Happy Birthday to Jeff Robinson, 51. And one day late: Jeff Robinson, 52. The one whose birthday is today is, to me, the other Jeff Robinson; he's the one who came up with the Tigers and pitched from 1987-1992. The one whose birthday was yesterday is the one who came up with the Giants and pitched from 1984-1992. The other Jeff Robinson, the Tigers one, is a great case study. His ERA+ over his career was 79, 128, 82, 67, 72. What happened that year? He led the league in hits per 9, with a rate over 2 hits per 9 lower than his career rate, even though a large chunk of his career was that year. The Giants Jeff Robinson was actually a pretty good relief pitcher, although nothing special, and was cashed in to get Rick Reuschel, so that worked out nicely. My dad has long maintained that ballplayers should be like racehorses and actors and have to go by unique names. As far as I know, neither of these guys even had a nickname.
At any rate, the good stuff:
1. Gotta link to Kevin Drum on the talking filibuster; he gets it right.
2. Liberal priorities on spending and taxes, from Matt Yglesias.
3. Health care prices are the problem, Sarah Kliff writes.
4. Andrew Sullivan, more fed up with the Republicans than usual.
5. The future of marriage equality -- as E.J. Graff sees it, it no longer depends on Justice Kennedy.
6. And football and Nixon, from Andrew Rudelevige.
Joe Posnanski's recent biography of Joe Paterno includes some interesting reporting for the Penn State side of Nixon showing up at the UT-Arkansas game, as well. Anything Pos writes is worth reading anyway.
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