I went apple picking at a local orchard with D-H two years ago and ran into several of my students there, who joked that they should have gotten apples to give to me in class. (They didn't, which was disappointing, because I absolutely love fresh-picked apples.)
Fitness club 5 min walk away and often go there just for shower. Particularly since I had my shower tile refinished and heard what the tile man said about wiping down after every use, which I had not been doing too much of it before....drudgery. So, if I have to use home shower, I pass and take quick bath with no tile wiping involved.
Possibly, but could be a polymer resin. It doesn't have that hollow thump that fiberglass is noted for. It feels thicker and stiffer than fiberglass and has a "smoother" tactile sensation.
It's been 90 degrees and 80% humidity in Shanghai lately - plus I go to the gym in the mornings (Run Monday, Bike Tuesday, Gym Wednesday/Thursday, Spin Friday) so it's often a double shower day for me.
On days I don't exercise, I've switched to a shower a night thing. One - for a job that really wanted me at my desk at 9am (Disney) and the second, as Eric Wu, 7th floor Spens-Black, Unit 3, 1992 said "Asians like to sleep clean"
and I started watching The Long Kiss Goodnight last night. It was a VHS movie that I bought 20+ years when living in Japan. Watched it with Japanese friends and noticed a couple of times when I laughed and they didn't. I rewound to read the Japanese subtitles and they were worthless (Samuel L Jackson making SLJ-ish remarks). Made me realize how much I likely miss when reading subtitles.
whenever I see people getting mad about immigrants to the US because "they're bringing us down," I know they don't understand the concept of brain drain.
They don’t understand brain drain or low skilled labor shortage needs. We need both smart immigrants and hard working but low skilled immigrants as well.
I bought tickets to Thursday's O's-Angels game a couple weeks ago (the Angels are Mrs Bk97's favorite team). I was pretty disappointed when I saw we're missing the Ohtani game by one day.
I have to say that the NL West race this year has proven to be verrrry interesting. Much more so than I expected. Both the Giants and the Dodgers have compiled impressive winning percentages while vying to capture the NL West title. And we haven't even hit September yet.
I haven't been following as closely as I would like, but how likely is it that one of those teams gets a wild card spot? Seems like a virtual certainty to me barring an absolute collapse, but I just don't know for sure.
Right now the Dodgers are up 11.5 on the Padres for the 2nd wild card spot. I think if either the Giants or the Dodgers don't get a wild card spot, that would one of the largest surprises of all.
It's awesome that the Padres are blowing it. Granted their starting staff is in shambles. Snell isn't as good as he was last year. @surprise@. Lamet should've just had his elbow repaired. Weathers isn't ready. Even Darvish hasn't been as good the last couple of months.
Trying to buy a championship sometimes doesn't work.
This is a bunch of BS about trying to buy a championship. The aren’t the Yankees or Dodgers. We have wondered in the forest of irrelevance for 15 years and things have finally aligned for us to have a chance to be good so I don’t blame the team for going all in to maximize this window of opportunity.
The Padres used their minor league depth to acquire Snell, Darvish, Nola, Frazier, Clevinger, so it's true they didn't "buy" the team. But they clearly traded to compete with the Dodgers and win the world series and they are going down in flames.
But to be fair, the only high value signing is Betts, and even then they traded Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and a throw in for him and signed him to an extension.
Most of their other players are home grown, found on the trash heap, or recently traded at the deadline (Scherzer, Trea Turner) for their two best minor leaguers.
Yes, we have made very few high profile signings and most of the players have been acquired by trade or homegrown.
It is going down in flames this season, hopefully they can salvage a WC but I have my doubts. Hopefully next season with a new manager they can perform to better.
I don’t blame them for trying. Small market teams have small windows to actually compete for a WS series and this is our chance.
Oh I think it's been great that they've been trying. More teams should be trying.
They had one of the best farm systems so it was either going to be in a few years or this year by trading some of them. And if I recall, they didn't trade any of their top 5-6 minor leagues so they'll still be strong going forward. They've been smart in their trades by getting top players due to salary dump (Darvish) or getting players that wanted out (Snell) and not having to pay the premium in prospects. Given Hosmer's salary and lack or production, I thought maybe they would go after Rizzo and try to get someone to take Hosmer (which I'm sure they did and no one wanted to touch that contract).
As a rival, I take much joy in watching them go down in flames (so far).
I think it's also helped the Dodgers get stronger because they know they can't coast into the playoffs with their existing players. I don't think anyone thought it was going to be the Giants pushing them instead of the Padres.
We are in trouble indeed. Fired a pitching coach. I think we are going to miss the playoffs and clean house on the coaching side. Things just really fell apart after the all star break. Snell has been a bust. Darvish and Tatis have had injury issues.
Yeah, Snell has been a bust, and it couldn't have happened to a better guy. Kid's a punk.
The Lamet injury, while not surprising, is tough, too...that kid's stuff is electric, but arm trouble yet again is such a bad break. Not sure what to make of Darvish....his stuff still seems solid, but other than a few outings, he's been incredibly average. Maybe it's the back, but his consistent location mistakes have been a season-long thing. Paddack hasn't been able to recapture the magic from a few years ago...leads to an inconsistent starting staff, and Tingler seems like he doesn't know how to handle it.
While Frazier was probably hitting a little over his head in PIT, it was still a solid pickup but unfortunately he's really come back to earth in SD. Tatis is clearly not 100%, tho he earns kudos for moving to the OF and toughing it out in a pennant race. Not every ballplayer would do that...Kris Bryant sits out if he has a hang nail.
I hope Tatis doesn't have long term issues with his shoulder. I assume the doctor's cleared him to play but having dislocated his shoulder maybe 3 times this season I wonder if he's better off just having had shoulder surgery earlier in the season. Now if he has it at the end of the season next year his shoulder will still be going through rehab and his hitting will be affected. Usually it takes a couple of years to fully come back from major shoulder surgery.
I've read that he should be OK by Spring Training, barring any setbacks. Shoulder stabilization surgery is different than the rotator cuff, etc., plus it's his non throwing. He'll have 6 months recovery time.
that is true that it isn't rotator cuff, etc. Even though it's his non-throwing shoulder it is his front shoulder when swinging so I think it will take him a while to build up strength. Especially since he'll have to stay off of it for a while after surgery so he won't be able to strengthen it until probably close to spring training.
At least the Oakland A’s didn’t blow a save again.
The A’s lost their fourth straight game Tuesday afternoon, this time 5-1 to the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum. Oakland fell behind early and never recovered, which was a change in script after three days of dramatic last-minute defeats but with the same unfortunate result.
It started out well, just like each of the previous three losses. In the 1st inning, consecutive singles by Starling Marte, Matt Olson, and Mitch Moreland plated a run to give the A’s an early lead.
I’ve been writing at McCovey Chronicles for a few years now, and I’m pretty sure every single shutout victory that I’ve covered in that time has featured a quip about how when you score runs and don’t allow them, you usually win, and hey, maybe a team should hire a smart guy like me and pay me a handsome salary for such advanced insights and knowledge.
I’m going to avoid doing that today, and instead just tell you about how I used to do it, which manages to have the same effect but somehow use three times as many words.
Mission accomplished?
The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets by scoring a lot of runs (8, specifically), and allowing very few (0, specifically).
This game was won via the arm of rookie Sammy Long. He had to fill in because the Giants are flirting with disaster on their SP rotation with Gausman, DeScalfani, and Cueto all being injured/out. Gausman and Cueto should be back in the rotation this week.
The last Giants/Dodgers game we went to, we sat behind a few guys from Sacramento that went to HS with Sammy Long. It was pretty cool when he came in to pitch. Also found out that one guy ended up going to college in Louisville at a little D2 school to try to play baseball. He ended up knowing a few guys that No 1 went to HS with.
Scoring was at a premium on Tuesday night at Petco Park, but AJ Pollock did his best to procure and prevent runs in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres in the opener of a three-game series in San Diego.
Pollock’s resurgence this season has been on offense, especially while hitting .363/.413/.624 since the beginning of July. But in the fourth inning, Manny Machado hit a ball with enough distance to get over the left field wall for a potential 2-1 Padres lead. But Pollock got over the wall as well, leaping to snag the two-run homer in heavy traffic among fans.
“I embarrassed myself the last time I went up to rob a homer [against the Mets at home over the weekend],” Pollock told Kirsten Watson on SportsNet LA after the game. “I was trying to tell the guys I had a little more hops than last time. I wanted to jump early so I didn’t hit the wall, like last time. It was fun. It’s always fun robbing home runs.”
Bama and most SEC football games are going to be super spreader events. The south is about to experience a California wildfire event but with delta as the fire and people as the dried fuel.
I'm particularly interested in this one. I think UCLA could actually be pretty good this year (DTR's senior year, returning most of a very productive ground game). They just have to figure out how to stop turning the ball over so much.
UConn is playing at Fresno State in Week 0. UConn is still an FBS team and will play its first football game as an independent this Saturday. The last time they won a conference football game was October 21, 2017. Fresno State is a 27.5 point favorite.
Poor UCONN. Things were going so well when they moved up in football and relatively quickly won the Big East, had established a Florida recruiting pipeline, etc. Then their athletic department botched and/or got hosed in all of the realignments. A big part of that was Boston College shamelessly vetoed their acceptance into the ACC around 2011 and the rest was history. All the cache from both their men's and women's basketball programs, a BCS bid in football (granted they got embarrassed by Oklahoma), and they weren't able to do anything with it. I wouldnt be surprised if even their women's program plummets the day Geno retires.
Yep, it is amazing how quickly that program fell apart. They went from a D2 powerhouse, to FBS success with a BCS bid and now this. They might be better off dropping back to D2.
UCONN also built a (relatively) nice new football stadium as part of the step up from 1-AA to 1-A. Would be a pretty sad reminder to see that stadium hosting only FCS games, in which some of the opponents are coming from glorified high school stadiums. *Background: I lived in CT from 6th grade on and played high school football there in the mid-late 90's. Had plenty of friends go there (and several HS teammates play there, still 1-AA at the time), so I will always root for them. I'd prefer they stay in FBS and find a way to be competitive, hopefully find a favorable landing spot if/when conferences (or the NCAA itself) radically change again and again in the coming years.
Side note: I hate Boston College for a few reasons (GF from high school went there and I had some annoying interactions with some rich kid students when I'd fly back and visit.. also when I lived in Boston, dealt with some annoying drunk ones on the subway [T] more than once..).. But how they completely screwed over UCONN getting into the ACC back in the day was the icing on the cake.
"Taunting is a conversational topic in college football, but it’s rarely seen during games. Now, however, if players do taunt opponents, they will be flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty."
I completely forgot that he transferred. I knew that Brown was going to be Oregon's QB this year, but I hadn't realized that Shough left. Dude probably wanted to put at least a thousand miles between himself and TDR after last year's Cal game.
I noticed on the email I got about the new Cal mobile App that "face coverings are recommended at games" we shall see if that changes between now and game day.
Prototypical modern National League game. 14 pitchers (and that was with getting 5 innings from Urias!), + 3 pinch hitters & 2 double swaps. That's 19 lineup changes in 17 change episodes involving the pitching position. (Universal DH can NOT come soon enough!). Also, there was a 10 minute at bat (11 pitches, all of which were uncalled balks by Kenley Jansen that used up a half box of balls, and ended in a walk to Jurickson Profar). Jansen recovered to record his 28th save of the season. Best moment of the ~25 minute bottom of the 9th was Eduardo Perez's observation that "If you feel like you are aging significantly watching this, its because you are."
Both Jansen and Treinan were fairly wild today. Although the Padres are one of the lowest swinging teams on pitches out of the strike zone and they did a good job laying off breaking pitches out of the zone when Treinan usually gets them.
Padres had a scheduled bullpen game so you're talking 7+ pitchers from them alone. Urías probably could've gone another inning but he just came off the 10 day IL and they're probably trying to limit his innings where they can so he was done after 5. And he struggled a little in the 5th.
I'd rather see the NL pitchers hit. Involves strategy for when to let the pitchers rake, when to pinch hit, when to double switch.
Didn't see the end of that game but Chapman was pretty wild too and eventually had to be replaced for the final out of a long ninth in the Braves-Yanks game.
He has been struggling. Boone tried to keep him in to finish the inning but when he walked in a run to make it a one run game that was it. I just checked and he threw 12 strikes in 26 pitches.
Well, sadly Memorial rarely can achieve sellout crowds these days so if you go to a home game against Oregon State or WSU you should be able to socially distance from others.
Is anyone interested in a free ticket for the Nevada game? I cannot go because I'll be on my honeymoon (although I'm reserving my right to watch the game when we get to the hotel). The ticket would be for Section QQ, Row 32, and I believe I just need an e-mail or phone number to transfer a mobile ticket from my Cal Athletics account.
I decided to go with StubHub for Cal tickets this season. I bought my ticket for Nevada but it has not shown up yet in my email. A confirmation of sale and seat TT, Row 51...
Tailgate @ TCU
I got two, frustrating, wouldn't take my $$$ until I figured out to enter the names of the people attending.
got my 2 tix
I got two for HSB and myself. I think his two guests are going to be getting two as well.
That being said. I barely know the 2 guests.
One is a recent Cal grad they lives in Ft worth and it's taking my machine learning class this semester.
I suspect he is trying to get a good grade!
How would you prefer to be bribed?
Hair first, then work my way down.
oh wait .. that is the answer to the towelling off question
i am surprised no one (esp HSB) mentioned anything about "zoquo" and "uushnu"
i mean HAG hasnt mentioned it. i forgot i was HSB
for being bribed? I did bring up uushnu and zoquo in a previous DBD. But I forgot what the topic was.
no .. about the showering and getting dry afterwards
I thought it was "After I zoquo, I like to uushnu"
Isn't the standard answer hookers and blow?
Didn’t have to google those words.
Still funny.
Ahh...sucking up to the professor I see. A time honored tradition.
I went apple picking at a local orchard with D-H two years ago and ran into several of my students there, who joked that they should have gotten apples to give to me in class. (They didn't, which was disappointing, because I absolutely love fresh-picked apples.)
i hope you failed every single one of those f**kers
Tickets are now on sale. There are only 19 tickets.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unofficial-cal-tailgate-tcu-tickets-164892533005
Ok. In.
Drying Body Parts
Face first then legs starting from feet and working upwards
Legs and work my way up, this helps reduce water getting on the floor when I get out of the shower.
top down for the most part.
i am not sure i even pay attention to the order. but i am sure i'll be thinking about it later today
Hair first, then work my way down.
Hair? I'm not familiar with that concept...
Is there any other way?
crotch first, then face?
SAMPLE YO OWN MUSK
ew
Showering
Fitness club 5 min walk away and often go there just for shower. Particularly since I had my shower tile refinished and heard what the tile man said about wiping down after every use, which I had not been doing too much of it before....drudgery. So, if I have to use home shower, I pass and take quick bath with no tile wiping involved.
My in-laws have a shower with a smooth (no grout) surface. It was *not* a tile shower stall. They squeegeed the walls after every use.
Fiberglass?
Possibly, but could be a polymer resin. It doesn't have that hollow thump that fiberglass is noted for. It feels thicker and stiffer than fiberglass and has a "smoother" tactile sensation.
perhaps like others my showering has been disrupted by work-from-home-forever.
in the before-times i would wake up and shower first thing before going off to work.
but now, i do it after i work out. i usually need at least an hour to fully cool down so the shower might end up later in the day.
Speaking of your workouts, I saw a guy riding the other day wearing a Glacier National Park jersey.
that's cool. i am sure i deserve one too if i make up the Going-to-the-Sun road.
In the evening, then read for an hour or so before bed.
Every morning, pretty much.
Always in the morning. Then after working out or at night if I do something that makes me smelly (like BBQ) or sweaty.
Weather permitting, I do my run in the morning so shower in the morning.
Showering in the morning on days that I ride my bike (most days) and in the evening otherwise.
Where showering is involved I'm a morning person.
Typically, morning (especially in a world when I went to an office everyday).
Living in Japan, especially during the winter, at night (when the poorly heated bathroom was not as cold).
Days when I played hoops in the evening: evening
Covid...every few days, usually at night, but coincidentally, I just got out of the shower 20 minutes ago, so an aberrant data point!
I will say, that I do like the feeling of going to bed clean (and mores, waking up feeling less grimy)
It's been 90 degrees and 80% humidity in Shanghai lately - plus I go to the gym in the mornings (Run Monday, Bike Tuesday, Gym Wednesday/Thursday, Spin Friday) so it's often a double shower day for me.
On days I don't exercise, I've switched to a shower a night thing. One - for a job that really wanted me at my desk at 9am (Disney) and the second, as Eric Wu, 7th floor Spens-Black, Unit 3, 1992 said "Asians like to sleep clean"
5th Floor, Spens-Black, 1986!
That's the way my parents lived.
DBD Test Kitchen
DBD AV Club
An empty AV Club? I feel obligate to write something.
I watched Eps 1 and 2 of The Chair. Not bad.
Just biding time til 9pm PDT tomorrow ;-)
My wife is ready to watch that.
gonna go watch Ep 3 and 4.
and I started watching The Long Kiss Goodnight last night. It was a VHS movie that I bought 20+ years when living in Japan. Watched it with Japanese friends and noticed a couple of times when I laughed and they didn't. I rewound to read the Japanese subtitles and they were worthless (Samuel L Jackson making SLJ-ish remarks). Made me realize how much I likely miss when reading subtitles.
Today in Covid 19 (covid 22?)
New Gov of NY acknowledges that Cuomo undercounted Covid deaths by about a quarter.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/gov-hochul-acknowledges-more-new-york-covid-deaths-than-andrew-cuomo-counted.html
[NYT, paywall]: Where the elderly are not getting vaccinated. Yet another great example of data visualization by the NYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/24/world/vaccines-seniors.html
Personal choices. Personal consequences.
https://twitter.com/lt_winslow/status/1430533844738924546
I’ve been saying this for a while. Enough carrots, time to bring out the sticks.
My mom got her 3rd vaccination yesterday (booster of Moderna)
Unfortunately, the consequences aren't just personal; they are hurting others.
Our Crumbling World
Flight of skilled workers...
Afghanistan's economy in crisis after Taliban take-over
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58328246
whenever I see people getting mad about immigrants to the US because "they're bringing us down," I know they don't understand the concept of brain drain.
They don’t understand brain drain or low skilled labor shortage needs. We need both smart immigrants and hard working but low skilled immigrants as well.
Pro
While eating lunch I heard on the radio that Shohei is pitching tonight in Baltimore. Had I known earlier I may have made the effort to go up.
I bought tickets to Thursday's O's-Angels game a couple weeks ago (the Angels are Mrs Bk97's favorite team). I was pretty disappointed when I saw we're missing the Ohtani game by one day.
I have to say that the NL West race this year has proven to be verrrry interesting. Much more so than I expected. Both the Giants and the Dodgers have compiled impressive winning percentages while vying to capture the NL West title. And we haven't even hit September yet.
I haven't been following as closely as I would like, but how likely is it that one of those teams gets a wild card spot? Seems like a virtual certainty to me barring an absolute collapse, but I just don't know for sure.
Virtually guaranteed that one of them will host the Wild Card Game.
Right now the Dodgers are up 11.5 on the Padres for the 2nd wild card spot. I think if either the Giants or the Dodgers don't get a wild card spot, that would one of the largest surprises of all.
Correction - The Dodgers own the 1st wild card spot and the Reds are a game ahead of the Padres for the 2nd wild card spot.
I just meant they are 11.5 games ahead of the 3rd place wild card team.
Padres are in trouble....Reds with the schedule edge down the stretch.
It's awesome that the Padres are blowing it. Granted their starting staff is in shambles. Snell isn't as good as he was last year. @surprise@. Lamet should've just had his elbow repaired. Weathers isn't ready. Even Darvish hasn't been as good the last couple of months.
Trying to buy a championship sometimes doesn't work.
This is a bunch of BS about trying to buy a championship. The aren’t the Yankees or Dodgers. We have wondered in the forest of irrelevance for 15 years and things have finally aligned for us to have a chance to be good so I don’t blame the team for going all in to maximize this window of opportunity.
The Padres used their minor league depth to acquire Snell, Darvish, Nola, Frazier, Clevinger, so it's true they didn't "buy" the team. But they clearly traded to compete with the Dodgers and win the world series and they are going down in flames.
But to be fair, the only high value signing is Betts, and even then they traded Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and a throw in for him and signed him to an extension.
Most of their other players are home grown, found on the trash heap, or recently traded at the deadline (Scherzer, Trea Turner) for their two best minor leaguers.
Yes, we have made very few high profile signings and most of the players have been acquired by trade or homegrown.
It is going down in flames this season, hopefully they can salvage a WC but I have my doubts. Hopefully next season with a new manager they can perform to better.
I don’t blame them for trying. Small market teams have small windows to actually compete for a WS series and this is our chance.
Oh I think it's been great that they've been trying. More teams should be trying.
They had one of the best farm systems so it was either going to be in a few years or this year by trading some of them. And if I recall, they didn't trade any of their top 5-6 minor leagues so they'll still be strong going forward. They've been smart in their trades by getting top players due to salary dump (Darvish) or getting players that wanted out (Snell) and not having to pay the premium in prospects. Given Hosmer's salary and lack or production, I thought maybe they would go after Rizzo and try to get someone to take Hosmer (which I'm sure they did and no one wanted to touch that contract).
As a rival, I take much joy in watching them go down in flames (so far).
I think it's also helped the Dodgers get stronger because they know they can't coast into the playoffs with their existing players. I don't think anyone thought it was going to be the Giants pushing them instead of the Padres.
I agree on dumping Hosmer and I’m sure they tried. I thought they were going to go full circle and bring Rizzo back.
Speaking of going full circle. I fantasize about them re-hiring Bochy and him taking us to and winning a WS for us.
We are in trouble indeed. Fired a pitching coach. I think we are going to miss the playoffs and clean house on the coaching side. Things just really fell apart after the all star break. Snell has been a bust. Darvish and Tatis have had injury issues.
Yeah, Snell has been a bust, and it couldn't have happened to a better guy. Kid's a punk.
The Lamet injury, while not surprising, is tough, too...that kid's stuff is electric, but arm trouble yet again is such a bad break. Not sure what to make of Darvish....his stuff still seems solid, but other than a few outings, he's been incredibly average. Maybe it's the back, but his consistent location mistakes have been a season-long thing. Paddack hasn't been able to recapture the magic from a few years ago...leads to an inconsistent starting staff, and Tingler seems like he doesn't know how to handle it.
While Frazier was probably hitting a little over his head in PIT, it was still a solid pickup but unfortunately he's really come back to earth in SD. Tatis is clearly not 100%, tho he earns kudos for moving to the OF and toughing it out in a pennant race. Not every ballplayer would do that...Kris Bryant sits out if he has a hang nail.
I hope Tatis doesn't have long term issues with his shoulder. I assume the doctor's cleared him to play but having dislocated his shoulder maybe 3 times this season I wonder if he's better off just having had shoulder surgery earlier in the season. Now if he has it at the end of the season next year his shoulder will still be going through rehab and his hitting will be affected. Usually it takes a couple of years to fully come back from major shoulder surgery.
I suspect that the Pads will be out of the playoff picture in the next two weeks and will shut him down.
I've read that he should be OK by Spring Training, barring any setbacks. Shoulder stabilization surgery is different than the rotator cuff, etc., plus it's his non throwing. He'll have 6 months recovery time.
But setbacks could be the dagger.
that is true that it isn't rotator cuff, etc. Even though it's his non-throwing shoulder it is his front shoulder when swinging so I think it will take him a while to build up strength. Especially since he'll have to stay off of it for a while after surgery so he won't be able to strengthen it until probably close to spring training.
I don't know how they figure these things, but ESPN says both teams have a 100.0% chance of making the playoffs.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/standings
Game #127: A’s tailspin continues with fourth straight loss
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/8/24/22640366/oakland-as-game-127-seattle-mariners-score-result
At least the Oakland A’s didn’t blow a save again.
The A’s lost their fourth straight game Tuesday afternoon, this time 5-1 to the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum. Oakland fell behind early and never recovered, which was a change in script after three days of dramatic last-minute defeats but with the same unfortunate result.
It started out well, just like each of the previous three losses. In the 1st inning, consecutive singles by Starling Marte, Matt Olson, and Mitch Moreland plated a run to give the A’s an early lead.
The series with the Yankees will be telling. Need at least a split in the 4 game series to stay relevant.
Giants score many runs, allow none
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/8/24/22640603/san-francisco-giants-mets-recap-brandon-belt
I’ve been writing at McCovey Chronicles for a few years now, and I’m pretty sure every single shutout victory that I’ve covered in that time has featured a quip about how when you score runs and don’t allow them, you usually win, and hey, maybe a team should hire a smart guy like me and pay me a handsome salary for such advanced insights and knowledge.
I’m going to avoid doing that today, and instead just tell you about how I used to do it, which manages to have the same effect but somehow use three times as many words.
Mission accomplished?
The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets by scoring a lot of runs (8, specifically), and allowing very few (0, specifically).
This game was won via the arm of rookie Sammy Long. He had to fill in because the Giants are flirting with disaster on their SP rotation with Gausman, DeScalfani, and Cueto all being injured/out. Gausman and Cueto should be back in the rotation this week.
The last Giants/Dodgers game we went to, we sat behind a few guys from Sacramento that went to HS with Sammy Long. It was pretty cool when he came in to pitch. Also found out that one guy ended up going to college in Louisville at a little D2 school to try to play baseball. He ended up knowing a few guys that No 1 went to HS with.
Having eminently hittable Tylor Megill on the hill for the Mets helped too...guy can’t get lefties out.
This guy shut down the Giants in SF last week. Big difference this time.
Giants definitely made adjustments.
I wonder if the Mets didn't change the game plan. MLB hitters can adjust when seeing a pitcher twice in such a short time.
AJ Pollock gives, AJ Pollock takes away in win over Padres
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/8/24/22640619/aj-pollock-catch-clutch-hit-dodgers-padres-recap
Scoring was at a premium on Tuesday night at Petco Park, but AJ Pollock did his best to procure and prevent runs in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Padres in the opener of a three-game series in San Diego.
Pollock’s resurgence this season has been on offense, especially while hitting .363/.413/.624 since the beginning of July. But in the fourth inning, Manny Machado hit a ball with enough distance to get over the left field wall for a potential 2-1 Padres lead. But Pollock got over the wall as well, leaping to snag the two-run homer in heavy traffic among fans.
“I embarrassed myself the last time I went up to rob a homer [against the Mets at home over the weekend],” Pollock told Kirsten Watson on SportsNet LA after the game. “I was trying to tell the guys I had a little more hops than last time. I wanted to jump early so I didn’t hit the wall, like last time. It was fun. It’s always fun robbing home runs.”
Other College
Bama and most SEC football games are going to be super spreader events. The south is about to experience a California wildfire event but with delta as the fire and people as the dried fuel.
Hawaii @ UCLA in Week 0. UCLA is favored by 18. O/U is 68.
I'm particularly interested in this one. I think UCLA could actually be pretty good this year (DTR's senior year, returning most of a very productive ground game). They just have to figure out how to stop turning the ball over so much.
fUCLA needs to put this one away early to stay as fresh as possible before LSU comes to town next week.
Is that tonight?
Saturday. 12:30pm. ESPN.
UConn is playing at Fresno State in Week 0. UConn is still an FBS team and will play its first football game as an independent this Saturday. The last time they won a conference football game was October 21, 2017. Fresno State is a 27.5 point favorite.
Poor UCONN. Things were going so well when they moved up in football and relatively quickly won the Big East, had established a Florida recruiting pipeline, etc. Then their athletic department botched and/or got hosed in all of the realignments. A big part of that was Boston College shamelessly vetoed their acceptance into the ACC around 2011 and the rest was history. All the cache from both their men's and women's basketball programs, a BCS bid in football (granted they got embarrassed by Oklahoma), and they weren't able to do anything with it. I wouldnt be surprised if even their women's program plummets the day Geno retires.
Yep, it is amazing how quickly that program fell apart. They went from a D2 powerhouse, to FBS success with a BCS bid and now this. They might be better off dropping back to D2.
I-AA wouldn't be crazy. Not sure how long UMass will last in I-A so they might join them
UCONN also built a (relatively) nice new football stadium as part of the step up from 1-AA to 1-A. Would be a pretty sad reminder to see that stadium hosting only FCS games, in which some of the opponents are coming from glorified high school stadiums. *Background: I lived in CT from 6th grade on and played high school football there in the mid-late 90's. Had plenty of friends go there (and several HS teammates play there, still 1-AA at the time), so I will always root for them. I'd prefer they stay in FBS and find a way to be competitive, hopefully find a favorable landing spot if/when conferences (or the NCAA itself) radically change again and again in the coming years.
Side note: I hate Boston College for a few reasons (GF from high school went there and I had some annoying interactions with some rich kid students when I'd fly back and visit.. also when I lived in Boston, dealt with some annoying drunk ones on the subway [T] more than once..).. But how they completely screwed over UCONN getting into the ACC back in the day was the icing on the cake.
New rules for this college football season.
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/2021-new-college-football-rules-changes/
"Taunting is a conversational topic in college football, but it’s rarely seen during games. Now, however, if players do taunt opponents, they will be flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty."
I'm giving this rule change a big horns down.
Weren't they flagging taunting already?
typically.
Ditto
They keep trying to make this rule work, and it just doesn't work.
Ohio State requires vaccinations for students & staff
https://news.osu.edu/ohio-state-announces-vaccination-requirement/
Not good enough for Oregon, but good enough for Texas Tech.
https://twitter.com/ESPNRittenberg/status/1430256153947217927
It used to be that Texas Tech QBs were transferring left and right and becoming starters elsewhere.
I completely forgot that he transferred. I knew that Brown was going to be Oregon's QB this year, but I hadn't realized that Shough left. Dude probably wanted to put at least a thousand miles between himself and TDR after last year's Cal game.
If LSU does it then will Cal? Kind of a surprise from a team in the deep South.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/lsu-requiring-proof-of-vaccination-or-negative-covid-19-test-at-tiger-stadium-for-fans-12-years-and-older/
I am surprised and dismayed that Cal is not doing it. Not going to a game until they do.
The lack of certainty is precisely why I will not go to Cal Memorial this fall.
I'm not going to take home a casually transmitted disease. Just not gonna do it.
About June or July of last year I got a call from Cal Athletics.
"What will it take to get you back in Memorial Stadium?"
"The end of COVID." And then I briefly explained the risks to family members and why it's a game changer and deal breaker all in one.
The Cal rep ended the call very quickly.
I noticed on the email I got about the new Cal mobile App that "face coverings are recommended at games" we shall see if that changes between now and game day.
Prototypical modern National League game. 14 pitchers (and that was with getting 5 innings from Urias!), + 3 pinch hitters & 2 double swaps. That's 19 lineup changes in 17 change episodes involving the pitching position. (Universal DH can NOT come soon enough!). Also, there was a 10 minute at bat (11 pitches, all of which were uncalled balks by Kenley Jansen that used up a half box of balls, and ended in a walk to Jurickson Profar). Jansen recovered to record his 28th save of the season. Best moment of the ~25 minute bottom of the 9th was Eduardo Perez's observation that "If you feel like you are aging significantly watching this, its because you are."
Both Jansen and Treinan were fairly wild today. Although the Padres are one of the lowest swinging teams on pitches out of the strike zone and they did a good job laying off breaking pitches out of the zone when Treinan usually gets them.
Padres had a scheduled bullpen game so you're talking 7+ pitchers from them alone. Urías probably could've gone another inning but he just came off the 10 day IL and they're probably trying to limit his innings where they can so he was done after 5. And he struggled a little in the 5th.
I'd rather see the NL pitchers hit. Involves strategy for when to let the pitchers rake, when to pinch hit, when to double switch.
BTW, why do you think Jansen balked?
Didn't see the end of that game but Chapman was pretty wild too and eventually had to be replaced for the final out of a long ninth in the Braves-Yanks game.
Hasn't Chapman not been pitching well for a while? I seem to remember him blowing 2 or 3 saves in a row.
He has been struggling. Boone tried to keep him in to finish the inning but when he walked in a run to make it a one run game that was it. I just checked and he threw 12 strikes in 26 pitches.
Cal
First day of class
I can confirm that the young women of Berkeley are favoring tube and crop tops these days. (picking up new sunglasses & Cal license plate holder)
I was just over by George Washington Univ. and the same holds true back east.
Similar in Davis, though not many students yet (still a few weeks out).
this is the same in our household w/ 14 and 17 yr old young ladies.
Woodson is out for season.
as is Antzoulatos
yeah, I didn't know how to spell so I omitted lol
Still deciding whether to go to Cal games this year. Really wanna go but feel like an unnecessary risk during covid.
Well, sadly Memorial rarely can achieve sellout crowds these days so if you go to a home game against Oregon State or WSU you should be able to socially distance from others.
Yup. If you're vaccinated then going to an outdoor event where you can distance yourself from the crowd is not much of a risk.
It's an odd-year schedule with no major OOC home games. There will be plenty of room for social distancing.
I definitely think the Cal Nevada game will allow socially distancing.
I think all home games with the exception of USC will allow for plenty of room to socially distance yourself.
True
Is anyone interested in a free ticket for the Nevada game? I cannot go because I'll be on my honeymoon (although I'm reserving my right to watch the game when we get to the hotel). The ticket would be for Section QQ, Row 32, and I believe I just need an e-mail or phone number to transfer a mobile ticket from my Cal Athletics account.
Still up for grabs? Have been looking for a ticket near my seat for a buddy
Yes, still available! If you’re interested, email me at jesscheng86 at gmail.com
I decided to go with StubHub for Cal tickets this season. I bought my ticket for Nevada but it has not shown up yet in my email. A confirmation of sale and seat TT, Row 51...
I spent many seasons in Section TT.
Great. I've never sat there. My former season ticket perch was in EE, row 34
That's...weird. Going from West Side to East Side, that is.
We moved from Section TT (East Side) to Section E (West Side) in 2005 or 2006. Why'd you move to East Side?
Depends on StubHub inventory. Didn't want to sit in the endzone, 6th row. Since it's a night game the sun won't be in my face.
I see, I see...
it's going to be so empty I was just going to get the cheapest tickets and move.
I'm waiting to see if/when Scherzer pitches that weekend to decide if I'm going to go to the Cal game.
Also may be getting my friend's parents' seats in the high roller section for that game if they don't want to go.
Go Bears!!!