MLB 2023

[brettac1]

I used Pedro for sure.

Was 8/9 on baseball but Immaculate on NBA, at least.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I have to say I'm pretty darned impressed that you guys can go for rarity on this stuff. There may have been a time that I had the range & depth to do that, but right now, I'd settle for any correct answer and even that's no sure thing (which is why I haven't been playing). It turns out that trivia (or detailed information if you prefer) is like anything else: use it or lose it.

Today the Toy Cannon once again saves the day by filling a square, & with a rarity score of .1% to boot

9/9 rarity score an unimpressive 128

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I gifted this so should be no paywall issues for non-subscribers

https://wapo.st/44PWMn6

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

9/9 today with rarity of 73. Not the hardest grid by any stretch. Surprised that my two HOF picks came in at only 12% & 17% while my highest, 22%, is a much more recent player who probably has little-to-no chance at Cooperstown. Recency bias is strong in the Grid

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Another pretty easy grid. Given today’s content very interested to see the rarity score for others. I was 9/9 with 103

[Zip City]

I fucked it up and only got 5/9

[Zip City]

If you want a second option (with some pretty fun categories), you can also play: https://www.crossovergrid.com/mlb

[Mundane Mayhem]

That Orioles-Rays game today was something else. Getting ready to hop on the Orioles bandwagon in October.

As for the team I actually root for, I’m heading to Detroit the last weekend of the season to send Miggy off into his retirement and thank him for the memories. Should be a fun time.

[beantownbubba]

That Orioles-Rays game today was something else. Getting ready to hop on the Orioles bandwagon in October.

As for the team I actually root for, I’m heading to Detroit the last weekend of the season to send Miggy off into his retirement and thank him for the memories. Should be a fun time.

Sounds like a time. In his lengthy prime he was unbelievable. Don't know much about him, but damn he could hit a baseball.

[brettac1]

That Orioles-Rays game today was something else. Getting ready to hop on the Orioles bandwagon in October.

As for the team I actually root for, I’m heading to Detroit the last weekend of the season to send Miggy off into his retirement and thank him for the memories. Should be a fun time.

Was at Comerica for the first time in August. Nice ballpark. Unfortunately Miggy had the day off, though I did get to see him a couple times in MKE when he was a 19 year-old.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[beantownbubba]

With the end of the season fast approaching (some might say not fast enough), some milestones have or will be hit. A couple of notables:

Adam Wainwright won his 200th game. Glad to hear that; he's had his struggles in his later years but his best years were pretty great. And a .610 career winning percentage is nothing to sneeze at.

Ronald Acuna Jr is having a pretty amazing season and will probably hit 40 HR w/ 60 or even 70 stolen bases. Remember when 40/40 was a thing? And presumably w/out steroids, too. Plus he's already over 200 hits and has more runs than i can count. He will presumably beat out Mookie Betts for MVP. Too bad for Mookie, but the kid can't be denied.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Today I believe I have painted my masterpiece. 9/9 with rarity score of 28! That beats my previous best rarity by at least 20 points.

I should probably roll the credits…

[beantownbubba]

As if he wasn't already known as a huge asshole, Curt Schilling announced on his podcast that both Tim Wakefield and his wife Stacey are battling cancer, information which had, until that moment, been kept private and confidential. Way to go, Curt!

[beantownbubba]

I'm surprised by the lack of love for Brooks Robinson. He was a fixture on those great O's teams of the 60's and early 70's and a joy to watch. RIP to one of the all-time greats.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Painted my masterpiece on today’s Immaculate Grid- 9/9, rarity score of 17

Time to roll the credits

[beantownbubba]

^^^ Congrats on the masterpiece, WWCD.

So, what do we think about the MLB playoffs? Is it good/exciting that three 100 win teams are out, or does it just show that the regular season is meaningless/the playoffs are badly structured?

OTOH, one might say that the O's outperformed all season and while they aren't 3 and out bad, they did come back closer to their base line. And IIRC back to April, which I'm not sure I do, didn't the Phillies mostly underperform this season, also getting closer to their true baseline in the playoffs?

I personally don't know what to make of it but I'm disappointed that Mookie went out so quietly and it would have been great to see Acuna on the biggest stages. But then again, I could say that about Ohtani and Trout

[Clams]

And IIRC back to April, which I'm not sure I do, didn't the Phillies mostly underperform this season, also getting closer to their true baseline in the playoffs?

The Phils underperformed in April and May. From around mid June on, they played at a 100 win pace. There's no question, in my mind anyway, that they deserve to be where they are. Really looking fwd to the NLCS.

[brettac1]

The baseball playoffs have pretty much always had this "issue." It's just been magnified by the three-game series. The point is to crown a champion, not to determine who the best team is. If that was the goal, the original playoff format is the best but that's never coming back. A lot of people don't realize how small of a sample a 3/5/7 game series is and how much variance there is in baseball in general. It is what it is.

[Zip City]

The baseball playoffs have pretty much always had this "issue." It's just been magnified by the three-game series. The point is to crown a champion, not to determine who the best team is. If that was the goal, the original playoff format is the best but that's never coming back. A lot of people don't realize how small of a sample a 3/5/7 game series is and how much variance there is in baseball in general. It is what it is.

Correct. If you wanted the champ to be the best team, you would simply hand the trophy to the team with the best record (a la Premier League)

[beantownbubba]

The baseball playoffs have pretty much always had this "issue." It's just been magnified by the three-game series. The point is to crown a champion, not to determine who the best team is. If that was the goal, the original playoff format is the best but that's never coming back. A lot of people don't realize how small of a sample a 3/5/7 game series is and how much variance there is in baseball in general. It is what it is.

Correct. If you wanted the champ to be the best team, you would simply hand the trophy to the team with the best record (a la Premier League)

I'm not so sure. Clearly correct that one solution is to give the trophy to the team that finishes first at the end of the season but isn't it equally consistent with "let's crown a champion, not determine who's best" theory to pick the playoff participants randomly out of a hat? So that theoretically only the worst teams might be participating? Is that a good way to determine a champion? Any system is going to have weaknesses (and the college football playoffs continuing search for a legit playoff format is further evidence of that) but I don't think the "crown a champion" theory solves any of them. It seems to me that at most, it would be justification for a smaller pool of playoff teams with the best records, but it's being used here to support, if not quite the opposite, something quite different. To me the questions of the best theory and the best structure remain very open.

[Clams]

[beantownbubba]

Didn't that guy Harper have Tommy John surgery, like, a few weeks ago? Still astonishing.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[brettac1]

This is my oldest World Series memory.

[beantownbubba]

While not the point of the post, it's also true that as of today, October 17, this year's World Series is still TEN days from STARTING and 13 days from reaching the third game and the schedule would put a seventh game well into November.

[brettac1]

I'm surprised by the lack of love for Brooks Robinson. He was a fixture on those great O's teams of the 60's and early 70's and a joy to watch. RIP to one of the all-time greats.

I've been on a kick of falling asleep listening to radio broadcasts of old games lately. On the '70 World Series at the moment. Possibly his crowning achievement.

[tinnitus photography]

This is my oldest World Series memory.

mine is watching Yaz pop up to end the '75 series against the Reds.

[beantownbubba]

I'm surprised by the lack of love for Brooks Robinson. He was a fixture on those great O's teams of the 60's and early 70's and a joy to watch. RIP to one of the all-time greats.

I've been on a kick of falling asleep listening to radio broadcasts of old games lately. On the '70 World Series at the moment. Possibly his crowning achievement.

I can't say I'm expert on Brooks's career but can there be any doubt about the '70 Series being his crowning achievement?

A sentence I have never seen before and doubt I'll see again : "I've been on a kick of falling asleep listening to radio broadcasts of old games lately."

[jr29]

This is my oldest World Series memory.

Mine too. I actually have a couple memories of the 1987 season, but none from the WS. None from 1988.
But I vividly remember being at my grandparent's house, watching that game, and being confused.

Brooks Robinson was one of those Stan Musial types. Great, great player who seemed to be a great person as well. I was fascinated by him when I was a kid and a lot of it was because he was the "The Human Vacuum Cleaner". This was pre-internet and I lived in rural Tennessee so actually seeing video of him playing was almost nonexistent. Add the nickname to the mystique and he was a bit of a superhero to me.
He was also from Arkansas and I think that's cool because I think Arkansas is cool.