Thursday 10/5/23
The Rays got off to that outstanding start, then they don't even win the division and get bounced in two-straight--at home--in the Wild Card round. That's a great thing about baseball--you have to wait and see. They were a sound team that didn't beat themselves--I think that's a hallmark of the Rays over the years now--and then they had a defensive meltdown in the first game which set a bad tone. It wasn't just the errors--it was the plays that should have been made that weren't made. And then you're done.
The Phillies against the Braves should be a good series. The Phillies are to the National League somewhat what the Astros are to the American League--a tough out. I believe in Bryce Harper as a big-stage guy at this point in his career. He plays with the winning attitude.
Matthew Judon is out for the season (it seems) for the Patriots--the big disappearing act this time--as well as rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez. How does this team win more than five or six games? I saw a stat where more than 70% of their offensive possessions have ended in punts or turnovers, which is impressive futility.
My Bruins prediction which I want to get over as quickly as possible given that I'm still sickened by what happened in the spring: they'll be good and go further in the playoffs this year than last. That's it. I don't like the goalie situation, Charlie McAvoy is the most overrated player in the NHL, and you don't want Charlie Coyle centering one of the top two lines, but I still think they'll be strong.
Every year Celtics fans and Celtics brass boast about how the Celtics have the best roster in the league. There is no more optimistic fan base in Boston. Everything is rosy--or green, if one prefers. I don't care about who has the most talent on the roster or who does not. Doesn't mean you have the best team. Which would seem obvious after the results of the last two years.
I'm never surprised by the narcissism and arrogance of people because one encounters it constantly. They are delusional. And they are so into themselves that they're blind to reality. I encountered comments--which took the form of complaining on social media--from Jrue Holiday's wife that the Bucs didn't even consult with them that her husband might be traded. The galling, absurd entitlement of people. And how dumb are you, lady? How would that have worked if a trade hadn't been consummated, which is always a possibility? "Um, we're thinking about trading you, so sit tight," and then coming back and saying, "Well, we wanted to trade you, it didn't happen, so let's just move forward." Right. I'm sure that would be fine and wouldn't produce bitching, etc.
You are paid obscene amounts of money to do this thing that is not important at all. It doesn't benefit the world at all. It's a game. A child's game. This goes with the territory. But you know what? It goes with the territory of a lot of jobs that pay comparative minuscule amounts. We moved twice when I was a kid. The first time I was in the middle of fifth grade, the second time I was halfway through high school. How do you think that was? It sucked. That's life. My family wasn't making 40 million dollars a year or whatever it is.
And it's such an immature move taking to social media like that with your grievances for this thing that was perfectly fine and normal and as it should be, unless you're an entitled, bow-to-me ass. So that suggests things to me about the make-up of that household and by extension the guy the Celtics just got. This team has enough childish, bitchy drama every year as it is, and that's why they haven't won a championship yet.
As for these people: If you didn't want to move, you didn't have to move. You have enough money so that the next ten generations of your family don't need to work. Again, because someone played a child's game that meant nothing in the grand scheme of anything. Not really, if we're talking consequence and human lives. So stay in Milwaukee. Join the rotary club. Garden. Develop hobbies. Be really active at your kids' schools. Take camping trip vacations with the neighbors. Not a bad life.
I think it's cool the Twins advanced. Maybe they're the team that gets hot in the AL. Don't know how Vlad Guerrero gets picked off second like he did. The game is not meant to be played with your head in your ass.
When Dave Kingman retired he was fifth all-time in AB per HR. Am I the biggest Dave Kingman fan in the world? Perhaps. But hopefully there are other people out there who also love the man called Kong. Kingman played in the playoffs once, which most baseball historians--even the ones who might care about a Dave Kingman--don't know. It was before his official rookie season in the 1971 NLCS as a member of the San Francisco Giants. Kingman was teammates with Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, which feels strange (and also Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry--four Hall of Famers on that team). They lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates who went on to win the World Series, a victory that should have gotten Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh--who also led the 1960 team that beat the Yankees--into the Hall of Fame, but that hasn't happened. Kingman went 1 for 9 in that series with the hit being a single and he walked once. Didn't exactly help the cause, but Kingman was young and he was daily growing, as they say. He'd hit 29 homers in his rookie season of 1972. Two of my all-time favorites--Fisk, of course, being my very favorite--were rookies that year and both had notable campaigns, with Fisk having a historical one because it's one of the best seasons by any catcher ever.
You know who never bitched about being traded? Kingman. And he was traded all the damn time. Hell, in one season, he played for a team in each of the four divisions in MLB. Kingman didn't care. He just hit bombs. The world could have been ending and Kingman would have dug into the box to try and jack one.
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