biggentleben
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Everything posted by biggentleben
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Is this racism or culture clash in baseball?
biggentleben replied to TheLeviathan's topic in The Sports Bar
That's just it. Not a single player in the WBC showed up another player or showboated from all the games I watched. There were plenty of celebrations, but no showing up of any opposition. -
My alma mater plays for the small school boys basketball title tomorrow evening after winning their ballgame tonight, and that's very cool, but in looking at the run downs from the three South Dakota state tournaments, I noted the "big school" tournament, the AA tourney. There are 8 teams that are part of the tournament. In the first round, there were 4 overtime periods across the 4 games (one game had 2, but still!). After things worked out today, the championship will be between the #1 rated team in the state and the #7 rated team in the tournament, who entered the tourney with a 10-13 record. The 7th place game will be between the 8th seeded team, as expected, but their opponent will be the 2nd-seeded team in the tournament. Have to love high school ball....
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Even more so when they didn't have arguably their best shooter.
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Okay.
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Missed the on court leadership and shooting of their eldest player in Springs, who you know would have been up to return to Milwaukee for this game. The inconsistency of the calls down low really hurt the way the Gopher big men played because they couldn't decide if they were going to get every ticky-tack called against them or "let 'em play". The youth definitely showed in handling the ball as well late in the game.
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The DR/PR game last night was incredibly fun to watch. Rosario's throw from right had my kiddos all jumping and excited about baseball, and watching the players get incredibly excited about each play also was something they haven't seen out of any game I've played for them outside of a replay of the first game back of the Marlins post-Fernandez last year, which they have asked about a few times because they recognized the venue in the WBC games that have been on.
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...and Freeman is playing in the WBC.
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The new health care act scares me. Absolutely scares me. Scares me and infuriates me. After working for just short of a decade with the most severely mentally ill that are allowed to live independently, I know that many of them long desperately to be able to have a productive job. The alterations to Medicaid will mean that if any person would ever find meaningful enough work to no longer qualify for Medicaid via income at any point, they could not qualify for Medicaid again without undergoing a full disability evaluation to qualify for disability Medicaid. That process can take a year or more to get through, meaning those persons could be without medical insurance to afford mental health medication for a year or more while the system attempts to figure out if that person is worthy again of being deemed disabled due to their mental illness (something that will become more difficult due to having even one period of work with enough hours/income to drop Medicaid, let alone the 9 in a rolling 18 month time frame required to drop someone from the Medicaid roles). Smart idea to ensure mentally ill cannot get their needed medication... Meanwhile, the new bill gives incredible tax breaks to the wealthy, to insurance companies and to pharma companies. Yes, Republicans, please tell us how the ACA targeted the poor, elderly, and disabled and your new plan will help them all...
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And still...I love where they've gone with it, though I will say there could be ugly routes to go with this. I hope they don't go there, but the mental health worker for nearly a decade in me is absolutely enthralled right now.
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I think it's a sprinkle of one and a sprinkle of another. Absolutely more guys are seeing the data on exit velocity and angle and working to maximize that sort of stuff with redesigned swings. The ball is significantly different, and from the reports of Drew Pomeranz, it's different from NL to AL as well, something he noticed after moving to the Red Sox from the Padres. Of course, the other part is that velocity bit that higher velocity can lead to higher likelihood of home runs, but when combined with improved launch angles, it will lead to the drastic spike we've seen.
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Cord-Cutters are Winning? ESPN is losing?!
biggentleben replied to Vanimal46's topic in The Sports Bar
If ESPN didn't have 30 for 30, I'd be off them completely... -
Playstation Vue is a lovely thing. Saved me a ton of money. And I get to watch great television like this...
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You just reminded me...it's about time for the minimal fast food splurge I allow myself anymore. It's Lent as of Wednesday, which means cheap Filet-o-Fish and the Shamrock Shake. I don't eat them in the same way I once did, but it's the splurge I still enjoy.
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How does stating that the only way a fan is involved with the on field performance is through running onto the field stating that the majority of all fans are drunken idiots? Methinks you read into that something that wasn't there.
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I would highly debate "clearly are". As fans, we cheer for laundry. The players on the field, whether they are there one game or 20 seasons, wear that laundry. There is a distinct difference. I have never known a fan to be part of the on field performance, other than the drunken idiots who run onto the playing field, but they're only part of performance in delaying it, not actually truly affecting the outcome of the on field performance. It could absolutely be due to being on the wrong end of over-involved fans as a player and person in my lifetime, but while I won't be telling someone how to address their team of choice, hearing someone address their favorite team as "we" sends me a message about their experience being on the athlete side of that equation.
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As a writer, even writing for a team, it's an absolute no-no, even if you're writing about your favorite team. I've also really found it quite frustrating as a former player when anyone referred to the Gophers at the time I played as "we"...when we did well on the field, and "they" when we didn't. There are many former and current athletes who feel the "we" term should be reserved for those putting in the hours upon hours of preparation and work to be able to don the uniform. As a comparison, one of my friends who had a very long NFL career once stated to me that his wife was a very accomplished music producer. However, when the first album that she was a part of producing received award recognition, he never once considered the word or phrase "we". His point being that in sports, fans have so strongly associated themselves with the team that they assume a role within the team that isn't truly there, and often it can lead to an unhealthy role that the team/player/etc. plays in a person's life. Just a different perspective/take...
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Wow has Legion been amazing. That is all.
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I love Mack, and the strike absolutely killed him, but it was he or Hrbek on the bench because I had Hunter for OF defense and Tovar for versatility. The intent was to present an actual 25-man roster, not the best 25 players, which does present a bit of challenges, hence the extra catcher. Allison was an incredibly feared hitter at his time whose injuries limited him greatly as well. Take out his seasons as he tried to play through the injuries, and his numbers look much better in comparison with Mack overall, especially when you get into WAR and WAR/season.
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Books I am reading, read, or plan to read
biggentleben replied to Mike Sixel's topic in The Sports Bar
I got it on Kindle. I wasn't a member of SABR when I got it, so I honestly don't know. I did enjoy the 1979 Pirates book from SABR, though. -
Yeah, I'd rather have Norris catching for my team than Wieters personally...
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Except they had one already that they traded for...Derek Norris, whose defense is actually considered quite solid - such that he graded out in some grading systems as a neutral value or even positive value catcher in spite of hitting under .200.
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Not exactly. Petco has not played near as well for flyball righties since the fences were changed. See: James Shields.
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I was asked to just do Twins, and here is what the final product was: https://calltothepen.com/2017/02/21/minnesota-twins-all-time-25-man-roster/ Enjoy, and feel free to comment there, ask questions here, etc....
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I ran this by my wife. It'd mean some work over the next few months, but I could strap on the pads again, if the Vikings need it...
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Books I am reading, read, or plan to read
biggentleben replied to Mike Sixel's topic in The Sports Bar
I'm currently a SABR book, "Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox" Very good organization to the story and I love the deep research to the topic. I finished Jeff Passan's "The Arm" a second time recently, and that was inspired by reading "Still Throwing Heat" by J.R. Richard, which got me very interested in thoracic outlet syndrome and led me down a rabbit hole of calling people all over the place on TOS. I'll take Tommy John on a pitcher any day, I'll just say that. Outside of that, I've been doing reading on baseball annuals recently, like Baseball America's prospect handbook and Baseball Prospectus' Annual. I've also been doing some reading on issues related to my foster kiddos, though I can't exactly expound on those issues...
