2 weeks after bruce was confident that bellinger would resign due to bellinger and his fiance loving chicago, he now seems resigned to the fact that bellinger will leave, due to bellinger speaking in the past tense, when describing his time with the cubs on saturday.

could be a gen Z thing, where english, grammar and tenses don't match and don't matter. could be that his dad (ex player) and agent (the dreaded boras) have convinced him NOT to say anything that might weaken his bargaining position with the cubs.

he's on $17.5 million. cubs will be getting a windfall from not paying j-hey's $22 mil a year contract. that money will be off the books.

alonso just hired scott boras with an eye towards free agency after next season.

freeman is getting $26+ million a year/6 years. how much does alonso or bellinger think they are worth?

spiegel with some weak stuff this am. didn't want to talk about happ's 9th inning AB yesterday. instead, told us he's been hitting 2-3 run HRs and hitting balls to the warning track, 'lately'. ok.

not deserving of the mel allen TWIB theme music.

the cubs had 10 hits (5 doubles), 5 BBs and managed 3 runs. cubs were 1-14 with runners in scoring position. the cubs lost 4-3. the lunacy of batting wisdom leadoff. busch playing at 2B today - haven't heard his comments about how many double plays the cubs will turn today.

said today that it's hard for him to bring up ty cobb and babe ruth because they didn't play against the best. i wonder how many HRs did josh gibson hit off fred g sanford?

I knew a guy who seen negro league baseball. Pitching was the difference. I'm sure you could grab 4, 5, 6, pitchers and put them in MLB and they'd be fine, but generally speaking, I was told they kind of threw batting practice. There were a few good teams and the rest were fodder. Again, this is what I was told, I haven't researched it, I don't know that you can. And Buck O'Neil would say I'm full of shit.

_________________
The modern world is divided between those that would numb itself to its meaninglessness through various substances and various hedonisms and those that realize it and go crazy

yeah, i just feel that spiegel is doing his 21st century nice guy, virtue-signaling routine. in 1930, black-americans were less than 10% of the usa population. spiegel had costas on, talked again about the sandberg game and willie mays. willie mays, star that broke out in the medieval 1950s. the barbershop will tell you that white producers 'lost' film of mays hitting 2 HRs off this white pitcher....

here's willie on 1950's t.v., 'what's my line' show. the network, the producers, the sponsor, the host could have said no blacks on the show. it's 1954 and they had him on, much to the delight of the audience and panel. arlene francis, a giants fan, knew it was willie, her favorite player. what spiegel, bernstein and parkins tell me about eras they didn't live in, doesn't gel with recorded evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoQOIf7utlY

Nah, Goodson-Todman were liberal New York Jews trying to take down our great nation from within. I bet some affiliates in the former Confederacy didn't clear the show that night, though.

_________________

you can bet that some CBS stations in the former confederacy didn't air that episode, but, can you prove it?

I've noticed something with Spiegel that's probably been going on for a while, but is just coming across my radar screen now, he constantly seems to be trying to remind/convince people that he's part of the club of "baseball guys." That whole dust up between him and Schriffen was driven, in large part, by the fact the Spiegel did not believe that Schriffen was a "baseball guy." Around Father's Day this year, Spiegel told this long story about Chip Caray telling him that he was part of "the club" because he once called an MLB game. Then, on Hit and Run this morning, he announced some segment called "Baseball Bonifides" where he asks his guests three Baseball questions, seemingly to assess the sophistication of their answers.

I don't doubt his bonafides, he has a good handle of the game but like many, he hasn't realized why baseball is dying. I would ask Spiegel a 4th question.

I'd like to know the 3 questions. I'll wait until the show is posted

_________________
The modern world is divided between those that would numb itself to its meaninglessness through various substances and various hedonisms and those that realize it and go crazy

1. Who is your favorite current or former player, and why?
2. What is the best game you ever saw in person?
3. What would you change about baseball?

After listening 5 minutes a loopy Spiegel hit a home run, "A lot of teams would like to have Nicky Lopez as a pinch hitter" (career 2 for 15).

1. There's a difference between favorite and most respected.
2. How do you differentiate a alcs game with a dropped 3rd strike with a July game last century where Luis Tiant outduels Bart Johnson? The ALCS wins every time but not necessarily on it's "ballgame" merit.
3. How do you 'change' pulling a pitcher in the 7th inning of a no hitter for safety concerns? How do you change the cookie cutter approach to the entire sport? All the data agrees on what produces runs and what saves runs. It's just no fun. I would say cut 42 games off the schedule and see if it gets more fun.

_________________
The modern world is divided between those that would numb itself to its meaninglessness through various substances and various hedonisms and those that realize it and go crazy

extra innings runner on second is the obvious

it changes the game of baseball for expediency

id rather have ties

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You don't get it either. Baseball isn't dying because of ghost runners and pitch clocks. It's dying because it's clunky. And it's a purposely clunky game whether it's 2 hrs, 3 hrs, or 4 hrs. Everybody has figured out the probabilities of winning and it's boring as fuck.

How do you legislate against:
Tommy john
162 games followed by soon to be 14 playoff teams
Pitchers not giving in and batters seeing many pitches
HR or K or BB outcome
Defense being the desert tray rather than an entree
The parade of specialists coming in from the bullpen sweatshop to protect the big money 5 and flyers' arms.
Every manager's strategy is exactly the same. All player development is exactly the same. All the players are indistinguishable in their approach. It's a factory of sameness.

_________________
The modern world is divided between those that would numb itself to its meaninglessness through various substances and various hedonisms and those that realize it and go crazy

This is not a cure all, but it could make the pitching situation better: except in the case of extra innings or an injury (which would result in an automatic trip to the IL), each team is only allowed to use a maximum of four pitchers per game.

Offense in baseball is way too dependent on HR's. I don't know how offenses are able to overcome teams using starters for less innings because they can then turn to 4 or 5 (maybe more) options that all throw near 100 MPH, but the game is boring.

There could be something to limiting pitching changes in a 9 inning game (maybe you let teams do whatever if it goes extra innings), but I can already hear the complaints if a pitcher goes longer and then gets injured....so any change like this would probably not happen and, even if it did, it would still probably allow for teams to go through too many pitchers.

A starter though, in many rotations, has become a a 4-5 IP especially beyond the top 2 starters on most teams. If a starter goes 6 IP, that becomes the equivalent of a complete game these days.