Pete Rose

Yes, I am sad that Pete Rose passed away. He was a legend and he was a great. I first remember him when he played in the 1980 World Series with the Phillies. When I was 11-12 years old I played on a Little League team called the Reds, and Rose earned his legendary status playing for the Cincinnati Reds. All of that. More hits than any player in history. Legend.

He also bet on baseball games. He claims he never threw a game and he only bet on his own team. He was banned from Major League Baseball for life and good riddance. He always came off to me as if he were an insufferable prick and I had no problem with the ban. No Hall of Fame for Charlie Hustle, even though he does hold the MLB record for hits.

Now that he’s passed, and it is sad that he’s passed for sure, the conversation is going to happen again. Should his ban be lifted and should he be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

I say no. As long as Shoeless Joe Jackson remains banned for betting on baseball, specifically as a member of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox team that threw the World Series (against the Cincinnati Reds, of course) then Pete Rose remains banned too. Rose was a brilliant player but by all accounts he wasn’t even close to as good as Jackson (who was a .400 hitter one season). Who knows what Joe could have accomplished if he’d been allowed to play out his full career. There is also very little evidence of him actually participating in rigging games. Hell, he had a great series in 1919 when his co-conspirators were clearly tanking.

If they lift the ban on Joe Jackson then we can talk about lifting the ban on Pete Rose. Before then? I don’t give a shit what anyone says about Rose. If Jackson remains out then Rose remains out. That’s how it needs to be.

I have spoken.

Who Will They Play?

Baseball, right?

Last night the American League Championship Series between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros went to a deciding game seven and Texas won. I am not a Rangers fan, but I am even less of an Astros fan so I guess given two teams I don’t give a crap about the Rangers are the better outcome.

About an hour ago the National League Championship Series started a deciding game seven of its own between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies. My first little league team, when I was eight years old, was the Phillies. Given that, let’s go Phillies!

Game seven is tied at one in the bottom of the third inning. Here’s hoping the Phillies win so that I can have a team I don’t hate playing in the World Series. I don’t really want to root for the Rangers again.

Also, here’s hoping the act of posting my hopes for tonight’s game doesn’t jinx anything. That’s just another reason for the Phils to win. Prove to me that my opinion has no bearing on the actual outcome, okay Philly?

Let’s go Phillies!

Saturday Morning

I slept late today. I didn’t get up until almost 8:00am. The temperature outside at that time? 31 degrees. Shit. Winter is here.

I did my morning exercise before breakfast today. Over the last couple of weeks I have been walking in place for a bit then running in place for a bit and alternating until I hit about 5k in simulated distance. Yesterday I just ran the whole thing About 32 minutes, I think. Today I did the same except I actually used the indoor run workout in the workout app instead of the indoor walk setting. I went a little over my distance goal so that I could get up to 700 calories. I ended up at four miles (simulated). My feet and my calves are hurting, but I feel like I accomplished something.

The plan for today is another small kitchen improvement project, a visit to my mother, and a visit to my father. Beyond that, I don’t know for sure. Guitar, I hope. Bond movies, I assume. I want to watch yesterday’s That Pedal Show but the topic is a Boss pedal and I don’t really like Boss pedals, generally speaking.

I just stumbled over the new clock app in the new MacOS. I opened the clock on my phone and it came up on the laptop as a handoff. Sweet. Now I can track my time between bites on my computer instead of my phone.

I started a Bond movie while doing my faux running today. A View to a Kill. The last Roger Moore. It’s better than I remembered it, but it’s not very good. Christopher Walken as the bad guy. Can he play the bad guy in every Bond movie going forward? That would be fun.

I haven’t done my pick for the World Series post yet. Game one was last night. No spoilers on my pick, but the Phillies won and I am happy. I’ll do the real post later today. The UMass Lowell Riverhawks won too, and the Bruins are off to their best start in 10000 years at 8-1-0 after another win last night. I failed to watch/listen to either game, but I followed the scores as best I could. It was the first time I didn’t listen to at least a few minutes of either team’s game. Oh well.

Last night Jen and I both threw our names into the hat to be beta testers for Jack Dorsey’s new social network, Bluesky Social. Over the last year or so this page has been the only sort of social networking service that I’ve really been using. Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate. I stopped using Facebook and I’ve nearly stopped using Twitter, but I still use Flickr and lately I’ve been using the Flickr Groups more than normal and all of that counts as a social network. I have no idea what Bluesky Social is going to entail, but if it lets me thumb my nose at Musk and Twitter a little then sign me up.

Okay, time to wrap this post up. Bond and Tanya Roberts just stole a fire engine and jumped a draw bridge and that’s not cartoonish at all, right?