> Behalf Of Doug Pensinger
> Hi Gautam! Congrats on the new Job! Does this mean there's a
graduation
> ceremony pending? Some interesting things happening in MLB this
year, eh? I
> was out to watch the A's complete their sweep of those old guys from
some big
> city on the east coast, and I just got the word that they won their
7th
> straight, pulling them to .500. Look out Ichiro!
>
Hi Doug. Thanks for the greetings and congratulations. I do indeed
still have faith in the A's. In fact, I can proudly claim that I told
Dan _weeks_ ago that I still thought they'd win around 90 games, even
after their horrible slump. I think they'll win the Wild Card,
actually. I am, however, still very confused about why they aren't
hitting for power this year. It's very strange. Hitting for power is
one of the most stable baseball skills. I'm very puzzled. OTOH, if
they are currently _still_ not playing up to their potential and
winning like this then I have hope for them still. The Twins I have
no faith in - Cleveland will win, particularly once Lofton starts
hitting. I _do_ have faith in the Red Sox, despite my suspicion of
any team willing to employ Dante Bichette. The upper levels of the
Yankee farm system may be too barren to trade, as they are surely too
smart to trade Nick Johnson (possibly the best hitting prospect since
Frank Thomas, imho) for anything, so they may be crippled in terms of
offense. They might take some poor sap of a GM for a ride by trading
Alfonso Soriano, though, come to think of it. Thank goodness the
Orioles don't have anyone worth trading for, or I'm sure they'd take
advantage of us somehow. Ummm, I still think the Braves will recover
and win the NL East, but only if Schuerholz figures out that no, you
_really can't_ win if Rico Brogna is playing first base for you. I
can't figure that man out - it really doesn't take much to realize
that they desperately need hitting. Neither B.J. Surhoff nor Brian
Jordan has ever been all that good. But I think Lopez and A. Jones
will come back to form, so they should be okay. The NL Central is a
tossup, I guess, but my money's on St. Louis instead of Houston just
because their pitching looks a little better - Albert Pujols is just
not real, however. He _has_ to come back to earth eventually, but
we're already looking at quite possibly the best third baseman of the
next decade, is my guess. Phenomenal. And, umm, I haven't even
thought about the NL West - the Giants have been weakened too much
since last year, the Padres are too young/weak, the Rockies can't hit
all that well, the Dodgers seem to be cursed - but I guess I'll go
with the Dodgers. Not too confident in that one, though. So how's
that for my ruminations on the season? :-)
In less important news, I thought I should drop a general update. I
have been reading the list but not posting because I've been
frantically writing my senior thesis on _The Status Quest in
International Relations_ and, of course, trying to find a job for next
year. The thesis ended up 144 pages and 35,000 words, so it took
quite a lot of time. Yes, there will be a graduation in my future
indeed - well, assuming I didn't fail any finals. I'm graduating on
June 7th, will be at home for a couple of weeks, then returning to
Boston for the last week of June and July, where I'll be working on a
couple of articles. I'll be back in DC for August, then returning
once again to Boston in September, this time permanently. The economy
went into the tank on me, sadly, so my job won't be starting until
January. As it is I was fairly lucky, as some of my friends had
offers that they had actually accepted revoked by the companies that
had "hired" them. I hope to be doing something quite interesting in
the meantime - if it comes through, I'll let people know about it. I
will, as I've earlier stated, be working for A.T. Kearney starting
January. Kearney, for those of you who don't know it, is, IIRC, the
second largest consulting company in America, and I believe the world.
It is owned by EDS, of which more of you may have heard. This is
rather ironic, as Ross Perot (EDS's founder) once called consultants
the "blood-sucking witch doctors of American capitalism." :-) I will
be joining their Cambridge Office (you can actually see the building
from my dorm room window) as a member of their General Practice, which
means that I could work on a project for any company in any industry
in America, and occassionally outside the US as well. Management
consulting is reputed to be just about the most intellectually
interesting work in the corporate world - I hope to find out that this
is the case :-) The standard deal for A.T. Kearney consultants is to
fly out to the client site on the first flight out Monday morning, and
return home on the last flight Thursday night. I will thus,
apparently, be developing an intimate familiarity with the hotels of
America :-) Normal hours per week are, as I have mentioned, in the
60-70 hours a week range, not including travel time. So that's the
news on my end - sorry to bore you all, but if anyone's interested,
that's the scoop :-) It's good to be back.
> Doug
********************Gautam "Ulysses" Mukunda**********************
* Harvard College Class of '01 *He either fears his fate too much*
* www.fas.harvard.edu/~mukunda * Or his deserts are small, *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Who dares not put it to the touch*
* "Freedom is not Free" * To win or lose it all. *
******************************************************************
