Category: News

Root Root Root for the Worcesters?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Image result for awful gif

The correct answer, of course, is “None of the above.”

I know it’s trendy for Minor League Baseball teams to adopt crazy names like Rumble Ponies, Rubber Ducks, and Jumbo Shrimp. Even the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre jumped on this bandwagon a few years ago and dumped the most famous pinstripes in the world to become the RailRiders. I respect the Pawtucket Red Sox for not giving into this trend.

At least Scranton/Wilkes-Barre may have had some Phillies or Pirates fans who didn’t want to go root for the Yankees. Worcester is just as deep in Red Sox Nation as Pawtucket is, though. Why give up that Red Sox brand name? [Unless the big league team has asked you to.] Of course they can’t be called the Paw Sox after they leave Pawtucket, but Woo Sox or Wor Sox would be better than the nicknames some marketing firm came up with. And you could still wear all sorts of crazy uniforms and come up with one-day team names like the Omaha Potholes.

Speaking of which, I feel bad that Larry Lucchino probably actually had to pay money to some marketing firm to come up with names like the Worcester Worcesters. Whatever he paid them was too much. $25 million for three years of Matt Clement’s services was a better deal.

Patriots Acquiring Michael Bennett Another Classic Belichick Move

By on • ( Leave a comment )

News of the Patriots potentially acquiring Michael Bennett broke on Friday and the general consensus is that the Patriots once again pulled off a coup. While 2019 will be Bennett’s 11th NFL season and he will be 34 in November, he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. As Joey B pointed out on Friday, Bennett’s played in 16 games six of the last seven seasons and he recorded nine sacks last season, the second-best single-season total of his career. From that standpoint, this feels like a typical Patriots move. The Patriots see value in adding a veteran whom they believe can still play at a high level, even if other teams don’t.

There are many things that separate Bill Belichick from his contemporaries, but one thing that has allowed his teams to be so successful over the last 20 years is that he is not afraid to make the moves other coaches wouldn’t dare make. Playing Brady over Bledsoe. Cutting Lawyer Milloy. Bringing in Corey Dillon. Turning Troy Brown, a 12-year veteran at the time, into a two-way player. Trading away Jamie Collins. He’s not perfect – he moved on from Adam Vinatieri too soon and benching Malcolm Butler in Super bowl 52 was clearly the wrong move – but by and large his willingness to make unpopular decisions has won the Patriots far more games than it has lost them.

I bring this up because Michael Bennett could be a tough guy for Patriots fans to root for.

Also, Michael Bennett is generally an outspoken guy. There’s nothing wrong with being outspoken, but I don’t recall too many outspoken guys playing in Foxboro. The Patriots have mastered the art of saying as little as possible. Generally, Belichick and Patriots players never miss an opportunity to say nothing. It’d be interesting to find out how Michael Bennett feels about this type of locker room. I’m sure we’ll find out.

While I might not be the first guy in line at the Patriots Pro Shop to buy a Michael Bennett jersey this week, anyone who says they won’t root for the Patriots if they acquire him isn’t really a Patriots fan. It’s always business with Belichick. That being said, it may prove Jerry Seinfeld’s theory that we’re all just rooting for laundry.

 

Alex Trebek Reveals He Is Fighting Pancreatic Cancer

By on • ( Leave a comment )

NPR – Alex Trebek, who has hosted the Jeopardy! game show since 1984, announced Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

I feel like I always drop the emotional blogs, for better or for worse. I suppose there is something to be said for being reminded once a week or so how precious life is and what’s important.

Alex Trebek, America’s favorite game show host, revealed yesterday that he is fighting pancreatic cancer. And I’m going to start with the facts so I can grow positive not bleak. Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst kinds in terms of survival rate. A glance at the article above tells me less than 10% of those diagnosed are still around five years later. Also, Trebek is 78. He would seem to be in otherwise fighting form and certainly does not appear “frail,” but you figure you have to account for that. So take all that as you will.

His announcement, made in a short video on the Jeopardy set, was particularly jarring. The usually all-business Trebek’s voice quivered a couple of times. He was emotional and with the risk of possibly looking too hard, he looked scared. Which is 100000% to be expected and even respected when facing such a fight as his.

Trebek’s message though was run-through-a-wall inspiring. He pretty much said “fuck prognoses I’m going to win.” The always elegantly dressed, put together, and professional host was downright curt and defiant in his declaration of war over a worthy adversary. It definitely gave a lot of hope.

So here’s hoping that Alex Trebek and what is surely a team of doctors find a way to beat this thing. We’ve already been promised he’ll fight. He even joked that he kind of has to stick around because he has three years left on his contract. Maybe it will help a little that he has every living room in America fighting alongside him.

I’ll take “Fuck Cancer” for eleventy billion, Alex.

 

 

I Want the Universal Designated Hitter and I Want It Now

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Image result for david ortiz

With Major League Baseball Spring Training now underway, it was no surprise to hear that the league and the Player’s Association were once again discussing potential rule changes for the game. It’s an almost annual occurrence now, with the limiting of mound visits last year and the expansion of the playoffs in 2012 examples of recent proposals that were ultimately implemented. This spring, one proposal in particular seems to be receiving the most attention – the universal designated hitter.

It’s high time that both leagues play by the same rules, and I strongly support the idea of a universal designated hitter. Twenty years ago, when teams were scoring runs at record levels, there was no call for a universal designated hitter. Actually, there were calls for the American League to repeal the designated hitter rule. In 1996, teams scored 5.04 runs per game and it was the first time runs per game topped 5 in 60 years. Runs per game spiked to 5.14 in 2000, but have been steadily decreasing ever since.

In 2018, teams scored 4.45 runs per game. In 2014, teams scored just 4.07 runs per game. That 2014 number was the lowest runs per game number since the strike-shortened 1981 season (4.00) and the third-lowest number of the DH era (1973-present). A universal designated hitter would provide more offense to the game and help reverse this trend.

A universal designated hitter would also provide more action to a game desperately in need of it. Pitchers like David Price taking 40 seconds between pitches is certainly an issue, but the long time between balls being put into play is a bigger issue. Balls in play are way down and strikeouts are way up. Last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom hit .164 at the plate. He struck out 25 times – and had just 11 hits – in 74 plate appearances. Number 9 hitters with stat lines like that don’t make the game more fun to watch.

A universal designated hitter would also speed games up by removing most double switches, cutting down on pinch hitters, and maybe even cutting down on relief pitchers if managers can keep their starters in the game longer and go to the bullpen later.

From a competitive standpoint, National League teams and fans should be clamoring for a universal designated hitter. In 22 years of regular season interleague play, the American League holds a 3032-2732 record and a .526 winning percentage. The American League has won more regular season interleague games in 17 of the 22 seasons that have featured interleague play. American League teams have also won 18 of the 32 World Series played since 1986, when the current World Series designated hitter rules were adopted (both teams use a DH in games in AL ballparks, pitchers hit in games in NL ballparks). Clearly, AL teams don’t lose much when they lose a designated hitter. David Ortiz could always play first base 5-6 times a year. NL teams don’t gain much, though, when they get to insert a light-hitting utility infielder or fourth outfielder into their lineup as their designated hitter du jour.

Because the current baseball collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2021 season, it’s unlikely we see the designated hitter at places like Dodger Stadium or Wrigley Field before 2022. Still, it’s an easy chip for Major League Baseball to trade to the Player’s Association in exchange for something else they want. Compared to the alternatives of banning shifts or other more dramatic changes to the fabric of the game, though, a universal designated hitter seems like an easy way to modernize and refresh the game.

Science Proves Once Again That My Life is Hell with Boston Traffic Study

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Boston Globe – “Boston must have the worst rush-hour traffic in the country. Now you can back that up with numbers. Gridlock during the peak of the morning and evening commutes was worse in Boston in 2018 than in any other major metropolitan area, even Los Angeles with its infamous traffic, according to a report from Inrix, a transportation data firm that publishes annual rankings of congestion around the world.”

Well I’m glad the tweets that I fire off in a blind rage during my commute aren’t completely falling on deaf ears. I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by this study though.

“Essentially, Inrix measured the time penalty for driving during rush hour, and there Boston topped the list of US cities: Commuters who drove at the worst peak hour conditions would have spent 164 hours in traffic that they would have avoided under regular conditions. On this metric, Los Angeles ranked sixth, behind Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, and New York.”

Well no kidding. I can get to my office on a Saturday morning in like 15 minutes, but 8 am on a Monday? That’s an hour. 5 pm on a Wednesday? 90 minutes maybe.

It also didn’t help that the city of Boston decided it would be a good idea to REMOVE A LANE on Storrow Drive, one of the most congested areas of traffic in the entire city. Ya know it’s only where 93 flows into North Station, the Museum of Science, and Cambridgeside Galleria, which is the only mall in the area.

If you look at some of my tweets from my time spent sitting in traffic over the years, you can actually see my will to live remain gainfully employed slowly deteriorating.

So Apparently the Alliance of American Football is Getting Good Reviews?

By on • ( 3 Comments )

Image result for alliance american football

Well, I did not see this coming.

Back in November, I presented my pretty frank thoughts regarding the upcoming, brand-new “professional” football league, the Alliance of American Football, which made its grand debut this past weekend. (Quick recap: I was NOT all that excited about it).

But all eight teams in the league saw their first round of action over the past few days, with varying degrees of success. And according to the numbers, people actually watched it:

Some reports even stated that close to three million viewers were tuned in at one point on Saturday night. A lot of things factor into those numbers, and it’s tough to pin down an exact total, but regardless: color me completely shocked.

ESPN’s Ben Cafardo responded by saying that the Houston/OKC game did peak with a rating of 3.2 from 11 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. that night, but the fact that they were lagging behind the AAF at any point on a Saturday night is still noteworthy.

Now, much of the initial interest could be due to simple curiosity. It’s new. It’s (slightly) different. And it was another way to get a football fix after the high from last week’s Super Bowl wore off. But, if we’re being honest, the XFL was the talk of the town when it first debuted in 2001 before flaming out in a flash, lasting just ONE season.

Image result for xfl meme

So while there is some reason for optimism for the AAF – much more so than I thought there would be – let’s all still pump the brakes here. Everyone has also been pointing out the “high quality” of football that was featured, but they fail to mention the following:

  • All four road teams lost.
  • One team was shut out entirely, and another two could only muster up six points.

Sure, these teams could still be trying to jell and work out the kinks, and I will admit that I did not watch one blessed second of any of the games this weekend. So how can I really say anything, right? OK. That’s fair. But maybe, just maybe, the level of talent in the league actually runs the full spectrum – from really bad to really good – and we could be seeing the first signs of a big competitive imbalance issue. (Remember, the league is made up of a bunch of NFL castoffs or former college players who couldn’t make it at the pro level.)

Or, maybe I’m just speculating too much and trying to save face for what I said in November. Only time will tell, but even after all the positive reviews I’ve seen over the past couple of days, I’m still not ready to dive in.

Also, let’s not forget that the aforementioned XFL will be making its comeback in 2020. The AAF has only this season to solidify its place in the hearts of fans throughout America until they will be squaring off against entertainment legend Vince McMahon, who will be determined that the league does not see the same fate it saw during the first go-round. Either way, it will be just one more obstacle this league will need to overcome not so far down the line.

Still, in an effort to be as unbiased and objective as possible, I want to point out a few things I liked upon perusing through roundups of the league’s inaugural weekend. It’s going to take a lot more than the following to rope me in, but without further ado:

(The Game is Much Quicker): As much as I love the NFL, some games, especially those in prime time, can have you in for quite the long haul. With all the commercials and replays, it can actually drag at points. Only Major League Baseball comes with comparable length times, and both leagues have been trying to do everything in their power to speed things up over the past few years. I don’t have the exact numbers for each AAF game this weekend, but most of the games wrapped up in just under 2.5 hours. Much of this has to do with less advertisements, but eliminating kickoffs, extra points, and shortening the play clock to 35 seconds (from 40) were also big factors as well.

 

Image result for kickoff nfl

You won’t be seeing any of this in the AAF.

(The “Sky Judge”): No, this is not some cool new Marvel character. It’s actually just the nickname for the ninth member of the officiating crew who sits up in the press box and has the ability to overrule bad calls made by their peers in real time. There is no stopping of the action, going to the hood, painstakingly analyzing some still shots, deliberating as a unit afterward, and THEN finally announcing a decision after a few painful minutes. Coaches do still receive two challenges, but the hope is that the sky judge will catch most of the bad calls and head off most disputes. (This is just another way to help speed up the game, too.)

(Everyone is Mic’d Up): Over the past few years, the NFL has started to provide fans with a few opportunities to listen into some of the action on the field. But in the AAF? Fans will be treated to that type of stuff all game long, even getting some on-the-spot insight into the mind of some officials:

As well as other cheeky shenanigans:

Pretty cool stuff there.

So, look, while the AAF had a great kick-off weekend and has I guess some potential, it’s still got quite a long way to go. While I’m not ready to go out and buy my Orlando Appolos jersey yet, I will be keeping a tepid interest in it for now, just in case.

What do you guys think? Have any of you watched it? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the AAF in the comments or on Facebook.

Scientists Tried to Find a Cure for Hangovers, People in the Study Less Than Helpful

By on • ( Leave a comment )

CNN – European researchers have bad news for the 76% of Americans who experience hangovers after a drinking session: Try as you may to change up the order of your alcoholic beverages, if you drink too much, you will still be hungover.

Determined to find a way to help people have a better day after a night out, the researchers recruited 90 brave souls in Germany between the ages of 19 and 40 to drink beer, wine or both. One group drank 2½ pints of beer, followed by four large glasses of wine. The second group drank the four glasses of wine first, then the 2½ pints of beer. A third group drank only beer or only wine. Everyone was kept under medical supervision overnight..The results, published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show no difference in the intensity of the hangover brought on by drinking wine first followed by beer or the other way around.

Man I really missed the boat on being a scientist. Accomplish absolutely nothing at work and then get published in CNN as a reward.  Long story short (and probably after a bunch of money was wasted) these scientists discovered that you can’t really prevent a hangover.

Whether you drink beer or wine, or a mixture, or even if you switch up the order it doesn’t really matter. You booze you lose. However the funniest part of this whole story was just how unhelpful the people in the study were.

“The researchers acknowledged limitations to their study. For example, they couldn’t assign a control group to drink beer or wine without alcohol, as the participants in an alcohol study were not interested in being in a non-alcoholic group“

Get drunk in the name of science? I will make that sacrifice. Try and mix in some O’Douls? Kick rocks, nerd. Come to think of it, thats probably why this study was inconclusive. When the scientists tried to test some placebos the alcoholics revolted.

Never mess with a man’s beer. Even for science.

Are Kansas City Fans the Worst Fans in Sports?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Obviously, it’s not fair to call out all Kansas City sports fans after one jackass broke out a laser pointer at a football game. That being said, “Are Boston Fans the Worst Fans in Sports?” would be the headline we’d all be seeing today had a fan in Gillette Stadium pointed a laser at Patrick Mahomes Sunday night. The NFL would investigate. The government shutdown would end so that a congressional investigation could be launched. ESPN would suspend regularly scheduled programming to endlessly cover it for two weeks up until the Super Bowl.

The sports media castigated Boston sports fans after a Chiefs player got beer thrown at him in October. Will we hear the same condemnation of Kansas City fans after a fan pointed a laser at Patriots players? A week after they threw snowballs at Indianapolis Colts players? Don’t hold your breath.

I’m not condoning what the Patriots fan did in October. Throwing objects at athletes is unacceptable. Fans who throw objects at athletes are morons and should get tossed. But pointing a laser at an athlete while on the field of play seems a bit more serious.

While I don’t want to see LASERGATE, I do hope the Chiefs and the NFL find the fan responsible for this incident and punish them accordingly. Spectators who point lasers should be punished at least as harshly as spectators who throw objects on the field. Neither is acceptable behavior at a sporting event.

A Patriots spokesman told the Boston Herald the team had no comment, but was aware of the news. Smart move. I hope the Patriots stiff arm this story and move on. There’s no need for them to get caught up in another bye-week sideshow. I only post it here in case the Worldwide Leader doesn’t get to it.

The Razr is Making a Comeback as a Foldable Smartphone

By on • ( 2 Comments )

Techcrunch – Motorola has revived the Razr name a few times over the years, but the once-mighty brand has failed to regain the heights of its early days as an ultra-slim flip phone. But what better time for the phone maker’s parent Lenovo to bring back the brand in earnest as the mobile world is readying itself for a wave of foldable smartphones?

There was nothing more satisfying than snapping your Motorola Razr shut to end a call. Nothing. I remember getting the black one sophomore year of high school and it being the hottest thing in the streets since DVDs. You could use .mp3’s as ringtones, it had like a 1 pixel camera, and you could even use this wizardry called Bluetooth to send and receive files. Crazy.

It was also a simpler time because the only worry you had about your phone was your buddy texting you too much and your parents chewing you out because man those 5¢ text fees add up quick. No worries about smashing the screen or constantly checking your IG to see how many likes your last pic got, no incessant “always on” mentality. That was the biggest perk in my nostalgia book looking back.

So I am ALL for the Razr making a comeback, but do not bring it back as a smart phone. Just do what Nintendo does. Port it. Give me the same exact thing, except charge me the same price for technology thats over a decade old and I will buy it.

Get everyone off social media and in a state of constant contact. I will text you back on my flip phone when free nights and weekends kicks in and not a second sooner.

Here Was Boston’s Pitch to Amazon. Mad Men This is Not.

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Boston Globe –  The high-water mark of Boston’s unsuccessful bid to land Amazon’s second headquarters came on a brisk Monday in early March, beginning with coffee in the Eagle Room at Boston City Hall and ending with oysters and steak at More Than Words, a nonprofit bookstore and job-training center in the South End.

Press play before reading for the full blog experience.

The city of Boston was a finalist for Amazon HQ2, which as we know was unsuccessful, but some new details came out the other day on just what was in the pitch. Not exactly a Don Draper level presentation to be honest. Welcome to this hell hole of congestion where the traffic never ends, there’s always construction, and it’s impossible to get across the city in less than an hour during rush hour.

Without further ado, the pitch:

In their pitch, state and local officials worked together closely, promoted the region’s universities and educated workforce, and — unlike most other cities involved in the chase — offered no tax breaks beyond what is available to any large employer expanding here.

We have smart people for you to choose from, buttt you’ll pay through the nose to be here just like everyone else. Great start, really get the prospect interested from the get go. Always Be Closing guys, thats just Sales 101.

Then there were basic logistics to sort out, like what to feed the visitors from Seattle and how to show them as much of Boston as was practical in a short amount of time, without getting bogged down in traffic.

“I’m really nervous about Tuesday,” one City Hall staffer wrote at 1:50 a.m. the Friday before the visit, laying out the challenges of getting from Amazon’s downtown hotel — not named in the documents — to Dudley Square to meet with school officials, and then to the roof of the Bolling Municipal Building to see development sites. “Nice view — not enough time,” the staffer wrote.

HAHAH good luck showing anyone around Boston without getting bogged down in traffic. True story: my sister in law was running the Boston Marathon and a ton of family came up to watch her run, watching from various points throughout the course. The plan was to get from Newton to the finish line in real time to watch her finish, which with the traffic and the parking in this city is impossible. So I bombed down Storrow Drive with a car load of people, got as deep as possible into Back Bay and then just fell on my sword and told everyone to get out and walk the last couple of blocks while I went to find a parking garage by myself.

Long story short: traffic always has been and always will be a massive inconvenience in this city and I’m sure Amazon is smart enough to realize that.

Boston’s team tried to keep Amazon off tour buses. “We wanted them walking. We wanted them on the T,” Barros recalled Monday. “We wanted them to experience getting around the way people who live here do.”

“We wanted them on the T.” We should have just started and stopped the blog with that line right there. As soon as someone said this sentence out loud they should have known this pitch was doomed We really wanted Amazon to feel the inner rage that all of our residents feel on a daily basis.

Can’t believe they didn’t just write up a contract on a cocktail napkin after getting to experience the joys of riding the T. It was probably on time and everything.

Next, they hiked across Fort Point Channel to the penthouse of a Seaport apartment building to hear about buildings there.

The Seaport is dope, but it’s already running out of free space and will probably be underwater in 50 years.

The next day, after breakfast in Dudley Square and a visit to Assembly Row, Amazon’s contingent headed out of town.

I work near Assembly Row and it’s a cool little spot for some outlet shopping, but it’s not exactly where I’d take a trillion dollar company to try and sell them on my city. You may have nearly gotten out of your car in traffic to stab someone getting here, but hey the PUMA outlet store has some really sweet deals!

While having a company like Amazon in Boston would have been cool, it also would have been a logistical nightmare like oh I don’t know HOSTING THE OLYMPICS. Except this would bring 50,000 people to Boston for a lot longer than 2 weeks. I ‘m already in pre-road rage because the city is planning a massive overhaul on Storrow Drive (we have such great history with highway projects) to go along with the guaranteed traffic from the upcoming opening of the Encore casino in Everett. If this city added a goddamn Amazon headquarters I’d literally have to buy a jet ski and bomb down the Charles for my morning commute. So maybe we dodged a bullet here guys.