was great (even if they stopped serving alcohol too early). Thank you Mr. Sturges. The obit is here.

The Football Update

A roundup of the Buffalo Bills blogs is here:

Bills Locker has the early injury report on Monday night's game against Dallas. Youbuty will be out again. Greer will get the start. He was tremendous against the Jets - we'll see how he fares against the Boys.

Brian Galliford at Buffalo Rumblings has the first quarter report card. Not too much to disagree with here - the Bills are, after all, 1-3 (albeit against 3-1 Pittsburgh, 4-0 NE and 2-2 Denver). I guess I'm not really as impressed with Lynch as Brian is. He's shown flashes, but has lacked consistency which has forced the offense into frequent third and long situations - of course, the QBs for the most part couldn't convert a third and 8 against the Dillon Panthers.

Bills Gab says Losman is worried about his job. He should give Drew Bledsoe a call for some inspiration.

And big props go out to the Goose's Roost for throwing a link to my blog up on their page. Go check them out (they're also over on the left). Right now, the talk is turning more to the Sabres - I need to dive back into hockey already? All I know is that my fellow Terrier Chris Drury is a punk.

and last, but not least:

The Baseball Update

Lots of great stuff from the Sox blogs over the past week celebrating the division. You've already seen my position by position breakdown - I predict Sox in 4 - here are what the other Sox blogs are talking about:

Jere from A Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory had an assload of pictures from Friday night's clincher. Click here and keep scrolling.

El Guapo's Ghost rightly notes that the underreported story so far is the Angels injury issues - Gary Mathews and Bartolo Colon will miss the series and Vlad the impaler is dinged as well - could be limited to DH duty (which would pust Chone "Sean" Figgins to the OF and require Kendrick and Izturis to play in the IF).

Keep Your Sox On (which is an excellent blog) has the breakdown of the series - concluding, obviously, that the Sox are the better team statistically and on paper (although I don't put any stock at all in the season series advantage the Sox have).

Aaaand.. Sawx Blog has the roundup of the rest (conventional media, other blogs, Angels blog - seriously - just one). Go take a look.

That's it for tonight. Quick predictions I guess are in order (for the record, I predicted the Sox, Cubs and Angels as division winners and nailed the Yanks as the wildcard. Unfortunately the rest of my NL picks were a mess - Mets to win the East, Houston to win the WC and LA to win the west).

Cubs over D-Backs in 5
Rockies over Phils in 4
Indians over Yanks in 5
Sox over Angels in 4

Back to Regular Programming

2007-10-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Breaking down the Sox-Angels series

Seems like last week the Sox were taking the Angels to the woodshed in the '04 ALDS highlighted by Papi's blast over the monster in the game 3 8-6 shootout). The Angels are constituted essentially the same. The Sox have a bit more team speed, arguably a better bullpen (Papelbon>Foulke and Delcarmen/Okie>Timlin/Embree), but about the same quality starting pitching. Since comparing stats is boring (and will lead to the inevitable conclusion that the Sox are deeper on offense, deeper in pitching and have had a more effective pen (BORING)), I'll break this down pictorially. Ugliest team wins.... (we're taking some liberties in projecting the lineups, especially with the Angels)

I note (after getting 2/3 of the way through here) the Ladies... did a nice summary of what they referred to as the Boston "hotties". I am taking the opposite view, that the Sox, through their ugliness and dirt-dogginess are bound to prevail.

Leading off:

Dustin Pedroia vs. Chone "don't call me Sean" Figgins

Pedroia has a weird pig nose thing going on, while Figgins looks like Bernie Williams. Classy always loses in the playoffs. Just ask Joaquin Andujar.

Advantage: Sox

In the "Two Hole":

Kevin Youkilis vs. Orlando "why the $#!@ didn't we re-sign him" Cabrera

Jeez, I don't care if he has a season-long "and then some" errorless streak going, Youk is a dead ringer for David Wells, except without the actual sweaty t-shirt pits. Meanwhile, look at O-Cab. Damn, but doesn't his smile just light up the room?

Big advantage: Sox

Hitting Third:

David Ortiz vs. Vlad Gurrero

I will only say that this is closer than you think. I think Vlad Guerrero was Arnold's taxi driver in Total Recall.

Still, Advantage: Sox

Cleaning up:

Man-Ram v. Professional Hitter Garret Anderson

Now who looks like the ballplayer here? Jeez, is it a new Sox uniform rule that every guy needs to look like a weekend slo-pitch beer league player?

Advantage: Sox

The Heart of the Order:

Mike "the Stud" Lowell vs. Casey "I hate my parents" Kotchman

Hey, I wanted it to be a sweep too. Not my fault Lowell is a stud. I would have pegged him for a Hanes, or maybe Joe Boxer guy though. Unsubstantiated rumor - Casey is shilling for Tinactin.

Advantage: Angels

The Soft Spot in the Lineup (if not in your heart):

J.D. "zzzz" Drew vs. Maicer "the other" Izturis

Drew is showing off his batting stance here. Except for balls in the dirt. He swings at those.

Maicer is a gamer. Not much more to add here.

75 million reasons why the advantage is: Sox

Jeez, only the 7th guy? I'm getting tired here:

Captain Angry vs. Kendry Morales

It's not clear whether Howie Kendrick will play 2B which would move Maicer to 3B, Figgins to the OF and Vlad to DH, so I'll go with Morales at DH for purpose of this lineup.

I guess I have to give it to the Captain. I mean, hell, he smiled for the camera for this shot. (No, really, that's Varitek at his most gregarious). Also: Kendry is a mouth-breather.

Advantage: Angels.

Coming round the bend....

Covelli Crisp vs. Jeff Mathis

Who the ^!%@ is Jeff Mathis? Even in my 16-team 23 MLB team roto league, I don't think he crossed my radar. Anyway, Oscar Gamble lite has this one in the bag (even though I couldn't find a pic that accurately depicts the growth coming out from under his helmet).

Slight advantage: Sox

Last, and Ugliest:

Julio "I'll cut you man" Lugo vs. Reggie Willits

O.k. I was very disappointed with the dearth of good Julio Lugo pics out there. Ideally I would have found one where he is staring at the pitcher, adjusting his cup and looking like is he ready to cut that mothaf****r up. Anyway, Julio wins by default, because I'm not sure who in the other picture is Reggie Willis.

Advantage: Sox

So, that makes it 7-2 Sox. Reasonable minds can differ, but if it is close, I present to you, the tie-breaker:

Seriously, I don't think Julian Tavarez is human.

Certain photos via bostondirtdogs.com and rallymonkey.com.

Taxes Update, Death Update and bonus football/hockey update to come.

Monday Links

2007-10-01T15:09:00.001-04:00

Linking around today... By category:

The Bills

From the Goose's Roost is the crowning of the Trent Edwards era. Vince Wilfork = Mo Lewis?

Here is the BfloBlog's recap of yesterday's game. I echo the concerns about the conservative playcalling.

Circling the Wagons has its report card up already. I don't agree with the B- for the WRs - they bailed out Trent Edwards with numerous jumps and leaps.

The Sox

A ton of pics from Friday night's clincher from a A Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory. Still no isolated video of Papelbon dancing like an idiot.

El Guapo's Ghost breaks down the Sox October roster. He notes that Javier Lopez has been useless as a LOOGY this year.

Ahhh... HERE his video of Papelbon and Youk dancing. still not the crazy G.O.B. dance I saw replayed on NESN, but good nonetheless. Thank you over the monster

More later.

The Day my Dad Died

2007-10-01T13:44:00.000-04:00

This should have posted yesterday, but internet issues got in the way

One third of the focus of this blog is suppposed to be "death". When I sat down and composed the first post and set the settings (including adding the picture that is at the bottom of the first page), I thought that I would use this blog to post reflections of my dad (so as to keep his memory fresh and deal with sadness about his death that seemed to come and go like phases of the moon). I also thought how "neat" it would be to focus on the passing of one person a day - picking an obituary almost at random, and trying to learn more about that person. Because, while it is cliche, I am a strong believer that the dead have a lot to teach us.

Obviously this focus is only on one third (and some days less than that), and obviously, I have only scratched the surface of the things my dad and I did, or that he taught me (but again, this ain't no Big Russ blog). But before I continue with that stated focus of the blog, the time has come to write down, for my own sanity, and also for posterity, what happened on September 21, 2006.

As I have mentioned before, my dad had lung cancer. He was diagnosed in July, 2006, after going to the hospital with what appeared to be a relatively mild heart attack. The diagnosis seemed, to a certain extent, to be a bit of dumb luck (as many disgnoses of lung cancer are), as without the heart attack, it never would have been caught. Unfortunately, it came too late (as many diagnoses of lung cancer do) to be of any real use to my dad. He was diagnosed as terminal almost from the beginning. The beginning was the end.

I know he groped toward acceptance of his situation over time, and with the help of a good friend, Father James Massey (even as he eschewed his cynically held belief or trust in god). It never seemed real to any of us, though, even as we were researching non-small cell cancer studies and experimental drugs.

He was in and out of the hospital in August and early September, contracting pneumonia along the way. He decided not to proceed with chemo (radiation and surgery were not options). He was given a few months to live.

I decided in early September to go visit him, even though he told me it wasn't necessary, don't worry about it (he originally did not even want to tell close family members he was sick. I think he was embarassed). I bought my ticket on American Eagle.

I flew out on a bright, warm September Friday morning on an American Eagle puddle-jumper. (As an aside, I find it interesting that the suspense movie trope is not a bright and sunny morning (You just KNOW something back is about to happen) rather than a "dark and stormy night" (now mostly a cliche to be mocked in movies like Scary Movie 3).)

I landed mid-morning, picked up my rental car, and headed for Burt, NY. I called ahead and learned that dad was getting out of the hopsital after stopping off and visiting his doctor, so I stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's house and saw my nieces. It was the first time I had seen their house. It's cute - small, on a corner lot at an intersection, but a nice yard and lots of space in the basement.

I drove home to an empty house and waited for mom and dad. There was some medical detritus sprinkled about, but for the most part, the place was in good shape.

After what seemed like hours, mom and dad got home. Dad looked terrible. He had to be helped from the car and had what looked like a somewhat scared (or at least surprised) look on his face. I now know what the word "Ashen" means. He was gray and his hair had gone gray as well. He had trouble walking, and as we led him up the steps, he had to stop to breath. It seemed like he couldn't catch his breath and had to cough into a cup, but my mom said that he would be better once he was able to sit down.

We sat on the porch for a bit before my mom said she had to go get some medicine that the doctor prescribed for dad. Now if you don't know the geography and demographics of Niagara County, you don't understand that you can't just run down to Duane Reade or CVS. A trip to the pharmacist can take 25 minutes each way. Mom said that he still had the pneumonia and needed some sort of fog machine to help clear his lungs. We got dad inside and she left. This was the first even that I think could have changed the outcome - if she stayed and I left.

So dad and I sat on the couch. Actually, he was in his chair (a somewhat beat up glider) and I was on the couch, watching him struggle. He was clearly not well. Selfishly, I was annoyed that I had come all this way and that we were not going to have time to talk and hang out (baseball was still on tv, although the Sox were out of it). Obviously I was a jerk for even thinking that, but as George Benson sang, hnidsight is 20/20.

He had to move from the chair, to the couch, to the couch in the living room, to sitting up, to lying down, all in an effort to get more comfortable and assist in his breathing. I gave him water, tried to get him to cough into his cup. He couldn't eat anything. He asked me where mom was. I said she would be on her way. He seemed a little out of it.

I called mom and told her that he was asking for her, and she said she would be there as soon as she could. She needed to get the medicine.

Dad was gasping a bit, struggling, telling me a couple of times that he couldn't breathe. This was mistake #2, not calling 911 right then. I thought he would be o.k. once mom got home, that she would give him the medicine, hook him up to the fog machine and he would be o.k. I told him that and he said that she had better hurry.

I read a bit from an survey on American dialects, while I sat with dad. We watched a replay of the previous night's Jays game. I callled mom again and told her to hurry. She did. When she got home, I was more worried. Dad was on the living room couch.

She unpacked this breathing machine which was supposed to open up dad's lungs. At this point, I don't recall the medical reason for the machine, other than it was supposed to help. I think it produced a fog that helped fight against the pneumonia. In any event, it wasn't really working and dad started to silp away. Mom said "I'm worried about you Mike", as she felt for his blod pressure. She raced upstairs and grabbed the BP machine as I stood there and tried to get my dad to breathe. She strapped it on him and tried to get a BP, but couldn't.

His eyes started to flutter as she grabbed the phone and called 911. He was still with us, but barely. By the time the paramedics came, I'm not sure he was still really conscious. They moved him to the floor as the room filled with the volounteers and professionals. It did not seem real. They tried to get a response from him, but I think the most they got was perhaps a hoarse whisper. He had stopped breathing. They did CPR. They gave him a shot of adrenaline. They eventually moved him to a backboard and into the ambulance. I was suddenly on the phone, dialing my brother and sister, as my mom accompanied my dad in the ambulance. I raced to the hospital too after a quick call to Daphne. My voice caught in my throat as I did.

I got to the hospital and raced into the emergency room. They were doing serious compressions on him as my mom stood there silently. Two docs and a bunch of nurses and paramedics. His belly was grotesquely distended, shaking violently with each downward compression. They brought out the paddles which was when I realized that he may die. Until then, I had been shouting encouragement, hoping he could hear me, knowing he would pull out of it and worst case - he would be in the hospital again. In reality, he was probably gone before he reached the hospital (the paramedics were not precise with the timeline). They called it a little after 3 pm.

Melissa (Justin's wife) was in the parking lot when I walked outside. I just shook my head back and forth. In a total state of disbelief. She started crying. I went back in and tried to console my mom. I just couldn't believe it. I had just landed a few hours earlier. I called Jessica. Justin was already on his way. He absolutely lost it when he saw dad. I talked to Daphne and talked to a partner at work. We all stood around dad for two hours before starting to move on.

The single worst day of my life. And many immediately after that were in the top 10. I try to remember him and try to move forward, but those two are mutually incompatible. As long as I remember him, I will feel sorrow, but I wil be able to remember him. I guess the cost of being able to remember and cherish someone is the pain that took that person away from you. The further away from his death, the less that cost is, but it is, and always will be, there.

Bills, sox and other thoughts

2007-09-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

An excellent sports Sunday. Let's take 'em one at a time.

1. The Bills. Solid 17-14 win over the Jets. There was a little bit of nervousness at the beginning (shades of the season opener against the Broncos), but they pulled it out thanks to Pennington's second INT of the day (very nice to see Terence McGee back in there). A few things to note:

-- The game ball goes to Trent Edwards. I don't know if, or why the playcalling was different today than in the first three games, but Edwards took advantage. There were more 10-20 yard pass plays today than the first 3 weeks combined. He was well protected so had time to check down when necessary. He needs to manage the pocket better (he got sacked in the first half simply because he held on to the ball too long), but he seemed even to do that better by the second half. An auspicious start.

-- Jabari Greer is growing up right before our eyes. Pressed into starting duty, he was solid, breaking up a couple of sure Jets completions. I did not see him get burnt all day.

-- Nice of Lee Evans to show up, but, again, who knows how much of that is playcalling.

-- Evans and the other WRs bailed out Edwards on a few occasions, making circus catches.

-- The Jets running offense and pass defense are awful. Run D is less awful, but still failed when needed most (Lynch's only real impressive run of the day - the first Bills TD).

Next week, Dallas at home on Monday night. GO BILLS.

None of Blfo Blog, Buffalo Rumblings or Buffalodown have the game stories up yet, but check them out later tonight.

2. The Sox. I haven't blogged about them (or anything) this past week, but they obvously were able to hang on and take the division. Everyone is healthy, Schill, Dice-K and Pap have momentum going into the postseason. Beckett too, the last start notwithstanding. First round matchup is the Angels. As of today, I don't know if the Sox will be playing the series with the extra day, but I like the matchups overall. Presumably, it will be Beckett-Lackey, Schilling-Escobar, Dice-K-Weaver, and then, if necessary, Wakefield-Colon or Santana. I like every one of those matchups for the Sox.

The on-field celebration Friday night was tremendous. Fans were in Fenway watching the end of the Orioles come from behind 11-10 win over the Yanks and once that was complete, the celebration commenced. Papelbon is a nut. I haven't found great isolated video of Papelbon doing the G.O.B. dance from Arrested Development, but once I do, I will post it. In the meantime, I have this:

go to about 2:39 to see Pap walking around like an idiot and 3:25 to see Ortiz, ahem, "giving it" to Pap with a bottle of champagne.

And then here:

At 1:34, you can see the Bud Light helmet, at 6:35 giving a beer shower to Katharyn Tappen. Oh, and at 3:50, you see Varitek actually acting like a human being.

3. Taxes. Via the Tax Profs Blog, is this story about a new bill introduced by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), that would limit the tax deduction for stock option compensation to the amount reported to investors for financial reporting purposes. Of course, the amount reported for financial reporting purposes is the fair value at grant, while the tax aspect is the spread at exercise. We'll see what happens, but there is parity in the tax law already on this - a firm deducts only the amount already included in an employee's income.

More on dad later.

Where have I been?

2007-09-30T08:41:00.001-04:00

It's not appropriate for me to have this blog and take a week off, but that's what I've done.

In my defense, it was a tough week (first anniversary of dad's death - more on that later today (promise)), mom was visiting, sis had the new kid, etc., etc.

Anyway, Three posts today - first up NFL picks. Disgusting week last week - 5-8-3, which just further proves to me that I should never bet on sports, ever. Hopefully this week will be better.

Second post will be baseball and football related with a little tax news thrown in.

Third and last post of the day will be my recollections of the day dad died.

On to the picks. As always, home teams are in ALLCAPS and I don't know what the &%$# I am doing...

BILLS (+3.5) over Jets. Again, I don't pick against the Bills. They actually could do well against the Jets. They've shown, at least against Denver and NE and in the first half against Pitts, an ability to bend but not break on defense. Given the Jets' lack of a solid running game (I don't count Thomas Jones's day against the banged up Fins last week), they hopefully should be able to limit Pennington to underneath stuff. Key will be third downs. I see a low scoring affair 13-10 Jets. Also, Deadspin.com's Will Leitch will be in attendance, so the Bills have that going for them.

Raiders (+4) over DOLPHINS. The whole "it's hot in Miami and Oakland will be wearing black" card is ridiculous. Miami's O-face is less competent than Lunberg and Oakland's D is staunch as advertised. Combine that with Daunte getting the start and Miami's D being banged up and I see an Oakland win outright.

Ravens (-4.5) over BROWNS. Jamal Lewis looks good so far, although I don't think anyone has really run on the Ravens yet this year (nope - 62 ypg). Everyone is awfully down on the Ravens, but this team still went 13-3 last year, has basically the same team back (plus McGahee) and a stout offense as well. Derek Anderson is going to have a good day? I don't think so.

FALCONS (+2.5) over Texans. Joey Harrington is turning into a decent QB. Matt Schaub already is a decent QB. This one should be close.

Bears (-3) over LIONS. Brian Griese is better, statistically, than people remember. He went 16-12 as a starter in '01-'02 with a very good TD/INT ratio in '01. The reason why he got kicked out is that he didn't have the confidence of his teammates - lacked the leader instinct. Maybe that was just youth. Seems like Manning had those problems early in his career (Eli too, Chris Simms too - wonder if it is a son of a QB thing). Anyway, the Lions certainly are high-powered and the Bears are missing a ton of guys on D, but this seems like one the Bears will gut out.

Packers (-2) over VIKINGS. I am picking against a lot of home dogs this week, which will probably come back to bite me. Anyway, Packers look like the much better team and that line is within a FG, so I can't imagine not picking them.

Rams (+13) over COWBOYS. I hate these 2 TD lines. In a lot of cases, they've been covered (including a couple last week). And I know that Bulger is hurt and S-Jak may not play, but still. 13 is a lot of points. Rams are capable of putting up garbage time points, so I'll take them.

Bucs (+3) over PANTHERS. David Carr against a Bucs D that has been in shutdown mode so far this season? (12 ppg so far). And they're a dog? Sounds good to me. LOCK OF THE WEEK.

Seahawks (-2) over the NINERS. The Niners are proving to be what people said they would be. A little bit smoke. A little bit mirrors. They are 2-1, but they have been outscored on the season (granted the Steelers game was lopsided). I still stand by Seattle as my SB pick from the NFC and say they win this one in a laugher.

BUZZSAW (+6) over Steelers. I hate the &#!@*&! Steelers.

CHARGERS (-12) over Chiefs . This is the only +10 line I am taking this week. The Chargers must be pissed and are much better than how they have been playing. The Chiefs are awful, last week's win notwithstanding.

Broncos (+9.5) over COLTS. Another high line, although I can see a 27-17 win. The Colts have played teams close thus far and the Broncos haven't been that impressive; however, again, I think the Colts are due for a gashing 150 yard rushing performance against them, and this is the team to do it.

Eagles (-3) over GIANTS. Again, I hate the Giants as well. I also cannot go against the Eagles after the display last week and going up against the Giants weak D. If McNabb gets time, they should light the Giants up.

Patriots (-7.5) over BENGALS. As usual, I use the SG's lines which he prints on Friday. It opened a 7 and now you can find (-9) on some websites. I was leaning toward laying the points anyway (only thing that worried me was Bengals ability to keep the score close with their weapons), and with the movement of the line, my decision is solidified.

A few links to kick off this great Sunday:

Indispensible for fans of Buffalo sports is Bflo Blog. Many of the stories are now transitioning to the Sabres (thank God), but this link will take you to the "tailgate" summary for today's Jets-Bills matchup. Excellent work by these guys, including an open thread during the game.

Here is the open thread for today's game on Buffalorumblings.com, and here is the excellent summary of "what to watch for".

Unfortunately, many of the other Buffalo-themed sportsblogs (such as the funny Goose's Roost) have transitioned to Sabres coverage.

That's all for now. I'll be firmly planted on the couch today watching the Jets-Bills game. Unfortunately, we're stuck with Ian Eagle and Crazy-Eyez Solomon Wilcots. To wit:

Why can't we get Gus Johnson.

Quick NFL Picks

2007-09-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

More to come later. Hope Teams in Caps

Colts (-6) over TEXANS. O.k. My lack of faith in the Colts D has been beaten down worse than Carlo Rizzi. Houston without Andre Johnson is like a gun with no bullets (although the gun wasn't that impressive in the first place).

Chargers (-5) over THE FAVRES. I'm hoping for a solid outing by the grey bearded one for my fantasy team's sake, but the Chargers are a better team than they looked last week (although still not as good as they think they are).

CHIEFS (-2.5) over Vikings. The Chiefs are downright terrible, but there must still be some advantage to playing in Arrowhead (the geographic arrangement of which is strange - it's out in a barren industrial area outside Kansas City, and right across the street from Kaufman Stadium).

Bills (+16.5) over PATRIOTS. I thought the college games were all yesterday. Nobody circles the .... whatever.

BUCS (-3.5) over Rams. The Bucs D still looks relatively impressive and Garcia is no joke. Also, I hate the Rams.

Lions (+6.5) over the EAGLES. Looks like Kevin Jones will play and apparently the Lions have God in their corner. Re. what McNabb said - I agree to a point, but the Eagles fans are going to give it to him right in the ear upon the first misstep.

Niners (+9) over STEELERS. The Steelers are good, but they've beaten up two sorry teams (I refuse at this point to believe that the Browns are decent). The Niners have been struggling with unreasonable expectations, and I think this is the week that they put it together and lose by 7.

JETS (-3) over Dolphins. Jets are another team that aren't awful. They got smoked by the Pats CLEARLY because the Pats were cheating and were a dropped pass or two away from beating the Ravens.

Buzzsaw (+8) over RAVENS. Arizona will do enough on offense to keep this closer than 8.

SEAHAWKS (-3) over Bengals. Seahawks are the best team in the NFC.

REDSKINS (-3.5) over Giants. Washington looks relatively frisky as well. Plus, I hate the Giants.

RAIDERS (-3) over Browns. See above.

BRONCOS (-3.5) over Jags. I don't care if it's the "obvious" game. Denver are beasts at home.

FALCONS (+4) over Panthers. I still believe. Although, COME ON JAKE DELHOMME.

Cowboys (+3) over BEARS. I agree with the SG that the Bears are overrated, although the Cowboys would be supreme wimps not to punt to Devin Hester.

Titans (+4.5) over SAINTS. Don't care that it's in NO. They've looked disgusting and I will not support them until proven otherwise. I thought they were America's team. Also, Reggie Bush is now a poor man's Warrick Dunn.

2007-09-20T23:18:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Well, of course the Sox. 1.5 up with 9 to play. The odds are still on their side to win the division and the wildcard is practically in the bag.

Still, these Sox remind me of the 1987 Blue Jays who blew a 3.5 game lead with 7 left (going 0-7). Parallels abound....

1. Key injury to a key player? Tony Fernandez in '87, Manny/Youk in '07. Fernandez went down in a collision with about a week left, forcing Manny Lee into the lineup. Lee made critical errors down the stretch which cost the Jays at least one game. In '07, Manny's been out, forcing Crisp and Drew to play more and forced guys like Brandon Moss into the lineup.

2. Key power hitter going into a funk? George Bell in '87, David Ortiz in '07. Bell went something like 1-21 over the last week of the eason. Ortiz is on a 1-14 jag right now.

3. Ugly ass second baseman? Nelson Liriano in '87, Pedroia in '07. 'nuff said.

4. Solid starting staff? Steib, Key, Clancy in '87. Beckett, Schilling, Dice-K in '07. Unfortunate pitchers whose pens let them down time and time again.

5. Overmatched manager? Jimywocky in '87, GradyTito in '07. Seriously, what the hell is up with Tito's decisions the past few weeks? Better than Grady, but possibly worse than Jimy. At least he's not asleep like Cito.

6. Gritty veteran catcher? Whitt in '87, Varitek in '07. Varitek is a dead ass hitter. Whitt was always great.

We will see what happens the next week, but I'm inclined to call this season Manny Lee's Revenge.

Some links: ~~Coming Soon.~~

Keep your Sox on has a good piece advising everyone to just relax. Good tonic to the ridiculousness of Mike Adams on EEI last night. His math? If you are more concerned about the playoffs than the division, then you must want the Yankees to win. No, Mike. I would love for them to win the division, but it's not that important in the grand scheme of things.

Kind of in the same vein, but expressing the frustration is Over the Monster who still have revenge/Yankee hate on their minds. The sentiment is understood, but eyes on the prize people.

38 Cliches is back and reports (via Scott's shots) that the unbearable Glenn Gefner will see his role calling Sox games greatly reduced next year. Thank God. I'd prefer the color guy from Major League.

The Taxes Update

The biggest news from my perspective was the announcement that the US and Canada are signing a protocol to their treaty, extending treaty benefits to LLCs and their owners.

Until now, Canada did not recognize LLCs as residents of the US for purposes of the treaty with the US, and it did not look through the LLC to the owners to determine if they were entitled to treaty benefits. The result was that, for investments into Canada that resulted in a withholding tax (like an investment in shares of a privately held company), an LLC that made the investment would be subject to a full withholding tax, even if all of the members of the LLC would have been eligible for treaty benefits had they invested in the shares directly.

The protocol is long overdue and will make it much easier to structure investments into Canada.

The ~~death~~ Life Update

TaxSis is in labor as we speak. Very soon TaxNephew will be born. We are all very excited. No idea what the name will be. The dad wants him to be a junior. My sis wants to name him Jackson William. We will see. A good night for the tax family in advance of the one year anniversary of my dad's death.

I'd prefer Greg Gagne

2007-09-18T22:51:00.000-04:00

.... if i had to choose...

The Baseball Update

The Sox made a tremendous showing tonight, going down miserably 4-3, mainly due to Eric Gagne's incompetence. He ruined a fantastic start by Jon Lester. I question why he was even in there - Papelbon had not pitched since Saturday. Now should not be the time for experimentation, Tito.

From Brooklyn to Boston has the game story, as usual. Well done recap, by the way. I think the Sox are the Scanners.

And Jere at Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory has a similar take. I love the characterization of Gagne "pulling a himself".

Update: Drunk Jays Fans just posted their take from tonight's game. It's apparent what Ricciardi was paying for in Burnett. His hook was, well, off tha hook tonight.

The Taxes Update

I must be a pretty shitty tax/sports blogger to not have posted thoughts about whether Bill Belichick can deduct his fine. Personal income tax really isn't my bag baby, but the consensus among tax profs and commentators seems to be that it should be deductible on the theory that it is an ordinary and necessary business expense under Section 162 (subject to Secttion 67 and 68 limitations). The Tax Profs Blog had a discussion here and here.

And the always enjoyable TaxGirl (no relation) has her discussion with comments here.

Of course, the Patriots are not allowed by league rules to pay his fine, but they could gross up his salary for the fine and deduct the bonus as a comp expense.

The Death Update

So today is September 18, 2007. One year ago was a brutal week at work. One particular deal was out of control. I was looking forward to visiting mom and dad for the weekend. Dad was in and out of the hospital at that point, with, let's see.. the cancer, a heart arrythmia, and at this point, pneumonia from the hospital stays. He still sounded relatively o.k., if down, and had recently finally come to grips with his diagnosis, through conversations with a relatively down to earth priest. He had decided no chemo or radiation treatment, so the diagnosis was down to months.

Anyway, I was figuring that the visit would be one of the last times we would be able to hang out and talk before he ended up in a hospital for good (maybe Thanksgiving, and we were thinking, maybe, maybe something for their anniversary in October, but only if he was feeling up to it). I did not have an agenda or anything in mind - just wanted to see him, to talk movies and sports, to mow their lawn.

Monday (actually Tuesday) Update

2007-09-18T02:04:00.000-04:00

I've updated the pick results at the left and have included the Sportsguy's: picks. Poor second weekend. Neither the Saints nor the Falcons were who I thought they were.

Patriots obviously just destroyed the Chargers last night. It was very cool to see a team come out and just TCB like that, especially after all the ridiculousness of the past week.

Sox are officially worrying me. Not for the division - I think they're golden there. But there is a worrying inconsistency there. In all facets. We just came off three solid starts in the Yankee series, which went for naught because of one bad pitch by Schilling and one massive bullpen meltdown. But the bats were weak last night and tonight. I didn't get to watch the game and was too busy at work to pay much close attention, so no Three things I noticed, but I don't thin my input would add anything to the frustrating inconsistency.

I'm not one of those people who would say "even though the Sox have the best record, they're not the best team", but the Yanks have definitely outplayed them, against a more difficult schedule, the past 50 games.

Only Tax Update of the day was a report by to Penn economists that pointed out what I, along with many, have already pointed out - that as far as real revenues from carried interest in funds go, like Oakland, there's no there there. Carry constitutes about 20-25% of comp/payout to GPs of funds. A minor part of overall comp. Naturally because this is an average, it includes all the zeros to lower-performing funds, and for top-tier funds, carry is probably 70-80% of ultimate comp; however, it further gives lie to the notion that this is a tax loophole that is bleeding the Treasury of money that could be used to offset an AMT fix (which absolutely dwarfs the cash that would be raised by raising taxes on carry).

Sunday Evening Update

2007-09-16T19:49:00.000-04:00

Yuck.

Nasty.

Nachos! (at least my lunch wasn't ruined)

The Bills were putrid in nearly every phase of the game today. (The punting was, as usual, good). Losman looked lost (Lostman?). Lynch was mainly shut down (mostly because the blocking up front was not good). Even against the non-stop blitzing, the playcalling did not adjust - didn't see any screens, draws, etc. Where was the coaching staff? And at some point you have got to take the training wheels off. Let Losman throw the ball downfield. I only counted two attempts over 25 yards in the entire game. Unacceptable.

On the other side of the ball, the Bills played a bend but don't break defense in the first half, which absolutely killed them on third downs. The Steelers converted 7 of their first 9, including a 3rd and 7 and a 3rd and 10 (at least). They could not get any kind of pressure on Roethlisberger and when they did could not contain. At some level I understand the Steelers are simply better, but apart from holding them to field goals at the end of drives, the Bills just did not look interested.

Now, the Kevin Everett situation may have been weighing on the team, but I don't think so. They didn't look flat, at least in the first quarter. Lynch was fired up. Defense was fired up. They just executed really, really poorly, and then gave up late in the game.

Two plusses: Moorman, as usual. And i do applaud Jauron's decision to go for it on a 4th in Steeler territory (around the 40 iirc). Even though they didn't convert, it was the right call.

Buffalo Rumblings has a good pseudo-live blog.

Also putrid so far - My NFL Picks. 5-8-1 through the late afternoon games. Thankfully, my Bears pick in my suicide pool is still alive.

Off to watch 60 Minutes (the highlight shows are now unwatchable), then flipping back and forth between the Pats-Chargers (27-17 Pats) and the Sox-Yanks (4-1 Sox). See you all later.

2007-09-16T09:24:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Thankfully, I didn't see much of Friday night's meltdown, but all was made better by yesterday's win. Lead back to 5.5 with 13 to play. Gives them a magic number of 9. Not saying it's over (I remember the '87 Jays who blew a 3.5 game lead over the Tigers with 7 to play - damn you Manny Lee), but it's pretty close. Magic number to clinch at least the WC is 7.

From last night's game, Three things I noticed: (1) Varitek is done as a productive major league hitter. He should be dropped to 8th in the lineup (leave some speed at the 9th spot with Lugo). I was talking with a guy at work who said Varitek looks like a "guess hitter" at this point in his career, and judging by his swings last night, I couldn't agree more. (2) Tim McCarver and Josh Lewin might be the worst combination of baseball announcers this side of the South side of Chicago. Master of the obvious (McCarver) and master of the annoying (Lewin). Their discussion of the Joba Rules was silly and only something an actual Yankee fan would find interesting or clever (the idea that after midnight, it's the next day and now the Joba rules no longer apply. Ha. Very funny). And it only took them 'til the second batter of the top of the first to remind us all about Bucky Dent and 1978. Thanks, guys. WE GET IT!!! (3) Not worried about Beckett (although he had way too many full counts). Marginally worried about the following guys: Dice-K, Okajima, wakefield (although he always gets straightened out). Offensively, so long as Youk is not seriously injured, they will be fine, especially if they get Manny back.

Speaking of the Joba Rules, Here is a funny bit on the "expanded version" of the Joba Rules (Bugs and Cranks).

Some other links:

Red Sox Diary has the game story from last night's game Here

Vegas Watch is a great blog, some statistical analysis, some Vegas odds, and some links posted today.

One more Dying Quail has an interview with Tina Cervasio of NESN. (found via Vegas Watch).

The NFL Picks (no taxes or death update this weekend - possibly a life update later today as my sister appears to be in early labor).

This week, I'm going to use the same lines as Simmons as apparently there were pushes last week that didn't get reflected in my picks (either way, I was .500).

So away we go (Home team in CAPS)

Falcons (+10) over JACKSONVILLE. I'm a glutton for punishment, but I refuse to believe that the Falcons are 10 points worse than the Jags. Especially as the Jags have a lingering case of the Del Rios, which should be worth at least 3 points to ATL.

Bills (+10) over PITTSBURGH. See last week's post. I don't pick against the Bills. Their defense is seriously banged up, but I think the emotions from the Kevin Everett situation will keep them close. Losman looks disgusting, however.

Bengals (-7) over BROWNS. Cleveland also looks disgusting. PREDICTION: Quinn sees time today and will be starting by Week 4.

GIANTS (-1.5) over Packers. The interesting thing coming out of last week's debacle against the Cowboys was that Derrick Ward actually looked better than Brandon Jacobs.

TITANS (+7) over Colts. This one is screaming for a PUSH. As everyone knows, the Titans played the Colts close last year and are improved on offense this year. I know I said I was not convinced by the Colts D and, despite the Week 1 showing, I'm still not fully convinced. We'll see.

PANTHERS (-6.5) over Texans. Now watch as Delhomme pulls his Mr. Hyde impression after being Dr. Jekyll last week.

Saints (-3) over BUCS. Tampa's D looked relatively good last week, but I don't think there is any way the Saints are as bad as they looked against the Colts. Another one screaming for a PUSH. I'm guessing 17-14 Saints.

Niners (+3) over RAMS. Man, another team that looked much worse than people expected, the Niners were lucky to escape AZ with a win. Not sure, actually, why I am picking them here. I guess because Week 1 seemed like an inaccurate representation of many teams (Niners, Saints, Falcons) - which will be corrected this week.

Cowboys (-3.5) over DOLPHINS. Seems like a no-brainer. miami is gross.

Vikings (+3) over LIONS. I'm picking against a lot of home teams this week, but the Vikes looked pretty solid last week; although so did the Lions. Understand this: I have no idea what I am doing here.

BEARS (-12) over Chiefs. How, exactly, is Herman Edwards still employed? LJ does not look good, either.

Ravens (-10) over JETS. Mangenius is a genius if only for diverting attention from how lousy the Jets played last week. Pats could have scored 1 or 2 more TDs easily.

Seahawks (-2.5) over CARDS. So, the Seahawks made the Super Bowl two years ago and have essentially the same cast as they did then? And they're just 2.5 point favorites over the Cardinals? Okaaaaaay.

Raiders (+9.5) over BRONCOS. Denver did not look particularly good against the Bills and, but for a ridiculous decision by the Bills to throw a bomb on 3rd and 5 with 2:42 to play (???) and a ridiculous effort by Elam to kick the winning FG, they would be 0-1 with questions flying around about Cutler's accuracy. Raiders D is better than the Bills. I see the Raiders actually winning this game.

Redskins (+7) over EAGLES. Jeez, how many teams are there in the NFL anyway? I'm getting tired.

PATS (-3) over Chargers. So I guess this means these teams are essentially even. Thankfully none of the talking heads on Boston sports radio were talking about "distractions" this week. They're going to blow the Chargers off the field.

A couple of football links:

The Tailgate from bfloblog. a breakdown of the Bills-Steelers game. My score prediction is 27-20 Steelers.

The Patriots Roundtable via Boston Sports Media Watch. Good breakdown of the Pats-Chargers matchup.

2007-09-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Flipping around the games tonight. Sox are still down 4-3 in the 8th as I write this but, you know, It's the Devil Rays.

The NL Central and wild card races are a mess. I just caught a little of Cards-Reds, but the Cards look horrible. I can't figure out where the runs come from in that offense, and at this point, I've lost track of how many retreads they have in their rotation. Looper? Pineiro? (who I actually like). The Brewers seem fun to root for and will be amazing on offense for a long time (the guys who aren't already signed to long-term contracts won't be free agents for a while). The Cubs, hey, what can you say. I picked them to win the division at the beginning of the year, so of course I'm rooting for them (and for the story as well). But they have significant flaws (the Big Z, the way he is going, the pen, offensive balance). Fun chase, the best going, but no worthy playoff teams.

Last I checked, the Yanks were having their way with the Jays. The Jays really are a sad story. Kind of like the Bills in a certain respect. Neither has been relevant since the early '90s, and while both teams make significant moves/splashes (Jays: B.J. Ryan, A.J. Burnett, Bills: Takeo Spikes, Peerless Price), the guys they get, aren't nearly as good as how they played before they arrived. The Bills, of course, have had more near-misses and have never attained the prize (although, as a former Jays fan, I think their "prize" was tainted in that they basically bought the championship and then pulled a '97 Marlins following '93 - even without the lockout they would have had to drastically slash costs). I don't know. Seems like a lot of moving sideways, which is worse in my book than tearing it down and starting over.

So.. Three things I noticed: (1) Following on this post, tonight, the little things went the other way tonight - Youk getting called out on a horrible mis-call by the first place ump on a checked swing. Totally changed the momentum of the inning. There were first and second with one out when Youk struck out. Who knows how that AB would have ended up had the ump gotten it right ... Then Varitek, grounding out on a 2-0 pitch (it was ball 3) after back to back walks by the TB pitcher. HOW DO YOU NOT TAKE IN THAT POSITION? Or at least "cut down the zone". Instead, he swings at a pitch practically in the dirt. Again, he is slipping. Big time. Anyway, the little things made the difference tonight. (2) I shouldn't rag too much on the TB pen. They had a good night tonight. Ed. Note: Until the last hitter. YEAH!!!! Actually, Edwin Jackson had a great night, the HR to Papi notwithstanding. He's a beacon of hope for the Rays. The guy is 23 years old and after starting the season 0-8 has gone 4-6 since with a 57/39 K/BB ratio (it was better before a couple recent starts). Not great, I know, but (i) he's dropped his ERA by more than 2 runs since starting 0-8, (ii) he, like Kazmir, is only 23 and (iii) had sick numbers for the Dodgers in the minors before being prematurely called up. (3) The Sox should shut Lester down for the rest of the year. He's not particularly effective and just hasn't seemed right since he came back. Great story and all, but there is no need for him to pitch in games right now. They can have him throw on the side and pitch sim games if they want, but him pitching in these games is doing no good. Tavarez would be fine in that role.

Some links:

A Sox Fan in Hell with a great haiku - I particuarly like the fifth stanza (do haikus, or senryus, for that matter, have stanzas?)

I have no idea what the guys at Maldanado over everything are talking about, but it seems fun. I like the idea of a blog dedicated to a slightly-above average outfielder who just happened to have posted the best OPS among Jays OFs since 1992.

An EPIC Take down of a Mike Pagliarulo site (apparently offering scouting services or something) by Ken Tremendous at firejoemorgan.com. A bit long, but worth the read. And no, I've never heard the phrase "money blanket" before.

The Death Update

Joe Zawinul, fusion keyboardist. Played with Miles. I don't have any of his tracks, other than "Birdland" when he was with Weather Report (see below). I will need to get some. Forerunner to Herbie. Solid. Obit is here

/HOLY &!%!&! PAPI HITS A WALKOFF

The Taxes Update

No update. Slow day today. New farm bill to be introduced

So, to recap. Devil Rays pen? Not so good. Papi? The MAN.

/Night

2007-09-12T13:30:00.001-04:00

Funny bit from Drunk Jays Fans on last night's tribute in Toronto to the 9/11 first responders.

Morning Links

2007-09-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

Fire Brand of the AL has last night's game story.

Keep Your Sox On compares last night's game to a traditional Greek tragedy. So who was the chorus?

Over the Monster breaks down a just awful, Stark-ian, if you will, piece on mlb.com about the AL Cy Young race. Any piece that (1) puts Wang in the top tier of Cy candidates and (2) even mentioned Joe Borowski in the same neighborhood as Cy Young is DOA.

And I went for the easy joke and called Joe Maddon a Uncle Junior lookalike:

Surviving Grady does much better by describing his "Grandpa who digs on The Arcade Fire and knows the guy from Yo La Tengo personally" eyeware. Well done.

Hopefully Kevin Everett will walk again. Good news, really remarkable news, so far.

Buffalo Rumblings details the now thin Bills defense since Ko Simpson is now out for the year. It's going to be an ugly season.

2007-09-11T22:50:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

I don't believe in curses, so I am fine with saying that the Sox will win this game (currently up 16-9 in the 8th). By the time I got home, I had missed Wakefleid entirely and got to see the glorious comeback.

Three things I noticed: (1) Aggressive baserunning. I know I've heard some people complain about Demarlo Hale as a latter day Send 'em in Kim, but the aggressive baserunning paid off. Lugo first (although he should have been nailed - Upton has an absolute gun) and Youk second. Key plays. (2) Man, is the D-rays pen awful. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Some power arms (Dohmann in particular had a nice hard FB going), but can't spot, bad command (Dohmmann's 2 walks to start the fifth started the carnage). Did them in. (3) As much as I hate people who say this, because usually they're advocating something silly like "Smallball", it was the little things that made the difference - Navarro dropping Upton's absolute strike from 300 feet, but then Upton giving up on Youkilis's triple to center. The former would have gotten the Rays out of an inning where they gave up 2 more runs. The latter would have been a momentum killer.

The Taxes Update

Not much new today. The goverment's case against KPMG and R.J. Ruble (et al) seems to be turning slightly back in its favor with David Makov, a former promoter of the Blips shelter, agreeing to testify for the government.

The Death Update

Nobody in particular I want to talk about today. On 9/11/01 I was home watching the Today show when they cut to coverage of the first plane hitting the WTC. Like most people, I imagine, I assumed that it was a pilot error and headed into work. Even by the time I got to my desk at 9:30 or so, the news hadn't really broken in Boston. It was only after breathless emails to the whole firm from our lovable, but horribly not competent physical plant folks, that the truth became clear.

Around 11:30 or so (maybe closer to 12) building security ordered an evacuation. By then, we were all trying to make calls on our cells, unsuccessfully. I walked with a small group of friends to the Back Bay. Nobody really knew what was going on. We decided to have lunch. If you can believe that. After realizing that the Parish Cafe was shut down, we had Thai on Newbury. Then we went back to the apartment of one of the folks and were glued to CNN for the next 5 hours. We knew when we were having lunch what happened, and it was then that some of us tried to get in touch with friends and family in New York (TaxSis worked in the village. TaxBro lived uptown - both were fine).

I suffered no personal loss that day. I did not know anyone in the WTC or on any of the flights who died (although I went to school with Mark Bavis, I didn't really know him). Still, I, like many people I am sure, went to church on Friday following Tuesday, at a hastily arranged memorial service. And prayed. Not knowing what for or really even whom to.

I find that now, after I have experienced real tragedy, real loss, I still cannot find the words (and often go out of my way to find really vile words because of my anger). Whether that's struggling with faith or a lack of imagination, I don't know. I do know that it sucks and I imagine that many people who had the misfortune to really experience 9/11 knows that it sucks. No matter how much you try to close your eyes to it.

Everett Reportedly Slightly Better

2007-09-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

This from ESPN.com is encouraging. Kevin Everett apparently has some movement of his arms and legs. Good for him. I hope he has as full as recovery as possible.

The whole story reminds me of course of Travis Roy. I saw the game on tv and it wasn't clear at the time how severe the injury was. 11 seconds. Now that was a Moonlight Graham (Peter King had called Everett a "Moonlight Graham" in MMQB this week because his career stats are 1 catch for 1 yard). Of course Roy never walked again.

Client Alert - Tax Exempts Investing in Hedge Funds

2007-09-11T15:45:00.000-04:00

Here is the alert on Rep. Levin's new proposed legislation which would allow (some?) tax-exempt organizations to invest directly into hedge funds on a tax-efficient basis, rather than requiring them to invest through Cayman corporations. Questions? Leave a comment or Email me

2007-09-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Didn't get to see much of tonight's 1-0 loss to the Rays. And that would appear to have been a good thing. 7th time shut out this season. Kazmir's stuff did look nasty.

Three Things I noticed: (1) Coco was again fantastic. Great catch in center against the garage door, then another SB in the 8th to try to keep the Sox's hopes alive (unfortunately Lowell struck out - and, ahem, Lowell is 3-27 in his last 7 games). (2) Man, but is Pedroia fiery. That should shut Eric Wilbur up (he had this typically annoying Dirt Dog-esque piece about the Sox' lack of identity). Between Pedroia's "F*CK" after striking out in the 8th and his comments about Daniel Cabrera from over the weekend ("he's a moron") I think we have our fiery mascot. Move over Hudler, here's the new wonderdog. (3)(a) Andy Garcia was in the crowd at Fenway and man has he gone to hell. (b) The NESN cameraman has a knack for focusing on an attractive woman right before a pitcher pitches at a crucial moment. Without fail, he pans around the crowd for a bit, then just before the pitch, zooms in on some blonde. I guess it must take the rest of the time between pitches to find an attractive woman at Fenway.

The Taxes Update Finished my client alert today. Won't be posted until tomorrow. Here is Proskauer Rose's alert on the new rules applicable to tax exempt investors in funds.

The Death Update Jane Wyman, Ronnie's first wife, passed away today at the age of 93. Here is a piece on the lesser-known Jane Wyman-Lew Ayres romance. And the obit is here.

2007-09-09T21:57:00.000-04:00

The Football Update

Yes, a diversion to regularly scheduled programming...

The Good: (1) Patriots demolishing the Jets and their jerk fans. Seriously Jets fans? Cheering for Kellen Clemens after Pennington LIMPS off the field to save your team a time out? J E T S JERKS JERKS JERKS. Pats win 38-14. Moss goes off 9-183-1. Ho-hum. Brady must be like the kid whose parents have been saving up for years for a cool present for Christmas and then but him a freaking Mustang. (2) Packers topping the Eagles on a last second figgie. Only because that's one of the few I got right on my picks this week (shows what little I know. as I said, what I know about football you could fit in a golf ball). (3) No three, because...

The Bad: (1) Bills game. (2) Specifically the 15-14 loss on a ridiculous last second field goal by Elam after the Broncos converted 2 fourth and 2s and scampering on the field with just seconds left. For the record, I told the TaxSister with 3 minutes left that the Bills would blow it and lose 15-14. (3) Prayers go out to Kevin Everett who flew into the wedge on a kick return and went down like a sack of potatoes. I guess because he went head in without using his arms and shoulders to cushion the blow - a la Jason Street on FNL. Anyway, it does not sound particularly good for Mr. Everett. I wish him all luck in recovery.

The Ugly: The aforementioned Jets fans. Also, Randy Cross and John Madden in HD (or so I hear).

Bflo Blog has the game story and great perspective, although, having become a fan of teams not located in WNY, I understand other people's pain (not Clinton-level, but still).

And Circling the Wagons has the report card.

The Baseball Update

Sox win 3-2 on Beckett's 18th. Paps with his 35th save. Yanks win too. Looks like a Sox-Yanks ALCS, unless the Angels can knock off the Yanks.

No three things I noticed today. Was too busy watching football.

The Taxes Update

O.k., so I have been through all the testimony from Thursday's private equity taxation hearings. Now I'm getting a little nervous. All kinds of proposals were and will come out of last week's hearings.

Seems at this point that some action will be taken on taxation of carried interest. Still probably not this year unless Rangel is really able to fold it into a real amendment of the AMT (/skeptical given the cost). Two things that are likely to get done - (1) Rep. Sandy Levin's bill to encourage tax-exempts to invest directly into hedge funds rather than through Cayman corps. (2) Rep. Emanuel's bill (as yet unintroduced) to minimize ability of hedge fund managers to defer comp from offshore funds. Client alert will be published tomorrow.

The Death update

No new notables tonight and I'm tired. More tomorrow all.

2007-09-08T22:33:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

Just ugly tonight. Sox lose 11-5. After being up 4-1. With Dice-K on the mound. Against a rookie pitcher with no major league wins to his credit. This did not look like a team ready for the postseason. For the most part, it looked like one bad inning by Dice-K, but approaches at the plate were bad, mop-up guys were bad, and apart from one inning where the Sox again got some gift runs from the O's, the bats looked bad.

Three things I noticed: (1) Dice-K, as mentioned everywhere, not just here, really needs to be able to work through adversity. It seems like once things start going downhill he almost gives up, or gets stubborn. Not sure what the issue is, but man does he get burnt by big innings. (2) What was Francona waiting for? Letting him "work through it"? It as clear after the Sox had their long top of the third that Dice-K did not have his command. Gary Thorne (if you can believe it) and Jim Palmer (best color guy going) made a good point on Dice-K's warmups. Kevin Cash didn't go out to warm Dice-K up after Varitek struck out (again) to end the top of the 3rd. This delayed Dice-K's warm-ups an may have added to the mess that was the third. (3) Charles Nagy is apparently in the Indians hall of fame (watching the Angels-Indians game now. Go ERVIN!) Wow is that sad. According to baseball prospectus, the closest career comparisons to him Loaiza, Hentgen and Woody Williams. Yuck. Of course, I had him several times on fantasy teams in the 90s.

Joy of Sox have the Game Story.

The Tax Update

Tomorrow. Carried Interest Summkakke.

The Death Update

No obits today.

Thoughts on dad though. Couldn't help get a little dusty in here last night watching Joba Chamberlain's dad get teary-eyed watching his kid pitch in the majors for the first time in person. Very sweet. Very cool also how he appeared to wish well all the moron Yankee fans who came over (beers in hand, Natch) to wish him and Joba (Jabba?) well. Just a great moment. I went to precisely 5 major league baseball games with my dad. The aforementioned Jays game. Another Jays game during the CNE, and three Sox games, one an Easter weekend, one my bachelor party night and one in between. I'm not poetic or smart enough to put into words what makes baseball such a powerful thing for many fathers and sons, but I can say that whenever we talked on the phone, once we ran out of "real" things to say (usually pretty quickly after hearing his latest movie review - nothing ever got fewer than three stars), we talked baseball. How well the Jays were doing. How well the Sox were doing. How the Yankees were doing, whom he secretly rooted for. I realize now. I don't think I ever called him when the Jays won their series. And I don't know why. But I would love to call him now, even just to talk about how lousy Dice-K was tonight. Make that call whenever you get the chance.

2007-09-07T22:25:00.001-04:00

The Baseball Update

Quick one tonight. Sox just won 4-0. Solid, if unspectacular performance by Lester against the Orioles. Three Things I noticed: (1) Coco My man. He Loves us. I don't even mind if he dances with my date. Another great scrappy hitting night. No spectacular defense tonight, but that's o.k. (2) I am now convinced that Jim Palmer is probably the second best ex-player analyst in any sport (Jaws, so far, is number 1, but I'LL BE WATCHING MONDAY). He was spot on on why Cabrera balked (didn't pitch from the stretch) and generally was witty, candid (noting the reason why Devern Hanseck threw the no hitter in a monsoon on the last day of the season last night was because the Sox didn't want to give up their $2.5M gate) and generally smart. I dig Remy, but I could get used to a guy like Palmer too. (3) Daniel Cabrera is an idiot. Not sure what the hell happened there, but he's starting to remind me of a famous quote about Rod Stewart. i'm paraphrasing... very rarely is a man so gifted with talent and even more rarely does someone screw it up so badly.

The Taxes Update

Huge day today.

(1) Fallout from yesterday's Congressional hearings. The House had a marathon hearing on all kinds of tax issues, none of them I have confidence they will actually solve. Thankfully, my man Charles Rangel (D-Harlem BABY!) wants to totally revamp (renovate, novate?) the AMT in connection with any tax reform. Well, I fully applaud that, but am skeptical that this Congress with this President would be able to push something like that through without any obvious revenue raisers out there to offset the cost.

(2) Senate also held hearings yesterday, more focused on the effect raising taxes on carried interest would have on pension fund investors. Answer - not much. Well, duh. The big gorilla (I don't like elephants) in the room is that private equity, while extremely important in mergers and acquisitions and turnarounds, still is a niche investment allocation for most investors. 10% or so for pension funds. I'm still surprised that this is a surprise.

Anyway, my &*!# IT department failed to record the hearings for me, and I don't expect that C-Span will rebroadcast the hearings, so I will see what I can find online and review the prepared testimony from the hearings.

The ever indispensible Dan Primack did a liveblog of the hearings here which has links to lots of other good stuff. Check it out. He really is the man.

(3) Rep. Sander Levin has on his website text of a bill that may or may not have been introduced in the House today which would extremely liberalize the rules on tax-exempt investments into private equity and hedge funds. You can find the text here. The issue is that tax-exempt investors are taxed on proceeds from leveraged investments (i.e., any buyout deal, or investments on margin). As a result, many tax-exempts invest through cayman corporations to avoid the tax (the corporation blocks the negative tax effect). This bill is an attempt to bring these investments back "onshore" by eliminating this tax, at least for "securities". There are important technical requirements that need to be met for this new beneficial tax treatment, but it's an auspicious bill. I will have a client alert on this Monday which I will link to here.

Lots of other small things too, but a big Friday for taxes.

The Death Update

Of course Pavarotti died the other day. God bless. Today, however, Madeline L'Engle, author of "A wrinkle in Time passed away. She was 88. Basically, if you've ever been in 4th grade, you've read this book, even though it was repeatedly rejected by numerous publishers. Funny story, the TaxWife presented this book (actually the whole series (!)) when she was a skirt-wearin' catholic school kid and apparently repeatedly mis-pronounced the O'Keefe family as the "O-Keefe-eys". whoops. Apparently the teacher was a bitter repressed, um. woman. Anyway, the obit is here.

2007-09-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

The Baseball Update

All glory be to Rick Ankiel on a truly massive day today. 2 HRs, 7 RBIs. Cards win. Still have hope. He was the first starting pitcher I took in my roto draft the year after he melted down in the playoffs (I had taken Benitez before him - ugh). Needless to say, my pitching was not fantastic that year. Anyway, it really is a tremendous story - not quite the real life Natural (maybe Tommy John is a better analogy - someone who truly had to reinvent himself), but quite impressive.

The Viva el Birdos blog captures the true excitement and joy of a fan watching an amazing event involving his team better than I could. Check today's thread out here and scroll down to the comments around 4:30. Just tremendous.

Sox, as I write this, are p 7-6 in the top of the 9th against the Orioles. Covelli (a/k/a Oscar Gamble Jr.) is having a tremendous night - 3 run HR, 2 singles, stolen base, fantastic catch of a Tejada liner on a dead sprint toward the centerfield wall. I like him better and better each game, even with his struggles. Three things I noticed: (1) I think we are seeing the beginning of the inevitable Mike Lowell slow-down. I think at age 33 (my god - I am older than someone who has gray hair in his beard), on pace for high ABs, and based on his second half track record, he appears to be slowing down and needs rest down the stretch, the race for top 5 in the MVP vote notwithstanding. (2) The Sox have at least 3 guys who do not use batting gloves - Crisp, Mirabelli and Kielty. This must be some kind of high among major league teams. I wonder if they all do the Alou to keep their hands supple. (3) Gary Thorne is possibly the worst play by play guy in MLB (yes, I am including Michael Kay who at least tries to instigate discussions among his myriad color guys). He insists on calling a three run home run a "3 RBI home run". He also continually misidentifies hitters, pitches, etc. Palmer is especially prescient, so he almost covers for him, but yeesh. Awful.

The Taxes update

Huge day in Congress as twenty witnesses testified before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee regarding all manner of tax issues, from taxation of carried interest in investment funds to AMT to taxation of publicly traded partnerships. I'll have a full report later once I am able to review the testimony, but initial thoughts after reading prepared remarks and seeing initial commentary is that nothing will get done this year unless it is part of an enormous tax bill which proposed a major overhaul of the AMT, nothing will ultimately end up getting done on taxation of carried interest because (1) not enough revenue there to make it worthwhile and (2) lawmakers will be convinced that taxpayers will just develop a workaround anyway (which they will) and (3) they're deathly afraid of doing anything to harm the economy in the current climate. This is an initiative that would have better been taken up when consumer confidence was higher, people could feel comfortable spending against the equity in their houses and the debt markets weren't in the crapper.

IRS also released more liberal rules on reverse 704(c) allocations for hedge funds. I am reviewing.

The Death Update

Former DC first lady Effi Barry passed away today at the age of 63. She had been suffering from Leukimia. To paraphrase Dave Chappelle as Rick James, Cancer is a hell of a disease. One could argue that Ms. Barry did more for the poor of DC than Marion ever did. Anyway, the story is here and of course my thoughts and prayers go out to her entire family.

It was about a year ago, after we told that the TaxBoy was in fact going to be a boy (and hopefully a lefty), that I decided I'd better fly home and see dad. We knew he was terminal at this point, but didn't know how long he would have. Patients with small cell lung cancer at his stage have an amazingly short life expectancy so I figured 6-12 months, even with treatment. Maybe double that if we were lucky. Anyway, I hadn't seen him since the July 4 holiday (and a stressful one at that) and so wanted to see him. I booked a flight on American Eagle for the week of 9/22. I really wanted to show him the movie review book Ernest Ng and I had put together (ranking the Top 10 movies each year since the advent of commercial film - to see how many I had wrong). Didn't get to really show it to him.

The Obligatory Picks and Predictions Post

2007-09-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

regular programming later tonight

So for the zero readers who may want to put down some fake money (wait, [0] times [fake money] = Rich Rich Rich!!!), herewith are the picks and predictions.

The Picks (home teams in CAPS)

Saints (+6.5) over the COLTS. No built in advantage playing in the dome. Everyone seems healthy. Just seems like too many points and I'm not sold on the Colts D.

BILLS (+3.5) over the Broncos. Just because. This is probably a bad pick, but I never pick against the Bills at home. Even in September. Plus, one of my fantasy teams is named Losman's flowing Locks, so I'm obligated here.

Pittsburgh (-3.5) over the BROWNS. I have no idea what to make of the Browns. This seems like an easy one.

Philly (-2.5) over GREEN BAY. Although I hope for the sake of the aforementioned Losman's Locks that Favre reverses recent history against the Eagles.

HOUSTON (-1.5) over Kansas City. Seems like Houston should be at least (-3) at home. KC is horrible.

Tennessee (+5.5) over JACKSONVILLE. Was Del Rio actually ever a good coach?

Atlanta (+2.5) over MINNESOTA. I think I might be drinking the SG Kool-aid.

Pats (-5.5) over JETS. J E T S Shut the $!&* Up!!! God I hate the Jets. I still remember Frank Lewis almost busting one against them in the '82 postseason only to get dragged down short of a TD.

RAMS (-1.5) over Cackalacka. This looks like another one I will be wrong on. Especially with Holt's injury.

WASHINGTON (-3.5) over Miami. Art Monk Belongs in the Hall of Fame! Art Monk Belongs in the Hall of Fame!

OAKLAND (-2.5) over Detroit. I have not drunk the Detroit Kool-Aid. Shaky QB? Check. Ponderous RB situation? Check. Mad Scientist Offensive Coordinator? Check.

WHALE'S VAGINA (-5.5) over Chicago. Line seems high, but I am scared of San Diego this year.

SEATTLE (-6.5) over Tampa Bay. Tampa has the chance to ruin about 99% of the suicide pools out there.

DALLAS, (-3.5) over the Giants. If there is a god. And I hate the Giants.

Baltimore (+3.5) over the CRIMINALS. They won't go 13-3 again, but they should walk in that division (and given that McNair is their QB, walking seems about appropriate).

SAN FRAN (-3.5) over Arizona. Please. Arizona? Neither party is mine. The Jackass or the Elephant.

Predictions

AFC Playoff Teams: 1. San Diego. 2. New England. 3. Indianapolis. 4. Baltimore. 5. Pittsburgh. 6. Buffalo

Indy over Buffalo, Pittsburgh over Baltimore

Pats over Indy, San Diego over Pittsburgh

Pats over San Diego

NFC Playoff Teams

1. New Orleans. 2. Seattle. 3. Chicago. 4. Philly. 5. San Francisco. 6. Washington

Chicago over Washington, Philly over San Fran

Saints over Philly, Seattle over CHicago

Seattle over Saints

Pats over Seattle in the Super Bowl

I am NOT Etta James

2007-09-05T23:57:00.000-04:00

But at last..the updates.

The Baseball Update

Nobody reads this blog, but if they did, they would say "wow you suck at blogging" and "why are your baseball updates Red Sox updates?" Point taken.

My man Yovanni Gallardo pitched great for the Brewers tonight as they took the Astros to the woodshed 14-2. It appears that his confidence was not bruised that much by being left in to be pasted by the Rockies a few weeks ago.

Yankees. Screw them.

John Maine continues his downward spiral tm NIN in the second half of the season. Doesn't matter though as the Mets are in like Flynn to the postseason.

And yes, the Sox blew it tonight against the freaking Jays (ahhhh my first love. Wherefore art though Jorge (nee George) Bell?). I didn't see the bloody ~~show~~ aftermath, but it appears that Okie-dokey is Okie-Nofuckingwayhehaveupanotherhit. Mildly worried about pen depth now. Three things I noticed: (1) Varitek has become an all-or-nothing guess hitter. More of his ABs have resulted in the Three True Outcomes lately than ever before (check it out - last 10 games, 41 PAs, 3 HR, 10 BB, 9 Ks. More than 50%. (2) Ellsbury stands to become a folk hero in Boston, almost regardless of performance - a Dykstra/Hudler type, which would be unfortunate because he could be so much better and deserves not to instantly get labeled with the Damon, Jr. stereotype. (3) Schill isn't sharp, but generally will keep teams in games (like tonight) until the Sox have a chance to come back. Anecdotal jibber-jabber, I know (who said jibber jabber besides, or better than, Mr. T, anyway?).

Links - A funny riff from Jere at a Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory (dude, I feel your pain) on the disconnect between certain commercials and the show they are interrupting. I hear that, although I never run into that problem when I'm watching lifetime. The flammable mattresses must be a big seller...

A view from across the border at Drunk Jays Fans. That is. Just wrong. Some view.

The Taxes Update

Big day tomorrow as the House holds a marathon hearing on the taxation of carried interest, impact on the investment world, impact on workers, etc., with two tax professors, Jack Levin, pe folks from Carlyle, etc. I actually asked our legislative affairs liaision whether it would be televised on C-Span.

In any event, the whole thing is smoke and mirrors. The JCT and CBO have come out with estimates of the revenue raisers from changing how carry is taxed - hold on to your hat, $3 to $5 billion. Total. A far cry from a dent in a chink in the armor ... o.k.. anyway, a far cry from the amounts that would be required to substantially reform the AMT (estimated in the $100 billion range). Click here for a link via Victor Fleischer's Conglomerate blog to a paper estimating the revenue that could be raised.

Update (11/9): These numbers need clarification. The estimated revenue raised is $25.6 billion over 10 years

The Death Update

Finally, the death update. Not a household name, but William Hudgins died last Friday in New York. He, along with Jackie Robinson founded Carver National Savings Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the country (there is a branch in the building at 145th and Bradhurst, I believe). He helped move the black community in Harlem in the mid-20th century into the traditional bank lending market and away from traditional lending arrangements. A fantastic success story and a man who did good for his community and his Community. He was 100. The obit is here.

Coming up shortly on the 22nd. Can't believe it has been almost a year. Mom leaves town tomorrow to go home for the weekend. I felt worst for her when dad died last year. Will feel extremely bad for her as the anniversary approaches. Hopefully little Jackson/Luis Junior/Sam (a friend suggested Samuel Luis Jackson as a compromise - funny) will come before then and occupy her.

All for now - need to fix the links.

2007-09-05T14:23:00.000-04:00

To come shortly - ca. 6 pm - last night's Sox game, tomorrow's carried interest hearings on capital hill and the timeliest death of the day... sorry for delay, too busy at work

2007-09-03T09:11:00.000-04:00

Once again, I've been away/busy, so haven't posted... Here are today's updates

The Baseball Update

Since my last post the Sox have gone from 5 up to 8 up back to 6 up, just the typical late season swings. Their pitching is still, for the most part, their main strength as the offense comes and goes. Watched most of yesterday's game against the O's. Three Things I Noticed: (1) Lester still doesn't have a lot of arm strength back. His fastball isn't really fooling anyone and his control isn't really there right now. Luckily he was able to strand 8 of the 10 baserunners he allowed. (2) Ellsbury looks like a real player which will make personnel decisions interesting for next season. Everyone knows the club has a 20M option on Manny next year, Coco is signed through '09 at 10.5M (plus a 500K buyout for '10). Drew... well, let's not talk abut Drew. Unless the Sox let Manny go or deal Coco (which wouldn't make a lot of sense because he is the cheapest of the incumbents), Ellsbury will be without a position next year. 4th OF, coming in for speed and defense, and to spell Drew, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but the kid has nothing left to prove, except my contention that he doesn't really look like Damon. (3) Pedroia is the AL ROY. There are about a half dozen legitimate candidates. Here they are in a fancy chart (please scroll down - not sure why there is such a huge gap):

10/4/07 - Just figured out how to format so there are not breaks - table fixed

Player	Team	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Pedroia	Bos	68	137	32	1	6	42	5	.324	.393	.447
Willits	Ana	65	107	16	1	0	32	25	.292	.394	.342
Iwamura	TB	67	111	16	8	6	24	10	.282	.359	.410
Gordon	KC	55	115	29	4	14	50	13	.249	.319	.420
Player	Team	IP	H	ER	BB	K	W	L	SV	ERA
Dice-K	Bos	176.1	151	76	66	174	13	11	0	3.88
Bannister	KC	148.1	135	52	36	72	12	7	0	3.12
Okajima	Boston	63.1	41	11	16	55	3	1	4	1.56

Pedroia has the best OPS of any AL rookie, and, as I write this, is tearing Jays pitching a new one tonight - 3-3 with 2 RBIs. He's also had some memorable defensive plays in the middle of a pennant race, which voters can't help but ignore (as an aside, I love how the bar is set higher and higher each year for winning any of these awards - individual excellence itself is not enough - you need to perform in the crucible of a pennant race. Tough luck if you're a Royal competing for one of these awards - or as the TV voice over guy used to say, "Sorry Tennessee").

In any event, as I (now) finish this, the Sox are up 7-1 and the Yanks have lost, so it's 7 games up with 24 left. Go Sox.

The Taxes Update

Quiet last couple of weeks on the tax front. There were various reports that came out the last couple of weeks indicating that tax revenue from a tax on carried interest would be a few billion at best, and likely less (perhaps even revenue neutral) because of likely tax planning around any new bill. So any idea that a tie-in to AMT relief (which would cost hundreds of millions to even Band-AidTM) is just plain silly-talk. Horse-hocky, if you will.

Also, Lee Sheppard looked appropriately stlyish, if a little deer-in-the-headlights in a NYT business section profile earlier this week. Click here for the story an a look at her gorgrous Gaultier outfit to which page C6 did not do justice.

The Death Update

Michael Jackson died. No, not that Michael Jackson (hee-hee). Michael Jackson, the beer conniouseur and advocate. I used to own one of his beer guides through which I learned that mead wasn't just what Beowulf had for dinner. It was an actual brew still in prodiction in various vampire-infested areas of Central Europe. Anyway, the obit is here. Raise a glass to Mr. Jackson.

Also, in the death update, mom is in town this weekend, getting ready for sis to have her baby. It was about one year ago (Sept 6 actually), that we found out Rex was going to be a boy, and that I found out my dad definitely was terminal with small cell lunch cancer - advanced stage. I remember how bummed out he was on the phone talking to him and remember how happy he was when we told him we were having a boy. I knew then that it was extremely unlikely he'd ever get to meet his grandson, but I was happy that at least for that day, some sunshine broke through the gloom. I miss him.

Dirt Dogs Get it Right Sometimes

2007-08-21T15:38:00.001-04:00

Like with the title of This post. Couldn't have said it better myself....