Spikeball sucks the fun out of everything

After being out sick for must of my scheduled umpiring last week and working sick for the rest, the other night I was back on the field in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for what turned out to be an exceptionally good shift of games. Now, was it really so much better than my average umpire shift is? Perhaps not; I may have just felt that way because the previous time I was out there I was getting by with the aid of cold meds and barely able to stand up by the time the shift was over. Regardless, I had a good time out there and I daresay the players all did too.

But anytime I'm umping at Cap Hill, there are problems. This time, thankfully, it wasn't the soccer hooligans; the soccer guys actually volunteered to move out of the way ahead of my asking them to, a first and possibly a unique event in the annals of time for all of history. No, this week's Cap Hill shenanigans centered around two groups of people: the completely wasted tribe of eight or ten folks in deep left field that didn't even react when they were hit with a fly ball and some of whom were riding this giant spool like they were in a log roll or something and not caring when the giant spool became an interference object for would-be extra-base hits; and the perpetrators of a half-dozen or so games of spikeball being played in deep right field.

I don't understand spikeball, I had to even ask what it was called, but I do know that even though spikeball players think they're only using a small confined space, that changes every time their ball bounces off their little trampoline into our field of play. Which, it turns out, is pretty often. So there were a lot of instances of me halting a pitcher in mid-motion, calling time out between pitches, that sort of thing, when an errant ball and/or a person chasing it got in the way.

As I said, this was otherwise a really good evening out there, the prime reason for which was all the players were in great moods and were jovial and laughing and having a good time among their own teams and bantering with their opponents, just a fun tenor that usually is ... more subdued, I guess?  Anyway, one of these banterings was in progress when I had to call time out again, and the catcher—one of my favorite players in the league, I always enjoy when she catches—said unprompted, "Spikeball sucks the fun out of everything."

It was just a throwaway line, said in jest but kind of a ha-ha-then-we-move-on comment, but for some reason in the moment it just ticked us. The line itself became kind of fun, thus rendering it its own oxymoron, but we had plenty of opportunity to repeat it as the night wore on.

I'm next on the field on Sunday at Green Lake, which I'm not looking forward to as much because it's a five-gamer. Those are only fun for, say, three-and-a-half games, then they're in the category of can-this-be-over-now-no-there's-more-oh-crap.

 

Tagged Umping, Softball, Posted on April 24, 2025 at 11:35PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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野球を見ます

As mentioned the other day, I've been under the weather for a while. Today was the first day in over a week that I've felt relatively normal, that after losing most of yesterday to sleep. I mean, I know I'm wont to stay up late and sleep late, but going to bed at 1:00am and sleeping until 5:00pm is a bit much even for me. I guess I needed it, though "sleep-deprived" is not something I'd ever claim to be these days. It's likely that I set my fight against this whatever virus back a ways by trying to work three games Monday night.

Anyway, the upshot of that for these purposes is that I've spent even more time than usual watching TV. Handmaid's Tale is back, Black Mirror did a follow-up to their great USS Callister episode, and I'm going to do a whole post on Daredevil: Born Again at some point. But mostly it's been more Japanese shows and, of course, baseball. (Hence the title above.)

Before getting to my early-season take on Your Seattle Mariners, a few random observations from around MLB:

• Jon Miller is the best. When you're feeling listless and doped up on NyQuil and just want to escape into a ballfield, I recommend tuning into a San Francisco Giants game. Giants play-by-play man Miller makes even the dullest game interesting and enjoyable. I had the Giants-Yankees game on the other day when it was pouring rain at Yankee Stadium and the Giants were winning handily, but Miller gave us drama by creating tension around the rain and whether the game would get enough innings to be official before the umpires stopped play. Doesn't really matter what the circumstance, Jon Miller is the best in the business in the post-Vin Scully broadcaster world.
• When watching games I like to sample the various teams' broadcasters, but now that many of the teams that used to be on the now-defunct Diamond Sports Group cable stations are on the now-rebranded FanDuel networks, it isn't worth it. I'd like to check out the Cincinnati Reds' announcers, but when the on-screen graphics are inundating us with gambling odds and prompts to throw away your money on bets I'll take any other option, even if it's Joe Buck and drunk Harry Caray.
• How have the Dodgers lost six games? They're on a pace to end the year with a record of 113-49, a whole three wins shy of the big-league record for victories in a season. I mean, I thought they were supposed to be good. (That was sarcasm, for those who missed it.)
• How have the White Sox won four games? Yeah, sure, they're still on a pace to lose more games than they did in their record-breaking 2024 campaign, but come on, the Rockies are outdoing you guys for futility! Where's that Chicago pride? (Only some sarcasm there.)
• Those same Colorado Rockies have a run differential of -51, and they've only played six games so far at altitude. The White Sox are really going to have to work hard to repeat as worst of the worst.

OK, the M's. At this moment, the Mariners are 10-9 after taking two of three in Cincinnati (and doing it in very entertaining fashion, at that). They may have started out in the first week looking like the 2023-early 2024 version of the Mariners, but maybe we can chalk that up to rust in the opening week. March is too early to start the season anyway, right?

It's still super early and no definitive conclusions can be reached yet, but new manager Dan Wilson has changed the character of this team and I am here for it, y'all. This bunch still clouts homers, yes, but the home runs are coming incidentally—I'm not seeing anyone step into the box looking to hit one out, I'm not seeing the Joaquin Andujar school of hitting ("swing hard in case you hit it") from them anymore. I see guys going with the pitch, using the opposite field, taking their walks, making productive outs. It's so refreshing after years and years of Scott Servais-led lineups going for optimal "launch angles" and crap like that.

I'm also seeing small ball when it makes sense. The M's have more sacrifice bunts three weeks into the season than I'd bet they had in an entire Scott Servais year (pause while I check that on baseball-reference ... almost: in 2023 the M's had four successful sac bunts, the same number they have so far in 2025). And my favorite thing, Dan Wilson has a running game.

The Seattle Mariners are second only to the Chicago Cubs in stolen bases thus far this year, and that's because the Cubs have played three more games. By steals per game, the M's lead the big leagues! This time last year, only two Mariners, Dylan Moore and Julio Rodríguez, had any stolen bases. This year almost everyone has one, even the catchers have four between them. The M's are on pace to steal 264 bags as a team for the year. They're a long way from being my 1985 Cardinals (that team had 314, with three guys combining for 200 bags all by themselves), but by modern standards this is awesome.

The ’25 Mariners are fun, even when they lose, because they're never out of it. The only game they've played so far that was a snoozer happens to be the only one I've been to in person, game two of the season, which they dropped 7-0. Otherwise, it's been exciting. The starting pitchers continue to be terrific, Luis M. Castillo's bad inning the other day notwithstanding, and Dan's making things happen at bat. It's only the bullpen that seems shaky: The middle relievers have been pretty sad, save for Principal Snider and maybe Gabe Speier. We've already had increasing traffic on the Tacoma Shuttle and there figures to be a lot more as more relievers get tried out. That worries me more than the low batting averages do; the averages will tick up, particularly for Julio, Luke Raley, and Randy Arozarena. Arozarena especially looks like a new man in the early season, that .212 average is not telling the story.

It's a good year for the M's to be fun. We need something to balance out the nightmare of the rest of the news.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on April 17, 2025 at 11:26PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Life problems on the micro and macro scales

I spent much of the past week feeling sick. I mean that in a literal, there-were-germs-and-a-rhinovirus-involved kind of sick, not in a I'm-nauseated-by-our-fascist-convicted-felon-president kind of sick, although that type is ever-present these days.

This may or may not have something to do with my umpiring 6½ hours in steady rain a week ago Sunday. Can't say, really. But it was the sort of thing that is mostly annoying, saps your energy and fills your head with copious amounts of mucus. Not that big a deal, though it did force me to bail on more than a couple hundred dollars' worth of ump shifts over the weekend. I was listed as day-to-day, as it were, on the ump's injured list, but I thought I was OK to go last night so I reported to the field for three games at Capitol Hill.

Probably not a good idea. I mean, I got through it and wasn't any worse for wear, but I was seriously off my game. A congested, foggy-headed, cold-medicine-addled, slow-witted umpire is not exactly the ideal circumstance. It was a playoff night, too, so everyone except me was extra-amped up, and all three games were close, I couldn't even just coast through a blowout.

One team, the oh-so-cleverly named Sons of Pitches, was quite pissed with me after their game, as three bang-bang calls went against them, including one that ended the game. Not only were some of them yelling at me directly, but I overheard their captain and others badmouthing me in the dugout, and you know, (a) I had zero patience for any of that last night, but (b) they might well have a real beef, because aside from the last one (which I have no doubts about) I have no idea if those close calls were correct or not. Honestly, I didn't even see one of them, I was out of position and looking into the setting sun. Usually, if I blow a call or am even unsure of it, I'll own it on the spot. I'll even ask players what their view was. Nine times out of ten there's no going back on it, but I feel like it's better for everyone if we just say, "yup, that was a brain fart, let's do better" and move on. But I wasn't having any of that yesterday, all I wanted to do was get through the damn shift. SoPs was the only one of the six teams I had last night that didn't know me very well; I'd done maybe two games with them before, whereas everyone else has been around for years and I'm on a first-name basis with half of each squad and they all cut me a little slack. Oh well, I can live with not being one team's favorite umpire.

The other two games were without any acrimony, but they dragged on and I was completely gassed by the time we finally wrapped up about 25 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, when I got home my neighbor Sean offered me a late-night homemade mac-and-cheese dinner that I didn't have to prepare myself, which lifted my spirits a bit. Thanks, Sean!

I'd have been better off trying to negotiate a trade of last night for tonight or tomorrow's shift, but as we say on Earth, c'est la vie.

 

Meanwhile, in the greater world, POTUS47 and the White House staff are now lying through their teeth about Supreme Court rulings while defying judges and going full-on fascist and yet Republicans in Congress remain silent feckless toadies when they could end this nightmare right now.

Nazi Stephen Miller, who if you can believe it is the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy—he's the Josh Lyman of this group of totalitarian fuckers—was both caught on mic in the Oval Office and deliberately went on television to say the the Supreme Court's 9-0 ruling affirming a lower court's order that the administration must facilitate and effectuate the return of the mistakenly-deported Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, from the El Salvadoran gulag DHS and ICE abducted him to, was actually a 9-0 ruling that no judge can tell the administration to do anything about Mr. Abrego Garcia. Pure fiction, 180 degrees—well, thanks to John Roberts and his predilection for obfuscation, say 170 degrees—from the truth, and for good measure also claimed that when several officials admitted that Abrego Garcia was deported by mistake that those officials were the ones in error and Abrego Garcia was picked up intentionally! If anything, that would make this whole matter even worse, as Abrego Garcia had a prior court order in good standing specifying he could not be sent to El Salvador as that was the country he was seeking asylum from, meaning if we take Miller at his word (as if) then the administration is willfully defying a wholly different court order in addition to the one he is lying about the contents of.

It irks me greatly that this malevolent speck of a man, this evil creature, has the same name as one of my friends from high school, but what can you do. The guy's name is the least of his problems.

The regime has made it clear yesterday and today that it has no intention of complying with the court's order to retrieve Mr. Abrego Garcia and even intends to widen the net of DHS abductions, with President Convicted Felon telling the El Salvadoran dictator that he needs to build more gulags for all the "criminals" he intends to send there.

The entire White House communications apparatus—or, perhaps more appropriately, the propaganda division—has been twisting the words that Roberts added into the Court's ruling away from their obvious meaning and into a pretzel that claims they mean something completely different. "Facilitate" simply means, according to the White House, an update to immigration status. Roberts included other language—"The intended scope of the term 'effectuate' in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs"—that has been seized upon by Miller and the rest of the White House fascist regime to mean whatever they want it to mean, that "deference" is functionally the same as "absolute deference" and that "may exceed" is the same as "massive overreach," not to mention that the word "effectuate" is not at all in need of clarification. What John Roberts did there is find a way that he could throw the regime a bone while still not completely blowing up his credibility as an adherent to the Constitution.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor felt the need to append Roberts' order with her own statement that lays out the egregiousness of this case. Her statement reads, in part:

The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.... Because every factor governing requests for equitable relief manifestly weighs against the Government, I would have declined to intervene in this litigation and denied the application in full. Nevertheless, I agree with the Court’s order that the proper remedy is to provide Abrego Garcia with all the process to which he would have been entitled had he not been unlawfully removed to El Salvador. That means the Government must comply with its obligation to provide Abrego Garcia with “due process of law,” including notice and an opportunity to be heard, in any future proceedings. It must also comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture. ... In the proceedings on remand, the District Court should continue to ensure that the Government lives up to its obligations to follow the law.

It's that first line that should make every Congressperson call for immediate impeachment of POTUS47 right this second. "The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene." The White House's statements and inactions since this ruling make clear that it is no mere implication, that is precisely what this regime wants to do.

Tagged Softball, Umping, Politics, President VonClownstick, Posted on April 15, 2025 at 6:04PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Free radicals

I've been having a pretty good week, which is unusual for post-January 20, 2025. I think the huge turnout at the protests last Saturday (I went to a small suburban one for a short while) and the apparent impact they're having in DC has helped a lot, and my general attitude has been more free and easy, as it were.

I'm also buoyed somewhat by the actual good-if-not-ideal news out of the Roberts Court today—the ruling that Secretary Noem, DHS, and ICE must "facilitate the release" of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the El Salvadoran torture prison he was rendered to by ICE without even the patina of due process of law. It remains to be seen if President Convicted Felon's regime will obey that court order, which has to go back to the originating court for "clarification" of the term "effectuate," as that court's order called on the government to "facilitate and effectuate" Garcia's release and return to the United States. That seems like a stupid delay tactic on Roberts' part, but fine, OK.

This should have been a foregone conclusion, but then it also should have been so obvious a call that the Supreme Court should have opted to not even hear the argument and say the prior order stands well and good. It's also on the heels of Roberts and company declaring that class actions against ICE for their illegal and extrajudicial kidnappings of people off the street are not allowed and that each of the kidnappees can have their due process only if they each get a lawyer (from detention/foreign prison?!) and file a habeus petition within the local jurisdiction that they were abducted in. So you can't predict how far the Roberts Court will go to protect the man they already granted immunity for "official acts" or criminality and his staff of thugs and goons.

Anyway, I bring up the Garcia case mostly because I kind of hope my uncle is reading this. You may have noticed that he left a comment on my post about the Dodgers tarnishing their reputation by visiting the White House.

Bob, I know that your comment was at least partly tongue-in-cheek, and I do take it in that fashion (though it's often difficult to parse MAGA attempts at humor, there's always an element of cruelty in them) but really, man, I do hope you poke your head up from the right-wing propaganda bubble and see what's really going on every now and then.

Anyone who thinks opposing this POTUS47 regime is something "radical" needs a remedial vocabulary lesson:

Radical (rad•i•cal): A person advocating thorough or complete political or social reform; a member of a political party or bloc that pursues such aims.

We are living under a regime now that is literally criminal. The president himself is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and fraudster, has admitted to being a tax cheat, has gotten away with violations of the espionage act only because he has a corrupt Florida judge in his pocket, has a history—which may well include this week—of securities fraud, and uses extortion as a primary means of "negotiating." His cabinet of corrupt incompetents is also a mass of humanity steeped in moral, ethical, and intellectual deficiencies.

And that's just the criminal aspect. Then there's the un-American aspect. The despotic aspect. 

The Department of Justice is being reorganized to be, essentially, a base for the Joker's henchmen to operate from. Congress is a thing to be circumvented. Treaties are for suckers.

In a mere three months—not even, in fact—this criminal regime has not only done the typical Republican stuff of trying to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and make middle-class and poor folks pay more taxes so the filthy rich can hoard more money; demonizing immigrants and making policy based in racism and misogyny; and rhapsodizing about how government is by its nature bad. They've also gone out of their way to decimate public health infrastructure—on the heels of a global pandemic!!—and utterly destroy the United States' standing and reputation in the world, alienating (former?) allies and perhaps intentionally wrecking the global economy. 

All of it—ALL OF IT—illegally.

On this matter in isolation, my position is conservative while the regime's position—and that of the Republican party writ large, at least so far—is radical. A radical attempt to fundamentally alter the nature of the United States, to take it from a representative democracy revering freedom and the rule of law to an autocratic dictatorship ruled by a small cadre of oligarchs and the whims of one idiotic pathological liar.

I support retaining the societal adherence to equal justice under the law and the protections of the U.S. Constitution. The regime supports decimating the rule of law and trampling the Constitution.

There are other areas where you might call me radical, depending on your interpretation of normal. For instance, I support national health insurance (e.g. Medicare for All), strict gun control measures, a return to an 80+% marginal tax rate, and substantial reforms to our election laws that ban the unfettered influence corporate wealth. Personally, I think that's pretty mainstream and I think polling would back me up, but I can see were even a 20th-century version of a rightward Republican would consider those things somewhat radical. But none of those things defy the basic tenets of American society. President Convicted Felon's regime defies those tenets multiple times every day.

Regarding the Dodgers and their contributions to normalizing this in-progress fascist takeover, I can make some allowances for many of the guys that made the trip. Because (a) they are largely quite young men, (b) living the lives of professional athletes and thus paying scant if any attention to any news outside the sports press, and (c) the duration thus far of this administration has been while they were busy with Spring Training and concerned about making the team and traveling to Tokyo. Plus, (d) they travel in their own bubble of protection and do not have to worry about the harassment and other dangers the general public—especially brown-skinned and non-English speaking members of the public, like many of the Dodgers—does now when traveling in this country. So there is an ignorance that can be assumed. Non-players, though, should know better. Including manager Dave Roberts, who has studied history and is smarter than this. Owner Fred Wilpon is filthy rich and probably hasn't figured out yet that the leopards will eventually eat his face too, but there are plenty of people involved in the decision to go to the White House and shake the hand of the man who let Los Angeles burn not so long ago and who would happily rendition a bunch of them to a Salvadoran gulag who knew better.

Opposing this regime is not radical. It's at its core what this country was founded upon.

Tagged Politics, Baseball, President VonClownstick, Posted on April 10, 2025 at 11:58PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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The Dodgers trash their image as the country descends into chaos

A disgusting image of Clayton Kershaw (left) and Dodger owner Fred Wilpon flanking the most dangerous person in the world and having a blast doing it

The Los Angeles nee Brooklyn Dodgers are a revered franchise in professional sports in no small part because of their association with civil rights. By adding Jackie Robinson to their team in 1947, the Dodgers gave a metaphorical middle finger to the racist mores of the day and began integrating Major League Baseball, and for that the organization deserves accolades. Yesterday, however, the Dodgers spat on that reputation and honorable history by visiting the White House and allowing themselves to be used as propaganda by a hateful fascist white supremacist who likely thinks Dodger manager Dave Roberts doesn't deserve his job and was merely a "DEI hire."

This shameful decision made by the Dodgers not only angers their fan base and brands the team with a staggering hypocrisy, it was also a big swing and a miss on an opportunity to solidify their previous reputation and reach out to new fans and tie "America's pastime" to American idealism.

Imagine if, instead of doing the customary thing of accepting the invitation traditionally given by the White House to the prior year's World Series winners, the Dodgers respectfully declined but then used the time to record a short video of the team visiting other significances in DC.

Picture the video: Members of the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in front of the White House, with someone—Roberts or Mookie Betts or Tyler Glasnow or whomever—talking to the camera. "We're here at the White House in Washington, DC. We were invited to visit the president, but instead we're choosing to visit some of the things that actually make America great."

The camera then follows the team around, maybe on one of those open-air tour buses, to the Lincoln Memorial, where we see Betts or Teoscar Hernández reading aloud from the emancipation proclamation engraved there. Other players are seen paying their respects to relatives whose names are on the Vietnam and/or Korean war memorials. A stop at the Capitol building with a brief conversation between a Dodger or three and maybe Senator Adam Schiff or Congressman Jimmy Gomez or Ted Lieu who explain the separation of powers and how they represent the Los Angeles area. Maybe Roberts and some players stroll through the FDR memorial while Roberts talks of his mixed African-American/Japanese parentage and how his existence is a consequence of FDR (and then Truman) winning World War II and that base where his parents met existing in Okinawa. Some other Dodgers recount some personal/family history at the MLK memorial.

We see Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández and Shohei in the Museum of American History checking out the baseball exhibit and maybe the presidential timeline. A scene with Betts at the African-American History museum. Arlington National Cemetery, maybe the JFK grave; the U.S. Mint, where the players can joke about their contracts; a humorous drive-by of the Watergate hotel; a stop at the steps of the Supreme Court, maybe the Dodger manager makes an offhand remark about how sometimes it sucks to have the same surname as someone else; and a stop at the National Archives—while at the White House, Roberts commented that he was thrilled to get a photo in front of the Declaration of Independence; how much better an image would it be for Max Muncy to show the founding documents to Yoshi Yamamoto and Miguel Rojas but apologize about not being able to see the Declaration of Independence because it's no longer available for public viewing since President Convicted Felon had it moved to the Oval Office because reasons.

Cap it off with the team arriving at Nationals Park for their series against the Nationals and someone else—Clayton Kershaw, Will Smith, maybe Shohei if his English can handle it—summing up the experience with a bit of patriotism and recounting what really makes America great: governance of, by, and for the people, where everyone is equal under the law and all have freedoms under the Constitution. "It's why we can all be here, enjoying baseball together in a free country."

You wouldn't have to even mention POTUS47 if you wanted to avoid "controversy," though I think a brief note that the White House invitation was declined because of who currently lives there and the note about the Declaration of Independence are warranted. Noting at the outset that the team chose to do the video rather than the White House visit might be enough to communicate by implication that it was in protest, but history would look kindly on calling POTUS47 out by name (or title). Especially if they included some LA-centric remarks about the recent fires and the stupid magic water spigot thing and climate change policy.

Anyway, that's what I would have done if I were the Dodgers head honcho.

Instead we have photos and video of Kershaw and Betts and Ohtani and Roberts and others just beaming as they shake the hand of someone who is perhaps the most hated person in the world.

Enrique Hernández said of Dodger fans who were upset with the team's choice to visit this president, "they have the right to an opinion," not quite understanding that the man whose hand he shook would prefer they did not have that right.

Betts said of those fans that it was another instance of being Black in America: "No matter what I choose, somebody is gonna be pissed." I realize that I am not Black in America (or anywhere else) and cannot comment on that greater context with any validity, but I think it's safe to say that in such cases it would be helpful to consider which somebodies would be pissed with which decision; I mean, how concerned are you with pissing off Nazis? Maybe in this climate it's a real concern, maybe you'd rather be on the side fighting the Nazis regardless.

Kershaw was unmoved by criticisms, saying, "At the end of the day, getting to go to the White House, getting to see the Oval Office, getting to meet the President of the United States, that’s stuff that you can’t lose sight of, no matter what you believe." I would argue to the pitching great that what you can't lose sight of is what those things—the White House, the Oval Office, the presidency—represent, and agreeing to visit this President, this autocrat, this fascist wannabe-dictator that stands opposed to those very things, shows that you have indeed lost sight of that.

 

Tagged Baseball, MLB, President VonClownstick, Posted on April 8, 2025 at 5:48PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Odds and ends

Cory Booker, giving his party a 25-hour kick in the ass

Just a post to catch up on a few disparate things over the past week or two. I'm a bit scatterbrained, have been for a few days, and am having some trouble keeping a train of thought going long enough for a coherent topic-focused post. Usually this sort of foggy-brain stuff is an indication of a Black Hole episode looming or in progress, but by 2025 standards—read: in the midst of existential dread from the fascist takeover of the government—it's been relatively OK of late. Still, being aware of this is sometimes half the battle, so I'm on my guard.

Anyway, onward with a hodgepodge of stuff:

• Hats off to Cory Booker. His marathon speech, disrupting the usual business of the Senate for over 25 hours, was something all prior filibuster-like holding-the-floor events were not: completely substantive. And while holding the floor for 25 hours plus—on his feet, no breaks, no food, talking continuously except for brief periods colleagues asked questions—was undeniably difficult, coming up with 25 hours' worth of substantive material to speak on was not, because this speech was about the abuses and corruption and illegality and treachery of the POTUS47 regime. There was no recitation of "Green Eggs and Ham" (Ted Cruz) or apple pie recipes (the fictional Howard Stackhouse) or aloud readings of Alexis de Tocqueville (Strom Thurmond). No need, the litany of POTUS47 crimes and destruction could fill twice that time or more.

  Naysayers have downplayed Booker's speech as meaningless, wholly performative, and a "stunt," but they're wrong. I mean, yes, it was a stunt, but stunts are cool, that's why we have action movies. In this case, the stunt was meaningful and the performance purposeful—it served to galvanize Booker's Democratic colleagues into actually doing shit.

  It's been just over ten weeks since President Convicted Felon took office again, which to be fair, is usually about how long DC pols take to move on anything, but in this case we all knew before those ten weeks even began that a clusterfuck was coming and staunch opposition was required. Thus, for ten weeks plus, we the greater public have been pleading for Congress to act and instead the Republican majority of both houses chose to abdicate their authority and suck up to the fascists while the Democratic leadership, while outraged, did very little.

  That's changing now. Is that all thanks to Booker's stunt? No, not entirely, but Booker has spurred his fellow Dems on by commanding attention. The reaction to Booker, added to the increasing action in the streets with the Tesla Takedown protests and the large turnout in special elections, has seemingly done more than all the letters constituents have sent to their representatives put together in prompting action. Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego have declared they'll be throwing as much sand in the gears as they can to block destructive nominees to the Justice department and Veterans Administration. Schiff and Jamie Raskin are convening "shadow hearings"—with Republicans in the majority, these aren't official Congressional hearings that come with subpoena power, but they'll still serve to get information and put it on the record and in front of the public—regarding the decimation of the Justice Department.

  It's not impeachment, but it's a start.

• I sure am glad I converted all my meager investments in the stock market to a simple money market account last month, because look what happened today. Again, this was predictable. In fact, it was predicted. Repeatedly. All through the 2024 election campaign. But the American voter is, in the aggregate, willfully ignorant and so here we are.

  It is truly astonishing that the Republican party is not only allowing this to happen but championing it. This is the party that supposedly supports free markets and free enterprise and yet here they are taking a blowtorch to the global economy. Why? Because their leader is an imbecile that does not know and cannot be bothered to learn that a tariff is not what he thinks it is, that "trade deficit" is a term of art and not actual debt, that recklessly pissing off every nation in the world except Russia and North Korea is not a sign of strength, that making it impossible to import raw materials does not in fact help American manufacturing, and that driving inflation through the roof is actually a political loser. And they support their leader no matter how stupid and destructive and treasonous he is.

  Here's how our old friend Craig Calcaterra put it using clearer phrasing than I did: "Trump did this because he's a big stupid fucking idiot who doesn't know anything and because he has surrounded himself with cowards and idiots who are afraid to tell him anything he doesn't want to hear and who refuse to exercise their considerable power to rein him in."

• Yet, the economic catastrophe isn't the worst thing in the news. It's not even close. Jockeying for the top spot in the ranks of Worst Thing Happening Right Now is the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has always been a problematic agency, but now, under this regime, it is essentially the Gestapo. Not a joke, as our former president (the good and decent one of just three months ago) might say. ICE, sometimes identified as such and sometimes not, is kidnapping people off the street and sometimes interning them at for-profit domestic detention hellholes and sometimes rendering them to a Salvadoran hellhole, all with no due process whatsoever (or, as of today, interrupted due process). This is being done under the pretense of an "invasion" of the U.S. by a Venezuelan gang and the separate pretense of removing anti-Semitic troublemakers.

  Via Mary Trump, at least six people rendered to the El Salvador gulag have been definitively identified as having no ties to any gang, Venezuelan or otherwise, and that doesn't count the Maryland resident that ICE admits it sent to El Salvador due to "an administrative error" but has no intention of bringing back. It's not just brown people with tattoos or hijabs being swept up, either. This chaos even puts Canadians at risk of abuse and disappearance.

  This cannot stand. President Convicted Felon's American Gestapo must be stopped, and god bless the courts for doing their job in trying to right these wrongs, but without support from Congress I fear that isn't going to matter.

• Let's move on from the disasters sweeping the nation and by extension the world and talk baseball.

  Despite opening the season against the better-than-you-think-but-still-not-very-good formerly-Oakland A's, Your Seattle Mariners are just 3-4 after a week of play. Sadly, their performance thus far, even in the wins, resembles early 2024 far more than it does late 2024—good starting pitching, but anemic hitting and a whole lot of striking out. On the other hand, the sac fly rate is already double what it was under Scott Servais last year, so there's that. Anyway, early days, one week is hardly an adequate sample size to draw any conclusions from. I mean, the Padres are 7-0 and I figure they're going to end up around .500; Atlanta is 0-7 and they'll be in the thick of things.

  Some observations: The M's now have an ad on their sleeves, which sucks but isn't a surprise. Aesthetically it looks worse than the ads on some other teams' sleeves because it's bright orange. Come on, you couldn't get [video game company] to agree to use a navy or silver background, it has to be orange? On the other hand, the terrible uniforms from last year are history and the jerseys are much more professional looking again, with actual silver instead of dull gray and more standard lettering on the nameplates and heavy enough that you can't see what's being worn underneath.

• Softball has continued for me as an umpire and is approaching as a player, with my Smiling Potatoes of Death team readying to start a season next month. This is in two different leagues, obviously, and there are loads of differences between them. I much prefer the rules and setup of the league I ump for to the one I play in, I can't think of a single thing the latter does better than the former. I got drafted into a co-captain role with the Spuds this year, so I was on the conference call with the league and other team reps earlier this week talking about rules and such, and I was disappointed to learn that a lot of what I don't like is mandated by the organization the parks department contracts with so there's not much room for variation: it's mandatory to start with a 1-1 count, it's mandatory to have that stupid-ass no plays at the plate rule. Where there was argument over things we do have a say in was in roster and lineup construction, something again my umpiring league does much better than the other one, but at least there's small positive change there—we'll no longer have the alternating one-lineup-for-men, one-lineup-for-women thing in the city league, which wasn't exactly smooth.

  This week's ump shifts didn't provide much in the way of good stories to tell, I'd say six of the eight games I did were pretty standard. Though Sunday was a five-gamer, and those are brutal. By the time the fourth game is going I'm ready for it all to be over with and I've got no patience left for any tomfoolery. Fortunately, the fifth game was drama-free and ended early. Still, I had to do three more the next night and I wasn't in the mood for it. Plus, the first game on that schedule was between teams that have a history of, let's call it antagonism, so I was going in thinking more about how to deal with potential trouble than keeping my head in the game itself and it showed. There was some trouble to deal with, but it was minimal and came rather late; before that I was off my game a bit but really only made one mistake (prematurely calling a foul pop out of play that turned out not to be, and sadly when one of the few people on that team that annoys me sometimes was up so I got lip from him about it and a later call that properly went against him). Still, it wasn't fun and I was glad when that game ended and those teams—whom I usually quite enjoy when they aren't playing each other—got the hell off the field. Fortunately, the night ended with a palate cleanser game played by people with mostly excellent attitudes and good cheer.

  One thing about that Monday night, though—if I'd had a Capitol Hill Softball bingo card it would have been pretty full. Lots of, let's say, environmental color. I'm there again on Sunday, we'll see if I can get a bingo then.

Tagged Politics, President VonClownstick, Softball, Umping, Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Posted on April 3, 2025 at 6:49PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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