Wilburrrrr RIP

Wilbur Wood passes away

Story by Mark Polishuk, MLB Trade Rumors

Wilbur Wood passes away

Longtime big league knuckleballer Wilbur Wood passed away on Saturday at age 84. A left-handed workhorse starter, Wood was a three-time All-Star over a 17-year MLB career that included stints with the White Sox, Pirates, and Red Sox.

It took Wood a while to really establish himself in the big leagues, as after making his MLB debut with Boston in 1961, Wood threw only 159 2/3 innings over 73 appearances from 1961-65. A trade from the Red Sox to the Pirates in 1964 at least gave Wood regular bullpen duty during the 1965 season, but after spending the entire 1966 campaign with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A team, he was traded to the White Sox in the move that really unlocked Wood’s career.

Future Hall-of-Famer Hoyt Wilhelm was a member of that Chicago team, and the veteran took Wood under his wing by teaching him some of the tricks of Wilhelm’s knuckleball. Wood had thrown the pitch on-and-off in the past, but under Wilhelm’s tutelage and encourage, Wood adopted the pitch on a regular basis and the rest was history. Over 292 games and 495 2/3 innings from 1967-70, Wood posted a 2.49 ERA as a fireman out of the White Sox bullpen, often tossing multiple innings in all sorts of situations as a closer, leverage set-up man, or just innings-eater.

The White Sox moved Wood back into the rotation in advance of the 1971 season, setting the table for a five-year run of numbers that seems impossible by today’s modern pitching standards. Wood posted a 3.08 ERA over 227 appearances (224 of them starts) and a whopping 1681 2/3 innings from 1971-75, leading the majors in starts four times over that span and twice leading MLB in innings. Wood’s success was recognized with a runner-up finish in AL Cy Young Award voting in 1972, and he also finished third in the Cy race in 1971 and fifth in 1973. Wood was named to the AL All-Star team in 1971, 1972, and 1974.

Even in an era when starters were expected to carry a heavier workload and four-man rotations weren’t uncommon, Wood’s knuckler-powered durability stood out. Wood’s 376 2/3 IP in 1972 is the highest single-season mark of any pitcher from 1918 to the present day. To put Wood’s 1972 season in perspective, MLB’s top two leaders in innings pitched in 2025 (Logan Webb and Garrett Crochet) combined for 412 1/3 innings last year.

Unfortunately for Wood, the White Sox weren’t particularly competitive during his five-year dream run. He became one of only a few pitchers in modern baseball history to both win and lose 20 games in a season when Wood went 24-20 in 1973. Wood won at least 20 games every year from 1971-74, and he also lost 20 more games in 1975.

Wood’s amazing run of durability ended when his kneecap was broken by a line drive off the bat of the Tigers’ Ron LeFlore in May 1976, which ended his season. Wood was never the same after the injury, as the southpaw posted a 5.11 ERA over 290 2/3 innings for Chicago in 1977-78. He decided to retire, concluding his career with a 164-156 record, a 3.24 ERA, 6.5% walk rate, and 12.7% strikeout rate over 651 games and 2684 innings.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Wood’s family, loved ones, and many fans. (Along with EWS. )

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Escaped Wage Slave: Baseball Compilation

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Shitshow... 2020* II

first published Saturday, December 26, 2020

**********************************

Top Ten Ignored Stories of the Year

... follow the shiny thing...

1) Any, I mean any, criticism of vaccinations - in toto, with provable facts, data and long-term medical studies - is allowed on readily accessible media. In fact, Tapper on CNN stated about the untested, nano-biology, DNA restructuring, soon to be mandatory "vaccine", "Some deaths are to be expected after vaccination." Isn't the point, to stop death? ... and the masses stare at the fucking tube.

... The Fucking Tube...

pan-dem-ic\adj[LL pandemus, fr. Gk pandemos of all the people, fr. pan + demos people --- more at DEMAGOGUE pan-dem-iE] (1666) : occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population <~malaria>

-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1984 - 'Property of the U.S. Government' on the cover. A real live book.

2) In the midst of a 'pandemic' of one million 'cases', one million 'health care' workers were laid off. No more people died in this country than last year, despite the population not using 'health care' any where near the amount of 2019. There wasn't a 'flu season'. Even those eaten by a shark died of COVID.

ONE MORE TIME:

In a declared Pandemic no one died any more than usual this year.

... and they continue to stare at the fucking tube...

3) Oxygen kills virus. This is science we should know from high school biology. We have 19% O in the atmosphere, not too much more would kill any living thing. If you come down with a 'bug', drink a lot of water and walk around the block. Sleep well, dark and quiet. Turn off your WiFi. Wake up, eat chicken soup. Go for another long walk, rinse, repeat until well. No charge for the medical advise.

Putting a mask on a child depriving them or lowering their oxygen intake is stunting brain development. Child abuse of the highest order.

4) The complete disappearance of 'organized' labor from the zeitgeist. Is the AFL-CIO 'essential'? Nowhere seen except to champion the cause of the State to muzzle and inject you and it's your 'patriotic' duty to get in line. The Union Makes Us Strong... along with this vaccine tested on a feral pig in Outer Mongolia. "OK, let'er rip on the public." filled with aborted fetal tissue, nano-particles (I'm not an expert. I don't like the sound of it.), DNA genetic altering substances - then we will all "be together" in the virtual reality reality. All Hail Joe Biden!

Hit the Switch. I can't tolerate one G. 5G is total domination.

I could show this every year. It's Trumka's dick size.

5) The White Sox hired Tony LaRussa, again. Of all the muddled headed thinking of 2020 - and that is saying plenty - this is the cherry on the 2020 shitshow sundae. Wasn't Eddie Stanky available? Dick Allen, RIP, would be a better manager and could still run the bases better than half the team they have now. Minnie?, how 'bout Minnie? There is one solution:

... Miss him... miss him... miss him...

I don't know what is going on with Mr. Renteria and management, but as a long time fan I thought he brought the young team and great talent up a few notches and into top competition. They are ready to blast off and he gets canned. Sounds familiar, but Tony LaRussa ain't Joe Madden. I seem to recall he was the only MLB manager that spoke Spanish. He can't be unemployed for long. I don't understand.

I'll always cheer for his team, excepting, of course, you know...

6) REPEAT: The stunning and alarming rate black urban male youth are killing people. Or simply the amount of black people killing black people at all. An astounding reality in all metropolitan centers.

The anti-social harmful behavior continues unabated. The police are breaking down and leaving. It is not worth the lawsuit that destroys their life for a quick second bad decision. Police morale is zilch. As the One Who Lurks, Rahm Emmanuel, stated when Emperor of Chicago, "The police have gone fetal," Yes, they have.

Now who's fault is this mess?

7) The death of musical joy. I read that NPR just named Cardi B's "Wet Ass Pussy" the 2020 Song of the Year. Do your children listen to Cardi B? Governor Noose 'em bans singing and all the church choral groups stop. Bans singing with no push back tells me what kind of people we have in this country. People who don't mind giving up what brings them joy.

Do you or your children, anyone you know actually play an instrument, let alone work in ensemble with others to produce joyful music? Has non-digital music died? No one seems to want to hear it.

8) The Midwest spring floods of this year. 'member?. The Midwest is the huge center of the country with millions of productive citizen in Industry, Mining and, esp. Farming. The black dirt from generations of degrading buffalo grass nutrients feed the seeds that grows the corn, grain and wheat that feeds the country, and, the world.

Remember these farms hardly got a crop last year? They couldn't get the barges down the river with harvest, nor springtime fertilizers upstream? Remember?

I'll try not to be a fear-monger.

Next Horse of the Apocalypse, rider UP!

9) There is no 'space'. Nobody went to the Moon. No satellites. There will be no traveling to Mars. Rockets don't work in a vacuum, remember your high school chemistry. Space X is the new play of Blutosky and Bloom. It's the modern Tower of Babel.

Get your head out of your ass and your feet on the ground. We ain't going nowhere.

10) The lack of common sense across the population. I saw plenty this year. No ability to discern between right from wrong. People can't wait to be lied to - that 's why there is Good Morning America on at 6 am. Fauci just admitted he lied to the American public from the get-go. No pushback, no outrage. Relative morality, relative truthiness have made one DumbFuck Nation - The United States of Absurdia.

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Year End Review*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/12/

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remember when covid got so bad that brave 'first responders' had to make dance videos for tiktok?

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Meat w/ the Heat RIP

Nah, nah, nah, nah, Hey, Hey Hey Goodbye Homo Pope Frank... driving in from the bullpen in the new Impala model from Fanning Chevrolet is Pope Bob.

A White Sox fan in the Vatican

By Frank Friday

A White Sox fan in the Vatican - American Thinker

Anyone from Chicago can tell you, the Cubs always get the celebrities -- from Ronald Reagan to Bill Murray. At one point, Al Capone even tried to buy the team.

While it’s true that Richard Nixon grew up in California rooting for the White Sox, when the Dodgers moved in, he had to switch allegiances. Even worse, another President, the Lyin’ Hawaiian, liked to wear the current Sox hip-hop black cap, but it turns out, he may never have been to a game at what he calls “Cominskey Park” and in 2010 didn’t know the name of a single player.

Now comes the amazing news from the brother that the new Pope is a genuine White Sox fan, as are all the kindly old school priests and sisters south of I-55, on into Indiana and Michigan. That’s a huge point in his favor and it appears he frequently voted in the Republican primaries in Illinois (that state does not have specific party registrations).

Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago in the 1960s, in a very Catholic household, he would have had a ringside seat to the great battles in the American Church. Back of the Yards was where the leftist Saul Alinksy co-opted a big chunk of the Catholic community outreach, thanks to the liberal Bishop Bernard Sheil. But this area, and to the west, is also where the conservative Augustinian priest Francis X. Lawlor had his blue-collar political base.

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Escaped Wage Slave: The Slaughter of Cities*

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The Augustinians are still active around Chicago, and new Pope Leo has grown up with that order since attending their high school seminary and then their flagship university, Villanova.

Generally, Augustinians are very humble priests, often called the Friar Hermits, who quietly run schools and missions. Pope Leo XIV spent over 20 years in Peru, which is the mission target for Midwest Augustinians.

Apparently, Pope Leo XIV has no hostility to the Latin Mass, while Pope Francis hated it. His public comments also indicate he has no interest in pushing the homosexual agenda or ordaining women. These are all things conservative Catholics care about and which the Pope controls.

On things he doesn’t control -- immigration, global warming, American politics, etc. -- I expect a lot of rhetoric to warm the cockles of the international media. That’s a compromise most Catholics can readily accept.

The choice of the papal name is also intriguing. Pope Leo XIII, the last Leo, was one of the greatest Popes of all time. Liberals would like to claim this Pope for his support of workers and the right to organize. But Leo XIII despised socialism and was the force behind the Church’s modern support of free markets and Thomist natural law theory as well as the center/right Christian Democratic political movements in the 20th Century.

I'd prefer Walt 'No Neck' Williams as Pope - EWS

New Pope Leo, it should be noted, was a math major in college. He’ll need to dust off his calculator. The Vatican finances were always crooked and are now an absolute ruin. Pope Francis brought in conservative George Cardinal Pell to try to clean it up years ago. Instead, Pell’s enemies in the Vatican and Australia hit him with a frame-up that sent him to prison for a while before he was vindicated.

Pell wrote a brutal report, the Demos, detailing the myriad problems with Francis’ Vatican before he passed away in 2023.

Pope Leo will have a huge job ahead, digging out from under the mess that Francis is leaving him. I suspect in the end that Pope Leo XIV will have little time to generate new controversies. Just keeping the lights on will consume all his time.

Rome may be in even worse shape than what has become of the once solid ball club on the South Side. And for the same reasons -- bad managers, no farm system, no stars, lack of money, and an utterly clueless top leadership. The new Pope certainly has the modest personality and proven intelligence to do a better job than his predecessor. Like a lot of people, I will pray he does.

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Pope Bartman the First has a nice ring to it.

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Escaped Wage Slave: Baseball Compilation

Escaped Wage Slave: Wh/Bl Sox

Escaped Wage Slave: Chgo Meme Drop

Escaped Wage Slave: Memo to Paul

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Wh/Bl Sox

Thinking back on the1977-78 Southside HitMen season, Commiskey Park 81 times through the summer was the Largest Tavern on Earth. Cheering on our favorite Veeck/Hemond cheating, lovable ham sandwiches cast of characters acting like ball players, every spectator left with an alcohol blood level over the blow limit. Every fan was drunk for every pitch the entire season. I attended 52 games that year.

Commiskey Park was on one side of the urban renewal demarcation line called the Dan Ryan Expressway. Walking across the bridge over an Interstate eight lanes wide, one would find themselves in the Robert Taylor Homes complex, since demolished. High-rise public housing stretching for miles on either side, they were occupied by black sharecroppers from the South. I'm sure there were plenty of baseball fans that lived there but they seldom attended. They worked outside, scalping tickets or using the 'watch your car, Mister' gentle extortion scheme.

A recent conversation involving the Great Extortionist, Jesse Jackson, and his black boycott threatening Major League Baseball brought this forward. For a payoff, it sure was an easy endeavor to maintain. Not many black people ever showed up to watch the game. It very well may have to do with disposable cash available but being intimidated by 50,000 drunk white people probably had more to do with it.

Even with the 9-inning state of being en masse, I simply don't recall any harassment of any black folks working there, men or families that were there for baseball entertainment. This is a 46-year memory, and it would be an interesting study of Police reports coming out of the Bridgeport district on game night concerning race relations. Were African Americans beaten up for being black? In this percolating kettle of, supposedly, white hatred was there ever what is described these days as a 'hate crime'? After the game, there was always plenty of mischief and interactions, how many incidents of unbridled White Supremacy violence were there?

There is plenty of racial violence in present day America. Let's be honest about it.

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The Slaughter of Cities*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-slaughter-of-cities.html

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Pitch y Catchee 2021... 03*

Let me do the math for you: 114 S to 40 N combines to 154 bus stops. 154 divided by 8, the distance in a city mile, almost 20 miles on Western Avenue alone. This was on a busy Saturday morning through ethnic neighborhoods we had never seen. As far as I can recollect, I had never been north of 6300 south, with family to the Free Fair at 47th and Damen, and maybe that could be said for Frankie, too… Through Mexican, Polish, Puerto Rican neighborhoods, we knew enough to be weary of the black kids. As I recall today, quite a ride for two 12 yr. old boys from the Ridge Morgan Park (RMP) Rip My Pants Southside.

Part 4... soon

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https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/04/pitch-y-catchee-2021-10.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-2021-09.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-cathee-2021-08.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-2021-07.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-202106.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-2021-05.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-2021-04.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-cathee-03.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/pitch-y-catchee-2021-02.html

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/02/pitch-y-catchee-2021-pt1.html

Beisball 2020*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2020/02/beisball.html

Opening Day*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/04/opening-day.html

Pitchers and Catchers*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/02/pitchers-and-catchers.html

Home Run Around*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2010/11/post-election-notes-i-awoke-this.html

*********************************

Shitshow... 2020*

**********************************

Top Ten Ignored Stories of the Year

... follow the shiny thing...

1) Any, I mean any, criticism of vaccinations - in toto, with provable facts, data and long-term medical studies - is allowed on readily accessible media.  In fact, Tapper on CNN stated about the untested, nano-biology, DNA restructuring, soon to be mandatory "vaccine", "Some deaths are to be expected after vaccination." Isn't the point, to stop death? ... and the masses stare at the fucking tube.

... The Fucking Tube...

pan-dem-ic\adj[LL pandemus, fr. Gk pandemos of all the people, fr. pan + demos people --- more at DEMAGOGUE pan-dem-iE] (1666) : occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population <~malaria> 

 -Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1984 - 'Property of the U.S. Government' on the cover. A real live book.

2) In the midst of a 'pandemic' of one million 'cases', one million 'health care' workers were laid off. No more people died in this country than last year, despite the population not using 'health care' any where near the amount of 2019.  There wasn't a 'flu season'.  Even those eaten by a shark died of COVID.

ONE MORE TIME:

In a declared Pandemic no one died any more than usual this year.

... and they continue to stare at the fucking tube...

3) Oxygen kills virus.  This is science we should know from high school biology. We have 19% O in the atmosphere, not too much more would kill any living thing.  If you come down with a 'bug', drink a lot of water and walk around the block. Sleep well, dark and quiet. Turn off your WiFi. Wake up, eat chicken soup. Go for another long walk, rinse, repeat until well. No charge for the medical advise. 

Putting a mask on a child depriving them or lowering their oxygen intake is stunting brain development. Child abuse of the highest order.  

4) The complete disappearance of 'organized' labor from the zeitgeist.  Is the AFL-CIO 'essential'? Nowhere seen except to champion the cause of the State to muzzle and inject you and it's your 'patriotic' duty to get in line. The Union Makes Us Strong... along with this vaccine tested on a feral pig in Outer Mongolia. "OK, let'er rip on the public." filled with aborted fetal tissue, nano-particles (I'm not an expert.  I don't like the sound of it.), DNA genetic altering substances - then we will all "be together" in the virtual reality reality.  All Hail Joe Biden!

Hit the Switch. I can't tolerate one G. 5G is total domination.

I could show this every year. It's Trumka's dick size.

5) The White Sox hired Tony LaRussa, again.  Of all the muddled headed thinking of 2020 - and that is saying plenty - this is the cherry on the 2020 shitshow sundae.  Wasn't Eddie Stanky available?  Dick Allen, RIP, would be a better manager and could still run the bases better than half the team they have now. Minnie?, how 'bout Minnie? There is one solution:

... Miss him... miss him... miss him...

I don't know what is going on with Mr. Renteria and management, but as a long time fan I thought he brought the young team and great talent up a few notches and into top competition. They are ready to blast off and he gets canned.  Sounds familiar, but Tony LaRussa ain't Joe Madden. I seem to recall he was the only MLB manager that spoke Spanish.  He can't be unemployed for long. I don't understand.

I'll always cheer for his team, excepting, of course, you know...

 

6) REPEAT: The stunning and alarming rate black urban male youth are killing people. Or simply the amount of black people killing black people at all. An astounding reality in all metropolitan centers. 

The anti-social harmful behavior continues unabated.  The police are breaking down and leaving. It is not worth the lawsuit that destroys their life for a quick second bad decision. Police morale is zilch. As the One Who Lurks, Rahm Emmanuel, stated when Emperor of Chicago, "The police have gone fetal," Yes, they have.

Now who's fault is this mess?

7) The death of musical joy. I read that NPR just named Cardi B's "Wet Ass Pussy" the 2020 Song of the Year. Do your children listen to Cardi B? Governor Noose 'em bans singing and all the church choral groups stop.  Bans singing with no push back tells me what kind of people we have in this country. People who don't mind giving up what brings them joy.

Do you or your children, anyone you know actually play an instrument, let alone work in ensemble with others to produce joyful music?  Has non-digital music died? No one seems to want to hear it.

8) The Midwest spring floods of this year. 'member?. The Midwest is the huge center of the country with millions of productive citizen in Industry, Mining and, esp. Farming.  The black dirt from generations of degrading buffalo grass nutrients feed the seeds that grows the corn, grain and wheat that feeds the country, and, the world. 

Remember these farms hardly got a crop last year?  They couldn't get the barges down the river with harvest, nor springtime fertilizers upstream? Remember? 

I'll try not to be a fear-monger.  

Next Horse of the Apocalypse, rider UP!

9) There is no 'space'. Nobody went to the Moon. No satellites. There will be no traveling to Mars. Rockets don't work in a vacuum, remember your high school chemistry. Space X is the new play of Blutosky and Bloom. It's the modern Tower of Babel.

Get your head out of your ass and your feet on the ground.  We ain't going nowhere.

10) The lack of common sense across the population. I saw plenty this year.  No ability to discern between right from wrong. People can't wait to be lied to - that 's why there is Good Morning America on at 6 am.  Fauci just admitted he lied to the American public from the get-go.   No pushback, no outrage. Relative morality, relative truthiness have made one DumbFuck Nation - The United States of Absurdia.

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Year End Review*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/12/

Beisball 2020*

I just love this picture

It's Pitchers-and-Catchers time in the old ball yard. 

 First things First!  

This is THE YEAR!  

GooooYoooouuuuuWhiiiiiiiiteeee Sooooxxx! 

-Andy the Clown 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_the_Clown

The Houston Astros with bench coach Alex Cora, won the World Series 2017.  The Boston Red Sox with manager Alex Cora won 2018.  What an amazing 'leader of men'.  It does help to have a live camera feed from the outfield to the dugout stealing the catchers signs so the batter has a heads up.

If nobody knows that, it does look good on the Yearly Performance Review.  But if people do know the scheme was in place, you look like Bozo.  Not exactly illegal in a criminal way, just plain weasal -like.  Not starred on the new resume he needs to punch up.  

As if Bill Veeck hired Andy the Clown to managed the White Sox.  I wonder if he gave that consideration.  Bill's first hire when he and his "partners" took ownership was Paul Richards, long time baseball man with a reputation of doing what was needed to win. While he managed the team, low tech, he used a guy with binoculars in center field and his assistant waving a handkerchief. The SouthSide Hitmen of 77-78 lead the league in homers in the largest field, by far, in the American League (440 center and 352 on the lines.)  Long, loopy fly balls with a 'plink' off the bat, especially in the later innings.  We cheered like mad.

Jack McDowell spilled the beans on Tony LaRussa using a light on the smaller scoreboard to signal the batter.  Not much new under the sun, only getting higher tech.

Wavy Lines... Wavy Lines... Garth... Wavy Lines

In some crazy willy-nilly  decision, Bubsy, Daniher, Frankie and I decided outside the usual left field lower deck grandstand location, where Old Willie McGee would buy all us beers from Sawtooth Darling, the vendor. Willie would  pay from the 16 yr olds' money, one for himself. Only fittin'.

Whatever reason, on a sunny day in May, upper deck behind the plate,
in our youthful jerkiness, settled into our seats.  I was filling in my score card and fooling with the little pencil, dropped it and while trying to find it in a tangle of legs, Tom Egan, a big, right handed hitting catcher, hit the ball out of the park.  Right down the third base line, just past the pennant and over the roof.  I was on my hands and knees looking for my pencil.  People jumping up and down. I missed it.  That's why I will always remember 352 ft down the line, those big yellow numbers at the top of the wall in my sight line.

Roger Broussard, the Sodfather of Comiskey Park, groundskeeper extraordinaire would have half the first base running lane in two feet of fine sand when Rickey Henderson came to town.  Didn't matter, he'd be safe and two pitches later he's be on third, esp. w/ Carlton Fisk's pus arm. Henderson may be all-time best in my lifetime, I'll give that some consideration, he is from Oakland and I hold a grudge.  Roger should write a book, an oral history of his secrets.  Baseball Omerta keeps them sealed.

Didn't Alex's brother Joey play for the Sox?  Maybe Joey picked up some tricks from the Masters and relayed it to his big time big league big brother manager brother.

A.J. Hinch, the manager of the 2018 Astros says he knew, but didn't stop it. Dweeb. It was hatched by Carlos Beltran, in the meantime named manager of the 2020 Mets.  He is also creating a new resume to hawk, but in Espanol, as Carlos will go back to the old country and never be heard from again.

MLB fined the team's owner, who in great Old Texas Oil Man grumpiness called a press conference and told everyone to fuck off.  Altuve was also there, the MVP for that year.  I think they should cut his fingers off on a paper cutter at home plate on Opening Day.  If I was a Muslim, that is.

Let's talk about those on the team definitively did not get advantage from the cheating - the Astros and Red Sox pitchers. Except for pitching with a lead, there is no Quo Quid Bono for their job BUT you are on a team.  Not many secrets after 180 ball games or so, barnstorming the country.  The coaches are also more culpable, as they have to have higher degree of integrity as their position shows. 

MY RULING (I got this one, Commish):  The World Series of 2017 and 2018 shall be vacated, declared un-won.  All prize money, all endorsement, merchandising monies of the unofficial winners, namely the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, shall be allocated in a fair and agreed upon manner to the players and club of the officially declared 'undefeated' teams in all playoff games involving Houston and Boston through the World Series 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Although the Astros returned to the Series in 2019, they were defeated by the Nationals.  Those opponent clubs and players in the Astros playoff rush shall fairly compensated by the Houston Astros baseball club.

SOLUTION: Bluetooth from pitcher to catcher to dugout.

and

A Big Finger Wave and Warning to Everyone in MLB
No, No, Never

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This is the year, Walt

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Pitchers and Catchers*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/02/pitchers-and-catchers.html

Opening Day*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2019/04/opening-day.html

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REMEMBERING MARK FIDRYCH

MARCH 20, 2020 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF

For those who missed the Mark Fidrych experience, here’s some background. Fidrych debuted as a 21 year old rookie for the Detroit Tigers in 1976. He made the club with only a year and a half of experience in the minor leagues.

Inserted into the starting rotation in mid-May, Fidrych won nine of his first ten starts. His only loss was to Boston, 2-0. He completed all but one of these starts.

For the season, Fidrych went 19-9 with 2.34 ERA and 24 complete games (in 31 starts) for a bad team. He didn’t win the AL Cy Young award, the great Jim Palmer did. But from the time Fidrych entered the starting rotation until the end of the season, the Bird was as good as Palmer.

... After baseball, Fidrych returned to his home in Northborough, Massachusetts. He farmed, drove a truck, and did odd jobs. Once, when someone said to him “don’t I know you from somewhere?” Fidrych replied “I used to work at the Sunoco station at the corner.”

Fidrych died in 2009, at age 54, in an accident as he worked underneath a truck.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/03/remembering-mark-fidrych.php

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Miss you, A.J.

Evan Gattis on Astros Cheating Scandal: ‘We F*cked Up’

"Everybody wants to be the best player in the f–king world, man…and we cheated that, for sure, and we obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans,” Gattis said. “Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans.

“I’m not asking for sympathy or anything like that. If our punishment is being hated by everybody forever, just like whatever. I don’t know what should be done, but something had to f–king be done. I do agree with that, big-time. I do think it’s good for baseball that we’re cleaning it up…And I understand that it’s not f–king good enough to say sorry. I get it.”

An MLB investigation into the Astros sign-stealing scheme resulted in the suspensions of both the general manager and manager, in addition to the forfeiting of first and second round picks in 2020 and 2021, and a $5 million fine.

“We didn’t look at our moral compass and say this is right,” Gattis said. “It was almost like paranoia warfare or something. But what we did was wrong. Don’t get it twisted, it was wrong for the nature of competition, not even just baseball.”

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2020/04/02/evan-gattis-astros-cheating-scandal-we-fcked-up/

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Baseball? How About A Mind Opener?*

People are smartening up?:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/117409/Easter-Smaller-Percentage-Americans-Christian.aspx

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The cover story of Time Magazine of June 6, 1983 declared us in the Age of Stress. Coincidentally, so began the Age of Going Postal.

Reaganite/Fundy Christian/Corporate philosophy pushed and exacted the "personal responsibility" ethos blaming all ills, whether mental or environmental, on the individual. The corporate good, whether workplace or ethereal, is beyond questioning and eternal. Finding fault in that make up is only made by those mentally unbalanced, disgruntled and they should be avoided at all costs. They will harm what ever is left of your human/workplace soul.

Distressed people acting on their anger "didn't take their medication". People stripped of their livelihoods "lost their jobs". Heart attacks are an excepted part of life and should have been avoided. Speaking up for yourself in public brings economic pain and should be expected for those foolish enough to try it. Questioning the very existence of Jesus bring eternal damnation, never mind there is no historical proof.

The bullies have us decent people on the run. We act like frightened animals running towards Hell. The reason the better side of life is enjoyed by the tightening minority is because we like our misery and attach to our own victimization. We wallow in Poor Me, love it, in fact. It's comfortable down here with the other frightened animals and hungry ghosts. It's crowded and cozy in Hell. The gods can have the rest, that takes work.

I'm striving to be more Human. To balance between happiness and suffering, trying to relieve a bit for others and. maybe, bring a bit of happiness along the way. I don't want to join with strivers, the assertive, the aggressive, the top dogs. Competition is dehumanizing and ego driven. There is a better world to be made and someday a magazine will proclaim an Age of Peace.