Baseball is back. Really. Take my word for it.

[CBStew]

According to my daily newspaper (actually it is the San Francisco Chronicle so that description is subject to challenge) baseball starts tomorrow.  At least a facsimile of baseball starts tomorrow.  The stands will be empty, unless you count the cardboard cutouts of facsimile fans and piped in crowd noise to be fans.  The record books for the 2020 season will be loaded with asterisks and footnotes.  But I give the owners their due.  Their need to continue to stuff their wallets gives the rest of us some diversion from this horrible year.

[Canadouche]

I have to say I'm happy for the distraction. In a summer where nothing is normal, it's a tiny little window into a semblance of normalcy. I've seen the Cubs bullpen and I have no expectations, except that this might be the last hurrah for the core players who won us a ring.

[Wheezer]

There are only two OTA games in this "season," but I must admit that I got a number of good laughs out of the first Fox attempt to, ah, subtly (I don't think they've mastered this quality) move the images of the nonexistent fans from point to point during the broadcast. Last one's August 8, IIRC.

[Quality Start Machine]

The Cubs appear to be good.

[CBStew]

Now that there is a designated hitter in the National League can metal bats be far behind?

[Wheezer]

Now that there is a designated hitter in the National League can metal bats be far behind?

I'm more concerned about MLB trying to make this seven-innings shit and friends permanent.

[CBStew]

Now that there is a designated hitter in the National League can metal bats be far behind?

I'm more concerned about MLB trying to make this seven-innings shit and friends permanent.

I came to San Francisco from Chicago in 1949.  Baseball here meant the San Francisco Seals and the Oakland Oaks.  Team travel was limited.  Monday was a travel day in the Pacific Coast League, four out of the eight teams traveled.  Tuesday began a 7 game series, with a double header on Sundays.  The second game of the Sunday double header was seven innings.  The Seals played in Seals Stadium (duh!) which was located in the geographic center of the city.  The Seals had a great history, with three brothers named DiMaggio having played for them.  I never saw them in Seals uniforms.  Major league teams finished up Spring training by playing against PCL teams.  One of my most treasured possessions is a ball autographed "To Stewart" and signed by Willie Mays, Hank Thompson and Monte Irvin.  Why those three players?  Because the white players stayed at the fancy Fairmont Hotel, owned by the Swig family and where Blacks (even Willie Mays) were not allowed to sleep.  So the three black players stayed a a class C hotel owned by one of my uncles.  I also met Sugar Ray Robinson when he stayed  there and he gave me a ride in his pink Cadillac convertible.  It is a great story that I have probably written about already.
You know something?  I really am Grandpa Abe Simpson.  I can tell by the onion that is tied to my belt.

[Wheezer]

Now that there is a designated hitter in the National League can metal bats be far behind?

I'm more concerned about MLB trying to make this seven-innings shit and friends permanent.

The second game of the Sunday double header was seven innings.

Well, I'll be jiggered. FWIW, when I called my Dad this afternoon to report the Mills no-hitter, he said he had been there for the Sam Jones one, but the timing doesn't work out, because he would have been too young to have a box seat. Must have been Holtzman or later.

And he did introduce me to Ernie Banks when I was five or so.

[CBStew]

I don't want to start a new thread, so this is as good a place to put this as any other.

https://deadspin.com/reinsdorf-fills-white-sox-manager-slot-by-exhuming-anti-1845522222

[Quality Start Machine]

I don't want to start a new thread, so this is as good a place to put this as any other.

https://deadspin.com/reinsdorf-fills-white-sox-manager-slot-by-exhuming-anti-1845522222

Surprised that you of all people would link to a scab site.