Random Thoughts XII - Floccinaucinihilipilification

[choxorn]

Don't worry, everyone, Weird Al is on the case:

 

[Gori the Grey]

Also, does anyone know who, when & why started replacing 'would've' with 'would of' ? There's clearly a case to be made for capital punishment.

When people stopped reading. One hears it as "would of," so people who only hear things and never read things write it that way.

Same as "doggie-dog world."

 

[MaryKB]

Maybe I'm a bit nitpicky, but "head over heels" bothers me more than it should. It's supposed to be "heels over head" ... head over heels is normal. Heels over head means you're turned upside down. I guess the incorrect version rolls off your tongue easier, but idioms that don't make sense annoy me.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Maybe I'm a bit nitpicky, but "head over heels" bothers me more than it should. It's supposed to be "heels over head" ... head over heels is normal. Heels over head means you're turned upside down. I guess the incorrect version rolls off your tongue easier, but idioms that don't make sense annoy me.

"I could care less" vs. "I couldn't care less."

 

[MaryKB]

"I could care less" vs. "I couldn't care less."

I feel like "I could care less" is similar to "not bad." It's like "I don't really care, but it's not like the worst thing ever."

 

[Takhisis]

Ooooh, it sounds as if you lot could use reading the works of Robert Hartwell-Fiske, self-proclaimed ‘grumbling grammarian’.

 

[Kyriakos]

"I could care less" vs. "I couldn't care less."

One erroneous phrase which got improved by the error, imo, is "better the devil, you know". Instead of the correct "better the devil you know".

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Let me ax you a question.

Any YT presenter who comes out with that gets an automatic downvote. I don't care what else they say or what the topic is.

There are even French language tics some people have. I finally told off one of the HP fanfic writers about the continued use of "n'est pas" when the correct phrase should be "n'est-ce pas?". They do NOT mean the same thing, and it makes Fleur Delacour (one of the students from Beauxbatons) look like she can't even speak her own language correctly.

Google Translate is NOT your friend, if you make no effort to verify it. Some twit on FB kept posting "blah blah blah" at me, and Google Translate helpfully offered to translate it for me from Arabic.

 

[Kyriakos]

The general enthusiasm for war in Europe

 

[EgonSpengler]

So the National League will be using the Designated Hitter now. I'm not in an NL city, and I think watching pitchers bat is mostly embarrassing, but still. It's the end of an era.

As an aside, I wonder if this will improve the defense of NL teams? I suppose it'll mostly matter at 1B anyway, maybe the occasional 3B or RF. But as a casual Dodgers fan, I certainly remember the halcyon days of Mike Piazza behind the plate. Career dWAR of 1.5. He had a couple years late in his career, when he was with the Mets, when his defensive WAR almost wiped out his offensive WAR (and he was still elected to the All-Star team).

 

[choxorn]

As an aside, I wonder if this will improve the defense of NL teams? I suppose it'll mostly matter at 1B anyway, maybe the occasional 3B or RF. But as a casual Dodgers fan, I certainly remember the halcyon days of Mike Piazza behind the plate. Career dWAR of 1.5. He had a couple years late in his career, when he was with the Mets, when his defensive WAR almost wiped out his offensive WAR (and he was still elected to the All-Star team).

Interestingly enough, retroactive catcher framing metrics tend to think Piazza was actually really good at that, which would suggest he was actually a way better defender than he was thought to be at the time.

In the short term I'd say what it means is the NL teams all suddenly need another bat-first player, and the ones on the market now have 15 more job openings (see: Nelson Cruz signing with the Nationals yesterday, and I imagine Nick Castellanos is also pretty happy to see the NL adopt the DH)

 

[Farm Boy]

So the National League will be using the Designated Hitter now. I'm not in an NL city, and I think watching pitchers bat is mostly embarrassing, but still. It's the end of an era.

As an aside, I wonder if this will improve the defense of NL teams? I suppose it'll mostly matter at 1B anyway, maybe the occasional 3B or RF. But as a casual Dodgers fan, I certainly remember the halcyon days of Mike Piazza behind the plate. Career dWAR of 1.5. He had a couple years late in his career, when he was with the Mets, when his defensive WAR almost wiped out his offensive WAR (and he was still elected to the All-Star team).

Blah. Pro baseball is dead to me.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Interestingly enough, retroactive catcher framing metrics tend to think Piazza was actually really good at that, which would suggest he was actually a way better defender than he was thought to be at the time.

In the short term I'd say what it means is the NL teams all suddenly need another bat-first player, and the ones on the market now have 15 more job openings (see: Nelson Cruz signing with the Nationals yesterday, and I imagine Nick Castellanos is also pretty happy to see the NL adopt the DH)

I didn't know there were metrics for that, but yeah, handling the pitching staff has long been regarded as the catcher's first job, and it didn't show up directly in any statistics. Many years ago, someone tried to figure out how good Derek Jeter was defensively by adding up the innings played by everyone who'd ever played SS for the Yankees over the same years that Jeter was the starter, and then comparing the Yankees' pitchers numbers in the games Jeter didn't play against the games he did play. It was indirect and improvisational, but at the time it was at least a creative way to try to look at it. It was kind of the same with catchers. If the pitching staff were all performing well, you'd just kind of shrug and say "Well, I guess the catcher must be doing something right."

Blah. Pro baseball is dead to me.

Because of the DH in the NL, or just in general? I fell off from following baseball for several years and only recently decided to look into it again.

---

I was looking at some players' WAR numbers, and I noticed that "offensive WAR" and "defensive WAR" don't add up to WAR. So I guess I just don't know WTH is going on.

 

[Farm Boy]

The AL has been cheating my entire life. Now the NL is too. That would be enough. But additionally with pulling local games off broadcast, I don't need any part of that bloated asshattery.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The AL has been cheating my entire life. Now the NL is too. That would be enough. But additionally with pulling local games off broadcast, I don't need any part of that bloated asshattery.

I grew up in an AL city and had the DH my entire life, so I have no memory of a day when pitchers were expected to be able to hit. Still, watching NL pitchers humiliate themselves over the years was always painful. I've never liked that style of humor. And the fact that 99% of NL lineups just had a free out at the bottom of the lineup was cheesy as f. The double-switch wasn't really a solution, a lot of the time. If the pitcher was done, fine. But watching a pitcher who was still pitching alright get subbed for a reliever so the manager didn't have to watch him bat again was lame. The DH was an inelegant fix, but if pitchers aren't going to be taught to hit past age 12, I guess it's better than nothing.

 

[Farm Boy]

We have both in Chicago. One contains some 1/9th strategy so the pitcher isn't immune from everything. He is still too important as is in a team game. The other contains hitporn for steroid riddled old men who can't run anymore. I've always thought the AL was gross, or I'd have been a Sox fan.

 

[EgonSpengler]

[...]hitporn for steroid riddled old men who can't run anymore.

Yeah, true, Kirk Gibson hitting that homer in '88 was totally not one of the greatest moments in sports. (Actually, I have no reason to think he was 'roided up. If he had been, maybe he'd have been able to run. )

 

[Farm Boy]

I'm stubborn enough to not look that up, you realize. I used to really like baseball(looong time ago, now. Could never reliably tune in when games were played though. So the best of the Majors I ever got was on the radio from a tractor cab, so not often!). So the hyperbolics are just that, but the opinion is real! Also, I'd have been seven. I might have still been dancing to Take Me Out to the Ballgame to Harry Caray in my superman undies. We didn't have AC, so yeah. That's what I did. It was great.

 

[Samson]

the best of the Majors I ever got was on the radio from a tractor cab

I think cricket is a perfect game for the radio, it lasting five days and usually ending with a draw. I could see it working for your rounders variant.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm stubborn enough to not look that up, you realize. I used to really like baseball(looong time ago, now. Could never reliably tune in when games were played though. So the best of the Majors I ever got was on the radio from a tractor cab, so not often!). So the hyperbolics are just that, but the opinion is real! Also, I'd have been seven. I might have still been dancing to Take Me Out to the Ballgame to Harry Caray in my superman undies. We didn't have AC, so yeah. That's what I did. It was great.

I think listening to baseball on the radio is still valid. I think it's the only game I could listen to on the radio, come to think of it. Anyway, yeah, Old Man Gibson, Game 1 of the '88 World Series, could hardly walk, his knees were so bad. Asked to pinch-hit in a tight game, hit a homer to win it.