Are Republicans actually this stupid, or is it all performative?

Kentucky, always vying to win "Worst Senator Ever" with one seat or the other

I mean, it really could be either at this point.

This past Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was hauled before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee because chairman Rand Paul (Kentucky's only known living Senator) wanted to whine at him and call him names because he didn't like that whole pandemic thing. Well, guess what, Senator Hairpiece, neither did anyone on Earth, and Dr. Fauci was heroic in doing whatever was possible to mitigate that crisis in the face of utterly incompetent and counterproductive leadership from President Fraudster and his GOP lemming caucus, of which you were and are one.

Remarkable. The most gargantuan and colossal failure of the Republican party, its leadership, and its cult leader has somehow, some way, been memory-holed by much of the country, but Rand Paul wants to stir that pot again and remind everyone about how his party and his leaders enabled, both by negligence and by overtly obstructive actions, the spread of a deadly virus that killed over 350,000 Americans in 2020 alone and at least 1.2 million by 2022.

Of course, Paul thinks he can use this hearing to shift blame from where it rightfully belongs—the Republican president and his enablers that eliminated most of the country's line of defense against pandemics and emerging illnesses and then completely screwed up every chance they got when those cuts bit them in the ass—to one of the most qualified, principled, honored public health experts ever to serve in government. Paul and his committee lambasted Dr. Fauci for three hours out of sheer petulance.

Fauci, of course, knew that this was substanceless theater and declined to answer a single question, choosing not to give the Republicans any potential ammunition for more slander and misinformation campaigns. President Biden foresaw this sort of fiasco and preemptively gave Dr. Fauci a pardon so these thin-skinned rage factories couldn't prosecute him with made-up charges to cover their own malfeasance. I'm not sure that was the best move, but it made a kind of sense; being pardoned for serving the public as best one can while being led by a cadre of morons and criminals is just wacky, but we see here why the man needed protection.

Paul continually insisted Dr. Fauci apologize, though for what I can't fathom. I mean, I know what Paul wants, he wants someone to validate his own and his party's stances against public health, he wants support for the idea that all of the mitigation efforts to keep people as healthy as possible when COVID was rampant and had no defense were somehow bad. Paul wants to conjure up out of nothing a reality where fighting disease actually caused disease, where the roughly 30 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide were somehow because Anthony Fauci recommended social distancing, facemasks in public, and other measures to curb viral spread. Moreover, Paul wants to advance his insane hypothesis that COVID-19 was deliberately engineered by the Chinese in a Wuhan laboratory, which really just amplifies that eliminating-our-line-of-defense Republican policy that took U.S. officials away from monitoring such labs. He wants to convince the world that, because the National Institute of Health funded research into novel viruses and how to protect against them, that Dr. Anthony Fauci is to blame for the very existence of COVID-19, again conveniently ignoring the whole eliminating-public-health-infrastructure wrinkle that preceded COVID reaching the U.S.

It's mind-boggling. 

Paul refers to the lockdowns and school closures and suspensions of regular activity during the pandemic as something that was "inflicted," and that Fauci was to blame for "aiding and abetting the crime." Ron Johnson, scourge of Wisconsin, pushed conspiracy theories against COVID vaccines and favoring medications that are wholly inappropriate, like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and accused Fauci of "sabotaging" their use, as if a learned public health expert would favor anti-parasitic medicines that weaken the immune system as a viral treatment. Florida Man Rick Scott tried to create a conspiracy between Fauci and other officials to quash the "true origins" of COVID-19 and outright accused Dr. Fauci of lying to the public and causing people to distrust vaccines. Rick Scott actually said this to Dr. Fauci, with a straight face no less: "The haphazard information you released and pushed on the American people with little research is appalling and why there's so much distrust in our institutions today. That trust is crucial to public health and you more than any person or event in my lifetime have destroyed that trust for millions of Americans."

Fuck. You. Rick. Scott.

Republicans, from Felon47 to his White House cadre to, yes, Senators and Representatives including RICK FUCKING SCOTT, are the source of mistrust in institutions, are the reason said institutions are a shadow of their former selves, are the purveyors of propaganda that convinces the rubes that vote for them that, even though the Republicans are the ones standing in the drive with gasoline cans and torches, the house was set on fire not by them, but by the people trying to SERVE THE PUBLIC.

Josh Hawley, that piece of crap, was even more childish than Rand Paul, and took "every accusation is a confession" to new heights by claiming Dr. Fauci was corrupt and used the pandemic to make money off the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Bernie Moreno, yet another pustule on the butt of humanity, was so outraged by Anthony Fauci trying to keep people from dying from COVID that he could not "stand idly on the side and watch this happen," ran for the Senate, and said, without a trace of irony, "Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying who the fuck do you think you were for doing that?" He demanded apologies—apologies!—be given to people who took COVID vaccines! What does that idiot Moreno think would be appropriate wording, do you think? "I'm so sorry for urging you to get a perfectly safe vaccine that protects you from this deadly virus. It was wrong of me, I should have instead urged you to go out and bathe in contaminated hospital waste and invite the virus in so you would die."

It went on and on. Ashley Moody, Florida's other embarrassment Senator, touted her state's refusal to do anything to fight the spread of COVID and insulted Fauci for correctly calling Florida's governor a "complete disgrace." Joni Ernst, representing Iowa's dumbest, accused Fauci of somehow funding abortions to harvest body parts for evil experiments. 

Rand Paul engineered this showcase of bullshit, maybe because he thinks it'll curry favor with Felon47, but I think mostly because he hates public service and public servants. His unhinged remarks to both open and close the hearing were psychotic.

Yet, this whole thing will be nothing but a blip in the news. Our worthless corporate news media will not point out how deranged Rand Paul's words were. They will not spotlight Rick Scott's hypocrisy. They will not report on the myriad reasons Josh Hawley and Bernie Moreno and Ashley Moody should be treated as cranks and investigated for their own wrongdoings.

Midterms are just over three months away. Vote these anti-science, anti-democracy, anti-healthcare, pro-death, pro-corruption, sociopathic assholes out.

Tagged Politics, Republicans, COVID-19, Congress, Posted on July 31, 2026 at 4:01AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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SNW 401: Valles Marineris

Can you stun a T. Rex? Let's find out.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returned last week for its fourth season premiere, and, wouldn't you know, I have thoughts.

After the painfully flawed mess of the third season, I was prepared to be disappointed. However, I was also hopeful that, without the rush-job environment that produced the season three scripts, we'd get back to at least the level of quality we saw in SNW's first two seasons. The premiere landed smack in the middle of those poles—there's stuff that doesn't make sense, there's some lazy shortcut writing, there's avoidable science mistakes; but there are also really funny moments, a clever premise, and good character stuff that almost makes me give them a pass on the bad character stuff.

Let's get into it (spoilers ahead):

See full post: "SNW 401: Valles Marineris"...

Tagged Star Trek, TV, Culture, Posted on July 30, 2026 at 3:20AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Return to Cap Hill

I've been busy with actual client work the last week-plus, so I'm a bit behind on the blogging. But I'm taking a break here, so here is the tale of the Return to Capitol Hill.

As mentioned earlier, Bobby Morris Field at Cal Anderson Park (not quite as catchy as "Oriole Park at Camden Yards," but way better than the convoluted and corporate "Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium") had been unplayable for a while following a July 4th vandalism spree involving fireworks and a bonfire of Lime scooters. People are stupid. So games were relocated until repairs could be made, but as of Monday we were back in action on the hill, the city parks department having made numerous patch repairs to the synthetic turf.

Apparently, the absence of softball for a while was welcomed by the soccer contingent, who had, when not impeded by turf repair crews, taken to dominating the space at will. When I arrived to set up the diamond Monday evening, the biggest impediment was getting both the large soccer goal and the large bunch of soccer players out of the way. They weren't overly hostile about it, but it did take some time and we didn't get underway until about 15 minutes behind scheduled start time. I didn't miss the soccer hooligans while we were relocated to Interbay. Nor did I miss having the sun in my eyes for much of the 7:00 games—I once again curse the city planner who laid out BMFaCAP with home plate in the southeast corner of the park at this lattitude—nor did I miss the many sirens, the spikeballers, or the frequent interruptions by various intrerlopers.

I had three games Monday, scheduled at 7:00, 8:15, and 9:30, so having been delayed at the start, then interrupted a few times midgame by errant soccer balls and oblivious wandering folk, my 8:15 game got going around 8:45, the 9:30 game around 10:00, and then we had the interruption apex perpetrator, some guy on a clunky bicycle who rode back and forth through the field for the sole purpose of disrupting our game. Whenever he got out of the way and we restarted, he'd come right back, yelling fake apologies as he went as if it was an hilarious prank. Eventually he'd had enough or other people took him away, not sure which, but we didn't finish until about 11:20, and with lights going off at 11:30 it was a bit nerve-wracking.

As for the games themselves, the only bit of drama came about when one of the teams began the game with an illegal lineup—too many consecutive dudes—and when I and the other team called it out they said no, no, it's not three men, there's a non-binary person in there. Wait, really? That guy? Or that pick-your-preferred-designation? Seemed pretty suspect to me, but I'm not about to get into that sort of an argument with someone, so I let it go, which the other team wasn't happy about. I was already parsing out in my head how to report this potential abuse of the rules when, much later in the game, ambient conversation clued me in on the fact that they were actually talking about a different person on their team, one not in that batch of batters in the lineup. So I took it back to their captain. To his credit, he was embarrassed, he had ID'd the wrong player on his team when filling out the lineup, a generically-presenting beer-bellied hairy dude rather than the actual trans player. We corrected things, but by then there would only be one more turn through the lineup at best and the other team was still annoyed with me for not figuring it out sooner (not that they did either). And there was no clear effect on the game outcome, it's not like the third dude in a row batting had parked home runs or anything, I think he popped up and grounded into a double play.

Yesterday's shift was only two games, but it was playoffs, so you know there'll be more intensity. Setting up the field was comparatively easy, no soccer hooligans around until later, so we didn't have delays to contend with. The first game was a semifinal, winner moves on, and it was a nailbiter. The eventual losing team was staging a comeback, and in the 7th (final) inning put the tying run on third with only one out. It sure seemed like they were going to at the very least force a bottom half of the inning, but a couple of weak dribblers ended it there. Afterward, I approached the losing side to commiserate, and one of them got in my face. "What have you got against us?" I thought he was kidding, in a sort of "hey, you could have somehow tilted the scale in our favor so we could win this one" sarcasm, but he was serious, he went on about calls I'd made in prior games that he thought were bad and that he said cost them runs, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I don't even recall the last time I had those guys for a game. It was pretty weird, but I had to move along and start the next game, so I did and they left. Then came the championship game, which was also close but not nailbiter-close, which was played with good humor all around by players I generally like, but there was one bit of conflict when a guy with the appropriate initials KG hit one to deepest right field, which is a much farther reach than deepest left field and had to cross the soccer players, that hit the ground very near the boundary of the turf, which is the demarcation for home-run or not-home-run. Not having seen it clearly (damn soccer), I initially called it a ground rule double, but I got pushback from players I generally trust, so I listened, asked both the batter's dugout and the first baseman what they thought, and before I had a chance to conclude anything the pitcher got mad, saying I couldn't change the call. Well, aside from her, the consensus was home run, so I ruled home run. I didn't know for sure and reps from both sides saw it better and said it hit past the turf. This pitcher is actually someone I like a lot, so I was a little annoyed, but let it go. Next time she came up to bat, though, she apologized, so no harm no foul, as it were.

For once a Cap Hill shift ended on time, even though bicycle guy was back again. He only did one lap around with his Joker laugh before leaving, though, so no appreciable delay.

I'm back at that field again on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully things will be more like yesterday than Monday in terms of interlopers.

Meantime, the bingo card form yesterday was fuller than the one for Monday, which doesn't make sense. I blame the randomizer for what squares were chosen and how they were placed.

 

Posted on July 29, 2026 at 4:55PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Yer outtaheah!!

Umpiring has been fairly routine of late, with fewer shifts than the plethora that I was assigned in May and June and those I did have being mostly unremarkable. But yesterday deviated from the norm when I ejected a player.

This makes four times that I've thrown someone out of a game in, what, eight years, I guess, if we don't count that year when nobody did much of anything. That's not many, and I probably should have tossed a couple of others that I let continue despite bad behavior. Point is, there is rarely cause for that sort of thing, and in this case, if the incident had occurred earlier in the day I might have let it go.

It was late in game four of the day, I'd been there for going on six hours, and it was playoffs (ergo a little more intensity on the part of some players). My patience had worn thin. We were playing at a field that has unusual boundaries, which is to say that in lieu of a fence the outfield is bordered by foliage. For the most part, this is manageable; we lose a lot more softballs there than elsewhere, but there's understanding among all involved what happens when a ball goes into the bushes. But there is also a huge tree that is mostly in foul ground but overhangs into fair territory in deepest left field, which has been a point of contention from time to time because umps who get assigned there that haven't worked that field before don't know how to handle it when a ball is hit and that tree deflects a fair ball. The written rule says that anything that hits the tree is a foul ball, but nobody likes that. (There's a similar rule at another field, but in that case the tree hangs over first base, it isn't deep in the outfield, so it's easier to tell from home plate what a ball might hit; also, it's thicker, so more likely that there'll be actual interference. It's easier to accept such a rule there.) Every new season at this field—and the majority of teams that play there are returnees from way way back—it gets a mention, and my solution has been to say to everyone, "OK, no one likes the idea of a ball hit into the fair side of the tree being called foul, so here's what we'll do: First, the tree will not be a factor unless it interferes with a ball in play. If a ball is hit at/near it and nothing is changed by the existence of the tree, it's a non-factor. On the other had, if a batted ball hits the tree and changes direction or otherwise impedes a fielder from making a play, it will be called dead and either ruled a ground-rule double or foul ball depending on what side of the line the ball is on when it hits." That gets uniform approval every time.

So here we are, late in game four—which I was not initially scheduled to be at, it was supposed to be a split-shift between me and another ump, but he'd called in sick—and this guy, I'll call him Vance (not his name), was on deck when his teammate hit one that barely grazed the tree and came down in left field to be played cleanly by the outfielder. I let it play on as a live ball as grazing the branch didn't affect anything. Vance insisted that it should be a dead ball, and got kind of worked up about it even though it would have changed nothing, the batter ended up with a double. I explained that there was no effect on the ball or the play, no need to invoke any weird tree rule. He didn't like that. Then he stepped in to hit, and between pitches he continued to complain about it; I told him, "STOP. We're done with that." Vance then hit an almost identical fly ball that may or may not have also nicked a leaf of the tree, proceeded unhindered, and was caught by the left fielder. I called Vance out and he lost his shit.

"IT HIT THE DAMN TREE!"

Instantly, I tossed him. "OUT OF THE GAME!" Van started to argue, I didn't let him, I repeated, "OUT. OF. THE. GAME." He collected his stuff from the dugout and stormed off to his car and drove away at speed. One factor in my instantaneous reaction may have been that Vance had been in my face a bit the week before for an utterly stupid reason, complaining that I hadn't given him enough time between innings to practice throws; I never give time for that purpose, if teams do infield practice between innings it's because for some reason not everyone else is ready to go yet. Once everyone is on field at their positions, it's time to go. I dismissed Vance without comment on that day, just ignored him rather than fuel an argument, but it was in the back of my mind when he was bitching about the tree. Not that the tree-bitching wasn't enough. Still, had it happened at, say, 1:30, before I'd been out in the sun all afternoon and before I'd had a number of players complain about balls and strikes or whathaveyou and before my feet started to hurt, it's likely I would have just given Vance a more formal warning rather than eject him. Things build up, you know.

Fortunately, his teammates were apologetic and didn't try to excuse Vance's behavior. For the rest of the shift I was antsy, gnashing my teeth a little, and just willing outs to be made so the game would end. When we were finally done, everyone was nice, a fairly standard end-of-game parting of ways. I started packing up the gear when some players from the third game of the day, who had stuck around to watch and drink beer and keep their social day going, came up to me wide-eyed and wanted to know what happened with Vance.

I like these folks, they're among my favorites to ump; a few of them even play against the Spuds in the Ballard Wednesday night league, so I kind of know them from different angles, if you will. So after I finished packing up I sat down on the bleachers and gave them the details, which also allowed me some valuable decompression. I could vent remaining steam and get some good feedback and support, and half an hour or so later I was much more relaxed and could head home sans teeth-gnashing.

For good or ill, Vance's team won that game in an upset, so they'll be there next Sunday for the playoff finals. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll just ignore Vance as much as is reasonable and hope he doesn't make any more trouble.

Also, it was another full Sunday on the field and thus today was another of me being wiped out, nursing a headache, and not getting as much done as I wanted to. Alas.

Tagged Umping, Posted on July 20, 2026 at 11:36PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Bits and pieces

All-Star Game AQI: Very Unhealthy

So, there've been a few things I've been meaning to post about, but time and energy haven't been forthcoming for it. So a disjointed one today and hopefully back to real posts over the weekend(?).

• ITEM: The MLB All-Star Game was a dud for the 7th consecutive year. I don't know exactly what to suggest for de-dudifying the All-Star Game, other than doing away with the unconscionable home-run derby tiebreaker that marred last year's ASG (some of the best ASGs have been extra-inning affairs, which can never happen again so long as that stupid rule exists). But it would be in baseball's interest to tweak some things. As a friend of mine put it last night, in a way it's amazing anyone gets any hits at all in these games, since every pitcher is elite and they're only in the game very briefly. And this time around, the National League team barely had any, with Juan Soto notching a base hit in the 4th and nothing else until PCA got a hit in the 8th and Otto Lopez lined one in the 9th. One walk in the first, one in the seventh. Zippo otherwise in a year when the NL is far and away the superior league in terms of team strength (of course, the ASG is all about individuals, where there's more parity). Meanwhile, the American League team plated three in the first inning and that was effectively it for the game, after that just a solo homer from Miguel Vargas in the 8th that went by in a blink. We were wondering if this game would set a record for most strikeouts, but no; that happened a few years back in another dud.

  Other than changing the selection process to better choose the participants, I don't know how to fix this, or even if it needs to be fixed, but there are a couple of things I'd like to see beyond obliterating the HR Derby tiebreaker. One, mandate that the starting pitcher pitch at least two innings unless he gets hurt or unless he gets lit up. Then it's actually a bigger deal to be named starter than to just be an opener in a bullpen game. Two, no more mid-game interruptions—in Bud Selig's day we'd get mid-game delays to make a speech or something, these days it's a delay for some sort of stunt or performance like it's a miniature football halftime show. This year it was a video of a bunch of kids riding their bikes to a ballgame followed by real kids riding bikes onto the field, I think as some sort of homage to the film The Sandlot. Also midgame fireworks that flooded the ballpark with particulates and haze. Do that shit before the game or don't do it at all.

  Maybe the biggest problem, though, isn't the game itself but the broadcast of the game. It's hard to follow the game as it's being presented to us. Fox Sports has taken to interviewing players—including, this time, both the pitcher and catcher at the same time—while they are actively playing the game, which, OK, can be entertaining in spots but generally is pointless and has to be distracting for the players, in addition to being a sideshow from the game itself. The commentators have interviewed players after they come out of the game forever, that's fine (so long as we can still see what's happening on the field) and less intrusive. But I'd do away with players taking earpieces with them out to the field to chat with Joe Davis and John Smoltz, or whomever takes over play-by-play duty in the future. Not unrelatedly, the Fox crew doesn't reliably let us know when players come into the game, and there are a ton of substitutions going on after the third inning of an ASG (elected starters have to play three frames); many fans are wanting to see "their guy" play, and sometimes we don't know until a ball is hit to his position and we see the guy make a play. "Hey, my guy is in! Wonder how long he's been out there. Could've been two or three innings for all we know." The broadcasters are too into doing their goofy/inane Q&A with players as they're trying to play to really pay attention to much else. We also should get more in the way of graphics and info on the All-Star players; you get some with the starters as the lineups are announced, but a lot of these guys are unfamiliar to the audience outside of their home markets, it'd be nice for the casual fan to see why, say, rookie Tristian Peters made the squad instead of just wondering amongst themselves as we did, "hey who's that White Sox guy, what's his deal?" Do a little graphical info dump when new players enter the game. And John Smoltz is his own category of problem, he's just terrible as a commentator whether it's the ASG or a playoff game or anything else.

  We enjoyed mocking the thing here, though.

• ITEM (related): Another quote from Craig. From the "this date in baseball history" section of Craig Calcaterra's newsletter today: "1909 — Ed Summers of the Detroit Tigers allows only seven hits and pitches all 18 innings of a 0-0 tie—the game was called due to darkness—with the Washington Senators. It's the longest scoreless game in AL history. Yet, somehow, it was still far more compelling than the 2026 All-Star Game."
• ITEM: People are dumb, and people with fireworks are super dumb. My umpiring shifts for Capitol Hill games have been/are being moved elsewhere because some idiot set off fireworks on the Cap Hill field's synthetic infield and damaged it to the point of unplayability. That whole set of athletic fields is in need of resurfacing, yes, but until a week-and-a-half ago it was still plenty usable. This happened to a lesser extent last year at the Ballard fields where the Spuds play and we had to navigate our play around a hole between first and second base. Can we just be done with fireworks? They're pretty, but the particulates, the smoke, the noise, the fire hazard, is it really worth it? Drone shows are less damaging.
• ITEM: Spuds done for ’26: Speaking of the Spuddies, we played our playoff game yesterday and it did not go well. Full post on that coming later on, but we were trounced.
• ITEM: The health care system in this country is a joke, part 2,352,091. I had my annual checkup today, and I had to go to a new doctor for it. My prior doc doesn't take the insurance I have now, which I switched to because Republicans made the premiums on the insurance I had the last couple of years unaffordable. So I had to go through the rigamarole of again finding a new primary care doc, which I did a couple months ago and today was the next available appointment I could comfortably swing. So I find my way to the new place, go to check in, and am told this doctor isn't taking new patients, but we can do my annual check. "Wait, what?" This didn't compute with me. "If she isn't taking new patients, why am I here? Why did this appointment even get accepted in the first place?" The reply was gobbledygook that made no sense to me, but I was already there and my Rx is going to run out in a couple weeks, so I said fine, we'll do this and then I'll go through the whole process yet again next time I need to see someone. The nurse/med tech guy was sympathetic when he was getting my vitals and such, and after he left the exam room I heard him explain to the doctor in detail about the scheduling fuckup, and in the end the doc agreed to take me on anyway. It may or may not work out well, I don't really have a sense of her as someone I can relate to. The prior doctor was a good fit, I wish I could've kept seeing her, but we live in the US of A, where everything medical is dictated by what insurance you can afford, because people are stupid and keep electing Republicans.
• ITEM: Felon47 went on TV with his tin-foil hat. The alleged President of the United States, a convicted felon and perpetrator of several frauds that were settled out of court as well as many that have yet to be charged, the most grandiose and prolific liar on Earth, made a "speech" about made-up election conspiracies tonight. He distorted intelligence that we already knew about to make it sound (to him, anyway) like there were rampant issues with foreign operatives that are not the actual issues with foreign operatives which benefit him, he made already-debunked claims of mass-voting by non-citizens. He whined and grievanced his way through a pathetic spectacle intended to do two things: Create support for his pet voter-suppression bill that as it stands has no chance of passing either house of Congress, because he wants to be able to cheat in elections with impunity; and take the news media's focus off of the Iran debacle, gas prices, oncoming economic calamity, the outrageous things said by his unqualified criminal lackey nominees in confirmation hearings going on this week, his Air Force One fuckups, the reflecting pool bullshit, ICE murdering people and getting away with it, RFK Jr.'s direct responsibility for both screwworm and parasites in our lettuce (and the need for me to have gotten a measles vaccination today), deaths in DHS custody, the embarrassing NATO summit, his petulant refusal to sign a bipartisan housing bill that became law anyway (which he may not know), his staff getting caught using inside info to make Kalshi bets, his flip-flopping Strait of Hormuz "policies", a judge slapping him down hard on his "settlement" with the IRS, the Republican push for an unconscionable increase in military funding, his and Pete Hegseth's various war crimes, his illegal harassment of journalists, and the evergreen scandal of the Epstein Files. We can't wait for this maniac's term to run out, we need to elect as may Democrats to Congress as possible, by margins too big for him to cheat against, and remove him ASAP.

Tagged Baseball, MLB, Umping, Softball, Politics, Republicans, President VonClownstick, Health, Craig Calcaterra, Posted on July 16, 2026 at 8:51PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Quote of the day

From our pal Craig Calcaterra, in response to a few condolence posts on social media from Democratic Senators mourning Lindsey Graham:

We're all conditioned to avoid speaking ill of the dead. But when a Democratic official praises someone like Lindsey Graham and ignores his vital role in enabling an autocratic takeover of American government that has killed thousands and immiserated millions, it goes beyond the niceties that typically apply at the hour of a person's death. It reveals that all of this is a game to them. It reveals that they view Congress as a private members club and that they are immune from the consequences of government action, rendering them uncaring about such consequences. That's what grants them the luxury of praising those who inflict unspeakable harm on the country and the world. It's someone else's problem, not theirs. Besides, he told some great jokes in the Senate dining room. 

We should speak ill of the dead. At least the dead who, in life, held and exercised power over the lives of others. And as long as the things we say are true. 

Why no tears for Lindsey? Well, here's a quote from the man himself, from just a few months ago:

I feel good about the Republican Party. I feel good about where we're going as a nation. We're killing all the right people and we're cutting your taxes.

In years gone by, I actually had sympathy for Graham. He was clearly a broken, damaged man looking for validation wherever he could find it and I thought if he found peace within himself he could maybe be a force for good, or at least a content private citizen no longer screwing up the government. Then he lost his 2016 presidential primary campaign to he who would become President Felonious I and promptly abandoned all of his righteous (and accurate) criticisms of who he called "the world's biggest jackass," among many other things, in order to be that jackass's biggest and most pathetic suckup toady. It was the same broken psyche in desperate search for validation, but when he—or anyone—sought to belong with Felon47, he lost any respect that may have previously existed.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Lindsey.

Posted on July 13, 2026 at 4:45PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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I'd have preferred they resigned in disgrace, but...

Good riddance to bad senators

So, Lindsey Graham is dead. I don't celebrate that. I mean, it's good that he's out of the Senate, it's good that he can't go on promoting stupid wars and serving as Felon47’s most loyal/most effectively blackmailed mouthpiece. The world is probably better off overall. But this isn't how I wanted to see the fall of Lindsey Graham, I'd have preferred that whatever he was (probably) being blackmailed with had become public and prompted him to resign and go into hiding. But things are what they are and this pathetic, spineless, amoral warhawk is gone from the Earth.

On the other hand, there's Mitch McConnell—Schrödinger's Senator, at once alive and dead in isolation, the true state to be determined only when he can once more be observed. There was a social media post attributed to him today, with a photograph allegedly real and from the same day, that his staff would like us to accept as proof of life. And maybe it is. But I doubt it. After all, this is the political party that has shown itself to be much too comfortable with disinformation and propaganda, in support of one of the most evil men to ever hold elected office.

 The statement in the social media post attributed to McConnell was clearly not written by McConnell, but that doesn't mean anything as politicians have other people write remarks for them all the time. The photograph has been alleged to be a retouched version of a photo from several years ago, but that's as likely as not so means nothing. Other senators claimed to have spoken on the phone with McConnell in recent days "for about 20 minutes" each, which begins to sound like a scripted talking point after the second one.

The photo might be real, the statement might have been approved by him, he might be alive and recuperating as the statement suggests. Or, he could be brain-dead and being kept alive on life-support machinery until a political deadline passes that would preclude a special election to replace him from happening. Or, he could already be gone and the Republicans are perpetuating a sham in order to... what? The conspiracy theory kind of falls apart, the only benefit to covering up a death here would be to avoid that special election and the alternative is just a vacant seat. Is that better? Maybe, maybe not, but it seems extreme even for these idiots.

No matter what, though, it seems highly unlikely that Mitch McConnell will ever return to work. So, again, net gain for humanity. From his theft of a Supreme Court seat from President Obama to his refusal to support conviction of Felon47 while he was still Fraudster45 in both impeachments (as minority leader he had enough clout to get the conviction, he decided to let the insurrectionist skate instead), McConnell is more responsible for our current dystopia than any other individual person is. He is/was an evil fuck and the world will be better off without him. 

So the Senate losing these two pustules of humanity is good. The Senate now stands at 51 Republicans and 47 Democrats in practical terms, and a few of those Republicans lost their primaries and are potentially less controllable by leadership. No appointeds are getting confirmed for the rest of the year, I'd wager, and without Graham to be Felon47’s Senate Enforcer, any chance of GOP legislation getting passed is also near zero. This is positive.

Still, in a way these two asshats escaped. They don't have to face justice. They got to live their lives without ever being held accountable for their myriad misdeeds as alleged public servants.

This is one time when I think it would be nice to be a religious person. Then I could take some satisfaction in the belief that these two would be facing karmic punishments in the afterlife. Instead, I can't help but feel like they got away with it.

Tagged Politics, Republicans, Posted on July 12, 2026 at 11:58PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Spuds fight valiantly but drop twinbill to Bat's, Frogs

BALLARD (STN)—The Smiling Potatoes of Death capped their 2026 regular season with a doubleheader at Ballard Playfields last night, dropping both games by identical scores of 12-8. The Spuds finish the campaign with a record of one victory and eight losses, yet still have an opportunity to advance; the team will play first-place finisher Seattle Cattle next Wednesday in the Ballard Division playoffs.

The 1-8 season is a regression from last year's 2-7 mark, though that record does come with an asterisk. "We did have two wins last year," said co-captain Stacey Starr, "but one of them was by forfeit. Seattle Cattle didn't show up to play. So, really we matched what we did in ’25."

In yesterday's first game, the taters took on Bat's Amore in a rematch of the season's opening day game, which Bat's Amore won 21-10. "We improved on that one, anyway," said shortstop/pitcher Dan Stevens. "I think we might have won with a decent ump, though. That guy might've cost us a couple of runs."

Stevens was referring to the bearded umpire working Field 1, who has what might charitably be called a fungible strike zone. Said starting pitcher Tim Harrison, "I asked [the umpire] what his zone even was after the second inning. Maybe my tone wasn't too friendly, I don't really know, but basically I wanted to know where he was marking the top and bottom of the zone, because I threw three consecutive strike threes to a batter that were called balls 2, 3, and 4. He didn't like being asked. He just said 'a strike is a strike and a ball is a ball.' I didn't continue the argument, but he kept on, saying he would call things 'deep' if he wanted to. That was actually informative, or at least suggested he knew what I was talking about. I think it means he thought those three pitches were all high." Catcher Carly Eberts disagreed. "They were not high. One of them was down the fucking middle, you couldn't ask for a more textbook strike."

Though Bat's Amore didn't plate any runs as a consequence of that particular walk, the poor pitch calling continued throughout the game, prompting Stevens to assume anything not perfectly placed would be called a ball. "I know from batting, too," he said. "He called balls on a couple pitched to me that I thought I should've swung at." Outfielder/first baseman Brian Tschider concurred, admitting he benefited from bad calls. "Oh, I was struck out, no doubt about it. Called ball four. I'll take it, though." In the end, the umpiring likely didn't make much difference. "Really, as frustrating as it was as a pitcher, it was probably a wash," Harrison said. "And I just have to remember that it only helps the league that I ump for when these guys are so unbelievably bad."

The Spuds nevertheless took a promising 4-0 lead in the third inning. After emergency callup Ben Amster led off with a possibly suspect walk, outfielder Amna Mirza cracked the first of her three hits of the game. Dan Stevens followed with a base hit to score Amster, then after a groundout Chris Eaton blasted a deep fly into left-center field that was misplayed for a costly four-base error. "I need to have a word with the official scorer," Eaton said. "I mean, OK, the guy could have caught the ball, sure, he was right under it, but it's not like he kicked it away or something. I want those three RBIs, I don't want to see 'four-base error.'"

The lead would prove short-lived, as Bat's Amore came back with five in their half of the third, connecting for five hits and taking advantage of a pair of costly errors. The Spuds threatened again in the fourth, but Kim Stevens lined into a bad-luck double play to shift the momentum; Bat's Amore then tacked on three more in the home fourth. Down by four, the tubers again put runners on to start the fifth. Eberts led off with a walk—"legit, for a change," she said—then Amster and Mirza both singled and Dan Stevens reached on an error that scored Eberts. Outfielder Jess Palmer plated Amster with an RBI groundout, but the threat died when Eaton popped to short and Starr lined into another hard-luck double-play.

Bat's Amore would get one more in the home fifth to make it 9-6, then again the Spuds closed the gap. Harrison led off the sixth with his second hit of the day, then C/OF Rachel Fryan lined a single up the middle. First baseman Mack McCoy followed with a double to the left-center-field gap to plate both runners, making it a one-run game, but then 2B KM Crawford struck out and Tschider chopped a slow grounder to shortstop. Harrison, running for McCoy at second base, made a rookie baserunning mistake and took off for third on a ground ball hit to his right and was easily tagged out, which proved to be key as the next batter, Kim Stevens, lined a base hit to center that might have tied the game had Harrison stayed at second base. "It was just dumb,"  Harrison said. "I mean, that's baseball 101. I just wasn't thinking. We might have been better off if Bones had run for himself." The side was retired on the next play, a liner to short.

Perhaps dispirited by the unfortunate top of the frame, relief pitcher Dan Stevens gave up three more runs in the bottom half on a long home run with two aboard to put the game away. "I don't know," Stevens said, "counts don't mean that much at this level of ball, but when you get behind in the count even though you're throwing strikes it just seems like your going to eventually put one on a tee. That homer was on a pretty fat pitch, but I didn't want to walk the guy." The bomb extended the Bat's Amore lead from one to four, but the Spuds weren't able to plate even one in the seventh, so it was ultimately academic. "Whether we lose by four or lose by one, we still lose," Harrison said with a shrug.

For game two the Spuds shifted to Field 2, where they got a pleasant surprise. "Hey," Harrison said as they approached the other diamond, "is that J.T.?!" Indeed it was J.T., the only good umpire in the entire Seattle Parks & Rec staple of officials and the only one whose demeanor and engagement is welcome by all and adds to the fun of the game. "I went up to him before our second game got going. 'Are we glad to see you,' I told him, though I didn't get into the problems we just had with the other guy. Seriously, I wish we had J.T. for every game."

Having a superior umpire may have added to the overall enjoyment, but the end result of the nightcap was the same. "Both games were 12-8, but this one seemed a lot worse somehow," said Starr. That likely was because the opposition, the Little Frogs, scored first and were never behind at any point in the game.

"Clearly, they were out for revenge," Tschider said, referring to last week's Spuddie victory over the Frogs.

Thirst for vengeance or not ("I say not," Starr remarked, noting the general friendliness of the Frog squad), the petite amphibians scored two in the first on three singles and a sacrifice fly. Though the Spuds answered with two of their own in the home half, the Frogs got them back in the second thanks to a pair of walks and two more singles. "I can't blame the umpiring for those walks," starting  pitcher Harrison said. "I mean, J.T. was even giving me strikes on the corners—no other SPR ump ever gives you the corners. I just didn't have the good stuff this game." The Frogs would add an unearned run in the third, then three runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth. That made the score 11-2, a pounding more reminiscent of typical Smiling Potato games that end with a premature mercy-rule finish.

Not quite at that threshold, though, the Spuds showed some life in their half of the fifth. Mirza led off the frame with her fourth hit of the day, then Harrison walked and both advanced on Palmer's groundout. Tschider made the second out on a harmless comebacker, but Starr singled to left to drive in two, Amster singled, and then Fryan clubbed a double to left-center field that scored Starr.

The score remained 11-4 until the seventh, when the Frogs got one more on a double and an error to cap their scoring. In the home half, the Spuds chose not to go quietly—Harrison led off with an infield single, Palmer grounded into a forceout, and Tschider singled to right. Starr forced Palmer at third, but then Amster laced a base hit to center to load the bases. Fryan tapped back to the pitcher, but instead of an easy second out, the pitcher threw the ball past second base into the outfield, allowing Tschider to cross the plate and keeping the sacks full. Dan Stevens followed with a sharp single to score two more before Kim Stevens went down on strikes and McCoy ended the game on an out of some kind that no one recorded on the scorecard.

"Eh, could have been worse," Harrison said. "I mean, what were the odds that we would get two wins in a season? All in all, finishing with a couple of relatively close games, getting through the season with fewer than half our games mercy-ruled, you know, it feels OK."

Eaton was less philosophical about the night. "I hit like shit today," he said. "If I'd gotten some hits we would have won these." Crawford reminded him of the three runs scoring on his deep fly in the first game, but it didn't soothe the shortstop. "That was an error, KM! An error! That. Doesn't. Count."

Reflecting on the night at the bar afterward, McCoy saw things in a positive light. "Doubleheaders are great," he said between beers. "It's the only way everyone gets enough at-bats to feel like they contributed."

Eberts chimed in, "Especially Amna! Four-hit hot girl! Whoo!"

The Smiling Potatoes of Death return to the field Wednesday evening for playoffs, taking on the heavily-favored Cattle in a longshot attempt to continue in the postseason.

 

SMILING POTATOES OF DEATH								Bat's AMORE
Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K		Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K
C. Eaton, ss	3	1	0	0	0	0		The Moon, p	4	1	1	0	1	0
S. Starr, 3b	3	0	0	0	0	0		Your Eye, c	5	1	1	0	0	1
T. Harrison, p/1b	3	1	2	1	0	0		Big Pizza Pie, 1b	4	2	2	0	1	1
R. Fryan, 3b/c/2b	2	1	2	0	1	0		Napoli, 2b	4	3	2	3	0	0
M. McCoy, 1b	3	0	1	1	0	0		The World, 3b	4	1	1	1	0	0
K. Crawford, 2b	2	0	0	0	1	1		Shine, ss	4	1	3	4	0	0
B. Tscheider, rf/1b	1	0	0	1	2	0		Too Much Wine, lf	4	0	2	2	0	1
K. Stevens, rcf/lf/rf	3	0	1	0	0	0		Vita Bella, lcf	4	1	1	0	0	0
M. Bodmer, rcf/lcf	3	0	1	0	0	0		Gay Trantella, rcf	3	0	2	1	0	1
C. Eberts, c	2	1	0	0	1	0		Tippy Tippy Tay, rf	3	2	2	0	0	0
B. Amster, lcf	2	0	2	1	1	0
A. Mizra, rf/rcf	3	1	3	0	0	0
D. Stevens, ss/p	3	1	1	2	0	0
J. Palmer, lf	3	0	0	2	0	0
Totals	36	8	12	7	6	1		Totals	39	12	17	11	2	4
SPUDS      0  0  4  0  2  2  0  -  8   BAT'S        0  0  5  3  1  3  x  -  12
2B: McCoy. E: Starr, Eaton, Bodmer, Eberts. LDP: K.Stevens, Starr. Team LOB: 13.								2B: Napoli, Gay Trantella, Shine, Tippy Tippy Tay. HR: Shine. E: The World, Vita Bella, Napoli, The Moon. DP: The World-Napoli, The World-Big Pizza Pie. Team LOB: 11.
Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K		Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
T. Harrison (L)	4	11	8	3	2	3		The Moon (W)	7	12	8	5	6	1
D. Stevens	2	6	4	4	0	0

 

Little Frogs								Smiling Potatoes of Death
Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K		Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K
Flysnatcher, p	4	3	3	2	1	0		R. Fryan, c/2b	4	1	2	1	0	0
Hypnotoad, c	5	2	1	0	0	0		D. Stevens, ss/p	4	0	3	2	0	0
Tomato Frog, 1b	5	0	1	2	0	0		K. Stevens, 2b/lf/rcf	4	0	0	1	0	2
Kermit, 2b	4	1	4	3	0	0		M. McCoy, 1b	3	0	2	1	0	0
Tadpole, 3b	4	0	1	2	0	0		C. Eberts, c/2b	3	0	0	0	0	0
Croaker, ss	4	1	0	0	0	1		C. Eaton, lcf/ss	2	0	0	0	1	0
Lilypad, lf	3	1	1	0	1	0		A. Mirza, rcf/rf	3	1	1	0	0	0
Xenopus, lcf	4	1	2	2	0	1		T. Harrison, p/1b	2	1	2	0	1	0
Ribbit, rcf	3	1	0	0	1	1		J. Palmer, lf	3	0	0	0	0	0
Jeremiah, rf	4	2	2	1	0	0		B. Tschider, rf	3	1	1	0	0	0
								S. Starr, 3b	3	2	1	2	0	0
								B. Amster, lcf/rcf	3	1	2	0	0	0
Totals	41	12	15	12	3	3		Totals	37	8	14	7	2	2
FROGS      2  2  1  3  3  0  1  -  12 SPUDS      2  0  0  0  3  0  3  -  8
2B: Flysnatcher. 3B: Xenopus. HR: Kermit. SF: Kermit. E: Tadpole, Flysnatcher. DP: Flysnatcher-Croaker-Tomato Frog. Team LOB: 13.								2B: Fryan, D. Stevens. E: Eaton 3, Starr 2, D. Stevens 2. GDP: Palmer. Team LOB: 10.
Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K		Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Flysnatcher (W)	7	14	8	6	2	2		T. Harrison (L)	4	10	8	7	3	2
								D. Stevens	3	5	4	3	0	1

Tagged Softball, Posted on July 9, 2026 at 11:01PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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All-Star rituals

In advance of Major League Baseball announcing the rosters for the MLB All-Star Game, to be played two Tuesdays from now, I engaged in one of my longtime traditions—selecting the rosters myself then seeing where the fans, players, and Commissioner's office differed/made mistakes.

It's a meaningless exercise, but I still somehow enjoy doing it. Not as much as I used to; 20, 30, even 40 years ago(!) it seemed to have more heft, maybe because the All-Star Game itself was fun then. These days it's kind of a joke, almost never an interesting game and treated as a circus sideshow that no one, not even the players involved, cares who wins. The most interesting part is really who makes the team and who doesn't, which is a sad indictment of what Manfred (and Selig before him) has done to turn the Midsummer Classic into a sort of clown show.

I admit that this year I haven't paid as much attention to the Majors generally beyond the hometown Mariners. I mean, still some, of course, but I had to dig into the stats and research to even have an idea about who to pick for a few positions. Which is a roundabout way of saying that, yes, my bias may be showing more than is typical with this year's rosters.

Anyway, here's what I came up with vs. what reality gave us....

See full post: "All-Star rituals"...

Tagged Baseball, Posted on July 5, 2026 at 3:15AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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The facts do not matter

It's been a dark several days for American jurisprudence. The Supreme Court of the United States handed down a number of rulings as the close out their session, and even the rulings that aren't outrageous or corrupt or just plain anti-Constitutional are causes for alarm and spotlight the dire need for reforms of some kind for SCOTUS.

What kind of reform I'm not sure about. I tried my hand at it with my proposal for new Constitutional amendments, but it's a tough nut to crack. At minimum the Court needs ethical standards that are enforceable by an entity outside of the Supreme Court, but how we get there is murky.

We can't really celebrate the "good" decisions, the ones that are in favor of upholding law and the Constitution and the forces of good, because the votes have been astonishingly close, with several justices making no bones about their allegiance to the Dark Side of the Force.

The Court has, just this week, ruled the following:

See full post: "The facts do not matter"...

Tagged SCOTUS, Republicans, Politics, Society, Posted on July 3, 2026 at 10:12PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Spuds win! SPUUUUUUUUDS WIIIIINNN!!!

BALLARD (STN)—Yesterday's Seattle Parks & Rec softball game between the Smiling Potatoes of Death and the Little Frogs resulted in an occurrence as rare as a total solar eclipse: a win for the Spuds.

At the center of the action for the victorious taters was shortstop/OF Chris Eaton, who clubbed three hits from the leadoff spot. Finishing a homer short of a cycle, Eaton also scored three times and drove in one to propel the Spuds to their 7-5 triumph.

"I was seeing the ball well today, what can I tell you," Eaton said. "If my teammates hadn't gone down so fast in the 7th, I would have had the homer too. But they wilted like week-old celery when I was just six spots from coming up again. I mean, come on."

The Spuds got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first. Eaton tripled to lead things off, then C/2B Carly Eberts swung fiercely at a 2-2 pitch, knocking the ball perhaps two feet in front of home plate for a leg-single. OF/IF Mike Plaster followed with an RBI grounder. The team added a run in the second when team captain Stacey Starr singled and came around to score on a two-out hit by OF Greg "Floyd" Bjarko.

The Little Frogs fought back in the home second, with a first-batter home run into deep left-center field off starting pitcher Tim Harrison. "Home runs aren't hit, they're thrown," the southpaw said, "and that one was served right up on a platter." The longball was followed by a base hit, a fielder's choice groundout, another single, and a walk to load the bases. The Frogs plated the tying run on an RBI grounder before ending the frame on a strikeout.

But the tubers still had some mash in their bats. Harrison led off the third with a clean single the opposite way that stayed fair by a matter of inches, then one out later advanced to third on Eaton's double. After Kim Stevens went down on strikes, Plaster chopped one to the infield that was misplayed for an error, allowing both Harrison and Eaton to score and restore the Spuds' two-run lead.

That's where things stood until the sixth, when Harrison led off with a walk and was then safe on a fielder's-choice grounder by Kim Stevens when he slid into second base ahead of the throw. Eaton then singled to score Harrison and advance Stevens, and both runners moved up on KM Crawford's groundout. Plaster then plated Stevens with a ground ball that sent Eaton to third, and Starr capped the scoring off with a base hit to drive in Eaton with the Spuds' 7th run of the game.

The taters went down quietly in the top of the seventh, but were riding a 5-run lead. With Harrison back on the mound after two effective relief innings from Dan Stevens, victory seemed assured, but Harrison had quietly suffered an injury while scoring in the sixth. "I jammed my finger," he said. "I was running hard around third, knowing Chris' hit wasn't that deep, and when I came into the plate I was moving at a good clip. I jumped up against the backstop fence to stop my momentum and hit my left middle finger hard on the chain link."

Not thinking anything of it in the moment, the usually-capable lefty toed the rubber without problem initially; the leadoff batter popped out to Eberts at second base and the next grounded out harmlessly to first-basewoman Leah Schultheis. But according to Harrison, "that was just lucky. I couldn't get a proper grip on the ball with the pain in my finger, but they swung at junk." The next sequence didn't go so well, as Harrison walked the next batter on consecutive pitches, allowed a sharp single to the next Frog to bat, and then served up a mammoth three-run bomb that went nearly all the way to the fence abutting the adjoining field's first-base side.

While attempting to retrieve the home-run ball, LCF Bjarko tweaked a hamstring and had to come out of the game, and during the brief delay Harrison was approached by third-basewoman Starr, who asked if he could continue. After briefly considering turning things back over to Dan Stevens, Harrison told his co-captain he was fine, quietly hoping he had enough dexterity in his fingers to get one more out. It didn't look good initially, as the next Frog batter walked on four pitches to bring up the potential tying run. "I somehow found enough control," Harrison said of his work to the final batter, who struck out looking on a full-count pitch to the lower part of the strike zone. "It was a big relief."

"That was so smart," exuded OF Brian Tschider. "Walking that guy with two outs? Great strategy." When told the walk to the penultimate batter wasn't strategic but because of finger pain, Tschider wasn't buying it. "He said his finger hurt?! Oh, Tim's so full of shit. That was totally purposeful. Great move."

Defense also played a big role, with Starr and Eaton both catching hard liners in the infield and Dan Stevens making a highlight-reel catch while falling down in left-center field.

"I can't remember the last time we won a game," said Crawford, having blanked on the team's triumph of June 11, 2025, a 13-5 defeat of Bat's Amore. Eaton reminded her of that win, claiming that "I remember every one of our wins. Other teams, they don't know when they won or not, but with us, the wins are rare jewels that stand out in the bleakness of otherwise constant rubble. So, yeah, last June 11. Before that we beat Buckner that one time."

In addition to Eaton, three other Smiling Potato batters reached base each time up, Starr (2-for-3, reached on error), Bjarko (2-for-2), and Harrison (1-for-1, BB), and only three of the 13 batters failed to reach in some manner or other without forcing anyone out. "It was a real team game," Starr said. "Everyone did something."

The Spuds next take the field next Wednesday for a doubleheader, with one game against Bat's Amore before again taking on the Little Frogs at Ballard One. Harrison is scheduled as the starting pitcher, though he's currently listed as day-to-day with a grade-1 sprain in collateral ligaments of the left middle finger.

 

SMILING POTATOES OF DEATH								Little Frogs
Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K		Batter	AB	R	H	BI	BB	K
C. Eaton, lcf/ss	3	3	3	1	0	0		Bullfrog, 1b	4	0	0	0	0	1
C. Eberts, c/3b/2b/of	3	0	1	0	0	1		Tadpole, 2b	2	1	1	0	2	0
M. Plaster, 3b/of/1b	3	0	0	2	0	0		Ribbit, 3b	4	1	2	0	0	0
K. Stevens, lf	3	1	0	0	0	2		Kermit, ss	4	1	1	3	0	0
B. Tschider, rf/lcf	2	0	0	0	1	0		Toad, lf	4	1	1	1	1	0
K. Crawford, 2b	3	0	0	0	0	0		Lillypad, lcf	4	0	1	0	0	1
D. Stevens, ss/lcf/p	2	0	1	0	1	0		Tree Frog, rcf	2	1	0	0	1	0
S. Starr, 3b	3	1	2	1	0	0		Xenopus, rf	3	0	2	0	0	0
M. McCoy, c	3	0	0	0	0	0		Pond Frog, c	2	0	0	0	1	0
A. Mizra, rf/rcf	3	0	0	0	0	0		Croaker, p	3	0	0	1	0	0
G. Bjarko, rcf/lcf	2	0	2	1	0	0
L. Schultheis, 1b	3	0	1	0	0	0
T. Harrison, p	1	2	1	0	1	0
Totals	34	7	11	5	3	3		Totals	32	5	8	5	5	2
SPUDS      1  1  2  0  0  3  0  -  7 FROGS      0  2  0  0  0  0  3  -  5
2B: Eaton. 3B: Eaton. E: Eaton, 2. LDP: Eberts. Team LOB: 9.								HR: Toad, Kermit. E: Bullfrog, Kermit. DP: Croaker-Bullfrog. Team LOB: 10.
Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K		Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
T. Harrison (W)	4	4	2	2	2	1		Croaker (L)	7	11	7	5	3	3
D. Stevens	2	2	0	0	1	0
T. Harrison	1	2	3	3	2	1

Tagged Softball, Posted on July 2, 2026 at 8:07PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Learn to save things

I was working on a lengthy post venting and detailing the issues with the Supreme Court's latest bunch of rulings when my browser crashed and it was all lost to the ether. And now I have to leave to go to my softball game. So I am frustrated and annoyed not just at John Roberts and the Supreme Court, but myself for failing to save my progress as I went on a long post. Will that frustration carry over to the Spuds game? We'll see.

Grr.

Tagged Site issues, Posted on July 1, 2026 at 5:28PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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