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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 25, 2023 5:22:23 GMT -5
There’s a bar across from the train station in Hoboken called Texas-Arizona, maybe I should watch the Series there.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 24, 2023 13:02:33 GMT -5
Some research just came out that challenged that, at least to some extent: apparently, while leaving a starter in a third time through the order is usually going to lead to poorer outcomes, there's an even greater risk to trotting out the same relievers a bunch of times in a row during a seven game series, as the batters just adjust more and more quickly to them. Maybe the word will get around and some offices will pay more attention on that. Side note on that, it's kind of amazing how many postseason runs are now scored via homers. The percentage has been getting closer to 50%, and it might be over that line this year right now, I have to see for sure. Really wish that wasn't the case; homers are fun, sure, but the league keeps tinkering with the ball to try and get more of them...all while simultaneously bemoaning the nature of "three true outcomes" ball, as players sell out contact more and more for power. MLB is run by idiots, I don't know what to tell you. I honestly don't get people singling out the Astros for hate: yeah, they cheated, but so have the Braves, Red Sox, Yankees, and I'm sure if we look hard enough nearly every other competitive team over the last decade. Houston does or at least did have some notable sexist scumbags in their front office, but again I'm afraid they can't be singled out for that. I honestly mostly wanted them to lose because I want the Mets to be the first MLB expansion team to win the World Series three times.And yeah, word this morning is that Dusty's done. Just leaves one thing, I guess: hoping against all hope that Arizona can actually win tonight. Wouldn't that be the Yankees since they weren't an original American League Franchise? Nah, expansion as we know it began in 1961, and the Yankees kind of began as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901 (it's weird); since '61, no expansion team has won the WS more than twice.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 24, 2023 9:39:26 GMT -5
I'm always a proponent of leaving your starter alone when they've got it going. Keep that bullpen door closed for as long as possible Unfortunately, analytics have completely ruined that mindset. Now it's all about "second and third time through the lineup" and all that bs. Now, a manager takes out their starting pitcher after less than 5 innings cause muh analytics. Some research just came out that challenged that, at least to some extent: apparently, while leaving a starter in a third time through the order is usually going to lead to poorer outcomes, there's an even greater risk to trotting out the same relievers a bunch of times in a row during a seven game series, as the batters just adjust more and more quickly to them. Maybe the word will get around and some offices will pay more attention on that. Side note on that, it's kind of amazing how many postseason runs are now scored via homers. The percentage has been getting closer to 50%, and it might be over that line this year right now, I have to see for sure. Really wish that wasn't the case; homers are fun, sure, but the league keeps tinkering with the ball to try and get more of them...all while simultaneously bemoaning the nature of "three true outcomes" ball, as players sell out contact more and more for power. MLB is run by idiots, I don't know what to tell you. I honestly don't get people singling out the Astros for hate: yeah, they cheated, but so have the Braves, Red Sox, Yankees, and I'm sure if we look hard enough nearly every other competitive team over the last decade. Houston does or at least did have some notable sexist scumbags in their front office, but again I'm afraid they can't be singled out for that. I honestly mostly wanted them to lose because I want the Mets to be the first MLB expansion team to win the World Series three times. And yeah, word this morning is that Dusty's done. Just leaves one thing, I guess: hoping against all hope that Arizona can actually win tonight.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 24, 2023 9:30:34 GMT -5
All 32 teams play tonight on a staggered schedule so ESPN can zip around to show different parts of each game and not have all of them in intermission.
Interesting idea, I suppose.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 24, 2023 8:46:29 GMT -5
You ever try a fig jam and brie panini?
A bit of prosciutto in there doesn't hurt, either.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 24, 2023 5:25:16 GMT -5
ROH definitely feels like it's gearing up to be pitched And whether that's for Warner or another brand in general remains to be seen tbh, but it sure feels like they're gearing up to try with how the champions look especially. And a lot of people may not follow it but they do put effort into the weekly show. The current Athena stuff has been entertaining and advancing multiple characters. Ethan Page is getting into a groove. Maria is doing stuff with Griff and Cole. It's not just random matches. And when a match seems random, it’s mostly based on the old ROH TV formula: wins on TV translate to getting a shot at a belt. Still gonna be a few squashes mixed in, but overall it’s a good time. I do want it to feel more important, though, but I only think that really starts to happen once they start shooting more episodes in distinct, more intimate/smaller locations where the crowd is there specifically for ROH, rather than being done before or after an AEW show. I get the cost effectiveness involved, but still. And we’ll see on what’s going on with any possible TV deal; on the one hand this decision makes it seem like WB passed again, on the other I have to think Khan sees Corgan getting that CW deal and could be thinking about some other possibilities. No way to know yet, obviously.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 23, 2023 21:27:47 GMT -5
Given the title changes made recently for ROH and this decision, combined with those changes being to AEW regular roster members, I'm curious if there was another round of trying to sell WB on airing both promotions, and doubly curious what this means moving forward for both AEW and ROH.
All that said, the ROH PPVs have been great stuff, the weekly show's built up some new faces and stories, and Final Battle basically being $10 for everyone is good to hear. Hope they add the other PPVs and maybe some other special events in there, too.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 22, 2023 12:50:55 GMT -5
A key part of the match is how Eddie's furious that Jay Lethal, the guy who became "The Franchise" in ROH and eventually the leader of a group based around the company's founding ideals (literally called The Foundation), is hanging out with the carniest carny of them all in Jarrett and going against seemingly everything he stood for. Even heel Lethal in ROH usually ended up fighting his own battles, but here he is going so TNA that he's literally teamed with TNA's founder.
Given all that, the match layout made a lot of sense, and Eddie's postmatch promo really drove it home.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 17:05:50 GMT -5
There came a point when I realized I was old enough to not know any songs by whoever was topping the pop charts and it had no bearing on my day to day life. More and more I’m realizing that’s happening to me with YouTube creators.
But damn, what an awful thing this woman did. And as usual the big companies aren’t there to do anything about it since it could hurt the bottom line.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 16:18:04 GMT -5
My permanent answer to all “who should be world champ” questions is “Samoa Joe until he decides he’s bored with it.”
Basically, I’d love to see any of Joe, Kenny, Swerve, or Jay White do it, but Joe’s always my personal top choice.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 12:22:39 GMT -5
I know the season is still young and it's an overreaction, but I do have some concerns so far about the Devils in terms of defense and goaltending. At least they played a mostly clean game and killed off the couple of penalties they did have tonight. Defense isn't concerning me too badly; Bahl and lil' Hughes are young and are adjusting, Graves and Severson not being around also takes some adjusting (though Graves' numbers were never as strong as I think some people assumed given the minutes he got), but there's enough talent there that it's likely a case of just needing to keep playing and growing as a unit. Goaltending, eh, yeah, that's been more iffy to me, though some of that could also be on the PK being a bit weak the first three games. Schmid really should've stopped at least a couple of the Isles' goals last night, no doubt about it; I'm hoping last night was a case of him having a bit too much rest between starts, they'll need to navigate him and Vitek both needing rest but also both needing to stay fresh.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 12:15:25 GMT -5
I only caught the bottom of the 9th for Houston/Texas and good lord, how did the Rangers not score there?! They were smashing the ball all over, just some horrid luck before the final K.
Kind of goes to show something that's been bugging me a bit: home run hitting is becoming the coin of the realm for playoff baseball, because stringing together multiple hits in a row to score is seemingly getting harder and harder.
Hell of a comeback by Arizona, too; I really don't have faith they'll pull this off, but much, much weirder things have happened.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 11:50:26 GMT -5
They're really still doing the Raw vs. Smackdown stuff? This is made dumber by the feeling that there’s a ton of people it seems are on both shows plus NXT a lot of the time anyway. Would anybody be against it if it was NXT vs. Raw vs. Smackdown at War Games? Like how they did WCW vs. NWO vs. NWO Wolfpac? Eh, at least in that case there were genuine feuds between the factions going on; having a War Games match should be about groups that hate one another and need to settle their differences with something guaranteed to bring bloodshed. I haven't watched all of WWE's/NXT's War Games matches over the years, but of the stuff I've seen they've often come off like chances for wrestlers to wow the crowd with dramatic spots off the cages/with weapons and, if this storyline goes through, to do a cold "brand warfare" thing instead of getting across that the wrestlers involved in the match genuinely want to hurt one another due to the feuds they're involved in. If there's no real anger behind the feud, just do a traditional Survivor Series match, and if it must involve the "brand war" stuff then just attach some stakes to said Survivor Series match; save War Games for feuds that call for it.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 21, 2023 11:37:38 GMT -5
From my perspective, this fanbase is becoming cynical to the point of it being openly harmful. Like, what do you care if there’s a bit of a smaller crowd? Does that actually affect the quality of the show being put on TV? Why would it? They’re not showing you the empty seats. The crowds that ARE there are usually pretty noisy regardless. And most of these talents would put on the same great matches in front of 50,000, 5,000, 500 or 50 people. So it can only be this 10 steps ahead paranoia of someone important pulling the plug on the money because it’s not filling a house twice a week every week. Not today or tomorrow, but eventually AEW will fall like WCW and ECW and we’ll all be stuck with just WWE again. Yep, that's what I keep saying: a bunch of fans on this side of the globe have internalized that WCW, ECW, old school TNA, and even ROH pre-Khan purchase all died because (insert booking choice/choices here) instead of an array of factors that booking wouldn't really have much effect over: WCW died because a merged AOL-Time Warner didn't want wrestling on their channels anymore, ECW died because of its constant financial woes, old school TNA went away because Dixie drove away all her TV partners through her various antics, and while 2019 ROH listened too much to Bully Ray and derailed their momentum, they only went away and ended up purchased by Tony Khan because it was a company that needed to sell tickets to live shows and couldn't do that during the pandemic. We don't get that way about WWE because WWE has made itself too big to fail, but there's a fear that any other promotion is a "you booked the WRONG GUY to win the title!" decision away from death's door or something. So now at a time when WWE's hot and AEW's numbers are either treading water (TV ratings) or have taken a dip in recent times (number of tickets sold), the parade wants to come in and say "See? AEW is doing badly because of specific things they're doing that I don't like, or things they're not doing that I would like!", instead of acknowledging that sometimes this shit goes in waves. People whined for ages that AEW "does a bunch of bangers with no story", which was never really accurate to begin with, but then AEW starts doing some pretaped vignettes or longer promos and it turns into "AEW is being too much like WWE!" instead. Next time it'll be the old "Tony Khan hates women/other groups of people" line, or that him tweeting has any real effect on the show or the vast majority of the audience's perception of it. Meantime, WWE can book Roman to be in the same exact title match for over a literal year and have Cody kind of spinning his wheels since the Brock feud but people are marking out like mad for the two of them just bumping into one another on the ramp; that's what happens when you're hot. Had AEW done something the equivalent of Roman retaining at the last WM against Cody and then having them get into respective feuds and stories that seemed like they'd make more sense if Cody had won the title, I think they'd be getting a lot of grief for it. WWE isn't because, again, WWE's hot right now while AEW's numbers are treading water; that's not a whole "Oh, you'd love this if WWE did it/if AEW did it!" kind of thing, just how promotions getting hot impacts overall perceptions, ticket sales, and plenty of other ideas and metrics over a course of time. Eventually, perceptions shift; the guys who were red hot cool down, a new act grabs people's attention, people rushing to get tickets six months ago becomes people not being as interested half a year later, and sometimes we don't see those numbers bear out for a little while, etc. But people want things to correlate to their own tastes and interests, so success or failure must correlate to exactly things they personally like or dislike.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 20, 2023 21:31:04 GMT -5
Will probably try to think of a couple others later, but going from Omega/Naito in the G1 B block final in 2016 to Omega/Goto the next night was one of the greatest doubleheaders I've ever seen. It was a year where the winner really felt up in the air, and I bit on *so* many false finishes and it just felt like utter exhilaration between both nights.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 20, 2023 21:29:09 GMT -5
Tatanka turning on Bobby Lashley because the white man was holding him down or something I know Tatanka came back at one point in the 00s and Bobby Lashley had more than one WWE run, but still it's bizarre hearing their 2 names mentioned together for me Seriously, I read that sentence and had a quick thought that I might be having a stroke. Also, Jake's heel turn wasn't an overreaction: Warrior came to him seeking training from someone who knew the "darkness" so he could better fight the Undertaker, but Jake, who's always been a snake, probably ended up liking what Taker and Bearer were doing and siding with them.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 20, 2023 20:37:22 GMT -5
The Devils are 4/5 on the powerplay against the Islanders tonight.
They've generated a ton of great 5-on-5 shots and chances but Sorokin has looked like prime Martin Brodeur against those.
Then the Islanders take a penalty and a goal becomes automatic.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 19, 2023 14:03:07 GMT -5
I love how they are building multiple opponents for MJF and also you have the fact he’s probably going to have to choose between the Kingdom and The Acclaimed as partners against Bullet Club Gold. My guess is the mysterious ninjas come into play somehow here. Would like them to hold off on Kenny v MJF for a few months if possible and give it a proper build…. Think it'll play into the annual #1 contenders tournament they usually do around Full Gear: you've got MJF being explicitly called out by Joe, Wardlow, and Jay White, you've got Kenny expressing his interest in getting the belt back, plus the whole Cole/Strong/etc. drama (though lots of that depends on Cole's actual health situation)...that's a good chunk of the bracket, right there, if that's the way they want to go. But it's still a smart thing: MJF's at nearly a year with the title, and more and more challengers are piling up. If they want to pull the trigger on him losing it any time soon, or if they want to give him a definitive babyface moment by having him survive the gauntlet that appears to be waiting for him, they've more than set the stage for either option.
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 18, 2023 21:04:21 GMT -5
THE STRAY JUICE ROCK BULLET ROBINSON HARD!
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Post by HMARK Center on Oct 17, 2023 8:45:51 GMT -5
What? WWE doing pointless title changes for the sake of it? We must be talking about different companies. To be fair, the irony in that is how some have felt that WWE has done some pointless longterm title retentions at this point, given how long numerous recent title reigns have been.
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