u/oogieball

Image 1 — Two-City Doubleheader: Monsters-Thunderbolts & Kernals-Chiefs, 5/20/26
Image 2 — Two-City Doubleheader: Monsters-Thunderbolts & Kernals-Chiefs, 5/20/26
Image 3 — Two-City Doubleheader: Monsters-Thunderbolts & Kernals-Chiefs, 5/20/26
Image 4 — Two-City Doubleheader: Monsters-Thunderbolts & Kernals-Chiefs, 5/20/26

Two-City Doubleheader: Monsters-Thunderbolts & Kernals-Chiefs, 5/20/26

I accidentally did a two-city doubleheader today. Started with the indie Monsters-Thunderbolts game in Crestwood, which was a school day 10:35 AM start. After the game, I drove to Peoria for the game Thursday. But I realized I was in time for the game that night, so I went to the Kernals-Chiefs game at 6:30 PM. Rough day for the home teams, as the Thunderbolts and Chiefs both dropped their games.

u/oogieball — 18 hours ago

Timber Rattlers vs. Cubs, 5/16/26 -- Modified Waseda, 7-1 put out at third, 3 bat-arounds

I dare anyone to make sense of this "baseball." Brutal way to start the trip. I decided to try and use a modified Waseda style with no pitch counts, and the Brewers farm club forgot how to pitch. The Cubs batted around three times. There were *two* position players pitching, with the *catcher* going two innings and having a lower era than a couple of the "pitchers." The Cubs lost a no-hit bid on a homer. The topper was a 7-1 put out at third. A foul ball down the left field line blew back in (winds were *crazy*), falling in front of the left fielder, who threw to the pitcher covering third for the force out. Will not see that again. On top of everything else, the official scorer game the win to the second Cubs pitcher for no reason, who had fewer innings and strikeouts, the same runs, and more walks. I think everyone was just driven mad by the game.

u/oogieball — 4 days ago

7-1 Put Out at Third

This is one for the ages. Trying a modified Waseda in person at a minor league game in Wisconsin, and I just saw a 7-1 put out at third. Men on first and second. Pop fly to foul territory in left. Ball blows all the way back to fair territory and falls in front of the left fielder. Left fielder picks it up and throws to the pitcher covering third. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming that, screenshot of the official MiLB play-by-play of it.

u/oogieball — 5 days ago

To say I fell down a rabbit hole is an understatement.

I recently ordered a whole bunch of Japanese scorebooks and manuals. But the first steps was working out how they used them. Most were using what my limited research led me to believe is called the "Waseda Style" of scorekeeping. As with most things Japanese baseball, at first is looks completely alien, but the more you begin to understand it, the more it makes its own perfect sense.

This was one man's efforts, and I probably got some things wrong (there were some different interpretations between scorebooks, and I am only slowly making my way through the manuals), and anyone who knows better *please* chime in. I thought it was an interesting system that I will probably try out once I have a more complete understanding. However, I did include a "Ref Guess" at the end of a famous half inning that I scored in this system for fun.

I may need to delete this if the images load wonky.

u/oogieball — 18 days ago

I recently took over my childhood home. It is a post-war colonial that had only one owner before my parents bought it in the late sixties. The original owners were amazing gardeners and landscapers. My parents... less so. Over the course of decades, my father removed a lot of lovely trees and neglected the lovely shrubs that lined the outside of the house, which is the core of my question.

For decades, the shrubs were ignored and just desultorily trimmed once or twice a year, either by my dad, or later a lawn care company. They all grew into each other, got overgrown and tilted, and the soil is completely root-strewn and compacted nearly to concrete. Having finally reached the point where I can tackle the outside, I've done all I can do without major effort. I've properly trimmed all the bushes (discovering two that a holly bush had completely overgrown), and done all the immediate corrections I can. A lot of the problems can be solved by moving three shrubs and cutting out one that I don't think is going to make it. (Two azalia bushes that are trapped behind a line of evergreens and one small evergreen to replace the one that needs to be removed.) But the soil is extremely compacted and root-strewn and has rejected all my efforts so far to dig.

I'm fairly handy and have a green (if not forest green) thumb. I used a rototiller to tear up grass for a garden successfully. I've had to spend a lot of money getting necessary repairs done on the house, so I'd like to do this myself if I can, but I'd also like to know if I'm wasting my time and need to just save up for a pro to do it.

Thank you in advance.

reddit.com
u/oogieball — 18 days ago

A while ago, someone posted a comment that had a link to Amazon Japan's scorebook selections. I accidentally unsaved the comment right as I was buying this stuff, so I apologize for not being able to give credit to the user.

Since there's not much watchable baseball for me this season, I ordered a bunch of the available Japanese scorebooks and two books on scorekeeping. I'll have something more in-depth on them once I get through them all, but they all just arrived by a courier I had never heard of before yesterday evening.

u/oogieball — 21 days ago

There was a post in the last two weeks about the Rsvlts Scorekeeper Shirt, so of course I got one.

It uses a Scoremaster-like scoring frame, and the frames are scored realistically, but they are not a running game.

The downside is the cost: $70. I had only ever bought a Rsvlts shirt when there was a deep discount code from Jomboy Media back when they worked with them. That said, the quality is top-notch. Even things such as seams and crossovers are lined up nearly exactly, and the fabric quality, printing, and construction are excellent.

u/oogieball — 23 days ago