A walkoff in Milwaukee, the Rays stay perfect, continued beefing in St. Louis, Alek Manoah doesn't give a shit, and people who think getting indicted is good politics
No, we all hate that someone who is ignorant and learns nothing continues to troll this page. You are proven wrong all the time and yet you persist. It’s creepy.
LOL. Daily reminder that it's always, ALWAYS projection with the MAGA crowd. Jay has been told this very line several times before, it's like when his daddy Donald ("Not a Trump fan" - LMAO) would learn a new word and start using it all the time to try to sound smart.
You can pay for something and be a comment troll. You can look up what it means to troll.
Jay- You spout inane bullshit that is easily disprovable all the time and get your ass handed to you, on a plate, medium rare, daily, and then you disappear as though you don’t have to answer for your false statements, returning the next day doing the same. So, yes, you are proven wrong and yet you persist.
Unless you’re the lead in Memento, this behavior is trolling.
If you actually dissented with cogent arguments, people might have productive discussion with you. Instead it's logical fallacy after logical fallacy. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would think that you were a false-flag liberal trying to make conservatives look bad.
You also say "wokeism" will cause everyone to flock to the R's. Where was that red wave we were all told we'd see in the midterms where all the R's were running on anti-wokeism? Who's your 2023 World Series pick, the Pirates?
You know, I like being an American and I think all things considered, we’re largely better for the the planet than bad, but I don’t need to f*cking crow about it every damned day.
I also have never owned a piece of clothing with a politician’s name on it.
Hi Jay. I am very interested in your description of the charges against Trump as "BS". There seems to be mixed opinions about them within the legal community. What law school did you go to? What type of law to do you practice?
What do you mean by "similar case"? Because a president/presidential candidate has not done specifically what Trump has done, the answer would be no. The closest you'd get is John Edwards, where most counts ended in a mistrial and he was acquitted on one.
Note that his immediate reaction was "maybe I am wrong", which is what people who don't know what they're talking about and are just making shit up always start with.
If you are doing books, I recently listened to Roger Bennett of Men In Blazers' (Re)Born in the USA - read by the author - and it's a really fun listen. I know a few people I passed on my dog walks thought I was nuts because I was either grinning or laughing out loud.
The best audiobook that I’ve ever listened to was Blackstone Audio’s 17 hour treatment of Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. Terrific book to begin with, and the guy who read it nailed it in terms of all the accents by various characters.
I feel obliged to post something deeply worried but grimly optimistic about the Mets on Simon’s behalf this morning. Use your imagination. Maybe throw in a Knicks reference.
PS The Nats radio team was up in arms yesterday because Ildemaro Vargas was called out on a time violation for strike three yesterday - and they said he was alert and in the box at 10 seconds but the pitcher was not on the mound so he looked down. I did not see it live, so I can’t confirm (and they do have a habit of being cranky about the strike zone), but if any team has worked out a way to game the pitch clock to its advantage, you know it’s the Rays.
PPS Thank you, Craig, for pointing out that the Rays have had somewhat of a cupcake start to their season… it will be interesting to see how various divisional races are affected by how well teams play against the taxi squads of MLB - but so far Tampa Bay is undefeated.
We can start with Verlander's improvement, and with a half-decent showing from Megill tomorrow (assuming it's still Megill) they might have to consider sending Peterson down when JV returns next week. Yesterday's offensive showing was a bit too concentrated for my preference (2-3-4-5 hitters provided all the offense), and Narvaez leaving the game was not great to see. I'm sort of happy for the rainout today, after 7 straight to start the season let them get the day off to reset and hope for a relaxing game against the Marlins on Friday.
Also, I was very impressed by the Brewers. The full-team effort exhibited over the last 3 games was impressive and even if they're just all hot at the same time it was exciting to watch.
When Alonso was was known to Mets fans primarily as an up-and-coming prospect, we were most definitely waiting for Peter Alonso to be called up. When he finally made the big league club, he became Pete. Let's face it: Pete is much more of a slugger name than Peter. Don't @ me; I don't make the rules.
Something like that happened with Rafael Devers in Boston, as well, and I do kind of idly wonder if there's a good spot to put the pitch clock where the batter can pay attention to it and the pitcher at the same time. In Fenway, there are two obvious spots behind the plate, but the hitter's got to be paying attention to something on top of the outfield wall or jumbotron (in Fenway, one clock is on a light tower above the monster, hardly eye-level). So they naturally take their cues from the pitcher, and that occasionally doesn't work.
So who do you think will be Manager for the Nats next year? I can’t imagine that Dave’s will be retained after the wretchedness of the past three seasons (my future self, several months from now, is including this season as one of them). Whoever the next Manager is, I hope he will have some street cred on bullpen management.
It all depends on the sale of the team. I think he stays until we get a new owner OR the Lerners decide they're going to stay and start trying to win again. I hope I'm wrong.
I need the Knicks to beat New Orleans tomorrow. They do that, the Timberwolves (and OH MY GOD this frustrating Timberwolves team! Plays to the level of competition almost every damn time, they look like they can beat the West one night and the next night they look like they should've been tanking for Wembanyama all season) get a big boost in their quest to avoid the Play-In, which also requires some losing by the Lakers and Clippers. But even if the Los Angeles teams don't provide succor, the Timberwolves control their own destiny for the 7 seed if the Knicks win tomorrow. UPDATE: forgot to mention, Minnesota controls their own destiny up to the 8 seed as things stand right now - which is much better than 9 or 10 as the 8 seed only needs to win once to make the playoffs proper.
Awesome. I keep checking Ohtani's page to see if Tungsten Arm, O'Doyle gets added as a nickname for him next to Showtime, but it never occurred to me to search for it.
* This is among the best Cole has looked in a Yankees uniform IMHO. He seems far more confident and settled in. Just hoping his pitch clock walk faux pas doesn’t stick with him ahead of his next start.
* This is also the first time since probably 2019, maybe very early 2020, where when Gleyber Torres steps up with RISP, I’m not automatically thinking “out” or “really bad PA coming.” It was briefly like that last season but he looks GOOD. 🤞🏻
* I would call the Cardinals about Tyler O’Neill immediately. Oli Marmol is a joke. I’ve given Boone shit for being too loyal to his players and coddling them (which I think is a major reason why Gary Sanchez fell apart) but at least Boone has historically taken the generic approach of addressing a problem and then keeping it in house. I don’t think Boone has ever thrown a player under the bus the way Marmol did, let alone double down.
I appreciate your point. However, Oli may be a lot of things but a joke isn't one of them. We don't know how the team feels about this. As Craig pointed out...the team veterans may be pissed about it.
They haven't started the season out well and you have one of (if not) THE fastest guys on the team dragging ass in the 4th game of the season. Marmol said it very succinctly, they have standards. You meet them, you play. If don't meet them, you don't play.
But all this aside, in hindsight he probably should have kept the second comment in house. Assuming something else hasn't happened of course.
Re: O'Neill: It's also entirely clear that the Yankees have NO trouble at all allowing a guy to loaf in an effort to make sure he doesn't pull a hammy, as evidenced by *gestures at basically everything Giancarlo Stanton has done in the last three years*.
Joe Girardi comes off like a bit of a hard-ass and there always seemed to be strife there between him and Gary anyway, so I'm not sure that Boone's more lax approach did any more harm to his development. (For the record I have no idea what Sanchez's deal is.) Yankee fans get on Boone a lot but I see him as a player's manager and if the team is happy with him I'm happy. He deserves criticism where it's due (for lineup construction, bullpen usage, Aaron Hicks usage, etc.) but it's mostly ticky-tack stuff that I think any manager would catch flack for. He never takes clubhouse drama out to the public though and I give him a lot of credit for that.
For some reason the "cars are better" guy's rant reminds me of Ben Shapiro posing for a picture holding a single piece of wood, in an undersized plastic shopping bag for some reason, in front of Home Depot in an attempt to look like a hard workin' man of the people.
He also has the smug superiority by saying that he knows some sort of secret routes that completely avoid traffic. In the year of our lord 2023, those routes do not exist anywhere anymore; digital GPS has seen to that.
I think an affordable high speed rail link from Springfield to Chicago and to St Louis would beat the heck out of whatever Amtrak is doing right now, though. Upper Midwest analogy would be Twin Cities to Milwaukee/Chicago, and conversely to Duluth. Especially the former would be something I would kill for. I'd use the latter too, though - not having to drive to Duluth for a little getaway would be awesome.
Receipts: I take Amtrak to and from Milwaukee about twice a year. My first trip this year is actually one way, though - my band is playing a friend's wedding in Milwaukee on May 20th, and I'm sticking around after the rest of the guys take off to catch a Brewers game in person. Then Amtrak home, because I'm not on a schedule. Note that last part. DO NOT TAKE AMTRAK IF YOU ARE ON A SCHEDULE. It's like what that one non-jerk from that argument Craig put in the newsletter said. Trains and Amtrak are for relaxin', at least outside of the Northeast US.
It's the damn "freight rail takes precedence" thing that makes Amtrak get so delayed. Once upon a time a train I was on departed Milwaukee right on time... and got to St. Paul 7 hours late! It was set to arrive at 10:30pm but we got in at dawn. Oil trains were to blame.
Now, if a dedicated high-speed link could be built that didn't suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous freight rail delay fortune, that would solve everything. The money is there, at least for shorter routes (think Milwaukee>>Madison, or Chicago) but some politicians seem almost reflexively opposed, even when the feds are literally trying to offer free money. This is a very simplified version of what happened in Wisconsin early during Scott Walker's governorship.
A week ago I went to a concert on a Saturday, stayed in Clayton that night then went to the zoo Sunday. We took 7 people…4 went to the concert…how would a train help me in any way?
(Again, not opposed to trains, but for me, there’s almost never an instance where it’d be an improvement over my van.)
I actually have answered this question elsewhere plenty of times - the best time to take a train is if you're travelling solo, or maybe with one other person, and you don't need a car where you're going. When I'm in Milwaukee, I don't need a car - I've got friends who would be driving to events anyway and there's always those car services and apps.
As you note, if you're in a group, a van is almost always better. My band isn't taking Amtrak to Milwaukee... the thought actually makes me chuckle a bit! Party train!
Took the train from NYC to Newport News a week ago and it was right on time. I guess I’ve been lucky and maybe I should add a time buffer like I do with Greyhound.
Disregard anything I say about Amtrak if you're travelling in the northeast or mid-Atlantic. I have zero experience doing that. In the Midwest at least, it's a different beast. You don't have oil trains and other freight clogging up the lines Amtrak uses out there, not hardly ever. You're probably gonna have Mussolini Amtrak, if you follow. (Except it's a historic myth that he made the trains run on time! But that's another discussion.)
Went to 3 games this week: 2:31, 1:57, 2:11. It was beautiful. I’m definitely not a person who thinks the game should be changed to capture an already lost audience. The pitch clock doesn’t really change the game, per se, it just eliminates all of the wasted time that used to accumulate over the course of a full game. The 2:31 game was 11-1. I went to a game two years ago that was 3-2 and lasted 3:20 with all the mound visits, replays, etc. I’ll never forget because the wasted time was so apparent. Anyway, I love love love the clock. Jury is still out on throwing over to first.
In the realm of obvious things that I just noticed recently, the Rays, who used to have a stingray in their logo when they were the Devil Ray's, now have a star looking thing. Which I knew, but it had never occurred to me that the star might be a ray of light.
I always had assumed they were still named after the fish, and they just dropped the Devil part because it's sounds dumb and no one calls the fish a devil ray. But I'm guessing they are actually now named after the beam of light, not the fish?
One of my favorite things to do is take out of town friends around New York City. "Wear comfortable shoes" I tell them. and we stop for beverages (adult and otherwise) at various times. I usually start on the west side, Times Square, go crosstown to the UN, up to Grand Central and then the south entrance of Central Park, maybe up to The Dakota and the Imagine mosaic, then catch a subway to the Village and then the financial district and hop around there a bit. But I find it's much much easier on my knees and back than actual woods hiking. I've put 4 or 5 miles on the knees in a day and although it may not be completely pleasant when it's over it's much easier than a mile on questionable terrain.
Back when I lived inNorth Brooklyn, when friends would visit, one of the things we would always do is take a long walk for fun. Generally, we'd at least go halfway across the Williamsburg Bridge, sometimes all the way and back again. Those were fun times! And that's one thing I do when I visit my friends there today, though I don't know nearly as many people in Williamsburg/Greenpoint anymore...
So after not receiving my Cup of Coffee newsletter email for a week or so, and it not showing up in my spam folder either, today I suddenly get it again. I assume it's something on my end because Craig says it shows as delivered, but I don't know what exactly it might be. I marked it as Not Junk and added Craig's Substack email to my address book now. Hopefully that helps.
Not sure if this helps at all but (if you're using gmail) I created a couple labels and set up some filters to auto-organize new newsletters and comments. I have a "newsletters" label, and then 2 labels for each individual thing I'm subscribed to along with its subsequent comments. Gmail isn't as good at dealing with that stuff as it could be but it mostly gets the job done as I don't think I've ever missed an email. On the flipside, last week I booked a flight and I watched the confirmation email pop up in my gmail inbox and then immediately disappear. I still have no clue as to what happened to it.
I don't know that Manoah won his argument with Verdugo. Well, I guess he won, but came across looking like an ass in the process. Though Verdugo was stupid to bring it up. Guys like that are only doing that kind of stuff to piss you off. If you complain about they just know it is pissing you off so they do it even more. It also revealed that Verdugo thinks he's still living in the long past era of sportsmanship and quaint notions such as not showing up an opponent. Those days are long gone.
Facial recognition and makes me think about the late, great Skip Caray’s comment during the then Businessman’s Special: a lot of fans brought their secretaries with them.
And the Andrus trade. Schuerholz was in the midst of picking up good players before their walk year hoping to squeeze great talent out of an inexpensive salary. Tex, Drew, Sheff. Crime Dog had 1.5 years left instead of 1. Sometimes it cost Wainwright, sometimes Odalis Perez. I prefer the current approach.
Nobody from that Andrus trade in 2007 is still in the majors. Neftali Feliz is technically still in organized baseball, being only 34 himself, but has not pitched in MLB since 2021 and was only in the independent Mexican league last year, followed by the Dominican Winter league., Not clear if he's still out there in uniform somewhere.
Of course, amassing 2000 hits in MLB is a lot easier if you debut at 20 like Andrus did. He's also the active MLB leader in both steals and caught stealing, though Starling Marte could overtake him easily if he stays healthy this year. It kinda makes me wonder: if Andrus could somehow remain at his current level of "production", say, hitting .245 with 5-8 HR a year for another 8 years or so, he could manage to get 3,000 hits.
He would probably have over 1,500 Runs (he's got 1,020 now) and maybe 400 steals...and like an 80 OPS+. It would be the perfect test case for whether 3,000 hits gets you into the Hall of Fame, because it obviously wouldn't. He'd be Omar Vizquel without the Gold Gloves, and personally I didn't think Vizquel belonged in the Hall even before the domestic violence allegations, but evidently an increasing percentage of the voting BBWAA members were disagreeing with me.
Obviously, Andrus won't do that. Nobody sticks around long once they hit this level, not without blazing speed or a great glove, but it would be an interesting litmus test.
I remember when Neftali came up he was phenomenal. And the flexibility he gave the Rangers by closing, setting up and then as part of the rotation was huge. I just looked him up and it looks like he signed another contract in February and is still pitching in the Mexican league. Personally, I will always be grateful for the help he provided in the 2011 World Series.
On the concession thing, I don't think it's that people have mentally set aside 2.5 hours for a baseball game. I think a much more plausible explanation is that they mentally set aside X numbers of dollars they're willing to spend attending a game. Fans end up thinking "I already spent $100. I'm not buying anything more even if it is only the 6th inning."
Luckily for me, at Target Field there is a local sausage jernt - Kramarchuk's - which operates two really cool bratwurst/Polish stands, one lower level and one upper. That's a better brat than you can get at Miller Park* - trust me, I know. There are gems if you know where to look for them. But they're the exceptions, not the rule, even as ballpark food in the aggregate is much better than 20 years ago (if more expensive on the boomerang).
Also, I don't know about other places but Nats Park starts to shut down for concessions in the 7th. If you do find a place that's open they often look at you like you've walked into a restaurant 15 minutes before closing.
Isn't that also true with the new, faster games? Maybe not. Maybe it's the concession stand operators who have put aside 2.5 hours to be at a baseball game.
Home opener isn't until tomorrow, but I think the Twins pushed last call from the 7th to the 8th inning. Of course if you're in one of the restaurants, you can stay until 2 am.
Very plausible. Also that they eat and drink as much as they like and when they're done they don't buy any more, especially closer to the time when they'd be thinking about heading home and having to take food with them or toss it out if they don't jam it down their gullets.
I mean it’s that, and that they stop selling beer at the 7th. So you’re still getting the hot dog, the Cracker Jack, the peanuts and the two beers, or whatever, but you just gotta cram it in faster. Which means line time/ball time goes up which is another reason I don’t understand why everyone wants to rush through the only sport that lets you relax and enjoy being there.
-Everyone in every state bordering Illinois plus every Illinoisian outside of Cook County, never mind how much Side Project and Perennial charge for their beers....
In case someone hasn't already suggested it, I don't think it really has much to do with time as such at all. I think when people go to baseball games, they measure time in *innings* not in hours, so if you're going to get a hot dog after the third inning, you still do that, even if it happens 10 minutes sooner than it used to. You know you hafta buy your last beer by the 7th, so you do. If you typically go out in the 5th to get a snack or ice cream or something, you still do that. You still buy souvenirs after the game, of you were going to.
I'm sure there are folks who really care about the time itself, but they're not missing any opportunities to spend money because of it, since they have their rhythms based around the stage of the game, not the time.
As I said elsewhere, I can't believe closing down concessions 30 minutes earlier won't have a negative affect on sales.
But, it's possible that a lot of people have a plan, whether financial or psychological, that's like pre-game/first inning beverage, some dinner, mid-game beverage, snack. And whether the game is 2 hours or 3.5 hours, they're just going to buy two drinks. If the game flies along maybe they pass on that snack because it's already the 8th inning, but that's a small loss. And the number of fans doing a beer every 30 minutes -- we've all seen them -- who have one less beer is pretty small as a percent of total revenue. What might happen is fans who walk around to get food or drink will miss an inning instead of most of an inning. Also possible that fans show up 20 minutes earlier to eat before the game since they don't want to miss the action of the game.
Feel like the jury is still out until we have several weeks of MLB data not MiLB which is a very different experience.
Exactly. I have my budget, situationally flexible but a budget nonetheless. And I get my concessions at the half-inning. At Target Field, I know where to get a beer very, very quickly. At Miller Park*, not so much - it's a major fan complaint, that lines for beer and all concessions are insane there. They've gotten better in the past couple of years but still a long way to go towards sanity.
But yeah, I digress. A beer or two and a food is my budget. I get them at half-innings, or maybe as I'm walking in if I'm parched and starving. But that's all I'm spending, no more and rarely less.
He’s just not that into you.
No, we all hate that someone who is ignorant and learns nothing continues to troll this page. You are proven wrong all the time and yet you persist. It’s creepy.
"You're not a serious person."
LOL. Daily reminder that it's always, ALWAYS projection with the MAGA crowd. Jay has been told this very line several times before, it's like when his daddy Donald ("Not a Trump fan" - LMAO) would learn a new word and start using it all the time to try to sound smart.
You can pay for something and be a comment troll. You can look up what it means to troll.
Jay- You spout inane bullshit that is easily disprovable all the time and get your ass handed to you, on a plate, medium rare, daily, and then you disappear as though you don’t have to answer for your false statements, returning the next day doing the same. So, yes, you are proven wrong and yet you persist.
Unless you’re the lead in Memento, this behavior is trolling.
Would you prefer attention whore to troll?
You frequently respond with vulgarity and insults, and say with a straight face that your arguments are serious?
If you actually dissented with cogent arguments, people might have productive discussion with you. Instead it's logical fallacy after logical fallacy. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would think that you were a false-flag liberal trying to make conservatives look bad.
You also say "wokeism" will cause everyone to flock to the R's. Where was that red wave we were all told we'd see in the midterms where all the R's were running on anti-wokeism? Who's your 2023 World Series pick, the Pirates?
So you're Ángel Hernández
You know, I like being an American and I think all things considered, we’re largely better for the the planet than bad, but I don’t need to f*cking crow about it every damned day.
I also have never owned a piece of clothing with a politician’s name on it.
Hi Jay. I am very interested in your description of the charges against Trump as "BS". There seems to be mixed opinions about them within the legal community. What law school did you go to? What type of law to do you practice?
What do you mean by "similar case"? Because a president/presidential candidate has not done specifically what Trump has done, the answer would be no. The closest you'd get is John Edwards, where most counts ended in a mistrial and he was acquitted on one.
If you are asking does the Manhattan DA bring cases charging falsifying business records in the first degree, you easily could find that such charges are brought commonly. https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/survey-new-york-felony-falsification-of-business-records-just-security.pdf has a mere sampling of such cases.
You are asking jay to provide details and clarification. This is the point where he disappears for the day. Thank you.
Amazingly, Jay turned it around and Niss had details even though the question was for Jay to provide the evidence.
Note that his immediate reaction was "maybe I am wrong", which is what people who don't know what they're talking about and are just making shit up always start with.
Slight oversimplification, probably, but here goes:
Falsifying records = misdemeanor
Falsifying records to affect an election = felony.
I tend to do books when hiking around here but I haven't decided yet for England.
If you are doing books, I recently listened to Roger Bennett of Men In Blazers' (Re)Born in the USA - read by the author - and it's a really fun listen. I know a few people I passed on my dog walks thought I was nuts because I was either grinning or laughing out loud.
The best audiobook that I’ve ever listened to was Blackstone Audio’s 17 hour treatment of Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. Terrific book to begin with, and the guy who read it nailed it in terms of all the accents by various characters.
Hey, that books looks great based on the internet search version of the inside of the front cover I just read. The title caught my eye...
Repo man soundtrack to kick things off.
Aka American punk rock's greatest hits for white suburban punks of the mid-'80s....
I feel obliged to post something deeply worried but grimly optimistic about the Mets on Simon’s behalf this morning. Use your imagination. Maybe throw in a Knicks reference.
PS The Nats radio team was up in arms yesterday because Ildemaro Vargas was called out on a time violation for strike three yesterday - and they said he was alert and in the box at 10 seconds but the pitcher was not on the mound so he looked down. I did not see it live, so I can’t confirm (and they do have a habit of being cranky about the strike zone), but if any team has worked out a way to game the pitch clock to its advantage, you know it’s the Rays.
PPS Thank you, Craig, for pointing out that the Rays have had somewhat of a cupcake start to their season… it will be interesting to see how various divisional races are affected by how well teams play against the taxi squads of MLB - but so far Tampa Bay is undefeated.
I respond to this Grim Optimism by saying something nice about the Mets even though it goes against my Baseball Nature.
And I’ll offer the hope that Simon found the Afikomen! Chag Samaech to the MOTs. Or MsOT. Whatever.
Technically memberS of the tribe (only one tribe) just like fathers-in-law. But you'd never write FsIL rather than FILs, so shrug_emoji.
We can start with Verlander's improvement, and with a half-decent showing from Megill tomorrow (assuming it's still Megill) they might have to consider sending Peterson down when JV returns next week. Yesterday's offensive showing was a bit too concentrated for my preference (2-3-4-5 hitters provided all the offense), and Narvaez leaving the game was not great to see. I'm sort of happy for the rainout today, after 7 straight to start the season let them get the day off to reset and hope for a relaxing game against the Marlins on Friday.
Also, I was very impressed by the Brewers. The full-team effort exhibited over the last 3 games was impressive and even if they're just all hot at the same time it was exciting to watch.
Make sure to check back this afternoon for CoC Brewers correspondent Nato Coles' rapturous wrap-up ;)
The Mets may not win another game this year. Also, cute how Bob Uecker refers to Alonso as "Peter Alonso."
When Alonso was was known to Mets fans primarily as an up-and-coming prospect, we were most definitely waiting for Peter Alonso to be called up. When he finally made the big league club, he became Pete. Let's face it: Pete is much more of a slugger name than Peter. Don't @ me; I don't make the rules.
Something like that happened with Rafael Devers in Boston, as well, and I do kind of idly wonder if there's a good spot to put the pitch clock where the batter can pay attention to it and the pitcher at the same time. In Fenway, there are two obvious spots behind the plate, but the hitter's got to be paying attention to something on top of the outfield wall or jumbotron (in Fenway, one clock is on a light tower above the monster, hardly eye-level). So they naturally take their cues from the pitcher, and that occasionally doesn't work.
So who do you think will be Manager for the Nats next year? I can’t imagine that Dave’s will be retained after the wretchedness of the past three seasons (my future self, several months from now, is including this season as one of them). Whoever the next Manager is, I hope he will have some street cred on bullpen management.
It all depends on the sale of the team. I think he stays until we get a new owner OR the Lerners decide they're going to stay and start trying to win again. I hope I'm wrong.
I need the Knicks to beat New Orleans tomorrow. They do that, the Timberwolves (and OH MY GOD this frustrating Timberwolves team! Plays to the level of competition almost every damn time, they look like they can beat the West one night and the next night they look like they should've been tanking for Wembanyama all season) get a big boost in their quest to avoid the Play-In, which also requires some losing by the Lakers and Clippers. But even if the Los Angeles teams don't provide succor, the Timberwolves control their own destiny for the 7 seed if the Knicks win tomorrow. UPDATE: forgot to mention, Minnesota controls their own destiny up to the 8 seed as things stand right now - which is much better than 9 or 10 as the 8 seed only needs to win once to make the playoffs proper.
Also my brother in law - who is a great guy - is a big Knicks fan, so it's a little easy to just root for them anyway. Also there's Mitchell Robinson, who is ridiculous and awesome. https://theathletic.com/4382020/2023/04/05/mitchell-robinson-knicks-fun/
So what I'm saying is: Go Knicks! (Tomorrow!)
I had to look this one up.
If "Tungsten Arm O'Doyle" is Shohei Ohtani, then his teammate "Logan O'Hoppe" is...well, it turns out he's Logan O'Hoppe.
But it wasn't time wasted, because I learned that Mr O'Doyle has his own Wikipedia page...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:April_Fools/April_Fools%27_Day_2023/Tungsten_Arm_O%27Doyle
It appears that in spite of his name, O'Doyle was a Rangers fan. You learn something new every day.
Search for Tungsten Arm O'doyle on bref.....
Awesome. I keep checking Ohtani's page to see if Tungsten Arm, O'Doyle gets added as a nickname for him next to Showtime, but it never occurred to me to search for it.
Couple Yankees thoughts:
* This is among the best Cole has looked in a Yankees uniform IMHO. He seems far more confident and settled in. Just hoping his pitch clock walk faux pas doesn’t stick with him ahead of his next start.
* This is also the first time since probably 2019, maybe very early 2020, where when Gleyber Torres steps up with RISP, I’m not automatically thinking “out” or “really bad PA coming.” It was briefly like that last season but he looks GOOD. 🤞🏻
* I would call the Cardinals about Tyler O’Neill immediately. Oli Marmol is a joke. I’ve given Boone shit for being too loyal to his players and coddling them (which I think is a major reason why Gary Sanchez fell apart) but at least Boone has historically taken the generic approach of addressing a problem and then keeping it in house. I don’t think Boone has ever thrown a player under the bus the way Marmol did, let alone double down.
I appreciate your point. However, Oli may be a lot of things but a joke isn't one of them. We don't know how the team feels about this. As Craig pointed out...the team veterans may be pissed about it.
They haven't started the season out well and you have one of (if not) THE fastest guys on the team dragging ass in the 4th game of the season. Marmol said it very succinctly, they have standards. You meet them, you play. If don't meet them, you don't play.
But all this aside, in hindsight he probably should have kept the second comment in house. Assuming something else hasn't happened of course.
Re: O'Neill: It's also entirely clear that the Yankees have NO trouble at all allowing a guy to loaf in an effort to make sure he doesn't pull a hammy, as evidenced by *gestures at basically everything Giancarlo Stanton has done in the last three years*.
Joe Girardi comes off like a bit of a hard-ass and there always seemed to be strife there between him and Gary anyway, so I'm not sure that Boone's more lax approach did any more harm to his development. (For the record I have no idea what Sanchez's deal is.) Yankee fans get on Boone a lot but I see him as a player's manager and if the team is happy with him I'm happy. He deserves criticism where it's due (for lineup construction, bullpen usage, Aaron Hicks usage, etc.) but it's mostly ticky-tack stuff that I think any manager would catch flack for. He never takes clubhouse drama out to the public though and I give him a lot of credit for that.
For some reason the "cars are better" guy's rant reminds me of Ben Shapiro posing for a picture holding a single piece of wood, in an undersized plastic shopping bag for some reason, in front of Home Depot in an attempt to look like a hard workin' man of the people.
That sounds about right. Probably a shelf, too, so it's finished and smooth instead of splintery.
He also has the smug superiority by saying that he knows some sort of secret routes that completely avoid traffic. In the year of our lord 2023, those routes do not exist anywhere anymore; digital GPS has seen to that.
Fwiw, where I live, trains wouldn’t work, but I appreciate them where they do.
I think an affordable high speed rail link from Springfield to Chicago and to St Louis would beat the heck out of whatever Amtrak is doing right now, though. Upper Midwest analogy would be Twin Cities to Milwaukee/Chicago, and conversely to Duluth. Especially the former would be something I would kill for. I'd use the latter too, though - not having to drive to Duluth for a little getaway would be awesome.
Receipts: I take Amtrak to and from Milwaukee about twice a year. My first trip this year is actually one way, though - my band is playing a friend's wedding in Milwaukee on May 20th, and I'm sticking around after the rest of the guys take off to catch a Brewers game in person. Then Amtrak home, because I'm not on a schedule. Note that last part. DO NOT TAKE AMTRAK IF YOU ARE ON A SCHEDULE. It's like what that one non-jerk from that argument Craig put in the newsletter said. Trains and Amtrak are for relaxin', at least outside of the Northeast US.
My wife has taken a train (Amtrak) to Chicago many times.
It’s always hours behind schedule.
My travel always involves multiple kids and baggage and lots of additional travel after we’ve arrived at our ‘destination’.
Trains don’t address my needs..ever. I get that they do for many, just not me.
It's the damn "freight rail takes precedence" thing that makes Amtrak get so delayed. Once upon a time a train I was on departed Milwaukee right on time... and got to St. Paul 7 hours late! It was set to arrive at 10:30pm but we got in at dawn. Oil trains were to blame.
Now, if a dedicated high-speed link could be built that didn't suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous freight rail delay fortune, that would solve everything. The money is there, at least for shorter routes (think Milwaukee>>Madison, or Chicago) but some politicians seem almost reflexively opposed, even when the feds are literally trying to offer free money. This is a very simplified version of what happened in Wisconsin early during Scott Walker's governorship.
A week ago I went to a concert on a Saturday, stayed in Clayton that night then went to the zoo Sunday. We took 7 people…4 went to the concert…how would a train help me in any way?
(Again, not opposed to trains, but for me, there’s almost never an instance where it’d be an improvement over my van.)
I actually have answered this question elsewhere plenty of times - the best time to take a train is if you're travelling solo, or maybe with one other person, and you don't need a car where you're going. When I'm in Milwaukee, I don't need a car - I've got friends who would be driving to events anyway and there's always those car services and apps.
As you note, if you're in a group, a van is almost always better. My band isn't taking Amtrak to Milwaukee... the thought actually makes me chuckle a bit! Party train!
I’ve been to StL each of the last two weekends. Neither time would a train be a good option.
Took the train from NYC to Newport News a week ago and it was right on time. I guess I’ve been lucky and maybe I should add a time buffer like I do with Greyhound.
Disregard anything I say about Amtrak if you're travelling in the northeast or mid-Atlantic. I have zero experience doing that. In the Midwest at least, it's a different beast. You don't have oil trains and other freight clogging up the lines Amtrak uses out there, not hardly ever. You're probably gonna have Mussolini Amtrak, if you follow. (Except it's a historic myth that he made the trains run on time! But that's another discussion.)
Went to 3 games this week: 2:31, 1:57, 2:11. It was beautiful. I’m definitely not a person who thinks the game should be changed to capture an already lost audience. The pitch clock doesn’t really change the game, per se, it just eliminates all of the wasted time that used to accumulate over the course of a full game. The 2:31 game was 11-1. I went to a game two years ago that was 3-2 and lasted 3:20 with all the mound visits, replays, etc. I’ll never forget because the wasted time was so apparent. Anyway, I love love love the clock. Jury is still out on throwing over to first.
This eliminates the re-Velcro-ing of batting gloves between pitches…even when the batter took a pitch without a swing.
I'm hoping the clock saves enough time that they can ditch the throw to first rules. They seem too complex for the minor gains.
Q: can a pitcher stall by asking for a new ball? Over and over? It's not a modern game if they don't go thru 8 or 9 dozen. ..
Well the NYT ‘Trump is winning the news cycle’ article is by Peter Baker and there is not a Republican in history that he would not toady up to.
Except Lincoln.
Yes, that is exactly how to mischaracterize my painting of him as a 2023-era Establishment Republican.
In the realm of obvious things that I just noticed recently, the Rays, who used to have a stingray in their logo when they were the Devil Ray's, now have a star looking thing. Which I knew, but it had never occurred to me that the star might be a ray of light.
I always had assumed they were still named after the fish, and they just dropped the Devil part because it's sounds dumb and no one calls the fish a devil ray. But I'm guessing they are actually now named after the beam of light, not the fish?
I seem to recall that part of their reason for dropping “Devil” was due to some conservative Christian types complaining , because Satan.
Surely not in free Florida, the freest of all freedom-loving free places ever!
CANCEL CULTURE! CANCEL CULTURE! CANCEL CULTURE!!!
(Did I do it right?)
Craig: Watching the Red Sox/Pirates on Tuesday night, I saw the game interrupted with a Pitcher/Catcher technology issue.
I realized I never understood the mechanics of the new pitch sign process.
I need a short tutorial.
One of my favorite things to do is take out of town friends around New York City. "Wear comfortable shoes" I tell them. and we stop for beverages (adult and otherwise) at various times. I usually start on the west side, Times Square, go crosstown to the UN, up to Grand Central and then the south entrance of Central Park, maybe up to The Dakota and the Imagine mosaic, then catch a subway to the Village and then the financial district and hop around there a bit. But I find it's much much easier on my knees and back than actual woods hiking. I've put 4 or 5 miles on the knees in a day and although it may not be completely pleasant when it's over it's much easier than a mile on questionable terrain.
Back when I lived inNorth Brooklyn, when friends would visit, one of the things we would always do is take a long walk for fun. Generally, we'd at least go halfway across the Williamsburg Bridge, sometimes all the way and back again. Those were fun times! And that's one thing I do when I visit my friends there today, though I don't know nearly as many people in Williamsburg/Greenpoint anymore...
So after not receiving my Cup of Coffee newsletter email for a week or so, and it not showing up in my spam folder either, today I suddenly get it again. I assume it's something on my end because Craig says it shows as delivered, but I don't know what exactly it might be. I marked it as Not Junk and added Craig's Substack email to my address book now. Hopefully that helps.
You're not alone in this, unfortunately. A handful of people have had a similar problem recently. Here's hoping it's going away.
Not sure if this helps at all but (if you're using gmail) I created a couple labels and set up some filters to auto-organize new newsletters and comments. I have a "newsletters" label, and then 2 labels for each individual thing I'm subscribed to along with its subsequent comments. Gmail isn't as good at dealing with that stuff as it could be but it mostly gets the job done as I don't think I've ever missed an email. On the flipside, last week I booked a flight and I watched the confirmation email pop up in my gmail inbox and then immediately disappear. I still have no clue as to what happened to it.
I don't know that Manoah won his argument with Verdugo. Well, I guess he won, but came across looking like an ass in the process. Though Verdugo was stupid to bring it up. Guys like that are only doing that kind of stuff to piss you off. If you complain about they just know it is pissing you off so they do it even more. It also revealed that Verdugo thinks he's still living in the long past era of sportsmanship and quaint notions such as not showing up an opponent. Those days are long gone.
Two callbacks in the post.
Facial recognition and makes me think about the late, great Skip Caray’s comment during the then Businessman’s Special: a lot of fans brought their secretaries with them.
And the Andrus trade. Schuerholz was in the midst of picking up good players before their walk year hoping to squeeze great talent out of an inexpensive salary. Tex, Drew, Sheff. Crime Dog had 1.5 years left instead of 1. Sometimes it cost Wainwright, sometimes Odalis Perez. I prefer the current approach.
Nobody from that Andrus trade in 2007 is still in the majors. Neftali Feliz is technically still in organized baseball, being only 34 himself, but has not pitched in MLB since 2021 and was only in the independent Mexican league last year, followed by the Dominican Winter league., Not clear if he's still out there in uniform somewhere.
Of course, amassing 2000 hits in MLB is a lot easier if you debut at 20 like Andrus did. He's also the active MLB leader in both steals and caught stealing, though Starling Marte could overtake him easily if he stays healthy this year. It kinda makes me wonder: if Andrus could somehow remain at his current level of "production", say, hitting .245 with 5-8 HR a year for another 8 years or so, he could manage to get 3,000 hits.
He would probably have over 1,500 Runs (he's got 1,020 now) and maybe 400 steals...and like an 80 OPS+. It would be the perfect test case for whether 3,000 hits gets you into the Hall of Fame, because it obviously wouldn't. He'd be Omar Vizquel without the Gold Gloves, and personally I didn't think Vizquel belonged in the Hall even before the domestic violence allegations, but evidently an increasing percentage of the voting BBWAA members were disagreeing with me.
Obviously, Andrus won't do that. Nobody sticks around long once they hit this level, not without blazing speed or a great glove, but it would be an interesting litmus test.
With the White Sox farm system's inability to produce bats, Andrus could remain with the team through 2030 easily if he'll resign for $3MM per....
I remember when Neftali came up he was phenomenal. And the flexibility he gave the Rangers by closing, setting up and then as part of the rotation was huge. I just looked him up and it looks like he signed another contract in February and is still pitching in the Mexican league. Personally, I will always be grateful for the help he provided in the 2011 World Series.
The Pirates are not as crappy as people want to think.
The Nats are exactly as crappy - maybe crappier - as people want to think. It's difficult to get under a low bar but it might happen.
On the concession thing, I don't think it's that people have mentally set aside 2.5 hours for a baseball game. I think a much more plausible explanation is that they mentally set aside X numbers of dollars they're willing to spend attending a game. Fans end up thinking "I already spent $100. I'm not buying anything more even if it is only the 6th inning."
I, too, miss the days of farm-to-table dining in section 207.... ;)
Food at the Mariners games is pretty good. But it's a long drive for you, so yeah.
That was my memory, the one game I went to at Safeco.
Luckily for me, at Target Field there is a local sausage jernt - Kramarchuk's - which operates two really cool bratwurst/Polish stands, one lower level and one upper. That's a better brat than you can get at Miller Park* - trust me, I know. There are gems if you know where to look for them. But they're the exceptions, not the rule, even as ballpark food in the aggregate is much better than 20 years ago (if more expensive on the boomerang).
Also, I don't know about other places but Nats Park starts to shut down for concessions in the 7th. If you do find a place that's open they often look at you like you've walked into a restaurant 15 minutes before closing.
Isn't that also true with the new, faster games? Maybe not. Maybe it's the concession stand operators who have put aside 2.5 hours to be at a baseball game.
Home opener isn't until tomorrow, but I think the Twins pushed last call from the 7th to the 8th inning. Of course if you're in one of the restaurants, you can stay until 2 am.
Very plausible. Also that they eat and drink as much as they like and when they're done they don't buy any more, especially closer to the time when they'd be thinking about heading home and having to take food with them or toss it out if they don't jam it down their gullets.
I mean it’s that, and that they stop selling beer at the 7th. So you’re still getting the hot dog, the Cracker Jack, the peanuts and the two beers, or whatever, but you just gotta cram it in faster. Which means line time/ball time goes up which is another reason I don’t understand why everyone wants to rush through the only sport that lets you relax and enjoy being there.
I bought $6 tickets for the ATL/STL game on Monday. Each came with $6 cardinal cash to use on concessions. That’s one way to boost sales.
Of course $6 is about 1/3rd of a beer in StL…concessions are crazy expensive there, about 30-40% higher than Wrigley in my experience.
"But Chicago so expensive!"
-Everyone in every state bordering Illinois plus every Illinoisian outside of Cook County, never mind how much Side Project and Perennial charge for their beers....
In case someone hasn't already suggested it, I don't think it really has much to do with time as such at all. I think when people go to baseball games, they measure time in *innings* not in hours, so if you're going to get a hot dog after the third inning, you still do that, even if it happens 10 minutes sooner than it used to. You know you hafta buy your last beer by the 7th, so you do. If you typically go out in the 5th to get a snack or ice cream or something, you still do that. You still buy souvenirs after the game, of you were going to.
I'm sure there are folks who really care about the time itself, but they're not missing any opportunities to spend money because of it, since they have their rhythms based around the stage of the game, not the time.
As I said elsewhere, I can't believe closing down concessions 30 minutes earlier won't have a negative affect on sales.
But, it's possible that a lot of people have a plan, whether financial or psychological, that's like pre-game/first inning beverage, some dinner, mid-game beverage, snack. And whether the game is 2 hours or 3.5 hours, they're just going to buy two drinks. If the game flies along maybe they pass on that snack because it's already the 8th inning, but that's a small loss. And the number of fans doing a beer every 30 minutes -- we've all seen them -- who have one less beer is pretty small as a percent of total revenue. What might happen is fans who walk around to get food or drink will miss an inning instead of most of an inning. Also possible that fans show up 20 minutes earlier to eat before the game since they don't want to miss the action of the game.
Feel like the jury is still out until we have several weeks of MLB data not MiLB which is a very different experience.
Exactly. I have my budget, situationally flexible but a budget nonetheless. And I get my concessions at the half-inning. At Target Field, I know where to get a beer very, very quickly. At Miller Park*, not so much - it's a major fan complaint, that lines for beer and all concessions are insane there. They've gotten better in the past couple of years but still a long way to go towards sanity.
But yeah, I digress. A beer or two and a food is my budget. I get them at half-innings, or maybe as I'm walking in if I'm parched and starving. But that's all I'm spending, no more and rarely less.