ON NETFLIX, NON-ANSWERS, AND NUNEZ

Some unrelated observations ... 

-- If you are a Netflix subscriber, you probably know by now that the company has made a big change. No longer can you “watch instantly” and still get DVDs in the mail for the same price.

The streaming service is now being broken off into a separate unit with a separate price. According to an email from company co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, the DVD division will soon operate under the “qwikster” name.

Regretfully, I canceled my streaming service but am keeping the mail-in DVD service. It is efficient and fast.

The main reason is that though I often sat and watched movies on my computer when the service was first offered, more recently I haven’t had the time or inclination. The second reason is that there are not nearly as many titles available through the streaming service as there are through the mail-in service. And, oh, yeah, the change pretty much doubled my cost.

I’m glad to see that Netflix (qwikster) is taking steps to keep up with emerging technology such as the streaming video, but I think the company should have had a wider spread of titles available first. One example: I ran across lists that showed one season of a TV series being offered (and not always the first one) but not the rest of the episodes. That doesn’t make sense to me.

-- Did you see where the government deported a Florida Marlin pitcher back to his native Dominican Republic because he had been playing under an assumed name?

Pitcher Leo Nunez’ real name, according to reports, is Juan Carlos Ovieo, and he’s actually a year older than the 28 he is shown to be on the Marlins’ roster.

The ironic thing about it is that it has taken the feds to make a move that the Marlins should have made a long time ago, which is to get Nunez out of the bullpen.

Yes, he had 36 “saves” this year, which is pretty good, but there is a “yeah, but” to that.

For those not all that into baseball stats, a “save” is when a pitcher comes into a close game in the late innings and shuts down the opposition, thus “saving” the game for the team that is ahead.

Yes, he had 36 “saves” this year, which is pretty good, but there is a “yeah, but” to that.

For those not all that into baseball stats, a “save” is when a pitcher comes into a close game in the late innings and shuts down the opposition, thus “saving” the game for the team that is ahead.

But there are two kinds of saves. There is the kind the Yankee’s Mariano Rivera gets when he comes into the ninth inning with a one-run lead and sets down the opposing batters 1-2-3.

And there is when the closer goes into the ninth with a three-run lead, gives up two runs, but gets the last out on a fly ball to deep right field. That’s the kind Nunez specialized in. 

-- There was another debate among Republican presidential candidates last night. I haven’t watched much of these put-up events for one main reason. My calendar says it is still 2011. The election is in 2012. Wake me when it matters.

But I did catch a few minutes of last night’s opening segment before I left my wife to go upstairs and catch more of the college football game (even at 44-14, Cincinnati-North Carolina State had to be more interesting).

They were probably four five questions into the debate before one of the candidates gave an answer that actually responded to the question. That candidate was Herman Cain.