stoutfellow

"You can't argue with success."

I would assert the contrary: success is the only thing worth arguing with. Who the hell wants, or needs, to argue with *failure*?

[There's muddy ground in between. Trying to convince someone that an apparent success is actually a failure - that has some meat to it. I prefer the formulation, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating", which means more or less the same thing but doesn't hang things on winning/losing.]

[Given the treatment the Padres receive in the comments on websites like MLB Trade Rumors, there apparently are quite a few people who enjoy arguing with failure. These are damaged people, IMO.]

Someday I'll learn to keep my mouth shut.

The very day that I tacitly urged the BBWAA to vote for Fernando Tatis Jr. for NL Rookie of the Year, he injured himself, wrenching his back. He's been put on the Injured List, and word is that he's done for the year.

:sigh:

I've been raving about Fernando Tatis, Jr., all season, and he hasn't yet given me any reason to stop.

Last night, Tatis *scored from second on an infield hit*.

We're getting into Jackie Robinson country here.

(He also hit a solo home run in the late innings.)

I swear, the Padres are going to give me a heart attack this year.

They just completed a four-game set with Colorado, which they split, two games each. The two Padres victories involved 1) a six-run, game-tying rally in the 9th, followed by a five-run explosion in the 12th, and 2) a two-run seventh inning and a four-run ninth inning, coming back from a five-run deficit when a pitcher, pinch-hitting with the bases loaded, walked to drive in the lead run.

Fernando Tatis Jr. has played a major role since returning from his injury. If that kid isn't this year's NL ROY, I will be very surprised. Not forgetting Hunter Renfroe, who has 23 home runs already this season.

Fernando Tatis Jr.'s first major league at bat resulted in a single off Madison Bumgarner.

So did his second.

2998 to go.

This past year, the Padres' Double-A affiliate was located in San Antonio. The San Antonio Missions, they were called. Next year, though, San Antonio will move up to Triple-A, and affiliate with another team. The Padres' new Double-A team will be in Amarillo.

The new team name was just announced. They will be the Amarillo Sod Poodles.

:blink:

Apparently the phrase is a local name for what other people call prairie dogs.

Sod Poodles.

:blink:

On a lighter note: as a Padres fan (yes, still, forty years after leaving SD) and a baseball fan, I frequently visit the MLBTR website, which tracks rumors and facts about trades, signings, promotions, and whatnot. Since the amateur draft a few weeks ago, they have regularly reported on the draftees who have signed with their new teams. In those reports, they have said jack squat about signings by the Padres. I know from other sources that the Friars have signed more than a dozen of them; I would not know this from MLBTR.

Some Padres fans believe the media are biased against California teams that aren't based in Los Angeles. This is probably not true; the Giants also get a fair amount of coverage.

Today, the Padres scored more runs in one game than they scored in their first three games last year.

This, of course, was not hard.

I'm still modestly pleased. This is going to be a bad year; they have an exciting offense, good defense (especially behind the plate and in the outfield), a solid bullpen, and a starting rotation of wannabes, has-beens, and never-weres.

I'm looking forward to the 2019 season, when the Latin tide starts to reach SD, or maybe 2020....

Three days ago, the San Diego Padres had lost every game they played against the Giants this year.

Today, they have swept the Giants in a three-game series, including last night's hilarious extra-inning victory, in which a Giants pitcher fell off the mound and was charged with a balk - with a runner on third.

I don't expect much from the rest of this season, nor from the next - but the current team is game, and the players en route look exciting. Margot, Renfroe, Asuaje, Hedges....

Good news: The Padres broke their scoreless-innings streak at 30 last night, erupting for a 13-6 win over the Rockies in Colorado. (Of course they broke the streak in Denver. If they hadn't, there'd be no hope whatever for them.)

Also good news: The writing of my taxonomy paper is proceeding, if slowly; basically, I'm progressing one proposition at a time, having to hammer out the clumsiness of each proof before continuing. I've pretty much finished the discussion of first-order classes of triangles, with a general proposition about all orders as lagniappe.

Not-so-good news: The formatting methods of SWP v.6 continue to elude me. Most irritatingly, cut-and-paste has unpredictable effects inside math mode, and the Undo command is even worse there. If I make a wrong move (and I don't know what the wrong moves are) the entire passage may disappear irrevocably, at which point the only option is to quit without saving. (I'm being careful to save regularly, after last week's scare.) There's something weird going on when I try to mix propositions, proofs, and numbered lists - the indentation gets funky, and I don't know how to fix it. (Wrong moves abound in this area.)

Also not-so-good news: We keep sliding back into subfreezing temperatures. Right now it's just above freezing, and I need to get groceries. It's supposed to reach the mid-40s F by about 2:00, so I'll hold off till then.

The current song is rather apropos.