Frayed Knot

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!!'

Weisman was more of a post-game celebratory Slurpee kind of guy.

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

Pujols OPS/OPS+ @ age 29 = 1101 / 189 at age 37: 672 / 80 So a loss of 429 OPS points or from a hitter 89% better than league average to one 20% below Cabrera @ 29 = 999 / 164 at age 37 (a partial season) = 746 / 104. His full seasons at 36 & 38 were 744 / 97 and 701 / 95 The lesson being that of course Pete can be a DH at that age. He can be one now but his position is hardly the point. It's that even if he agrees to only an eight-year deal what the team (and fans) should expect is a significant diminishment in his offense over the length of the deal. Plus he's not starting at as high a level as Pujols or Miggy--or Howard or Judge or Freddie for that matter, a quintet with eight MVPs among them. Pete's best OPS+ to date is 147 and that was his rookie season. Pujols never had an OPS under 150 for the first ten seasons of his career. Miggy was north of 150 in 10 of his first 13 seasons with two of the three 'under' years coming prior to him being old enough to buy booze.

Now go look at the drop off in the production from Pujols and Cabrera between their age 29 and 37 seasons.

Joel Sherman takes on the Pete Alonso Conundrum. He doesn't call it that (perhaps because my pending copyright of the phrase would cost him plenty if he tried) but he does take on the whole sentiment vs practical angle for a new POBO and new-ish owner, the projected dollar/year projections, and comps from Freddie to Pujols/Miggy, and even Aaron Judge. Good reading. https://nypost.com/2024/01/20/sports/mets-stuck-in-pete-alonso-contract-limbo-ahead-of-walk-year/

Very good book from a handful of years ago. Haven't gotten around yet to the movie, the 3-1/2 hour running time being one of the obstacles. It's funny, I have no problem sitting through a lengthy movie in a theater (providing it's a good flick of course), most recently I wasn't the slightest bit antsy during the 3:01 OPPENHEIMER. Yet I find that I possess less and less patience in recent years for watching even standard length movies at home. Too many distractions and too easy to take them, I guess, so I often break up the viewing over two or more sessions. Not an ideal way to watch one I realize.

No. Just no.

Sketchy internet service in the outback.

That was going to be my second guess.

Never saw GOONIES or SANDLOT* and never heard of HOCUS POCUS * Or DIRTY DANCING for that matter.

Oddly enough, that song was used extensively in the movie. no it wasn't

I'm the other ****

AMC Lincoln Square appears to be the lone true IMAX location in NY for this one.

It was filmed to be seen in IMAX but there are only a handful of theaters in the country (i think i heard <20) which are equipped to show it that way. * 19 domestic, 30 worldwide

The good news is that if I do decide to check out BARBIE so as to not be the only one without an opinion of it come Monday morning, my local has 27 showings of it running tomorrow. First airing commences at 9 AM with the final one at 10:50 PM I mean, really, there's just no excuse not to.

I have a pink t-shirt from a long ago bike ride I did. Can, and occasionally still do, wear it around. I pretty sure the real Ken (by that I mean the real fake Ken) was neither blond nor wore pink. It is a '90s movie being made in 2023 in that the '90s were the prime era for making moves based on baby boomer nostalgia topics, mainly on TV shows from bb's youth. The problem now is that even the youngest boomers are about to hit 60 as the oldest creep up on 80. Not exactly your prime theater-going audience and probably less likely now than they were 30-ish years ago to wallow in rewatching new adaptations of every sit-com, cartoon, or toy they ever watched/owned.