I don't think the Redlegs will have the largest bandwagon. They already have a shit ton of fans. They just don't show up when the product on the field is horrible. I'm torn. As a lifelong Cardinals fan I always want the division to be competitive (with the exception of the Cubs of course).
Selfishly however, I really love the fact that when the Cardinals are in town, I can make the 1 1/2 hour drive east to Great American Smallpark (wonderful park IMO)...pay a fraction of the cost for tickets compared to Busch Stadium and sit anywhere I want. That will no longer be a possibility with the Reds being competitive. OTOH...I'm really happy for my Reds loving buddies because they are absolutely ecstatic.
I started following the Reds on Twitter because I personally love Joey Votto, and the upside has been having a bunch of tweets about exciting young players on my feed. (It's a bit of a balm since the exciting players on my own team are underperforming, so I get my smiles where I can.)
Things I like: perfect games. Things I hate: domestic abusers. So forgive me for not congratulating German.
My big takeaways from the Mets press conference: 1) Headline writers really need to say Steve Cohen since there is also Gary Cohen; 2) Steve Cohen, in that pullover with the zipper and that cap and glasses, has a vibe like that of Victor Garber when he was on Legends of Tomorrow.
Beating your wife is not merely offending someone. And even if you think that someone should not lose his livelihood for doing it, that doesn't mean I have to have any respect for such people. Especially ones who show no remorse. (And if I ever sank so low as to hi my wife, I would expect to be judged poorly for it, and I would deserve it.)
"Catchers sometimes try to frame pitches to convince the umpire a ball is a strike."
Black Sable, reading comprehension extraordinaire and most civil, humble commenter on CoC - "Oh so you think catchers should call balls and strikes? You're an idiot."
Has German shown no remorse for his actions? I was not aware that there had been any news on the issue since then. I'm no fan of such people either, and am certainly not trolling you here, just asking an honest question. He may very well have shown remorse to his then girlfriend (now wife) to which none of us would be privy.
Went to sleep, think the Yankees were up 4-0. Woke up around 3 ET to upper and grabbed my phone. Never in a million years would’ve guessed Germán of all people would throw a perfect game. Didn’t even know he had one when I went to sleep.
He’s had such a strange Yankees career. There were a couple months in 2019 when he looked GREAT, but there were also months where you said the W-L record doesn’t tell the whole story. Then he had the DV suspension, he’s had some mediocrity mixed with strong starts.
But that’s not even the most surprising stat line of last night. Patrick Corbin threw seven scoreless!!
And yet Don Larsen, a significantly worse pitcher, stayed on the ballot a full 15 years and got more than 10% of the writers vote some years.
...
Barker’s perfect game lead to a lot of pain for me. It was why ATL overpaid for him. Years of top flight leadoff hitting by the perfectly named ATL player Brett Butler and some cromulent performance by Brook Jacoby kept contrasting Barker’s injury plagued sub .500 performance.
So irrelevant has Jerry Reinsdorf made the White Sox that none dare speak their name when Phil Humber's no-no (and subsequent DFA-ing for pitching like Burnt Umber the rest of the time) comes up....
Rain delay, meh pitching, horrible defense and no offense lead to another Boston loss, so, other than the rain delay, on brand for the past several weeks. What’s the record for players traded away at the deadline? Oh, and Sale is getting an MRI and having a press conference today, probably to say his arm will fall off if he throws another pitch, so we’ve got that going for us.
For deadline deals, I'm trying to remember what year the White Sox dumped half their roster despite being well into contention. Mid 10s?
Off season, there are really only a few choices: the two Connie Mack firesales when he was going broke and tore up truly dominating A's clubs and the '97 Marlins club that went from fluke winner to unwatchable overnight.
The infamous "White Flag Trade" was made back in 1997, half my lifetime ago. The White Stockings were 3-1/2 games behind the dastardly Cleveland...Spiders(?) when they threw in the towel on July 31 by moving three of their best pitchers to the Giants of San Francisco.
The San Francisco Giants received:
-Wilson Álvarez, left-handed starting pitcher
-Danny Darwin, right-handed starting pitcher
-Roberto Hernández, right-handed relief pitcher
The Chicago White Sox received:
-Keith Foulke, right-handed pitcher
-Bob Howry, right-handed pitcher
-Lorenzo Barceló, right-handed pitcher
-Ken Vining, left-handed pitcher
-Mike Caruso, shortstop
-Brian Manning, outfielder
Howry became the Sox closer the next season, a job he held for several years until Keith Foulke succeeded him and went on a nice six-season run of saves. For reasons no one except the radar-gun-obsessed understood, the Sox dealt Foulke to the A's for Billy "100 mph straight down the middle and outta the yard" Koch, who was not good in a White Sox uniform. The extremely green Mike Caruso managed to finish third in AL RoY voting in 1998 on the dint of his .306 average and 22 steals, but his performance dropped off in '99. He didn't play in the bigs again until his final season, 2002, when he got into a dozen games with the Royals.
As for Lorenzo Barcelo, he logged 66 innings across three seasons with the Sox and then disappeared. He lives in infamy in my household, however, as he was one of four future Sox to sign a ballcap I own the one and only time I ever went to Soxfest (Kip Wells, Jon Garland, and Aaron Myette were the other three).
I know it wasn't popular at the time, but as it turned out, I think the ChiSox got the better of the deal:
Wilson Alvarez was sub-mediocre for the Giants for a couple of months, then left as a free agent for Tampa, where he "earned" about two million dollars per win over the next half decade (including two entirely missed injury seasons. He went 17-26 with a 4.62 ERA and averaged a shade over 120 IP per season in the three years he didn't spend entirely on the DL.
Danny Darwin went 9-13 with an ERA of almost 5 and a half in the next year and change for the Giants and was then out of baseball.
Roberto Hernandez was about as good as Howry over the next 5 years, but made a lot more money. If the white sox had only gotten him, they'd have still come out ahead, since they didn't have to overpay Darwin and Alvarez to be terrible and/or injured. But they got Foulke in the deal too, and he was quite good (and mostly cheap) in the stretch you mentioned.
German pitching a perfect game is the equivalent of that Onion headline: the worst person you know just made a great point.
I'm a die hard Yankees fan, but I barely celebrated this perfect game because I hate this guy. I am, however, very happy that they scored 11 runs, even if it was against the As.
I saw there was a no-hitter going on in the fifth. Saw it was German. Tried to jinx it and went to bed. I’m a fan of the team, but I don’t even care if they fail to win a Series as long as they keep employing him.
Deviating from my usual script (maybe I’m just in a good mood because the Nats won and my son is coming to visit this weekend) to say little more than how much I enjoyed your observations about moving into and out of Griswold Drive.
Speaking only for myself, if you want to take tomorrow off and make it a super long weekend I have no objection. It sounds like you have lots of laundry to do anyway. Say hi to “Rhonda” for me.
Makes sense. I'm taking tomorrow off from work (my holiday weekend project it to repaint my bedroom, may the gods have mercy on my soul) and as an old person I need the extra time for sure.
Thank you for the appropriate homeowners blessing - fortunately there are four places in my town that I can get supplies at so I can spread out my visits among them to avoid being recognized on a second trip to the same one!
I own a 1920's house (actually a little older but on the tax records as 1920's) in a tree-lined, inner-ring neighborhood right outside of downtown. It's both the best and worst decision I ever made. On the one hand, I love my house, it has the big front porch, original hardwood floors, and all the character of a well kept up old house. I am the secret, and occasionally not so secret envy of my suburban friends, trapped in their cookie cutter pleasentville lives. Contractors and repair people always say how much they love my house (I am sure they say that to most people) and how they don't build them like this anymore.
On the other hand, you should really only buy an old house if you're handy. Which I generally am not. I had to rewire the house when I bought it because it was still rockin' the old knob and tube wiring. I don't even want to think about how much I'm going to spend when it comes to redoing the windows. There are a few things where I haven't had someone come look at it because I honestly don't want to know what is wrong. If I don't know, I don't have to disclose it if I'm selling. This is a fairly common attitude in my neighborhood.
In conclusion, owning an old house is a land of contrasts.
It's a system of electrical wiring used up until the 40's. It's not inherently unsafe in a house. But a lot of the insulation in ours had disintegrated over time. And who knows what kind of off the books modifications had gone on with it over the years as the house had been worked on.
Ok, thanks! I lived in a house in Glendale that had that. Built in the 40s I think. The insulation was some kind of (cotton maybe?) fiber. Always worried about fire from that. Our current house (built in 60s I think) is just 2-wire Romex. Not much better.
I hate to break it to the Mrs., but if a dive bar is that close to your home, constitutionally you are obligated to “engage the weirdos” - even the ones from out of town.
I have friends in Tremont (CLE neighborhood) and their local is a generational spot around the corner. Fits about 30 comfortably, Babe Ruth had a few there, and the cast of characters is amazing. (Hotz’s if you’re ever in the area.)
When I lived around DC there was a little hole-in-the-wall dive in Falls Church my buddy and I would go to sometimes after a round of golf. There was a regular there who was sitting next to us, probably several drinks in, and he ordered some food and turned to us and said, "You HAVE to try their salisbury steak - it's the best around."
My friend's seat at the bar had a direct view back into the "kitchen" at this place, and he could clearly see them sticking one of those Hungry Man frozen salisbury steak dinners into a microwave, haha. Reminded me of the local shithole in my hometown that served cans of Spaghettios and Healthy Choice soup.
His best skill was a fastball that he could cut both in and out with precision control and add/substract 5mph at his choosing. He was Mariano Rivera throwing 230-260 innings instead of 60-70. The ‘oh he was a creature of a wide strike zone’ is absolutely reversing cause and effect.
And a devastating changeup in addition to the fastball(s). In addition to the best command I've ever seen, he was also one of the best of all time at disrupting hitter's timing.
It was hard to classify his pitches as we could see anything from 78-91 with that in/out movement. No clear way to say 'this one is a fastball, that one is a change.' Then there was that little curve which he'd occasionally toss; not a big 10-6 break at all, but almost the 'nickel curve' that sliders used to be called.
I really, really liked the prank he and some film makers played on fellow Vegas native Kris Bryant, including his 50-something year old batting practice curveball that the MVP couldn't square up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axkik-8oFTs
He also (kind of like Greinke today) had a slow curve that he would use to steal a called strike. He definitely threw a circle change, and it would have been cool if there was statcast when he pitched to see how much the fastball and change blended together.
Maddux could put the ball wherever he liked. If he pitched now he'd work the top and bottom of the zone that pitchers today get but guys in the 90s never got.
Believe me: any other pitcher in Maddux's era could've gotten the space off the plate if they showed they could consistently put it there. They couldn't because they were not as good as Maddux.
Oh for sure. But there are guys pitching at the shins today regularly getting strikes. I'd prefer it if everyone was getting the regulation strike zone but they're not. Umps before the original ump-evaluating system (Questec, which has changed names and things many times) called inside and outside because it was easier for them and they didn't have to bend down. When Questec, et al came online it monitored inside and outside most accurately and graded those umps harshly. It was not very good with high and low due to varying batter height so umps started giving that low-ass pitch regularly and pitchers began to exploit that. You play the imperfect game you're given.
All that said, I'm not concede the old "Maddux got a foot off the zone" canard. I think it's wildly overstated and I'd wager that analysis of his pitching would show that, while yeah, he worked the corners, that the extent to which he did has been comically overstated as the years have gone by. Glavine was way worse, FWIW. And even the most egregious example of that dynamic ever -- Livan Hernandez in the 1997 playoffs against Atlanta -- only featured a few balls THAT far off the plate. Stretching the inside/outside part was always a matter of a few inches, not like a foot or whatever popular conception is of it now.
Plus, we have to reject this premise that Maddux was "given" anything by the umps. Umps have the final say on what reality is, and can change reality if they so please. Whatever they say is a strike, is a strike - regardless of what everyone else sees or replay shows.
In fact, some say that in Stan Lee's early mock-ups of the Reality Stone in the Marvel comics, the stone was initially broken into thousands of tiny fragments, with each piece worn by all the umps all over the world.
Ah yes, the time that Livan Hernandez and Eric Gregg combined for like 16 strikeouts. Utterly ridiculous. If that Umpire Scorecard twitter account existed back then it would've broken the internet.
Wasn't it for Glavine that the Braves got caught re-painting the catcher's box to allow (I think it was...) Javy Lopez to set up on the outside corner?
We are definitely on the same page with actually using the correct strike zone, top to bottom, side to side, but even with automation I don’t think that will ever come. That being said, I can’t imagine the complaining that would be going on with strike calls at the letters (or just below) if they did figure something out.
People remember the mid 80's fastball towards the end of his career, but Maddux had above average velocity when he came into the league. He absolutely would have still dominated in today's north/south game with his high cutting/running fastballs and low changeups.
Yankees 11, Athletics 0: What can you say? As a Yankees fan, I was indescribably happy after this one. Worth staying up until 1:00 in the morning and feeling very tired at the moment.
Atlanta 3, Twins 0: The Atlanta Baseball Club continues to dominate in June. They've won 20 of their last 23 games, and two of those losses were in one-run games. The funny thing is, the Marlins have also played torrid ball, so Atlanta's "only" gained three games in the standings. Long way to go yet. As for this specific contest, Matt Olson hit his NL-leading 26th home run while five Atlanta relievers combined to shut out the Twins on four hits.
Nationals 4, Mariners 1: When people talk about underachieving teams this year, no one really brings up the Mariners, who are 38-41 just about halfway through the campaign. Then again, they struggled in the first half last year and then rebounded, so who knows? Patrick Corbin threw seven shutout innings against them, which should really count for multiple losses.
Reds 11, Orioles 7: It was Pride night at Camden Yards, and in lieu of game updates, the O's twitter posted statistics and resources about LGBTQ+ issues. Good for them! More than 21,000 people, a big midweek crowd for the O's, saw the home team rally to tie it in the 8th inning thanks to a two-run Adam Frazier homer, but they allowed four runs to the Reds in the 10th, and that was that. The Reds took two of three in Baltimore to maintain control of the NL Central.
Pirates 7, Padres 1: A five-run 7th inning blew this one wide open for Pittsburgh, with Josh Palacios, Connor Joe, and Henry Davis all contributing RBI singles. The Dads are 37-43 roughly halfway through the season and are in fact a half-game worse than the Bucs. Baseball Reference still has them at 26.6% to make the playoffs, which seems a tad optimistic. Bookmark this and we'll see!
Blue Jays 6, Giants 1: Toronto scored five runs in the 1st frame to put this one away early. Trevor Richards, one of the options the Jays have turned to to compensate for the smoldering ruins of Alek Manoah, started the game and allowed no runs, one hit, and one walk in three innings.
Marlins 6, Red Sox 2: As noted above, the Marlins have been fantastic this month, with the second-best record in the NL, trailing only Atlanta. Luis Arraez went 1-for-5 in this one, and his batting average now stands at .396. Considering how much MLB has hitched its marketing wagon to this guy, they must pop champagne every time he gets a hit and stays within shouting distance of .400. Me, I'd be happy if he could keep this up at least through the All-Star break. The Fish have outscored the Sox 16-3 in the first two games of this series.
Brewers 5, Mets 2: Not every New York team had a good night last night. Christian Yelich had three hits and drove in two runs for the visitors to boost his OPS over .800. He's on pace for highs in virtually every offensive category since his MVP runner-up season in 2019. The Mets are on pace for 72 wins halfway through the season. As of now, Steve Cohen says he's not making any changes, but how long will he stick to that?
Astros 10, Cardinals 7: Jose Altuve had the big blast in this one, hitting a three-run go-ahead shot in the 8th inning. A few years back, 3,000 hits looked like a lock for him, and 4,000 hits was not completely ridiculous. Now, he's 32 and has 1,968 hits, so even the former mark will be a challenge. Still, I hope he gives it a run. Jose Abreu also had a two-run shot in the same inning. The Cardinals are on pace for their worst season since 1919.
Rangers 10, Tigers 2: As Craig noted, Dane Dunning pitched a gem, and was one out away from throwing a complete game. When you're up 10-2 with two outs in the 9th, as Dunning was, is there a point to taking him out? Probably not, but Yerry Rodriguez came on in relief and allowed a single before striking out Eric Haase for the last out. This was the 17th time this year Texas has scored at least 10 runs in a game.
Phillies 8, Cubs 5: Nick Castellanos hit a three-run shot in the 2nd inning that proved the difference. He added on an RBI double later for good measure. Josh Harrison and Edmundo Sosa also went deep for Philly. After a scuffling start to the season, they're 16-7 in June.
Guardians 14, Royals 1: Cleveland's in first place! Are they above .500? No! But first place is first place. The big thing about the new schedule is that it's exposed a lot of mediocre teams in both Central divisions. If this was the old schedule, Cleveland could get away with playing the Royals and the Tigers a bunch of times, and maybe they'd have, say, 44 wins or something by now, and it would look a lot better. They looked pretty good here, completely smashing a Royals team on pace to be almost as bad as the A's. Joe Posnanski wrote a little something the other day saying, in a nice way, the Royals are completely hopeless, because they have no shot unless they have an excellent farm system, and their system is currently terrible. At least they have the Chiefs. And BBQ.
Rockies 9, Dodgers 8: A day after getting shut down by Clayton Kershaw, Colorado got their revenge, edging the Dodgers in a slugfest. Ezquiel Tovar's bases-clearing double in the 6th inning put the Rockies ahead for good. He's on pace for a solid 3.2 WAR in his rookie season, with most of that coming from the glove. He doesn't have much hope for ROTY in the same league as De La Cruz and Carroll, but he could get some downballot votes.
White Sox 11, Angels 5: Chicago scored in each of the first five innings, with the onslaught including Luis Robert's 23rd home run. The Angels loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th, but Mickey Moniak, who looks like he's finally putting it all together, lined out to end it.
Rays 3, D-Backs 2: It looked like this one was going to wrap up in less than two hours, but Tampa scored three in the top of the 9th and the D-Backs couldn't counter in the bottom frame, spoiling a great start from Zach Davies. He threw seven innings of two-hit ball, a much-needed bounce-back outing. Of course, it wasn't the best bounce-back performance of the night, but still.
Senga continues his slow acclimation to MLB games, with eight strikeouts but 102 pitches in five innings. The ghost fork is real, and Senga's control is getting better, but he's got a way to go and I don't know if he gets there.
I doubt he ever becomes an ace, but he's above average now and could be a solid #2. Pretty good deal for the Mets at this point considering that he's only 30 instead of 40 like most of their pitcher signings.
The Mets' offseason signings really weren't that bad outside of JV (who is starting to show signs of coming out of it). Senga has promise, Nimmo is playing at the same level he did before, and it's not like anyone knew about Diaz's knee. Yes, it's fair to say that a payroll that high should go with a contender, but most of the money is tied up in a handful of players. The issue is still less "we wasted our money on stars" and more "we screwed up on roster construction."
The Mets signings were fine--a short-term deal to someone like Verlander limits risk. I loved the Nimmo re-signing. Relying on both Verlander and Max was always going to be a big risk, hence my wise crack.
The Mets had three main options: JV, Rodon, deGrom. OW. And could have retained Bassitt, and he's not so hot lately, though at least he's not injured. (The free agent market just doesn't work anymore.)
For most of the last month or two, if you look down the standings of the AL East & Central, the 10 teams have been ordered by winning percentage. Very weird.
Take away the A’s, who aren’t even trying and the AL Central has had the 5 worst records in the league or 4 worst and 6th worst, almost all of the season.
I don't think that will happen, but for sure people will too easily dismiss both Central division winners with (likely) low 80s win totals as if 95 wins is SOOO much better. It's not like we're letting the A's or Royals in the playoffs.
There's a huge faction of Cubs fans who are convinced there's no point in trying to win the division because the team has no chance in the playoffs. It's as if winning the team would start down 0-1 in the first series as opposed to hosting the third wild card team, who probably won 5 more games over 6 months.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Thomas Boswell weighs in on the Nats’ rebuild, writing that it was the right thing to do. He relies too much on BA/HR/RBI in making his point that the guys who are here are performing better than the guys who left (“Juan Soto hasn’t been quite as good as Joey Meneses” is a bit of a howler) but I don’t think Boswell is as wrong as some are making him out to be:
He has lots of mentions of OPS and even OPS+ in the piece when it suits his purposes, but the Meneses/Soto comp is straight BA/HR/RBI with runs created sprinkled in.
They got a great haul for Soto, but Meneses has been the definition of replacement player this year (-0.4 fWAR), while Soto has been great (3.1 fWAR, top 10). Meneses was a great story last year, but there's a reason that he was a 30-year-old rookie.
Continued congrats on the move, Craig, and please continue to talk to weirdos for the #content.
Two nights ago, my wife and I saw the Cure at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. It was our first time seeing them and holy moly what a show! They played 29 songs (including my favorite “A Forest”) for almost three hours. I am still buzzing. Has anybody else seen them on this tour?
Saw them in Saint Paul, also the first time. As a veteran of seeing nostalgia acts who were last truly relevant when I was in elementary school, I was blown away at how good they sounded. Figured Robert Smith's voice would have been waning by now but boy howdy did he sound great.
Lifelong Yankees fan here. Ever since his wife beating, I have refused to cheer for or even watch German games. No amount of sports excellence will change my mind about him. Nothing happened last night except our offense scored 11 runs, which we badly needed.
We also recently had an AC issue and we live in Phoenix. Same weird cavalier attitude about fixing. Don't get it at all, except every job has lazy people in it.
Probably due to my USAF brat nomadic upbringing, but I have never harbored the tiniest bit of nostalgia for any house I lived in. They are purely functional items in my world - a place to sleep and stay out of the heat/rain/cold.
And I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I have played baseball with Greg Maddox, if we accept T-ball as a version of baseball. We might have even been teammates in the Torrejón AFB T-ball league circa 74/75.
Also, I didn't realize that a shutout was required for a Maddox. I thought any complete game under 100 pitches qualified.
I lived in the same apartment from the age of 3 till the age of 28. I still dream about it from time to time but have no nostalgia for it. It was the place I lived, nothing more. This might be why I am content to live in a small two bedroom with no aspirations to own a house.
We sold our suburban McMansion outside of DC in 2017 with the idea we'd rent for a year or two in Richmond VA, until we figure out our next move. We just bought a townhouse last month - after 6 years of renting in Richmond. 15% annual rent increases made locking in my housing cost for the next 10 or so years look a lot more attractive.
And yes, I realize I'm bitching about rent prices to somebody in NYC :)
Feel free to bitch. What is acceptable to charge as rent in our society is not good. (We don't pay rent, but our maintenance charge on top of the mortgage jumps more and more every year.)
We moved our family into a bigger house in 2020. I have very fond memories of our previous house because it's the first one my wife and I bought, our first 2 kids were born when we lived there, etc... But I was also 100% ready to get the hell out of there. It was too small for 4 people to be cooped up in during COVID, and it was that age where all the construction-grade stuff in the house was breaking down so it was becoming a money pit. We were more than happy to be rid of it when we sold, even if we shed a couple of tears while moving out.
Sometimes you've just gotta go to the dive bar. I live in a fairly affluent area where a lot of the bars really embody that "Well, it's $9 beer night" line from Paul Rudd in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But right near the school I teach at, there's a TOTAL dive. You can get a pretty good IPA for $4 or $5, the food is pretty good, and I think at least 5 people in there at any given time were at January 6. But sometimes, teachers just need cheap beer.
First, a total dive and pretty good IPA is the Venn diagram with zero overlap.
Second, I can tell how school went by the drink of choice at the end of my wife’s day. Glass of wine? Pretty normal. Nice cocktail? Something to celebrate. Cheap beer? Out with colleagues to commiserate. Strait tequila? Duck and cover.
Yeah, the tap list at this place is the one thing they do up a little bit. They've got Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc., of course, but also Foothills Hoppyum and Wicked Weed Pernicious - two good N.C. IPAs - and usually a stout or porter from a local brewery too. $4 for a pint and $5 for 22 oz. It can't really be beat.
I don't think the Redlegs will have the largest bandwagon. They already have a shit ton of fans. They just don't show up when the product on the field is horrible. I'm torn. As a lifelong Cardinals fan I always want the division to be competitive (with the exception of the Cubs of course).
Selfishly however, I really love the fact that when the Cardinals are in town, I can make the 1 1/2 hour drive east to Great American Smallpark (wonderful park IMO)...pay a fraction of the cost for tickets compared to Busch Stadium and sit anywhere I want. That will no longer be a possibility with the Reds being competitive. OTOH...I'm really happy for my Reds loving buddies because they are absolutely ecstatic.
I started following the Reds on Twitter because I personally love Joey Votto, and the upside has been having a bunch of tweets about exciting young players on my feed. (It's a bit of a balm since the exciting players on my own team are underperforming, so I get my smiles where I can.)
Things I like: perfect games. Things I hate: domestic abusers. So forgive me for not congratulating German.
My big takeaways from the Mets press conference: 1) Headline writers really need to say Steve Cohen since there is also Gary Cohen; 2) Steve Cohen, in that pullover with the zipper and that cap and glasses, has a vibe like that of Victor Garber when he was on Legends of Tomorrow.
It must be nice to have lived such a perfect life and never offended or hurt another person.
Beating your wife is not merely offending someone. And even if you think that someone should not lose his livelihood for doing it, that doesn't mean I have to have any respect for such people. Especially ones who show no remorse. (And if I ever sank so low as to hi my wife, I would expect to be judged poorly for it, and I would deserve it.)
You're reading comprehension leaves something to be desired. Read what was written, not what you want to be written.
"Catchers sometimes try to frame pitches to convince the umpire a ball is a strike."
Black Sable, reading comprehension extraordinaire and most civil, humble commenter on CoC - "Oh so you think catchers should call balls and strikes? You're an idiot."
While I generally agree with the larger sentiment, hi-ing your wife seems okay to me.
My typos are a wonder, aren't they?
I'm just trying to congratulate you for living such an exemplary life. Some people just won't take praise.
Has German shown no remorse for his actions? I was not aware that there had been any news on the issue since then. I'm no fan of such people either, and am certainly not trolling you here, just asking an honest question. He may very well have shown remorse to his then girlfriend (now wife) to which none of us would be privy.
He apologized, but it was the usual sort of perfunctory apology:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30957937/new-york-yankees-domingo-german-apologizes-domestic-incident
https://yanksgoyard.com/2021/02/24/yankees-domingo-german-apology-still-not-right/
Maybe he's fixed things up in his marriage. We'll never know. But that doesn't mean I have to like him without evidence he's changed.
Why is it always you with the weird takes insisting that no one criticize those who have earned criticism?
I suspect projection. Have you done something awful that you know you'd be ostracized for?
I wonder how many perfect games against the As there will be until they move out of Oakland.
Went to sleep, think the Yankees were up 4-0. Woke up around 3 ET to upper and grabbed my phone. Never in a million years would’ve guessed Germán of all people would throw a perfect game. Didn’t even know he had one when I went to sleep.
He’s had such a strange Yankees career. There were a couple months in 2019 when he looked GREAT, but there were also months where you said the W-L record doesn’t tell the whole story. Then he had the DV suspension, he’s had some mediocrity mixed with strong starts.
But that’s not even the most surprising stat line of last night. Patrick Corbin threw seven scoreless!!
Perfect games are kind of random. No one is going to call for electing Len Barker to the Hall of Fame.
And yet Don Larsen, a significantly worse pitcher, stayed on the ballot a full 15 years and got more than 10% of the writers vote some years.
...
Barker’s perfect game lead to a lot of pain for me. It was why ATL overpaid for him. Years of top flight leadoff hitting by the perfectly named ATL player Brett Butler and some cromulent performance by Brook Jacoby kept contrasting Barker’s injury plagued sub .500 performance.
Don’t forget former Met Phil Humber! And IIRC he got DFA’d a couple months later.
Dallas Braden, Armando (asterisk) Galarrago, and Ernie (double asterisk) Shore.
🎶 Bridge on the River Kwai 🎶
Ugh. Was just thinking about the Galarraga game this morning.
Harvey Haddix (no asterisk because a perfect game-and-a-third)
By that logic also Pedro Martinez.
Shore doesn’t count. He retired, and faced, 26. Which is an accomplishment but no one’s making it a perfect game.
26 up, 27 down. He picked off the runner that Babe Ruth walked. As I said: asterisk.
So irrelevant has Jerry Reinsdorf made the White Sox that none dare speak their name when Phil Humber's no-no (and subsequent DFA-ing for pitching like Burnt Umber the rest of the time) comes up....
Will it help if I refuse to speak Reinsdorf's name in return?
If you say it three times in front of a mirror in a dark room he'll appear and steal your will to live
ATH: Miami 6 - Red Sox 2
Rain delay, meh pitching, horrible defense and no offense lead to another Boston loss, so, other than the rain delay, on brand for the past several weeks. What’s the record for players traded away at the deadline? Oh, and Sale is getting an MRI and having a press conference today, probably to say his arm will fall off if he throws another pitch, so we’ve got that going for us.
If such a record exists, I have to think it was the 2021 Nationals, who traded away eight players at the deadline. Godspeed.
For deadline deals, I'm trying to remember what year the White Sox dumped half their roster despite being well into contention. Mid 10s?
Off season, there are really only a few choices: the two Connie Mack firesales when he was going broke and tore up truly dominating A's clubs and the '97 Marlins club that went from fluke winner to unwatchable overnight.
The infamous "White Flag Trade" was made back in 1997, half my lifetime ago. The White Stockings were 3-1/2 games behind the dastardly Cleveland...Spiders(?) when they threw in the towel on July 31 by moving three of their best pitchers to the Giants of San Francisco.
The San Francisco Giants received:
-Wilson Álvarez, left-handed starting pitcher
-Danny Darwin, right-handed starting pitcher
-Roberto Hernández, right-handed relief pitcher
The Chicago White Sox received:
-Keith Foulke, right-handed pitcher
-Bob Howry, right-handed pitcher
-Lorenzo Barceló, right-handed pitcher
-Ken Vining, left-handed pitcher
-Mike Caruso, shortstop
-Brian Manning, outfielder
Howry became the Sox closer the next season, a job he held for several years until Keith Foulke succeeded him and went on a nice six-season run of saves. For reasons no one except the radar-gun-obsessed understood, the Sox dealt Foulke to the A's for Billy "100 mph straight down the middle and outta the yard" Koch, who was not good in a White Sox uniform. The extremely green Mike Caruso managed to finish third in AL RoY voting in 1998 on the dint of his .306 average and 22 steals, but his performance dropped off in '99. He didn't play in the bigs again until his final season, 2002, when he got into a dozen games with the Royals.
As for Lorenzo Barcelo, he logged 66 innings across three seasons with the Sox and then disappeared. He lives in infamy in my household, however, as he was one of four future Sox to sign a ballcap I own the one and only time I ever went to Soxfest (Kip Wells, Jon Garland, and Aaron Myette were the other three).
Nineteen ninety-seven!?!?!? How can it be that long ago? Damn, I'm old.
I assume Caruso didn't have 22 saves. 22 homers maybe you meant?
Oh man, Mike Caruso didn't have 22 homers for his career! Meant steals lol
I know it wasn't popular at the time, but as it turned out, I think the ChiSox got the better of the deal:
Wilson Alvarez was sub-mediocre for the Giants for a couple of months, then left as a free agent for Tampa, where he "earned" about two million dollars per win over the next half decade (including two entirely missed injury seasons. He went 17-26 with a 4.62 ERA and averaged a shade over 120 IP per season in the three years he didn't spend entirely on the DL.
Danny Darwin went 9-13 with an ERA of almost 5 and a half in the next year and change for the Giants and was then out of baseball.
Roberto Hernandez was about as good as Howry over the next 5 years, but made a lot more money. If the white sox had only gotten him, they'd have still come out ahead, since they didn't have to overpay Darwin and Alvarez to be terrible and/or injured. But they got Foulke in the deal too, and he was quite good (and mostly cheap) in the stretch you mentioned.
Sale got the Red Sox a World Series. His deal was probably with it.
German pitching a perfect game is the equivalent of that Onion headline: the worst person you know just made a great point.
I'm a die hard Yankees fan, but I barely celebrated this perfect game because I hate this guy. I am, however, very happy that they scored 11 runs, even if it was against the As.
I was thinking about the "Awful School is Awful Rich" headline on The Simpsons.
I saw there was a no-hitter going on in the fifth. Saw it was German. Tried to jinx it and went to bed. I’m a fan of the team, but I don’t even care if they fail to win a Series as long as they keep employing him.
Yeah, the universe gets out of whack now & then - good things happening for bad people
Deviating from my usual script (maybe I’m just in a good mood because the Nats won and my son is coming to visit this weekend) to say little more than how much I enjoyed your observations about moving into and out of Griswold Drive.
Speaking only for myself, if you want to take tomorrow off and make it a super long weekend I have no objection. It sounds like you have lots of laundry to do anyway. Say hi to “Rhonda” for me.
“Here’s 2,800 words explaining why I’m taking today off…”
I was going to do that, but he stole my word counting bit yesterday, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, you got hosed on that call.
I would never go out of my way to complain.
[I'll eject myself, thanks.]
Makes sense. I'm taking tomorrow off from work (my holiday weekend project it to repaint my bedroom, may the gods have mercy on my soul) and as an old person I need the extra time for sure.
May the odds be ever in your favor - and may you need only one trip to the hardware store.
Thank you for the appropriate homeowners blessing - fortunately there are four places in my town that I can get supplies at so I can spread out my visits among them to avoid being recognized on a second trip to the same one!
My $0.02: 1920s house > apartment above shop > fortified bunker. If it's a nice coffee shop, though, it might read '>='. Unless they've got a big, Kenny Rogers Chicken-style sign.
I own a 1920's house (actually a little older but on the tax records as 1920's) in a tree-lined, inner-ring neighborhood right outside of downtown. It's both the best and worst decision I ever made. On the one hand, I love my house, it has the big front porch, original hardwood floors, and all the character of a well kept up old house. I am the secret, and occasionally not so secret envy of my suburban friends, trapped in their cookie cutter pleasentville lives. Contractors and repair people always say how much they love my house (I am sure they say that to most people) and how they don't build them like this anymore.
On the other hand, you should really only buy an old house if you're handy. Which I generally am not. I had to rewire the house when I bought it because it was still rockin' the old knob and tube wiring. I don't even want to think about how much I'm going to spend when it comes to redoing the windows. There are a few things where I haven't had someone come look at it because I honestly don't want to know what is wrong. If I don't know, I don't have to disclose it if I'm selling. This is a fairly common attitude in my neighborhood.
In conclusion, owning an old house is a land of contrasts.
...knob and tube wiring?
It's a system of electrical wiring used up until the 40's. It's not inherently unsafe in a house. But a lot of the insulation in ours had disintegrated over time. And who knows what kind of off the books modifications had gone on with it over the years as the house had been worked on.
https://www.nachi.org/knob-and-tube.htm
Ok, thanks! I lived in a house in Glendale that had that. Built in the 40s I think. The insulation was some kind of (cotton maybe?) fiber. Always worried about fire from that. Our current house (built in 60s I think) is just 2-wire Romex. Not much better.
Glad to hear the settling in is going well. Annoying how everything house-related takes so long.
I hate to break it to the Mrs., but if a dive bar is that close to your home, constitutionally you are obligated to “engage the weirdos” - even the ones from out of town.
I have friends in Tremont (CLE neighborhood) and their local is a generational spot around the corner. Fits about 30 comfortably, Babe Ruth had a few there, and the cast of characters is amazing. (Hotz’s if you’re ever in the area.)
Speaking as one weirdo from out of town who hopes to stop by sometime and say hello, I endorse this position.
If you do - the friends run an AirBNB around the corner (Tremont Guesthouse)
Oh wow, that place looks great. Adding it to the todo list.
It’s been passed down through the family - and they’re the sweetest people.
When I lived around DC there was a little hole-in-the-wall dive in Falls Church my buddy and I would go to sometimes after a round of golf. There was a regular there who was sitting next to us, probably several drinks in, and he ordered some food and turned to us and said, "You HAVE to try their salisbury steak - it's the best around."
My friend's seat at the bar had a direct view back into the "kitchen" at this place, and he could clearly see them sticking one of those Hungry Man frozen salisbury steak dinners into a microwave, haha. Reminded me of the local shithole in my hometown that served cans of Spaghettios and Healthy Choice soup.
How many Maddux’s would Maddux have had if he wasn’t given the extra 6-12 inches off the plate he received on the regular
I think he still would have been a feared, good pitcher; but yes, working the umps was his best skill.
Agree completely, was never saying he wouldn’t have still been a stud, just not as good as he was - and definitely way less Maddux’s
His best skill was a fastball that he could cut both in and out with precision control and add/substract 5mph at his choosing. He was Mariano Rivera throwing 230-260 innings instead of 60-70. The ‘oh he was a creature of a wide strike zone’ is absolutely reversing cause and effect.
And a devastating changeup in addition to the fastball(s). In addition to the best command I've ever seen, he was also one of the best of all time at disrupting hitter's timing.
It was hard to classify his pitches as we could see anything from 78-91 with that in/out movement. No clear way to say 'this one is a fastball, that one is a change.' Then there was that little curve which he'd occasionally toss; not a big 10-6 break at all, but almost the 'nickel curve' that sliders used to be called.
I really, really liked the prank he and some film makers played on fellow Vegas native Kris Bryant, including his 50-something year old batting practice curveball that the MVP couldn't square up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axkik-8oFTs
He also (kind of like Greinke today) had a slow curve that he would use to steal a called strike. He definitely threw a circle change, and it would have been cool if there was statcast when he pitched to see how much the fastball and change blended together.
Maddux could put the ball wherever he liked. If he pitched now he'd work the top and bottom of the zone that pitchers today get but guys in the 90s never got.
Believe me: any other pitcher in Maddux's era could've gotten the space off the plate if they showed they could consistently put it there. They couldn't because they were not as good as Maddux.
I agree, but pinpoint control doesn’t mean you should get an extra 6-12 inches. At that point you can’t even reach the ball if you swung at it.
Oh for sure. But there are guys pitching at the shins today regularly getting strikes. I'd prefer it if everyone was getting the regulation strike zone but they're not. Umps before the original ump-evaluating system (Questec, which has changed names and things many times) called inside and outside because it was easier for them and they didn't have to bend down. When Questec, et al came online it monitored inside and outside most accurately and graded those umps harshly. It was not very good with high and low due to varying batter height so umps started giving that low-ass pitch regularly and pitchers began to exploit that. You play the imperfect game you're given.
All that said, I'm not concede the old "Maddux got a foot off the zone" canard. I think it's wildly overstated and I'd wager that analysis of his pitching would show that, while yeah, he worked the corners, that the extent to which he did has been comically overstated as the years have gone by. Glavine was way worse, FWIW. And even the most egregious example of that dynamic ever -- Livan Hernandez in the 1997 playoffs against Atlanta -- only featured a few balls THAT far off the plate. Stretching the inside/outside part was always a matter of a few inches, not like a foot or whatever popular conception is of it now.
Plus, we have to reject this premise that Maddux was "given" anything by the umps. Umps have the final say on what reality is, and can change reality if they so please. Whatever they say is a strike, is a strike - regardless of what everyone else sees or replay shows.
In fact, some say that in Stan Lee's early mock-ups of the Reality Stone in the Marvel comics, the stone was initially broken into thousands of tiny fragments, with each piece worn by all the umps all over the world.
Ah yes, the time that Livan Hernandez and Eric Gregg combined for like 16 strikeouts. Utterly ridiculous. If that Umpire Scorecard twitter account existed back then it would've broken the internet.
It was 15. Fred McGriff couldn't have reached the last pitch if he was swinging a boat oar.
Wasn't it for Glavine that the Braves got caught re-painting the catcher's box to allow (I think it was...) Javy Lopez to set up on the outside corner?
We are definitely on the same page with actually using the correct strike zone, top to bottom, side to side, but even with automation I don’t think that will ever come. That being said, I can’t imagine the complaining that would be going on with strike calls at the letters (or just below) if they did figure something out.
I was completely jealous of Maddux and his amazing precision. He wasn't just an elite pitcher, he was an umpire groomer.
People remember the mid 80's fastball towards the end of his career, but Maddux had above average velocity when he came into the league. He absolutely would have still dominated in today's north/south game with his high cutting/running fastballs and low changeups.
Maddux could spot the ball anywhere he wanted. When you have pinpoint accuracy you get the close/borderline calls.
And That Happened: Wednesday Edition
Yankees 11, Athletics 0: What can you say? As a Yankees fan, I was indescribably happy after this one. Worth staying up until 1:00 in the morning and feeling very tired at the moment.
Atlanta 3, Twins 0: The Atlanta Baseball Club continues to dominate in June. They've won 20 of their last 23 games, and two of those losses were in one-run games. The funny thing is, the Marlins have also played torrid ball, so Atlanta's "only" gained three games in the standings. Long way to go yet. As for this specific contest, Matt Olson hit his NL-leading 26th home run while five Atlanta relievers combined to shut out the Twins on four hits.
Nationals 4, Mariners 1: When people talk about underachieving teams this year, no one really brings up the Mariners, who are 38-41 just about halfway through the campaign. Then again, they struggled in the first half last year and then rebounded, so who knows? Patrick Corbin threw seven shutout innings against them, which should really count for multiple losses.
Reds 11, Orioles 7: It was Pride night at Camden Yards, and in lieu of game updates, the O's twitter posted statistics and resources about LGBTQ+ issues. Good for them! More than 21,000 people, a big midweek crowd for the O's, saw the home team rally to tie it in the 8th inning thanks to a two-run Adam Frazier homer, but they allowed four runs to the Reds in the 10th, and that was that. The Reds took two of three in Baltimore to maintain control of the NL Central.
Pirates 7, Padres 1: A five-run 7th inning blew this one wide open for Pittsburgh, with Josh Palacios, Connor Joe, and Henry Davis all contributing RBI singles. The Dads are 37-43 roughly halfway through the season and are in fact a half-game worse than the Bucs. Baseball Reference still has them at 26.6% to make the playoffs, which seems a tad optimistic. Bookmark this and we'll see!
Blue Jays 6, Giants 1: Toronto scored five runs in the 1st frame to put this one away early. Trevor Richards, one of the options the Jays have turned to to compensate for the smoldering ruins of Alek Manoah, started the game and allowed no runs, one hit, and one walk in three innings.
Marlins 6, Red Sox 2: As noted above, the Marlins have been fantastic this month, with the second-best record in the NL, trailing only Atlanta. Luis Arraez went 1-for-5 in this one, and his batting average now stands at .396. Considering how much MLB has hitched its marketing wagon to this guy, they must pop champagne every time he gets a hit and stays within shouting distance of .400. Me, I'd be happy if he could keep this up at least through the All-Star break. The Fish have outscored the Sox 16-3 in the first two games of this series.
Brewers 5, Mets 2: Not every New York team had a good night last night. Christian Yelich had three hits and drove in two runs for the visitors to boost his OPS over .800. He's on pace for highs in virtually every offensive category since his MVP runner-up season in 2019. The Mets are on pace for 72 wins halfway through the season. As of now, Steve Cohen says he's not making any changes, but how long will he stick to that?
Astros 10, Cardinals 7: Jose Altuve had the big blast in this one, hitting a three-run go-ahead shot in the 8th inning. A few years back, 3,000 hits looked like a lock for him, and 4,000 hits was not completely ridiculous. Now, he's 32 and has 1,968 hits, so even the former mark will be a challenge. Still, I hope he gives it a run. Jose Abreu also had a two-run shot in the same inning. The Cardinals are on pace for their worst season since 1919.
Rangers 10, Tigers 2: As Craig noted, Dane Dunning pitched a gem, and was one out away from throwing a complete game. When you're up 10-2 with two outs in the 9th, as Dunning was, is there a point to taking him out? Probably not, but Yerry Rodriguez came on in relief and allowed a single before striking out Eric Haase for the last out. This was the 17th time this year Texas has scored at least 10 runs in a game.
Phillies 8, Cubs 5: Nick Castellanos hit a three-run shot in the 2nd inning that proved the difference. He added on an RBI double later for good measure. Josh Harrison and Edmundo Sosa also went deep for Philly. After a scuffling start to the season, they're 16-7 in June.
Guardians 14, Royals 1: Cleveland's in first place! Are they above .500? No! But first place is first place. The big thing about the new schedule is that it's exposed a lot of mediocre teams in both Central divisions. If this was the old schedule, Cleveland could get away with playing the Royals and the Tigers a bunch of times, and maybe they'd have, say, 44 wins or something by now, and it would look a lot better. They looked pretty good here, completely smashing a Royals team on pace to be almost as bad as the A's. Joe Posnanski wrote a little something the other day saying, in a nice way, the Royals are completely hopeless, because they have no shot unless they have an excellent farm system, and their system is currently terrible. At least they have the Chiefs. And BBQ.
Rockies 9, Dodgers 8: A day after getting shut down by Clayton Kershaw, Colorado got their revenge, edging the Dodgers in a slugfest. Ezquiel Tovar's bases-clearing double in the 6th inning put the Rockies ahead for good. He's on pace for a solid 3.2 WAR in his rookie season, with most of that coming from the glove. He doesn't have much hope for ROTY in the same league as De La Cruz and Carroll, but he could get some downballot votes.
White Sox 11, Angels 5: Chicago scored in each of the first five innings, with the onslaught including Luis Robert's 23rd home run. The Angels loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th, but Mickey Moniak, who looks like he's finally putting it all together, lined out to end it.
Rays 3, D-Backs 2: It looked like this one was going to wrap up in less than two hours, but Tampa scored three in the top of the 9th and the D-Backs couldn't counter in the bottom frame, spoiling a great start from Zach Davies. He threw seven innings of two-hit ball, a much-needed bounce-back outing. Of course, it wasn't the best bounce-back performance of the night, but still.
Senga continues his slow acclimation to MLB games, with eight strikeouts but 102 pitches in five innings. The ghost fork is real, and Senga's control is getting better, but he's got a way to go and I don't know if he gets there.
I doubt he ever becomes an ace, but he's above average now and could be a solid #2. Pretty good deal for the Mets at this point considering that he's only 30 instead of 40 like most of their pitcher signings.
The Mets' offseason signings really weren't that bad outside of JV (who is starting to show signs of coming out of it). Senga has promise, Nimmo is playing at the same level he did before, and it's not like anyone knew about Diaz's knee. Yes, it's fair to say that a payroll that high should go with a contender, but most of the money is tied up in a handful of players. The issue is still less "we wasted our money on stars" and more "we screwed up on roster construction."
The Mets signings were fine--a short-term deal to someone like Verlander limits risk. I loved the Nimmo re-signing. Relying on both Verlander and Max was always going to be a big risk, hence my wise crack.
The Mets had three main options: JV, Rodon, deGrom. OW. And could have retained Bassitt, and he's not so hot lately, though at least he's not injured. (The free agent market just doesn't work anymore.)
Move the first place Guardians to the AL East and they’d be tied for last place!
For most of the last month or two, if you look down the standings of the AL East & Central, the 10 teams have been ordered by winning percentage. Very weird.
That said, GO GUARDS!
Take away the A’s, who aren’t even trying and the AL Central has had the 5 worst records in the league or 4 worst and 6th worst, almost all of the season.
Somehow, whoever manages to win the AL Central will win the WS. Take it to the bank (or casino)!
I don't think that will happen, but for sure people will too easily dismiss both Central division winners with (likely) low 80s win totals as if 95 wins is SOOO much better. It's not like we're letting the A's or Royals in the playoffs.
There's a huge faction of Cubs fans who are convinced there's no point in trying to win the division because the team has no chance in the playoffs. It's as if winning the team would start down 0-1 in the first series as opposed to hosting the third wild card team, who probably won 5 more games over 6 months.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Thomas Boswell weighs in on the Nats’ rebuild, writing that it was the right thing to do. He relies too much on BA/HR/RBI in making his point that the guys who are here are performing better than the guys who left (“Juan Soto hasn’t been quite as good as Joey Meneses” is a bit of a howler) but I don’t think Boswell is as wrong as some are making him out to be:
https://wapo.st/3pAjot8
I miss the Boswell who would cite to Total Average and was at the bleeding edge of the early stat revolution of Earl Weaver / Bill James.
He has lots of mentions of OPS and even OPS+ in the piece when it suits his purposes, but the Meneses/Soto comp is straight BA/HR/RBI with runs created sprinkled in.
They got a great haul for Soto, but Meneses has been the definition of replacement player this year (-0.4 fWAR), while Soto has been great (3.1 fWAR, top 10). Meneses was a great story last year, but there's a reason that he was a 30-year-old rookie.
Continued congrats on the move, Craig, and please continue to talk to weirdos for the #content.
Two nights ago, my wife and I saw the Cure at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. It was our first time seeing them and holy moly what a show! They played 29 songs (including my favorite “A Forest”) for almost three hours. I am still buzzing. Has anybody else seen them on this tour?
Saw them in Saint Paul, also the first time. As a veteran of seeing nostalgia acts who were last truly relevant when I was in elementary school, I was blown away at how good they sounded. Figured Robert Smith's voice would have been waning by now but boy howdy did he sound great.
Exactly! And they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves!
Lifelong Yankees fan here. Ever since his wife beating, I have refused to cheer for or even watch German games. No amount of sports excellence will change my mind about him. Nothing happened last night except our offense scored 11 runs, which we badly needed.
We also recently had an AC issue and we live in Phoenix. Same weird cavalier attitude about fixing. Don't get it at all, except every job has lazy people in it.
Probably due to my USAF brat nomadic upbringing, but I have never harbored the tiniest bit of nostalgia for any house I lived in. They are purely functional items in my world - a place to sleep and stay out of the heat/rain/cold.
And I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I have played baseball with Greg Maddox, if we accept T-ball as a version of baseball. We might have even been teammates in the Torrejón AFB T-ball league circa 74/75.
Also, I didn't realize that a shutout was required for a Maddox. I thought any complete game under 100 pitches qualified.
Maddox = brilliant centerfield of whom it was said, two-thirds of the Earth is covered by oceans, the other third is covered by Maddox.
Maddux = brilliant pitcher who peed on teammates in the shower.
wait what?
https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/03/29/greg-maddux-urinate-chipper-jones-hot-clicks
And now, I know. Yikes?
I lived in the same apartment from the age of 3 till the age of 28. I still dream about it from time to time but have no nostalgia for it. It was the place I lived, nothing more. This might be why I am content to live in a small two bedroom with no aspirations to own a house.
We sold our suburban McMansion outside of DC in 2017 with the idea we'd rent for a year or two in Richmond VA, until we figure out our next move. We just bought a townhouse last month - after 6 years of renting in Richmond. 15% annual rent increases made locking in my housing cost for the next 10 or so years look a lot more attractive.
And yes, I realize I'm bitching about rent prices to somebody in NYC :)
Feel free to bitch. What is acceptable to charge as rent in our society is not good. (We don't pay rent, but our maintenance charge on top of the mortgage jumps more and more every year.)
You own property in nyc? Jealous!
We moved our family into a bigger house in 2020. I have very fond memories of our previous house because it's the first one my wife and I bought, our first 2 kids were born when we lived there, etc... But I was also 100% ready to get the hell out of there. It was too small for 4 people to be cooped up in during COVID, and it was that age where all the construction-grade stuff in the house was breaking down so it was becoming a money pit. We were more than happy to be rid of it when we sold, even if we shed a couple of tears while moving out.
Sometimes you've just gotta go to the dive bar. I live in a fairly affluent area where a lot of the bars really embody that "Well, it's $9 beer night" line from Paul Rudd in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But right near the school I teach at, there's a TOTAL dive. You can get a pretty good IPA for $4 or $5, the food is pretty good, and I think at least 5 people in there at any given time were at January 6. But sometimes, teachers just need cheap beer.
First, a total dive and pretty good IPA is the Venn diagram with zero overlap.
Second, I can tell how school went by the drink of choice at the end of my wife’s day. Glass of wine? Pretty normal. Nice cocktail? Something to celebrate. Cheap beer? Out with colleagues to commiserate. Strait tequila? Duck and cover.
Yeah, the tap list at this place is the one thing they do up a little bit. They've got Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc., of course, but also Foothills Hoppyum and Wicked Weed Pernicious - two good N.C. IPAs - and usually a stout or porter from a local brewery too. $4 for a pint and $5 for 22 oz. It can't really be beat.