Frayed Knot

Using 'Rotten Tomatoes' as a gauge, both the critics and the audience reviews were very high. I got about a half hour in recently and was totally lost, both because i had trouble understanding the dialogue due to accents and very rapid fire delivery, and also lots of trouble following the plot. Maybe I'll give it another shot, maybe not.

Doesn't seem like my cuppa either. I've made no attempt to see it despite it being all over cable and winning a boat-full of awards.

I always find it interesting when a movie studio can't reconcile their promo photo with the billing order of names, in this case putting Fishburne's name above a teenage girl and Angela Basset's on top of Fishburne's forehead. GREASE famously had the Travolta and Newton-John pics in reverse order of the names.

The 2011 Philly season ended with 1 - 0 loss to StL in the first round of the playoffs with Howard grounding out to end the game/series. In trying to get out of the box he collapsed in a big heap and needed to have his huge self carried of the field. I can't remember now the specific injury -- Achilles tear maybe? -- but he took all winter and half the next season to heal (July 6th was his first 2012 game). Never real mobile to begin with, he became increasingly Mo Vaughn-ish after that.

Certainly. I focused on those two because they represent two opposite ends of action taken by their clubs: - Philly opting to effectively make the 30+ Howard a Phil-for-life, perhaps against better judgement - Atlanta choosing the more unsentimental and unpopular route of pivoting to another choice as soon as they realized that they couldn't keep the guy who had been a favorite in their system for 14 years within the terms they set. Neither approach is necessarily right or wrong, just examples of two potential paths involving big Pete

The idea that we're going to sign him at some price and length is certainly reasonable but the presumed inevitability of it begs the question of, then why not now or even why hasn't it already happened. And it of course still could. Just because they hit an arb number doesn't mean they can't come up with something longer that we'll hear about between now and opening day. But if nothing happens prior to the end of the '23 season then Pete is looking at complete free agency just a year away which provides all kinds of reasons for a player to NOT sign a L-T deal while also giving the team a slightly larger disincentive to commit a player will have already hit 30 y/o, especially one who is limited to the one position on the field (two if you want to treat 1B & DH as interchangeable) where it's easiest to find a bat. Another potential comp is Freddie Freeman whom the Braves famously allowed to walk away despite coming off four straight top-10 MVP seasons (including one 1st) and a WS title. Now he was turning 32 as he hit FA-gency, not 30, so the comp isn't exact and Atlanta had already squeezed 11 full seasons plus a cup of coffee year (he debuted in late 2010 a few days prior to turning 21) out of him to that point. His new deal with LA will still have a few years left by the time Pete can leave on his own so we likely won't know by then if Freddie turns out to be a good long term signing by the Dodgers or more a wishful thinking one.

Just to stipulate, the 'Pete Alonso Conundrum' is neither a lost Robert Ludlum book, nor is it the band that opened for BTO on their western Canada tour back in the '80s The question, of course, is when/whether the team should stop paying him year by year and plunge into a long term contract. The comp that keeps popping into my head, maybe because it serves as the cautionary tale, is Ryan Howard. Both are large, slugging 1st baseman who reached the majors in their mid-20s Pete did get a slight jump on Howard by playing a full season at age 24 where RH was just getting his feet wet (39 ML ABs) but Howard quickly jumped to higher peak seasons. [td]AGE[/td][td]Ryan Howard[/td][td]OPS+[/td][td]Pete Alsonso[/td][td]OPS+[/td][td]24[/td][td]39 ABs[/td][td]122[/td][td]ROY-1, MVP-7[/td][td]147[/td][td]25[/td][td]88 G, ROY-1[/td][td]133[/td][td]Covid Season[/td][td]122[/td][td]26[/td][td]MVP-1[/td][td]167[/td][td][/td][td]133[/td][td]27[/td][td]MVP-5[/td][td]145[/td][td]MVP-8[/td][td]146[/td][td]28[/td][td]MVP-2[/td][td]125[/td][td]MVP-17[/td][td]124[/td][td]29[/td][td]MVP-3[/td][td]141[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]30[/td][td]MVP-10[/td][td]127[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]31[/td][td]MVP-10[/td][td]126[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]32[/td][td]71 G[/td][td]91[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]33[/td][td]80 G[/td][td]115[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]34[/td][td]153 G[/td][td]92[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]35[/td][td]129 G[/td][td]96[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td][td]36[/td][td]112 G[/td][td]85[/td][td]-----[/td][td]---[/td] The mistake the Phillies made, and I remember thinking this at the time, is that by the time they signed Howard to a multi-year deal he was already into his early 30s and in what turned out to be the start to a significant decline in both output and availability. Had he been with the Braves (then or now) they would have wished him well and immediately set off looking for a replacement. Of course had Pete come up with the Braves they probably would have signed him long-term coming off his rookie season (or maybe while still in the middle of it) but the Mets haven't shown that they buy into that philosophy and certainly weren't going to do it in the midst of the Wilpon/Cohen transitional mess. Alonso becomes a FA the winter he'll turn 30 following the '24 season. Given the length of contracts now in vogue it'll be tough NOT to sign him into his late '30s and we know that the track record of aging sluggers in the steroid testing era, even among the elites (Pujols, Cabrera) isn't a pretty one. If you want to pick another slugging comp, Judge, with an MVP plus two other top fives under his belt, just signed for 9 years starting at age 31. Be interesting to see how that one turns out. So I guess what I'm asking here is, what's your plan Stan?

Where is this running?

Odd that it took Stallone this long before he got cast as an Italian mobster.

That's $10.98 more than I'd pay, but your milage may vary.

'The Titular Cat', not one of Robert Ludlum's better novels.

The walk rate might be the most impressive part. A 65 - 70 point gap between a hitters BA & OBA is about average. Lurking around 100 and even 100+ point gap when young and young for your league is a very good sign.

My first thought about this movie is to wonder whether there's enough of a story in the incident to justify a feature length film.

There's an old line about how the small guy has to prove he can play while the big guy has to prove he can't. So, yeah, particularly when they're in the early stages of of rating talent, the smaller ones really need to stand out in order get selected. With your friend's kid, if he shines in JuCo maybe that gets him to a bigger school which, if he continues to improve, makes him a draft pick even if he never gets any bigger. Jett obviously has enough skills and potential to not just get drafted but make the top half of the 1st round. Do that and they stop caring how tall you are.

Headed to Syracuse Was quoted as saying that this not only means he's closer to the big leagues but that now he'll get to hang with FMan, so it's a Win-Win promotion.

=Fman99 post_id=86424 time=1646310482 user_id=86] The original is still funny to me - it came out when I was 11 years old and much of the humor I think was aimed right at me. Everything afterwards, including GBII, was and is garbage.

I was only 'Meh' on the original so have never been even slightly tempted by the existence of sequels, remakes, re-boots, re-castings, re-imaginings, etc.

I remember starting the book and then for some reason not finishing it. I don't remember why. Didn't even realize there WAS a movie.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Stupid-funny at times. iow, a Will Ferrell movie?

Yeah, I'm sure it's that she wasn't available for comment and/or wasn't returning calls. And speaking of Disney streaming and a lack of comments: it seems that their streaming service for THE SIMPSONS available in Hong Kong omits an episode where the family is in China and a joke about Tianamen Square is made. The fam comes across a plaque stating that 'On this Spot in 1989 Absolutely Nothing Happened' It's unclear at this point whether Disney is the one who pulled the episode or whether China did, or if it was a mutual decision. Both parties, it seems, are being equally non-communicative about it.

Edgy MD wrote: That's pretty much our strategy. Frayed Knot wrote: Director Peter Jackson claims that Disney wanted the release scrubbed of the Fab Four smoking and swearing. Paul, Ringo, and Olivia Harrison refused to go along. So ... Yoko would have been cool with that? The brief account I read made no mention of her so I don't know if/to what extent Yoko was involved in the process. You'd think she'd have the same right of input as the others but is increasingly infirm in recent years (nearing 90) and maybe just wasn't available for comment while the other three parties went on record.

Director Peter Jackson claims that Disney wanted the release scrubbed of the Fab Four smoking and swearing. Paul, Ringo, and Olivia Harrison refused to go along.

Edgy MD wrote: So, I guess I'm slogging through this on my own. As long as the only way to view this involves paying (even more) cash to the Mouse/ESPN conglomerate, this will remain unseen by me.

They at least had enough archival footage to keep it from being told totally from Barry's perspective. Most of it was, just not all.

Willets Point wrote: I don't know anything about Paul Williams beyond his honorary Muppet status. Basically he was a songwriter writing mostly soft-rock hits for the Carpenters [We'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN, RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS] and others [OLD FASHIONED LOVE SONG] which in turn got him time on talk shows (Carson often) where he was charming and funny which in turn led to TV and movie roles which made him a star beyond what a mostly behind the scenes writer (he'd sing his own stuff too) normally gets even guest hosting the Tonight Show in Carson's absence on a number of occasions. The fame, by his own admission went straight to his head which led to many drinks going down his throat and many powders up his nose to the point where he'd host shows visibly drunk or worse leading to a downfall quicker than his initial rise. He eventually sobered up and resurfaced as the head of music publisher ASCAP and I guess still gives performances now and then.