Official 2009-2010 Offseason Off-Topic Discussion Thread

Dude did the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs, has/had a Wookiee as his best friend, got the princess, slept around with a bunch of hot women in the years before he met the princess, and had three children (let’s just forget that ANakin died in a stupid plot line and Jacen went insane and died at the blade of his twin sister Jaina (who is in her 30’s and acts like a 15-year-old)). Oh, and the Millennium Falcon. ’Nough said.

Indy would just use his whip to disarm Han…and shoot him with his pistol.

When I watched the Stargate movie, which was after I had watched many episodes of SG1, I thought that I would like all of the characters in the movie less than the show. However, I actually like James Spader and Michael Shanks about equally. Kurt Russell versus MacGyver is a no contest though.

Make suggestions under here. I’ll make an Excel spreadsheet for a bracket, and then we’ll have a vote.

I just noticed the picture up there. I scrolled right past it before. Awesome.

We watched part of that episode (including that part) in a linguistics class I took in college. I really need to start marathoning my TNG DVDs.

He has a particular set of skills. Namely, being a bad ass.

Let’s take this thread and move from sci-fi nerd towards History discussion. I’m adding this post so I can branch off towards some educational discussion.

ASSAYE – 1803
In later years after trudging victoriously through Spain and defeating Napolean at Waterloo; the Duke of Wellington claimed the battle of Assaye, India as his finest accomplishment on a battlefield and the bloodiest he ever experienced. Outmanned and outgunned, Wellington marched his 9,500 troops into the mouth of fire against the Maratha Empire’s 100 cannon and 50,000 troops, the British had only 17 guns and fought ferociously. Wellington had two horses shot out from under him while he personally led his infantry against the center forces. Wellington’s battles on the Indian plains prepared him for his later test against the French.

LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS – 1809
After defeating Marshal Jourdan’s 46,000 troops at the battle of Talavera, Wellington’s 20,000 British troops faced a threat from the north by Marshal Soult’s army of 50,000. When Marshal Massena arrived in the East with an additional 65,000 troops intended to invade Portugal, the Duke bloodied Massena at the small battle of Bucaco before retreating behind his defensive work at Torres Vedras.

The Lines of Torres Vedras, were a technological marvel of its day. Similar to the Great Wall of China in design, Torres Vedras spanned 40 kilometers from the Atlantic to the Tagus River. It ran along two ridgelines with 108 forts, 151 redoubts, 1,067 pieces of artillery and gave defenders the ability to quickly move from behind it to reinforce against an enemy attack. The defenders used streams to flood the ground in front of the lines to reduce the enemy’s ability to maneuver. Wellington worked with his engineers to design the lines and obtained funding through his personal contacts to pay for them.

The lines were built in complete secrecy surprising Massena and his army. When the French pursued Wellington to Portugal Massena army found a string of forts, bristling with guns and a land stripped of food. Six months later when Massena finally removed his troops from Portugal his army had lost 50,000 troops by battle, disease and hunger. Only 15,000 French troops survived the winter. The British were reinforced throughout the winter and in the spring Wellington began his advance towards Waterloo.

WATERLOO – 1815
 Facing one of the greatest military minds in history, Wellington was finally able to meet the French on even terms. Napolean Bonaparte’s army was made up entirely of seasoned veterans with 48,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry and 7,000 artillery. Wellington’s forces numbered 50,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 6,000 artillery. The French guns outnumbered the British guns 250 to 150 artillery pieces.

As usual Wellington used the land to his advantage by obtaining the hilltop and positioning troops in the fort-like farms within the valley. The forts allowed the British to slow down the advancing French as artillery batteries rained down upon his infantry. Napoleon’s artillery was the lifeblood of his offensive strategy and he attacked the British position with ferocity. Marshal Ney followed the artillery attack with charges by his overwhelming Cavalry numbers.

Wellington used the hilltop as a shield against the guns and formed squares against the Cavalry charges. When the French became overextended Wellington counterattacked with his own Cavalry and followed with infantry to defeat the great Bonaparte. Wellington won one of the greatest battles in history and cemented his position as the greatest military commander of all time.

Early in his career Wellington had marched a crossed the whole of India to gain land for the British Empire. Later in defense against the French, Wellington defeated every Marshal that Napolean sent against him before finally defeating the great Bonaparte himself.

Can I just take a moment to whine? I have a show going up this week — Secret Garden the musical. I’m in the dance chorus and it’s a very dance intensive show — at least four big numbers, plus moving set pieces and being onstage for ambiance (we’re also ghosts, and I have a bit part…). The shows are wednesday and thursday, and we just started tech last night. With my class schedule,this all means that between now (really starting yesterday at 4pm) and Friday at 2pm I am either in class or at the theater. All the time. Like until 12:30 every night.

Okay so I love performing but the problem is that I’m also still in classes. But with no time to read anything. So I’m basically not reading anything this week (no time) and dearly hoping I can make it all up before finals.

Aghhhh….

Okay, I finished making the bracket for everyone to vote. A few points:

1. Download the file here. Vote it, save it, send it to me via the e-mail in my profile.
2. You can’t just vote for someone several rounds down the line and have it automatically fill in backwards. Sorry. Also, if you change a vote for someone whom you had winning several rounds afterward and have it change forwards. Sorry again.
3. I’d appreciate it if you signed your e-mails with your screen name so I can get an idea for how you voted. I only know you as your screen names.
4. I probably left out some people that y’all wanted, including possibly some that were mentioned above. If I did, I’m sorry. I had to fill in a lot of spots on my own, and my nominations and yours got jumbled up.
5. I’ll leave the voting open for a week or so, then post the results. Enjoy.

Just to mix things up, let’s have a little baseball discussion in here. Namely, where does Albert Pujols rank among the greatest hitters of all time? Keep in mind that this is a discussion of purely hitting worth; defensive position and acumen does not enter in.

Right now Pujols ranks 4th in career OPS, behind Ruth, Williams and Gehrig. Heady stuff, but he hasn’t hit his decline stage yet, so it’s clear that he’s not going to pass those luminaries ever, at least in raw OPS. When you look at OPS+ (according to Baseball Reference’s calculations), Pujols drops to a tie for 6th with Mickey Mantle, adding Bonds and Hornsby to those leading him.

However, with the exception of Bonds, the hitters ranking ahead of Pujols are guys who played a long time ago. And this is the crux of the discussion. Can Pujols indeed be measured against these players? It seems, looking at OPS+, that guys like Williams and Ruth were way ahead of the game. They had something figured out that other people didn’t. Was the pitching back then as good as it is now? Or did a few hitters take a quantum leap ahead of the pitchers before they caught back up? Have both pitching and hitting been steadily improving over the course of baseball history (with a few notable outliers) or could you toss Cy Young or Christy Mathewson into a modern rotation and still have an ace? It’s a two-part argument: could Ruth and Williams have put up their gaudy numbers in today’s game (are they objectively amazing), and if you put Pujols (or any modern hitter for that matter) on the 1927 Yankees would he tear up the league like Ruth?

There’s little doubt in my mind that today’s hitters are, for the most part, better conditioned physically than they were 70 years ago. But hitting isn’t all about strength, and Ted Williams had legendarily good eyesight and reflexes (he was a fighter pilot during some of his prime years. One of baseball’s biggest what-ifs). It’s quite possible that he really could re-create a line like his ridiculous .406/.553/.735 1941 season (by the way, what Rasputin-like hold did DiMaggio have over the MVP voters? How did he win the MVP that year?).

Looking at the raw numbers that show Ruth and Willims to be head and shoulders above the field in career stats like OBP and OPS indicate to me that maybe they were just excessively talented anomalies. I don’t think anyone (including, if it were possible, them) will ever break the records set by these players. But that’s not to say nobody will be as talented as they were. They just happened to play in an era when such outliers were possible.

By the way, when I’m comparing hitting here, it’s clear to me that, while Ruth might not have been the best hitter ever, he was certainly the greatest. His hitting changed the landscape of baseball seismically, and he pretty much created the greatest dynasty in sports.

A few months ago a sign was taped up at a bus stop near my office, and a few days later I stole it, scanned it, and submitted it to the Found Magazine website. A couple weeks ago it made one of their Finds of the Day. Here’s the link. (The part at the bottom was added a couple days later by someone else.)

How weird is that sign? What kind of person not only thinks those things but goes as far to post a sign? I’m pretty sure it’s a shooting rampage waiting to happen.

And I’m looking for a new one to read. I love just about anything…so what are some of your favorites?