caulfield12

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28482487/the-five-biggest-victims-astros-sign-stealing-scandal 3. Mike Fiers. Other players have privately complained about his decision to speak to The Athletic about the Astros' sign stealing and his criticism of the cheating. Maybe those unhappy teammates should consider the issue from his perspective. Their decision to break established rules put him and other players who wanted nothing to do with the sign stealing in a terrible position of either going along with the cheating, effectively condoning it -- which is why Hinch was suspended -- or speaking out against it. For the rest of Fiers' career, he'll have to deal with the whispers from some peers angrily complaining about him, when what they should do is reach out to apologize to him for how they compromised his experience. You could say the same for the other players on the '17 Astros who might not have shared in the sign stealing. Even if he had no involvement, Justin Verlander's one championship in a Hall of Fame career will be forever tarnished. Article for some reason left out Yu Darvish...

https://www.mlb.com/news/ronald-acuna-dunked-in-a-basketball-game

And let’s not forget the players, not one of whom, it seems, showed the courage to say, “this is wrong.” And if so, is this not symptomatic of a society that tends to view right and wrong as fluid and changeable, subject to one’s self-interest? “Everything’s relative dude, it’s all a social construct.” No, it was wrong. Other teams are doing it, maybe, is no excuse. I really thought these guys were better than this. Stupid me. Yes, other teams are doing it, and Alex Cora, at least, deserves the same punishment. But that doesn’t assuage my pain that these lovable underdogs stooped so low. Altuve? Really? The little kid “midget”* who came back to the tryout and said “give me another chance coach, please?” Springer? The boy who overcame stuttering and dedicates himself to helping other kids like him? You’re better than this. Correa, who as a child worked so hard at baseball despite desperate poverty that he fielded grounders near tree roots until his face was black and blue? Even Bregman, who got to #2 in MVP voting entirely by dint of an almost pathological work ethic? They all fell in with this hare-brained stunt. Didn’t someone have the guts to say, just once, “what are we doing? Why are we banging on garbage cans during a baseball game?” My mother used to say, “if everyone else jumps off a cliff, are you going to jump too?” Apparently so. The Astros just hit rock bottom. Does this mean I will not root for the Astros next season? I’m 62 years old and I have done my fair share of stupid things. But I have always tried to learn from those mistakes. Maybe from this humiliation the players will return to their humble roots. Yes, I really do believe everyone involved will learn and grow from this. I expect sincere contrition in the coming days, and if it is so, I will forgive them, as I have often needed forgiveness myself. https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2020/1/13/21064786/houston-astros-you-reap-what-you-sow

Or he had the same poor season statistically that players sitting out the season typically experience, see Lance Lynn.

https://www.city-journal.org/little-women Little Women Goes to War “Woke” critics express outrage that men stay away from a movie with little to offer them.

1995 Nebraska and 2001 Miami...maybe 1972 USC.

https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2020/1/13/21064786/houston-astros-you-reap-what-you-sow Great opinion piece by a Stros fan...and McCullers better hope Clevinger is traded out of the AL soon.

At the VERY least, Luhnow's going to be hired as a consultant to get those cellar-dwelling teams into the 21st century in terms of analytics and their proprietary database operations...which was the bone of contention when he took a lot of that with him from St. Louis to Houston in the first place. There's no clear rules about "work product" in MLB like there is in Silicon Valley.

One of the bottom 5-7 franchises is going to get desperate and hire them as a package deal. They might not hire Hinch to manage the big league team right away, he would probably start off with some front office or scouting/instructional title and then spend at least one or two years in the minors or as 3rd base or bench coach doing "penance" for their crimes.

Even though they claim it's a huge loss since Hinch and Luhnow are supposed to be Top 3 in baseball at their positions, they have the internal replacements and system in place in terms of the front office. Of course, the question then becomes do they keep all those who were "too close" to Luhnow and Hinch, or overlook that for continuity's sake? Is there an organization like the Marlins, Tigers, Pirates, Mariners, Orioles....that's ballsy enough to hire both those guys as a package, let them sit out their suspensions and say "f--- you" to the penalties, basically believing that building a winning team outweighs what they've done?

Where is EVERYONE? Exciting first half, but it seems like LSU just has too much offensive firepower. On pace for a 700+ total yardage game. At least it didn't start out like the semi's, where OU was out of the game in the first quarter. Plus, Clemson has Lawrence, but the Tigers have just lost so much talent from last year's team, hard to see them coming back...yet stranger things have happened.

SoxTalk is world-renowned for its cogent discussions of obscure Women's Professional Hockey Leagues in Eastern/Northern Europe and Russia.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/columnists/solomon/article/Solomon-Jim-Crane-s-firings-set-the-bar-higher-14972513.php According to the report, Hinch admitted he knew what the players were doing, and though he was against the practice, he allowed it to continue. Crane expected them to do more. “Neither one of them implemented it … but neither one of them did anything about it,” Crane said. Luhnow’s claim of complete innocence and ignorance is interesting. According to the MLB investigation, two emails mentioning the sign-stealing effort were sent to Luhnow, and there is “conflicting evidence about conversations with Luhnow on the topic.” “When I found out, I was very upset,” Crane said. “We want to be known for playing by the rules.”

Yes, but she's hardly a "mainstream" actress like a Hanks/Clooney/Eastwood/Favreau/Costner...let's just put it this way, if you ask the majority of Americans who Greta Gerwig is, and what movies she's acted in, the recognition level will be around 3-5%, maybe. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/oscar-2020-nominations-snubs-surprises-joker-jennifer-lopez-oscarssowhite-beyonce-153624963.html Dolemite is My Name should have gotten at least ONE nomination, that was ridiculous. And there's NO WAY IN HELL Joker is one of the nine best films and deserving of 10+ nominations, let alone 5. A GREAT performance from Joaquin Phoenix...and hitting the zeitgeist in terms of the current political climate almost exactly...but nope.

Except all Russian females take the "A" at the end from their father's names....Ivanov becomes Ivanova, Pavlov becomes Pavlova, Sharapov becomes Sharapova, etc.

Yeah, whereas Bigelow started her career in the early 90's directing Keanu and Swayze in Point Break. I do think actors (especially popular ones) who turn to directing have an inherent advantage getting noticed for their "multi-talented" abilities.

“I hardly knew that guy. He was just referred to as ‘bench coach’ around here, and the fact he’s now managing one of our biggest rivals means that we want absolutely no harm to come to some totally random guy that I just went out of my way to pin the blame on by not directly naming him. Well, actually, now that I’ve had time to reflect, it’s kind of AJ’s fault for hiring him in the first place.”

And, in typical “white collar crime way,” Luhnow will get hired in a heartbeat somewhere but Hinch will never manage a big league team again.

That story is MUCH more nuanced, and anyone taking Luhnow’s side without considering the circumstances of his departure from St. Louis and the execs he took with him knows that both guys are far from angels.

Would have a lot more respect if he simply accepted responsibility. The “buck stops here” as Harry Truman said. Now the culture seems to be more one of avoiding any responsibility and hoping it goes away because the attention span of the public and news media is so short.

We know Chris Correa...formerly of the Cards and serving that lifetime ban...has to be elated Luhnow’s finally getting his comeuppance.

They have totally different personalities, but Cora was pretty much perceived as a sidekick and enabler in the 2009-2011 time period...and that still doesn’t sit well with many. It’s kind of like he should have known the consequences when he hitched his wagon to Ozzie’s. That, and some of the reports about the drinking culture and extracurricular hijinks, just don’t see it ever happening for him.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/oscars-nominations-lack-diversity-major-144849001.html Awkwafina really got robbed. I know, worst name for an actress/comedian, but The Farewell is an excellent film and she totally plays against character. Not shocked at all the grandmother in that film didn’t get any recognition either, the Academy loves stars (well, except for The Artist.) Not convinced “Us” was quite good enough either, but the point still stands overall on the diversity issue with J-Lo getting passed over for current “it” girl Margot Robbie. That said, there’s no simple solution to this problem that will satisfy PC and anti-PC sides of the argument.

Hard to say, the same thing was said about Davey Martinez year after year when he missed out on managing jobs.

Wonder what Ozzie’s take is, since he’s so close to Cora’s brother...whose chance at managing has pretty much been doomed through guilt by association. And, did Renteria ever attend Camp Cora down in Florida with Alex also present, lol? Probably no such luck.