Ferdinand Cesarano
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Posts posted by Ferdinand Cesarano
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On 9/29/2023 at 11:02 AM, JoeDGemma said:On 9/25/2023 at 8:53 PM, Bomba Tomba said:
Has anyone picked a number in the 90s range because of their birth year?
Not his birth year, but DeAndre' Bembry wears 95 for his younger brother (born in 1995) who died 2 weeks before DeAndre was drafted.
Similarly, Jason Collins wore number 98 in his second stint with the Nets (after having worn 35 the first time) in commemoration of the murder of Matthew Shepard.
On 9/29/2023 at 8:30 PM, DustDevil61 said:I can see the day in team sports where numbers with leading zeros (01-09) are allowed in addition to 00 before triple-digit numbers are allowed
One baseball player already wore 09: Benito Santiago.
He said that he did it because the chest protector's strap felt better when it fell between two digits.
For Santiago, 09 was just a version of 9. However, the 1985 Blue Jays had another take on the matter.
For that team, Al Oliver wore number 0, while Cliff Johnson wore number 00.
So there the leading zero was interpreted as a significant digit, one that made the number different. By that standard, they could have had a player wearing 01 and a player wearing 1.
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2 minutes ago, GDAWG said:5 minutes ago, throwuascenario said:
Can you please explain what you mean by this?
Global Warming, I think.
Yes, the soaring temperatures constitute one factor. And then there's the diminshing water supply, which is occurring at the same time as a population surge. Things are going to get very messy in that region.
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13 minutes ago, GDAWG said:
I do think all of the expansion cities have serious flaws, but out of all of them, I think I would choose Nashville.
Nashville is everyone's favourite. And they have an active potential ownership group in waiting, led by Dave Stewart. So that city goes to the front of the pack.
14 minutes ago, GDAWG said:If the A's actually got a deal in Oakland, I would have also said Las Vegas, but I am skeptical about Salt Lake City and Portland but if I had to chose one of them, I would pick Salt Lake City.
Las Vegas is a terrible idea, either for a relocated team or an expansion team. The unavoidable reality is that that city will not be there in its current form in a few decades. Even as that city currently stands, it will constitute the smallest home market in Major League Baseball, and there is no way that the A's — or any team apart from the Dodgers — could draw regularly there. (For the NFL, Las Vegas is fine, on account of the practice of opposition fans travelling to a weekly game, and working that game into a trip to Vegas. But for the other sports, that city is a disaster waiting to happen. The Golden Knights will soon look back on this early period as though it had happened in another reality.)
The same issues that doom Las Vegas in the long term apply to Salt Lake City, as well as, to varying extents, to the entire Southwest. Major League Baseball should stay away from that region.
Portland is probably very close to being as good a choice as Nashville. Its MLS team ranks comfortably in the league's top third in attendance. And a Major League Baseball expansion team's potential ownership group includes Russell Wilson.
Still, I am more intrigued with the idea of pushing beyond the continental U.S. For the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver seems like it should be under consideration. Also, San Juan has always intrigued me as a location for a Major League team, as has Mexico City. Of course, whether any of these cities has an ownership group that is both interested and capable, I have no idea. But I hope that Major League Baseball is engaged in investigating these possibilities.
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13 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:
They could have contracted four out of the Marlins, Expos, Twins, A's, and Rays in 2001
The A's and Twins should never even be considered for contraction, as they are original American League teams that date to the league's founding in 1901.
Anyway, instead of contracting, Major League Baseball could simply have not expanded. The last two expansions really should not have happened. Of the four new teams, three (Marlins, Rays, Diamondbacks) should not exist at all, as Florida and Arizona are for spring training only. And Denver could have eventually gotten a team by moving the Expos there.
But now that these teams are here, they're here to stay. And rightfully so; indeed, another expansion is desirable, as 32 teams is preferable from a scheduling standpoint. (In a sane world, getting to 32 teams would be the reason to get rid of both interleague play and the wild card. Alas, our world is far from sane.)
In any case, further expansion or no, they really ought to get those teams out of Florida! This is why I am very sad to learn of a new stadium deal for the Rays. (Unfortunately, there's no moving the Diamondbacks, as that team serves a large geographical area.)
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I had been assuming that the name of the combined league would be either USFL or XFL. If it's going to be something else, then the owners of the league and the teams will have massively devalued that property.
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47 minutes ago, kmccarthy27 said:52 minutes ago, McCall said:
Where are they gonna play? The Guardians didn't do well at MetLife and not sure if they can get Red Bull Arena. So until NYCFC's stadium is completed (and assuming they'd get permission to use it), where would a NY area team play? The Generals identity doesn't solve that problem.
The NY UFL team played at Hofstra University, so they could use that
38 minutes ago, McCall said:That stadium only seats about 12k.
That sort of seating capacity is a good thing for this league (even if siting a team called "New Jersey" out on Long Island is not).
The league should be talking to other colleges in New Jersey and New York City about rentals. In New Jersey, the stadiums of Rutgers (47,000) and Princeton (27,000) are too big; but Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University, holds 5000. I'm sure that there are plenty of other colleges in New Jersey that I don't even know about that have similar-sized stadiums.
In the City, Columbia's stadium holds 17,000, which is probably too much. Thinking more realistically, the Fordham football stadium seats about 7000. Getting more realistic still, Wagner College's stadium holds 3000 and the stadium on the campus of St. John's University holds about 2000.
Apart from colleges, the recently-refurbished Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey seats 10,000 for football. Let us also note that the Brooklyn Bolts of the FXFL played at the Brooklyn Cyclones' baseball stadium, which seats 7000.
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21 minutes ago, HOOVER said:
...if you place a horrible identity in a great market, it'll likely still bomb, just as placing a great identity into a poor market can still bomb.
The point is that identity is critical.Right. If identity meant nothing, then no one would have paid one cent for the team names and logos of the USFL or for the XFL name. From the other football, we have seen the importance of idenity in the persistence of the identities Seattle Sounders, Tampa Bay Rowdies, New York Cosmos, and, if you include indoor, Baltimore Blast, San Diego Sockers, and Kansas City Comets.
Having a good identity is certainly no guarantee of success, but it is a very important component.
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23 minutes ago, GDAWG said:
I think the USFL has trademarks to "Washington Federals." The merged league could bring the Federals back by rebranding the Defenders, using the same color scheme as the 1983 team, but modernizing it.
It could, but it surely will not dump the name of one the XFL's best-supported teams. I love the Federals' logo; but the Defenders' identity is here to stay.
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1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:
he renegade head is so much better than that [R] logo.
The Renegade head was good for a sleeve logo. On the helmet it looked extremely cheesy.
49 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:That G logo is an icon of the USFL.
That logo is in the all-time top tier of sports logos. It is one of the best-ever examples of a creative use of negative space.
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19 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:
The USFL's branding and uniforms could fit in the NFL. There's a reason it all bears so much resemblance to the original USFL: the looks are timeless.
I fully agree with this.
20 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:The XFL's is typical minor league garbage that was dated the moment any of it was revealed.
Mostly true. But D.C.'s and St. Louis's looks were very good — if you take away the silly monochrome and give D.C white pants with its red jersey and St. Louis grey pants with its blue jersey. Also, the second Renegades helmet logo was nice. I love a letter logo; football has far too few of them.
20 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:I hope the Gamblers brand stays while the Roughnecks get the boot
I hope so, too. I'm willing to take the optimistic view and to assume this until we're told otherwise.
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I hope that the combined league keeps the uniform aesthetic of the USFL, which is far superior to that of the XFL.
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Much better. 2-D rules. Faux 3-D drools.
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4 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:
Yankees don't allow facial hair below the lip, so he can't rock the full beard he had in San Fran & Chicago.
I don't think they ban facial hair below the lip. When Jack McDowell came to the Yankees, he turned his goatee into a Fu Manchu.
He actually wound up just going with the scruffy unshaven look most of the time. But when he shaved, he did the Fu.
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2 hours ago, Walk-Off said:
All of these factors make me wonder if professional indoor gridiron football would be, in general, a more lucrative sport -- and would have wealthier and longer-lasting teams and at least one wealthier, longer-lasting, and definitely more stable league -- if all of those leagues and teams switched to flag football. Maybe then, the sport would have a low enough physical impact on its players to let each team play multiple games -- and thus enjoy multiple chances to make money -- in each week of a given season.
It's true that playing flag football would allow teams to play multiple games every week. However, this would not translate into those teams being more lucrative, because very few people would pay to watch flag football played by unknown athletes.
The approach of the A7FL, namely, playing without helmets or pads, would certainly reduce the violence inherent in football as a contact sport, while still being somewhat interesting to watch. But whether this could be translated to the indoor/arena game, with the rock-hard low-budget carpets, is another story. Also, this probably wouldn't satisfy your goal of allowing teams to play more than once a week.
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Wow, none of that tracks with my experience at all. When I used to drink a lot of diet soda, Diet Coke was by far my favourite cola, much better than Diet Pepsi. And Coke Zero and Pepsi Zero were too sweet, as bad as the regular Coke and Pepsi. (That was by design, as those products are meant to taste like the regular colas. But for me it felt like I was drinking maple syrup.)
But it's been many years since those days. Now I groove on the wonderful simplicity of seltzer. Apart from that, a diet soda that I'll pick up a couple of times a year is Fresca.
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40 minutes ago, BBTV said:On 8/28/2023 at 7:38 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:
By contrast, the racing stripe didn't look as bad on the uniforms of Expos, where it originated.
phillies did it long before ExposThe Phillies' stripe wasn't multicoloured, which is what I think of as a racing stripe. The multicolour design was introduced by the Expos, with whose uniforms it didn't clash on account of the absence of pinstripes. I still prefer the Expos' uniforms without the racing stripe; but at least the racing stripe didn't represent the design disaster that it did on the Mets' home uniform.
Likewise, on the Mets' road uniform (which featured the racing stripe starting in 1982, one year before that stripe cane to the home uniform), the racing stripe did not clash, even if it was unnecessary.
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21 minutes ago, Ark said:
The racing stripes are great tho
The racing stripe clashed badly with the Mets' aesthetic. It's unfortunate that they won a championship in that garish mess.
By contrast, the racing stripe didn't look as bad on the uniforms of Expos, where it originated.
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3 minutes ago, AstroCree said:
Mike Piazza and Jose Reyes in traditional Mets pinstripes without the black drop shadow.
The Mets' real uniforms are never wrong on any player.
Last year when the Mets did an old-timers' day, the best thing about it was that everyone was in the traditional uniforms. Not a black drop-shadow in sight, and likewise for the tail and the ghastly racing stripe. And everyone looked exactly right.
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21 minutes ago, dont care said:
Why would they honor AL West titles. Has a team ever done this?
Because a division title is a championship to be proud of.
And, yes, the White Sox themselves have honoured the 1983 team. Also, the Blue Jays have honoured the 1985 AL East champions.
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2 hours ago, BBTV said:
This was the annual Phillies alumni weekend, and they were honoring the 40th of the '83 World Series team, and the 30th of the 93 team. Broadcaster and former pitcher Larry Andersen threw out the first pitch wearing a 83/93 Frankenjersey, as he is the only pitcher to have pitched for both of those teams:
I hope the White Sox do a similar thing for the 1983 and 1993 AL West championship teams. Then they can give a combined jersey to the only player to play for both of those teams, Carlton Fisk. (Even though Fisk didn't make it to the end of the 1993 season.)
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On 8/13/2023 at 11:52 AM, the admiral said:
Shopping for apartments is not an attempt to get something for nothing.
Betting is most certainly not an attempt to get something for nothing, as one must risk money in order to place a wager.
On 8/13/2023 at 11:52 AM, the admiral said:Applying for jobs is not an addictive behavior.
Neither, in most cases, is betting. While some people definitely do elect to behave in a self-destructive manner with respect to gambling (people who, according to the prevailing orthodoxy, are said to have an addiction), the same is true with respect to, let's say, food. Adults can for the most part be expected to handle these things responsibly, and the majority of them in fact do.
On 8/13/2023 at 11:52 AM, the admiral said:And assessing one's options through a course of life decisions is not the same as putting money on the outcome of a TV show.
Sorry, but it is. When a person decides what school to go to, or whether to continue to go to school, or what job offer to accept (or makes any other decision in life), the question at hand is: which of the possible expenditures of time, energy, emotion, and money is most likely to lead to an outcome that is best for me? No matter how you wish to dress this up, these are, fundamentally and in every meaningful respect, bets.
On 8/13/2023 at 11:52 AM, the admiral said:sports betting has just brought a certain crassness to everything it touches.
I actually agree with this. I don't even like fantasy baseball. I can remember when fantasy baseball (Rotisserie leagues) began. Many of my friends participated in that, but I didn't, because I didn't want my financial interests to clash with my rooting interests. Sports betting only amplifies this phenomenon, as people whose main interaction with sports is through betting don't care at all about the players or the teams, and have no rooting interests, in the sense that I understand. That approach holds no attraction for me.
Alas, that approach does hold a significant attraction for plenty of people. From the standpoint of justice, people being allowed to do the things that they enjoy is a value of the utmost importance; this is true even if those people's preferences do not align with mine.
As a comparison, let's stipulate that current-day pop music is terrible. Despite this, the people who enjoy that crappy music are entitled to listen to it. Imagine a rule mandating that the only popular music be the masterful rock and roll of the 1970s and the 1960s. Such a rule would create an environment that is very aesthetically pleasing for me; nevertheless, I cannot fail to acknowledge that this restriction would be a tremendous injustice.
The point is that having a free society sometimes requires accepting that you're in the minority on certain matters of culture, and that you're going to be surrounded by people whom you consider to be annoying idiots.
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Alrighty, then; I guess I will have to be the one to push back against the dusty old puritanical notion that gambling is not "wholesome".
Taking up this argument feels strange, as I myself don't gamble. When it comes to sports, I prefer that my rooting interest be determined by personal factors that are emotional and/or ideological, rather than by the potential for direct economic gain or loss. And I don't do any other kind of gambling, simply because I wouldn't enjoy it.
Nevertheless, as with other activities in which I do not participate on account of a lack of enjoyment or a lack of interest (such as, for example, opera, skydiving, and various substances and intimate acts), I very much want a society where all of those things are readily available to people who do enjoy them.
What's more, insurance is a form of gambling. Indeed, just about every choice that a person makes, ranging from the monumental (where to live, where to work, whom to date) to the mundane, constitutes a bet.
An honest observer must acknowledge that the act of betting — the act of choosing one course of action over others, based on a projection of likely outcomes and on a weighting of the desirability of those outcomes — is fundamental to the working of the human mind. In other words, it is entirely normal.
Please understand that I'm the absolute last person to defend capitalism or the thieving private sector. Still, given the indisputable evidence that a great many people like to gamble (and that this has been true for the entire history of civilisation), we should accept the presence of gambling as unobjectionable — and, yes, wholesome.
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"Surely"? I've been to a Walmart three times, each time to buy a CD that was released exclusively through that store. So I have not heard of this brand.
The new font is striking. And if this soda comes only in cream flavour, then the removing of the red and the leaves is a good move. Those elements didn't go well with the colour of the can.
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7 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:
I give them credit though for smartly digging into their past to find a way to do a unique and relevant Hispanic heritage jersey. Using that script and adapting it to Tigres is really clever, particularly for a team that's really only ever had the old English 'D' for most of their existence.
And they get further credit for implementing a slight change that results in a huge improvement, namely, the better form of the T.
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2023 MLB Season Thread
in Sports In General
Posted
Even I as an arrogant New Yorker agree with this. The decade of the 1950s, with the Yankees' run of greatness and the epic Giant-Dodger battles was pretty special; but the 1969-1993 period was the high point of baseball, and always will be. (Side note: a fun thing to do is to take the 100 Team Challenge, which is to name the four division winners from each year of the four-division alignment, from memory. If you want to really demonstrate your grasp of history, do it in random order rather than in chronological order.)
And now you've blown it.
New York is really like a small planet. Everyone knows of the mighty skyscrapers and the reliable subway that together constitute our signature, along with our unmatched variety of museums and theatres. But we also have abundant parkland (including some that is composed of primeval forest), as well as wetlands and nature preserves. And our beaches are absolutely magnificent; on a summer's day, Riis Park is possibly the most beautiful place on Earth. Best of all, we have more than a thousand miles of bike lanes; these lanes, taken together, have transformed our City for the better, creating the greatest improvement in New Yorkers' quality of life since the Tenament Law.
New York remains a beacon for people from marginalised and oppressed groups who have escaped from the benighted corners of this country, as well as for the classic tired, hungry, and poor huddled masses from around the world who are commemorated on the Statue of Liberty; and we boast the greatest amound of linguistic diversity of anywhere in the world. Of course we also have our own embarrassing and backward sections (**cough** statenisland **cough**); alas, being a small planet, we have a little bit of everything.
This great City constitutes the pinnacle of human civilisation, and it is the unquestionable centre of the Universe. If a vistor fails to grasp this obvious reality, that says more about that visitor than about our beautiful, thriving, endlessly fascinating metropolis.