The wife finally convinced me to get rid of an old side table we had that had been collecting dust in the garage. I had taken it from my parents house when I moved into my first apartment at 18 so there was a little weird sentimental attachment. But, I was happy to see someone had taken it from the curb before the trash came. I hope it lives another long and fruitful life.
In the process of moving from a parsonage to a two-bedroom apartment, we have put numerous items on the curb which have been recycled by passersby. It makes me happy that these items are going to people who can use them.
My wife says you're welcome 🙂
We are still using a small bookshelf picked up from the curb in Brooklyn in about 2002. It's nothing special, but it is just the right height to fit under the living room window. And for some weird reason, I never seem to have enough bookshelf space in my house...
As part of our remodel, we are having a wall of built-ins installed. Because Books. Sooo many.
We have installed three built-ins during our time in the house, yet still so many piles of books. My rule of putting 3 books in a little free library for every one I acquire the past couple of years has been helpful keeping things manageable.
When we were just starting out, a neighbor set out a couple bedside stands that were great "placeholders" in the guest bedroom until we could afford to get a set on our own. They've since been curb-repurposed again.
If you still have your solar viewers from the total eclipse, dig them out and give ol' Sol a gander - sunspot 3664 is an easily visible monster right now
Day game alert...
I don't know about you guys, but Gilbert's ERA and WHIP were due for some serious adjusting.
Someone should tell the Mariners.
The Mariners are kind of interesting this year. The home/road splits have been really extreme, but consistent across pitchers and hitters through today.
At home:
.190/.240/.318, 62 sOPS+ -- vs. SEA pitchers
.204/.289/.335, 77 sOPS+ -- SEA hitters
On the road:
.226/.300/.388, 94 sOPS+ -- vs. SEA pitchers
.241/.314/.395, 106 sOPS+ -- SEA hitters
I mean, looking at that, it basically looks like it's impossible to hit in Seattle in April. The hitters have even been slightly above league average for hitting on the road, as hard as that may be to believe. The pitching looks good, but mortal on the road.
sOPS+ is not park-adjusted, but even then you wouldn't expect the park adjustment to be that extreme. For instance, the Rockies are 98 sOPS+ at home versus 81 on the road, which is a lot smaller difference than the Mariners have home versus away.
Those hitting numbers at home are shockingly bad. The Mariners' .624 OPS at home would be a slightly below average OPS in 1968, and hitting was so bad that year, they lowered the pitching mound going into 1969. And a .204 average would have been league-worst in 1968, too.
The last time the Mariners had a decent overall April performance was 2022, but they only played 9 home games in April that year. Last year and this year they played 16 and 18 games respectively.
Year -- April home games -- April sOPS+
2021 -- 12 -- 90
2022 -- 9 -- 110
2023 -- 16 -- 85
2024 -- 18 -- 86
For what it's worth, this pattern did not hold pre-COVID.
2017 -- 9 -- 101
2018 -- 10 -- 109
2019 -- 17 -- 119
Although, if I look at the Statcast rolling 3-year park factors, the park factor has been more extreme over 2021-2024 than it was 2017-2019. 2017-2019 had a 96 park factor with runs 8% below league average and strikeouts 5% above league average. So a pitchers park, but there were four parks that swayed even more toward the pitchers.
2021-2023 has a 92 park factor (lowest in baseball) with runs 15% below league average and strikeouts 10% above league average. Ranking-wise, it's the worst park for hits, worst for runs, 3rd-worst for strikeouts (from the hitter's perspective), but mid-pack for home runs. If the April weather does anything on top of that to suppress offense, then it would start to explain some of the trouble the Mariners have had getting their offense off the ground at the beginning of the season.
So whatever the Mariners may have done to their stadium over 2020-2021, they might want to consider reverting those changes.
I could get used to this Kepler.
I don't want to cheer for the Mavs but I wouldn't mind them softening up the Thunder in case we make it to the next round.
My FiL passed away this morning. To say the relationship was complicated would be the understatement of the year. Despite that he will always be dr. Chop’s dad and this is going to be painful. Her bro is already being her bro.
All of you are in our prayers.