Frankenstein’s Monster: I Feel Ya

Pip Pip Cheerios! In the here and now…here is another installment in my blog. Read if you wish and dare!

Within the constraints of the recent past, I sustained yet another softball related injury (shocker I know!). I’m not referred to the boo boo on my chin at this time, but instead the contusion I sustained at the base of the shin and just above the ankle on my right leg. The details of how the injury were sustained are not all that relevant, but the initial severity and lasting effects are. On the inside portion of that area just above the ankle bone that protrudes, there is a vein or blood vessel (I should’ve paid attention in biology or whatever subject taught this difference) just beneath the skin. Factoring in the force of the ball hitting that area and my 185-ish pound frame holding that structure firm…that vein/vessel ruptured upon impact. Initially a ‘bump’ took residence there and over the next several weeks (late April/early May), the swelling and discoloration migrated south into my foot! As we now sit two weeks into the month of June in the year 2021, most of the visible physical trauma has dissipated. Yet, beneath the surface, the incident can still be verified to the touch as a sub-merged ‘bump’ that can be felt. On the corresponding area on the other leg/shin, the consistency of the flesh does not have that same feel to the touch.

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Cleveland Indians 2021 (First 32 games) – 20% Check-In

Hello all and welcome to my blog!

I did an Indians baseball piece about three weeks ago and wanted to keep the trend moving. After 16 games, the Indians split wins and losses to sit at 8-8. I took a look at series opening games, overall series won-lost and finishing games of series as well (games 3-4 of the series or official two game series finales). I brought back the inning by inning tracking of runs…and good news: The Indians finally put a tally on the board in the fifth inning! It took them until their 20^th game to do so, but it has been done!

Since those first 16 games, the Indians improved in winning first games of series by going 3-2. Of those series that they won game one…they won each of those series. Again, the team has been finishing strong in series by going 3-1 in last official game of each series (the Cincinnati series had the final game postponed by weather). The team sits at 18-14 overall, one game back of the Chicago White Sox. With their current record, the team is 4^th best (by record/percentage) in the American League.

Over games 17-32, scoring for the team increased (which is good!). They scored 74 runs despite being no-hit by the Reds a few days ago. That comes out to a decent 4.6 runs average per game. It is worth noting that the Indians have only broken double digits in scoring once so far this year (11 vs the Tigers). Which should be no surprise as the offense lacks established hitters in several lineup spots.

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Extras
8	4	6	13	6	16	8	10	1	2

Runs Scored By Inning

With 20% of the schedule in the books, I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s a long season, but in taking a long hard look at the product in the dugout and on the field – this team seems to be overachieving…for the moment.

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Cleveland Indians 2021 (First 16 games) – 10% Check-In

Hello all and welcome to my blog! I usually address my Indians at least once or twice a year in blog or podcast form. I’ve already done a preseason preview for my SoundCloud podcast – that did not predict some of the 11th hour curveballs from a rostering standpoint. But in today’s piece, before the first pitch against the New York Yankees, I will break down some early season trends and give my two cents worth of insights. Without further prologue, here we go.

So far the Indians have started six series (3 home, 3 away). In those first games of each series, the team has one win (1-5). The goal for every team starting a series is to win the series. Typically most series are three game sets…so to lose more than 80% of those first games, that makes it an uphill battle to win the next two all the time. Of those six series (the last set with the White Sox was snowed out for the second game and postponed until later), the Indians have only won one series. To the point of this paragraph, their lone series opening game win was also in the only series they have won so far this year (vs the Detroit Tigers at home).

Here are the results by series so far: at Detroit (1-2) lost series, versus Kansas City (1-1) tied series, versus Detroit (3-0) won series, at Chicago (2-2) tied series, at Cincinnati (1-2) lost series and versus Chicago (0-1) temporarily lost series.

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The Postal Service in 2021 (02-16-2021)

Good evening y’all readers! Hope everyone is staying stay and warm during the Snowmageddon Polar Freeze (SPF -75) event presently underway in the Midwest of the United States. As bad as it is here (Missouri), I imagine it must be infinitely worse up in Michigan, New York et al and on into Canada. How do human beings acclimate to such harsh temperatures? I feel sorry for the people that live in places like Texas and the nearby states who are completely caught off guard by stuff like…snow.

With The Pandemic still motoring on, like a dude on a scooter holding up highway traffic, I have found a tad more time to blow some life into the embers of my blog. Over the last 12-14 months, I’ve noticed a huge change in how a particular institution has performed.  That institution that I am referencing is none other than the US Postal Service!  (cue the dramatic reveal music!)

If we take a look at grocery stores, big box stores and the other online giants – they have had to modify their day-to-day operations for Covid. But for the most part, they are still selling things and people are buying them pretty close to on-par with before Covid time if not performing better, sales-wise. Meanwhile, smaller mom and pops shops along with dine-in food restaurants and bars have taken huge losses or been forced to close permanently. The main difference between these two groups and their survival has been the online presence. Larger corporate based entities with online capabilities have thrived, while local sole proprietors have shuttered their doors or barely kept afloat. Even with the online companies being adaptable, there are still glitches in the matrix.

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Can We Have A Little Debate? 02/14/2021

Riddle me this: Is Debate class even part of school teachings anymore? As someone who is (eesh) 31 years removed from high school, I am a bit out of the loop on whether or not Debate is taught in junior high or high school anymore.

For those who may be wondering, I had this topic settle into my brain probably about five to six months ago after mindlessly falling down an online thread rabbit hole. This topic should go hand-in-hand with the freedom of speech concept, which sadly that is all the notion of freedom of speech can be considered at this point…how can you have any sort of real debate without examining both sides to an argument? This is not to say there isn’t a third or fourth side to arguments, but in principle there are usually two stark opposition positions to a topic. I would have to think that there would have to be something along these lines because there are still thousands of students in law school and many newly licensed attorneys over the last two decades. But is this only something that occurs when students go off to college? Enquiring minds want to know!

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Looking ahead (01-31-2021)

Good afternoon to one and all who found their way to my tiny virtual blog corner of the universe. Here in Missouri (of the United States), the weather is dreary, gray, blustery and cold. Not the bitter cold of the extreme north or south poles, but cold nonetheless. By now some parts of the country and the world for that matter have endured literal feet of snowfall but within the St Louis region we have maybe had half of a foot cumulative. Some locally enjoy the snow (or at least the appearance of it) and on the flipside some loathe its very mention. At this time…there’s really not much first hand to report on that front so we shall move on.

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Picture Purge January 31, 2021

So it’s that time again to de-clutter ye ol desktop and the accumulated pixel dust ends up here. So feel free to check it out…and judge me as you wish.

Everyone stay safe out here and on to February!!!

Peace. <<01-31-2021>> — Freak #33

MLB Names – They’re All Offensive!

Good afternoon to one and all! Also Happy New Year!!

I have uploaded a project I started working on several weeks ago. It’s a spreadsheet of all the Major League Baseball teams. This spreadsheet contains their origins along with the status of how long their current nickname has been in use. To poke a little fun at my favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, (because they chose to cave into financial peer pressure) I set out to compile a list of why each and every other franchise should be forced to change their names as well. I hope you enjoy the post and as always, I look forward to your feedback. Have a great weekend!

blog_offensive12252020_oDownload

Peace. <<01-10-2021>> #33 https://scottlatta5000.weebly.com/ – Don’t forget to check out my website for links to all my social media and other projects!

Why don’t you write more?

Hello all. As I type this I am three days into a head cold, yes it’s just a head cold. This sucks. I’m not majorly debilitated in any way, I just have head congestion and a little scratchy throat. In years past, before the C word spread over the globe, I would’ve taken some Sudafed and boldly gone out into the world to carry on in spite of the sickness. Ah but this is the broken year 2020 and all the rules have changed. In the last 9 to 10 months, the old world has disappeared like the ice in a fast food cup sitting on the asphalt during the noon day sun of summer. Gone are the days of ‘toughing it out’. Replacing those sickly souls slogging along coughing and wheezing, are the devout hand-washers and toilet paper hoarders. We are sitting at three weeks to go until the end of this blasted year. I had remained virtually (ha, see what I did there?) sniffle-free for most of the year. Almost made it to the end. Oh so close.

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December 2020 Picture Purge

Good morning! It’s that time again to assemble a random assortment of images that have accumulated on my desktop over the course of the weeks. As you can see, some are personal and some are just memelicious! Hopefully you find something to suit your mood in this stew of snapshots. We are less than three weeks away from Christmas and less than four weeks away from 2021! What awaits us on the other side of that December door? Stay tuned…

Have a great week and rest of the month!

Peace. <<12-05-2020>> #33

You’ve got 35 minutes…

So when you’ve wasted most of the day and you have something you’re supposed to do in a little over an hour, how do you shape a thought process for a topic? Presently it is 3:55pm CST on Sunday, November 29th. I’ve spent the morning and early afternoon playing on my phone (Angry Birds 2), paying bills and surfing the web for Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/pre-Cyber Monday deals. This is extremely wasteful but alas I must own up to it as this is a true inventory of the day. One of the things on the list (paying bills) made one of the other things on the list (shopping for deals) essentially pointless.

Now I’m wondering if The Dollar General (store) sells wire cutters. Hmmm. I have a potential project in mind but it may hinge upon the availability of said cheapo wire cutters. Oh well, hopefully everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday (US version)…although I guess it’s OK to ask those north of the US border is they enjoyed theirs (October 11th)?

Anyway, good luck to all as we are now less than four full weeks away from the Christmas holiday…

Peace. <<11-29-2020>> #33

Biden vs Trump – 2020 Aftermath Notes

Hello all! Happy days leading up to Thanksgiving!

As I did in 2016, I would like to do a little post mortem review of the now ‘completed’ presidential election. Why? Mostly because I love crunching numbers and secondly because I detest the out-dated concept of the Electoral College system of awarding ‘votes’. If you really are hard up for Saturday night entertainment, go back and read my post on the breakdown of the 2016 election results based on the data provided via the web at that time.

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Pocahontas & Rain Showers

To set the mood, I think we need to step back in time to 1989. If I could borrow from Skid Row’s I remember you:

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain…

Good day to all. Today is November 21st of the cursed year 2020. There are but 41 days left in this calendar saga and with a little luck we can make it through to see 2020 ousted like all of its brothers before. I was supposed to rise early today, which I did, in anticipation of playing a softball tournament in the adjacent state of Illinois. The city of destination in Illinois is/was Pocahontas – yes, like the Disney film and the Native American woman who was born just before the start of the 1600’s.

As you may have deduced, rising early to prepare to go play softball and ambient sounds of rain don’t generally go well together. Alas, the tournament was canceled and after a short amount of time I resumed my fitful slumber. This turn of event(s) allowed me to park myself in front of the laptop to post on my blog. Yes I could be writing this piece on the WordPress app but good gawd that would entail traversing a more difficult road, much like Pocahontas followed when she assisted John Smith (see guys can ask directions).

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Election Weak

Is this thing on? How do we do this again?

Thanks to my previous blog post pieces on All Saints Day and All Souls Day plus the piece I did on the post 2016 election mess, my hits for the blog this month so far have been pretty impressive. It’s also great considering I seem to jolt back to reality and realize that it’s been weeks upon weeks since I was last able to sit down and blog. As we sit today, we are looking at approximately 8 weeks to go until the end of 2020 (good riddance). But the real hoopla at present surrounds and is shrouded by the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election. Our cliffhanger teeters upon whether or not incumbent president Donald Trump will be able to sweep the balance of the states still hanging in the balance…even multiple days after election day to try retain his title (WWE reference intended).

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Greg Fusco Memorial Tournament 2020

Hello everyone and welcome to the beginning of October of the year 2020. Mother Nature is always a bit unpredictable here in the Show Me State when it gets to be this time of year but otherwise its pretty much typical fall weather to report.

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