Realm of the Wombat

Satiating your hunger for art cars: a collection from Santa Monica

Jere’s quiz of the day: Who said “Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is,” in 1999?

You know about Brad Lidge and Aaron Heilman in the majors right now. Jeff Samardzija earned the headlines with his decision to play baseball instead of football. But keep an eye on Jeff Manship (Class of 2006), currently at Beloit (low-A) in the Minnesota organization. Twins pro-blogger Aaron Gleeman says:

Perhaps even more so than Slowey’s fantastic start at Triple-A, No. 12 prospect Jeff Manship’s first month at low Single-A sticks out as the organization’s best April performance. Manship posted a 0.84 ERA, 36-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and .147 opponent’s batting average in 32 innings spread over five starts. Equally as impressive, he had a 4.6-to-1 ground ball-to-fly ball ratio, which sticks out like a sore thumb in the Twins’ fly-ball heavy system and is a tremendous indicator for future success. [link]

Manship’s ND bio from 2006 and pro stats from MiLB.com

70% of Americans don’t know what plastic is made of. Do you?

A few thoughts in retrospect of the Decemberists show a couple weeks ago:

• By my count, they only played 13 songs, but since three of those were more than ten minutes each.
• I never thought I’d see a show which featured an accordion.
• And like it.
• Nor did I ever expect to see a large, papier mache whale at a concert.
• Show highlights: a super-charged “July, July,” “The Mariners Revenge” featuring the aforementioned whale, and “The Island,” a song that just begs to be played live
• I would have liked to hear “California One.”
• The Decemberists are more well known for rambling tales of sailors and civil war era soldiers than overt political statements. However, they did play their two most political songs, “16 Military Wives” and “Sons and Daughters,” and requested audience participation on both.
• I am prepared to say that next to Jack White, Colin Meloy has the best thing going in music right now.
• The Riviera theater was built in 1918 and has enjoyed a rich history, but it’s been neglected for far too long. There’s potential for the place to be as cool as one of the venues in San Francisco, but as it stands, it’s a dump.