Shohei Ohtani dominates again, Dusty Baker cuts to the chase and Ohio State trademarks "THE." Also: gender reveals, WrongThink, and a great literary homage.
Beam-Suntory bought the marketing rights for Maker's, but it's still Tom Samuels distilling it, not any of the Booker Noe joints in Bardstown. As a lapsed Kentuckian, there are really only four bourbon distillers, Beam-Suntory, Brown-Forman, Ancient Age and Heaven Hill. Anything you think is a small batch, very personally developed bourbon (I'm looking at you Pappy van Winkle) is actually a hire job at either Ancient Age or Heaven Hill. And anything labelled rye is still at this point MGP (a food additive company) selling off what they inherited from Diageo when they bought the Lawrenceburg, IN distillery. Templeton is releasing their first in house ryes from Iowa.
I'm not a spirits person at all, but this made me think of things like finding a director whose work you enjoy, etc. If you like that person's taste on one thing, you might like the next. So your discovery makes perfect sense to me!
OSU’s first failed attempt at trademark enforcement of “The.” It had something to do with Ohio University using “The Ohio University” on diplomas. I remember hearing about it, and going to check my OU diploma. Sure enough it says The. I shook my head and thought about how dumb it all seemed.
I've worked for companies before where an initial "The" was part if the official trademarked corporate name, so it was used everywhere in legal documents, logos, email signatures, etc. But they never made a big deal about it, just paid attention to it the same way one would proper spelling and they certainly didn't freak out if in most situations people dropped it.
The idea of having hoodies or hats with a big THE on them is incredibly weird.
Pretty sure I’ve told this here before… years ago (like the 50s) my grandfather (a Georgia Tech professor) was on the SEC accreditation committee. He went to Auburn on a visit and when he returned my grandmother asked him how it went.
His reply? “Auburn is undefeated, untied, ineligible and unaccredited!”
The sooner the Mets leave Texas, the better. Though I really want to see if the Astros can offer the Yankees the challenge no one else has. Certainly, I would bet that Yanks-Stros has a lot of homers.
If Carrasco is hurt, I think the Mets might have to bring Scherzer back Sunday. Or make a trade of some sort to prop up the rotation.
Orthodox Jews do not, in general, do gender reveals. We don't even ask the doctor what gender the baby might be, as it is considered bad luck to do more than is strictly necessary to prepare lest we trigger "the evil eye." Which is abject superstition, I know, but spares us the nonsense of gender reveal but also means that if it is a boy, we have only a week's warning to prepare for the circumcision, though has never been a big problem.
The Mets only have 4 games in the next 7 days, so they could likely work around not having Magill, Scherzer and Carrasco one more time through, although they might have to use a bullpen day to do it.
Also, the Mets who can't beat any west coast teams host the Rangers on their next homestand.
Except for the Giants in 1971 and the Mets in 1973, every NL division title in the 70s was won by the Dodgers, Reds, Pirates, or Phillies. and it was rare for the non-winning team to finish anywhere but second in their division, so I think the NL supremacy comment is correct.
" If you’re an old enough Reds fan to remember when both of these teams played in the NL West — or, if you’re even older and remember when they’d fight for National League supremacy back in the 70s" suggests that their NL West division rivalry started after the 70's when it was in-fact the entirety of the 70's.
I got that. But (I think) he’s saying they were both actually good throughout the 70s….as opposed to the 80s when they didn’t really battle for NL supremacy.
Old enough to remember the 80s rivalry - one of the first things I was taught to say by my dad was, "Dodgers, yuck" - but unfortunately I don't remember the 1970s Big Red Machine.
One thing that surprised me is how quickly I stopped really caring about the Dodgers one way or the other once the Reds moved to the NL Central in 1995. Familiarity breeds contempt, I suppose.
So you're just going to leave us hanging on yesterday's inconclusive story? Nothing on how/why Carlo came home after telling you he was spending the night at a friend's house?
Ah, forgot. It was anticlimactic: his friend had not checked with his parents to make sure the sleepover was OK, it was NOT OK at the boys were sent home. Carlo ended up getting home by his midnight curfew, though I was asleep for it and didn't know. He proved it, however, in that when he got dropped off he was locked out of the house so he texted Anna to let him in. She reluctantly showed me the texts which were right at midnight, so he skated.
It’s clear to me that you’re going to have to buy Carlo that car he’s been wanting, so that he’ll have a key ring to which he can attach the house key he so desperately needs.
Then lose the keys ring and not have his house key anymore. The kid drove home so it has to be in that disaster he calls a room. You're an adult now, can you please act like one!!
Sorry-my internal thoughts started falling out there...
So this Sports Illustrated resort sounds kinda like the colossal failure that was "Boardwalk and Baseball," (formerly Circus World) in Florida in the 80's.
Upon reading the "A Sports Illustrated Resort?" headline my first thought was "Oh, is this about some failed '80's concept?" After learning that, actually, this is a new and real thing being planned my next thought was "Sportsbook?"
Like so many of us, I grew up reading SI and have hundreds of issues saved (MANY date to the 50s and are signed by Berra, Ford, Flood, Gibson ... etc., in person) and I guess what's left of SI had a meeting in which:
"go back to spending money on journalism and hire back the desk? or ... open a resort in Mississippi? show of hands ..."
Watching highlights of Ohtani, Judge and Alvarez is fun.
Also, I think that Julio Rodriguez kid has a bright future -- he kind of reminds me of a combination of Carlos Correa and A-Rod.
Dusty Baker is just too cool. He is a face of MLB and has brought so much to the game. His team is once again playing well. He always seems to get along with his players.
The Giants bullpen has struggled this season and their series against the Braves has shown that.
I guess it's pretty clear at this point the Yankees are the best team in MLB this season.
I know Ohtani is a unique talent but one has to wonder how many potential two-way players are forced by travel-team, high-school and college coaches here and in other countries to pick one side and thus never have a real shot at being a two-way player. And even if one were to slip through that gauntlet, MLB teams who assign them positions and don't think this is a possibility. I know a few have been allowed to try, but there have to be a lot more athletes who could do it if allowed from the beginning to try it.
He became a position player his last year with the Red Sox, not with the Yankees. And he wanted to hit instead of pitch. It was his idea. He did pitch once with the Yankees long after he was BABE RUTH.
A lot of 26th man players are utility defense-first types who don't hit well. I would think a lot of those guys are good all-around athletes who can train to be a replacement level relief pitcher.
With all the position players pitching these days that almost makes sense. The main negative I can see here is not a technical limitation but, rather, teams deciding that they don't want to pay a premium for utility guys who can also pitch.
He does! Would be cool if he could stick at SS long term. Ripken had a cannon and could thus play deeper than pretty much anyone else. Cruz is even bigger though, and while I'm not a scout, looked a little awkward.
Sometimes it happens in high school because a very good hitting pitcher gets rusty since he isn't allowed to hit for himself because the coach's son needs additional at bats when he's not playing in the field that game. (No he does not but coach's son so oh well.)
Maybe, but star high school pitchers are often the best hitters on the team, and coaches like to win. I think it's largely the increasing talent level weeds out all but the unicorns. Look at how many MLB at bats it takes for even top hitting prospects to adjust.
Every time I've seen Rodriguez play he looks like all the tools are working. But then again Ive only seen him play against the A's and they make a LOT of players look good.
Inside Craig's head: Man, there's a good joke here about the Cubs and Pirates basically playing a spring training game! Wait, the Cubs train in AZ and the Buccos in FL; maybe the 'get on the bus' joke doesn't work? Ah, f' it, no one will notice."
That start by Jerad Eickhoff for Pittsburgh was just painful. I always think it's cool when I see a name from the past "hoping to make a comeback" and it gives me the chance to think, yeah, I remember him from five years ago. But it doesn't usually work. There's a reason why Eickhoff has played only five major league games in three years.
So his first game for his third club, and the first time through the order he hits three batters out of nine. Three left-handed batters, each one a gentle curveball drifting in towards the batter's ankles. First time in his career he's hit three batters in a game, after only 18 HBPs in his previous 460 career innings. And then he leaves the game with 10 runs to his name, all earned, tying his career high.
Good luck with the comeback, Jerad...it's just a shame that the bus to Mesa left already.
Last year, on July 27, I went to a Mets-Braves game at Citi Field with two friends. Out of arms, the Mets started Jared Eickhhoff, a journeyman who they had previously released. He gave up 10 runs -- 2 in each of the first three innings and 4 in the fourth inning -- on 7 hits (3 HRs) and 5 walks in 3 1/3 innings. It was like batting practice for the Braves. Me and a friend convinced the other guy, our friend who refuses to ever leave a Mets game, to leave with the score 12-0 (The Mets ended up losing 12-5). It was more than apparent to the three of us attending (and the Mets) that Jared Eickhoff was not a major league pitcher. Eickhhoff never pitched another inning for the Mets.
But the Pirates are so bad and so desperate that they signed him and brought him up to pitch yesterday despite a 4.84 ERA in the minors. And as Yogi Berra might have said, it was like deja vu all over again. 4 1/3 innings -- so he lasted one more inning than last year -- 10 runs on 10 hits (2 HRs) and 1 walk. So, he has now given up 20 runs on 17 hits (5 home runs) and 6 walks in 7 2/3 innings over his last two starts. Painful.
The Pirates' starting pitching has maybe been their best thing this season- certainly better than their offense or their bullpen. A few days ago, their current five-man rotation had a combined ERA of about 4.00, which is OK. But then Zach Thompson got injured, and they didn't have an obvious sixth man waiting and as you say, they were desperate...
My comment about the Pirates pitching was uninformed and gratuitous, a throw-away to write about Eickhoff. These past few years, the Mets had a similar problem -- a lack of depth in the rotation and injuries that necessitated using any live arm they could find as a 5th starter, most of whom took the Mets out of the game by the third or fourth inning. You really do need 7 or 8 starters these days.
So someone hit a grand slam off a position player, nice freebie rbi's there, and then a pitcher was allowed to hit just for fun! Was a small-person not available to entertain in the late innings?
Now with teams limited to 13 pitchers this is going to happen more and more. And at some point, som player is going to have a combined 3 homers and 12 ribs off position players and we're going to have to weigh that when considering someone for Rookie of the Year or MVP or something.
Two-way players could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.
That's a really good point -- teams might try to target potential two-way players for the 26th spot on the roster -- it could become the norm for teams.
Teams value versatility more than ever and having a viable two-way player would make logical sense in that progression.
Yeah, that's why MLB needs to change the rules and make teams designate a spot for a two-way player if they want a position player to pitch. The player would have to qualify -- pitch several innings in the minors or have an MLB track record.
Yeah -- the point should be to have standards if position players are going to regularly pitch. They need to train and get coaching and experience in pitching. It's a joke to just have someone throwing lobs over the plate during an MLB game.
Position players used to actually try to put some velocity on their pitches, but teams are so injury averse now that they have them play slowpitch softball.
How about we put juggling clowns (no, no not Alex Bohm) in the OF when games get out of hand. Hitting the clown counts as a grounds rule double, knocking the clown over counts as a homer.
Re questionable parenting related to movies, your story has nothing on the parents who took their kids to see the South Park movie back in the late 90s. "Oh look, it's another animated movie. How cute!"
Basically every 1970s PG movie would be rated PG-13 today, and many would get an R rating. I could go to any PG movie I wanted by age 10, no questions asked. The Bad News Bears was rated PG.
I replied this morning!
Alas, I wanted him to cover Jim Jordan asking Roger Goddell about the NFL banning Dave Portnoy and Dave Portnoy's 1st amendment rights
I like it when some guy says he's from THE Southwest Alabama Tech.
Beam-Suntory bought the marketing rights for Maker's, but it's still Tom Samuels distilling it, not any of the Booker Noe joints in Bardstown. As a lapsed Kentuckian, there are really only four bourbon distillers, Beam-Suntory, Brown-Forman, Ancient Age and Heaven Hill. Anything you think is a small batch, very personally developed bourbon (I'm looking at you Pappy van Winkle) is actually a hire job at either Ancient Age or Heaven Hill. And anything labelled rye is still at this point MGP (a food additive company) selling off what they inherited from Diageo when they bought the Lawrenceburg, IN distillery. Templeton is releasing their first in house ryes from Iowa.
Kings County Distillery. ur welcome. (they do mail order)
I'm not a spirits person at all, but this made me think of things like finding a director whose work you enjoy, etc. If you like that person's taste on one thing, you might like the next. So your discovery makes perfect sense to me!
I work in academic publishing. There are a significant number of OSU professors who insist on capitalizing "The" in their bios.
Adjunct, no doubt.
Hey, now, adjuncts are people, too.
*goes back to check his resume really quick; exhales deeply when he realizes that he did not include the "The"*
You are happily self-employed. No resume needed! Now you can just blurb your creds in an adjective-filled single paragraph.
Title it THE Craig Calcaterra, of course.
OSU’s first failed attempt at trademark enforcement of “The.” It had something to do with Ohio University using “The Ohio University” on diplomas. I remember hearing about it, and going to check my OU diploma. Sure enough it says The. I shook my head and thought about how dumb it all seemed.
I've worked for companies before where an initial "The" was part if the official trademarked corporate name, so it was used everywhere in legal documents, logos, email signatures, etc. But they never made a big deal about it, just paid attention to it the same way one would proper spelling and they certainly didn't freak out if in most situations people dropped it.
The idea of having hoodies or hats with a big THE on them is incredibly weird.
There's a town here in Oregon called The Dalles. "The" is part of the official name. It's weird.
I thought that was only The Hague that did that. Interesting.
There's a town in southeastern Ohio called The Plains.
This makes me wonder if an initial The is more or less pretentious than extra e's. (Such as Grosse Pointe.)
There's a town here in Iowa called What Cheer. Pronounced 'WOT-cheer'
There are two I know if in Texas. The Colony and The Woodlands. I think it's incredibly dumb.
When I've worked with the law school they have been VERY insistent on the THE
Which SEC school is going to go after ESPN for stealing the motto "Never Graduate?"
Pretty sure I’ve told this here before… years ago (like the 50s) my grandfather (a Georgia Tech professor) was on the SEC accreditation committee. He went to Auburn on a visit and when he returned my grandmother asked him how it went.
His reply? “Auburn is undefeated, untied, ineligible and unaccredited!”
Kind of surprised they never trademarked that.
Does a cycle really count if three of the hits were off of Patrick Qorbin?
The sooner the Mets leave Texas, the better. Though I really want to see if the Astros can offer the Yankees the challenge no one else has. Certainly, I would bet that Yanks-Stros has a lot of homers.
If Carrasco is hurt, I think the Mets might have to bring Scherzer back Sunday. Or make a trade of some sort to prop up the rotation.
Orthodox Jews do not, in general, do gender reveals. We don't even ask the doctor what gender the baby might be, as it is considered bad luck to do more than is strictly necessary to prepare lest we trigger "the evil eye." Which is abject superstition, I know, but spares us the nonsense of gender reveal but also means that if it is a boy, we have only a week's warning to prepare for the circumcision, though has never been a big problem.
The Mets only have 4 games in the next 7 days, so they could likely work around not having Magill, Scherzer and Carrasco one more time through, although they might have to use a bullpen day to do it.
Also, the Mets who can't beat any west coast teams host the Rangers on their next homestand.
They handled the Giants pretty we'll at Citi Field.
And split with the Dodgers in LA, and took two of three from the Angels.
And the sweep of the A's is coming soon.
Now if they could get some help from whoever is playing the Braves....
Small point from an oldster...The Dodgers and Reds were in the NL West for all of the 1970s, divisional play having started in 1969.
I think Craig’s point was that the two teams actually competed for NL supremacy in the 70’s, ABOVE AND BEYOND just being in the same division
Except for the Giants in 1971 and the Mets in 1973, every NL division title in the 70s was won by the Dodgers, Reds, Pirates, or Phillies. and it was rare for the non-winning team to finish anywhere but second in their division, so I think the NL supremacy comment is correct.
It was just a small point of clarification.
" If you’re an old enough Reds fan to remember when both of these teams played in the NL West — or, if you’re even older and remember when they’d fight for National League supremacy back in the 70s" suggests that their NL West division rivalry started after the 70's when it was in-fact the entirety of the 70's.
I got that. But (I think) he’s saying they were both actually good throughout the 70s….as opposed to the 80s when they didn’t really battle for NL supremacy.
The Dodgers did finish second to the Reds in the Reds' 1990 championship season. Both also faced off in the 95 divisional series.
Old enough to remember the 80s rivalry - one of the first things I was taught to say by my dad was, "Dodgers, yuck" - but unfortunately I don't remember the 1970s Big Red Machine.
One thing that surprised me is how quickly I stopped really caring about the Dodgers one way or the other once the Reds moved to the NL Central in 1995. Familiarity breeds contempt, I suppose.
So you're just going to leave us hanging on yesterday's inconclusive story? Nothing on how/why Carlo came home after telling you he was spending the night at a friend's house?
Possible that Carlo didn’t wake up until after Craig went to bed last night
Fair
Maybe those updates don't go out on Free Thurs.
Ah, forgot. It was anticlimactic: his friend had not checked with his parents to make sure the sleepover was OK, it was NOT OK at the boys were sent home. Carlo ended up getting home by his midnight curfew, though I was asleep for it and didn't know. He proved it, however, in that when he got dropped off he was locked out of the house so he texted Anna to let him in. She reluctantly showed me the texts which were right at midnight, so he skated.
This time.
It’s clear to me that you’re going to have to buy Carlo that car he’s been wanting, so that he’ll have a key ring to which he can attach the house key he so desperately needs.
Then lose the keys ring and not have his house key anymore. The kid drove home so it has to be in that disaster he calls a room. You're an adult now, can you please act like one!!
Sorry-my internal thoughts started falling out there...
Dad?
So this Sports Illustrated resort sounds kinda like the colossal failure that was "Boardwalk and Baseball," (formerly Circus World) in Florida in the 80's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_and_Baseball
When I think of Mississippi, I think of mosquitos.
Also gators. But mostly mosquitoes and hurricanes.
"Let's put a resort ... [looks at map again] ... HERE!"
Global Warming Disaster World!
Does anyone under the age of 30 know what the hell a "Sports Illustrated" is?
I'm well over 30 and I forgot it still existed until just now.
Upon reading the "A Sports Illustrated Resort?" headline my first thought was "Oh, is this about some failed '80's concept?" After learning that, actually, this is a new and real thing being planned my next thought was "Sportsbook?"
Like so many of us, I grew up reading SI and have hundreds of issues saved (MANY date to the 50s and are signed by Berra, Ford, Flood, Gibson ... etc., in person) and I guess what's left of SI had a meeting in which:
"go back to spending money on journalism and hire back the desk? or ... open a resort in Mississippi? show of hands ..."
More like 'some developer wants to pay us to brand a hotel '
true. they have NO money, so yeah.
Is the wealthy state of Mississippi kicking in money for this/tax breaks I'm sure?
Any word on how they would handle the drug RDU-90 ?
I hear Devlin MacGregor Pharmaceuticals falsified the research on that one.
They changed the samples, didnt they, huh?!?
I heard the same, it looked so promising at the start with reducing the risk of heart attacks.
Really counting on my Devlin MacGregor stocks! Provasic to the rescue!
This could really make up for my losses from all those MLB NTF's.
Watching highlights of Ohtani, Judge and Alvarez is fun.
Also, I think that Julio Rodriguez kid has a bright future -- he kind of reminds me of a combination of Carlos Correa and A-Rod.
Dusty Baker is just too cool. He is a face of MLB and has brought so much to the game. His team is once again playing well. He always seems to get along with his players.
The Giants bullpen has struggled this season and their series against the Braves has shown that.
I guess it's pretty clear at this point the Yankees are the best team in MLB this season.
I know Ohtani is a unique talent but one has to wonder how many potential two-way players are forced by travel-team, high-school and college coaches here and in other countries to pick one side and thus never have a real shot at being a two-way player. And even if one were to slip through that gauntlet, MLB teams who assign them positions and don't think this is a possibility. I know a few have been allowed to try, but there have to be a lot more athletes who could do it if allowed from the beginning to try it.
Ohtani is great, but he can't be the only one.
But the odd against only one guy having that ability are infinitesimal.
The Yankees forced him to stop pitching. And he was a great pitcher.
He became a position player his last year with the Red Sox, not with the Yankees. And he wanted to hit instead of pitch. It was his idea. He did pitch once with the Yankees long after he was BABE RUTH.
A lot of 26th man players are utility defense-first types who don't hit well. I would think a lot of those guys are good all-around athletes who can train to be a replacement level relief pitcher.
With all the position players pitching these days that almost makes sense. The main negative I can see here is not a technical limitation but, rather, teams deciding that they don't want to pay a premium for utility guys who can also pitch.
That Oneil Cruz has a cannon -- did you see that throw he made the other day from shortstop? It was about 97 mph, sidearm.
He does! Would be cool if he could stick at SS long term. Ripken had a cannon and could thus play deeper than pretty much anyone else. Cruz is even bigger though, and while I'm not a scout, looked a little awkward.
Sometimes it happens in high school because a very good hitting pitcher gets rusty since he isn't allowed to hit for himself because the coach's son needs additional at bats when he's not playing in the field that game. (No he does not but coach's son so oh well.)
Maybe, but star high school pitchers are often the best hitters on the team, and coaches like to win. I think it's largely the increasing talent level weeds out all but the unicorns. Look at how many MLB at bats it takes for even top hitting prospects to adjust.
Every time I've seen Rodriguez play he looks like all the tools are working. But then again Ive only seen him play against the A's and they make a LOT of players look good.
Inside Craig's head: Man, there's a good joke here about the Cubs and Pirates basically playing a spring training game! Wait, the Cubs train in AZ and the Buccos in FL; maybe the 'get on the bus' joke doesn't work? Ah, f' it, no one will notice."
That start by Jerad Eickhoff for Pittsburgh was just painful. I always think it's cool when I see a name from the past "hoping to make a comeback" and it gives me the chance to think, yeah, I remember him from five years ago. But it doesn't usually work. There's a reason why Eickhoff has played only five major league games in three years.
So his first game for his third club, and the first time through the order he hits three batters out of nine. Three left-handed batters, each one a gentle curveball drifting in towards the batter's ankles. First time in his career he's hit three batters in a game, after only 18 HBPs in his previous 460 career innings. And then he leaves the game with 10 runs to his name, all earned, tying his career high.
Good luck with the comeback, Jerad...it's just a shame that the bus to Mesa left already.
Last year, on July 27, I went to a Mets-Braves game at Citi Field with two friends. Out of arms, the Mets started Jared Eickhhoff, a journeyman who they had previously released. He gave up 10 runs -- 2 in each of the first three innings and 4 in the fourth inning -- on 7 hits (3 HRs) and 5 walks in 3 1/3 innings. It was like batting practice for the Braves. Me and a friend convinced the other guy, our friend who refuses to ever leave a Mets game, to leave with the score 12-0 (The Mets ended up losing 12-5). It was more than apparent to the three of us attending (and the Mets) that Jared Eickhoff was not a major league pitcher. Eickhhoff never pitched another inning for the Mets.
But the Pirates are so bad and so desperate that they signed him and brought him up to pitch yesterday despite a 4.84 ERA in the minors. And as Yogi Berra might have said, it was like deja vu all over again. 4 1/3 innings -- so he lasted one more inning than last year -- 10 runs on 10 hits (2 HRs) and 1 walk. So, he has now given up 20 runs on 17 hits (5 home runs) and 6 walks in 7 2/3 innings over his last two starts. Painful.
Goodness, that is an uncanny similarity.
The Pirates' starting pitching has maybe been their best thing this season- certainly better than their offense or their bullpen. A few days ago, their current five-man rotation had a combined ERA of about 4.00, which is OK. But then Zach Thompson got injured, and they didn't have an obvious sixth man waiting and as you say, they were desperate...
My comment about the Pirates pitching was uninformed and gratuitous, a throw-away to write about Eickhoff. These past few years, the Mets had a similar problem -- a lack of depth in the rotation and injuries that necessitated using any live arm they could find as a 5th starter, most of whom took the Mets out of the game by the third or fourth inning. You really do need 7 or 8 starters these days.
It was that, basically verbatim.
Hey, it's me, the guy who didn't notice!
So someone hit a grand slam off a position player, nice freebie rbi's there, and then a pitcher was allowed to hit just for fun! Was a small-person not available to entertain in the late innings?
Yeah, the whole position-player-pitching trend has kind of cheapened the game and made a mockery of competitive integrity.
Though I also can see how it boosts player morale by adding a fun quirk to a long, grinding season.
Now with teams limited to 13 pitchers this is going to happen more and more. And at some point, som player is going to have a combined 3 homers and 12 ribs off position players and we're going to have to weigh that when considering someone for Rookie of the Year or MVP or something.
Two-way players could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.
That's a really good point -- teams might try to target potential two-way players for the 26th spot on the roster -- it could become the norm for teams.
Teams value versatility more than ever and having a viable two-way player would make logical sense in that progression.
I can already here a manager saying. "we put our backup SS in to pitch because we didn't want to use our two-way guy in a blowout."
Yeah, that's why MLB needs to change the rules and make teams designate a spot for a two-way player if they want a position player to pitch. The player would have to qualify -- pitch several innings in the minors or have an MLB track record.
Or a soft-tossing junkballer who can pitch a few innings every day (or so) without blowing out his arm.
Yeah -- the point should be to have standards if position players are going to regularly pitch. They need to train and get coaching and experience in pitching. It's a joke to just have someone throwing lobs over the plate during an MLB game.
Position players used to actually try to put some velocity on their pitches, but teams are so injury averse now that they have them play slowpitch softball.
Someone get Tim Wakefield on the horn!
How about we put juggling clowns (no, no not Alex Bohm) in the OF when games get out of hand. Hitting the clown counts as a grounds rule double, knocking the clown over counts as a homer.
Fun for the whole family!
Bonus points for the Cubs Pirates spring training joke.
Re questionable parenting related to movies, your story has nothing on the parents who took their kids to see the South Park movie back in the late 90s. "Oh look, it's another animated movie. How cute!"
Several 80s kids movies had disturbing elements. I wasnt necessarily an 80s kid, but I watched many of the films on cable and VHS.
Basically every 1970s PG movie would be rated PG-13 today, and many would get an R rating. I could go to any PG movie I wanted by age 10, no questions asked. The Bad News Bears was rated PG.
And a fair number of classic cartoons are pretty disturbing. Elmer's Nightmare probably caused some.