Hamhock

Well, at least the centerfield camera mystery is officially solved - the wind is gusting like crazy, blowing the fountain's water spray directly into it, as well as occasionally flapping the backdrop cloth in front of it.

You know, it’s actually okay for both sides in a flanking micro-argument to give up and move on; it’s not like anyone “wins” by replying last…

They still have a variation on that called the Good Grades Program.

Re: current parking capacity; it hasn't been specified for years on the White Sox website, but the parking page used to say "There are more than 7,000 parking spaces in the lots surrounding Guaranteed Rate Field." Archived example from 2019.

Different, of course - but that's part of what I'm saying; if we concede that Opening Day draws more people and therefore offsets lower attendance during an April timespan, it's irrelevant if that's on 4/1 or 4/16. You have to have an Opening Day; you have to have play other home games in April; attendance is lower in April; why not just try to make the weather potential better wherever possible. Kick the southern teams an extra % or two of the split, etc.

I understand that this is the perception. But in fact, 11 of the 15 stadiums with domes and/or in the warmest cities had their average attendance decrease in the second half of April 2023: Sure, their home opener would skew that first half of the month avg. higher - but that's sort of the point. Texas' notable increase in the latter half of the month is quite something, I'll concede - not sure if that has something to do with Dallas-area school schedules for Spring Break or not.

I’ve never understood this argument by those teams; just do the first two weeks (April 1-15) in the warmer cities and domed stadiums, and then April 16-30 in the others; no one misses out on summer month home games; the colder areas get two weeks to buy some time for better weather.

Regarding the size of the land vs. ballpark, something else to keep in mind is that the vast majority of the team’s office space currently crammed into the area behind the third base side of GRF can instead be off-loaded into a neighboring building in the new complex, like how the Cubs did.

Anderson seems to perform at his best only when he has absolute confidence in himself and his abilities, while also simultaneously receiving praise/validation both from everyone in his bubble (friends, family, teammates, other teams' players) and also outside the bubble (fans, media). There's a certain duality of narcissism and self-doubt, where it's either one extreme or the other. He's either: - performing to the utmost of ability, or - things are all crashing down; his confidence wavers and he no longer thinks he's the best, and he performs terribly I don't even intend for any of the above to be critical or derisive; I do think he'd greatly benefit from a top-notch sports psychologist, and beyond that also a personal one.

I like to consider myself a decently honest person, but I’ll admit that I’d be tempted in that scenario to immediately lie or stall out those 30 seconds. “Yeah, terrible character issues, though”, “he’s very out of shape”, a distracted “yeah, I - hang on, one sec, Jerry - take (player I wanted) - I’m sorry, Jerry, what was that again?”

Angry old “in my day we wore suits to the general store” people:

re: links from the artist formerly known as Twitter; it's probably because various discussion boards don't recognize that new URL yet as something that should embed. I suspect that if you use "twitter.com" in the URL in place of "x.com" it will embed fine.

Fun things you can also do when challenged to a fight on a baseball field, instead of fighting or "looking bad/weak for backing down" (not a direct quote of anyone; just summing up): look completely bored/unimpressed with the dumbass yelling at you, then slowly turn your back on him and fold your arms exaggeratedly flick away the imaginary dirt/filth from your arm/wherever the dumbass poked at you make the Razor Ramon/Scott Hall finger-waggling/ooh-I'm-scared gesture, complete with accompanying facial expression if opponent puts fists up, take one step back, go up on your toes and take a comical 19th-century bareknuckle boxing stance with hands pointed inward, draw a line in the dirt with your cleats and dare them to cross it, then draw another one Ali shuffle in circling pattern wait until opponent is being held back by multiple people, then do the pantomime "let me at him/fighting-against-restraint" gesture to indicate they're not really trying to break free

My only thoughts on the fight are that Tim bizarrely squared up in a southpaw stance even though he’s righthanded.

Totally understood - my comment was general in its musing, not pointed towards you.

I never fail to be amused by the duality of “This player is worthless - get rid of him/we will reap the finest crop of prospects in exchange for his outstanding talent” that is sports fandom. No slight intended to anyone here; every team’s fanbase does this. It’s just funny, is all.

Phillies owner John Middleton seems to share the same philosophy as Cohen:

I have no dog in this fight, but of all US cities/metro areas without an MLB team, there are zero with a population greater than half of Chicago’s. (San Antonio has a city population a little over half, but its MSA is 1/4 the size)

Just for additional insight, here's attendance from 1948-1957 for all three clubs (not refuting what you're saying; just thought it might be interesting to look at the trend): Giants: 1948 1,459,269 1949 1,218,446 1950 1,008,878 1951 1,059,539 (Pennant) 1952 984,940 1953 811,518 1954 1,155,067 (WS) 1955 824,112 1956 629,179 1957 653,923 Dodgers: 1948 1,398,967 1949 1,633,747 (Pennant) 1950 1,185,896 1951 1,282,628 (84 home games) 1952 1,088,704 (Pennant) 1953 1,163,419 (Pennant) 1954 1,020,531 1955 1,033,589 (WS) 1956 1,213,562 (Pennant) 1957 1,028,258 Yankees: 1948 2,373,901 1949 2,283,676 (WS) 1950 2,081,380 (WS) 1951 1,950,107 (WS) 1952 1,629,665 (WS) 1953 1,537,811 (WS) 1954 1,475,171 1955 1,490,138 (Pennant) 1956 1,491,784 (WS) 1957 1,497,134 (Pennant)

This already exists; it’s just that it only began in 2019, so it’s going to take several more years to gather status/renown: https://www.mlb.com/awards/all-mlb

Technically, his best was back in his Phillies debut in 2016, when he struck out 16 and threw 97 MPH: https://www.mlb.com/video/4-14-16-cg-sd-phi-c590280983

Regardless of who is the official beer sponsor, there are always one or two places in the stadium to find other labels. For instance, you could get Miller Lite last season, just not at every vendor. I'm sure Revolution will be available somewhere in the stadium, just not as many offerings and with the dedicated area.

I heartily recommend For All Mankind; it's a good alternate-history romp through the Space Age.