Mark80

So, you're saying 160-2? I'm good with that.

One of my favorite days of the year. Go A's.

What does that have to do with anything? Are they all leaving from same 1/2 square mile location at the same time?

Chick Fil A is well known for their customer service, and I have a little story that demonstrates it. Was waiting at a drive-thru for breakfast one morning. The line was not moving at all. I had already put my order in, was like 3 or 4 cars from the window, stuck between cars. Couldn't get out of line if I wanted to and just leave. Was there at least 10 minutes without moving. Maybe even 15. Again, I can't move anywhere. I was getting so mad. So, so mad. Finally the line moves. I drive up to the window and they say "sorry for the delay today, this morning's breakfast is on us." I didn't ask for it, I didn't demand it, they just did what was right on their own. On top of that, when I get back and went to eat the food, there were numerous coupons for free items on other visits, like real items, not a drink or something. Left a really good impression on me.

Well, first of all they don't have intersections every 0.1 mile with horrific Buffalo traffic cops seemingly directing traffic with their eyes closed.

If you go on Zillow and look for available properties available for sale in the first ward area...there are basically none. And some of those housing projects in that area look just like Baltimore in The Wire. Completely abandoned (vacated) with no effort to fill them, but none of them for sale either? I think that's a pretty telling story.

Downtown can barely handle 19,000 + leaving from a Sabres game. How the heck are they going to handle 60,000 + from a Bills game?

That's the top of the spectrum stuff there. National Treasures, on card auto, 3 color patch rookie numbered to 25. High end for sure. The only thing more valuable are the smaller numbered sets (like that buy it now /15...though that price is not even close to what they will get), not a different brand / series.

Probably Panini in general. Especially the high end stuff, like Panini National Treasures. Leaf has some decent stuff for rookies, but they don't have logos on them since they are not licensed which ruins them for me. Base cards are worthless. Only cards that are numbered (like 1 of 10 for example) are going to have some value. Even non-numbered autos have limited value for the most part. On card autos are typically the best (as opposed to signed stickers placed on the cards after). Autos + multi-colored patches are the sweet spot.

I got burned way too bad on EJ cards to dive into Josh's. Sad, but true.

Personally I'd love to see him in the division and let the 3 battle it out for years to come. I'll take my chances with our Josh.

Exactly my sentiment.

Despite what one would expect, it is very difficult to sign away completely your rights to sue. Especially in a situation where you would be forced to sign something in order to retain your livelihood.

Good grief, absolutely not.

From a quick search here are some numbers I found. Onside kick success % prior to rule changes in 2018 - 12% (10 year sample) Onside kick success % in 2018 - 7.7% Cant find distinction between surprise ones and expected ones though, so I think those numbers include both. Success rate of 4th and 15 (from 2014 study) - 19%. So, from these limited resources, it seems a 4th and 15 option would be too much of a jump in success rate IMO. Not sure how to get it closer to the 10-15% range, but IMO that's where the success rate should lie.

More accurate.

I think it's still Gwynn. But definitely top 2. I mean, Gwynn struck out 434 times in his entire 20 year career. Guys do that in 2 seasons now. Both were / are amazing.

Don't you know that no one is watching and one cares? Sorry, had to. I was watching this morning as I'm an A's fan. Great moment, he is truly one of the greats. Imagine his numbers if he was in MLB from the start. I think he would have challenged Rose's hit record. Combined with NPB he has 4,367. And NPB season (9 years there) is 16 games shorter than MLB season. It is also said that he could put on an absolute bomb show during batting practice when he wanted to. He just chose to be a more consistent, BA hitter instead of a power guy. Plus, a rocket of an arm when he was younger and a class act in every way. Truly one of the best ever. Plus he contributed to one of the funniest moments in baseball in recent memory. When the guy who looked exactly like him and was dressed in a full uniform in the front row was kicked out for interfering with a ball in play that he thought was foul. I'll try to dig it up. Classic. God bless youtube. So easy.

Sunday looks pretty mediocre though.

Hum...yet only 1/3 of NBA teams are selling out those extremely small venues and only 5 MLB teams have lower avg than the highest NBA team. Weird. Lebron makes more per year today than Trout will average on his deal. If an NBA team could, today, sign a 26 year old LeBron James to a 12 year contract with no salary cap restrictions or player max restrictions that the NBA enforces and the MLB does not, it would be way more than $425M in my opinion. Comparing his landscape when he was 26 with the NBA CBA rules compared to what athletes are paid today in a non-restriction salary cap is apples to oranges. I agree his recognition blows Trouts away. But someone like Jeter? Maybe not. This was fun. But I'm done for now. Peace.

Just because it may not be the FAVORITE sport to watch, doesn't mean they aren't watching other sports as well. My favorite sport to watch is football too. But I also enjoy watching hockey, baseball, soccer, and playoff basketball. NBA Finals ratings are very similar to baseball WS ratings and have followed a very similar trajectory peaking in the late 80s/early 90s. No one ever says anything about basketball not being watched or cared about. Its just funny to me that baseball gets such a bad rap for no reason. We all know football is king. But NBA and MLB are very similar ratings and baseball kills them in attendance per game as well as total attendance (which isn't really fair with 2x more games, but still very true).

Not angry at all. It's just a dumb narrative to suggest there no one cares or watches baseball when it continues to grow and gain revenues year after year. I'm curious why people feel so energized and angry over an athlete getting a contract like this. As if it impacts their lives whatsoever. Dude is the best in the world at something that millions upon millions of people are interested in. It's not his fault people are willing to spend crazy amounts of money on tix and merchandise. It's better he gets the money than the owners, IMO.

So, cable companies / networks are in the habit of giving away multi-billion dollar deals for games that no one will watch. And since no one is watching, advertisers won't pay any money to run commercials or sponsor part of the broadcast? That's typically the MO of these enormous corporations, waste billions of dollars....right... Ask the Royals and the Astros about how their stacked minor league systems worked out for them. The answer, World Series rings. Took the Royals a little longer so they didn't have the staying power, but the Astros are set for years to come. You spend the money on a single guy because you aren't spending nearly as much at other positions while the rest of your team is young and you can afford it. Comparing Mike Trout to Bobby Bonilla? Really? Come on man. You're better than that. Yankees / Red Sox / Cubs have fans all over the world paying for MLB TV streaming of games. Not just about local ratings. LA doesn't watch any sports except college football. How many times has the NFL abandoned that city? It was left off my list intentionally. Again, $10B in revenues for something that no one cares about or watches and is the laughing stock of professional sports in North America...right... Is it football, no. But it's nothing to just dismiss either, still more than the NBA.

Yeah, they have over $10B in revenues which grows every year because no one is watching....right....The most popular teams in 3 of our biggest cities are baseball teams...New York, Chicago, and Boston (they'll prove they are really a baseball town again once Brady is gone). And your lack of knowledge here is glaring, i'm sorry to say. The Padres will be one of the best teams in the league 2 or 3 years from now with their absolutely stacked minor league system. Club controlled contracts for first 3 years, then another 3 years of arbitration which is significantly lower salaries than Free Agency. The Phillies are going to be battling for supremacy this season with the addition of Harper, Realmuto, and Segura on offense, and bullpen additions. The Angels, well, you got me there. They are not going to be good any time soon really, their farm stinks, Pujols is grossly overpaid, and Ohtani won't pitch at all this year. But he proved last year that he is 100% legit and a future superstar offensively and as a pitcher. The league is filled with young superstars with charisma. The old ways of showing no emotion or you get beaned are dying down. People are bat flipping, celebrating, having fun. It's improved a lot the last few years. Now, if they can just figure out a way to cut the game time down to 2.5-3 hours at most, they will really make strides. They are working on it, but still a few years off.

FYI in 2011 the Angels signed a 20 year tv deal for $3B. That basically runs until the end of Trouts deal. Plenty more to go around even counting Pujols horrendous deal and that doesn't count tickets, concessions, parking, merchandise, sponsors, etc.