Tales from the ballfield

The workplace, more often than not these days

During my umpiring shift tonight, one of the teams playing was The Leftovers, one of my favorites to call games for (hi, Neal!). Unfortunately, they were on the adjacent field from me and I got stuck with other teams this time while fellow ump Ian got to do their game. Still, I had a fairly good group to work with on my field and things were mostly fine.

But I did have The Leftovers last week, and one of the fun things about them is that they record all their games and often do goofy things with the video. Last week's video didn't include any of the goofy stuff, but it did capture an argument between me and two players from the opposition team, the not-so-cleverly-named Blue Ballers, over a bang-bang call at home plate. (It may be useful to know that the Blue Baller pitcher had been getting on my nerves for a good while before this happened with snide remarks about ball/strike calls.) Usually when someone bitches at me about a call I can say, hey, it's not like we have video replay here. And that's true even when Neal and co. are recording, because I can't exactly ruin their video setup to check it. But, it does mean there's video to review after the fact. And in this case, I can definitively say that the call was...made. Was it right? Wrong? Even with video, I can't tell. Which is good, because it means the arguing players, who claimed (a) the call was made before the runner had reached home plate, and (b) that the runner never stepped on the plate, were both full of shit. Either way, I did a better job than C.B. Bucknor does on any given day, so stick it, Blue Ballers.

 

 

Nothing so dramatic tonight, just some embarrassment for me as I reverse-Denkingered a call at first base. I knew it right away, too, but I let it pass because the team it was against was leading by a ton of runs and I knew it wasn't going to matter. Except the other team started to come back. When they got within five I was nervous. Fortunately for me, their lead blew open again in the final inning and my botched call mattered not. Whew!

Tagged Umping, Softball, CB Bucknor, Don Denkinger   |   Posted on August 22, 2024 at 12:46am   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

I'm bad at haggling

Yesterday I had the inspection done on the ’07 Prius. It was done by the very fine mechanics at Everybody's Auto Service, who are awesome and whom I heartily recommend (unlike the people at Bucky's Shoreline; I'm 85% sure they ripped me off last winter when fixing my Subaru's exhaust system). They found a few routine things and two big red marks on the inspection checklist, including the critical component of a Prius, the hybrid battery.

The car had been presented to me by the used car dealership as having had its hybrid battery replaced with a new one in 2021 and thus had years of life left in it. That was one of its main appeals over other cars I had been considering, and finding out it's actually either still the original battery from 2006 or just as bad as that is a deal-breaker. The car also has some suspension issues that are less critical but should be addressed sometime.

Anyway, the Everybody's guys quoted me a very good price for parts and labor, but still nearly $3,000 to remedy these problems. So I had to decide whether to keep the car or exercise my option to return it and reclaim my Subaru while I still could. But I decided to try a middle ground first and see if the seller would kick in for the repairs.

That is what happened in the end, but not before I gave myself a fair amount of unnecessary stress and anxiety.

As I said before, I have very little experience with the subspecies of humans known as car salesmen. But I know their reputation, and as much as I would like to discard any prejudicial thinking, it was there and being reinforced; I resented having been pressured into buying the car before an inspection and was irked about the misrepresentation of a new battery and was thus casting aspersions in my head on the men who sold me the car.

But I still wanted to get this whole transaction completed in a satisfactory way, so I thought about how to approach the dealer about covering repair costs. I called the dealership and left a message that the inspection wasn't satisfactory and we could negotiate further or I would negate the deal, then waited for them to respond. Meanwhile, I was arguing both sides in my head—I want this, they would counter with, well, that isn't really our responsibility; I'd say, you would have to do these repairs if I returned the car anyway, and you do want my Subaru, right? They'd say, well, we'll cover the suspension repair, the rest is usual expectations; I'd insist the hybrid battery is critical and they promised it was new, they'd say it wasn't us that promised anything of the kind, the notation of battery replacement was from before we took possession. This went on and on in my head.

I reached a conclusion—totally one-sided, mind you, with no input whatsoever from the dealer—that I could probably get them to pay for parts and beyond that would involve a tense back-and-forth that would ultimately depend on how badly they wanted the Subaru.

They didn't get back to me until around noon today, so my subconscious continued to plague me as I slept. I had dreams about telling off car dealers, about having to steal back the Subaru because they wouldn't honor their opt-out guarantee, about an endless feud of pettiness between me and the city of Monroe, where the dealership is. This was my state of mind when I heard back from them.

The actual conversation with the dealership went like this:

Me: "The inspection turned up $3,000 worth of repairs, I would not have agreed to the contract had I been made aware of these issues."

Car salesman: "I understand, that's why we offered you the opt-out."

Me: "If you guys would kick in for a good percentage of the repairs, we can call the deal sealed, otherwise I'll be back to see you in an hour to reclaim my Subaru."

Salesman: "Well, what would you want from us, what do you think is fair?"

Me (somewhat indignantly): "That you pay for replacement parts, that's about half the estimate from my mechanic."

Salesman: "OK, we can do that. We'll cut you a check."

So, I learned nothing from the trade-in conversation on Friday, when I clearly had the leverage and lowballed myself asking for just $100 more than their increased offer. I still don't think they'd have agreed to pay the whole $3k, but I might have been able to get $2k out of them? Ultimately, I'll get $1,350, which is the cost of parts, exactly what I asked them for based on nothing more than my inexperienced and uninformed self-arguments.

I'm not sure if this is a failing or not, really. I mean, I realize that negotiation strategy says to start by asking for more than you think you'll get and trade figures downward until you reach unacceptable levels, but that goes against the grain for me, especially when I'm at the contextual disadvantage. So I was straightforward in asking for what I thought was the minimally fair result in both cases (trade-in and repair), intending to end it right there if it wasn't agreed to; the other party is under no obligation of any sort to tell me if my interpretation of fair was lower than theirs. So do I think of it as integrity or playing myself for a sucker?

Right now I fee like it's both.

But ultimately I have the car. It will, after repair, have cost me an amount only slightly outside the budget I'd given myself. I still have to get the repairs done, which I have a request out to Everybody's to schedule. After that I can move on. Literally, and using less than half the gasoline as before.

Tagged Cars, Money   |   Posted on August 20, 2024 at 6:03pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

I bought a car

I bought a car yesterday. I hadn't really intended to. I mean, I fully intended to at some point before the year was out, I just wasn't planning on doing it yesterday.

I'd been half-heartedly looking at car sites online and budgeting things in my head for a while—first after spending $3,500 on repairs to my previous car in February and then with a little more seriousness when I got a warning light on my dash some weeks ago that promised more expense to come a few months down the line—but yesterday's visit to a dealership to check out a particular listing was, I expected, just going to be a test drive and some experience with car salesmen to build upon when I'm really ready to go later on.

I think it's that lack of experience with car dealers that ultimately had me signing papers, and I'm not altogether sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, I got a good deal on the car; all told, out the door including fees, taxes, and the trade-in of my prior 25-year-old jalopy, I got a 2007 Prius with 120k miles on it and a really good 1-owner service history for $8,100. The only Priuses (Prii?) I'd found in my searching that were less expensive had good reason to be so, either with damage histories or much higher mileage. I don't regret the purchase and I'm hopeful it will work out well in the long run.

But I wanted to do things in a certain order and the dealer wasn't cooperating with my more methodical approach. That makes it sound like I was dealing with hardass high-pressure sales dudes, but if so they were really good at it and knew just the right way to charm without overtly charming, if that makes sense. I knew from the time of making the appointment that I had competition, one potential buyer at that location and a few from their primary lot in North Bend, where the car would have been taken early next week if it hadn't sold yet. (Whether the car would really have gone to North Bend in a few days I don't know, I give it a 40-60 chance that was BS, but I was reasonably sure I was competing with three others of indeterminate seriousness of intention.) Also, the dealership was not conveniently located, it was a 45 minute drive from my home; this was a Friday afternoon and anyplace I could get it inspected wouldn't be available until Monday; there was no attempt to upsell or get me to finance with them; and they offered me more than expected for my trade-in.

I just don't make big decisions impulsively. I am the Processing King of Shoreline, after all, I generally have to think things through to an extent that goes beyond usefulness. So I had a bit of anxiety at the dealership. I was about to walk away when the owner of the dealership upped the trade-in offer by $200, making it that much more than what others and websites had led me to believe I would get for trade-in value. He wanted my Subaru. So I asked for another $100 on top of that and he agreed and I felt like, OK, now I have to do it. Also, damn, maybe I should have asked for $200 more.

Still, I did insist on a window in which to get it third-party inspected with a guarantee that if the inspection turned up anything misrepresented or omitted by the dealer the contract would be nullified and I'd get my Subaru back, and they gave that in writing without any hemming and hawing at all.

So in effect I got what I wanted out of my deliberative process, I just had to get there in a more anxious way. Inspection is scheduled for Monday afternoon, I have until Thursday at close of business to exercise my "opt-out," if you will.

If they hadn't pressured me to buy it on the spot, or if they hadn't agreed to my trade-in ask, I'd likely not have gotten to go back for it later and eventually bought something else that would either have cost me more money, been a bit older, and/or been in worse condition. Or maybe not, who knows. My other leading contender had been an ’04 with about the same mileage and a lesser service history and a higher price tag by about $500. Others I was looking at had been in accidents, had been rental cars, or were more than $10k, and beyond that I'd be looking at payments and I have serious debt anxiety. I'd previously made an appointment to see another one today that's listed at $10k+ and that I was hoping I could negotiate down, but I obviously cancelled that.

Despite the residual anxiety, I'm looking at this in a positive light. When I get the inspection report I'll feel better either way—good choice, or CTRL-Z on the whole thing.

For now, though, it's a little weird; I parked it in a lot when I went into a store on the way home yesterday and when I came back out I automatically started heading for the red car parked a few spaces away before realizing that I don't have a red car anymore. Nothing is where I expect it to be on the dashboard. The split-level rear window is a bit strange. It's a little disconcerting when the gas engine stops running at stoplights. The buttons on the key fob are way too sensitive and I inadvertently set off the alarm last night. It'll take a little getting used to.

It's a used car, of course, so it's got some wear on it. The worst is a crack in the plastic bumper cover (I'd guess from backing into a post in a parking garage), which I can fix myself if I want to take the time to do it (thank you, YouTube). There's a tiny bit of paint scratching and a bit of paint wear on the rear spoiler. Again, I can touch that up if I want to, a can of matching paint and one of topcoat would cost less than $40. Even if I screw up the bumper and need a replacement, I can get one for $100 and paint/install it myself.

Now I've just got to figure out the "smart key" and how to pair the car to my phone. Sometimes it's weird, living in the future.

Tagged Cars, Money   |   Posted on August 17, 2024 at 5:54pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment

Sweep the Mets

B eat the Mets, beat the Mets, step right up and sweep the Mets...

The 2024 Seattle Mariners continue to confound, having just completed a three-game sweep of the New York Mets in which they outscored the visiting Gothamites 22-1. Coming into the series, the Mets were, by record, a superior team and holding a playoff position in the National League. Now they are not.

In the previous series, the Mariners were bested two-games-to-one by the well-under-.500 Detroit Tigers and were saved from a three-game sweep the bad way by the inexperience of a Detroit rookie right fielder, who let the game-winning runs score after misplaying a base hit into a walkoff double. Detroit outscored Seattle 13-8 in that series, including the three two-out runs that flipped that final game in Seattle's favor. 

There just is no consistency with this team. At least, not in terms of wins and losses; they had one good hot streak when they won eight of nine in June, but they followed that up with a slump that saw them drop 10 of 13. Hey, maybe they're finally on a roll! Ugh, now they're back to stinking up the place.

It's frustrating, because they could be truly great. They have a pitching staff that's the envy of the baseball world, but as has been the case for years, those pitchers have to make do with minimal support from the lineup. Prior to the late-July trades, there was no one in the Seattle offense that could be relied upon for much of anything except a whiff when putting the ball in play is what mattered.

As discussed yesterday, this is a self-inflicted would on the Mariners' part. The front office at some point decided to go all in on the idea of home runs as the only goal of batting. They hired coaches to perpetuate that thinking, and since 2020 those coaches include one Jarret DeHart. For the mini-season of 2020 and for 2021, DeHart was the number-two guy under Tim Laker, who at least was a former big-league catcher with experience to shape his methods even if he proved to be a rather poor batting coach. Since then, DeHart has been the top dog in the offensive coaching department despite never playing professional ball and going into coaching straight out of college—when the joined the M's in ’20, he was younger than rookies Sam Haggerty, Braden Bishop, and Jake Fraley; the same age as second-year big-leaguer Ty France and third-year player J.P. Crawford; and barely older than rookies Kyle Lewis and Evan White.

Now, experience does not equal effectiveness. The M's have had plenty of coaches and managers that prove that. But it helps. It's not only something to inform one's own thinking, it's something that players will rely on when taking instruction. Only with DeHart, almost every guy on the squad has more experience hitting a baseball than he does. Even young Julio Rodríguez was in pro ball while DeHart was still a student at Tulane. None of DeHart's experience involves life as a pro player, not even the low minor leagues, and once someone gets to the Majors the issues coaches face with players are as much psychological as mechanical (if not more so). I can't imagine a player in a slump going up to DeHart and asking for tips on how to work out of it and getting anything back that is relatable.

We've got several years' worth of history now with DeHart in the dugout, so I decided to look at the numbers. Here's a sampling (bold = MLB worst):

Year	W-L	R/G	BA	OBP	SLG	BA rank	OBP rank	K rank	3B <2 out RBI / MLB Avg	K%	3B <2 out K%	Prod. out % / MLB Avg
2020	27-33	4.23	.226	.309	.370	24th	27th	22nd	54.5% / 49.3%	25.0%	19.8%	28.1% / 25.3%
2021	90-72	4.30	.226	.303	.385	30th	28th	26th	46.5% / 49.9%	24.8%	23.6%	23.0% / 26.4%
2022	90-72	4.26	.230	.315	.390	27th	T15th	20th	46.4% / 50.9%	22.8%	18.9%	23.5% / 26.9%
2023	88-74	4.68	.242	.321	.413	22nd	16th	29th	41.7% / 50.1%	25.9%	27.1%	22.8% / 26.8%
2024	63-56	4.01	.218	.303	.371	29th	25th	30th	42.9% / 51.1%	27.8%	26.2%	18.7% / 28.0%

We can probably discount 2020 since it wasn't a real season with only 60 games. Still, the only thing better then was scoring runners from third, otherwise the whole DeHart era holds up as being terrible. The fact that the Mariners won as many games as they have in this span is shocking and shows how good they are on the pitching side of things. It's a real Jeckyll/Hyde coaching staff—hitting is the terrifying monster, pitching and defense (under Pete Woodward and Perry Hill, respectively) are the genius doctor.

The biggest item in that table to me is the productive out rate. Being able to advance runners is a necessary skill for any batter, but the M's just don't care about it. The scoring runners from 3rd with 0 or 1 out is in part a subset of the productive out rate, it just happens to be the most important one and the strikeout rates tell us that there is no adjustment being made for situational hitting: an easy RBI opportunity when a run can be batted in without needing a hit is treated no differently than any other trip to the plate.

But let's get a basis for comparison here. In contrast to the DeHart years, here's the same number set from the years Edgar Martínez was batting coach:

Year	W-L	R/G	BA	OBP	SLG	BA rank	OBP rank	K rank	3B <2 out RBI / MLB Avg	K%	3B <2 out K%	Prod. out % / MLB Avg
2016	86-76	4.74	.259	.326	.430	10th	9th	17th	49.7% / 50.5%	20.7%	21.6%	28.0% / 29.4%
2017	78-84	4.63	.259	.325	.424	11th	15th	22nd	50.0% / 50.9%	20.6%	20.9%	26.6% / 27.9%
2018	89-73	4.18	.254	.314	.408	10th	18th	3rd	50.0% / 49.6%	20.1%	20.3%	27.0% / 27.3%

Edgar wasn't the greatest coach, it turns out being the best at doing something doesn't necessarily translate into being the best at teaching it. But his experience surely counted for something: Though the runs per game and the on-base rate aren't much different, the productive out numbers are at least around league average and the strikeouts are significantly better. And for all of DeHart's emphasis on power hitting, the slug rates are generally worse under his reign.

I was happy to see the sweep of the Mets. It kept Seattle tied for the top spot in the American League West. But if that productive out rate was even average—just average!—this team, with this staff of starting pitchers, would be running away with the division and already plotting postseason strategies.

Clearly, I had too much time on my hands today.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners   |   Posted on August 12, 2024 at 9:14pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Mariner musings

I attended the Mariner game last night with my friend Bill, a game that ended in a 6-0 victory for the hometown M's against the visiting New York Metropolitans. It was a crisply played game, one with timely hitting from the usually-moribund Seattle lineup to go with the great-as-usual starting pitching that was a welcome contrast to the previous series, when the M's dropped two of three—and really should have lost all three—to the rebuilding Detroit Tigers.

All season long—and really this goes back a few years at least—the Mariners' hitting prowess has been a joke. At this moment they are last in the Major Leagues in team batting average (.217), last in hits, and next-to-last in total bases. They are above only the hapless Chicago White Sox (who just snapped a 21-game losing streak), the nearly-as-hapless Miami Marlins, and those rebuilding Tigers in on-base percentage; and above only the White Sox and Marlins in runs scored per game. Yet, somehow they remain tied for first place in the American League West.

That's a testament to the outstanding pitching staff, but if either of the two other contenders in the division were having a typical season, the M's wouldn't be in shouting distance of first place with those kinds of offensive numbers.

Why are they so bad, though? I mean, the M's aren't lacking talented players. Most of the roster has shown real ability to hit.

My opinion? It's institutional. The Mariners themselves—the club entity, not the individual players—have employed a batting philosophy that does not work and coaching personnel that do not help, and rather than address that fundamental issue they have looked to scapegoating individual players as a method of "finding the problem."

After leading the universe in strikeouts last season, their attempt at a solution was to get rid of the players that had the most Ks and bring in less strikeout-prone replacements. Result? This season's Mariners once again lead all of baseball in strikeouts.

Over the course of this season, when things have been going poorly for some players, rather than try to address the struggles they either do nothing or drop them from the team. Mitch Garver is having the worst year of his career by a long shot, but no one is helping him try to right the ship. Having his own down year, Ty France was unceremoniously designated for assignment and eventually traded to the Reds for, I think, a used rosin bag and some sunflower seeds. This for a guy that was an All-Star as recently as 2022, a guy who looked like the second coming of Edgar Martinez until midway through last year's campaign (and a guy who I still believe will win a batting title or two at some point; now, though, it'll be for someone else). He's only had a few games with the Reds so far, but I will be surprised if he doesn't end the year batting at least .275 post-trade.

The Mariners have a batting coach named Jarret DeHart, a guy who has never played above college ball and is somehow in his fifth year as a big-league batting coach despite still being too young to run for President by several years. He's a child of the Statcast Age, someone who lives by the newfangled code of the "launch angle" and wants to see his hitters belt home runs as often as possible. And, since he's kept his job for these five years—there were rookies on the team older than him when he started!—I have to think the front office shares his priorities and hitting philosophies. Even though they haven't worked out. At all.

We've already mentioned the strikeouts. Those come part and parcel with swinging for the fences. Try to hit home runs all the time and you're going to strike out a lot, it's inevitable. So it only pays off if you make up for that in other ways, like drawing walks or hitting an exceptional number of extra-base hits. Even if you do that, a whole team doing that is not going to score much.

So, the M's lead the universe in striking out, but is that offset by slugging? Well, no. As a team they are currently slugging .369, again better than only the bottom-feeding White Sox and Marlins. They do draw a fair number of walks, but that doesn't mean much because once those batters are on base they don't usually come home: The M's leave 62% of baserunners aboard at the end of innings (league average is about 56%), thanks in large part to their inability to drive in runs from third base with 0 or 1 out. Predictably, the M's are last in the Majors in sac flies with just 16 on the year (MLB average is 31).

There are a few Mariners doing well and a few others who've improved, but that's telling as well. The guys doing well are mid-season acquisitions from other clubs: Victor Robles, the team's leading hitter at .310/.378/.460 since suiting up for Seattle, and Randy Arozarena, who in a dozen games as a Mariner has a line of .279/.414/.442. Meantime, Mitch Haniger,  Cal Raleigh, and Jorge Polanco have picked things up of late—Haniger has posted an on-base mark of .340 since the All-Star break (compared to .280 before); Raleigh likewise has an OBP of .340 since the last visit to Anaheim to play the Angels in early July (.294 before); and Polanco has posted a line of .282/.342/.535 over the past month (until aggravating a nagging injury the other night) after batting just .190/.280/.284 prior to that. The telling bit with those three is that each of them started hitting after consulting with outside help, getting coaching sessions with ex-big leaguers they know. Raleigh went to see Denny Hocking at Big League Swings in Anaheim for some private tutelage; Haniger has a history with an ex-player outside coach (I want to say Steve Lake, but I could easily be misremembering that) he reportedly revisited during the break; according to broadcaster Dave Sims, Polanco has a guy he went to for help while he was on the injured list.

This tells me that Jarret DeHart is so not-good at his job, that the Mariners as an organization are so bad when it comes to coaching batting and instruction on fundamentals, that any player needing an assist has to make time for and expend effort in finding it elsewhere; and if guys are going well after learning their craft somewhere else, they shouldn't listen to anything DeHart and his staff tells them.

Bill and I had a lot of fun at last night's game, with the good play on the field and the good conversation not only between the two of us but also with a pair of tourists from San Francisco in the row behind us who knew their baseball despite being far too young (they looked maybe 25) and shared my appreciation for ballpark aesthetics. On the drive home we were still kind of marveling at the score, and when I dropped Bill off he said to his neighbor, "the Mariners scored six whole runs! Can you believe it?"

Still tied for first. A postseason appearance is still as likely as not. But having no batting coach at all might be better than the negative impact the current one appears to inflict on the team.

 

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners   |   Posted on August 10, 2024 at 7:34pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment

More journalistic malpractice

Thursday afternoon, ex-President VonClownstick held a "press conference" at his tacky golf motel/stolen document storage facility. The reporters in attendance were treated to exactly what anyone who's been paying attention would have expected: a standard-issue Trump Grievance Whine campaign rally rant, with questions from the "press" that went unanswered and un-followed-up on. But the worst thing about it was not the candidate, it was the collective cowardice/incompetence of the reporters.

Shameful.

It's not a new phenomenon. Reporters have been treating this clown in much the same manner for almost a decade. But what is new, at least to me, is to see a fellow journalist take these worthless reporters down on national TV. That's what Lawrence O'Donnell did on his MSNBC show Thursday night.

Worth a look. It's about 15 minutes long, and then segues into Tim Walz introducing Kamala Harris at a speech to the UAW that, unlike the inane Trump presser, was not carried live on television.

 

Tagged Politics, Journalism, Lawrence O'Donnell   |   Posted on August 10, 2024 at 5:18pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

We're Not Going Back

I designed the above as a bumper sticker and ordered a couple dozen of them. If you want one, let me know.

I did this because I'm psyched. Like I said before, I did not expect Joe Biden dropping out of the race to result in a non-chaos nightmare, but boy am I glad to be wrong on that one.

Kamalamentom is a real thing, it seems, and I absolutely love the choice of Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz is a relatable guy, military background as well as Congressional and statewide executive experience, and maybe best of all, a public school teacher. As Rachel Maddow put it the other day (paraphrasing), knowing how to handle a high school cafeteria food fight will be a useful skill when dealing with Republicans in Congress.

The pair of them are inspiring, and they have ex-President VonClownstick flailing and melting down. It's got me feeling more optimistic than ever that we'll avoid the headlong dive into authoritarian dictatorship that, though it remains a real possibility, seems more remote.

I heard about the video below—a PSA for a new Minnesota law a few years back restricting cell phone usage while driving—when listening to a recent episode of the Bob Cesca Show, so I went and looked for it on YouTube. I enjoyed it a lot, I think it shows so much of Tim Walz's humor and midwestern charm and "America's Dad" personality that will be a delight on the campaign trail. Please to enjoy.

 

 

Tagged Politics, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz   |   Posted on August 10, 2024 at 12:50am   |   Permalink   |     |  

2 Comments

Free time

Well, Dad, it took several years, but you were right—there did come a time that I wanted to paint and/or stain these:

It's the ones on the right and one of the 3-drawer units in the middle that are my original homemade comic-book cabinets, built some time back in my dad's garage. The other center unit is newly built, the one on the left and another 8-drawer unit out of frame were built around the time I moved into my current abode. Out of frame below are ones made when I was a teenager by a contractor that my mom had hired to remodel her kitchen. (Those needed some adjustment; the contractor didn't really know what they were for. Those adjustments were also made in recent years.)

I also replaced, recut, and/or repositioned the 12 front panels on those initial builds, as they were all a little wonky in one way or another, and the 8 fronts in the out-of-frame cabinet that were originally done on the cheap and didn't fit that well.

Even with the new unit, these are all full. But there's no longer any overflow (well, not much) other than the batch previously pulled for eBay sales. There's room for maybe one more unit before drastic measures would have to be taken, so I'd best get really cracking on the eBay selling to slow the growth. This is a collection I've been amassing since I was 10 or 11 years old, some of which I really value having and a lot of which is, frankly, chaff. But collectors of anything will understand—even when trying to pare down and remove some chaff, there's always net growth.

It's been a fun project at any rate, something I had time to do since I don't have a lot of client work at the moment. I'm not minding that, really. Thanks to my mom willing me some resources, I'm not desperate for cash; between the work I do have and my umpiring gig, I'm getting by reasonably comfortably. A little woodworking in the garage has been a nice way to spend part of my summer.

It all looks a lot better now, despite some remaining wonkiness in some of the alignments. I can live with it.

I know, I know: Nerd.

Tagged Comics, Projects   |   Posted on August 10, 2024 at 12:31am   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Biden's latest mammoth success

What a difference a day makes.

All day Sunday and well into Monday I remained fretful. Afraid of the chaos and catastrophe that would result from a free-for-all at the Democratic Convention, wary of the media shitstorm that would drive and promote said chaos leading up to the convention, bracing for the Republican exploitation of all that chaos. It had the potential for unparalleled disaster considering the stakes of this year's election.

But by late yesterday most of my agitation was gone. My anxiety receded to a normal, healthy level of "WTF??!!!" regarding national politics in this time of Republicans becoming full-on fascists.

All thanks to Joe Biden.

Not because the president stepped aside and ended his reelection campaign, but because of how he did it. In a masterstroke of irony, President Biden did what few if any other leaders could do, successfully herded cats throughout the Democratic party and turned what he undoubtedly felt was an unfair, outsized, irrational betrayal by, if not party leadership then the American electorate, into a feat of political deftness that once again may have saved the country from fascism and a failing press corps.

I realize this is largely based in suppositions, but I have to believe this or something very close to this is true: Perhaps a week ago, likely just after he did the interview with Lester Holt on NBC, the president met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer somehow convinced him that key states were so greatly at risk, and that downballot races were so greatly at risk, that we'd be balancing on a knife's edge all the way through election day and that even if the president prevailed, the Senate would be lost to the fascists. Over the next few days, President Biden considered this information, consulted with the vice-president and his inner circle, and proceeded to work on a deal with the Democratic Party leaders. He would drop out of the race for renomination if and only if everyone got behind Vice President Harris right away. There was to be no open convention, no more infighting, no more of the crap that fed the irresponsible reportage that we've been swimming in. If the people who were allegedly considering getting into the race agreed not to run, if everyone in leadership would endorse Kamala Harris, and do it with time to spare before the pre-convention official nomination that needs to happen to counter Republican legal fuckery in Ohio and maybe a couple of other states, then he would agree to step aside. If not, he was in it to the end, because chaos would help Trump win way more than Biden being the nominee would.

The agreement was reached, and the president kept his final decision to himself from probably Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. Then he kept quiet until the Republican convention of autocratic fanboys and fangirls and cultists concluded, finally informing everyone at once on Sunday afternoon. Allowing a brief interval to pass while people reacted to the bombshell, he then released the statement throwing his full unequivocal support to Vice President Harris.

And what do you know, as the hours passed, Harris was endorsed by more and more Democratic leaders. Biden delegates in state after state pledged themselves to the VP. By the end of yesterday, Harris had the enthusiastic support of a healthy majority of the delegates needed to win the nomination.

Democrats are a so-called "big tent" party. We welcome all sorts, pretty much anyone who's supportive of the U.S. Constitution, which means there's lots of disagreement within. It's always a mess to get through a primary season when there's no incumbent running and there is always a faction that won't support the eventual nominee because reasons. I have to think that, without Joe Biden's skills and experience in politics, this transition to Vice President Harris would have been a clusterfrak.

Joe came through for us. Again. Despite (and because of!) the way he was treated by the press, by some of his own party, and by voters who claimed—without backing the claim up—he had zero chance to win reelection even though his has been the single most accomplished administration in a generation or more. (And, as was pointed out by Lawrence O'Donnell last night, done with a degree of difficulty neither LBJ or FDR had to face given the makeup of Congress then and now.)

I still believe Biden would have won in November, but now we'll never know. I also think Kamala Harris is fantastic, that she is a formidable candidate that can and will win by a much larger margin.

I didn't want Joe to drop out. He deserves better. But I'm pleased with how things have turned out so far and anticipate a very fine Harris presidency.

Tagged President Biden, Democrats, Kamala Harris   |   Posted on July 23, 2024 at 3:16pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Now what?

Well, I didn't see that coming.

Really. I did not think I was wrong when I said Joe Biden isn't going anywhere. But clearly I was, because just before I left for my umpiring shift today he ended his campaign for reelection.

Not much news has broken yet, just the official statement of his withdrawal from the race and an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. Plus word that several Democratic leaders have also endorsed Harris.

What made Joe change his mind? We may learn that at some point, we may not. I mean, we'll get a rationale sometime this week, I imagine, but I wonder if it will be real or just sanitized for public consumption. Was the president truly convinced this was the best move, or was he essentially forced into it by moneyed interests? Was it just due to polling? If it was simply polling data, then shame on the Democratic Party; the polling is janky and incomplete to say the least, and is more an indictment of the party apparatus' failure to break through the noise and bullshit in what passes for news media these days.

I hope, and I suspect, that President Biden made it a condition of his agreeing to step aside that all the party mucketymucks get behind Harris, that the alternative candidate possibilities that have been thrown around—Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, House and Senate leaders—promise not to run and fuck things up. That the condition for his agreeing to not run is the infighting stops. NOW.

It was not so much the president's debate performance that killed his candidacy as it was the subsequent freakout and colossally irresponsible corporate press obsessing over the freakout and ignoring the Republican promises to turn this country into an autocratic despotism. The people freaking out and the press seem to want chaos, as infighting sells newspapers (or their digital equivalents) and generates ratings on cable news, and the last thing we need now is chaos at next month's Democratic Convention. Assuming the decision was not, in fact, based on a legitimate and specific health issue, I have to imagine that President Biden is pretty pissed off right now.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a lengthy video on Friday warning against pushing Biden aside because of the logistics, the fact that the primary is over, and the fact that Republicans will exploit any chaos that results not just politically but legally, possibly finding ways for critical state ballot decisions to make their way to the six corrupt apostates on the Roberts Supreme Court. Her arguments are basically the same as the ones I've tried to make, and are why I am now freaking out when I wasn't before.

If there is chaos, we're in serious trouble. If it is a smooth, conflict-free (relatively; I mean, we are Democrats) transition to Vice President Harris atop the ticket, then things might start to look good again. But until the convention is over in a few weeks I will be metaphorically biting my nails and spastically twitching now and again in anticipation of a supreme self-inflicted fuckup that ends the country.

 

 

Tagged Politics, President Biden, Democrats, Kamala Harris, AOC   |   Posted on July 21, 2024 at 8:03pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

No Comments yet

Panic never leads to good decisions

It's been two weeks since the horrible, awful, no-good debate performance from President Biden. In that two weeks, the press—most notably the New York Times, but plenty of other outlets as well—has been stunningly irresponsible in perpetuating the panic within the Democratic party. A panic brought on by the two big events the president appeared at after his multiple trips to Europe last month: a fundraiser in Los Angeles and the so-called "debate" in Atlanta. The president was not at his best, to say the least, at either event, appearing tired and softspoken and failing to deliver the kind of tactical rhetoric that would effectively wound Donald Trump. Some Democrats have extrapolated from this that President Biden is too frail, too diminished, to continue running for reelection, and the Times and other media have jumped on it like flies swarming over fresh manure.

We've had two weeks of this and that two weeks of panic has done more damage to the campaign than the events themselves ever could have.

I get that people are scared. Hell, I'm scared. But what we're scared of is not Joe Biden.

Not one person outside of the MAGA cult lemmings, not even the cult's leaders, is afraid of what might happen if Joe Biden wins reelection. No one outside the cult lemmings fears a serious crisis befalling the nation if Joe Biden remains president because we know that Joe Biden is decency personified. Because we know that his vice-president, his cabinet, and his staff are supremely competent people committed to upholding the Constitution and American values and ethical behavior. Because we understand that if it should happen that Joe Biden became unable to continue his second term as president due to declining faculties, those competent people would step in, and should they be unable to convince the president he wasn't able to continue they would put country first and employ the 25th Amendment.

The only people that fear a second Joe Biden victory are the grossly uninformed, the rubes that swallow right-wing propaganda whole, and the racists/misogynists who can't abide a woman minority possibly succeeding to the presidency (and no one should give those people the time of day).

As I've said before, what we fear are stupid people. We fear the tens of millions of voters who behave like Level Seven Susceptibles, mindlessly absorbing Republican misinformation and fearmongering. Most of whom don't really have evil intent; only a relative few of these millions are actually pro-fascism, actually want to see their neighbors rounded up and sent to concentration camps, actually want the courts to continue shredding the Constitution, actually want to see American military troops stationed all over major U.S. cities enforcing a police state. They've just been conned.

That's who is causing the gigantic and potentially suicidal freakout within the Democratic party.

Let's just keep that in mind as we pore over yet more coverage of said freakout and see the freakout spread to our own circles.

I have had three conversations in the last week with friends who are in the Biden-needs-to-drop-out camp. I think they are very much wrong, but I understand why they feel the way they do. Winning this election is critical, and because the news media as a whole has proven itself unwilling to stand on the side of democracy and law and truth, the perception keeps growing that Biden Is A Problem That Can't Be Surmounted.

But here's the thing: it's too late to change candidates. If there were really and truly worries within the party about Biden's cognitive faculties and ability to do his job—real, thought-through evaluations and real rationally-arrived at concern—it would have surfaced when the primary campaign began and the push would have been made then to nominate someone else. But that didn't happen, and now the primaries are over, and the delegates and campaign funds and infrastructure belong to Joe Biden. The only—repeat, only—possible alternative candidate at this point is Vice President Harris, as hers is the only other name on the ticket and she is the only other person allowed to use those funds. (Not to mention the fact that Biden is beloved by the African American community and should he decide not to continue, bypassing his VP would be a slap in their collective face.)

But would switching to Harris actually make the race more winnable?

I've heard arguments that such a switch would galvanize young voters, that it would bring more people of color into the fold, that it would give a fresh sense of "youth" to the race. All of which is pure, unadulterated speculation conjured from an imaginary universe. Might it be true? Sure, maybe. Might it not? Sure, maybe. Those first two arguments in particular I think are specious; younger voters are by far the least reliable constituency year after year, and as mentioned, you risk alienating POC just as much if not more than attracting them by dumping Biden.

It's a matter of the devil you know versus the devil you don't. The potential for utter catastrophe is, in my view, far greater, enormously greater with the devil we don't. Incumbents challenged from within their party always lose. A challenge at the convention would invite chaos. Republicans would have a field day exploiting such chaos.

There is almost nothing I would want to emulate from the modern Republican Party—they are led as mindless drones by exploitative, greedy, power-hungry, fascistic liars with the ethical standards of Pol Pot—but they have illustrated something about the American public that the rest of us should take note of:

No matter how unfit and disastrous for the country they know most of the electorate would find their candidates, they close ranks and fight for him (it's usually a him, Marjorie Sporkfoot notwithstanding), and as often as not, it works.

Richard Nixon won thanks in large part to Democratic chaos in 1968. Ronald Reagan won in large part because Ted Kennedy primaried incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. George W. Bush won—or came close enough that it didn't matter—in 2000 and 2004 despite being demonstrably stupid. And Trump won in 2016 despite his litany of crimes and crassness and obvious colossal ignorance. All of these Republicans championed policies that were profoundly detrimental to a large majority of Americans and all of them committed crimes in office (and, to this point at least, got away with them). Except for Reagan—who was able to use his Hollywood charisma to fool people into thinking he was a good guy and, for his reelect, to mask his Alzheimer's—they were also terrible candidates, but the GOP nevertheless closed ranks and pushed them through. (Please see and share my capsule history of the presidency.)

I'm not suggesting that Democrats now employ Republican tactics of lying to voters and conning them into thinking their guy isn't who their guy really is. Not only is that despicable, there's no need for it. Our guy really is a good guy fighting for all citizens, Americans and global citizens as well. He's just old.

No, I'm suggesting Democrats quit fighting amongst ourselves and back the President. Strongly, without reservation, without fretting about age or how loudly he speaks or how tiring the job of President is. Yes, by all means, coach him on better rhetoric to use when campaigning, get him in front of the public and on TV frequently to not only tout his phenomenal record but show the uninformed how dangerous the Republican plan to destroy the country really is. (We also need to remind people how awful the Trump Administration was and that Trump 1.0 was only that disastrous because there were patriotic Americans in government to stop him from taking even more ruinous actions, and Trump 2.0 would have no such patriots to get in his way. But I suspect that's a job for ads and surrogates more than for the president himself.)

All of us have known older people. Some frailer than others, some mentally sharper than others. We all (or mostly all) have the firsthand experience of knowing that only some senior citizens are incapable of rational decision-making, which is what the job of President boils down to. My grandfather lived to be 92, and sure, after he hit 80 he wasn't getting around as easily and his voice lost some of its timbre, but he never lost his faculties. He was sharp at 90, conversing about novels and relating stories of his aviation career and marveling over Vladimir Guerrero's ability to hit terrible pitches. He just spoke with less vocal strength. He had a friend, a fellow ex-pilot, who at 80 or maybe late-70s had physically declined so much he could hardly communicate. For whatever reasons, some people fare better than others, and physical decline from age does not necessarily bring cognitive failures with it. This shouldn't be hard to grasp.

Joe is over 80. Trump is a sociopathic criminal bent on tyranny. Joe has, like all but one president before him, shown obvious signs of age beyond the norm from the stress of being president. When Trump was president, he of course never actually worked enough to stress himself beyond the levels of his previous life of crime and grift, so his aging seemed "normal." Joe can get tripped up by his stutter and his over- or mis-preparation for appearances getting in the way of extemporaneous speaking. Trump will occasionally say something truthful by accident while spewing a torrent of bullshit. Joe is comparatively robust for a man in his 80s in a phenomenally stressful job. Trump is essentially a few Big Macs away from cardiac failure and is lazy as fuck.

This is not only a winnable race, it's a rout waiting to happen if the Democratic Party will just quit rending its garments and panicking over what the stupids might do if they think Joe Biden is an old man.

Focus. Get behind your guy, because he's not going away. Champion him, campaign your asses off, and make it clear to anyone who will listen that Biden's disembodied brain in a jar Futurama-style would still be infinitely more desirable than Donald Trump at any age.

Tagged Politics, President Biden, Democrats   |   Posted on July 11, 2024 at 3:27am   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment

Holiday catch-up

It's July 4th weekend (still, barely) and I've been spending my time in the garage building yet another comic cabinet, watching baseball, and binging season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy.

Some stray thoughts from the week:

• Driving home from umpiring last week, a dashboard warning light came on in my car. It's one I've seen before and I know from that experience that it's nothing urgent, just a computer fault related to overdrive, which rarely kicks in anyway. It was a one-off, hasn't happened again. Even so, it got me thinking that the next time something goes wrong with this 25-year-old jalopy it won't be worth fixing. It probably wasn't worth putting in the new exhaust system I shelled out three grand for four or five months ago. So I've been looking at used cars, wondering what I could possibly afford that would be a significant step up, and I've decided on a Prius. Not immediately, but probably before the year's out, if I find a good enough price on a well-maintained model from a year without a lot of reported issues. If anyone reading this is a Prius person, please let me know if the stuff I'm reading online about Generation III Priuses (Prii?) being inferior to what came before as well as after is real or bunk. A Gen II is likely what I'll end up with as I want to keep the purchase price low.
• It has been one year and four days since I brought Mizuki home from the King County Animal Shelter as a we-think-nine-week-old kitten last July 3rd. It's been a good year and four days. She is healthy, less skittish (but still afraid of unfamiliar people—makes me wonder what happened to her in those we-think-nine-weeks before she came to live here), and maybe 2/3 grown. She loves her kitty fam, playing with Zephyr on the daily and cuddling with Raimei most nights. I am very glad I adopted her and I'd like to think she is too.
  

  

• I am sick and tired of the Mariners striking out. Particularly when it really matters, as all strikeouts are not equal. Like today, when Ty France struck out with the winning run on 3rd and one out in the 9th. It's not a new problem, last year the M's were K machines and their strikeout tendencies actually got worse with that kind of easy RBI opportunity. It still happens a lot, though I've not done the research to know if they again lead the baseball world in Ks with a runner at 3rd and 0 or 1 out. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they do. At some point this season, I predict they will break their own record of 20 strikeouts in a game.
• Two such unforgiveable strikeouts occurred in their July 4th game, which I attended. They overcame that and went on to victory, though, so the failures will be lost to time. But I noted it in the scorecard anyway. Still, a fun game on a pleasant holiday afternoon, viewed from the club level:
  

  

• After that, the B's and I headed up to Everett for a doubleheader of sorts and took in the Class-A AquaSox's rout of the Vancouver Canadians (that club really needs a better name) and had almost the exact same vantage point:

  

  A small-town fireworks show followed, which was pleasantly ordinary as such things go.
• This year, July 4th had a whole different aura to it because of what the Supreme Court has done recently and because of the massive anxiety attack the country is having over the presidential race. But that's another post.
• Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 is really good. Yes, it's a kids show, yes, it's got a lot of Voyager trappings, but it's really well-done and I heartily recommend it to kids of its target demo and to nerds of any age. (Just keep in mind who the target demo is.)

There's probably more stuff I could pontificate on, but it'll wait. It's approaching midnight and I haven't eaten yet. Must rectify that.

Tagged Baseball, Seattle Mariners, Cats   |   Posted on July 7, 2024 at 11:39pm   |   Permalink   |     |  

1 Comment