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Beau Vine

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Beau Vine

  1. 7 hours ago, spystud13 said:

    This Saturday (the 28th) @ 4 & 5p are back to back replays on MLBN about the ‘90s Indians & Braves, both good. 

    Thanks. 

    The 1988 Dodger episode... The Gibson home run is one of 2 sporting events that I remember like it was yesterday (other was Miracle on Ice). 

    But I had completely forgotten how epic the 1988 NLCS was.   Hershisher started games 1 & 3 and the Dodgers lost both?!??!  Game 4, the Mets had a 2-run lead in the 9th with Dwight Fucking Gooden on the mound and Mike Scioscia homered to send it to extras?  Hershisher came in (the day after his start) in the 12th to get the save?  And then he threw a shutout in Game 7...

  2. On 7/24/2018 at 7:41 PM, BornOrange said:

    Leach was wrong in that article when he said no one ever truly learned how to stop the Wishbone.

    Jimmy Johnson showed you need to have a big athletic line that can shut down the fullback dive without having to stuff the box and enough speed at linebacker and in the secondary to string out the option. Miami was able to shut down the Wishbone because of the talent they had on defense.

    To be fair, those Miami teams would have shut down any offense.

  3. Y'all see this fan interference call in HOU@COL last night?

    https://www.mlb.com/video/bregman-out-on-interference/c-2310157083?tid=63817564

     

    I usually defer on the side of interference, especially when the fan is wearing the jersey of the team that hit the ball, but I don't think Parra was going to catch this.

    The rule does say "could have caught the ball" instead of "would have caught the ball," so I guess that gives the replay ump some wiggle room.


    Also, the Rockies have the worst announcers in the NL.

  4. 7 hours ago, TornACL said:

    A few weeks ago I went to the Mexican grocery and bought up all their cheek meat. It wasn't a trimmed cheek but it was a bunch of hard fat and bullshit along with some chunks of glorious cheek meat.

    Not exactly what I was looking for but I rolled with it.

    Trimmed off all the hard fat and left any of the good stuff. 

    I used to do cachete pretty regularly.  But then I got tired of dealing with all of this really hard fat.  Plus, the daughter went off to college and wife won't eat it.

    • Like 1
  5. On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 8:43 PM, spystud13 said:

    Can’t remember if I posted this last week, but the “Only in Hollywood” episode that replays on MLB Net @ 9:00 tonight is worth a record. 

    Thank you for the heads up.

    Holy shit that was great.

  6. 31 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

    Depends on how he conducts himself, but Boston expects a maestro performance and thinks they can get The Four Seasons out of Eovaldi.

    I assume this is a really good joke that went over my head because I'm a cultural boob?

  7. 8 minutes ago, TheFlagship said:

    An OBP greater than SLG is something special.

    Someone wrote an article about this last week.  IIRC, DD is the first guy to do it in several years.  It used to happen more often.  It motivated me to look up Lance Blankenship.

  8. 9 hours ago, spystud13 said:

    Anthony Gose throws 100 in AA for them now, good chance he’ll be up sooner rather than later. 

    Holy shit, I didn't realize that guy was a pitcher now...

  9. 9 hours ago, texifornia said:

    God I love everything about this team except staying up past midnight to watch their inevitable comebacks. That and the fact we're somehow still only third in the division.

    BP has Oakland at a 50% chance to make the playoffs; Mariners at 42%. 

    All respect to MC Fresh Breath, but this A's team is fucking fun right now. 

     

    Also, the NL WC race could be a doozy.

    • Like 1
  10. 1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

    Looks like Britton is going to the Yankees. I guess they are hoping he can be a starter.

     

    57 minutes ago, txhorns said:

    That's going to be ugly.

    Your sarcasm detector is on the fritz.

    So the Yankees are going into the last two months with three starters who aren't rookies or trainwrecks...

    1.  Severino, yeah, he's really good.

    2.  Sabathia, who's 38 and weighs 300.

    3.  Tanaka, who's over 4.50 ERA this season and was 4.74 last season.  

    What are the odds of all three of those guys staying healthy through October?

     

    But they have the best bullpen in MLB history.

    • Like 1
  11. And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin' about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench.

     

    Quote

    Santa Barbara has become the latest city to crack down on plastic straws, enacting what is likely the most severe prohibition in the country. The law authorizes hefty fines and jail sentences for violators.

    On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council unanimously passed a bill that prohibits restaurants, bars, and other food service businesses from handing out plastic straws to their customers. Plastic stirrers and utensils could still be legally provided, but only if customers request them.

    That a municipality would ban plastic straws is sadly unsurprising in the year 2018, when seemingly every city, celebrity, corporation, and cute kid with a nonprofit wants to eliminate the little suckers from polite society. Yet Santa Barbara's ban is notably rigid and punitive.

     

    When Seattle became the first major city in the United States to ban plastic straws in September 2017, it carved out an exemption for compostable plastic straws and made any violation an infraction punishable by a $250 fine. Santa Barbara, by contrast, has banned even compostable straws, permitting only drinking tubes made from nonplastic materials such as paper, metal, or bamboo. The city also has made a second violation* of its straw prohibition both an administrative infraction carrying a $100 fine and a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail. Each contraband straw or unsolicited plastic stirrer counts as a separate violation, so fines and jail time could stack up quickly.

    Unlike other enacted or proposed straw bans, Santa Barbara's does not include an automatic exemption for the disabled, who often lack the ability to bring cup to lip. Restaurant owners can request an exemption based on medical necessity, but granting one is at the city's discretion.

    It may seem unlikely that Santa Barbara will start imposing the maximum penalties for scofflaw straw suppliers, but city officials are not ruling it out. Assistant City Attorney Scott Vincent tells me criminal charges would be pursued only after repeat violations and if there were aggravating circumstances.

    Supporters of the ban paid little attention to its punitive aspects. Outside the city council meeting where the ordinance was passed, an environmental activist spoke of the benefits that would accrue to the children. Inside city hall, actual children urged city council members to save the oceans by criminalizing straws, while the adults in the room applauded.

     

    • Like 2
  12. theathletic

    Quote
    USATSI_8143549-1024x770.jpg
    By Rustin Dodd Jul 23, 2018comment-icon.png 17 save-icon.png

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In 10 seasons in the major leagues, Billy Butler made an All-Star team, appeared in a World Series and spent his summers roping doubles in ballparks across America. Yet as he returned home to Idaho last summer, his first without baseball in decades, he searched for avenues to sharpen his competitive spirit.

    He had spent the 2016 season batting .284 with five homers while playing in 97 games for the A’s and Yankees. But with little interest for his services, and his career on the precipice, he found an outlet in an unlikely place:

    A local softball team named Pharmgrade in the Idaho Falls Parks & Rec men’s league.

    “Obviously,” Butler said, “we do well.”

    Playing games at a local park, and against opponents who have not played competitive sports for years, Butler put his sweet right-handed swing to good use. He crushed dingers at a staggering rate. He led his team in homers, slugging and (we presume) pretty much everything else. Like a young Edgar Martinez in Seattle, the hitter he was so often compared to during his years in Kansas City, he carried his team to a place atop the standings.

    “I can hit the ball out of the park every time,” Butler said.

    Butler is standing inside Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon, his first trip back since a series with Oakland in 2015. He’s 32 now, and while not formally retired — he never did the press conference or press release thing — there’s nothing to suggest he’s pondering a comeback. He spends his summers coaching his daughters in softball. He talks about his career in the past tense. His last major-league game came nearly 22 months ago, during a short, late-season stint with the Yankees. He calls Idaho Falls — his home now — the place “where it started and ended for me.”

    Butler played Rookie ball there in 2004, his first year with the Royals. He batted .373 that summer and clubbed 10 homers and met a local girl named Katie. They built a house in town and had three daughters and came back when baseball was over. They settled into the community, and that’s where the softball team comes in.

    Butler smiles when he tells the story. It is, first and foremost, a fun hobby. The team is made up of his brothers-in-law and some guys they know from the local gym. Most played baseball at some level. But Butler is the ringer of all ringers, a 32-year-old who recorded 147 career homers and 322 doubles and won a Silver Slugger in 2012, the season he hit a career-high 29 homers for a rebuilding Royals team.

    “Billy’s just a natural hitter,” said Royals left fielder Alex Gordon, his teammate for eight seasons. “He liked to drink some beer, too, so he’d probably fit right in there.”

    If there are complaints from the other teams about the presence of a former All-Star designated hitter, Butler says he doesn’t hear them. Most of the teams are just there to have some fun. One squad includes some former players from the Idaho Falls Chukars. The goal of the league usually revolves around homers and post-game beverages.

    Like most men’s softball leagues, there are rules to curb home runs, of course. One team can only have five more homers than the other team before dingers start counting as outs, Butler says. But even then, Butler was always the kind of hitter who could go the other way, so his skillset comes in handy when Pharmade starts bludgeoning an overmatched opponent.

    “You have to work on hitting it the other way,” Butler says. “You can’t just hit it out of the park. You have to work on things.”

    Butler heard similar sentiments while hitting for eight seasons in the cavernous confines of Kauffman Stadium. He debuted in 2007 at the age of 21, a first-round pick with the preternatural ability to hit (and plenty of self-confidence). Two years later, he batted .301 and hit 51 doubles as the losses piled up. He spent the next four seasons as one of the most underrated hitters in the American League, even as the Royals’ youth movement struggled to gain traction and fans wondered about his lack of power.

    Butler came to love Kansas City anyway. He loved the way the fans chanted his name — “BILL-Y BUT-LER” — at the 2012 All-Star Game. He loved the season his own barbecue sauce became a phenomenon. He loved the process of building and the payoff of the 2014 wild-card game and World Series. “You’ll never forget those things,” he said.

    He still wishes he could have played longer here, he says. But then the Oakland A’s offered a three-year, $30 million contract after the 2014 season, and the Royals were ready to move on.

    “That’s the way it works,” Butler said. “It’s a business.”

    As the Royals won the World Series in 2015, Butler was finishing the first of two difficult years in the Bay Area. His productivity declined from his usual standards; his power waned; his second season was marred by a clubhouse fight with teammate Danny Valencia, an incident that became public and preceded his release. He finished the season with the Yankees, hitting .345 in 12 games. Yet by then, his career was nearing what seemed like a premature end at the age of 30.

    “I played here a long time,” Butler said Sunday, in some of his first public comments since returning home to Idaho. “This is where it all started for me. It was the organization that drafted me. It makes me miss it.”

    Still, Butler says he is content, carrying many of the hallmarks of a former player. He returned to Kansas City this weekend as part of the Royals’ ongoing celebration of their 50th season. He made the rounds in the television and radio booths. He did some work in the community. He talked to the club about taking part in Royals Fantasy Camp this winter.

     

    Another @Royals 50th Season celebration weekend, this time featuring great broadcasters through the years... and All Stars. #billybutler @goldbergkc

     
     

     

    At some point, he’d like to consider getting back into baseball, maybe as a hitting coach or instructor. But he spent much of his time Sunday telling old friends about his favorite subject: his three daughters.

    His youngest is 2 1/2 now; his oldest, Kenley, is 9 1/2 and playing her first season of kid-pitch softball. Butler, a player once nicknamed “Country Breakfast” for his persona and physique, has transformed into an active and patient coach. Well, most of the time.

    “You can’t show any emotions or they’re just going to burst into tears,” Butler said.

    Butler describes his post-career life in simple terms. He is back in Idaho. He’s spending time with family. He’s doing all the things he couldn’t before. And, yes, this also includes a recreational softball league where Country Breakfast is the most feared hitter in the league.

    “That guy is going to be hitting for the rest of his life,” said Royals pitcher Danny Duffy, a former teammate.

    There are no official stats available in the Idaho Falls Parks & Rec men’s softball league. There are no Statcast systems or exit velocities, and Butler rarely has to worry about grounding into a double play.

    But last October, as the Dodgers battled the Astros in the World Series, Butler chased his own crown. The men on Pharmgrade defeated a team called “A+ Driving School” to capture the championship of the fall session. The league paid tribute on its Facebook page. Butler mashed all game.

    “It’s a family league, so we put a family team together,” Butler said. “We’re doing well.”

     

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