A No-Hitter!!

It was my pleasure to watch Angel Padron throw a no hitter tonight in the Caribbean Series, only the second such feat in the 75 years of the tournament. 

In fact, Padron had a perfect game going for Venezuela until he walked a batter in the eighth inning, and in the end threw a scant 87 pitches on the night. 

Congratulations sir!

Argylle

 

Lisa and I went to see Argylle tonight. It's the story of a spy novelist, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who finds herself embroiled in a real life adventure when a spy, played by Sam Rockwell, saves her life from an assassination attempt. 

Ok, first, the elephant in the room: we didn't see if for Henry Cavill, but posters be danged he's in it for all of like four minutes. 

Second: what an odd movie. 

I enjoyed it, but if you can't figure out the plot by the end of act one and identify ten other films just like it in thirty seconds, you're a dummkopf. 

And there are some tripppppy scenes LOL. Lisa fell asleep during the film, woke up to me laughing out loud at the insanity of the oil skating scene, and thought she was dreaming LOL 

It's a mess. Not a boring mess, but a mess. 

Grade: C

Toby Keith

Toby Keith, the country music legend with 32 #1 hits, among them "Should've Been A Cowboy," has died of stomach cancer at age 62.

In the '90's, when country music surged on the heels of Garth and I listened to the genre pretty regularly, I had a couple of Keith's albums. I'm familiar enough with his work that his early death came as a shock to me this morning. 

RIP

The Day the Music Died

 

65 years ago today the music died in an Iowa cornfield. 

You are not forgotten. 

RIP. 

Carl Weathers

Carl Weathers, the man who perfectly played Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise, and appeared in Predator and 

 The Mandalorian, has died at age 76.

I loved his performance as Apollo. He was one of the best parts of the series and it wouldn't have been the same without him in the role. 

RIP

Corbin Burnes has been Traded, and the Brewers Executives Suck

I think this trade is horses**t. 

First of all, it isn't a "blockbuster" trade unless you're sitting in Maryland.  In exchange for sending away a 3x All-Star and Cy Young winner, we receive infield prospect Joey Oritz, LH reliever DL Hall, and a throwaway compensation draft pick. 

Whoo-hooo.

Now, I do hope that in the years to come I look back on this and say "I was wrong, man those guys worked out for us!" Hall could potentially move into the rotation, Oritz is ranked the 63rd best prospect in the minors, and of course maybe we draft Babe Ruth with that pick. 

Could be. 

It would still be horses**t. 

Milwaukee and its myopic, ever-hopeful, ever-masochistic fans have already chimed in, repeating the script they've read every year:  "By golly, we will miss this player. But ya gotta think long-term. He was gonna leave as a free agent next year and this way we got some VALUE out of him. That's just the way a small market team has to operate dontcha know?"

Again, horses**t. 

That's the same malarkey you heard when the Brewers traded Josh Hader in the midst of a playoff run a couple years back, a move that sucked the life out of the team and left them .watching the playoffs from the couch. 

The ONLY value a player has for a team is the contribution they make towards winning. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a player's trade value as a flesh and blood stock certificate because they are an integral part of you getting a championship and the here and now, not next year, matters. 

It would be swell if Brewers executives understood that concept, because it's been "next year" for all 49 years of my life. 

My Thoughts - On the Never Ending Quest for the "Twist" that Makes the Truth Sell (Again)

Anything and everything will be disputed by academia. 

No one gets their name in print by saying "The established understanding of this text/action/ event is correct and there's nothing left to say about it" - even if that established understanding is, in fact, correct. 

No one. No matter how great the writer, or how famous their name. 

It's exhausting.

Before you go labeling me a flat-earther, I'm not talking about fields like medicine and hard science where you should be emphasizing new research and new ideas.

Even in the liberal arts I'm not above revisiting even a well-traveled topic once every few decades or whenever the fundamental basis of our comprehension has changed - if you discover that JFK faked his death, yes, then let's revisit the Warren report, shall we? 

What I *am* saying is that caution should be exercised whenever you see a new secondary source put forth information or a point of view notably at odds with what has come before. It doesn't mean its wrong, and in fact in might be the course-correction needed to put the tale right . . . but too often, especially in biographies, what gets you published is novelty; what gets you sales is dirt, and neither word necessarily includes the concept of "truth."