gingerjon

The trade off in baseball, far more than in, say hockey and basketball (NFL is different again) is that you get paid less than minimum wage for years in the minors because when you get to the major leagues you then get paid significant money. The owners are all billionaires. They can afford to keep their side of that bargain.

I think what they've said is that the bottom two will definitely be relegated and they would like to do the play-off but if any part of the season gets cut then it will be the play-off that goes. I *think* that's what they said anyway. God, but Werder were pants last night.

Hastings AC and Hastings Runners used the weekend for a 3 mile run challenge - solo or socially distant only and 3 miles chosen so no-one would be tempted to go mental trying to get a 5k PB. I did mine in 24:04 which I was pleased with, not having even attempted to run 'fast' for 10 weeks. And then I saw everyone else's times. The sods. Still, 7/7 in age category and 50/65 overall ... I mean, burning away from a 70 year old woman by 10 seconds that has to be applauded. Right?! Anyway, did actually feel good to do. Made me realise how much I'm missing parkrun, as I, like pretty much everyone else it seems, did a run that took in most of that course. Oh, and 81kg.

I’ll catch some of them. Werder Bremen are playing on Monday evening and that’s live on the TV as well.

This is the correct view of Bayern Munich and their 'fans'. Dull lot. Anyway, owing to going to Bremen on a German exchange during which Werder won the Cup Winners Cup, they are my German team when I bother to care about German teams. "We" are thus basically already relegated.

MLB has a proposal. Restart 'Spring' training in June. Cancel the entire minor league feeder system. Major league teams play 80 games (half a season) from July, exclusively within their region. Expanded post-season, enlarged rosters. https://nypost.com/2020/05/09/details-of-mlbs-restart-proposal-from-coronavirus-emerge/ A lot has to go right for this to be a goer. Meanwhile, both of my eastern teams, Kiwoom and the Brothers, lie second in their leagues.

Yes. I like the fact that he called himself "the king and queen of rock n roll". The energy in those records.

To quote myself: nothing that I can find from the time. Looks like a New Caledonia team played Greece in Sydney a couple of times in 2003/4. They also played and lost to Samoa. They were due to enter the 2006 Pacific Cup but withdrew and their place was taken by Tokelau. Everything else I can see relates to this news or from the past year or two so I assume there's been a fair gap where not much has happened?

This may require some deep googling ...

Bit behind this week. One run of 6.9k. Will go out a bit later today.

New Caledonia had a national team around 2003/4, I think. Not sure whether it was based there or if it was Australian-based. From memory, they lost to a few other teams quite heavily and then didn't reappear.

The average is 3.2k a day. Normally that comes about via 3 runs a week, each of 7k ish.

Go to naver.tv and it's all there. 10.30am today.

I don't like the DH but it's pretty universal. I like the pitcher coming onto hit because it's a new dynamic. But I know the direction of travel and the NL will have the DH at some point soon. I think there was even a plan it would come in for 2021 anyway.

Those are all ideas that they’ve had before. The current MLB commissioner doesn’t seem to like baseball.

Naver.tv has all the streams. So I'm up and watching Kiwoom Heroes go out to an eight-run lead over the Tigers. And then the adverts come on between innings. Oh my god, the adverts ...

I've found the reference but not the article. It was a quote from Brian Aldiss who disparagingly referred to Wyndham's work as "cozy catastrophes" because of the unseen nature of much of the drama within and how much of the books is well-heeled English people keeping calm and carrying on. The article I read came down on Aldiss's side. Personally, I disagree - as is shown by the fact that I'd not read any Wyndham before I read the article but I've read a few of the novels since (and would have read more but they went through a phase of being bizarrely unavailable from a popular online retailer, I suspect that's changed now). The bit in bold I think is key.

I read a criticism of Wyndham a few years ago that was, basically, his disasters are too polite. That people are mostly okay despite the apocalypse - the 'it' only comes occasionally. And yet, in this pandemic, that is *exactly* how it is. Britons are dying, even now, at the rate of one a minute from disease that has no cure. And yet, for most people, the biggest issue of the day has been that it's Joe Wicks's wife doing the morning PE lesson.

Yes, there's a reason I didn't watch it.

Google "Japanese baseball in financial trouble" and, on the front page alone, there are articles from 2013, 2008, 2004, 2009, 2007, 2014 all saying that Japanese baseball is in deep trouble. The clubs are dependent on the financial well-being of the corporations aren't they? It's lost a fair bit of its lustre with so many players now going to MLB. I'm not sure about regular season crowds but the post-season ones I can see are all in the 35,000-45,000 mark. No baseball in Japan until the end of this month at the earliest.

First night results ... *hic* ... That Balvennie is something very special. Like it a lot. Really nice depth. And the Suntory Toki is a fair bit lighter tasting but remarkably decent for the price. I'd choose it over a lot of single malts.

After a fairly dry spell whisky-wise - a bottle of Highland Park 12 a month or so back - I'm now in possession of two bottles. A voucher in return for being part of some market research has been spent on a bottle of Suntory Toki, Japanese blended whisky, and Mrs Ginger managed to drop in a present of Balvennie 12 into this week's shopping. I am a happy boy indeed.

Make it stop. Although Manny is box office so it may happen.

No.

I tried a Joe Wicks Introduction to HIIT yesterday. 15 minutes. If you hear screaming across the land today, that's me.