unclevlad

I'd go further; for example, runner on 2nd, 2 out. Ground ball to short, the throw's air mailed and goes into the dugout. That's automatic for the runner on 2nd to score, and that run is a direct consequence of the error. The problem is getting broad agreement on all variations would be tough, but yeah...at the very least, tho, there's no substantive connection between the error to the 2nd batter, and the runs after 2 outs. But the purists have screamed bloody murder that the runner on 2nd in extras, "destroys the validity of the stats." This would fall into the same category. So it'll never be considered.

I saw a weird feature of the Cowboys schedule, when I was looking at the divisional crossover...the Cowboys play 4 straight against the NFC North...with a bye week after the first two, but still. All October-November; they have to go to Green Bay and Minneapolis, but Nov. 13th and 20th. Weather isn't likely to be particularly bad.

We were talking about statistical aspects we don't like...another one came last night. Houston-Boston. The roof caves in on the Red Sox pitcher, Nathan Eovaldi, in the 2nd. Leadoff HR, error on the 1st baseman, runner is safe. HR, HR. Fly out...a respite that doesn't last. Single, double, 3 run HR. Single, ground ball out. Now there's 2 outs. Another 2 run HR. The runner that got on due to the error...unearned run, no problem. Because the last HR came with 2 outs...they're counted as unearned runs. Never liked that. The pitcher *deserves* to have them count as earned. Also note: 9 run inning, with every run scoring on home runs. 5 of em. Red Sox are one of six teams under the "Mendoza line", if you will. Below .400. That means flirting with, or exceeding, 100 losses; .400 == lose 60%, that's 97. Kinda freaky stat: looking at the standings right now, with some of today's games over, most in progress or later. Of the 30 teams, 25 of them have gone 4-6, 5-5, or 6-4 over their last 10.

Oh man.....what a totally absurd, unreal way to get knocked out. From the story: You can't write this stuff. Mind, I've let a cork fly once or twice, and quite often...they are MOVING! There really is a reason why real waiters *never* let the cork fly. There's a technique to bleed off some of the pressure while sliding the cork out...either into your hand, or a towel. And eyes are insanely delicate, and *incredibly* sensitive. Had a bout of corneal erosions...pieces were trying to flake off. If it sounds painful? It's not. It's EXCRUCIATING. And terrifying, because...it's your *eye* fer crissakes.

From NYT, lead paragraph: This is the end game I've been figuring for a good year.

Well, look at it this way. They'll probably be out of the race before that stretch even starts, so you don't have to sweat it. 5 straight losses can only help their draft position at that point. <hides alllll the knives, just in case....> Also, it may not be *quite* that bad. Rams, who really knows? They lost quite a bit, and the Super Bowl Hangover does happen. Cards...is everyone really on the same page there? Chiefs twice...yeah, ok, forget those. Ravens are a bad hit away from mediocre.

Madison Cawthorn, the North Carolina Republican congressman who managed to alienate...well, almost everyone...lost in his primary today.

How do you like it? How do you like it? Mo Mo Mo <I'll see myself out.>

And Matt Harvey has been suspended for 60 games for distributing oxycodone. Kind of hard to appeal since he testified he gave Tyler Skaggs some. And Starling Marte...ugh. Placed on bereavement leave because his grandmother...who raised him after his mother died when he was 9, passed away. It adds insult to injury; tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of the death of his wife. In a freak way; she broke her ankle, was awaiting surgery...and had a heart attack, and died. (I'm thinking, blood clot formed, broke loose, vein to heart........) Rough time....

Tucker is nothing if not consistent.

True, to a rational person. But not relevant to the Trumpists where slavish loyalty is the only bellwether. You either have it, or you're The Enemy.

Versailles, Indiana

Nothing. There were 4 yesterday; this was one of them. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting 203 incidents in, I believe, 35 states...might've miscounted...and DC. 214 killed. Note that's from their data. The definition of a mass shooting isn't standard, so you can get different answers. Not even Memorial Day....

The problem is that Cheney's been stamped as a wannabe Democrat for her "disloyalty" so anything she says is ignored by the Republican leadership. They're doing everything they can to remove all influence, and will be aiming to unseat her in the primaries.

That's what is so shocking about the Suns game; they did nothing from the jump. At home. In the decider. That strongly suggests they'd conceded the loss, mentally, before the game even tipped. And that is a huge problem.

Bucks got blown out because they can't defend Boston without Middleton. And that game was in Boston. It is easy to argue Paul shouldn't have been in at that point, but it's also game 7 of a playoff series. I don't agree that Paul is central to the Suns next season...because he was the focus of the Mavs' attack. Paul was -39 in his time on-court in game 7...after being -14 in game 6. Even in the game 5 blowout...Paul was only +7. Bridges was +23, Ayton +11, Cam Johnson +17, Booker +25. Foul trouble in game 4, he was no factor. He had 47 in games 1 and 2...and only 47 more in the next 5. The Mavs put the clamps onto Paul. Much of the issue may simply be that Booker failed to pick up the slack; that can't be ignored. I'd also assert that neither Paul nor Booker showed any spark at any point, so Monty Williams could've sat them the entire 4th and they'd have NO cause to push back.

Your guy isn't a pitcher, he's a once a century freak.

MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm....... Double cream, OK...but didn't realize the step to make it clotted. And everything is done at a LOW temp...I've known for ages that standard, flash pasteurization is Really Bad...it kills lots of things. The slow pasteurization doesn't. And that baking is low and slow. I'm not sure that method would be legal here. The milk WAS pasteurized, tho, so it might be. That said, obviously, the yield is really sparse, and it takes a LONG time. Now I wanna try some...

hmm...I'm looking at Baseball Reference, they show 40...no, 39. They have an entry for league average per 180 IP. Of those...only 9 averaged a full 6 innings per start...and only 2 broke 6 1/3. 16 averaged between 5 2/3 and 6. No one was notably below 5.5. Last year was a bit weird...enough scheduling weirdness that they had to do 7 inning double headers. LOTS and LOTS of callups. Fair number of games using openers. But still.... So...I dunno if I'm surprised by that number or not. Be that as it may...your point that those rules are outdated. This one; a starter having to go 5 to get the win is the most obvious other one. That's a common refrain: a starting pitcher's win total has very low value. But, it's darn near certain that nowhere NEAR 40 will get to 162 innings this year. Every pitcher was reined in due to the truncated spring training...and there's a fair number of doubleheaders and long stretches of no off-days, which leads to temporary call-up starters, or 6 man rotations, or the like. One of these days, too, these stats will impact how starters get paid. NO starter averaged 7 (among those that pitched 162 total); Zack Wheeler averaged 6 2/3. But that also goes back to throwing max effort. One pitcher averaged under 6 Ks per 9; 5 were between 6 and 7; 7 were between 7 and 8. So 2/3 were 8+.......and 15 were over 10. So that's more over 10 than under 8. To me, this also just makes the purists' argument that "the extra runner on 2nd in extra innings totally destroys stats!!" I say to them, how about getting your head out of the sands? The stats have been grossly distorted, starting back in the steroids era. In other news.... Giants at Cards tonight. Carlos Rodon had a bad start for the Giants...quite unusual this year, he's been excellent. But single, then BOOM!!! Goldy pops a 2 run. 2-0 before an out. 4-0 after 1. Quickly enough became a rout. So it was 14-2, Cards up, 2 out, bases loaded. Giants take their pitcher out...and figure why waste a bullpen arm? So Luis Gonzalez pitches the 7th...and the 8th, throwing mostly eephus pitches (big looping curve balls that don't break 50 on the gun). So the Cards have the game totally in hand; they figure, why not do the same? Sooo....Albert Pujols pitches the 9th. It's 15-2, why not. Everyone loves it, actually. Came CLOSE to not giving up anything...double play ball wasn't turned cleanly, or he would've gotten out of it. So up comes...Luis Gonzalez. Who hits a 3 run shot. As the pitcher.

Ugly, uglier, ugliest, FUGLY. Suns pulled the last. Up 3-2, lose game 6 in Dallas by 27. At home tonight, game 7. Lose by 33. I was gonna watch...kinda forgot. Just as well. Oh, and it wasn't that close; it was 57-27 at halftime. That's not bad, that's HIDEOUS. Suns only managed 10 in the 2nd quarter. It was 92-50 after 3. Hey, Memphis plastered GS in game 5...but in Memphis, and the Warriors were up 3-1. They won going away in game 6. To pull this much of an egg at home, in a game 7, is a complete meltdown.

Why were there no adult supers in the city? If teen villains start rising, would the adult supers leave the untried, untested kiddy corps to deal with them? Not saying it's unworkable, but those are the kinds of background points I'd try to cover. Setups... --supers crop up periodically, generally just before/at puberty. For the last several years, tho, the adults have been forced to counter an off-planet invasion. They're not entirely gone...but they're stretched very thin. --the event happened only a few years ago, and supers did not exist beforehand. It ONLY affected those in puberty; the reason for that is, of course, a hot topic for debate. VERY!!! recent, totally unexpected development of super powers is a major theme of Wearing the Cape; it's got some major social and political implications.

It also makes it easier to detect them, and only them. It might need a bit of care to avoid being *too* good. Magesight's not uncommon for fantasy...the ability to see spell constructs. That may or may not cover scrying; it might catch a Wizard Eye spell where there's the inobvious, but detectable, sensor, but not scrying through a crystal ball.

I doubt it's sustainable, in the 'bubble' model. As you note, gate receipts are likely low. Correction: non-existent is closer. From the wiki USFL article: You can't build home-town, grass roots support...which probably translates to lower merch sales. (And likely lower ratings as teams get eliminated. There's no baseline support.) Good question in my mind is, how expensive is this for the teams? It might not be that bad, in that they can negociate some pretty darn good rates, you'd think, and they have effectively 0 travel expenses, but still...the clubs are paying room and board for this entire stretch. (Which may make for a problem for some of the players down the line...because those are probably taxable benefits.) Another concern would be whether the players will go for it. For this year? Yeah, OK, but anyone with a family is largely separated from them. I haven't watched any, but...how's the turf holding up? With so many games every week, that would seem to be a major issue. Last, I don't see an NFL city risking antagonizing the far bigger cash cow.

Lots of cases where the pitching is overpowering...until it falls apart totally. Padres-Braves last night was 2-1 after 7. Solid pitcher's duel, right? Padres score 4 in the top of the 8th...then the Braves do the same. More and more, the root problem with baseball is, IMO, how pitchers are handled. Every pitch at 110% until the arm all but falls off. A Met pitcher just hit the IL today with right bicep tendinitis...which is an injury from overwork. Tommy John surgery is routine. Dead arm is another thing you hear about. That overthrowing is why no one goes over about 100 pitches; it's too much. 95% effort is much more controllable and repeatable; that max effort is inherently less so. That's when pitchers miss...both inside the zone (that low and in fastball suddenly becoming thigh high down the middle) and outside (PLUNK!!!). I'm pretty sure trying to take a 97+ fastball the other way is much harder than trying to pull it...and when that's the only thing you ever face...... The hitters get super-specialized.

But by the same token, the entire division right now is 96-70, with every team over .500 today. The teams will knock each other out, but the D'backs and Rockies are only 1/2 and 1 game out of the last WC spot. Even if they're 4th and 5th in the division. That's a Group of Death.