Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans don’t trust women.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

He really is that stupid.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

No one could have predicted…

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Left Coast checking in. Let’s go, Giants! The Killer P’s will sting ya.

  2. 2.

    John Revolta

    I moved to KC fairly recently and am not all that emotionally invested in the teams. Also, my interest in pro sports has been waning for some years.
    Having said that: last night’s game was one of the best goddamn ball games I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few.

  3. 3.

    madmommy

    Watching with my 13 year old son, and he asked who the old guy who threw out the first pitch was. I told him, and mentioned that I remember watching him pitch. He said “So you can remember when that guy was a pitcher in the major leagues? Guess you’re feeling pretty old now, huh?” Blergh!

    I really hope the Pirates can finish this off in 9 innings, I can’t stay awake till midnight two nights in a row!

  6. 6.

    Mike J

    @madmommy:

    Watching with my 13 year old son, and he asked who the old guy who threw out the first pitch was.

    For those of us not watching, who was it?

  8. 8.

    Wally Ballou

    I know the TV people (and the Yinzers with day jobs) likely wouldn’t agree with me, but I really wish this had been an afternoon game, if only because no ballpark in MLB looks better dappled in sunlight and shadow than PNC.

  9. 9.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Mike J:

    For those of us not watching, who was it?

    Supposed to be Kent Tekulve. (Not actually watching.)

  13. 13.

    PopeRatzy

    Regardless of outcome John can be consoled that he didn’t have to watch the Pirates lose last night as he was planning.

  15. 15.

    raven

    Best fight I ever saw was at Three Rivers. Must have been 35 years ago but what I remember is that it was in the lower level, 1st base line and the cops just let em hook. It was abut 6 guys and it lasted 10 minutes.

  18. 18.

    madmommy

    @Mike J:
    It was Kent Tekulve, I was surprised at how old he looked. I’ve been watching games so long
    that I’ve gone from “he’s cute, I’d date him” to “I’m old enough to be his mother”.

  22. 22.

    Edo

    Goooo Giants!

    Having said that McCutchen should win the NL MVP. Yes, it’s partly because I hate the Dodgers. Natch.

  23. 23.

    madmommy

    @John Cole +0:

    Damn! I didn’t hear that part, we had the game on while working on a school project. Checked the WIki, he’s a year younger than my mom. I knew I remembered seeing him pitch in those striped hats the Pirates wore back in the day but couldn’t place the year.

  24. 24.

    Edo

    Goooo Giants!

    Having said that McCutchen should win the NL MVP. Yes, it’s partly because I hate the Dodgers.

  25. 25.

    Kathleen

    I’m rooting for Not The Cardinals. I’ve always liked the Pirates – saw them play at GABP this summer and while the Reds won finally the Bucs looked good.

    I’ve never been a Dodger fan, but I will definitely take them over the Cards. “Not The Cards” is a Cincinnati thing.

  28. 28.

    Gravenstone

    Hoping for a Royals/Bucs series. unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Pittsburgh got that memo (yet, anyway). If I can’t have that, then please let the NL proffer anyone but the fucking Cardinals! Anything bearing the taint of LaRussa needs to be burnt to the ground, then salted.

  31. 31.

    poptartacus

    It will be a giant/kc series. Giants in 6. KC will then return to thier usual position of being 26 GB at the all star break.

  32. 32.

    kindness

    Doesn’t look good for the Pirates. Sorry John. I am a Giants fan. Forgive us our team rivalries.

  33. 33.

    poptartacus

    Giants deserve the win, to balance the karmic scales of the A’s digusting “performance” last night

  35. 35.

    Eric S.

    I rot for the team the East Coast elite media deemed the most hated of the team’s in the playoffs. Femur like sir hairs to this Cardinals fan but whatevs.

    I wad routing fire the Buckos in this one. I love the “underdog” story. Plus the Giants just beat my Birds too often.

  36. 36.

    divF

    @poptartacus: The A’s performance wasn’t disgusting, just sad. The starting catcher Soto having to come out of the game early with an injury allowed KC to run wild on Norris. Center fielder Crisp having to come out of the game injured turned what should have been a Hosmer double in the 12th into a triple, and then a run on an infield hit to the third baseman Donaldson.

    The A’s did better than they had any right to. Low-budget teams can’t sustain injuries, and the A’s had a bunch. I don’t fault Beane for any of the trades he made in July – after 14 years of grinding out postseason appearances (8 since 2000, I think) and then not having the guns to get to the WS, who can blame him for trying something different?

    Some general takeaways from this season.
    (1) Replay is good, as it is currently structured. Umpires get the calls on the field right almost all of the time, and on those rare occasions they don’t, the replay challenge allows it to be fixed.
    (2) Particularly given (1), I’ve pretty much had it with plate umpires having their “personal” (or worse yet, inconsistent through the course of the game) strike zones.
    (3) The financial structure of the game needs to change. 29 years is too long for a team to wait to get to the postseason (KC). Eventually the fans will figure out that all of the expanded postseason hoopla still leads to the same 6-8 teams with payrolls north of $150M making it to the WS, and will lose interest.
    (4) With the rule changes on plays at the plate intended to protect the catchers, we are still seeing catchers’ injuries going up. A backswing that hits a catcher should be an automatic out.

  38. 38.

    Eric S.

    @divF: re: replay
    I accepted the inevitability but didn’t think I’d like it. I’ve changed my tune. My biggest complaint is the number of times managers come out on the field and stall while an assistant reviews video. I’d like to see rule changes to eliminate that to speed up the game.

  40. 40.

    randy khan

    @Eric S.: The manager stall while waiting for the in-house review is a feature, not a bug – it reduces the number of challenges and speeds up the game. It’s actually technically against the rules because there’s supposed to be a time limit for challenges, but everyone’s figured out that it’s better than having teams make half-baked challenges and wasting the couple of minutes it takes to resolve them.

    I kind of miss managers arguing about calls, but the truth is that the challenge system makes the game run more smoothly, so on the whole I’m pretty strongly in favor of it as it’s actually been implemented.

  41. 41.

    divF

    @Eric S.: I don’t mind the stalling. It happens infrequently – less often than pitching coaches’ visits to the mound, which take the same or less time. It is not nearly as bad as the extended television-driven breaks between half-innings, time which has to be filled with such inanities as dot racing.

    ETA: feature not bug – good observation.

  42. 42.

    randy khan

    @divF: Most of the teams that don’t make the playoffs year after year are not particularly competent, and use money as an excuse. In the last ten years (2004-2013), we’ve had:

    6 different World Series champions
    11 different teams in the World Series
    22 different division champions, plus one team that didn’t win a division that got in as a wild card

    That’s not so bad, particularly considering that the Yankees had only 1 World Series appearance (which, sadly, they won) in that time. For comparison, the NBA has had 5 different champions and 9 different teams in the Finals in the same period.

  43. 43.

    Eric S.

    The manager stall may not shlw the game as much as it seems to me but it is new and stands out in my mind. And for the record I don’t have complaints about game time in general.

    I saw MLB will be trying new rules to speed up games in the Arizona league this fall. There will be clocks timing pitchers, batters won’t be allowed to step or of the box willy nilly, and there will be a limit on mound visits that don’t result in pitcher changes. I don’t know how much it will shorten games but I agree with trying.

    An interesting theory I’ve heard is newer ballparks have less foul territory. Per the theory this results in more foul balls in the stands and less foul ball fly outs. That means more pitches per at bat and longer games. I have to think the data for this wouldn’t be too hard to put together. Maybe I’ll play with that soon.

    When one thinks about pitchers like Buerhle though you have to think the pitchers control the game tempo as much as anything.

  44. 44.

    divF

    @randy khan: My POV may be skewed by my following the American League, where in the last ten years the WS teams have been Boston (3), Texas (2), Detroit (2), Yankees (1), Tampa Bay (1) and Chicago (1). All but the last two I would consider high-payroll clubs, i.e. 8 out 10. Go back 5 more years and you get 4 more Yankees appearances, plus Anaheim, another high-roller, so 13 / 15. Not much competitive balance here.

  45. 45.

    divF

    @Eric S.: Since the Oakland Coliseum has probably the largest foul ground in baseball, it may explain why I don’t notice the length of the games :-).

  46. 46.

    Tree With Water

    Bumgarner would have beat any team in baseball tonight. That cat is a phenomanal big game pitcher.

    I also remember when the Giants got beat by the Pirates in the playoffs by a team that included Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Manny Sanguillen, circa 1971. I remember the vibe of the crowd filing out of Candlestick that day with the series headed back to Pittsburg, resigned almost to what indeed awaited the Orange & black back there. Still, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Pirates, and there are a lot of other teams I’d rather have seen whipped like they were tonight. But oh well, wait till next year.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack

    @divF:

    [. . .] I’ve pretty much had it with plate umpires having their “personal” (or worse yet, inconsistent through the course of the game) strike zones.

    Agreed. Especially when (to compare with another sport) in tennis they now have technology that can (allegedly) tell down to an incredibly small margin whether a serve is in or out. And all the TV games now have “PitchTrack” or something similar to show where the pitches go.

    I don’t think that pitch-calling should be automated, but there should be some review/remedial program to monitor what umpires call and to whip them into line with some sort of “standard” strike zone.

  50. 50.

    Darkrose

    @Steeplejack: Inconsistent through the game is bad. Inconsistent through the same at-bat drives me absolutely insane. So does the excuse that “they’ll give you the call once you’ve proved that you can throw strikes”. Every time Krukow says that I scream: “That’s not okay!” at the TV.

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