Blood of Angels

Until tonight, I think the last film I saw in a theater was "Little Women," which would have been December 2019 -- in Long Island, when COVID was secretly circulating in the greater NY area. We didn't get sick, but the pandemic kept me out of theaters for years. Inertia and home streaming kept me away even longer, though I live just a couple of blocks from a movie house.

Tonight, my spouse and I attended a local showing of "Blood of Angels" by Bobby Fowler (and friends), son of two of my colleagues in Political Science. It was a really fun evening and I'll be going back to the movies sooner rather than later. The movie seemed quite professional, and I mean that as sincere praise. 

Here's the trailer: 

 

It is a western, obviously, but also a thriller. Every scene was shot on the farm my colleagues inhabit -- and the film features their horses as well as their children. Mom has a prominent role too!

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Natural disaster

On August 25 the huge oak tree in front of our house dropped a large branch during a microburst from a storm. Later that night, it rained and rained and rained. 

The tree punctured our roof in multiple places, crashed through a bedroom window, and even managed to pierce the internal ceiling of two upstairs rooms. The rainwater eventually found its way to our lower floor, which we noticed by the multiple drips and small puddles from the living room ceiling. A few days later huge hunks of plaster fell in that space. An old crack in our basement foundation also seemed to expand and allowed water into our storage areas for the first time in 32+ years of living in the house. 

It's been a trying five weeks:

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#SayHerName

My oldest daughter arrived Memorial Day weekend and we ventured out a bit as vaccinated adults. My spouse and I hadn't seen her since December 2019 -- well, not counting our Zoom (Duo) existence. She fought COVID in New York over a year ago and her loss of smell lingered for a long time. 

None of us were ready to eat indoors, but we got a lot of takeout from local favorite restaurants. With the holiday weekend, she got to see many old friends who happened to be in town. 

On Thursday June 3, we ventured inside a venue while masked and took in the Breonna Taylor exhibit at the Speed Art Museum near the UofL campus. It was quite moving, especially the wall of biography near the end of the exhibit. I hadn't realized until that moment that my oldest daughter and Taylor were born just a couple of months apart and graduated from high school in the same year. 

It truly is difficult to imagine that family's pain.

I snapped this photo from the entrance area, but should have taken a shot of Amy Sherald's excellent posthumous portrait, which you can see here. 

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Fred Zahner

This grave of former Louisville Colonel Fred Zahner is a couple of hundred feet from my house in the nearby St. Louis cemetery.  He played major league ball in 1894 and 1895, then drowned at age 30 when he fell off of a boat in the Ohio River on July 24, 1900. Zahner, a catcher, had just over 100 plate appearances in total during the two seasons and never hit a home run.   

Since last March I've walked past his grave dozens of times.

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Weber

A few weeks ago, my colleague Jasmine Farrier tweeted a reminder about an event I attended prior to the pandemic. It was a book launch for a work about the life of Paul Weber, who died far too young back in October 2005. Paul was department chair when I was hired at Louisville decades ago: 

This was such a special night for an amazing man and friend. Thanks to all who made it happen and all who came to celebrate Paul Weber. https://t.co/yLPhb1Wfrq

— Jasmine Farrier (@Jasmine_Farrier) February 1, 2021

As it happens, I often walk past Paul's grave when I navigate through Calvary cemetery.  As I have frequently mentioned, I have been walking in several nearby cemeteries during the pandemic. They're usually quiet and I've learned a bit about local history. 

Here's a photo of his grave:

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Pete Browning

As I've previously blogged, I've walked many of Louisville's nearby cemeteries this year -- it's a way to get some exercise while avoiding other people during a pandemic. 

Months ago, I walked to one of the city's most famous burial grounds, Cave Hill, and found the grave of Major League Baseball player Pete Browning, who played in Louisville for the Colonels during the 1880s and died in 1905. 

Browning was a star player, leading his league in hitting three times and compiling an overall record that arguably should have landed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He twice led his league in on base average and once in slugging, and twice led in OPS+, which is a ballpark adjusted measure of offensive contributions based upon on base average plus slugging percentage. The guy could hit.

His nickname was "The Louisville Slugger." 

Browning is buried within walking distance of my home -- and not far from Colonel Sanders and Muhammed Ali, two other local legends who are buried in the same cemetery. I've previously visited both of their gravesites as well. Paul Hornung is a 2020 addition, but I have not looked for his gravesite yet.  



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"Doc" Powers

During the summer, I read the fall 2014 issue of SABR's Baseball Research Journal. The issue included a short piece by Robert D. Warrington about physician Michael “Doc” Powers, "a catcher who played primarily for the Philadelphia Athletics and whose baseball career was cut short by his untimely death." Powers was injured running into a wall while catching a foul ball during the first game played at Shibe Park on April 12, 1909, and he died on April 26.

Powers first played in the major leagues for the Louisville Colonels in 1898 and he also played part of the 1899 season for the team. His career batting statistics are not especially notable, but he was apparently a fine defensive catcher who was well-regarded by pitchers. 

In any case, the part of the story that caught my eye is that he was ultimately buried in Saint Louis Cemetery, Louisville, which is very close to my house. Using findagrave, I discovered the approximate location of his headstone and found it fairly easily on one of my daily walks.

I took these photos in early August:

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Mature

Back on March 12, I had beers with a neighbor in a local watering hole. That week there was all kinds of fast-breaking news that was leading to big changes in our lives-- Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had tested positive for the new corona-virus, a couple of NBA players had tested positive, and the NCAA had announced it was cancelling its post-season basketball tournament. 

Those were the last alcoholic drinks I had inside a structure other than my own home. I'd say any drinks, but I've had water in my office on campus. 

The bar played a song performed by Wilson Pickett and my friend and I discussed the fact that his funeral had been held in Louisville. Given that we live in an area with many cemeteries, we wondered if he was buried near where we were sitting. He wasn't, as it turned out.

I mentioned that despite their proximity, I had rarely been in any of the nearby cemeteries. I noted my visits to the Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali graves in Cave Hill and wondered if any famous people were buried in the other surrounding cemeteries. 

My neighbor knew of one buried in St. Michael's -- 1950s film actor Victor Mature. He had visited the grave and described the highly stylized hovering angelic statue on the gravesite.

So during the quarantine, I eventually found the grave while walking.

Mature was in The Robe, which I think I've seen, and in Samson and Deliliah, which I may have seen -- and certainly knew about. His IMDB bio page reveals that he married 5 (!) times, served in the Coast Guard during WW2, loved playing golf (even at the expense of his career), and died of cancer at age 86 in 1999.  

There are many humorous quotes associated with him, including one that he allegedly uttered when he was denied entry into a Country Club in California (where he wanted to play golf). The club apparently always turned down applications from actors. He said, " I'm no actor, and I've got 64 pictures to prove it."

Here are front and side views of his grave marker, taken on different days (as apparent from the foliage):

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Whistling in the Cemetery

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I've taken to walking in my neighborhood cemeteries. I live near at least four major cemeteries -- Saint Louis, Saint Michael, Calvary, and Cave Hill. None of them are particularly crowded with living visitors and they all have nice quiet walking paths. 

I've lived in Louisville for decades, but until this year had rarely set foot in any of them. A few years ago, my oldest nephew visited town with his then-spouse and we walked to Colonel Sanders's gravesite in Cave Hill and took a couple of pictures. And last Easter my spouse and I walked to Muhammed Ali's gravesite (while Lonnie Ali was present, actually) in the same cemetery. And I had walked a few times through a portion of Saint Michael's as a shortcut to a local grocery store. 

In any case, I'm going to post some stories about Louisville's history related to these cemeteries. 

To start, I live closest to Saint Louis cemetery, where John Henry Whallen and his younger brother James Patrick Whallen are buried (in a tomb). Those names might not be familiar to you, but they apparently dominated politics in Louisville for many years more than a century ago. They also made lots of money from whiskey and operation of a downtown burlesque spot -- the Buckingham Theater. The Whallens allegedly made even more money from prostitution and gambling as well and allowed police officers to make extensive use of their facilities.

However, their businesses were apparently threatened by some of Louisville's elite establishment and so John Henry Whallen worked to become a central figure in local Democratic politics and was eventually the powerful  "boss" of the city's political machine -- earning the nickname of "Napoleon." He engineered a mayoral election in the 1880s for a friendly candidate and was named Chief of Police as reward. Whallen's power over the city endured for nearly 30 years, built primarily upon his connections to the police and his ability to control primary elections -- and even general elections. 

Whallen, who became one of the wealthiest men in the city, was said to be generous to the poor during hard times. His political base was constituted by immigrants and Catholics. However, as University of Kentucky historian Tracy Campbell has made clear, Whallen was willing to emphasize white supremacy to maintain political power. His machine intimidated black voters and appealed to racist ideas to win white votes. The local Irish-American newspaper, described as "an instrument of the Whallen machine," published the following lines after a Whallen-backed candidate lost a rare election: “Do you want Negro domination or do you want Louisville to remain a city of white people, for the white people, and governed by white people?”

John Henry died in 1913 and though his brother took over the businesses, he was unable to maintain the level of political clout his older brother had. The machine's rule ended.

Much of this sounds like the plot to Boardwalk Empire, but set in Kentucky before World War I instead of in Atlantic City during Prohibition. 

Here are a couple of photos of their tomb -- one more distant and the other closer up so you can read the name more clearly:

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Snow day

The region was socked with about 7 inches of snow last night. The public schools and University of Louisville were both closed. This morning, I tweeted this photo of our back deck -- look at the depth of the snow piled on the railing:

Spring in Louisville, 2018.
The University is closed. pic.twitter.com/E3s3gTaNb8

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) March 21, 2018

This afternoon, I tweeted a picture of Jim Patterson Stadium as it never is on March 21:

Early sign of spring -- grounds crew prepping UofL Patterson stadium for the next home baseball game pic.twitter.com/JZ3dr9z8va

— Rodger Payne (@rapayn01) March 21, 2018

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Hidden history

This past week, during spring break, we had workers in our home stripping wallpaper from the master bedroom, dining room, and stairwell.

Underneath the wallpaper in the lower stairwell, the workers uncovered this message: "Native Dancer 1953." Here's a picture:

I'm curious about this as Native Dancer was a 1953 contender for the Triple Crown. It won the Belmont and Preakness, but lost the Kentucky Derby by "a head." In 22 career starts, Native Dancer won 21 races. Someone even wrote a book about him.

Why did someone scratch that into the wall of our home? Did they lose a big bet? Win a bet? Did they have a more personal connection? Dunno.

The horse was from Maryland, by the way, where I went to graduate school, was bred and owned by a Vanderbilt, and was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost." Wikipedia has these additional pieces of trivia:

"He appeared on the May 31 cover of Time magazine. Many consider the 'Grey Ghost of Sagamore' to have been the first Thoroughbred television star and TV Guide ranked him as a top icon of the era....In the Associated Press rankings of the greatest racehorses of the 20th century, he was ranked #3, tied with Citation, behind only Man o' War and Secretariat."

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Friday morning massacre

This morning, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin announced that he was dissolving the Board of Trustees at the University of Louisville. Embattled University President James Ramsey also announced that he would be resigning to the newly constituted Board.

I followed the story throughout the day on twitter. Here are the key tweets with my comments often added to the originals. Incidentally, Phillip Bailey was one of my students year ago:

As of this morning, @GovMattBevin says the current #UofL board of trustees have been sacked. #ItsHappeningHere

— Phillip M. Bailey (@phillipmbailey) June 17, 2016

.@GovMattBevin says by executive order he is appointing a 3-member interim board to run #UofL for the next two weeks https://t.co/wxLipk4ZYf

— Phillip M. Bailey (@phillipmbailey) June 17, 2016

Governor's role in dysfunction: failed to appoint replacements for 2 Board openings for 3 months. https://t.co/ld4oUrypu6

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

Law says fired only for cause, after CPE hearing & finding of cause. But header says effective through July 15. Hmmm https://t.co/hQbm8cjxpl

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

serious questions among trustees about the legality of Bevin's moves on @uofl board. But unclear if any will fight it

— Chris Otts (@christopherotts) June 17, 2016

Paging @emilybingham1 https://t.co/gYkdSPwrZr

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

Statement from @emilybingham1: pic.twitter.com/nvt2kWiQyp

— Joe Sonka (@joesonka) June 17, 2016

.@emilybingham1 says they were working on a smooth transition for @UofLPrez before @GovMattBevin moved in with his decision. #UofL

— Phillip M. Bailey (@phillipmbailey) June 17, 2016

Ramsey's letter says he'll resign to a *legally* restructured Board. Yet, Governor's proposal seems to ignore law. https://t.co/5kAgRUTMWp

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

Law says Board members can only be removed for cause, after CPE hearing. Also, 17 members. https://t.co/uPLzfYv1T8 https://t.co/pPlhfE6xmP

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

With minor amendments, effective after that date: https://t.co/uPLzfYv1T8 https://t.co/4PU3QEh7om

— Rodger Payne (@RodgerPayne) June 17, 2016

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2016 NCAA Tournament

I'm going to the Kansas game tonight versus Villanova (look for me by the upper deck rail, across from the Kansas bench). Rock Chalk! I also attended the game against Maryland Thursday night. Since the tickets were for the entire "session," that meant entry also to see Villanova defeat Miami. Handily.

Here are a couple of pictures from my seat Thursday. The first is halftime of game one, the second is during the introductions for game 2:

My NCAA pool brackets didn't go well this year, primarily because of my faith in Michigan State and insufficient appreciation for the ACC:

Obviously, if Kansas wins the tournament, I'll move up a bit in my pools.

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UofL 8th in ACC in Sustainability Performance

After posting about UofL's ACC ranking on various sustainability measures, I received excellent feedback from Justin Mog, the hard-working and productive Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives.

Justin advised me to focus on STARS scores, which he described as "the most comprehensive and transparent ranking system available."

In my May 30 blog post, I failed to note that each school with a STARS rating receives a numerical score valid for three years. I previously linked to this page, which reveals the specific score by clicking on the submission dates. The numerical scores are linked to the gold-silver-bronze rating that I used simply to lump schools by category.

STARS rating point value cut-offs:

85 for Platinum
65 for Gold
45 for Silver
25 for Bronze

These are ACC school rankings based on the institutions' most recent STARS reports (and scores):

Rank      School                          STARS Score                      Date of Score
1. Virginia Tech                      71.02                                     10/15/14
2. Duke                                    70.54                                     10/18/13
3. UNC - Chapel Hill              70.01                                     4/18/14
4. Notre Dane                          68.52                                     10/15/14
5. Virginia                               65.04                                     5/29/15
6. Georgia Tech                       Gold (expired)                      5/15/12                              
7. Florida State                        61.36                                     1/30/15
8. UofL                                    58.29                                     2/6/13
9. Wake Forest                        Silver (expired)                     5/9/12

No data
North Carolina State                       Reporter (expired)          4/5/12
Clemson
Boston College
U of Miami
U of Pittsburgh
Syracuse U

In a future post, I hope to note some areas where UofL has not generated as many points as it might. Since I'm the chair of the Administration, Finance and Outreach committee (to be renamed Planning and Administration in the fall), I know without any additional research that UofL could receive GOLD status if it created a socially responsible investment committee, created a student socially responsible investment fund, and invested more of its resources in a socially responsible manner. 

Sustainability in the Atlantic Coast Conference

How does the University of Louisville rate in terms of sustainability initiatives compared to the other 14 institutions of higher learning in the Atlantic Coast Conference? I have often reported on sustainability measures at Louisville, but have rarely attempted to place those efforts in a comparative context.

The question is difficult to answer because the available recent ratings of university performance tend to rely upon self-reported data and not every school provides information to every organization. Moreover, the rankings sometimes disagree. Looking at the ratings from the Princeton Review, Sierra Club, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and the Sustainable Endowments Institute (oldest data), Louisville appears to rank between 7th and 12th in the ACC.

Based on data from all four rating services, Georgia Tech and North Carolina are the sustainability leaders in the ACC, though Duke is also among the very top universities by this measure.

The AASHE ratings in particular signal that Notre Dame, Virginia, and Virginia Tech also seem to be at least slightly ahead of Louisville on adopting sustainability measures.

Louisville is mid- to lower-tier in the conference with Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina State, and Syracuse. Again, by these measures, Louisville likely ranks between 7th and 12th in the ACC. While Louisville is no lower than 10th in any of the specific rating services, the ambiguous and missing data confound any attempt to be certain of this.

The only schools that seem to be rated clearly below Louisville by multiple services are Miami, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest. Those schools have the most work to do.

I used this data and apologize for any errors:

Princeton Review Green Colleges (top 50 ranked)
23. Georgia Tech
31. North Carolina

Sierra Club Cools Schools 2014 (173 schools ranked)
10. Georgia Tech
15. North Carolina
23. Duke
71. Louisville
97. Pittsburgh

STARS ranking (AASHE)

Gold
Duke (new filing reported)
Georgia Tech (score expired)
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Virginia
Virginia Tech

Silver
Florida State
Louisville
Wake Forest (score expired)

Reporter
North Carolina State (score expired)

No data
Clemson
Boston College
Miami
Pittsburgh
Syracuse

Sustainable Endowments Institute
College Sustainability Report Card 2011 (suspended ratings)
Georgia Tech A-
North Carolina A-

Clemson B+
Duke B+
North Carolina State B+
Notre Dame B+

Boston College B
Louisville B
Syracuse B
Virginia B

Miami B-
Pittsburgh B-
Wake Forest B-

Florida State C

Virginia Tech NO DATA


NOTE: I have merely listed schools alphabetically when letter grades or category assignments (gold/silver) are used by the rating services.

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Highlands Beer Festival 2015

Saturday about 5:30 pm, I walked a couple of blocks with a friend to the Highlands Beer Festival in the parking lot of a local mall. I attended the festival once before with a neighbor, but that event was inside the same mall and attracted a much smaller crowd. It's good to see growing interest in craft beer in Louisville.

It cost $5 to get inside the fenced area, beer tickets were $1 each, and those tickets purchased a 2 ounce sample of any beer (overwhelmingly poured from bottles, not taps). Towards the end of the event (7 pm), some vendor representatives were not very worried about collecting tickets. They just wanted to get rid of their open beer.

I like hoppy ales (especially IPAs), so I mostly sampled those kinds of beers. I think the best beer I tried was Road Warrior (9% abv, 80 ibu) by Green Flash, though I also really liked the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid (8% abv, 102 ibu). This is more evidence confirming that my tastebuds really like west coast IPAs.

Unfortunately, those high abv levels will likely preclude my purchasing those beers, so I will actually be looking for a local beer I tasted at the festival -- Sterling 1863 session IPA (4.5% abv, 64 ibu).

In the end I tried a dozen different beers, but a couple of those were not even full samples as my friend and I split a couple of them (generally if they were really good).



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2015 Bolts from the Blue

For the 27th consecutive year, I'm competing in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league. Our auction draft was held four Saturdays ago, March 28, in Louisville. Two owners participated by phone, including a "new" returning owner. We will all miss a long-time participant who left the league (at least for now). After the auction, the group had some pub grub and watched the Elite Eight basketball game between Arizona and Wisconsin. Then we walked up the street to a terrific local brew pub and watched Notre Dame-Kentucky. The Friday night before the draft, many of us ate pizza and even more drank a beer at the nearby Holy Grale of brews. Oh, and we watched the Louisville-North Carolina State game. 

As a reminder: the league has 12 teams and uses American League players exclusively to accumulate statistics in various hitting and pitching categories. For 22 years, we tabulated results in the traditional 8 categories (HR, RBI, SBs, Batting Average, Wins, Saves, Earned Run Average and ratio/Walks-plus-Hits per Inning Pitched), but in the hot stove period prior to the 2011 season we voted to dump BA in favor of On Base Average. Also, we added runs scored (R) for hitters and strikeouts (K) for pitchers.

My 2014 team finished second for the third straight season, this time only 1.5 points behind the championship squad (People's Choice). Last year's Bolts from the Blue squad led the league in ERA and WHIP and finished in the top three in all categories other than OBA (6th) and saves (7th). With one more HR and two more steals, the Bolts would have tied for first. The top team also picked up a couple of points that it could have lost with a slightly weaker performance in September. It was a very close pennant chase. 

I always mention another roster quirk now in its eighth year: we use 10 man pitching staffs, but only 4 outfielders -- one fewer than the "normal" roto squad. We were probably among the first leagues to accept the fact that this distribution of players better reflects roster management decisions that real major league baseball teams have made over the past 20 years. 

As usual, we allowed the purchase of any player on an American League 40 man roster. After the auction, only players on 25 man active rosters or the major league Disabled List (DL) can be obtained. We now allow teams to retain ownership of players sent packing to the National League -- but only for the remainer of the current season. The league uses a salary cap, but it expires after the trade deadline. This means contending teams can spend their free agent cash in September. Because we drafted in March, some positional battle results were unknown and some rookies-to-be were not yet on 40 man rosters and were thus ineligible for purchase. 

The 2015 Bolts from the Blue (5 retained players in blue):

C Alex Avila (DET) $8

C Jorge Alfaro (TEX) $1 (minors)

1B Eric Hosmer (KC) $23

2B Omar Infante (KC) $1

3B Evan Longoria (TB) $28

SS Xander Bogaerts (BOS) $16

MI Brett Lawrie (OAK) $15

CR Ryan Rua (TEX) $1

OF Alex Gordon (KC) $27

OF Leonys Martin  (TEX) $24

OF Rusney Castillo (BOS) $23 (minors)

OF Oswaldo Arcia (MIN) $10 

DH David Ortiz (BOS) $22

Hitting $199 (up $17 from last season, which was probably too much)

P Hisashi Iwakuma (SEA) $25

P Jake Odorizzi (TB) $5

P Kris Medlen (KC) $4 (DL)

P Jesse Chavez (OAK) $2

P Hector Santiago (LAA) $1

P Brad Boxberger (TB) $4

P Wade Davis (KC) $5

P Junichi Tazawa (BOS) $5

P Charlie Furbush (SEA) $1

P Grant Balfour (TB) $1 

Pitching $53 ($25 less than last year, likely too little)

One team had more than $20 cash left at the end of the auction and another had $9, which meant inflation was a bit lower than it might have been. The total unspent by the league was $46, which is a lot, but not nearly as much as last year. The Bolts unfortunately had $8 left this year, but cash saved to purchase some specific players proved to be insufficient in the late rounds of the auction. Because of mismatched positional needs in the endgame, a few players were purchased then at what I viewed as bargain prices (Infante and Rua). 

The Bolts were also hurt by the fact that I could not retain relatively inexpensive starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy, who worked for the New York Yankees last year after a mid-season trade, but now pitches in the NL in LA. He would have cost $6 if he had remained in the AL. Additionally, I decided not to retain close to market-priced OF Adam Eaton at $17 and pitcher Chris Sale at $32. I didn't want to foreclose OF options and was worried about Sale's injuries. These players ended up selling for $20 and $35, respectively. It probably would have been better to retain Eaton and forego Castillo. 

Once again, I did not purchase any relief pitchers with a strong lock on a closer job. To compensate for this, I bought pitchers with good strikeout rates on teams with old or iffy guys in front of them (BOS and SEA). I did not intend to buy Balfour, he reflects the danger of throwing out someone for $1 that might not garner any additional bids. Various online sources were listing him as the favorite for the Rays closer job and I thought someone at the table would bid $2 and fill a pitching slot. It didn't happen and that hurt me in the endgame. I had other pitchers to buy, but could not because of the lack of roster space.

Actually, my team has its share of young and/or iffy guys. Medlen is returning from his second Tommy John surgery. Alfaro is in double A. Castillo is beginning the year at Pawtucket and I obviously overspent on him. Rua is an untested rookie and has been injured. Going forward, he will not qualify at CR in the Hardy House until he plays first or third 3 times this season. 

As usual, I bought several players from the KC Royals (5), the hometown-favorite team of my youth and surprisingly the defending AL champions. Hosmer had a slow start last year, but hit fairly well prior to his injury last summer and had a big post-season. Gordon has been a solid hitter for many seasons now. I've got very mixed feelings about Infante, but he was really cheap in the end. Davis is now widely recognized as a first-rate setup man who could close on a team without Greg Holland. Medlen has no history as a Royal, but his NL stats were fantastic.

Gordon was on my 2014 team and I bought him again for the same salary he would have cost as a retained player. 

In addition to those 5 Royals, I have players from about half of the AL teams, including 4 Red Sox, 4 Rays, 3 Rangers, 2 Mariners, 2 A's, plus 1 Tiger, an Angel and a Twin. 

To replace initially injured or minor league players Alfaro, Castillo, and Medlen on my active roster, I bought C Carlos Corporan (TEX) and OF Daniel Nava (BOS) for $1 each, plus P Zach MacAllister (CLE) for $7.  I also nabbed 2B Micah Johnson (CHX) for $7 during the second week because the team needs speed and Lawrie can play CR for the injured Rua. The Bolts are going to need a quality starting pitcher or two to replace the now-injured Iwakuma (lat). 

You can find posts about the 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013;and 2014 auctions elsewhere on this blog.

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Local Climate Action

Very soon, the University of Louisville will be announcing some terrific news. As it recently reported to the American College & Universities Presidents' Climate Commitment, from 2006 to 2013, University greenhouse gas "emissions have dropped over 27% from 246,929 to 178,679 metric tons."

The official goal is climate neutrality by 2050. However, the reported reductions have already enabled the University to meet its original goal of reducing emissions 20% by 2020. Back in 2007, this blog was noting the great distance the University needed to travel. We haven't arrived at the final destination, but there's much to celebrate. Particularly in a coal state.

The lion's share of the credit for this success likely goes to the recently retired Vice President for Business Affairs, Larry Owsley, though a lot of people have worked with Justin Mog, the University's Sustainability Coordinator, to make this possible. As previously reported, I've been involved in local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for much of the past decade. For the past five years, most of my contributions have been at the University level.

The original Green Energy pledge seems to have disappeared, but a relatively new effort by students offers some suggested individual actions (see above image).


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American Hustle

Friday afternoon, my spouse and I went to see American Hustle, the latest David O. Russell film starring Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, and Louisville's Jennifer Lawrence.

If you haven't seen the film, but intend to see it, stop reading this post because it includes spoilers.

The film is based on the  late-1970s and early-1980s Abscam scandal featuring political corruption (mostly bribery), which resulted in the conviction of the mayor of Camden NJ (a story-line emphasized in the film), half a dozen members of the House of Representatives, plus a U.S. Senator. The FBI videotaped many of the politicians accepting cash bribes.

Interestingly -- and this is the primary focus of the movie -- the FBI was aided by a colorful con man they employed to help convince the targeted politicians to accept cash in exchange for political favors. The con man, played in the film by Bale, had a British mistress/partner-in-crime (Adams) and a whistle-blowing spouse (whom he described as cuckoo) (Lawrence).

In the film, just about every character is playing some kind of con, ambitiously trying to get ahead in life by deceiving others, cutting corners, or breaking the law. The movie opens with Bale meticulously performing a sophisticated hair styling operation to hide the fact that he is bald on the top of his head. Later, however, the FBI agent (Cooper) is revealed to use small rollers to produce the natural-looking curls he sports throughout the film. Yet, in one key scene, the FBI agent tussles the criminal's comb-over.

The acting is almost uniformly terrific throughout the film. Adams and Bale are especially good. Lawrence is a talented actress, and does a very good job providing the film's comic relief, but I thought she was too young for the part she plays. Lawrence is Bale's aggrieved spouse and they have a son (roughly age 5 or 6) by one of her prior relationships. I suppose she could have been a teenage bride and mother, but the real con man's spouse was about 40 at the time of Abscam and the couple had been married for almost 20 years.

In any case, despite that minor distraction, I've now seen at least seven of Russell's feature films and American Hustle rates among his very best. For my tastes, it is quite difficult to top Three Kings, a movie I've shown in my class on "Global Politics Through Film." The film works as a synecdoche for the Persian Gulf war and has implications for the second given its particular anti-war message in an oil-state setting.

Russell also directed last year's Silver Linings Playbook, which netted Lawrence an Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Fighter, which earned Bale an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Russell was Oscar-nominated for his direction of those two films. I wouldn't be surprised to see this cast and perhaps Russell himself earn some 2013 nominations. Adams should be a very strong candidate for Best Actress.

Four stars for me.

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Updates

I've been a blogger deadbeat, but here's what's been happening:

1. The 10 year anniversary of this blog passed without fanfare. My first post was September 3, 2003, though I later assigned an August date to a post that provided my biographical information.

2. I've been writing the latest paper for my Comedy of Global Politics book project: "Reading the Global War on Terror as Comedy." I'll be presenting it this Saturday morning in DC at the ISSS-ISAC annual meeting. I discuss comedic and satirical narratives and frame key early elements of the GWOT around them.

3. Saturday night, I attended "Bang, Bang You're Dead" at YPAS. My youngest daughter Cate has a key part in the production. She was fantastic in the moving play about a high school mass shooting.

BTW, a group of YPAS students plans to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland next summer and they are looking for financial assistance to cover expenses. Eat at Impellizzeri's pizza in the Highlands tonight and this YPAS project receives 10% of the revenues.

4. Finally, I wish to express my condolences to the family and friends of local financial entrepreneur George Emont. His son Jacob is a close friend of my daughter Claire and his recent death is a genuine tragedy.


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