Shock in Wrigleyville as the Cubs did NOT trade Wilson Contreras or Ian Happ as nearly everyone expected. During the lead up to the trade deadline pundits were bemoaning the fact the Cubs just trade away all the players who were so important to winning the 2016 World Series. Now pundits are bemoaning the fact the trades were not made!
The reason why trades were made is simple, teams didn’t want to pay the price the Cubs were asking for. Contreras is the best catcher in baseball and you don’t just give that caliber of player away for some prospects, except maybe a team of prospects. Before Soto became available Contreras was one of the best, if not the best, hitters available. When the Nationals announced they were open to trades, Contreras was no longer the best hitter, he was just the best catcher available. Teams buying simply decided they had needs greater than catcher.
My hope is that the Cubs make a serious attempt to signing Contreras to a new contract during the offseason. Wilson is a player worthy of being the cornerstone to the next great Cubs team, particularly given the additon of the designated hitter. You need leadership to win in any sport, and Wilson provides it to a team of young players and particularly a team with young pitchers. I think Wilson is worth the money he asks for.
Vin Scully was the last remaining enduring voice of baseball. He became the voice of the Dodgers in the the 1950s when they were in Brooklyn and was the only voice the L.A. Dodgers ever had up until 2016. I will most remember his call of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series.
Consider this. We don’t have a Supreme Congress, we don’t even have a Supreme President, despite what Trump thinks, but we do have a Supreme Court. By name and by implementation the Supreme Court is the most authoritarian and most dangerous branch of U.S. government. The people who make up this supreme branch of government are not elected but appointed for life! There are no qualifications for appointment, which means those who are appointed are put there because they ideologically agree with those who do the appointing. Nearly every one of the most wrong and most embarrassing moments of U.S. history can be traced back to a Supreme Court decision. And, the Constitution really does not define what it is that the court does nor its power, those were all decided by members of the court itself. No wonder why there are originalists, the origins of the Supreme Court allow them to reign with impunity.
Remember this despite the marketing of the current justices.
It’s another beautiful morning in Michigan, and perfect weather to be outside drinking coffee and reading.
The NFL is simply hostile to people who are fans of teams not in their local market. I started giving the MLB my money the moment I was able to watch every Chicago Cub game, but the NFL doesn’t seem to want my money to let me watch very Green Bay Packer game. I live in the Detroit, Michigan market, but I moved here many years ago and never budged from my childhood favorite Packers. It’s not like my ability to pay for and stream Packer games is diminishing local broadcasts or ticket sales. It’s just crazy!
Much talk regarding the Chicago Cubs probable trades of some of their remaining “core” players, Wilson Contreras and Ian Happ, mostly due to the big sell off last year.
One big difference this year, I think, is that the Cubs may be trading away the best catcher in baseball. As good as Bryant, Rizzo, and Baez were you can’t say they were the best at their positions. The last time the Cubs cast aside the best in his position was Gregg Maddux, and that trade might have contributed a decade or more of “same old Cubs” baseball.
It seems to be that Cubs ownership and front office don’t understand that there is a difference between turning a franchise around, as they did before 2016 and maintaining the culture that as built during the turnaround. Continual selling and tanking was warranted to turn around a 108 year problem, but that is NOT how you maintain the culture, in fact it destroys what culture that has been built.
The St. Louis Cardinals provides the template of excellence, and the Cubs should know this well since the Cardinals have been their main rival since the beginning of baseball time. The Cardinals prioritize re-signing players, even at the price of overpaying, to maintain their culture.
So far, the current Cubs ownership and front office has not had one major re-signing of player on their roster, and that sends a clear message. The message is sends is that while they might now how to turn a team around, they don’t know how to keep it at the top.
I am walking the Appalachian Trail virtually using the Walk The Distance app. Right now I am “walking” the Georgia segment and have completed 22 miles, with 48.7 miles left for this walk. The Appalachian Trail is 2,190 miles long, I wonder if I will have finished by this time next year?
I hope that Mike Pence seeks the Republican nomination for POTUS, then I hope that everyone, particularly journalists, emphasizes the differences between Pence and Trump as the difference between true Americans who stand for the Constitution and the other who not only does NOT stand for the Constitution but also has contempt for it.
Which one is the True American?
My point is not that I agree with or support Pence, but besides Democracy, what is the real difference between he and Trump? Any election that involves Donald Trump is a referendum on the representative Democracy/Republic that is the United States.
If comes down to a question of Democracy or no Democracy, I pick Democracy every. single. time. What about you?
I just wonder whether Pence has the balls to draw the comparison this clear?
Next to micro.blog, Instagram may be my second most-checked social network. I recently learned of the way to filter the feed to only those you follow in chronological order. After you open the app tap Instagram title at the top left and then tap following. It would be much better if Instagram provided a setting for users so that they could specify which format they want for the feed.
After temperatures last week didn’t go below the 70s at night, it’s nice to see the 65 degree temperature this morning.
Here is a fact of how things work in the United States that people don’t seem to like. The only real way change works is when both parties agree to make change. Further, our government is not set up so that the President can do anything he pleases, unlike what Trump might want everyone to think.
Consequently, blaming Biden for any legislation, like climate change, not passing is B.S. because Congress has to pass legislation first. Guess what, a 50/50 split in the Senate means that enough people from both parties have to agree.
Unfortunately, this hurdle on change is by design, it’s not a bug. It was built, however, on the premise that those elected would actually govern and would not simply vote along party lines even to vote against the best interests of their constituents.
If Only One Actually Followed Jesus
Serendipity….first I read,
When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees Christ, His Son, in us and loves us. And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them. There can never be enough of it. There can never be enough thinking about it. St. John of the Cross said that where there was no love, put love and you would take out love. The principle certainly works.
Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much. – Dorothy Day
And then I read…
Basically the lesson is this – we all suck. Judge us on what we’ve done, our actions. Inside we all have ugly thoughts, the question is how much do you act on them. If you think I’ve created something interesting, consider that perhaps I could do it again. If I’ve been generous maybe I am generous. Maybe you have prejudices. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been dismissed as too old to do what I actually did. Like the time, at a conference, a young person asked if I knew what a podcast was, with a doubtful look on her face as if oh god I can’t believe I’m actually talking to someone this ignorant. – Dave Winer
After I read about how a Walgreens employee refused to sell condoms and felt the need to embarass the people trying to buy them.
I continue to be shocked by how people who claim to be Christians make no effort to live out what Jesus taught and thus actually follow him. Richard Rohr says that a Christian is someone who sees Christ in everyone and everything. It is how we love God, by loving what God loves. We all sin, we all have imperfections, and never once did Jesus teach us to refuse to serve or cast out someone who we think might be sinning. Jesus didn’t teach to do whatever we want to prevent sin to happen, because frankly, that is not possible. Jesus taught us to do one thing, follow him, mirror him by loving God through loving what God loves, which is everything!
Honestly, we in the United States must stop using the claim of “religious liberty” in the name of not doing things one does not want to do. Freedom of religion does not make one superior over another, and the first amendment is more about preventing government (power) from using religion to take freedom away for citizens, as was common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries leading up to the founding of the United States. It is thinking that that the U.S. Constitution is all just about us as individuals that will lead to all of us losing freedom because forget the Constitution’s true purpose of restraining government.
Qualcomm’s announcement of their new smartwatch chips makes the Google WearOS market more confusing, in my opinion. The problem with WearOS is that there is no real flagship watch that you know is the latest and greatest reflecting how Google thinks WearOS should work.
So, you would think the forthcoming Google Pixel watch will be that flagship, except that it is not going to have this new Qualcomm chip, instead it will use a Samsung chip. If that Samsung chip doesn’t match the performance of Qualcomm’s then Google’s own watch will not be a flagship.
Tried using Gluon on my Pixel 4a to upload that photo, but it wouldn’t load the dialog to select photos. Used the official micro.blog app instead. Nice to have options.
Google reminded me about the last concert we attended before the Pandemic, on this date in 2019. The arena sent me an email a few days before about discounted tickets, otherwise we would not have went, but so glad that we did.
At one of my favorite parks on the shore of Green Bay (Lake Michigan)
Five things to know about the new James Web Telescope images. Each speck is a galaxy, far, far, away.
As I sit out here on the patio, all sorts of wild life passes by.
Stop With the Opinion Polls
Dear world, or at least anyone who cares, particularly the media. In the United States based on how the Constitution is structured, and how the political parties take advantage of its deficiencies through gerrymandering, lobbying, and campaign financing, majority opinions do not matter.
The United States is effectively under authoritarian Republican rule overseen by six Supreme Court justices, and it is obviouse the Republicans don’t care about any polls that report anything about majority opinion. It only matters what those in power in the Republican party want because they only need Republican votes to stay in power.
Right now what you need to pay attention to is, how are state legislatures structured and are voting districts gerrymandered to favor on particular party over another. If gerrymandering exists, what is being done about it, either through the courts or the existing legistlatures? Citizens need to know their state constitutions and what power they have for referendums, etc.. to overcome the games being played by the parties, particularly Republicans.
In short everyone, in particular the media, need to pay attention to and put bright light on what is going on within the state legistlatures and courts. Every since the last Presidential election Republicans have gamed the systems to gain even more power to basically nullify the will of the people. In many cases, gerrymandering means it won’t matter how much this pisses off Democrats and Independents.
Where we are heading toward, as will likely be supported by the current Supeme Court, are state legistlatures having near absolute power to override the citizens of the state to select Presidents. We will need an equivalent to the 17th amendment to prevent this from happening because this Supreme Court is going to say it is powerless to do anything about it.
I have been lacing shoes all my life without even considering that there could be a different way until I found this page that shows 62 different ways.