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Baseball writer with a Hall of Fame vote is salty.

They're a network O&O.

Given that the judge was sucked into the job by Trump himself, that totally tracks.

I tried one more episode last night and yeah, I’m definitely out. A little disappointing, but that’s OK. I’m pretty sure they didn’t want me watching it, anyway.

Trump and his MAGA cabal are focused on the classification level of the documents, either believing or trying to bullshit us into believing that is what the entire case turns on. It’s not.

Plus they are easy on the MAGA eye.

And I really wanted to like it, too. I'm all for including queer themes in the story mix, because queerness certainly existed in the actual league back then. After all, the reason the real players back then got charm school training, frankly, was to teach them how to not act like dykes in public while they were representing the league. It was considered crucial to the success of the league that they crush any hint of out lesbianism among the players. So directly tackling queerness as a challenge of the time in some detail would have definitely passed the smell test. What doesn't pass the smell test is all the anachronistic language, present-day speech patterns, and use of famous rock songs (e.g., "Piece of My Heart") as featured pieces. All of it yanks you right out of the era, forcing you to wonder why they make such choices instead of just being able to immerse yourself in the story. (Answer: because they're talking to a 2022 woke audience, not a 1943 wartime audience. Even if I understand that, it's still distracting as hell.) As for the concept of queer relationships, not only is it included, it actually constitutes the A story, above the baseball itself. The baseball serves as a mere conduit for bringing the characters together so they can discuss and otherwise explore their sexuality in their off-hours. There are long stretches of no baseball in this show. And worst of all, to me anyway, is that the baseball they do portray is just terrible quality, at least in the first couple of episodes. Outside of a couple of decent swings at the plate, and maybe one good infield throw, they're not even pretending to try to make it look realistic. Few of these actresses are decent athletes, at least in a ball-playing sense. The pitchers are especially bad, in particular the black girl they highlight. And the players and their play are so marginalized and insulted by coaches, PA announcers, and fans that I simply cannot believe it went down like that, even close to it. I guess they feel they need to lean into the victimhood to get you to care about these women while they are on the field. Again, I have seen only two episodes, and I may try to slog through at least one more, but it won't take much more to make me completely bail on it.

A League of Their Own. Anyone try this series yet? I’ve seen two episodes and I might give it one more chance before I bail. It is definitely not targeted to baseball fans, at least so far.

I just got over it on Saturday, and my wife finally tested negative just today.

Even if they are not being paid in actual money, they are being paid in media coverage, which will raise their profile and lead them to increase their list of scummy clients not named Trump who will not be able to get away with not paying them in actual money.

The main qualification Habba, Bobb, and Halligan all share is that they are LILFs.

What country are you going to make your children live in, Rob?

Grueskin deserves way more than 300 likes for that sweet joke.

Record low number of posts for a game thread?

I think Myers dug his own grave on this one by running inside the line down to first in what could be fairly interpreted as an attempt to impede the throw from the pitcher. Technically, if a batter does that, he should be called out just for running in fair territory, but umpires are loathe to call that unless it’s really super obvious. This might have been an attempt by the umpire to punish Myers for that by calling he turned toward second, which his upper body did by rotating maybe, what, 10 degrees to the left? If Myers would have had at least his right foot on the foul line while running down, he might have avoided the out call entirely even with the exact same body movements.

I liked the hubris of the trade at the time because we thought we could still complete and needed someone to take over when Riley went down, and it was clear that Paredes was never going to get a real chance in Al Avila’s world. He didn’t get even as many at bats here as Travis Demeritte, perhaps because Al thought he had to prove trading for Demeritte was a good move. It’s not as though Paredes was always considered no better than a fringe prospect, though, at least outside the eyeball scouts in the Tiger camp. The national scouting reports all said he had an exceptional hit tool, which he has proven out over several seasons of minor and now major league ball; and even though he’s stocky and was always likely to move from the middle to the corners, his glove and arm were considered solid even if his range isn’t. Even this year, all the main stat sources agree that Paredes is having a plus defensive year. The main reason he’s not playing third every day in Tampa is Yandy Diaz. I would bet at some point in the next few years, maybe next year or 2024, Diaz moves over to first or leaves the organization, and Paredes will be given his chance to hold down third base on the regular. He may end up a full-time DH someday, but at age 23 with even average D, that day is not now. Paredes will probably not become Aaron Judge, in that he won’t stop having down periods. Very few players don’t go through down periods, and it’s clear that when Paredes does struggle at the dish, the See I Told Ya Crowd will be here and all over that, just as they have been lately, while others will be all over his recent stats when he is in an upswing. Either way, though, the overall takeaway is undeniable: Isaac Paredes has been a very pleasant net gain for the Rays. He will have been worth 2-3 wins by the time the season ends, and so far, we are getting nothing in return for that, and whatever our personal takes on the trade are, I think we can all agree that part definitely sucks out loud.

Was it late 1986? because Stevie Winwood released the In The High Life that June, and anything high other than God in Heaven himself must be satanic or something

I've been assured that if you extend that range back to July 5, you will see he has been struggling at the dish recently.

That's interesting given how she has evolved into the status of National Treasure in just the last, say, five years.

So are you saying that under MLB rules, they can non-tender him, then sign him to a minimum contract?

Practically every Republican loser in November will claim they were frauded out of a win. Considering all the Senate, House, state-level and local-level elections occurring, we might hear literally thousands of claims of election fraud purportedly robbing Republicans. We may even hear fraud claims in districts Republicans win, just so they can justify bringing down the legislative hammer on actual free and fair elections in their jurisdictions once they take office. The $64 question is how all this will play out once the blizzard of fraud charges start pounding us. This election, even before 2024, might be a turning point one way or the other.

I fell in with this born-again crowd for about 15 minutes when I was in my twenties, and this one guy insisted that the inflection year for Satan was 1969, as evidenced by the Eagles song: “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969 …” It doesn’t make any more sense now than it did then.

Has that ever happened before? Honest question, I don't know either way