If anyone’s a fan:
Collab between the band and Mesa Public Library to celebrate their 25th and MPL’s 120th anniversary. You can get a commemorative library card to replace your old one. (Or, sign up for one if you’re not already. It’s free!)
The guys spent a lot of time at the main branch library as kids growing up and are big supporters.
Seems like it’s that time where we all share our thoughts on the Reds’ future. I agree with what a lot of folks wiser than me have said: we have to invest more in scouting, development, coaching, and training.
We have lost whole games this year not just on preventable physical errors, but due to poor on-field decisions, players not hustling, not following fielding protocol, and not being prepared on-field for opponents’ tactics like the bunt, pitch-outs, etc. These are all trainable skills that even a AA guy should know and execute. Moreover, many were predictable situations, that a coach should’ve been in someone’s ear about ahead of time, and clearly wasn’t.
But more than that, we don’t have an identity. We can’t afford to be a slugging juggernaut. But we still manage and strategize like it. Old school baseball, slave to L/R metrics and historical batting averages against specific pitchers that are years old. Running out a struggling starter for just one more inning again and again because we want to get him a chance for QS or a win or rest the bullpen. Those tactics work when you have a Dodger-deep roster of 26 guys. They don’t when you have Sal, Elly, and…some other guys.
We need to teach, inspire, and REquire our “other guys” to each do what they’re capable of doing to contribute.
We need small ball.
I’m gonna paste a comment I made about small ball a few months back that sums up my thoughts. Thanks if you made it this far.
Small ball is a culture.
You can build on it, and it perpetuates itself in the clubhouse from year to year; young guys learn to be scrappy from the senior guys in the dugout. Everybody works hard and has to contribute; defensively too, not just at the plate.
Hitting homers means you need a couple of guys. But those guys make all the money and they don’t need anyone else in order to do their thing. Dinger ball doesn’t build culture. It builds a few careers/bank accounts while the rest of the team acts as supporting characters making the league minimum.
Give me scrappy small ball any day of the week. I want to pitch out. I want to pick off. I want to dive for fly balls. I want to bunt for base hits. I want to steal bases. I want to double-steal. I want to squeeze. I want to run out every last contact as if you have a chance to beat it.
I want to walk into that stadium and turn on that TV and never know what the hell the Reds are gonna do next because the only rule is work hard and create chaos.
I want a team full of Blake Dunns. It’s way more fun than waiting through eight guys for Kyle Schwarber to come up.
Baseball weekend for me & sis- tired of paying $20 for a substandard sandwich on crappy bread. Whipped up a bubbly batch and ready to make everyone around us at the ballpark jealous today!
Standard recipe, overnight ferment in the fridge. Dough was HUGE this morning but I dimpled it a little extra and knocked a bit of air out so it would work better for sandwiches.
Happy Sunday, everyone!
I prefer to overnight fridge proof my focaccia; works better for my schedule. But I’m wondering if there is an actual reason why all the recipes recommend fridge proving it in a vessel, then removing the dough & transferring it to the pan when it’s cold and trying to stretch it?
I feel like I always knock whatever air has developed overnight out of it at that point. Why don’t they recommend just putting it straight into your oiled pan right from the counter proving stage, then fridging it? Then you can pull the pan out, let it come up to temp & rise again, dimple & bake.
Is there a reason no one does it this way?