45 thoughts on “August 4, 2020: Contactless Drive-Thru”

  1. I'm not a big fan of intentional walks but if you don't walk Cruz with one out, guys on second and third, tie game, bottom of the ninth; I don't think you ever use it.

    1. I assumed Burdi would pitch around Cruz and hope he gets lucky. Still, I assumed it was over once Polanco and Garver tagged up.

      1. well, Burdi was having control issues, so maybe he was trying to pitch around and missed.

  4. So Morneau needs to be the full time color guy (if he wants to). He's improved a lot since just last year (I thought he could get a bit repetitive) and he does a great job of keeping Dick under wraps, which is especially noticeable watching a game with Smalley in the booth instead. I also strongly appreciated Justin taking two full innings to savage the terrible extra innings rule last night.

    1. Totally agree. I was surprised to hear him a week ago -- I don't think I've heard him talk as much in past years combined. Just as Provus improved Dazzle, Montie is doing the same with Dick.

    2. It is really valuable to have more recently-retired athletes in the booth, in my opinion. Baseball is filled with back-in-my-day guys who don't seem to understand or like the way the game is played, so it is such a breath of fresh air to have someone like Morneau giving opinions and as you mention it can even breathe life back into an old play-by-play guy.

      Other sports have similar examples, just look at how much everyone fawned over Tony Romo replacing Phil Simms. At one point people thought Simms was good but the game passed him by or he wasn't able to change or freshen up his calls.

      It might have been Bill Simmons that recommended something like term limits for announcers and I think broadcasts would benefit from more frequent changes to the booth.

      1. Well, if Bill Simmons is for it, I'm not.

        At one point Morneau referenced analytics used to show batters that, if they swing at pitches in this part of the zone, they'll be successful. Dick's brain somehow didn't explode.

        1. I like Morny in the booth (and Marney for that matter), but I'm still glad I got to hear a tale of Gladden and Newman trying to intercept and intimidate the ballboy attempting to bring the Neikro game baseballs to the umpire's office last night.

        3. Note that Dick doesn't really talk much about bunting anymore now that the Twins pound the ball like nobody's business.

          1. He brought it up a little toward the end of the game yesterday, and Morneau discussed run expectancy stats and I nearly fell out of my chair.

    2. It was... something. I only wish Dear Leader would be willing to sit down with either Steve Inskeep or Mary-Louise Kelly (or that they were somehow chosen to moderate a debate).

      1. his handlers wouldn't let him within a country mile of Inskeep or Kelly. Either one would eat him alive, in the most polite way possible.

        2. But if it's polite and thoughtful, nobody can make headers about OWNING or DESTROYING or CRUSHING the political target and WHAT GOOD IS THAT?!?!
          I'm sorry. I hate those things. I'm eating too much FB these days.

          1. With so many public figures having been DESTROYED on teh Social Medias, it is a wonder that anyone is left alive.

  6. So we had some heavy winds an hour or so ago on the tails of Hurricane Isaias (sic). A huge tree across the street crashed and fell over, taking with it numerous power lines, which were sparking and hissing in the rain. Everyone (including us) called 911 and in minutes Hartford's Finest were there, setting up cones and flashing lights.

    What's unsettling is that one of the power lines goes from our house across the street, and is now dangling about 5 feet above the ground. We have power in 1/2 the house, but I'm guessing they're going to have to take us down to 0/2 to resolve things. And the wind is still howling. Sirens all around the neighborhood so I'm thinking we're not alone...

  7. Hung out at Runner daughter's home inspection at lunch today. Only a handful of minor items; inspector said he'd be more than happy if this were to be one of his kid's first home. My first time there, and other than a good cleaning and some attention from some drywall mud in a few places, it looks like she'll enjoy calling it home end of the month.

  8. Local sports guy re:Yadi when he retires -- "...he is going straight to the HOF..." I guess because only two catchers have more Gold Gloves, which is the only criteria he happened to give

      1. The introduction is so good, but then there's the use of the Holy Trinity...

  10. So for some reason back when I first graduated college, I had a Sharebuilder account that I used for some really minimal investing. For three consecutive months, I had the account purchase $150 worth of shares of Netflix stock (so, $450 worth of Netflix stock total). While I knew I had bought some stock, I had never bothered to look at the account again (and the Sharebuilder was subsequently acquired by Capital One and then E-Trade so I sort of lost the paper trail to even log in), but I finally logged back in today after getting an email. Hole. Lee. Shit.

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