showmethesnow

Played since I was six. Probably the first 6 year old to get thrown out of a game. Had a habit when I was batting to release the bat on my back swing taking out the umpire and the catcher. Needless to say they weren't really enthusiastic on having to dodge the bat after every pitch.

Johnny's isn't the old Johnny Cake team is it? And Yankee Rebels might ring a bell.

Essex Express? Not familiar with them. But it's been since the late 70's and 80's since I really followed so that doesn't surprise me any. Trying out for Johnny Cake was a wakeup call for me about my abilities though. They were pretty much the premier travel team in the East if not the whole USA at that time. Granted the players were several years older then me (think most of them were in the low twenties) but I still thought I could hang with them. It wasn't even close. They pretty much put my ego into place and hard. Got other invites to tryout in later years but by that point I was really starting to focus on College so I passed. Had nothing to do with the total humiliation I experienced. Nope, that wasn't it.

Travel league? In MD? You aren't talking about Johnny Cake are you? Tried out for them when I was in 10th grade. Those older players just smoked me away.

Pretty much was a jack of all trades with positions. Could play and did play every position, though the outfield was definitely not one of my stronger suits. Just didn't have the speed. But I was primarily a 3rd baseman (for my hero Brooks Robinson), a catcher (until I got a fastball into a place I will not mention and then I became gun shy, this guy was consistantly clocked in the low 90's) and a relief pitcher (could throw hard, had a very good slider, but I also had no control. Think the coach would insert me in just to beat the other team into submission )

I almost bought a pinball machine for our basement. Unfortunately the maintenance on them is horrible as they are constantly breaking down. Miss them myself. Especially loved playing in the bars years ago where I would win many a free beer.

Were you basically a pitcher? Or did you also play elsewhere?

Any pinball machines? Not a game room without them.

Between my back stride and then push forward I probably would have pushed that 8 ft. Couldn't do it now though. Last time I tried throwing I blew my shoulder out at a carnival. Not that I trust their radar guns but it was only registering 65-70. Kind of embarrassing actually. In my prime I was pushing 90 mph.

For a kid? Not sure how long it is but it doesn't look like that would have accommodated my stride when I pitched. And maybe you should put a deep patch of dirt in front of where the rubber will go? That was one of my favorite things as a kid. Digging a deep hole there. Made me feel like a professional.

Same here. Amazing how everything is now so interconnected that just doing a simple search on something results in e-mails coming in targeting this search. Just something as clicking on an ad link within a site does this as well. Still trying to figure our what I clicked on that initiated tons of e-mails for older Asian women available for companionship. And no, I don't visit porn sites.

About all you can do at this point is try to limit your exposure somewhat. Pretty much done as much as I can in regards to past accounts but i make it a point to really think over joining something when they start requiring personal information. There has been many a site that I really wanted to join that I basically nixed when they starting wanting more then just basic personal information.

If you care about such things, just deactivating the account still leaves your personal information available. So there is the potential for others to use that information in a harmful way or to even create a Fake account impersonating yourself. Need to do other things to get that information deleted and then there is still a question as to whether it is actually getting deleted.

I stocked up with all the necessities by early March for a possibly 2+ month lock down. At least I thought I had all the necessities. Forgot one thing though. Let's just say my adult beverage choices are Coor's lite or Natural lite that my Father-in-law had stashed in my garage fridge from several years ago. Do have a couple Guinness' but they are so flat that I had meant to toss them ages ago.

Now I have really enjoyed engaging others in this thread. It has been by far a very civil discourse among us despite differing views. But after yesterday's incident I have a decision to make as to whether I want to continue participating or not. As I am sure some are aware, I was attacked by someone that has participated very little, if any, in our discussions since this thread was created several weeks ago. A blind side attack from someone that has a notoriety for doing this over the years. Now I have no issues with someone inserting themselves into a civil discussion between myself and others. I actually welcome it. In fact I can also handle someone blindsiding me in a civil discussion with others. Screaming that I am a partisan hack and I need to take it elsewhere just because they don't like my opinion (ironically enough her own actions called her out for what she was accusing me of). I have engaged with enough trolls in the troll wars on political boards that this isn't an issue. But.... what I can't handle is having selective censorship on these exchanges. Leaving the attacks standing while my own posts in defense of myself (as well as others in defense of me) are selectively deleted. It is hard enough trying to defend my opinions when 90% of the board is arguing vehemently against them, opinions I might add that are formulated by much time and research on my part as to give the most unbiased opinion that I can. So to have the added handicap of seeing my posts in defense of my positions silently disappear is just too much. Now I understand being a moderator can be extremely difficult. Quite often you are thrown into the middle of things and you have no idea what has been going on. So I can accept the fact sometimes mistakes occur. But at some point, when you see moderation constantly favoring one position as I have seen several times in the last couple of weeks, you have to seriously consider that there isn't an even handed approach being meted out. At that point, you have to ask yourself if it is even worth it. That is where I stand now with a decision to make. Just in case I decide to forego any further discussion I would like to thank many of you that made this a very enjoyable time for me. We are going through a rough time in this country and to have this venue to take my mind off things was a God send.

If you saw no issues with her posts then I am not sure why you saw issues with mine and deleted a couple of mine as well as another's post who was in defense of me. I find it disconcerting that we can have a civil discussion in general over what we saw as far as response and yet we have her jump in out of the blue (in a thread I haven't seen her in to the best of my knowledge) claiming political bias on my part and I need to take it elsewhere. And surprisingly <sarcasm> enough I sure didn't see here go after the others that initiated this discussion.Now why would she go on the attack on me that was responding to others comments and yet leave theirs alone? Maybe we were seeing political bias on her part? I try my damnedest to keep my opinions as unbiased as possible. So for some to jump in claiming otherwise just because it doesn't fit what they want to hear pisses the hell out of me. eta: I didn't post any articles, that was someone else. She just had issues with my opinion.

I will apologize in advance if your are in fact deleting her posts. But if you are leaving here attacks on me standing, on what was a civil discussion with others, and yet deleting my responses/defenses against those attacks I find that hardly fair.

I started looking into them last night. Was just too tired at that point so quite after a few pages.Will try to get to it sometime later.

I am not a fan of Trump. Never have been, never will. I find he is pretty much an asshole, with many of his policies I don't agree with. But I believe in giving everyone a fair shake even those I don't agree with. I could go on but what's the point. So I find it humorous when I get labeled as an apologist for him just because I am just trying to give an unbiased opinion of things. Now will my opinion change as more things come out? Maybe. But at this point that is not what I am seeing.

<shrug> OK. Whatever. The last 3 1/2 years have been full of deeply sourced (and I use the term deeply sourced loosely here) articles that have fallen all apart with just a little bit of scrutiny. And I am sure I have seen some of these articles that you are referring too, articles that I found somewhat questionable in some aspects. But I prefer to see what unfolds after the whole story comes out and not just one that is heavily one sided. Now this thread has been for the most parts politics free and I would like to keep it that way. So I am not going to engage in any further political discussion with you.

Comments are becoming quite common from some corners in regards to gross negligence from this administration. That is no where near the case. There wasn't even any negligence as far as I see at this point though I would like to look a little further into it. What we are basically seeing at this point is that people are now equating a difference of a opinion on how something should be handled as evidence of negligence or a mishandling of a situation. That is not how it works.

Yes it would have. No question about it. So what exactly does that have to do with my comment that explained why we were probably seeing some delay?

Everyone is allowed to have their opinion. But I have been working on a time line this last week or so on everything that occurred through this pandemic. There is much to fill in and it will take quite a bit of time to finish it. But at this time from what I have seen so far there wasn't anything close to a gross mismanagement of the response to this pandemic. Now would I have done things a little different here and there? Yes, but that is a matter of opinion. And could they have maybe reacted a day or two sooner? Yeah maybe that too. But nothing at this point suggests any gross negligence on this administrations part. Now as I continue to research maybe my conclusions will change. But the problem I am seeing is there wasn't what I would consider clear cut actionable intelligence. The message was getting polluted with misinformation from the CCP and WHO. This harmed everyone. It is hard to just decide to shut down the country on just a piece of information here and there especially when the over riding message is one of clear sailing ahead. And you also have to consider that the intelligence quite often has to find its way up the food chain to get to the ears that need to hear it. This takes time. But again, I will be looking further into it when I have a more detailed timeline.

Yeah, not going to go back and check but I do think they were saying roughly 4% of the population at this time. Now whether it is legit I guess we will see. I am not really one to buy in whole hog on just one study but prefer to look at many. But it does fit neatly into my ideas so I guess I will hug it.