TFRazor

Will it sing?

While I’m sure it’ll be difficult at the start I’d imagine we’d all get used to it eventually

How about we just call it the Most Valuable Player award? That’ll save us the time and hassle 30 years down the road when it turns out the person we named it after is no longer socially acceptable.

Baseball writers voted his name on the award. If they want to vote him off, that is their prerogative. I really don't care one way or another.

So basically the pennant race starts on Day 1? I can dig it.

"60 games? That means we have to average more than 5 homeruns per game to set a new record. Even i'm not that optimistic.." So you're telling me there's a chance?

I would imagine players from other countries would need work visas. Not sure if there's a special one for baseball players. I pulled this from the State Department website just in case anyone was curious. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/employment/temporary-worker-visas.html I would imagine that ball players would fall under the "O" Category. It's for "Individual with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement".

Didn't it eventually turn out that Papi wasn't even the target and he was confused for someone else? Or am I making that up in my head for some reason? Seems like stories like this have more twists and turns than a Tarantino movie.

Yeah... I've got nothing. Is this actual real life? Everything is just surreal.

Agree with all of this. I always get annoyed when I see things like "little to no defensive upside". Rubbish. Defense is something that can be worked on and improved. He might never be a gold glove but if he's league average, makes the plays he's supposed to, maybe steal a couple of outs here and there, all the while he's hitting 25-35 bombs from the middle of the lineup, that's a win for us.

I've been lucky enough to see this kid play in person. Believe me, this was a pretty good pick.

Thank you for the information. Now can you provide the same breakdown of economic status in those countries you were saying are better? That way we may compare and contrast.

This is pretty dang funny

I don't believe I once questioned your abilities as a parent. I don't doubt that raising children black offers it's own unique challenges as opposed to raising those of caucasian descent and if you feel I was denigrating the work and effort you have expended then I offer my sincerest apologies as that was not my intent. But to quote you from earlier in the thread, "I think you're reading more into than I actually said". Of course you didn't go off on tangents over the last month about everything wrong with America. However you picked this tangent and here we are. What exactly did I say? That interactions between the police and unarmed Black Americans, there's a 0.1% chance that ends in a fatality? Should I have instead said that there was a 99.9% chance that it wouldn't? Should I have included that police officers are 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a Black American male than that same unarmed male has of being killed by the police. Think I'm the problem all you want. It doesn't make you any less wrong. As for you "shaming" me, I'm not going to take it personally. You're pissed at what happened in Minneapolis and rightfully so.

Isn't that the whole point of this article? It's spent the entire time telling us how we should explain to our children that, contrary to all evidence, the police are out hunting down people due to the color of their skin. In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or dangerous, 234 of which were Black Americans. That share of shootings is LESS that what would be expected of Black American crime rates. In 2018 (last complete statistics we have), Black Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders, committed 63% of robberies, and all that despite the fact they make up only 13% of the population. And honestly it's mostly young males from the Black American population so that 13% is too large. Black women are not typically the ones committing the crimes. According to the Washington Post, police fatally shot 9 unarmed Black Americans and 19 unarmed White Americans in 2019. The Post defines "unarmed" so broadly that one of the suspects had a loaded handgun in his car at the time of his interaction with law enforcement but they still put him in the unarmed category. In 2018, there were 7,400 Black American homicide victims. Assuming a comparable rate of police involved fatalities of unarmed Black American, that's 9 out of 7,400. That's 0.1%. Now maybe I don't understand statistics, but it's pretty easy to figure out that a 0.1% rate doesn't equal systemic racism. And finally, on Memorial Day, 10 Black Americans were killed in drive-by shootings in Chicago. I haven't heard a peep about that from you or anyone on this board. "Complicity by silence" perhaps?

Well when you have the "how to respond to the police" talk with them, I hope you also inform them that they are much more likely to be killed by one of their acquaintances or peers within their community than by the police. That is just the reality. And if anyone questions that I've got no problem providing the statistical evidence.

Well considering the person everyone thinks of as a "kneeler" was a guy who praised Fidel Castro, had no problem wearing a t-shirt with Che Guevara on it, and owns socks with pigs dressed up as cops... Sorry, Brees is a better role model.

I've been wondering that as well. I'm not a Minnesota resident so I'm getting most of this through the filter of the for-profit media. I know Chauvin had multiple previous complaints (I think someone here mentioned 17 but I don't know if that's accurate). Were those complaints filed only by black Americans? If not it seems like he is an equal opportunity piece of human waste.

I've always believed that public sector unions should be gotten rid of. They're ridiculous. You're public employees negotiating against the taxpayer.

I have actually read Robert Reich. Sometimes his analysis can be a stretch and he tends to use a very one sided political lens. It's totally his right to do so but it does sometimes cause him issues in his conclusions. You initially said "We have an obsolete Constitution that does not allow for modification", now you're saying "We will likely never see another amendment". Which one is it? Can you modify the Constitution or not? You didn't respond to my pointing out that presidents do terrible crap all the time. You also didn't respond to the point that the policeman still being on the force was due to inaction by voters in Minneapolis. Those are all lovely countries. I've been to a few but not all and would enjoy finishing off the list. However, in all of those countries, if you were to say something that the majority disagreed with you could be tossed in jail. None of them have the right to free speech enshrined in their founding documents. Sorry, they're not better. "I'm ashamed at the mess of a country I am leaving my children and grandchildren - a country that is financially, politically, racially and morally broken." As for this statement, it is your opinion and you are welcome to it. I would just point out that nowhere on the planet do you have a better chance of making things better than you do in the US.

"We live in the greatest country on earth" is the laziest possible statement ever. The transfer of money and power to the top 1% has effectively destroyed our democracy and turned us into the equivalent of a banana republic." Just because you believe this to be true doesn't mean it is. Funny how people in these various threads that are calling for systemic change seem really adverse to providing evidence to backup their statements. "We have a president who dispels peaceful protesters with chemical irritants for a fake photo opp. We have an obsolete Constitution that does not allow for modification. We have a policeman with at least 17 complaints of misconduct who murders a handcuffed man in broad daylight, with three of his colleagues watching and doing nothing." We had a President who threw critics in jail without habeas corpus. That was Abraham Lincoln. We had a President who so strongly believed that white's were superior that he aired 'Birth of a Nation' in the White House. That was Woodrow Wilson. We had a President who killed US citizens overseas without a trial. That was Barack Obama. The Constitution is totally modifiable. It's been modified 27 times. They're called amendments. If a policeman has 17 complaints and hasn't been fired, that's not a country problem, that's a problem with voters in that area. If they keep electing the same people to office over and over again who allow that to happen, that's on them. Finally, our country isn't perfect. How could it be? It was created and it is maintained by people. That being said, I'd like to know what country/countries you think are better.

Can we say that maybe that Falvine hire may have been a smart move?

You're response to America is a pretty good place is an article which says the wine is kind of crap and it's more fun to travel with another person? It even says Qatar is a better place to start a business. Do you think that is also true for a woman or someone in the LGBT community? Qatar may not, but a couple of countries around there have a fun game where they toss gay people off of buildings. Totally where I'm going to start my own pizzeria. They also only asked 20,000 people across the globe. Current global population is 7.8 billion. That's means they asked .00025641% of the global population what the best country is. Sorry, that article and study itself isn't worth the server space it is currently taking up.

Well considering you know absolutely nothing about me that is an interesting response to my request for evidence. I wasn’t actually taking it personally until you tried to use psychoanalysis through an internet post. Thanks for admitting that you can’t actually prove what you're asserting is true. You really didn’t help out the cause there.

I wasn’t disagreeing with you on the content but was pointing out that there was probably a better way to form your thoughts because, yes, what you said was most certainly “love it or leave it”