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My Astros Suggestion: The Scarlet Negative Uniform Number

Posted: February 20, 2020 by datechguy in baseball, Sports
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Before I begin let me point out that I’m already on the record as saying that sign stealing should not be illegal and that given technology it’s not worth trying to ban it. The best solution is to make it completely legal and raise the mound to give pitchers the edge.

That being said I’m in the distinct minority as the outrage over the lack of punishment for the players on the Houston Astros vs their manager, and GM and even former bench coach Alex Cora has reached the point where silent Mike Trout, arguably the best player in the game over the last five years has spoken out.

“It’s sad for baseball,” Trout said. “It’s tough. They cheated. I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything. It was a player-driven thing. It sucks, too, because guys’ careers have been affected, a lot of people lost jobs. It was tough. Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming — it would be pretty fun up there.”

“I lost some respect for some guys,” Trout said. “… All the stuff coming out, it’s tough to see.”

I must admit all I can think of when I read this is what people used to say about facing legendary fastball pitcher Walter Johnson: “You knew what was coming but so what?” but I digress.

People think that the World Series should be taken away but I disagree. The seven games were played (four of them in LA) and the results were the results. I don’t believe in rewriting history.

But I do see the point that the players who actually cheated are getting away Scott free so I have a simple suggestion.

Negative numbers.

As a punishment for their cheating I would require any player on the Houston Astros 2017 season who was on the roster prior to the September call-ups to wear a negative number on their uniform.

This has several advantages

  1. It punishes specifically the players actually involved in the scandal, not others who have joined the team later on and might get tarred.
  2. It’s a punishment that can follow a player to whatever team he is on.
  3. It provides a strong negative incentive for future players to avoid cheating in the future.
  4. It doesn’t punish the scouts or the fans or the lower levels of the organisation that had nothing to do with said scandal.
  5. It is a sanction that while embarrassing doesn’t impede a players ability to make a living. He can still be signed by anyone, play for anyone.
  6. It is an incentive for a sanctioned player to work harder. If I was made to do such a thing I’d bust my butt to put up numbers to prove that I didn’t need that edge to produce.
  7. It would actually create interest in the production of said players and thus interest in the game
  8. Finally it’s a sanction that can be lifted from individual players based on the judgement of the Commissioner’s office.

Frankly I think this is a punishment that would be a great standard punishment for those who cheat in any sport across the board.

If MLB and the players union want to get beyond this scandal I submit and suggest my solution is the best one out there.

I still think they should raise the mound anyway.

“At Least I’m not a Communist” (Who I will totally vote for if Nominated)

Posted: February 19, 2020 by datechguy in elections, politics, primaries
Tags: ,

People are having a lot of fun with James Carville’s back and forth with Bernie Sanders particularly this bit

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but while folks are enjoying it they seem to be missing the most significant part of it.

It’s no secret that Bernie Sanders is at best a socialist, and at worst a communist. Sanders honeymooned in the USSR while it was still the USSR (think Having a honeymoon in Berlin 1938). Has defended every single socialist dictator that has arisen over the last 50 years and even has a crew of supporters who, as Project Veritas has pointed out, not only downplay the evils of Communism but long to put the Gulags in play here in the US.

Meanwhile his agenda thanks to a lot of money that has been thrown around the University System over the last few decades (after all for the price of one Big missile you can by a ton of academics and unlike bombs they can be used over and over for a multiplying effect) has become the agenda of the Democrat party. If you look at Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar positions you will see almost no sunlight between them and Bernie.

Enter James Carville.

Carville is a member of a species that used to inhabit the Jim Crow south but has now migrated to the large cities, a “yellow dog” democrat. The term meaning that such a person would vote for a yellow dog rather than any republican.

For Mr. Carville his party affiliation is his public religion. To him the election of Democrats on the local, state and national level supersedes everything outside of his household and thanks to his age, cultural background and marriage he is that rare modern Democrat who exists outside of the bubble so many in the media/hollywood/academic left do.

He understands that socialism and communism do not play outside of the enclaves of academia or the rich elites who uses it as a way to signal virtue and that to embrace this path can doom the party not only on the presidential level but all the way down to the state and local races.

To quote:

We have candidates on the debate stage talking about open borders and decriminalizing illegal immigration. They’re talking about doing away with nuclear energy and fracking. You’ve got Bernie Sanders talking about letting criminals and terrorists vote from jail cells. It doesn’t matter what you think about any of that, or if there are good arguments — talking about that is not how you win a national election. It’s not how you become a majoritarian party.

Note the argument here, the crime isn’t doing any of these things, it’s TALKING ABOUT THEM, but it’s the next answer that’s key here.

I’ve been clear about this: If Bernie is the nominee, I’ll vote for him. No question. I’ll take an ideological fanatic over a career criminal any day. But he’s not a Democrat.

Now think about that for a second, James Carville openly and publicly calls Bernie Sanders a Communist with all the historical connotations that involves but also says publicly on the record that he will vote for him over Donald Trump who he dubs a “career criminal” (although I’m wondering if he had that same opinion before 2012?).

Now you might ask yourself “DaTechGuy, why would he publicly state that he’ll vote for a communist if nominated by the Democrats in 2020? Why isn’t he ‘Never Bernie’?”

Well he gave the answer to that question later in that same interview:

The purpose of a political party is to acquire power. All right? Without power, nothing matters.

And that dear friends is utilitarian Marxism boiled down, period.

Carville cares about power, he sees Bernie as an obstacle to power so he must be stopped before he is the nominee, but once nominated is the only path to power so he must be supported, no matter what.

That is what the Democrat party has become, we might debate when it became this (I realized it back in the 1990’s when I left) but that’s where it is.

Update: Fun tweet via Instapundit:

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The truth is to the Democart/Media/Left a candidate who is a socialist or a communist leading the ticket like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer et/al is not a crisis unless the voting public find out about it.

Don’t let this VA #2a Victory Fool You

Posted: February 18, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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There are still plenty of gun control bills moving forward, in fact as Bearing Arms note Governor Ralph “Klan Robe or Blackface” Northam will likely be signing a few this year

While the gun, magazine, and suppressor bill is dead for this legislative session, it will almost surely be back again next year, and in the meantime Gov. Northam will likely get a chance to sign several gun control bills, including measures that would roll back the state’s firearm preemption law, change training requirements for concealed carry licensees, and more.

The most dangerous thing about a victory like the one yesterday on HB961 is for people to think the fight is done. In fact I’m sure that there will be a lot of effort to make you think this is the case so that next year when Trump is not on the ballot and conservatives are basking in wins nationally and elsewhere the left can sneak these bills though.

That is the plan and it will only fail if they stay scared. Make sure you keep them so.

Five Quick Under the Fedora Thoughts: Dem CW, Steak Orgy’s, Bloomberg, the XFL and Back to Work.

Posted: February 17, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’m enjoying Elizabeth Warren’s sudden blaming of the media for her problems almost as much as Amy Klobuchars’s sudden gymnastics on her previous positions now that people are considering her a serious candidate.

it’s a great reminder that conventional wisdom is always absolutely correct, right up until the moment that it’s not.

If you don’t believe me ask all the talking heads in this video

Why people trust this folks is beyond me.

I’ve written a lot about Romano’s Market Last week. This weekend has been a steak orgy in the house as we bought a ton of steaks and spent the weekend cooking and eating them. What we froze is likely good for another week.

What’s really funny is I rarely bought expensive steaks usually hamburg, a short cut rump and the occasional tenderloin tip (the end that is too thin to cut into a steak) and turned them into tips for wraps, but this weekend I bought the more expensive cuts and boy was I missing out.

As I watch Mike Bloomberg attempt to buy the Democrat Nomination I’m reminded this this is rather similar to what was going on in NYC that we wrote about a while back:

In Mike Bloomberg’s New York, the mayor bribed you, buying the silence or cooperation of individuals, cultural organizations, and social service groups with hundreds in millions of dollars spent on small personal favors — a legal payment here, a medical procedure there — and charitable contributions.

While Mr. Bloomberg’s name is not the least bit Italian Professor Doug Muzzio describes the Mayor’s use of fund in terms normally associated in culture with the combination of vowels in his predecessor’s surname and my own saying it…

…was protection money. In many ways it inoculated him from potential criticism and stimulated people to do things that they might not have or shouldn’t have done

The article points not only to millions upon millions given to various groups but the potential of millions in the years after his departure from office that might be at stake

Oh and we were talking about Bloomberg and race in 2015 when nobody else was interested because it’s one thing to do stop and frisk in bad neighborhoods, it’s another to say that young black males should not be allowed to own guns.

Of course the left didn’t care about it then either. Too much money at stake

I’ve been really surprised at the good reception the XFL has gotten so far, but I really shouldn’t be.

It’s the same principle as Bloomberg. The various networks know that they have been promised three years of backing so as long as there is a chance to cash it, they’ll do their best to earn a cut.

And frankly the football isn’t horrible for a minor league.

Yesterday beings my 1st full week back to work. It’s been a tad tiring particularly when paired with my rehab visits but while the idea of collecting a check while staying home might seem attractive it gets pretty old pretty fast.

It’s a sad then when a man is not useful to somebody.

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