slikmar

First round, 3 games, played in higher seeds park. All 3, so if Toronto higher seed (when they were talking, they were and would have hosted Boston, iirc, you would not have those players for any of the 3 games. On salaries. Baseball, desperately, needs a variation of the Bird rule. Allow every team to sign 1 player or 1 position and 1 pitcher, preferably home grown or been with team for awhile, that does not count against luxury tax, ie, Owner is spending their own money on that player and the team they were on can spend higher then anyone else. Allow teams to keep at least one of their young players instead of them being future Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox or Mets (now).

MLB guys were talking about this and mentioned that with the Blue Jays poised to make the playoffs, even as a wild card (perhaps the home wildcard) that now you affect the trade deadline, because if you are a playoff team, do you trade for a rental player who can't go play in Toronto?

Just got back, and I agree with this. I enjoyed about 80% of the movie. Thought the story and ending were great, but I agree that the humor felt out of place at times, or maybe too much. Also, stupid Thor, doesn't work for me. I will spoiler the rest since will be using specifics and don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it.

Remember when SS were supposed to be short quick guys. Love this guy so far.

Don't get me started on the MLB thing. I basically pay them $150 a year, appx, to watch my team play. there are between 19 and 26 games (depending if play Giants) that I have to watch the local broadcast, though I don't mind as I like the A's guys. so, I am paying that to watch what should be 140 or so games a year, which I am willing to do, except, this season, at least 5-10 so far have been on Apple TV or Prime, which means I can't watch those. Now, if I am paying MLB to watch those games in their package, why do I now have to pay for 2 other streaming services to get my games. Shouldn't, at that point, MLB be able to broadcast those games? sorry, rant over, sore spot. Especially since I know the Angels games have been put on there in hopes they happen to hit on the night Ohtani is pitching.

So, here is something for you regarding tv viewing (coming from the US, since I don't know what is being shown in other countries) and drives my wife crazy. Tournaments are going on right now for world cup qualifying for the women's soccer. Being shown on the various sports channels for satellite/cable. UEFA (european) Women's tournament are all on ESPN or ESPN2. 2022 Copa America Femenina (South American tournament) being shown on FS1 and FS2 (Fox sports channels) So of course, you would expect the Concacaf (north/central American tournament) which includes Canada, USA, Mexico etc. to be shown on some of the channels and CBSSN and other affiliated channels, but no, other then a few games and the some of the playoffs, most the games are being shown on Paramount +, forcing anyone who wants to watch the home teams to pay for a streaming service, which we don't because we have limited data. Today my wife said there is an African tournament going on and some of those games apparently are being show. So to summarize, as an American Soccer fan, my wife can watch Europe, South America and Africa, but not watch Concacaf. So basically, Extortion for Paramount +.

nice homage to a Tom Petty video.

Not to mention Brian Picolo. He shall be missed.

I feel like this could be in the creepy thread also.

clearly someone who excelled at Death Stranding.

But Raid bosses can still take days.

Except those cards, much like you see on the QBs arm in football, basically tell each defender where analytics say on a certain count a guy will probably hit the ball. make mistakes is one thing, the cards are simply positioning, and usually when you see someone go to the card its because of a pinch hitter or pitcher, so the analytics change. As Brian Kenny, a stalwart for analytics, put it on one of his shows (paraphrasing): the smarter baseball gets the more boring it gets. They are analyzing the fun out of the game. Oh, and the dead ball thing isn't working. HRs are down, but so is batting average and for the most part scoring. And according to my brother, a lot of the stat sites have been tracking launch angle and speed, mainly to track who seems to be using the new balls and who seems to be still having the "juiced" ball. I will give you 3 guesses which team came up with the most juiced ball games, and 2 don't count. Certain teams seem to still hit HRs on balls with the same angle and speed that many others die on the warning tracks.

Not just played, but was a top level all-star in both. A few others have done both, but no one was at the level he was.

Just finished watching Blood and Guts. Good match, let everyone shine, but, AGAIN, they couldn't seem to let Kingston get full revenge on Jericho. Hopefully they aren't trying to setup him vs Black Pool. They really needed to make Jericho tap out. I realize he is one of the big draws, but this feud needs to end and both move on. I can remember when good story writers would set up feuds, ambushes, cheats etc, then the big event was all about the Faces getting revenge. It changed, especially during the DX error, as bad guys started becoming popular, and Jericho does have a big following, but being the good "soldier" he has been taking shot after shot, he deserved to finalize his revenge. Of course, AEW has done a few things recently I thought were terrible. I mentioned a while ago, I would watch Lucha Bros vs Young Bucks every night and twice on Sunday (though not sure any of the 4 could move in the second match), but twice the Bucks beat the Lucha's by stealing a mask, thereby, to me, ruining what were both amazing matches of skill and big moves. I can only hope that it will pay off at some point with the Lucha's beating them by having a 2nd mask on under the primary one, thereby turning it back on them.

They used to talk about how Bonds crowded plate but wore so much "armor" he wasn't worried about getting hit. So it's not just crowding plate, it's daring the pitcher to throw inside, and as you say, a lot of marginal pitchers with a slicker ball is going to result in a lot of getting hit. I have seen on these boards and others talk about, if you want to wear the equivalent to a suit of armor to the plate, you have to keep it on when on the basepaths (only exception is I like the new glove thing that protects against jammed fingers and thumbs).

You didn't mention the spanish Interpreter for the Angels getting, iirc, 3 games. My first thought when it started was I hoped there were 2 guys, if not coaches, whose specific job was to grab Ohtani and Trout and not let them near anything remotely brawl like. Then, besides Winker, turns out guy who shoved him in the face was Rendon, who is out for the season due to wrist surgery on the non hand he shoved with (you can see the cast on it). And I have no idea what went on with Raizel Iglesias after the fact, which got him 3 games, throwing sunflower seeds and bubble gum out on the field and destroying the dugout. and not to excuse basically putting Wantz out as a hitman, so to speak, but it was a result of the Angels being pissed that in the ninth(?) the game before, on a 2-0 pitch, a ball almost hit Trout in the head thrown by a pitcher who has hit less then 3% of batters in his career. Then after that pitch, so 3-0, they intentionally walk him.

I feel kind of bad for his brother, Matt. For so long Jeff was the "star". Matt just kept working and when AEW brought in Jeff, Matt gave up(?) some pretty good story-lines he was involved in to work with him again, though, honestly, I didnt think their in ring chemistry was good, mostly because I thought Jeff looked bad. Hoping this doesn't spill over onto Matt and he basically gets written out.

Can't say I am surprised by most of these, though i thought they might put the Mid Atlantic Belt on Malakai. they sort of backed themselves in a corner in the ROH/IWGP tag match, as that was the only one they couldn't clearly leave in the original organization. I suspect FTR will lose the IWGP to one of the bullet club or other Japanese teams soon.

on a side note, I see they gave the gave the heavy weight belt to Jay White, finalizing trying to finish making him Kenny Omega, which they started the moment Kenny left NJPW. could be Okada just wanted a break, as he has done a lot to carry them for a lot of years. I suspect he planned on taking a break when Kenny won the belt, but was shortly after that AEW was formed. Sadly, the Okada/Omega feud was fabulous because it was more then a year in the making with great in ring story telling along with the outside stuff. We weren't getting the NJPW stuff for awhile, but I don't feel that they really had setup White/Okada as well, was more just about wanting to push Bullet Club and White, I think.

Look, if you don't want us to visit, just say so.

I assumed it was preparing a side thrust kick, showing its martial prowess.

Wish I could say I was surprised. He has not really looked good since joining AEW.

Angels fired Maddon, because you can't fire 40 players apparently. Strangely, despite what most think, that Bench Coach Ray Montgomery was not named interim manager, Phil Nevin was. Most think Montgomery, who moved from the front office to bench coach, was the manager in waiting. I suspect, they want to give him a full year, starting next year. On Maddon, pretty sure he isn't the guy up their throwing gopher balls and swinging and missing fast balls.

I always think of Willis's cabby as Harry Canyon from Heavy Metal. It just makes it work, for some reason. It is one of the few movies I will stay on for a bit if I flip across it. And when I saw Tucker's character, hated it until I realized I was laughing my head off at him. Part of that is that he is persistent and doesn't change, ie, he makes it not be just an act. Rumor was, the character was written for Prince, which I can't imagine.

I am surprised it took that long. I mean, 5 panels?