Party of Lincoln and 73

These two current ‘Stros have a combined 693 career dingers. Who am I talking about?

Commentary has been laughing all week at some GOPers’ feeble defense of Confederate statues. When GOPers say they are members of the “Party of Lincoln”, laugh in their faces. Honestly? Do you think President Abraham Lincoln would approve of the statues?

Check this from the E-Board today:

Monuments honoring the Confederacy were erected for a very specific reason – to wipe out the memory of Reconstruction-era equality that briefly existed after the Civil War and replace it with a myth of the Lost Cause.

This intense and pervasive effort was launched decades after the Civil War had ended, during a period of time, roughly 1890-1920, that historians view as a nadir for African-Americans. Thousands were lynched and rigid segregation laws were implemented throughout the South. These edifices remain a testament to those decades of hate.

Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Buried-history-11882660.php.

Silly and stupid. Just shut up! Party of Lincoln, my arse!

This is from the SA Express News:

Mayor Ivy Taylor, soon after she lost her June runoff, filed a claim for unemployment benefits from the city of San Antonio through the Texas Workforce Commission, sources said.

The city contacted Taylor after she filed the claim, the sources said, and recommended that she withdraw it because it would otherwise be rejected. Taylor tried, they said, but the Texas Workforce Commission would not allow the claim to be withdrawn.

According to the Unemployment Compensation Act in the state’s Labor Code, elected officials do not qualify for unemployment benefits.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said Thursday that he’d heard Taylor had filed a claim for unemployment benefits — a first for him. He called Taylor’s actions “really strange.”

“I lost two races. I should have thought of that when I lost,” Wolff joked.

Sad, if you ask me.

This is from Steve Houston:

Reports are that the City Secretary’s office hasn’t finished counting the pension petition to even start the pay parity petition, the deadline coming next week making it seem like both will be put off to the future. The firefighters demanding Ms. Russell set aside the first one to benefit their cause should understand that they never lifted a finger to help any other petition so why should they get to re-write the rules in their favor?

They could have started the petition drive last year when their pension representatives broke ranks as the city decided the initial cuts were not enough but they banked on political support from people well known to oppose worker’s rights, unions, DB pensions and the like; everyone knowing it was only a matter of time before those politicians took the opportunity to do what they do. I think they should take the offered raise for now and continue the fight via referendum next May or whenever the next election it can be heard. They just feel the public won’t give them a second boost after a 9.5% raise so they are sitting on it as though the offer will remain open forever…it won’t. Their social media campaign now suggests the city demanded concessions to get the 9.5% raise but when asked, not a single one of them can point any concessions out which sounds like more stonewalling.

73 is the record. That is what the record book says. I am talking about most dingers in a season set by Barry Bonds in 2001. I witnessed in person #70 off of Wilfredo Rodriguez at The Yard on October 4, 2001. That was the series that was made up after 9/11. ‘Stros fans were cheering and wanted to see Bonds tie the record of 70 set by Mark McGwire in 1998. That kind of upset ‘Stros Skipper Larry Dierker. Why am I talking about this? Check this from Yardbarker:

Giancarlo Stanton may have very little chance at surpassing Barry Bonds’ single-season record of 73 home runs, but the Miami Marlins star is eyeing a number that is certainly attainable and he believes is more legitimate.

That number is 61.

Stanton, who is currently on pace to hit 60 homers, said Wednesday that he considers 61 — the single-season home run mark set by Roger Maris in 1961, to be the real home run record.

“When you grow up watching all the old films of Babe Ruth and [Mickey] Mantle and those guys, 61 has always been that printed number as a kid,” Stanton said, via Andre Fernandez of the Miami Herald.

Catching Ruth’s mark of 60 would be quite the milestone, but Stanton said he considers that remarkable season tainted because baseball remained segregated in 1927. The five seasons better than Maris’ 61-homer season belong to Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. They all took place during the height of baseball’s steroid era.

“Considering some things I do (think those are tainted),” Stanton said. “But at the same time it doesn’t matter. The record is the record. But personally I think I do.”

Stanton did not homer in Miami’s 8-1 win over the San Francisco Giants Wednesday, snapping a streak of six straight games with a big fly. He now has 44 home runs on the season with 43 games remaining.

If you want to know if Stanton could surpass the 70-homer mark this season, just ask one of his teammates. But if the 27-year-old slugger gets to 61, a lot of people would agree that he has tied the “real” home run record.

Talk all you want. When you get to 73 or 74 we can talk about you tying or setting the record. That’s what the record book says.

I am for this. Donald Trump probably isn’t. From USA Today:

Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry said it is time to rename Yawkey Way, the road outside Fenway Park that is a nod to former team owner who resisted integrating his club more than a decade after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

Henry told the Boston Herald in an email that he’s “haunted” by the street’s name and would be in favor of changing it to Big Papi Way as a tribute to former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Any change would have to be approved by Boston city officials.

Here is the entire read: http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/red-sox-owner-john-henry-citing-racist-past-wants-to-change-name-of-yawkey-way/ar-AAqfXt8?ocid=UE01DHP.

Then this from Yahoo Sports:

Before considering the debate over whether Tom Yawkey was so racist he should no longer have a street named after him in Boston, know this: he was a terrible baseball owner.

From 1933 to his death in 1976, his Boston Red Sox never won a World Series and rarely won anything at all, reaching the postseason just three times. The occasional generational talent that would arrive (Ted Williams, most notably) would wither away via futility and frugality. Part of this was because of a stubborn inability to see obviously emerging trends, his most famous failure born from bigotry.

The Red Sox were the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate, in 1959, a full 12 seasons after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Brooklyn. Yawkey was so opposed to employing a black player, he chose, for a dozen seasons, to run his team at a decided competitive disadvantage. He demonstrably cared more about having an all-white team than winning.

He actually could have signed Robinson. In 1945, Boston politicians forced the Red Sox to have a tryout for African-American players under threat that they wouldn’t allow games to be played on Sunday. Robinson was one of three players brought to a sham of a workout. Robinson impressed the assembled media and some scouts, but never stood a chance with Yawkey.

Again, the entire read: https://sports.yahoo.com/let-people-boston-decide-fate-yawkey-way-001722029.html.

Carlos Beltran with 435 and Brain McCann with 258 have a combined 693 career dingers of course.

4 ½ games over the Red Sox with the A’s in for three.