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Nice of the Tigers offense to pull A.J.’s ass out of the jackpot in the tenth. He’d emptied the bench and if someone like Javy goes down with an injury, like there was half a chance he would after the foul ball, A.J. would have had a hell of a time trying to figure out what to do. Pitcher in left?

So great that we finally got a pitching department that knew what to do with him.

He was a bit touch and go for the first couple of innings, since he didn’t have any idea where the strike zone was, but he got it together and turned in a strong performance.

I have lately been tipping the beer guy at Wrigley a dollar bill directly, instead of through the screen, and he has always thanked me genuinely, which is probably related to what you’re saying about pooling tips. Sure, the dollar is not 15% of the $13-or-so beer cost, but remember, I tip 15% for full service at a restaurant or a Sports Clip, and not knee-jerk every time a tipping situation comes up. But advantage goes to the dollar, because two reasons: 1) The dollar goes directly to him, while the 15% gets split and he probably doesn’t even get a whole dollar out of that. 2) He doesn’t have to claim the dollar as income and get taxed on it the way he does if he’s tipped through the system. So next time you go to the ballpark, consider bringing dollar bills for tipping, if you’re inclined to tip.

All dinners for the team are on Joey Cora tonight.

Apropos of nothing, I finally found out why people here are calling him Harvey. Took me a while, but then, I don’t listen to Valenti much, either.

Oh. My. GOD!

And he gets the sac fly after almost killing himself fouling the ball off his foot! Way to tough it out!

OK, got a run here on a boot. It’s still the Mets were playing after all. And now Tonkin just booted his ball—TBF, not an easy one—and prospects are bright for more run. Just gotta keep getting the bats on the ball. And now here comes Javy … 😅

AND he was running in to get the ball and had momentum on the throw.

Tell you what: if the Tigers lose this game, Wavin’ Joey should have to wear it.

Wavin’ Joey sends another Tigers runner to his death at the plate by a mile.

Pretty good for a kid who has barely any idea where the strike zone is tonight.

You guys know how much I love tipping. I started an entire well-trafficked thread about it on the old board. This specific thing I'm posting here isn't a pet peeve, per se, but tipping culture is a pet peeve of mine in general, so, here is where it goes. I'm a person who tips only if I have to. I will try to tip as close to 15% as I can get away with, meaning, given the circumstances I may tip something like 20% or even more if I think service is outstanding, or if I have an ongoing relationship with the person I'm tipping, e.g., the person who cuts my hair at Sports Clips. Otherwise, I tip the minimum, which is 15% and maybe plus a roundup, and much less or even nothing for things like food pickup. But one thing I do not do is tip the owner. If you work for yourself, you get to set your own price. There's an Italian Ice place nearby, I get a large, it costs $6.50. If an employee is serving me, I tip a buck. If the owner is serving me, which happens fairly often, I tip nothing. In my opinion, tips are for people who work for the business, people with a limited wage. They're not for the people with equity in the business and basically unlimited earning potential upside. I have a buddy who seems embarrassed and annoyed at me if he thinks I'm undertipping in front of him. He says nothing verbally, because he's not a confronter, but his disapproving look says it all. I hate being in a tipping situation when I'm with the guy. He is the epitome of "social tipper": he tips to gain social approval from the service person. Plus, he's indiscriminate: whether he's being served a full meal of multiple courses in a restaurant, or he sees the tip nag on a screen when buying a beer at the ballpark, he will tip the same 25%, 30%, whatever, regardless. I think that's borderline insane. But hey, it's his money. Let him do that all he wants. Sorry for the long set-up just to get to this: He and I were talking about using a maid service to clean our homes which, if you're single and work long hours, you basically need. He travels all over god's green earth for work, so he qualifies there. My wife and I used to have a maid come in, but we're retired now so my wife cleans the house. (I cook the food. That's the arrangement. We both believe we got the better end of that deal.) At some point my buddy mentioned tipping his maid. I asked, oh, do you use Molly Maid or something? Meaning, does your maid work for someone else? He says, no, she works for herself. I say, oh ... and she sets her own price? Yes, she does. Oh ... and you tip her on top of that? Of course! Oh ... really? Sure! Don't you? I laughed and said that's cool, man! All right, that's cool! You're a good man, Charlie Brown! Or something like that to get away from having to answer him. What I didn't say, and didn't want to say, is hell no, I didn't tip her, except at Christmas. Why would I tip someone when they work for themselves and get to set their own price? That strikes me as tipping culture run completely amok. If she were a Molly Maid, that would be completely different. They don't get to set their own wages, and it's definitely not going to be as high as the maid who sets her own price. But an independent maid is basically a business owner. I'm already paying, what, $100 for three, maybe four hours work? And I'm supposed to give her an extra $25 tip on top of that? As if. You want $125? Charge me $125. I'm sure the mileage varies for many people here on that ...

When it comes to Yankees and Dodgers, TV not just locally, but nationally. Same goes for the Cubs, who have basically more night games in April than just about anybody but the Yankees and Dodgers.

I wouldn’t touch this stock with a ten-foot pole. I think it would be easy for Trump to manipulate the price by going to some big player or foreign money guy and getting them to buy stock, to goose the price, in exchange for favors after he’s elected. I also think he’ll figure out a way to get the six-month rule waived, so it’ll be sword of Damocles until the second he dumps and cashes out. Buyer beware.

Now this was a controversial thing to say all the way through this spring training. Heck, it'll become controversial again as soon as Hinch has a short string of bad outcomes.

Saw the same board on the way to Milwaukee, right around Kenosha.

I don't think the "who" [sic] in question refers who we think it does, or should.

I think the new administration is doing everything they can to save some of the hitters they inherited, and they may succeed with some yet. But others will either have been so ruined coming in that they are unsalvageable, or never did have the required skills to become effective big league hitters in the first place. I think most of the latter category have probably been cut loose, although there might be some who they're hanging onto just to make extra sure that can't be saved before launching them. Because hitting in general appears to be lagging behind pitching throughout the league, in terms of advances in proficiency due to the application of data science and the like, it might be a bit longer before this organization can have successes with our hitters that are on par with those of our pitchers that we have already seen. But I'm not ready to pull the plug on hoping we can do so. I'm willing to give this regime even a couple more years to get it right. But if we are still struggling with optimizing hitters going into 2026—particularly those that this front office acquired as prospects and through impact trades, as opposed to waiver wire pickups and low-level deck chair trades and MiLB contract signings—that's when I'll start to worry.

"Christ Almighty" seems to apply here.

I'm a lapsed Catholic and even I find it offensive. But hey, they long to slurp our tears, so ...

I don't think it's the only reason, but it's up there.

Sure thing. The website shows a bunch of the stats that come from MLB putting all those cameras in all 30 ballparks a few years ago to capture every movement in every direction by players and baseballs, for the purpose of teams incorporating the data into their own analyses. So things like first jumps, sprint speeds, pitch horizontal and vertical movements, exit velocities, launch angles, distances, all that—they all come from those cameras, and MLB puts the results on baseballsavant.com. Enjoy!

Normally I might be surprised they are even considering Catholics along with Christians, but they do know need Catholic votes, too. Yeah, evangelical Christians don't believe Catholics qualify as Christians, even though the Catholic Church was the original Christian church.