Middle Buffalo

I thought Benetti was so much better last year than when I’ve heard him in the past. Still a little corny and needs to work on his HR call, but really solid. I haven’t heard much of DJ recently, but I always found him really awkward. He doesn’t “yes, and” much, so a lot of potential conversation dies when met with his silence. I know Kasper is a Chicago media darling, but my impression has always been that he is a “radio voice” guy. His delivery is very off putting. I guess it’s good publicity locally, but if he’s interviewed, he’ll probably be asked about the Cubs rather than Sox.

Guys, the election is over. We can stop pretending COVID is a thing.

Happy Belated Birthday.

This is exactly how I feel about the buzz word “socialism.” Most of the people saying it can’t explain it. Even worse is “Marxism.” There’s not chance they can define that in their own words. Republicans are truly great at branding and getting the masses to buy in. “Radical left,” “liberals,” “Marxism,” “the Squad,” “socialism” - all messaging that Fox hosts and Rush hammer over and over again. I have no doubt the typical Fox viewer couldn’t a member of the Squad other than AOC, and they almost certainly couldn’t tell what the initials AOC stand for.

If we’re ranking tools in the shed, which is the brightest?

I’m not sure “capitalism“ actually exists. Walmart, Amazon, etc. often get huge land discounts and tax advantages because they “create jobs.” Corporate farmers, oil companies, etc. get subsidies. Airlines, car manufacturers, banks, etc. get bailouts. Real estate tycoons are able to offset their “losses” and end up paying little to no taxes. In a true capitalist society, the strong survive. Why is it ok for the government to assist these people but not the poor and disadvantaged? Why do Fortune 500 companies receive government assistance that isn’t available to small businesses owners, small time landlords, and single family farms?

The feedback from the clients could be relayed to the owner by the sales guys. “TLR goes or we drop our sponsorship” is pretty compelling.

It seems to me that LaRussa was targeted by the cop who came upon this roadside accident. I hope the players have the courage to take a knee alongside their new manager on opening day to shine a light on yet another example mistreatment by police.

This is pretty disappointing. Not surprising, but disappointing. I just checked Carmen and Jurko’s podcast - all Bears.

Bring back Hawk on a one day contract to do the deed.

This is how I feel. One step forward, two steps back is how it always feels.

Unbelievable.

Agreed. Greg’s wayward political thoughts probably colored people’s response to his excellent suggestion that TA be moved to catcher.

I wonder if any Presidenting got done this week, or did the taxpayers just pay for a week of tweeting?

Not sure what you mean by “refused to recognize,” but the explanation for “missing”ballots is that USPS pulled ballots from the mail stream to get them to poling places. This means a ballot might have been introduced into the system, but it didn’t get a close out scan because it was removed prior to going all the way through processing. USPS Inspection Service swept processing plants and found 13 ballots.

Needs to work on Jimmy Piersall’s ball-wall-ball routine.

And sometime tomorrow I’ll post the same information you so skillfully refuted.

Considering the way it started with the. Cardinals and Marlins, it turned out well. The two best teams played for the championship, and the best team won. The Sox finally having a team worth caring about was definitely a huge bonus. Looking forward to next year already.

DA’s post about the President touting ending the pandemic as one of his accomplishments was 10-12 posts after a graphic which showed COVID rising in 49 of 50 states. I think that’s more on point than Ronnie and Ralph ending their relationship on the Stern show.

At this point, I just want to see how he puts his staff together. Hopefully, whoever he picks as his bench coach is chosen with the idea that he’ll take over in 2 or 3 years when TLR retires.

Nothing to do with the shift, but since other changes have been introduced here, I’ll add that I hate pitch framing. I don’t understand why an ump would call it a strike if he can see that the catcher pulled his mitt into the middle of the strike zone. The shift is very frustrating as a fan (especially with hard hit ground balls/liners that would’ve been hits with a traditional configuration), but players should be skilled enough to slap singles away from the shift. Do it enough, and the defense will have to adjust.

Cliff’s notes version for the busy Soxtalkers among us.

Forget it, he’s rolling.

Especially when the replay was clearly shoulder to shoulder. Looked bad live, but they take the time to look at it and get it wrong.

Waddle & Silvy had Jesse Rogers on to talk about the Sox managerial situation. I didn’t/won’t listen. I’m sure Jesse is super plugged in to the Sox situation.