"They hit some good pitches. You have those days when they hit the ball. There were a lot of times I was ahead in the count and just didn't put them away."
- -Edwin Jackson, trying to win a job on the Chicago Cubs starting rotation


So, today we have a Baseball Edition of "Quote of the Day."

A little background.  In 2013, the Chicago Cubs signed pitcher Edwin Jackson for $52 million over four years.  By any accounting, that's a hefty payday for anyone, but especially for a pitcher whose career record at the time was below .500, with a won-lost figure of 70-71.  Since that point, however, he's struggled from even those numbers, winning just 14 games in two years and losing 33.  Worse, his Earned Run Average those two years began with a dismal 4.98, and that was his good year, plummeting to a pathetic 6.33 this season.

An ERA under, oh, say, 3.75 to be fair is considered reasonably solid.  Edwin Jackson's career Earned Run Average is 4.63.  In other words, when Edwin Jackson goes to the mound on any given day to pitch, the average is that his team has to score an extra run every time, just from the start, in order not to fall further behind and get back to reasonable.

So, the question this Spring Training is whether Edwin Jackson would continue in the starting rotation, or moved to the bullpen as a reliever -- or traded, if there were any takers, or just dropped, even with tens of millions of dollars left on his contract.  Why it is a question if they'll keep him as a starter is something bewildering, though it probably has to do with that contract and still having to pay him...along with a lot of wishful thinking based on two passable years he had six (and seven) years ago.

So, he's been fighting for a job in the starting rotation.  Which brings us to his appearance on the mound yesterday against the Oakland A's.

Jackson lasted only 1-2/3 innings, giving up eight runs and nine hits.  After the game, he gave reporters the quote above, and added that he had some positives he take away from his game.  He said that he didn't walk anyone and felt strong.

Eight runs on nine hits in 1-2/3 innings!  And his take-away from this is it’s a good thing that he didn’t walk anyone!   Well, of course he didn’t walk anyone, they were too busy whacking the ball all over the place.  And obviously he felt strong -- he only pitched for 1-2/3 innings!!  He probably could have gone out afterwards and played 18 holes of golf and still felt fresh.

In fairness, I understand an athlete trying to put a good spin on things, especially when you’re trying desperately to win a spot.  But geez guy, can’t you just add as a note, “I didn’t pitch well today.”  Respecting that others can actually see what you did is a good starting point, at least if you want people to take you seriously and believe any words that come out of your mouth in the future.

Also, just for the sake of clarification, no, they didn’t “hit some good pitches” – they KEPT hitting pitches, relentlessly, batter after batter.  Nine hits in just 1-2/3 inning is bordering on the level of T-ball.  Yes, you do have those days when they hit the ball.  Unfortunately, when your ERA for the past two years is 6.33 and 4.98, you clearly are having a LOT of those days.  Note: the goal isn’t to “get ahead in the count.”  It’s to put them away.  This is the major leagues – sometimes professional batters let a pitch go because they’re sitting on you serving up a fat one.

To be clear, this isn't intended solely as a rant against Edwin Jackson's record,  He's had some very good games over the past two years, though mostly he's been lousy.  What brought this all about is his quote.  Because when you give us nine hits and eight runs in a paltry 1-2/3 innings...you don't look for the positives that you walk anyone and explain how many "good pitches" you threw.

Even if you're fighting for a job.  Especially if you're fighting for a job.  Because if you tell your manager after you got crushed that this is you pitching "good", rather than having an off-day, why on earth wouldn't the team run in the opposite direction as fast as they can...??!

It's not that I love this video -- it's charming and endearing and fun -- but mainly I love that The Tonight Show had the good sense to put it all together.

It all began during the NCAA basketball playoffs.  Villanova University was a #1 seed in its region, but lost in an upset to the North Carolina State, 71-68, and were knocked out of the tournament.  You may have seen the video of what happened next.  The camera cut to the Villanova band and caught piccolo player Roxanne  Chalifoux battling through the school's fight song in tears.

The video went viral, and even brought about a mass of memes, where people adjusted the graphic of her crying in a multitude of humorous ways.

And The Tonight Show, to their great wisdom and thoughtfulness and cleverness invited Ms. Chalifous to sit in with the house band, The Roots.  The appearance was wonderful -- marred only by Fallon's limits as an interviewer.  But still, his enthusiasm works here okay, and it's a lot of fun.  I particularly admire how the surprise is handled in such a low-key, matter-of-fact way at first.  Not to mention the choice of music. 

For a bit of bonus information, an article I tracked down mentions that music is not the senior's intended career, but when she graduates in a few months, she intends to go to optometry school next year.  She also has found the whole attention very funny, and said that it's the graphic memes that have helped the most.  "I don't know how it got so popular, but it did," she said. "I think it's funny. I'm not really that embarrassed. I think memes people made are funny, so I've just had a really good spirit about the whole thing."

But there's one other thing that I found most interesting.  She wasn't particularly crying because her team lost -- rather, it's because since they lost and were out of the tournament, she realized that this would be the last time she'd be playing at a basketball game.

"The thing that really got me was it was my last basketball game since I'm a senior and I wouldn't be playing with the band anymore. So that's what really hit me really hard, I think. I love band I love music. I play the piccolo, the flute, the bassoon. It's my whole life, and I love it. And I love Villanova and my basketball team, so I'm just going to really miss college when it's over."

If you're a fan of the X-Files, you may have already heard the news yesterday and have been doing cartwheels since that the show is coming back to Fox next year for six episodes.  It will have the original stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, reprising their roles, and the show will again be headed by its creator, Chris Carter.

I was never a particular fan of the series, though I did watch a few episodes and enjoyed them.  For those who'd like more details, here's the story on Variety.

After having written about the wonderfully-talented Tony-winning actor James Corden for a while here before he was surprisingly hired to be the new host of the Late, Late Show on CBS, I had a lot of anticipation for Monday's premiere.

I try never to judge a show based on its first episode, because there are so many kinks to get out, and it takes a while to discover your voice and pace and structure, but I thought it went reasonably well.  I quite like him bringing all the guests out at once, though viewers of The Graham Norton Show on BBC America will no doubt recognize that from Norton's show.  It works wonderfully with Norton, so it could here, too.  The difference is that the BBC show is once a week, so they always fill the sofa with lots of top stars, at least three and often four.  That works well for lively conversation.  I'm not sure yet how it will work on a nightly basis, without the same level of star power, and only perhaps two guests.  Still, I like the effort and that Corden brought his chair to the front of his desk.  Though a) that's where Graham Norton's chair is, too (though a bit farther away...), and b) if your chair is going to be in front of the desk...why have the desk?  There are a few times it was nice to have, but not necessary.

On the negative side, they have a really terrible opening theme song, whose lyrics, if I remember correctly, are something like "This is the Late, Late Show.  The Late, Late Show.  It's the Late, Late Show.  This is the Late, Late Show.  This is the Late, Late Show."  And thev'e got to figure out to how better use the band leader/announcer.  I'm sure that rapport will work out in time.

They had a couple very good video pieces, one of which was a particularly joyous sketch with Tom Hanks, recapping the actor's career in seven minutes.  Both men were great in it, and Hanks (for obvious reasons) seemed to have great fun -- most especially in the Toy Story part, where he got to play his cartoon character.  And did so, as if he was a cartoon character.  It was also very smart of Corden to do the sketch, since it showed off his talents, as well, to an audience that largely doesn't know him.

If you didn't see it, here it is.  And if you did see, I suspect you'll love seeing it again.  (And forget the title of the video, it's not eight minutes.  As you can see below, the video run 6:55.  It's sort of hard to miss...)

I also liked the song they had at the end.  It had a nice combination of touching and funny lyrics, but again was very smart to do, since it too showed off James Corden's talents and made clear he's quite a good singer.  (As was likely clear to anyone who saw him in the recent film musical, Into the Woods.

Well, I'm back in Los Angeles.  Surprisingly, it's a whole lot warmer here than in Chicago and there's a decided lack of snow.

I actually have a Media Alert.  After collapsing on the sofa and putting on a basketball game, I just noticed that today, Turner Classic Movies has an hour-long interview with Alan Arkin, talking to Robert Osborne.  It’s on now, as I type (5:30, L.A. time) but will be repeated at 8 PM.  I watched about 10 minutes, and it was wonderful – thoughtful, interesting and interspersed with clips from his movies, done on stage in some L.A. auditorium.  I stopped watching though since I caught it mid-stream, but I'll watch the later airing.