slikmar

Don't forget, regarding Cassie, that at age 10, her father, Hope, and the Drs. Pym disappeared for 5 years. She already knew about the quantum stuff through her father being Ant Man, though not sure she had met any of the Pyms. Having said that, i could see her spending those 5 years trying to learn everything she could about Pym's research in trying to find out what happened to them.

As an example - see Purdy of the 49ers, Mr. Irrelevant (final draft pick) now leading a 5-0 team having beaten out Garropolo (solid QB who just seemed to win but got hurt) and Trey Lance - a first round draft pick for the starting job.

Totally agree with Old Man's review of the movie. Whiny Barry is about as annoying as idiot frat boy Thor, for different reasons.

Saw latest Expendables. If enjoyed the others - which I did - will enjoy this one. They tried 2 twists, though I pretty much guessed both immediately.

I have watched it for years. Picked up the fox soccer channel specifically for AFL and hopefully my wife can watch some of the women's soccer on it. Also, they show the world rugby 7s, which I prefer to the full rugby. Used to be able to watch the big bash cricket, but that went to some streaming channel or something.

3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Are the walls...bleeding?

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

Tampa drew 19,704 fans for today's playoff game--the lowest non-COVID playoff crowd since the 1919 Black Sox.

 

Google tells me that the 103-loss Rockies averaged 29,608 fans per game this season.

That's ok, they finally are able to build a new stadium, pretty much in the same area so people still won't show up.

On 9/30/2023 at 12:53 AM, assault said:

My prediction of a Collingwood victory was correct, although the margin was impressively narrow. 90-86.

 

Having watched part of it, it is clear that I was correct in my assessment of the AFL's potential to become popular in the USA.

 

Freedom Football definitely has potential.

Finally got to finish watching. Boy was this a game of quantity over quality (I have seen many games go the opposite). Yes Collingwood had 90 points, but they were 12 goals and 18 behinds (which while watching the announcers call misses) where Brisbane, who have some amazing forwards (Cameron, who I watched play half a grand final 3-5 years ago after having his arm caught between his and an opponents body and bent backward, no idea how wasn't dislocated, Joe Daniher, Eric Hipwood (who seemed to disappear for most of this game, probably a result of Magpie defense which can be smothering) scored 13 goals and 8 behinds. so 30 scores for the Magpies and 21 for Brisbane. Whole game was close and enjoyable to watch.

Team, probably, most in trouble is Milwaukee. AZ won the game that MIL needed, given their game 2 starter isn't available and they used a lot of bullpen arms AND D'Backs basically have their top 2 pitchers for games 2 and 3.

I wanted to mention

Watched the AFL Preliminary Final between Collingwood and Great Western Sydney. Fabulous game, both teams with excellent defense and back and forth. Final score Magpies: 8 10 58 and Giants 8 9 57. Needless to say, the last minute or 2 was a frenzy of play.

3/4 way through other prelim final between Brisbane and Carlton. Carlton had a 32 to 8 lead at one point near end of first period, by end of 2nd Brisbane led 42 - 39. at end of 3 its Brisbane 63 43, so a good game but one really dominated by the Lions. Will see how 4th plays out.

This was better:

https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2023/09/27/broadcasters-crack-up-when-braves-go-from-johnson-to-hand-for-cubs-batter-mastrobuoni/

Maybe his mandate for the defense was to get the ball back to the offense as quickly as possible and he figured out that if the other team scored fast, then the offense got the ball back. It's not his fault if the OC doesn't do his job.

16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

In other sports, I'd buy that, but not in baseball.  There simply isn't that much difference, in my book, between a top-5 pick and a late-first pick...in part because there's so many options, in part because the failure rate is REALLY high, in part because LOTS of lower-round picks blossom later on.  Overall farm system, that I'd buy more, but that's not related to draft order.  Some consistent losers simply don't spend...Pirates, Royals, Reds.  Some have had serious systemic/institutional problems...A's and Rockies.  Some are, I think, just perfectly happy to be competitive, and sneak into the playoffs every now and again...but will NOT overspend.  Minnesota's the lead here.  Many mis-build, IMO...MLB Now was talking Ohtani, and raised a VERY good point, IMO:  when you blow the budget for 1, maybe 2 players, you frequently leave the rest of the roster badly deficient.  The guest they had one today made the point:  he doesn't want Ohtani *at the price he's going to command.*  Can it work?  Sometimes, but SO often it doesn't.  A 10 WAR player doesn't fix a -5 WAR roster.

I agree that it seems like would work less in MLB, but it still seems to be the mentality out there. Total tear downs to rebuild minors, compete until those players pass arbitration, rinse and repeat.

Baseball has become, like other sports, extremes due to the emphasis on drafting. As they say, you don’t want to be in the middle. Either you compete for championships or lose as much as possible. See Houston and Baltimore, losers of a hundred games multiple times before becoming good.

2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

This also means the Yankees are nearly toast.  Their wild card elimination is shown as 7...but with those games between the teams they have to pass, it's more like 4.  Red Sox, it's more like 2.

And I feel their should be much rejoicing on the day both are eliminated. would be karma if happened on the same day.

You may be right, but watching him in the dugout (he cleared everything because there was a chance whatever procedure he is having on his arm might have been done today), he is laughing with players and enjoying watching game. I realize, odds are he won't be back and will go to a team that can almost guarantee a playoff run, but no one really knows. He has not said anything and the Angels have basically allowed him to dictate how much he plays and pitches, not sure any other team would have done that or will do that (its a big reason he signed with Angels, as most other teams planned to have him do one or the other).

For instance, one of those looks bad things, Rendon coming out and saying he was diagnosed with a fractured Tibia, not just a bone bruise. What turns out is was the 5th doctor who diagnosed that after the first 4 - 2 provided by team, 2 chosen by Rendon and his people - hadn't AND the treatment is the same for both, so in the end didnt matter. Problem is, Rendon has proven to be a prima dona when dealing with the press (lucky for him he is in anaheim and not one of the east coast fanatic teams) when questioned about injuries and how things are going. And when asked if he felt like he had let fans down with the number of games/way he has played (160 or so out of 450 or something) he basically said he didn't care.

Reading The Portable Door by Tom Holt after seeing the movie and liking the quirkiness of it. I have never said the following words before - I liked the movie better. Not sure exactly the problem other then to say the book feels like almost a different story AND the author writes too many words (feels like he was paid by the page/word). The book feels plodding to me. Too many page long paragraphs describing nothing really. I am halfway through now, a little more actually, and the weirdness from the movie that started almost immediately didn't really begin until 1/3 of the way through. Not sure if will pick up book 2, will have to decide later.

He should have known better then to wear red.

So, leading the league in guys on the various ILs wasn't enough for the Angels. The hottest hitter in their lineup, coming off the week he was named player of the week last week, ruptures a bicep while in the On-Deck circle.

sounds like an Oblique maybe.

9 hours ago, unclevlad said:

4-14 since winning the first 2 against the Angels in mid-August.  Given up 6+ runs 11 times in that stretch, all losses.  Scored 4 or less 9 times, losing 7.  Dropped from over 90% playoff probability on August 19th, to 55% today;  if the season ended today, in fact, they'd be OUT.

hmm, I often have heard losing in contagious, but you would have thought they were smart enough to inoculate themselves when they came to play the Angels. I mean, those are exactly the type of number the angels have seemed to have. heck, last night, our closer, with a 1 run lead blew the game. He started the season 23 for 23 in save opportunities.

Apparently tonight, to rub salt in the wound, Scherzer got bounced around to the tune of 7 runs in 5 innings while Verlander looked like Verlander.

I have a couple series been enjoying:

Reading the Hedge Wizard series by Alex Maher - LITRPG series, better then I thought would be reading description. Recommend it.

Listening to the Collin McCool Junkyard Druid by M.D. Massey - Urban Fantasy stuff set in Austin Texas. Up to book 9 or so of the series. Enjoyable. Again, recommended if you are a fan of the urban fantasy stuff.

Apparently was a fight with Jack Perry that was big enough for others to feel endangered, and given only Punk fired I get impression he was instigator and escalator.

5 hours ago, Starlord said:

All I can picture now is Mystique changing into Stryker (aka Brian Cox) in front of Wolverine.

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

Solid but not spectacular == .500 ball club and no playoffs.

Agreed, but if you have the "3 aircraft carriers" playing to their full ability, then thats really what you need are those solid guys. Problem is, Rendon hasn't shown anything since Angels signed him to show could get back and Trout can't seem to stay healthy anymore.