gehringer_2

For those that weren't there: If you were too young to remember mystique of the Camelot Dems or the corruption of Nixon GOP, and just had Carter and Reagan in your memory, you would remember the Dems as feckless, impotent over Iran, confused, moralizing, overseeing a hollowed out shell of a military, and at a loss over rampant inflation that threatening the collapse the economy in a way that this last round never got close to. The other thing that most people don't remember about inflation then was that tax brackets were not indexed then. Each year inflation was not only driving the cost of living, but also pushing people into higher tax brackets, which was just the icing on the cake for people's fury at the Carter admin. OTOH, Reagan may not always have had his facts straight on everything, but he fixed what was wrong (at least short term - nobody saw the long term income distribution disaster in the making) in a way Carter never looked like he was close to finding and he had some superstars in his cabinet in Schultz, Dole and Baker. So if that was your era, and you still believe in the GOP as the problem solving party - there is reason. The thing to remember for todays young Dems looking back now and wondering is that the wise old soul that Jimmy Carter has become is not the president he was.

Neither will. I could see Romney saying he won't vote for Trump, but not that he would vote D. Bush is never going to leave his easel again.

Hmm. Oddly enough that reduces whatever odds there were that they would not bring him back next season. Now he is pretty much guaranteed to be back at least for ST to see how he is. Or if they find something serous in the hip I suppose a medical retirement becomes an option.

Trumpers are already trying to justify Trump bailing by claiming Harris has changed the rules. Not sure when she took over ABC.

Do they play Duplicate or Contract?

Shocked........,shocked!

Or he was talking batting practice then the photographer walked by and asked for the shot - though I wonder if they even wore their helmets for BP then.

Old friend Henning at it again. Writes what purports to be a thorough survey of the shortstop position in the Det system, doesn't even mention McGonigle. 🫤 FWIW https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/columnists/lynn-henning/2024/08/25/henning-detroit-tigers-studying-the-farm-as-they-ponder-shortstop/74944448007/

The number of Monday games in general has been weird this season.

Thanks for that clarification. I had a pretty good recollection that it has been passed but not why it didn't seem to still be in force. So it's the waiver mechanism that has effectively gutted it's effect.

I think this is the question of the ages in baseball - given enough time and effort, can you teach anyone to hit MLB pitching, or is it more a matter of sifting through the population to find the very extreme tail of the distribution of the gene pool who were born able to do it? I tend to think it's both. That fact that someone was born with the right genes is no guarantee they ever optimize what they have, but I have to think most young players are going to turn out not to have the hardware no matter what you do with them. And of course what's weird about baseball is that pitching and hitting are such different skill sets with such different 'hardware' requirements that the methods of scouting and development for one are not necessarily optimal for the other.

I think there has - traditionally at least, been a difference in how how boys and girls were socialized. Not sure how I would encapsulate it in brief -- maybe the difference is exactly on the "directness scale." I don't know if in science/engineering that's less of an issue because men and women in those fields are already more aligned personality/attitude wise In my case I ran into the same kind of differences on the directness scale between ethnic cultures. My wife's family was very West Euro, I'm Middle Eastern. They used to drive me crazy because none of them ever came out and said anything directly, every communication was a dance around the heart of the matter for fear of upsetting someone. My socialization was put it all out there and hash it out, and if that gets noisy, that's OK. It was OK to mad at someone for 5 minutes and then it's over - no harm, no foul.

4 teams in the Central have positive run differentials. Combined they total 20 runs less than the WhiteSox negative differential.

Interesting that GenX men have become more conservative than the boomers. But ages around 40's and 50's are the period when breadwinners are in their 'greediest', most tax hating phase so it's partly just the economic conservatism natural to that age group.

his terrible start may have killed his chances for ROY, but Keith is an 825 OPS hitter over his last 250 PA - and he's still getting better.

I don't know if the number is absolute or if it renews if you win the challenge. But even a limited number will drive the umps to start calling closer to whatever ABS does than what they call now because they won't want to be shown up every game.

I think Cooper is just over the Hill. He's the top dog and he's not enforcing any kind of discipline/quality in the people working for him. And if it's because he's getting pushed from above he needs to have the cojones to walk. It's not like he needs the money.

Foley was a better pitcher without the hair. ...Just sayin'

Which is probably the reason we haven't seen it yet. Of course, bring in ABS *AND* deaden the ball and you maybe get back the more balanced game we once had. But it won't happen. Today league management is too impatient. You can't make a change that will take a few years for everyone to adjust to even it it's the right thing to do.

Bill Veeck was sort of joke with the Sox. With Veeck they always led the league in tacky. It's been easy to dislike them ever since.

Looked like he had the throw beat even if it hadn't gone into the dugout. He was at the bag as the ball went overhead.

Sweeney didn't need 3rd there. Bad base running.

Mize hurt trotting down from the mound toward a pop-up, Faedo hurt while not even on the field. Somewhere there is a trainer that should be looking for a new gig.

the only election night I spent at the bar was '72. A bunch of us scrounged up ties (you needed them then) to dress for the Gandy Dancer so we could drown our sorrows with class, since we knew McGovern had no chance.....

I don't know why I thought he was younger than he is, maybe because he looks it, but at 29 he is a grizzled vet by comparison on this team.