biggentleben

Some of us grew up but kept the same username.

I dove right in with my second video and addressed the often-complicated subject of discussing the relationship of race and baseball with the next generation. It's certainly not an ending video, hence why it's labeled "starting the conversation", but hopefully you enjoy! Constructive criticism is always welcome! https://youtu.be/tRC47KmCk0w

I work in the media that has been reporting on this virus for more than three months. I've reported pure, unadulterated numbers. The experience has been the most depressing of my entire life, to be fully honest. I don't make comments about the virus that I haven't spent countless hours researching before reporting. I would appreciate refraining from the media comments, though. This has been a horrific time to work in the media industry.

The big reason is that heavy use of masks at rallies and that the protests and rallies have been predominantly outdoors. The virus is airborne, but through droplets that require surface transmission. Lingering in artificial air of an indoor facility is more feasible than outdoors, nevermind the surfaces/seats/etc. of indoor rallies. That's the big reason for the lack of positive cases based at protests.

That comment is the definition of pedantic...

There are risks, though. The first case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children was announced in South Dakota. This is striking normally healthy CHILDREN who had COVID. It's one of several post-COVID conditions that are being discussed now as survivors are finding long-term effects from their survival of the virus. Many low-risk, athletic persons with no underlying conditions have been critically hospitalized or even died from this virus. To say there is no risk shows exactly the laissez faire attitude to the virus that has allowed for recent resurgence in the country, IMO. All star, superstar players are getting ill. That's a big deal. What it does to them for the rest of their lives is unknown. Perhaps they recover and are fine going forward, but it's hard to fathom an owner that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into a player's future being willing to gamble that his/her (let's be honest, in baseball, it's all HIS right now) player is going to avoid any potential long-term side effects from the virus. That's what is making all this absolutely incredible to watch from where I sit, having covered this virus every day for four months now.

Exactly. Albert Pujols' daughter is considered high-risk. Should he just not see her for 3 months? That's just one child off the top of my head among dozens that are high-risk among players in the league, let alone spouses or family members who reside with the players. It's beyond just the high-risk players. It's beyond taking healthy players and asking them to isolate for the season, it's quarantine time even once the season is done, and in potential cases, it's taking players away from pregnant wives and disabled children for months. To play a game. For your entertainment. The CONSTANT argument against playing minor league players more or the whine for backing owners in every labor dispute is that players should just shut up because it's just a game. So when players are trying to protect their families, due to health risks...suddenly your entertainment is more valid than their familial situation.

Multiple players were already put on 60-man DL this spring. There's no reason to be pedantic about this.

The relationship between MLB and the armed forces is really not a rock you want to look under. Ditto any professional sport.

I've started a YouTube channel! I launched things on Father's Day for the "Baseball Dad" YouTube channel. I'll be covering various ways to pass on the game of baseball in 5-10 minute videos each week. The first video was raw, with just me on camera, but there will be more appearances of my children in the future to add more desirable visuals to the channel. Also, it's not JUST for dads - moms, uncles, grandpas, great grandmas, whomever that wants to pass the love of baseball on to the next generation, this is a channel geared for you!

Perhaps the public doesn't completely, but plenty of science sure has shown how it transmits, and responsible reporting has been done on exactly that. If the public doesn't know, it's because Facebook and Joe Rogan are where their news comes from...

I've reported on a low-risk, 23 year-old mother of three dying in less than 48 hours from the virus. This virus is the honey badger of viruses. If it's going to kill you, it don't give a flying one who you are, what age you are, or what physical condition you are. It will take you.

I'm taking you away from your family for 3-4 months. Sounds good? An estimate is that there are 150 MLB babies to be born by the end of the year, meaning many players will be leaving behind very pregnant wives. Frankly, we're looking at the very real possibility that a large contingent of notable names opt out of the season. At that point, is it really a legitimate season anyway? Do you want the league back if that's what's being played?

A big piece of it will have to do with the unspoken and underreported part that helps to fund the money in college football and college basketball - the investment from the pro leagues into it. Whether noticed or not, MLB sent out memos to clubs limiting the scholarship money that they could offer to players as part of their signing bonuses this year after multiple clubs have been making that a significant portion of non-baseball bonus (and it didn't have to be fully reported and still does not, per the CBA, this was just a "we see what you're doing and will put an end to this" memo). If MLB wanted to emphasize the college game, it'd be incredibly easy. While the NBA and NFL can't DIRECTLY buy scholarships for their sports, if you truly believe that the abundance of full-ride scholarships available in those sports from the NCAA level is a coincidence, you're blind. There's a significant financial investment through properties, through television contract tie-ins, through licensing sharing, through all sorts of ways that the leagues have padded the pockets of the NCAA that the NFL and NBA will always have a pipeline of full-scholarship athletes, especially at the largest universities, playing their sports. If you want to attract the best athletes to stay in baseball, first make it financially feasible to play the sport beyond the age of 12 without taking out an additional mortgage every other year the child continues to play. However, once they finish high school, give the opportunity to get a free education. As we're having open discussions on race, so many former college football teammates talked with me about how football was a way for them to be the first in their family to have education behind high school. One even became the first to graduate high school purely in order to be able to play collegiate sports. That's family tree changing sort of stuff right there. Whether that guy plays professionally or not (he didn't, but now makes six figures annually due to his education), he's making a way that previous generations in his family did not have the financial opportunity to make.

On a scouting site, we had a very good internal discussion among staff about this piece. It made us review our own draft coverage with a fine-tooth comb to assess just where we might have let fly with comments that we weren't intending to be racist but certainly are. One of the better revelations out of spending a week talking with black and African-American friends to prepare an op-ed piece for our local paper was the discussion with the father of a former teammate, a man who served in both conflicts in Iraq. He stated that each and every one of us is racist, to some degree. Once we accept that about the mirror and begin to work on the mirror, we can begin to address and assist the world around us in doing the same. Incredibly, I'd heard the same speech once before, nearly word for word, from the man who mentored me in scouting. He's got Latin roots in his blood that most wouldn't notice, but he's aware of it and he gave me the same exact discussion when writing up reports with me and choosing player comps and describing body styles. I like to lean on that advice, and this piece had some obvious discussion of where that still can be found in the game - heck, look at OOTP baseball, and you'll see some of the same crap in the descriptors of players within the game.

Max to the Jays is nearly a done deal, barring someone grabbing Meyer ahead of the Jays. As far as the Twins, they have a prep shortstop that they're very interested in that could be in play tomorrow evening. We'll see if they go there or if they stick with pitching.

When you do the math over a full season at full percentage of salary, each offer is the same - roughly 33-35% of full-season salary. The owners aren't offering any compromise. They're packaging the same turd up with a new wrapper and calling it something else. The players aren't "all about the money". They've come significantly down from their initial stance, but there's been no movement to middle ground from owners. The problem for owners is that Tony Clark and the MLBPA have begun to use the media to negotiate in the same way that the owners have leaked proposals the entire process. A more adept MLBPA with media negotiation that's PO'd by the owners' tactics right now? Good luck in the 2021 CBA negotiations...

University of Minnesota did almost immediately after the incident. I can find many things to be upset at my alma mater about, but that is one thing done well.

WTH?! Craig has spoken plenty of times. He does not need me to stand up for him, but he speaks quite clearly, often cites intriguing or interesting articles, and pushes the narrative. Challenging for high-level discourse should be something we all strive for rather than working toward consistently divisive language and attacking a fellow poster.

...and that's for bad behavior against citizens of all colors, but it especially seems to lose accountability when the victim is someone of color. Amen.

So many situations where officers talked or walked with those who were protesting and their cities saw none of the issues in other towns and cities. Meanwhile, one member of the media covering the events lost her eye, another member of the media very feasibly could pass away, and many have significant issues due to tear gas inhalation. Media's role in a melee like this is to hold truth to both sides of the issue, and anyone wanting to actually do so has seen coverage that held anyone and everyone accountable. However, police using brutal, physical force and then firing unprovoked in multiple locales yesterday being captured by media turned into multiple media outlets TARGETED by police. One chilling video shows a film crew videoing police actions until one person off-screen hollers "they're sighting in on US!" Then the cameraman is taken down, shot in the head. Multiple officers have come out to say that this is not protocol for training with rubber bullet usage. Shooting should always be done for center-mass, not for the head, and especially not for face, but multiple media members were hit around their face by officers who were lining up those shots. It's caught on camera, and it's going to be yet another monster brick in the wall between those who despise officers and the police ever being able to have moments like were seen in Camden and Flint.

My grandparents were brought back home to South Dakota from their winter home in Arizona just in time for my grandmother's 85th birthday (grandpa celebrated 90 in Arizona earlier this spring, but would have usually been home before his birthday as well). They're looking forward to getting out of their house just to work in the yard after a two-week quarantine from flying home with my uncle (who then drove to Wisconsin).

I do not mean to be rude, but anyone interested in doing the research can read the entirety of the Collective Bargaining Agreement on the MLB website. It lays out all revenue splits, everything. Then there's not speaking in generalities.

For those wanting to downplay the impact of the loss of a minor league team on a community: https://thecardinalnation.com/the-downward-slide-since-springfield-illinois-lost-affiliated-baseball/

Walz likes words. When asked about the fact that multiple counties in South Dakota were more restrictive than Minnesota's at-home order, Walz dismissed the question and dodged it completely. It's buzzword sort of stuff. The mayor in the city with the worst outbreak in South Dakota fought with the governor because his city had poor wording in their charter rather than working with his city commissioners to put together an emergency declaration with sunset rules to ensure there wasn't any issue with overstep beyond COVID. Now another meat packing plant is having an outbreak after the county it is in basically opened things wide open again. The reporting on one state without being informed on the legalities within that state has been pretty egregious nation-wide.