Ok, now I'm scared, I literally just listened to the Gang of Four for the first time today. Great album.

Ok, now I'm scared, I literally just listened to the Gang of Four for the first time today. Great album.

Without a doubt one of the best albums I have heard recently as well - I rate Wire just above them for some reason - but #### they are good anyway.

Great Intro repoz

The most fun interview I ever did was with Andy Gill back in 1984. He was just sober enough to be coherent, and smashed enough that he said some interesting things without much self-editing.

Entertainment! was great, but "What We All Want" remains their defining moment.

And yes, that's an all-time great intro.

I see a trade to the Angels coming up.

In Soviet Russia, Mike Jacobs hurts everybody. Call him Damage, Inc.

I actually like "Return the Gift" quite a lot, too.

“I don’t walk a lot,” Jacobs said. “I believe that when you’re in the middle of the lineup, you’re in the middle of the lineup for a reason — to drive in runs and put the ball in play and try to do damage.”

He lifted that line off Dusty Baker, almost word for word.

The Royals desperately need a slugger, more than any other franchise in MLB history. Their all time single season homerun record is only 36, by Steve Balboni in 1985. They're the only team in the league that's never had a 40 homer season...

Since I haven't been here in a long, Long, LONG time, I might as well be contraversial right off the bat. (pun intended) DAMN $%^&^%^& big mouthed, small brained neanderthal. Job #1 for a batter, any batter is to keep from making an out.
Having runners on base to enhance your team's chances to score runs... Blah! Blah! Blah! If you can't get a good pitch to drive, or even a decent pitch to swing at, then it is your responsibility and obligation to take a base on balls. Even if you are the major run producer on a team of weak hitting also rans. MLB seems to have more idiots than even the republican party...

trevise :-) ...
gone crazee, back sometyme!

Uhh, welcome back trevise.

Job #1 for a batter is to score runs. Getting on base (so you can subsequently be driven in) is just one part of that, along with driving in runners who are already on base. But getting on base alone is not the end, its a means to the end Jacobs is talking about.

Yay, trevise and GoF in one post. I'm happy now.

Job #1 for a batter is to score runs.

Yes and no.

A batter's primary responsibility is to maximize the probability of his team's scoring runs, given the base/out situation, the pitcher on the mound, and the hitter(s) following him in the lineup. So when trevise says this:

If you can't get a good pitch to drive, or even a decent pitch to swing at, then it is your responsibility and obligation to take a base on balls. Even if you are the major run producer on a team of weak hitting also rans.

I disagree with him to the extent that doing that transfers the scoring opportunity to a significantly weaker hitter who is less likely to convert the opportunity into runs. The best chance for the team to score runs, under those circumstances, may very well be for the hitter at the plate to extend his strike zone in an effort to get the ball in play somewhere - and in that case I think the hitter's obligation is to try to do just that.

-- MWE

Without a doubt one of the best albums I have heard recently as well - I rate Wire just above them for some reason - but #### they are good anyway.

Wire > Minutemen > Gang of Four.

Television > *

Entertainment! was great, but "What We All Want" remains their defining moment.

Quite possibly so. It's certainly miles above anything else on Solid Gold that I can think of.

Offhand, I'd say the first 4 tracks on Entertainment -- "Ether," "Natural's Not in It," "Not Great Men," "Damaged Goods" -- constitute the best album-opening sequence ever. (Though, y'know, now that I think about it the first few tracks of Killing Joke's What's THIS For come pretty darned close ... Ditto for The Mekons Rock'n'Roll.)

So, how much worse does a hitter have to be in the lineup for the hitter ahead of him to expand his zone? If Jacobs hits 4th, then I have to assume the 5th place hitter won't be that much worse, right? I can see that if you had a no hit shortstop hitting 9th, you'd want your 8 place hitter to be very aggresive with runners on base. But with a guy in the middle of the lineup, it just seems that the hitters around him should be fairly competent, no? (Extreme cases like Bonds or Pujols excepted, of course.)