Frayed Knot

Not quite sure what the Colombians were all nuts over, the dude was clearly out. Had to send him though, even though the FO wasn't that deep.

During La La Land's renewed lap around theaters on the strength of its Oscar haul including its (temporary) best picture nod, I noticed one which is designating certain showings of the film as a sing-along, presumably for those who have either seen it multiple times already and/or have memorized the soundtrack through audio recordings. Even if I were tempted to re-see this one on the big screen, I'd think I'd confine myself to the standard showing.

Andrew Miller clearly hates America

Mets and Nats have essentially been .500 vs each other over the last two seasons; Nats were 12-7 in 2016 when they were the better team while the Mets went 11-8 in 2015 when they were. And in particular I have memories of that stretch in Aug/Sept '15 when the division was up for grabs and our side took six straight. So, iow, the last way I'm going to see today's game is as a continuation of some ugly trend.

#4 = Dice-K

- Adam Jones is today's All-American hero, singling in the walk-off run in the 10th for the U.S. win over Colombia. - In a game still going, Seth Lugo started for Puerto Rico and tossed 5-1/3 innings of one-hit ball vs Venezuela before running up against the 1st round pitch-count limit (65). 3-0 in favor of PR in bottom 6th

d'Kong76 wrote: Wins the 2017 Super Joe Award. aka: the award traditionally reserved for the small-ish white guy.

Well sure, who doesn't!

Anyone who's even somewhat artistic and with a jones towards getting themselves on TV needs to show up with some sort of variation on this on a banner during an early season game at CitiField It'd be a can't miss. [fimg=200:2jch6df8]https://cdn0.littlethings.com/app/uploads/2015/11/0000_Layer-Comp-12-600x313.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8][fimg=200:2jch6df8]http://www.backdropsfantastic.com/backdrop_images/300's/HA-022-Spider-Web-1.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8] [fimg=200:2jch6df8]http://cdn-image.realsimple.com/sites/default/files/styles/rs_main_image/public/1463163958/retro-table-top-fan.jpg?itok=s0XINRyk[/fimg:2jch6df8][fimg=200:2jch6df8]https://images.halloweencostumes.com/products/11366/1-1/brown-caveman-club.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8]

Didn't see any of them but it sounds like there were some fun games last night. - Australia just missed advancing by losing 4-3 to Cuba. All of Cuba's runs came on a 5th inning Grand Slam. The Aussies scored one in the 7th plus one more in the 8th but couldn't tie it in the 9th. - Italy scored [u:1sfe1iuk]5 in the 9th[/u:1sfe1iuk], all with no outs, to stun Mexico 10-9 in that pool's opening game. Starting CF and leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo (Wyoming is, I believe, a suburb of Turin) singled in the tying run after Mexico brought in Ollie Perez to pitch to him.

Although Bill Hands and Barry Foote were both Cubs for part of their careers, I long thought it was too bad that they were never teammates. Foote also ever hit against Hands; he was 1 for 3 career against Rollie Fingers but now I'm afraid my little joke here is getting out of ... well, you get the idea.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Game #122 IGT - Mets @ Giants 8/19/16 Man that was one rough IGT all around, not just the part about the Lugo intro. On the plus side, that night was pretty much rock bottom for the season as they went 27-13 from the game game on. They were, as it turned out, able to hold off the Phillies.

I remember an IGT last season where the listing of Lugo as that day's starter was met with responses of: 'you gotta be fucking kidding me!', and others saying how this showed a total failure on Sandy's part for not having a better 9th* starter on hand. Well sometimes you don't know you have until you have it. He certainly wasn't high on anyone's radar going into last year, then suddenly he's giving a decent account of himself both in relief and particularly as a starter where he was 5-1 and the team 7-1 in eight starts. Shortly after that, stat geek circles were all atingle over his spin rate. Not sure how likely any of that is to repeat, but he's certainly a more comforting option should it come to that than at this point last year when he was '"Seth who?". * he was the eighth different starter the Mets used last season -- after the main five plus Verrett and Niese and just prior to Gsellman & Montero -- but of course they were also planning on having Wheeler ready by that point

Fman99 wrote: MLB network had live coverage starting at 10 PM last night. I was in bed by then. Well that's what happens when half the games in this round are being played in east Asia. Israel jumps out with 3 in the 1st vs Netherlands. Both teams will move on but the winner of this game will determine seeding in the 2nd round.

metirish wrote: I haven't watched a lick of pre-season games yet Well it's not like games at this time of year of 'must watch' events.

Get somebody there to show you the plan!! (inside joke for long-timers here)

Yeah the problem with Jordan wasn't that he was uniquely untalented at baseball but that, while he was willing to not only ride the buses but even buy the team a luxury version of one, neither he or ChiSox mgmt were going to have him do so below AA despite having no time spent at any other level, and that it certainly seemed like the only way his experiment was going to end was when and if he said so. I can't imagine that Tebow has anything resembling that sort of sway with Alderson et al. P.S. I also like that this board's indifference to Tebow has resulted in at least three active Tebow threads

My attitude to this all remains as it was back on page 1 of the original Tebow thread: that I'm pretty much indifferent to his signing. But in fairness to him this is different from a Garth Brooks/Billy Crystal situation where they were over-age celebs looking to hang with the jocks for a week or so and get publicity for whatever project or charity they were running at the time. This is at least a pro athlete with some baseball background who's willing to put in the time and effort to see where it will lead. And I expect my indifference to remain until one of two things happen: a) it becomes obvious over time that he'll never succeed at the sport at which point the pressure falls to the Mets to pull the plug on this experiment before he's taking real ABs from more deserving players based on nothing more than his name such as Jordan did by being installed directly to, and spending an entire season at, the AA level despite being a .200 hitting corner OF without power [497 PA, .202/.289/.266, 3 HR] or he starts to show some real talent at which point things could start to get interesting

- 1st round play isn't over yet (it hasn't even begun in Pools C & D) but in Pool A, Israel & the Netherlands, on the basis of both being 2-0 with only each other to play, will advance to the 2nd round at the expense of winless Korea and Taipei who will finish 1-2 and 0-3 depending on their remaining head-to-head game. - a bit odd that they call it team Korea rather than South Korea? I guess in the Olympics they have to distinguish because the North sends a separate (if nominal) team. But I find it interesting that there's no distinction here and that kind of thing doesn't happen for no reason when diplomats and national sports commissions get involved. - if you're a good sub for Team Israel are you a 'mensch from the bench'? - do Australian submariner hurlers get described as throwing from 'down under'? I mean, don't ALL Aussie pitchers throw from down under?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: He looks like a second baseman. Have we tried playing him at second base? He looks like a second baseman. Rumored to have the best hands of just about anyone anywhere, you assume he'd be a SS which he has been for most of his minor league life to date. But one wonders if getting squeezed between Rosario ahead of him and prospect Giminez coming up from behind will push him out of that spot, although it's not like this current NYM mgmt group to move guys from SS until forced to so I'd expect him to stay in the hot spot until further notice.

Chen had pitched in previous WBCs for Panama but for some reason decided to cast his lot for China this year, the country of his parents' birth. He wound up getting pulled before he hit his 50 pitch 1st round limit, but China got rolled by the Cubans 11-6. Cuban RF Yoelquis Cespedes has 4 hits in Cuba's first two games. And if you don't want to watch, or even follow, the WBC then don't. But I missed the part where ST is so exciting that a once every four year wrinkle added to it is so upsetting to folks that they act like they're insulted that it even exists.

[*]Ben Johnson: Got most of his Mets PT during a horrible June swoon that forbode the team's 2007 collapse. They lost, like 10 of 11 with him appearing semi-regularly in a shorthanded outffield. I wouldn't be surprised if Johnson never appeared in a Mets victory. Appeared in nine games as a Met (May 30 - June 10) in which the team went 3-6. In his seven starts they were 2-5 He never played in the majors again. And I still have no memory of him, not pre-Met, not as a Met, and not post-Met.

I have absolutely no memory of Ben Johnson - at least not after he got banned from the 100m dash

Israel now 2-0 after beating Taipei and host Korea falls to 0-2 (good thing they're not scheduled to host 2nd round games) after losing to the Netherlands. Japan knocks off Cuba to start off 'Pool B' play

Ashie62 wrote: This tournament may be worse than the NBA all-star game. The WBC may be an exhibition tournament with little tradition and not always attended by the best players, but at least, aside from a handful of pitcher restrictions, they're playing real games out there. The NBA ASG on the other hand, which is a star-driven league where the (24?) best and best-known players in the world are on hand, has somehow managed to turn their mid-season showcase into something that no one wants to watch. Shit ... Michael Wilson, who shills for the NBA more than maybe any writer alive and for years referred to the whole weekend as 'Black Thanksgiving, admits that the game now sucks to the point where he no longer attends. The only thing keeping the NBA ASG from being the worst sporting event on television is the NFL Pro-Bowl.