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Against The Mets All Time Leaders – Through 2026

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  As we prepare for the uncertainty of the 2027 season due to labor strife, this offseason we will once again take a look at the leaders, both offensively and defensively, against all 30 clubs.  We continue today with the New York Mets.

The Mets began life in 1962, joining the National League following the abandonment of the New York market by both the Dodgers and Giants in 1957.  I’ve seen them play 21 times, including Tom Glavine’s 300th career victory, their pennant clinching victory in the 2015 NLCS, and, most recently, this past August at Rate Field.

All-Time Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Chicago Cubs 11 8 0.579
Chicago White Sox 1 1 0.500
New York Mets 9 12 0.429

Home Runs

Name Total
Corey Patterson 4
Aramis Ramirez 2
Nico Hoerner 2

Hits

Name Total
Corey Patterson 10
Aramis Ramirez 10
Moises Alou 8
Mark Gruzielanek 8

Runs

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 5
Derrek Lee 5
Corey Patterson 4
Moises Alou 4
Michael Barrett 4
Sammy Sosa 4
Nico Hoerner 4

RBI

Name Total
Corey Patterson 10
Aramis Ramirez 7
Michael Barrett 6

Doubles

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 4
Michael Barrett 3
7 tied with 2

Triples Continue reading →

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Tired Discourse – Who Pays For The First Date?

In January of 2025, the good folks at Defector.com published a list of 35 topics that have been discussed to within an inch of their life here on the internet.  Lucky for me, I haven’t publicly commented on most, if not all, of these topics, so I figured why not dip my toes into the fray on occasion.  We will continue today with the next question on their list:

Who Pays for the First Date?

First, let’s look at this from the heteronormative point of view.  There are two schools of thoughts here and either one can be appropriate based on the situation.  Traditionally, the man would pay for the date, especially early in the relationship.  Of course, the man would traditionally be the one asking for the date as well.  The more recent point of view, which likely coincides with a greater incidence of women asking men out or apps doing the heavy lifting for both sides is that whoever asks should be the one who pays.  Honestly, either way works for me, although, in my limited experience, I have always felt compelled to pay for the date regardless of who asked who.  The whoever asks should pay route also makes the most sense for same sex dates, I would think.

As the relationship becomes more solidified, however, it might make more sense to start splitting the responsibilities.  Nobody wants to be six months in and feel like they are just there to foot the bill every time you go out.  Of course, if there is a large gap in wealth/earnings between the couple, then that is a different story.

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Book 57 (of 52) – Beartown

Beartown – Fredrik Backman

Hockey is more than a sport in Beartown, it is a way of life.  When the junior team finds themselves in line for the championship for the first time in generations, things start looking up for the whole town.  But when the star player is accused of raping the daughter of the team’s GM and is arrested the morning of the final, it puts the towns loyalty to the test, a test which many fail.

Back in 2023, I inadvertently read The Winners, the third book of Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series.  It certainly took me a while to circle back to the beginning, which I have finally done with Beartown.  I retained enough of the previous book where the characters are familiar to me, but not enough to fully remember where they all end up, which, I guess, is a good thing.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t take me another three and a half years to read the middle chapter.

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Yeah Buddy

After three error-plagued seasons, the White Sox announced on Monday that they would not be extending the contract of embattled television play-by-play man John Schriffen.  Schriffen, who first got the job in 2024 after Jason Benetti was allowed to leave the booth due to growing frustrations with the franchise, started with three strikes against him.

  1. He was coming in to replace a popular broadcaster many felt was treated unfairly by Jerry Reinsdorf and Brooks Boyer
  2. He was considerably less polished, let alone skilled, than the broadcaster he was replacing
  3. His first season coincided with the White Sox becoming the worst team in MLB history

That said, he certainly made numerous unforced errors along the way that did not help his case, including not knowing why White Sox fans would boo Tigers infielder (and former Cub) Javy Baez and mispronouncing Bill Veeck’s name during a pre-planned bit and subsequently refusing to quickly address it, making sure it turned into a thing.  Both showed a lack of preparation that his over-the-top enthusiasm, especially for a team on its way to the most losses in MLB history. couldn’t cover.  When good things did happen and he pulled out what I’m sure he thought would be his winning catch phrase, “South Side, stand up”, he didn’t have the skills to make it seem like it wasn’t a pre-planned saying that he had been waiting to cram in.

Along the way, he improved a little as he went on, but was always awkward, whether it was using the White Sox airway to fight with the local radio hosts he was too afraid to speak with directly, growling when using Luis Robert’s big cat-inspired nickname, or his absolutely bizarre tirade on behalf of Tommy Pham after the later was thrown out easily in a play at the plate against the Brewers in 2024.  Even with the improvements, he still regularly confused left and right field and never seemed to bring any particular baseball knowledge or insight to the broadcast, which is strange considering he played the game at the collegiate level.

The writing was likely on the wall for Schriffen when, this past September 24, he chose to leave the booth for the night to call a UFC event rather than the game where the White Sox clinched a playoff spot.  Hopefully the UFC keeps calling as I doubt he ever works regularly in MLB again.

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Fitbit 12 – Week 40

An excellent week turned into another milestone week, as, with twelve weeks remaining in this Fitbit Year 12, I’ve now managed to surpass my total steps from Year 7, Year 8, and Year 11 while surpassing my daily goal every day and going over my weekly goal for just the third time this year.  The week got off to a great start, scoring 8500 steps on Sunday thanks to a long morning walk.  Monday fell off a bit but still managed to wind up 23 steps shy of 7600.  Things jumped back up on Tuesday, finishing with 8400 steps.  Wednesday kept the good times going, again ending with 8000 steps.  A small jump on Thursday left me 27 steps away from 8200.  Friday needed just 13 additional steps to reach 7700.  A nice walk on Saturday plus birthday celebrations at night wrapped up the week on a high note with 9200 steps.

Total steps: 57,603

Daily average: 8229

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You Ought To Be In (21) Pictures

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 111 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of August 1.

We continue today with the two actors that have starred in exactly 21 movies that I have seen, a decrease of one from three years ago.

Samuel L. Jackson

29 years ago, I first made the acquaintance of Samuel L. Jackson in two polar opposite films, Pulp Fiction and National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1.  After 1994, I also saw multiple Jackson films in 2000, 2006, 2019, and 2020.  There was a six-year break between Lakeview Terrace, which I saw in 2010, and Kingsman: The Secret Service, which I saw in 2016.  He racked up five films between 2019 and 2021, the last of which was Death To 2020.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington first appeared in my life in a starring role as Tom Hanks’ homophobic attorney in Philadelphia.  There have been four years, starting in 2000, where I have seen two of his films.  2002 started a five-year run where I saw seven of his films.  After a six-year absence, he returned to my screen in 2020 and appeared twice in 2024, thanks to 2014’s The Equalizer and 2023’s The Equalizer 3.

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Against The Nationals All Time Leaders – Through 2026

To paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  As we prepare for the uncertainty of the 2027 season due to labor strife, this offseason we will once again take a look at the leaders, both offensively and defensively, against all 30 clubs.  We continue today with the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals began life in 1969 as the Montreal Expos.  When the Expos missed out on their best opportunity to win a World Series due to the work stoppage of 1994, followed by years of alleged mismanagement, fan support dropped away, and the team moved to Washington in 2005.  I’ve seen them play 20 times, five as the Expos and fifteen as the Nationals, including a neutral site game at US Cellular Field in 2004, two games of the 2017 NLDS at Wrigley Field, and once at their home stadium in 2019.

All-Time Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Florida Marlins 1 0 1.000
Washington Nationals 9 6 0.600
Chicago Cubs 7 8 0.467
Montreal Expos 2 3 0.400
Chicago White Sox 1 3 0.250

Home Runs

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 4
Corey Patterson 2
12 tied with 1

Hits

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 8
Ryan Theriot 7
Michael Barrett 6
Derrek Lee 6
Mark Grudzielanek 6
Juan Pierre 6

Runs

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 5
Ryan Theriot 4
Derrek Lee 4
Moises Alou 4

RBI

Name Total
Aramis Ramirez 13
Moises Alou 4
Jeff Conine 3

Doubles

Name Total
Moises Alou 3
Jacque Jones 2
Ben Zobrist 2
Michael Busch 2

Triples Continue reading →

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Tired Discourse – Should A Video Game Have A Woman In It?

In January of 2025, the good folks at Defector.com published a list of 35 topics that have been discussed to within an inch of their life here on the internet.  Lucky for me, I haven’t publicly commented on most, if not all, of these topics, so I figured why not dip my toes into the fray on occasion.  We will continue today with the next question on their list:

Should a Video Game Have a Woman in It?

Way back in 2014, a group of losers started pushing back against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture.  Known as Gamergate, this misogynistic online harassment campaign targeted women who worked on, reported on, or even just played video games.

Obviously, video games, whether the games themselves or the people who create, report on, and play them, should include women.  And if that is a controversial stance to you, then you should probably be seeking professional help.

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Manager Of The Year Part The First

The first group of year end awards were announced yesterday by The Sporting News and White Sox manager Will Venable is their AL Manager of the Year.  These awards are voted on by peers and, more often than not, returns the same result as the “official” awards handed out by the Baseball Writers of America.  Venable is just the sixth White Sox manager to win this version of the award, following Ozzie Guillen in 2005, Jerry Manuel in 2000, Jeff Torborg in 1990, Tony La Russa in 1983, and Chuck Tanner in 1972.

On the player side, Chase Meidroth was named to The Sporting News American League All-Star Team as the second baseman.  He’s the first White Sox player to be named a year-end All-Star since José Abreu in 2020.