Read The Comments Wednesday

First…whether it’s allergies or the stress of the day (coming from both external and internal sources) or whatever, for the last 12-15 hours I have felt ill and quite dizzy. I even woke up feeling this way today after being “stricken” last evening. I do have Meniere’s Disease, a poorly understood condition that affects balance and whose most severe manifestations can be triggered by stress. Oso naiz nire bizitzako nekatuta.

Second…for those of you who like the baseball stories, but don’t read the comments–everyone should read the comments–comes this one from me. Photobyjohnbo and I had a dialogue in the comments about sticking to a plan for decisions about money and I related this story from my past:

 

–When I was working for the Orioles, even though I was in charge of preparing materials for the player salary budget and for contract negotiation and arbitration, it was not part of my job to actually negotiate the contracts. In one instance, however, somehow I wound up on the phone with the agent for a player who had just had an outstanding year and was eligible for salary arbitration. With the Assistant General Manager in the room listening, I negotiated until I had reached the top of the salary range I had set for the player. I would not budge on base salary after that, but did agree to some difficult to reach incentives and the agent agreed to the proposal. The Assistant GM thanked me for “being tough” with the agent. I pulled out the salary estimates I had created and said, “See, this is the top of the range and I wasn’t going to pay him any more than that in base salary. That’s our job.”–

 

I can’t speak about baseball today, but as a full-time employee for baseball teams and in the vast majority of my consulting arrangements I did not work for teams with large wallets. These teams had to have a budget for player salaries and stick as closely to that budget as possible. One time while I worked for the Padres, after meetings about team offseason priorities, I had budgeted a salary range to sign a veteran free-agent starting pitcher. Yes, that was the generic description in the budget line and the President/CEO had signed off. He and I were not happy when the first offer to such a player was made at the top of the budget range. The player signed, but then we had no margin for error nor, theoretically, any additional room to make in-season acquisitions.

Professional sports are a business, albeit one with a unique set of parameters. Oh, everyone should read the comments.

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According to this post, 2020 Corvettes are shipping again from the Bowling Green, Kentucky assembly plant. From Dawn Marie Melhorn via the aforementioned post:

 

 

I find it difficult to believe that Chevrolet will build all 40,000 2020 Corvettes that have been ordered before the end of October and the changeover to 2021 production. I still think some unknown number of people who ordered a 2020 will receive a 2021 model instead. Underestimate the power of exogenous forces at your own peril.

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Some much-needed humor from this Archon’s Den post:

 

A bike in town keeps running me over….
….It’s a vicious cycle.

Is a cow that won’t give milk a milk dud….
….or an udder failure?

I’m so good at sleeping….
….I can do it with my eyes closed

I took a video of my shoe yesterday….
….It has some great footage.

Today at the bank, an old woman asked me to check her balance….
….so I pushed her over.

Average things are manufactured….
….in the satisfactory.

 

That’s just a sample; I think you should read the whole thing.

 

#ReadTheComments

#BaseballBudgets

#2020Corvette

#ArchonsDen

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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