https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjCbbAxUDg8
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Yea, I saw that this morning, wow.
Aaaand GO ROCKIES!
Seriously, we have a good team this year. :)
Shades of Major Leagues: Back to the Minors
At recent one day cricket matches they announced if the side batting first reached 300 runs, you could go to the nearest branch of Taco Bell and claim your free Taco. It happened twice, thats dinner sorted.
There is a playoff game as well next month. More Tacos, yum yum.
Finished regular season for 1 day matches 7 -1, nearly 7-0-1. Bye and homefield advantage in the playoffs.
More Tacos on the 16th?
Essex Eagles 370-5, free Tacos. Notts Outlaws 373-5, so no trip to Lords.
Never mind you would never get a Taco Bell in London St Johns Wood, there goes the neighbourhood.
Something I heard was that a man, the usual self appointed wacker type, complained that the bag searches were not being applied to the media. One of the BBC Radio presenters took exception and wanted to discuss the matter further. He could not as the coward went and hid away out of view of the press box.
One day final being played at the moment.
Moved onto the 4 day Championship which runs until the end of September. Two back to back victories in the last two weeks and top of the table. Last game went to the last two minutes. Not surprised as the losers were stretching things to just avoid a delay of game penalty frequently.
There are the T20 matches, which are short matches played after work in the evening. I stopped going when the competition went downmarket. What time does the Bar open?
Pirates 10, Cubs 0. More accurately, Pirates 10, Cubs yet to bat... at the end of the first half of the first inning.
Now the last time the Pirates hit 10 runs in the first inning was back in 1989. Against the Phillies. Then-Pirates 'color announcer' Jim Rooker jokingly says on the air that if the Pirates lose the game, he'll walk home. And they did. (Rooker did keep his word, although he did the walk from Philly to Pittsburg after the end of the season, and they made it a charity fund raiser).
But no such worries today. Final score: Pirates 14, Cubs 3.
Well, the Rockies are in third place in the NL right now, due to a recent slump.
Too soon to tell, but they are a lot more fun to watch this year. :yes:
The T20 matches being short have a trigger point of 200 runs for the free Tacos, in the third home game this was reached. Still lost though and are 1-3 in a 14 game season.
Our guest overseas player from Bangladesh, arrived late due to visa and work permit problems. Played one game and left citing personal reasons.
Nothing said officially but reading the mail his wife who was with him must have thought that there is a racist attacker hiding behind every lamp post.
To think the club put them up in a luxury apartment in what was the Olympic village.
T20 over, 2 and 5 on free Tacos. One game was rained out. Record 5-7-2 so no playoffs.
The four day games start again on Bank Holiday Monday. Top of Division 1, could be the first Championship for 25 years. Last season when we won Division 2, at the last game the drinks were on the house. Someone got behind the Bar, opened a beer tap and laid down on the floor under it with their mouth open.
Cricket is a weird game, but I try to watch sometimes. I get it. Sort of. :peace:
Dodgers at Pirates.
Dodgers starting pitcher Rich Hill has a no-hitter, in fact a perfect game, through 8 innings. Pirates pitchers have a shut-out through 8... gave up some hits, walked some batters, but no runs across.
Bottom of the 9th... perfect game broken up by an error. But no score. Pirates still being victims of a no-hitter. And the Dodgers still victims of a shut-out.
Bottom of the 10th. First batter for Pittsburgh, Josh Harrison, breaks up the no-hitter... and the shut-out... and wins the game with a walk-off home run into the left field stands.
http://triblive.com/sports/pirates/1...end-no-hit-bid
First Pirate win over LA this season.
Reminiscent of the 10 inning 2 pitcher no-hitter that Francisco Cordova & Ricardo Rincon through against the Astros in 1997... which the Pirates won on a walk-off 3 run home run by Mark Smith. (13 July 1997, if anyone wants to check)
Oh, and it was the first time in MLB history that a no-hitter was LOST on a walk-off home run...
1st home four day match since the T20 regular season ended. Batted 1st bowled out for 159, no batting bowling points. Bowled Somerset out for 164 and did better batting in the second inning. Bowled Somerset out in their 2nd Innings for 109 and won by 179 runs. This with our overseas bowler absent with a back injury. Luckily the low scores advanced the game to make up for the days play that was rained out.
Most talk this afternoon was what happened at the Oval Cricket Ground in South London. A crossbow bolt landed on the pitch fired from one of the apartments that overlook the ground, luckily it did not hit anyone and the Police said it was not terrorism related.
Another two games played.
Game 1 against the team in 2nd place was a draw due to the weather. Matched them on bonus points so no ground lost.
Game 2 played the bottom placed team and won easily, the same as at our place in the home fixture. The team in second place lost heavily.
The result of this with two games left and a maximum of 48 points, including bonus points available. We are now 56 points in front.
So for the first time since 1992, we are Champions.
It is possible that points can be taken off, but unlikely. In 1989 there was a points deduction for a poor playing surface which the club had no control over. This meant we were runners up, not champions.
This season points have been deducted form teams for,
Persistent on field discipline problems.
Breach of the salary cap.
Consistent delay of game penalties.
The season ends of 29/9/2017 with an England game the last match. It does not extend into October as Baseball due to the standard red ball being very difficult to see even with floodlights and the nights drawing in.
The next season starts in March with the Champions playing an all star team in Dubai. No-one appears that keen on going to watch.
Played the final games.
Both victories. One was after following on, only the third time we have done this. Final record 10-0-4, victory margin the greatest since the championship split into two divisions in 2000.
The MCC v Champion County match is at a new venue next year.
I will see everyone in Barbados next March.
New season and the one day competition starts again.
One important change. No more free Tacos.
Finished regular season 5-3 so wild card game in the playoffs and no bye. Thanks to a 153 run win this evening and a change in the net run rate against our opponents it is a home wild card game to be played next Thursday.
Free tacos?
The free Tacos were an advertising offer from Taco Bell if the score was over a certain figure. You could show either your membership card or game ticket in the branch near the stadium and claim a free Taco. I only knew of one person who took up the offer.
They have just announced the ticket prices for the wild card game. You would not see the NFL charging their clubs members $7.50 for a ticket bought in advance for a wild card game. The ticket for non members on the day are $30.
Played the wild card game and lost.
It was on Thursday. It has taken until today to be able to mention it. The opponents had half their side missing playing in Internationals for England and India and we still could not win.
There was a one and done home playoff defeat last season as well.
I would have choked on my free Taco, if they were still giving them away.
In my younger years I used to love heading out to the local field in the summer and playing a little baseball. Whether it was a full game or just batting , throwing & fielding practice. The other day I was online looking at a few quality baseball mitts. I could almost feel and smell the fresh soft leather through the web page. Made me almost tempted or buy one and head out to the field like in the old days. Or just buy one to admire.
Season has started again and the Tacos are back. However this time only 40% off.
I sit in the Premier Suite, which is the same building as the Committee Box. The Premier members are not the youngest and when someone breaks the golden rule in getting up during the play they are always one of the slowest.
Usain Bolt and Speedy Gonzales are not members of the Premier Suite.
The record is now 2-3 and the wild card is touch and go.
Today there were a group of club guests enjoying the hospitiality very loudly. It sounded as if laughing gas was being pumped into the building.
As were all leaving at the end. I asked the club guests if they had enjoyed the game and informed them that due to their noise, a moaning old women and her coffin dodger husband got up and left early.
I told them that they can come again as many times as they like.
Just got back from the stadium.
The game went to the 2nd last ball and we lost by 1 wicket. Record now 2-4 so no playoffs.
They serve free tea and coffee with biscuits. Towards the end the catering manager emerged from the kitchen with a clip board. I asked if he was noteing biscuit consumption as an old boy was stuffing his pockets with biscuits every time he got a cup of tea or coffee.
He must have missed visiting the Salvation Army in the morning.
"How 'bout 'dem Reds?"
.
Another loss yesterday so no playoffs. I did not go to a road game and I was doing something else. I caught the local radio post mortem after the end and thought not again.
I am not going to Tuesday's game and I urged a boycott to show what we all feel. It is a day not night game ending at the latest 20.45.
Well another pile of poop and finished 2-6. Including the standings from the other conference the overall standing is 15th out of 18.
I have been married to a Pittsburgh Pirates fanatic for 27 years.
I have been going to games with her since we started dating. We have been season ticket holders since PNC Park opened. So I got to watch 20 years... 20 straight solid years... of losing baseball.
So your team didn’t make the playoffs? Feh. I’ve seen worse.
Once when it was a lot worse the club got into dispute with local radio. The commentary box was given to the radio station from the visiting team and the local station was given a table and chairs in the open. During the game the local station's comments started getting more or more open as the game went on. One of them was "the ball has gone down to where the executive boxes are, which are empty as usual". At the end the commentators stated that the club are longer speaking to them, they then started asking a number of open questions about team selection, drafting and coaching.
It's a good thing you don't have an announcer like Howard Cosell widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality, or it could be worse, Don Imus, host of Imus In The Morning. Cosell was known for his colorful language stopping just short of profanity, and his friendly wars of words with Mohammad Ali that sounded anything BUT friendly on the air. Imus however took it to the point of downright insulting on several occasions, like when he called the Seton Hall University Women's Basketball team "a bunch of nappy headed hos" on the air. This being international, the gutter speak word "ho" is a bastardization of "whore", and "nappy headed" is akin to using the N word to describe a Black person. That was the icing on the cake, he found himself in a dingy cable TV studio a few dollars poorer after that one.
I know how that poor Pissburgh Pirates fan feels, sort of, I wear an old style Cubs jacket I inherited and hate having to explain it since I've been a Yankees fan since I discovered baseball at age 7. When you go to the web site and see dozens of jacket styles, none of them the style issued to the players, and they run well over $100 for a lousy jacket... FOGIDABOWDIT! I never did follow pirates games, the Seton Hall Pirates that is, even when I lived in North Jersey. Now that I live in South Jersey I pass the Lakewood Blue Claws stadium without a second look. Yanno, the Yankees may be the winningest (Is that a word?) team in baseball history and MY team to the end, but I cheered when Boston pulled the World Series out from under them. I don't feel like a traitor, my whole philosophy is you can't win ALL of the time. Another way to look at it is when you have more money than you know what to do with carry a roll of 100s in your pocket. That way you'll always have one to give to that beggar on the street up in Beantown.
When there is a test match, a guest commentator is invited from the visiting Country. Many years ago, the late Brian Johnson was describing the slap up lunch provided at Lords. The guest commentator from Sri Lanka was late back from lunch and Brian Johnson asked if they had enjoyed their lunch too much. No said the guest, I was in a meeting with the producer. He said that I made a big cock up earlier, and gave me a right bollocking and said if I want to be invited back I better buck my ideas up.
ROTFLMAO! Those in and around the Indian Subcontinent who speak English speak English, not American or Australian. That bloke learned HIS English a little TOO well. It probably wouldn't surprise you that I being a fellow ham understood every word of that.
That can't be said about non hams however, since major corporations have relocated their customer service there the language barrier became all too apparent. Having that marbles in the mouth accent doesn't help matters one bit either. That brings to mind what a VK2 related to me about a town meeting regarding Telstra (mobile phones, Internet) and a discussion about their customer service manned by what I call Mumbai Mumblers. The Telstra rep had a bit of trouble understanding a certain communications problem, he said "...but they speak perfect English." The bloke on the other end of that remarked "Yeah, but they don't speak Australian!"
The four day games started up again. Latest game ended in victory before tea on the third day. During the lunch interval there was a Q & A session with the CEO and the Chairman. Unfortunately someone decided to fillibust with their views on the changed display of the scoreboard.
These games are now being streamed live. Unfortunately there is only one camera, so anything happening away from the middle is missed.
Just as women started gaining ground as technical people such as changing the job description from cameraman to cameraperson along came the Sony Robocam. Now they've taken cheap labor down to NO labor, set one camera to get a view of the field and be done with it. Frank Zappa coined a word for really bad B monster movies like IT Conquered The World that fits here too, "Cheepness". It's intentionally spelt that way with a capital C because it's the title of a song he wrote about it. It was recorded live at the Roxy, see if you can get a copy of it. Even if you don't like Progressive Jazz you'll get the whole idea by listening to the long intro.
Spoiler: Four WW2 Army surplus M1 carbines couldn't hurt it, why bother when everybody knows bullets have no effect on monsters. So they brought out the BIG GUNS, Lee Van Cleef with an old fashioned gasoline powered blowtorch. Our Hero sacrificed his own life killing it by burning out it's eyes, while all IT had to do was tap him on the shoulder and they both fell in a heap of Cheepness.
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On edit: Like many such outer space critters like that bloke in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet over his head that hid out in a cave, they're all the SAME cave on the Spahn Ranch where up in the hills scenes in Westerns were filmed. Somebody else hid out in the cave, well sort of, Charles Manson and his "family" lived on the ranch for a time. Monsters in a cave, Manson, there must be something in the water!
Latest game was allocated four days and finished before tea on the 2nd day. Today I carried out my own industrial action and went back to work.
There is Baseball in London at the end of the month. The Red Sox and the Yankees are playing two games at the Olympic stadium.
At work you can set up your surface pro and the monitor to run two screens seperately. I had the screen for NFL tickets at Tottenham Hotspur up as I was in the queue. The season ticket sale for both games two weeks ago was overwhelmed and I could not get one. As the single ticket sale next week will be an even bigger bun fight. I bought in the Hospitality ticket sale today. To get into the Bears game I had to pay the second highest price.
I will not say how much, but my pants were well and truly pulled down.
I have been to all the NFL regular season London games and I want to be the last man standing.
I am watching the Yankees/Red Sox from the London Stadium.
Anyone else watching?
Just got back from the 1st day of the latest game. The club Chairman was doing his rounds of the Premier Suite asking if everyone was enjoying themselves. Just before that someone who was dining in the resturant wanted to order scones and jam. The waitress said you only get one scone and a little bit of jam and cream for £6.
I said that I was enjoying myself. I have just heard the prices and could not stop laughing.
Over four decades ago when, I was doing field service for "The Copier Company", one helpful hint that I was given by my manager was, if things got tense, a good "Ice-breaker/Conversation starter" was, "Hows about 'Dem Reds"?
If, the conversation went negative about the Reds performance on the field, you went with it and, if the person had something positive to say about the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, then, you went along with that line of conversation.
So, "Hows about them Cincinnati Reds?"
ETA: If I were going to follow a baseball team, it would be the New York Yankees.