i am a little torn on who i am rooting for. i like both the Pacers and Knicks. loved all of those teams that competed against the Bulls but never won a championship.
Reggie does a lot of cycling these days. I have one of these jerseys. pretty sure he is on the broadcast team for the game.
I know some teams stay at a Ritz-Carlton near National Airport. Dubs and some others stay at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. I can always tell when a team is there because a bus is parked out front and they set up a couple barricades for the autograph seekers to stay behind.
The Dodgers needed 10 innings and a three-run bottom half to come away with a walk-off win against the Arizona Diamondbacks and put an end to their four game losing streak.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was tasked with putting an end to the losing skid, entering having allowed five runs in his previous outing against Arizona and eight runs combined over his last two starts.
There used to be a game - or still is - called Out of the Park, a baseball simulator, where you handled all the drafting, signings, promotions/demotions, lineups, and all the back-office stuff - but not the onfield activity. There was a function/cheat where you could give your team a ton of money and give you a MASSIVE advantage. You could hire essentially everyone good on free agency, convince an all-Pro that was collecting $30m/year while being the sixth outfielder and occasionally being on the Triple A squad, trade an all-star on Triple A and then use him as currency to absolutely stack your farm teams with everyone who had talent. So you'd rock into a season with an impossibly good team on paper. And then you'd simulate a game and see the results. I remember seeing my team lose four in a row and think "this is BS; this would never happen in real life".
All 3 of my kids LOVE this game. No 2 and 3 especially. They got No 1 into it this year. No 2 definitely has said to us "this is BS; this would never happen in real life"
KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS strides up the sideline, heading for the scorer's table. Tipoff is almost here at Madison Square Garden as his Knicks host the Bucks on this late November night. The lineups have been announced, the anthem has been sung, and the teams have finished huddling. All that is left is for Towns and the other starters to perform their final acts of preparation.
Can’t remember the last time I watched Sports Center other than channel surfing by. And they are right, I really don’t watch ESPN except for live games and maybe to catch a little of College Gameday.
tldr: It would mean that the playoffs would be seeded by record first, and not division winners first. Same divisions and same teams would still make it, just different seeding.
Yeah, I don't get the fascination with being a "division winner." Why does it matter that you won 9 games and finished ahead of three bad teams? I'm fine with that team making the playoffs but there's no reason they should get an automatic home game for that.
It made more sense before the wildcard team made it into the playoffs. It still made more sense when the wildcard was introduced in the 1970s compared to now.
The objective of the game is to win regular season games so you can get a favorable draw in the playoffs. Slavishly awarding division winners a higher seed lessens the value of that objective.
Honestly, it made more sense when each conference had just three divisions. Then if you were the top wild card you at least got a home game in the first round. Now if you don't win the division you are basically stuck on the road for the playoffs.
I looked into this a while back, and in the 1975-2001 period ('75 being when they introduced seeding rather than rotating the division matchups yearly), it only happened a couple of times that a team with a better record was forced to play on the road against a team with a worse record. Since the change to the new division format in 2002? It happens constantly. Like every other year.
It's fidgeting and fussing with minor changes to an immense change from the previous year.
I can appreciate the desire to limit the likelihood of injury, but I also note that this is a league the continues to deny any responsibility for CTE in its players and retirees while also actively denying that players and retirees access to the post-career healthcare that they agreed to.
NFL owners are unrepentantly evil. Which fits because many of them are greedy billionaires, a phrase that is itself redundant.
Every Olympic host nation gets the option to show demonstration sports. The 2028 LA games will include baseball, softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
NFL owners unanimously allow players to be on flag football team. We'll see if anybody good will risk their career to play. Then again, I bet the US 132nd best receiver will still smoke the top DB from Australia.
Only one player per nfl team can participate and how many players are citizens of other countries? I know there are plenty of foreign born players but a lot are lineman that don’t help a lot in flag as far as I can tell.
It seems like they spend 2-3 years fixing it and it goes right back out in a year or two.
Wildcat Canyon between orinda and Tilden has been closed due to a slide since end of 2022/beginning of 2023 when we had those huge storms. Maybe it will be open this year? Also Redwoord Rd just N of Castro Valley had been closed since the same storm due to a slide but it looks like it might have opened earlier this year.
I turned on the tv while getting ready to go for a run. Cal was up 14-9 with one out in the ninth. Pitcher proceeds walk, hbp, walk to force in a run and bring up the tie run. At that point I was ready to go and off I went. Couldn’t stand to see what I was afraid was happening. Plus, maybe I was just being a jinx. Glad they held on for another game tomorrow.
GOP House budget bill gets forwarded. Medicaid and Food Stamps get slashed and it's chock full of changes that will undoubtedly cause unintended consequences.
US restart their ABM program. I mean, we don't need healthcare, clean water, or emergency services - but spending half a trillion dollars to protect on a highly, highly, highly unlikely event seems like a good idea? And the name. So cringe.
Oh man, everything he does has this oddly hokey/cheesy tinge to it, which is so funny bc as someone born into money, you expect a little bit of class/taste
Let's play Letters. Name something Cal-themed that starts with A.
A.A.Ron
Axe, which we got.
PRO
i am randomly working at the lobby of the Ritz Carlton in the Flatiron. all the Pacers players just walked in before the game tonight.
looks like there is a bus parked outside.
i am a little torn on who i am rooting for. i like both the Pacers and Knicks. loved all of those teams that competed against the Bulls but never won a championship.
Reggie does a lot of cycling these days. I have one of these jerseys. pretty sure he is on the broadcast team for the game.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MFQFLjeXuTfEY5GC8
I know some teams stay at a Ritz-Carlton near National Airport. Dubs and some others stay at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. I can always tell when a team is there because a bus is parked out front and they set up a couple barricades for the autograph seekers to stay behind.
Dodgers answer back, snap losing skid with walk-off win over D-backs
https://www.truebluela.com/2025/5/20/24434232/dodgers-diamondbacks-game-recap
The Dodgers needed 10 innings and a three-run bottom half to come away with a walk-off win against the Arizona Diamondbacks and put an end to their four game losing streak.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was tasked with putting an end to the losing skid, entering having allowed five runs in his previous outing against Arizona and eight runs combined over his last two starts.
There used to be a game - or still is - called Out of the Park, a baseball simulator, where you handled all the drafting, signings, promotions/demotions, lineups, and all the back-office stuff - but not the onfield activity. There was a function/cheat where you could give your team a ton of money and give you a MASSIVE advantage. You could hire essentially everyone good on free agency, convince an all-Pro that was collecting $30m/year while being the sixth outfielder and occasionally being on the Triple A squad, trade an all-star on Triple A and then use him as currency to absolutely stack your farm teams with everyone who had talent. So you'd rock into a season with an impossibly good team on paper. And then you'd simulate a game and see the results. I remember seeing my team lose four in a row and think "this is BS; this would never happen in real life".
All 3 of my kids LOVE this game. No 2 and 3 especially. They got No 1 into it this year. No 2 definitely has said to us "this is BS; this would never happen in real life"
In case you're interested in why NBA players are playing with cream or powder every game.
Inside the NBA's hand care obsession
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44767845/nba-players-hand-care-cream-rosin-powder
KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS strides up the sideline, heading for the scorer's table. Tipoff is almost here at Madison Square Garden as his Knicks host the Bucks on this late November night. The lineups have been announced, the anthem has been sung, and the teams have finished huddling. All that is left is for Towns and the other starters to perform their final acts of preparation.
Everybody knows that ESPN's Sports Center will be better when it has the best and brightest broadcasting from suburban Hartford, CT
https://www.distractify.com/p/why-did-sportscenter-leave-la
The larger question is what difference it made to have the same show hosted from an L.A. studio. Certainly none to the audience.
Can’t remember the last time I watched Sports Center other than channel surfing by. And they are right, I really don’t watch ESPN except for live games and maybe to catch a little of College Gameday.
New onside kick rule
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/nfl-considers-rule-change-that-could-make-onside-kicks-easier-to-recover
Sorry to see that this playoff format change didn't get off the ground. I think it would be a big improvement.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/detroit-lions-withdraw-proposal-to-change-seeding-format-for-nfl-playoffs-amid-lacking-league-wide-support/
tldr: It would mean that the playoffs would be seeded by record first, and not division winners first. Same divisions and same teams would still make it, just different seeding.
A common sense proposal that should have been easily approved.
Yeah, I don't get the fascination with being a "division winner." Why does it matter that you won 9 games and finished ahead of three bad teams? I'm fine with that team making the playoffs but there's no reason they should get an automatic home game for that.
It made more sense before the wildcard team made it into the playoffs. It still made more sense when the wildcard was introduced in the 1970s compared to now.
The objective of the game is to win regular season games so you can get a favorable draw in the playoffs. Slavishly awarding division winners a higher seed lessens the value of that objective.
Honestly, it made more sense when each conference had just three divisions. Then if you were the top wild card you at least got a home game in the first round. Now if you don't win the division you are basically stuck on the road for the playoffs.
I looked into this a while back, and in the 1975-2001 period ('75 being when they introduced seeding rather than rotating the division matchups yearly), it only happened a couple of times that a team with a better record was forced to play on the road against a team with a worse record. Since the change to the new division format in 2002? It happens constantly. Like every other year.
It's fidgeting and fussing with minor changes to an immense change from the previous year.
I can appreciate the desire to limit the likelihood of injury, but I also note that this is a league the continues to deny any responsibility for CTE in its players and retirees while also actively denying that players and retirees access to the post-career healthcare that they agreed to.
NFL owners are unrepentantly evil. Which fits because many of them are greedy billionaires, a phrase that is itself redundant.
Every Olympic host nation gets the option to show demonstration sports. The 2028 LA games will include baseball, softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
NFL owners unanimously allow players to be on flag football team. We'll see if anybody good will risk their career to play. Then again, I bet the US 132nd best receiver will still smoke the top DB from Australia.
https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-owners-vote-to-permit-players-to-participate-in-2028-summer-olympics-flag-football
Yeah I'm not sure how many top players will risk tearing their ACL out there.
Only one player per nfl team can participate and how many players are citizens of other countries? I know there are plenty of foreign born players but a lot are lineman that don’t help a lot in flag as far as I can tell.
Flag football is fun to play, but not sure it will translate to TV. Seems a fun to play but not watch situation, like Ultimate
Flag football using non-professional players!
I imagine we will get a combination of mostly younger roster player guys and older, almost out of the league players.
LANDSLIDE
Devil's Slide. How many times has that stretch of road been wiped out?
It seems like they spend 2-3 years fixing it and it goes right back out in a year or two.
Wildcat Canyon between orinda and Tilden has been closed due to a slide since end of 2022/beginning of 2023 when we had those huge storms. Maybe it will be open this year? Also Redwoord Rd just N of Castro Valley had been closed since the same storm due to a slide but it looks like it might have opened earlier this year.
Hence, the Tom Lantos Tunnel under Montara Mountain to avoid Devils Slide.
Wildcat Canyon Road Slope Failure Repair
https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/9869/Wildcat-Canyon-Road-Slope-Failure-Repair
Yeah, sure, 80 days. It won't be open until next spring or summer. Bikers must love the slide.
If 80 days = 16 workweeks, that's not terribly fast. That's almost 4 months. If construction starts on July 28, then 80 days = November 16, 2025.
At any rate, you really want to finish before rainy season begins.
EDIT: Upon further review, I share your skepticism. Milestones of this project consistently slid throughout the timeline.
Great Fleetwood Mac song
Apparently trump won in a landslide
CAL
Cal baseball beats Wake Forest 14-12 to advance in ACC Tourney. #1 seed Georgia Tech up next
I turned on the tv while getting ready to go for a run. Cal was up 14-9 with one out in the ninth. Pitcher proceeds walk, hbp, walk to force in a run and bring up the tie run. At that point I was ready to go and off I went. Couldn’t stand to see what I was afraid was happening. Plus, maybe I was just being a jinx. Glad they held on for another game tomorrow.
POLITICS
GOP House budget bill gets forwarded. Medicaid and Food Stamps get slashed and it's chock full of changes that will undoubtedly cause unintended consequences.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/politics/medicaid-food-stamps-gop-proposed-cuts
Trump specifically says the bill will be tweaked to punish blue states.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-democratic-governors/
US restart their ABM program. I mean, we don't need healthcare, clean water, or emergency services - but spending half a trillion dollars to protect on a highly, highly, highly unlikely event seems like a good idea? And the name. So cringe.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/politics/trump-golden-dome-missile-intl-hnk
Oh man, everything he does has this oddly hokey/cheesy tinge to it, which is so funny bc as someone born into money, you expect a little bit of class/taste
DBD AV CLUB
Two-thirds of the Chicago Sun-Times summer reading list was hallucinated
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/05/published-summer-reading-list-has-fake
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
BYU's star QB accused of rape
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougars/2025/05/21/byu-quarterback-jake-retzlaff/
How much does a P4 place kicker cost? Apparently $50k, if you don't get fined for tampering. https://richmond.com/sports/college/article_e15d39db-fefa-435e-80e7-34f0670fde17.html
At this point I'm assuming everyone is tampering.
Coming soon to a Cal/UNC football game: "take off those red pants"
https://nesn.com/2025/05/patriots-rumors-bill-belichick-made-this-odd-request-to-jordon-hudson/