63 thoughts on “June 18, 2015: Another Stone at Nibbhenge”

  4. I did get a bonus ticket for today's game, and RPZ got a complication (work meeting, may be able to get out of it).
    So I'm looking to see if anyone who has no complications would like it instead.

    2. Gah, if only I weren't already taking all of tomorrow off! I guess this makes me complicated too. 🙁

    3. RPZ de-complicated himself.
      My only regret is that I don't have more tickets for the complicated rest of you.

    4. I'm thinking I'll miss the game today. I was going to grab a ticket but I have a bunch of my work stuff with me (and there may be free pizza involved later. yay pizza). Have fun guys!

      1. So, uh, this free pizza...is it for anyone who just might happen to be around? Asking for a friend.

        2. Had to preregister, I'll hit you up next time though. I didn't know it was a thing until earlier.

          1. No worries, I was joking first, but if I can register for the next one, sure why not?

            And, yes, softball for sure!

    1. I'm assuming mine that I submitted at a FMD a couple of weeks ago are still valid.

    1. I never, never understand why people like Duncan end up hiring someone not with a major, established firm to manage their money, or invest in harebrained schemes that inevitably collapse.

      Jeepers, people.

      1. Celebrities and doctors are main victims of scam artists. They have money and many believe they are "special." They want to believe they can invest in things that others can't.

        1. Plus a lot of them are, well, not very smart about practical things in life and/or have been so pampered that they've not developed any real world skills.

          Duncan never struck me as dumb, but there is a long history of pro athletes getting caught up in really dumb investment schemes. I suppose that is also true of many tens of thousands of regular people too (penny stocks, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing schemes, whatever). But good god. When you are making 8 figures annually, why in the world would you put large chunks of your assets on red six? Get into a consortium with REALLY rich people if you must.

          1. Tremendous opportunities remain for the leagues to improve their players' financial acumen. I had the opportunity to talk with a guy once who worked for an NBA team to help players with their finances. It's not like the Spurs have a specific obligation to Duncan, but it's not a good look for any of these franchises to have players get taken.

            The other thing is this: he lost $20 MILLION and he says that it isn't going to affect his life. Think about that.

            2. I remember reading that when Carl Pohlad bought the team, he offered help for players managing their finances. He was rebuffed at the time because of the animosity between players and owners. I don't know if things have improved enough for the teams to be able to do this. The unions absolutely should.

              1. In an interview in 1985, Abdul-Jabbar even reflected on the high number of professional athletes who had been taken advantage of by their financial managers, stating, "[I]n the end, you've gotta trust someone." However, in the same interview, he also noted that, "Not only am I paying a lot closer attention to my finances, but I've tried to assume a lot more control over investment decisions." This brought great conflict in early 1986 when Abdul-Jabber lost all faith in Collins the more that he examined what was going on with the investments. In January of 1986, after an independent audit, Abdul-Jabbar was shocked to see what Collins was doing with his money. For instance, Abdul-Jabbar unknowingly had lent Sampson $575,000. As part of the various investments, any of the primary investors would be on the hook for a deal gone wrong. Abdul-Jabbar felt that he would be the one everyone would look to when the deals went bad, since he was the most famous of the group. When he made it clear that he wanted out, all the deals did, indeed, fall apart. English famously sued Abdul-Jabbar, serving him in the Lakers' locker room. Abdul-Jabbar counter-sued, with English being served while on the Denver bench. Collins (and the other players, also) felt that the deals were sound but that Abdul-Jabbar ruined them by panicking. Whatever the case may have been, Abdul-Jabbar sued Collins (and Collins' associates) for the $9 million he had lost plus additional damages (his full total sought in the suit was $50 million). The suit settled in late 1989. The terms of the deal were sealed, but it seems pretty clear that at the very least that Abdul-Jabbar got all of his investments back.

                LA Times story link.

  9. Thanks, everyone! Mommy and the little one are doing great after a long, long induced labor that ended in a c-section, anyway (turns out, he wasn't even all that close even after 37 hours of labor).

    The hospital room had FSN, so he might be able to see his first Twins game tomorrow.

    1. Congrats, citizen. Our first was like that, long induced labor followed by C-section. Not ideal, but you'll tell that story for the rest of your life.

      1. Likewise for us. It was very stressful, but once she came out, it was the greatest moment of my life.

    3. Same happened with Junior. After something like 48 hours of induced labor, his head got stuck so still had to do C-section. With Trey, we figured he probably had the same big head so went ahead and had a C-section (she was given the choice since she had already had one).

  13. I bought a junker 10 speed (well, two technically, but this is just about the one) to tinker with and fix up. The ladies Schwinn was very poorly maintained. I had to literally scrape the "grease" from the bottom bracket bearings with a tiny screwdriver. Then, after much muscling, I finally got the stem post nut loose, only to find the stem post and front fork header have pretty much rusted together. Everything I tried up to and including beating on it with a mallet yielded no results. I think I'm need a vise and second pair of hands.

    1. Biggest takeaway from that for me is that Tyronn Lue is not only still alive, but gainfully employed by an NBA team.

    2. If Blatt doesn't quit right now, then I guess he's stuck there because he'll never get another head coaching job in the NBA. Well, unless Kobe wants someone to kick around.

  15. Cribbage Tourney update:
    RPZ defeated AMR 2-0 with both games played in person, about a month apart.
    It was close. I'll write specifics later.

  17. Twins released Schafer. Interesting that they didn't let him do a rehab assignment first. Makes me think they want his 40-man roster spot. Although, I don't think they've filled Stauffer's spot on the 40-man yet.

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