For my Jazz Heads…

Wasn’t that bad at all, was it?

Troopin’ to work in the BX.

Haven’t ya heard?

[Photo by Ari Joseph]

Trevor Hoffman, the all-time saves leader, is retiring. He wasn’t great in the post-season but that doesn’t undermine his excellence. Plus, he had a beautiful delivery, and that hellacious change-up.

Happy Trails, Hoss.

Serious Eats has a slide show of their favorite burgers of 2010:

A Brooklyn freestyle for lunch:

Masta Ace’s verse always cracks me up.

Last Friday night I went to the Little Lebowski shop on Thompson Street. It is run by a friendly guy named Rob Preston, a movie nut who previously worshipped cult classics like “Time Bandits” and “Withnail and I.”

The shop is filled with Lebowski t-shirts and toys.

It’s worth the trek if you dig all things Lebowski.

There’s Roy, pictured with Bridges, who paid a visit not too long ago:

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

Ali and Cosell: A Good Combination.

[Picture by Boxing Insider.com]

Word is the Yanks are interested in Andruw Jones to be their fourth outfielder. Seems like just yesterday when Jones was a kid whipping the Yanks in the first two games of the ’96 Serious.

[Photo Credit: lbrownie]

“Still Life (The Blue Vase),” By Giorgio Morandi (1920)

photo from laobserved.com

Last week Dodgers owner Frank McCourt met with MLB executives, per the LA Times — though not with Bud Selig personally, who presumably was too busy writing Petrarchan sonnets about Abner Doubleday – and discussed his plans to keep the Dodgers, after a judge tossed out the post-nuptial agreement between him and his ex-wife Jamie that would have given him full control over the team. The LA Times article points out that Selig has the power to veto any kind of TV deal, financing plan from MLB, or partenership agreement that McCourt might come up with — and the Dodgers owner will likely need one of those things to hang onto his team and pay off his former wife.

Which brings up once again the MLB Commissioner’s baffling power when it comes to deciding exactly who gets into baseball’s 100% male, 96.67% white, 100% non-Mark Cuban ownership club. In how many other industries do a group of competitors get together and decide who else gets to compete against them? Let me rephrase that – in how many other industries do they do that legally? As much as I love baseball I can’t think of any rational justification for why they still have an anti-trust exemption. Not the NFL, not the NBA – but baseball, see, is not a “commercial enterprise”. Right.

Not that I can blame Selig for being irate at McCourt, a man who, with his ex-wife, spent millions on the Rasputin-esque Russian  “mystic”/”physicist” Vladimir Shpunt (and if you somehow haven’t read about Shpunt before, please, do yourself a favor and dig in – it warms these cold winter days), among many other less amusing screw-ups. It might in fact be in the Dodgers’ best interest if Selig forced McCourt out, but how is that right or fair? I’m particularly skeptical since it was Selig and the owners who decided to let McCourt buy the team in the first place. Don’t you just hate it when you screen someone carefully to make sure they belong in your exclusive country club, and then they go and have a messy public divorce! The nerve! And after all you did for them…

It’s safe to say that the country has bigger problems at the moment, and baseball has gotten along all right — more or less — for this long with its rigged ownership system in place. But something so blatantly unfair can hardly be good for the sport long term. Every once in a while you get a iconoclast like Bill Veeck who manages to get into the club and shakes things up from the inside – you could even say Steinbrenner did that, in his own way and for better or worse – but those guys are few and far between and getting fewer, as the amount of money needed to buy a team gets staggeringly high. Baseball deserves better than to be entrusted to a closed-off group of  crusty old multimillionaires who vote like sheep on who gets to join their ranks. I am not advocating Vladimir Shpunt for Dodgers owner — although actually that would be completely awesome, but… right, no. But this is a system that’s about 100 years out of date and ripe for some modernization.

The roast chicken turned out okay on Saturday night–it’s a start, anyway–and the chicken salad was even better yesterday.

Then, with a little bit of help…

I made this easy and delicious apple cake from Dorie Greenspan (via David Lebovitz):

It is a sure shot.

The book is “Around My French Table” and it’s terrific.

Yesterday was the 10th annual No Pants Subway Ride in New York. Man, and I had to stay home (click here for more photos).

Meanwhile, peep this cool New York City Subway Moment by Emily Lemole Smith.

[Photo Credit: News.com.au and Liptick Alley]

From Matt B…The Kinks!

“True Grit” hits Pay Dirt. The Coen’s remake will be their biggest-grossing movie to date. Also, the classic Charles Portis novel has sold over 100,000 copies since the beginning of November.

Nah, it’s not snowing today–though we’re expecting more of the white stuff this week–but we’ve hit a dead-spot in Yankee news. Okay, this has been a slow winter all around.

Still, Chad Jennings offers a few tidbits, Steve Lombardi looks at the Yankees’ first round draft picks since 1990, Larry Koestler takes on some 2011 projections, and our man William writes about the passing of former-Yankee Ryne Duren. 

How many days left ’til pitchers and catchers?

[Photo by Navid Baraty]

Yesterday gave us two exciting NFL playoff games. Is it greedy to ask for more of the same?

Knicks play the Lakers tonight in the City of Angels. That might be worth staying up late for…

In the meantime, it is sunny but cold in the Rotten Apple so stay warm, eat well, and let us be thankful for what we’ve got.

Now, press play on this track and get your ass a-steppin’.

02 Stein’s soul record

I don’t I don’t like handling birds–I always think of the Sledgehammer video–but roasting a chicken is something any self-respecting cook should know how to do. I haven’t done it in years and my mission this winter is to become competent at roasting a chicken. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks and tonight is the night–the bird in the oven as we speak and will be done in time for the Jets game.

I’ll let you know how it turns out. And speaking of boids, how about them Seahawks giving the Saints hell through the middle of the third quarter?

[Photo Credit: Sarah Shatz via Food 52]

Win or suck tonight for the Jets. What’ll it be?

[Picture by Bags]

Soul Singer...