Jose Bautista
As I’ve written here before, as much as I’ve appreciated Jose Bautista’s baseball skills I do not like the man. I think his selfishness is exceeded only by his arrogance. It will come as no surprise, then, that I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Baltimore Orioles vice-president of baseball operations, Dan Duquette, saying that the Os have no interest in signing Bautista because he’s so thoroughly despised in Baltimore.
Many have forgotten that Baltimore was the first major league team that Bautista played for. He had three singles and no RBIs in eleven at bats with them back in the 2004 season before passing through Tampa and Kansas City on his way to Pittsburgh.
It’s safe to assume that he’d be about as welcome back in Kansas City as in Baltimore. He may not be too high on the Texas Rangers’ list either.
Aroldis Chapman Deal
Sticking with baseball, the Yankees have reacquired relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman by giving him a 5-year contract worth 86 million dollars; an average of 17.2 million per year. Let’s put this in perspective.
Since becoming a full-time major league reliever in 2011, Chapman has averaged slightly less than 61 innings per year. The average number of pitches in an inning is between 15 and 16. Therefore, on average, Chapman is going to earn about $18,000 per pitch.
A thorough search of Roget’s Thesaurus failed to turn up an adequate adjective for this type of insanity.
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
COAP, as they seem to like to be called, this week joined in a class action suit against the Ontario government over the latter’s intention to sell off part (maybe all eventually) of Ontario Hydro.
This “coalition” isn’t as admirable as its name suggests; it’s basically a bunch of rabble rousers who enjoy disrupting selected public events; but that’s not why I’m musing about them. It’s because whenever this group is in the news I wonder who is actually in favour of poverty.
Now and Then
Even though I’ve been retired for more than thirteen years, it’s rare to have a day during which there is absolutely nothing that I have to do; yesterday was just such a day. So, I decided to compare it to Wednesday, December 9, 1998, when I was with Ernst & Young. I chose 1998 because it’s the oldest diary I have, having thrown out all older diaries during an ill-advised paper purge about fifteen years ago. Here’s what the diary divulged.
At 10:30 I gave a talk to a group at the Toronto Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, I didn’t note in my diary either the make-up of the audience (it was simply identified as “Nina’s group”) or what my subject matter was. In those days I gave so many talks on such a variety of topics that this one has simply faded into oblivion; so it must have been fairly ordinary.
The next meeting I had was at 2:30, with a client. I don’t remember the subject matter, but this gentleman is someone with whom I’ve kept in touch down through the years, including a few lunches a year. I’m also pretty sure that he’ll read this.
At 4:00 I had a training session with an employee who needed help with his communication skills. I have no idea what became of him, but I know that he left the firm without becoming a partner.
My diary also indicates that I had ten important telephone conversations (they had to be important or else I wouldn’t have noted them). They were with four partners, five other staff members, and another client. I particularly remember this last call because he was seeking advice on whether to become a member of a board; I counselled him not to. I don’t think I’ve heard from him since.
But there is an element of similarity between the two December 9ths. As there was nothing noted in the diary for that evening eighteen years ago, and as it was a Wednesday night (a traditional Leaf TV night back then), I’m assuming that, just as I did last night, I spent a relaxing evening at home watching TV while sipping a couple of pinot grigios.