gehringer_2

Tigers on their way another QS loss. Someone kick these batters in the arse.

They should have listened to Dan and gone inside

I’d be glad to take that half a loaf if we can get it.

He more comfortable every day with not seeing the ball

This. Exactly this. Why should we spend our lives in an armed camp - that's an insane idea of how to live - when it's so much more logical, reasonable, effective, to just remove the instrumentality that creates all this danger in the first place - and serves no other purpose? The guns.

Look at this thread for instance. I think any person willing to look at the facts and evidence objectively should easily come to the conclusion that you are far less safe with a gun in your house (unless it is locked away safely in a gun case) than with one, and thus that idea you are going to save the day in a home invasion is pretty far fetched. Can it happen? Sure. Does it happen? Hundreds of times less than someone in the house is harmed by the gun. So what leads to the inability of Americans to process the objective facts of the situation? I guess it beats me. I suppose they don't do a very good job of assessing the facts of a dozen other social/political/economic conditions, so why do I bother asking the question?

right. It seems it's pointless to keep repeating the truth that in any tactical situation, initiative is everything. The perp has it, you don't and never will unless you are going to spend your life standing guard in a pillbox at your front door (in which case the perp will use the back....)

there are two problems - mass death weapons and too many handgun. The former need to go away, the qualifications for possessing the later need to be much tighter. handguns are not even all that useful for protecting a home either because in any home with children they need to be locked up and your average home invader is not going to politely stand aside while you wake yourself up and arm yourself. And in any home where they are not locked up the probabilities appear high they are more likely to kill a member of the household than an invader.

He's only 34, which isn't that old for a pitcher, and he's only lost 2 mph off his average fastball, but I would guess that the problem is that his velo was never great to begin with and with even a 2 mph loss plus the reduction in stickum, his FB is pushing the minimum to get MLB hitters out. His FB runs above average was as high as 17 in Houston throwing 90, it's now -5 throwing 88. Now matter how good your off-speed if you don't have enough FB to set it up, you're going to struggle.

But what were the Buffalo Bill shows? Not having ever seen one I have no idea but were they a lot of marksmanship and skill performances and not necessarily people shooting guns at each other? Not so mention - what % of the population ever saw a live show of any kind compared to the kind of reach that modern media has. There are probably more than 350 million TV in the US and there are probably eyeballs in front of 80 % every single night.

but when you say culture, I assume you are talking about what produces these guys, what Chasfh (I think) and I are getting at is why enough of the larger public, who aren't all necessarily gun nuts, fall for the "good guy with a gun/I want a gun in my house to protect me", or even, "I'm OK if my neighbor wants a gun his house to protect him", politics instead of realizing that they are chasing unicorns. True, this wouldn't even matter if guns were not so available here, it's a knock on effect but it influences the politics of why change doesn't happen, that's it harder to get a consensus even on the part of people who don't own guns to take away the guns of others.

This was written by John LeCarre 40yrs ago in 1980. It's stuck in my head ever since. It's a scene placed at night at the site the assassinated body of an old retired agent. The police inspector is walking LeCarre's spymaster - George Smiley, through the crime scene. "Most people expect to be shot in the chest really, don't they, sir?" the Superintendent remarked brightly. He had learned that small talk sometimes eased the atmosphere on such occasions. "Your neat round bullet that drills a tasteful hole. That's what most people expect. Victim falls gently to his knees to the the tune of celestial choirs. It's the Telly that does it, I suppose. Whereas you real bullet these days can take off an arm or leg, so my friend in brown tell me." The effect has been growing in the population pretty much ever since the the Hollywood Western and Gangster movies where every gun death depicted had to be in service the Hayes morality code. We are conditioned from the time we first turn on a television to associate the firing of guns with good outcomes - the good guys never die, the bad guys can never shoot straight, the right guns always win the day. The reality is that the firing of a gun in anger virtually never has good outcome for anybody.

Saw a side by side pic the other day showing where one of the top end electronics packages had been removed from the M777s that were sent. obviously the long term ambition is to move the east/ideological border east to include Ukraine, the hope being that this ‘experience’ with the Russians will pull them permanently into “Europe” as their world view. Could fail, but a chance the West probably needs to take. of course as I write this I can’t help but think the same args were made about Iraq. The counter arg would be Ukraine is already much closer to the West than Iraq was/is which improves the odds.

you are spot on again.

yup. And this is exactly what is going to happen. Obsession with the details will be the prime political distraction from the pro gun side to obfuscate the issue. What it comes down to is that there may be some perfect world in which America's weapons nutballs can have have their deadly high power toys without it turning into he country into the shambles that America is today, but it's utopia, you can/will never get to that world. It's much easier to just get rid of the stupid deadly toys to get back to some measure of a sane society.

so late round 2019 pick as JR out of VaTech. Had a huge rookie league launch with +1000 OPS in 160 AB . Jumped to AA last year and was not terrible - 750 OPS, 25% K rate. Back to AA for '22. Had a 740 OPS at the end of April, then lit the afterburners: > 1400 OPS for May! K rate holding at ~25%. And he is hitting LHP as a LHB - in limited ABs. I would think you might as well be aggressive with all these COVID kids who have already lost a year. I don't know if you swap Robson though, doesn't it look like at this point he is on board as a long term AAA guy? If you don't have room for him give him his release and let him catch on with another AAA team if he can.

it actually has rained almost non-stop here in A^2 since before game time. I think it's one of those patterns where the rain could have fallen anywhere in a large region at any time. Still, it seems you could still start it and see where you got. But I wonder --- if the decision to call prior to game time is up to the home team I can imagine Avila wanted no part of having one of his two still standing starters out there in slippery conditions.

Game winner for Helmer with about 5 sec left. Good for him.

isn't this the 2nd time it has happened this season? I thought they called one the 1st week or 2 of the season early in the afternoon and then nothing happened that night? Not sure if was here or on the road though.......(looks through sched and GD thread....._ ) KC on April 17. Called early in the day and the claim was that it ended up not raining in KC at game time.... I suppose they can justify it by saying the field was soaked or something.

Dylan Smith with another strong outing, 6 IP 1H 1BB 7K Greene out the game after 3 AB. LO SS, GO 1B, GO 2B.(No K's)

A couple of hours ago Weather Underground had the rain moving out, but it looks just it just parked itself in the City. It did stop here.....

Or "There is a plan but Man keeps setting it back" - or basically the 'long arc of history' concept.

yeah - the whole 'predestination' thing doesn't work with free will. Can't square that circle. Voids moral responsibility and no Church will go there. So you are left with God that is omnipotent but doesn't know the future, God that is omnipotent and omniscient but chooses not to intervene, and God that is neither omnipotent nor omniscient ( e.g. alien architect concept). Organized church doesn't like to talk about any of those options much but generally settles on some variation of #2.

It's interesting how the narrative has shifted over the years. Dan Marino, John Elway, Drew Brees - great QBs who could not consistently get their teams deep in the playoffs - you could list a lot more. So the narrative was that a good QB was a piece of the puzzle but you wouldn't get far without the pieces around him. But it seems that with Rodgers, Mahomes, and Brady - their teams are there every year, and there is a shift in the narrative toward the side that 'if you find *that* guy - you are golden almost regardless of what else you do". Of course not completely, but more than in the past. Is it because we are getting QBs so good that they dominate like they never could in the past, or maybe the game keeps shifting to where the QB position is more and more dominant than ever.