Spaghetti Thoughts

 I’ve been thinking about what to call my occasional random thoughts, off- topic musings and rhetorical questions.   I still haven’t come up with something I like (and that hasn’t already been used by someone else)  So, I’ll try out a few titles until I find one I like.

 Today’s title:  Throwing It Against the Wall  - courtesy of that old food legend: if you throw a strand of cooked spaghetti against the wall and it sticks it’s ready (see Tom Berenger’s character in “The Big Chill”)

 ·        As a baseball fan who remembers well the 1990’s Yankees, as they buzz sawed through the first Ranger playoff teams, I’m kind of wondering if current era of the Yankees have become just another team.  The media will always be obsessed with the Yankees because there is still so much media based in New York. But lately, it appears to this reader that there are fewer stories about the Yankees and that they’ve become a bit less fashionable.  Seems to me the Dodgers are taking on the mantle of the big spending, big foot, big mouth villains of MLB.  Granted, Dodger fans are not nearly as annoying, especially since they don’t show up until the 3^rd inning and leave by the end of the 7^th. (When you have you heard a person from LA talk smack about baseball? There’s probably more smack talk about movie grosses in LA than there is about baseball.) There are still big spenders in the MLB : The Mets - we’ve seen how that works out , my beloved Rangers and we’ve seen that sometimes works, the Braves – if they wanted to, The Angels often foolishly, sometimes the Cubs and The Lyin’ Cheatin’ Astros.  But lately every time you read about an upcoming free agent (MLB or international) the Dodgers are always the first name mentioned as the likely destination.  (Of course, what did that big payroll and 100+ win season do for the Dodgers in 2023? The Rangers won the 2023 World Series)

 ·        Everyone’s got an opinion on Shohei Ohtani here’s mine: all those explanations don’t pass the smell test for me. The latest I read was that his interpreter turned off the notifications so Shohei didn’t see when Ippei was taking money from Ohtani –okay I guess. But – a man like Ohtani making that much money doesn’t have a business manager, or an accountant or a team of accountants that handle his money too and they didn’t see anything or say anything to Ohtani?  Really?  Meanwhile MLB is buying Ippei’s story essentially saying:  “Oh my,  Ohtani didn’t check his texts or look at the banking app on his phone – so he’s in the clear”.   Yeah right – MLB is going to do anything to protect their biggest international star no matter how flimsy the excuses.   I don’t think Ohtani gambled. I do think he knew or found out about Ippei’s problem and helped him out, but he didn’t consider the consequences that kind of “help” could cause.

 ·        About the death of an infamous former athlete:  now he’s going to have to tell the truth.

 ·        Thank you FUBO for 2 weeks of Ranger games – but your pricing is almost as much as the cable I cut 3 years ago – so it’s back to evenings with Eric, Matt and Jared – which is a very pleasant way to enjoy Ranger baseball.

 ·        One last question:  how long until the local media members stop saying that Josh Jung is not injury prone.  He’s never played an entire season in his career without missing a significant amount of time on the IL (still want to call it the DL) which means he’s injured.  Doesn’t matter the reason, even if it is bad luck he is still injured, which means he can’t play and it happens, a lot.  I agree with Adam Morris at Lone Star Ball, it’s something that has to be considered when planning the future for this team.

 --- Marla (who is not worried that my team has lost 4 out 5 games this week)     

 P.S. I’ve never been afraid of my age.  I don’t need Botox, or hair dye, or lifts for my sagging parts. (On a side note:  I am truly disturbed by those commercials where Jennifer Garner is promoting retinol/anti-aging “stuff” for teen-agers – wonder if her teen age daughters use that “stuff”).  Back to the subject of age: my pop culture references are generally out of date.  So what, it’s my blog, if you’re reading and complaining go back to your podcasts and get off my lawn!