Matthew

Learn something new about this crazy world every day.... Money, the real aphrodisiac.....

The Mother of Musical Movies. It seems just as fresh now as in 1933. I won't bother you with my love of the cast either, but I love, love, love, love, everyone who appeared in and everything about 42nd. Street.

To my mind, if it's part of ownership that Theo wants, rule out the big teams like Philly, L.A. or N.Y. as destinations. I could see Cleveland or a Tampa Bay being willing to sell to a group Theo leads. Cleveland might be the better option with a well established fan base, and he won't have to either get a new stadium, or a new city, (one or the other for Tampa Bay) both of which might hinder the baseball side of things. The normal course for team thinking of selling is to gut the team and then have the new group rebuild. All in all, it seems as if Cleveland is the place that would be number one on my list, a lot of upside to that situation. It's amazing to think, the guy is only 46, so ownership is probably his preferred mode in terms of the future, where he's overseeing everything. Don't know if Cleveland is for sale or not, Tampa Bay is always for sale, but money still runs the show.

Last night I had Pliny The Elder Beer made by the Russian River Brewing Company. It was a great beer, highly recommended if you like IPA's

Explosions in the Sky: The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place

I've been looking around for the non-profit I work for, and if you're willing to spend $500.00, you will be able to get a someone (there's a lot of independent contractors out there for this) to develop a solid site, and maintain it at a decent price (would suggest for your site an hourly pay scale, not monthly), or if you're capable, you can track it for yourself. As for free, I hate to say it, but Google's free website seems to work well. Word Press also. Link to article for website building.

I don't think I've ever seen a Waffle House, are they in California? I mean, out here, there's not even 7-11's across from each other.

If Drew Carry can do it, how hard can it be?

I wonder if Mankiewicz's high profile political opinions can hinder any prospect for the Jeopardy gig. Though, to give him credit, he's very professional in keeping the politics away from the TCM job, and I respect that in him.

Not a good situation with La Russa. I'm sure a lot of us have lived with / know an alcoholic, and this behavior can't be allowed to be swept under the rug. I looked up his first DUI in 2007, and found this paragraph: La Russa said he had decided to plead guilty to the misdemeanor because it was in the best interest of all concerned. “I accept full responsibility for my conduct, and assure everyone that I have learned a very valuable lesson and that this will never occur again,” La Russa said in a statement released by his attorney, David Roth. La Russa did not appear in court to plead guilty. As part of his plea agreement, La Russa will serve at least six months’ probation, pay a $678.50 fine, complete DUI school and any recommended treatment and complete 50 hours of community service, according to state prosecutors. (source) I'm sure all the usual formulas will be said again, lesson learned, isolated instance, etc., but this is a man with a serious problem, and needs to be addressed by the White Sox and MLB. My confidence that it will is not too strong though.

This week I've been listening to The Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions 1956 - 61, and it has reminded me how truly great Hodges was as a player. I've come to the realization that this is the best Mosaic ever. Every other song, my jaw drops to the floor, and I say to myself in amazement: "Did you just hear what the Rabbit played!!! " There is no substandard Hodges solo here, (I don't think he ever recorded one) and the sidemen are in top form. No musical revolutions here, just music played with the highest skill possible. All I can say is that if you ever considered buying this set, do yourself a huge favor -- do it. Just had to get this off my chest.

One Soul At A Time: The Story of Billy Graham by Grant Wacker.

Still not sure about the LaRussa hire, it might be a disaster.

That's what makes The Big Sleep such a great film, the acting and dialogue are so great, that you don't care you never find out how Owen died, they asked Chandler, and he had no idea either!

I'd buy those in a second.

It will be interesting to see if LaRussa's brand of baseball will still be relevant in today's baseball - for one thing, his "two for one" rule on hit batters won't fly. Still, if he has a good staff, I can see it succeeding, LaRussa is no fool about baseball. However if Covid-19 is still very active, I'd be concerned about him catching that illness, baseball's record on Covid is not that great. My big hope is that we don't begin to hear about "The White Sox Way", had more than I could take about The Cardinal Way under LaRussa tenure there.

Just my opinion, but I think that call was made well before the game even started, I mean, who you gonna trust? your eyes or the computer? In today's game the computer wins every time. I thank the baseball heavens that Bruce Bochy always trusted his eyes.

*Sigh* It's complex, it's the opposite of David's story of Yankees love, so sit down kiddies and listen to my baseball fandom story. I grew up in San Diego, and my first baseball memories is listening to Vin Scully, not a bad way to start, and his "it's time for Dodger baseball" is permanently emblazoned into my skull. I was a Dodgers fan before the Padres hit the MLB (they were PCL, and the first pro game I ever went to was Padres AAA team at Westgate Park, John Boozer - what a name! was the pitcher, and a group of fans behind me kept yelling "Boozer the Loser" throughout the game, I was hooked on baseball after that. I was all of seven. So when the MLB Padres hit the beach, I, of course became fan -- team number two that I followed. I wasted a lot of my youth in the 1970s watching terrible Padres baseball. We lived a five minute drive from the stadium, so my parents would drop me off to go to a game on my own (different time and era) nowadays, CPS would be all over that! So, I was a Padres fan, but durning the 1970s and 80s, the Dodgers were a very interesting team be a fan of, and I even convinced my parents to take me to Dodger Stadium many times to see the Boys in Blue play. Dodger Stadium is a great place to see a game. So there I was, living in SoCal, fans of the two NL teams. Fast forward to the 1990s, and I'm in Berkeley for six years, and I'm discovering that the two teams there were interesting and fun to follow; I mean, you had the Bash Brothers, the Roger Craig Giants, it was interesting baseball to watch, so, I became a fan of those two teams. For the A's, I could take the BART from Berkeley to their stadium, no problem. Going to Candlestick was tougher, but I made it out there. So, now I had four teams I followed and enjoyed. Since then, I've spent more time in NoCal than SoCal, with that, the Giants are my main team. So the Official Matthew Teams Rooting For Rankings: 1. San Francisco Giants 2. Los Angeles Dodgers 3. San Diego Padres 4. Oakland A's That's my story, yeah, I know you're supposed to be a "one team fan", but life is short and baseball is fun, so what the heck!

Yeah, Tony Gonsolin is pretty good, about a K for every inning. Basically, the Dodgers feel if they can keep the other team to four runs or lower, they're winning the game. It'd be nice to see the Dodgers win, last Championship was 1988, I went to one of the Series games in Oakland (student in Berkeley at the time), of course, it was the only game the Dodgers lost. It was the game where McGwire hit the homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. What I remember the most about that at bat is that Jay Howell threw McGwire about five straight fastballs, and McGwire was on them, but kept fouling them off straight behind, but you could see he had it timed, and me and my friend (from the Valley, big time Dodgers fan) kept begging for anything off-speed, but no, Howell threw one last fastball, and it was gone. Lasorda always called Howell a brain-dead pitcher after that because Howell kept shaking off the curve from Scioscia. Sometime it pays to listen to you catcher!

I think have the DH actually helped Roberts manage, I was deathly afraid that he'd tinker around and pull Urias for the ninth. Also, knowing anyone he brought in had to face two batters dampened the over managing that Roberts in notorious for.

Dodgers live to see game seven. Like the Dodgers of old, three runs in the first, great pitching to hold the lead for the win. It'd be nice to see them win, but I don't have good vibes about tomorrow, this is where Roberts tends to go off the rails.

You're right! And as how the Yankees keep blathering on and on and on about The Yankee Way® , so the Dodgers keep on yammering and yammering about The Dodger Way®. Just win some World Series' before the blather and yammer please!

These Dodgers, what happens to them in the post season? It always seems when things get tight, they disappear. I DO NOT LIKE THE WAY ROBERTS MANAGES EITHER, in big games he's frozen into some kind of predetermined game plan, and by heaven, nothing's going move him off that plan! Kershaw, come on, if anyone followed the Dodgers, you know that he should have come out after five innings. The idea of manufacturing runs has become a lost art for the Dodgers (and most teams), what ever happened to the idea that "little baseball" can win games? Lone gone in this day and age.