Frayed Knot

The rule was just too inconsistent. Opposing unvaccinated players were allowed to play. Unvaccinated fans were allowed into the arena. And Kyrie himself was allowed to sit on the bench, just not able to participate.

That pretty much sums it up, both on the sports and news sides of his career. I liked his last stint at ESPN where he had a half-hour show with what seemed like carte blanche to do as he liked. But it didn't last long because nothing he does, does. In that case the network was probably at fault at least as much as him. Olbermann is foremost a baseball & hockey fan on a network which barely allows the rest of their talent to discuss either. He also wasn't shy about revealing his distaste for the current state of in big time college sports, something which certainly wasn't going to win him many fans in mgmt of a network which essentially owns and runs those sports.

Olbermann can definitely be a frustrating character.

Not clear to me what Olbermann is calling "nonsense", something GKR said, something else said on SNY, or that the Mets are flogging JdG too hard, too early.

Glavine had been largely passed over in favor of Francoeur and was doing fewer and fewer Braves games over the last year or two. I thought that an odd choice at first, particularly with Glavine being the bigger Braves star. But I guess being a native Georgian helped and Frenchie, who I assumed to be the stereotypical rock-headed jock, turned out to be surprisingly good and network jobs were quickly added to his ATL work.

I suspect this will wind up as an 'only after 12 innings' rule which, because it's not as bad as what they started with, will sound reasonable in comparison.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/22/mlb-union-agree-to-temporary-28-man-rosters-shohei-ohtani-rule/The Return of Ghost Runner But it's only for health and safety reasons [aka: the label we can slap on it so as to justify it] and it's only for the 2022 [aka: just like that experimental rule they tried out in one of the leagues back in '73] But, hey, at least they're agreeing to nine-inning games rather than the seven which constituted almost 1/4 of the NYM season last year or the other proposal for dividing the game into four quarters (OK, I made that last one up but you can't prove it wasn't under consideration ... hey, it works for football!!!) Also expanded rosters thru May 1st and a pitcher-to-DH rule (apparently existing solely for Shohei Ohtani). Owners still have to approve of all this but it's a simple majority vote (majorities are often simple IMO) and it's considered a virtual automatic.

Unfortunately, aside from toughness and hustle, he doesn't really have a role to play. Only injuries (to others) justified getting >300 ABs for a guy with a .277 OBA and OF defense which was good but no longer elite.

He was a blockhead!

Considering the Yanqui's penchant for putting out offense-first catchers while eating the consequences of sub-par defense back there, I would think if they thought there was ANY chance that Voit could even fake it behind the plate that they would have tried shoe-horning him in there. Meanwhile, Carlos Correa is a twin. Actually he's probably not a twin but he is now a Twin. Not the team I would have expected, nor would I have thought he'd wind up on only a three year deal.

Jerry Reinsdorf (CHW) did the same years ago right after coming off a contentious labor negotiation: bitched about how to hold down salaries, then went and set a new threshold with Albert Belle. Rules for thee but not for me.

Edgy MD wrote: Tops in stolen bases! And, I'm guessing, in caught stealing.

In the winter following his big splash half-season debut there were more than a few prospect touts who were high on him, saying that he wasn't what just a flash in the pan,, that he had a nice future in front of him. But then he didn't.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Missing service time also has the potential to delay Nimmo's free agency by a year. As things stand now, Nimmo will be a FA next season but he doesn't have a big buffer if he starts losing days. His service time currently sits at 5 yrs + 42 days so he needs 130 or more 'active' days in order to not get that delayed for a full season.

=G-Fafif post_id=87196 time=1647473738 user_id=55] Ralph Terry, who finished his career with the 1966 and 1967 Mets, has died at 82.

I agree. But, to your point, an honest one. Unlike, say, Aaron Rodgers.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: I wish these brave patriots standing up to the TYRANNY would at least have the courage of their misinformed convictions and say "I'm not vaxxed" instead of doing their bullshit word dances. Yeah, at least the guy I saw a few days ago walking around with a t-shirt proudly proclaiming that he was 'UN-VAXXED, UN-MASKED, AND UN-APOLOGETIC' was more honest.

=Fman99 post_id=87143 time=1647442892 user_id=86] My guess is that the Mets' FO is full of dudes and dudettes that are all hoping, and perhaps lobbying with the powers that be at City Hall, to get these rules all lifted in the next few weeks before Opening Day.

=smg58 post_id=87127 time=1647435518 user_id=62] [the Braves] paid a pretty steep price to have somebody not named Freddie Freeman be their first baseman.

One of the strengths of the NBA is that it's a star driven sport. That said, one of the great weaknesses of the NBA is that it's a star driven sport to the point where stars get to call a lot of the shots and tend to skate on being called out on things. So basically the Nets are OK with it to the extent that they can't make him get the shots and some of the league's other stars, themselves mostly vaccinated, back him up. 'Free Kyrie' has popped up on tee shirts worn by not just teammates but opposing players, as if he's being forced to sit out due to something not of his own making. It should also be pointed out that even before all this he had a tendency to intermittently sit out games for seemingly no reason and has stated that he doesn't believe the earth is round. Benjamin Grimm wrote: Is he getting paid for all the games he's missed because of foolish stubbornness? I believe he is not which, given the salaries of NBA stars these days, is only costing him tens of millions of dollars.

Yeah, I assumed FF's return was the biggest no-brainer of the off-season. He was extremely popular there (Duh!) both with fans and teammates, plus the whole coming off the WS thing and the MVP the year before, yadda, yadda. OTOH ... as unsentimental as it is, the Braves have a history of Not retaining players rather than risk getting hit with significant decline in the back-end of contracts. Andruw Jones was allowed to walk at age 30, Raffy Furcal was (supposedly) 27, plus McCann, Francouer, Klesko, etc. They got the cheaper years out of those guys before opting out of the expensive ones and have shown themselves to be right on those calls a lot more often than they've been wrong. Freeman is 32-1/2. Olson turns 28 next week.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Matt Olsen to the... Braves? Freddie Freeman gone?? WTF is happening https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/athletics-trade-matt-olson-braves.htmlhttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/athletics-trade-matt-olson-braves.html Think the Braves might be moving on from Freddie F.? Yesterday (or was it Sunday?) they trade for Matt Olson ... and today they inked him To an Eight-Year Deal!!

A rule which has ZERO to do with health and safety issues.

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=86978 time=1647228139 user_id=119] Didn't the Twins just get Isiah Kiner Falefa from [CROSSOUT]the Rangers[/CROSSOUT] a street vendor on Friday or Saturday?

What this accomplishes is to make each team's sked very close to equal with those of their in-division opponents [no more NYM vs NYY x 6 while WAS gets six cake-walks vs BAL] and closer to equal to that of other teams in their league and I suspect that was the main intent. Of course schedules used to be identically equal within each league before they went and 'fixed' stuff to the point where they decided it now needs major fixing but that's a lot of Budweiser under the bridge. Just about everything else in it suxx, partly, as noted, for the increase in out of time-zone games (not just every third year but every year) but also as the reduction of in-division games goes from just under 50% (76/162) to barely over 33% (56/162) it increases the likelihood that a division (or two) gets won by a sub-.500 club. But mainly they're spreading the sauce too thin. You don't have to be Keith bemoaning the lack of seeing a pitching staff two and three times per year like in 'the old days' to know that baseball is best when the viewers know not only their own team but have at least a decent familiarity with the other side as well. Football fans intently watch games in which they can't name ten players on both rosters combined but baseball doesn't work that way so I don't think they're accomplishing whatever it is they think they're accomplishing. Bud Selig kept selling the idea of inter-league games as if they were somehow in addition to intra-league games rather than instead of them. This just doubles down on that same logic.