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Did he use the classic "pull a boner"? Sixth graders especially like that kind of thing.

Is it any worse than waging a culture war about the very French Olympics opening ceremony?

Is it possible that might cost her a bunch of votes in Dearborn and thus put the state at risk?

Again, I think she should say it just once: I am proud of both my African Jamaican and South Asian Indian heritages equally, but in the end, I am most proud to be an American with a chance to do the most good for the American people, something like that. Say it once and let the surrogates tweet that from now to the election.

TBF, if Vance is claiming he's against abortion on sanctity-of-life grounds, then he has to reject the rape and incest exceptions.

If you are basically saying the players say **** everything because they lost Jack Flaherty and don't have Tork on their team, then we don't agree about much when it comes to this topic, so we'll have to just part as friends on this.

So you’re declaring that the Detroit Tigers are a depressing work environment? Come on. This is where A.J. comes in. It is his primary directive to keep these guys motivated and playing hard. I know most people here think his Stanford psychology degree doesn’t mean ****-all and that he was just doing nothing but jacking off there for four years. I strongly disagree with that idea. I think he knows what he’s doing, and I know practically no one here agrees with me, but I think he’s good at it, and that players are doing better under him than they would if we brought Ron Gardenhire back out of retirement.

I think it might be more complicated than that. I don’t think most players conclude that hell, my team is not going to win, so I’m gonna jake it, because **** it. If management concluded as much about the players, it would be career suicide for most of these guys. Some of it is guys coming up who want to prove they belong with the team—Dillon Dingler, Ryan Kreidler, Wenceel Perez, Ryan Vilade, Brieske, Sammons, Vest, Wentz, Montero, Malloy all come to mind, along with come-and-go guys like Hanifee. Other guys are marginal major leaguers who don’t have a long-term connection to the Tigers organization and are playing for their next contract with whoever might sign them, guys like Madris, Urshela, McKinstry, Shelby Miller, Guenther. All these guys have reasons to play hard beyond going to the playoffs, which everyone knows isn’t happening for us. They all have careers to either establish or protect. From the standpoint of incentives, it makes no sense for them to **** around just because the team is on a trajectory to miss the playoffs. Only guys who are secure in their careers, like Skubal or Keith, or guys who have the money but are at the end, like Javy, might be motivated to **** around, and I would think just from the standpoint of their reputations as professionals, they wouldn’t fall into that trap, at least for very long. I wouldn’t say there is zero sloppy play, I’m just pushing back on the idea that players don’t care about playing hard if they know they’re not making the playoffs with this team this year. I think a lot of what we interpret as apathetic play is more lack of ability to perform at the top of the major league profession. I think we as fans just have to occasionally remind ourselves that just because we don’t care about this team this year anymore, that doesn’t mean the players themselves don’t care about protecting their careers or their reputations as professionals. I think they are playing hard. They’re just not capable All-Star-level players, most of them.

Who would be the primary bats in this scenario? Riley, Colt … who else?

They pruned the Hall voter rolls supposedly to get dilettantes like that off them.

If marginal major league players won’t play hard every day, then they must not care much about their careers and their prospects for future income.

How is he with Benetti? I really like Dirks with Dan Dickerson. He’s mostly business with a touch of party, and I think he knows how to loosen Dan up, unlike Bobby Scales who, while I like him all right, seems like he’s working hard when he’s on the air.

Kirby Puckett was a throwback to the time when batting average was king. It’s hard to keep a guy with a .318 batting average and 2,500+ hits out of the Hall. Plus he has Game 6 of the 1991 Series so he got the Fame part, too. As for Trout: he is an 86-win player. He has three MVPs, six top-5 MVP votes otherwise, and a RoY. He led the AL in OPS+ six times and runs scored four times. He amassed a 47-win five-year peak, that’s 9.5 WAR per season for five years straight. If you’re a Hall of Fame voter, you’ll be called upon to explain why you didn’t vote for Mike Trout on the first ballot.

Stanton’s not going in on the first ballot unless he has a healthy late career surge. He doesn’t have the required reps because he can’t stay on the field. He’s already missed 40 games this year—he just came back from five weeks on the shelf just this week. If he can’t put up maybe three more good years healthy, it’s gonna take a few years for him to get in if he does at all.

Essential viewing not about the war itself, although war adjacent. Spoiler alert: the West Bank is an apartheid state, supported by the usual suspects.

Since the Royals won their eighth straight on May 25, they are 26-29, which is an entire third of a season. Not exactly world beaters.

Feature not bug.

I felt like the response was a bit weak. I would have liked to see her stress that she is proud of both her African Jamaican and her South Asian Indian heritages equally, but in the end she is proud to be an American who has a chance to do the most good for the most people, something like that. She's a DA, I'm sure she could speechify it better than I.

And here I thought Trump would take credit for it directly, not Bowman Hamel giving him indirect credit.

New guy continues to come in HOT!

I'm there with ya, 55 years here, but maybe we give the new guy a chance before we throw in the towel.

He can vote as many times as he wants since Indiana is already in the bag for Trump without him.

The uniquely American thing about Halfricans is that they identify as black, because society also identifies them as black. As G2 says, Obama was half-white but no one ever talks about that. But that's exactly it: no one talks about the half white part because when anyone sees him, they think black. I suppose if anyone wanted to split hairs about it, it could be said that Obama looks "blacker" and married a woman identified as black, whereas Kamala Harris looks less "black" and married a man people identify as white. But in the end, Kamala will be identified as black more than Asian, because America is obsessed with blackness and whiteness over anything else, for historical reasons nobody needs to be reminded of. And the more Trump, Vance, and the surrogates hammer this ultimately pointless point, the more it's going to fire up people who are seen as unambiguously black to rally around Kamala and show up on Election Day. And bonus: because of the racist focus on her in the first place, it's going to also fire up most people of color of all backgrounds to rally around her and vote, too. And bonus bonus: practically no white people who are strongly inclined to vote Democrat anyway are going to peel off from her just because they are reminded of her non-whiteness. If anything, they're going to be extra motivated to make sure they get their vote in, because **** Trump and the Trumpublicans for focusing on this **** in the first place. And if all this keeps up for the next three-plus months, in the end, that means Kamala is probably going to wipe the floor with Trump, and bring the House and maybe the Senate with her. I think as of today, things are looking really, really good.