Same boat but I'm pretty depressed about even the potential of improvement after I'm gone. I think we've borked the environment so much it might not be particularly livable for much longer, and all the supposed masters of the universe right now will find that cryptocurrency and NFTs have no nutritional value and can't even be set on fire for warmth.
I don’t know if it’s in the league as your Norm vignette, but I once pissed next to Ryne Sandberg in the restroom at Harry Caray’s in River North/Chicago.
There is no controversy, or shouldn't be. When a team finishes with no hits, the other team throw a no hitter. When more than one pitcher pitches in the no-hitter it's a combined no-hitter. Its easier for several pitchers to no-hit a team than for one guy to go all 9, obviously, but its still a no-hitter. Where does the asterisk even go? People need to get off that asterisk thing, it's been over 60 years since Maris. Maybe we can move on.
Football records don't matter. The game evolves too much. Its not unlike baseball was in the 1880s to 1900, where they were still making up the rules as they went. Can you imagine twitter when they moved the mound & invented the walk?
Although I 100% agree it is just as legitimate a no-hitter as any other, it didn't feel that way in the stands. The build up, the tension, the crowd excitement just wasn't there. I'm not sure the majority of fans at the game even realized they were watching a no hitter.
I keep calm about it by personally believing that a no-hitter isn't some grand historical achievement, but a neat accomplishment on the level of hitting for the cycle (which has happened almost the same number of times through baseball history). I mean, not only can you have a no-hitter while walking everyone, but you can have one and lose.
A perfect game is a different story, but I just don't care that much about no-hitters.
The reality is most no hitters, and probably all perfect games, require some luck. A good bounce, or just the absence of a bad bounce, a few borderline pitches getting called strikes, hard hit balls right at fielders, etc. I suspect most pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter would tell us it was not the the most dominant start of their career, or even that season.
So so very glad Congress has time for UFOs when it can't pass anything (well, except for aid for Ukraine, I will give them that). Of course, a hearing on UFOS doesn't cost much, but still. (I am royally pissed that the federal government is out of money to fight COVID and no one seems to care.)
On the bright side of the Mets game, the bullpen didn't allow any more runs?
The "highlight" of the day for the Blue Jays was Vladdie breaking his bat over his knee after striking out. I wonder what that bat did to deserve such a fate. (Dear lord, the whole Yankees rotation is dealing.)
Hey, the Senate unanimously agreed with about 5 minutes debate that Supreme Court justices are a higher order of human deserving of privacy and protection not afforded the rest of us.
That one doesn't bother me. Lots of government officials at all levels get police and secret service protection. And how many death threats do you think RBG got?
I am not sure I object to that either. I find the idea of protesting at people's homes distasteful and potentially dangerous. Do the protests elsewhere. (What purpose does protesting at someone's home serve anyway? The justices are going to change their minds because someone isn't letting them sleep? It's childish.)
A NY Rangers win staving off elimination for one more game serving as the only respite for NY sports fans* from an embarrassing Mets loss which they led 3-0 four batters into the game? Almost anyone could be president for that one.
*(A Yankees win adding further salt to the wounds for this variety of NY sports fan, so don't count that as consolation)
Neither do I, really, but the Pens do have more guys who have "been there" than the Rangers do. But Shesterkin played the entire 6 periods in the 3OT game that opened the series, while Domingue came in for an injured starter in the middle of the 2nd OT period. So between playing both games of a double-header and a heart-breaking loss (any OT loss is heart-breaking), Shesty was out of gas, and his team didn't bail him out. Furthermore, a lot of folks thought the Rangers were ahead of schedule. So there's that.
I knew game 1 was going to haunt them. Pens had a 3rd string goaltender come in to OT cold and the Rangers did not take advantage of that. I know it was late and everyone was gassed but they really needed to find another gear to get aggressive and fling pucks at the guy. Aside from that the defense has been poor in front of him. They've looked like a different team in this series but it also doesn't help that Pittsburgh has 2-3 future Hall of Famers who can get out there and take control. 87 & 71 are always buzzing around the net and it never gets easier to watch.
I've been reluctant to think of the Caps losing this series as a collapse, given that they're the eight seed and it's gonna go at least six, but then I remember that they were up a goal with two minutes left in Game 4 and lost in OT, and then they were up three last night early in the second period and lost, 5-3, and then I think, "Yeah, that's kind of a collapse."
The lockout this Winter & Spring was ugly but some good stuff did come from it. In Atlanta, long time minor leaguer Jackson Stephens got to pitch in front of the big league management and impressed. He is a big fat guy from rural Alabama who kicked around in the minors and winter leagues for a decade. He has now reached the show and is doing well in his - ahem - cup of coffee. He would probably still be in AA or AAA but for the lockout driven exposure. Nice little paywalled article on him at The Athletic.
I'd love it were this a sign of the end of crypto, but I'm far from convinced that is the case. Crypto is way down, but the stock market is way down too and no one is suggesting that's the end of Wall Street. Crypto is down far, far more than the stock market of course, but it is by nature far more volatile so I don't read too much into that.
In the end, an imaginary thing (the Bitcoin) is still worth $27,000 so I think people will still hoard computer parts and waste enormous amounts of electricity to generate them.
It's all so hysterical when one spends even the smallest amount of time thinking about it. "You should have crypto in your portfolio because fiat currency has all of these problems. Also, here is my new crypto that will always have the same value as the most popular fiat currency because reasons. I am very smart." Hysterical...and deeply depressing.
I don’t buy this argument, because the ensuing yelling & screaming & ejections took WAY longer than a review would have taken. Especially with balls & strikes, where it wouldn’t be done by a human slowing it down frame-by-frame, but super quick by a computer. Similar challenges in tennis are super-quick.
Im a little surprised you skipped the Noah Syndergaard twitter flap that had Mets twitter burning hot all day. Thor mocked the Mets combined no-no and things devolved from there. Not one to back down, Noah fanned the flames: Noah Syndergaard
@Noahsyndergaard
Oh and to be clear, I don't think a combined no hitter is the same as "real" 1 pitcher no hitter.
And Ban the Wave
And Mr. Met is a creep
Mets fans went off! It might have been fun if Mets fans could just take a little ribbing but, you know, twitter, mets fans...people got downright ugly.
Not all Mets fans, dude. Though heaven help me if I ever engage with other Mets fans on Twitter.
Something went wrong between Thor and management, clearly, and even if I would approach things differently than he is - he's doing well now and might get that big payday no thanks to the Mets, after all - I don't entirely blame him for being sassy. But it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the no-hitter.
And to add to the risk, the shortened season during the pandemic likely allowed Manfire to replenish MLB's ban reserves. The question is have they been replenished enough that he can dole out Guard's lifetime ban and still have enough ban remaining to dole out to other players if he needs to. If Manfire feels he has enough ban at his disposal, he could dole out Guard's lifetime ban at any moment now and finally put the whole Cindergate scandal behind him and MLB. Guard is playing with fire with these Twitter exhibitions.
One of my favorite genres (books, movies) is non-fiction Cold War spying. Based on my reading and viewing, I think we will never know the truth about "UFO" sightings in our lifetimes. There were all sorts of flight tests going on as we tried to perfect our overhead spying on the Rooskies. The story of the development and testing of the U2 is especially fascinating. And all that stuff remains classified so people who reported seeing strange aircraft in the skies above them were right, only it was just a bunch of test pilots taking their planes out for a run. And if you're ever in DC I recommend a visit to the International Spy Museum. Talk about "Trust No One"
And Michael Kay thinks everybody else it f'ed up! He's always looking down his nose at the rest of the world, slighting and insulting other people who don't live the perfect life he does.
But where does the Yankees fan go? You've got Kay and Oniell arguing about who didnt pick up the check for their $100 steaks, then you mute it and hear that John Sterling has lost the ball again while winding into another cannned call.
This is why Im not paying for YES and instead am watching the Mets this year.
I have 2 nephews in their 20s who only eat pizza and chicken fingers, and not even any chicken fingers, either. It's because their parents spoiled them and only fed them what they wanted as kids. I never wanted to eat a lot of what mom put out for the 7 of us, but it went fast and if you didn't get yours you went hungry. It was the same in the Navy, get it or starve. I dont like everything, but I'll eat anything that someone makes for me, and can always find something to order on any menu. Thanks mom & dad! (not so much the USN)
My parents had the rule that you at least had to TRY IT. No making gagging noises based on assumptions. If we tried it and honestly hated it, they wouldn't force us to eat it and we could have leftovers or a sandwich or mac and cheese instead if everyone else liked it (and once we got older and could be trusted in the kitchen ourselves we could make something simple on our own).
I have no problem with his food choices for himself, that's his own prison. It's his arrogant perspective that anybody who doesn't do as he does is messed up that bothers me, he can't see or accept that he's the weirdo.
There's nothing wrong with being the weirdo, I'm often the weirdo, just know that it's your shit and not the other person's.
I think everyone is just too far away from everyone else, and that it's nonsense to assume we even have ways to communicate with alien minds. It's folly to think that other races have developed the same tech and the same sorts of languages. And interstellar travel is out.
Never mind that I think if aliens came all this way, either we would have no doubt they were here, or they would do a much better job of hiding.
In short, UFOs are from Earth, and are probably either not that interesting, or classified programs that will remain classified.
I've always thought the biggest reason we'd never encounter an alien civilization was time. On the cosmic calendar, we've only been farming for the last 28 seconds. We've only been in modern history for the last second. What are the chances that a species capable of interstellar travel and communication would arise at the exact same time as us?
It's very 'us' to assume that speed is the key. Maybe sloth on a scale never even imagined is actually the key to understanding the universe. If that's the case, we'd sure never know...
Agreed on the distance problem. As a biologist, it's fun to think about all of the different types of ways sentient aliens could communicate that we couldn't perceive. Beyond things outside of our visual/auditory spectrum, there could be entire languages built around chemicals/pheromones, electrical signaling...
"This was the highest-scoring game in baseball so far this year."
How was that calculated? I'm curious, because this wasn't even close to the most total runs scored in a game this season. The Cardinals scored more runs on their own than these two teams combined when they beat the Nats 29-8 on March 30th.
Same boat but I'm pretty depressed about even the potential of improvement after I'm gone. I think we've borked the environment so much it might not be particularly livable for much longer, and all the supposed masters of the universe right now will find that cryptocurrency and NFTs have no nutritional value and can't even be set on fire for warmth.
Was the first one named Dawn?
I don’t know if it’s in the league as your Norm vignette, but I once pissed next to Ryne Sandberg in the restroom at Harry Caray’s in River North/Chicago.
There is no controversy, or shouldn't be. When a team finishes with no hits, the other team throw a no hitter. When more than one pitcher pitches in the no-hitter it's a combined no-hitter. Its easier for several pitchers to no-hit a team than for one guy to go all 9, obviously, but its still a no-hitter. Where does the asterisk even go? People need to get off that asterisk thing, it's been over 60 years since Maris. Maybe we can move on.
Football records don't matter. The game evolves too much. Its not unlike baseball was in the 1880s to 1900, where they were still making up the rules as they went. Can you imagine twitter when they moved the mound & invented the walk?
I was at a 3 pitcher no hitter by the Braves back in the 90s - this one. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199109110.shtml
Although I 100% agree it is just as legitimate a no-hitter as any other, it didn't feel that way in the stands. The build up, the tension, the crowd excitement just wasn't there. I'm not sure the majority of fans at the game even realized they were watching a no hitter.
BTW - it was a 2 hour and 11 minute game.
And that 5th record breaking ball would be worth SO much to the lucky fan...
I like Hannah Keyser but that's a bad take.
I keep calm about it by personally believing that a no-hitter isn't some grand historical achievement, but a neat accomplishment on the level of hitting for the cycle (which has happened almost the same number of times through baseball history). I mean, not only can you have a no-hitter while walking everyone, but you can have one and lose.
A perfect game is a different story, but I just don't care that much about no-hitters.
The reality is most no hitters, and probably all perfect games, require some luck. A good bounce, or just the absence of a bad bounce, a few borderline pitches getting called strikes, hard hit balls right at fielders, etc. I suspect most pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter would tell us it was not the the most dominant start of their career, or even that season.
So so very glad Congress has time for UFOs when it can't pass anything (well, except for aid for Ukraine, I will give them that). Of course, a hearing on UFOS doesn't cost much, but still. (I am royally pissed that the federal government is out of money to fight COVID and no one seems to care.)
On the bright side of the Mets game, the bullpen didn't allow any more runs?
The "highlight" of the day for the Blue Jays was Vladdie breaking his bat over his knee after striking out. I wonder what that bat did to deserve such a fate. (Dear lord, the whole Yankees rotation is dealing.)
Hey, the Senate unanimously agreed with about 5 minutes debate that Supreme Court justices are a higher order of human deserving of privacy and protection not afforded the rest of us.
That one doesn't bother me. Lots of government officials at all levels get police and secret service protection. And how many death threats do you think RBG got?
That's different that criminalizing peaceful protests outside the homes of government officials.
I am not sure I object to that either. I find the idea of protesting at people's homes distasteful and potentially dangerous. Do the protests elsewhere. (What purpose does protesting at someone's home serve anyway? The justices are going to change their minds because someone isn't letting them sleep? It's childish.)
But nobody thought they were deserving of it a week ago. What changed? Peaceful protestors showed up at their homes, so um yeah.
Yanks and Mets are both dealing!
Looking forward to late July, are we??
A Nats blowout win serving as respite for DC sports fans from yet another Caps postseason collapse? Is Obama president again, too?
[Full disclosure: I watched Grosse Pointe Blank on Amazon Prime instead.]
A NY Rangers win staving off elimination for one more game serving as the only respite for NY sports fans* from an embarrassing Mets loss which they led 3-0 four batters into the game? Almost anyone could be president for that one.
*(A Yankees win adding further salt to the wounds for this variety of NY sports fan, so don't count that as consolation)
Neither do I, really, but the Pens do have more guys who have "been there" than the Rangers do. But Shesterkin played the entire 6 periods in the 3OT game that opened the series, while Domingue came in for an injured starter in the middle of the 2nd OT period. So between playing both games of a double-header and a heart-breaking loss (any OT loss is heart-breaking), Shesty was out of gas, and his team didn't bail him out. Furthermore, a lot of folks thought the Rangers were ahead of schedule. So there's that.
I knew game 1 was going to haunt them. Pens had a 3rd string goaltender come in to OT cold and the Rangers did not take advantage of that. I know it was late and everyone was gassed but they really needed to find another gear to get aggressive and fling pucks at the guy. Aside from that the defense has been poor in front of him. They've looked like a different team in this series but it also doesn't help that Pittsburgh has 2-3 future Hall of Famers who can get out there and take control. 87 & 71 are always buzzing around the net and it never gets easier to watch.
I've been reluctant to think of the Caps losing this series as a collapse, given that they're the eight seed and it's gonna go at least six, but then I remember that they were up a goal with two minutes left in Game 4 and lost in OT, and then they were up three last night early in the second period and lost, 5-3, and then I think, "Yeah, that's kind of a collapse."
Game 4 was purely bad luck - Hathaway’s empty netter hit the post, then the game-tying shot bounced in off his shoulder 30 seconds later.
Last night, OTOH, was a DEBACLE.
Agreed. Made JoeB so sick he couldn't even watch the third period.
Norman; Lets not argue and bicker over who killed who, this is supposed to be a happy occasion.!"
The lockout this Winter & Spring was ugly but some good stuff did come from it. In Atlanta, long time minor leaguer Jackson Stephens got to pitch in front of the big league management and impressed. He is a big fat guy from rural Alabama who kicked around in the minors and winter leagues for a decade. He has now reached the show and is doing well in his - ahem - cup of coffee. He would probably still be in AA or AAA but for the lockout driven exposure. Nice little paywalled article on him at The Athletic.
I'd love it were this a sign of the end of crypto, but I'm far from convinced that is the case. Crypto is way down, but the stock market is way down too and no one is suggesting that's the end of Wall Street. Crypto is down far, far more than the stock market of course, but it is by nature far more volatile so I don't read too much into that.
In the end, an imaginary thing (the Bitcoin) is still worth $27,000 so I think people will still hoard computer parts and waste enormous amounts of electricity to generate them.
It's all so hysterical when one spends even the smallest amount of time thinking about it. "You should have crypto in your portfolio because fiat currency has all of these problems. Also, here is my new crypto that will always have the same value as the most popular fiat currency because reasons. I am very smart." Hysterical...and deeply depressing.
Yeah, that called third strike was brutal. If we’re not getting “robot umps,” why don’t they just make ball and strike calls reviewable?
Because no one wants a four hour game?
I don’t buy this argument, because the ensuing yelling & screaming & ejections took WAY longer than a review would have taken. Especially with balls & strikes, where it wouldn’t be done by a human slowing it down frame-by-frame, but super quick by a computer. Similar challenges in tennis are super-quick.
I have bad news.
Watch me crying for the red sox.....not.
Im a little surprised you skipped the Noah Syndergaard twitter flap that had Mets twitter burning hot all day. Thor mocked the Mets combined no-no and things devolved from there. Not one to back down, Noah fanned the flames: Noah Syndergaard
@Noahsyndergaard
Oh and to be clear, I don't think a combined no hitter is the same as "real" 1 pitcher no hitter.
And Ban the Wave
And Mr. Met is a creep
Mets fans went off! It might have been fun if Mets fans could just take a little ribbing but, you know, twitter, mets fans...people got downright ugly.
Not all Mets fans, dude. Though heaven help me if I ever engage with other Mets fans on Twitter.
Something went wrong between Thor and management, clearly, and even if I would approach things differently than he is - he's doing well now and might get that big payday no thanks to the Mets, after all - I don't entirely blame him for being sassy. But it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the no-hitter.
I'm surprised Cinder Guard is picking Twitter fights with baseball fans when he's already on thin ice with Rod Manfire, who no doubt is waiting for the most opportune moment to dole out Guard's lifetime ban from the game for admitting to betting on himself in free agency (https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/02/20/noah-syndergaard-i-feel-like-im-going-to-bet-on-myself-in-free-agency/).
And to add to the risk, the shortened season during the pandemic likely allowed Manfire to replenish MLB's ban reserves. The question is have they been replenished enough that he can dole out Guard's lifetime ban and still have enough ban remaining to dole out to other players if he needs to. If Manfire feels he has enough ban at his disposal, he could dole out Guard's lifetime ban at any moment now and finally put the whole Cindergate scandal behind him and MLB. Guard is playing with fire with these Twitter exhibitions.
Nice HBT Throwback Thursday comment!
One of my favorite genres (books, movies) is non-fiction Cold War spying. Based on my reading and viewing, I think we will never know the truth about "UFO" sightings in our lifetimes. There were all sorts of flight tests going on as we tried to perfect our overhead spying on the Rooskies. The story of the development and testing of the U2 is especially fascinating. And all that stuff remains classified so people who reported seeing strange aircraft in the skies above them were right, only it was just a bunch of test pilots taking their planes out for a run. And if you're ever in DC I recommend a visit to the International Spy Museum. Talk about "Trust No One"
Spy museum is very cool.
And Michael Kay thinks everybody else it f'ed up! He's always looking down his nose at the rest of the world, slighting and insulting other people who don't live the perfect life he does.
But where does the Yankees fan go? You've got Kay and Oniell arguing about who didnt pick up the check for their $100 steaks, then you mute it and hear that John Sterling has lost the ball again while winding into another cannned call.
This is why Im not paying for YES and instead am watching the Mets this year.
I’m just trying to wrap my mind around not eating cheese except on pizza and eating chicken parmigiana. All else is subservient to that confusion.
Chicken parm is a form of pizza, isn't it? Especially if the chicken is breaded, you've got your crust, your sauce, your cheese, and your meat.
Is a meatball sub a pizza?
A hot dog without a bun is still a hot dog, so no, a hot dog is not a sandwich.
I have 2 nephews in their 20s who only eat pizza and chicken fingers, and not even any chicken fingers, either. It's because their parents spoiled them and only fed them what they wanted as kids. I never wanted to eat a lot of what mom put out for the 7 of us, but it went fast and if you didn't get yours you went hungry. It was the same in the Navy, get it or starve. I dont like everything, but I'll eat anything that someone makes for me, and can always find something to order on any menu. Thanks mom & dad! (not so much the USN)
My parents had the rule that you at least had to TRY IT. No making gagging noises based on assumptions. If we tried it and honestly hated it, they wouldn't force us to eat it and we could have leftovers or a sandwich or mac and cheese instead if everyone else liked it (and once we got older and could be trusted in the kitchen ourselves we could make something simple on our own).
It’s Michael Kay. There’s a good chance he asks them to hold the cheese when he orders a chicken parm.
I have no problem with his food choices for himself, that's his own prison. It's his arrogant perspective that anybody who doesn't do as he does is messed up that bothers me, he can't see or accept that he's the weirdo.
There's nothing wrong with being the weirdo, I'm often the weirdo, just know that it's your shit and not the other person's.
I don't believe we're alone in the universe, but I do believe that Fermi's Paradox can either keep you up at night or be the reason you sleep soundly.
I think everyone is just too far away from everyone else, and that it's nonsense to assume we even have ways to communicate with alien minds. It's folly to think that other races have developed the same tech and the same sorts of languages. And interstellar travel is out.
Never mind that I think if aliens came all this way, either we would have no doubt they were here, or they would do a much better job of hiding.
In short, UFOs are from Earth, and are probably either not that interesting, or classified programs that will remain classified.
I've always thought the biggest reason we'd never encounter an alien civilization was time. On the cosmic calendar, we've only been farming for the last 28 seconds. We've only been in modern history for the last second. What are the chances that a species capable of interstellar travel and communication would arise at the exact same time as us?
Precisely. It be like trying to hit a bullet with another bullet to knock it into a third bullet….a 43rd bullet into a 44th…
It's very 'us' to assume that speed is the key. Maybe sloth on a scale never even imagined is actually the key to understanding the universe. If that's the case, we'd sure never know...
Agreed on the distance problem. As a biologist, it's fun to think about all of the different types of ways sentient aliens could communicate that we couldn't perceive. Beyond things outside of our visual/auditory spectrum, there could be entire languages built around chemicals/pheromones, electrical signaling...
It's a fun idea that doesn't show up in enough scifi. And that is probably really hard to write. Best to leave it to the biologists.
Aliens are here, and they emit a chemical that fools our brains into thinking they look like humans
This explains Mitch McConell.
I just pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth.
What about the dolphins?
They're welcome for all the fish.
My Brittish to Brooklyn dictionary says bugger-all means notafrigginting.
Good lord, I hope Michael Kay keeps a defibrillator within reach at all times if he only likes chicken parm, bacon, and steak.
Do you? Do you really?
Thanks for posting that Norm MacDonald video - it was a great tribute.
"This was the highest-scoring game in baseball so far this year."
How was that calculated? I'm curious, because this wasn't even close to the most total runs scored in a game this season. The Cardinals scored more runs on their own than these two teams combined when they beat the Nats 29-8 on March 30th.
That 29-8 game was a spring training contest, not a regular season game.
Whoops! My bad. You're correct. I just remembered they didn't quite make it to 30 runs. Then I went and looked when it was.