Aggie87

How? Because Betts' arm and glove were over the wall and into the fan area. By baseball rules (and confirmed by the announcers), that's not interference, but a home run. From MLB's rules: "No interference shall be allowed when a fielder reaches over a fence, railing, rope or into a stand to catch a ball. He does so at his own risk. However, should a spectator reach out on the playing field side of such fence, railing or rope, and plainly prevent the fielder from catching the ball, then the batsman should be called out for the spectator’s interference." Therefore the argument becomes whether Betts' arm and glove were over the wall/fence or not. I believe they were. I can understand if you're a Red Sox fan you might be relieved to be the recipient of an incorrect call that saved 2 runs.

I hope that terrible call on Altuve's 2 run HR isn't the difference in this game.

Maybe during the playoffs, but not during the regular season. It's 90-100 degrees out there for most of the summer, so the point of the roof in Houston is more to keep things air conditioned inside, instead of sweltering. Actually, maybe the Texas heat could be considered inclement.

We used to get annual "refresher training" on the topic of sexual harassment, and what constitutes said harassment. One of the instructors one year said that it often doesn't matter what the intent of a comment or action was, if it is received by someone as sexual harassment, then it usually is sexual harassment. Even if you as the harasser don't perceive it to be, you can suffer consequences because someone else saw it that way and was offended or victimized. Perhaps that is a corollary to this political issue - if it's being received as being political, then it is, regardless of what the person who posted it believed. It doesn't really matter how it's defended or justified.

In today's game, that really that only happened after Clevinger came out of the game. I thought he pitched really well, only giving up one run on Springer's HR in the 5th. The Cleveland bullpen kind of fell apart though.

I was in Austin, in a small club called C-Boys, a couple of years ago. Mike Flanigin and Jimmie Vaughan were playing on the small stage, with Frosty Smith on drums. In the middle of their set, this guy walks in the front door, past the small crowd, and hops on stage and just begins wailing along on harmonica. Mike and Jimmie's faces couldn't have been happier, and after the song was over, they all hugged and started another number. It was Lester. He stayed for a couple more songs, then just as he'd entered, he hopped off the stage, walked back through the crowd and out the door into the night. Here's a picture I took.

I watched that last night, and completely agree with you. BS call. I hope the Astros bats wake up today (and in general). It's been tough watching them over the past couple of weeks without Altuve, Correa, and Springer. Not sure any team could've done any better without their three best players. Hope Altuve's back soon.

This caught me by surprise - I"m happy that Ken Giles is no longer on this team. That's addition by subtraction, I think. Hopefully a change of scenery helps Giles regain his stuff. He's been lost in his own head for a year now. Osuna still has the remainder of his 75 game suspension I think though - or is that effectively over now? As an Astros fan I like his talent on paper, but I'm apprehensive about adding him to this roster, based on the domestic violence charge. Admittedly I haven't read enough about him to have a strong opinion there right now.

As sidewinder/Bob mentioned earlier, we got to meet in Stuttgart many years ago. Wish I still lived there, for many reasons. Due to move to Philly area next year though, so I'll take that. If you make it to this side of the pond we're due for a reconnect, Bob! Hopefully longer this time as well. In addition, I've since met Lon, Shawn, Ray, Big Al, David Weiss, and Mike Flanigin. Good people, all of 'em! Other than Al's questionable fondness for Styx, of course.

Here's a rundown of Prime benefits: https://www.consumerreports.org/online-shopping/pros-cons-amazon-prime/ (note - in some cases, the free 2 day delivery is actually free same-day, or in even free 2 hr delivery)

Another thing the in-shop experience gives you that you don't get online (at least I don't) is the discovery of something that you weren't expecting to find. Something that turns into an impulse buy based on an employee's recommendation. Something that you had in the back of your mind as something to check out some day in the future, but no specific plans to buy any day soon. Then you find it and it's in your hands and impulse takes over and you buy it. I don't find the thrill of that type of buy when I'm searching for things online at all. It's not as fun.

Padre Island National Seashore, 8 June 2018.

Since most of the major cities and towns are along the coast itself, it makes sense that they'd be closer to sea level, compared to the rest of southern Florida itself. Like the congressman in Alabama said, let's hope more dirt from the White Cliffs of Dover don't fall into the ocean, or else south Florida will all be under water.

I have some relatives in Elgin (near Austin, great sausage made there) who had a basement. Shocked me. So apparently there's at least one out there.

I suspect it's a generational thing. Neither of my kids do that when they stream music at all. One's 20 and one's 16. I do, but I'm not anywhere close to their age bracket. Even then, it may be a subset of a generational thing. My wife doesn't listen to full albums, ever - it drives her crazy, despite her overall love of music (which probably equals mine). She just has what we affectionally call music-ADD. So if I had to guess, there are generally far more people that don't, than do listen to full albums.

Glad to see you come up for air, Matthew! Hope all is well with you.

I've got a few box sets for sale. Prices include shipping in the U.S, Paypal. PM if interested. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary (blue vinyl never played, plus 2 cds and 1 dvd) - $60 **SOLD** Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books (16 cd) - $120 **ON HOLD** Naked City - The Complete Studio Recordings (5 cd) - $65 Horace Parlan - Complete Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic) (5cd) - (a couple of small dings on outer box from original shipping) - $100 Stanley Turrentine - Blue Note Quintet/Sextet Studio Sessions (Mosaic) (5cd) - $100 Beatles - The Capitol Albums Vol 1 (small cube) - $40 Beatles - The Capitol Albums Vol 2 (small cube, corrected reissue) - $40 **SOLD** Bob Dylan - The Original Mono Recordings (9cd) (some glue marks and two small tears where the glue was on the bottom of the outer box)- $65 **SOLD** Pentangle/Bert Jansch - Pentangling (3cd) - $35 Chris Rea - The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes (two 10" plus 3 cds) - $25

Yankees looked fantastic in the series at Houston. Will be a very interesting playoff series, assuming nothing squirrely happens and they both get in. Astros are playing the Dbacks right now. Gerrit Cole has 16 strikeouts through 8 innings, a career high (and matching the MLB high this season I believe). And the Dbacks put in Daniel Descalso to pitch, with one out in the 9th, after playing third base the entire game. I guess they're trying to save their bullpen for the rest of the series. edit - game's over, Cole pitched a 1 hit shutout with 16 strikeouts. Not a shabby way to start May. And yes, I miss Matthew as well, both here and on Facebook (where he also disappeared). Always enjoyed chatting with him about music, sports, and life in general.

Happy Birthday, Flurin! Cheers!

Thanks gents (and Buzz)!!!

Good info on the VPN stuff, thanks. I'm not a season ticket holder, but we do go to our share of Hooks games. They're a blast! Right now Yuli Gurriel has been playing for the Hooks, before he returns to the Astros. Unfortunately the first few games have been on the road, so I haven't seen him yet. First home game isn't until the 12th. The current Hooks team also includes Jon Singleton, who's had issues but has been on the Astros rosters a few times. And Ryne Birk, who I've followed since his days at Texas A&M. And one of the players with probably the biggest potential to move up is 1B Yordan Alvarez - keep an eye out for him.

If you have T-Mobile for your cell service, they offer you MLB.TV for free each year (though there is a window to subscribe to MLBTV each time, and if you miss it you're out of luck I guess - this year it ended on April 2nd). I'm a long time Astros fan. The thing that sucks about MLBTV from my experience is that because I am considered to be in the Houston Astros tv market, I am not able to watch Astros games on MLBTV. But the Astros games (shown on AT&T Sportsnet Southwest) are not available on either of the two cable company's channel lineups for Corpus Christi, so I am not able to watch them on tv or on MLBTV either. So I get to watch Rangers games on Fox Sports Southwest, even though they're 8+ hours away by car, versus 3 for the Astros. Anyway, T-Mobile might be a cheaper alternative for you in the future, potentially.

I don't recall. People watch so much content online today (versus exclusively on tv) that it makes sense that tv channels have jumped onboard (HBO, ESPN, etc) with online programming. It also makes sense that successful websites like FB and Twitter would also be trying to reach the same customers who will watch live sports online. I think that's a growing platform, unlike cable/satellite tv.

Twitter has also shown live sports. They, like Facebook, are interested in the eyeballs on their sites. It's really no different than watching ESPN channels online, as a consumer. Actually it's better, in the sense that it costs you nothing, unlike watching ESPN online. Other than having a FB or Twitter account, but nothing as far as a monthly fee, like ESPN (which you get when you have ESPN through your cable/satellite provider etc).

I discovered Korean bbq in 1975 in a little divey place near where I lived in Tokyo. Went back regularly for the next 4 years, it was fantastic. Wish there was a good place here in CC. We tried a shabu-shabu place a couple of weeks ago here, that was interesting. Boil the food yourself in a bowl over fire on your table. These two statements seem contradictory.