Thoughts Medley 4 May 24 Baseball, Cell Phone Emissions, and Politics

by Tony Medley
 

The world is insane, and it’s getting more insane. Nobody visiting from the 20^th Century would believe that even the wildest left-wing nut would countenance men competing against women in women-only events, which is becoming commonplace today. But reason and common sense are losing the battle.

Baseball has been made worse by sabermetrics and the way it deals with pitchers. That’s nuts enough. No 20^th Century manager would dream of pulling Warren Spahn or Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson from a game in which they were in total control because they had just thrown their 100^th pitch. But that is de rigueur today. Recently in Arizona, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went completely off the wall, even for him.

Let’s start with some facts. Baseball players have the cushiest job in the world, especially outfielders. They make millions of dollars a year to stand around in the outfield for an hour or so, and another hour or so sitting on the bench, batting 4-5 times a game. The Dodgers Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million contract to do this. But this year Ohtani is purely a “designated hitter,” which means he doesn’t even have to stand around in the outfield doing mostly nothing for a couple of hours. No, he sits on the bench the entire game, only going up to bat 4-5 times/game. So he basically works approximately 20 minutes/day and gets paid $700 million over a period of years.

Yet several days ago, Roberts gave Ohtani the day off! He wasn’t in the starting lineup and just sat on the bench and watched the game. No reason was given that I heard. Why does Ohtani need a “day off?” Is batting 4-5 times in a game so fatiguing that he needs occasional “rest?” How much energy does he expend sitting on the bench or when standing/kneeling in the on-deck circle? Please, some Roberts defender explain to me why a designated hitter needs a “day off.” Today’s world is crazy and Roberts leads the pack.

As if to rub salt in the wound, Roberts did it again. I've documented the many times Roberts has inserted a relief pitcher who immediately allows the first batter he faces to smash a home run, twice already this year. He also has had his reliever allow a home run by the second batter he faces at least once this year before last night. But last night, after pulling his starting pitcher, Gavin Stone, who had been pitching a strong game against the best lineup in baseball, the Atlanta Braves, allowing only one run on five hits and five strikeouts and only one walk in six innings, he put in Joe Kelly who got the side out in the seventh. Not satisfied with that, Roberts then put in Daniel Hudson who threw a gopher ball to the second batter he faced Ronald Acuña, Jr., tying the game. Roberts seems to change pitchers until he finds one who is not effective.
 

Update on cell phones' dangers. I continue to either turn off my iPhone at night or put it in a Faraday bag if it needs recharging at night and I remain free of the intense dreams that had been troubling me for several years. I am more and more convinced that cell phone emissions were affecting my brain, and probably still are during the day, in ways I cannot imagine or feel. I recommend that if you talk on your cell phone, you use the speaker phone or hearing aids or earbuds and not put it up to your ear. The farther away from your brain you can keep the cell phone the better.
 

RFK, Jr. is right on a couple of issues, Ukraine and vaccines/Covid. But that’s it. Anybody who thinks RJK, Jr. is anything more than a biased leftwing bigot should take a look at this video, which is only around 3 minutes long, in which he lays out how he really feels about things:

https://twitter.com/mxmnews/status/1785722701211963566

Today’s Democratic party (unfortunately, that is the correct name, officially adopted in 1844, so when you hear GOP politicians and talking heads, like Sean Hannity, refer to it as the “Democrat” Party, they are just displaying their ignorance) is the most corrupt political party in American history. They are masters at “projection” (The attribution to others of attitudes or behaviors that belong to oneself). They steal elections; lie through their teeth (“the border is closed,” etc.) and subvert democracy. But what do they and their cohorts in the media do? They accuse Republicans of what they are doing. They claim Donald Trump is “subverting democracy,” when they are subverting democracy. They falsely accuse Donald Trump and his allies of being tools of Putin, but they are tools of the Chinese with a President who has received millions of dollars from the Chinese for nothing but influence. They claim that Biden “inherited” inflation from Trump. Yet Trump had virtually no inflation (see chart). So when you hear Biden or Schumer or Pelosi or Hillary or any of the others claim law-breaking or bad actions by Trump or any of their Republican opponents, you can take it to the bank that the Democrats are doing exactly what they falsely accuse the Republicans of doing.
 

Incidentally, I am not a Republican. I have been an Independent for decades. Wasn’t it Will Rogers who said, “I am not a member of an organized political party; I’m a Democrat?” That statement could be said by today's GOP members.