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Was driving around and King Tuff's Headbanger song came on, and it reminded me of a time, long ago, when I could tell if a relationship would last based on the quality of her record collection - I guess that is inoperable these days.

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now I'm trying to carbon-date you (I said CARBON date!)

for me, dating was at the transition of "record" to CD (got my first CD player my junior year at Cal). With cassettes in between.

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I never bought a single pre-recorded cassette; was a fan of making mixed tapes, and was a fanatic at getting them perfect (VU levels right, 2 seconds between songs, as little dead air as possible).

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You and Jon Cusack from High Fidelity!

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Great movie, I need to re-watch that soon.

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Great-er book

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Amazing story - A passenger with no flying experience landed a plane at a Florida airport after the pilot became incapacitated

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/florida-passenger-lands-plane/

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It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether!

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That is amazing. Kudos to the Air Traffic Controller.

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Which P5 teams are the least thought about - like, not known for being remotely good and not even crossing people's minds because they're bad?

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BC for both football and basketball.

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BC Basketball historically has some weight both because of the point shaving scandal, plus they've had a decent number of memorable pros.

Football is only known for Doug Flutie so as the populace ages, fewer and fewer people think about him

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022

Kansas for football only, unless you’re Texas.

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I was going to go with Kansas State. They had a flash under Snyder (football) and Beasley-era basketball. But most of the time no one ever thinks about them.

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Heh

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Vanderbilt is an excellent school, probably most well known for the pre-med and medical programs. It's easily the academic powerhouse on the SEC.

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May 12, 2022Liked by BentPawn

Leaving in about 12 hours to see No 2 graduate there.

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What happened to Gobears 1 through 48?

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no comment!

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Pac-12: Oregon State, Cal, Arizona

ACC: Virginia

B1G: Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois

XII: Iowa State, K-State

SEC: MS State, who shockingly has a worse all-time record than Vandy

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Virginia basketball has been good last 8-10 years or so and both lost a 1 vs 16 and followed that up with a natty. For football yes they suck.

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Natty aside, UVA reminds me some of Cal. Generally not great in the big two, but consistently solid in Olympic and other sports (i.e. lacrosse).

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And top 5 public university. So kinda like Cal :)

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Assuming football, and on a national level? That's the majority of P5 teams, including Cal.

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Purdue, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Oregon State

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Washington State, Syracuse, Wake Forest

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Minnesota, Georgia Tech, South Carolina

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eh I think Georgia Tech gets remembered just for having the triple option.

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Illinois, Syracuse, Maryland

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What was your poison of choice in college?

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Captain Morgan

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I don't like beer, so after I realized that, I actually had an odd phase where I drank Manischewitz or Mogen David kosher wine. Alcoholic fruit juice. Which kinda informs my current (minimal) drink. I like sweet cocktails where you don't taste the alcohol. Tequila Sunrise, Cosmo, etc.

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Midori Sour

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not sure I've ever had that...but probably up my alley(s)

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022

gin fizz at my friend's fraternity (the rugby player one i think)

my HS friend transferred into Cal a year or two later and was in the rugby frat (cant remember which one) and so i would help hime make drinks on football Saturdays.

needless to say, we drank quite a few.

i was a "bad drinker" in college. drank whatever was around and didnt appreciate the taste of anything good or bad back then.

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I believe that was the Beta house's game day special. I remember having that while visiting my sister (Tri Delt) for a game day. It was a good gin fizz in a very unwelcoming environment. Turns out early 2000's rugby players were not big fans of 15yo punk kids with pink hair.

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i dont think i (dorky thin Indian kid) would have been very welcome either in early 90's if i wasnt already there helping make/serve drinks.

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My sister later told that there were several guys saying things along the lines of "who let that f****t kid in here?" and that she got some shit from her then bf who was a pledge at the time. She broke up with him shortly after that and I don't think I ever went back in that house on subsequent gameday visits

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I think there were a couple of Betas from Campo my year.

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That would track, Campo typically has a handful of good rugby players on local club team (River Rats?)

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Southern Comfort for about 2 years, then whatever beer was available, eventually morphing into mainly IPAs when Santa Cruz breweries started to take off

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((shudders))

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Same here.

Yeeeeuck.

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Yeah there was a reason it didn't last long. It was my "family's" drink in my fraternity so we basically had to promote it to the new little bros when they got their big bro. Fortunately once I was an upperclassman it was limited to a swig 3x a year.

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Any form of alcohol I could obtain. Never a big weed guy as I enjoyed getting out and breaking things more than chilling in a room

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Beer and Franzia/Sprite/fruit wine coolers, the latter to be more accommodating to coeds who generally hadn't acquired the taste for shitty beer yet.

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Rainier Ale 40oz, or sometimes Olde English, when money was tight. Lagunitas IPA when living large.

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Beer, beer, and more beer. Also any other alcoholic beverage proffered or available. Coke and grass. Oh yeah and still more beer.

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Not alcohol

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022

Scotch. Actually, blended scotch, to be honest. I can agree now that it was generally awful stuff.

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Golden Bear (the alcoholic drink)

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Stadium food

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the food at Audi Field (home of DC United) is pretty good - mainly the pupusas and the half smokes. Not cheap though.

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The Sacramento Rivercats stadium charges $15 for a beer. My friend gave a big fat nope.

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That is a lot, it's $11 at CMS

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Every time a US stadium gets posted on footy scran, the entire response section is talking about how expensive the prices are.

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and with good reason

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Most stadiums (for baseball, at least) do allow fans to bring in outside food. This is true even with the recent increase in bans of bags at baseball games.

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It sucks that Chase doesn't allow outside food or beverages. Not even a water bottle to get water at the drinking fountains. Squeeze every dollar out of you to pay all those max contracts. Although in the winter I figure I can bring in food inside a jacket pocket.

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022

They used to have the Buckhorn Grill Tri-Tip sandwiches at Memorial in the Dykes era. They were about $12 and delicious. Now the food choices are mostly uninspired. Chicken strips and fries or a Bear Burger are probably the best options, though the Bear Burger comes with a microscopic amount of veggie toppings, and the last time I had one it was cold. Also, there used to be a couple of Food trucks on the East side rim which looked really good. But they have never returned post-Covid.

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football scran on twitter is one of my favorite twitter accounts

The garlic fries at the A's games are terrible

The best carrot cake I've ever eaten is from the Toyota Center in Houston (and I assume any other arenas/stadiums catered by Levy Foods would have the same)

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Stale Nachos with the Fake Velveeta like Cheese

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last time I had that (with a large coke?) was at a Cal hoops game at Oakland Arena (Dec 1998), I ended up throwing up in both the MacArthur and 16th Street BART bathrooms. [ Luckily it was pre-9/11, so the bathrooms were open!]

And then yakked again after I got home. This was like a week after I moved into my newly purchased flat, so I remember the month and year.

Was Cal playing in Oakland in Dec 1998? Too lazy to go to the closet and find my "last Harmon game" t-shirt. I don't think it was a Dubs game...

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bathrooms are open now in BART - I used one on the way home from Oakland/dinner with TBB on Monday.

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at first I read that as you using a BART bathroom with TBB...made more sense on second reading!

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I guarded the door, obvs

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or held his hair back...if he had the arena nachos

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great...I can eat arena nachos again!

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pltm

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Was Dec 1998 the Cal/UNC game at the Pete Newell Classic?

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maybe? pretty sure Haas existed in 1998, so prob was PNC.

was stanfUrd-Temple the other game? I remember that game one year; was like 20-18 at halftime!

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When working the concession stand for little league I would dip the pretzel in the cheese as a snack.

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I believe so, that was my final year as a ball boy for the team IIRC

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My wife insists on getting this every time we go to a professional sporting event, must be some sort of nostalgia because it is always disappointing

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Never again!

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Never buy it. Too expensive and too unhealthy. Amazed at how much people spend on junk at stadiums and ballparks.

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A lot depends on the stadium. I find the options at Oracle Park (SF Giants) are generally pretty good. At Memorial Stadium, generally not. My typical routine is to get food beforehand at La Val's or La Burrita and then walk over to the game.

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Yeah the year Cal played there the food and choices were good, but it was a mistake to pay for the "good" seats (what's good for baseball is not good for football).

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We always bring food to Pac Bell Park. Last time I think we did Poke Bowls. Or if we have time burritos from Farolito.

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The themed menus in the Stadium Club are pretty good and the bars have lots of options (and included with the price of admission). They even have decent sushi and always have Ben & Jerry's minis in the second half which my step dad loves to collect and hand out to our entire section when they come out.

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Can you still bring food into CMS? I used to always hit up Cheese n Stuff on my way up to an afternoon game but haven’t done it in a while

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I will say though my kids love the food at any stadium bc there is cotton candy and stuff like that

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022

Food in the club is generally good, sure the beer is over priced, but at least they have good beers now. (CMS)

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I don't have a source, but recall reading various articles during the early pandemic (on the cost of having no fans in attendance) that attributed roughly 40% of a typical NFL team's revenue to gameday stadium revenue (tickets, concessions, parking, in-stadium sponsorships, in-stadium merchandise sales), and concessions made up about a quarter of stadium revenue. So that would mean roughly 10% of a team's total revenue comes from hawking overpriced beer and junk food. Again, no source, but doesn't sound far-fetched.

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In my experience (from a decade ago) tickets + concessions make up 1/2 of a team's revenue, with the other half sponsorship + television, so your half remembered source sounds about right, since it varies a lot from team to team and RSN deals

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Elsewhere in college

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Texas opens up as a 14.5 point underdog to some team from the SEC

https://twitter.com/CJVogel_TFB/status/1524396891504586753

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thats all?

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Today in Covid

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Split results in Trump vs. non-Trump-GOP primaries. NE Gov went non-Trump candidate Jim Pillen as pro-Trump candidate who was accused of multiple sexual assaults lost. The Rep primary in WV was won by pro-Trump Mooney

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/10/nebraska-west-virginia-primary/

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IMO, this doesn’t mean that trump is losing his grip on the national GOP. I believe trump will continue to do really well when it comes to House races and local state races. He will do okay in senate races. He will not perform well In gubernatorial races.

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Merrick Garland lets the statute of limitations expire on Trump obstruction of justice with FBI & Comey firings

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1524007395755765760

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Merrick Garland is a wet blanket. If his SCOTUS seat didn’t go to Gorsuch, I would be almost relieved he didn’t end up on SCOTUS.

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Leaked Eastman emails to Denver Post indicate that Eastman was the epicenter of a plan to overturn the 2020 election. Not sedition-lite. This is the full-fat traitor-to-democracy variety.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/10/eastman-emails-pennsylvania-legislators-biden-00031668

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He needs to go to jail but Merrick Garland is a wet blanket and will not do anything about this.

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Q: Who did Madison Cawthorn piss off to get this much dirt suddenly uncovered on him?

A: Thom Tillis, per WaPo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/10/thom-tillis-madison-cawthorn-primary/

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Florida high school's yearbooks won't be distributed until they censor pictures with rainbow flags and love-is-love signs thanks to the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Thanks for criminalizing sexual orientation, DeSantis.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/florida-school-yearbook-hold-student-protest-photos-84616591

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Donald Trump to be reinstated on Twitter, which is supported by... the ACLU? WTF

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-elon-musk-stating-he-will-reinstate-trump-twitter

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It feels like your friend broke up with an annoying boyfriend and now they got back together and you are like ah shit

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That is on-brand for them.

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ACLU are almost free speech absolutists - they'll defend Nazis rights to free speech.

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I'm actually glad they took this position, because I've been disturbed by some actions that seem well outside the "free-speech" realm and more into the "progressive fundraising" realm.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/aclu-johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial/629808/

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Do they support a right to yell "I have an explosive device" in an airport?

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I’m sure if someone got arrested for that they would defend that person.

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Gaylord Focker could have used their help

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Funny, little known fact: the ACLU defended his parents right to name him that.

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Many of those in favor of his return (including the ACLU in that link) believe Twitter should adopt a policy of instituting lesser penalties before banning him...which is peculiar because that's exactly what Twitter did. He had countless tweets flagged as misleading and removed before he was finally banned.

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PRO

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Warriors look to close it out tonight and thanks to a Small Craft Advisory I get to watch. Ja and Kerr are still out. It will be interesting to see if Memphis has the motivation to take it to game 6. Also Ja's knee injury was determined to be a bone bruise which is almost always an impact injury and never a "guy grabs your knee and yanks it a bit" injury

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Leaving now to pick up No 3 from UCSC to go to Nashville tomorrow for No 2's graduation. On the way up we're going to try to watch the game at Oracle on the big screen. If it's full when we get there then we'll try to find a sports bar. Any suggestions in the city? or Oakland?

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*watch at Chase Center

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And I think they got the results the night of the game so the whole, we don't know, was an attempt to get Poole suspended. Pretty shitty as a coach.

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Game #30: A’s lose first half of doubleheader 6-0

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/5/10/23065494/game-30-as-lose-first-doubleheader

The Oakland A’s, after snapping their nine-game losing streak yesterday, lost the first half of a Tuesday doubleheader, falling to the Detroit Tigers 6-0 in the afternoon tilt.

The offense had a grand total of four hits and three walks, having no answer against a trio of Detroit pitchers. The pitching was solid for the first half before falling apart in the middle innings. The good news is the A’s only need to wait a few minutes for a bounce back chance.

Since this game was supposed to be in Oakland in the first week, today’s first game was a make up, with the A’s being the home team in this one.

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Game #31: Doubleheader split! A’s win second game 4-1

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/5/10/23066238/game-31-oakland-as-detroit-tigers-score-result

It’s a doubleheader split!

The Oakland A’s played two today against the Detroit Tigers, and after dropping the first game they bounced back to win the second installment 4-1 at Comerica Park.

Tuesday began with a 6-0 loss in the opening matchup, and you can click here to read the full recap of that game. The lineup was shut out, the starting pitcher was knocked around, and the bullpen made things worse.

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Giants embrace the power of the small ball rally

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/5/10/23066553/giants-rockies-recap-score-alex-wood-brandon-belt

The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 9-2 on Tuesday night, and now that we’ve gotten that important detail out of the way, let’s discuss how they got those runs, because it would make the 1960s very, very proud (and what are we doing here if not that?).

I’m gonna skip the narratives. You don’t need to know the tension. You don’t care for the almosts and the so closes and the fakeouts. You care about the nine runs. So here’s how they were scored:

Run No. 1 — Luis González infield single

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Dodgers tie Los Angeles team doubles record to blow out Pirates

https://www.truebluela.com/2022/5/10/23066050/dodgers-doubles-record-justin-turner-edwin-rios-pirates

Results for the Dodgers offense were a complete 180 from the series opener, and what fueled Tuesday night’s 11-1 win over the Pirates at PNC Park was how often Los Angeles batters ran 180 feet from home plate.

Eight doubles by the Dodgers tied a team record since moving to Los Angeles, and fell just one shy of the franchise mark done twice in Brooklyn. The extra-base hits came in waves on Tuesday.

After Pirates outfielders made a few stellar catches in the series opener, the Dodgers were able to find grass on several occasions in this one. Freddie Freeman started the double barrage in the first inning, just three days after he had three doubles in a game in Chicago. It was Freeman’s fifth double in five games on this road trip.

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Is the ACLU taking up his case?

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Maybe not, since freedom of speech (hot gas coming out of the mouth) may not be the same as freedom of flatulence (hot gas comiing out a different orifice).

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Yesterday was May 10th, which is awfully early for the Mets to do what they do every year

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33893625/new-york-mets-ace-jacob-degrom-moved-10-day-il-60-day-il

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The The Angels' Angels' Reid Detmers gets a no-hitter in his 11th career game. Atta boy.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1524240390781652993

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And CF Brett Philips admires Trout's treatment of his 54 mph fat pitch

https://twitter.com/Cut4/status/1524427972274491395

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Sadly, Kareem will no longer have to drag him up and down the court for 48 minutes.

.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33895398/nba-great-bob-lanier-hall-fame-center-detroit-pistons-milwaukee-bucks-dies-73

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CAL

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Saw a car with a license plate holder that said U.C. Berkeley Law. The plate was a Virginia specialty plate that promotes Shenandoah Park and has a, yes, bear on it. The plate - URSA.

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I saw a dozen or so Cal license plate holders on the road this morning, they are not uncommon in LA, but this was the most I've seen in ~1.5hrs of driving.

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Up early today, so Go Bears!!!

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While Charmin Smith's snake-bitten teams have struggled to win, there is absolutely no arguing that she's a hell of a leader who is building a program based on the right values

https://calbears.com/news/2022/5/10/womens-basketball-womens-basketball-wins-pac-12-sportsmanship-award.aspx

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That's a pretty interesting story, thanks!

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I didn't even know there was such a thing.

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May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022Author

(I am from Nebraska).

Yes to both. At some games, they have a runza cannon that fires them into the crowd.

They are in Nebraska primarily, though a few location in KS, CO, and IA.

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They're derivative of pierogis...homage to the central Europeans who settled in the area. They're fine. I actually think the cheeseburgers are better. Plus, they do a chili and hot cinnamon roll combo that is perfect in the winter.

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<<<mind blown gif>>>

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big thing in cincy

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We had season tickets in the early 70's, so I was probably there for a few of Ferragamo's games, though I was 4 at the time. My earliest Husker memories are around RB's I.M. Hipp and Jarvis Redwine in the 1980 timeframe.

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That would be Eric Crouch. He was Tim Tebow before Tebow himself. Sure, his Heisman win was underwhelming, though he was a great college QB. Plus, it makes up for Tommie Frazier not getting it in 1995.

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