Independence (from fun) Day
The greatest American holiday is upon on and…..there’s nothing to do. No baseball. No chili cookoff. The beaches are closed. No fireworks. And they’re churning out some lame variation of the hot dog eating contest that I can’t support.
So we sit alone in our houses with our family, something we’ve done for months and months.
Oh well, pass me a Bud Light. What’s that? All out of those. Ok, just gimmie a White Claw.
Pfffttttttt……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
That was excellent, BF.
If you like fireworks, you just have to walk outside this year – they’re everywhere here.
Not quite like the pre-Giuliani days, but they’re letting everything go…
Story here is the government is supplying poor kids with fireworks to foment unrest in urban areas.
Here the analysis points its finger at antifa anarchists. Why anarchists would celebrate the fourth of July the accusers can’t explain. But people are driving around the Oakland and Berkeley hills and dropping their mini-bombs onto the rich residential streets. Great consternation. The pets! The pets!
My daughter in Berkeley says it is happening a lot down there. On the other side of the Caldecott, we seem to be quiet.
Late last year, in the late innings, the Giants cable tv cameras occasionally focused on White-Claw-can pyramids left behind in the bleachers. Kruk and Kuip, who both have sons in their 20s, thought those shots were pretty funny. The seagulls were just too depressing, I guess.
This is a truly F+++ed up year in so many ways.
And it’s only half over…
4th of July is tied with New Year’s Eve for worst holidays, in my book.
They’re drinking holidays basically, and I don’t drink alcohol. Plus the fireworks terrorize people’s pets. And some idiots shoot guns into the air. There are all kinds of drunk drivers on the road.
That’s my take.
Buzzkill, zumiee
🙂
As a kid the 4th was the best day of the year.
Better than Christmas even.
Can’t recapture that feeling…
No way am I going forth this holiday weekend as 129 more days of home confinement loom. Worst part of that whole situation is that per BOP and Minnesota governor regulations, I’m neither allowed to get my hour of recreational walking or bicycling, nor permitted outdoors between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am. Go figure. It’s steadily in the low 90’s here in what KimBurly calls the Twin Toilets during afternoon and early evenings.
Mornings are nice, but my ol bod + mind and spirit simply do not compute well much before 11 or so even though leaving the sack at seven. Been putting in a couple hours cleaning up back yard next to “nature zone” around a semi-stagnant pond. Sweating like a stevedore even in the shade if the humiliated relatives are running over 70%.
Fireworks been happening over the past couple weeks in this 4th tier burb from around dusk to 11 or so. This weekend it will probably hit the wee hours. Watch for the full moon on the night of the 4th. If skies are clear it should be pretty spectacular.
Guess I’d make a pretty piss-poor alkie as I can’t even look at a beer till one or two in the afternoon. This long, hot summer in the upper Midwest, beer should be considered as essential life-support–that is, if one sips and slurps rather than slugs or glurks.
Stix- What’s the Fed parole like these days? Used to be in the 5 yr range.
Fed$ cut out parole entirely several years ago. It had to do with the Cusip bonds held on all Americans and in the case of prisoners these bonds mature when one has served 85% of the sentence. Thus the BOP/DOJ are enabled to collect interest on the bonds. Therefore, no more parole…probation only.
Probation is quite stringent, particularly in regards to piss-testing regimens. At Elkton I met one youngish guy from Kentucky who had been “violated” 9 times for testing for cannabis in his system. Violations mean you get taken back under direct supervision of the BOP and the institution to which you are dispatched receives $103+ per day in a facility which is grossly overcrowded, features a food-budget of ca $2/day per prisoner and a medical system which barely makes upper 3rd-world status.
Needless to say, profits are substantial and the potential for grease and kickbacks may be very tempting for administrative elements. Biggest profiteer in the Untied $kates is the Bu$h crime family which is the sole stakeholder in the Keefe corporation out of St. Louis. Keefe has a virtual monopoly on the highly profitable commissary food and hygiene items sold to prisoners ,who absolutely need to eke out supplemental dietary items as well as personal care products. Outside of the WarDefense Industry, the federal end of the law n’ order shtick may well be the biggest racket going.
Worsening year by year via the unlawful passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the mostly free country that I experienced as a child in the 50’s and a young man in the 60’s and 70’s, tends to strike gens “Y” and “Z” as fantasy fiction depictive of a world that never was
Don’t be bringing that sissy pants White Claw stuff up in here. I’m usually drinking some beer and blowing shit up on the 4th and I plan to do one if not both this year too. Don’t let the corona hold you back-throw some burgers and dogs on the grill and celebrate America!
easiest POTD I’ve seen here in a while
I’m with ya Dirt, I love blowing shit up.
Halloween was always my favorite day of the year as a kid, Christmas was next, and the 4th was after that. I think mostly because it was in the middle of summer and we still had a lot of time before going back to school. We always broke out the grill. The folks would drink and I would be gone all day. It really was a good day.
this from Kapler on F/G: “We’re not going to have our starters (pitchers) built up by the end of camp to take 5, 6. 7 innings.” The Cards mgr. thought best staff would include 7-8 guys capable of 3 innings plus. This is what Flav was talking about earlier seems to me.
From what i read in that story about roto/ fantasy even the teams with set 5 man rotations are likely not to have their SPs go more than 3 innings to start season. So for fantasy/DK players and official scorers will have different twist.
Say your team gets early 3-4 run lead and winds up coasting to a W. Guy who starts unlikely to go 5 so it will depend on those who follow as to who gets awarded the win. Also, reports indicate closers aren’t working consecutive days either, with season compressed into fewer days off.
It will be a fantasy nightmare all over since nobody will probably play many consecutive days.
I predict that later today a pickup truck loaded with commercial-grade fireworks, hand sanitizer and charcoal lighter fluid will explode on a bumper-to-bumper freeway near Sacramento. Flying cans of beer will bust windshields for half a mile or more in both directions.
Xoot: Whatever you’re smoking I can’t touch for well over a year as I’m still regarded as property of the Fed$ and whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. (I’ve already I.D.ed Lola on previous postings). So no mellow vibes here for some fair while…ahh, but the memories…
Today is also annual day Tony Cloninger gets some run. July 3 1966 was day he exploded on Giants for 2 grand slams and 9 rbis in 17-3 pounding at Stick. In a foreboding of bad times to come, one of them was first pitch thrown by Ray Sadecki in relief with 2 outs in 4th. Sadecki has only been acquired by Giants 2 months ago in what became the infamous Cepeda trade.
According to Chron, a month earlier on June 6 he had gone off on Mets with 2 bombs and 5 rbis in 17-1 W. His totals at plate for 1966– .234 BA 5 bombs 23 rbis
And for those who didn’t see it the first 15 times I posted it, Moises Alou was being born while his dad played this game…
Felipe was at 1b too. Gad Braves had powerful LU, Eddie Mathews 3b (though not that day) Aaron in RF Mack Jones in CF Carty in LF and Torre C.
Couple fun facts: Sadecki homered himself off Cloninger though he wound up giving up 9 runs 5 earned in 6 innings of mop up relief.
Day before was pitching duel, 3-1 W in 10 by Braves on 2 run HR by Felipe. Win went to Chi Chi Olivo, 38 yr old reliever from DR and something of legend in old country. He started pitching there in early 50s along with older brother Diomedes and continued pitching well into his 40s. Great bio read on his B/R page under SABR profile.
Chi Chi is the answer to an obscure trivia question that only an old Yankee or Brave diehard might know…
Wow what is it? in the bio it said he went to ST with Yanks and they cut him. 1966 with ATL was last year in MLB.
He was a throw in by the Braves when they traded Bill Robinson for Clete Boyer…
ah yes that was in the bio. thx
The Washington NFL team may be changing its racist nickname. Snyder apparently may have found some shred of a conscience within himself.
Yup – Its called beaucoup sponsorship $$$$$ and loss of season ticket Sky Box sales to corporate clients – this reckoning requires no conscience or sudden moral awakening.
exactly. Sponsors start to bail, Snyder cowers like a bitch. He doesn’t have a moral fiber in his body.
Stix- the whole prison system is a racket. They charge the state to move prisoners when they don’t need to. There busses are moving continually everyday/night. i didn’t know about the parole being discontinued with the feds. In 1972 i got on the wrong side of them and they gave me 5 years probation for a misdemeanor. And, i had to do every day of it. i also know plenty of guys who went through the state system for possession of pot. Most of em ended up doing 6-8 years on a 16 month sentence due to violations. It’s a vicious cycle and a money maker for the state.
In Chron today Jenkins goes off whining about new “protocols” for media access to teams, which starts today. “…when the Giants arrange Zoom interviews with mgr. Gabe Kapler and possibly selected players after the team’s workouts. That’s how it will continue once the games start for real…” Media have no access to clubhouse or locker rooms.
Jenkins goes on to say, “Based on everything we’ve learned over the years, the players will cherish this arrangement. As a group, they have grown tired of the media crush and would love for it to become extinct.”
the media asks pussy questions that never have any follow up anyway. I lost interest in what Schulman and his gang of fraidy cats had to say a long time ago.
All they get is pat, recycled, cliche answers anyway…
Trout says he’s currently undecided about the ‘20 season. His wife is giving birth soon to their first child.
Now this statue issue has gone too far!
This is the the link for the Mission Rock Port of SF Project – its been on the books since 2007?
sf.gov/search?keyword=mission%20rock
Are they going to rename the place Mission Rock Cove? This is an outrage. Baggarly always digs deepest!
How’s one percent sit with Trout and anyone else thinking of not playing?
starting to think they’re holding out on me and that there is, in fact, another hour they aren’t telling me about
Fuck,
I convinced my father to give you another chance, which is why he’s decided to EXTEND your PERSONAL 500%-MATCH OFFER FOR 1 MORE HOUR.
We won’t extend your match offer again, Fuck. Don’t let the President down.
A reply that you won’t pay anything until they pay back the monies you loaned them, would probably stop their Emails.
Donnie, Jr’s girlfriend has tested positive for the virus.
She shoulda stayed with Gavin.
Here in Saigon, it’s the morning of July 4th. So, just wishing Flappers a good holiday weekend, despite its limitations this year. A lovely breezy morning here. AMCHAM (American Chamber of Commerce) is having their annual July 4th barbecue at a compound out by the Saigon River. I went once, some years ago… no need to go again, really. I’m just thankful that here, we can actually go out and do something like that…
Anyone else watching trump’s SD Mount Rushmore “speech”? Talking about the Decl. of Indep. he started by changing the term “inalienable right” to “divine right” and went on to talk about God. Etc. Things have gone downhill since then. Meanwhile, I see that Melania’s upper arms are flapping middle-agedly when she applauds on cue. Won’t be long and she will be, as a famous movie character once put it, playing soccer with those tits. Her demented husband won’t notice, but maybe one of his kids will mention it.
I did see the insane seating set-up. People packed together, very few wearing masks, on a quest to kill their parents and grandparents.
the fox news coverage of the ND farce ended with a sudden short blast of Neil Young & CH from Keep on Rockin in the Free World (not everyone would’ve noticed that; but it’s second only to Southern Pacific in my reverence of NY songs). I don’t think trump’s people stole it. (They’re facing litigation from the Stones’ licensing people over YCAGWYW.) So Fox, which I never before have watched, just ripped off that riff. I don’t think Neil’s gonna like that.
Neil’s not happy about it.
Just saw some pics on Giants’ FB page… I think they’re current pics. Players working out together out on a ballfield. Some wearing masks, others not. This will be interesting.