A rookie is sent down, an ace is shelved, a reporter gets canned, a stadium scam, Dylan, Sam Shepherd, Malachi Constant, The Mouse roars, and we take a bullet train to Vegas
I don't know anything about the players' relationship with Marmol coming into the year, but hoo boy did he screw up the O'Neill situation. It's almost as though they don't appreciate being called out in the media over some red-ass BS....
Have any of their quick promotions worked out? Carlson looks like he could have used more minor league seasoning, and now they're platooning him, which is basically punting on him ever developing. They've had better luck with less heralded prospects who have surprised after extra years in the minors.
Gosh… Sirens of Titan… my favorite thing about that book was that the “only successful Martian military conquest was a Brazilian meat market on the corner of 3rd and main” (I know for a fact I’m misquoting that , but it’s 4am). I miss Vonnegut
The backstory on the Marly Rivera issue seems like it is buried in the story. The freelance reporter she insulted is “the wife of MLB vice president of communications, John Blundell.” Probably not a coincidence.
My guess is Rivera will settle so she can work somewhere else but if she doesn’t it will be interesting to see how ESPN executives respond under deposition when asked how often male reporters and executives were fired for using similar language. I’m sure they’re consistent about that right?
Musk might own rockets, but right now he can't fly them. At least out of Boca Chica. After the fiasco of last week, where the failed rocket did so much damage to the launchpad that people six miles away were being bombarded by concrete dust and debris, the FAA has grounded him. He could still go to space from Kennedy Space Center, but for now he can't fly from his home base. So he is not having a good week. Yay.
The Knicks took the Cavs in five last night. Just by itself, that is making me happy. Ecstatic, even. I love the Knicks almost as much as I love the Mets. But the Knicks moving on in the playoffs means I also have a good reason to ignore the Mets for at least two more weeks. Dear lord, the Mets have looked awful. Maybe they will wake up by the time the Knicks are done. For now, Go New York Go New York Go.
Watched most of the Dodgers-Pirates game, the free game of the day. Wasn't particularly excited, but was glad to have a chance to meet the Pirates as they continue to play well. The Dodgers were a shell of themselves with so many players on the DL or taking paternity leave, and I found I had heard of more Pirates than Dodgers in the game. Weird. Anyway, the best part was seeing the view from home plate looking out of the park and towards the city. So much better than seeing the parking lot and the subway and the rather average Flushing skyline.
I was talking with someone once about their time as a military pilot and he said they have a saying about the manuals, that they are written in blood. The reason they have procedures for everything is because someone died so they wrote a procedure to try to prevent that from happening again.
With space flight it's even more important you don't cut shit off at the corners. Random rockets are one thing, but something like a human crew or the JWST? Yeah nope.
Things are less rosy for us Mets and Rangers fans who are indifferent about the Knicks. From our point of view we've just suffered from 6 consecutive combined losses.
At least there is time for the Mets to turn things around. Though come to think of it, there is also time for the Rangers. (Did you see Jeff Passan's rather snide comment about he both loves and hates how passionate Mets fans are, because we treat every loss like it's the end of the world? I thought all fans do that.)
I assume the Titans stadium deal was touted as a huge win for Nashville taxpayers in that the state paid $500M. Otherwise the city would have forked over the full $1.26B
I may have counted wrong but I think ATL is now 14-1 against teams under .500 and 3-7 against teams .500 or better. They all count though.
...
1991 was when I gave up my bartending career and went back to grad school. It was before I met my wife and she and I have been together forever but not long enough. Yeah, that is a while ago.
Why can’t I keep Lee May and Lee Maye separate in my mind?
...
I toasted a bagel this morning but when I went to put on the cream cheese it had turned pink & grey. So I had butter and something that I haven’t in years, cinnamon sugar. Yum.
Or Dave May, who, looking him up now, had a better career than I thought. Led the AL in total bases in 1973, which earned a double-take from me. My perception is skewed by my childhood resentment that he was the reason Hank was no longer a Brave (yes, I may have thought players arranged their own trades....which would be totally weird, but not as weird as, oh, starting an inning with a runner on base.....).
Hard to make the playoffs without taking care of the cellar dwellers, though that's a bit extreme. And just making it gives you a puncher's chance to go deep, like last year's Phillies.
And here I was thinking this big work meeting this week would spare me the agony of watching the Nats get pantsed at Citi Field. Who knew they’d be the pantsers? If Gray and Gore really are this good the team has to go get some more real hitters - and soon. I’m not fooling myself that they are any kind of postseason contender, but if a decent team is only a year away instead of three or more, that would be fabulous.
PS I’m a little surprised that nobody suggested you could also play (expansion) baseball in that new Nashville stadium… Or did I just miss it?
PPS Did “See You Next Tuesday” originate with Allison Janney’s character in “The Way Back”? Or was that just the first time I ever heard it?
Do you think Gore is a possible future ace or is his ceiling a bit lower? I agree that the last two nights have been tantalizing for the Nats possible future, and I think Gore and Gray have the potential to be guys who'd start the first three games of a postseason series, I just don't know which games.
As for See You Next Tuesday, I definitely remember hearing it during the TV show Sex and the City.
P.S. Props to Dom Smith for finally raising his slugging percentage above his batting average, as he got his first extra base hit of the season when he doubled last night.
I feel like both Gore and Gray are solid twos like Jordan Zimmermann… front of the rotation, but not necessarily at the top. Maybe that’s Cavalli - or maybe they try to sign the next Max Scherzer?
I think I concur; Gore as a 2 and Gray as a strong 3 would be ideal.
Time will tell on Cavalli; have to see how he bounces back from TJS, but the Nats have loads of experience there.
I think they're going to have to sign a veteran as the ace though; some combination of Gore, Gray, and Cavalli is a stronger 2, 3, and 4 than a 1, 2, and 3.
In case anyone is planning to visit the UK, I would strongly warn them NOT to take Craig's relaxed advice about the c-word. A few people use it a lot but most people never do. Even watching a football game you *might* get thrown out for directing that word at the referee. You absolutely never hear it on TV before 9pm, then rarely after. If you see the phrase "Very strong language", it always means the same one word.
Billy Connolly can get away with it because he's a National Treasure and because it's comedy. If you do standup comedy then you are free to take off all your clothes and swear at the audience for an hour. I'm not saying that you would want to, just that you could.
The other day I went out to see the excellent "workplace comedy" film In The Court of The Crimson King, because I am really old. Robert Fripp was quoted: "In that band there were a number of c...s, and the biggest c... of all the c...s was [scene abruptly ends]". So the film had a 15 certificate, purely to prevent children under 15 from hearing that sentence. This rather misses the point that schoolchildren are perhaps the main users of the word.
When I was in 7th grade, it was the word of the year. One day at lunch I got up to get some milk or dessert or something and when I got back to the table my chair was gone, so I accused the guy sitting there of stealing my seat and called him the c word and he got up and asked me what I said and I repeated it and he sucker punched me in the kidney and I couldn't breathe for a minute and we got sent to the principal's office. He asked us what happened and we told him, and he said to the other guy "don't punch people" and to me "don't call people c---s" and that was that.
Who on earth is getting thrown out of a football stadium for calling the ref anything (except for a racial or, maybe, a homophobic slur)? I ask this as a British person who has been to many games in England, at all levels. It is, those aforementioned exceptions aside, near enough a free-for-all.
But I agree with the broader point, which I made to Craig on Twitter last night. It is still a bad word in the UK and you do not hear it much in public life—and when you do it's often a hot mic, as in the case of Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the news anchor. He was suspended for a week, if memory serves. Having said that, he has faced no other repercussions. He remains that particular network's number-one news anchor and it does not appear to have hindered his career at all.
The first time I really remember the word being widely discussed was in 2004, when John Lyden used the word on a reality show watched by 12 million people. Fewer than 100 people lodged official complaints.
"Brightlne West," eh? Brightline is the high-speed rail that is operating in Florida, thanks to former Gov. (and now Sen.) Rick Scott turning down a federal investment in favor of investing in Brightline. Scott, you'll recall, is the former healthcare CEO whose company was fined $1.75 BILLION for Medicare fraud. I'm sure that Brightline West will be fine though.
You know, because the scores are part of the highlights, I’ve never actually clicked on the “Here are the scores” link. It could link to a different Columbo episode every day and I’d be none the wiser.
This morning, thanks to SABR, I learned something new about Vlad Guerrero Jr. Apparently in 2021 he became the only major league player ever to hit 10+ home runs in three different ballparks in one year. You can probably guess the reason: the Jays had three home ballparks that year in Dunedin, Buffalo and finally Toronto. It's theoretically possible to match that by being traded, or by having a really big series on the road, but no-one has.
On the same note, Johnny Bench in 1970 became the only player to hit 15+ home runs in two different ballparks. Same reason: the Reds moved from Crosley Field to Riverfront Stadium midseason. I am alarmed by the amount of pleasure I derive from learning these things.
Curiously the record for the most home homers is not Bonds' 37. The record is 39 at Tiger Stadium by Hank Greenberg, out of a total of 58 in 1938: not even in the top 10 alltime.
When I was dating my now-wife, there was a gubernatorial race happening where we lived. We were watching tv one night, and the female Republican candidate aired a brand new ad that boiled down to "Women: if the Democrat wins, you will get raped in a poorly lit parking lot."
As the commercial ended, I just reflexively said "what a c---."
I don't as a rule use the c word, but there have recently been a couple of politicians that I can't seem to find any alternative word that I like better as my descriptor of them. Usually that's just what I think in my head, I'm not usually calling them one out loud, but sometimes...it's just the right word.
The ad in question was spectacularly bad. Grainy black & white footage. Overhead shot. Menacing narration. The victim, slowly realizing she's being stalked and fumbling for her car keys. It could've been a scene from some noir thriller. The Mike Dukakis/Willie Horton ad was tame by comparison.
Public funding for major stadiums isn’t really a UK thing aside from the Olympic Stadium which is now costing the taxpayer tens of millions against West Ham’s rent of about £3m.
Councils tend to take ownership of smaller club grounds to keep them out of the hands of people likely to redevelop them for nefarious means.
However, I can never get over the fact that when they talk about public money for NFL stadiums that they get used EIGHT times a year.
I'm no defender of public money for stadiums, but NFL stadiums get used more than eight times a year, unless it's a toilet like FedEx Field. They still host big concerts to cite one example, some also host local NCAA football games, soccer matches, to wrestling events, etc.
No they don't get used every day, but they certainly get used more than eight or nine times per year.
That's because threatening to move your team to another city isn't really a thing, because that city already has a football team, and it could be a Premier League team with some savvy transfer business. Which is another reason why the system of promotion and relegation is fantastic and I wish baseball had adopted it here 100 some years ago.
How amazing and fun that would be to have a promotion/relegation system throughout the US for baseball. It would have cemented the game as America's pastime forever. I'm from Minnesota originally and grew up with "town ball" which didn't involve promo/releg but it was your town's team that played other towns. It was so good. Go Aces!
rare similarity between the Mets and Yankees: this past off season there was great fanfare as each added one top pitcher. one is old(er) and hasn't played, the other is not so old and has not played. both line-ups are about the same as last season and having their same scoring issues. [shrug emoji]
You make a good point (once I wiped the coffee from my screen after reading "C*** Palace").
And yet, if I was going to predict who will win that division, I'd still pick the Cardinals at this point.
I don't know anything about the players' relationship with Marmol coming into the year, but hoo boy did he screw up the O'Neill situation. It's almost as though they don't appreciate being called out in the media over some red-ass BS....
Have any of their quick promotions worked out? Carlson looks like he could have used more minor league seasoning, and now they're platooning him, which is basically punting on him ever developing. They've had better luck with less heralded prospects who have surprised after extra years in the minors.
Gosh… Sirens of Titan… my favorite thing about that book was that the “only successful Martian military conquest was a Brazilian meat market on the corner of 3rd and main” (I know for a fact I’m misquoting that , but it’s 4am). I miss Vonnegut
The backstory on the Marly Rivera issue seems like it is buried in the story. The freelance reporter she insulted is “the wife of MLB vice president of communications, John Blundell.” Probably not a coincidence.
My guess is Rivera will settle so she can work somewhere else but if she doesn’t it will be interesting to see how ESPN executives respond under deposition when asked how often male reporters and executives were fired for using similar language. I’m sure they’re consistent about that right?
Though at the moment, those guys are possibly losing their jobs because ESPN is firing everyone. Maybe two wrongs will make a right.
Agreed, you just can't say that ever. Scrub that word from your vocabulary. I doubt she gets fired if she just went with "asshole."
Unless you’re Ricky Gervais. In that case, not an issue.
Musk might own rockets, but right now he can't fly them. At least out of Boca Chica. After the fiasco of last week, where the failed rocket did so much damage to the launchpad that people six miles away were being bombarded by concrete dust and debris, the FAA has grounded him. He could still go to space from Kennedy Space Center, but for now he can't fly from his home base. So he is not having a good week. Yay.
The Knicks took the Cavs in five last night. Just by itself, that is making me happy. Ecstatic, even. I love the Knicks almost as much as I love the Mets. But the Knicks moving on in the playoffs means I also have a good reason to ignore the Mets for at least two more weeks. Dear lord, the Mets have looked awful. Maybe they will wake up by the time the Knicks are done. For now, Go New York Go New York Go.
Watched most of the Dodgers-Pirates game, the free game of the day. Wasn't particularly excited, but was glad to have a chance to meet the Pirates as they continue to play well. The Dodgers were a shell of themselves with so many players on the DL or taking paternity leave, and I found I had heard of more Pirates than Dodgers in the game. Weird. Anyway, the best part was seeing the view from home plate looking out of the park and towards the city. So much better than seeing the parking lot and the subway and the rather average Flushing skyline.
I was talking with someone once about their time as a military pilot and he said they have a saying about the manuals, that they are written in blood. The reason they have procedures for everything is because someone died so they wrote a procedure to try to prevent that from happening again.
With space flight it's even more important you don't cut shit off at the corners. Random rockets are one thing, but something like a human crew or the JWST? Yeah nope.
Word on the street is NASA is very wary of Musk's bigger rockets. They do not want him ruining the launch pads at the Cape and in Cali.
Now if there were a way for NASA to cancel its contract with SpaceX to make a lunar lander based on the Starship program. But Musk would sue.
Things are less rosy for us Mets and Rangers fans who are indifferent about the Knicks. From our point of view we've just suffered from 6 consecutive combined losses.
At least there is time for the Mets to turn things around. Though come to think of it, there is also time for the Rangers. (Did you see Jeff Passan's rather snide comment about he both loves and hates how passionate Mets fans are, because we treat every loss like it's the end of the world? I thought all fans do that.)
I assume the Titans stadium deal was touted as a huge win for Nashville taxpayers in that the state paid $500M. Otherwise the city would have forked over the full $1.26B
As someone who also graduated high school in 1991, let me heartily agree with Craig's statement that time is total bullshit.
Seconded.
I’m trying to talk myself into believing that. Not too successful so far.
As somebody that graduated in 1988, get over it or learn how time works.
I may have counted wrong but I think ATL is now 14-1 against teams under .500 and 3-7 against teams .500 or better. They all count though.
...
1991 was when I gave up my bartending career and went back to grad school. It was before I met my wife and she and I have been together forever but not long enough. Yeah, that is a while ago.
Why can’t I keep Lee May and Lee Maye separate in my mind?
...
I toasted a bagel this morning but when I went to put on the cream cheese it had turned pink & grey. So I had butter and something that I haven’t in years, cinnamon sugar. Yum.
Or Dave May, who, looking him up now, had a better career than I thought. Led the AL in total bases in 1973, which earned a double-take from me. My perception is skewed by my childhood resentment that he was the reason Hank was no longer a Brave (yes, I may have thought players arranged their own trades....which would be totally weird, but not as weird as, oh, starting an inning with a runner on base.....).
Hard to make the playoffs without taking care of the cellar dwellers, though that's a bit extreme. And just making it gives you a puncher's chance to go deep, like last year's Phillies.
And here I was thinking this big work meeting this week would spare me the agony of watching the Nats get pantsed at Citi Field. Who knew they’d be the pantsers? If Gray and Gore really are this good the team has to go get some more real hitters - and soon. I’m not fooling myself that they are any kind of postseason contender, but if a decent team is only a year away instead of three or more, that would be fabulous.
PS I’m a little surprised that nobody suggested you could also play (expansion) baseball in that new Nashville stadium… Or did I just miss it?
PPS Did “See You Next Tuesday” originate with Allison Janney’s character in “The Way Back”? Or was that just the first time I ever heard it?
Do you think Gore is a possible future ace or is his ceiling a bit lower? I agree that the last two nights have been tantalizing for the Nats possible future, and I think Gore and Gray have the potential to be guys who'd start the first three games of a postseason series, I just don't know which games.
As for See You Next Tuesday, I definitely remember hearing it during the TV show Sex and the City.
P.S. Props to Dom Smith for finally raising his slugging percentage above his batting average, as he got his first extra base hit of the season when he doubled last night.
I feel like both Gore and Gray are solid twos like Jordan Zimmermann… front of the rotation, but not necessarily at the top. Maybe that’s Cavalli - or maybe they try to sign the next Max Scherzer?
I think I concur; Gore as a 2 and Gray as a strong 3 would be ideal.
Time will tell on Cavalli; have to see how he bounces back from TJS, but the Nats have loads of experience there.
I think they're going to have to sign a veteran as the ace though; some combination of Gore, Gray, and Cavalli is a stronger 2, 3, and 4 than a 1, 2, and 3.
Your remark about Janney reminded me of her utterly endearing role as the florist being eyed by Tony Shalhoub in Big Night.
In case anyone is planning to visit the UK, I would strongly warn them NOT to take Craig's relaxed advice about the c-word. A few people use it a lot but most people never do. Even watching a football game you *might* get thrown out for directing that word at the referee. You absolutely never hear it on TV before 9pm, then rarely after. If you see the phrase "Very strong language", it always means the same one word.
Billy Connolly can get away with it because he's a National Treasure and because it's comedy. If you do standup comedy then you are free to take off all your clothes and swear at the audience for an hour. I'm not saying that you would want to, just that you could.
The other day I went out to see the excellent "workplace comedy" film In The Court of The Crimson King, because I am really old. Robert Fripp was quoted: "In that band there were a number of c...s, and the biggest c... of all the c...s was [scene abruptly ends]". So the film had a 15 certificate, purely to prevent children under 15 from hearing that sentence. This rather misses the point that schoolchildren are perhaps the main users of the word.
When I was in 7th grade, it was the word of the year. One day at lunch I got up to get some milk or dessert or something and when I got back to the table my chair was gone, so I accused the guy sitting there of stealing my seat and called him the c word and he got up and asked me what I said and I repeated it and he sucker punched me in the kidney and I couldn't breathe for a minute and we got sent to the principal's office. He asked us what happened and we told him, and he said to the other guy "don't punch people" and to me "don't call people c---s" and that was that.
Who on earth is getting thrown out of a football stadium for calling the ref anything (except for a racial or, maybe, a homophobic slur)? I ask this as a British person who has been to many games in England, at all levels. It is, those aforementioned exceptions aside, near enough a free-for-all.
But I agree with the broader point, which I made to Craig on Twitter last night. It is still a bad word in the UK and you do not hear it much in public life—and when you do it's often a hot mic, as in the case of Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the news anchor. He was suspended for a week, if memory serves. Having said that, he has faced no other repercussions. He remains that particular network's number-one news anchor and it does not appear to have hindered his career at all.
The first time I really remember the word being widely discussed was in 2004, when John Lyden used the word on a reality show watched by 12 million people. Fewer than 100 people lodged official complaints.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/feb/04/realitytv.broadcasting
"Brightlne West," eh? Brightline is the high-speed rail that is operating in Florida, thanks to former Gov. (and now Sen.) Rick Scott turning down a federal investment in favor of investing in Brightline. Scott, you'll recall, is the former healthcare CEO whose company was fined $1.75 BILLION for Medicare fraud. I'm sure that Brightline West will be fine though.
You know, because the scores are part of the highlights, I’ve never actually clicked on the “Here are the scores” link. It could link to a different Columbo episode every day and I’d be none the wiser.
This morning, thanks to SABR, I learned something new about Vlad Guerrero Jr. Apparently in 2021 he became the only major league player ever to hit 10+ home runs in three different ballparks in one year. You can probably guess the reason: the Jays had three home ballparks that year in Dunedin, Buffalo and finally Toronto. It's theoretically possible to match that by being traded, or by having a really big series on the road, but no-one has.
On the same note, Johnny Bench in 1970 became the only player to hit 15+ home runs in two different ballparks. Same reason: the Reds moved from Crosley Field to Riverfront Stadium midseason. I am alarmed by the amount of pleasure I derive from learning these things.
That's really interesting!
I checked out of curiosity: in 2001, Bonds hit 37 homers at home but his max on the road was "only" 6 against the Braves.
He hit 6 HR in 10 AB at Turner Field in 2001. Six! In 10 at bats!
Throw in 3 walks and a single and you get a cool slash line of .700/.769/2.600 (OPS 3.369) for Bonds at Turner Field that year.
Curiously the record for the most home homers is not Bonds' 37. The record is 39 at Tiger Stadium by Hank Greenberg, out of a total of 58 in 1938: not even in the top 10 alltime.
One of the funniest uses of the c-word I've seen is in the first (IIRC) episode of HARLEY QUINN.
Here we go. This should illustrate for our friends across the pond just how offensive the word is here in the U.S.A.: https://youtu.be/6S6QSBc5MRM
That's solid, but I'm partial to this one: https://youtu.be/wZDpu-3fpzY
Also - Liz: "It rhymes with the title of your favorite Todd Rundgren album".
Frank: "It rhymes with HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW?"
My all-time favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOXaBV8mD-I
When I was dating my now-wife, there was a gubernatorial race happening where we lived. We were watching tv one night, and the female Republican candidate aired a brand new ad that boiled down to "Women: if the Democrat wins, you will get raped in a poorly lit parking lot."
As the commercial ended, I just reflexively said "what a c---."
A lengthy discussion ensued.
I don't as a rule use the c word, but there have recently been a couple of politicians that I can't seem to find any alternative word that I like better as my descriptor of them. Usually that's just what I think in my head, I'm not usually calling them one out loud, but sometimes...it's just the right word.
The ad in question was spectacularly bad. Grainy black & white footage. Overhead shot. Menacing narration. The victim, slowly realizing she's being stalked and fumbling for her car keys. It could've been a scene from some noir thriller. The Mike Dukakis/Willie Horton ad was tame by comparison.
Public funding for major stadiums isn’t really a UK thing aside from the Olympic Stadium which is now costing the taxpayer tens of millions against West Ham’s rent of about £3m.
Councils tend to take ownership of smaller club grounds to keep them out of the hands of people likely to redevelop them for nefarious means.
However, I can never get over the fact that when they talk about public money for NFL stadiums that they get used EIGHT times a year.
I'm no defender of public money for stadiums, but NFL stadiums get used more than eight times a year, unless it's a toilet like FedEx Field. They still host big concerts to cite one example, some also host local NCAA football games, soccer matches, to wrestling events, etc.
No they don't get used every day, but they certainly get used more than eight or nine times per year.
That's because threatening to move your team to another city isn't really a thing, because that city already has a football team, and it could be a Premier League team with some savvy transfer business. Which is another reason why the system of promotion and relegation is fantastic and I wish baseball had adopted it here 100 some years ago.
How amazing and fun that would be to have a promotion/relegation system throughout the US for baseball. It would have cemented the game as America's pastime forever. I'm from Minnesota originally and grew up with "town ball" which didn't involve promo/releg but it was your town's team that played other towns. It was so good. Go Aces!
… are we sure the Mets are a “good team”?
Not right now, though it's still only April.
rare similarity between the Mets and Yankees: this past off season there was great fanfare as each added one top pitcher. one is old(er) and hasn't played, the other is not so old and has not played. both line-ups are about the same as last season and having their same scoring issues. [shrug emoji]