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I'm trying to figure out who has the advantage, Peralta or the Brewers hitters. Peralta knows our team's strengths and weaknesses, and we know his. I have a feeling Contreras will be providing quite the scouting report. We know that he can get his pitch count high very fast, and that's going to be key.

And it was great to get into our bullpen in the 6th and use our best arms. Clearly people have not watched the Brewers all season because that's been their formula.

People really seemed to pump up the whole "Cash didn't want Rasmussen to go up against Miz" narrative too much. Henderson would be the #1 starter on most MLB teams, he just so happens to pitch on the same team as the likely Cy Young winner. Maybe the true narrative was it gets Peralta up against Gasser, who has also been pitching amazing. The NLCS has given me a sense of calm about the World Series, and I have no fear going up against Rasmussen or Peralta. All of the pressure was on them last night- first WS game in 44 years at home after 8 days off? That's a recipe for disaster. There were some hiccups, but I'd expect them to be a bit more relaxed and play better today.

This question is what I was answering when I finally went to bed last night. My dad passed in 2024, so just over two years ago. He's the reason I am a Brewer fan. My parents moved to Wisconsin in the spring of 1982 and got tickets to the ALCS and World Series. They took my great grandfather, who had played in the Cardinals system back in the late 20s/early 30s (and was about as big of a baseball fan as there was), and got a babysitter for me, who was not quite 2 years old last time this happened. My dad and I went to so many games at County Stadium and Miller Park. We got to go to Opening Day in 2001, the All-Star game, the 2008 playoffs together. We were there on Easter Sunday 1987 (which I have no recollection of), and went to a game in early 2002 or 2003 where the announced attendance was 16,000 but there was no way there were more than 10,000 in the stadium. We have seen highs and lows of this team together, but nothing like this. I'm sad I don't get to experience this with him, but it's because of him that I get to experience this as a fan. So dad, thank you for teaching me to be a fan of this team and not to abandon them when times are tough because patience paid off. Let's go out and get 4 more.

They have only drafted six o-linemen over the past three years. Seems like a lot, but not when they've let 5 guys walk over that period of time. There is only one player on the team from the 2019-2021 drafts, and that is Jordan Love. It's one thing to let guys walk, but you better have a replacement-level player to step in, and they don't have that, and they have been invseting draft capital elsewhere (2 kickers in the past 4 drafts???). They need better scouting and better coaching.

Reading there was a flag thrown on about 1/3 of the plays in the game yesterday. That's absurd. Edit- there were 142 total plays run, including special teams, and 27 accepted penalties, so that's about 20% of the total plays had a penalty accepted.

I won't question taking points off the board, but I will question the call on 4th & 1. It wasn't a QB sneak situation. Any other play is more likely to succeed with our o-line. If you're going to be aggressive by taking points off the board, then be aggressive with the play call. I don't recall if it was before or after that play, but they had a 3rd and 11 or 12, and he called a run. A RUN. That's about as timid as you get if you are claiming to be more aggressive.

They may have been instrumental in this game happening, and appear to have almost volunteered. They did not, however, necessarily want to play the 49ers. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49881494/nfl-season-australia-san-francisco-49ers-los-angeles-rams-week-1

I use a Kamado Joe, and overall it's fantastic. I can crank the heat to 800 or dial it in to 275 for 11 hours. I have a soapstone that is excellent for salmon and also a pizza stone. My only issue with the pizza stone is it can get too hot and the crust burns, so I put a barrier between the flames and the stone. My most recent success was almost a failure. I made modified version of Kalua pork (just scored the meat and used salt), tossed it on the smoker and nearly forgot about it because I got very busy. Forgetting about it was the best thing because I didn't open the smoker to check on it, and it came out with outstanding flavor. Bacon is going on this weekend. Got a great deal on a pork belly at Costco, so that will make enough bacon to last a couple of months. I stopped buying beef because of the cost, and it's an expensive mistake when it's done wrong. Edit: I have thought about getting a gas grill for simple food. Charcoal can take a long time to get hot, and I don't always like waiting longer than the food will take to cook for it to get hot. Also, my grill is well used and FILTHY! I really need to do a deep clean, but don't even know where to start, lol.

It's not Gutey's fault that their first round pick last year barely saw the field, and when he did, it was for end arounds.

This smoke isn't just from Canada, there are fires in northern Minnesota as well. They evacuated the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and one of the fires is just outside of Ely, MN. It's probably this bad due to the closer proximity the fires are to us.

I'm hearing this second hand, but allegedly it got so hot in my building that some plaster started melting from the walls. It's now a partially air conditioned building, but still closed to everyone. What a disaster.

We could probably start a separate youth sports topic as we diverge from the World Cup discussion, but I'll say as a parent of youth swimmers- there is so much pressure on kids to excel in their sport. Our kids attend arguably the best swimming high school in the state, but are not the best swimmers. So many kids go out for swimming that they have to cut swimmers, so they have to swim club year-round to keep up just to be on the high school team. If we put our foot down and forced them to do another sport, they could fall behind and not be able to continue on the high school team. We have seen first-hand that swimming 42 weeks a year on multiple teams can cause muscle and joint fatigue because they are being overused. I really want my daughter to do another sport in the spring instead of club swimming, but she doesn't want to get left behind.

I went into my buiding on Monday and my office wasn't actually that bad, but the elevator and hallway were brutal. One of my coworkers said his office got to 100 degrees during the heat warning, which I believe. My wife's building is another that has had reduced cooling, but it's not closed. It has been hovering around 80 most of the past couple of weeks, not condusive to much getting done. She is not allowed to be remote 100% of the time like I am due to my building being closed.

Great discussion on why soccer isn't a big deal in the US. Some additional thoughts: Parents often dictate what sport a kid is going to go into. They see soccer as a great entry point to team sports because a young kid can play without having refind gross motor skills. They just need to run/jog and kick a ball. Ever see a 5 year old try to swing a baseball bat or shoot a basketball? Once a parent sees their kid mature a bit, they move to other sports. Kids will play the sports their idols play, that means they most likely want to play football, basketball, or baseball. Those three sports are easy to access on TV and the radio, so it's not hard to follow the games. Soccer is not as readily on TV, even with more streaming options, and none of the best players (aside from Messi in the twilight of his career) play in the US. The top athletes in the US play basketball and football, with baseball coming in a distant 3rd. For many, they see those two sports as the golden ticket to money, either through a scholarship/NIL or eventual professional sports.