For much of
baseball history, there was the National League and the American League. They
were completely separate entities with the winners of each league facing each
other in the World Series. Otherwise, teams from each league would never meet
during the regular season. There were separate league presidents, and
umpires were employed by either the AL or NL. Limited interleague games started
in the mid-90s with each team playing teams from the other league for a handful
of games, but the percentage of interleague games during the season was
still fairly small. Now, although there are still separate leagues, there are
no league presidents, umpires are employed by Major League Baseball, and every
team plays against each other each season. For the 2024 season, each team
played 46 interleague games. That's a substantial number. So why are there
still separate awards (MVP, CY Young, etc.) for each league? The hill I'm
willing to die on today is that there should be one baseball award winner.
Period.
Instead of Shohei Ohtani being the National League MVP and Aaron Judge
being the American League MVP, there should only be one like in every other
American sport. (The MVP debate this season would be unreal!) Look at the NBA
for the 2023-2024 season. Nikola Jokic won MVP while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second
and Luka Doncic finished third in the voting. All three play in the Western
conference. If this was baseball, Giannis Antetokounmpo would have been the
Eastern Conference MVP which seems a little ridiculous.
In football,
Lamar Jackson easily won the NFL MVP last season. Would Dallas Cowboys fans
really celebrate Dak Prescott being the NFC MVP? The answer is probably not.
Let’s stop this two MVP and two Rookie of the Year award nonsense in baseball
and just have one award winner for the entire sport.
Please click here to see more of my extremely sporadic Hills I'm Willing To Die On series.
Over the
weekend, the boys and I ran a 5K for a good cause in honor/memory of a former teacher at their elementary school. This is the first time all four of us ran a
race together, so the plan was for The Moose (13) to run ahead, and I would
stick with Pedro Tulo (10) and especially Luigi (7). It was a contained race
course without any cars/traffic, so I wasn’t worried about splitting up, but I
still wanted to run with my youngest. I also figured that I could use him as an excuse to take a break and walk because he would need to take
a break and walk.
I figured
wrong.
The race
started with the experienced runners going first. The Moose declared that he
should be in this group, so off he went. About 20-30 seconds later, the
remaining runners started (including us) followed by those walking the course.
Luigi went ahead of Pedro Tulo and me, but I could still see him. As we
continued, it was Pedro Tulo (and me) needing to take breaks and not Luigi as I
expected. At a certain point, Luigi was too far ahead of me to see. On the
second lap of the course, I spotted The Moose ahead but no sign of Luigi. I
started getting a little concerned. I kind of figured that The Moose would have
eyes on him even if I didn't and thought that maybe Luigi stopped not realizing
that you had to run the course twice.
When I got to
the finish line, Luigi was there with his brother. He ended up finishing at
least a minute or two ahead of The Moose. (This wasn't a formal 5K with anyone
tracking the time, so we don't know the official time.) Luigi was just fast. As
we were drinking Gatorade, a guy who is probably in his late 20s or early 30s
introduced himself to us and said that he ran a good portion of the last
part of the race with Luigi. He said that he passed him at the end, and I
replied that I would do the same thing since I wouldn't want to get beat by a
kid. I mean, that was my motivation down the stretch in the last 5KI ran with my family.
I think Luigi
is excited to run another 5K. While I'll join him, I know that I won't be able to keep up with him!
Welcome to my third annual post of NFL teams sharing Happy New Year messages on their social media sites for Rosh Hashanah. Here we go:
While I don't like to give the Ravens any credit, I appreciate that the organization posted a nice new year's message. Same with the Jets, Bears, and Vikings. This is a significant decrease from the 9 teams last year. Four teams posted messages in 2022. The Jets and Ravens are the only two teams that posted greetings all three years.
It's an odd time for Rosh Hashanah. I mean, the Jewish
New Year is always in the fall and the start being in October is a little later than
usual, but the world is different this year. Except for three posts in OctoberandNovember last year, I have not written about the
Israel-Hamas war. I have not written about the protests at many college
campuses across the United States or what appears to be the start of wider war
between Israel and Hezbollah and Iran. I have lots of thoughts and opinions,
but either I don't know how to express them here or don't really want to. (It's
much more of the second option.) I don't want to write something and then
get drawn into a debate about the history of the Middle East or Israeli politics.
While I'm certainly thinking about what is happening in and around Israel and
hope for a peaceful resolution with the release of hostages in Gaza, I want to
wish those who are celebrating a Shana Tova (or Happy New Year).
Here are some maybe happier videos.
Six13 is back, all right!
Disposable plates are the way to go.
Here are two recipes that I will never make.
This video doesn't really have anything to do with Rosh Hashanah. It's just someone taking an hour worth of videos around Jerusalem.
This is a few years old but still funny to me.
Finally, check out this video from the amazing show Parks and Recreation. Starting around the 3:00 minute mark is the reason why.
I share this because there are hundreds of videos every year about the rapture being on Rosh Hashanah. Seems to go perfectly with the Parks and Rec video. Save yourself some time and don't search for those videos on YouTube. They'll be around next year too.
With our mom passing away a few months ago, my brother and I put her home up for sale. Part of this process included cleaning out her place, so last week, we went through her home for likely the last time. We donated some items to a breast cancer charity and others to family friends who will use it to support other organizations. We also threw away a lot of toiletries and other items. It's amazing how many pairs of reading glasses she owned. (These got donated.) We found some fun personal items and pictures and loaded them into her car and drove up north.
Before writing about the road trip, here are a few pictures we found from my younger days. (I'm on the left in both pictures.)
My mom also saved cards from the last 50 years or so. Many cards from my dad included the phrase, I love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow. Try getting this song out of your head now!
On to the drive.
There is an arms race in South Carolina on interstate 95. There are dozens of billboards advertising Buc-ee's in Florence and South of the Border in Dillon immediately south of the North Carolina-South Carolina border. And Buc-ee's is the clear winner.
I had my first experience at Buc-ee's this trip and was completely overwhelmed. There are dozens of gas pumps outside and thousands of square feet of retail space inside. If you've never been, it's a combination of the non-restaurant portion of Cracker Barrel (on steroids) along with maybe Costco. There are pre-made brisket sandwiches, hundreds of various Buc-ee's merchandise, an entire section for jerky, and every type of snack food you could imagine...while you're surrounded with about 1,000,000 of your closest friends. While I should have used the much discussed clean bathrooms, I just needed to get out. Maybe I'll try again when it's less crowded at 5:00AM on a Tuesday morning! Meanwhile, driving past South of the Border, the place looked like a ghost town. We didn't stop, but we also didn't see anyone on the grounds and only saw a handful of cars in the parking lot. Maybe the place gets more crowded at other times. Like on Tuesdays at 5:00AM instead of a Saturday afternoon.
We stopped at Zaxbys for lunch along the way. Although I did not order the Mr. Beast meal, I made sure to take this picture just to make my kids jealous. I mean, I didn't meet Mr. Beast. Just took a picture of a cardboard cutout! They were jealous.
I'd like to thank the Hampton Inn & Suites in Brunswick, Georgia for being there. Nice hotel, spacious rooms, breakfast included, and right off the highway. Good place to stop after 7 hours.
My brother and I decided to play the license plate game where we tracked the number of license plates by state. Driving from Florida to Virginia, we saw plates from 34 states, DC, and five Canadian provinces. My brother claimed to see two more states (Delaware and Vermont) after dropping me off. In case you are wondering, we did NOT see plates from Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Made it home after 27 hours and just over 1,000 miles. No one is walking 1,000 miles to fall down at your door or to just see you tonight!
This post is being published / was published on September 17th. This is my first post in September. I'm using this post to explain what I've been up to this month. Or maybe more accurately, what my kids have been up to recently.
School started for the kids on Monday, August 19th. The first two weeks represented the calm before the storm. No or limited homework and activities hadn't started yet. We had a significant family event over Labor Day weekend and then the fun began. The events below occurred starting on September 3rd through this past weekend. These are their stories.
* 3 flag football practices for Luigi (2nd grade)
* Cub Scouts pack meeting and a Cub Scouts den meeting for Pedro Tulo (5th grade)
* 1 flag football practice for The Moose (8th grade)
* 3 separate back-to-school nights
* Sunday school for all three kids
* Dentist appointment for The Moose.
* The first flag football games for both Luigi and The Moose
* Basketball try-out for The Moose
* Family outing to a Nationals game for Luigi's birthday
Oh, I should also mention that I saw both Bruce Springsteen & Pearl Jam over the last two weeks (though not together...that would have been a 6-hour show!).
Maybe I'll write more about the concerts later. In any event, there will be more posts soon. Or at some point.
We bought a new washer and dryer set a few months ago. The previous set had some significant problems near the end that made every laundry load an adventure. While the new set isn’t perfect, it’s nice to have a functional and dependable washer and dryer.
Recently, realizing that I left a load of towels in the dryer, I called The Moose and asked him to clear the lint trap and turn up the dryer, so that I could fold it when I got home. While I tried to explain what I thought was a very simple process, he struggled to figure out how the lint trap worked. Eventually, it seemed like he figured it out as he turned up the dryer before we ended the call.
When I got home, I found this.
I have no idea what he did to the lint trap, but it no longer goes all the way in. We have a warranty for the dryer, but I’m not sure it covers “13 year-old.” The dryer still seems to work fine, and I don’t know if this is a big concern or not. I also don’t want to spend the time or money on what is hopefully an easy fix. I guess I can probably just buy a new lint trap, but the point is that I haven’t really taught my kids how to use the washer and dryer. That’s going to change soon. Unless he manages to break something else!
On a different subject, I always called this the lint tray instead of a lint trap. Am I the only one?
Whenever I have the opportunity, I like to watch the first 20 minutes of ABC's Good Morning America. Yes, I know that I'm still 15 years away from being part of the core audience age group, but I enjoy the combination of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and Michael Strahan. More importantly, I feel like the show's beginning gives me a good summary of what's going on in the world.
On Monday, Jeff Goldblum stopped by the New York studio to talk about his new show, Kaos. You can watch the video below, but I was too busy trying to figure out his jacket to pay attention to whatever he was promoting.
Is it a Pittsburgh Pirates jacket? It looks like a #13 on the sleeve, so is the jacket celebrating Jose Lind, Carlos Garcia, Adrian Brown, Nate McLouth, and/or Ke'Bryan Hayes? Please let me know if you have any information where this jacket is from or who made it.
By the way, somewhat amazing that this is the first time in over a decade of celebrities in Pittsburgh gear posts that Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum made the blog!
Update 8/28: Apparently, this is a Prada jacket, not a Pirates jacket that you can purchase from the Saks Fifth Avenue website for $3,850. That's not $38.50 or even $385.00. That's $3,850! At least you get free shipping with the purchase.
It's been a while since I wrote about attending a concert, but you're in store for a special post filled with witty observations and poor concert videos! Over the weekend (as you can tell by the title), I saw Hootie and the Blowfish, Collective Soul, and Edwin McCain perform at Jiffy Lube Live. I saw Hootie perform at the same venue five years ago and Collective Soul at the 9:30 Club in DC nearly 15 years ago. This was my first Edwin McCain experience, and I'll write more about that later.
Let's start with the headliner. Actually, I want to start with the blue, polo shirt club.
Or maybe the Butt Life guy.
No, let's go with the artists.
In 1995, Hootie and the Blowfish were the biggest musical act in the country. Cracked Rear View (released in 1994, so the band is celebrating its 30th anniversary with this tour) was massive and finished as the highest selling album of the year. If you’re of a certain age (like 45-55 give or take a few years on either end like me and much of the audience), many songs from the album are instantly recognizable and received the biggest reaction during the show. I wrote this after the 2019 show and it still holds true today: Darius Rucker has an amazing voice. Alright. Enough of me writing. Let’s go to a video. I really enjoyed Hootie performing covers during the show including of Led Zeppelin's Hey, Hey What Can I Do, Stone Temple Pilots' Interstate Love Song, Kool & the Gang's Get Down On It, and Losing My Religion by R.E.M. Please note that I don’t record full videos of songs. I never want to be the guy who is watching and experiencing a concert through my cell phone.*
Personal highlight of the night. Guitarist Mark Bryan, who is originally from Silver Spring, Maryland doing a brief "Hail to the Redskins" song and getting booed. Even with a brand new owner and QB, the team still isn't that popular right now. Or there were plenty of Steelers and Dolphins (since the Dolphins make Darius cry) fans in the audience.
2024 is also the 30th anniversary of the first studio album of Lective Oul, I mean Collective Soul. Such an underrated band. I was going through their catalog after the show and realized there were several songs (such as Gel, Better Now, and Why, Pt. 2) that were major hits on various rock, adult, and alternative charts that the band didn't play on Saturday night. I guess that's what happens when you're the opening act and have lots of songs. In honor of Aerosmith's retirement, the band incorporated Livin' On The Edge in the middle of Shine. In both this and the cover of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, they enlisted the assistance of Edwin McCain.
Second personal highlight. Collective Soul lead singer Ed Roland concluded their set by talking about unity and love and had audience members hold hands with their neighbors and raise their hands in the air. Several minutes later, a fight nearly broke out in my section. I don't know what happened, but the wife/girlfriend/mistress/friend of one of the guys involved got him out of there. (They never returned.) A fight at a Hootie / Collective Soul / Edwin McCain show? Really?
Finally, I need to write about Win McCain, I mean Edwin McCain. McCain and Rucker/Hootie and the Blowfish go way back. Apparently, Hootie wouldn't sign a record deal without the record company also signing McCain. My joke before the show was that we might hear McCain play "I'll Be" 2-3 times. I forgot that he also sings I Could Not Ask For More. That's my entire knowledge of McCain's catalog. He performed a few other songs too that I didn't recognize, and I don't have any plans on downloading them. Still, McCain was the winner of the night. As I mentioned above, he joined Collective Soul twice during their set, and he also performed with Rucker during Hootie's set. McCain really seems like a down-to-earth guy who has been able to make a nice career out of music (he referenced hearing his song being played at Home Depot and telling his kids that this was paying for community college) and gets to tour and hang out with his friends. He could not ask for more.
* With that written, if I can make millions on YouTube by posting concert videos, I will definitely become that guy who watches and experiences concerts through my cell phone.
On Wednesday, July 31st, Livvy Dunne (social media star / LSU gymnast / Paul Skenes' girlfriend) shared pictures and videos of herself in Paris for the Olympics. Good for her. She has the opportunity to travel and watch some of the best athletes in the world. She shared more pictures yesterday at the Louvre Museum. Again, good for her. I'm jealous.
While I don't know Dunne's travel schedule (that would be stalking!), let's speculate that she left the United States on Tuesday, July 30th. Why am I bringing this up? On that day, the Pirates defeated the Houston Astros 6-2, bringing their record to 55-52 and 2 games out of the final playoff spot. As I'm typing this in the early morning of Friday, August 9th, the Pirates are 56-58 and 4.5 games out of the playoffs and behind several other teams.
The Pirates have gone 1-6 since Dunne left the country. Sure, most people will point to the bullpen for the team's downturn, but I think there is a correlation between the team's success and Dunne being in Paris. The players know that Dunne isn't watching their games being multiple time zones away. They feed on her support. Therefore, the Pirates organization needs to do everything in its power to get Dunne to return to the United States as soon as possible. Once she's back on American soil, the team will start winning again. Just like the late* George Zimmer says:
* Late of Men's Warehouse. George Zimmer is still with us.
The photo / screenshot above are from Livvy Dunne's Instagram page.
I really like Coco Gauff. She's the present and the future of American tennis. I'm rooting for her to win the gold medal in Paris and the US Open next month. However, there is no reason why she should have been the flag-bearer for the United States. This is Gauff's first time competing in the Olympics. The people honored to carry/hold the flag should have multiple trips to the Olympics, and for America, multiple medals from previous games.
Staying with the opening ceremonies, I was stunned seeing Rafael Nadal carrying the torch. I understand that he's loved in France for winning 181 French Open titles, but he's from Spain. The torch should be reserved for home-country athletes. I'll give a comparison. Nikola Jokic from Serbia is arguably the best active player in the NBA. Even if he wins the NBA MVP each of the next 4 years and the Denver Nuggets win all of the NBA titles during this time, he's not going to carry the torch in Los Angeles in 2028.
I'll make an exception to this statement. Let's say you are an Olympic star from a nation that is never going to host the Olympics. Think Usain Bolt. The International Olympic Committee is not going to have the games in Jamaica, so he could be part of lighting the torch in a different country. Serena Williams and Carl Lewis should (and will) be part of the opening ceremonies in LA. No reason for them to be part of the Paris torch ceremony.
Early prediction for lighting the torch in LA in 2028: 2-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the most famous people on earth: Michael Jordan.
Enough criticism. Let's get to the good stuff.
Go to the 4:25 mark of the US women's rugby highlight video. Ilona Maher is just awesome.
I've really enjoyed watching handball. I don't understand all of the rules, and there seems to be a foul on every play (and it's extremely difficult for goalies to make saves), I have two questions.
1. Why is one player (and sometimes two players) always in the corner and get the ball maybe once every 15 possessions?
2. Who decided to use a car horn blast in handball? (Go to the 4:30 mark of this video to hear it). I have flashbacks to being at a friend's house and my dad honking from the car to pick me up!
NBC showed a fantastic segment of Mary Carillo with a snail farmer and an escargot restaurant. If I can find it, I will share it here later. (Of course, NBC Sports isn't allowed videos to be played on sites other than YouTube.)
Teremoana Teremoana is a great name and looks extremely intimidating in the boxing ring. I'm rooting for him!
I miss Ric Blas not being at the Olympics. (If you don't know who this is, please go through my archives including my interview with him.)
Enjoy the games!
Photos by Team USA; Corbis/VCG via Getty Images; Dan Himbrechts/AAP Photos
In the earlier days of this blog, I regularly had Trivia Tuesday posts. They became less and less popular, so I stopped writing them. While I have no plans on bringing the Trivia Tuesday posts back, I thought I would try some old-school Pittsburgh trivia questions. Please leave your answers in the comment sections below.
1. Who was with Quinn in the morning?
2. Where does the place go crazy every 16 minutes?
3. Who said it would?
4. Fill in the blank: Don't say Olds, say ________ Olds.
5. What is the name of this sticker?
6. What is just minutes from the mall and on what street is this located?
7. What is Edgar Snyder's original phone number? (No area code necessary.)
8. What is Rusted Root's most-successful song?
9. Who is this?
10. What restaurant (probably best known for their roast beef sandwiches) had the slogan, "Fast Food with Style?"
Good luck! (There are no prizes, so please don't cheat. Even if there were prizes, still don't cheat.)
When I worked at The Ohio State University, my organization created a speaker series. This series was a fundraiser from donors in the Columbus community since the speakers didn't really appeal to most 18-24 year old college students. For example, Ira Glass of This American Life was one speaker. I didn't know anyone at the time in that age range that listened to NPR. While I don't remember any of the other speakers, there was one exception of an individual who appealed to college students and beyond: Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Dr. Ruth was exactly like she appeared on television. A small woman with a distinctive accent talking frankly about topics many people don't discuss openly. I don’t remember what she had to say (this was 20+ years ago), but she signed books after her talk. I mention this because I recently thought to myself that I would write a post about Dr. Ruth and the fact that I have a signed copy of her Sex for Dummies book (“For Dummies” books were a really popular genre back then) when she passed away. The book is in a box somewhere in my home, and I haven’t seen it or thought about Dr. Ruth in years. And just randomly, I thought about a potential blog post about this topic within the last week or two.
So now, I feel somewhat responsible for her death. Therefore, I’m writing to apologize to Dr. Ruth’s family and friends. It seems like she lived a very full and fulfilling life. May her memory be a blessing.
I've mentioned multiple times that I have been in the same fantasy/rotisserie baseball league since 1992. I have won the league just twice during this time in 2014 and 2016. My team is off to an amazing start where I'm in first place in 8 of the 10 categories and have a huge lead in overall points. Since it is only April, I figure there's no way that my team can keep up this pace. My apologies in advance to Mookie Betts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Elly De La Cruz, Zac Gallen, Tyler Glasnow, and William Contreras who I expect will all get injured in the next few months.
Sure enough Mookie Betts, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Zac Gallen, Javier Assad, and now Tyler Glasnow have all been on the injured list. J.T. Realmuto, who I acquired in a trade, is also hurt.
Except for Assad, all of these players are or have been all-stars. Somehow, I'm hanging on to first place with guys like Hunter Goodman, Brett Wisely, Donovan Solano, Michael Toglia, Kyle Freeland, and the corpse of Chris Taylor, all playing prominent roles on my team.
Still, if some of these guys get healthy, I like my chances. (Please come back soon Mookie and Fernando!)
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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