Facility Friday: Rays Stadium Renderings, Audi Field - Athletic Business

JACKSONVILLE - It looks wild, but it's better than the St. Pete mausoleum. This development and the new TV deal the Rays just signed should allow them to compete somewhat, but in that division,either the Sawks or the Yanks have to make a big misstep first and then a team like the Rays or the Jays can pounce.

It's a start. The Rays have shown they can be innovative and do more with less. Hey, somebody should write a book about them.

from athleticbusiness.com
https://www.athleticbusiness.com/facilities/facility-friday-rays-stadium-renderings-audi-field.html

Facility Friday: Rays Stadium Renderings, Audi Field
Jason Scott

The Tampa Bay Rays unveiled renderings of a proposed stadium in Ybor City, Fla. At an estimated cost of $892 million (including the ballpark and related infrastructure), plans call for seating for 28,216, and a unique translucent roof. Kansas City-based firm Populous provided designs for the facility. — Tampa Bay TimesTampa Bay's future ballpark. https://atmlb.com/2L4QDik  #RaysUp— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) 2:26 PM - Jul 10, 2018

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Thoughtful Ideas: Political Diversity Of Stanford Students: 94% Voted Democrat For Governor and U.S. Senator, only 4% voted Republican

JACKSONVILLE - I love the methodology and the use of data, but the money shot is the conclusion.

Universities talk a lot about the importance of diversity of ideas but have done little to achieve it.

 Diversity is said to help students learn from each other—so long as the dominant political views are not challenged!

from thoughtfulideas blog:
http://thoughtfulideas.blogspot.com/2018/06/political-diversity-of-stanford.html

Political Diversity Of Stanford Students: 94% Voted Democrat For Governor and U.S. Senator, only 4% voted Republican

California is a Blue State.  The San Francisco Bay Area is Dark Blue.  Stanford University, where your friendly proprietor has worked and lived for more than 40 years, is Deep Dark Blue.

By acreage, Stanford is the second largest university in the world.  From its founding in 1891, portions of its land have been used to construct housing for faculty and staff.  Over 125 years, Stanford faculty and the University have built about 650 single-family homes, 250 condominiums, and 40 duplexes.  (Several hundred more housing units are nearing completion and several hundred more are in the planning or early stage of construction.)
Stanford has 2,219 members of the professoriate faculty and several top administrators who are eligible to purchase a campus residence.  About 40% live in the "faculty ghetto."  The other 60% are scattered about neighboring towns and suburbs (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Jose, San Francisco, and others).  It seems reasonable to assume that the political predilections of on- and off-campus faculty and are similar.

California's 2018 primaries were held on June 5. 

Four precincts (Santa Clara County Precincts 2542, 2544, 2545, and 2546) circumscribe Stanford University.

Precincts 2542 and 2544 consist of graduate and undergraduate student housing.  Some students are registered to vote using their campus address.  Most are registered at their home address.

Precinct 2545 consists solely of faculty/staff (F/S) housing.  Precinct 2546 is a mix of student and F/S housing

Here are the results for Governor and U.S. Senator, the two most important races in California.

Governor:

Precinct 2545 (all F/S):  Democrats 234 (88.0%), Republicans 31 (11.7%), Other 1 (0.3%).

Precinct 2546 (F/S and students):  Democrats 356 (94.9%), Republicans 12 (3.2%), Other 7 (1.9%).

Precinct 2544 (all students):  Democrats 155 (93.4%), Republicans 8 (4.7%), Other 3 (1.8%).

Precinct 2542 (all students):  Democrats 129 (94.2%), Republicans 6 (4.4%), Other 2 (1.4%).

U.S. Senator:

Precinct 2545:  Democrats 232 (87.9%), Republicans 27 (11.5%), Other 5 (1.9%).
Precinct 2546:  Democrats 354 (96.2%), Republicans 11 (3.0%), Other 3 (0.8%)
Precinct 2542:  Democrats 127 (96.2%), Republicans 3 (2.3%), Other 2 (1.5%)
Precinct 2544:  Democrats 154 (93.9%), Republicans 5 (3.0%), Other 5 (3.0).

F/S voters are 7-8 percentage points more Republican than students.  One reason is that F/S voters are older and more conservative.  Some of these Republican voters are in their 70s and 80s.

Stanford has achieved undergraduate student diversity in terms of race (only about a third is non-Hispanic White), ethnicity, gender and gender preference, nationality, religion, disability, and socioeconomic status.  Political and ideological diversity is nowhere to be found. 

Universities talk a lot about the importance of diversity of ideas but have done little to achieve it.

Diversity is said to help students learn from each other—so long as the dominant political views are not challenged!

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MLB Trade Rumors and Speculation | mlb.com

JACKSONVILLE - I agree with this assessment. It's not something I want to see happen, but it is something I could foresee happening. Don't look on the Indians Top 20 or 30 Prospect Lists, the yield will likely not be there.

Almost anyone else the Giants would like to trade, or could get any kind of return from trading, has spent or is spending significant time on the DL. This and the Competitive Balance Tax, cough!  Salary Cap, is the corner the Giants find themselves boxed into.

from mlb.com
https://www.mlb.com/news/predictions-for-2018-mlb-trade-deadline/c-287131076

Andrew McCutchen, OF, Giants
McCutchen checks off many of the same boxes as Jones, except he's already been through the "difficult-trade-of-a-franchise-icon" stage, he's hitting better than Jones is (.259/.350/.416) in a more difficult hitter's park, and he can't block a trade. (He's also already accepted the move from center to a corner.) The larger question is if the Giants will sell, but despite being only five games out in the National League West, they're in fourth place -- and behind six other teams in the Wild Card hunt. They'll sell.
Prediction: Indians

Here's the Pitch | training-conditioning.com

http://www.stack.com/a/fastpitch-softball-pitch-count

JACKSONVILLE - Pitch Counts are coming to a softball field near you. Perhaps. Based on the Stack.com article linked above, they will resemble what goes on in baseball in name only.

The limit for maximum-effort pitches during a week should be around 400. Do not include any drills that mimic the pitching motion but are not maximum effort. 

But it's a start. Now at least we have evolved into Equal Opportunity Arm Abusers.

Hurray for us!!


from training-conditioning.com
http://training-conditioning.com/content/heres-pitch

Here's the Pitch

Although there are pitch counts for baseball players at many levels, the standard thought has been that the underhand toss utilized by softball players is safer than the overhand form used in baseball. However, new research says the potential for overuse injuries in softball pitchers is a factor that may be overlooked.

A news release from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reports that research findings suggest softball pitchers show progressive pain, fatigue, and weakness relating to two- and three-day tournaments. This research was published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine.

"The dogma involving throwing athletes is that the underhand pitch is thought to be safer, but there have been biomechanical studies in recent years indicating that the stresses on the shoulder are very similar, regardless of whether one is pitching overhand or underhand," said Matthew Smith, MD, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University and one of the study's authors. "The idea that we should protect these softball pitchers hasn't really caught on.

"Because there aren't as many pitchers on most softball teams as there are on baseball teams, coaches tend to 'ride' the ones who are successful," he continued. "Most don't realize they're putting the pitcher at risk, but it turns out that the windmill style of pitching that girls use isn't as safe as some might think."

In the study, Dr. Smith and his colleagues recruited 100 athletes who were between 14 and 18 years old. They were each about to participate in a two- and three-day tournaments and scheduled to pitch each day of the tournaments.

In order to gauge fatigue, which relates to overuse injuries, the researchers measured the pitchers' strength. These assessments were correlated with the pitchers' reports of how they felt.

"We used a device called a dynamometer that allows us to test strength," said Dr. Smith. "They push against it, and it gives us an objective measurement of strength. We also asked them how they felt, how tired they were and how much pain they were in.
'We can correlate objective measures of strength and associate those with how the athletes say they feel," he continued. "Usually during a tournament, we compare these things at the beginning of a day playing to these same measurements at the end of the day. Then we ascertain their strength levels at the start of the next day and determine whether they recover their strength,"

The research team found that as pitchers continue playing, they don't get enough rest to recover. On top of that, most injuries were sustained during the first six weeks of the season. This could indicate that throwing a lot in a short amount of time (with little or no training beforehand) may contribute to the issue.

"On a fast-pitch softball team, the pitcher is the player doing most of the throwing," said Dr. Smith. "She's throwing 70 or 100 or 125 pitches in a game. Meanwhile, the center fielder may only throw at peak effort four or five times in a game. Our study focused on pitchers because they are the ones who most commonly come to the doctor's office with injuries. There is some data suggesting that fatigue is a precursor to injury. If we limit pitches, get them more rest and give them more time to recover, it's logical to think the injury risk will decline."

However, there hasn't been enough research on softball pitchers to have an estimate for how much rest pitchers may need to recover between games.

"Two and three-day tournaments are commonplace in youth fast-pitch softball with teams often using the same pitcher throughout the tournament," the authors write. "Our data clearly show that shoulder and elbow strength decline after a single day of competitive windmill pitching and continue to decline over consecutive days of pitching.

We also show that there are significant increases in subjective measures of shoulder fatigue and pain coinciding with this decline in strength. Importantly, pitchers did not recover to their baseline many of the tested muscle groups by the day following pitching indicating that there was an inadequate period of rest."

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The Science of Doing Good: My Conversation with William MacAskill | Farnam Street

JACKSONVILLE - This is a fantastic podcast on a very relevant subject. Charitable Giving.  I may be biased since I am taking a Community Resource Development course at UNF and reading the book "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, but if the snippets of ground covered in the interview sound interesting to you, this is worth a listen.

Hopefully, we can make smarter decisions regarding which charities are worthy of our support and can generate real results alleviating the social problem they are on a mission to solve.

There does seem to be quite a bit of churn and inefficiency in this space.

from fs.blog
https://fs.blog/william-macaskill/

The Science of Doing Good: My Conversation with William MacAskill
Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Android | Google Play

On this episode of The Knowledge Project, I'm happy to have William MacAskill.
William is the co-founder and President of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) and an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Oxford University. He is also the founder and president of 80,000 Hours, the co-founder and vice-president of Giving What We Can, and the author of Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference.

William's work is primarily focused on encouraging people to use reason and evidence to find the best possible ways they can use their resources to make the biggest possible impact in the world.

We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including:

• Why good intentions aren't enough when giving to charity and how we can do better

• How William's giving philosophy was formed and how it developed into The Centre for Effective Altruism

• The best metrics to assess how good a charity is before donating a dime

• How letting our emotions guide our charitable giving can lead to ineffective, and sometimes harmful outcomes.

• How many charities today unknowingly reward low dollar donors and sell themselves short millions of dollars in potential donations

• A powerful thought exercise to help you gain a different but valuable perspective about helping the poor and suffering in the world

• The one cognitive bias William believes is the most damaging to any business, organization or individual

• William's foundational values that guide his day to day decisions and actions

• William's take on "radical honesty" and when honesty can be taken too far and is no longer constructive

• William's definition of success and the imaginary conversation he has with himself on his deathbed to make sure he's on the right track (this is awesome)

• The most common mistake William sees people make over and over (and the embarrassingly simple way to avoid making it)

• And then to wrap up, I gave him a softball question: What is the purpose and meaning of life?

If you've wanted to make more of a positive impact in the world around you, this insightful interview will give you plenty to think about. Your resources are precious and should be optimized to improve the lives of those you help. I don't know of a better person to guide you than William.
Listen

• Listen to this episode on iTunes. (Leave a rating!)

• Stream by clicking here.

• Download as MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing "save as".

Transcript
Members of the FS learning community have access to transcripts, however, you can purchase this one separately for $7.
Discuss
Members can discuss this podcast on the Learning Community Forum.

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Top 9 reasons pitchers are getting injured | Inside Pitch Magazine

JACKSONVILLE - I think the over-emphasis on "velocity enhancement" training programs fits in here someplace as well.

from insidepitchonline.com
https://insidepitchonline.com/top-9-reasons-pitchers-are-getting-injured/

Top 9 reasons pitchers are getting injured
article by Nunzio Signore

It's no secret that the numbers of youth injuries in baseball are staggering. Even with the implementation of pitch counts, youth injuries not only continue to rise but account for many of the injuries ball players eventually suffer later in their careers. An awful lot has been written about overuse among young pitchers that ultimately leads to injury. But I believe there are many other contributing factors that are often overlooked. Below is a summary of my top 9 leading causes of pitching injuries.

1. Previous / Lingering InjuryLet's start with what I believe to be the "numero uno." Common knowledge in the industry tells us that the #1 predictor of injury is a previous injury. A good example is an athlete who has had a lingering elbow issue from a prior year (or years) and is hoping that a shut down in the off-season has fixed the problem. This usually isn't the case with overuse injuries. Once throwing begins the symptoms return, and voila! another season on the bench. This is also a key reason why injuries are at their highest early on in the season.
2. Poor Pitching MechanicsThe question is "are we really fixing the problem or just relieving the symptoms?" Does the following scenario sound familiar?
-Pitcher's arm hurts
-He goes to Physical Therapist (PT)
-PT shuts him down for 6 weeks
-Pain goes away
-Pitcher starts throwing again
-Pitcher's arm hurts again…
Obviously if we stop throwing, the pain will go away but if it returns once throwing begins again it's generally a clear sign that something isn't right in the pitching delivery. For example, sequencing issues of the lower half can cause the athlete to overuse the arm to generate a higher velocity ceiling. This can cause pain in the anterior shoulder and medial elbow. Giving this athlete specific throwing correctives to help engage the lower half, and teaching him to create a more "hip dominant" back leg, will allow him to put more force into the ground while coming down the mound. The net result of all this will create lower half leverage in the delivery and take much of the stress off of the anterior shoulder by lowering the workload of the upper body and arm.
3. Inadequate StrengthIf quality weight room work—which is needed to maintain strength, mobility and stability—trails off, so will power on the mound. Pitchers are throwing harder at an earlier age, and many are writing checks that their bodies can't cash due to a lack of strength. Even with lower pitch counts, some young athletes are not strong enough to throw even 40 pitches let alone 60 or 70. It will likely leave an athlete vulnerable to a cavalcade of maladies including a gradual drop in velocity, control, and worst of all, injury as the season moves onward. When a young athlete gets to a certain age, strength training is no longer an option, nor is it something you should only do in the off-season.
4. Early Age OveruseThis is probably the most prevalent issue as well as the one that I believe has the biggest carryover to some of the other reasons we'll look at. We are starting to see the results of what these kids did to themselves beginning some 10 years ago. The excessive pitch counts in youth and high school baseball is starting to rear its ugly head. We all realize that baseball is part of being a kid, but we have a lifespan on our ligaments! When starting to throw at an early age (7-11), there are permanent structural changes to the growth plates in the arm, shoulder and elbow that change the kinematics of the joint. This is called humeral retroversion. While this acquired increase in external rotation allows for greater layback, it also comes with a higher risk for injuries associated with "little league elbow" such as:
-Epicondylitis and physeal plate (growth) fractures
-Osseous (bony) changes in the humeral head
-Calcification of the UCL and acromion
Many young athletes are injuring themselves as kids and don't even know it. This is why playing multiple sports and monitoring pitch counts is of the utmost importance at an early age.
5. Inadequate Rest between Outings"Fatigue is the enemy of motor learning." — Nick Winkelman
After each outing on the mound, there can be up to a 10-degree loss of glenohumeral internal rotation, losses in hip mobility and ankle stability, just to name a few. It goes without saying that if you don't perform proper maintenance and don't rest adequately between outings, you will experience a loss in total range of motion. This not only compromises movement patterns but also increases the risk of injury as well. Note: Many times, there are no warning signs of fatigue but if you know what to look for, fatigue can present itself in a variety of ways including mechanical issues on the mound (decrease in stride length, lack of trunk flexion or releasing the ball high and arm side). Here's a great chart (courtesy of Pitch Smart) to let you know where you stand:6. Lack of Mobility/StabilityWe need to help the body achieve more athletic positions in the delivery with mobility work. Mobility is "the ability to move freely into a desired position" and can be something that is lost fairly quickly. In fact, many athletes don't even realize they're losing it until they're injured. If you combine a loss of shoulder and hip mobility with the violence of the pitching movement, you can get a recipe for disaster. On the other hand, not all athletes need extensive mobility work. Those with laxity (excessive joint range of motion) need more stability to help them get into more athletic positions. For these guys some foam rolling, scapular stability work and good old-fashioned strength training may be just what the doctor ordered.
7. Insufficient Shutdown PeriodI am going to spend a minute on this one as it hits close to home. While there are many reasons why a 10-12 week shut down is paramount, I'll just list a couple big ones:
-Give "lay-back" a break – Pitchers should intentionally lose a few degrees of external rotation each off-season, this allows them to improve their stability on the anterior side of the shoulder and gain back some much-needed internal rotation.
-Allow time to get in some manual resistance cuff exercises: Manual resistance exercises are the single-best option for improving rotator cuff strength. We incorporate them when appropriate all season long in our programming. This allows us to emphasize eccentric strength. Bands are ok, but nowhere near as powerful. Cuff strength and scap stability work as well as mobility work should be included in every off-season training program.
Throwing year-round without a break works against many of these qualities we work so hard to achieve. This is especially problematic in younger populations, as they are generally weaker and skeletally immature. This is why we advocate a 10-12 week shut down annually. Sure, you'll be a bit rusty in the first few weeks but don't worry—you'll "figure it out" during the ramp-up of your throwing program.
8. Insufficient Pre-season Ramp-upSometimes too little of a good thing can be detrimental as well. Many older, more experienced players—especially the guys that already have commitments to schools—may be trying to save some bullets and start throwing a little later, and ramp up a little slower. Players go from a casual off-season progression to an excessive amount of high intensity pitches in a short amount of time. In the northeast, this is especially taxing since the season usually begins in 40-degree weather. It is a grind. If you are a high-level pitcher and you aren't familiar with Davis's Law, you should be: "Ligaments, or any soft tissue, when put under even a moderate degree of tension, if that tension is unremitting, will elongate by the addition of new material; on the contrary, when ligaments, or rather soft tissue, remain interruptedly in a loose or lax state, they will gradually shorten, as the effete material is removed, until they come to maintain the same relation to the bony structures with which they are united that they did before their shortening."
So, make sure you ramp-up properly for the spring load.
9. Poorly Designed Strength Training ProgramsThis one hits close to home as well. Most traditional baseball strength training programs either involve excessive coddling (no heavy lifting) or going to the extremes and doing the football team's workout. I read a great quote by Eric Cressey once where he stated, "baseball players can and should be pushed incredibly hard as long as the exercise selection is appropriate." I agree 100%.
Including a thorough assessment is a must to ensure individualized programming as well as coaching proper movement patterns to ensure that we're not allowing athletes to get really good at moving poorly. In addition, programming should reflect where the athlete is in their season and as always, avoiding things such as Olympic lifting (hard on the shoulders and wrists). Not placing heavy weights in unstable overhead shoulder positions will also go a long way in reducing wear and tear on the joints in the weight room.
Injuries continue to rise despite the greater focus on injury prevention. So, I have assembled below what I consider to be a Pitcher's Doctrine, I hope it's helpful:
1. Avoid early age overuse (7-14)
2. Improve overall strength
3. Improve and maintain mobility / stability year-round
4. Maintain an optimum weight level (lean muscle mass)
5. Identify and correct pitching mechanics for disconnects and stress
6. Get adequate sleep
7. Observe a minimum 10-weeks of shutdown during the year
8. Participate in a thorough pre-season ramp-up program
9. Avoid year-round baseball
10. Follow a proper nutrition program

Nunzio Signore is the owner and operator of Rockland Pitching Performance, author of the book Pitchers Arm Care, and Co-Director of the Pitching Lab. He has spoken at clinics like Be the Best and Inside Baseball as well as college exercise science majors at schools such as Springfield College, Cortland University and Montclair State. Nunzio is also a performance enhancement specialist certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, is certified in the Functional Movement Screen, and has done work with Cressey Sports Performance and Mike Boyle (Olympic Men's Ice Hockey, Boston Red Sox).

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Why does Anyone in this City Need a Gun? | Econlib

A total dismantling of the arguments used by those opposed to the 2nd Amendment. Great article from a great resource in Econlib. The comments section there is worth browsing as well. The mark of a worthwhile blog.

Why does Anyone in this City Need a Gun? – Econlib

Why does Anyone in this City Need a Gun? – Econlib

Why does Anyone in this City Need a Gun?, by Pierre Lemieux Posted: 24 Jul 2018 08:02 AM PDT The shooting that took place in Toronto (Canada) on Sunday was, in one way, similar to the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Paris on January 7, 2015. In the latter case, people took smartphone videos of fleeing terrorists shooting at policemen and killing an unarmed one. In Toronto, there were several powerless witnesses, and at least one person, apparently from an apartment overlooking the scene, videoed the killer as he was firing from the sidewalk below. In both cases, if a video taker had had a pistol instead of smartphone, he could have engaged the killer, at least slowing him down, and saved lives or prevented serious bodily injuries. The fact that the Toronto killer was apparently just a madman, and a loser as I called his kind in a previous post ("Mass Killings and the Economic Approach to Human Behavior"), is tragic but does not change the situation as far as saving lives is concerned. Many people believe it is impossible that armed citizens could end or mitigate a mass shooting. In places like Toronto or Paris, they are right in the sense that carrying guns is a crime for ordinary citizens, so it is unlikely that one could legally and seriously challenge a killer in action. In Canada, if you have been permitted to own a handgun, it can only be carried in a locked case to an approved shooting club; it must otherwise be kept in your home, where it must be locked separate from ammunition, to make sure you don't use it in self-defense—which would be a crime anyway. It's even worse in the United Kingdom. Some states in America are the only places in the civilized world where ordinary individuals are allowed to own convenient handguns, carry them, and use them in self-defense. But here is the question: Does it ever happen that they use them to stop mass killings? The answer is yes, and is documented in a FBI report, Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2016 and 2017 (April 2018). The report documents 50 active shooter incidents over these two years. Shooter incidents are defined as "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area." The FBI concludes its analysis by noting: Armed and unarmed citizens engaged the shooter in 10 incidents. They safely and successfully ended the shootings in eight of those incidents. Their selfless actions likely saved many lives. Not surprisingly, in 6 of these 10 cases, the intervening citizen was legally armed. Only exceptional circumstances or exceptional courage lead an unarmed individual to successfully confront an armed killer in action. Perhaps one has to be familiar with guns to attempt this. The FBI writes: In four incidents, citizens possessing valid firearms permits successfully stopped the shooter. In two [of those] incidents, citizens exchanged fire with the shooter. In two incidents, the citizens held the shooter at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived. In another incident, "a citizen possessing a valid firearms permit was wounded before he could fire at the shooter." In the last of the six incidents, the shooter was met with gunfire but fled to continue his rampage at another location. Thus, an armed citizen put an end to a mass shooting in four cases or 8% of the shootings. Economist John Lott argues that the FBI missed some of the shootings, and that the real percentage over the past few years is around 15%. In any event, a significant percentage of mass shootings were stopped by armed citizens and many lives were presumably saved. In many states, individuals without a felony record can now lawfully carry concealed pistols without a license–so-called "constitutional carry." This certainly adds to the disincentive effect that concealed carry has on mass murders. The Sunday shooting and the other recent ones in Toronto occurred after three decades of increasingly severe gun controls in Canada, as you can check in my article "Disarming Canadians," a review of a recent book by Canadian historian R. Blake Brown. It is farcical to hear Toronto's mayor John Tory, a conservative politician, suggesting"tougher gun laws" in the wake of the tragic Sunday events, and pontificating: There are far too many people carrying around guns in our city and our region who should not have them. He asked: Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all? He did not mean that cops should not be armed. They have been more and more heavily armed as ordinary citizens were gradually disarmed. He did not mean that the cops who protect him do not need guns. He meant that ordinary citizens should be totally disarmed, hoping that thugs will also disarm, which would (inexplicably?) leave only the cops armed. It is true that the freedom to have guns means that more guns will be available, including for criminals if only because lower black market prices. Even if one assumes that the result will be a higher net murder count (which does not appear to be true), it is a strange ethics that forbids to individuals the means to defend themselves in order to wishfully prevent criminals from harming them. In the 20th and 21st century, the right or ordinary individuals to own efficient guns is very much part of American exceptionalism. When you think about it, it is as banal as it is incomprehensible to the rest of the world that ordinary individuals have the right to own, and in most states to carry, guns nearly as efficient as those carried by their public servants. (9 COMMENTS)

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Beemer is the Best

"No amount of time will erase the memory of a good great dog."

Today was a bad day. I lost my best friend. I know he's "just a dog" but he was a great friend. He gave me a love, companionship and loyalty that I don't deserve. I will miss him greatly. 

Beemer is the Best.

I posted these missives once before about dogs in general and Beemer specifically. They only begin to describe how much we will miss him. He was a great dog.

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender.You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours to the last beat of his heart.You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

      - Anonymous

 --

Just a Dog

From time to time, people tell me, "lighten up, it's just a dog," or, "that's a lot of money for just a dog." They don't understand the distance traveled, the time spent, or the costs involved for "just a dog."

Some of my proudest moments have come about with "just a dog." Many hours have passed and my only company was "just a dog," but I did not once feel slighted. Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by "just a dog," and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of "just a dog" gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.

If you, too, think it's "just a dog," then you will probably understand phrases like "just a friend," "just a sunrise," or "just a promise." "Just a dog" brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy. "Just a dog" brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person. Because of "just a dog" I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future.

So for me and folks like me, it's not "just a dog" but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment. "Just a dog" brings out what's good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day.

I hope that someday they can understand that it's not "just a dog" but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being "just a man." So the next time you hear the phrase "just a dog." just smile, because they "just don't understand."

Author Unknown

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The Top 100 for 2018 | Baseball America

https://www.youtube.com/embed/E6XRpSaY9xM

JACKSONVILLE - Joey Bart comes in at #40, Ramos pushed off the list due to 2018 Draftees being added. You have to like the write-up on Bart here.

from baseballamerica.com
https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2018-top-100-prospects/

40

Joey Bart

GiantsC

Notes:

Hit: 45 | Power: 60 | Speed: 40 | Defense: 55 | Arm: 60
Scouting Report: Listed at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, Bart has all the tools necessary to become an above-average defensive catcher at the pro level. He has a strong arm that's at least above-average and likely plus, as well as strong and quiet hands, footwork that's online to his target during throws and exceptional game-calling abilities for an amateur. Prior to this spring, scouts questioned Bart's effort behind the dish, but the recent feedback has been exceptional. When he's locked in and focused, he looks the part. Offensively, Bart has plus raw power to all fields and has a solid track record in the ACC. Bart also has a solid wood bat track record, hitting .309/.389/.433 with two home runs in the Cape Cod League in 2016, which should help ease the worries of teams who might knock him for a poor summer in 2017, when he was dealing with a groin injury while playing for USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team. Bart does have a history of striking out a bit too much, and most evaluators put the hit tool at fringe-average at best, but the combination of his defensive tools and his ability to get to his power in-game at a position that is incredibly scarce.

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