Random Thoughts of the Day Including the Big Knick Trade.

I was going to write about my January trips to the dentist, but I don't think anyone would want to read about it.

For the first time in 4 days, I did not visit a library today.

I gave up on the Knicks a long time ago as they have won about 20% of their games.  Somehow they sell out most of their games.  I haven't bought their overpriced tickets and will not.  They just made a controversial trade with the Dallas Mavericks.  Please read the report from ESPN.  Right now I am listening to comments made of the Michael Kay Show on ESPN radio.  It seems that this trade is a big salary dump to create enough cap room to sign big free agents in the off-season.  But will they be able to attract Kevin Durant?

The Knick management has made some very bad moves in the recent past.  I have my doubts if this trade will work out in the long run.  I guess in sports risks must be made, but I absolutely no confidence in the management.

It is supposed to get warmer tomorrow.

Reading 3 More Baseball Books at the New York Public Library

The New York Public Library holds millions of books in its collection, but one must read the books in their reading room.  Today, my goal was to do "causal research" on three baseball books that I located in their catalog.  I obviously don't have the team to read the books from cover to cover, so my goal was to peruse each book and hone in on sections of interest and take a few notes.  I looked at the following books

Nowlin, B. (2008). Red Sox threads: Odds & ends from Red Sox history. Burlington, MA: Rounder Books.

I chose this book since I am acquainted prolific writer with Bill Nowlin through SABR.  This book which Bill compiled over many years tells everything and anything about the Boston Red Sox.  I must congratulate him for his tireless efforts in compiling this reference work.

The other two books generally covered the same topic.

Stein, F. (2005). A history of the baseball fan. Jefferson, NC: McFarland
.
Dewey, D. (2004). The 10th man: The fan in baseball history. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
 
Both authors stated that the fan gets little attention in the literature.  St. Louis Browns manager coined the term "fan" in the 1880s.  They were earlier known as kranks.  Baseball fans are somewhat older than fans of other sports. But, neither of the books considered other demographic factors among baseball fans. Obviously, baseball fans evolved over the years as the population grew and technology changed.

The Local Public Library is My Park Bench for the Winter

The worst thing any retiree can do is sit home and do nothing and be tempted to turn on the TV and view whatever junky show that is easily found.  I enjoy reading, but when I stay home I can be very easily distracted.  During the warmer months, I can sit in a park or on a bench outside my apartment and read.  Since this is impossible over the winter, I have habitually visited the Mitchell-Linden Branch of the Queens Library.

I always bring in my own reading material since the collection is very small.  I also observe that this book collection is very stagnant.  I think the librarians should weed books that are not circulating and replace them with newer items.  I understand that there are likely budgetary issues, but I think they can do better.  Likely, many books are available electronically.  Very often, I search the library's catalog and request that the book is brought to my local branch.  This service is very reliable.

I am beginning to recognize some of the regular patrons.  There is an elderly woman who comes in with her son and peruses the newspaper.  Today, one man was just looking at his cell phone.  Another person, just sat down and slept with a magazine in his hand.

It is different experiencing the library as a patron.

Georgetown 89 St. Johns 78 at Madison Square Garden

Since professional basketball tickets are so expensive and the New York Knicks are playing very poorly, we decided to see the St. John's Red Storm play at Madison Square Garden.  Today's game was a Big East matchup with the Johnnies playing the Hoyas of Georgetown.

It was a close game in the first half, but the Hoyas pulled ahead later on.  The teams were tied at 50, but a 10-0 run by Georgetown put them ahead for good.  Sharmorie Ponds scored 4 straight points for the Red Storm to close the gap to 2, but the Hoyas pulled ahead to win 89-78.

Mac McClung scored 25 points while Jessie Govan added 20 for the victors.

Game Summary from ESPN.

2019 SABR Day - Annual Meeting of the Casey Stengel Chapter

Today's panel (L to R) - Art Shamsky, Ira Berkow

Kristie Ackert, and Wayne Coffey

The fourth Saturday is SABR Day when each local chapter holds its annual meeting.  This year the local Casey Stengel Chapter held the gathering at Scandinavia House, the Scandinavian Foundation's Cultural Center.  In previous years the meeting was held at the New York Public Library.  Over 100 people attended.

The main program was "Celebrating the 1969 'Miracle Mets' and Fast Forwarding to the 2019 Team"  Each panelist spoke about their experiences with the 1969 Mets.  Kristie Ackert, a reporter with the Daily News discussed the transactions the team made in the off-season.  Art Shamsky and Wayne Coffey wrote books about the team that will be published in March.

After lunch, Eric Weiss ran his annual trivia contest.  I didn't do very well as I got only 5 out of the 30 questions right.

Since 2019 is the 80th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame, its president Jeff Idelson gave a talk highlighting its history.  He showed a film that is given to visitors featuring interviews with some of the Hall of Famers.

Random Thoughts of the Day

Only two people responded to my request for feedback on this journal.  Oh well.  

I haven't visited museums in Manhattan lately since I have been driving my newer car around Queens.  Today I played a CD.

For many years I have had an online subscription to SiriusXM which costs about $208/year.  I can hear it on my laptop, Amazon Echo, Amazon Kindle. and my iPhone.  It actually works in my car,  I was given a trial subscription for the car, but I really don't need a second subscription.

I am looking forward to the SABR meeting tomorrow which will feature a talk on the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Mets.  Where did all those years go? 

Polling Readers of Bruce's Journal

I do this once a year to try to get feedback from people who read my journal.  I use Google Analytics and Blogger to get the number of hits, but I'd like to get some feedback whether you read this regularly or just once.

If you'd like, answer the survey.