kyle*

Seven now and I've never been so mad about a Padres winning streak in my life. If anyone is interested in an absolutely brutal and thorough beating of the Padres as an organization at the moment, the Dennis Lin & Ken Rosenthal article is tremendous reading: https://theathletic.com/4874799/2023/09/19/san-diego-padres-disaster-season-preller/ Preller has to go at this point. The frustrating part is, however, if I had to make a prediction: Seidler keeps his friend Preller as GM, Melvin has to be the fall guy.

Looks like San Diego will be getting an expansion team, announcement on Thursday and a public event on Saturday at the stadium.

Yeah, so, about that... ... Looks like he's alright, love the intensity even in a Triple-A game, still frightening to watch -- especially if we're seeing vintage first-half Blake Snell struggle to get through four innings for a while. Wacha & Lugo look like bargains so far.

Glad they resigned him, however, I don't think the contract was made with the sincere expectation that he will be pitching at 42. Would be really, cool, but the contract seems designed to help keep the team under the luxury tax threshold. His annual average value drops from $21m to $18m with this deal. He's coming off a career year, if he can reliably play for four years I'd say it's worth it.

Suppose this is the market speaking and my age showing, but still weird to me. I have the Ducks' 2007 Cup boxset and still flick it on every once in a while. Has all of the Western Conference and Stanley Cup matches and a bunch of extras. Seeing Teemu on the bench in the final minute realizing he's finally winning a Cup never gets old. Also have some a bunch of ticket stubs in there from that season, remnants of the glorious days of fancy physical tickets. I'll still every once in a while even get the urge to watch How the West Was Won about the team's run to their first cup in 2003, prime J.S. Giguere was absolutely incredible. For current content: I've never hoped for the Ducks to lose every game, but I want them to get Bedard so badly.

I have somewhat recovered from the Padres season ending. It's a bummer but there was a decent chunk of the season where I genuinely thought the Padres were collapsing the same way they did the year prior and would miss the playoffs. And for the vast majority of my life the Padres season has been over by August. Have added the NLDS pennant on my wall of Padres stuff, it'll be one I'll always remember -- quite honestly the best game I've ever been to and the biggest Padres party I've ever been apart of, feel quite lucky to have experienced it. At the same time, I can't help but think the emotions of fanbase were too closely mirrored by the team: they wanted to beat the Dodgers so badly for so long it kind of emptied the gas tank. Wouldn't say "they didn't show up" in the NLCS, but the team definitely lacked a bit of that magic they had previously shown (outside of game 2) and I genuinely didn't think that series wasn't coming back to SD. Saw the same kind of thing in 2021 when they swept LA away for the first time in ages and then looked gassed during a bad stretch afterwards. That team is always gonna be an obstacle they'll have to overcome, very likely in the playoffs, so hopefully this wasn't a one-off and they have the ability to do it again. I had World Series tickets in my account. Couldn't believe it. Just the possibility of that was incredible, but hopefully one day I'll actually be able to use them. I'm giving him a pass since he brought a team that looked like they were ready to quit at one point as far as he did. To armchair manage, I'd have put Hill in to open the game and then gone to Clev. Unfortunately Clev & Manaea were gonna have to pitch with the roster the way it was. Think it was a massive mistake to send Crismatt down, thought that was insulting as well since he saved this team last year and this year and would have felt more confident with him in a big game. But hopefully the depth of the pitching next year is a little stronger.

Just got home, never seen anything like it. First playoff game I've been able to go to since I was nine. I cannot believe it. The greatest game I have ever been to. Edit: I have tickets to the next round. I literally purchased those so if they lost I would get a little refund like a treat. Wouldn't sell them for anything.

The disappearance of Wee Willie McLean: Solving America’s oldest soccer mystery https://theathletic.com/3363062/2022/06/14/wee-willie-mclean/ A lengthy read, and (maybe) behind a paywall, but a really interesting mystery story about a Scottish-born man who emigrated to America and played for their national team as well as some semi-pro teams. He went missing in 1938 and the author of this article uncovers what actually became of him. Fascinating read, could be an entire book.

Pigeon ultras

Someone must have really fucked up, it's cold enough. I've *paid* to play on chippy shopping mall ice so I think these millionaires should get on with it. (I do not actually stand by this point.)

Excited for the Outdoor games at Lake Tahoe this weekend. Solid matchups, but they'll be a visual treat at the very least. Saturday is Las Vegas against Colorado at 8pm GMT, Sunday is Boston and Philadelphia at 7pm GMT.

Same here, but I think the past ten years has made me cynical and anxious. I've been nervier watching the past few league matches than I've been in a long time, even if it isn't particularly logical.

Yes I'm on PC. Thanks for the update, let us know when it's all set. Always wanted to play ML with expanded cups, promotion/relegation, etc.

@super_carson, any progress/updates on the 2021 patch? Can't seem to find anything other than the Scottish classic team option file for 2021. I wish I had found this before I bought 2021 on sale, I'd have just bought 2020 if I knew there was an expanded Scottish pyramid available.