HellaFrank

Ok, this is a little offbeat for HellaFrank but seriously one of the most fascinating things I have seen in a long time, via Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed. Below is a map of the United States which is color coded BY COUNTY based on what percentage of the population says “pop,” “coke” or “soda” to refer to soft drinks. Simply mindblowing. I’m especially intrigued by the huge part of the South and Southwest that use the brand-name “Coke” for all, um, sodas. Yes, Coca Cola is based in Atlanta so that could have something to do with it, but it’s not like Texas is that close to Georgia.

Click on the map below and it will take you to an interactive map where you can click on each state to get its breakdown by county. Aaaand, let me know in the comments what you say to refer to carbonated drinks and where you’re from. HellaFrank is from San Francisco and says “soda.”

Map created by PopvsSoda

Let me start by saying that this post is going to get very baseball and statistic focused, so if you don’t like that stuff, then… um… read it anyway. Second, despite the colors I chose for the chart below and my love of the Chicago Cubs, this is a (almost) completely objective argument:

CARLOS ZAMBRANO IS ONE OF THE BEST HITTERS IN BASEBALL

(YEAH, I SAID HITTER)

We all know Carlos Zambrano is an awesome pitcher. This year so far he has 12 wins, an ERA of 2.76 and almost 100 strikeouts. But it’s his batting that may even be more impressive. Below is a chart that has Carlos’ current statistics for this season so far (65 at-bats) and the projected stats if he were to get 600 at-bats like an everyday heart-of-the-lineup player that doesn’t get hurt (correct me if I’m wrong, but 600 seemed like a nice round average number, maybe a tiny bit on the high side, but not by much).

WARNING: These numbers will blow your mind…

So, let’s analyze…

Batting Average: .354??? Are you kidding me? Simply amazing, even if it’s just 65 at-bats. I’d imagine luck runs out after about 3 at-bats in the major leagues, so this .354 is legit. It might come down a bit if he were to bat more often, but .354 can handle coming down a little. He would have finished second in batting behind Magglio Ordonez last year. ‘Nuff said.

Slugging%: He’s currently .009% higher than Manny Ramirez. Moving on…

Runs: Ok, this is the weak point but still respectable and moving up in the batting order might help.

Hits: Last year Ichiro Suzuki lead the league with 238 hits. Behind him were Magglio Ordonez and Matt Holliday with 216. Carlos Zambrano would have been tied for 4th in all of Major League Baseball.

Home Runs: 18 home runs in the “post-steroid” era? I’ll take it. Speaking of steroids, last year he would have tied Miguel Tejada.

RBI: 92 runs batted in last year would have had him tied for 49th in the Majors. Not bad, but if you consider that all his at-bats are in the 9th spot, this number would definitely go up if he batted elsewhere.

Strikeouts: I put this in because he does strike out a lot, but no more than some other sluggers like Adam Dunn or Ryan Howard.

So there you have it folks, one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.

World Series. Game 7. Two outs. 9th inning. Runner on 2nd. Tie game. Pull Big Z or let him hit? Put on a helmet Carlos and bring that World Series trophy back to Chicago…

CC Sabathia, the former dominant starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians (and born and raised in the Bay Area) was recently traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and took out a full page ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Wednesday thanking the city for 10 great years.

Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami heat from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 and soon after his departure, took out a full page ad in the LA Times to thank the fans and the city (probably not Kobe though).

So if this becomes a trend, if athletes that are traded, or retire, start taking out full page print ads in the local newspapers, could this somehow save the reeling print industry? Maybe it’s time for ad sales to shift their efforts to something that the economy has very little effect on, apparently — professional athlete’s salaries.

Math is not my strong suit, but if we take CC’s $11,000,000 salary this year and and assume he starts about 30 games and throws around 100 pitches per game, he only had to throw 3.5 pitches to pay for the $12,870 ad he bought. Yeah, he didn’t even have to actually fully-throw that fourth pitch…