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The soullessness of using fifteen pitchers in a low-scoring game, academic grand slam, the decline of Patrick Mahomes, Jacoby Brissett running at the mouth, bombs away Celtics, cowardly drilling

Tuesday 10/29/24

Looks like the Yankees are getting swept. I expected a better showing from them and a tight series until that Freeman walk-off occurred in Game 1, and then I thought that was it. At least the World Series will end in October, rather than November, like it should.


At the same time, Aaron Judge has played an active, ongoing role in killing his team. I don't know why he's the player he is in the postseason. Does the pressure get to him that much? Is he trying too hard?


A remark from Stephen A. Smith--who is such a moron--popped up online without me looking for it saying he was disgusted with Aaron Judge. In addition to being a moron, Stephen A. Smith is an arrogant clown. Sideshow egomaniac. Stephen A. Smith could only happen--that is, his success--in this age of fruit that hangs so low it sags into the ground.


You can't call someone disgusting when they're trying and not performing. You can call them disgusting for quitting, failing to do their best, not being prepared, a bad attitude. What does he think? That Judge doesn't want to do well? That he isn't preparing?


The Dodgers won last night 4-2. Fairly low-scoring game, right? The Dodgers used seven pitchers, the Yankees eight.


You like that? Or is that awful?


Do you want to see a pitcher take the ball and go out on the mound to embark upon a journey--the journey of a game. To go as far as they can in their journey, which is a human journey. Or do you want someone who has no idea about baseball looking at printouts of numbers from their software programs--the machine--and dictating when someone comes out and who is coming in? Do you like that? Or is soulless?


No one who likes baseball or humanity likes that. People who don't know baseball and don't care about baseball are okay with it.


Also: Far too much has been made of the Freeman Game 1 home run being a grand slam. That it was a grand slam was academic. This is world is so quick to sensationalize everything now, and that means at the cost of truth. Take away truth, and you're well on you're way to fucked.


This home run is described like the Dodges were down by three. It's cool that it was a grand slam, but that's an after the point point. Do you know what I mean? "And it was a grand slam." It's not the story. David Ortiz's grand slam in Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS was different. That it was a grand slam was why it was so massive. The Sox were down four. They were getting close to done. One swing, tie game, new life, new series.


The Chiefs remain undefeated. Can they finish the season that way?


Sure. Why not? Anyone impress you?


The Chiefs win, but you never feel like they make these clutch plays to pull out their games. They just do slightly enough. I feel like that's a product of the league. Of officiating, pass interference. I'm not saying the refs give them games, but I think there is a human nature element to calls, especially with how the rules are now. Those rules lend themselves to the influence of human nature.


They could win out and lose in the playoffs.


How would you rate the year that Patrick Mahomes is having? He leads quarterbacks in interceptions thrown with 9. He's thrown for 8 TDs, which is seventeenth in the league. He's fifteenth in passing yards. He's twenty-second in passer rating (which is behind Aaron Rodgers; you like the year he's having or the player he is now?).


Mahomes is twenty-nine. I've said for a while now that his game has been slipping. I'm the only person who was saying that. Look at his game now. He's a below average quarterback in the NFL this year. Sure, there's plenty of time for him to turn that around, but we are seven games in.


So how does he win? He has a good team around him. Good coach. A plan and professionalism can take a team far. To his credit, he makes a key play or two, with his arm or his legs, but that's who he's become--a guy who rises up on occasion, but doesn't do it consistently or overall.


Why is this happening why he's in his twenties? Lack of focus? Could be. He shouldn't be physically declining yet.


The Celtics beat the Bucks last night behind a big shooting game from Payton Pritchard--more bombs away from three-point land--to remain undefeated. Here's what I find interesting/telling: We're three or four games into the NBA schedule--depending on the team--and there are three teams--that's it--who are undefeated through one week of the season.


I heard Jacoby Brissett's postgame press conference in which he bragged about himself and taunted people for not believing in him. What are you doing, guy? You're not any good, the team isn't good, you can't just button it and play?


Did he think he was great in this game against the pathetic Jets? You know why he completed some passes? Because they had to take chances and throw the ball a bit down the field with him and some of it worked out. It wouldn't consistently work out.


The attitude of this team is something else. I heard that there was this raucous victory celebration after the game. You're 2-6. It was the Jets.


I can't stand these kinds of things. The lack of perspective, self-awareness, professionalism.


You're in this hole. Work. Keep your mouth shut. Try to get better and make some progress and build. Don't strut and be a dick.


I haven't mentioned anything about the 2004 Red Sox comeback docu-series on here because I don't have Netflix. I don't have a lot of money and I don't want to pay for it and I generally despise Netflix and the Netflixization of the human mind. I think Netflix's programming is formulaic and vapid. Occasionally there is something like this I would watch. I pitched this to someone, but no one has the budget for anything because no one reads because no one can write and we've gone into all of this before, like in that earlier entry with the cameos from Matt Bell and Junot Diaz, so there's no need to rehash here. (It was remarked to me, incidentally, by a writer/professor that that post should be required reading for every "writer"--the quotes were theirs, though I'd second them.)


I did see a quote, though, from Pedro Martinez, in which he boasted about hitting two Yankees and sending them to the hospital in the same ambulance.


People loved this. They always love this kind of shit. They always have. People romanticize a pitcher hitting a batter. All of the people who worship Nolan Ryan--which automatically means they understand nothing about baseball--have always gotten off on this. And Bob Gibson people. They tell this story about how someone hit a home run off of him, and then like fifteen years later he faced that guy in an Old Timers' game and drilled him. Cue the cum in the pants from these guys. If that story is true, that would make Gibson insane.


The batter is defenseless. This isn't some brave, manly, heroic thing, hitting him with an upper nineties fastball. You know what it's like? Attacking someone when they have their back to you. Because the batter has no chance. It's not a fair fight. It's like shooting an unarmed person, but with a ball. It's a fucked up way to think that you're some tough guy hero because you threw at someone to hurt them or because you think you're a tough guy. Now, there are times when strategically you do hit a guy. And you certainly need the inside of the plate if you're a pitcher and some balls will get away from you and guys get hit. But bragging about this like you're some warrior of machismo? That's weak.



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