Not much happening

The Home Run Derby will be held at 8:00 tonight and I might watch a bit of it. I understand they have gone back to the old format of limited swings instead of the timed format they tried last year.

There are 3 rounds and each hitter gets 20 swings in the 1^st round. The top four hitters will move on to round 2 where they each get 15 swings. The top two from that round move on to the finals where they will have 15 swings.

There is a new rule called the "hitting streak" where if a hitter hits a home run on the last swing of the round, he will get another swing. He will keep hitting until he fails to hit a home run.

My problem is I think it's kind of boring watching a guy swing and hit meatball pitches which is why I'll probably only watch a bit of it. Contreras is up first so I'll put it on to see how he does.

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Depending on who you listen to, we are looking at another potential heat wave in my part of the world.

According to the TV dweebs, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday are all predicted to be above 90°

According to the internet dweebs, tomorrow is predicted to be above 90° but the rest of the days are going to be below 90°

I don't care because as far as I'm concerned, anytime the temps are above 80° and the humidity is above 65%, it's uncomfortable and I don't like it.

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Here are some links:

• Trump's search for something, anything, to justify his insane belief that he won the 2020 election is costing us a lot of money. I hope the next president sues him to get the money returned to us.



• Fashion: I don't get it.



• Oh Canada.



• This isn't good. Not good at all.

A 9-game winning streak

It took them 10 innings but the Red Sox beat the Mets 3-2 this afternoon, sweeping that series. This gives them a 9-game winnings streak and 3 sweeps in a row.

They are currently (as of 5:00 this afternoon) ½ a game out of the wild card:

And according to Fangraphs, they now have a 41.9% chance of making the playoffs:

The All Star break commences tonight so they are off now until Friday when they will play a double header against the Rays. This is the makeup game from a rainout in early May followed by the first game of a 3-game series.

I would like to say that my hope-o-meter is very high right now but I'm a guy who remembers that the Red Sox tend to go into a slump after the All Star break. I guess my hopes are that they have already had their slump and they will continue rolling along through the rest of the season.

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South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham died last night after to a "brief and sudden" illness. He had recently returned from a trip to Ukraine.

Another story indicates his "brief and sudden" illness may have been heart disease. I guess he was known to have a lot of plaque in his arteries.

And for the record, I always thought Graham was an honorable guy. He tended to be a little bit of a warmonger but he, like John McCain, always wanted to do what was right.

As for Mitch "Seizure" McConnell, who the hell knows what is going on with him. All we have to go on is a statement released by his office that claims to be from him. For all we know,he may also be dead.

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Here are some links:

• Key line in this story: "...insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it."



• They're just making this shit up.



• This is why you never feed raccoons.

Seven in a row

Despite being exhausted from the weird flying situation the night before, the Red Sox beat the Mets 6-2 last night, giving them a 7-game winning streak and moving them into a tie for third place in the ALEast.

The odds of them making the playoffs have also improved. Fangraphs now has them at 33.2%

As for today, the Red Sox brought up a kid from Worcester named Eduardo Rivera as the starting pitcher. As I understand it, this was not his MLB debut. I guess he pitched 3 innings against the Yankees back in April.

It is currently the 4^th inning and the Red Sox are up 2-0. If the batters can get a few more runs, they stand a chance of making it 8 wins in a row.

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We made the mistake of going to the grocery store this morning. I had forgotten what a pain in the ass it is to go grocery shopping on the weekend.

We usually go on a Monday or Tuesday so as to avoid all the working stiffs trying to take care of their life during their non-working hours.

Being retired sure make everything a lot easier.

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Here are some links:

• What? No mention of the fat kid farting in cabin?



• Presenting the Brilliant Criminal of the Month.



• Trust me, no one does anything he aasks them to do except for his minions.

Odds are improving.

Fangraphs has increased the odds of the Red Sox making the playoffs.

They now have a 30.7% chance of making the playoffs which is way better than the 20.7% chance they had three days ago.

Tonights game against the Mets was scheduled to start at 7:15 but it got pushed back to 7:50 because the Red Sox plane was busted and they didn't get to New York until 4:00 this afternoon.

Right now it is the top of the 4^th inning and the Red Sox are up 2-1.

It's things like this that make my hope-o-meter continue to climb upwards...

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My youngest son, my daughter-in-law and my grandaughter are spending their first night in their new home.

They found a nice condo in Boston that they put a bid on a month or so ago. The owner liked them and accepted their bid without allowing for any bidding wars.

They closed on the place yesterday and today, one of my sons friends showed up with U-Haul truck to help them move from their cramped apartment.

I am, as always, the proud dad.

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This is probably fake but it made me laugh out loud:

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Here are some links:

• It really bothers me that I find myself believing what the Iranians say over my own government.



• I can't decide if this is the luckiest or the unluckiest person on the planet.

A win and a win!

The Red Sox beat the White Sox 5-0 last night and with that win, they earned their second 5-game winning streak in the last two weeks.

The Red Sox beat the White Sox 2-1 this afternoon and with that win, they earned their first 6-game winning streak of the season!

If they can keep this up, they will definitely make the playoffs.

They are currently on the road heading to Queens where tomorrow they will start a 3-game series against the Mets. This will be their last series before the All Star break

My hope-o-meter has moved into the upper levels.

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I don't know why but I have a strong dislike of this.

I've sat in a bar and watched people gamble. I've been to Las Vegas on business and watched people gamble. Hell, I've even bought the occasional lottery ticket and I once placed a longshot $10.00 bet that the Red Sox would win the World Series (they didn't). Gambling is something that most people do because they find it fun to try and win a few dollars.

Sports gambling is something different altogether. I'm not talking about the "Buy a Super Bowl square for $5.00" kind of gambling, I'm talking about the "Bet $10.00 that the next batter hits a home run" kind of gambling. That is the kind of gambling that people who can't afford it are doing. It is an addiction that may very well be worse than a drug addiction. They can't stop doing it, not matter how they try.

And it is that kind of gambling that the MLB seems to have embraced. Before every baseball game, the pre-game talking heads will usually give a series of odds on certain things happening, like how many hits someone will get or how many batters the pitcher will strike out. They encourage people to bet using apps on their cellphones and they tell them how much fund they'll have doing it.

This shit is wrong and it is ruining peoples lives. In my opinion this is no different than if they were encouraging people to shoot heroin into their veins or snort cocaine so they can enjoy the game with a nice high.

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Here are some links:

• Remember when Trump was running around accusing Goofy Joe of "weaponizing the justice department"...



• This seems appropriate.



• People that steal from the elderly should get life in prison or maybe the death penalty.