ranting

The trade deadline ruined the Yankees.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

Unlike most fans, I always dread the annual trade deadline. Every year there seem to be significant misplays by the front office of the Yankees, and this year has been no exception.

Yes, we are less than a week past that deadline, but the pulse of the team seems to have weakened. The trade of Montgomery to the Cardinals seems to have shaken this team to its core. There is plenty of time for them to return, but this current team is sad to watch. They have been slumping since before the deadline, and the new faces have not seemed to change anything. Sure, the Yankees still have the lead in the AL East, but how much longer can that last with a 5 game-losing streak looming?

Stop messing with Baseball.

/ Jo Redd / 1 Comment

As we continue slogging through this lockout, the players have gotten the bright idea that if the postseason is expanded to 14 teams, then at some point, a team (possibly multiple teams) should be able to start off 1-0 in their series. It’s been coined as a “ghost win,” and I think it is one of the stupidest proposals either side has come up with. I was on the player’s side, but I wonder if either side takes this seriously as time drags on. How does that do anything to help the game? Where is the excitement in a postseason that gives out “wins” that aren’t earned?

As a lifelong fan of baseball, I just want to see the game played like it was when I was a child. I’m not ancient, but I do remember a time when there were no seven-inning doubleheaders, and extra innings were seen as a treat, not a punishment. It was thrilling to watch a pitcher or a batter stall at the plate because of an aggressive at-bat; Bunting and base stealing were necessary to win a game.

I don’t care if a pitcher throws to check the runner twenty times in the first inning. If you don’t like the length of a baseball game, then you should not be watching baseball. I have watched football games that last just as long as baseball, and I don’t see nearly any complaints about that sport. The length of playtime is perfect and can add to the drama. MLB should not continue trying to implement a pitch clock. And, on a somewhat unrelated note, I’m still irritated that they now require relief pitchers to face a minimum of three batters. Again, some of the flashiest moments have come from seeing a pitcher specifically picked for one player. It is always thrilling to see if that pitcher can be successful in striking the batter out.

I don’t really care that owners spend a ton of money on the best players. If you own a team and you want it to be profitable, it is in your best interest to go out and spend the money to make that happen. Teams should not be in the business of tanking.

If there will be expanded playoffs, there need to be additional teams in the running for the postseason. There are a few places where a new professional team could really take off, and it’s about the only palatable option if the postseason is going to be manipulated even more.

FedEx really dropped the ball this time.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

On Wednesday, I made a rash decision to upgrade my laptop, and I found this sweet deal at Dell. Due to the upcoming holiday, the laptops I perused were up to $500 off. I picked out this lovely laptop from the G Series that will seriously upgrade the specs that I’m working with. The main reason I got it, though, is because I am hoping to get started on a job with Arise. The problem is that I need to have the correct specs and get all the other pre-employment items completed before Monday. So when Dell offered a next-day delivery option for free, I gladly took it.

Everything was going great. My laptop shipped out at about 6 am, and I was looking forward to getting my new item set up by Friday night. I cleared my schedule so that I could accept the delivery. Friday was a pretty nice day in terms of the temperature, and there was a lot of ice melt contributing to turning my deck into a giant puddle. Once the clock hit 2 pm, I thought it was a good idea to keep a closer watch at the door so that my delivery wouldn’t have time to touch the water. I was so anxious and impatient I actually tweeted a photo of myself standing at the door. It was just before 4 pm when I decided to check my alerts. There was something there! It was a notification letting me know that the driver had attempted to deliver the package, but no one was home to receive it. Naturally, I was confused and more than a little irritated.

It turns out that it’s like pulling teeth trying to get a real human being on the phone when you call FedEx. The automated voice sent me in circles for a couple minutes before I was finally allowed a chance to speak to someone. I end up talking to this lovely lady who obviously doesn’t live anywhere near Iowa. She has no idea how to get ahold of anyone in an Iowa location and can’t really do anything except send over a request for same-day service.” to the center in Ames. I had her add to the message that I live in kind of a tricky spot to find, with directions on how to see it, and I crossed my fingers. No package. Even though I let them know that something was wrong within fifteen minutes of the mixup, the driver never brought my box back around.

I took to Twitter and received basically the same response. I was told it would be dropped off the next day. I got an alert saying it would be delivered today by 4:30pm, which did not happen. I know I won’t get it tomorrow, and I’m not even sure if they will deliver it on President’s Day. I can only hope that I get it earlier on Monday as opposed to later.

My bad luck never fails me.

Facebook/Meta Banhammer for 90 days

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

A year and a half ago, I chose to post a funny meme on Facebook. Today, that meme came back to bite me in the ass, and it resulted in a ban from posting ads on Facebook. It’s one of the only ways I can hope to gain traffic to my site, and now it has been squelched.

To be completely transparent, here is the meme in question:

It is ridiculous that something like this gets flagged. It is no wonder that the site is hemorrhaging users.

Down and out, but not defeated. Yet.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

2022 has already been a wild ride, and I’m starting to wonder why I chose to go down this path. I can handle rejection. My issue stems from how much time I have spent just to find yet another seemingly insignificant hiccup on the road to working for myself.

Once I realized I needed a bachelor’s degree before doing anything related to editing, I turned my attention back to the work from home industry. I got cold feet when looking into a job with Omni Interactions, and I’m still kicking myself for letting that one go. Tonight, I finally decided to set up an account with arise. I did the assessment, watched the videos, gave them all my information, only to have them turn around and reject me due to my equipment. My laptop’s processor isn’t up to snuff, and now I have hit another dead-end. I just bought this computer at the end of 2022, and already it isn’t capable of handling the kind of work most of these places require. I would be lying if I said I had the money to fix this: I don’t. I do not have the means to make that big purchase again.

I’ve spent the last month getting things set up to work from home. Now it seems as though all of that money has been wasted. I’m also looking for a standard 9-5 job, and even in that respect, I have been hitting numerous dead-end roads.

Reasons why winter is awful: part 760

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

I realize that this is a reoccurring blog post, but as long as I live in the midwest, that’s just a part of life. We are once again experiencing record low temperatures. Kids have to stay home, businesses are attempting to remain open while customers and patients refuse to go outside, and there is no good reason for going out in this weather.

Every year I say the same thing, “It isn’t so bad as long as it isn’t snowing.” Then, once it begins to snow, I can’t help but turn into a negative Nellie. I hate winter, I wish I could somehow convince my entire family to move somewhere where the weather doesn’t turn so harsh in the winter months, but I know that will never happen.

My grandparents used to vacation in Florida every winter, but they haven’t gone in years, and I wish we could make that a tradition in our family. I just want to be able to go outside without a million layers on; I don’t want to have to worry about frostbite; I want my son to get fresh air without his cheeks turning pink from the cold. I just want the weather to be excellent for everyone.

A sad day for baseball.

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

The votes are all in, and the single inductee for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame has been announced. David Ortiz finds himself lucky enough to enter the prestigious club in his first year on the ballot. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens find themselves left out and out of chances. The voters for the HOF have again decided to be petty and punish Bonds and Clemens for their sins.

I would have agreed with this pretentious mindset in my younger years, but as I get older, I realize that it’s nothing but a bunch of crap. It’s time for baseball fans to come back to reality and realize just how many players use or used to use PEDs. These men are competitive. They want to win. I don’t know why anyone thinks that steroids are above these players. Clemens and Bonds were fantastic players before the steroids, and they played their hearts out each day. Clemens was a beast on the mound, and Bonds was a monster at the plate. He always went out on that field every day. He played in the NL, and there was nobody to take his place out on the grass.

Ortiz was a designated hitter. He sat on the bench every half-inning and watched his teammates play defense. As a Yankee fan, I don’t particularly see him as charismatic, but I can put that aside and address the lack of playtime. Ortiz was also a prevalent player that steroids seemed rampant throughout the years. There have always been speculations about Ortiz’s use of PEDs, but he could enter the Hall of Fame for some reason.

It would have been nice to see two of the most prominent players from my childhood get voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I can remember when Bonds was smashing away at those home runs, and while I was not a fan of him at the time, announcers would constantly talk about how he would be in that famed club of players one day. Today was saw that dream basically disappear for the man.

Will Spring Training start on time?

/ Jo Redd / Leave a comment

Edited 2/10/2022

The owners are set to meet up today, and hopefully, they will change their tune and come to the table with a new offer once this group of meetings is completed. We have progressed to a spot where the owners want to turn to federal mediation, yet the players are not interested in that route. The players have come down from their initial numbers a couple different times, and now it is time for the owners to come up with their offer. This has been dragged on long enough, and it is beginning to look like the 2022 season will not be starting on time.

I watched an interesting video the other day from the guys over at Talkin’ Baseball and they explained in detail why the players rejected the call for federal mediation. I’ll never be able to do their segment justice, so head on over here and watch the video.

Photo by Rachel Xiao on Pexels.com

It’s been nearly a week since the meeting between the owners and the player’s union of the MLB. There seems to be no second meeting on the calendar, and the world of baseball remains silent. The fans are beginning to get restless. Again. While we all knew the talks that began last week weren’t going to come to an immediate conclusion, I think everyone expected there to be something happening. Trades aren’t being made, players aren’t able to work out and use the sports complex athletic trainers and other staff. This entire shutdown to the world of baseball is so detrimental to the sport itself. It felt like baseball was just gaining momentum again, and here we are, putting the emergency brake on.

Generally, at this time of year, talk is ramping up with the arrival of pitchers and catchers for spring training. Fans would be getting ready to make the trek to the various sites to get the first glimpses of their team in action. Sure the preseason games don’t matter, but it’s still fun to watch baseball. It is so gross to go look for the start date for baseball and see nothing but TBAs marked by all the teams.

The fans want baseball to come back. It’s already a long enough time from the last pitch of the world series to the first one the following season. Can we please just come to an agreement already? I don’t understand why the owners want a shortened season just so they can cram the postseason full of teams, and I don’t know why the two sides want to argue over numbers. Let’s be honest, if you have enough money to buy a baseball team, you have enough money to pay the taxes too.