Frayed Knot

"Accidental Fentanyl Intoxication" is being cited as cause of death.

A bit premature, and still a small sample size, but perhaps a candidate for the 2025 (and beyond) NYM 1st baseman: 2024 June + July stats (not including tonight): Pete Alonso: .242/.320/.445 in 128/147 ABs/PAs Mark Vientos: .270/.320/.513 in 115/125 ABs oe: Age difference = 5 years [25 & 30 this December]. Payroll difference = ?????, but a whole lot!! At the very least it's something to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season.

Only 46 ML ABs, 38 of which came with the Seattle Pilots thus reducing the surviving Pilots by one.

Well it did exist. But now that the threads have been merged perhaps the 'address' changed and, besides, the merger makes the link meaningless anyway.

Discussion on this topic has been going on for a while. https://phpbb3.ultimatemets.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32061

Papa Jeff Burroughs still living at just 73, so he could be around for a long while still. I remember Sean as a top prospect right around the time the internet was making it easier to discover and track top prospects. He was going to be the BA & OBA guy who would buck the trend of Power! Power! Power! that was dominating in the late '90s/early 2000's But then his BA & OBA turned out to be nothing special all while he managed to knock just 12 career HRs in about three full seasons' worth of ML ABs scattered across seven different years. Jeez, 43!?!

Add to the list of cautionary tales, one Paul Goldschmidt. - a 981 OPS/177 OPS+ season and an MVP in his age 34 season in 2022 - he then fell to 810/120 in 2023. Still good but a big fall. - and while it's too early to call this season a disaster, it's certainly a disaster so far as we approach the 1/4 point in the season. Now the good thing from the Cardinals standpoint is that if this fall looks like it'll be permanent this is the final year of his contract just as he turns 37 in September. But imagine if this start does foreshadow the type of player he'll be from this point forward and he was signed, as some are advocating for Pete, through age 38 or more?

I conflated the wild hair styles.

Never watched it in full. Saw pieces of it here and there. It is, of course, a total work of fiction although that didn't stop Stone from selling it as "an alternative truth" and demanding that schools show it to every student in the land. Garrison was considered a nut by a good chunk of the assassination conspiracy theorists crowd, but Stone makes him the hero. In the one trial he brought (against the Pesci character) the acquittal came in about 45 minutes and I believe it only took that long because the jury wanted lunch first. Side note: Garrison was eventually defeated out of his New Orleans District Attorney position in 1973 following corruption charges (for which he too was acquitted) by Harry Connick Sr., father of the signer.

So these first five weeks of this season have thrown an interesting wrench into the P.A. free agency tour. Right now he (and McNeal) is/are basically the worst hitter(s) on the team.

This is one which, for some reason or another, I never got around to.

Yup. And I also doubt it's a free as they make it sound.

The other come-on I've noticed from these in-game gambling ads is some version of: 'make one $5 bet and get 150 (or 200) dollars worth of 'free' bets'. I have no idea what they mean by this and, being a non-gambler, I don't really care to know. But would I REALLY get a couple hundred dollars worth of bets using the house's money just for making one tiny bet upon signing up or are there a bunch of read-the-fine-print strings attached? I'm betting on the latter.

Almost certainly, yes. More unseasoned newcomers drawn in by the newly legal status in their area and the newly formed association with their sport which used to shun it. And, 'Hey look, here's a chance to "maximize my profit". The gambling version of "Supersize it!"

Speaking of sports gambling in general ... Now that the leagues went from a no-dating policy with gambling to going to bed with it on the first date (and second and third and ...) it's not surprising that the ads for it -- all over the place during any game -- are not only common but are playing to the lowest common denominator. Their biggest come-on is to invite players to "maximize their profit incentive" which basically means to get in on one of their 'parlay' bets where, in order to to win the bet, you need multiple conditions to all go your way. So where a win under those conditions would 'maximize your profit' the odds of that actually happening go way down, but of course they don't say that. Many parlay bets are essentially sucker bets which suck in the amateurs and are, from what I've read, more common with these new legal platforms than they ever were via those supposedly sleazy old school illegal bookies.

NBA player Jontay Porter banned for life over a gambling scandal.

And he remained married to the former Susan Kekich ever since the infamous 'swap'. The other half of that deal lasted just a short time.

The pop culture moment I associate with 9/11 was the Ryan Adams release NEW YORK, NEW YORK The album, GOLD, wasn't released until several weeks later but the single was came ahead of it including the video which was shot on location on 9/7 with the towers featured in the background for much of the song. [YOUTUBE]hmHgY_J63Ik[/YOUTUBE] Saw TRAINING DAY but a whole bunch of years ago so don't remember a whole lot but, like Sharpie, I remember thinking at the time that it was merely meh.

Shohei in the midst of his press conference now ... but I can't understand a damn word he's saying!!

I think generally when a team signs a new player to a decade long contract they like to get at least to Day Two before a scandal breaks out around him. Oh well.

I first saw Don Gullett in this game http://ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=1431&tabno=D Second game of a DH where the DH itself was delayed by torrential downpours earlier in the day. But dad and I waited it out and they eventually played all 18. Mets won the opener and had Seaver going in the night cap but, despite having 2-0 and 5-3 leads, GTS couldn't hold on eventually serving up a 3R HR in the 7th to cap an ugly line: 7 earned in 7 IP on 11 Hits and 5 BBs What I remember most about that game though was Gullett. He was a rookie that year pitching almost exclusively in relief including an early season game vs the Mets. But I don't think I had heard of him until he came out of the bullpen to start the 6th with NYM up 5-4 and, while Seaver was blowing up in the 7th, Gullett faced 12 batters that day and retired all 12 while K'ing 8 plus two foul pop-ups to the catcher, iow, two fair balls were hit. He was 19 years old and I think that was the day I learned about the expression 'throwing BBs' because it looked that way even from the stands. Flashing back to what I remember I'm getting a strong Billy Wagner comp in both style and velo. The downside to all that hard throwing -- whether directly or otherwise -- was that he threw his last ML pitch at age 27 despite, as Greg alluded to above, owning a stunning 109-50 (.686) career record w/a 3.11 ERA He finished up with the Yanx as one of Steinbrenner's early attention getting FA signings. He pitched well for them in '77 (tho not in the WS) but not well at all in '78 and was done by July.

A bit like 'Dream Team' basketball 1992 It was the first time pros (at least by capitalist country standards) were to be included, but the first reaction by Jordan specifically and several others as well was, 'I've already done an Olympics (as an amateur) and have no interest in doing it again. Let someone else take my place'. Then their agents got ahold of them and explained how they'd look like an anti-patriot (and right on the heels of the Gulf War no less) and doing so would potentially toss endorsement deals out the window and other bad pub stuff. That was enough to not only get the stars willing to get in but also to band together in order to keep those they didn't like (Isiah Thomas) out. Once that was all settled then the only snag remaining came when the Nike athletes among them were informed that evil Reebok held the uniform rights. That was solved by draping American flags over their shoulders (and conveniently across the logo) at awards podium time. See, just look how patriotic I can be!!' One can only imagine a similar manager/artist talk: 'But Bruce, you'll look like you WANT children to starve if you don't agree to this!!'

I don't think it is either, although whether it is or isn't has little to do with the topic on which this thread is based. This is not about whether Pete is on the team this season as much as it is what are the owner's and POBO's plans for the long term of a 1B/DH/Slugger who is eligible to be a FA in nine months and will turn 30 in ten.

Yup. Those two categories have traditionally been linked most of the time.

And it did get a Best Pic nod so it's not like a total snub. But, yeah, when the female director and female lead get passed over but the male supporting doesn't it raiseds eyebrows. #oscarssomale