Author Archive

Sable/Gerbl day 15: Scherzer Rules the Roost, Sale K’s 10 Dodgers Juneau makes it 5 straight. Texas takes Boston in extras.

Posted: October 9, 2019 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming
Tags: , ,

Vikings 3 Washington 1

Max Scherzer gave up 4 hits over nine innnings and scored a run as King Ragnar’s Vikings outlasted Washington 3-1.

With the excepton of Anthony Rendon (2-4 2 2b) Scherzer (W 3-1) kept Washington batters off ballance and even when they managed a bit of a rally such as in the 6th when Trevor Story doubled with two outs and Josh Reddick walked he was able to bear down and end the inning without damage.

His counterpart Sean Newcomb (L 0-2) for a time managed to do the same, pitching out of a man on 2nd no out situation in the 1st, a bases loaded two out jam in the 2nd and another bases loaded jam in the 4th until he finally cracked in the fifth. Juan Segura and Kentel Marte walked to start the inning and Eduardo Escobar singled to left scoring Segura for a 1-0 game. Wilson Ramon singled to right loading the bases and after Ramon Laureano K’d Elias Diaz hit a ball back to the mound that Newcomb was able to stop but couldn’t make a play on. That single socred Marte and made it 2-0 befor Newcomb retired Rizzo and Scherzer to stop the bleeding.

Those two would be all Max would need as he killed another potential rally with a pickoff of Billy Hamilton after a leadoff walk in the 7th and by the time Washington finally got on a board with a solo Shot by Josh Reddick to start the 9th the Vikings had already added a run off of reliever Brad Hand on a two out Whit Merrified double scoring Scherzer making it too little much too late.

Notes: Scherzer walked twice along with a hit raising his batting avg to .300 this season. Bobby Poyner came out of the game after 2/3 of an inning of perfect relief complaining about arm soreness and was subsequently sent to the minors. The Vikings went 4-15 with runners in scoring position while Washington went 0-6. It will be Noah Syndergaard (0-2) vs Carlos Martinez (1-0) for Washington to finish.

Rivertown 6 LA 2

Rivertown struck for 3 in the 1st and Chris Sale struck out 10 in 9 innings as Rivertown defeated LA 6-2.

Clayton Kershaw (L 1-3) troubles began right away with a leadoff double to Lorenzo Cain followed by a one out walk to Paul Goldschmidt. After Nelson Cruz forced Goldschmidt Marcell Ozuna fly to left carried just far enough to clear the fence and Rivertown was up 3-0.

LA got one back of Christ Sale (W 3-1) David Freese singled and Kike Hernandez was grazed by a sale fastball. With one out Matt Kemp delived a single to left scoring Freese and sending Hernandez to 2nd. It looked like a big inning was brewing but Max Muncy’s liner was right at Ozuna and Chris Taylor’s fly to left was just a few feet short of the wall so the game remained 3-1.

In the 3rd Rivertown struck again. Goldschmidt walked again and this time Cruz drove a ball to left center scoring him all the way from 1st. After a pair of gournd outs Yadier Molina doubled almost to the same spot scoring Cruz from 3rd easily and Rivertown was up 5-1.

Kiki Hernandez struck back at once in the bottom taking Sale deep to left center to make it 5-2 but that would be as close as they would get as LA would only manage two hits and one walk for the rest of the game off Sale whose fastball and changeup baffled LA’s bats to the point where Matt Carpenter’s 6th inning single scoring Lorenzo Cain who doubled with two outs off Ross Stripling was just window dressing.

Notes: Dodger Ace Clayton Kershaw’s 5 earned runs in 3 innings raised his ERA to 6.64. The team has a winning record in games he hasn’t started. Ozuna’s homer was his 1st of the season. Dodger Reliver Stripling came to the plate for the 1st time this season and singled off Sale Lorenzo Cain went 4-5 with a pair of doubles and two runs scored. The Dodgers will throw Walker Buehler (0-1) in the finale He will face Aaron Nola (2-0 )

Juneau 8 NY 1

Mookie Betts hit two home runs and Miles Mikolas went all the way as Juneau crushed the NY Yankees 8-1 for their fifth straight win.

Luis Severino (L 1-2) Got deep in a hole three batters in. Andrew Benintendi led off the game with a triple Andrelton Simmons singled to drive him in and Mookie Betts hit the 1st fastball he saw 478 feet to right center and the score was 3-0

The Yankees couldn’t answer till the 4th Gleyber Torres singled to start things off and was erased on a force play on Aarond Judge. Didi Gregorius singled to right and Judge raced to 3rd ahead of the thow allowing Gregorius to reach 2nd and giving the Yanks two men in scoring position with only one out and the tying run at the plate. Alas for the Yanks while Giancarlo Stanton’s grounder to short scored Judge, Miles Mikolas (W 1-2) struck out Neil Walker to keep the lead 3-1.

It didn’t stay that way long, Benintendi walked to start the fifth, Simmons singled and Mookie Betts Doubled to left scoring Benintendi and getting Simmons to 3rd with nobody out but Shohei Ohtani fly to center turned into a double play when Brett Gardner’s bullet to the plate beat Simmons keeping the score 4-1.

This was Boston’s big chance and it looked like they would take advantage of it. With one out in the bottom of the fifth Austin Romine doubled and Greg Bird singled to right sending him to 3rd. Once again the tying run was at the plate with only one out and once again Mikolas came through k’ing Aaron Hicks and coaxing a force out from Torres to end the inning.

They might have come back but with Matt Chapman on 3rd (single) and Harrison Bader on 2nd (walk) and two outs their defense failed him. Torrez booted a grounder that Benintendi hit off Zach Britton scoring Chapman and sending Baider to 3rd and Britton and Romine allowed a passed ball scoring Bader making it six to one.

At that point it didn’t matter Mikolas would retire the last 12 in a row so solo shots by Betts and Othani were just afterthoughts.

Notes: In addition to his solo shot Ohtani stole his 1st base after a walk in the 7th. Yankees relieveers Dellin Betances (Ohtani) and Zach Britton (Betts) both gave up solo shots for their only earned run Betances ERA went up to 0.66 but Britton’s DROPPED to 16.20 Benintendi and Betts combined for 4 hits 4 runs 4 RBI’s 2 walks 2 homers and a double. The series ends tomorrow with David Price (1-0) against J.A. Happ (0-1)

Texas 5 Boston 4 (10 innings)

Michael Brantly hit an extra inning homer and Keone Kella pitched two scoreless innings for the win as Texas won for the 3rd time in four extra inning games with a 5-4 victory against Boston.

The Thunder stuck in the 1st off of Justin Verlander who after striking out the 1st two batters gave up a single to Mike Trout, a double to Freddie Freeman which scored Trout and a Triple to Javier Baez scoring Freeman to make it 2-0.

In the 2nd Boston came back Alex Bregman singled. Corey Kluber retired the next two the 2nd on a fielder’s choice that replaced Bregman with Ronald Acuna Jr. for J.T. Realmuto who took a ball over the green monster to tie things up.

In the 3rd the Thunder hit Verlander again, Trout walked with one out and with two outs Javier Baez doubled him in and Francisco Lindor followed with a Triple and it was 4-2 while in the bottom of the inning Christian Yelich hit a solo shot to center and the lead was 4-3.

There it stayed until the eighth when again with two out Alex Bregman hit a shot out to center off of Raisel Iglesias tying things up at 4 and taking Verlander off the hook. Verlander retired the 1st two in the 9th before giving way to Brandon Morrow L (1-1) who would retire the final man in the innings before giving up that shot in the 10th.

Notes: Keone Kela (W 1-1) retired all six men he faced for the win. Verlander struck out 15 fifteen texas batters in his no decision. 8 of the games nine runs were scored with two outs. This was Texas’s 4th extra inning game this season. Texas has played as many extra inning games as any other two teams in the league combined this season. It will be the battle of the even records in the finale as 1-1 Zach Grenkie of Texas faces the 1-1 Blake Snell.

What I saw during a side visit at CPAC 2018 to a Pinball Spot in Bethesda is finally showing in polling…

Posted: October 9, 2019 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, economy, elections, politics, special events
Tags: , ,

In 2018 I was at CPAC with my sons when the younger seeing that I was, as usual, driving myself to a ridiculous point suggested doing something different, so we went on a little trip to a pinball place in Bethesda where I found what I thought was the most significant interview of the trip.

and wrote why this interview was so significant

Now a person like my self who has covered angry mobs last year, and is constantly bathed in the political fight, not to mention the media narrative of absolute Trump / GOP hatred and constantly in the company of activists both at home and at CPAC,  might expect a Democrat woman of color living in a blue state to give answers fitting the us vs them narrative, particularly if filmed and in the presence of her friends.
She did not.
She gave the President mixed marks, complemented him on keeping campaign promises that he made to his people, noted that as a Democrat she’d like to see some more moderate moves. Her answers had none of the rancor or the division that the media has pushed on us for the year or that I’ve seen from angry activists. They were completely reasonable answers that would not have been out of place several decades ago in a saner time when I remembered people could disagree and get along. In other words they reflected who she is, a normal American trying to get by whose primary focus is real life instead of manufactured outrage.

Remember this was 2018, Mueller was still out there, plenty of people thought there was lot of “there” there. Stormy Daniels was still out there as was the creepy porn lawyer. In fact we were still in the pre-Kavanaugh era. In other words the entire spectacle had not yet blown up on the left.

This interview, given in public on film in front of friends made me draw two conclusions, the second being the most significant

  1. Despite what our media friends are trying to sell us, Regular Democrats, even democrats in a blue place like Maryland are not wedded to the Peloxi/CNN/MSNBC line and are seeing this president for what he is rather than what they are being told he is.
  2. People like Lea are winnable and the media narrative is all about convincing us she is not.

When we got back to CPAC I couldn’t wait to upload the video and rushed to tell every person I ran into that this was incredibly important and tremendously significant. Nobody seemed to care, we were in the CPAC bubble which meant all eyes were on the pols and the activists there, not to mention the President’s upcoming speech. The idea that this might be a signal of an opening to the black community for the President and the opposition of blacks to the president might be softer than other think was something totally off everyone’s radar.

Not anymore:

From David Bernstein at Instapundit

BUT MUH NARRATIVE: 32% of African American men would vote for Donald Trump over a generic Democratic nominee.130

Well what do you know, I guess this info is out of the bubble now, and if it’s true then the danger to the Democrats goes well beyond this election.

But there is more to this poll story than meets the eye that doesn’t bode well for the left, but that’s a story for tomorrow’s post.

Kurds oh Vey, NBAin’ts , CNN Comedy, Byron York Nails it and one Quibble with Stacy under the Fedora

Posted: October 8, 2019 by datechguy in media, middle east, News/opinion, politics

I must say that I’m not all that sure about the removal of US troops in northern Syria. As a general principle I don’t trust the Turks and I suspect that the Russians, Iranians nor the Syrian government have any interest in stopping Turkey from going after the Kurds who have been good friends to us. It’s generating a lot of critique and I think said critique is valid

It’s possible that this is just part of the standard Trump doctrine of disengagement when possible, it’s also possible that there is a bigger deal that has been made concerning Turkey that I’m unaware of (possibly concerning Israel and a deal there) but we really don’t know. My gut says it’s the wrong move but Potus has played a pretty good hand so far so I’m going to see how the cards fall before I go insane over it.

I’m a little pleased at the unity among left & right in the critique of the NBA over their kowtowing to China over a tweet on Hong Kong. When you’ve got Ted Cruz, Beto O’Rourke, Julian Castro, Rick Scott, Allahpundit, Rick Wilson and I all on the same page that’s really something.

The irony of NBA champs unwilling to go to the White House but NBA stars wiling to beg China’s forgiveness for one man’s support of the people of Hong Kong tells us all we need to know about the virtue signaling league and the degree of respect it deserves.

Was at the Happy Jack’s Buffet yesterday enjoying the all you can eat prime rib (yes you read that right) in it when I noticed CNN continuing to go over the top on Trump and impeachment in their on screen blurbs on one of the big screen which thankfully had no sound.

This is what happens when you decide to serve a niche market They simply aren’t trying anymore because it’s all about keeping said niche market happy. They’ve become a giant liberal infomercial and are just as informative and reliable.

Kinda sad.

Byron York has noticed something interesting about the so called “impeachment hearings“:

The hearings are part of an effort to remove the president from office. There could not be a matter of more pressing public concern. There could not be a matter in which the American people have a greater stake. And yet the public has no idea what is being discovered.
Last week’s sessions weren’t just secret. They were super-secret. The first hearing, in which the witness was former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker, was held in what is known as a SCIF, which stands for sensitive compartmented information facility. It is a room in the Capitol built to be impervious to electronic surveillance so that lawmakers can discuss the nation’s most important secrets without fear of discovery.
The second hearing, in which Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson testified, was also held in the SCIF.
Were highly classified matters discussed at the Volker and Atkinson hearings? Apparently not. Neither interview was classified. And even if some classified information were involved, it would be astonishing for Democrats to believe they could attempt to remove the president on the basis of information that is not available to the public.

I think it’s not astounding at all. If those hearing were public the networks that have been hyping them would be obliged to carry information that is devastating to their narrative. And while the number of viewers who would actually watch them are small, the amount of video it would provide to the Trump campaign illustrating that there is no “there” there would be more than the media/left could bear.

Finally while I would highly recommend Stacy McCain’s latest essay (he’s really been on a roll lately btw) I’d like to take issue with one impression that it gives.

Stacy’s history, particularly about the Hartford convention and New England being afraid of losing power is impeccable as are his assertions concerning Slavery in history and the left’s use of this for political purposes today. It leaves the impression that slavery itself was not the driving cause of the division and the Civil War which it produced.

This is a pet peeve of mine. In every way shape and form slavery was the driving force behind the American Civil War. If you read the newspapers of the era, the speeches of the era and the magazines of the era there can be no doubt that this was the case. Were there other issues involved as well, without question. Were the motives of some pushing abolition less that pure, I’d be shocked if it were otherwise. But let’s acknowledge the simple fact slavery was the engine that drive drove the separation and the war that followed.

The New Gender of “Traitor”

Posted: October 7, 2019 by datechguy in culture, Vive L'Empereur
Tags:

Since the Obama years when this stuff really began to blow up we have been told by our cultural and intellectual betters that it is not up to us but to individual to define their own gender and that anyone who does not go along with the whole ” Vive L’Empereur” business is a bigot.

Apparently according to our media, social and intellectual betters there is a caveat to this rule.

This new rule is applied if a person, who at one time defined themselves by a gender other than the one indicated by their birth has second thoughts, something that is apparently becoming more common: as they have discovered that hacking pieces of themselves off by professionals has not despite the approval of the right people brought them happiness.

In this eventually such people, rather than being able to self define their gender back to what it once was are now defined by a totally different gender.

Traitor:

Most concerning for Ms Evans, however, is the fact that there appears to be no support network to speak of for people who wish to “detransition”, with one biological woman who approached her saying she had “felt shunned by the LGBT community for being a traitor” when it became known that she wished to return to her birth sex.

Now some might look at this and conclude that the reason for open and tolerant people who have spent the last decade championing the right of people to define their own gender as a fearful reaction by people who are not actually secure in their own decisions and need affirmation of others, particularly society to keep themselves from collapse into a mire of depression and despair and confusion that led to said decisions in the first place.

But I’m sure all of the right people, in society, in media and particularly in the massively tolerant LGBT community will tell you that’s nonsense and that this new gender of “traitor” is simply the proper application of gender to those who are no longer enlightened enough to make such decisions on their own.

Older Entries
Newer Entries