ashbury

All right, you asked for it. Mantis accidentally chops down Groot with a martial arts move, and this lame ending results in poor box-office which kills the franchise. Hope you're happy.

It is! Once you learn how to fake that, you've got it made. / Can't click like, because the rest of it was, well, you know...

Vulcans NEVER bluff. Oops. Wrong universe.

It's almost as if all that electronic gadgetry had an unfair advantage, or something.

Moderator's note: Look, that is over the line, even in a political thread. Debate the topic, not the state of mind of other posters (unspecified or otherwise).

Explain Mike Pence*, then. * Among plenty others

Hopefully one of the earlier instigators happens by and responds. If not, I'll bring it up with the other mods.

I failed to run across Van's cooking disaster until too late to add a reply yesterday, but his situation reminds me of one of the first rules I learned when doing software demos in public: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, and then never ever deviate from the script once you've settled on it. (This means putting a lot of work into the demo to make it not look unduly rehearsed.) The most dangerous words to say in response to a question from the audience: "gee, I don't know either, let's try it and find out." Cue the "Boom" animated GIF. Cooking a meal for someone you intend to impress should follow similar guidelines. "Hey, this could be interesting, what could go wrong," is not an auspicious start.

A Carnac bit by any other name...

Um, did you step up to volunteer to run it, when this was discussed earlier this season? (That's not entirely rhetorical - I can't remember, and can't be arsed to research it.)

I like almost every minor league park better than almost every major league park. So I'm not necessarily a good guide. What do you go to parks for? I like to be able to walk the perimeter from the inside, for instance, and the newish park in Reno (near where I used to live) allows for good viewing from the outfield as you saunter looking for a craft beer or whatever, and still I have lots of good vibes from attending games there. The newish park in downtown Indianapolis is nice, and they've revitalized the nearby area so that there should be things to do after the game. Old and despised McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket is a fabulous place to watch a game since it's rarely well-attended (lame duck seasons now that the team is relocating to Worcester) and you can sit down close to the action for the price of a cheap ticket. That town spent so much time denigrating their park (boo hoo, it's built on a landfill) but never deciding how they'd like to move forward instead, that they talked themselves right out of their team. Good Italian Sausages on a roll with plenty of peppers and onions there along with the requisite craft beers. I'll be going there at least once when Rochester is in town in a couple of weeks. You mentioned Davenport and (when it's not flooded) the night-time view of the lighted up bridge is indeed a highlight. Somehow I never warmed up to Raley Field in Sacramento, and I don't know why. It has all the disadvantages of being in an urban area, but few of the pluses. The park where the Brooklyn Cyclones play is at Coney Island, and that's kind of a fun environment. Plan the day so you spend a couple of hours on the boardwalk, ride a ride or two, then enter the ballpark. Portland ME and Lowell MA have downtown ballparks that hearken back to those cities' early industrial roots, and I enjoy that atmosphere. I love love love any low-minors game. In the same spirit I also enjoy the high-school (or lower!) environments of the Cape Cod League for college-age players. The minor league parks near Phoenix, where all the Arizona Fall League games are, all are first class places. Among the Twins' affiliates, it's been a long time since I was at Cedar Rapids but I enjoyed the one game I attended there (it was before the Twins time of course), and at Ft Myers I like the grassy areas for alternate seating down the first base line and in the outfield. Haven't ever made it to Rochester, and Pensacola is new for us but definitely on my to-do list if I ever am in the region (the photos look outstanding). So, really, you need to narrow down your question more, to reflect what you look for (and what you don't care about, or what turns you off to a place), along with maybe some geographic restrictions, to get the feedback you want.

How many minutes did you spend proofreading that visual before posting?

Depends on whom they trade for.

The source I rely on says he has 3 years and 66 days of service time. I forget what being on the IL does to service time - if it counts, then he'd need to spend 2+ months in the minors, and then there are probably arcane rules on top of that which I'm not aware of. Bottom line for me is to not try to play that game on him ... but who knows? (Well, FalVine know.)

This is the obsessive attention to detail that I can only aspire to. Kudos.

Kidding aside, modern metrics look on his HoF credentials as a player pretty favorably.

Quidditch would be cool. Flying brooms, man!

I didn't know another Avengers movie would be coming out. And they're moving forward with the Star Wars series too? C'mon, publishing this article ruined the surprise, you jerk.

He was added to the 40-man in November 2014, but I THINK his short stint in Rochester in 2016 was injury-related and was not done by exercising an option. He played not at all in AAA in 2017. So I think the exercises were only 2015 and 2018.

I never encountered that problem there, when I lived in the Bay Area.

It's true, Version 1.0 did leave a lot to be desired.

How do you expect other hopefuls to gain attention in the news cycle, when Mayor Pete continues to wow with new abilities we could barely have guessed? / yes, yes, it's the Onion

Whew, that is really fine-tuning the forecasts.