Chavez Ravine

He does know how to get the most out of aging cheaters and a-holes.

No relation to Joe apparently:

They need to start selling electric cars.

I wonder what the fine for John Henrying the robo ump will be? Banishment to the Phantom Zone?

I think the reason that manny people are so taken aback by this scandal is that it dissipates the illusion that baseball is slightly better than everyday life. It’s the same when there are drug scandals, revelations about the exploitation of 14 year old kids in impoverished countries, and when rich owners extort cash strapped cities. I think many of us want baseball to be a haven from the greed, hubris, pride, venality, and selfishness of everyday life. We just want to see magical curveballs, majestic speed, unselfish teamwork, fun, joy. Back to reality.

This sounds awesome. If I could, I would fly out and make a long weekend out of it. I think I went to a wedding at that church once. All the Gettysburg side of the family has moved away, but I could probably get my cousin in Philly to hang with me.

What is it with amoral Houston organizations screwing CA over? I suspect there are audio tapes of Hinch and Cora chuckling about Darvish not knowing what was about to hit him.

Something like half of all the honeybees in the United States get trucked to northern California in early spring to pollinate the almonds....and the almond rental fees make up about 1/3 of all US beekeeper's revenue. Eating nothing but pesticide tinged almond pollen for a few weeks is probably not the healthiest thing to be doing, then again I grew up drinking nothing but soda and I turned out all right.....?

Yikes. That sounds gnarly. I would need a drink or ten after that. I was just musing the other day about whether people get randomly mugged like they used to. The world seems awash with disposable crap that hardly seems the hassle of fencing. What can you get for some schmuck's 3 year old iphone? I suspect even MLB players visiting the family in the DR don't carry all that much cash on them these days. All things considered, I suspect mugging ain't what it used to be. That said, people be nutty everywhere. My wife's brother (who is a scary insane looking giant mountain of a man) got mugged at gunpoint in Chicago ages ago. He gave the dude his Binny's card.

Awesome news. Congratulations and best wishes!

For all the shortstops I’ve longed for...

Yep. Most of the things that leagues are formed to do are anti-competitive and in violation of all the laws that exist to promote free markets, capitalism, etc.; since the Flood Act, that has included MLB. Collective bargaining provides a shield for all of the league stuff (i.e a draft, international allotments) to happen. Threatening to lift the shield is a powerful chip to hold. But usually collective bargaining kinda works....until it doesn’t.

I agree. My unease with the robo-Ump is the assumption that it will give us definitive truth. I suspect people will gripe about calls, promote conspiracies, and find something to question just as much in the robotic era as in the Joe West era. Plus, I would be happier if they published the error rate so that I could know when to say yeah that was an awesome strike 3 pitch!!!!!! (Within the 95% confidence interval!!!!!!!’ Heck yeah!!!!) I like parts of my life to be fuzzy and human, like the games I watch.

Cold rain is the worst. It’s the weather in western Oregon for half the year. It’s also why I am in Puerto Vallarta at the moment ?

I'm not denying the cheapness, but anything inside a convention center is about as interesting to me as attending a committee meeting on committees. Do they keep convention centers as sweltering hot in the winter as they are frigid in the summer? Outdoor events are fun.....or they make you hard like Cal Sr. Either way they are better. The O's should just have a double booth at the Christmas Village.

This is off topic, but I was looking up last year's sprint speed rankings and is Ender Inciarte really as slow as Adam Jones (both at 26.8)? I guess Ender was injured most of this past season. Prior to that his sprint speed had been consistently a bit more flashy (28.0, 27.9, 27.2, 27.9).

Apparently Randy Bass got paid $350K in 1986 to shave off his beard for a Gillette commercial. Think of the bubble gum endorsements Adam could rake in!

Gulls are generally savvy and considerate users of ballpark resources. But they sometimes get confused, like when a game is so dull they assume it must be over. Although I suspect they are actually smarter than that and are just annoyed at another late inning match-up pitching change and they are trying to speed things up. Anyway, the Giants have deployed the Cha-Cha slide as a wildlife management tool: The A's also deploy gull management in the form of Falcon McFalconface and Scott Hattibird: https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Giants-att-park-seagulls-Oracle-Park-Athletics-14067940.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Desktop)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email

Or spend a bit more and try to grab and flip a pitcher with chronic blister issues, wrongly trending peripherals, or is just old. The potential return on that sort of arbitrage seems bigger. Granted, we had Villar in the hand.

My general feeling about Villar not being here next year is a shrug. He was solid, and occasionally made some awesome plays. I liked him. Is that worth the money he will get paid? I can see why the O’s don’t think so. I suppose the more pertinent question is whether the O’s with Villar are substantially more watchable than the O’s without Villar? Shrug.

The teams (and their doctors) have an inherent conflict of interest between their goals and the player's, and those two don't necessarily overlap. Team doctors are likely going to give recommendations that tilt toward getting back on the field than towards considering long-term or comprehensive health. Also, in some cases the team may be the one with the quack doctors....or at least not very good ones.....see the recent Trent Williams case. I think the broad topic is interesting. Certainly there are lots of personal action/lifestyle clauses in contracts that seem perfectly reasonable, like not riding a motorcycle or not getting fat. But I think things can quickly get into gray areas.....if not ethically then in terms of social acceptability. The pregnancy clauses for female athletes are an example. Or I could see the argument (from a team's perspective) for wanting to have a no children clause for both male and female athletes if they think being a parent lessens a person's desire to be an obsessive gym rat.

I don’t know nothing about contract law, but can you really sign a contract that dictates the type of medical care you can or cannot seek out? Seems like that’s in the same category as signing away your immortal soul, or your first born child, or agreeing to sincerely say you are a Yankee fan.

I am just reading this thread now, so I had a time compressed roller coaster of emotions! I will just add my thanks to Tony and everyone else that makes the OH happen. The message board in particular has become a significant part of my life. If it didn’t exist I would be very sad. I suppose that I would have more time to do useful things with my life, but I am pretty sure the net result wouldn’t be a better me. I would engage with far fewer people than I currently do. I would learn less about the Orioles, baseball, and interesting music. I would laugh less. So yeah, thanks Tony!