Paulino, Hosmer, and the Great Francoeur Lead Royals past Mariners
Honestly, friends, I didn't watch this one. I watched my alma mater lose in cartoonishly horrific fashion. And now I get to go through 9/11 living in DC. Fun! Yay! Do I humor my wife and drive outside the city so we won't die in a car bomb or not worry bout it. Fun fun times! What's the radius for a nuke anyway? Screw it, maybe it's better just to be vaporized instantly than suffer through the aftermath, then get cancer, then die knowing everything I care about has been destroyed now I'm dying too. Well, we were given by our benevolent God the power to make choices. Such LOVE. What a gift! What would Francouer do? Oh yea, be rich, get a million chances, and then have everyone fall over themselves loving him. And he ran hard like once, so many valuable lessons.
If I'm alive in 24 hours I guess I can celebrate. And hey, maybe I'll be good at something by the time I'm 35. I can dream. What an awful life this is. But hey, I'm breathing. So, victory! The Royals won a September game against the Mariners. I've been trying to run again lately because I'm playing indoor soccer and it was so hard just to run for a little while. And it is awful. Just give me cancer now. Literally everything about me is going down hill now and will only get worse and worse and worse unless I'm spared and die randomly. I wish we could open thread my funeral, except no one would because really, it's stupid. He died doing what he loved, wasting time online and complaining.
- Felipe Paulino apparently pitched well. This is a good thing. 11 Ks, 0 walks. Damn. Has a non-Greinke Royal pitched better in the last 15 years? Insane. But also, Mariners. Mariners. Still, good though. Maybe we only have to find 3 more starters for Mission 2012 Dayton's Gonna Shock YA! Let's combine Hochevar and Duffy into one reliable pitcher. Except really, we KNOW Duffy will be injured by May 31 of next season. This 100% will happen.
- Jeff Francoeur homered. He is the best player ever. Tear up his current contract and give him $15 million a year.
- Holland and Soria also got their Ks. 16 Ks, 0 Walks. Wow, apparently I became a Red Sox fan and I didn't even know it.
- Hosmer homered. I give him 4.33 Polk points for it, but it ws in the first inning, so deduct .27 points. Then add .4777 back because Pineda made the All-Star team. Then deduct .02 because Pineda has that n with a tilde in his name. Soft. Really though, very encouraging to see him mash a little bit.
Oh, an NFL Network interview with Tom Brady. Now this is good. Oh Rich Eisen, what questions you have for Tom! How does he handle that competitiveness when he goes home to his family? How DOES HE? You can take these lessons and apply them to life.
Is Wil Meyers even still playing? Remember when Jason Adam was the talk of the town? But, oh, we won tonight and hahah Mariners suck. The happy thing is that I bought some scotch tonight and here's this lovely book about the Crusades. But old books really make me sad sometimes. There was nothing like walking through the stacks on a quiet evening and just being surrounded by all that knowledge, all that wisdom and just being able to feel it. To pull a random book off the shelves and look at how often it had been checked out and thinking about everything that had happened and then reading it and feeling that kinship. That kinship with the dead and with EVERYTHING. Nothing was better than that for me. But so many mistakes and bad choices and now I'm living in DC failing at new ventures and waiting to die.
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Dayton'sgonnashockya!
Boogeyman’llgetcha!
by OnixConcepcion on Sep 11, 2011 12:32 AM EDT reply actions
Polk Salad Annie
ARBITRARY ASSIGNMENT OF POINTS ARE BETTER THAN STATS!
by OnixConcepcion on Sep 11, 2011 12:33 AM EDT reply actions
I wonder just how good the pair of seventh inning outfield catches was.
The Mariners radio guy was going crazy. His “oh baby” catchphrase was rather grating.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 12:40 AM EDT reply actions
Apparently Ken Wilson
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 12:40 AM EDT up reply actions
I Will Testify
Someone once told him “You call a hell of a game Dave; not the one I’m watching, but a hell of a game”. Wish I could remember who.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
facts
1) I would be HORRIBLE at baseball PBP
2) If I did it for 30 years people would get used to it and feel nostalgic about their pasts
3) and so they would think I was awesome
THIS IS EVERY long-time radio guy
but seriously sounds like this was an awesome game
and Rany’s going traitor and tweeting hardcore about how awesome Franceour is
i have no allies
he reads what you right about him every night an cries
that is not very nice, I suggest a Dr. and a heavy dose of meds to get you through this Scotch induced Mega Patriotic Rememberance It’s Been Ten Years We Should Ban The Pledge Weekend
If you only make friends with people who are your age, this may be why you're not making new friends.
Get outside the box. People who are different are more fun than hanging out with a bunch of people just like you. You might as well stay home alone if that’s all you’re going to do, which it sounds like you are, and then you don’t have to wear pants and can scratch yourself.
Also – drinking while watching Royals games at home on a Saturday night might not be the healthiest thing to do for one’s state of mind. Just a thought :)
well, it is a two way street
I’m a very boring person and not really fun to be around I would guess
but that’s alot of us
Yes, but if you're a good listener no one cares if you're interesting.
They just care if you make them feel interesting.
Seriously, though, friends are overrated and you probably don’t have the budget to handle buying them all christmas presents anyway.
i have good friends from college and HS
but yea. maybe being dead inside has something to do with it
though honestly, my wife is my best friend. she is 90% of my emotional life
So are you staying in DC tomorrow?
I know at least one of my relatives was planning on going for a road trip this weekend because of just not wanting to deal with the stress and drama of being in DC, even if nothing bad happened just everyone being so tensed up waiting for something awful to happen.
Also – the tunnels under the Capitol building that lead between the buildings – pretty sure they double as a bomb shelter. These are the things you learn by interning for your congressman in college.
my wife works in one of those buildings
so now she is freaked out…
i dunno. we went out of town last weekend nd with it being a sunday night…
i dunno, i’ll see what she wants to do.
if they’re going to kill us, they’re going to kill us
Exactly.
If I had a choice, I’d just be curled up with my husband, dog&cat and the next disc of Deadwood. But instead I’ll be working. And so will he. Not the dog nor cat, though. Lucky bastards.
but the people who die in these things are always irrelevant victims of history like mself
so theres that
its not like some DC powerbroker of CIA peep is going down, it’ll be me
Insignificance Has No
Rewards other that insignificance. That is my choice.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:19 AM EDT up reply actions
I Correctly Spelled
“Insignificance” twice without thinking about it. Envy me
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:22 AM EDT up reply actions
So if it's you, go out doing what you love, is my feeling.
Hence the curled up watching Deadwood with my family around me. Of course, if we were both really off tomorrow he’d want to watch the Chiefs whereas I don’t give a rat’s ass about football. But dreams are nice to have.
that's what will suck
the next attack will probably be during morning rush hour, becuse that’s by design
oh well
They've been putting up doors so the various tunnels can be sealed and used for shelter in place
But the instructions right now are to have off site locations prepared with supplies (spare house keys and list of contact numbers, etc) and to get as far away from the House and Senate Office Buildings and the Capitol as quickly as you can.
I love how the official rec is always to shelter in place
But in practice it never happens
During the earthquake my wife was in one of the huge buildings by the capital and the guards were screaming “RUN”
, my wife is my best friend. she is 90% of my emotional life
This worked for me for 18 years. Go with it. If you haven’t read Mother Night, do it.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:17 AM EDT up reply actions
New friends are overrated.
And they just end up ditching you like the old ones. Your wife still talks to you. What more do you want?
I haven't done worthwhile anything since I graduated from college 10 years ago.
Sporadically musing on the Royals at Royalscentricity and on Twitter at Old Man Duggan
by Old Man Duggan on Sep 11, 2011 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions
no
Louis Coleman is good. Holland is too close to Swedan, which is too close to Germany, which is evil.
After all those Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, I'm willing to accept that Sweden is evil on it's own right.
That was set in Sweden, right? All I know is, all those people are fucked up.
ABBA came from there. Sweden = bad
Bork bork bork
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 1:00 AM EDT up reply actions
I've Never Worked
With a Swedish pilot, except for a Bosnian Serb who was born and raised there. He was nuts and named Dragan. The rest of the Scandies are pretty normal by comparison.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:27 AM EDT up reply actions
I Took Him
Drinking once; unstoppable, baby!
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:36 AM EDT up reply actions
I dont doubt it
the guy I knew was my friend’s roomate in grad school
he was really into those scary graphic novels before that was cool and wanted to place giant bullseye on his roof to protest when we were bombing SLobodan’s troops or whatever
scry dude
it would be really cool if the rays could make this interesting
maybe they should have actully tried this season
Now you have to find out for me when Season 3 of Justified is coming back.
And if you can let me know that they’re going to kill of Winona and have a freaking Tim episode, that would be great, because those are my two greatest wishes for the direction of the show right now.
I hope Haly brings back CHIEFS WILL this season
it was so dumb but also gramatically nebulous so I loved it
CHIEFS WILL
Noun Or Verb?
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions
Probably Not
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:37 AM EDT up reply actions
there;s nothing like these hardcore NFL shows on NFLN
I’d love to watch reruns from last year and see how many of these predictions/amalyslsy was accurate
To Burn In
A Voodoo ritual?
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:30 AM EDT up reply actions
CORONA YOU HAVE LIED TO ME
1) watch this commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfsE-VMqQk
2) WHO IS WEARING PANTS LIKE THAT TO WORK?
LIES!
Also, in response to #2, you'd be surprised.
I worked with a girl once who wore baby doll dressed with no pants or anything underneath them, and kept wearing the same baby doll dresses when she was pregnant. They just kept getting higher and higher, and still no lower layer was added. It was disturbing.
I'm pretty sure she was wearing a butt pad there to fill em out in back, too.
But maybe not. Maybe I’m just being catty.
Youtube comments are like a car accident you can't help but watch
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 2:09 AM EDT up reply actions
Stunt Butt
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions
Break His Leg!
Oh, wait……….
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 1:48 AM EDT up reply actions
I'm Not Sure
Whether I’m on my first or second after dinner drink;better safe than sorry
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
Fuck Notre Dame
With a broomstick……….sideways.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
I just love the tone this site has these days
What better position to ponder man’s mortality and failings then from the 6th inning of a September game between the 2011 Royals and Mariners?
Will, your steady descent into depression and madness would be a real downer if you weren’t so hilariously bitter and pissed off about it. I feel like I’m looking into a window into my future. You’re me after 7 more years of the world grinding me down. But there’s something beautiful about the sheer stupid futility of it all. Our parents had the same thoughts and worries about life, and our kids will have the same ones we do, and their kids, and on and on until we finally succeed at blowing the whole planet up or Ray Kurzweil turns out to be right and we evolve into immortal machine-gods. But like the Royals, we play out the string anyway because living, no matter how full of regret, sure beats the hell out of dying.
Sometimes I feel like I know the punchline to this cosmic joke we call existence, and other times it seems just out of reach. And then I wonder if anyone else has felt that way, and then I remember that there have been billions of people on this world before me and the statistical probability of me having a completely unique thought is infinitesimal. And those billions of people all lived and died within the last 40,000 years or so, and our galaxy is roughly 13 billion years old, and it strikes me that anything any of us do or think or say is laughably inconsequential.
I would be an existentialist if I didn’t find them all to be insufferable pricks.
by Soria's Unibrow on Sep 11, 2011 2:14 AM EDT reply actions 4 recs
our parents at least were able to eek out a higher standard of living than their parents...
albeit by sending both genders into the workforce and taking on massive credit
we have no such luck
ROYAL PRIDE
I Am The
Dieing end of the Boomers. Actually, I am the middle of the phenomenon. Still, the shit hit the fan when I hit the workforce in ’73. We will somewhat monetize the national debt again, and everyone will have cake and lemonade until it happens again. The cycle is getting shorter, though.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 2:30 AM EDT up reply actions
I rec'ed Will's post
Because I was hoping the tone was more of his usual literary masterpiece connecting the meaningless of life with the meaningless of Royals-Mariners in September.
But it’s too real. I hope he has a nice rest tonight.
Kansas City Royals: your 2006 and 2007 NL Central champions!
well put
would be a real downer if you weren’t so hilariously bitter and pissed off about it
Kila's slash for Apr 20 to May 4, 2011, right before he was sent down: .276 / .344 / .448
by SagehenMacGyver47 on Sep 12, 2011 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Since nobody else seems too concerned by this essay, I'll just assume that I'm missing something
Will, I certainly identify with many of your complaints (feeling a little lost in DC myself with an uncertain career path and a shitload of student loan debt), but I hope there’s some value in seeing all that you’ve done for the people who visit this site. Your work has made my life richer (including making the many disappointments easier to get past), and I think that’s true for dozens or hundreds of us on here.
I don’t know squat about psychology except that it turned my wife from someone who hated everything, including me, to a happy, hopeful, loving (not perfect, but perfectly ordinary — in a good way) person. If you’re interested in feeling differently, it’s something worth checking out.
And as for 9.11 in DC, my attitude is that no terrorist in history went after the most defended targets at a time the attack was most expected. The risk has to be 100x lower on the 11th than it is on the 12th.
Just wanted to say “Thanks, you’ve done a great job” since I don’t say that enough, and it seems like you’re not getting a lot of those comments lately. You deserve them. I hope you know that.
I'm also concerned
And I second everything said above.
Will, you have a job, a girlfriend, and aren’t homeless. Life is good.
Yeah, you seem pretty depressed
Go see a shrink and get him to give you some happy pills. They work. And stop listening to all that Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen.
"When asked who was responsible for his going down in flames
He pointed to the offices and said 'You all know their names'
So hurry home early, hurry, let's go
Boom Boom Mazzaro's facing Robby Canó" --Not Warren Zevon
ditto
we’re here, we may as well make the best we can of it…life isn’t fair and it never will be.
i appreciate all of the effort you put into this site, even if we don’t always agree.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
--Albert Einstein
by Home Run Tony Cogan on Sep 11, 2011 10:23 AM EDT up reply actions
Should it not be "Jeffrey the Great"
in the style of Catherine the Great or Frederick the Great?
Spain had some good ones. There were Peter the Cruel, Joanna the Mad, and Charles “el Hechizo,” which translates something like “bewitched” or “cursed.” He was the last of the Hapsburgs in Spain, and was extremely inbred. When he finally croaked they had a huge war over who was going to get what spoils.
In fact, today is the Catalan National Day: the day the pro-Hapsburg city of Barcelona fell to the Bourbon forces in 1714. There was some pretty good massacring and stuff. Then the evil victorious pro-Bourbon Castilians took away all of Catalonia’s medieval rights. Now the Catalan nationalists have made it into an occasion for breast-beating. Beware of nationalisms that celebrate defeats. It means they hold a grudge.
"When asked who was responsible for his going down in flames
He pointed to the offices and said 'You all know their names'
So hurry home early, hurry, let's go
Boom Boom Mazzaro's facing Robby Canó" --Not Warren Zevon
Who Could Forget
Hosar The Insignificant, the lone King of Canada.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions
Basically anti
I respect their claims to a particular identity, but reject their effort to turn these claims into law. Right now, for example, there’s a big controversy. So far public schools have taught total immersion in Catalan except for one class in Spanish grammar/lit a day. The Catalan Supreme Court, of all people, declared this law unconstitutional and now we don’t know what language they’re going to be teaching in when class starts in three weeks.
My wife is Catalan “de pura cepa” (to the roots) from a tiny village called Vallfogona de Riucorb. She was totally down with the Catalan thing until she spent a couple years in America and discovered that multicultural life is more interesting. She is now more pro-American than any American.
"All the boys think she's a guy
She's got crazy Frenchy eyes."
Don't the Australians celebrate a defeat for their national day?
The slaughter of the Australian troops in the failed Galipoli (sp?) invasion?
They lost the battle but won the war
"All the boys think she's a guy
She's got crazy Frenchy eyes."
for those concerned, the most important line in Will's essay:
“The happy thing is I bought some scotch tonight…”
Let us not overreact to a little bit of drunk-blogging by Will. A melancholic temperament becomes moreso with the addition of scotch, and the Royals. ’Tis ever been thus.
Occam’s Razor, and all that.
"Shot by my own men."
Carl Crawford May
Be looking for a partner soon. Will has a better working knowledge of antiquarian works than Carl, unless I miss my guess.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions
Will, what is said alma mater? I feel I should know this..
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 1:05 PM EDT reply actions
Matt Cassel isn't even remotely close to being a starting QB in this league. He is flat out awful.
Chiefs being booed out of the stadium on Opening Weekend.
Killing time until time kills me
Matt Cassel touched on leg
Dives backward five yards on 3rd down. Missed field goal ensues.
Sure am glad we gave a backup QB such a huge deal for no reason whatsoever. Gotta have an identity.
Killing time until time kills me
The way the Chiefs look right now, I wouldn't even vote them into the top 15 of the AP College Football poll
Killing time until time kills me
They should beat the Colts
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Halftime: Houston 34, Indy 0
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 2:47 PM EDT up reply actions
I wanted to wait until the Royals game to have a few beers.
But might get started to help me watch the rest of the Chiefs game.
Agreed
They are going to come back. Hopefully they keep Buffalo where they are, though, or it won’t do any good.
by OnixConcepcion on Sep 11, 2011 2:52 PM EDT up reply actions
I can't say that in good conscience while Berry remains out without an update.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 11, 2011 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep.
It’s gonna take some luck now. Doubt Buffalo gets reckless and screws up though with this lead.
by OnixConcepcion on Sep 11, 2011 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions
Will, are you back to being sober (or at least hung over)?
You’ve got a few of us a bit worried with the rants the last few days (absolutely loved the Labor Day one, for the record- tho if you’re not careful McCarthy might come calling)
Two quotes:
“He who is not a socialist at age twenty has no heart. He who is not a conservative at age forty has no brain.” —Some famous guy
“I didn’t become a conservative until I had something to conserve.” —My dad
"All the boys think she's a guy
She's got crazy Frenchy eyes."
That first quote keeps mistakenly being attributed to Churchhill
I’m 32 and have things “to conserve”. We could make a long discussion of how that’s a horribly fatalistic and selfish mentality but it’s not really what this blog is for
I don't believe my dad was thinking as much about material things or money
(because we were comfortable though nowhere near wealthy) as his wife and kids, his job, his family values, his church, and his fruit trees in the side yard.
"All the boys think she's a guy
She's got crazy Frenchy eyes."
Longitudinal polling data shows that people fix their political preferences in their late 20s
After that, there’s little change. A generation that votes socialist at age 30 will vote socialist at age 40, 50, 60 and so on.
I Have Modified
My political views since that age, but pretty much tinkering at the margins. I came to my political beliefs in my teens and I haven’t changed enough to be reclassified.
I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.
by philofthenorth on Sep 11, 2011 11:44 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm 24 and I've found my political beliefs have been changing in the past few months,
and yes, in the direction that “Churchill” predicted.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!
by KeepItCopacetic on Sep 12, 2011 5:46 PM EDT up reply actions
You're the exception
The generation coming of age right now has the biggest skew of any generation since Gallup started polling in the late 40s (which basically gives us a look at all 20th Century generations). That’s partly because they’re less white (Republicans do terribly among almost all non-whites at this point), but even whites 18-30 are about as left as the Roosevelt generation.
Actually, that might not be fair
The older quote almost certainly refers to classical conservatism, which favors preservation of existing customs and institutions, while the polling data I’m looking at considers modern American political conservatism, which is a combination of ideas from classical conservatism (opposition to immigration, preservation of traditional family structures) and ideas from classical liberalism (promotion of free trade, laissez-faire economics), and a bunch of ideas (favoring taxation of labor over capital and sales over income, powerful national security state) that don’t really come out of either school.
Not to get too far into politics here
but I definitely went more liberal once I got to college after coming out of a fairly small town in Kansas. I try not to think about the machine anymore really because I’ve ended up pretty libertarian and we’re kind of stuck at the moment.
Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.
Rock Chalk Talk
When will someone in the Chiefs organization finally realize the importance of the offensive and defensive lines?
Only the two most important units in football. Keep on loading up on new wide recievers and handing out huge contracts to terrible QBs who can only complete passes to wide open receivers..and even then not consistently.
Killing time until time kills me
Time to get it up
"All the boys think she's a guy
She's got crazy Frenchy eyes."
Cassel legitimately can not throw the ball down the field.
Unless he’s throwing to an absolutely wide open receiver less than 10 yards down the field, he’s useless.
Killing time until time kills me



















