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IdahoBert

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Everything posted by IdahoBert

  1. IdahoBert
    To summarize: being nothing more than just one component among many in a revenue stream is a real boner shrinker.
  2. IdahoBert
    When something you hold dear to your heart and person is so obviously held hostage by a remote conflict akin to Olympian Gods (owners) against Greek and Trojan Kings (players), it makes you feel small and insignificant. We are not owners or players, and we’re not even spectators; we’re outside the stadium on flip phones wondering whether we will “win” or not. It makes the illusion of the spectacle so unrewarding. Seeing the Wizard behind the curtain in Oz is a real letdown. When all is said and done I’m sure I’ll go back to being a complacent moron and buy back into it all over again. I sure wish they would just finish up with their struggle and allow me to return to the stupid little fantasy land I take pleasure in.
  3. IdahoBert
    Creatine was routinely in the water or Gatorade that the football players at Bishop Kelley High in Boise Idaho drank during practice and games. One of my best friends was the assistant football coach and a theology teacher and he wouldn’t make this stuff up. In 1987 I knew ordinary morons at gyms were using ‘roids who had developed these ugly stretch marks on their pectoral muscles because they had grown so fast the skin could not adequately stretch to accommodate the artificially obtained musculature. If idiots could get hold of it then, surely professional athletes with vastly more at stake could and did.
  4. IdahoBert
    With this whole lockout thing and all the drippy talk we’ve heard over the years about “the fans“ and how much baseball love us, it just underlines how we’re not even “stakeholders“ in their racket — you know, the way corporations refer to their disposable employee base. We’re not even included in that food chain.
  5. IdahoBert
    Home runs are fascist.
  6. IdahoBert
    I have never had a problem with the DH. I’m neither a nostalgic purist nor do I want baseball to be more like football. 2023 will be the DH’s 50th season. We live in an age of specialization. Subjecting pitchers to any greater possibility of injury is a bad idea. And they suck as hitters. If there’s one thing I would like to see it’s what Chuck has talked about in terms of making the baseball less lively. It’s also something that could possibly happen whereas getting rid of the DH is not.
  7. IdahoBert
    Chicks dig the big sticks.
  8. IdahoBert
    I am flabbergasted. I tested positive for COVID today even though I wear a mask everywhere I go — which is almost nowhere — and in spite of 2 shots and a booster. I’ve also given it to my 19-year-old son. Yesterday I had bad chills, turned up the heat, wrapped myself in a blanket, took Advil, and slept and felt fine this morning, although toward the end of today I’ve started getting chills again. I have to quarantine for 5 days. I’m glad I’ve been vaccinated, or I could be in the hospital right now.
  9. IdahoBert
  10. IdahoBert
    Not to brag or anything but I just want everyone to know that I am now “proficient.” It is of course a ringing endorsement that every man wishes to receive… 😬
  11. IdahoBert
    I like this idea. Strikeouts are fascist and so are home runs. Even though the Tigers had some power this year and even though Comerica Park encourages a different style of play anyway, the “keep the line moving,” base stealing, take an extra base, make the pitcher work, make contact approach was a lot more exciting than the just rely on the home run approach that they’re not that good at anyway.
  12. IdahoBert
    Also, it doesn’t look like there’s a profanity filter anymore.
  13. IdahoBert
    My problem with gambling is that it incites the laboring underclass to dream of an escape from their just servitude. It’s getting harder and harder to find people willing to work for $7.25/hr. on my estate.
  14. IdahoBert
    As a fan I have a sense of ownership over a team. It’s “my team.“ I know it’s dumb but it’s true. We are enculturated to nurture this self-deception even when nothing else in our society works like this. But it’s their team and they don’t really care if we like it or not and no Ken Burns documentary tugging at your heart-strings can change that. MLBs brash bottom line is like an off-key note in a familiar tune. It jolts you. They’re not making any attempt to keep the myth of baseball alive. I know that money makes the world go around, but so do commonly held mythologies. They motivate people. Baseball is an American Homeric legend. There’s something beautiful about it. These owners are poor stewards of the myth.
  15. IdahoBert
    If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow February 2 will the lockout be over in six weeks for six months?
  16. IdahoBert
  17. IdahoBert
    The only thing worse than the class struggle in baseball between owners and players is a class struggle where there’s no news about it.
  18. IdahoBert
    Baseball is like a vampire bite. You have to be bitten otherwise it tends to be so complex that it’s hard to appreciate the nuances that make the game fascinating; aside from the more obvious forms of excitement which can to the novice still seem repetitive.
  19. IdahoBert
    Vermeer? As for Baez, don’t know much about her but Joe Hill is pretty good.
  20. IdahoBert
    He did exactly what he said he was going to do like a ninja assassin who doesn’t waste time and terminates with extreme prejudice. There’s something comforting in the precision of it all.
  21. IdahoBert
    I don’t think the Lindor contract signed in April is the gold standard going forward. One contract by one team doesn’t create the baseline for everyone else. Especially in a year when a new CBA is going to be negotiated. The owners are wily operatives of the class struggle of capital v labor. Although competitive to a fault, neither surreptitious collusion nor collective self-interest are beyond the owners when required. There’s a reason Correa did not get what he wanted right out of the gate. Ownership is fighting back.
  22. IdahoBert
    A friend of mine was much less lucky. He was at a health club on a cycle and turned to speak to the person next to him and all that came out was gibberish. He went to the hospital which was nearby and they told him he had stage four brain cancer. They said if it went untreated he would be dead in 30 days and if they did chemo he would live six months and he lived almost exactly 6 months.
  23. IdahoBert
    That is utterly visceral and amazing. I have a friend at work who is from Australia and I know that part of the world is really big into rugby and 30 years ago she borrowed my shortwave radio so she could listen to the rugby finals or whatever it’s called and it made her so happy and I didn’t realize why. Now I do.
  24. IdahoBert
    Is anyone else as excited as I am that the Tigers inked a minor league deal with a pitcher from New Zealand?
  25. IdahoBert
    I remember those. They were uncommonly short even for the time. I think he had his mom shorten those shorts for him or something like that. It was on purpose.
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