2018 Reg Seas Game #117 – at Royals – Sat 8/11

They seem to always throw a clunker in there every 3 or 4 games.

Yep, that’s what teams with glaring deficiencies do, they can’t maintain a consistent level of performance. However, now that the pen appears to no longer be a deficient, and perhaps even a strength, maybe the Cards can get on a good run and even get a sweep somewhere along the way.

Rats, I’m sure they are…but this is not the day of 85 mph pitchers throwing. Starters are low to mid 90s and most relievers are 95+ with at least one wicked breaking pitch. No one loves to strike out, but it’s a part of the game that will never go away apart from elite contact artists. The pitchers are simply too good.

There is some truth here. But when I see players swinging like maniacs with two strikes that absolute makes me want to throw my dang cigar at the screen. A lot of the strikeout problems nowadays is players swinging like maniacs and not just trying to put the ball in play.

r/Rat

Duffy goes apoplectic over 1st base ump’s check swing calls for Bader after Bader jacks one out. Duffy deserved to be tossed, but I was hoping for a good old fashioned baseball conversation at 1st base! Replays looked like good calls I think.

And there is another series win for the Redbirds, lets go for the sweep tomorrow.

Funny stuff, Mudville! Trust me when I say that I would have killed for 21K a week as a young man. I transferred from Bowling Green State University to Arizona State University after my frosh year. And that summer before school, a buddy and I worked as hoddies(spelling may be off) for a masonry crew out in Mesa for $7 an hour. They worked us like dogs in that 110 degree heat…. mixing and carrying cement….tossing around bricks….still recall the name of the most popular one….8-8-16’s. For the first time in my life I couldn’t wait for summer to end. And when school started I thought I’d get a job as a waiter. But this sales ad in the paper caught my eye as it was touting $10-$15 an hour, which wasn’t bad money back in the 80’s for a young person. So I went to apply at this place and was a bit taken back when I opened the door….big dirty smoke filled room with phones everywhere on these long tables. This older gentleman with a big cowboy hat and one of those ugly turquoise bolo ties draped around his neck explained that one could indeed make $10-$15 an hour by selling policeman ball tickets and police bumper stickers over the phone. He said the object of the game was to sound just like a police officer, but if they asked you if you were an officer you would have to be truthful….or you would immediately be terminated. The hours were monday-friday from 4p-8p, which sounded great. So that day I came back at 4pm to commence with my telemarketing career. Place was a madhouse. Over 40 people, mostly young like myself, but there was a few old timers mingled in. Imagine that many people in the same room all giving sales pitches on the phone. Anyway to start, the night room boss who was in his 30’s, simply ripped a page out of the Phoenix telephone book along with a one page sales pitch…..I still remember it word for word…..and told me that if I didn’t sell at least 2 an hour that I wouldn’t be around long. He further stated that if I ever were to get really good at my job that I could one day join the “elite crew”. These 3 lucky souls had it made….their own little comparatively quiet little comfy office located in the back….nice big soft chairs, nice carpeting, free soda pop, plus it even had a nice big window. Now these callers never touched a phone page. They sold what in the business was referred to as “taps”. “Taps” were like gold. They were cards with the names, addresses and of course phone numbers of previous policeman ball sponsors. A good salesman could re-sell these at about an 80% clip. Anyway, from day one I absolutely kicked butt selling from those phone pages. It took me less than a month to switch residence to the elite room. Then, a couple of months after that, the earlier described older gentleman and this other guy was sitting in place of our regular boss as I came into work one day. He took me outside and offered me the job as night manager for $400 a week plus an override based on how well we as a group performed. It ended up being between $600-$700 a week……which at the time seemed like all the money in the world to me….and my weekends were free! I did this my entire 3 remaining years of school. Now this is just a mere pittance compared to the coin these young players are making. I just cannot imagine making that much money at that early an age. It’s an absolute miracle that more of these players don’t get into trouble as a result. To their and their employers credit, they do pretty darn well considering the possible pitfalls.