Daily Archives: June 27, 2007

Reaching a milestone the wrong way

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biggiomissing062707.jpgI’ve noted in several previous posts (here and here) how Stros management has hurt the club and thumbed its nose at the integrity of baseball by indulging Craig Biggio’s quest for 3,000 hits, but Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan really lays the wood to Biggio and Stros management in this BP column ($):

Last night, the Astros started Chris Burke at second base, batting him sixth and using Mark Loretta as their leadoff man in their 6-1 loss to the Brewers. . . . [Stros manager] Phil Garner hasnít had a sudden change of heart about the best alignment of his available talent; no, heís sitting Craig Biggio in two of these three games to prevent Biggio from notching his 3,000th career hit on the road.
Set aside for the moment the issue of whether the Astros are better with Burke at second base and Loretta batting leadoff, which is certainly the case. That was also the case on Opening Day, but Garner has pencilled Biggioís name into the lineup 62 times, including 59 times in the leadoff spot. He decided at the beginning of the season that Biggio was his starting second baseman, and no amount of out-making was going to change that. Biggio’s .279 OBP wasnít the reason he was on the bench last night.
Consider the context as well. The Astros, in no small part because of that .279 OBP from their leadoff hitter, were 32-43 heading into last night’s game, 11 games behind the Brewers. I don’t think the Astros are serious contenders any more than the next guy does, but if they were going to make a push, it would certainly help to go into Miller Park and win three games. Doing so would seem to require playing your starters. Garner elected to not do so last night. Consider that the Astros were dead and buried in both 2004 and 2005 before making runs to the NLCS and World Series, respectively. If any team can take itself seriously from 11 games out with nearly 90 to play, itís these Astros.
Pull that all together for a second. Astros manager Phil Garner went into a do-or-die series with a division leader and benched his starting second baseman not for any reason related to merit, but so that an individual achievement can be celebrated in a certain manner. He put a statistic, a person and a show ahead of the teamís goals. He and the Astros have been doing this all year of course just by playing Biggio, but the naked manipulation of playing time in what should be a key series is galling.

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The Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit

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Butch%20Harmon.jpgCheck out this Bob Carney/Golf Digest blog post about the second annual Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit this November 4-7 in Las Vegas. As noted in earlier posts here and here regarding the late Dick Harmon, and this one regarding the late Claude Harmon, Sr., the Harmon family has long and deep ties to Houston. Although aimed primarily at golf teachers, the Harmon Brothers Teaching Summit is open to a limited number of golf swing enthusiasts. And the faculty is pretty darn impressive, including Mike Bender, he of the “Stack and Tilt” swing method, which is really just a variation on Jim Hardy’s one-plane swing. The Harmon brothers are an entertaining bunch (their late father could have been a standup comedian), so this could be a fun way to spend a quick Vegas golf vacation.
By the way, check out “the dorm” for the participants in the summit. ;^)

Would you bet on United Airlines?

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UAL-logo16.gifThe travails of United Airlines over the past several years have been a common topic on this blog, so Professor Bainbridge’s “enough is enough” declaration with regard to flying on post-bankruptcy United caught my eye. And lest you think that the good Professor’s experience was anecdotal, get a load of the following excerpt from this Scott McCartney/WSJ ($) column regarding the dire status of airline travel this summer:

Last Wednesday, an employee at UAL Corp.’s United Airlines made a mistake that crippled a crucial computer system and its backup for two hours in the morning. Because airlines schedule planes so tightly, they can almost never recover from early problems on the same day. On June 20, only 30% of United’s flights arrived on time; about half of all flights were more than 45 minutes late, according to FlightStats.
Even when travelers get to their destination, it doesn’t always mean the woes are over. United lost National Public Radio host Scott Simon’s luggage on a flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas last week. After filling out paperwork in Las Vegas, Mr. Simon was given a phone number and email address to contact the San Francisco baggage office — with the caution that San Francisco never answers the phone or responds to email.
More than 30 calls later, Mr. Simon, an elite-level frequent flier on United, has yet to reach a United baggage official in San Francisco, or learn anything about the fate of his baggage, which includes irreplaceable items after adopting his second child in China. Calls to the airline’s main toll-free line haven’t yielded any information, either. American Express Co. is also trying to track down information, a service for its platinum customers, but hasn’t gotten through to United, either.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Mr. Simon said. “I know they are overworked, and it seems they have decided the best way to avoid more work is to not answer the phone or respond to email.” He likened the baggage office to someone deeply in debt who simply stops opening bills that arrive in the mail. A spokeswoman for United says the airline is trying to find Mr. Simon’s lost bag.

At least it sounds as if United is keeping its overhead expense low in the customer service department. ;^)