Country Joe no more

The MLBPA filed a grievance against MLBPA asserting that MLB did not schedule as many games as economically feasible in last year’s COVID shortened, ultimately 60 game season. If they win, it could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the players. As a super-brief review, MLB suspended spring training last March as COVID-19…… Continue reading MLB/MLBPA Grievance Arbitration to Start Monday

2 nights ago, Kevin Kiermaier slid into home. He was called out. There was a minor collision, and on replay one can see a card come fluttering down and land in front of Kiermaier. He is then seen looking at it for a moment and then snapping it up. Yesterday it became quite the thing…… Continue reading Scouting Report-Gate

There are two weeks left in the season. The Dodgers clinched at least a wild card spot the day after my last update. No team has clinched a division yet. The NL East and NL West will come down to the last weekend—because the Dodgers and Giants are that good, and the NL East is…well…the…… Continue reading Clinched/Eliminated Update, 9/20

Today Salvador Perez tied a record by Johnny Bench, and with 16 games to go in the season will likely break it: most home runs in a season as a team’s primary catcher. Bench hit 45 homers in 1970, earning an MVP and leading the Reds to an NL pennant. However, what does this mean?…… Continue reading “Home Runs as a Primary Catcher”

There’s 20, or fewer, games left in the season. We now have a team that’s clinched a playoff spot; the Giants. I don’t think even most die-hard Giants fans had them being the first team to qualify for the postseason back in March…but it’s seemed pretty inevitable since May. Meanwhile a few teams are getting…… Continue reading Clinched/Eliminated Update 9/14

My first reaction when I saw Ryan Braun’s retirement announcement was ”Didn’t he do that last year?” Turns out, no, he hadn’t. The Brewers didn’t give him a new contract/let him walk last October…and nobody else did either…but he never declared himself retired until today. In short, MLB had retired him, and now he has…… Continue reading Ryan Braun Retired

Last night Max Scherzer carried a perfect game into the 8th inning (broken up by a double). He surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts. For the third time in his career he struck out all three batters in an inning on 9 straight strikes. (Only Chris Sale, who got his third earlier this summer, and Sandy Koufax…… Continue reading Cap Tip to Max Scherzer

Tonight the Brewers’ Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader combined for the official 9th no-hitter of the season. It was actually the 11th, but MLB ridiculously doesn’t recognize ones from scheduled 7 inning games. Either way, that’s the all time most no-hitters in a single season. There were 8 in 1884, which was the first season…… Continue reading The Year of the No-Hitter Continues

9/11. It’s a date every adult American in their upper 20’s or older knows. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard what was happening. It was a day that changed our history and is thus indelibly imprinted upon us, same as Kennedy’s assassination to Americans over 65 and…… Continue reading Where I Was on 9/11

Odd. You know how the iPhone puts up word suggestions as you type? As I was typing the title to this post, one of the three suggested words to follow “the” was “Yankees.” The phone knows. A couple weeks ago those Yankees were riding a 13 game winning streak, mostly against losing teams. Since it…… Continue reading Bad Week for the Yankees

Marcel Ozuna has entered into a pretrial plea agreement regarding his domestic violence case. The terms include 6 months of supervision (that can be terminated at three months if other terms are met), 200 hours of community service, a 24 week family violence diversion program with an anger management course. If he completes those, the…… Continue reading Marcel Ozuna Update

Caledonia, MN is a small midwestern town much like any other. As has happened many times in other small towns, one of its key employers is closing up its facility there and moving the jobs elsewhere. The difference here is what that company happens to be. For 20-ish years Miken has manufactured baseball helmets and…… Continue reading Small Town Blues

Last week I brought up what I call “black magic numbers”—how close teams are getting to be eliminated from division or playoff contention. I thought I’d update it today. As far as clinching on the good side goes, no teams has clinched a spot yet, and no team is within a magic number of ten…… Continue reading Clinched/Eliminated 1 Week into September