The Phillies make a statement, an Atlanta radio announced embarrasses himself, Houston and Arizona advance, the Yankees are doing . . . something, a dry hike, the Von Erichs, and Marvel TV
I thought WandaVision was weird and funky and creative and fun, right up until it wasn’t. By the end of that series they were back to characters flying around and throwing each other through walls again.
TBH other than Twins over Jays, every AL playoff series has been dour for me. NL is more fun - except, as I've said, I don't care about Arizona other than as a chaos agent. I've been reduced to rooting for the Phillies - which isn't awful but also isn't ideal.
Yeah, the Rangers' beating the O's, who are young, fun, and should be better next year, was the worst for me, especially once the whole Creed thing came out.
I find the Astros incredibly distasteful, but as a WS fan (sigh, whimper), I'm happy for Jose Abreu, lighting it up on the big stage. But like you, ultimately I default to the Phillies, who are at least kind of fun.
The worst part of the Twins losing is that now I have to root for the Senators 2.0 to beat Houston. I’ll do it but 7YO me is PISSED.
PS Dear Phillies fans: you’re welcome for my team being stupid, poorly run and cheap. Miss U Bryce, Trea, Kyle.
PPS Marvel is like a franchise chain that expanded too quickly. They’re so ubiquitous now that they’re overwhelming and off putting. (I still watch that hallway fight scene from Daredevil S1E2 every now and then when I want to go “hell yeah.” Such a great show.)
I dunno, I think they just ran into a really good team with really good pitching. They scored 3.25 runs per game in the series, not much less than the 3.64 ERA of the guys on the roster the Astros brought with them to the ALDS (excluding Hunter Brown's middling work as a starter, a role in which he's not being used in the playoffs).
I do feel bad about Gray faltering. After watching him manhandle Toronto I thought the Twins had a real weapon there against Houston, but then again he started the game for the Yankees the day I took my son to Yankee Stadium for his 10th birthday, and he gave up 7 runs in 2.2 innings to the worst team in baseball, so I should be used to him being disappointing... :-/
Not fair to say the Mets had a lot of injuries. Or rather, not entirely accurate, as many observers have noted that for the first time in ages, most players who got hurt came back without much difficulty. I think only Marte posed a season long issue. Given the Carlos Beltrans of recent history, this year was a huge improvement. Still, while I never care much for "playing through pain," for Lindor to have as good a year as he did in pain is pretty impressive.
And speaking of Marvel, I want to note the passing of Keith Giffen. He's not particularly well known outside comic book fandom, but his credit include co-creator of Rocket Raccoon, and writing the first stories that teamed up Rocket, Peter Quill, and Drax, in essence invented the Guardians of the Galaxy who are now household names. Fair to say that without him, the MCU (as well as huge swathes of DC's comics line) would be a very different place.
I consider the real REAL Guardians to be the little blue guys from Green Lantern. I mean, they guard the whole universe, which is literally impossible.
Craig is sorta wrong about Bass. The CBA limits what a player can be disciplined for. Off field conduct is rarely an allowable basis for discipline except when expressly carved out. See e.g. domestic violence. But - and it’s a big but, which I like and will not lie - there is arbitration precedent going back to the 1980s that as long as a plausible baseball reason is provided, it won’t be second guessed.
True. He'd just be the latest in a long line of players who had a baseball justification for being released, but everyone knew the real reason was some version of he's a horrible teammate, he's a clubhouse cancer, or no one likes him much so he won't really be missed.
Nitpick: clubhouse cancer, etc IS a baseball reason. Non-baseball would be something like off field speech like Schilling or Doolittle, non DV misdemeanor charges like LaRussa’s DUIs, or sexual orientation (maybe - there are some states that would make that illegal) like Glenn Burke.
Yeah, I could see how some would argue it has nothing to do with actual performance though. But it is a team sport and more than individual sports and some workplaces, knowing how to be a part of a team is a baseball skill.
How does the CBA define discipline? Because not playing a player, even if paid, feels like discipline to me. Trevor Bauer was held out of his last start then released by the Dodgers and I don’t think they’re going to claim a baseball reason. Wander Franco was held out of a game or two this year before heading to the suspended list.
Not saying Bass has a case. An ERA of 5 feels like enough of a baseball justification, especially given a career in which he’s had one good year. I can see being a clubhouse cancer/distraction being a baseball decision as well.
Discipline is defined from decades of labor grievances under the just cause provision both in the MLB - MLBPA agreements and others. It is a reduction in non financial emoluments of the job. Being released is discipline because it reduces the likelihood of a future contract from another team in the future.
Bauer & Franco are actually perfect examples: the league and union negotiated express carve outs for DV. The Dodgers were contractually prohibited, for example, from punishing TB before the final commissioner’s decision and appeal. But the commissioner was empowered by the contract to put them on a temporary suspension list and then continually renew it.
Most of this was hashed out by arbitration cases involving drugs like Steve Howe’s multiple cases in the 80s.
Thanks for the explanation. Though we’re talking about different things with Bauer and Franco. I understand the DV suspensions were negotiated into the CBA. But the teams disciplining the players by benching them -- IIRC the Bauer story broke on Thursday and there was a lot of controversy if he’d make his Sunday start before the all star break -- seems to be discipline in violation of labor agreement. Of course, we don’t know what happened behind the scenes and perhaps the player and union signed off on it.
The controversy about Bauer’s next start came from people who aren’t familiar with the joint agreement. It has very explicit provisions that were right on point.
Can a DFA be considered discipline? I posted recently without reading this, and appreciate your insights. I did do some digging and it seems like the Commish has to sign off on DFAs, but could easily be wrong there.
It *can* be deemed to be deemed to be discipline. But you'd have to create a hypothetical that hasn't happened basically since the Pittsburg cocaine cases ~40 years ago (damn, I'm old!) for it to be discipline **that violates the CBA.** For example, if Mookie Betts were to go on television and announce to the public that Rush is the greatest band of all time and the Dodgers cut him in the midst of another (near?) MVP season, clearly that DFA would be for off-field conduct and be prohibited.
Star Wars and Marvel both have kinda run into a "meh" era. I'm hoping Ms Marvel is more than meh - I'm going thru Ahsoka now, I think part of the problem there is you have a main character from an animated show/extended universe and a villain from a 30 year old book/animated show that new viewers are kinda/sorta expected to know all about and, I can't say that is working so well - and on top of that, it's just not super compelling like those first few Mando seasons. I think we're all spoiled by Endgame, Mando Season 1 and everything that came before, and maybe a little less of this stuff isn't the worst thing. That being said, I'm thrilled that Star Trek Prodigy was saved by Netflix - this show was different and is also a direct sequel to Voyager! - but again, is testing the limits of fandom - and probably won't get a huge audience.
I agree on Marvel - I used to be a completionist about MCU stuff, but when the quality started going down across the board I couldn't justify spending so much time trying to force myself to watch it all when there's other great stuff out there. Moon Knight was the last straw for my completionism - I got so bored with it, that's when I decided it wasn't worth trying to keep up with every single MCU release. So I didn't even bother with She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, or Secret Invasion, although I have started season 2 of Loki. I have still kept up with the movies, but haven't gone to the theater for any of the recent ones like I used to.
I don't feel that Star Wars, however, is near the level of mediocrity that Marvel has been toiling around in. I had no background knowledge about the characters in Ahsoka (other than her appearance in The Mandolorian) and enjoyed that show, seeing new characters and parts of the Star Wars universe I wasn't familiar with. Ray Stevenson (RIP) was excellent. Mando started out great and while it's not as great as how it started, I still find it pretty good. And then there's Andor, which I thought was pretty universally agreed on as being fantastic.
The only Disney+ Star Wars show (not counting the animated shows, which I haven't seen) that I thought kinda sucked was the Book of Boba Fett, as I felt the mysterious coolness that everyone loved about that character had pretty much been transferred to Mando by that point - Boba didn't really seem necessary anymore other than having him make appearances in Mando like he had been doing. And watching old man Boba play town sheriff for the whole season seemed off for what I thought was supposed to be a morally gray character.
Interesting. So you didn't feel lost watching Ahsoka even without seeing Rebels? I've kinda wondered how that would go. I can't really ask anyone, everyone in my circles is a Star Wars junkie like me.
No, at least not too much. Now, I was aware of the Ahsoka character over the years from just general schmutzing around various Star Wars-related forums, articles, etc. but never dove too far into anything. I read some more about her after she appeared in the Mandalorian just to get more of an idea who she was, then through that became intrigued by Thrawn, who seemed like he would be a cool major villain. But even though I looked up some stuff about them, I never went too far so as not to spoil anything for myself too much in case I ever did want to check out Rebels.
So, I could piece things together enough from what I had read before to not feel too lost while watching Ahsoka, at least not enough to the point of not enjoying it. The show just felt well-made too, which helped. The only thing I felt like maybe I was missing was the significance of what Baylan Skroll was searching for on that planet, and those mountain carvings at the end. And now of course the social media algorithms have been spamming articles at me talking about their significance and connection to Rebels, which I'm afraid to open in case I might watch Rebels at some point.
Also, while writing both of my comments, I realized I completely forgot about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show. I know it got a good amount of flak, but I didn't hate it. I loved the duel with raging Vader.
If I had to rank the live action Star Wars shows, I'd go:
1. Andor
2. Mandalorian (although I'd put season 1 up at the top with Andor)
If you liked Ahsoka without seeing Rebels, I'd definitely suggest giving a Rebels a try then. It's a quicker watch than The Clone Wars. And honestly, Rebels is a lot better than it really has any business being.
I was really entertained by She Hulk. Half hour episodes were just the right length and there was a lot of humor. Not to mention numerous breaking the fourth wall snippets. It was a good contrast to all the sturm and drang movies
I have been wondering lately if Star Wars would be best served by taking a couple years off. Starting with The Force Awakens at the end of 2015 we've had 5 movies and 7 seasons of live action TV. And that's not even getting into cartoons, books, etc. Slow the roll on live action stuff at least. Of course that will never happen, the content machine is a never ending monster that must be fed.
can you imagine even thinking/saying that if this were 1999 and we've had 16 years where we were pretty sure that was it for Star Wars (short of extended universe/books/comics etc)... we were hungry for all of it. But now we're fed, and we're burping, and we can't eat even a wafer more.
Ha, no kidding. After Revenge of the Sith, it was like will we ever get Star Wars on the big screen again? Now I'm like, can they tap the brakes a bit? Words I never thought I'd type. And to be clear, it's not that I want less content, it's that I think Star Wars as a whole might benefit from a little break and let everyone get on the same a page about what the direction is going to be.
I was 9 years old the summer of 1977. Gimme more. Basically never got into the various animated series, but we eat up the live action shows in my household. There are enough youtube bits to explain the backstory I missed in the "expanded universe." Yeah, Boba and Kenobi both had long stretches of lameness, but I still enjoy every chance to immerse myself in that galaxy. I do wish Disney and Paramount better coordinated the Trek and Star Wars content so there were fewer dark periods. Now, who's got my heady Buck Rogers in the 25th Century reboot?
I've read although I don't know if it was ever officially confirmed that Boba Fett and Obi-Wan were going to be movies. And then when Solo and Rise of Skywalker didn't do so well, they made a pivot to streaming. Which certainly explain why both series felt like a movie with a bunch of filler.
I gave up on Marvel after being bored through Shang Chi. I wasn’t a fan of the idea of SM3 being a crossover movie and didn’t see it. I know what happens, I think that’s a ridiculous plot and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nor am I in a rush to watch it. The only Marvel thing I’ve liked and am interested to watch more of is What If?
At least Marvel fans seem to mostly agree on how bad the quality of things has been the last three years. Star Wars fans, on the other hand... stop trying to defend the sequels, and stop trying to make the prequels retroactively better. There is no defending the dialogue in Attack of the Clones!
There’s a part of me that kind of respects Hal Steinbrenner for being authentic to himself and not trying to be George Jr. for the sake of things. On the other hand? Hal is clearly a businessman first, which I don’t think bodes well with Yankees fans. I still think Cashman has been here too long, and the front office approach to roster building and player development must be revamped. If not? They’ll waste the Judge era.
all of my pitchers have "weighted balls" as you prob know, but yes, they will also be using the Elston Howard-invented weighted donuts on their bats and injuries will be treated with biometric solutions, like mechanical arms and other Robocop-like solutions. no more IL time lost!
all the same people using new approaches to make different decisions! ingenious! one of the examples is that they will NOT bring back Donaldson. Hal is a mastermind. I'm so glad the gas lighting is over!
his last double seizure was 16 days ago, the longest we've gone since when this began in May.
we are weaning him off the Gabapentin (now on Potassium-Bromide and Zonisimide). post ichtal (sp?) we now administer valium via injection and his wind-down pacing walking into things time is down from 2 hours + to just over an hour. it's tough to see him seizing and then his long recovery is unnerving. we hope as time passes to space the attacks out. vet consult tomorrow.
vet has gone easy on us, with both the cost on the meds and doing consults over the phone but we want to do a face-to-face, as it's been a while. thanks again.
I'm not sure why Craig said unlike some many of his teammates, Lindor had a durable year. It didn't seem to me like the Mets had an unusual number of injuries. Of the key offensive players, only Marte missed a lot of time. Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo, and McNeil all played in over 150 games. For pitchers, Verlander missed a little time and Quintana missed a lot of time, but that's not an unusual number of pitching injuries these days.
It would be better if the Mets had the excuse of injuries for their performance, but I don't see that as being the case.
It's more true on the pitching side, and those are Lindor's teammates, too. Verlander missed all of April. Scherzer, while he didn't go on the IL (I don't think) got long layoffs after short starts most of April and May. Megill missed a month and a half. Carrasco missed two, nonconsecutively. Quintana made only 13 starts, whatever the nature of his malady.
I have a friend who went to Harvard Law, and given what she told me, this is sadly not a surprise. (This is also all I am going to say about things. I am glad Craig has not mentioned anything since I want this to stay a safe space when my mind is raw.)
I have lots of takes on this (full disclosure, I'm a libby lib Prof). One is that the disgraceful takes from certain student groups is in part a product of them being too young to remember 9/11. For the sake of my Jewish friends on here, I'll refrain from further comment except to say I'm thinking about you, and you have my love and support.
For the record, I don't think any good would come from that conversation and so I'm not interested in having it on here but I have always found it somewhat disturbing that it's just about the only world news item that's never discussed.
What happened over the weekend was terrible, what's happening now is terrible, what happens next will be terrible and what's been happening for years in that region has always been terrible. People should be better towards one another. But we don't live in that world.
I'm not engaging beyond saying there is more than one acceptable perspective talked about in my academic neck of the woods, and that there are plenty of people who talk about the subject regularly (and not just when something terrible happens).
I don’t have a problem with Harper’s stare down. Arcia calling out his stupid base running - and rounding the bag was dumb no matter what Harper said afterwards - was deeply unwise. I do, however, find the throat slashing gesture to be in incredibly bad taste. Mimic, for example, Acuna’s pitterpatter steps around the bases or the arm flapping of Ozuna’s. But murder isn’t fun or funny. There is good reason that the NFL and NCAAF have made that gesture an immediate penalty.
I also find it dumb to suggest that only the morally pure may criticize. CC used untold numbers of fossil fuels to simply amuse himself by going on a walk. Therefore he must remain silent about any global warming issue in the future? No. Whatabouting is a silly debate ploy.
This is one of those Free Thursday newsletters that really nails the essence of why I nervously, but, proudly explain to my wife that annual charge to our credit card for Cup of Coffee.
It gives my wife the opportunity to fire off her "oh, is that your little baseball friend?" line about Craig every year, so why deprive her of the condescending joy, y'know?
It's been a couple of years since I've been to San Diego, and I don't have any trips planned at the moment, but the next time I'm there I am 100% driving to your house to pick you up for a beer or whatever and I'm gonna make you have to tell her "honey, I'm going out with my little baseball friend. Be back later."
I thought WandaVision was weird and funky and creative and fun, right up until it wasn’t. By the end of that series they were back to characters flying around and throwing each other through walls again.
"Three of the dour Division Series are completed"
Editor: Shouldn't that be "four?"
Craig: Maybe, but it's not wrong.
I thought that was the word he meant to use… Didn’t even flash on the possibility that it was a typo.
My assumption as well. But perhaps I'm just dour myself.
TBH other than Twins over Jays, every AL playoff series has been dour for me. NL is more fun - except, as I've said, I don't care about Arizona other than as a chaos agent. I've been reduced to rooting for the Phillies - which isn't awful but also isn't ideal.
Yeah, the Rangers' beating the O's, who are young, fun, and should be better next year, was the worst for me, especially once the whole Creed thing came out.
I find the Astros incredibly distasteful, but as a WS fan (sigh, whimper), I'm happy for Jose Abreu, lighting it up on the big stage. But like you, ultimately I default to the Phillies, who are at least kind of fun.
The Rangers should know that Creed is already taken by another team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SciOHNf1qA0
Edit - here is the version with the actual Marlins lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6Jha0NJHk
The worst part of the Twins losing is that now I have to root for the Senators 2.0 to beat Houston. I’ll do it but 7YO me is PISSED.
PS Dear Phillies fans: you’re welcome for my team being stupid, poorly run and cheap. Miss U Bryce, Trea, Kyle.
PPS Marvel is like a franchise chain that expanded too quickly. They’re so ubiquitous now that they’re overwhelming and off putting. (I still watch that hallway fight scene from Daredevil S1E2 every now and then when I want to go “hell yeah.” Such a great show.)
I heard the Twins struck out 52 times in that 4 game series. That's an average of 13 strikeouts per game. Yikes!
They reverted to the pre-All Star break Twins, who were not good. And what a time for Sonny Gray to have his worst game of the season.
I dunno, I think they just ran into a really good team with really good pitching. They scored 3.25 runs per game in the series, not much less than the 3.64 ERA of the guys on the roster the Astros brought with them to the ALDS (excluding Hunter Brown's middling work as a starter, a role in which he's not being used in the playoffs).
I do feel bad about Gray faltering. After watching him manhandle Toronto I thought the Twins had a real weapon there against Houston, but then again he started the game for the Yankees the day I took my son to Yankee Stadium for his 10th birthday, and he gave up 7 runs in 2.2 innings to the worst team in baseball, so I should be used to him being disappointing... :-/
Yeah, that's Sox level hitting. And Jose got the last laugh. Good on you, Jose. We still miss you...
Was that the single-shot scene where he’s trying to break out of the prison while there’s a riot happening? If so, that scene is indeed badass.
No. It's the one where he's rescuing the little kid being held captive. I don't think he even has his "official" costume yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B66feInucFY&ab_channel=Netflix
DUH...yeah, S1E2 wouldn't be the prison scene.
That hallway scene is cool too, though a little reminiscent of the ass-kicking the Rangers laid on the O's. :D
I’m still working my way through the Netflix Marvel Defenders arc. Best so far is Season 1 of Luke Cage. But Daredevil comes close.
Not fair to say the Mets had a lot of injuries. Or rather, not entirely accurate, as many observers have noted that for the first time in ages, most players who got hurt came back without much difficulty. I think only Marte posed a season long issue. Given the Carlos Beltrans of recent history, this year was a huge improvement. Still, while I never care much for "playing through pain," for Lindor to have as good a year as he did in pain is pretty impressive.
And speaking of Marvel, I want to note the passing of Keith Giffen. He's not particularly well known outside comic book fandom, but his credit include co-creator of Rocket Raccoon, and writing the first stories that teamed up Rocket, Peter Quill, and Drax, in essence invented the Guardians of the Galaxy who are now household names. Fair to say that without him, the MCU (as well as huge swathes of DC's comics line) would be a very different place.
I consider the real REAL Guardians to be the little blue guys from Green Lantern. I mean, they guard the whole universe, which is literally impossible.
Craig is sorta wrong about Bass. The CBA limits what a player can be disciplined for. Off field conduct is rarely an allowable basis for discipline except when expressly carved out. See e.g. domestic violence. But - and it’s a big but, which I like and will not lie - there is arbitration precedent going back to the 1980s that as long as a plausible baseball reason is provided, it won’t be second guessed.
True. He'd just be the latest in a long line of players who had a baseball justification for being released, but everyone knew the real reason was some version of he's a horrible teammate, he's a clubhouse cancer, or no one likes him much so he won't really be missed.
Nitpick: clubhouse cancer, etc IS a baseball reason. Non-baseball would be something like off field speech like Schilling or Doolittle, non DV misdemeanor charges like LaRussa’s DUIs, or sexual orientation (maybe - there are some states that would make that illegal) like Glenn Burke.
Yeah, I could see how some would argue it has nothing to do with actual performance though. But it is a team sport and more than individual sports and some workplaces, knowing how to be a part of a team is a baseball skill.
Point taken.
Nitpick: flagging an error that’s a significant issue with the logic someone presented is NOT a nitpick.
But I understand what both of you mean.
There’s a valuable lesson here, kids: you can’t afford to be an asshole if you suck at your job.
Greg Maddux could get away with peeing on his teammates. I would not recommend that Lucas Luetge try it.
Yep. If you want to be a baseball homophobe, you need to be Jason Adam, a star setup guy, and not someone putting up a 4.95 ERA.
More and more this is true even if you are good at your job. Though highly paid employees get a bit more leeway.
Was he disciplined?
Yes. Termination is discipline by definition even if he received a payout.
How does the CBA define discipline? Because not playing a player, even if paid, feels like discipline to me. Trevor Bauer was held out of his last start then released by the Dodgers and I don’t think they’re going to claim a baseball reason. Wander Franco was held out of a game or two this year before heading to the suspended list.
Not saying Bass has a case. An ERA of 5 feels like enough of a baseball justification, especially given a career in which he’s had one good year. I can see being a clubhouse cancer/distraction being a baseball decision as well.
Discipline is defined from decades of labor grievances under the just cause provision both in the MLB - MLBPA agreements and others. It is a reduction in non financial emoluments of the job. Being released is discipline because it reduces the likelihood of a future contract from another team in the future.
Bauer & Franco are actually perfect examples: the league and union negotiated express carve outs for DV. The Dodgers were contractually prohibited, for example, from punishing TB before the final commissioner’s decision and appeal. But the commissioner was empowered by the contract to put them on a temporary suspension list and then continually renew it.
Most of this was hashed out by arbitration cases involving drugs like Steve Howe’s multiple cases in the 80s.
Thanks for the explanation. Though we’re talking about different things with Bauer and Franco. I understand the DV suspensions were negotiated into the CBA. But the teams disciplining the players by benching them -- IIRC the Bauer story broke on Thursday and there was a lot of controversy if he’d make his Sunday start before the all star break -- seems to be discipline in violation of labor agreement. Of course, we don’t know what happened behind the scenes and perhaps the player and union signed off on it.
The controversy about Bauer’s next start came from people who aren’t familiar with the joint agreement. It has very explicit provisions that were right on point.
That comes across much more rudely than intended. Sorry.
Can a DFA be considered discipline? I posted recently without reading this, and appreciate your insights. I did do some digging and it seems like the Commish has to sign off on DFAs, but could easily be wrong there.
It *can* be deemed to be deemed to be discipline. But you'd have to create a hypothetical that hasn't happened basically since the Pittsburg cocaine cases ~40 years ago (damn, I'm old!) for it to be discipline **that violates the CBA.** For example, if Mookie Betts were to go on television and announce to the public that Rush is the greatest band of all time and the Dodgers cut him in the midst of another (near?) MVP season, clearly that DFA would be for off-field conduct and be prohibited.
Star Wars and Marvel both have kinda run into a "meh" era. I'm hoping Ms Marvel is more than meh - I'm going thru Ahsoka now, I think part of the problem there is you have a main character from an animated show/extended universe and a villain from a 30 year old book/animated show that new viewers are kinda/sorta expected to know all about and, I can't say that is working so well - and on top of that, it's just not super compelling like those first few Mando seasons. I think we're all spoiled by Endgame, Mando Season 1 and everything that came before, and maybe a little less of this stuff isn't the worst thing. That being said, I'm thrilled that Star Trek Prodigy was saved by Netflix - this show was different and is also a direct sequel to Voyager! - but again, is testing the limits of fandom - and probably won't get a huge audience.
I agree on Marvel - I used to be a completionist about MCU stuff, but when the quality started going down across the board I couldn't justify spending so much time trying to force myself to watch it all when there's other great stuff out there. Moon Knight was the last straw for my completionism - I got so bored with it, that's when I decided it wasn't worth trying to keep up with every single MCU release. So I didn't even bother with She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, or Secret Invasion, although I have started season 2 of Loki. I have still kept up with the movies, but haven't gone to the theater for any of the recent ones like I used to.
I don't feel that Star Wars, however, is near the level of mediocrity that Marvel has been toiling around in. I had no background knowledge about the characters in Ahsoka (other than her appearance in The Mandolorian) and enjoyed that show, seeing new characters and parts of the Star Wars universe I wasn't familiar with. Ray Stevenson (RIP) was excellent. Mando started out great and while it's not as great as how it started, I still find it pretty good. And then there's Andor, which I thought was pretty universally agreed on as being fantastic.
The only Disney+ Star Wars show (not counting the animated shows, which I haven't seen) that I thought kinda sucked was the Book of Boba Fett, as I felt the mysterious coolness that everyone loved about that character had pretty much been transferred to Mando by that point - Boba didn't really seem necessary anymore other than having him make appearances in Mando like he had been doing. And watching old man Boba play town sheriff for the whole season seemed off for what I thought was supposed to be a morally gray character.
Interesting. So you didn't feel lost watching Ahsoka even without seeing Rebels? I've kinda wondered how that would go. I can't really ask anyone, everyone in my circles is a Star Wars junkie like me.
SPOILERS
No, at least not too much. Now, I was aware of the Ahsoka character over the years from just general schmutzing around various Star Wars-related forums, articles, etc. but never dove too far into anything. I read some more about her after she appeared in the Mandalorian just to get more of an idea who she was, then through that became intrigued by Thrawn, who seemed like he would be a cool major villain. But even though I looked up some stuff about them, I never went too far so as not to spoil anything for myself too much in case I ever did want to check out Rebels.
So, I could piece things together enough from what I had read before to not feel too lost while watching Ahsoka, at least not enough to the point of not enjoying it. The show just felt well-made too, which helped. The only thing I felt like maybe I was missing was the significance of what Baylan Skroll was searching for on that planet, and those mountain carvings at the end. And now of course the social media algorithms have been spamming articles at me talking about their significance and connection to Rebels, which I'm afraid to open in case I might watch Rebels at some point.
Also, while writing both of my comments, I realized I completely forgot about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show. I know it got a good amount of flak, but I didn't hate it. I loved the duel with raging Vader.
If I had to rank the live action Star Wars shows, I'd go:
1. Andor
2. Mandalorian (although I'd put season 1 up at the top with Andor)
3. Ahsoka
4. Obi-Wan Kenobi
5. Book of Boba Fett
If you liked Ahsoka without seeing Rebels, I'd definitely suggest giving a Rebels a try then. It's a quicker watch than The Clone Wars. And honestly, Rebels is a lot better than it really has any business being.
I was really entertained by She Hulk. Half hour episodes were just the right length and there was a lot of humor. Not to mention numerous breaking the fourth wall snippets. It was a good contrast to all the sturm and drang movies
I have been wondering lately if Star Wars would be best served by taking a couple years off. Starting with The Force Awakens at the end of 2015 we've had 5 movies and 7 seasons of live action TV. And that's not even getting into cartoons, books, etc. Slow the roll on live action stuff at least. Of course that will never happen, the content machine is a never ending monster that must be fed.
can you imagine even thinking/saying that if this were 1999 and we've had 16 years where we were pretty sure that was it for Star Wars (short of extended universe/books/comics etc)... we were hungry for all of it. But now we're fed, and we're burping, and we can't eat even a wafer more.
Ha, no kidding. After Revenge of the Sith, it was like will we ever get Star Wars on the big screen again? Now I'm like, can they tap the brakes a bit? Words I never thought I'd type. And to be clear, it's not that I want less content, it's that I think Star Wars as a whole might benefit from a little break and let everyone get on the same a page about what the direction is going to be.
Also, thanks for subscribing!
I was 9 years old the summer of 1977. Gimme more. Basically never got into the various animated series, but we eat up the live action shows in my household. There are enough youtube bits to explain the backstory I missed in the "expanded universe." Yeah, Boba and Kenobi both had long stretches of lameness, but I still enjoy every chance to immerse myself in that galaxy. I do wish Disney and Paramount better coordinated the Trek and Star Wars content so there were fewer dark periods. Now, who's got my heady Buck Rogers in the 25th Century reboot?
I've read although I don't know if it was ever officially confirmed that Boba Fett and Obi-Wan were going to be movies. And then when Solo and Rise of Skywalker didn't do so well, they made a pivot to streaming. Which certainly explain why both series felt like a movie with a bunch of filler.
Still have one of these BlueSky codes:
bsky-social-3mrmt-fvtpf
The worst thing about the end of year tournament is the Houston Astros.
I gave up on Marvel after being bored through Shang Chi. I wasn’t a fan of the idea of SM3 being a crossover movie and didn’t see it. I know what happens, I think that’s a ridiculous plot and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nor am I in a rush to watch it. The only Marvel thing I’ve liked and am interested to watch more of is What If?
At least Marvel fans seem to mostly agree on how bad the quality of things has been the last three years. Star Wars fans, on the other hand... stop trying to defend the sequels, and stop trying to make the prequels retroactively better. There is no defending the dialogue in Attack of the Clones!
There’s a part of me that kind of respects Hal Steinbrenner for being authentic to himself and not trying to be George Jr. for the sake of things. On the other hand? Hal is clearly a businessman first, which I don’t think bodes well with Yankees fans. I still think Cashman has been here too long, and the front office approach to roster building and player development must be revamped. If not? They’ll waste the Judge era.
Hal *finally* focusing on biomechanics!
Rest of the league can now suck it!!
I understand the pitchers will warm up with weighted balls next year.
all of my pitchers have "weighted balls" as you prob know, but yes, they will also be using the Elston Howard-invented weighted donuts on their bats and injuries will be treated with biometric solutions, like mechanical arms and other Robocop-like solutions. no more IL time lost!
all the same people using new approaches to make different decisions! ingenious! one of the examples is that they will NOT bring back Donaldson. Hal is a mastermind. I'm so glad the gas lighting is over!
Hoping all is well with your sweet dog.
thanks again for checking in.
his last double seizure was 16 days ago, the longest we've gone since when this began in May.
we are weaning him off the Gabapentin (now on Potassium-Bromide and Zonisimide). post ichtal (sp?) we now administer valium via injection and his wind-down pacing walking into things time is down from 2 hours + to just over an hour. it's tough to see him seizing and then his long recovery is unnerving. we hope as time passes to space the attacks out. vet consult tomorrow.
vet has gone easy on us, with both the cost on the meds and doing consults over the phone but we want to do a face-to-face, as it's been a while. thanks again.
I'm not sure why Craig said unlike some many of his teammates, Lindor had a durable year. It didn't seem to me like the Mets had an unusual number of injuries. Of the key offensive players, only Marte missed a lot of time. Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo, and McNeil all played in over 150 games. For pitchers, Verlander missed a little time and Quintana missed a lot of time, but that's not an unusual number of pitching injuries these days.
It would be better if the Mets had the excuse of injuries for their performance, but I don't see that as being the case.
And Quintana had a freak ailment not related to pitching.
It's more true on the pitching side, and those are Lindor's teammates, too. Verlander missed all of April. Scherzer, while he didn't go on the IL (I don't think) got long layoffs after short starts most of April and May. Megill missed a month and a half. Carrasco missed two, nonconsecutively. Quintana made only 13 starts, whatever the nature of his malady.
Interesting what’s going on with the Harvard groups who backed the actions of this past weekend, very interesting.
I have a friend who went to Harvard Law, and given what she told me, this is sadly not a surprise. (This is also all I am going to say about things. I am glad Craig has not mentioned anything since I want this to stay a safe space when my mind is raw.)
Understood - Ackerman an Co. are doing the right things IMO
*Ackman
I did a quick search and all I found was a meme of Harvard Law School students walking out to protest "innocent until proven guilty." Is that it?
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza/card/bill-ackman-doesn-t-want-to-hire-harvard-students-who-blamed-israel-xPsuiqpYDRYpCLLkSYso
I have lots of takes on this (full disclosure, I'm a libby lib Prof). One is that the disgraceful takes from certain student groups is in part a product of them being too young to remember 9/11. For the sake of my Jewish friends on here, I'll refrain from further comment except to say I'm thinking about you, and you have my love and support.
Ah, yes. The one subject that we never talk about where there is only one acceptable perspective...
For the record, I don't think any good would come from that conversation and so I'm not interested in having it on here but I have always found it somewhat disturbing that it's just about the only world news item that's never discussed.
What happened over the weekend was terrible, what's happening now is terrible, what happens next will be terrible and what's been happening for years in that region has always been terrible. People should be better towards one another. But we don't live in that world.
I'm not engaging beyond saying there is more than one acceptable perspective talked about in my academic neck of the woods, and that there are plenty of people who talk about the subject regularly (and not just when something terrible happens).
Craig, how could you forget "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"?
I haven't watched it (either?).
That falls under "meh" too. Just not a good movie really, though not aggressively bad like "Multiverse of Madness"
I thought that was an album from The Who
You're thinking of Idiotic Disingenuous Moralizing, the album they were plugging when they opened for Industrial Shithouse...
To paraphrase a line from Into the Woods: It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad. It was nice.
I don’t have a problem with Harper’s stare down. Arcia calling out his stupid base running - and rounding the bag was dumb no matter what Harper said afterwards - was deeply unwise. I do, however, find the throat slashing gesture to be in incredibly bad taste. Mimic, for example, Acuna’s pitterpatter steps around the bases or the arm flapping of Ozuna’s. But murder isn’t fun or funny. There is good reason that the NFL and NCAAF have made that gesture an immediate penalty.
I also find it dumb to suggest that only the morally pure may criticize. CC used untold numbers of fossil fuels to simply amuse himself by going on a walk. Therefore he must remain silent about any global warming issue in the future? No. Whatabouting is a silly debate ploy.
"has anyone hit big homers like Harper has over the past few years?"
Astros fan here, and, yeah: Yordan Alvarez is the correct answer.
This is one of those Free Thursday newsletters that really nails the essence of why I nervously, but, proudly explain to my wife that annual charge to our credit card for Cup of Coffee.
Every good marriage could still use a burner credit cards.
It gives my wife the opportunity to fire off her "oh, is that your little baseball friend?" line about Craig every year, so why deprive her of the condescending joy, y'know?
It's been a couple of years since I've been to San Diego, and I don't have any trips planned at the moment, but the next time I'm there I am 100% driving to your house to pick you up for a beer or whatever and I'm gonna make you have to tell her "honey, I'm going out with my little baseball friend. Be back later."
When you get up to Maine, we've got lots of little local breweries I could take you to, Craig!