Starlord Posted March 24 Report Share Posted March 24 (edited) Why would the bookie allow a guy making 300k a year to accrue 5 million in debt unless he knew or was told Ohtani was bankrolling everything? May never get the answer but question needs to be asked. Edited March 24 by Starlord Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 24 Author Report Share Posted March 24 13 hours ago, unclevlad said: And it's probably snuck up on most of us, but...the real opening day, forget the Korea series...is Thursday. THIS Thursday. Still in March. But I believe they did this last year. IIRC, they built in more off-days during the season, to break up the grind to a degree, and hopefully to allow open dates to make up weather delays. Let's not get dive too deeply into the point that in MANY cities, they've just extended the Pretty Bad Weather (for baseball) period an extra week. Shorten the season??? C'est impossible!!!! I personally would have no problem with teams going back to a 154 game schedule. But because there's money to be made from broadcasting, ticket sales, parking, et cetera, ad nauseam, I know it'll never happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 24 Report Share Posted March 24 154 isn't particularly different from 162. It would help a bit; it'd cut 10 days off. Shift the start of the season forward, and at least avoid November should the WS go deep. (Game 7 is Nov. 2nd this year.) But I'd rather target opening day to April 10th, and WS game 7 October 20th or so...if not even a bit shorter. Lessee...6 division games (24), 4 games in-league (40). Interleague, maybe 3 games against 12 teams, with alternating home field, and 4 game series (home and home 2 game series) against 3 teams, based on geography/natural rivalry. Chicagos, New Yorks, LAs, KC/STL, etc. That's another 48. We're at 112 at this point...8 division and 6 in-league would add 28, so 140 games. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..... But clearly, yeah, that's never gonna happen. My traveling to Alpha Centauri is more likely. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted March 24 Report Share Posted March 24 unclevlad, Rails, Pariah and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 24 Report Share Posted March 24 Same point was made with the NFL betting suspensions last year, but that's another genie that will never be pushed back into its bottle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 24 Author Report Share Posted March 24 The point goes back at least as far as Casablanca: "I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here." "Your winnings, sir. "Oh, thank you very much." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 Ohtani sits down in front of the media, denying betting on anything, or dealing with bookmakers, and claims the money was stolen from his account, and the translator's been lying. If you're interested: Skip forward to the 8 minute mark, that's when they sit down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted March 25 Report Share Posted March 25 (edited) Pete Rose began by blaming bad friends/associates, too.... *shrug* Edited March 25 by Starlord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 26 Author Report Share Posted March 26 Ohtani seems like a nice enough fellow, agreeable and polite. Which Pete Rose really was not. I wish Ohtani no particular ill will. But I loathe the Dodgers just enough that I would find it funny if they dumped all their resources into this guy who's going to end up not playing for them for any reasonable amount of time. 🤷 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted March 26 Report Share Posted March 26 Well, he did help them get the best young pitcher coming out of Japan. Again, I suspect that Ippei is falling on his sword for Ohtani. And I do like Ohtani. I think he is the type of player we want our stars to be, humble, a good teammate, does everything he can to help his team win, is good with fans/press and always seems to be enjoying playing baseball. I think this is something that will follow him around for awhile, even if it supposedly is all on Ippei. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 26 Author Report Share Posted March 26 Starlord 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 26 Report Share Posted March 26 And you have to admit...given a long term close relationship, and with Ohtani probably picking up quite a bit of Ippei's expenses on the road *anyway*...embezzlement, lying...it's all entirely plausible. That gambling can be horribly addictive? WELL known. Chasing losses? Too common. Hey, I'm sure we've all seen the disclaimers..."if you have a problem setting or holding a limit" etc...I can completely accept that it's all Ippei's fault. It's entirely believable. Also note that, from the sound of things, Ohtani was pretty heavily flappered by Ippei. A question might well be...does Ohtani have an American accountant? For more than just taxes, preferably a full scale financial planner. Cuz if not...if it's just a tax person, say...he may not have thought *enough* about his money. Need the 3rd guy in there, Mr. P...Freeman. Most expensive 1-2-3 batting order *ever*...and almost certainly by a gobsmackin' big amount. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 Oh my...first game. First inning. Put the sign up in the visiting clubhouse in Dodger Stadium now...abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Bottom 1st. Betts singles. Ohtani doubles deep into the RF corner. With none out, and not clear-cut to score...fine, Betts is held at 3rd. Ohtani's chugging, tho...and doesn't expect it. Tries to stop but gets caught in the rundown. Oops. But then Freeman singles. Then Will Smith...who just signed a nice little 10 year, $140M contract of his own...singles. Max Muncy hits a sac fly. 2-0 Dodgers... EDIT...it gets worse. Betts leads off, top 3rd. Homer. Ohtani walks. Freeman homers. 6 plate appearances, on base of 1.000, 5 hits, slugging percentage of 2.400. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 One of the analysts on MLB commented that with those 3 leading off, if your the starting pitcher at home, get through the 1st and odds are you have a lead when you come back out and if on the road, you should have a lead when you first take the mound. only 12 times in history have 3 former MVPs batted 1-2-3, Dodgers should dwarf that by May. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 29 Report Share Posted March 29 *Some* of that, tho, is that the modern-day lineup is so massively different. Lead-off guy's job is to get on...usually your best base stealer. #2's your bunter. #3 is your big doubles guy. But since bunting as a general tactic has been dead for several decades now...it's coming back somewhat, but as a surprise move or tactical move...the thinking's shifted to the college thinking. Get your best 3 hitters in there, so they get that extra AB. (DH also plays a role here, in lengthening out the lineup.) They're not the first, but...cripes. All 3 could hit 3 or 4 in a WS-caliber lineup. Over 100 HRs, 125 doubles, 540 hits combined last year. BTW, here's the reference...Sarah Langs, not surprisingly. https://www.mlb.com/news/betts-ohtani-freeman-historic-trio Phillies in 83...Morgan, Rose, Schmidt. Morgan the base stealer, Rose great at moving him over, Schmidt the thunder. He usually hit 4th, I suspect. The other cases were in the Big Red Machine years...with Rose and Morgan again. The roll-off lower down might be sharper than the 2 best lineups I can remember...the '99 or '00 Yankees, and the early 70's Big Red Machine that had NO holes. But the top 3 are terrifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 29 Author Report Share Posted March 29 Rockies are down 16-1 to Arizona in the 8th. What a way to open the new season. A few hours ago, I was wondering who would.finish closer to the bottom of their league, the Rockies or the Broncos. Now, I'm not really wondering any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 29 Report Share Posted March 29 Well, look at it this way. It was one bad inning. One really bad inning. Horribly bad. Might well be the highest scoring single inning of the entire season bad. Mmmm...yeah. 7 consecutive players reached base...TWICE. First 7 batters...then fly out (but advancing a runner). Next 7 after...then a sac fly. Oh dear. Not encouraging. Anthony Molina's ERA won't recover until after the ASB. Got 1 out...gave up 6. But, hey, on the bright side? The pitchers after Molina went 5 1/3 scoreless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 29 Author Report Share Posted March 29 Sadly, I wasn't able to watch a second of it because the MLB Network decided that we would be more entertained by a game in Seattle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted March 29 Report Share Posted March 29 12 hours ago, Pariah said: Rockies are down 16-1 to Arizona in the 8th. What a way to open the new season. A few hours ago, I was wondering who would.finish closer to the bottom of their league, the Rockies or the Broncos. Now, I'm not really wondering any more. Better question, who will have more points per game average by seasons end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 29 Report Share Posted March 29 7 hours ago, Pariah said: Sadly, I wasn't able to watch a second of it because the MLB Network decided that we would be more entertained by a game in Seattle. Broadcast rights are even more of a mess right now than they have been, from what I can see, as the RSNs bail out. You may need to buy either a club package, or a full MLB package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 29 Author Report Share Posted March 29 Spend money on a broadcast package for a team that's going to lose 100 games this year? Tempting. 🙄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 29 Report Share Posted March 29 Could be worse. You could be an A's fan. Attendance for opening day in Oakland yesterday...13,522. Report is there were several thousand fans who remained out in the parking lot to watch it. But, wow. 13K for opening day, usually one of the best-attended games of the year? Beat their average from last year......but still under the average for the Marlins, who consistently have the worst attendance in the NL...and by a lot. https://ballparkdigest.com/2023/10/24/2023-mlb-attendance-by-average/ And if you take the Marlins out of it, you get to the Royals...effectively gonna be eliminated by Memorial Day...the Rays, with the most incredibly, disastrously bad ballpark, in an equally awful location, and the Pirates, who can at best be described as a AAAA team...and who still drew twice as much as the A's. And the story also goes that there's *still* no clear-cut venue for next season, for the A's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted March 30 Report Share Posted March 30 3 hours ago, Pariah said: Spend money on a broadcast package for a team that's going to lose 100 games this year? Tempting. 🙄 I basically pay Directv $160 a year to watch 130 or so Angel games - not including vs Giants or A's as those are our local markets or the games that get streamed, as MLB package doesnt include those, which seems annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted March 30 Report Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, slikmar said: I basically pay Directv $160 a year to watch 130 or so Angel games - not including vs Giants or A's as those are our local markets or the games that get streamed, as MLB package doesnt include those, which seems annoying. Because the teams don't want MLB stealing ad revenue...and MLB won't run the local ads because they have their own bills to cover. When the team was part of an RSN package, the RSN *could* consider waiving the blackout...probably wouldn't, but could. Why? Because there's still economic benefit for the RSN, promoting their OTHER teams. That's not the case when it's baseball and the team doing the production. Their only product is...the games of their team. Nothing more. So I think the shift is only going to make the broadcast rights even more rigid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted April 3 Report Share Posted April 3 And....I just checked. Yankees are in Phoenix, with Gallen going for the D'backs...definitely a game worth watching. But...I can't. The D'backs channel on Comcast is subscription only. So's YES, but that's to be expected, so far out of its area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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