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I also had no idea there was this ZIP code-like system to international calling codes.

I had no idea that Stockholm, Sweden was essentially a bazillion islands.

Raise your hand if you would have guessed that Italy would have the best-smelling people in Europe.

If we somehow got the political will to enact national legislation calling for high gun taxes and licensing fees, maybe the revenue could be used to fund buybacks. It could become a platonic ideal of a virtuous circle. Of course, if guns were made too expensive to legally buy and maintain, that would surely precipitate a very active black market for guns, which of course would be bad. But would that create a situation that's worse than things are today? I don't see how that can possibly be. 2A people like to say, "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns", which has a sort of surface logic to it. But those same outlaws are already getting guns now, and beyond that, it's a virtual certainty that the ease of obtaining guns is leading some people who might be on the fence about which direction their life could go into becoming outlaws in a such a way. In that very narrow sense, it's not unlike the recent proliferation of gambling: the shocking ease with which people can gamble now, on almost literally everything, is making gambling addicts of millions of people who might never otherwise have been exposed to it. It's one thing for someone to work to seek it out, and quite another when someone is constantly being enticed into it. Which is to say, just because an active black market would spring up for guns, were they heavily restricted, is no reason for keeping guns as easy to obtain as a six-pack of beer.

I won't share the actual tweet here—I'll leave that to those sympathetic individuals to share if they want to—but I just find the language being used in the headline really interesting, because practically nobody I have ever known has ever used "jackal" as an insult, political or otherwise. You know who does use it? Putin and the Russians. "Jackals" is a super common political insult there going back to at least Soviet times, along the lines of "running dogs" used by the old Asian Marxists. It's the little clues that reveal things ...

That’s actually kind of a bad omen for the rest of the season as the Tigers are likely, as teams probably are, to find their level back toward pythag. (That would be an interesting study: how do teams that perform well outside their pythag at various mileposts during the season end up playing for the rest of the year? Could it be more of a skill than we give it credit for?) OTOH, we should always remember that this was always going to be a transition year in many years, including the weeding out of non-hackers and the acquisition of playoff-caliber talent throughout the system. Even if they still end up winning fewer than 70 games, I think it’ll hard to fault anyone along the way. Me, I’m enjoying the ride while it lasts.

Incredibly, even this morning, Fangraphs projects the A’s to have a better record from now through the end of the season than the Reds, Rockies, or Nationals.

Well done, Ob. Nice explanation by his camp, too. If it comes directly from him, even more impressive.

Mississippi, so awful in so many ways, comes up 50th on that map, too.

Is it because she’s from the islands, mon? 🇯🇲😁

I might use African American as an adjective, but almost never as an noun. For what that’s worth.

Is Putin willing to accept the ultimate loss just to follow through on a whim?

A lot of SABR people, and even official publications, are already using the term “Black Ball” to describe those leagues, so a formal change along those lines wouldn’t be a problem for any of us. We don’t get so hung up on traditions attended to nomenclature. We’re not conservative like that. I don’t think there’s so much brand equity in the term “Negro Leagues” that renders it impervious to such a change. The word “Negro” itself as used to describe people, like the term “colored”, is considered at least socially unacceptable, if not downright offensive. I don’t think anything would be lost if they made that change.

It occurs to me that people afraid of Russia starting a nuclear war or something over Ukraine going into NATO may be completely underestimating just how much autocrats love the situation Putin is in. If he were to try to start one, it would be the end of his gravy train in a couple of ways. First of all, autocrats need the peace and stability of the global economy to maintain the level of comfort their ill-gotten billions affords them. If he nukes anyone, the money would stop flowing in because the entire world’s economic system would go into crisis and maybe even collapse, and then they wouldn’t be able to import all those Western luxury items they love so much, and no way Putin would be happy living out his days on local vodka and borscht. Also, the interconnectedness of the world’s money is such that they could never create a robust replacement economic system consisting of just them and the few sponsor states in their orbit. And China wouldn’t rush to join them because they too depend on a strong Western economy to maintain their own economic position in the world. For that reason, I think it’s more likely that China nukes Russia than Russia nukes the West. Which is to say, neither will happen. Secondly, Putin’s domestic political power depends on a strong, propped-up West to act as the enemy that constantly threatens them and their cherished way of life, whatever that is. For that to continue, Putin needs to maintain an ongoing staring contest that functions as a sort of de facto detente on an indefinite basis. That’s the gift that keeps giving because then they can go back to that enemies well over and over in order to keep the peasants in an optimized state of fear of invasion, which serves as their motivation to support the one guy who is keeping everything from falling apart and landing on their heads. It’s Autocracy 101: create the crisis, then provide the solution. That may be why he started the war in Ukraine in the first place. Sure, he’d like the land eventually, but he loves the crisis now, so as long as he can keep the war going 1984-style, it’s a great situation for him. It’s the same reason Kim Jong Un will never do anything, either. He might be a madman, but he’s not stupid and he’s not irrational, so he’s not going to do anything that will jeopardize his control of an entire country and of everything and everyone within it. Same with Putin. In that way, Putin would like to become Kim, and he is constantly working toward that. And if he wants to achieve it, he’s going to have to do everything he can to keep the West at arm’s length, while still maintaining the veneer of perceived crisis at home. This is why I believe NATO should admit Ukraine as soon as possible. Ukraine is the crisis Putin wants to maintain, and with Ukraine officially under the protection of its explicit allies, Putin would be substantially weakened, maybe even mortally wounded, and he still ain’t gonna do **** in return, because if he did, that would be the literal end of him. He knows that. Maybe it’s time the rest of us internalize that as well.

FWIW, we are also outperforming our Pythag during our post 2-9 run.

Since the word “negro” is too close for comfort to what is now considered to be the most profane word in America, maybe they should consider rechristening the whole thing from its current name to the Black Baseball Leagues, or something along those lines, regardless of what it was called “back in the day”. Of course, it will spur a short and strong backlash among those who have never given those leagues even a single thought, but really, **** anybody who does that. Besides, they’re already raising the predictable backlash over this already.

Yeah, Schoop is cooked. He should basically be relegated to ninth-inning defensive replacement and garbage-time pinch-hitter at this point. Sure, he’s going to have to start some games some time, and actually yesterday would have been as good a time as any (getaway game against a flailing team), but he probably shouldn’t start more than once a week.

I’ll be OK with one if he’s a four-year college guy can step into at least the middle of the rotation within a year. No more Turners or Mannings or Jobes.

Just make sure you get at least three miles inland so an AR-15 bullet from America can’t reach you anymore.

OK, let’s score eight and bring them back out for the bottom of the inning.

TORK! lack of range hurting, too. And now Maton with yet another error?!

Remember, too, that Mason Englert is still essentially a minor leaguer.

Even if the Cardinals end up winning, that organization is still a hot mess.