BBTV

And he did it again, with another HR, extending his hitting streak to 7, and batting (at some point during the game) .385 since getting a pat on the head, and Castellanos hit another HR. Harper now has back spasms - not sure if related to trying to play the field again after so much time off, so that could be a big blow, but so far so good for what some are calling "taking the mid-west approach" to fandom. Not sure how long it'll last, but for now, Phila is as easy to play in as St. Louis.

If the streaks on the left are "speed trails", does that imply that it's a "shooting" star, which is actually a meteor and not a sun?

Except those were real things driven by real money and contracts and lawyers. The one I commented on was just some message-board guy's musing that can be undone with an eraser or backspace key (or left alone, because it doesn't matter.)

I didn't even realize this was Villanova's conference, but you're not splitting up Villanova and Delaware. Not like they're Ohio State and Michigan, but there's a rivalry and lots of grads of each in the same area.

gotcha. The picture in the post where the comment was made about purple rays was from the ‘90s jersey, hence the confusion.

The ray spikes are not purple. They are light-dark orange, on a purple background. Why would rays come to a point at the ball (like the purple does) as opposed to 1) actually be touching the ball, and getting thinner as they get further away?

The rays surrounding the ball aren't purple. When your freaking colors are the same color as the object you're portraying, then it should be that color. They went out of their way to make it different. Had their colors been green and blue, and there's a white ball, then that's not really a big deal. That's more analogous to the "eagles aren't green" comparison.

But they still have to be able to move like athletic shoes, no? I get that he's a pitcher so he doesn't do as much athletic stuff as other players, but if you can just resole skateboard shoes and wear them in a major-league game, doesn't that kinda dispel any marketing nonsense that Nike or UA say about how their cleats are superior?

Does some actual cleat maker make them and then put a Vans "skin" on them? Or does Vans (or whoever owns them) have the ability to manufacture baseball cleats? If the latter, wouldn't they market them?

I don't care what the record book says, I don't count a no hitter unless it's a complete game by one pitcher. Other than that, it's just an interesting statistic. Tonight's game featured: 1. Wesley Wilson HR in his first major league at bat (and his parents crying) 2. Nick Castellanos HR 199 and 200 (with he and his kid exchanging gang signs) 3. Michael Lorenzen no-hitter with his mom and wife hysterical (I thought his mom was literally going to pass out at one point.) One of the most emotional and incredible games I've watched in a very long time. Lorenzen has been incredible since they got him at the deadline. He may actually be their true #1 right now.

Vans??

After being completely atrocious and dropped to eighth in the order, Trea Turner has at least a hit in all 6 games since the fans decided to get behind him, including 5 extra-base hits and a HR so far (and no errors.) He's actually batting leadoff tonight, and lead off with a hit. If this is real and not just a fluke, the Phillies could have a chance this year despite disappointing starting pitching. They already have the second-best record in MLB since June 1 (unfortunately, the Braves are #1) and the overwhelming majority of their schedule is at home (not that it matters since they're just playing for WC seeding.)

The CFP people could easily say that the structure was put in place to allow for one non-Power school to be guaranteed access. Therefore, they could use that same logic to say that now it's only the top five conference champions, plus 7 other schools.

If the teams left the Mountain West (negotiated a settlement or just left, whichever works), any deals signed with the MWC as a single entity (separate from the teams) would still be attached to it, and I would assume that any network deal has language in it for what happens if teams leave. My complete-uneducated guess is that MWC inc. would be liable for a ton of money to pay whoever owns its rights, and eventually file for bankruptcy. A more-likely scenario is that some actual merger of entities is negotiated, and there's either language in the MWC's deals that account for that possibility, or they get bought out, or renegotiate something, which may be that the former MWC teams are still beholden to the CBS / FOX deal till '26, where they'd then be included in any PAC# deal. I'd assume CBS/FOX would be cool with that, even if Apple or whoever wants the now-severely-less-valuable PAC# rights probably wouldn.t As for access to CFP, I don't think that's even on the table right now. I read something on the SEC guy that's part of the board that runs the CFP, and they're re-evaluating things now. Not that any of this is "fair", but it wouldn't be "fair" to give a bunch of jabroni schools automatic access to something that equally-jabroni-level schools don't have, simply because they adopted a famous conference name. Contracts are made in good faith, and I'd assume there's language in the CFP constitution that covers events like this (or there should be). I can't see any scenario in which the PAC# maintains its status as a "Power" conference, regardless of how many non-power schools hop on board.

AAA Umpire Lew Williams was called up today to fill in at first base during the Nationals vs Phillies double header. In his first major-league game, he had not one... not two... but three calls overturned, including two that weren't even a little close. In fact, after he mistakenly called Castellanos out running to first, the then immediately mistakenly called him out on a pickoff attempt. So he botched two calls in a row on the same guy. It's pretty safe to say he'll never get called back to the big leagues. I'm not sure if they keep stats on number of calls an umpire has overturned, but three in one game - let alone your first game - has to be a record. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38158660/umpire-nationals-phillies-game-three-calls-overturned

But basketballs are orange, the sun appears orange, and their secondary team color (which appears in their logo and uniform) is orange. I'd say this is a case where it should be literal.

Again, for the smaller sports, couldn’t the conferences just make the “western league” (and other similar regional ones), which would be made up of teams from multiple conferences, with a title that’s sanctioned by them? The schools would remain in the B1G or Big 12 or whatever, but they’d play a mostly non-conference schedule and compete for a title that’s sanctioned by the conferences, but not a conference title. The conferences got what they wanted for football and basketball - would they really care about doing something like that? It’s not like each conference has different rules (like a DH vs pitchers hitting) or large media contracts for most of those other sports.

I totally agree. It looks great as a one-off. But that’s all it should be. Though I would have laughed if they simply put a “Los” next to the D.

That the sun is white is fine and all, but I don't need my sports uniforms to teach me about science that I can't ever see. The orange sun is more representative of what we actually see with our eyes every day and is what should be on that uniform. Nobody who hasn't gone blind from it has ever stared at a white sun. It's not a good justification. Sometimes I just want to watch sports and see a design with familiar objects arranged and styled in an aesthetically-pleasing way. The white sun comes up short there.

would adding new teams be a way of reopening negotiations with espn since that’s now more markets than they originally bargained for? If so, it could be a blessing and a curse since any chink in the iron-clad armor of the current rights deal could open the door for FSU and whoever else to either renegotiate their deal or leave altogether.

If the if every team was like the Orioles and suspended a jabroni indefinitely for simply reciting facts - in a professional way - with panned on-screen graphics to support them - the Pillies would have their announcers publicly hanged in front of City Hall with a firing squad to finish the job. Perfect example of the difference between places. Can't imagine any other team suspending an announcer for commenting on the actual performance of the team without even editorializing.

I don't know their entire history, but IMO orange should not appear on the Tigers home uniform. I love the Tigers script, and I love the look of the jersey, but they don't need a home alt. Maybe a navy road alt with that script, but that's about it.

We have an 18 team Big 10 and a 16 team Big 12 and we're worried about the accuracy of geography? I'd think that basic counting would be the higher priority.

Wasn't Villanova always in the Big East, just not for football? Same with Georgetown and a few of their other core basketball schools.

If one of the summer collegiate baseball leagues changed its name to "American League", that wouldn't make it a major league. It's not really a Ship of Prometheus situation either, since they're rebuilding the ship with cheap plastic. There's only 4 power conferences now, and there's nothing the PAC# can do to change that.