I know there is a lot of serious stuff on Israel to write about but for one day we’re going to almost completely ignore it:
As a python fan and a bit of a geek I don’t think it gets any cooler than this:
It’s easy to make him laugh; he’s that sort of fellow. But I have to tell you that when I made him laugh, when he actually laughed, complete with head tossed back, it was one of those moments in life you just encase in Lucite and put on the shelf. Put that on my tombstone: “Made Michael Palin Laugh, and Did Not Otherwise Embarrass Himself. Much. Well, a Bit. Alright, Somewhat. Honestly, Loads” or something.
With all the horror I’ve been reading about the last few days to be able to read that and imagine the joy of that moment, that was special.
Today there should be a vote on a new speaker for the house. Jim Jordan is considered a favorite although there is at least one report that Speaker McCarthy might be nominated by some allies and of course Steve Scalise who was Majority Leader is in the running.
Whoever wins will have a lot on their plate to deal with but that it’s been reduced to a second or third string story gives the GOP some flexibility in how they deal with it.
When I heard on my way home that the highly favored Dodgers had lost their 2nd straight against the Arizona Diamondbacks in their best of five series to go to the National League Pennant Series against either Philly or Atlanta all I could think of was their welcoming the anti Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their Stadium and found myself spontaneously making up and singing a parody song titled: “Don’t Piss off God” (sung to the tune of “Don’t bring me Down”).
Baseball being baseball it might be premature for such a song but if the Diamondbacks complete the sweep or even win the series I just might write out the lyrics and post them.
Never thought I’d be cheering against a Dave Roberts team but hey the Dodgers made their bed.
Speaking of both God and the practical news blackout on stories not involving Israel and Hamas the Synod is still going on in the Catholic church and one of my big worries is that the folks hoping to push though their whole “Mortal Sin is OK” platform.
It’s moments like this when I’m not surprised that there were at one time up to three popes each claiming to be the legit one and the church highly divided.
Of course the last time this type of thing came up Saint Pope Paul VI surprised everyone by his issuance of Humanae Vite which, to the shock of the left, not only affirmed the church’s position on life and contraception but urged governments to do the same.
I would be both shocked and not shocked if Francis ended up doing the same. I would be shocked because that would be completely out of Character of for this pope but I would also not be shocked because over history that’s how God rolls.
Faith is not just believing in God, but believing he knows what he’s doing. That’s how I’m handling it.
A week or so ago I noted that the 2023 New England Patriots after four week2 had averaged 13 1/4 points offensive per games with Bill (the savior) O’Brian as the offensive coordinator as opposed to Matt (The Evil One) Patricia’s 16 3/4 offensive points per game.
We’ve now finished week five.
In week five last year Patricia’s offense scored 22 of the patriots 29 points in a win vs the Lions bringing their record to 2-3 and their avg points on offense per game to 17.8
Meanwhile Bill O’Brian’s team was shut out in a 34-0 rout vs the Saints putting their record at 1-4 and putting their avg points per game at an even 11.
That is better than a touchdown per game worse that an offense that was constantly under attack by local media
Maybe if they ask really nice Patricia might come back.
Posted: September 26, 2023 by datechguy in baseball
Tags: baseball
I write a lot about my fantasy leagues but today let’s talk the real thing.
While this has been a disappointing year for the Boston Red Sox who need to win five of their final six to avoid a sub .500 season we have some excellent races all around the league. Let’s start with the AL
In the East The Orioles still haven’t clinched with six to go but the odds are favoring them.
In the West with seven to play Texas has again reversed their fortunes being 3 up in the loss column with the two teams chasing them going head to head for three to make things easier for them.
In the Central there is no Drama. Minnesota has it won with a record that would not secure a wild card spot.
And as for the wild card Tampa Bay has clinched the top spot if they don’t catch up to the O’s and the up and down Blue Jays need only of out of their final six to guarantee a bearth.
Meanwhile Houston and Seattle go head to head for 3 here at the end to decide who gets a spot and who goes home. Unless we see a sweep it will not likely be decided till the final series of the year.
In the National League all the divisions are decided. The Braves took the east and the Dodgers the west long ago and the Brewers are one win or one Cubs loss away from taking the central and while it’s possible (remember 1964) I wouldn’t stake money on it.
The wild card race however is as exciting as the east, perhaps more so because five teams have a legit shot at the three positions. Even the Phillies at +5 have not clinched. The other four teams Arizona, Chicago, Miami and Cincinnati are all within 2 1/2 with the Diamondbacks and Cubs tied and Miami just one game behind.
So at least ten cities will be looking forward to meaningful and perhaps exciting games for their teams this week. This will mean smiles for if you’re a Baseball fan, at least if you don’t live in Boston or New York.
If you look at any list of world series winners you will note that the listed winner of the World Series in 1919 is always the same.
It is the Cincinnati Reds managed by Pat “Pop” Moran (from my city of Fitchburg Massachusetts after whom Moran square in the city is named and to whom a nice monument exists in west Fitchburg).
The 1919 Reds are a team that doesn’t get enough credit but let’s take a look at the actual real numbers involved via that invaluable site Baseball-Reference. com :
The 1919 Reds were a good team, they went 96-44 finishing 9 games ahead of John McGraw’s giants. By comparison their World Series Rivals finished 88- 52 3 1/2 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians.
They had a first rate pitching staff with a team ERA of 2.23 (almost a full run better than their world series opponents at 3.04) this is why they gave up a mere 2.9 runs per game nearly a full run less than their World Series Rivals
At the plate they were 2nd in the National league in batting, slugging and OPS and led the national league in OBP, although all of those numbers were below their AL rivals.
With the Glove the Reds had a fielding percentage of .974 to their AL rivals .969 a slight edge but combined with their pitching lead to their run differential of 1.3 not only led the majors but was a full 30% higher than their vaunted AL rivals.
Put simply the Reds were a team with strong pitching and defense and solid up and down the lineup facing a team in the world series with a solid ace and a stronger batting lineup if you look at the team stats for the season one could easily pick the Reds as the favorite to win. (One might point to their White Sox ace with a 29-7 with an 1.82 record in 35 starts as the deciding advantage, that is if you ignored the fact that Reds Starter Dutch Ruether went 19-6 with an identical 1.82 ERA in 29 starts).
It was to be the classic matchup of a team with an overwhelming offense vs a team with solid pitching up and down the rotation and better defense…
…or rather it would have been if a group of White Sox players had not decided to throw the series. This led to all kinds of scandal, trials, losing of evidence and the appointment of a tough baseball commissioner who ruled the game with an iron fist for the next 20 years.
However it didn’t change the result. In the record books the Cincinnati Reds were the winners of the 1919 world series.
Today everyone remembers the 1919 White Sox but few talk about the excellent Reds team that won the series and everyone assumes that the White Sox would have won if they didn’t throw the series because nobody has bothered to remember how good the Reds actually were but even though the 1919 Reds are only remembered these days as the team that the Black Sox threw the world series to, in 1919, 1924, 1950, 1972, 1999 and even today 104 years later if you look up the question: “Who won the 1919 Major League World Series” the correct answer remains: “The 1919 Cincinnati Reds 5 games to 3.”
And that brings us to the favorite question that the media likes to ask the GOP during the 2024 cycle.
Right now the country is in the worst shape than I have ever seen in my 60 years on this planet. The economy is in a shambles, our position in the world is a joke, our military is in a self destructive cycle, our social fabric is tearing apart our borders don’t exist, laws are not enforced, basic human rights that we had acknowledged as sacred for centuries are cast aside and we have a president who on a good day has the intellectual and physical prowess of John Gill.
The media/academic left is doing all it can to protect the banana republic that this administration has become and as part of this attempt keeps circling back to the 2020 election asking every GOP candidate running for any office from President to dog catcher: “Who won the 2020 presidential election?” figuring that an answer of “Trump” can be used to discredit the candidate with the general public while an answer of “Biden” will discredit them from the base.
There is no question in my mind that election 2020 was stolen and that inaction by the people charged with enforcing the norms to make sure the result is honest led to the final result but the bottom line is as simple as the answer to who won the 1919 world series.
So I suggest that if you are a GOP Candidate for President, or Senator or Congress, or Governor or Dog Catch and the question is asked:
“Who won the 2020 election?”
or
“Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election?”
the proper answer by any GOP candidate who thinks the election was stolen or might have been stolen is: “Joe Biden won the presidential election of 2020 election as sure as the Cincinnati Reds won the world Series in 1919.”
They won’t like the answer and if they challenge it the best response is: “Are you saying the Cincinnati Reds didn’t win the 1919 world series?” and press them on this.
Now I realize that this is to some degree an insult to the 1919 Reds who as I’ve noted above were a great team and were certainly capable of winning the 1919 World Series but as they are all long dead I think they will forgive us in this case.
As anyone who follows me on twitter knows I’m very much into the Dynasty Baseball game, which came out of the old pursue the pennant boardgame from the pre-pc era. It’s my primary pastime these days beside watching regular baseball.
You can have a lot of fun playing in a league but if you want to run your own remember while it’s a lot of fun it’s also quite a bit of work. If you’ve thought of running your own league here are a few things you should consider:
A: Consider how much time you have:
The first thing you need to consider if you want to run a Dynasty league is how much free time you have to both run the league and play in it. Playing a game itself is not all time consuming, about 30-40 minutes per game is what’s required, but if you are scheduling games 2 days, 3 days or even four days a week can add up, particularly if you are not retired or have a family that likes to do things. Furthermore if you’re running a league you have to leave yourself enough time to put out the various fires that take place. So when deciding to run a league make sure you decide:
How much time you have for administration
How much time you have to actually play
What I’d do is figure how many free days I have to play and then subtract one or even two and then set whatever league you create to that length, that will assure that you have time to get it done.
B: Consider what type of league you want
There are three basic types of leagues in order of complexity
Draft leagues (Hardest)
Existing team leagues
Season Replay leagues
All have advantages and disadvantages:
Draft leagues:
Draft leagues involve drafting players from a pool of players from the same season. Draft leagues have several advantages over existing team leagues:
A: You get to be GM as well as manager building your own team and are thus more invested in it
B You can continue the league year to year to keep up interest
C You can tweak the system to add realism, (trades, waiver wires etc)
D The Draft itself becomes an event
It’s my experience that some people enjoy the GM factor more than the games itself and that you really become invested in the teams and players. I’ve reached the point in my league that I started in 1969 that I even make baseball cards for the folks on my team to wit:
My Version of Jack Hiatt’s 1971 card
However draft leagues have their downsides:
A: Considerably more time to manage
B: Handling the rosters
C The draft itself may take days or weeks
D Keeping Competitive balance
E More things to go wrong
Running a draft league means, handling rosters of every single team, running a draft and trying to do it fairly and if you are having a league that goes from season to season keeping up the competitive balance from season to season. All of these require extra work and time depending on the size of your league: (My current draft leagues are 16 players for 1996 and 20 for 1971) and of course the more players the more work.
Bottom line: Draft leagues are in my opinion the most fun but if I were new I’d start with an existing league first to get my feet wet:
Existing team leagues
Having a league of existing teams takes a lot of work out of the system. The adantages are clear:
There is almost no managing of rosters
No trying to get people together for a draft
No worrying about a change from one season to the next
If more than one person wants the Yanks, or Cubs they can have them
You can mix eras
As soon as you have your schedule made you can start at once
Most existing team league involve GREAT teams which is the pool for tournaments. These tend to be very popular because the teams are memorable although you can spice things up as I did by creating leagues that aren’t just great teams two examples:
All pathetic team leagues: Teams in such a league all have to have a minimum loss level (90, 100 or something in between) This makes for a very odd game where you are constantly hoping for players to roll of their opponent’s cards. Also it gets interesting when one such team has a superstar. A 1967 Mets team with Tom Seaver for example. Can you picture the number Seaver produces when only facing slubs?
All Mediocre teams (the SD Jones league) I ran a league of teams that all had records from 80-82 to 82-80. This makes for an interesting league as there is enough of a mix of slubs and stars to really involve managing games.
Either way with these teams you don’t have the same roster / upkeep issues although with some of the older teams you are more likely to run into situations where a team has no pitcher eligible to use.
The disadvantages of set teams are:
Teams are static no variation.
No GM or Draft or Trade type fun
Balance (think 27 yanks vs well almost anyone)
Less incentives for teams losing to continue
The mix of eras can cause anomalies
Bottom line set teams are a good option to start out but tend to be one or two shot deals. They work with teams that
Replay Leagues
With a replay league you play a team in an actual season in order.
The advantages:
Very realistic. Actual team, actual schedule
Schedule is pre-made so faster start
The system handles trades and signings when it happens
Excellent for solo league play
There are however some huge disadvantages
Your season only moves only as fast as the slowest player
Locked into the number of games in the season (162) games
Unbalanced a bad team is always bad
A season replay league is a great choice if you want to get familiar with the game in a hurry. But you want to be sure that the players in it are committed because you can’t move to July 21 till all of July 22’s games are done. You might impose a 24-48 hour limit to get things in.
You CAN make a season replay league into a draft league but the amount of work is considerable and if you do be prepared for a season to take a full year
C: Consider how many series you want in a week:
Unless you are playing a season replay which is played based on when a day is finished. The Dynasty league system allows you to schedule up to four series a week at any time you wish to set.
As a series can be set for anywhere from 2-4 games that means as little as 2 games a week and as many as 12.
The fewer series played in a week of course the easier it is for people to play without having to resort to autoplay but that also means the slower the season goes. Also consider that a game takes 30-45 min in my experience so a 4 game series can take 3 hours while a two game series can be done in 90 minutes.
Also remember that the more series you have in a week the less likely you are to draw in players who are already in a league or two who won’t be able to squeeze in those extra games.
And the more series a week the less time to reschedule when real life insists on asserting itself over your scheduiled gaming time.
D: Consider how many games you want in a season:
Unless you are playing a season replay which fixes you at 162 games (or 154 if you play 1957 or 60 if you play the COVID season) you have the option to set any number of games.
The longer the season you play the more real it will be and the less impact injuries and suspension will have. Of course a short season the season will be and the more chance that a streak of good or bad luck will carry the day.
Also consider a short season means that you can have multiple seasons in a year while a long season will likely mean two at the most.
And if you have a draft league remember the draft takes up time between seasons it doesn’t finish in a day (unless you play face to face).
But either way remember you are the guy who is going to have to make this schedule and enter it manually into dynasty
E: Consider How many players you want to manage:
Note that I didn’t ask you how many teams you wanted in your league I asked how many players you want to manage.
A smaller league means fewer players and the fewer players you have the easier it is to have guys show up when games are scheduled and to schedule more games in a week etc.
It’s also a lot easier to come up with a schedule with fewer teams.
A small intimate league is fun but of course there is nothing like a large league with 16-20 players and a great variety of styles of play and management, plus you get less “Superteams because so many players are used. For example in my current 1971 league there are only 6 pitchers not on someone’s roster.
But keep this in mind any online league usually involves people you don’t know personally. The only thing everyone has in common is a love of baseball and a willingness to pay for the game.
There are invariably going to be the basic problems, people from different time zone having issues being free etc but you are also going to run into disputes and errors and mistakes and if it’s your league you have to make the calls. Managing people of different temperaments, different ages et/al can be difficult so do your best to impartially stick to the rules.
I STRONGLY suggest that you avoid non-league stuff in conversation or in the slack room and if you’re on social media and are angry about something in the news don’t vent in the league space (I made that mistake a few years ago in a league and it’s a mistake I regret.)
But more than that I suggest not having any kind of cash league with a prize. Once money is involved everything changes and any mistake becomes magnified
Remember in the end it’s all about having fun, make the choices to allow the maximum amount of fun for yourself and all the work will pay off.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 
