The Rainbow Jersey

Commentary watched Tony Buzbee’s press availability yesterday on Deshaun Watson.  It was very difficult to watch and very disturbing.  If Watson doesn’t have a good defense, I don’t see how he takes another snap in the NFL.

GOPers who are supporting the racist voter suppression legislative proposals are not happy with the massive pushback they are getting from the public and business leaders.  They are on the wrong side of history and they know it.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned America’s CEOs to stay out of politics, but their financial contributions were still welcome.  That’s hilarious.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is all riled up over the massive opposition to SB 7, the racist voter suppression bill.  Keep up the opposition and recruit more folks to oppose this racist voter suppression sh_t.  Make it hard for Patrick and other MFers like McConnell to support this crap.  They are cracking for sure.

Commentary got this on my take on the major partisan redistricting of Texas’ Appellate Courts:

RE: Kristen LaFreniere comment. As drafted, SB 11 provides the “surgical” fix of a few very minor anomalies in the appellate system.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00011I.htm

But it’s being used as a Trojan horse for a GOP takeover of most of the appellate system through the committee substitute version. Sen. Huffman would have the media and the public believe that it’s not a redistricting bill, but the House counterpart bills (HB 339 HB 2613 were actually referred to redistricting. See here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB2613.

There would be no doubt if the text of the much more far-reaching substitute bill were actually shown on the Lege’s website.

As for the purported justification for the sweeping changes, the appellate docket imbalance/equalization argument is a sham. Only about 5% of all cases are transferred and this is done as needed. That’s because the need for transfers varies over time among the appellate courts, The direction and size of adjustment flows is not predictable because the underlying dynamics of appellate activity is not predictable, especially not with the disruptions last year due to COVID, which crated a severe backlog in the trial courts. If the Austin Court of Appeals is chronically over-burdened because it gets more government entity/admin law appeals, it could simply be enlarged in size, or more visiting justices could be used.

Tags tweeted this after the game yesterday in which Carlos Correa hit a two run dinger in the top of the ninth to lead the Astros to a 4-2 win over the Angels:

Carlos Correa: “I like hitting late in the game when the game is on the line. That’s when I feel sexy.”

Sexy, Carlos.

46 years-ago today, the Astros rainbow jersey made its debut against The ATL. Now you know.

From ESPN.com:

The rainbow uniform was introduced in 1975. It was a radical design for its time — nothing remotely like it had ever appeared on a baseball diamond. It was also the perfect embodiment of MLB’s Technicolor era, as a variety of factors (new fabrics, new tailoring concepts, the rise of color television, the loosening of longstanding cultural dress codes) helped to reshape the idea of what a baseball uniform could be.

The Astros wore the rainbows through 1986. More than three decades later, the rainbow design is now entrenched as part of MLB’s visual bedrock (the Astros have worn it as a throwback at least nine times since 1999). While time may have made this uniform more familiar, it hasn’t softened its audacity. It’s still a radical design, and it’s still unlike anything ever seen on a big league diamond. It’s simultaneously dated and timeless. It is, essentially, a category unto itself.

Moreover, while the rainbow uni has become a fan favorite over the years, it has lots of nuances and details that many fans are unaware of. With that in mind, here are 10 things you might not know about one of baseball’s most notable uniforms.

1. The rainbow uni was designed by an ad agency. If you’ve ever looked at the rainbow uni and wondered who dreamed it up, the answer is the advertising firm McCann Erickson, which was hired by the Astros to redesign the team’s look for the 1975 season. It would be fascinating to see the company’s original files and to know the identities of the people who worked on the project, right? The good news in that regard is that McCann Erickson still exists (it’s now known simply as McCann). The bad news is that a company spokesman said the firm no longer has any original sketches or other archival paperwork. The Astros haven’t saved any original documents, either. Sigh.