chasfh

Several on my softball team. Actually Tiger fans, which is a bonus here in Big Shoulders. I might poll them on the question Monday if I remember.

I agree with your principle, although I don't think it's Players that drove that change. Baseball concluded that it just looked bad, and focus groups revealed a lot of fans agreed with them.

So Players is going to demand the opener be outlawed because guys like Rhys Hoskins and Adolis Garcia aren't getting enough homers? I don't see a path to it happening like that.

I've re-read it a few times, and I still think it's pretty clear the whole sentence is about Pete. I led with "smart-sounding take", which clearly references Pete, and then asked the question how Trump talking about this is supposed to achieve a net gain, which seems to me to be clearly about why does Pete think this, not why does Trump do this. After all, I didn't say "why does Trump think talking about". If I had, then I would be in total agreement with you. Instead, the entire sentence is about the smart-sounding take, not two completely different ideas separated by a sloppily-placed comma. The "but how does Trump talking about" part does the work of linking them together. Nevertheless, you're the person I'm supposed to have understand what I'm writing, so I'll consider striving to be less conversational in my writing and more exact in the service of hewing closer to crystal clarity.

Counterpoint:

That wouldn't explain why your answer was 100% about Trump and 0% about Pete.

THANK you. It hasn't escaped my notice that everyone I've ever heard clamoring for legislating longer starting pitcher starts are over 50, mostly way over. I've never heard any young fans agitate for it. There's nothing I can see about the opener that is degrading the product on the field. One could fairly have made that case about extreme defensive shifts, and about pitchers and hitters dawdling around between pitches. I don't see the same five alarms going off about openers. As far as I can tell, the opener is just another pitcher being deployed to maximum advantage for a team, same as the closer which, if 50-ish-year-long memory serves, was also widely complained about since it (further) reduced complete games. Hell, the closer concept is still disparaged in some quarters. I love it when people cover my tunes.

A.J. (can we can him “A.J.” now?) won’t win it, but he’ll get votes.

All of a sudden, the Democrats don’t look like incompetent boobs. It’s a nice change in perception.

One of the things I like about this particular September run is that I have no real expectations that they will overtake the Twins and go to the playoffs. If they make it, it will be amazing; if they don’t, that’s fine. I won’t feel like that next year, I’m sure—it’ll be baseball in October or bust, and an actual disappointment if they don’t make it—but for now, for this year, I like the feeling of playing with house money.

That’s because he played all the hits they’ve been hearing on the radio and the TV.

The question is about Pete, not Trump.