Hello friends, it’s your friendly neighborhood Prof here, manning (or, womanning?) the blog for Independence Day! As usual, we’re going super casual for the holiday, just some summertime fun here and there. I might fall down a rabbit hole or two, and the music is a free for all celebration of the USA. Sorry it’s a bit late, my steady date and I went to have breakfast and watch Toy Story 4. How about y’all?
Angels 6, Rangers 2 – Mike Trout knocked two of them out of the park, including a three run homer in the third inning, as Los Angeles once again beat the home team in Texas.
Yankees 5, Mets 1 – Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets! Watch Bronx Bombers beat the Mets! That’s right, the Subway Series was more like watching a one legged man at a butt kicking contest. It’s just not fair to the Mets to go up against a giant like their cross town cousins. Jeff McNeil proved his worth as an All-Star, though, with a solo homer. For the Yankees, we had another multi-dinger contest, both solo shots in the sixth inning.
Tigers 5, White Sox 7 (Game 1), Tigers 6, White Sox 9 F/12 (Game 2)
Marlins 1, Nationals 3 – This was a clinic. Stephen Strasburg took the mound and dominated; striking out 14 in 7.1 innings. The Nationals are now three games over .500, which only a few weeks ago seemed an impossible task.
Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 5 F/10- Cody Bellinger continues to be the man of the west. Two homers, including the decisive walk-off in the tenth inning. It was the first of what I presume will be many for the Dodger All-Star.
Brewers 0, Reds 3 – Nooooooooooooooooooo! Fate, you are a cruel mistress! Scooter Gennett just came back from a severe groin injury, and now the other side of his groin had some tightness and he had to leave the game after two at-bats. Oh, Scoots Magoots, my sweet summer child. And against the Brewers, too! The sadness, it’s too much. Thankfully, Puig Your Power Plant launched a huge homer to set the tone early in the game and Sonny Gray gets the win.
Phillies 2, Braves 9 – Runs on runs on runs, y’all. A day after getting the devil whooped out of them, the Braves came back running on all cylinders, hitting three multi-run homers. Bryce Harper hit a dinger for Philly, but it was small potatoes when compared to the moonshot from super rookie Austin Riley.
Fan Interference 
Our Virginia guy has to be feeling a lot better about the Gnats’ prospects these days, even with their lame boolpen. Having swept the Feesh to their worst record of the season so far (21 below the strange attractor) while climbing four above it, they ought to be buyers and traders going into the waiver deadline, being only 5.5 out and tied for second with the freefalling Feelies.
After a few hopeful weeks the Feesh have looked first-quarter flat since the beginning of the last homestand. Even seasoned vets can be streaky so if Ramirez isn’t cranking this week and Cooper is whiffing a little more than usual, I think we can chalk that up to inexperience at this level.
But there are some guys who are just killing them. Chen and Conley leap to mind, of course. Starlin Castro batting in the fourth slot is another one. He had three hits today that amounted to nothing, which is a bad habit of his. His RISP is infernal. I know they’re “showcasing” him but a turd on a fluted marble pedestal is still a turd and they’ve got to be kidding themselves if they think they can unload him for more than the ML minimum, so why put him in the order where he can do the most inadvertent damage? Granderson is another one. Everyone seems to think he’s administrative, if not managerial, material down the road so why not start grooming him now and make room for some other guys to come up?
The Feesh have got to bring fans in or they’re DOA for the long term. I don’t care if the franchise made stewed blowfish, buxom geishas tending hot baths and glaucoma medicine available to ticket buyers; all things being equal, on a given tropical summer day the stadium “upgrades” can’t compete with a sunny day on the bay with a fishing rod and a full cooler of Heineken or a breezy drive down US1 through the Keys. Curiosity about new guys coming up is better than resignation about the struggles of over the hill veterans, yeah. But what’ll really bring them in is (a) winning, (b) winning, (c) winning and (d) genuinely exciting and personable ballplayers with whom they can affectively identify.
If the need for more fan interest – and dollars – is really as acute as we think it is, then misgivings about “service time” is only reaping a disproportionate harvest of fan disinterest. We all know how much easier it is to turn fans orf than to re-engage them. Get these good kids up here and ditch the chaff already.
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Never mind the fireworks. just talked to my doughier. we agreed to go to church together this weekend. I love her and her brother more than fucking anything but until now I have had to give everything I had to her brother. Please God help her understand/
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