Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

The #Unexpectedly Chronicles: You Never Hear This Discussed When Sportwriters Decry the Oakland A’s Pending Move

Posted: July 29, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, crime, Sports
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The subject of the Oakland A’s pending move to Las Vegas has been the subject of an awful lot of chest thumping by sportwriters all over the place who loudly denounce the very thought of the 29-76 A’s abandoning the City of Oakland, as they abandoned the city of Kansas City in 1968 and the City of Philadelphia in 1955.

The is all kind of talk about “loyalty” and the legacy of the great A’s teams of the 70’s and the Bash Brothers of the 80’s but there is a subject concerning the preference of Las Vegas over Oakland that has not come up in the context of the move by any sportswriter I’ve read nor any sportscaster I’ve seen or heard.

However it’s a subject that any resident of Oakland knows is one of the top concerns of the city, in fact it’s such a concern that the NAACP of Oakland has decided to state it publicly:

Some key quotes:

Oddly enough what the local chapter of the NAACP decry and the residents of the city know the national media which decries the inability of the A’s to draw fans doesn’t have a word to say, blaming the owner instead.

The subject of crime in the city, crime so bad that it’s expedient to pull a major league team, albeit one of the worst teams you will ever see, and move to a city so renowned for it’s criminal past that it hosts the mob museum is an odd omission, until you remember that there is a national election coming up and the issue of crime, particularly in cities run by the left (The last Republican mayor of Oakland was elected in 1961) and when it comes to media, no media is more consistently left than sports media, particularly on the national level.

So while the discussion of the move of the A’s continues over the next couple of years, you can bet your bottom dollar that the subject of crime in the city will continue to be ignored by those in media, at least until after the election.

Unexpectedly of course.

Five Thoughts Under the Fedora: Ayotte Ok, The Countdown Continues, That explains it, So does this, Channeling Lincoln in Foxborough

Posted: July 24, 2023 by datechguy in culture, election 2020, election 2024, elections, nfl, politics, Sports, under the fedora
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Kelly Ayotte is running for Governor in NH. It’s my opinion that she was one of the few victims on 2016 because the left knew they needed the same kind of “help” in NH that they later arranged in 2020 in counties from Arizona to PA.

My friends at the Grok are underwhelmed but my thought is she was an OK Senator and would certainly be a better governor than any Democrat out there, neverayotte folks not withstanding.

On a personal note Ayotte always gave me time and never ducked a question I asked, again the Grok guys know NH better than me but I’d take her for Governor like a shot over who we have in MA.

There are four days left if you want a sub from mighty subs in Needham MA as they prepare to close their door after 33 years.

My advice if you want to avoid lines and the risk of them running out of bread which happened every day this week. Get their by 7 AM or 8 at the latest. Believe me they’re worth it and you only have four more days.

Here is my video from 11 years ago

Mighty subs in year 22 of 33

Saw a tweet at instapundit that I had to answer, that tweet and my answer explains a lot.

People with power do what they do for a reason.

Speaking of explanations:

https://twitter.com/giftgab538/status/1683072436210921472

I always thought that it was interesting that the same folks who were attacking and censoring people like me who say election 2020 was rigged and stolen never had the thought of demonstrating that the counts and the ballots were on the up and up, which is what you do if you have run a clean election that someone questions.

I submit and suggest there is a reason for this.

Finally I’m really getting sick of the “Replace Bill Belichick” chorus on talk radio lately.

Now I confess I don’t know if Bill has a plan to get back to the playoffs or the superbowl or just to last long enough to get the all time wins record but I do know two things.

  1. Barring a lot of luck and major injuries all over the league nothing he could do in the next three years will get this team back to the Superbowl
  2. There is not a better coach available that has even an outside chance of achieving that goal in the time frame I just mentioned.

I’m reminded of when a newspaper editor came to Lincoln demanding the removal of General George McClellan Lincoln asked him who he thought should replace him, he received the answer “Anybody” and Lincoln replied that anybody might be OK for him but he needed SOMEBODY.

Until I get a name who can do better I think I’ll stick with Bill.

The Celtics Trade Away The Thing They Need Most

Posted: June 22, 2023 by datechguy in nba
Tags: ,

Is there is one thing that Celtics fans and the talk radio crowd agreed on is that the thing that the Celtics needed the most and didn’t have during the playoffs was heart and balls.

The Celtics were too full of themselves and because of that they needed strong efforts to beat teams they should have rolled over and we’re unable to beat a team that while inferior by every measurable standard had the two things that the Celtics lacked during their playoff run.

Heart and balls.

So what apparently was the solution? To trade away the player who had the most heart and balls on the team for a tall guy with a big contract and two 1st round picks.

On a team that didn’t have leaders Marcus Smart was a leader. Over and over he stepped up. There were times when he could not carry them over the hill because his talent alone wasn’t enough but he always stepped up, always played hard and never laid down.

Now that player is gone and Memphis will benefit greatly from his presence there.

As for the Celtics? I think they followed the following line of logic:

  1. Something must be done
  2. This is something
  3. Therefore we must do it

Well I say this. Unless you can somehow trade those two 1st round draft picks for a set of balls for Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown you are going nowhere.

Now I’m not a basketball GM and I don’t do this for a living. It might be possible that the Celtics will turn those two draft picks into gold or will draft two players who turn into gold or that their new tall man from the wizards will turn out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread so if I turn out to be wrong and they come home with a ring this year or next I will be happy to eat these words.

But absent evidence to the contrary, this was idiocy.

Five Interesting Things I Saw at Longhorn’s while Watching the Games Under My Fedora: Orders, Defense, Sale and the Clock, Bud Light and DeSantis

Posted: May 6, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, election 2024, elections, nba, politics
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Yesterday with DaWife working and both the Celtics and Redsox playing in Philly I decided to go to Longhorn’s Restaurant to watch the game and have some of their spicy chicken bites (if you haven’t had them try them, they are the best value in terms of taste and quantity of any appetizer offered in any restaurant out there.

There were five things that jumped out at me while I sat at the bar:

First of all while the neither the restaurant nor the bar was very crowded (likely due to the games and the pending Mother’s day next week) the takeout business was very brisk. I observed the young lady running the takeout, she was doing well in a busy job. The phone was cranking and the orders were flowing. Before COVID the amount of takeout a place like this would do was minimal but even with COVID finished many people have really taken to getting their restaurant food at home without the restaurant. It’s one of the subtle ways the COVID stuff has changed us.

Second of all I was watching the Celtics Philly game and noticed that, at least for the first half Philly was contesting the initial inbounds passes after scoring even before the Celtics started pulling away. You don’t see a lot of teams doing that and it proved to be, at least in my opinion effective in giving the Celtics some grief. I think more teams should do this in the NBA, while it doesn’t allow a set defense it does and can disrupt a set offense.

Third of all I was watching the Redsox , Phillies game with great interest both because of Chris Sale for for five of the six innings he pitched looked like the Sale of 2018 constantly throwing over 95 and getting ahead of hitters but living on the edge of the pitch clock. Under the new rules the pitcher has to be in his leg kick by the time the clock hits zero or a ball is automatically called and the number of pitches he got off within a second of what would be a violation was considerable. This had some effect in his bad inning when he would get angry at himself and vent and then have to rush a pitch to keep a penalty. I’m curious how many other pitchers in baseball are living on the edge of the clock?

Of course being at the bar I naturally kept an eye on BudLight Sales. Longhorn offers two beers at a slight discount for a smaller glass, Bud Light and Miller Lite. In the two hours I was there I did not see a single Bud Light poured but in fairness I didn’t see any Miller Lite being ordered either. In fact what little there was of beer orders were of the local IPA’s but be that as it may Bud wasn’t moving. Perhaps they can start offering it at Tuppence a glass?

Finally I was REALLY caught by surprise by a political ad by a superpac during the Red Sox game. It was a powerful ad about freedom but the climax of the ad was a mother and child putting a DeSantis for president sign in their yard and a person with a Trump 2016 bumper sticker on his pickup putting a DeSantis 2024 bumper sticker over it.

I’ve not been able to find the Ad to embed it but let me tell you if Donald Trump already had his hair on fire over DeSantis as a candidate this will send him over the edge.

Frankly I’m torn between the two of them. Either would make a fine President and each has different plusses and minus.

Of course if Jay Valentine is right, it may all be moot anyways

To become president, Trump must win a bunch of swing states.  To win each state he needs more ballots in his pile than the other guy.  It’s baked into the data — which we look at every day — that Trump is not going to win those swing states.  None of them.

It’s not his fault.  He will probably get more votes, just not more ballots.

and he closes thus:

Unfortunately, the RNC is about raising dough and having elaborate meetings with mediocre minds.  The Trump campaign thinks rallies, flags, and red hats can overcome the Left’s complete control of election apparatus.

It’s like France in 1939. 

Trump is France. 

If that is correct there will be trouble and if DeSantis believes the left won’t use these tactics against him in a general then he’s a fool.

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