--- Doug <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gautam Mukunda wrote: > > Hey, Gautam, how ya been? Got some free time? Any > retrospective on the > post season (or the season in general for that > matter?) > > Doug
Hi Doug (and everyone else), I've been pretty good, on the whole. I have free time for loose definitions of free time - I'm at the office now at 9:22 pm and hope to get out before 10:00, which would count as an early night, so I do have some free time :-) The work is far more interesting than I ever thought it would be, however, and the people are even neater than that. I don't think there's a more international company than McKinsey in the world - my team of 6 people includes a Brazilian (he's our team leader), a German, a Mexican, two Korean-Americans, and me. That's pretty much standard around here. Plus the team leader is a former professional race car driver, which definitely drives up our coolness factor. I haven't broken 80 hours in a single week yet, which is good, but I expect to next week, which is less good. Still, it's not as if I didn't expect this, and I'm certainly not complaining - it's a great place to work, and I'm lucky to have a job. The market just _sucks_. Let's see, the postseason, and the regular season too :-) I was very disappointed when Oakland lost, of course. It was, I think, symptomatic of the one thing that Billy Beane hasn't been able to deal with, and one of the major reasons for the Yankee's continued success in the postseason - the Yankee's money buys better coaching and better scouting. The As were simply poorly coached - witness Jeremy Giambi's memorable failure to slide last year. Let none of that take away from the Angels' remarkable achievement, however. They were an excellent team and absolutely deserved to win the World Series - in no way do they resemble the fluke Marlins of 1997. It was a fun World Series, on the whole - not as good as 2001, but good nonetheless. If the owners would stop talking down baseball and actually _market the sport_ then something like that will be wonderful indeed. The other major takeaway from both the season and the postseason is, of course, that Barry Bonds is not a human being. He is either the best or the second best baseball player of all time, I think. The argument for him being the best, of course, rests on the fact that Babe Ruth played against a much lower level of competition generally, and specifically one that lacked African-American players (like, of course, Barry Bonds). I find those arguments to be almost, but not entirely, persuasive, so I'm not sure where I come down on that stance. In either case, he's a marvel to watch and we should count ourselves lucky to be seeing him play. I do hope, however, that his performance will make those who speak of "clutch hitting" a little bit more reluctant. A player who has been almost universally vilified as someone who chokes in the clutch just had the best postseason of any player in the history of baseball, including setting World Series records for both slugging and on-base percentage plus (I believe) batting .500. As one of my roommates and I would recite after every Bonds hit, "But of course we all know that he can't hit in the clutch." :-) The only real disappointment of the postseason was that such an extraordinary performance was not rewarded with a championship. The fact that Bonds was able to follow up the greatest offensive season of all time - 2001 - with an _even better_ season - 2002 - simply boggles my mind. I don't think it's even possible. I can't _imagine_ what he will do next year. He can't possibly improve - but I said that last year, so what do I know? My final comment before I head back to work - while the Angels were totally a deserving team, they also had pretty much every player have a career year _the same year_ - something that I do not think will happen next year. The As will win the West again next year - and hopefully the World Series, although I actually think Boston might just give them a run for their money :-) That's about it. I'm enjoying New York, but not as much as I would like, partly because of time constraints, and partly because it's a tough city to be single in - but nonetheless, I'm enjoying it. I did get to see a game in Yankee Stadium (one of my roommates has season tickets) which led me to root for the Yankees for the first time in my life. My reading has been cut at least in half, but over the last month I have managed to get through John Ringo's _A Hymn Before Battle_ and _Gust Front_, both of which I recommend highly, as well as a bunch of financial books that I imagine people will be less interested in (I strongly recommend _When Genius Failed_ and _Against the Gods_ even to those who are not interested in such things, however, while _A Random Walk Down Wall Street_ is the one book on finance that _every_ person should read). _The Savage Wars of Peace_ by Max Boot is an excellent history of America's extensive history of small wars and counter-insurgency fighting, and puts the lie to those who claim that the United States is unable to do so based on a (mis)reading of the Vietnam experience. Terry Pratchett's _The Night Watch_ might well be the least funny book he has ever written - it is also the best book I've read in many months, combining his trademark humor with a truly profound moral seriousness that I recommend to anyone. Also, any time with Sam Vimes is time well spent. I managed to get out to see 8 Mile last weekend and, rather to my shock, quite enjoyed it. Michael Lewis's _Next_ was typically funny and insightful. I'm starting David Weber's _War of Honor_ right now, and it is even more didactic than usual, which is getting very tiresome, and so far there haven't been any of his (excellent) action sequences to make up for it. Hopfully it will improve. I'm also in the middle of EBoys - I'd appreciate it if anyone with Valley experience gives me their opinion of the book. I do have high hopes for the next Robert Jordan (January) and the fourth John Ringo (after I read the third, however) - Ringo in particular being redeemed by our shared love of Kipling :-) That's about it. I hope that all is well with everyone. I look forward to hearing from all of you. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
