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Hurricane Sally dropped 30 inches of rain on Pensacola in 4 hours

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/weather/storm-sally-thursday/index.html

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We have friends near there - no damage to the house but no power and “running dangerously low on wine” so they’ve got troubles to solve

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What do you do if you have a full tank of gas & a half pack of cigarettes, it's dark and you're wearing sunglasses?

https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/09/police-arrest-man-after-he-jumps-his-car-over-drawbridge-in-detroit.html

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The glimmer of hope that there will be a season.

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No hope, currently that it won't a shit show of disease and death.

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Yeah, but I am very afraid that that light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming train.

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I can't shake the feeling that this is mostly resulting from peer pressure now that other conferences are beginning play and that many teams will need to cancel games or even their season due to covid outbreaks. The NCAA model is exploitative enough, but adding a pandemic on top of it is a bit unseemly.

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Yep, this right here.

The southern ACC schools and SEC were never going to cancel their season. College football is the closest thing to slavery that these states and fans have left. They were always going to play.

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Absolutely...athletes are considered chattel...

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At least professionals are paid chattel. College football and basketball players are unpaid chattel.

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Yes. I also wonder (if we do play) whether the players will continue to press forward with their demands, which were somewhat wide-ranging: revenue sharing, healthcare post playing days, assurances about Covid, and so forth.

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I think they’ve already proved they’re willing to take the additional risks at the usual discounted rate.

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Ya, we are far from playing football....

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Plantains

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I found that the plantains that you get in the US are one of the few varieties that are very starchy and ripen to the equivalent of an unripe Cavendish banana. I suspect that's because they ship better. This contrasts with Central America that has dozens of different local plantain cultivars, which ripen to a ripe Cavendish equivalent, with a sweet taste but firm texture.

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Berkeley Bowl has the non-sweet ones as well.

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Wife makes a meal with the two types of fried platains every now and again, not in heavy rotation.

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I tried fried plantains once.

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Heh

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Did your parents ever steal anything?

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No, good mid-western stock. My Dad did make a steal of a buy though, bought a "frame" for 2'6", the print that came with the frame was a Rembrandt etching in very good condition; 6th image.

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We had Trader Vic's mai tai glasses in our house, but I am assuming they were purchased. My parents are definitely not sly enough to boost those.

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Not really. My Dad though was a Navy captain and he brought home coffee mugs, ashtrays, and whatnot from each ship he commanded.

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I noticed that my parents liberated ash trays from restaurants.

This topic was inspired by me noticing a single cheap spoon that was out of place. This made me remember that cutlery stamped with an airline logo would magically show up whenever my MiL visited. Mrs SGB then revealed that every single towel from her childhood houses was boosted from a motel and that her mom was generally sticky fingered in stores due to being dirt poor because she was a single mother without a college degree. She is no longer poor, but I am 100% convinced she is still a klepto.

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I do remember one Holiday Inn hand towel but that may be all.

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What was the last dessert you ate?

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I think some Thin Mints a couple of days ago.

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There's a fudge shop in Anacortes, Washington, that I stumbled across two years back. Incredibly good fudge in a rich variety of flavors, ships a pound of four different flavors to anywhere in the country for about $25, including shipping.

They do a monthly fudge sampler of established and experimental flavors for anyone who signs up for a subscription. September was banana chocolate, classic chocolate, wild blackberry, and birthday cake.

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This was a journey. I was incredibly concerned that you were telling us the last dessert you ate was some fudge two years ago.

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I don't know how much fudge costs but $6/lb doesn't seem too bad at all. or is it 1 lb total?

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It's one lb total. Fudge is typically $10-20 per lb so it's a little on the expensive end but extremely worth it imo. Customer service is excellent too.

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Champagne and strawberry cake my daughter made - very tasty.

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A&W Root Beer float in a frosted mug.

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Always a great choice!

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homemade fudge

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Slice of birthday cheesecake at Chuck's of Hawai'i on upper State!

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How was your roadtrip?

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A positively delightful adventure....all told, over 10,500 miles, 38 states, 11 National Parks, 5 Civil War battlefields...hit a max elevation of over 12,000 miles high in the Rockies all the way down to the shores of the Atlantic...lobsters in Maine, cheesesteaks in Philly and Billy Sims' BBQ joint in OK...walked my travelin' pup around 5 MLB parks, including Wrigley & Fenway, to bring her total stadium list to 9, and got her at LEAST a potty break in the final 7 states on her list to bang out all of the contiguous lower 48...not 1 but 2 separate and hearty "Go Bears!" exchanges in downtown Chicago...and just 1 speeding ticket...a blast.

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Nice. Which cheesesteak places in Philly did you go to? And how fast were you going?

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I was in a hurry so did a quick Geno’s run...used to be a Pat's guy back in the day after an incredible 1st experience prior to a Ben Harper show at Penn, but I’ve found BOTH to be underwhelming in many visits over the past 20 years unfortunately...seriously, the Cheesesteak Shop on Lakeshore was just-as-if-not-more satisfying en route to Cal/Wazzu last Nov.

And 69 in a 55 in Issaquena County, MS, ‘bout 30 mins outside of Vicksburg...CA plates and a Cal decal were probably no help, esp. after I mentioned the Chase Garbers coming out party that we witnessed live last Sept & how SG Bear threw the best tailgate party in the Grove! Shockingly, the trooper was unawares that Vaught-Hemingway is Bear Territory...

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"hit a max elevation of over 12,000 miles high in the Rockies"

ummmmm...

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About halfway to geostationary

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Ya, typo, tho we were stoned like a pony!!!

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1/2 of a chocolate Old Fashioned donut from Johnny's Donut.

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that sounds tasty but i dont consider a donut to be dessert. that is just a normal breakfast food.

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no that's cold pizza.

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cold pizza a good breakfast too

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Flan.

The best gd flan I've ever had from a dive Mexican restaurant that I regularly drive 40 minutes to take out food. We got them to verbally offer it as an up-sell option to every customer so that it will sell better and therefore be economically viable. I have no doubt it is horrible for me, but I don't care.

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creme brulee

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last night - Breyers strawberry ice cream. i prefer the more fluffy ice cream compared to the dense Haggen Daaz style.

this morning - Swedish Princess Cake w/ my coffee for 1st breakfast. we went to IKEA recently because we were out of various Swedish staples (meatballs, Swedish caviar, pickled herring, etc) so we picked up some pre-made desserts as well.

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I bought Breyers strawberry five years ago after being out of the country for 2 decades. Perhaps I am imagining/misremembering, but it tastes nothing like it did before Unilever bought it.

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Who do you want to punch in the face (non-politician)?

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Is this the non-Twist version?

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Co-worker who is a Tier 1 prick. I have told my boss, who is his boss, that he's an asshole and that I'm not dealing with him anymore. I will only talk to his staff. My boss already knows he is a jerk, but puts up with him because there are few people on the planet that can do what he does.

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What does he do?

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[spoiler] Open Source Patent Lawyer [/spoiler]

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I had a co-worker in my firm several years ago that was an irritating patent lawyer and wasted time by convincing our managing general partner (my boss) to spend time on a useless patent troll initiative where he sued GE and Microsoft for allegedly violating our patents (which we had acquired from a start-up that had wound down) on streaming audio and video. The judge ruled against us and the whole thing was a mini-fiasco that diverted time, effort, and money from our core competency, which was investing. He was eventually fired...

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So many choices, so few punches:

Larry Scott

Rush Limbaugh

Elon Musk

Jeff Bezos

Tiger Woods

Alex Jones

Laura Ingraham

Sean Hannity

Tucker Carlson

Any right wing twitter troll

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My lazy default answer is usually Elon Musk but today it’s this guy:

https://twitter.com/dctrojan/status/1306260939386359809?s=21

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He's not our savior and the return of BIG football isn't equivalent to D-Day?

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Let's wait and compare death tolls at the end of the season.

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Excited

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Doorbell

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I don't answer the door unless I am expecting someone. Otherwise, I just sit there and wait for them to go away.

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the mexican way is to hide and maybe peer out the window to see who it is. Otherwise we don't answer the door, knock or ring.

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I like the cut of your jib

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My RING doorbell only rings about 75% of the time...need a better shooting percentage on that thing.

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Air quality

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Giants game is on the MLB channel and they showed Ocean Beach between innings. Nice blue sky showing between the clouds.

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Been lovely for a couple of days now. AQI was in the single digits this morning. Such a relief.

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After dropping down to barely Unhealthy (157!) early this morning, thanks to a heavy dew, after the day got underway, its shot back up well into the Very Unhealthy range, at 240.

By lunchtime, its back to Hazardous, at 335. Also hearing a spot fire being dispatched. I expect we have active burning kicking up well inside the fire perimeter.

The good news is the rain that didn't make it inland last night is forecast to come tonight, and persist tomorrow, which has the AQI forecasted to drop all the way below Unhealthy tomorrow to just Unhealthy (only) for Sensitive Groups. That will be a huge step if it happens.

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According to purpleair it's single digits! So very nice. Maybe I'll get off my ass and go for a run in the afternoon.

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nope. Lazy ass. Got back from errands a few min ago and watching the Dodgers game.

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Fog. Looks like January here. AQI is 25

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Distinctly tropical depression-y

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Third day of gray skies here in the mid-Atlantic thanks to smoke carried all the way out here by the jet stream. It's really high in the atmosphere, so there are no noticeable effects for those of us on the ground.

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It looked briefly when I was on my run like the sun was going to come out. It's now safely back behind the smoke and clouds.

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Today in Covid

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Just don't take it internally.

The latest cleaning product to receive federal approval as an effective disinfectant against the virus that causes covid-19 may already be in your cabinet.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved Pine-Sol Original Multi-Surface Cleaner for effectively killing SARS-CoV-2 on hard, nonporous surfaces after lab testing, the product’s maker, the Clorox Co., announced in a news release.

“Pine-Sol Original Multi-Surface Cleaner now offers the clean families have trusted through generations with the protection they need right now against the spread of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” Chris Hyder, Clorox’s vice president and general manager of cleaning, said in the release.

“We hope this new Pine-Sol kill claim will increase access to disinfectants that can help prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Hyder said.

The product, which features the active ingredient glycolic acid, is listed under “Tuck 3” on the EPA’s list of approved disinfectants.

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Trump tweeting about drinking Pine-Sol Original Multi-Service Cleaner in 3...2...1...

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Elsewhere in college

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As I’m both cynical and a dirty old man, I went to the Ole Miss women’s track team page prepared to be judgmental about using “the two cute ones” as mascots and found out that the team is for the most part talented and attractive so 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Charlotte had to cancel their game with UNC because of a shortage of OL. 3 tested positive but through contact tracing others are in quarentine.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29905685/charlotte-49ers-cancel-game-vs-north-carolina-tar-heels-due-covid-19

Said UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham: "We knew when we decided to play football in this environment that cancellations would be a possibility, because the health and safety of our teams and community is our priority."

<<JLaw nodding gif>>

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Memphis: also 42 football players & staff positive w/ CV19

https://twitter.com/evan_b/status/1306306001000333318

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UCLA & USC cleared to start practice

https://twitter.com/wilnerhotline/status/1306415526827102208

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Wisconsin: 42 football players & staff positive w/ CV19

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Yet another woman accuses Trump of sexual assault. Trump continues to claim that 100% of these women who are willing to upend their own lives and finances are political hit-jobs

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/17/donald-trump-accused-of-sexual-assault-by-former-model-amy-dorris

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It's 2020 and we still have two states (MS, AL) where Robert E. Lee's birthday is combined with MLK Jr.s birthday to be an official holiday for state employees.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/robert-e-lee-mlk-day-alabama-mississippi.html

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Barr told his prosecutors to be aggressive in prosecuting violent protestors, including potentially sedition.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1306282743286898693

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Quinnipiac poll: Lindsey Graham and Jaime Harrison tied at 48% each

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/516730-quinnipiac-poll-shows-graham-harrison-tied-in-south-carolina-senate-race

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Harrison raised $1MM yesterday after this news came out. God I hope he wins.

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I hope Harrison beats Lady G. Unfortunately it appears the MoscoW Mitch McTurtle is going to win his election.

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The Hill: GOP will try to pass Federal government stopgap funding to prevent a damaging shut-down, but won't pass another Covid relief package in order to let GOP Senators start campaigning

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/516815-senate-gop-eyes-early-exit

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Barr says mandated shelter-at-home is close to slavery in terms of violating American civil liberties.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/516834-barr-coronavirus-lockdowns-greatest-intrusion-on-civil-liberties

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I heard the tape of his comments on the news while eating dinner. A family in my neighborhood growing up was in an internment camp during WWII and I expect they would differ.

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Barr is a contemptible ghoul with no place in a functioning democracy.

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Unlimited money to bail out cruise lines and Trump cronies, but not enough to teach kids to read

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/dc-public-schools-spend-30k-student-only-23-8th-graders-proficient

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DC public schools are notoriously inept. One of my neighbors used to be the superintendent of our county schools and he used to point out that as a county we had more poor students (in absolute numbers) than DCPS and consistently taught them to a better (tested) standard for less money.

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Nobody will ever know how much money was shoveled out to private equity firms and other 'friends' of Trump and Jared. Cashing in on the uncontrolled issuance of new dollars. Eventually regular folks will have to pay the piper for this in the form of stagflation or inflation...

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Did they bail out the cruise lines? I thought that was excluded in the CARES Act. Did they skip that in at the last minute?

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Aside from being staggeringly callous, that statement isn't even correct. Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia are all in the top ten in death counts, and they all voted for him in 2016. In fact, red states account for nearly half of covid deaths.

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Whistleblower: Military considered deploying heat ray against peaceful protestors near White House on June 1

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1306382441985306624

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I notice that it was a military police officer who had that idea ACAB

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PRO

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I turned on the MLB channel while having lunch. Red Sox pitcher is 6'2" and 160 pounds. I can't think of another player I've seen that thin.

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Pedro? Although he probably isn't that tall.

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Oakland A’s Game #50: A’s beat Rockies 3-1 for first time since 2015

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2020/9/16/21440706/oakland-as-game-50-colorado-rockies-score-result

It had been a long time since the Oakland A’s beat the Colorado Rockies. They don’t play each other every year since they’re in opposite leagues, so you had to go back to 2015 to find the last time Oakland came out on top — until Wednesday afternoon.

The A’s finally solved the Rockies with a 3-1 victory, flipping the score from their loss in the mountains the previous night. They now mercifully get a day off Thursday, after a brutal stretch of 16 games in 13 days.

After winning the finale of their 2015 interleague series together, Oakland was swept by Colorado in three dates in 2018 despite being hot at the time — those three losses were sandwiched in between a pair of six-game winning streaks by the A’s. Then the Rockies swept two more this past July, and came out on top again last night.

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Giants win by doing baseball better than the Mariners

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2020/9/16/21440921/san-francisco-giants-mariners-final-score

Let’s use some third grade adjectives to describe the San Francisco Giants game against Seattle Mariners.

This game was weird.

It was supposed to be played on Tuesday, but it was played on Wednesday.

It was supposed to be played at Safeco Field, but it was played at Oracle Park.

The Giants were the road team at their own park, but they wore their home jerseys. At one point the broadcast team mentioned that it was a discussion whether or not a ball hit into the water by a Giants player would count as a Splash Hit (it would).

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tbh, the mariners suuuuuuuuuck

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Dodgers clinch playoff spot while cementing status atop the NL West

https://www.truebluela.com/2020/9/16/21440273/dodgers-clinch-playoff-berth-padres-recap-national-league-west

The Dodgers dined on a buffet of Padres pitchers on Wednesday afternoon, their 7-5 victory capturing the showdown series at Petco Park while reinforcing the Dodgers’ inside track toward an eighth straight division title.

They also clinched a playoff berth thanks to losses by the Brewers and Rockies earlier in the day. Though winning the division is still their ultimate regular season goal, the Dodgers plan to celebrate each clinching along the way.

Though to show how far down the totem pole of importance this was, manager Dave Roberts said he didn’t realize the team clinched a playoff berth until a few minutes after the game.

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Losing Ferguson is going to be tough. He's one of the hard throwing lefties with a good slider. Although there are 4 other lefties. Victor Gonzalez looks good and McGee is just fastball fastball fastball. Kolerak and Alexander are both slider guys with decent fastballs.

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GBBR BPYAB

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CAL

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WaPo with a profile of Collin Morikawa at the onset of the U.S. Open.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/16/collin-morikawa-business-school/

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GO BEARS! And there really may be a season after all.

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I wonder if Luc Bequette now wishes he waited.

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Maybe Cam Bynum will change his mind.

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I hope so but I doubt it.

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