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My parental generation’s “kindie rocker” was Raffi - who I now realize can’t hold a candle to Laurie Berkner. I did learn about belugas, though.

PS Pups in the Park in Fredericksburg went pretty well… The doodle behaved herself even if she could not sit still. (Don’t think I’ve ever gotten 10,000+ steps at a ball game but there you go.) If you live within driving distance of the new ballpark - and you can handle the mind-boggling back ups that are I-95 - it’s a fun place to see a ball game.

PPS As a Nats fan of a certain age, I’m really into Paolo Espino’s story of waiting 15 years to earn a win. I was convinced they would find a way to blow that one run lead yesterday - so happy to be wrong.

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Jun 17, 2021Liked by Craig Calcaterra

Nice move with the Mea Culpa Corner on free newsletter Thursday, wonder if you’ll get any new subscribers out of it that “have to see what this guy was wrong about this time”

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All kidding aside, I legitimately saw Laurie Berkner headline at some kind of Summer Arts in the Park thing in Frederick, MD many years ago. As DMCj said, she's definitely better than Raffi.

Weird fact I heard this morning: Jacob deGrom has the most hits for the Mets this season in games started by Jacob deGrom.

While we're on the subject of deGrom, Mets coming to town this weekend to face the Nats, who have won six of eight and managed to climb into a tie for third in the execrable NL East. Four game series that could prolong the fantasy that the Nats have a chance, or pretty much put a lid on the competitive part of the season for them.

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Juneteenth only got approved (so easily) as a federal holiday because it takes place in late June, after the school year is over in most states….so it can easily be left out of any curricula and barely discussed in schools.

If this was Marchteenth or Octoberteenth they never would’ve let it pass.

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An update on Ross Stripling's little tantrum: Craig showed us Ben Verlander's tweet, and Ross Stripling replied to Verlander's tweet with the words:

"Agreed. Completely embarrassed about it. Apologised to Joe individually and the team. Will never happen again. Young ballplayers, be better than this."

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Good stuff as always, Craig -- I just read this fairly balanced article from the Baltimore Sun on the recent report some Orioles AA minor leaguers were considering sleeping in their cars:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-minor-league-housing-20210617-d6lxf4mdtzag7juoqc5mjeexei-story.html

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There were slaves legally held in bondage in Delaware and Kentucky until December 1865, when the 13th Amendment finally took force. A holiday for the end of slavery is a very good thing, but shouldn't it be the REAL final end of slavery?

And yes, that is nitpicky, but why not be accurate?

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Curious use of Sweet's "Fox on the Run" in that Heist trailer (love the song, I guess it's the "on the run" part not the fact it's a song about a groupie that grabbed whoever put it together), but wow, that looks like I need to watch it.

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Beauchamp’s Vox piece is equal parts terrifying and unsurprising. It puts a lot of meat on the bones of those uncomfortable Thanksgiving conversations with the drunk uncle who doesn’t really understand that his “patriotism” is in fact “nationalism,” and his idea about how “votes should be weighted by a citizen’s contribution to the society (like let’s just say he, as a small biz owner, should have two votes),” is not really democracy at all. But goddam it he stands for the anthem, and he has been blessed with glorious purpose of “sticking it to the libs.”

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YO GABBA GABBA !!!!

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If I were Steve Cohen, I'd send an ORDER to Luis Rojas and the Mets coaching/medical staff to put deGrom on the 10 day IL IMMEDIATELY. Then use that time to run him through every conceivable test. Anyone here remember J.R. Richard? A hot young star pitcher for the Astros in the late 70s. Complained a lot about general soreness, and everyone accused him of malingering. Then, on July 30, 1980, he suffered a life-threatening stroke during a warm-up. Turned out he was having a number of blood clots and arterial constriction that were causing all the soreness in the various parts of his body....

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Laurie Berkner played a huge role in helping me keep my depleting sanity during those early childhood years. Gotta love Nanny G tho

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I despise the GOP, and where the party has wound up. I just wish the Democrats were better at actually....combatting the GOP, politically. The loudest Democrat response to the GOP (largely coming from Progressives) has not been particularly exciting, and they do not even have solutions to solve the problems they claim they want to solve.

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