Merry Christmas!

May all of our Brothers and Sisters at LADT have a Happy and Merry Christmas.

It is 60 degrees here in Indy on Christmas Day.

This article has 30 Comments

  1. Merry Christmas and have a happy and healthy New Year everyone regardless of your politics and stance on the Bauer situation.

  2. What a wonderful picture Mark. You have a lovely family.
    Merry Christmas to all. Here’s hope that the Christmas and New Years finds you healthy and enjoying some great family time..

  3. Merry Christmas to all!!! Remember and be thankful we live in the greatest country in the world, and that is why so many immigrants are crossing our borders illegally to get here.

    1. Thank you for that comment.

      A lot of people are creating a new religion that says this country, and every facet of it, are irredeemable and needs to be dismantled. Immigrants know better and vote with their feet.

      The country isn’t perfect. Nothing is. But we strive to be better without tossing out what got us here.

  4. Merry Christmas!! Nice house! 😉

    I liked the comments on Catman. He’s an effective pitcher when it all comes together for him, which means he’s injury free and can improve his control. Baseball history is rife with pitchers with IF/THEN scenarios that never panned out. IF Gonso is injury free and gets his velo and control up, THEN he will be a reliable #3-5. He hasn’t done that yet in his career. Best to prepare like he won’t.

    Bluto was accurate when he pointed out that the virus did not politicize itself. People politicized the virus. That is most perplexing to me. Even from the very beginning, me, being more right leaning, was always a little more skeptical of the overall severity of the virus. Left leaning types, from the very beginning, catastrophized the illness. I’m not sure if that reflects an inherent personality type.

    Interesting you mention the NFL’s own data showing little to no transmission from Asymptomatic positive cases. Why is the NFL providing this data? Why are we not getting this information from our authority figures? We have predicated an entire destructive response based on case numbers. Not only that, but the PCR testing that we are currently using to determine case positivity was set at a probably much too high cycle threshold value of 38-40. It should probably have been 35. In other words, a lot of the positive tests were false positives. Omicron positive people are now flooding hospitals … for a variant that very likely is a mild illness. Just terrible terrible terrible guidance and messaging from the top …. from the very beginning. I will really never get over the religious veneration people have for Tony Baloney.

    The good news is Omicron, because it is so highly infectious, and the illness is so mild, will hopefully be the narrative crushing dose of reality that will wake the Branch Covidians up from their cultish belief system.

    It’s created people like this:

    https://twitter.com/telefeminism/status/1473310212249554946?s=20

    It’s also the end of the pandemic as a serious health issue. It’s endemic. Nothing we can do about that. If it’s endemic and not a serious illness, then it really is just another strain of the common cold, which is caused by both coronaviruses and rhinoviruses that mutate constantly. It’s likely that a good percentage of our current common cold cases are caused by the distant relative of the original coronavirus that caused the Russian Flu Pandemic of 1889.

    As for Bauer, what more is there to say that hasn’t been said ad nauseum. Like it or not, there is a growing and sizeable number of women who really get off on acting out rape fantasies. It’s the world we live in. It’s clear that at least the choking to unconsciousness was specifically requested by the victim. The legal question is whether there are the same implied limits to violent acts after unconsciousness. Also a remote possibility someone else caused the facial bruising, though I find that highly unlikely. That could influence the DA’s decision to move forward, though, because they have to anticipate the defense strategy. If that possibility is at least somewhat credible, then they might decide that the case is too hard to win.

    It’s a mess that neither MLB or the Dodgers want any part of. They might have to accept him, however. If Manfred decides to suspend him if the DA declines to prosecute, I can see Bauer making a grievance, hiring attorneys to contest the decision and going on his social media accounts to plead his case and keep the issue in the news. Bauer has probably the most influential social media presence of any player in the MLB, and he even using those channels to complain about a suspension would be an incredible headache and distraction. MLB and the Dodgers might have to decide which distraction is worse. It might be in everyone’s best interest if they quietly reinstate him if the DA drops the case and just ride out the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Noslers and the Molly Knights.

    I still give it a 75% chance he’s suspended next year.

    I personally think he leans heavily to the sociopath end of the personality spectrum, and someone who punches women for enjoyment, legal or not, is worthy of contempt. I’d prefer not reading about him in Dodger blue, but there’s a chance he might be wearing it anyway and I would get used to it … and that would immediately solve the Dodgers starting pitching depth issue. Unless the Dodgers get another top end guy to be a #3, no World Series. Period. I don’t think Catman is it.

      1. I figured. Did you watch A Christmas Carol? Our family used to do that every year at the South Coast Repertory theater.

  5. Merry XMAS to all the LADT Posters. Hope everyone has a joyous day with there family and friends. Life is short don’t take things for granted.

  6. Here’s some good advice from a Farmer on the Seat of a Tractor:

    Life from the seat of a tractor:
    An old farmer’s words of wisdom we could all live by.
    Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
    Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
    Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
    A bumblebee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
    Words that soak into your ears are whispered¦….not yelled.
    Meanness don’t just happen overnight.
    Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.
    Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
    It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
    You cannot unsay a cruel word.
    Every path has a few puddles.
    When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
    The best sermons are lived, not preached.
    Most of the stuff people worry about, ain’t never gonna happen anyway.
    Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
    Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
    Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back,
    you’ll enjoy it a second time.
    Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.
    Timin’ has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
    If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
    Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
    The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with,
    watches you from the mirror every mornin’.
    Always drink upstream from the herd.
    Good judgment comes from experience and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
    Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
    If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence,
    try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
    Live simply, love generously, care deeply,
    Speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.
    Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.

    1. Great stuff Mark. Thanks for sharing it. I’ll be saving a copy and handing it out to a few people who could use the advice.

      Merry Christmas to all who show up here on a frequent or infrequent basis.

      Sorry to see that even on Christmas Day, we can’t resist talking covid, politics and Bauer. I have thoughts on all three which I will be saving for another day.

  7. Merry Christmas LA Dodger fans.
    No virus, no politics, no Bauer talk from me.
    But I will say this, Christ was born on Christmas Day. ( well likely not on Dec. 25, but He was born ) Born to die and save His people from their sins.
    Gifts, food, good cheer and fellowship are wonderful. But the Christ of Christmas is the true gift and Amazing Grace.

  8. Not a bad top 7, no matter what order. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cartaya at #1.

    When do they officially come out with their list?

    1. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of year Vivas and Leonard have in 2022. I’m high on both of them but they’re still a ways off.

  9. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all you Dodger yakkers! May a lovely white or green
    Christmas lead us all to a Pantone-hued spring, summer and fall.
    Speaking of yakking, let me catch up on a couple of earlier posts.
    –I share high hopes for the Catman. Always been a Gonsolin fan and one of the reasons I never liked the Bauer signing was the feeling that he would block him and other young pitchers like May, Jojo Gray and Mitch White. I have fond memories of pitchers like Bob Welch being brought up young and thriving. And I see little reason to doubt that Miller or Pepiot might be ready soon. (I think the Dodger brass would rather trade Bauer at a loss than put him on the mound again. )
    –Nothing is lazier than the statement “it’s the media’s fault.” Can you be a little more specific? The mass media runs the gamut from responsible, rigorous mainstream publications (which are often falsely accused of “fake news” by political actors) to purveyors of half-baked BS. Ladies and gents, “the media” today includes you and me and everybody else on social media. What we share on Facebook, Twitter and even blogs like this is part of “the media.” We are all reporters, publishers, and curators of information. If you unwittingly share a QAnon video on FB or other unsubstantiated BS–like my brother has–you too are entitled to First Amendment protection! We are all “citizen journalists” today, whether we do quality research or spout crap. But some of us are more responsible than others. So if you want to blame “the media” for politicizing the virus, sure, that’s sort of true. But the responsible media has also been delivering the best information available on the virus.
    And why do I suspect that those who blame “the media” for politicizing simply don’t want to blame the politician who had the biggest pulpit and megaphone in the world? Many world leaders were completely responsible in how they communicated the risk of the virus– but the POTUS who first oversaw this crisis misled the public from the start. (You may also recall that he admitted he played it down in an interview with the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who has been protecting the public’s right to know since the early 1970s.) The virus is “politicized” everywhere to some degree–of course it is–but nowhere has it created so partisan division than in the USA. (I have lived in Asia for more than a decade. Here, masks remain very popular and not controversial at all. And yes, the rate of infection and misery has been much, much lower than in the West.)
    But back to baseball….
    I’m hoping that the New Year brings peace to baseball and at least two headline deals. Signing Freeman would be swell, as would getting a top-tier SP like Castillo in a deal. Unloading Bauer in a trade would be OK with me.

    1. Well, that deserves a response.

      When Trump was President, EVERY SINGLE DAY the Media posted the number of deaths that “he was responsible for.” Since Biden has been President, it is never mentioned, but the fact is that more people died of COVID-19 in 2021 under Biden than in 2020 under Trump… and I am not even going to mention the “epic fails” of the Biden Administration since the election. The sooner both Trump and Biden disappear, the better.

      Let’s not forget that this is America – the land of the free. Many people here do not like mandates. That’s a fact. However, it is also a fact that unless you properly utilize a mask, it is little more than a “Compliance Symbol.” Proper masking works:

      1. No cloth masks;
      2. You should Double Mask with N95 masks;
      3. Do not take off your mask in the presence of others… even when eating (do not eat with others present);
      4. Do not re-use a mask once you take it off – throw it (them) away and put on new ones; and
      5. Wash your hands before and after taking off or putting on a mask.

      If you don’t do all that, masks are just a symbol, not anything that is effective!

  10. FJB and FKH. Along with FNP. Enough politics, no baseball at Christmas? Un American. Until the MLB and MLBPA can peacefully co-exist, there will be no baseball. And that makes me madder than a wet bear on an iceberg. The one thing I hope most of all for 2022 is a year when the country and the American people can have some peace of mind. The last two years have been far too stressful for most of us. It has been a nice pleasant visit to Cali this time. Reason? I have not driven farther than 2 miles from the house, have not used the freeway at all, and did not have to go out amongst the last minute shoppers. I hope the new year brings new hope to all of us. No more soldiers killed or maimed in a war, a return to real democracy and the country we once were. The DH in both leagues, electronic K zone, umpires who let the players be the center of attention and do not make the game about them. More solid starters, a bullpen that could shut down a runaway train and a balanced offense. Not asking for much, but I doubt any of it happens.

  11. Interesting Fact:

    Tony Gonsolin is entering his age-28 season, an age at which Jake Arrieta still had a 5.23 career ERA.

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