Ron Robinsons Beard

It's turned into a victim complex with most of the people who continue to deny the seriousness of this thing. Any sort of precaution or quarantine recommendation is automatically deemed as an attack on their freedoms, so to support their argument, they dig up information that points to the pandemic being either politicized or overblown. It is an extremely selfish and egotistical point of view, in my opinion. As an aside, I have seen people on both sides of the political spectrum that hold this type of viewpoint.

I read this morning that J.P. Feyereisen dropped 30 pounds during the lockdown period. That seems pretty crazy.

Crazy that they keep that a secret. I would love to watch those guys play on a high school field. Right! I just finished reading that story. If MLB is not making an offer for that footage and putting together a documentary or special on it, they don't know what they are doing. One of MLB's biggest issues is the inability to market the personalities of their top players, and here you had a bunch of MLB stars and role players getting together and basically reenacting a version of The Sandlot in real life. I was especially interested in the parts about guys who are normally are big rivals helping each other out. Morrison, who has had his share of big league success in his own right, seemed like he was in awe of being asked to help some of those star pitchers. That is really cool.

Agreed ... I watched Community when it was on NBC weekly and always enjoyed it. I was never a Parks and Rec watcher until recently, though. It's been my binge show every night lately after the kids are in bed, and it's awesome. I'm about mid-way through Season 3.

People are pushing it because it sounds easier than quarantine. Those are also people who have likely not contracted COVID, had a close family member contract it, or haven't yet lost someone close to them from COVID. .

The Cubs would be taking a huge hit if Anthony Rizzo and Jon Lester choose not to report. Being cancer survivors puts both at a much higher risk.

I wonder if Phil Bickford is a possibility? He really put it together last season, fulfilling some of that 1st round promise. He's also going to be 25 in a couple weeks.

Other countries have citizens who take their CDC and their health experts seriously. The U.S. is the only place where medical licences are seemingly handed out by Facebook and Twitter. US has plenty of those people as well. It's hard to categorize this as anything other than a hysterical statement. The majority of people here follow the rules. In a lot of places you don't really have a choice. Of course. It's a "squeaky wheel" situation. The people who are obnoxious about their decision not to wear a mask, and those who are shaming them, are the ones getting the attention right now.

Other countries have citizens who take their CDC and their health experts seriously. The U.S. is the only place where medical licences are seemingly handed out by Facebook and Twitter.

Not quite. I said trends, so I meant right now. Your testing point US vs EU has been debunked. Quick summary from roughly a week ago. EU has roughly 100 mil more people than USA. EU/USA are testing basically the same number of people per million. We have been getting something like 8x as many new cases (per million, I think). And it sure seems the last week would've widened this gap even more. I can't get a way around this other than whatever they've been doing seems a heck of a lot better than what we've been doing. Also, I can't get my head around the argument that dong something for the greater community good is also selfish because greater good also benefits you. I guess there is a logic to it, but it just seems a really odd argument to make. Especially when in direct comparison to the other option in this case. Some of the justification that the "non-mask" crowd is using to support their argument is pretty crazy. Personally, I hate wearing a mask. I broke my nose several times as a child, and I've had issues with being able to take full breaths through my nose ever since. But you know what ... I still do it when I know I'm going to be in an indoor public area. Simply because it's the right thing to do. I rarely wear it much outdoors, but in Northern Wisconsin it is quite easy to keep social distance when you are outside. People should be wearing them indoors. I'm not going to publicly shame someone for not wearing one, though, just as I would hope that they won't publicly shame me for choosing to wear one. I do believe that if we have any hope of getting back to "normal" before mid-2021, it would be a good idea to start enforce mask ordinances. Otherwise forget any normalcy till that vaccine is readily available.

Cam's injury was to his shoulder, I don't think he's lost any of his athleticism. The biggest issue(aside from the car accident) was a result of him playing through injuries. He sat out all last year. He's 31, I think he'll be fine. As for him not working in NE, Belichek is the master of changing his system to best suit his players and...as you said, McDaniels got the Broncos to the playoffs(where they won a game) with Tebow at QB. Exactly. Tebow was the king of the "isn't much of a passers". I expect that Cam (if fully healthy) will keep the Patriots in the firm playoff chase. I kind of expect Brady to crash and burn in Tampa, too. He's got the brains obviously, but he's shot athletically. He's got great weapons down there, but isn't going to have the arm strength to take advantage of them. A lot of people talk about how he didn't have a lot for weapons his last couple years in NE, but he simply couldn't make the throws.

I would be shocked if they were “winging it” after all of the time that the league has had to prepare and all of the safety measures that are seemingly in place Right. Just because there hasn't been a ton of information released regarding the plan doesn't mean there isn't a detailed plan.

Courtesy of Twitter... That has made my morning.

I see a stainless steel gas grill.

It truly seems like the Brewers' crazy offseason roster turnover happened 4 years ago. But that lets me get excited by signing Brock Holt all over again I also totally forgot that Shelby Miller was Brewer property. He was actually pitching pretty well back in March, and was making a potential play for an MLB roster spot. He'll be one to watch when things get going next week.

I think Smoak was always a lock. Did you mean Morrison?

The Cardinals get the dumpster-fire Royals ... because of course they do.

Trade deadline is Aug. 31, per a story Ken Rosenthal posted at The Athletic this morning.

Upload is a fun show. Some really funny comedic moments, with some dramatic elements to boot.

Who is ignoring COVID-19? Choosing to see optimism in a potential season doesn't mean people are forgetting that the pandemic is still going on.

These guys didn't become great by letting their foot off the gas. These guys are at the top of a very difficult-to-play game. They only know one way to play. Yeah, Betts is going to dive for balls, because he's been doing it since he was 5. They don't have the time to think about the impact of their actions in the heat of the moment. Also, (this is going to sound coach-y) when you let up is when you get hurt.

I disagree. Most of those guys live and breathe baseball. They also understand the value of marketing, and choosing to sit out while your team is playing isn't going to look good to the fans who adore them. I think we will see some guys who may be compromised health-wise, or live closely with someone who does, choose to sit out, but I would bet it is a very small number.

I live in a (very) small town in northern Wisconsin. I think most people around here are going pretty well safety-wise. One thing I have noticed, though, is in the touristy-type towns like Eagle River and Minocqua, people are basically operating like normal on weekends (i.e. large groups, no masks, in and out of every store downtown). I assume most of these people are vacationers and second homeowners from downstate or Illinois/Minnesota, but to me, that seems odd, as I would think if you live in an area where the virus is more prevalent, you'd be more precautious. But no ... I guess when you take a vacation from work, you take a vacation from safety as well. I've heard some rumblings that the majority of the ICU beds available at our hospitals up here (there aren't many) are filled with people who don't actually have a home address here. This hasn't happened to me personally, but I've heard several reports of people actually being shamed for wearing masks some places around here. Like men walking up behind women and Baaaaing like a sheep, or people continuing to claim that you've "fallen for the hoax". If that happened to me in a store or out in public, I don't know how I would react, but it wouldn't be pleasantly.

Yelich is going to win the HR title with 21 dingers! Woody is gonna go 6-2, 1.88 ERA, and win the Cy Young!

I'm pretty happy. Leery ... but this is the first actual progress MLB related since mid-March. I think the excitement will build for a lot of people as we get closer to that opening weekend. If huge manufacturing facilities can stay open in this country without huge spikes in cases, there is no reason why MLB, with its huge emphasis on health and safety, can't figure this out. Perhaps I'm just trying to squeeze out the last little bit of optimism I have left for baseball this year.