Laurel’s another of the first cadre of Webloggers from back in 1998. Her current web project’s TV Picks, where she points you at what’s worth your TV time, which grew out of her love for the series Homicide. She’s been at it long enough to have a following, and the networks now send her review copies of shows.

So Laurel and Kevin, I wish you many happy returns on the day!

Andy Ihnatko (a very happy man when I saw him this evening) says Boston will now talk about history as before and after tonight.

My friend Michael, a lifelong Sox fan, reflects in his journal.

History knows Joseph Paul DiMaggio as the great Yankee outfielder, yet scholars also know him as a brilliant inventor. To this day, we use his gravity-fed coffee-making machine. You pay homage to him, Sophie, whenever you sip a “cup of Joe.” As the fully ordained “Yankee Clipper,” DiMaggio became the chief steward of Ruth’s vengeful curse. To that end, he recruited an inner circle of presidents, popes and artists, including the actress Marilyn Monroe, who married him. Some Yankeeologists believe DiMaggio encoded the curse, so Red Sox scholars could never decipher it.

So no one has been able to solve the Code?

Many tried. In the 1980’s, a few scholars managed to solve DiMaggio’s diabolically complex digital clock instructions, which allowed them to activate his coffee machine automatically. Boston scion Ted Williams grew so despondent over the lack of progress that he opted to have himself, after death, decapitated and frozen in liquid nitrogen, to be revived if the Code is broken.

But PGE Field has Comcast cable as an official sponsor, so the park’s management has become grumpy. I guess they’re upset that Portland’s WiFi hobbyists have foreclosed the opportunity for PGE Field to lose money selling WiFi connections at the park.

The writer also appears to think that only Comcast sells broadband, as they whinge about violations of Comcast’s TOS prohibiting connection sharing; while Moonlight Staffing, the company providing the free hot-spot, buys its connection from a firm that doesn’t ban connection sharing.

The curse is a side effect when bidding on something whose true value will not be known until after the auction; such as baseball players and oil leases; but the bidders have some information that allows them to estimate the value. If the bidder with the highest estimate has overestimated the true value of the item, if they are the winner bidder, they lose money.

How do you bid? You can try Mike Shor’s applet to learn how.

During the 1980s Bill James reinvented analysis of baseball statistics. He developed summary statistics to predict the success of players and teams, which, if you play fantasy league baseball, are now standard tools for selecting rosters.

When Beane’s staff in Oakland applied James’ methods to the records of high school and college players: the pool of potential major league players, he found a number who were undervalued. His staff knew this because almost every high school and college team posts their statistics on the Web, where the front office could pull them down into spreadsheets and process them. Many players with high potential for success, based on stats such as the on-base percentage, were ignored by other teams until later draft rounds. Beane could pick up those players in early rounds, and not have to pay a five to ten million dollar premium for them.

Beane already knew, from his experience as a mediocre Major League player, that scouts overvalued many player’s skills. Beane was drafted in 1980 by the Mets and paid a large signing bonus. Ten years later, after several cycles through the Major and Minor leagues, he quit the game and went to work for the A’s front office.

Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game explains Beane’s success. It’s a great story about Baseball, economics, and the joys of statistics.

I swear to you by all that is holy that the moon will run crimson with the blood of the Boston infidels before this night is over! Already, the indomitable Yankees lead by seven runs, and the corrupt Red Sox are fleeing the stadium! They have forfeited the game and are returning to their homes to lick their wounds like the pathetic curs they are! Run like the wind, you stooges of western imperialism, and take your odor with you! You should never have stepped foot in our kingdom! Your arrogance has sealed your doom and condemned your children and your children’s children to lives of slavery!

And they haven’t even gotten to the first pitch.

Thank you. And thanks for the invitation. I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current political situation, but I have instead chosen to hijack this opportunity and talk about baseball and show business. (Laughter.) Just kidding. Sort of.

Robbins’ speech is not about the war, but the climate of meanness and fear that the war in Iraq has created in the States.

Bonus link: the exchange between the president of the Hall of Fame and Robbins. Long live the 69 Mets, indeed.

ETA: Fixed spelling errors.

What next? A plauge of nano-replicators run amock, converting everyone’s libraries into copies of Left Behind?