BLAWG REVIEW #18

Ahhh yes, #18. It’s a good number.

Currently Bubba Crosby, one of my favorite players, wears it. And here are some other fateful events punctuated by the number 18:

* January 9, 1903: Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchase Baltimore franchise of American League and move team to New York City. Cost is $18,000.
* April 18, 1923: Yankee Stadium opens, Babe Ruth hits first home run.
* October 18, 1977: The Yankees win their 21st World Championship over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
* July 18, 1999 - David Cone pitches third perfect game at Yankee Stadium - 6-0 victory over the Montreal Expos. Source.

OK, I've set the mood. HERE WE GO, around the leagues….it's time for the Show:

BALTIMORE

Baltimore Orioles
Camden Yards (Oriole Park)
Favorite player: Miguel Tejada

BLAWG: The University of Baltimore Law Library blog can be found here. It has a link to an interesting story on why law schools are resistant to change, posted by Harvey Morell, here.  The article is written by Nancy Raploport, dean of the Univ. of Houston Law Center.

Looking for this, I found a great list of Law Library links here , compiled by Bonnie Shucha.

BOISE, IDAHO

Boise Hawks
Memorial Stadium

BLAWG: Objective Justice has a post about the surprising lack of coverage for an extremely controversial case that came out of the 9th Circuit. In Natural Resources v. U.S. Forest Service, the 9th Circuit reversed and remanded the opinion of Judge James K. Singleton (currently chief judge of the Alaskan District) to allow the harvesting of timber in the Tongass National Forest in a "roadless" area. This controversial decision should have conservatives and liberals at each other's throats.

BOSTON

That Team Up North
Fenway
Least favorite player: Curt Schilling
Favorite 2005 game

FAVORITE RED SOX NATION BLAWGERS:

* Al Nye, the Lawyer Guy. Check out his post about Guantanamo prosecutors quitting over trials that were rigged for them to succeed? Prosecutors saying no to slam-dunk winners because they were concerned about the rights of terrorists? What’s going on here?"

Al also runs the Maine Divorce Law blog, with an interesting recent post on changing your name during a divorce here.

* Robert J. Ambrogi's LawSites is another one of my favorites. (I'm biased bec Bob has been writing his Web Watch column for Law Technology News since I took over as editor in 1998.

A recent goodie: Some call lawyers sharks, but they seem harmless compared to the sharks tracked at the International Shark Attack File, a site that compiles all known shark attacks. Then again, the site does say, "The shark's reputation is far worse than his bite."

Speaking of sharks, I've always loved this Lawyer Cam, borrowed from Kevin Heller's Tech Law Advisor. One of his recent quotes links to a discussion by Marci Hamilton of "The Remarkable Legacy of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."

  Of course, no mention of RSN is complete without Silvia Coulter, consultant, author, Red Sox Idiot, and president of the Legal Sales & Service Organization (LSSO).

LSSO puts on a wonderful conference called Raindance, and kindly invited me to be keynote at its spring conference. (Despite my Yankee-itis). It's a great group, and its blog is here.

CHICAGO

Chicago White Sox
US Cellular Field
Favorite Player: El Duque
(Orlando Hernandez) We sure miss you! Good game Monday!

Chicago Cubs
Wrigley Field
Favorite player: Derrek Lee

BLAWGS:

* The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog is created by Evan Schaeffer, of Godfrey, Ill. Caveat emptor: Godfrey is actually closer to St. Louis than Chicago, but we're gonna excercise artistic license here. :)

In "I Don't Speak Latin, and Neither Do You?" Evan Schaeffer takes to task legal writers who insist on using Latin terms. He also has a post for young associates on knowing when to say "I don’t know" here.  How could I resist this post from The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog , Although I must admit, one of my favorite phrases is Res Ipsa Loquitor (the thing speaks for itself). Hey! I went to a Catholic high school!

* Larry Bodine (left) is a Chicagoland-ian, and one of the most prolific writers and observers I’ve ever met. Check out his coverage of the ABA convention here. Larry is a virtual machine of tips, articles, and has numerous blogs.

*Patrick Lamb, a partner at Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd,  is always In Search of Perfect Client Service, and his Aug. 7 post discusses an article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune by Joel Henning, who disses hourly billing

*The Wired GC, an anonymous midwest general counsel,  writes about corporate law from the inside out. He's keeping an eye on business-related books and discusses Ricardo Semler's The Seven Day Weekend.

HOOOOOOSIER COUNTRY

CINCINNATI

Cincinnati Reds
Great American Ballpark
Favorite former player: Paul O’Neill

*Cincinnati, not Silicon Valley, is home to one of the hippest intellectual property blawgs around. Check out "Many Don't Understand The Purpose Of Patents" at the Patent Baristas blog, created by some kewl folks at Frost Brown Todd.

Stephen Albiny-Jenei also tips me off to another jargon rant, by Brad Feld's Feld Thoughts blog. Feld isn't a fan of the phrase "world class," it seems.

Our pal David Whelan is head honcho of  the Cincinnati Law Library Association. Its blog  is here. Monday's post covers the Peck v. Peck case about child custody issues.

CLEVELAND

Cleveland Indians
Jacobs Field
Favorite recent game:
Favorite player: Robert Wickman

* BLAWGS: Anita Campbell, of Akron, Ohio, has two blogs. The first, Small Business Trends, is about consulting business and weblog. Check out this post about employees who run "side businesses" in their spare time. She also has the RFID weblog, here.

* Another blawg of interest: Ohio Law Info

*And we can't forget one of my all-time favorite-named blogs, Hoosier Daddy? named after the infamous former Red Sox pitcher, Pedro Martinez, who has morphed from pure evil to one of the most delightful Mets ever. :)
But I'm still glad he's not on the Yanks.

Hoosier Daddy is one of my favorite blogs, epitomizing midwestern goofy humor. It's the brainchild of Stephen Terrell, who also publishes the more sedate Hoosier Lawyer. (His August 3 post tells how a NY driver Googled his way out of a traffic ticket.)

But back to paternity-land: How can't you like a blog that reports about "Eat Here and Get Gas," Toga parties, an "Ode to the Clothes Line?" and the Oscar Meyer Weiner car.

PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia Phillies
Citizens Bank Park
Favorite player: Jon Lieber

BLAWG: How Appealing, from Howard Bashman of Fort Washington, Pa., has a post entitled "We have a winner" here. Bashman held a contest seeing who could think of the biggest "dumb ass" question to ask Judge John Roberts during his confirmation hearing. Eh Nonymous of Unused and Probably Unusable submitting the winning questions.

SOUTH OF THE TEHACHAPIES 

Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodger Stadium
Favorite Player: Eric Gagne
Happy to get rid of: Jeff Weaver

  Anaheim/SoCal/Tijuana/Irvine Angels
Angel Stadium
Favorite player: THE RALLY MONKEY!
Randy Johnson Road Trip #4: July 21-23
Favorite Angels blog: HaloBlog

BLAWGS:

* L.A.’s Cliff Atkinson notes that he recently consulted for a trial lawyer on his opening presentation, and the results were so dramatically good that it was written up in The New York Times and the Associated Press. He posted about it here.

* Denise Howell reports on her meanderings at the BlogHer Convention on her popular Bag & Baggage blog, here.

*One of my favorite bloggers, who was incredibly helpful to me when I first entered the blawgosphere, is J. Craig Williams, left, of May It Please The Court.

Check out his recent post, "California Cows In Trouble With Regulators", about cows accused of polluting the environment, here.

L.A. is also the home of The Volokoh Conspiracy blog, immensely popular among the academia set, with multiple contributors. Recent posts by Orin Kerr report on the death of ABC news anchor Peter Jennings, and direct folks to The New York Times' article on "The Rise of the Digital Thugs."

And I've just discovered an hysterical blog, by Tracy, Calif.'s Colin Samuels, called Infamy or Praise. Check it out here. He also wins the prize for the best title about this blawg review: "18 and Barely Legal."  And yes, I'm demonstrating that I'm losing my geography skills after leaving the Bay Area seven years ago. Tracy is closer to SF than LA, but Colins likes the Angels bettah, so there. :)

MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL

Minnesota Twins
Hubert Humphrey Metrodome
Randy Johnson Road Trip #2
June 3
Favorite player: Torii Hunter (Get well soon!)
Favorite Twins blog: BatGirl ("Less Stats, More Sass")
Favorite game: Pin the Stripes on the Yankees

BLAWGS: Moose Law.

Arguably, not a blawg, but a plethora of good info, from LaVerne Pritchard and his gang. (Picture left is with his wife Linda Ulbrich. Moose Law covers the midwest like nobody else!

MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee Brewers
Miller Park
RJRT #3. June 5
Favorite Player: Lyle Overbay ("O")

BLAWG: The WisBlawg, from the UW Law Library takes a look at the Technorati report on the state of the blogosphere here.  Technorati tracks more than 14.2 million weblogs, and more than 1.3 billion links. The blogosphere, it predicts, continues to double every 5.5 months, and a new blog is created every second (more than 80,000 created daily).

NEW YORK CITY

THE NEW YORK YANKEES!!!
Yankee Stadium
Favorite player: It varies from day to day. Among them, Robinson Cano, Gary Sheffield, Bubba Crosby, Chien Ming Wang – ah hell, all of ’em. I even like Giambi now.

The N.Y. Mets
Shea Stadium

BLAWGS:

*Among the many NYC-based blawgs is the always-entertaining Overlawyered. Authored by Westchester's Walter Olson, it's guaranteed to be provocative as it explores the ways that the "American legal system too often turns litigation into a weapon against the guilty and innocent alike." Check out a recent post, "Don't."

* Another perennial favorite: Adam Smith Esq with thoughtful analysis from Bruce MacEwen (right). Here’s his take on some recent mergers.

Other NY-based blawgs of note include:

*The Subway Fold, by Alan Rothman.

* Law Department Management, by New Jersey (close enough) consultant Rees Morrison.

* Joy London's Excited Utterances, which tackles legal technology, professional training and "complicated sociological and psychological aspects of implementing knowledge management in international law firms. (She's the knowledge and training manager of Allen & Overy's US Law Group.

* New York Civil Law, by Matthew Lender.

* Don't forget Connecticut (after all, we get both YES and NESN) and I actually like listening to the NESN commentators who are quite good, but nobody's as good as Michael Kay. (left).

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

San Francisco Giants
PacBell Park, oh yeah, it’s now SBC or something
Favorite player: Ask my brother Bill. I doubt he would say Barry Bonds.

Oakland Athletics
Oakland Coliseum, ooops. McAfee
Favorite player: My niece would vote for Barry Zito.

FAVORITE BLAWG: Of course, hands down, it’s Lisa Stone’s Legal BlogWatch, created for law.com (an ALM entity). She daily cruises the blawgosphere, especially blawgs that are part of law.com’s Blog Network, for fascinating tidbits. She jumped right on Carolyn Elefant’s query about the ongoing ABA convention. Stone is also the author of Surfette,

*Another from Silicon Valley: Cathy Kirkman of Wilson Sonsini et al., "live-blogged" the legal panel at the BlogHer Conference.

ST. LOUIS, MO.

St. Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium
New Busch stadium
Favorite: Tony La Russa (ARF)

BLAWGS: George's Employment Blawg, offers two related posts about “Why we hate HR.” Here's one, and the other.

George Lenard, a Chesterfield Mo., labor and employment lawyer, continues to defend his HR friends and clients, rounding up and commenting on some of the blogosphere reaction to the controversial article in Fast Company magazine, “Why We Hate HR.”

George’s underlying questions include, “ Is healthy debate best served by such attacks?” and “Does business ignore at its peril the key role of HR in legal compliance and consequent legal risk management in a short-sighted focus on ‘value’?”

PHOENIX

Arizona Diamondbacks
The BOB
Favorite former player: Randy Johnson
Favorite current players: Brad Halsey, Tony Clark, Buddy Groom, Javier Vasquez (do you detect a trend here?)
Least favorite player: Luis Gonzalez

BLAWG: Not really a blawg: ILTA website. OK, this one is a shameless plug for ILTA (the International Legal Technology Association, nee LawNet) where I will be presenting my Fourth Almost-Annual Soothsaying Panel on Thursday August 25. (It’s a goofy but substantive event where we “discuss” the future of legal technology). Check out ILTA’s website here.

WASHINGTON

Washington Nationals.
RFK Stadium
Ex-Yanks: Esteban Loaiza
and Mike Stanton.

However, my all-time favorite D.C. team is the 2000 Titans, who played in the same tournament that my brother-and-baseball-mentor Bill  attends every summer in Phoenix. Recognize Terry Carter anywhere?  (click to enlarge)

BLAWGS: Among the beltway blawgers are Sabrina Pacifici and Carolyn Elefant.

Here, Pacifici suggests a new book from John Battelle The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

*As mentioned above in Lisa Stone's link, Elefant is not exactly ecstatic about this year’s ABA annual meeting.

*Also in the Beltway: Ron Friedmann, of Prism Legal Consulting, who recently wrote about IBM opening up its full-text search, here.

* Reid Trautz' Reid My Blog helps you find "Congressional Research at Your Fingertips," here.

*One of the pioneer blogs is SCOTUSblog, by Goldstein & Howe, covering the Supremes.

SEATTLE

Seattle Mariners
Safeco
RJRT #1 May 18
Happy you have him: Jeff Nelson

BLAWGS: * Preston Gates & Ellis’ Electronic Discovery Law offers tips and analysis about EDD, including a link to Helen Bergman Moure’s article in the August showcase in Law Technology News.

* Seattle’s Kevin O’Keefe writes on “finding the right tone” at LexBlog.

OH CANADA

Toronto Blue Jays.
Rogers Centre.
Favorite player: this week is Josh Towers.

BLAWG: Slaw is a co-op weblog that tackles Canadian legal research and IT. Check out this post which reprints an interesting article by recent law school graduate Pamela Seguin, orginally published in the Canadian Law Library Review,"Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse: A Law Student's Perspective on Developing Legal Information Literacy."

See also: Toronto-based Roby Hyndman's blog where he discusses the future of media.

SO MUCH MORE… but no more time. No room fo details about the Atlanta Braves or the Atlanta Inujry Law & Civil Litigation Blog from Shigley Law Firm; or some of my favorite blawgs from New Orleans (Where's Travis McGee? and Ernie the Attorney). Or the Bronx South with our pals Rocket and Andy. Or our pals in Michigan at Traverse Legal. Or another favorite, the South Carolina Trial Law Blog with a kewl post about how hospitals don't do well on the basics of medicine.

* Etc.:  GEICO Play Ball.  Countdown clock: Bud Selig's Term Expires.

* Baseblawgs: Sports Law Blog; SportzBiz; Baseball Crank.

*Best Baseball Movies: Bull Durham; A League of Their Own; 61*

Opps. Typepad ate my ending, so will have to reconstruct:

*Foodies Alert: This one's for the Editor & Chef: Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. And here's an interesting recent post from Blawg Review about Small Business Trends (see earlier in this review for another mention).

Next week: #19. Another one of my favorite numbers, especially when worn in 2003 by one Aaron Boone, forever beloved in Yankee lore.

Blawg Review has information about next week's host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.