With links ike that, the stuff after the ? can usually be removed because it's just tracking data for the advertiser to know who clicked the link or where the link came from. This simplified URL will take you to the same place.
Honestly I didn't watch any baseball this year. I didn't feel they should be playing to begin with during the pandemic, and I did not like the rules changes. I've also had a very busy year and had meetings every single night a WS game was on. But I don't feel like I've missed much. Maybe if the Rays had pulled it off I'd have a little regret I suppose, I tend to like them.
I'm honestly not sure if I'll get back to watching much next year. This year has produced some level of detachment for me, like stepping away reminds me that I was fine when I quit watching in 94 and didn't get back into it till 99. Just not sure I care so much. Even wondering if I should hand off my 16 year fantasy year to someone else.
That said, 2020 feels so surreal in general I probably shouldn't make any decisions.
Amen to this. Hate the philosophy of "snitches get stitches" and all its variants. Enforcing acceptance of inappropriate behavior by shaming is a long way from humanity at its best.
The REAL only way is for there to be some kind of central baseball authority that puts the concern of baseball over players, owners, or media. That MIGHT happen if fans cared enough but probably not.
If no one is punished, the sign stealing will continue. I know the whole job of the commissioner is to ensure the owners keep getting all the money, but if Landis just suspended Ciccotte for a year, baseball would be the WWE now. Instead, no gambling except for one guy. If you want to know what it's like when criminals know they can do whatever they want because no one is able/willing to stop them, [waves hand in general direction of last 4 years].
And what about Beltran. He was all set to have a long managerial career and possibly be in the Hall, he's basically been banned from baseball and no one ever talks about it.
Also, we keep saying this, but sign stealing is fine if you don't use technology or nonuniformed players to do it to do it. How is this complicated?
The thing is labour is an expense and in the short term you're always going to want to keep expenses down. That's why players should have a strong union even if it doesn't benefit the owners and the owners should try to enrich themselves even if it hurts the product. That's why there needs to be a third party (we call this, broadly speaking, finance although in MLB it's also Manfred) that makes it such that owners can't strip their teams for parts, cash out, and let someone else hold the bag.
Small market scrappy underdogs are what every industry does. Forcing teams to play like bloated relics who think it's still 1960 like the legacy sportswriters want isn't good for the workers either.
Eh, the Moneyball + Old School narrative is overblown. I like the scrappy underdog too, but the Dodgers and Rays (and Astros) are all some of the most analytics and technology-driven teams. None of them are the Plaschke-bait image of a fat guy who played in the 70s going with his gut.
Turner’s positive test and his presence after the game took all the joy of this for me. Granted I am not a Dodgers fan, but it just makes everything seem so hollow. The NBA didn’t have a single positive test in their long bubble. Why couldn’t MLB manage that in much less time? Or then follow its own rules?
Last night makes me believe that all of the "testing" - all season long (as short as it was) - was simply an attempt to make it appear that proper protocols were in place, when they clearly, were not.
Or at least they were considered of less importance than completing the season. They'd follow such protocols and make it look good until such point that doing so would stop them from their real goal of getting it in.
I hadn't considered that position. MLB may have observed the rising COVID cases nationally and said "screw it" with only last night's game and a potential seventh game today left to play. I mean, it's still irresponsible but it fits with Manfred's MO of revenue over players (and people).
And he wondered why he got booed. He is a cancer on this game.
This is the real question here. All test results should have been available long before game time. FFS, there’s only two teams left and this is the World Series.
The NFL started blowing off their own Covid rules too. Initially if there was a positive test the day before the game the game had to be postponed. But then they played the Patriots-Broncos game the day after a Pats player had a positive test, presumably because that game had already been postponed one week and it became too inconvenient. Then a Bills tight end tested positive the day before the Bills-Titans game and the game was still played.
How much of an issue was made of that in the national media? Nothing. I don't expect this Justin Truner episode to be any different.
Yeah, it seems that sports which operated in a bubble (hockey, basketball, soccer) did well in terms of tests, protocols, rules, etc. Baseball and Football not so much.
How long before MLB fines the Dodgers for allowing Turner to come back after the game? Which they’ll do in hope that people think the blame for him staying in the game after the 2nd inning was on the team.
Happy for the Dodgers although I was rooting more for the Rays (Pirates fan, so wanted to see Glasnow/Meadows/Morton get one, plus David vs Goliath and all that) but am glad Kershaw get one when he pitched well in the series. Of course I was aghast at Snell being pulled in that circumstance as from the safety of my home looked like it had no feel for the game or situation. Maybe were all missing something and are being left out of the discussion, but Snell was cruising and had as previously stated K`d the top three hitters both times. Snell has historically had problems staying late in games, but this situation seemed different let alone it being an elimination game in the World Series. At some point, you want your best pitcher out there going against their best hitters matchups and pitch counts be damned. Im not going to curse analytics though or blame them, they are of course a very useful tool that got them there in the first place. But have a little feel for the game and moment geeze.
As for the COVID test, Im conflicted as a health care professional because my first instinct is much like Craigs, to atleast wonder why the game was allowed to go on when the positive test popped in the 2nd inning. However, the more I think about it the more I can atleast tacitly agree with them continuing the game. They of course were already playing, and although they should have removed Turner immediately on the first positive did remove him when the second one was confirmed. At that point, everyone that was going to be exposed by Turner had probably already been exposed. Now length of exposure etc is another argument and I dont think he should have been on the field for the celebration, but he was properly masked so the risk was atleast mitigated alittle bit. I see nothing in black and white however and will probably be harangued for this opinion but Im okat with that.
I also have that sneaking suspicion that it was all smoke and mirrors to begin with, just like I think the same with the NBA and NHL. Theyre whatever billion dollar entities that have enabled the public to get back to some semblance of perceived normal, nothing, was sadly going to get in the way of that. Not that I know the politics of the owners etc. but it was good for their pocket book as well as Trumps image of America that we could atleast be distracted from *waves hands at all the death, and businesses closing*
Manfred didn’t want to be embarrassed by the sloppy testing and tried to slip Turner under a rug. It’s going to be interesting to see how many players eventually test positive, although they’ll be in their offseason and we might never know.
"Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked about why Turner was on the field after the game ended. Here is the answer he gave, via the Los Angeles Times:
“I think for him, being a free agent, not knowing exactly how the future is gonna play out, I don’t think anyone that was gonna stop him from going [onto the field],” Friedman said."
Which, really, is no excuse. They were only going to follow the rules until they didn't feel like following them anymore.
Ill admit, I didnt even watch any of the celebration because Im not a fan of either team and he shouldnt have been at the celebration anyways. Not wearing a mask for the photo is of course horrendous.
It was quite selfish and reckless of Turner to play in the field and participate in the on field photo. It would have been quite easy to photoshop him later. He endangered his teammates and their families. There were also numerous children on the field. Honestly, everyone should now quarantine. You know that Gov Newsom is going to freak out that the team might bring the virus back to CA. What a clusterfuck.
Guess it’s a good thing the Rays didn’t get a single player to third base last night (aside from Arozarena passing by during the home run trot).
And in case anyone’s confused, that’s a comment regarding hanging out near Turner...not the baseball/sex comparison. Although I imagine the Rays hitters might have failed in that regard too after the game they had.
I can simply shake my head and then willfully ignore the parsing of Turner's testing timeline and let it pass by like white noise (I just don't have the energy anymore) but the fact they let him back on the field to mingle and hug? Holy hell.
With links ike that, the stuff after the ? can usually be removed because it's just tracking data for the advertiser to know who clicked the link or where the link came from. This simplified URL will take you to the same place.
https://www.tacobell.com/stealataco
Honestly I didn't watch any baseball this year. I didn't feel they should be playing to begin with during the pandemic, and I did not like the rules changes. I've also had a very busy year and had meetings every single night a WS game was on. But I don't feel like I've missed much. Maybe if the Rays had pulled it off I'd have a little regret I suppose, I tend to like them.
I'm honestly not sure if I'll get back to watching much next year. This year has produced some level of detachment for me, like stepping away reminds me that I was fine when I quit watching in 94 and didn't get back into it till 99. Just not sure I care so much. Even wondering if I should hand off my 16 year fantasy year to someone else.
That said, 2020 feels so surreal in general I probably shouldn't make any decisions.
The Astros didn’t get caught. Former player Mike Fiers squealed.
Amen to this. Hate the philosophy of "snitches get stitches" and all its variants. Enforcing acceptance of inappropriate behavior by shaming is a long way from humanity at its best.
He, through his teams, were reporting it up the chain of command and MLB did nothing.
The REAL only way is for there to be some kind of central baseball authority that puts the concern of baseball over players, owners, or media. That MIGHT happen if fans cared enough but probably not.
If no one is punished, the sign stealing will continue. I know the whole job of the commissioner is to ensure the owners keep getting all the money, but if Landis just suspended Ciccotte for a year, baseball would be the WWE now. Instead, no gambling except for one guy. If you want to know what it's like when criminals know they can do whatever they want because no one is able/willing to stop them, [waves hand in general direction of last 4 years].
And what about Beltran. He was all set to have a long managerial career and possibly be in the Hall, he's basically been banned from baseball and no one ever talks about it.
Also, we keep saying this, but sign stealing is fine if you don't use technology or nonuniformed players to do it to do it. How is this complicated?
The thing is labour is an expense and in the short term you're always going to want to keep expenses down. That's why players should have a strong union even if it doesn't benefit the owners and the owners should try to enrich themselves even if it hurts the product. That's why there needs to be a third party (we call this, broadly speaking, finance although in MLB it's also Manfred) that makes it such that owners can't strip their teams for parts, cash out, and let someone else hold the bag.
Small market scrappy underdogs are what every industry does. Forcing teams to play like bloated relics who think it's still 1960 like the legacy sportswriters want isn't good for the workers either.
Eh, the Moneyball + Old School narrative is overblown. I like the scrappy underdog too, but the Dodgers and Rays (and Astros) are all some of the most analytics and technology-driven teams. None of them are the Plaschke-bait image of a fat guy who played in the 70s going with his gut.
You and I are up early today. ☕️
Turner’s positive test and his presence after the game took all the joy of this for me. Granted I am not a Dodgers fan, but it just makes everything seem so hollow. The NBA didn’t have a single positive test in their long bubble. Why couldn’t MLB manage that in much less time? Or then follow its own rules?
I feel mostly bad for Turner.
Last night makes me believe that all of the "testing" - all season long (as short as it was) - was simply an attempt to make it appear that proper protocols were in place, when they clearly, were not.
Or at least they were considered of less importance than completing the season. They'd follow such protocols and make it look good until such point that doing so would stop them from their real goal of getting it in.
I hadn't considered that position. MLB may have observed the rising COVID cases nationally and said "screw it" with only last night's game and a potential seventh game today left to play. I mean, it's still irresponsible but it fits with Manfred's MO of revenue over players (and people).
And he wondered why he got booed. He is a cancer on this game.
Caution doesn’t grow on trees you know. If you keep tapping into that abundance you started with, eventually you’re going to run out.
The Hornsby-beatdown continues...how did Rajah hurt you, Craig?
Why were the inconclusive test results only available in the second inning? Seems too late.
This is the real question here. All test results should have been available long before game time. FFS, there’s only two teams left and this is the World Series.
Why didn’t MLB use the rapid tests before the game?
It can't just be one guy. If Turner has it lots of them do.
Also have you heard the conspiracy theory that MLB forced Cash to pull Snell because they knew they had a positive test and didn't want a Game 7?
The NFL started blowing off their own Covid rules too. Initially if there was a positive test the day before the game the game had to be postponed. But then they played the Patriots-Broncos game the day after a Pats player had a positive test, presumably because that game had already been postponed one week and it became too inconvenient. Then a Bills tight end tested positive the day before the Bills-Titans game and the game was still played.
How much of an issue was made of that in the national media? Nothing. I don't expect this Justin Truner episode to be any different.
Yeah, it seems that sports which operated in a bubble (hockey, basketball, soccer) did well in terms of tests, protocols, rules, etc. Baseball and Football not so much.
How long before MLB fines the Dodgers for allowing Turner to come back after the game? Which they’ll do in hope that people think the blame for him staying in the game after the 2nd inning was on the team.
I gotta say that Rubén Rivera clip cheered me up. That was hilarious. "That was the worst baserunning in the history of the game!"
Happy for the Dodgers although I was rooting more for the Rays (Pirates fan, so wanted to see Glasnow/Meadows/Morton get one, plus David vs Goliath and all that) but am glad Kershaw get one when he pitched well in the series. Of course I was aghast at Snell being pulled in that circumstance as from the safety of my home looked like it had no feel for the game or situation. Maybe were all missing something and are being left out of the discussion, but Snell was cruising and had as previously stated K`d the top three hitters both times. Snell has historically had problems staying late in games, but this situation seemed different let alone it being an elimination game in the World Series. At some point, you want your best pitcher out there going against their best hitters matchups and pitch counts be damned. Im not going to curse analytics though or blame them, they are of course a very useful tool that got them there in the first place. But have a little feel for the game and moment geeze.
As for the COVID test, Im conflicted as a health care professional because my first instinct is much like Craigs, to atleast wonder why the game was allowed to go on when the positive test popped in the 2nd inning. However, the more I think about it the more I can atleast tacitly agree with them continuing the game. They of course were already playing, and although they should have removed Turner immediately on the first positive did remove him when the second one was confirmed. At that point, everyone that was going to be exposed by Turner had probably already been exposed. Now length of exposure etc is another argument and I dont think he should have been on the field for the celebration, but he was properly masked so the risk was atleast mitigated alittle bit. I see nothing in black and white however and will probably be harangued for this opinion but Im okat with that.
I also have that sneaking suspicion that it was all smoke and mirrors to begin with, just like I think the same with the NBA and NHL. Theyre whatever billion dollar entities that have enabled the public to get back to some semblance of perceived normal, nothing, was sadly going to get in the way of that. Not that I know the politics of the owners etc. but it was good for their pocket book as well as Trumps image of America that we could atleast be distracted from *waves hands at all the death, and businesses closing*
Manfred didn’t want to be embarrassed by the sloppy testing and tried to slip Turner under a rug. It’s going to be interesting to see how many players eventually test positive, although they’ll be in their offseason and we might never know.
I dont think well ever know, are they even going to keep broadcasting player positives now that the season is over? Are they going to even test them?
I believe now that the season is over, the players are on their own and HIPAA privacy would be employed.
Turner mostly wore a mask in post game celebrations, but didn't for the photo:
https://defector.com/justin-turner-tests-positive-for-covid-19-gets-pulled-midgame-rejoins-and-hugs-dodgers-after-world-series-win/
"Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked about why Turner was on the field after the game ended. Here is the answer he gave, via the Los Angeles Times:
“I think for him, being a free agent, not knowing exactly how the future is gonna play out, I don’t think anyone that was gonna stop him from going [onto the field],” Friedman said."
Which, really, is no excuse. They were only going to follow the rules until they didn't feel like following them anymore.
Ill admit, I didnt even watch any of the celebration because Im not a fan of either team and he shouldnt have been at the celebration anyways. Not wearing a mask for the photo is of course horrendous.
It was quite selfish and reckless of Turner to play in the field and participate in the on field photo. It would have been quite easy to photoshop him later. He endangered his teammates and their families. There were also numerous children on the field. Honestly, everyone should now quarantine. You know that Gov Newsom is going to freak out that the team might bring the virus back to CA. What a clusterfuck.
Guess it’s a good thing the Rays didn’t get a single player to third base last night (aside from Arozarena passing by during the home run trot).
And in case anyone’s confused, that’s a comment regarding hanging out near Turner...not the baseball/sex comparison. Although I imagine the Rays hitters might have failed in that regard too after the game they had.
I added one ;)
I can simply shake my head and then willfully ignore the parsing of Turner's testing timeline and let it pass by like white noise (I just don't have the energy anymore) but the fact they let him back on the field to mingle and hug? Holy hell.