From The Sports Desk

[Sancho]

I could stand to learn a little more Japanese. I’ve going there recently. I only know a handful of words, but I use all of them with every local I meet:

Hai - uh-huh
Eeie - uh-uh
Konichiwa - howdy
Sayonara - adios
Kudasai - please
Arigato - thanks
Domo arigato - sank you betty mush
Arigato guzaimasu - Is that what I ordered? (It’s actually for when somebody gives you something)
Moshi-moshi - for answering the phone if you want the person on the other end of line to fire off a bunch of words at you that you don’t understand

[bounty]

every so often something will show up on my feed/menus that point out cultural differences between japan and the usa. its interesting.

meanwhile, Mathieu van der poel just won paris-Roubaix in mind boggling fashion. he just rode away from everyone else with about 60km to go, won by almost 3 minutes, and with an average speed of 29.6 mph for close to 5 1/2 hours of racing.

I can say it again, he's an absolute beast.

[Sancho]

Agreed. I caught a little of the Paris - Roubaix this morning.

[bounty]

attached a couple of fun screen shots from the viewing, and one bonus photo...

[bounty]

a bad throw, but none the less beautiful

https://twitter.com/i/status/1777784096778768575

[tailor STATELY]

Bitter sweet...

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

Almost forgot a doggerel poem I wrote some time ago (20+ years???) where Tim Wakefield was one of the center pieces:

The Curse, revisited... 2003

The Rocket against Pedro... Game 7... ALCS!
The New York Yankees at home against Boston's Bosox...
Another classic... what else would you guess ?

But The Rocket was chased, and by the 4th he was gone
Hindered by home runs, one by Millar and two by Trot Nixon
Clemens head down, through the tunnel... a walk too long

Though Jason Giambi was demoted, rightly so, to 7th in order at bat
With two mighty launches of the ball in the 5th and 7th inning
the comeback was alive ! In their seats Bosox fans just sat

Score 5 to 2, bottom of the 8th... Boston leading the Yanks
Jeter doubles to start the rally, then Williams and Matsui get hits
Jorge Posada doubles to clean up, score now 5 to 5, and Torre gives thanks

While the Bronx Bombers chip away, their bullpen, in the past, a disgrace
send a parade of pitchers their way to the mound... biding time
... setting up for Mariano Rivera... their prolific reliever ace

The Bosox boys are now baffled, their swings most untoward
Mariano goes three long masterful innings of relief blanking Boston
His series heroics to soon win him the coveted ALCS MVP award

It's now the 11th, Wakefield's pitching mastery of the Yanks has been most hot
but New York's Aaron Boone swings at Wakefield's first offering...
Jim Bouton might have said: A knuckle-ball's fickle... a walk-off home run is not !!!

There's no joy tonight in Beantown... yes, that's a given
"The ghosts will show up eventually" Jeter confided to Boone
Again... the Mighty Bambino, curse invoked, has arisen

10/16/2003

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[bounty]

tailor, you are a regular ernest Lawrence Thayer!

poor tim wakefield!

[tailor STATELY]

The poet Thayer's poem ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat ) is of course my inspiration as I watched the game on the telly ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ-Z_X3QBYY )and wrote... funny, I'd have to pay to see a game on the telly nowadays. The most egregious "steal" is my line "There's no joy tonight in Beantown... yes, that's a given" as opposed to "but there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out." Ironic in my poem that arguably one of the greatest home run hitters in history was the subject of the "curse".

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[bounty]

have you read any of the sequels to "casey" tailor?

here---see if something here might work for you:

https://sportsurge.club/

I was able to make "hqlive" work.

[tailor STATELY]

Maybe; I think so... I'll have to research.

I'll have to check it out... if my bandwidth will allow.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

[Sancho]

I found this from The Atlantic. It’s concerning the physiological limitations of the human body and the demands for ever more speed in major league baseball:

Arms Are Flying Off Their Hinges
Baseball is stuck in a velocity trap.
By Devin Gordon

The ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL, is a triangular set of bundles in the human elbow that looks like three crisscrossing strips of bacon—a marvel of physiology that functions as the crucial hinge between the humerus, in the upper arm, and the ulna, in the forearm. But as Jeff Passan memorably describes it in his 2016 book, The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, the UCL is also “a finicky little bastard, ill-equipped to stand up long-term to the single fastest movement the body can generate: the throwing motion.” A pitcher’s arm whips through the air “30 times faster than an eyeblink,” he writes, and all of that power and torque gathers in the elbow, leaving the UCL “screaming for mercy.”

Sandy Koufax, the great pitcher for the Dodgers, famously quit baseball at a time when he seemed to be at the peak of career (1966). He said:

I've got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with the complete use of my body. I don't regret one minute of the last twelve years, but I think I would regret one year that was too many.

Smart man.

Speaking of the Dodgers, did anyone catch their game yesterday with the Padres? I gotta say the highlight of the game was fan moment. Padres third baseman Manny Machado hits a solo homer in the 4th, which is caught by a Dodgers fan in the stands. It’s considered poor taste to keep a home-run ball hit by the opposing team for a Dodgers fan. But, you know, hmm, the guy really wanted that ball, so he pulls a decoy ball out of his jacket pocket and tosses it back out on to the field while concealing the real ball in his glove. Bah-hahahah! Tricked the fans, not the replay camera:

https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-fan..._article-share

[Sancho]

Also, bounty, bah-hahahaha,
I gotta get one of those bed covers!