Frayed Knot

Didn't see them two either.

Never saw it. Don't remember even contemplating watching it.

Giancarlo Stanton will open the season on the IL. Elbow issues.

Sudden thought as we're on the eve of the Oscars here. There's a small part as a black bluesman named Brownie McGhee in COMPLETE UNKNOWN. He was the guy on the public TV piece with Pete Seeger and Dylan. There's nothing wrong with the part as I guess it's meant to show how 'folkie' Dylan had always had at least one foot in R&R/blues and would therefore never be as 'pure' as the folk crowd wanted. But the part seemed maybe a bit too big to me and not really necessary for the story. Other characters with larger connections to Bob in that era (Dave Van Ronk for instance) were on screen but with much smaller parts and not even identified by name. And it's not like the thought that Dylan was never the wholly committed Folkie some fans wanted him to be wasn't conveyed in numerous other ways in the flick. So while I'm going to assume that the Dylan/McGhee TV meeting actually took place, was there any other connection between the two that made his character relevant? And then it hit me. Did they write in this part because, without one, there would have been no significant speaking parts for black actors and therefore, by the rules Hollywood put in several years ago, no possibility of an Oscar nomination much less a potential win?

Nothing was said about their long-running 'no hair past the collar' rule, so I guess that one's still in place. The humorous part of MFY image keeping was when they had Jason Giambi (plus one of their pitchers though I forget now which) who always wore arm sleeves as if recovering from some injury. Except it was really so the team could pretend that they'd never have a Yanqui with tattoos. That unofficial policy lasted until they simultaneously signed AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia for their 2009 squad and those guys' arms were so tatted up that they would have to play in burqas in order to hide the evidence, so the gig was up.

More likely it was to try and create a trade market for him.

It all of course stemmed from when George first bought the team in the early '70s when it was assumed by George-like people that anyone with longer hair and beards was a hippie, fag, commie. One of his early memos became famous at the time. It was early enough to where he still didn't know many of the players' names but he wasn't going to let that stop him. So he left a note to one of his underlings to the effect that: 'numbers 15, 23, and 31 need haircuts!!!'

"The answer to all your questions is 'money' " -- longtime TV sports producer Don Ohlmeyer on why television made a particular decision or chose a certain path Of course it comes down to money. Not sure how long the MLB/ESPN package had to run but Manfred, no doubt looking ahead to what happens whenever it was scheduled to end, likely figured 'this partnership isn't doing us much good as it is so why not get out now?' and I suspect that ESPN was only too happy to agree.

I doubt that this is the whole truth as to why this (35 year?) partnership is ending, but good for Manfred for framing it this way. When it first started, the four letter network couldn't get enough baseball: four to five games per week including the Sunday Night exclusive, BB2N every night, and hosts that were at least conversant in the sport. But in recent years, aside from the SN game itself and the lead up to it, the programming on most of the rest of the various ESPN 'platforms' either ignores or insults baseball. The question of what replaces this is going to be interesting and quite possibly not in a good way.

So this makes DJT a real man?!?!?!!

"Likely"? Sure. But we all thought the other guy was likely too. btw, if Pete plays more or less everyday* and HRs at the same rate as last season, he'll reach Straw on or about Game 129. I didn't dig through the schedule to find out exactly when that is. * as he has for almost his entire career to date. He's appeared in 846 out of a possible 870 games played from 2019-24 (over 97%) Not saying that his luck is 'due to run out' or anything but he has been remarkably fortunate so far, especially with 85 HBPs

Just sayin'. We were sure it was going to happen for Wright ... and then it didn't happen. Right now Pete is a slightly down year or a several week stay on the IL from not reaching Straw this year. And we won't know if there's even going to be a second season until after this one.

I remember how sure we all were that David was going to break Straw's record.

I'm just glad that Pete & Boras read my post at the top of this page and came to their senses. Now compare this final agreement to the reported seven year deal he turned down (fall/winter '22?) or to the variety of proposals floated (both from within this forum and from various outside sources) on the early pages of this thread. The only thing constant is change.

I can live with that!!!!

Yeah, it's tough to see what the Pete/Scott end game is here. Any offer that tops the Mets offer, or one they will potentially offer to match, isn't likely to top it by much as owners don't seem to get tricked into bidding against themselves nearly as much these days. So is Pete prepared to go with the highest bid even if that bid is only nominally better and it winds up landing his Floridian butt in Canada*? Or will he take the bid which takes him away from his publicly stated preferred choice simply out of spite that the Mets didn't offer higher? You've got to wonder whether the stress and uncertainty of waiting out these last few months is going to be worth 'winning' whatever winds up as the cherry-on-top winning salary. * even if they do have lots more actual Polar Bears there

I'll take 'Sentences Never Typed Before Ever' for $600', Ken.

Rich Dauer - 10 year (1976-85) career as a 2B/3B, all with Baltimore, including their 1983 WS team - 72

The group of owners who banded together for the purpose of ousting Fay Vincent (Fred was among the anti-Fay clan, as were Selig, Reinsdorf, and enough others to carry the day) were mostly (possibly entirely?) Jewish. Not that the religion of the owners in the group had anything to do with it, but that didn't stop the WASPish Nelson Doubleday from calling Fay after the coup was a fait de accompli to say, "Looks like the Jew Boys got you".

I wonder if it was the Jew boys that got him?

Is it still Friday?!?

Is it still Friday?

Fixed it for you

Those who Did get Best Director nods: - Sean Baker: Anora - Brady Corbet: The Brutalist - James Mangold: A Complete Unknown - Jacques Audiard: Emilia Perez - Coralie Fargeat: The Substance .... all connected to one of the nominated films Best Actor: - Adrian Brody: The Brutalist - Timothee Chalamet: A Complete Unknown - Coleman Domingo: Sing Sing - Ralph Fiennes: Conclave - Sebastian Stan: The Apprentice Best Actress: - Cynthia Erivo: Wicked - Karla Sofia Gascon: Emilia Perez - Mikey Madison: Anora - Demi Moore: The Substance - Fernanda Torres: I'm Still Here

When they upped the nominated movies to ten but left directors capped at five, instances of 'snubbed' directors inevitably became a yearly story.