Also let me add, as a St. Louis Rams fan, I feel terrible for anyone who’s had a team move and this A’s one is especially egregious. My relationship with sports hasn’t been the same since they took my football team from me.
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It’s been so long since I’ve been to a game in person that I never considered this. Yeah, I can see how it would take away from soaking things in and shooting the breeze.
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It is crazy when you have a few 1-2-3 half innings in a row and 2 innings go by in 15 minutes.
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It’s so crazy to think about from the perspective of history. Most teams that have moved in my lifetime have never won anything, the A’s have won the World Series 9 times!!
I’m happy for Vegas though, I think America really needed a baseball stadium with slot machines, it’s great everything is moving there.
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This is a point that I don’t think is considered enough, all these other teams are complicit with the crap that the scummier franchises do. It’s hard for MLB to paint things as unfortunate circumstances when they routinely approve acquisitions of teams by people with 0 affiliation to the city or the team, then those owners want to focus on profits above all else or even move the team with the MLB’s approval yet again.
Just look at Jeffrey Loria, A#1 scumbag owner for a long time. He was an art dealer from Manhattan. His proposals to MLB were probably written on red flags.
I look at Bob Castellini of my Reds and think that despite him being a catastrophic fuck up his intentions are at least probably mostly good because he is a lifelong fan from the area.
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Agreed. I go to a lot of games in person, and noticed that this season, as it messed up my routine. Gone are the days of showing up late to the game and it’s only top of the 2nd.
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The NBA is such a horrible product now, I see the MLB as the last remaining watchable sport of all the major US leagues.
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About this time two weeks ago I thought my adopted team, the Braves (been rooting for them since I moved to the South) were pretty much done. Now they just have to win one of two games today against the Mets to get in the playoffs. I’m hoping they win game 1, so they can save Sale for the playoffs. It’d feel pretty fitting for the Mets if they lose both games, imploding and narrowly missing the playoffs.
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This WEC desert is killing me ( making focus on my life) lol!
I watched the Euro Le Mans Series race at Mugello the other night. There were so many accidents it was nuts. All the gravel does not suit the amateur drivers
Mugello is such a cool track but unfortunately the camera angles were pretty bad. I remember when F1 raced there in 2020 it looked a lot better.
Been wondering if I should watch the rest of the F1 season. Its cool Lawson got a seat but it doesnt feel permanent, i couls easily see him out next year if he doesnt perform. Though next years grid is looking pretty fun overall
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Alright I know we don’t have a lot of cricket fans here but there’s a big one coming up and I want to post about it:
The Women’s T20 World Cup starts tomorrow! Who’s stoked? I am!
My quick look at some of the teams:
Australia has been on a heck of a streak, and are probably the favorite to take it again. It would be a boring result, but probably a deserved one.
But of course there’s India, the other worldwide powerhouse and regular competitor with Australia, having been their runner-up several times. Could it be their year? I think it might be!
And then there’s Bangladesh! Not the strongest team in the world, but they’re good at constructing surprises.
Pakistan’s men’s team has been in a historic slump since losing to the US earlier in the year; yet to be seen how the women’s team will do. Eyes on them for sure.
Scotland is the underdog. They don’t really have great performances very often. They seem to consistently qualify for stuff, though. Mysterious team.
Finally, out of the teams I am very interested in, there’s West Indies. I love the West Indies teams, men’s and women’s. Very strong teams that are fun to watch. Reportedly gave Australia a run for their money in the warm-up games, which could be a sign of things to come.
For me, I think it could be India’s year. Morale is high with the recent men’s world cup win, and Smriti Mandhana remains a star batter. I think West Indies have a real shot too.
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I’ve been a life-long fan of cricket; any attempts to talk about it in here have been even more monologue-ish than my attempts to talk about sumo!
I’d say the season has become more interesting since the return from the break, however the individual races, on average, have not.
I’m still watching, because I’ve been watching F1 all my life so I might as well. Admittedly, I’ve just gone to bed and watched a 30 minute “mini” highlights package in the morning a couple of times…
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I’ve seen you post about test cricket before! I would have contributed something but test cricket is still a bit beyond me. I’ve only been a fan for a couple years and T20 and ODI were more accessible. I don’t really know how you’re supposed to watch a test match, y’know? It’s very different from one-day formats.
I can imagine watching Test cricket being daunting, if it isn’t something that has just always been something one does.
Usually, people rarely watch the whole thing! Often, watching Test cricket is a social affair with friends or family as much as anything else. It is often something that is simply ever-present in the background, with the volume tuned low enough to allow conversations easily but high enough that when Something Happens everyone notices and checks out what’s going on.
I can truly watch a whole Test, but I don’t try to push that on anyone.
I’d say pay attention to the first session or two on the first day, and then check in every now and then. Certainly pay attention at the start of a new innings, and/or at the start of a session. Over time, you’ll get a feel for the ebb-and-flow of a match and how long things take. It is usually worth paying attention for the overs just before and after a new ball is due – to see how the old ball is behaving and if the spin bowlers are doing well; and then to see how the pace bowlers deal with the shiny and hard new ball.
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For anyone wondering, there are some partnered broadcasters around the world showing the tournament:
and also the ICC have a streaming service of their own that is showing it:
… that ICC page has a handy list of which countries you need to point your VPN at in order to use it, if you do not happen to already be in one of those places.
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Felt bad for Detroit, especially their rookie pitcher who was pitching his 5th inning ever. He gave up the lead on a hit by pitch followed by a bunch of real bad luck. Glad to see them claw right back, love to see Josh Hader get blown up. He’s gotta rank up there towards the tippy top in un-likeability.
Edit: I was just watching bits of the game between doing stuff. Evidently the runners were inherited from Pressly, great outcome either way.
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has been utterly bleak watching the orioles try to hit anything.
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Love to see the Astros sent home early, especially by the Cinderella Tigers.
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Congrats to anyone who likes the Royals or Tigers, condolences to anyone who appreciated a reasonably fair and fun playoff format (me, condolences to me)
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not to grumble about losing but, five years ago the orioles would have been in the ALDS, instead of this weird 2/3 thing. Feels like the format kind of disincentivizes starting the season well, as it feels like most of the teams that are coming out of the wild card looking good are teams that got hot.
Whatever, i’ll always have the mets.
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