Digby

I actually have no idea if it still is, but I can't ever extract it from my memory from when it did, unfortunately.

I'm ostensibly the target market for this, as a cord-cutter, but there's no way I can rationalize paying $30 a month. Luckily my top sports interests locally are NBA and MLS whose affiliates are on most of the live streaming services. If $60-70 a month gets me live basketball, soccer, and football, not to mention all the other live TV channels AND the entire regular Hulu library, there's no way I can increase my budget 50 percent for only baseball and hockey. (And that's all this is really for, with all due respect to uh, the Red Sox dating show and that obnoxious fishing guy that's been on for 30 years and whatever other originals NESN's got for me.) Actually just noticed that the annual $330 plan includes 8 unspecified Red Sox tickets -- gotta love state-run media! I'm sure those will be bleacher seats for Tuesdays against the O's or Royals or something. Throw in a voucher for a $14 Narragansett tallboy can and maybe we'll talk.

All the predictions I've seen suggest a 6- or 7-game series, with more analysts picking the Dubs to win but not TOO many more. Which feels right to me. I'd be inclined to have the Celtics have the favorite if they had those extra 2 days of rest! Dammit Jimmy!

The kicker is I just scrolled quickly past and initially assumed that photo was a poorly lit photo of the Mets in black jerseys.

This is pretty much what I was worried about, color-wise. Give me a bright yellow-gold paired with that wine every day of the week. They're going to look blah and faded all over again.

NESN purportedly the first RSN to jump into direct-to-consumer streaming, including live streams of Red Sox and Bruins games. Notably, they're not on YouTube TV or Hulu Live TV ... maybe on some of the other streaming services but I haven't checked in a while. That price point is... wowza.

He was the one who was talking sh-t to the media about his club's transfer policy before the year even started, right? I can imagine there was some behind-the-scenes conflict there. That said, if the FO wants to win games, hard to see how replacing a coach who's got an expansion team running pretty well is the right thing to do.

IDK, to me they all look like ordering jerseys from some rec-league wholesaler, and you want a striped kit but there's only a limited rectangular chest area on which they'll allow printing. Just doesn't look right to me at the international level!

Frankly I am way, way over even caring about this anymore. It’s not even the most thumb-on-scale, lame-superteam-assembling moment in KD’s own career.

There has never been any anti-Warriors argument that’s not “they’ve run their team unbelievably perfectly”, it’s just extra annoying that the team that figured it out is also the avatar for 2010s Silicon Valley as opposed to a beloved small market (though the Bucks have come close and did, ya know, win a title). Plus, admittedly the Oak-> SF thing totally sucked and made the NBA that much more generic.

What is with the printed-on stripe elements for Iceland/Egypt/Cote d'Ivoire? Astonishingly cheapo looking straight out of the rec league catalog.

It should be a good Finals. The Celtics have played the dynasty-era Warriors as well as anyone in the league for several years now, even in years when the Celtics weren't contenders like this year. But I think they might be doomed with the lack of poise and experience, comparatively (still struggling with turnovers and not playing a full 48 minutes). And failing to close out Miami in 6 is a killer. Nobody needed that extra flight to Miami while GSW got plenty of rest; Boston's has two very physical 7-game series in a row, and Rob Williams and Smart both look pretty obviously not back to 100% out there.

Poetic to give this first Larry Bird ECF MVP trophy to Jayson Tatum, but honestly Butler was probably the series MVP. Total chaos ending to a chaotic series.

My unpopular opinion is that the LeBron 1.0 jerseys weren’t very good. The red and gold were a dull, washed-out palette; that chunky number font is painfully early 00s. The navy alt of those years saved the entire set.

I’m very distracted with Mike Breen out due to Covid and Jeff Vam Gundy sounding like he’ll be pulled for the same at any moment.

Saw this one coming! Butler even better than LeBron, the stat sheet says it.

That 2012 Game 6 is maybe the best LeBron game I can remember seeing. Celtics just had to win one, at home, looked for all the world like they were clicking at the right time and reasserting themselves as the true top-dog Big 3 of the era ... and LeBron just broke their spirit all by himself. Just totally unstoppable.

^ that was my exact first thought too, just looks like a somewhat slapdash mix of the old Impact shield and Inter Miami. Maybe this is their revenge for Miami taking IMFC as an acronym and confused mixes of languages in the team names. Sad to see the modernist snowflake go, a legitimately good piece of design and the only part of the update I thought made any sense.

The colors work great, the license-plate motif is silly. The decal patches on the sleeve and hat drag the whole look down. The roadkill jokes will write themselves if they get blown out wearing these.

The people mover looks more OAK than SFO. far as I’m concerned it’s a bus on tracks until proven otherwise!

i just begrudgingly said a nice thing about trains in LA, but I’m fortunate to balance that out with the note that this new extension will *still* require a bus to both LAX and the Rams/Clippers stadia. So close!

something something made the trains run on time ironically fitting here

and damn near broke the thing. really leaning into his Carolina transplant life. I don’t think he’ll ever be milkshake duck-ed; anyone who shows up to their first TV anchor jobs as obviously stoned as he was is probably a legitimately cool dude.

Anyway, the Dodgers have led MLB in attendance for a decade. The traffic in Chavez Ravine is unpleasant, but not something I’d personally bet my billions against.

True, but, find a US city that has done more to build out its public transit system in the past 10 years than LA. Better late than never. I'd place a bet on a Union Station-Dodger Stadium gondola waaaay before one on a downtown LA Angels stadium.