chasfh

I was looking at it versus January, which was before the invasion. March of last year was after the invasion. I get why a few points peeled off from last March to this March. Last March was immediately after the invasion which was the high point of top-of-mind awareness. After a while I imagine a marginal amount of people just forgot about it. It's the same principle as when George Bush Jr scored a 84% approval rating among Democrats in the days after 9/11 after being in the 20s just the day before, and fell down to under 50 by the follow June. It's not because he was doing a great job as President overall. It was the heat of the moment.

More people see Russia as an enemy today than did a year ago.

Flip side, consider the audience. How airtight does the propaganda really have to be?

Can I come over for Thanksgiving this year?

Two things: The last paragraph is titled PRAYER, which made me laugh when I saw it, but nothing following reads like a religious prayer. Is “PRAYER” an actual non-religious legal term in this case? As we have learned over and over in the past few years, even if someone is outright indicted, it doesn’t mean they are going to be convicted, especially in a venue friendly to them politically.

Smart guy is lonnnnng gone.

Tork has been botching foul popups for a couple of years now. It’s a component of his terrible range at first in general and also part of what makes him a below-average defender. I don’t know yet how much of that is teachable (learning to read the ball off the bat better and getting to the right place) and how much is not (naturally bad jump; speed to getting to the spot). Any ball in play that makes him move to go get it, especially to his right, is going to be iffy. But Tork has a sure glove. If the batter hits the ball right at him or to his glove side, he’ll snag it and make the out. He’s also very good at scooping throws, and he is surprisingly good at stretching and doing splits to retrieve them. That’s a core skill that shows up as much in other guys’ numbers as in his own.

I might counter that his generally poor ability to catch foul pop flys is the bigger reason he didn't catch it.

Sure, why not? They're not prospects but we need a body in there today, and neither of them are going to be around next year, anyway.

Running to just meet the ball is something that I as an outfielder have recognized in myself, cogitated at length, tried to change in the moment, and failed to overcome my instincts. Now I'm just too goddamned old to worry or even care about it.

yeah what about anything but this

I generally like Jason Benetti, but I wanna slap him for saying TORK! should have used two hands to catch that popup. First of all, it was back of him over his shoulder, so no way he’s getting a right hand over to his glove to catch that ball “with two hands”. But the larger point is ballplayers haven’t needed two hands to catch a fly ball in decades. Back in the early 1900s, maybe you needed two hands because gloves were exactly hand sized. Now they’re way bigger with roomy webs. A first baseman's glove is 13”, for cry eye. So you don’t need a second hand to catch the ball. Much of the time a second hand just gets in the way.

Still botching the foul popups behind first base, eh, Spencer?

It is super weird seeing a Belle Tire commercial on a White Sox-Tigers game being telecast on NBC Sports Chicago.

I’m not surprised by this. You could never stop COVID completely like China thought they could. It just lies in wait until you let your guard down. It’s basically 2020 in China now.

Not surprised. His dad is really short too.

Peat mower? Feet grower? Meat blower? Am I close? EDIT: Oh yeah I remember Alwaysthrowheat

You got that right!

TTATMIB. Rolls right off the tongue.

I think Miggy still being on the team is the one thing a lot of people do still care about. They may not be big baseball fans, but they know how great Miggy is. And of course, the beer is also very good, along with the umbrella drinks.

Greiner is hitting a foul ball, isn't he?

I would bet most people who go to Tigers games either don't know you can look up lineups before the game, or don't care enough to bother to. I think a lot of people coming to the game just assume Miggy is going to be in the game. Lots of people, maybe most people, who show up at Comerica over the course of a season are casual fans who go to only one or two games a year, not diehards who go to dozens. They probably don't watch them regularly on TV, don't listen to games on radio, or read any beat stories or columns about them, so they may not even know Miggy doesn't actually play every game. So it might be less about "let's look online to see if Miggy is playing, if he's not then forget it", and more like "this is Miggy's last year, we should go see him play before he retires!" If that's the case, then a general announcement that Miggy is not playing for the rest of the season, and by extension never play for the Tigers ever again, will probably keep a lot of those people home.

People don't want to pay big money for tickets to Tigers game to watch Miggy ceremonially coach. He will play all year, at least once a series, unless he gets too seriously injured to hobble up to the plate at all. This is price the Devil is extracting for making the deal with Papa Doc back in 2014.