A friend of mine from London, on his first visit to Houston, candidly admitted that he was surprised that there were so many trees and no sagebrush or sandstorms. One can only imagine the similar misperceptions that this BBC video (H/T Professor Bainbridge) has created in English minds:
As noted in this earlier post, some of the most creative work on television these days is being done in commercials.
My mother, Margaret Allen Kirkendall, died yesterday evening at Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa after a lengthy illness. She was 86 years old.
The following is a lovely obituary for Margaret that my brother Matt wrote with contributions from many of my siblings. It conveys well the special nature of this remarkable woman and her considerable contribution to making Houston a better place to live.
Margaret Allen Kirkendall died on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 9:22 P.M at Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa after a lengthy illness. She was 86 years old. Funeral arrangements are pending with Egelhof, Siegert, & Casper Funeral Homes in Dubuque, Iowa making the arrangements. The Funeral Mass and burial will be in Texas.
Margaret Jane Allen was born on March 24, 1923 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the first child of Grace (Payne) and William Allen. She grew up in Cedar Rapids and graduated from Franklin High School in 1940. At an early age, Margaret decided to become a nurse and eventually put herself through the nursing program at the University of Iowa in nearby Iowa City, graduating with an RN degree in 1946.
Margaret planned to pursue a career in academic nursing, but met a new medical resident, Dr. Walter M. Kirkendall, who had come to the University of Iowa following his military service in Italy during World War II. In their own version of “Pride and Prejudice,” initial mutual irritation turned into fascination, and subsequently, love. They were married at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Iowa City on March 30, 1948 with Father McElhaney officiating.
Throughout their life together, Walter and Margaret had a close relationship and truly seemed to complete one another. As Walter pursued his academic career in medicine at the University of Iowa Medical School, Margaret supported his efforts and always worked to provide a stable home life for him, providing the venerable “safe port in stormy weather”.
Margaret and Walter were the proud parents of 10 children. During the 1960’s, their home at 430 Brown Street in Iowa City was known as a busy and often boisterous place. There was always an open door for the frequent visitors and Margaret was well known for her energy, hospitality, and plentiful food (industrial cooking she termed it). To the amazement and consternation of her children, she developed a system of friends and community contacts through which she seemed to know the names and activities of every child in the Iowa City/Coralville area. The result of this was that her children found that they could never get anything by her (not that they didn’t try on occasion).
In 1971, Walter accepted an opportunity to help establish a new medical school at the Texas Medical Center and moved the family to Houston. Margaret admitted to some trepidation at leaving Iowa and her many friends, but she lived by her often-quoted adage that “you bloom where you are planted.” With this attitude, it was not long before she brought many new friends and Texas traditions into her life that was centered around the vibrant home she established for her family at the corner of Sage Road and Del Monte Drive in Houston. Margaret transferred her open door policy from Iowa to her family’s new home in Houston and, over the ensuing 20 years, literally hundreds of medical students, colleagues, and other friends were attracted to the dynamic household that Margaret lovingly maintained.
Throughout this time, Walter and Margaret continued to work as a team to help establish the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Their efforts helped set the foundation for the medical school and its subsequent development into a premier teaching institution.
At Walter’s death in 1991, Margaret admitted that a large part of her died with him. Despite her loss, she remained busy with her family and friends and participated in a wide variety of community service, often as what she termed as “the old nurse.” In retirement, she lived in New Braunfels and then Austin, Texas until she finally returned to Iowa, to live in Dubuque.
While her later years were hampered by illness and disability, she has been supported throughout this time by her many friends, especially Nora Lee Balmer, Jean Eckstein, and Virginia Grady of Iowa City, Dr. Jack Tausend of Houston, Texas, and her oldest and dearest friend, “Auntie Ruth” Pichette, of Highland, Michigan.
She is survived by her sister, Francis Allen Rassenfoss of Park Ridge, Illinois and her 10 children: W.C. (Alice) of Seguin, Texas; James (Kathleen) of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Matthew (Isabelle) of Dubuque, Iowa; Thomas (Susan) of the Woodlands, Texas; David (Ann) of Tomball, Texas; Nancy (Robert) Cook of Austin, Texas; Mary of San Antonio, Texas; Kathryn (Gene) Acuna of Austin, Texas; Joseph of Los Angeles, California; Michael of Austin, Texas; her 32 grandchildren and five great grandchildren, (with another on the way).
Memorial gifts may be sent to the endowment for the Walter M. Kirkendall, M.D. Lecture Series in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School, 6431 Fannin, MSB. 1.122, Houston, TX, 77030, in care of Philip C. Johnson, M.D, F.A.C.P.
The family would like to acknowledge and thank the following: Father Dwayne Thoman, Deacon Dave McGhee, and Sister Damian O’Brien for their strong spiritual support; Dr. Ronald Iverson, Dr. Darryl Mozena, Dr. Roger Shafer, the administration, nurses, and staff of Stonehill Nursing Home, and the nurses and staff of the 5th floor at the Finley Hospital for their expert and compassionate care of Margaret. Finally, the family extends our most heartfelt thanks to Joan Reimer, who provided Margaret with selfless, dedicated, and loving attention as her caregiver over the final years of her life.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Tres Hewell Mortuary,165 Tor Dr. Seguin, TX (830) 549-5912 (www.treshewell.com). The family will greet friends at the funeral home on Tuesday, June 2nd from 5-7 p.m., and a Rosary will follow at 7 p.m.
The funeral will be on Wednesday, June 3rd at 10 a.m. at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 386 N. Castell St, New Braunfels, TX. The family will have a reception for friends at the church immediately following the funeral.
From one of the best new websites of the past year, Old Jews Telling Jokes.
Check out this elegant example of information visualization focusing on the changes in life expectancy and wealth over the past 200 years.
With the passing of Memorial Day, it’s officially baseball season, even though the dang NBA Playoffs seem endless. Thus, it’s time for Tom Hanks as exasperated Manager Jimmy Dugan to remind us of the best baseball tirade in cinematic history. Enjoy.
While waiting in line to pick up a bottle of water at a Stros game earlier in the week, an old friend of mine and fellow longtime Stros season-ticket holder stopped by to say hello and chat.
Eventually, the conversation turned to the current Stros squad:
"This is a pretty bad baseball team," I observed.
"No," my friend countered. "This is a seriously bad baseball team."
Alas, the 2009 Stros have not done much during the first quarter of the season to contest my friend’s evaluation.
The Stros (18-22) are currently in last place in the NL Central, 7 games behind the division-leading Brewers (26-16). Only three of the other 15 National League clubs (Rockies, DBacks, and Nationals) have a worse record than the Stros.
The Stros as a team have created 7 fewer runs than an average National League team would have generated using the same number of outs ("RCAA", explained here), which is 8th among the 16 National League teams. That’s about the same rate that the Stros generated runs during the comparable part of both the 2007 and 2008 seasons, but better only than the Reds -27 RCAA among NL Central teams this season.
Meanwhile, the Stros pitching staff has saved 8 fewer runs than an average National League pitching staff would have saved in the same number of innings, which is 12th in the National League ("RSAA", explained here). Again, that’s about the same as the pitching staffs of the past two Stros clubs at the same stage of the season. However, every other pitching staff in the NL Central has a better RSAA than the Stros, including the division-leading Brewers’ 20 RSAA.
The 2008 Stros club finished fast to finish in second place in the NL Central with an 86-75 record, while the 2007 Stros faded to finish with a 73-89 record, the club’s worst record since the late 1980’s. So, given that the 2009 Stros have produced about the same statistically as those two prior clubs produced through a comparable part of the season, that raises an interesting question:
Is the 2009 club more likely over the balance of the season to progress similar to the 2008 club or deteriorate similar to the 2007 club?
On one hand, room for optimism exists. CF Michael Bourn (3 RCAA/.365 OBA/.401 SLG/.766 OPS) has finally shown signs of potential, although some of the mainstream media’s fawning over him is utterly premature because of the small sample size. RF Hunter Pence (13 RCAA/.414 OBA/.527 SLG/.941 OPS) has picked up from his hot finish to last season, and SS Miguel Tejada (3 RCAA/.353 OBA/.485 SLG/.837 OPS) — who finished last season as one of the poorest-producing regular players in MLB — is off to a good start to this season. Even archaic C Ivan Rodriguez (-5 RCAA/.316 OBA/.468 SLG/.784 OPS) has been an improvement on Brad Ausmus.
Add to the foregoing that P Wandy Rodriguez is having an All-Star-type season (17 RSAA/1.83 ERA), and that dependable stars P Roy Oswalt (0 RSAA/4.47 ERA), 1B Lance Berkman (4 RCAA/.380 OBA/.478 SLG/.857), LF Carlos Lee (8 RCAA/.373 OBA/.549 SLG/.922 OPS and injured closer Jose Valverde (-1 RSAA/5.63 ERA) really have not hit their stride yet this season, one can make the case that the Stros are primed for improvement over the balance of the season.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, my sense is that this club’s trajectory will be more along the lines of the 2007 club than last season’s.
The primary reason for my pessimism is that this Stros pitching staff is not performing as well as last season’s, which was the main reason for that club’s strong finish. Only four pitchers on the staff have a positive RSAA through the first quarter of the season –Rodriguez, Chris Sampson, LaTroy Hawkins and Tim Byrdak. The balance of the staff has already allowed 38 more runs than an average National League staff would have given up through the first quarter of the season.
Moreover, starters Mike Hampton (-4 RSAA/5.23 ERA), Russ Ortiz (-4 RSAA/5.81 ERA), Brian Moehler (-8 RSAA/7.71 ERA) and Felipe Paulino (-7 RSAA/6.93 ERA) have been awful so far and there is very little reason to believe that any of those other than Paulino could improve much. Inasmuch as 60% of the starting rotation is getting bashed regularly, that is putting too much pressure on the bullpen, which is already depleted due to injuries to Valverde, Doug Brocail and Geoff Geary, who were the three best relief pitchers on the 2008 club.
Add in the fact that Tejada and Rodriguez will probably fade as the season wears on, that team management inexplicably continues to trot out 3B Geoff Blum (-6 RCAA/.336 OBA/.308 SLG/.642 OPS) regularly, and that oft-injured 2B Kaz Matsui is having a terrible season (-9 RCAA/.291 OBA/.314 SLG/.605 OPS), there simply is not much of a chance that the Stros will be equal to or above National League-average in either creating runs or saving runs for the remainder of this season.
Finally, that apparently no one much likes overmatched Manager Cecil Cooper doesn’t help things, either.
So, what should Stros management do for the rest of the season?
Well, the first thing is to keep this club’s mediocrity in perspective. This is only Year Two of the rebuilding of the Stros farm system that owner Drayton McLane started after cleaning house toward the end of the 2007 season. GM Ed Wade and his scouting staff did what appears to be a good job during the 2008 draft (evaluations of baseball drafts are iffy for the first few years after a particular draft) and the most important thing for the club is that management continues strong drafting for at least the next four seasons or so. That’s generally the minimum amount of time necessary to rebuild an MLB farm system.
Meanwhile, Stros management should be allowing what little talent the club has in its farm system develop at the MLB level
to determine whether a couple of diamonds in the rough might emerge. For example, it makes no sense to have slick-fielding Tommy Manzella at AAA Round Rock instead of playing in Houston when moving the immobile Tejada to 3B and dispensing with the unproductive Blum would strengthen the major league club. It’s not as if the light-hitting Manzella is likely to be any less productive at the plate than Blum. And the Stros pitchers would certainly be much more appreciative of Manzella’s fielding at short than Tejada’s.
Similarly, Rodriguez is not the answer at catcher, so the Stros should be preparing to bring J.R. Towles back up from AAA to get a fairer shot than he had last season at playing every day at the MLB level. Towles was effectively jumped from AA to MLB last season and he struggled as most prospects do who are forced to bypass AAA ball. However, Towles has excelled at AAA both at the end of last season and so far this season. Thus, it makes sense to develop that talent at the MLB level this season rather than wasting innings on the over-the-hill Rodriguez and his lackluster backup, Humberto Quintero.
Finally, Stros management should stay on their toes for potentially beneficial trade possibilities. Traditionally, trades are not the way in which to build a good MLB team — you tend to come out on the losing end of trades more often than the winning side. But the Stros do have some attractive assets for contending teams, particularly Oswalt and Berkman. Both are elite-level players, so the Stros should require multiple top prospects in return for trading either of them. That’s not likely to to be offered, but once the playoff races start heating up, you never know.
The bottom line is that the Stros are going to require patience from their fan base for the foreseeable future. Rebuilding in Major League Baseball simply does not happen quickly. So long as the Stros do a better job of drafting and signing prospects than they did in the decade from 1998-2007, and so long as Stros management looks for trades of valuable assets that could help re-stock the farm system, the club’s long track record of success during the Biggio-Bagwell era (only two seasons below .500 winning percentage in the past 17) justifies giving management a reasonable amount of time to right the ship.
By the way, Lisa Gray’s Stros blog remains a reliable source of day-to-day information on the Stros, as is the Chronicle’s Zac Levine’s blog and the Crawfish Boxes blog. However, a new Stros blog — Astros County — also does an excellent job of providing daily information on the Stros. Check it out.
The 2009 season statistics through for the Stros through the first 40 games are below, courtesy of Lee Sinins‘ sabermetric Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. The abbreviations for the hitting stats are defined here and the same for the pitching stats are here. The Stros’ 40 man roster is here with links to each individual player’s statistics:
The trailer for the new documentary — particularly appropriate for the Memorial Day weekend — is below.
