Daily Archives: July 2, 2004

Stros down Rangers

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Morgan Ensberg threw the monkey off his back by ripping a mighty two run yak in the bottom of the eighth to give the Stros a 7-5 win over the Rangers at the Juice Box on Friday night.
Ensberg’s blast bailed out Roy O, who pitched reasonably well (8 inn., 9 hits, 5 runs, 11 K’s, no walks), but gave up a couple of two run homers, the second of which tied the game at 5 in the top of the eighth to set up Ensberg’s crank in the bottom of the inning. Before the Rangers tied it up, the Stros had taken the lead with a four spot in the sixth, highlighted by four straight singles by the middle of the Stros’ lineup. It was nice also to see Lidge secure the save after giving up Sosa’s walkoff crank in yesterday’s loss at Wrigley.
Amid the good news, though, there was bad. Starter Wade Miller is out at least a month with a rotater cuff injury. This is the type of injury that can be season ending.
The Saturday night game looks like a slugfest as the Stros send newly-acquired Jeremy Griffiths to the mound against the Rangers’ newby Nick Bierbrodt.

U.S. News annual survey rates Medical Center hospitals highly

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U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of hospitals ranks several hospitals in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center as among the best in their respective fields in the United States.
The annual survey ranks The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for the third year in a row as the nation’s top cancer hospital. Besides being named the best cancer hospital for the fourth time in the last five years, M.D. Anderson was also named the fifth best in gynecology, and the 10th best in both the specialties of ear, nose and throat, and urology.
The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research was recognized as the third best rehabilitation hospital in the country. Texas Children’s Hospital ranked fourth in pediatrics in the magazine’s survey. The Menninger Clinic was named the sixth best psychiatric hospital in the country.
The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital was named the ninth best heart center. Moreover, The Methodist Hospital ranked in nine of the survey’s categories, including 10th best in the area of neurology and neurosurgery.
The magazine’s rankings are based on a nationwide survey of doctors, on hospital reputations in 17 medical specialties, and an analysis of indicators such as death rates, technology and nurse staffing. Of the more than 6,000 U.S. hospitals, only 177 ranked in even a single specialty in this year’s survey.
The Texas Medical Center is one amazing collection of medical talent.

1000 best movies ever made

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The NY Times provides the list. How many have you seen?

Yukos Oil bank accounts frozen

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This NY Times article reports that Russian governmental officials ordered court bailiffs to take the extraordinary step of freezing Russian energy giant Yukos Oil‘s bank accounts and demanding payment of a $3.4 billion tax debt within five days. Here are earlier posts about Yukos’ problems with the Russian government.
Yukos is one of the world’s largest oil companies. It produces around 1.7 million barrels a day, which is about 2 percent of the world’s total output. It is the leading exporter in Russia, which is heavily dependent on oil revenue and, along with Saudi Arabia, is one of the world’s top oil-producing countries.
Founded by Russian financier Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Yukos has been fighting with the Kremlin for the past year over taxes and related issues. Mr. Khodorkovsky has been in jail since November, 2003 on charges of fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion related to his creation of Yukos during the wild privatizations of Russian state assets in the 1990’s. The trial was commenced and adjourned last month, and is scheduled to resume on July 12.

Juice Box is wired

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The Stros announced yesterday that the Minute Maid Park (better known as the “Juice Box”) is now wired for WiFi high speed internet access.