4. The Democratic primary winner in New York’s 13th congressional district, Darializa Avila Chevalier, has said, to give you an idea of just how nuts she is,
- “Fuck you. We’re gonna defund and abolish [the police]. You don’t get to water down our movements.”
- “No. It means ending policing full stop. Period. No. more. police. at. all. ever. it’s very harmful to the work Black abolitionists have been doing for decades to dilute this movement.”
- “A world without borders — just like a world without prisons or police — is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward.”
- “Abolish the border.”
- “All deportation is wrong.”
The New York Times gave little coverage of this lunatic’s positions until a week before the election after many ballots has been cast. Even then, it focused on past social media posts rather than her more recent declarations and her current extreme ideology.
5. Baseball Ethics note...I got in trouble with the legal ethics listserv of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers when I stated that it was unethical for a member to post an opinion when he or she didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. In that case, the issue was the duty of alcoholic lawyers to tell potential clients that they had an alcohol addiction. I’ll have a longer post about this debate, which had me officially censored by the group, but I stand by that position.
What makes me think of it now is an essay in the American Spectator, of all places, bemoaning the fact that pitchers in baseball no longer throw complete 9-inning games like they did in the good ol’ days. The author, Paul Kengor, is editor of “The American Spectator”as well as a professor of political science at Grove City College, a senior academic fellow at the Center for Vision & Values, and the author of over a dozen books. It appears that he is also a baseball fan, but based on his article, he still doesn’t know what he is talking about.
I do. Kengor is correct that starting pitchers seldom pitch complete games any more. The season is almost half over, and there have been just 10. In the 2021 season, just five years ago, there were about 80. Kengor blames the pitch-count formula used by managers, which sets 100 as the near mandatory limit for a pitcher no matter how well he has been pitching. That’s an old debate, and Kengor seems to believe that this is done to avoid injuries to pitchers, though he tries to rebut that by recounting how many complete games were thrown by greats of former generations like Nolan Ryan and Cy Young.
Avoiding injuries is not the reason for today’s shortened games, however. If it were, then the practice would have to be declared a failure: more pitchers have arm injuries now than ever before. What has caused the change in strategy is data and analytics. Baseball was long managed with stunning ignorance of statistics and what they signified. Then, thanks to the emergence of baseball data analysis and sabermetrics in the Eighties along with universal use of computers, a lot of traditional approaches to the game changed. One phenomenon the data pointed to was that almost all pitchers lose a lot of effectiveness the third time through the other team’s batting order, in part because the batters had already had two shots and made adjustments. That logically suggested that after the 6th inning, a pitcher was on borrowed time. Another change was that instead of pacing themselves (like Cy Young and the famous pitchers of the 20s, 30s,40s, and 50s did), the stats indicated that starters should pitch like relievers, throwing as hard as they could from the start.
Just a little more than a decade ago, a pitcher who could hit 95 on the radar gun was considered a flame-thrower and hard to hit. A pitch of 100 or more was newsworthy. No more. In 2025, 86 pitchers threw at least one 100 mph pitch. This was the result of better traing and conditioning, as well an sophisticated pitching biometrics.
Rosters have been re-structured to deal with the additional pitchers the reduced innings of starters mandate. Once teams carried nine or ten pitchers. Now most teams have 13 on the roster, and need them. Baseball evolves according to what wins games, not by what the fans want to see. Complete game no-hitters and mano a mano pitching duels between aces were fun, but so was dead-ball era baseball when home runs were a rarity and everybody bunted and ran amuck on the bases while each team would make bunches of errors with their gloves that looked like oven mitts.
“Long gone are days like May 26, 1959, when the Pirates’ Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game for 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves, losing the no-hitter and the game in the 13th inning,” Kengor laments. “A coach wouldn’t dare permit that today.” That game was unique in 1959, which is why it’s famous. Baseball has changed the rules so there are virtually no 13 inning games anymore, and it has nothing to do with pitch counts. But the game still delivers other unique performances and bizarre, never-before-seen events. Players are more athletic than ever; defense is astounding. The first true two-way player, Shohei Ohtani, is a superstar for the ages. Sure, I miss complete games, but the change makes sense, and I’d rather see my team win using four pitchers than lose using one.
Ethics Alarms 
I’ve made a very similar point in a recent blog post, I just presented it differently.
“I’ve made a very similar point in a recent blog post, I just presented it differently.”
The (IMO) REAL fun began when you poste it to neighborsnextdoor (THEY Report/YOU Decide!) where ideologically siloed, hive-minded Lefties were so comically triggered that they fell all over themselves trying to disprove your experiences.
‘Course, they’re the same ones saying “How Did Trump Win; I Don’t Know Anyone Who Voted For Him.”
PWS
“Kengor is correct that starting pitchers seldom pitch complete games any more. The season is almost half over, and there have been just 10.”
One (1) of those was by Milwaukee Brewer fireballer extraordinaire Jacob “Le Miz” Misiorowski, who tossed a one (1) hit 15K MADDUX against the Phillies on June 12th.
“In 2025, 86 pitchers threw at least one 100 mph pitch.”
Le Miz two (2) hit the Cubs Friday night AND threw the 3rd fastest pitch EVAH, a blistering 105.5 mph/169.8 kph heater, AND nine (9) 1st inning pitches >103 mph/165.8 kms!
MONEY QUOTE (Announcer, paraphrased): It Probably Sounds Like We’re Announcing F.M. Radio Station Frequencies.
PWS
#4. For someone who wants a world with no borders she sure works hard to establish a bordered Palestine for the select few. How can one complain about Jewish kibbuzes on the West Bank
Nice catch, Chris! She also doesn’t want any borders so Muslims and other West haters can move in and take over, turn the country into a shithole and then run out whomsoever they desire.
If the Jews left Israel (which might not be a bad idea) the Palestinians would turn it into a run-down mess like South Africa in a year.
2. “The View” is simply a morning talk show for women. None of those women are journalists, or even newsreaders. It’s just easy listening, background noise in the kitchen as the day gets started. the equivalent of the fluffy part of “Today” or “Good Morning America,” which are considered news programs only because they have news and weather segments.
You call that “easy listening”? For Helen Keller maybe…
“Half the world is below the fiftieth percentile, Bill.”
Actually, Jack, you’ve spent your entire life in rarified air, probably among the top three percent.
Oh, believe me, I know that. My father said to me and my sister, more than once, “The main lesson you need to learn as soon as possible is that you will go through life being obstructed and tormented by idiots.’
How can this be described as a popular blog when you only have 5 commenters?
-Jut
My thought exactly.
Heh, technically six, since that statement was made before Alizia returned.
Regarding Europeans’ love of things American, I remember driving past the Tuscan City around dinner time and passing the local McDonald’s. There was a sprawling parking lot that was absolutely overflowing with cars. It was as if the McDonald’s was the only restaurant in the ancient, super elegant town. It was probably the most crowded McDonald’s I’ve ever seen. Surprise!
Lucca.
Italian McDonald’s also sells beer.
I like that the World Cup is in Kansas City instead of the main costal area cities. It has that Midwest friendliness about it. A little trivia… apparently the World Cup visitors really want to take home ranch dressing. The confiscation bins are full of it. lol.
5. I did not know the “three times through the order” was a data driven thing and why pitchers are yanked around the sixth inning!
Money Ball
What is the effect of MLB teams making these sort of changes to pitching? Well, besides the dearth of complete games, right now there are exactly 3 batters in the AL with an average of .300 or higher. In 2010, there were 12 for the full season. In 2010 10 of the 15 AL teams had batting averages of .250 or higher. Right now there is one team.
Some of the changes that analytics prescribed have been banned by MLB basically as being too effective. The shift is one of the more notorious examples, although I have always faulted the hitters for not being professional enough to adapt to the defense.
Another change was to require relief pitchers to face at least three batters, which reduced the tedium of watching an endless parade of pitchers warming up. It’s changed the game some, altering the strategy that managers employ during the middle innings.
Interesting that runs scored don’t seem to have changed too much contrasting 2010 and 2025. Also, I took a look back at various decade years — 1990 and 1980 were similar to 2010 as far as BA. However 2000 had more than 25 players with averages over .300 — right in the midst of the steroid era, as I recall.