Mia Bednar

I started to be snarky and post this to a particular thread that was annoying me.  But I thought twice, and will post it here, in a vacuum.
What's The Best Logical Fallacy?
A famous Logic professor told me the Appeal to Authority Fallacy is the best.
Anyone who doesn't say the Ad Hominem Fallacy is best is a poopyhead.
Argument from Repetition Fallacy is the best. Repetition. Argument from. Best.
Begging the Question Fallacy is the best because it is superior to all others.
Cherry Picking Fallacy is the best; this message is all you need, to see that.
Circular Argument Fallacy is best because nothing is better than an argument that is circular.
Either the False Dilemma Fallacy, or pure evil, is best, ergo False Dilemma.
Everyone is saying the Bandwagon Fallacy is best, so it must be.
False Equivalence Fallacy is no worse than any other and therefore is the best.
Have you or have you not stopped using the best: the Loaded Question Fallacy?
I bet double my last bet the next one will say the Gambler's Fallacy is best.
I just heard about the Recency Bias Fallacy. It's gotta be the best one ever.
I mistyped another fallacy, so Hasty Generalization Fallacy is the best.
I used to think Stockholm Syndrome Fallacy wasn't best but I'm warming up to it.
I've had success with Proof by Example Fallacy as the best. This is Exhibit A.
If Affirming the Consequent Fallacy is the best, then I wrote this. And I did.
If the Slippery Slope Fallacy isn't the best, pretty soon we'll have anarchy.
If you loved me you'd let me call the Emotional Appeal Fallacy the best.
It can't be a best list if you leave out the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
It's your job to prove the Burden of Proof Fallacy ISN'T the best. Not mine.
Super geniuses Dunning & Kruger invented the best Fallacy, Overconfidence Bias.
The Appeal to Nature Fallacy is best - it's only natural.
The Black and White Fallacy is either the best, or else all logic is wrong.
The Ipse Dixit Fallacy is best, full stop, case closed.
The Red Herring Fallacy is the best because, oh look, a squirrel!
The Straw Man Fallacy is the best because my opponent intends to outlaw it.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy is best and it's too late to pick a different one anyway.
The Survivorship Fallacy is best because it saved my life.
The long-neglected Appeal to Pity Fallacy is the one to support as best.
To deny Moral Equivalence Fallacy as the best is just like robbing a bank.
The Tautology Fallacy is best. When outlawed only outlaws will have Tautologies.

Yesterday was a rough day for me. I have been fighting cancer for 5 years and this spring it had metastasized. I continue to fight every day. Up at 4:30 to do my stretch, strength and balance work followed by a 5 mile run. With that fight I feel pretty good and have a high energy level in spite of all the meds. Baseball helps keep me going. There are still many more games ahead of me and they matter so much more than a championship. That final Twins trade of Varland set off a trigger in me. We had Varland through 2030. While at a large family gathering as the news kept rolling that 2030 hit hard. The odds are against me that I will be around in 2030. Thinking of the Twins led me to thinking of my first grandchild due in January. I can handle missing the next championship but I got pretty choked at the thought of what I will miss with my granddaughter.
Byron, Ryan, Kody, Royce, Matt, Trevor, Brooks, Christian, DeShawn, Joe, Pablo, Bailey, Simeon, David, Zebby, Cole and Justin I appreciate your fight. No one can make it to the major leagues without fighting everyday. You have fought through slumps. You have fought through injury. We will need your fight more than ever now. To the rest putting on that Twins uniform. I appreciate you. You have fought hard for this opportunity. Use this opportunity to make your mark in the major leagues. Fight to get better every day.
Mr. Falvey and Mr. Baldelli I need you to put up a fight. Make every day matter. Make every game matter. I am counting on you. To the Pohlad’s, you have stopped fighting. This is a concept that I can’t grasp. Every day I wake up excited to take on the day and fight for the next. You wake up every day as owners of a Major League Baseball team. How can you not be driven to fight for their success? I don’t get it. I do appreciate what Carl did for this franchise and what your family did for the community but you have stopped fighting. Please step aside and let someone else lead this franchise.
We need a fighter because every day and every game matters. I will be watching.

The Minnesota Twins gutted the 2025 iteration of the team at the trade deadline, and dumped a lot of salary for the latter end of 2025, and in the immediate seasons to come. As of 8/1/2025, the Twins have $48,892,857 dollars on their payroll for next season. That comes in the form of Byron Buxton, Pablo Lopez, and Justin Topa; who I frequently forget is on the roster. Oh, and that also includes another $10 million from the ghost of Carlos Correa. Every other player that is currently on the roster is either in an arbitration year, or is pre-arbitration eligible.
Not only will the team look drastically different, the dreams of crawling over the $150 million season salary total is all but dead. Unless the Twins magically find a buyer that wants to spend post haste, I expect the remaining fans will see a lot of the St. Paul Saints' best players in Minneapolis very soon. Selfishly I'm hoping to see Peyton Eeles in a Twins jersey as that might be the only thing that gets me tune in for a game for the remainder of the season. Old friends Edouard Julien, Austin Martin, and Jose Miranda should be on their way back to the major league (lol) club, while new faces like Alan Roden and Taj Bradley will be put to work to patch the massive holes ownership left after yesterday's bloodbath.
The economy is bad, the news cycle is somehow worse, and one of the last things that brought any amount of joy to Minnesotans was taken out back and shot. It's up to you to figure out how and if you want to support the Twins going forward. I'll personally be staying away from Target Field as I don't want to ruin the last good memory I have of the team, which involved Joe Ryan, Paul Skenes, a Twins win, and Nelly. Discounted jerseys will be readily available, along with premium sight lines, for the rest of 2025. Ads will pop up depicting "chill vibes" and "great ticket prices" as the Twins' marketing department is forced to work overtime coming up with any promotion to get more than one-thousand butts in the seats.
The Twins will look drastically different in 2026, and we can only hope that the ownership does as well. Why did the Twins go from a fire sale to a tire fire in a little over three hours yesterday? We won't know for sure as the Pohlad family will force Derek Falvey or Dustin Morse out in front of the media to sheepishly explain why the team traded away future stalwarts like Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax, along with the Twins' highest paid free agent Carlos Correa. The Pohlad family will avoid the media, and facing the proverbial music, for as long as possible. I expect the next time we see Joe Pohlad will either be to announce that family has found a buyer, or that his head was found on a spike outside of Target Field. At this point, either outcome would be fine for most Twins fans.
 

Any front office member who would rather take a promotion than quit out of principle amid payroll cuts is no true integritus [Aristotle, 348 BCE].
Let me start with an anecdote. In my youth, I was riding a city bus in Omaha, Nebraska. It was night. A man dressed in all blue walked up to me. “I like your shoes,” said he. I looked down and they matched the blue he was wearing. “Thanks,” I said. “I want them,” said he. “No you don’t; they’re too small for you,” I spake. “Take them off,” he ejaculated. I told him “No, if I take off my shoes how am I supposed to walk home?” I stood up. “You’re right,” he said. I got off at my stop (24th and Douglas) and walked home.
I tell you this story because I’m trying to communicate that I’m a man of integrity. They don’t make men like that anymore nowadays. Certainly not on the Twins beat reporters. Look up and down the lineup and you know what you won’t find? Intgrity. That’s why it’s on me, a brave blogger, to ask the hard questions of the Twins. My first question? “Jeremy Zoll should be fired.” I’m prepared to say it to any Twins executive, staffer, Senor Smokes vendor, or intern.
I am not the first to call for Zoll’s job. Zoll also calls for his job, because sometimes he calls players and other executives, so he calls for his job. But I am the first media member to do so, please let the record show
In 2023 immediately after winning the first playoff game since Pat Borders was a catcher versus Toronoto, cheap pohlad approached the mic and said “no Jhoan Duran I have something to say and that thing is this: we are cutting payroll.” Of course the beat reporters had no follow up questions. I would of asked him “Shut your mouth and change your mind,” but my press pass must of gotten lost in the mail.
And so we set the scene. No self-respecting executive (can you say oxymoron) should of kept their jobs after that. Have you ever seen the movie Radio? When all of the Noter Dame football players give the coach their jerseys so Radio can play. That’s what should have happened. Every front officeman, front officewoman, and front officeperson should have turned in there key card and said “ no sir, I will not work as abusiness such as this. I’m pretty sure that’s what Dick Bremer did but the Pollyanna media in this town won’t investigate and/or is covering it up. Also Dick probably wouldn’t tell us himself because he’s always covering for the Twins. Burinyg his feelings like their Jimmy Hoffa and he’s in that Irish Mob from the movie.
If you remember I started this by talking about integrity. Aristotle came up with the idea and it basically means “Integritus: to be fulfilling ones integrit which is in order with its own nature of doing the right thing.” I’ll forgive you if you forgot that because no one has an attention span anymore with the apps that read reddit to you while you watch Mincraft people jump on trampolines
So Jeremy Zoll should have quit right then and there after cheap pohlad’s declaration. What message it sends that he didn’t is he doesn’t care about winning and if ther’s one thing owners like its winning elsewise why would the purchase the team.
So, day 1, the new owner, which I have it on good evidence that ir’s gonna be Mark Cuban or Alex Rodriguez or Mark Truck (this is America we don’t call them Lorries) or Sam Walton or someone else who’s a billionaire I’ve read many good articles explaining the economics of owning a team some on this very webpage, that first day the first order of business should be to load TC Bear into a trebuchet but the next thing they should do is fire Zoll for not having a competitive edge enough.
I mean, come on, imagine this. It’s the 1991 World Series, Game 7, and it’s the 10th inning. Tom Kelly comes out and tells Jack Morris “Now John (Tom Kelly was a serious man who had no time for newaged fiddlestickery like nick names if it was good enough name for God its good enough for TK), he would say “Now John, cheap pohlad is cutting the payroll and you are the highest paid pitcher in the league and I support it because I’m a company man through and through like Jeremy Zoll or Rocco Baldelli.” Imagine if he said that. Blackjack would take his head off. Thankfully TK has never done a bad baseball thing ever so we don’t have to have it to come to this, but imagine if he would. Probably wouldn’t win in 91 or 87. Kirby would have driven the bus right into him because remember he told the team he’s driving the bus and its time to get on board. Never would have flown (John Madden Reference) in those days when men had integrity and drank some questionable coffee.
Honestly, I don’t know a single true man who would ask to be led by man who wouldn’t quit his job out of principle when ownership cuts payroll. General William Tecumseh Sherman once said “That devil Forrest must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the federal treasury” about the other team’s general manager Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Have you ever heard that song by Deep Purple (not the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince’s colors), where they talk about smoke being on the water? Have you ever listened to the lyrics? Of course you haven’t because all this generation cares about is the little riff they play at the beginning which mind you by the way my grandmother could play if given like 5 minutes. Well listen to the lyrics its about a building on Lake Geneva burning down and a man named Funky Claude rescuing children. Do you think Jeremy Zoll would do that? Probably not, given the fact he didn’t quit on principal 12 months ago.
I’ll leave you with this one antidote. When I was 12 the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and it has permanently altered the chemicals of my brain and I can’t feel happiness again for some odd reason. All 25 of those men and the coaches are all my father figures.
Here’s a riddle for you: “Who has four eyes but cannot see?” Need a hint? She’s married. Okay time’s up it’s Mrs. Sippi. Get it? Before modern sensibilities took over and infiltrated corporate America, use to be the lady in the pancake bottle was named Mrs. Butterworth. Notice how I said “in” and not “on” well that’s because the bottle use to be shaped like Mrs. Butterworth. Corporate heads prevailed though and said “No, it costs too much and even though we won’t send the savings on to the consumers we will be doing away with the createive bottle design.” Consumers lost twice in this case between shrinkflation, not getting the savings anyway, and not having a hot mistress shaped bottle anymore. Can you imagine if TK went out to the mound in Game 7 of the World Series inning 10 and said “Blackjack Morris, I am taking away the Mrs. Butterworth bottle design.” Wouldn’t happen but I’ll just say Kent Hrbek would have a new skeetshooting target in the form of TK’s hat they’d take TK’s hat away from him and Kent would shoot it like a clay pidgeon.
And speaking of Skeets I have seen that the buddy buddy media in this town is on Blue Sky. Well, Mr. Blue Sky Please Tell Us Why the beat reporters and columnists are hiding the information over there. We pay their salaries even though I don’t subscribe to the Strib and if you post something behind a paywall I will threaten you. The media is accountable to us. While they pay the players’ salaries we pay the medias’ salaries. You can’t hide the news at a different site that steal our data.
This is just another classic case of Cancel Culture Run Amok, silencing brave truth tellers like myself who have ammased tens of Twitter Followers. You want to know something interesting about the word amok? It’s a word that’s unable to stand on its own, called a fossil word. Have you ever used it without saying “run”? it no longer means anything on its own. Well technically it means “in an uncontrolled manner” but I degress. Other such words are “champing” at the bit, days of “yore” and “bandy” about. They’re stuck in idioms and are unusable elsewhere. The whole “shebang”
Speaking of unusable and shebang’s there was a whole shebang about Byron Buxton finally making it to 100 games and I think that’s what all this trouble comes back to. Talk about a segway. He might as well drive a segway because his knee is bad and theres a loose flap in there that the doctors didn’t remove and still no one in the media will ask any questions of Dr. Camp as to why no one removed it. But If the Twins didn’t have Byron Buxton none of this would happen. The team cannot advance without cutting him and giving a young prospect like DeShawn Kiersey some time to shine.
 

In baseball there is a chance for something special to happen in every game. One of the rarer events is for a player to make his major league debut and never had spent any time in the minors.
Since the advent of the American and National League in the early 1900’s, only 102 players can make this claim.
There are 4 subsets of players who have achieved this rarity.
1) Prior to World War II – Thirteen players are in this group. Almost half of these players have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. They include Eppa Rixey (1912 Phillies), George Sisler (1915 Browns), Frankie Frisch (1919 Giants), Ted Lyons (1923 White Sox), Mel Ott (1926 Giants) and Bob Feller (1936 Indians). There are also two all-star caliber players in Cy Williams (1912 Cubs) and “Jumpin’” Joe Dugan (1917 Athletics). On the other hand there are others like Charlie Faust (1911 Giants – 2 games), Walter Ancker (1915 Athletics – 4 games) and Johnson Fry (1923 Indians – 1 game) who barely had enough time to get a cup of coffee.
2) World War II – With so many players enlisting to serve their country, there was a need to find able bodied players who could play the game. These seven players all made their debut in 1943 or 1944. Among the better players were Gil Hodges (Dodgers - 19 in 1943), Cal McLish (Dodgers – 19 in 1944), Joe Nuxhall (Reds – 15 years, 316 days when he made his debut in 1944 – youngest player to ever play a major league game), and Eddie Yost (Senators – 18 in 1944).
3) Bonus Baby Era – The next 71 players appeared from 1947 to 1965. Sixty nine of these players went directly to the major leagues because of the “bonus baby” rule. Between these years if you signed a player and gave them a bonus of $4,000 or greater they had to be carried on the team’s roster for the entire season. This stifled the development of many players, but some may have never made the majors or played in a major league game without this rule. Among this large group were Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente (Dodgers $10,000), Catfish Hunter (Athletics $75,000), Al Kaline (Tigers $35,000), Harmon Killebrew (Senators $30,000) and Sandy Koufax (Dodgers $14,000). It also included Eddie and Johnny O’Brien, twin brothers who signed with the Pirates for $40,000 each. The largest signing bonuses during this era went to Hawk Taylor ($199,000 Braves), Bob Bailey ($175,000 Pirates), Bob Garibaldi ($150,000 Giants), Willie Crawford ($100,000 Dodgers), John DeMerit ($100,000 Braves) and Paul Pettit ($100,000 Pirates). Only 2 of these 71 players were not “Bonus Babies”. They were Claude Osteen (Reds) and Eddie Gaedel (the 3’7” player sent up to bat by Bill Veeck, who drew a walk on 4 pitches in his only time at bat - he wore the number 1/8).
4) Current Era – Of the final 23 players who went directly to the major leagues 14 happened in the 1970’s. Included in this group were: Burt Hooten (Cubs), Eddie Bane (Twins), David Clyde (Rangers), Dave Winfield (Padres), pinch runner Herb Washington (Athletics), and Bob Horner (Braves). From 1979 to the present only 9 players have made this jump, they are: Pete Incaviglia (Rangers), Jim Abbott (Angels), John Olerud (Blue Jays), Darren Dreifort and Chan Ho Park (Dodgers), Ariel Prieto (Athletics), Xavier Nady (Padres), Mike Leake (Reds), and in 2020 Garrett Crochet (White Sox). All of these players would eventually spend time in the minors.
 
Just because you started in the majors doesn’t mean that you never played a game in the minors. A paper published by SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) published in 1980 listed 21 players who played at least 10 years and never played a game in the minors. So of all the players who went directly to the majors only 21 played 10 years and were never sent down. Many of these players played prior to World War II (8), but here are the 13 who played from 1940 until 1980: Mel Ott (HoF), Al Kaline (HoF), Ted Lyons (HoF), Ernie Banks (HoF), Bob Feller (HoF), Eddie Yost, Danny McFayden, Catfish Hunter (HoF), Dick Groat, Billy O’Dell, Johnny Antonelli, Sandy Koufax (HoF), and Carl Scheib. Since the 1980 article Dave Winfield and Bob Horner (played one season in Japan) exceeded 10 years and should be added to the list, making 23 players who played 10 years or more that never played in the minors.