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You have to care. The integrity of the whole sport is on the line here. Without that, it’s nothing more than the WWE. It’s theater. Then what’s the point?

Oh. My. Effing. God.

Cue the flying monkeys ...

I say what now?

I think that’s part of it. Another part of it is that strikeout rates are basically double what they were in Kaline’s day. The rate was 11.4% when Kaline won the batting title in 1955. Last season it was 22.6%. If a guy has 600 at bats, it’s the difference between striking out 66 times and 132 times. Those 66 times he would not have struck out would result in something like 15 or 20 extra base hits. That’s something like 20 or 30 points of batting average difference right there. That’s partly why entire leagues hit .245 now and not .270. There is some correlation between the lack of exposure to the same guys over and over and the strikeouts, but a lot of the reason must also be that the velocity and spin are so much more than in Kaline’s day. I think if 1955 Al Kaline were magically transported to 2025 to face today’s pitchers, he’d bat maybe a buck-fifty. That’s not a criticism of Al Kaline.

You’re not waiting to hear about it on Fox, right?

I acknowledge people like to blame Hinch without blaming the level of talent he has had to work with, but I'm willing to give the philosophy a fair chance to work as he gets better talent in house.

He could have put a third L in there, too.

They are showering him with riches, too.

Destroying the world in the service of a debt.

One month in and I’m already tied of the winning.

It might be as simple as different approaches work for different guys who have different talents for hitting, and that Tork can’t do much with a pitch that’s not exactly where he has to have it—at least not last year.

I have my money on "live boy."

Plus they got their English-as-an-official-language EO conveniently timed to redirect their attention away from this, so, win win win!

Fox has stumbled in the heat of the moment like this before. January 6 is the most obvious example. They just need a little time to formulate their talking points with their товарищи, a few days or maybe a week to field test it in the minor league RWM outlets, and by next Friday it will be as though they never had trouble getting behind the meltdown at all.

The following line from Zelenskyy is Bob Uecker-Major League-level brilliant: "Maybe something like yours, yeah? Maybe something better, I don't know?" ... and the "reporter" appeared to totally miss it.

Yes. Well, that and Ukraine is the enemy of his friend.

Seriously, it wasn't going to end any other way, was it? This was just the most public way we could have imagined. Zelenskyy may well be dead inside a year. Putin will not stop at Poland, either. He might stop at East Germany. Might.

Honestly, this is among the lowest of hanging fruit for the red hats.

Like so many young people in so many professions before her.

Believe desperate for something like having a baby will gravitate toward something like the sweet lie of free IVF. Even if they were to step back and analyze it and conclude it's probably not true, they don't want to miss out if it is. They are practically hoping against hope.

I’ve long felt that some people in Occupy Democrats are one light-switch flip from becoming Occupy the Capitol. A lot of people who go that hard that energetically in one direction are doing it for the thrill versus for the principles.

To be fair, the uneducated/ignorant voter who listened to what the news channel that was on in the laundromat or doctor’s office or even their place of work said, and who is horrified at the result of their vote, might be reached and brought into the tent. Those are not the people I was referring to, but they were part of the problem this time, intentionally or not. So there might be some opportunity there, if they can be made to care about something they might have even aggressively avoided with all their might before. It feels more likely they would just avoid the free and fair ballot box in the future, like a child burned by a stove, which by itself may or may not work. The hopeful pessimist is crossing his fingers for that four-ish years from now.

“You might, rabbit, you might.”