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Spitball is a literary baseball magazine founded in 1981 and dedicated to poetry, short fiction, prose, art, and book reviews; all devoted to baseball. In 1983 Spitball established the CASEY Award to...

Nov 1, 2022

I'm so honored that my book about Ken Caminiti was named a Casey award finalist as one of the year's best baseball books! Humbled and thankful for support from

and

Dan Good Retweeted

Paul Blest

@pblest

New: Columbus designed a Black History Month cop car and put an MLK quote on it, "Be the peace you wish to see in the world." No historian I talked to, including the founding director of the King Papers Project, has ever seen this quote.

vice.com

Cops Seemingly Put a Fake MLK Quote on a Cruiser to Celebrate Black History Month

The director of The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University said “we have no record of the maxim.”

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Ex-ABC News journalist arrested and accused of possessing child pornography, federal authorities say

nbcnews.com

Feds arrest former ABC News journalist, accused of possessing child pornography

James Gordon Meek, 53, of Arlington, Virginia, was allegedly caught in online chats expressing "enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children," authorities said.

The DeSantis playbook on race and education is just an updated edition of what I saw in the South in the 1960s.

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“Why must you always concentrate on color?” As always, this answer from James Baldwin is what you were looking for. Must watch. #BlackHistoryMonth

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The Gray Choice: Lessons on My Journey from Big-Time Banking to the Big House (and Back)

Feb 1

Shaun Hayes was a successful banker before his missteps led him to prison. His book "The Gray Choice" details his rise and fall. He has an important message for those who are struggling with ethical choices and trying to keep their life on track.

amazon.com

This is just viral marketing for 80 For Brady with his unretirement announcement to come during an ad on Super Bowl Sunday. You almost got me, Tom.

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Adam Schefter

@AdamSchefter

Feb 1

Tom Brady announces he’s retiring.

Truly grateful on this day. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory.

apnews.com

DeSantis moves to ban critical race theory in state colleges

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory. The Republican...

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Jan 31

A twice-divorced huckster whose "university" was nothing but a fraud scheme has some ideas about family and teachers.

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Ron Filipkowski

@RonFilipkowski

Jan 31

Trump issues another education position: “As part of our new credentialing body for teachers, we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the role of mothers & fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men & women different & unique.”

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she ate him up and left no crumbs

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We are saddened by the passing of Blackhawks legend, the Golden Jet - Bobby Hull.

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The Baseball Hall of Fame voting process is cruel. It doesn't have to be.

Jan 29

No.

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Empire State Building

@EmpireStateBldg

Jan 29

Fly @Eagles Fly! We’re going Green and White in honor of the Eagles NFC Championship Victory.

What if

could have made

in 1987?

in 2012?

in 2013? One simple fix could make the voting process relevant, efficient and fun — and ensure that worthy players are enshrined years earlier.

dangoodstuff.com

One simple fix could make the voting process relevant, efficient and fun — and ensure that worthy players are enshrined years earlier.

Jan 29

Just my ideas. What do you think? How would you handle

Reimagining the HOF - final.pdf

voting?

Keep voting the way it is
0%
"Top 2" system
75%
Runoff if no one elected
25%
Other
0%

4 votesFinal results

This system would allow the deserving players to smell the roses while they still can; keep fans engaged; and ensure that someone is elected each year without greatly expanding the number of enshrinees. A re-invigorated baseball hall of fame voting process. Can you imagine?

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A “Top 2” system is *95% EFFECTIVE* at pinpointing those players who traditionally reach the hall of fame—and enshrining them years ahead of time without watering down election classes with unworthy candidates.

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Under the "Top 2" system, from 1966-2019, only FIVE additional players not currently in the hall would have gotten their tickets punched over the course of 54 elections: Meanwhile, 50+ eventual hall of famers would have seen their wait times reduced by an average of eight years.

Then I tested a "Top 2" process in which the hall would take the top two finishers in the BBWAA voting (and any others who top 75 percent). I ranked the remaining candidates each year based on their voting totals. Here are my results:

drive.google.com

The "Top 3" system opened up the hall enshrinement to too many players. Players like Rod Beck, Jack Clark, Willie McGee, Phil Cavarretta and Marty Marion. Back to the drawing board ...

My initial thought was that the hall of fame could annually enshrine the top three finishers in the BBWAA voting (and any others who top 75 percent). I ran that system from 1966 until today. Seemed like a great idea! But it didn't quite work.

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Maybe something like basketball and football's quota system would be effective. Every year, a bunch of people are enshrined. The process is more powerful and less vindictive.

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But what if there was another way to streamline the election process and cut down on wait times without watering down the hall with unworthy candidates?

GIF

That got me thinking ... there's gotta be a better way. In some earlier years of the hall of fame, there was a runoff if no one reached the necessary 75 percent. Red Ruffing was elected that way in 1967.

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Getting the 📲 after six votes isn't that bad. Ron Santo- 19 no votes. Elected after he died. Gil Hodges fell short 34 TIMES. Dick Allen fell just short of election during his lifetime. So many players wait for decades before getting enshrined. Rizzuto. Oliva. Kaat.

This was Scott Rolen's sixth year on the ballot. What made him more hall-worthy now as opposed to earlier years? And why, if he was always hall-worthy, do we need to wait so long to see him enter the hall of fame?

Shutouts are bad. And they're also unnecessary. Here are the candidates who fell short in shutout years of 2021, 2013, 1996 and 1971, and their future outcomes. The earlier candidates all eventually made the

-- these weren't unworthy candidates.

When the BBWAA writers vote on MVPs and other yearly awards, they don't come back and say, "sorry, couldn't come up with a winner." And subsequently, not all MVP winners are viewed the same.

The recent election bothered me. Not because I have a problem seeing Scott Rolen elected, but because we almost experienced *another* shutout. He only crossed the 75% threshold with five votes to spare.

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One simple fix could make the

The Baseball Hall of Fame voting process is cruel. It doesn't have to be.

voting process relevant, efficient and fun — and ensure that worthy players are enshrined years earlier. A 🧵

dangoodstuff.com

One simple fix could make the voting process relevant, efficient and fun — and ensure that worthy players are enshrined years earlier.

Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.

newyorker.com

The Invention of the Police

Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.

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“If grief is the price of love, then memories are the gift of times we once had.” My latest

@SportsCenter

video essay on Kobe Bryant.

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HOF voters, after rejecting all other candidates

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Jan 25

Can't fully blame Pence for the documents mishap. He didn't realize they were bad until he found them alone in a room with a woman.

could streamline the voting process by enshrining the top three candidates each year (along with any others who top 75 percent), as well as other figures from committee votes. Why not?

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With the election of Rolen,

narrowly avoided the third BBWAA shutout since 2010.

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Petty rules are part of the problem. Players’ eligibility was reduced from 15 to 10 years, there’s a cumbersome process to become a hall voter, and writers are limited to 10 votes each year.

wanted to keep Barry Bonds out. And in doing so, it tanked itself.

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By failing to establish an enshrinement quota like other sports — say, at least five baseball players, managers or contributors added each year — and by limiting players' ability to get elected through BBWAA voting,