Screwball

Quote

 

On May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students and wounding nine. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.

Two days earlier, on May 2, National Guard troops were called to Kent to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The next day, scattered protests were dispersed by tear gas, and on May 4 class resumed at Kent State University. By noon that day, despite a ban on rallies, some 2,000 people had assembled on the campus. National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced against the students with bayonets fixed on their rifles. Some of the protesters, refusing to yield, responded by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops.

 

This wouldn't be complete without the following. Remember this well. Live about 2 hours away. Knew people on both sides. Sad day for America.

**** war!

Spirit Airlines reminds me of my stock market mentor I met back around the dot-com bubble. Canadian who graduated from Queen's U, came to the states with a wife, two kids, a car, and 400 bucks.

He got a great job for Pfizer (PFE ticker) in their minerals division. Traveled all over the world. Ended up a multi-millionaire. Job, stocks, real estate, you name it. He was also the biggest cheap ass on planet earth. 

He had a home in NW Ohio, and one in Key Largo FL. He had a deal with Spirit. Went back and forth all the time. Tickets would be less than a 100 bucks. Him and his girlfriend would load up with the little ounce bottles of liquor and hide them on their body and pour them in their drinks so they didn't have pay on the plane. This was of course, quite a few years ago.

We took a trip to the Amish country in Ohio and lunch was the samples at the cheese factory. While driving his motor home. Cost money to eat at a restaurant. Too funny.

If you are old enough to remember nights like this when it's cold, and using a wooden bat, you almost don't want to hit a ball. If you get it on the screws, you are fine, but if you don't your hands get punished. It really hurts. I said almost. 🙂

19 minutes ago, Zakk_Wylde said:

On the topic of broadcast markets, it still blows my mind that Windsor, Ontario is considered Blue Jays market.  Windsor is significantly closer to Comerica Park than most suburbs of Detroit, let alone the rest of Michigan. Yet we are supposed to be Blue Jays fans due to the international border. 

But I'll tell you what really pisses me off, are all these games that are blacked out because they are on some streaming service.  AppleTV for example.   So generally we are expected to have subscriptions to half a dozen different streaming services (in addition to MLB.tv) to watch the Tigers?!   Maybe that's the norm in certain households, but definitely not mine.  I just don't watch that much TV to justify subscriptions to Netflix, AppleTV, Peacock, etc.  Yet there are baseball games scattered on these services which causes a blackout on mlb.tv?!   That pisses me off!  End of rant.

I read last week somewhere that for next year if you wanted to watch ALL of the NFL games you would need 10 streaming services to do so. That's nuts. That's the NFL, not MLB, I understand.

I gave up a long time ago and spent 25 bucks on a Firestick and hacked it. I don't get them all, but most of them. Not without issues, but I'm not paying squat. Screw them all.

Gas prices were this high in 2022 due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict (the chart porn proves it) and the BlueMAGA cult members just put Ukrainian flags in their yard and cheered. How's that for politics?

The country is a ****ing mess, has been a ****ing mess, and will continue to be a ****ing mess, and well over half the population has their heads stuffed up their ass and think electing ANY of these worthless pukes will fix the ****ing mess. 

How's that for politics since we have to go there?

Somebody's delusional, or reading too much green BS.

1 minute ago, monkeytargets39 said:

McGonigle almost gets hit in the face but then lines the next pitch for a hit.  Suck on that Abbott

Yea, that was impressive. Wonder if that guy was trying to bust him a bit - he answered. 

4 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I know that I'm basically preaching to the choir here, but IMO we need to find a way to get Big Money out of politics. Citizens United opened the door to a lot of the mess we're seeing now. Too many PACs, who knows how much dark money. There has to be a way to police this. Personally I'd start taxing contributions over $1,000 at 75%, no business contributions allowed what so ever. 

 

Or maybe they quit taking it.

3 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

When reporters questioned his lineups, he would get riled up. He used to play hunches and they seemed to work pretty often. Against all odds at times, totally anti-stat decisions.

Maybe. I had good enough seats at Comerica to sit with the guys who had radar guns. They know who's throwing what and how good all the time. Matchups. Who knows better than the guys on the field at that time.

Some is pretty simple though. If I'm a left handed batter and Skub is pitching I'm telling Skip I'll guard the bat rack that day.

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

or second baseman.  The left fielder batted third.  He had the highest batting average and a lot of doubles.  The clean-up hitter was the big slow slugging first baseman.  

Do the stat guys have a position on how lineups should be constructed? I know us old school guys like Jimmy did. I would love to play for that guy.

If I remember right, the Tigers got beat and were out of the playoffs that year so I was really bummed out. The next day Jimmy retired. That was even worse. Spit, and double spit.

17 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I love a speedy center fielder who can steal a bunch of bases as much as the next guy. I like one who can get on base a lot and win you a few games with his glove even better. 

News at 11.

I think Lee said above putting the third hitter as the best batter is a fishermans tale, or something like that. I would guess, honest question, according to the stats, the best should be first?

6 hours ago, ewsieg said:

I saw reporting that indicated this was debunked.  I feel like if there was any truth to it, it would be all over the news right now.  

It was originally reported by a guy named Larry Johnson. Ex-CIA. Nobody believes CIA people.

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

The best spot for overall run production is the #2 spot.  By run production, I mean being involved in run scoring, either by runs scored, RBI or getting a hit that puts a runner (who eventually scores) into scoring position .  

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It's an important spot in the order, but the #2 spot is more important.  The idea that the best hitter should bat 3rd is just an old fisherman's tale.  

 

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

We’ve come a long way from reflexively putting the crap batter who can bunt the best in the two-hole.

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

And the leadoff hitter is the speedy centerfielder with a lot of stolen bases.  

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

The #3 hitter is a spot for one of a teams better hitters. As Leyland used to say, with a mouth full of food, the game isn't played on a damn computer. 😅😅

Quoted a bunch here.

I get a kick out of this stuff. I know Lee and Chuck are the leading stat guys here, many others are all over it too. It seems to be used much more today. That's good. I love stats, numbers, and get a kick out of this. I'm also old school. Jimmy Leyland is my hero. 

I don't have a problem with a speedy centerfielder with a bunch of stolen bases. 🙂 And you don't need the second batter to be a good bunter - they should all be able to bunt. No money in bunting. Giggle.

So different today.

10 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Nobody can develop enough of them.  There are 30 teams and 13 pitchers per staff.  That's 390 pitchers and a third of them will get injured during the year.  That's a lot of elite arms.  

 

Agree. We don't have enough kids playing ball anymore IMO.

Shallow pond.

7 minutes ago, Screwball said:

You can never have too much pitching. <ducks>

And they know this, and have since Moby **** was a minnow. I guess you can't find them, don't know how to find them, or develop them.

I always thought Roger Craig was a good teacher. YMMV.

You can never have too much pitching. <ducks>

5 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

So, in the 4th Skubal Ks the side, which is cool and dominant.

But one of the most fascinating interviews with Sandy Koufax that I remember is where he said most enjoyed not so much striking guys out, but giving batters a pitch they simply couldn’t do anything with that resulted in a weak pop-up or an easy grounder.

Given that this is a guy that struck out, I think, 382 guys in a season this is something that really stuck in my memory and the importance of which is not insignificant. 

Yes. It's about pitching to the batters weakness, and how well you execute that. It also helps when you had the kind of stuff Koufax offered up there. 🙂 They know what guys can hit and can't hit. When they put it in the right location, they don't get enough of the ball to bang down the walls. Weak grounders and easy pop-ups is the best they can do. Or you can just make them look silly like he could.

Besides, good hitters fail 7 of 10 times. Sometimes it's all about how ugly it was the last time you got out. 🙂

We have one of those here. Mr. Skubal. This guy is a treat to watch and has some fantastic stuff. Some guys are just that dominate. He is one of them. 

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Didn't they used to just chrome plate them? For a fricking lugnut that's gonna last probably 10yrs and by then the rest of the wheel won't look so hot either. IDK  - I'm out of the loop now - maybe plating is too much enviroment risk overhead anymore.

I don't remember, but I'm guessing the little stamping is cheaper than chrome plating. Whatever is cheaper is always the answer. 

5 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

>. He probably had one bad lugnut
I’m sure they can quote you a ‘spec’ that says they all have to match. 🙄

Yea, that would be on the engineering drawing with a bunch of what they call GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing) to spec that part. They are all suppose to match withing a particular tolerance.

These things are a bad design to start. You will never crimp a pretty looking thin gauge chromed part (which is why they do this - pretty - marketing) around a lugnut. The thin metal can't go smaller because of the size of the nut, but will eventuality try to revert to the mean, and expand. But we must satisfy marketing; chrome wheels, chrome nuts, look pretty, sell cars.

Their entire function is to keep the wheels from falling off the car.

7 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

They call that the ultimate "upsell". He probably had one bad lugnut. The advisor is paid moslty on commission and said to himself "The worst the customer can say is no." He made $20 and the tech pulled $100 and the dealer gets the rest. COG was probably $10

This is really nothing new as far as problems with the designs, but the one lugnut theory is probably sound. Another way to rip you off, especially those who don't know what the car parts do. Sounds scary - I have bad wheel nuts - fix them. Not really, just how they look. Not as pretty, but they do what they are suppose to do - keep the wheels on. Kind of important.

$322 dollars later... That's just nuts. The dealer (maybe a local decision) is just ripping this guy off.

Wall Street banks start trading derivatives to bet on pain in private credit - FT

What could possibly go wrong?

This fits here.

A buddy of mine told me today he took his car to the dealer for routine maintenance. Oil change, tire rotation, inspection, the normal X you pay for the checkup. They couldn't get his tires off without ruining the lugnuts so they had to replace them. $322 for those fine little puppies - all 20 of them I think - if it has 5 nuts per wheel. That's a quick $16 buck a nut. 

That's ****ing NUTS! Pun intended. 🙂

An automotive lugnut is made by cold forming a round piece of steel by force and spit them out by the hundreds or thousands per hour. Probably cost the car companies pennies each. They ship in bins by truck from satellite suppliers to the automakers. And sometimes they do a secondary operation.

What is happening here; marketing decided they need really nice chrome lugnuts to look pretty, so they stamped a chrome plated cover over the cold formed nut since it's grey and ugly. Over time, the cover expands, and the guy in the dealership can't get a socket and air wrench on the lugnuts to get them off.

Really dumb idea, but they did it anyway.

Another case where marketing overruled sound design and engineering and the customer eats the cost of their greed, stupidity, or both.

****in A!

This is all nuts. Markets at all time high while the world burns and the observers don't know rather to **** or get off the pot.

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

True story - I got a job replacing a guy who had quit to day trade. It was small field and everyone in the biz knew of everyone else at maybe a max of 3 degrees of separation. Anyway, it was maybe 3 years later we heard he was back working for a living in a similar gig for one of our competitors.

Day trading was a thing at one time. Almost like a cult. Probably in the run up to the dot-com crash. Wall Street the movie came out in 87. Giddy-up!!!

In a way, what they do is pretty clever. The software today still has the capability to do what they did. You can watch order flows to a certain extent. They screen up very short term charts and bet huge money on small moves. Many times around support/resistance levels even during the day. Now they call it "high frequency trading" done by HAL 9000 of Wall Street. It actually goes clear back to Jessie Livermore who used to post the stock prices on the wall in the old bucket shop before he became rich and broke 3 times and killed himself. Trends, moves, there is a pattern. You can see them coming.

But very very risky. You need balls of steel, and deep pockets would also be good. One headline at the wrong time and you just got a margin call.

And some of these people play the leveraged ETF where you can lose money 2 or 3 times as fast. How about that? Giggle.