The Swamp

Sabo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 6:38 pm Keith Law!

Nice. My board gaming friends are already planning on a trip to Origins in June. I'm gonna have to try and meet him if he goes this year.

I met him in a Whole Foods in Boston about a decade ago. It was awkward and not at all because of him.

I’m definitely not mad about Posnanski’s top 100. In fact, I think it’s really funny.

When the King of Rome plays 8-a-side rec soccer

https://theathletic.com/1642505/2020/03 ... ed-article

I really wish I could figure out how to see everything on that dumb site, and then just block lombardi, glazer and deitch

Not that hard. Just "subscribe" to everyone else but them.

New Down Goes Brown power rankings!

(From 1993!)

I wasn't sold either, but turns out to be a funny bit.

Joe Posnanski's story today about Dan Quisenberry is tremendous.

That was great.

I think you all know this, but it is free for the next few months. You should be reading it if you don't subscribe. It is the best site for sports writing I have seen of its type in the internet age. National and local stories from good writers.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:26 am I think you all know this, but it is free for the next few months. You should be reading it if you don't subscribe. It is the best site for sports writing I have seen of its type in the internet age. National and local stories from good writers.

Is everything free? I just got a gift subscription and if that was the case I'm pissed I didn't save it.

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:34 am

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:26 am I think you all know this, but it is free for the next few months. You should be reading it if you don't subscribe. It is the best site for sports writing I have seen of its type in the internet age. National and local stories from good writers.

Is everything free? I just got a gift subscription and if that was the case I'm pissed I didn't save it.

All free.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:50 am

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:34 am

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:26 am I think you all know this, but it is free for the next few months. You should be reading it if you don't subscribe. It is the best site for sports writing I have seen of its type in the internet age. National and local stories from good writers.

Is everything free? I just got a gift subscription and if that was the case I'm pissed I didn't save it.

All free.

Good to know, since I just got an email that my subscription was cancelled for failure to renew.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:50 am

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:34 am

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:26 am I think you all know this, but it is free for the next few months. You should be reading it if you don't subscribe. It is the best site for sports writing I have seen of its type in the internet age. National and local stories from good writers.

Is everything free? I just got a gift subscription and if that was the case I'm pissed I didn't save it.

All free.

I had thought only their COVID-19 coverage was free. I had to login yesterday for a story about the NHL broadcast teams.

An oral history of Landon Donovan's last-minute goal vs. Algeria.

I completely forgot about how badly the US got fucked by the ref in the Slovenia game.

ETA: Also, vuvuzelas.

Breaking my keyboard clicking on this.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:04 am Breaking my keyboard clicking on this.

PM me your email address and I'll send you a 30-day guest pass to The Athletic.

Oh, I subscribed the day they added NY to their cities list. But thank you.

I ... always thought the call was "GOAL GOAL USA!". This is like finding out I had a lyric I really liked wrong the whole time.

60 Moments: No. 55, The final day of the 2011 season

This was really great to read, as a Yankees fan living in Boston at the time and in the hospital waiting for my oldest to be born. Because Longoria's HR came minutes after midnight, Boston technically got eliminated on her birthday.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:52 am I ... always thought the call was "GOAL GOAL USA!". This is like finding out I had a lyric I really liked wrong the whole time.

What was the call? Can't read the story without logging in.

Go Go USA.

Laying off 8% plus 10-20% salary reductions. Given they’re not advertiser based and what we discussed a while back, I’m a lot more skeptical of the correlation to revenue declines than I am with most other media.

Quarashi just left as soccer editor. He has another venture (not sports related) that he's already got up and running.

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:48 am Laying off 8% plus 10-20% salary reductions. Given they’re not advertiser based and what we discussed a while back, I’m a lot more skeptical of the correlation to revenue declines than I am with most other media.

I dunno. In times of economic uncertainty, and with sports on hiatus, is it unsurprising that they are getting fewer subscriptions?

My paid subscription expired about six weeks ago, and I did not feel comfortable committing the money to renew it, especially since there's no sports happening anyway. I'm sure I'll do it when sports return - and at that point I'll take advantage of some discount.

Generally speaking, advertising pulls out fast and subscriptions trickle away, if they leave at all in a time where reading is up. So I guess its possible they forecasted infinite linear growth and when that wasn't met, this became "necessity", but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this was in part a convenient time to cull a bit.

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 1:39 pm Generally speaking, advertising pulls out fast and subscriptions trickle away, if they leave at all in a time where reading is up. So I guess its possible they forecasted infinite linear growth and when that wasn't met, this became "necessity", but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this was in part a convenient time to cull a bit.

I went looking, and still haven't found someone that I read that was cut, (notwithstanding the Quarashi news). That's vastly different to the gutting of Banner Society. I'm so fucking pissed about that.

If you search "the athletic" on twitter you can find a bunch self-reporting. None of the names I know and read regularly, a bunch are college football.

Just read that podcasts there are ad revenue supported, so I soften what I said above.

mister d wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:00 pm Just read that podcasts there are ad revenue supported, so I soften what I said above.

Keith Law got asked about their podcast ads in his site's chat this week.

Kyle: I enjoy the podcast but I have to ask, are those ads picked by The Athletic? There’s some interesting stuff being promoted that I can’t imagine you really endorse.
Keith Law: Yes, I don’t pick the ads. I have never used any of the products advertised on my show.

I think he had an ad for Roman on his podcast this week.

This might finally be the article that gets me to subscribe.

I guess I always assumed they couldn't smoke while active players.

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:43 am I guess I always assumed they couldn't smoke while active players.

Didn't the NBA change their testing to only test for marijuana in the offseason? Or give enough notice or something like that? I seem to recall there was talk about it. I'll research.

ETA: I have it backwards. They don't test in the offseason, 4 random tests through the year.

Wayyy back in the 1980's when I lived in Texas, I dated a flight attendant for awhile who had recently moved there from Seattle. She was very open about getting picked up once in a bar by Tom Chambers of the Sonics. She said he took her to a players' party once, and was taken aback by the fact that what she thought was the entire team was there, and they were all smoking pot. (She also said that she found out later that most of them were married, but brought "girlfriends" to the party - including Chambers.)

So, this "NBA players smoking pot" thing isn't new.

Ha ha! To be clear, the Tom Chambers hookup occurred before I knew her!

Yeah Abe's mad about sloppy seconds!

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:43 am I guess I always assumed they couldn't smoke while active players.

Wasn't there a big story a couple years ago about the prevalence of pot smoking in the NBA, and a couple recently retired players said 90% of players smoke? I know I've told the story before, but I smoked with about 10 Celtics player during the 2000-2001 season. My friend's roommate was an assistant trainer for the Celtics and we'd go out with the players occasionally, or smoke in his apartment. Definitely during the season. And at games, there was a "wives section" and a "girlfriends" section. The GF section was substantially hotter, bordering on jailbait. Married players would have wives and GFs in attendance at the same game, and my friend would point out when a player had multiple GFs in the same section, so we'd watch to see if anyone figured it out.

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