Winter Time
I don’t know a single thing about snow except having been in it a few times for skiiing and such. I still remember a proud father moment of taking Katie to Tahoe in the winter and she saw snow for the first time. We got out of the car and she ran over to the snow, wide eyed and smiling. She must have been 3 or so. She put her hands in the snow, picked it up, and in about 10 seconds started crying. Of course, we didn’t put gloves on her. Nice.
While I know nothing about the economics of snow removal I have to believe that’s a pretty lucrative business. You contract with an entire block and that’s gotta feed the fam for a while.
There is no baseball news other than the Rockies recognizing they have no hope in competing with the power houses in the NL west. The Giants wish they could shed salary the way Colorado just did but the reality is a lot of $$$ is coming off the books after this season.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
i still can’t believe these goofy bastards get all gussied up to do this nonsense every year.
Yeah, they sure go through a bunch of foof-de-doo over pork sausage day.
Too bad he did not bite his face off.. I never understood what the hell seeing your shadow means amd how they relates to bloody winter…
If the first snow of the year falls during the night, surprise in the morning is memorable. And I remember leaving a foothill bar at closing time to discover the town freshly blanketed. And silent. As I drove home through the empty streets, my little car fishtailed nicely, like a surfboard carving a wave.
Xoot, based on some comments I’ve seen you make, do you live near the Claremont golf course?
Yes
my step dad was GM there in like 2005/06/07 right around there. Played there a few times, ok course, stayed there few times, drafty as hell. It’s a trip that a course could be right next to such a bad neighborhood and also a nice neighborhood…..
Stan, the current general manager, and I bump into each other occasionally. “This is not a public park!” “This is private property!”
A few of my former law partners are members. I’ve attended functions and fetes there. We did some legal work for the club. The rules are strange. No cell phone use, even in the parking lot. No denim, even if it’s black. I can go with the first, but not the second.
most country clubs are stupid
Country Club malt liquor was one drink of choice when I was in high school. Close enough for me.
Unfortunate the Rox are so bad; at least they are saving $150 mil plus. Baseball America said the prospects Cards gave up are ranked 14th, 26th and 28th in their system plus one lower than that in addition to the pitcher Gomber, mostly a reliever for few recent seasons for Cards. Yikes.
Boon for Cards though, especially since no one else in NL Central has done anything except sell off this winter.
Watching PTI yesterday, Michael Wilbon said relationship btw MLB owners/Manfred and players union is, “the worst since Fred Sanford and Aunt Esther.”
Interesting that owners tied expanded playoffs ($$$$) together with universal DH, but rejected DH to NL on its own as proposed by players. I realize Giants almost made it in last season, but not a fan of more playoff teams, especially after 162 games/6 month season. As is, playoffs go back to 10 teams total.
fangraphs guy broke down prospects Rox got in return for Arenado like this: “They’re 40 FV prospects who I think can be big league role players, but none are potential stars and there may not even be a regular among them.” while admitting we can’t know anything about what was being offered by other teams, he said, “It certainly isn’t an exciting group.” yikes Rox are so doomed
this is why we’d get nothing for any of the Bore Core. Rox just ditching $$$$. If we wanted to get rid of some cash, granted it’s a lot less and what would be the point at this point, we’d never get anything worth anything for them
I think one or 2 might go at the deadline. They’ll get nothing but a little financial relief for them, which is all anyone cares about anyway…
Another season of disagreeing about everything and squabbling over billions while we all wait patiently.
How many more times can these folks shoot themselves in the feet? I’m with Snarkk. Fuck these clowns (local clown excepted). The whole thing is turning into a death spiral that will kill the game or transmogrify it into some bastardized version of itself.
https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/players_union_rejects_mlbs_154_game_season_proposal/s1_13237_33986204?utm_source=mb&utm_medium=email&mb_edition=20210202&mb_loc=left_h
Hard to make future free agent plans when it seems highly likely a strike is coming for next year…
The whole world needs to be flushed down the toilet…
After the Chiefs win on Sunday, that is…
I’m taking TB and the points
Reds sign Doolittle while Giants do little.
One of the smartest and most likable guys in baseball. He was a great presence here in the east bay for years. I’m surprised his arm healed up.
ha good one Stix!
I think Flav has it right at 8:54. Even if someone was interested nobody would give much back for Crawford or Belt, and SF would still have to send $$ back, which ain’t happening. Have to see how prospects do this season and make judgments on future from there.
I left the snow behind and visiting parents in Santa Cruz Co…teeing up Thursday at Del Monte in Monterey. Playing couple times at a buddies club in Simi Valley next week.
Same here unca. Yeah, I will continue to play Draftkings, but I was disgusted last season with the DH adoption; minor leagues disappearance; the “swing for the fences” 24/7 strategy (boring); money grubbing owners and players alike; etc. Ironic, but the only player I admired was someone who did not play, i.e., Buster Posey. He had his priorities straight.
I didn’t watch one game in the truncated season and didn’t miss a thing. Frankly, the world was falling apart and that distracted too from the game. Next season, if I go to a game, it will only be the minor leagues (no freakin’ idea if that’s coming back) or a Flap game. That’s it.
I plan on making a few Eugene Emeralds games this year if they kick off. If I make it down to the Bay Area i will hit a Giants game or two. It has been a long time.
If you live above the snow lines( especially 6,000 ft) you invest in a snow blower in your garage!
My dad and I use to to shovel the snow up in Incline Village ( man they could get snow there up to the roofline) ⛄️ but like someone said once it freezes on the surface u hit it and it vibrates thru your arms and it doesn’t feel good.The snowblower machine cuts thru the snow like butter, it’s all about just keeping it off the driveway mostly as the town had guys clearing the streets pushing the snow to the sides..
….
Do hockey fans complain about the degradation of the game? If not, maybe one of the divisions should institute the 2 point goal for their home games, so the sport doesn’t lose more ground..
Hockey fans aren’t complaining.
It’s probably changed the least over the years compared to the other majors.
What makes you think so?
I assumed it hadn’t changed.
MLB posted this – “The offer included starting the regular season on April 29th and playing a 154-game schedule that would pay players in full as if playing 162 games. We also proposed two changes from the 2020 season that were overwhelmingly popular with our fans – for this season only, featuring a modified expanded Postseason (seven teams per League) and the universal designated hitter rule.”
Overwhelmingly popular with our fans? Did anyone here get a vote on this? I know I didn’t, maybe it was those damn cardboard cutouts stuffing the ballot boxes.
Yep, they only want to do it for this season only, again. What a bunch of sleazebags.
Overwhelming ennui is more like it. At least they didn’t propose the ludicrous runner-on-2nd-base-in-extras bullshit.
Cardboard cutout voting appears to be the mode these days.
Possible strike coming for MLB??? I love a good labor dispute!! Get some tips from the NFL and break that union like a graham cracker!
I wish Chicago would tell those slacker teachers to get back to work or send them packing. My school district is open and I’m here day in and day out earning my pa–as I should be.
No denim or cell phone use at that Country Club? I could be down with that. I got no problem separating from my phone for 6-8 hours and denim is no bueno for swinging a golf club.
Country Club Malt Liquor? I remember that one too.
mm the idea someone like Manfred could do whatev he wanted to do without having to negotiate with another entity I find appalling. Like most previous commissioners, he’s already done enough harm to the game.
Oh don’t you worry about the players Willie—they run the game already and I don’t see that changing much anytime soon. Hard to put toothpaste back in the tube, as much as I wish they could.
The course does have good trees. Redwood and giant sequoia, cedar, cypress, at least one stand of hemlock, and a few maples around the periphery, near hedges, that attract migrating birds.
You get vaccinated yet? Teacher buddy of mine is in Unified Napa school district an he got his first one last week.
Grant Jackson died. Was the winning pitcher when Pirates won Series in 79, a team I really dug.
I remember him most for giving up Brett’s 3 run game tying bomb in the Chambliss ’76 pennant game…
Stylish lefty. I remember him on the Orioles.
You won’t find that tidbit in any obituary…
Grant Jackson won game 7 in the W/S in relief with help from Kent Tekulve against the Orioles in 79.
Said it was his greatest moment in baseball!!
RIP Grant
Rob Manfred is about as popular in baseball then Patrick Reed is in golf !
2 scumbags that are never accountable for they’re actions..
Scumbags.are icing on toppa the cake these days. For decades now, instead of the cream rising to the top, its the scum…and I’m not just talking baseball and golf. The cake itself is largely populated by incompetents.
The bureaucracy masks itself behind automated answering systems and other foils. Try dealing with Social Security.That system cost me a couple hours today with no resolution in sight. To the bureaucrats, particularly those in administrative seats, your time is worth nothing and they always have better things to do, so you automatically simmer on hold. Such a world. Oy and Vey.
See my 9:27 AM, Stix…
Didn’t know this– he went to Bowling Green, same place as Nate Thurmond. Also Howard Komives.
Speaking of hockey, should Brady win SB #7 that puts him in category of very few with 7 titles and 2 MVPs. ESPN ran something on bottom line the other day about this; names I saw included Bill Russell and Jean Beliveau…not sure who else
Yogi for sure…
and Mantle, right?
Yes, had to double check…
Damn, effed up again.
Rizzuto also got 7.
But not 2 MVPs, Mac…
Expanded playoffs ok by me. Baseball too beholden to tradition. Being in the playoff race made last year interesting till the last day. I want that.
No one complains that 1/2 the teams make it in NFL and NBA. More teams in the race means more engaged fans. The day the Giants are out of it ( mid season in 17, 18,19), the end of the year sucked!
A lot of things are too beholden to tradition.
I was done with Thanksgiving by 1970…
Ah, tradition. Currently in the traditional lead-up to lunar new year here (Tet in Vietnam, Spring Festival in China), something that is both wonderful for its migrations to the countryside, family gatherings, eating and drinking way too much for 2 weeks, etc, and also horrible for its migrations to the countryside, family gatherings, eating and drinking way too much… No question that lunar new year happening last year right as Corona was exploding in China worsened that situation. This year, Tet starts next week following last week’s new Corona blow-up in the north, effectively meaning that some families will be isolated at home this year. China realized years ago that the big migration for Spring Festival was kind of stupid and very problematic, so they tried altering things a little to make it less “important”, such as adding a string of more, smaller holidays throughout the year so *everyone* wasn’t traveling at the same time, but that didn’t really work. Can’t change some tradition. I’m staying home in Saigon this year, no need to travel. The city kind of shuts down, the only time of year it’s actually somewhat quiet… Except for Corona lockdowns. Yeah. That was quiet too. ………
Tragic snow-shoveling story in the news:
“Three people, including the shooter, are dead after a dispute over snow shoveling in Plains, Pennsylvania, outside Wilkes-Barre on Monday, Plains Township Police Chief Dale Binker told CNN on Tuesday.
At around 9 a.m. Monday, the shooter, Jeffrey Spaide, got into an argument with James and Lisa Goy, who lived across the street, while shoveling snow from his driveway, a release from the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office said.
The Goys were shoveling snow from their parking spots across the street onto Spaide’s property, the release said. Spaide asked them to stop and the argument escalated quickly.
As they argued, the release says Spaide went into his house, retrieved a handgun, and came back outside firing multiple shots “at close range” at the Goys. He then went back into his house, pulled out an AR-style rifle, and fired at the injured Goys, “executing them,” Binker said.
Binker told CNN this was not the first disagreement between Spaide and the Goys over snow this year. Two months ago, another snowstorm also led to an altercation between them, he said, though police were not notified of that dispute and said Spaide was not known to police for any other matter.
Police arrived soon after the Goys were shot, and as they approached, heard a single gunshot coming from Spaide’s house, which they believe was the self-inflicted shot that killed him, Binker said.”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/7065460f6257c7a8e868ba74a00d8091/tumblr_p07cop86j41rzbj5mo8_250.gifv
Tragedy. But there’s no excuse for the wacko with the “AR style” rifle failing to have in his ordnance one of those snowmelting blowtorches. If he’d been using THAT on his driveway, the neighbors never would’ve tossed snow at him.
Apropos of nothing: Mac, is Taylor Pork Roll still big in NJ? Don’t know why, but suddenly I’m craving some for lunch…..
Hell yeah!
Pork roll — or Taylor Ham — egg and cheese, that always hits the spot.
Ah, good to hear. Even as a kid, loved slicing some up, quick frying it in melted butter in a skillet, then slathering it with mustard on toast. Egg and cheese, even better, though I remember ketchup was my condiment of choice in that case…. 🙂
Growing up in Joisey, we had quite the trifecta of amazing sandwiches. Philly had the cheesesteak, Jersey had Taylor pork roll, and NY had the deli’s…. mm mm good. Often ventured into NY just to go to Barney Greengrass the Sturgeon King, tasty stuff….