stitchface

Yes, we now have to pay extra to watch local channels apparently. Fortunately, there are enough soccer games on other channels to not make this worth it. Champions League will be worth it for knock out rounds but definitely not now.

I'm pretty sure Ross doesn't see the same urgency to these games you do. Also, he is a rookie manager - he will get better. Clearly throwing Kimbrel out there is looking ahead to the playoffs though as opposed to desperately trying to win a game.

oh hell yeah heyward.

excited for Premier League soccer this weekend since I will likely be stuck inside all weekend!

he has a point. https://www.espn.com/soccer/tottenham-hotspur/story/4178710/tottenham-boss-mourinho-in-premier-league-fixtures-rant-it-makes-me-depressedits-not-human

This can't be accurate as I am pretty sure Dempster used "grinding" in every sentence he spoke.

the Cubs have become the '98 yankees in terms of long, boring games . . . too bad they aren't as good at winning.

I'm guessing registered handicaps are very high end biased.

I thought the 3 batter minimum was enacted pre-COVID? It's not a just this year thing. In any case, I like that and the DH. 7 inning games are not good - all games should be the same length.

Do you think they can get up to .210?

Nice! I have been tracking these stats - shots over par per hole - my goal being to get to bogey golf. It's a nice number to see dropping and it helps even out if you play different courses. Disaster holes - three or more over. Finally, my last metric is bogey or better percentage. On 4 - take the good luck with a smile as you'll have plenty of bad luck also.

Rizzo seems like he is swinging at inside pitches too much. Then weak contact on balls over the plate (that is going around). Nice to see Javi on base.

alas, the cubs will likely score four in the first two innings and then not get a hit for the last 7 innings. Playing for the 8 seed is smart though as they will never beat the dodgers in a series longer than three games.

Costa Rica? Have they fallen that far?

Congrats on breaking 80! That sucks about your golf team. Esp for the 2 seniors. Interesting that your golf season is in the fall. It's in the spring for Indiana. We had 2 seniors who didn't get to play this spring although our golf team is just ok at the moment. As far as of the new handicap system, It's based on your 8 best scores. IMO, you should take out your 4 best and 4 worse. Then average the remaining 12 rounds, subtract the par of your home course, etc... I feel like the new system brings everyone handicap down too much IMO compare to what they truly average. I'll def be paying attention to it more next season as I'll be going to quite a few different courses that are more difficult. This year I pretty much just stayed at my home course all season. I'm a 0 handicap under this system instead of a 2-3 with the old. The flaw I see in this system is that it places too much emphasis on how well you play at your home course since that's where most of your scores will come from for most people. I'd guess most people are 3-4 strokes better on their home course due to familiarity with the greens, how to avoid trouble and club selection on par 3s or less obvious par 4s. As far as our golf season being in the fall, Delaware has their's in the spring too. I guess maybe courses are less busy in the fall than they would be in late spring making it easier for the courses to give up space for practice rounds. I've never looked too much into handicaps because it doesn't really matter to me, but I did observe that a course we recently played was rated much harder than a local course. This seemed to be based on yardage more than anything but the reality is the "harder" course has huge wide fairways and the "easier" one has much narrower fairways. The result for a not great golfer is that the longer, wider course is going to be quite a bit easier to score better. This didn't seem to be reflected in the rating or slope for the courses. Perhaps these just don't account for bad golfers?

What is impossible to know though, is how those things translate to leagues where everyone is bigger, faster and more physical? Winning in CONCACAF should be a given for the US and I really don't buy the players are going to melt in those conditions arguments. How is his first touch efficiency? I personally think the choices the US has wide should all be good enough to get out of CONCACAF - how can we compete with stronger teams? I worry more about the midfield - especially after those games against Mexico where we can't get out of the back. Pulisic needs the ball where he can run at the backs - having other strong options up front is vital but need to get them the ball. I really don't understand your argument about an overlapping back needing a strong wing in front of him - that is not how that works in my experience. A strong overlapping back needs a wing that is going to run inside and open that space.

tons of these guys have their family as manager. Trying to keep more of the money? I agree with you - hard to believe the world's biggest sports star has his father as manager.

lol, dehydration central! Finally smoke cleared enough here to be able to get out again. I'm such a random mix of great and terrible shots.

13/17 before today, so 13/18 now. Break even is I believe 2/3 so it hasn't really helped or hurt them that much Edit: Forgot there were 2 CS today, but 13/19 still doesn't tell a different story Interesting. I must have seen every CS before today because I would have sworn it was much worse.

what is the cubs success rate on SB? They need to stop running.

Not talking about you, a significant portion of USMNT fandom made up their mind about Morris several years ago and is loudly ignorant of the player he's become. I do think it's possible that you're underrating him though, he's made a lot of progress that isn't blindingly obvious(he's not snaking around the field like Pulisic), but makes a very real difference. As an example, imagine the social media reaction if Tim Weah did this against Nantes or Mendez did against a 2nd division Dutch side: [tweet] [/tweet] for sure it's possible. Hard to rate players in soccer.

so not being impressed by Morris makes one a eurosnob? Surprised by the lashing out. I'm not sure why I'm not allowed to have a different opinion than you.

It's fun how you can hit a perfect drive then step to the next tee, do the exact same thing, and hit a complete clunker! You're in good company!

Hasn't that been questioned since he graduated?

Interesting clause . . . wonder who put that in?