I edited the titles of this post and my last one to clear up the game count confusion. We don’t need the A’s suffering through Games 163-165; 162 is about 100 more than were needed to make the point.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
A’s announce Sheldon Neuse has been designated for assignment. Ernie Clement, who was claimed off waivers yesterday from Cleveland, has been added to the roster and called up to Oakland.
Got my first taste of the oligarch seats last night, courtesy of ptbnl. Pretty sure the guy sitting in front of us was AG Rob Bonta (who is from Alameda).
The sound of the ball off the bat is really delightful from there. The cheesesteak was terrible, veggie nachos better. I only wish Angel Hernandez had the plate. Would have loved to see how much of mlb’s court filing I could yell at him before getting ejected.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
“For years, Hernandez has refused to admit that the call he made was incorrect and instead has attempted to blame the quality of the replay equipment”
“his continued insistence that others were at fault for his wrong decision.”
“Hernandez has been quick to eject managers, which enflames on-field tensions, rather than issue warnings that potentially could defuse those situations”
“Hernandez also has failed to communicate with other umpires on his crew, which has resulted in confusion on the field and unnecessary game delays.”
“Hernandez intentionally and deceptively eavesdropped on a confidential conversation with another umpire on his crew in order to hear what that umpire would say”
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Well, that was unexpected.
As for Mr. Hernandez, I stuck with an encouraging “great call, Angel” whenever he made a bad call in our favor. He was hearing it a lot from both sides.
In Year One of this format, there is very little to hold the attention of a fan of one of the teams that was out of it by June 1. The Mets and Braves are in the most compelling race. Two of Philadelphia, Milwaukee and San Diego will survive but those are all mediocrities and one hopes the two that get in don’t knock out a more deserving team in a short best-of-three.
So between that and the Mariners as GM commented (arguably Tampa Bay as well), my initial impression is that six from each league has overexpanded it.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
I’ve been thinking about this, and it seems like the fundamental problem is that once you expand things enough to ensure that any 90+ win team gets in, you’ve lowered the stakes of any races that are left.
Mets and Braves will both be around 100 wins, and one of them will have to play a first-round series while the other gets a bye, a difference which is meaningful to those teams and their fans, but not enough to be compelling to neutral fans.
And the race for the third wild-card, as you say, might be nail-biting for fans in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and exciting if you’re a Mariners fan who hasn’t seen the post-season in a couple of decades, but ultimately those teams are just fodder for the real contenders once (mid-)October rolls around.
The possibility that would grab our attention – a genuinely good team in danger of being eliminated (or even forced into a 1-game playoff) – is now all but impossible.
Well put, and it’s been forever since a low seeded playoff team mattered. 2014 I think but those records have been expunged. The 5-6 seeds are all always so useless and obviously will be again this year.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
I have another Naples trip planned at the end of February. That’s a fair bit south of the worst of it but I see some bad flooding there right along the coast; the hotel is a few miles inland though. However it can take a while for beach erosion to cure itself.
I think these are the four ST complexes getting the worst of it: Braves (CoolToday Park), Rays (Charlotte Sports Park), Twins (Lee County Sports Complex) and Red Sox (JetBlue Park), as shown on this map. The Rays one is about 3m elevation per Google Earth and separated from that bay inlet only by what appears to be some swampland, which is why I’ll be looking for some photos of that one tomorrow.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
Metal roofing wrapped around leaning palm trees. Letters were missing off of the welcoming Home Plate main fan entrance. Fences hovered feet off the ground. Tattered fabric covered the playground mulch.
A worker said there was damage inside the buildings, too, with water damage to one of the roofs leading to electrical issues and a humid smell inside.
The thing I remember about Fort Myers Beach from my trip to Naples this past March is the nightmarish traffic on the only through street in the town. I had some time to kill before flying out of the Fort Myers airport and hadn’t been up the coast as far as Fort Myers Beach yet, so I decided to check the place out by driving through, have lunch up in Cape Coral and then head to the airport. I didn’t have quite as much time to kill as got burned by trying to drive through Fort Myers Beach in the middle of the day on a weekday. It was one of those “wow, I’m never coming here again” moments, and now that appears to have been removed as an option for the near to mid-term future anyway.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
I have another Naples trip planned at the end of February. That’s a fair bit south of the worst of it but I see some bad flooding there right along the coast
This is Vanderbilt Beach adjacent to Naples. “The worst of it”, specifically Fort Myers Beach, is off in the distance there about 15 miles north. These buildings look fine at first glance but upon closer inspection nearly half of them are empty, surrounded by construction fencing and undergoing rehabilitation, five months after the hurricane. From what I can see so far, it’s these properties right on the water that suffered the lasting damage; go a couple hundred yards inland and there’s really no evidence at all that a major hurricane hit.
Most of the county parks and state parks are still closed. I prefer having a natural environment rather than condos behind me when I’m sitting on a beach, but this works OK. Just be willing to walk 1/2 mile or so from the parking lot to get away from the crowds. Also the weather forecast is “84°F and sunny” every day for the next week, while at home it’s “28°F with moderate to heavy snow” every day, so I definitely scored on picking a week with the right weather.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
If the high temperature is only 28 degrees, that’s extremely light baby powder snow. Not the kind that fills your reservoirs. However, well into double-digit inches is a lot of it, add the high winds and you have a serious zero-visibility blizzard.
Tuesday Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Widespread blowing snow. High near 28. Windy, with a southwest wind around 30 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 13 to 19 inches possible.
Tuesday Night Snow, mainly before 2am. The snow could be heavy at times. Widespread blowing snow. Low around 13. Breezy, with a southwest wind 20 to 25 mph decreasing to 15 to 20 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible.
I fly back to Reno Thursday night after more beach time down here in DeSantis country.
Tuesday Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 81. Southwest wind 6 to 10 mph.
Treacherous chasms of half-truth and despair. -- Ken Korach
New York fans are the worst. That’s all.
Soaker was right. We don’t need game threads
Combined no hitters tomorrow and sunday
Extending the occasional lightly trafficked thread to a second series seems to work OK. Also Fridays have always been FK’s slowest nights.
I edited the titles of this post and my last one to clear up the game count confusion. We don’t need the A’s suffering through Games 163-165; 162 is about 100 more than were needed to make the point.
Round and round
No Neuse is good Neuse?
No glove is no good.
Got my first taste of the oligarch seats last night, courtesy of ptbnl. Pretty sure the guy sitting in front of us was AG Rob Bonta (who is from Alameda).
The sound of the ball off the bat is really delightful from there. The cheesesteak was terrible, veggie nachos better. I only wish Angel Hernandez had the plate. Would have loved to see how much of mlb’s court filing I could yell at him before getting ejected.
Nice. I have been down there once; it is really quite a difference even from the FRS.
I have the (nq)FRS for today. deGrom and Angel Hernandez. Yikes.
Some recommended quotetaunts:
“For years, Hernandez has refused to admit that the call he made was incorrect and instead has attempted to blame the quality of the replay equipment”
“his continued insistence that others were at fault for his wrong decision.”
“Hernandez has been quick to eject managers, which enflames on-field tensions, rather than issue warnings that potentially could defuse those situations”
“Hernandez also has failed to communicate with other umpires on his crew, which has resulted in confusion on the field and unnecessary game delays.”
“Hernandez intentionally and deceptively eavesdropped on a confidential conversation with another umpire on his crew in order to hear what that umpire would say”
Well, that was unexpected.
As for Mr. Hernandez, I stuck with an encouraging “great call, Angel” whenever he made a bad call in our favor. He was hearing it a lot from both sides.
Mrs. N’s old firm used to have the tickets, so she got ’em twice and made the mistake of taking me. Also once with my own clients.
It’s definitely a fun experience.
At least these young A’s are getting valuable opportunities to overcome deficits.
Achievement unlocked!
The Heels will have that same opportunity in the second half vs. the Irish.
The first quarter went pretty well…
Exactly what we expected so far?
I turned it o coming home from the grocery store and thought “what is happening in Oakland? “
Sign of how checked out I am that I have never even heard of the guy who homered and tripled for the A’s today.
Taking three kids tomorrow with no Mrs. N. Pray for us.
“Dad, are A’s games always this terrible?”
Seats were great, and they got to run the bases. Feedback was “that was fun but I hope next time the A’s are fun too.”
Me too, kids. Me too.
LOL at the Mariners giving up an 11 run inning to blow a 9-run lead. This is the most fraudulent playoff team ever.
Going 3-7 against the Angels, A’s and royals in 2022 is a tough thing to do. Gotta tip your hat
Just one team from each league will be over .500 and miss the playoffs, poor endorsement for the extra wildcard.
Poor reflection on the Angels and Rangers, too, to not even come close to competing in this AL with their talent and resources.
Yeah, THOSE teams suck
Your 2022 A’s … “at least we have an excuse”
In Year One of this format, there is very little to hold the attention of a fan of one of the teams that was out of it by June 1. The Mets and Braves are in the most compelling race. Two of Philadelphia, Milwaukee and San Diego will survive but those are all mediocrities and one hopes the two that get in don’t knock out a more deserving team in a short best-of-three.
So between that and the Mariners as GM commented (arguably Tampa Bay as well), my initial impression is that six from each league has overexpanded it.
There would be pretty cool races if the top 4 teams got in
I’ve been thinking about this, and it seems like the fundamental problem is that once you expand things enough to ensure that any 90+ win team gets in, you’ve lowered the stakes of any races that are left.
Mets and Braves will both be around 100 wins, and one of them will have to play a first-round series while the other gets a bye, a difference which is meaningful to those teams and their fans, but not enough to be compelling to neutral fans.
And the race for the third wild-card, as you say, might be nail-biting for fans in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and exciting if you’re a Mariners fan who hasn’t seen the post-season in a couple of decades, but ultimately those teams are just fodder for the real contenders once (mid-)October rolls around.
The possibility that would grab our attention – a genuinely good team in danger of being eliminated (or even forced into a 1-game playoff) – is now all but impossible.
Well put, and it’s been forever since a low seeded playoff team mattered. 2014 I think but those records have been expunged. The 5-6 seeds are all always so useless and obviously will be again this year.
Zach Gelof (age 22) has five homers in seven games since moving up to AAA.
So tomorrow night or Thursday morning is when we’re hoping for good news about Tropicana Field.
The Rays’ spring training complex in Port Charlotte is actually the place that’s in the direct path and about to get obliterated.
Looks bad for a number of the gulf coast side sites. Maybe Boston Minnie Tampa and Baltimore will all actually be in Arizona come spring 2023.
I have another Naples trip planned at the end of February. That’s a fair bit south of the worst of it but I see some bad flooding there right along the coast; the hotel is a few miles inland though. However it can take a while for beach erosion to cure itself.
I think these are the four ST complexes getting the worst of it: Braves (CoolToday Park), Rays (Charlotte Sports Park), Twins (Lee County Sports Complex) and Red Sox (JetBlue Park), as shown on this map. The Rays one is about 3m elevation per Google Earth and separated from that bay inlet only by what appears to be some swampland, which is why I’ll be looking for some photos of that one tomorrow.
It looks like they have some work to do but it’s not total destruction.
The thing I remember about Fort Myers Beach from my trip to Naples this past March is the nightmarish traffic on the only through street in the town. I had some time to kill before flying out of the Fort Myers airport and hadn’t been up the coast as far as Fort Myers Beach yet, so I decided to check the place out by driving through, have lunch up in Cape Coral and then head to the airport. I didn’t have quite as much time to kill as got burned by trying to drive through Fort Myers Beach in the middle of the day on a weekday. It was one of those “wow, I’m never coming here again” moments, and now that appears to have been removed as an option for the near to mid-term future anyway.
This is Vanderbilt Beach adjacent to Naples. “The worst of it”, specifically Fort Myers Beach, is off in the distance there about 15 miles north. These buildings look fine at first glance but upon closer inspection nearly half of them are empty, surrounded by construction fencing and undergoing rehabilitation, five months after the hurricane. From what I can see so far, it’s these properties right on the water that suffered the lasting damage; go a couple hundred yards inland and there’s really no evidence at all that a major hurricane hit.
Most of the county parks and state parks are still closed. I prefer having a natural environment rather than condos behind me when I’m sitting on a beach, but this works OK. Just be willing to walk 1/2 mile or so from the parking lot to get away from the crowds. Also the weather forecast is “84°F and sunny” every day for the next week, while at home it’s “28°F with moderate to heavy snow” every day, so I definitely scored on picking a week with the right weather.
It is also now t in Santa cruz
Headline at SFChronicle.com right now:
Tahoe braces for record snowfall, dangerous blizzard conditions
The HOA should have access to my garage cleared, but you should see the battle getting from the garage to the front door when that is buried.
Meanwhile here on Marco Island, sparkling clear, low 80s, light breeze, warm Gulf water.
If the high temperature is only 28 degrees, that’s extremely light baby powder snow. Not the kind that fills your reservoirs. However, well into double-digit inches is a lot of it, add the high winds and you have a serious zero-visibility blizzard.
I fly back to Reno Thursday night after more beach time down here in DeSantis country.
Was at Heavenly last week, and the whiteout was crazy. Couldn’t see the lift in front of us often, and couldn’t see powder piles on the slopes.