Archive for the ‘dynasty baseball’ Category

The most interesting thing about Nikki Haley’s appearance on Saturday Night Live is this statement from sources concerning NBC via the Hollywood reporter:

NBC declined to comment, but sources told The Hollywood Reporter that NBC will comply with any equal time obligations for other presidential candidates across both parties.

If I’m Trump I jump all over this.


Bill Belichick took out of full page ad in the Sunday Boston Globe to thank Patriots fans for their support an excerpt:

“Nowhere in America are pro sports fans as passionate as in New England and for 24 years, I was blessed to feel your passion and power,” Belichick’s letter read. “The Patriots are the only NFL team representing SIX states but in reality, Patriots Nation knows no borders.

“You were undaunted by weather, attended scorching hot training camp practices and braved Foxborough’s coldest, wettest, snowiest, and windiest days.… Your thoughtful letters offered support, critique and creative play suggestions. You watched on TV, the internet and from your stadium seats.

It was a nice gesture that’s made easier by his lack of a coaching job.

It’s worth noting his son is still employed as a defensive coach on the Patriots but I suspect Kraft was just waiting for Bill to get hired but as he was not it will be interesting to see how much longer he lasts.


The telegraphing of the Biden administration of counterstrikes against Iran giving the enemy time to evacuate and remove any important material is a function of a person who needs to seem to do something when actually he is not.

It reminds me of the old movie the American President. Michael Douglas’ characters insists on hitting back at the command center at night to decrease causalities and cries over the janitor who will be killed instead of hitting at the time when the actual people who were in charge of the attack where there.

Basically that janitor dies so he can feel better about himself. The Biden admin is all about false appearances.


Speaking of appearances new figures from the Border are demonstrating that Texas’ approach to you know actually enforcing the law has results:

A key stat:

Notably, the numbers in TX’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, have fallen off a cliff. In December, the sector saw days of 3,000-4,000 illegal crossings per day. Over the last week, it has averaged around just 200.

I know that California has no intention of enforcing the law the real question is what direction will New Mexico & Arizona go?


Finally while we still have one opening in our 1972 Dynasty League (Chicago Cubs if interested comment here) I have submitted my keeper list for our 1972 season. They are:

  1. LHSP Ken Holtzman
  2. LHSP Al Downing
  3. RHSP Mike Torrez
  4. RHRP Jerry Bell
  5. CF Ken Berry
  6. RF Pete Rose
  7. LF Gene Giles
  8. 1b Ron Fairly
  9. 2B/3B Ron Hunt

There were some really tough calls. Darryl Porter will be a monster in 1973 and Jim Slanton has a huge future ahead of him but they are only part time this year, Likewise Dave Conception is a killer defensive outfielder that I carried for two years but I’m heavy in the OF so he’s the odd man out, Bob Miller is a solid reliever and Bill Parsons eats up innings as a starter but I can’t justify them over any of the keepers. Finally Mike Jorgenson was picked up in a trade because he has a long and solid future ahead of him and while he is a better first baseman than Fairly this year and will soon be one of the best defensive 1B available by 1973, Fairly is going to have a monster year next season and except against lefties is still solid.

Maybe these guys will be available later in the draft but what I need to pick up is:

  • 3 RHSP at least one of Ace qualify
  • A solid power hitter (3B or C)
  • A starting shortstop
  • A Closer
  • 2 Catchers
  • Middle Relief

Fortunately thanks to trades with the Mets (Daytraders), Orioles, and Royals I have 3 1st round picks and two picks in the 3rd, 5th and 6th rounds so filling those spots should be a tad easier.

We’re still one player shy (Cubs)

How the league is to be played

We will be playing the 1972 season which is to be released by Dynasty mid season. We will be playing under 1972 rules with one exception. There will be at least one interleague home and away series played to allow each player to play each other player at least once.

The schedule

As soon as I have time I will begin to work on the schedule which will assume 20 teams . While I don’t have to deal with the logistics of hotels and airports it still is a complicated matter to make it and will take some time to enter into the system. Please be patient with me as I do so. My goal will be to have the schedule ready before the draft.

Number of games:

We will be playing 162 games Two series (one home and one away 6 games ) against teams in the opposite league and Four series against in league teams. Because of the number of teams there will be a slight imbalance

Six same league teams (Four 3 game series 12 games)
Three same league teams (Two 3 game series, Two 2 game series 10 games)

All those team determinations will be random.

This assumes 20 teams btw

Frequency of games

There will be two scheduled series per week. Most series will be 3 games there will be 6 two game series during the season.

Number of teams

We currently have 19 confirmed teams. As soon as the Cubs are taken we’re set at 20 teams. If by some chance

Division setup:

With 20 teams we will have two five team divisions in each league. I’ll have to see if they offer wild card options when I advance the season.

NEW!PREDRAFT AND DRAFT DAY TRADE WINDOWS!

Pre-Draft Trade window:

There will be a 48 hour window before the formal draft where trading will be allowed.

Any player on the roster (rookie or retained player) may be dealt along with drift picks up to the 7th round at this time.

Only draft picks for the upcoming draft will be tradable.

The trade window will end 15 minutes before the start of the formal draft to allow for any updates to lists to be recorded before the start.

Draft Day Trading up or down window.

At the end of each round there will be a 10 minute window for rosters to be adjusted and all the paperwork to be done.

For the first five rounds of the draft During those 10 minutes teams will be allowed to Trade. NO PICKS BEYOND THE 7th ROUND ARE TRADABLE. At the start of the 6th round Trading is closed in the league till after the 5th series of the regular season.

In Season Trades and waivers.

After the fifth series of the season teams may trade. Any player on the current roster may be traded along with any of the first seven draft picks for the next season (currently 1973 BUT 1972 if they get it released in time. If a trade is made that increases a roster beyond the 40 man limit a player must be released before the next series is played. Any trades agreed will not be executed until all the teams involved have the same amount of games played.

Waivers takes place after the sixth series. Teams make waivers picked based on their current record and are made from the undrafted players not on rosters.. If a pick brings a Roster over 40 a player must be released or an injured player not on the DL must be placed there to make room.

The DL:

In a change from previous seasons players on the DL WILL count toward your roster but to make up for it we will have a maximum 40 man roster. We will still only draft 35 but players may expand their rosters via trade and waivers.

Playing Games.

All games must be completed before the next scheduled series. the Dynasty system will take over and auto play any games that are not completed one hour before the next scheduled game (even if said unfinished game is in progress) Players are encouraged to use the chat room and the Dynasty message system to reschedule games if needed and are also encouraged to make a manager profile in case a game has to autoplay. Instructions on how to do that are here.

Be aware that if you have your team on AUTO and your opponent requests a rescheduled in the system Dynasty will automatically allow it so keep this in mind when or if you turn auto on. Also be aware if both team are on auto and you reschedule the game will be played automatically so make sure your team is not on auto before you do this.

Etiquette for no/call no show

This is a game and real life trumps it so there will be times when people miss their game days. Here is some suggested game day Etiquette:

  1. If you know in advance you can’t play on the scheduled game day and time try to contact your opponent to arrange a different time both through the chat room and the dynasty system.
  2. If gameday comes and your team is on AUTO your scheduled opponent should assume they can play all or part of their series if they choose.
  3. If gameday comes and you haven’t heard from your opponent check your “Friends” list to see when the last time they signed on was. If it is 10 days or more then play the series vs the PC
  4. Give two five minute: Wait 5 min for opponent to show periods before starting the game//If your opponent hasn’t shown up by then begin game 1.
    • Once game 1 is done. You have 2 choices. Either if followed is officially considered valid:
      • Give one 5 minutes period for your opponent to show if he doesn’t, Autoplay
      • Exit and let the system auto schedule for 24 hours from now. Then go to step 1
    • If you have to leave in the middle of a game or series your opponent has the right to continue to play. They may choose to agree to reschedule but experience tell me it’s bet to get the games done.
  5. On occasions when you and your opponent are in touch but just can’t seem to find a time when both are available I make the following suggestion.
    • The player who shows up on gameday should play one game (2 game series) or two games (3-4 game series) against the pc.
    • When those games are finished exit the system and put yourself on Auto being sure to check the “Take my team off auto after this series”
    • Then your opponent can finish the series as his or her time permits
  6. Keep in mind that the Dynasty system is designed to keep games moving the default position should always be to get games played when possible.
  7. Be aware if you’re running late you can join a game in progress and take over
  8. If you do show up and take over please let your opponent know via chat.

If you know you’re going to be gone let your opponent know. 

Expansion and Expansion draft

If there is a sudden interest in the league we may have an expansion draft under the following rules: b

Selecting a franchise:

New players who do not take an existing franchise will be allowed to select any of the four currently open franchises they are:

AL

  • Chicago White sox
  • Detroit Tigers

NL

  • San Diego Padres
  • Houston Astros

They will automatically gain the rights to any rookies for the 1971 team of that franchise.

If we again have multiple expansion teams they will pick franchises in the order that they confirmed their intent to join the league.

If a current player expresses an intent to leave the league before the expansion draft the expansion players will in the order above be given the option of taking over that existing franchise including their roster and current draft picks (or lack thereof)

Expansion Draft:

If an expansion draft is announced each team will have two weeks to submit a list of protected players currently on their 40 man rosters. These players will not be eligible to be drafted in the expansion draft. There will be a maximum of 7 players on each teams protected list. it is recommended (but not required) to submit an additional twelve players to be protected once a player or two is drafted from their team.

Whenever a player is chosen off a team in the expansion draft said team will be able to immediately protect an additional five players. No team can lose more than three payers to the expansion draft. If a list is not submitted before the draft and not submitted at the time the first player is taken from the team then said team will not have additional players protected until such a list is provided. I will allow a reasonable amount of time in case the player is not in the chat room for me to try to contact said player before another player is takin from his team.

Expansion teams draft a minimum of four players and a maximum of 12 players to their rosters before the regular draft. The number of players picked in the expansion draft by an expansion team will determine where they will draft in the regular draft.

As soon as all expansion teams have completed their drafts two things happen

  1. All teams must submit the list of players retained in the regular draft. The players drafted by the expansion teams are considered to be that list.
  2. All Rookies become property of their franchises and count toward their current rosters. but NOT toward their number of protected players.

Franchise locations and parks

Every team is presumed to have the park their team played in during the season they entered the league.

Franchises whose teams move in real life are not required to relocate their teams. So the Seattle Pilots are not required to move to Milwaukee and the Washington Senators are not required to move to Texas but they retain the option to do so at any time.

Franchises are NOT required to build new stadiums and my continue to play in their old stadiums if they wish. So Cincy can stay in Crosley field and Pittsburgh can remain in Forbes Field if they wish but they retain the right to move into those new stadiums at any time so another team my NOT select that stadium. If a team chooses to move into their new park in the same city the old park is considered demolished and no other team may use it from that point on.

A team may NOT move into a park that in a different city because the Dynasty system bases the weather on the park used NOT the city that a team’s label claims it is in. Thus if the Seattle Pilots want to play in Country Stadium they MUST move to Milwaukee

A team may NOT move into a park in the same city that belongs to a future franchise. Example. If the Seattle Pilots choose to remain in Seattle rather than move to Milwaukee they may NOT move into the Kingdome because it is reserved for the Mariners franchise when it becomes available.

Old parks

A team MAY move into an old park from the same city under the following conditions:

  1. The park was once the home park of the franchise OR
  2. The franchise that once owned the park is now located in another city

Examples,

  • In 1971 the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee the Mariners if taken MAY move into Sick Stadium.
  • The Cardinals may move into Sportsman’s park because it was once their old stadium.
  • Both the Yankees and the Mets may move into the Polo Grounds because the park is in NY and both teams were once based there.

Rookies

A “Rookie” is define as any player who did not have a card for the previous season.

A rookie is considered to be part of the team listed on their card regardless of who they actually played their first game for (Dynasty lists cards based on who a player finishes a season with thus any rookie that was traded by an MLB team in his first season will have their card listed for the team they were traded to NOT the team they played their first game with.

All teams retain rights to their rookies prior to the draft and rookies for a franchise are not eligible to be drafted in any expansion draft.

A Rookie becomes a part of a team after said team names their protected players for the draft. They count toward the 40 man roster

Any team that doesn’t want to retain a rookie may release them before the draft to open up a roster spot but once release all rights to said player are surrendered.

Players retained list

All teams may retain a number of players based on their finish in the 1970 season. The players retained list for 1971 has already been posted here: but I’ll repeat it below for convenience

  • World series winner 4 players (Dodgers)
  • World series runner up 5 players (Royals)
  • non-world series Division winners 6 players (A’s, Mets/Daytraders, Orioles)
  • Wild Card Teams Winners that don’t make the series 7 players (Angels, Cubs, Braves)
  • Wild Card game losers 8 players (Senators, Phillies)
  • Non division winning teams with the 5th and 6th best records 9 players (Red Sox Brewers)
  • Non division winning teams with the 7th and 8th best record 10 players (Twins, Indians)
  • Teams with the 4th-6th worst records 11 players (Yankees, Giants, Cardinals)
  • Teams with the worst and 2nd worst record 12  players (Expos, Reds1, Pirates)

1Due to an error during last years Draft the Reds spent a draft pick on a player Boston had rights to. The Reds were given several options for compensation & choose retaining an extra player this season so the Reds will have a max keeper list of 13 players.

NOTE: If a player on your current Roster does not have a card for the next season due to injury, military service etc but WILL the following year a team may choose to retain the rights to said player but will have to spend a protected spot for it and will have to keep a space for him all season.

Example: Rico Carty was out for all of 1971 due to injury. Boston could have decided to hold his rights playing 1971 with 39 players and thus 1972 will hold the rights to Carty. If at any time he chooses to release him Carty will be considered a rookie for Atlanta Rookie because

  1. He had no card the previous year
  2. No team held his rights
  3. His 1972 card says “Atlanta”

Boston choose not to retain so Carty is considered released. Carty’s 1972 cards is with the Braves thus the new Braves owner does not have to put him on the retained list as he is considered a rookie for the team.

The draft order of teams has been posted here and will be repeated below taking into account the possibility of expansion teams. Any team that is not retained will of course not be drafting BUT If a team holds the draft pick of a team that is no longer in the league he will draft those picks as if that team was still in the league in the round that he holds them. Of course with expansion this doesn’t apply this season.

  1. Worst team (12) Montreal Expos (Bad News Bears)
  2. 2nd worst team (12) Pittsburgh Pirates1
  3. 3rd worst team (12) Cincinnati Reds1 (if an expansion team picks only 4 they draft ahead of the Reds)
  4. 4th worst team (11) San Francisco Giants
  5. 5th worst team (11) St Louis Cardinals (if an expansion team picks only 5 they draft ahead of the cards)
  6. 6th worst team (11) New York Yankees
  7. 7th worst team (10) New York Mets (Daytraders) Cleveland Indians (An expansion team that picks only 6 drafts ahead of the tribe)
  8. 8th worst team (10) Minnesota Twins
  9. 9th worst team (9) Milwaukee Brewers2 (An expansion team that picks only 7 picks ahead of the Brew crew)
  10. Best non playoff team (9) Boston Red Sox2
  11. Wild Card game loser with worst record (8) Philadelphia Phillies (An expansion team that picks only 8 picks ahead of the Phils)
  12. Wild Card game loser with best record (8) Washington Senators
  13. Divisional round loser with the worst record (7) California Angels (An expansion team that picks only 9 picks ahead of the Halos)
  14. Divisional Round loser with the 2nd worst record (7) Atlanta Braves (Red wings)
  15. Divisional Round loser with the 2nd best record (7) Oakland A’s (An Expansion Team that picks only 10 picks Ahead of the A’s)
  16. Divisional Round Loser with best record (7) New York Mets (Daytraders)
  17. Worst Team that made it to the Pennant Series (6) Chicago Cubs
  18. Best team that made it to the Pennant Series (6) Baltimore Orioles
  19. World series loser (5) Kansas City Royals (An expansion team that picks only 11 picks ahead of the Royals)
  20. Word series winner (4) Los Angeles Dodgers Expansion Team(s) if any that draft 12 players pick after LA

NOTES:

  1. The Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates had identical records AND were 6-6 head to head the 2nd tiebreaker is previous draft.Pit picked ahead of Cincy and is thus considered “worse” as they had a better start so they get the 3rd pick over the Reds
  2. The Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers had identical records but Boston won the season series 7-5 and the is considered the “better” team.

The first tiebreaker for non-playoff teams with identical records is head to head matchups which is why the Mets draft ahead of Seattle. The 2nd tiebreaker if teams had identical records AND split their season series is draft order for the previous season thus California drafts ahead of StL..

Examples: If the Cubs traded the NYY their 3rd round draft pick last season but are not an active team this year then during round 3 the Yankees would get a pick at spot 17 as if they were.

If two or more expansion teams draft the same number of players their draft position will be determined by a dice roll

When all teams have drafted that will be considered the end of a round and the next round will commence.

Teams will continue to draft in this order until:

  • Their team reaches 35 men OR
  • A team with 25 or more players on their roster voluntarily drops out

Once a team has dropped out of the draft they may not re-enter it and must increase their roster either through trades or waivers.

A Team MUST have at least a 25 man roster before leaving the draft!

Formal & Informal Draft

Draft on designated Draft day(s):

A date and time will be set for the initial rounds of the draft. It will almost certainly be a Saturday or Friday as those are the days I have off. All teams will be expected to be either:

  1. Available in the slack chat room (preferred)
  2. Available by phone
  3. With me in my home at the time of the draft
  4. Have a list of players to be drafted submitted

All current players are presumed to have looked over the card(s) for 1972 online or at least looked up stats by draft day. All expansion teams (if any) encouraged to start doing so at once.

  1. There will be one designated draft day per week.
  2. On a designated draft day a strict 5 minute limit will be allowed to make a pick.
  3. If a team misses their pick will be moved to after the next player on the list who will be considered on the clock and allowed to pick. Example Philadelphia misses their pick and Washington is next, Washington is allowed to pick and Philly picks after them
  4. If a team who has been skipped has to be skipped twice their pick can be made any time before the end of the round. Example Washington is scheduled to pick 10th They miss their pick If they figure out who they want they can make a pick or submit a list any time before the end of the round and that pick will be valid.
  5. If a team that has been skipped has not picked by the end of the round then a pick will be made for them by me. Said pick will be the player from your franchise who played the most games that season based on their card. Example: Boston does not pick or submit a list for round 5 I will look at the Roster for the actual 1972 red sox to see who is available. If Billy Conligiliaro has the most games played among unpicked players he will be Boston draft pick. If Boston already has 6 outfielders that will not matter Billy C becomes the pick.
  6. As soon as a round ends there is ten minute period to update rosters and list and confirm players. During that period Draft day trades may be made as per above.
  7. The opening Scheduled draft days will go on for 100 picks. Other scheduled draft days will be 60 picks. Once the number of picks is reached the clock is turned off
  8. The Formal Draft generally begins at either 11 AM or 1 PM EST to give west coast folk the time to be awake. Be aware of that if you are scheduled to pick

BE AWARE THAT EVEN WITH A FIVE MINUTE LIMIT THAT CAN MEAN 100 MINUTES FOR 20 TEAMS TO PICK IN ONE ROUND. PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DRAFT TO CUT DOWN ON THE TIME REQUIRED. The more prepared everyone is the faster things will go.

Picks off the clock and on non-draft days

As soon as the initial draft ends the “informal draft” begins

During the informal draft a team has 24 hours to make a pick. Picks can be submitted in the draft room or via the Dynasty message system or in person if the person picking is local or via the phone to me. If there is an existing list from the formal draft it will be used to continue the informal draft.

Once the pick is made and recorded on the draft sheet and the player moved to the roster I will announce the pick in the slack chat room and inform the person up, the person on deck and the person in the hole to be prepared to pick. Until you see that announcement the pick is not official.

The Informal draft ends when:

  • Round 30 is complete OR
  • The next formal draft begins

The informal draft resumes after any formal draft that doesn’t reach round 30.

Be aware that trading can be made at any time during the informal draft until:

  • round seven is complete
  • 15 minutes before a formal draft that has not completed round 7

IMPORTANT: Once round seven of the draft is complete trading is finished until the end of week 5 of the season.

The season will begin one week after the draft is complete.

Finally be aware that I have a big event coming up Easter week for my 35th anniversary and that the planning and execution of said event might take some of my time.


If you have any questions not covered here please let me know.

Two things today.

First if you’re a baseball fan I have openings in two leagues that I hope to have drafts for before the end of this month.

Our 1972 league of Dynasty baseball (162 games) has the following teams available: Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs

Our 1997 league (80 games) has the following teams available ( Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates)

In both leagues you can relocate the franchise you take to a new location if so desired and if the franchise is open.

Contact me in comments if you are interested.

Secondly while it’s a day late here the Indulgence Calendar for February is now available for download here. Be aware if I’m late again on this it will be always be available at the WQPH Web site. 

The regular one

And the Blank one

I have a lot of little things to say but not enough for an under the Fedora Day so today we’re going to give Don Surber the sincerest from of flattery and imitate his Saturday Link Fest with a few other thoughts:

First at Stacy McCain’s site we have a story about how thanks to a family squabble an iconic business will close:

The litigation later forced the family to change the name of its original location to Tony and Nick’s Steaks in 2022.
Anthony Jr.’s two sons — Anthony III and Michael, who were also employed at the sandwich empire — followed him out the door, taking copies of the company’s financial records with them and turned them over to federal investigators.
Those documents revealed that Lucidonio Sr. and Nicholas Lucidonio hid the success of their business from tax collectors by keeping two sets of books almost from the day the sandwich shop opened.

While one might have an opinion of members of an Italian (Sicilian?) family turning in another member of their family to the feds may I humbly point out that if they weren’t cooking the books it wouldn’t be an issue.

As my Sicilian parents who owned business taught me young, “Always pay the government first because they’re the only ones who can take from you before you go to court.”


2nd: Was at the bank today figured it would be an easy time since I needed to convert three $20 bills into two 10’s six 5’s and ten ones so I can make change if people at St Cecilia’s church want to buy tickets to the WQPH 89.3 FM Shrove Tuesday Brunch on the 13th (Details here). I figured it would take about 30 seconds invoving:

  • Opening the draw
  • Counting the bills
  • Giving them to me

Not anymore. Now a machine is involved so instead the teller has to

  • Take the last four of my social
  • Feeding my bills into the reader
  • Do tons of typing into the computer
  • Wait for the machine to spit out the bills when the typing is done
  • Print a receipt for the bills
  • Give me the bills and receipt

Machines don’t make everything easier


3rd: Over at Pirates Cove Mr. Teach notices climate folks trying to link “climate change” to ancient plagues. to wit:

While modern medicine has advanced considerably since the time of the Romans, this data offers insights into how diseases might change in our own changing climate. “Within the scope of the current climate change it is of major importance to understand the links between climate and human health and we unfortunately do not understand these links as well as we would like,” Zonneveld said. “Investigating the resilience of ancient societies to past climate change and relationships between past climate change and the occurrence of infectious disease might give us better insight into these relationships and the climate change induced challenges we are facing today.

He Quips:

One would have thought that an empire that could conquer so much of the known world, invent formalized sanitation, arches, pioneered early medical tools, concrete, the first bound book, and so much more, would have known not to use fossil fuels, hair dryers, ice makers, and plastics

It never ceases to amaze me that tens of millions have absolute faith in the never ending predictions of doom to come in 30 years when my own local forecast for Sunday has changed three times in the last 72 hours.


4th: I’m told the Doctor that I’ve had for the last 30-40 years or so is about to retire. Baring a major accident/incident before July I will likely not see him again.

This means I will likely have to get a new doc who doesn’t know me or my family or my past. This is normal but I’m not looking forward to it. If there was one thing I had no doubt about with my old doc it’s that he cared if I lived or died. Given what we’ve seen from the medical profession the last few years it will be very hard to get that impression from a stranger.

Of course as I’m in the back nine it more a question of what do I want to die from because in the end I have to die of something.


5th: The New Neo has some thoughts about the Jean Carroll defamation case and the type of precedent it sets:

I don’t think lawsuits like this one should be actionable, whether they be against Trump or anyone else. It should not be legally actionable defamation to say your accuser is lying about you and that you’re not sexually attracted to her. Nor was Trump ever found criminally liable for raping her, because the statute of limitations had run out by the time she made her accusations. I doubt her rape case would have held up in a criminal court anyway – unless it was a court composed of jurors or a judge who hated the defendant.

I predict that once leftists and left leaning institutions like universities are charged with defamation for insisting on their innocence in cases and have judgements made against them the injustice of this will suddenly become clear to the left.

Unexpectedly of course.


6th: If anyone is interested we have some openings in both the 1972 and the 1997 league for Dynasty Baseball.

If you’re up to it and have an interest give me a shout because the window for all of this is closing.


7th: Since I quoted Don Surber for the title of this post it behooves me to mention an interesting twist to the old “learn to code” crowd:

ITEM 14: What the nation needs is coders who learn to mine.

CNBC reported last month, “The U.S. is running out of miners. More than half the nation’s mining workforce, about 221,000 workers, is expected to retire by 2029, according to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, and the number of candidates willing to fill those slots is shrinking.”

Smart people are urging and/or putting their kids into trade schools where basic “manly” skills are taught as it’s becoming increasingly clear that the American left has basically evolved into the passengers of the B Ark of the Golgafrinchan fleet


8th: Since we mentioned the need for coal jobs it’s worth noting more layoffs of Journalists: First this week at the LA Times (Via Legal Insurrection):

As a general rule, most people are sympathetic when they hear about others who have lost their jobs due to layoffs, company closings, and the like.

But in the case of the now-former employees of the Los Angeles Times, that sympathy is in short supply among conservatives and others who were frequent targets of the paper’s agenda-driven news and opinion divisions.

On Sunday, Legal Insurrection reported that the left coast newspaper had announced that staff cutbacks were imminent, with around 100 people set to be let go. In response, unionized employees staged a one-day walkout and demanded, among other things, “to swap traditional seniority protections for those related to diversi

And now at Business Insider via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit who notes the irony in his shot chaser format:

IT’S TIME TO ADMIT THE SHUFFLEBOARD TOURNAMENTS ON THE TITANIC ARE THRIVING:

Shot: It’s time to admit the economy is thriving.

Business Insider, December 31st.

Chaser::

I look forward to the plethora of articles from those journalists remaining insisting that the economy is better than ever. Perhaps AI can write them at the LA Times and Business Insider.


The NFL league championships are this week and from the NFC we are guaranteed a great story of overcoming adversity no matter who wins, either Detroit FINALLY making it to the Superbowl with a rejected QB or San Francisco making it led by the very last pick in the draft born the year Brady was picked and drafted 63 places later than him (262nd).

In the east you have Lamar Jackson the pre-emptive MVP facing Patrick Mahomes who now has made the AFC title game in his first six seasons as a starter. Comparisons to Tom Brady and questions if he will beat Brady’s six titles and ten Superbowl appearances are already flying but in the end no matter what he achieves when people ask who was better the record will show that when facing Tom Brady in the AFC Championship game or the Superbowl he was 0-2 against a Tom Brady at age 40 or over.


10th and last at Elder of Ziyon which is a must visit during the Israel Hamas war they note a rather amazing phenom at the UN, collective memory loss:

Q: Given the UN’s big role in Gaza, UNRWA, has there ever been any indication to the UN that tunnels are being built under the city?

UN: Not to us. I mean… it seems to me that all this infrastructure was built in a highly secretive way. I mean, I see it just as an observer… To think that the UN had any understanding of what was… any information about those operations, I think, is… No is clearly the answer to that.

This is even though the UN has admitted in previous years that tunnels were found underneath their own schools. 

In fact, former UNRWA Gaza director Matthias Schmale admitted that it is a “safe assumption” there were extensive tunnels under Gaza, in a 2021 interview:

If it wasn’t for the fact that Hogan’s Heroes was a fictional show I’d swear that the UN was recruiting heavily from descendants of the guards at Luft Stalag 13 for their uncanny ability to know nothing and see nothing.

Cue Schultz: