RealityChuck

Brown 3 C Young 1.5 Granderson 1 Flores .5 Tejada .5 Edgin .5 Campbell .5

MFS62 wrote: Why pitch your closer in a non-save situation, especially when losing? LaterIn theory, to keep the other team from scoring more runs and to give your team a chance to win. It didn't work this time, but the strategy is sound.

Actually, I think the key play was Valbueno's double in the second. If den Decker (or Lagares,alas) were in center, it's an out and the runs don't score.

I did enjoy the game at Wrigley; the 'Friendly Confines" is not just hype. The fans gave only minor ribbing to Mets fans and there was a lot of chatting (one girl asked me how many innings in a game!). And it's a beautiful ballpark.

Someone started a little "lets go mets" this inning. Seems to have helped a bit.

They've been using Lucas Duda's photo for deGrom on the scoreboard. Looks like he's hitting and pitching like it.

Bummer.

FYI, I'm at the game. Behind the Cubs dugout in the third section back in the shade.

Excellent documentary with a lot of details I just didn't know.

The choice of Children of Men is inspired. I'd go with Children of Men -- A classic that has everything, including an emotionally stunning ending. District 9 -- Satire; you need to know some South African history to appreciate it. The Dark Knight - The only superhero movie that has any depth to it and the only one that is more than just boring fight scenes. Serenity -- space opera at its finest Shaun of the Dead -- A horror film that's actually fun to watch. Donnie Darko -- A little dark, but a very strong film. Wall-E -- The first half was among the best animated sequences ever. Flagged toward the end, but still a fine film. Looper -- The best time travel film since 12 Monkeys. Their handling of time paradoxes was brilliant. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec -- A criminally overlooked fantasy/SF adventure. Inception - clever situation and setup

Stengel managed three and played for the other. This also brings to mind this one: What major league player played his entier career in one city, on the three MLB teams in that city during his career?

Since everyone seems to agree that the closer's role is overrated, why do people obsess about closers?

Technically, the O'brien twins: Tommy and Eddie. Both were on the Pirates in from 1955-58. While both were infielders, both also did duty as pitchers, including starting games (one each). Johnny appeared in a total of 25 games as pitcher; Eddie in 5. Eddie had a complete game victory, too.

Mean Girls was a terrific movie, and it's a shame that Lohan became a train wreck. She was excellent in it. But it's far less quotable than The Opposite of Sex Lucia: You're probably a blessing in disguise. Fucking good disguise. --- Dedee (who is pregnant): I'd like a Long Island iced tea, please. Bill Truitt: Is that a good idea, for the baby? Dedee: Oh, please. This baby owes its life to Long Island iced teas, if you know what I mean. -------- [about marrying Matt] Dedee: I just don't think it's something we should rush into. Lucia: Oh, no, no. But bring another human life onto the planet - that's whim time. -------- Lucia: Vagina, vagina, vagina. Does that word do anything for you? Bill Truitt: I don't think it does much for anyone, gay or straight. ------- Dedee: If you think I'm just plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in over your heads. I don't have a heart of gold and I *don't* grow one later, OK? But relax. There's other people a lot nicer coming up - we call them "losers." --- Dedee: God. How does a woman get so bitter? Lucia: Observation. --- Dedee: My mother was the kind of mother who always said she was her daughter's best friend. Whenever she did, I thought, "Great! Not only do I have a shitty mother, but my best friend's a loser bitch!" ---- Matt Mateo: I'm bisexual. Lucia: Puh-lease! I went to a bar mitzvah once. That doesn't make me Jewish. ----

I actually think Hughes's best work were the short stories he wrote for the National Lampoon before he went to Hollywood, though Ferris Buehler is a very good film. But things liked "Vacation '58" (the basis for National Lampoon's Vacation), "Boxed In," The Lampoon's Sunday Newspaper Parody, and "My Penis."

The quality of the marlin depends on on Brando.

Who in Pittsburgh is on the DL or has a no-trade clause and plays short?

Slate points out the flaws in the map. But before you Yankees fans get carried away, there are a few things the rest of us would like you to keep in mind about this map. First of all, it measures Facebook likes for your team�s page�nothing more, nothing less. Unless or until the Census Bureau decides to add a baseball-fandom question, this is probably the best map we�re going to get, but that doesn�t make it perfect. At the risk of stating the obvious, the map over-represents the sort of fan who goes around liking things on Facebook (cough, San Francisco Giants). It also favors teams with more active social-media presences.... One other thing: Just because you�re the most-loved team in a given county doesn�t mean you aren�t also the most-hated. If Facebook had a dislike button, the Yankees would probably find that they�re America�s team in more ways than one.

Even at its best, ESPN on TV is a terrible place to get scores. Because it's linear, you often have to spend ten minutes looking at games you don't give a damn about until they find ones you do. Go to the website.

And I thought it was all happening at the zoo.

It's boring when your pitcher strikes out the batter with the bases loaded? And your team up by only a run? When Seaver struck out ten in a row, that was probably the most boring game ever. When Matt Harvey strikes out the side at Citi, I can imagine the fans clamoring for their money back.

Vic Sage wrote: Ceetar wrote: RealityChuck wrote: The problem with Netflix (and Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus and HBO Online and everything else) is the fragmentation of the market. Film producers sell streaming rights to the highest bidder (if they're willing to sell them at all) and the highest bidder also insists on exclusive rights. Thus streaming films don't come from multiple sources, and no one source has everything. Each service has plenty of good things to watch, but no one will have everything you want to see. Yeah, this is the main problem. Everyone wants a piece of the action. There are problems like this in a lot of industries. Perhaps it'll take something like NetFlix getting bought by Google and having the wealth to just buy enough that everyone else is forced to go through them. In the meantime, the consumer is stuck with struggling to figure out the best option, which is never good. yes, your right, monopolies give the best deal to the consumer. Lets make sure google owns everything; i'm sure they'll make the price cheaper then. And yes, the problem is the "Fragmentation of the market", allowing a wider range of independent producers to finance a wider range of films then were available when the gatekeepers had a tighter grip on the access to the marketplace. Yes, no matter your niche interest, there is a tv station, podcast, website, youtube channel, or satellite radio program that caters to it and, gosh darn it, that's a big problem for the viewing public. It's a problem because the viewing public has to pay for multiple providers in order to see what they want. If you have join six or seven of them, it means you pay more money and get fewer films for the money you pay any one provider, and thus more per viewing (since the number of movies you can see in a month is limited). The solution, which will create even more competition, is for content makers to not sign exclusive contracts. Thus, they can sell their videos to Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc. It'd be like selling your DVDs to multiple video store chains -- best for both the producers and the consumer (but not to the middleman). Sometimes you may see that for old TV shows, but never for anything recent or popular.

The problem with Netflix (and Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus and HBO Online and everything else) is the fragmentation of the market. Film producers sell streaming rights to the highest bidder (if they're willing to sell them at all) and the highest bidder also insists on exclusive rights. Thus streaming films don't come from multiple sources, and no one source has everything. Each service has plenty of good things to watch, but no one will have everything you want to see.

The Mets were the final team for the last active New York Giant (Willie Mays) and the last active Brooklyn Dodger (Bob Aspromonte), so maybe they can go for the trifecta.

Fregosi got a bad rap. At the time of the trade, everyone agreed that the Mets got the better of the deal: a potential hall-of-famer for a pitcher who was clearly unlikely to be any good plus a bunch of prospects. The problem was that Ryan immediately figured out how to use his talent, something no one at the time thought possible; even using modern analysis statistics, there was absolutely no sign he wasn't regressing his way out of the game: all his statistics were getting worse every year. (Rob Neyer took Gil Hodges to task for choosing Ryan to trade over Jim McAndrew when given the two options, but at the time, by any analysis both old and new, McAndrew was clearly the more promising pitcher.) Fregosi started out strong for the Mets but started slumping in May. Injuries then did him in. It was probably a mistake to take the best shortstop in the AL and turn him into a third baseman, but the trade was only bad in hindsight, not because of any factor in place when it was made. I hope that, in his honor, people won't keep talking about how terrible the trade was.