Signor Baseball's "This May Be the Last" Belated MLB Preview

I fell in love with baseball when I was a little boy.

Knew the names of all of the players on all of the teams. 

Went to Spring training games every year.

My Mom used to drive me out Phoenix Muni to watch the AAA Giants play.

Never missed watching an All Star Game. 

Still remember Reggie Jackson hitting that home run off the light stanchion in Detroit. Damn, he hit the hell out of that one! And the AL finally won a game after years of losing.

Things have changed. Didn't watch an inning of this year's All Star Game or the Home Run Derby. 

I still love the "idea" of the game. The sounds of bat on ball, the slap of the ball against the leather of a glove, the smell of the hot dogs and the crunch of peanut shells under your feet.

But everything else that goes with it these days has put me off. 

Launch angles and the like. Everybody swinging for the fences on every pitch. The "highlight shows", which generally consist of .235 hitters hitting home runs. If you attend a game in person, the never ending, maximum volume, overwhelming "noise" at the ballpark.

And the ridiculous amounts of money. (Which to be fair plagues all our major sports.)

I suppose if I were a Dodgers' fan I'd have no problem with them buying up every available player.

But I'm not a Dodgers' fan. I am, or at least was, a baseball fan.

I guess I'm just getting old. 

Anyway,

NL East. 

The amazing thing about this division is how much money the Mets have spent to still be this bad. Awe inspiring, really. Atlanta, Philadelphia, and the Marlins (!!!) should battle it out until the last week or so--barring any major injuries, of course. Don't see too much difference between them. Maybe a Wild Card lurking in the bunch.Washington has some exciting young players, but not enough to close the gap between them and the aforementioned teams. And, if the past is predicative, they'll all be traded when their contracts come due. And for New York, well, its nice to be very rich. It's even nicer to be very rich and smart. They should work on that.

NL Central

Milwaukee is the class of this division. Cubs a few games behind. And St. Louis hanging around .500. Again, barring injury, etc etc. Would be nice if the Pirates can finally stay competitive after several years in the wilderness. Win more than you lose and you have a shot at a Wild Card. That applies to every division in the MLB these days. Cincinnati looked like they were ready to compete after last year, but they've fallen off despite some exciting young talent. Not enough pitching--like a lot of teams.

NL West

Los Angeles has spent a ton of money, and they've spent it well. They essentially have two complete sets of starting pitchers. Most teams don't have one. If they don't roll over everyone on their way to the World Series there ought to be a Congressional investigation. If the Congress still does that sort of thing. End of story. Arizona and San Diego will fight to be a distant second to the Dodgers and at least one of them will get a Wild card. I have no idea what they're trying to do in San Francisco--but it's not working. Colorado remains a last place team, Lord love them.

AL East

The injury bug has bitten the Yankees hard this year. Judge is out, Stanton is spending his usual half season on the IL, Cole isn't the same pitcher he was before his surgery. Frankly I'm surprise they're just 3 games out of first. If they can get everyone healthy in time, they can catch Tampa Bay. If not, they're a pretty sure bet for a Wild Card. Boston, Baltimore and Toronto are all bunched together behind the Yankees and Rays. And they all would take great pleasure in beating them down the stretch. And they are all capable of winning series against them. So, August and September could be very interesting. 

AL Central 

The Tigers, who ran away with this division last year, are mired 8 games under .500. That'll happen when your best pitcher is not at his best. They're not dead yet, but they are on life support. Chicago and Cleveland will probably go down to the last weekend, with the runner up grabbing a Wild Card. The Twins look like the textbook definition of a middle of the pack team. Not too bad, not too good. And the Royals are making noise about wanting a new ball park. Quelle surprise! Which will give the good folks of Kansas City at least something to talk about this season.

AL West 

Remember that guy with the big butt who hit all of those home runs for the Mariners last year? He's hitting .169 with 9 homers this year. Stuff happens, huh? Still, Seattle is only a game and a half out of first. They and the Rangers and the Astros are all hovering around .500. So, the division is wide open. Well, not for the A's, who are counting the days, months, years(?), until they can get out of Sacramento and into a shiny new stadium in, (checks notes), Las Vegas. Will this move make their half wit owner spend a little more on quality players? uh....sure. Maybe. And in beautiful Anaheim, home of Disneyland and the (checks notes), Angels, Mike Trout is wasting another year of what remains of his prime. Most players of that caliber would've demanded a trade years ago. But apparently Mike is a loyal company man.

 

 

Isn't It Amazing?

We, the richest nation on the face of the earth, have homeless people, including veterans, living in cardboard boxes, or pushing shopping carts filled with their earthly belongings from one place to another. 

We have children who go hungry every day.

We have people who die of curable diseases because they can't afford health care. 

Or go bankrupt trying to pay for what health care they have.

We have aging infrastructure all across the nation.

We have lead and other dangerous chemicals in our air and water 

We have generations of children stuck in substandard schools, understaffed, without the basic essentials that all schools need to function.

We have people who should be in mental institutions roaming our city streets. (To be fair, some are in Congress, too)

We have easy access to guns, including military style hardware, for practically anyone.

We have school shootings on such a regular basis that they hardly attract attention, let alone shock, anymore. 

And we are constantly told that there is not enough money to solve these problems.

But somehow there is always enough money to start another war.

Always. 

Billions, trillions even, spent on killing.

Again and again and again. 

An Insult To His Father's Memory

Robert Kennedy was a great man. He worked tirelessly for both economic, and racial, equality. Perhaps most importantly, he could see the disaster that was Vietnam long before most of Washington

John Kennedy was a great man. Every major Civil Rights bill of the early 60's was begun while he was President. He, unlike J.Edgar Hoover, did not demonize Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcom X. He reached out to the Russians to try and create some workable peace, ignoring all the saber rattling coming from the right. He also reached out to Castro, hoping to build a viable relationship with Cuba. He had plans to get us out of Vietnam by 1965--see NSAM 263 -which, of course, was thrown out by LBJ, almost immediately following that day in Dallas.

Edward Kennedy was a great Senator. Born into wealth and privilege, and haunted by the deaths of his brothers, he worked tirelessly for working class people.

Did they all have flaws? Of course they did. Did they all love this country and want the best for its people? There is no doubt they did. 

It must be difficult to be part of a family, indeed the namesake of one of them, that is held in high esteem and that set high standards. And is cursed with such tragedy.

Which brings us to RFK Jr. 

To be fair, the generations that immediately follow greatness are more often than not, not great.

But Jesus Fucking Christ, Junior! 

Lil Bobby shits on the memory of his father and his uncles every goddamn day. 

And his pigheaded stupidity about vaccines, nutrition, and health care in general will get many people killed and many more deathly ill. 

(By the way, that brain worm he says he had died of malnutrition.) 

The Trump Doctrine Redux

Anything shiny, anything of value, is MINE. You will give it to me willingly, or I will take it by force.

Gold is very beautiful. I like Gold. By the time I'm done the White House and my beautiful Trump Ballroom will sparkle with Gold. Nothing but Gold. I like Gold.

I can kill anybody I want.  

Anything I do is, by definition, legal. Just ask my Supreme Court.

The only foreign countries to be trusted are the countries run by my friends: Russia, Israel, China,  Saudi Arabia, Hungary, and maybe, depending on my mood, North Korea. All other countries are suspect--especially the so-called liberal democracies.

If I say someone is a socialist communist, then by God they are a socialist communist. I do not need to know what those words mean to use them. I am a stable genius. I have passed many cognitive tests. 

No one is worthy to question me. I am a stable genius. I have passed many cognitive tests. 

I know more about everything than anyone else on earth. 

I don't know anything about Jeffrey Epstein. Except this whole thing is a Democrat Hoax.

I am not a pedophile. You are a pedophile. Probably.

Venezuela has our oil. It is ours. How it got under their land is a question for geologists. I am not a geologist. Though I know more about this than any geologist.

Canada should be part of the US. Just look at a goddamn map. It is obvious.

Greenland should be part of the US. It is obvious. 

People with darker skin are not to be trusted. They are hiding something. This is obvious.

I am a great golfer, who has won many Trump Golf Club championships.  

Most of what is wrong in this country, and in the world, is Sleepy Joe Biden's fault. 

No. ALL of what is wrong is Sleepy Joe Biden's fault. 

He let 25, 35, 45, 100 million drug dealing rapist murderers into our country. Why? You'd have to ask him. 

I am in much better shape than Barack Obama. How many Trump Golf Club championships has he won, huh? ZERO, that's how many.

If I say something is a HOAX, then it is a HOAX. Russia, Covid, Epstein, Global Warming, January 6th, 2021--Hoax's every one.

I am the best President ever. Everyone loves me. 

I am a stable genius. I have passed many cognitive tests. 

The Root Of The Problem

I hope I don't offend anyone.

But this country was first settled by the dregs of Europe.

Boatloads of fuck-ups, who'd failed in their homelands, came here for a "fresh start".

Religious kooks, criminals, plain ol' idiots--just a stunning collection of losers.

It's a big country, plenty of room for all of those fuck-ups. 

Go West, Young Fuck-Up! 

And when you spend hundreds of years with the dregs intermarrying, well, then you have super concentrated dregs. 

Oh sure, there were/are exceptions. 

Not everyone was a dreg. 

And, wonder of wonders, occasionally two dregs will produce someone worthwhile.

Occasionally. But the smart money bets otherwise.

More often, though, dregs just keep making more dregs.

Generations of them. Millions of them. Entire states full to the brim with them.

This explains MAGA. This explains Trump.

This explains how we got to here. 

How Many Times Do You Have To Get Knocked Down Before You Realize Who's Hitting You?

One of the great mysteries of our time is the large number of people who always, always, vote for people who will end up hurting them in some serious way.

The MAGAts are finding out that they were merely a means to an end, and the end is not going to be good for them.

Of course, they're just the latest "real Americans" to get fucked over by Republicans--and yet blame it on the Democrats, or the Blacks, or the gays, or the women, or...

Who began the full scale destruction of the middle class? Ronald Reagan.

Who shut down U.S. factories and then moved all the jobs to the Third World? The plutocrat owners of the corporations, 99% of whom vote Republican. 

Who wants to take away ALL of whatever remains of our tattered social safety net? Republicans. 

Take away food stamps, take away health care, take away consumer protection, take away ANYTHING that might benefit working class people? You guessed it. Republicans. 

Who wants to give Wall Street  the Social Security trust fund to "play"with? Gosh, could it possibly be the Republicans.

Who wants to give big business free rein to poison our air and water, to literally kill the planet, all in the guise of "deregulation"?  Republicans.

Who hates unions with a passion, even though a strong union presence raises ALL wages, union and otherwise? Republicans.

Who wants us all to just roll the dice on preventable illnesses, vaccines be damned? Republicans. 

All of these are facts. 

But, come the next election,  millions of "real Americans" will ignore all facts and vote their "beliefs". 

And they believe in their guns, their God, and their various hatreds.

And the only consolation for the rest of us, the "unreal Americans", is that they will continue to suffer and die for their votes.

But, of course, they will blame all of their suffering, all of their problems, on, repeat after me, the Democrats, the Blacks, the gays, the women, "them". 

 

He Likes Hurting People

He likes hurting people.

It really excites him.

Makes his little mushroom almost hard. 

Makes him think he's young again. 

He especially likes hurting people of color and women. 

But really, anyone who he perceives as weaker is fair game.

Immigrants, students, LBGQT, any minority really.

This is a guy who made a career out of fucking over his subcontractors, after all.

Oh, and his siblings, too. 

All of the best qualities of humanity are missing from him.

ALL OF THEM 

In fact, he is probably the single most damaged human in the history of this nation. 

Now, if you can stand to take a good, close look at his parents--and not vomit--much of his behavior can be explained. Nature and nurture working hand in hand.

On the other hand, a lot of people have shitty parents and they don't turn out like Trump. 

Of course, his most fervent supporters, many of whom are in various ways almost as damaged as he is, will NEVER leave him. 

But you wouldn't think that the captains of industry, bankers, lawyers, all very wealthy in their own right, would  bow down so willingly to a 300 pound orange frosted turd in a wrinkled blue suit. This only proves that they are essentially cowards who care much more for their fortunes than for their country. 

And, here's the best part, as he slips deeper and deeper into dementia, which is quite obviously what is happening, 

HE WILL ONLY GET WORSE.

Soon, very soon, we will have a very angry vegetable in his trashy gold oval office, lashing out at everything and everyone.

Fun times.