The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

The old hot stove has cooled a bit as far as the Orioles are concerned, and the same generally goes for the rest of the league. The big exception, of course, being the Giants signing Barry Zito to a startling 7 year, $126 million contract.

As crazy as those numbers look, the real surprise is that it’s not the Yankees who offered them. Maybe they were on to something? Let’s examine…

Zito, 28, has clearly been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the past five years, throwing to a career 3.55 ERA backed by an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio (nearly 2-1) and a 200+ innings/year average. But there are disturbing trends. His best year came back in 2002 (his third season) when he went 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA on his way to a Cy Young award. He’s never since come close to duplicating those numbers, going 14-12 (3.30), 11-11 (4.48), 14-13 (3.86), and 16-10 (3.83). That’s what you’d call good, not great.

By comparison, take a look at the statistics of, say, Pedro Martinez or Roger Clemens at similar points in their careers. Zito isn’t in that class.

Fair comparison? Not under ordinary circumstances, but Zito has just pocketed the richest contract ever for a pitcher. It’s a Hall of Fame contract, so we have to measure him against it. It’s possible that he’s just hitting his stride and will eventually go down as one of the greats, but is it probable?

Personally, I doubt it. Gigantic, long-term contracts seldom work out in any sport, and that’s particularly true for pitchers. One need only look to Mike Hampton and Kevin Brown for proof. Pitchers are a risky proposition no matter how you slice it. Relatively minor injuries and/or bad mechanical habits can take a few miles off a fastball or a few inches of break off a curve, and it’s precisely those details that separate a great pitcher from a mediocre one.

I actually like Zito, and I certainly don’t wish him any ill will, but if the Giants don’t win a World Series in the first 3-4 years of this deal you can almost bet he’ll be traded.

As far as it relates to the O’s, consider this: Erik Bedard was every bit as good as Zito last year (seriously — check the numbers). That’s enough to give me nightmares.

A few weeks back I put up a post about the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, or IGHSAU, and expressed my deep appreciation for their logo (left). I followed that up by sending them an email, which put me in touch with Jason Eslinger, from whom I learned a bit more.

Turns out the logo dates to the 70s, which surprised me since it looks perfectly modern. And it turns out that the IGHSAU is actually a very cool organization. Founded in 1927 by a man named E. Wayne Cooley, the IGHSAU is the only organization of its kind in the country — dedicated solely to boosting girls’ high school sports. By all accounts doing a fine job of it, too. Why there aren’t similar organizations all around the country seems kind of odd to me.

Jason was nice enough to send me a polo shirt, a hat, and a book detailing the history of the organization. So not only are they doing good work, but they’re damn nice folks. An impressive find all around.

As we step up to the bar just about anywhere in the country, there are three immediate options available to us with barely a consideration as to actual types of beer: draft, bottle, or can? The former two fuel an age old debate amongst homebrewers, much less the typical beer drinker.

While each container has its benefits there are definite detriments that make the lowly canned beer inferior — though not altogether undesirable — in multiple ways. The benefits of canned beer, outside of mere convenience, are far less obvious than those of bottling or kegging. Canned beer, stored properly, remains fresh pretty much indefinitely. Given, the beer acquires certain off flavors from the container over time. Regardless, the beer never truly goes bad in a can. For large beer makers canning is convenient and cheap. For the consumer, canned beer is convenient, cheap and far more portable than bottled beer.

However, getting past the taste of the aluminum container in your beer isn’t all that easy outside of making the beer and the container itself very cold. Ever wonder why Coors Light commercials practically beat you over the head with an emphasis on temperature? The coldest tasting beer, right? Cold service temperatures hide off flavors. Hell, they hide most flavors.

Case in point: Guinness distributors in America over the past ten years have essentially phased out proper service of stouts by telling bar owners that kegs of Guinness can be stored in the cooler with the rest of their kegs for the sake of convenience. Mostly they do this just to get bar owners to serve Guinness. Couple this with the fact that Guinness, tapped properly, uses a nitrogen tap — creating a nice head but inhibiting taste — and the result is an excellent mouth feel but a beer that you can’t actually taste…at least until the stout warms up to about 44 degrees Fahrenheit.

So we’re left with bottles and draft kegs — don’t count the gimmicky Heineken mini keg; it’s still aluminum. So what’s the difference between bottles and stainless steel kegs? Age, for one. Stainless steel kegs don’t usually get aged for very long. While airtight and perfectly capable of storing beers for years, more often than not, the contents of kegs are consumed quickly and replaced. Thus, the beer is fresh and hasn’t had time to take on any characters other than those intended by the brewer. Stainless steel also doesn’t impart any off flavors like aluminum does.

Beer, under most circumstances and within certain limits, does improve with an amount of aging. Draft beers served in bars usually don’t have the time to develop these improvements as the beers’ primary flavors mellow and subtler undertones rise to the surface. Nine out of ten beers poured from a bar keg taste exactly alike. A homebrewer’s keg, on the other hand, stored properly but tapped less often over a greater period of time has the chance to develop. The last pint pulled often achieves a grand superiority over the first.

Bottled beers develop in individual ways and much more slowly, though without taking on the characteristics of the glass. Each bottle becomes a completely different entity from the ones filled just before or just after it. If the bottle is corked rather than Crown capped, the process speeds up. Slow oxidization is the basic cause. The rumor that the color of the glass has an effect on the flavor of the beer is actually somewhat true.

Ultraviolet light, rather than heat, is the main factor in bottled beers developing off flavors. Thus, a clear bottled or green bottled beer is more likely to give off that nasty skunk whiff that anyone who has drunk an old, improperly stored Heineken is familiar with.

Outside of bottle color, sealing method is also a large factor in the flavor of the drink in question. Debate rages amongst wine enthusiasts over the ranging, various virtues and inferiorities of the synthetic cork, the traditional cork, and the screw cap. A real cork allows what it is sealing up the chance to breathe, even very slowly and minutely and thus to change over time. A synthetic cork hasn’t been proven to do the same thing, even if it does conserve traditional cork. And obviously a screw cap doesn’t breathe at all if it’s sealed correctly, but way too much if it isn’t.

Even using a crown cap, that creates an airtight seal between the beer and the outside world, beer changes in the bottle over time. A beer with a high alcohol content and alpha acid level will age gracefully over a certain period of time.

Regardless of what it’s stored in, beer changes over time. Before making an argument for a particular brand of beer over another, think about the kind of beer it is at the same time that you decide what it should be stored in and how cold it ought to be.

The playoffs loom large as week 17 approaches with, amazingly, spots yet to be decided. It’s the NFL’s dream season — a bunch of teams (mostly in the NFC, to be fair) hovering around .500, going into the last week of the season with legitimate Super Bowl dreams. I can’t tell if I’m bored to tears or glued to my seat.

As to how the various scenarios break down for who gets the final spots, it’s all beyond me. I’ll figure it out by next Tuesday. That said, here are a few thoughts to chew on:

Baltimore and San Diego are the obvious favorites in the AFC, but I think both of those teams need to be checking their rear view for New England. Brady and Co. have quietly put together an 11-4 record heading into this week’s matchup with the Titans (who look great for next year, by the way). When playoff time comes everybody gets a clean slate, and experience matters. If anybody emerges besides the Ravens or Chargers, I’m betting on the Pats.

Out of the NFC, I still like the Saints. They’ve got that “team of destiny” feel about them, and there’s nobody else in that conference who they can’t beat on any given week. And of course the Bears have a shot, but they’ve looked terribly vulnerable these past few weeks. The sleeper, as much as it pains me to say it, is Philly. They’re doing that “play your best when it counts the most” thing and have all the momentum and experience they need.

Two teams with zero chance: Manning FC and Dallas. I know, I know — I’m really out on a limb with that.

We’ll have quasi-regular posting for the rest of this week — enjoy your holidays!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, and all of that. Thanks for making us part of your rotation.

Back on Tuesday (probably) with more…

Remember Freddy Adu? He was the kid from the Sierra Mist commercial with Pele. He was also supposed to be the new, marketable face of American soccer. The boy wonder instead leaves us wondering when this boy will play up to his potential.

In the EPL Michael Owen started for Liverpool at 17, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott debuted for Everton and Southampton respectively both at age of 16. And we’re not talking about the talent dumping ground that is Major League Soccer, this is the FA Premier League, one of Europe’s grandest football stages.

But this was an American (Ghana-born, yes, but…), scouted at an early age as our national phenom, brought to us from Africa by way of his mother winning a US immigration lottery, so we have to cut him some slack. He was to be the great equalizer come World Cup time. He still could be, but contrary to popular US opinion, soccer is a very physical game and Freddy is very easily bumped off the ball by more powerful defenders. When and if he mentally and physically grows into his talent, he will be a legitimate threat. Why then has the promising 17 year old Adu been dealt by the most successful and tradition-laden club in the MLS, DC United, to wallow in even deeper obscurity at Real Salt Lake?

For one, because D.C. general manager Kevin Payne knows Freddy’s name is much more valuable than his presence on the field at this point in his career. Real Salt Lake GM Steve Pastorino is also cognizant of this fact and that is exactly why Adu was brought to Utah, to help a fledgling club put asses in the seats. Not because Adu can take over a game, not because he makes the players around him better, and surely not because he can overpower defenders; Freddy Adu’s presence at RSL is PR first and building a better team second. Real has already mortgaged its future for Adu’s name recognition. The amount they paid for Adu will allow United to free up enough cap room for them to reload for another MLS Cup run.

What’s even sadder for RSL is that once Adu reaches his potential, he’ll be co-opted by Europe, Josephine Baker style. His reasons for leaving will be the same as hers, more money and more exposure (yeah, lame double entendre). And just like Josephine Baker had to toil in the dregs of vaudeville before becoming being rightfully appreciated and compensated for her craft, Freddy will have to do his time in the Utah desert before he storms Europe. Just like Tim Howard, Bobby Convey, Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride, Demarcus Beasley, Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra, and soon Clint Dempsey (don’t tread on him), Freddy will leave his homeland to play in a foreign land where the game of soccer is respected and the players are paid handsomely. And who can blame him? Though, it’s a gamble that can turn into a humbling venture (see Landon Donovan and Frankie Hejduk’s pitiful stints for Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga).

Anyway, we wish our burgeoning golden boy luck in all his endeavors, be they at home or abroad. And hopefully playing across the pond against and alongside more skillful players will make him all the more ready for South Africa 2010. Don’t forget us little people back home, Fredua.

It’s not often that you can look at a given team’s uniforms through the ages and say “yes, they have finally gotten it right.” More times than not they had it right and have settled in the modern era for something altogether less inspiring. The same cannot be said for the Redskins cheerleaders.

Looking over this article at redskins.com, it’s actually shocking how poorly designed their look has been over the years, highlighted by the debacle at left. True, this is clearly hot as hell, but there’s no denying that the present edition is the best of the bunch.

On the same tip, and arguably more interesting: the Steelers — a team that currently has neither an official mascot nor a cheerleading team — were the first NFL team to have cheerleaders, starting in 1961. edit: maybe not? see comments This site tells the tale, and it’s worth a look. If only to see just how much the times have changed.

It’s a bit late, but in keeping with the holiday spirit I thought I’d mention that there are a few things you can do to help support The Loss Column if you’re so inclined.

The first one is super easy, and it’s also the best: tell a friend! If you enjoy the site, take a minute to send an email or five letting other people know that we’re here and that they might want to check us out. If you have your own site and want to link us there, all the better. It’s much appreciated.

Second, you can make your Amazon.com purchases via our affiliate account. Since you’re probably using Amazon anyway, use it through us and you kill two birds.

I’ve taken the liberty of making a few suggestions for you and the fellow sports fans on your list. However, anything you buy from them, as long as you start your session with one of these links, will count.

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming.