I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity. Edgar Allen Poe
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - H. L. Mencken Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so -Bertrand Russell What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ... -James Branch Cabell
November 02, 2015 - 11:36 a.m. It's taken ne over two hours to start writing. I have to cut that down. It's a bad vision day and that is slowing thing down quite a bit. On the bright side I have left over pancakes so I won't have to make breakfast, just brew coffee. That will save time. What did I do yesterday before the Met game? I know I did stuff. Well I didn't get dressed or leave the house but I didn't cease to exist. I'm pretty sure I watched something that I wanted to write about. Oh well, as my father would say if I can't remember it it couldn't have been important. Of course that's wrong but knowing that doesn't make me remember it I started to watch the Met game and the Bandwidth Hog struck. Arrrghhh. I could barely load a Facebook page let alone watch streaming video. So I did what I hate doing, I asked the landlady if I could watch her TV. She said I could. It meant sitting on a ridiculously uncomfortable couch. The seat it too short and you can feel the springs. I worked out a way with cushions and pillows to keep the discomfort to a minimum. Not watching the Mets the last few years that I've been without TV has made me more dispassionate about them. I did not think they would be good this year. I loved the young pitching but didn't expect them to all come through at the same time. They all reached the top of their expectations. Then the hitters who should have been bad ended up being OK, great the last couple of months. So the Mets did well and I felt bad I couldn't be part of it. But then came the World Series on Fox and I could watch on my computer! And of course that's when the team I expected all year showed up. Last night I was so excited. I love Harvey and he dominated. Not just that but he took command. It was totally right to bring him the ninth inning. It's not like Familia is a lights out closer. I felt better with Harvey. When it didn't work out I was crushed. Once it was extra innings KC had a huge advantage as their greatest strength is their bullpen and that’s a Mets' weakness. So they lost and I was crushed What do you get when you love the Mets?As they game progressed I got more and more excited and more and more in love with Harvey. I love that he demanded to pitch the ninth. I was sure that if the series went seven he would pitch in the last gave if the team needed him. He'd be like Hersheiser was in the 1988 series. Baseball is not a game of effort like basketball or football. Being pumped up when you hit is detrimental, you want to be calm; it's about judgment. The same is true somewhat of fielding. But pitching is different, you can push your arm harder, but it's still important to keep your head and have command. But it looked like Harvey was in the sweet spot where everything was working. He's still my man. He ran out of gas or maybe just got unlucky. The announcers, especially Harold Reynolds drove me crazy. He seems determined to ignore all the quantitative baseball research of the last thirty years; he scorned power and walks and wants players that swing on the first pitch. He thinks that Escobar, a way below average hitter who has no business batting leadoff is a star. You want a leadoff hitter to get on base, Escobar is very bad at that. Stupidest thing Reynolds said, "It puts such pressure on the pitcher knowing Escobar is going go to swing at the first pitch that he tries too hard and throws the ball out of the strike zone so now it's ball 1." Huh? Escobar swings at everything but it's a ball? How does that happen? In game 1 the announcers kept saying how great the KC hitter were that Harvey couldn't get a ball by them. Not once did they mention that it was Harvey's only game all season that his fastball didn’t hit 97 mph. That's his average velocity over the season. How could they not bring that up? It didn't fit their narrative that it's all about the KC aggressiveness. To put things in perspective, the Royals were a good offensive team, they scored the seventh most runs in the majors; with thirty teams that puts them in the top third. But that's not a juggernaut. One more thing winning a lot of close games does not show character, it shows being lucky .It's one of the surest signs a team will do worse going forward. Now part of it is because KC has far better pitching than other teams late in games but there is also a lot of luck. When the Mets fell behind I decided to get comfortable and see if I could watch on my computer. I could, the Bandwidth Hog was gone. I didn't even watch. I put it on and did other things online. I couldn’t stand to look. I needed to start the decompression. During the game Nora mentioned on Facebook something about The Librarians. You know I love that show and I didn't know it was back. I checked and found that I can watch it online. I should have remembered that, it's how I watched much of it last season. So I will watch that when I can. Back to the Mets, on the bright side perhaps now the Mets management will realize that they need a team the pitchers can be proud of. New York was traditionally a National League town even during the Yankees hay day. It used to be the Mets' town. It can be again, Wilpon can't be afraid of spending the money on the team. If he does they will make more money, just like the Yankees do. They are going to have to live with building a ballpark that's too small so they can't have the attendance the Yankees do but they can fill that park every game. I'm not sold on him, he's never had a healthy season, but d'Arnaud has potential as does Comforto. Wright was my favorite player but he might be through. He might not be but you can't count on that. Duda is OK at first. But they need some stars. They have none. But I might be wrong. That's the beauty of it. I'll be behind the team next year. OK now for those pancakes. I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge: please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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