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jaehyunhour · 4 years ago

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teenage dream | mark lee

genre + idol → fluff, smut, tiniest bit of angst if you squint, high school au, virgin!mark (x virgin fem!reader) [they’re both 18]

word count → 4.7k

warnings → alcohol consumption, unprotected sex (always wear a condom pls guys), tiniest bit of cursing

summary → mark lee moves to your hometown halfway through your sophomore year of high school, and once he arrives you quickly fall in love with both him and the town you grew to hate. after you graduate, mark has a surprise for you that may or may not include going across state lines, losing your virginity, and asking for your hand in marriage.

“Mark, you can’t leave me. You’re my soulmate.”

“If I could marry you tonight, I would.”

“You know... it’s only about a 5 hour drive to Vegas from here.”

a/n → i’ve been writing this fic for well over a month and it’s finally done!! this fic is purely self-indulgent because 1) i’m in love with mark lee and 2) i think of him every time i listen to teenage dream by katy perry... as always please let me know what you guys think of this one! i think this is one of my favorite fics i’ve written

Before you met Mark, life was bleak. That was the only way to describe it. Your life was monotone, shades of light blue and gray; your daily routine was the same, you walked through life as a zombie and hated everything about your hometown. But when Mark showed up halfway through your sophomore year of high school, when his family moved from Canada, everything changed. You got to show him the ins and outs of the city, turn him into a real native, and fall in love — both with your hometown, and with him.

You can still recall the first time you got to show Mark what it’s like to be a local. You went downtown, taking the light rail and getting off at each stop, enjoying what the city has to offer, before getting back on and staring out the window at the scenery. Mark’s hand rested in-between both of your thighs in an attempt to warm himself, while the other pressed onto the glass window of the light rail and tapped lightly. You pointed out the window at different buildings, telling Mark the story of your life in this little town, and he sat quietly and listened. His gaze lingered on the moving buildings as you spoke, and he immediately felt his entire body warm. This is when Mark knew you were special.

Your high school graduation was bittersweet. You were choosing to go to a college only thirty minutes away from your home because of your family, and Mark was on the waitlist for his dream college in Korea. After all the names were called, and all the caps thrown in the air, Mark wove his way through all of the graduates and straight to you. He picked you up in his arms, spun you around quickly, and set you down.

“We did it,” he said, eyes wide and smile bright. He placed his hands on your face and squished your cheeks before pulling you into another hug. “I have something to tell you.”

“I can’t believe we graduated. Tell me,” you responded.

“I got off the waitlist.”

You let out a scream, pulling back from Mark and hitting him on the chest. “Oh my god, Mark! Holy shit, that’s incredible. So you’re going to Korea? W-when do you leave?” Your stomach drops at the realization that Mark will be going to an entirely different country soon, meanwhile you have to stay in a town that you love only because he’s in it. It’s not the same without him.

“I don’t leave until the beginning of September.”

“So you’ll get to move me into my dorm before you leave?”

“You think I would leave without seeing where you’re going to be living? I need to make sure that you’re being well taken care of in my absence. You know I’m kidnapping you and taking you with me to Korea if I don’t like the dorm, right?”

“I expect absolutely nothing less,” you said, both you and Mark’s families rushing up to you on the football field to congratulate you. Your families forced you to pose for photos, talked amongst themselves about your college plans, and made plans to throw you two a joint graduation party.

Two weeks after graduation, you’re laying down on the trampoline in your backyard as the sun is setting. It’s a Thursday night, your parents are out of town for the weekend and have left you home alone. You could throw a huge party, celebrate the end of senior year, but instead you choose to enjoy the alone time in your childhood home before you move out. You stare at the moving clouds, your chest sitting on your phone as you talk to Mark who’s currently driving.

“You know, I’m kinda mad that your parents still won’t let you come spend the night at my house. We’re 18! We’re adults,” you say.

Mark lets out a laugh. “My parents are scared that if they let me spend the night at your house that I’ll do drugs, join a gang, and get you pregnant all in one night.”

“Do I really give that vibe off? I thought your parents liked me! We’ve been inseparable for well over 2 years now.”

“They love you, you know that. You’re home, right?”

“Yuuuup,” you say, standing up quickly and jumping a few times on the trampoline. He can hear the creaking of the trampoline and whines.

“No fairrrrr, you’re jumping without me!” Mark says. You hear Mark close the door to his car and lock it. Before you can ask him where he’s headed, he walks through the front door of your house, through the living room, and out into the backyard. Mark hangs up the call, before jumping onto the trampoline with you.

You get back down onto your back on the trampoline, grabbing at Mark’s leg and trying to pull him down with you. He lays next to you, rolling over so half of his body is on top of yours. He nuzzles his head into your chest and lets out a content sigh.

“You should really keep the doors locked when you’re home alone. What are your plans for tonight?” He asks.

“Mmm, probably watch a movie and eat something. I might raid my mom’s wine cabinet and finish a whole bottle by myself.”

“Woooow, look at you breaking the rules. Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?”

“I’m just trying to enjoy myself before college!”

“Look at what I got today,” Mark says, flopping onto his back and pulling an ID out of his pocket. He hands it to you and you inspect it carefully.

“This is a Korean ID,” you start. “Aaaand, it doesn’t even have your name.”

“Yeah! It’s a fake ID. Says I’m 21.”

“Why’d you pick Kim Soohyun for your name? And why do you need a fake ID? You’re legal in Korea, you can drink.”

“My mom says Kim Soohyun is my long lost brother, I thought it would be funny. I got it for tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Yep,” Mark says, plucking the ID out of your hands and shoving it back into his pocket. “Go pack a bag, we’re going on a road trip.”

“Where to?”

“It’s a secret, but it’s somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.” Mark lays on his side, and you can feel him staring at you. You turn onto your side to look at him. “Can you close your eyes for a second?”

You nod and close your eyes. Your heart begins beating faster and your breathing is labored. Before you can ask Mark what game he’s playing at, you feel Mark’s lips on yours. You gasp, returning his kiss, and he slips his tongue into your mouth. It’s not your first time kissing someone like this, but it’s definitely his and you can tell. His tongue peruses the inside of your mouth, and his lips are pressed firmly against yours. You try to push your tongue into his mouth in an attempt to control the kiss, but to no avail. Mark pulls back to catch his breath, and his eyes meet yours.

“You’re bad at that,” you whisper, letting out a giggle.

“Yeah, I thought I might be,” Mark says with a sigh.

“You’ll get better at it. W-we can practice,” you say, pecking his lips. “I’ll go pack a bag.”

Thirty minutes later, you’re sitting in the passenger’s seat of Mark’s car, watching him as he drives. His hands rest perfectly at 10 and 2, his lips pouting, and he watches the road ahead intensely.

“You should probably sleep, it’s going to be a while before we get there.”

“How long?” you ask. You recline the seat and lay back, extending your hand out to rest on Mark’s thigh. “Hold my hand.”

One of his hands leaves the steering wheel and he intertwines your fingers with his. “About 16 hours? Just sleep, I’ll wake you up in like 8 hours so you can switch with me.” You nod, closing your eyes and willing yourself to go to sleep.

You’re not sure how long you sleep, but when you wake up, Mark’s hand is still holding yours. The sun is shining through the windshield and you look over at Mark, who is also sleeping. You’re parked next to a gas station in what feels like the middle of nowhere. You check your phone: 8:35 a.m.

“Oh, fuck,” you groan, causing Mark to stir. You tear your hand away from his, shifting the seat up and pushing Mark to wake up. “Mark, get up.”

He groans too before sitting back up. “I just fell asleep.”

“Why did you let me sleep for so long? You drove for 12 straight hours! I’m going to go inside the gas station and buy some coffee, then I’ll drive the rest of the way. You can sleep until we get to wherever the hell you’re taking me.”

Mark tries to sleep for the remaining four hours of your drive, but he’s too excited to be able to sleep. Instead, he watches you drive and smiles proudly. Mark has always thought you are so beautiful, even in your current state — no makeup, hair messy from sleeping in the car, and bags underneath your eyes. He leans over and presses a rough kiss to your cheek before laying back down.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“What do you mean?”

“This isn’t like you. Yesterday before we left you practically shoved your tongue down my throat, and now you’re forcing me on a road trip. You’re not normally like this.”

“I just… I realized that I wasted so much time not doing the things I want to do with you, and I would’ve hated myself forever if I didn’t do it before I left to Korea.”

“You would’ve hated yourself forever if you didn’t make out with your best friend and force her to drive around before leaving to Korea?” You pause. “Where are we going?”

“Something like that. Uh… well, we’re in California,” Mark says, causing you to swerve.

“You brought me across state lines?! Maaaark, your parents are going to kill you!”

“They think I’m with Johnny-hyung for the weekend. Don’t worry, he’ll cover for me. I think we’re only like half an hour away from LA.”

“You’re insane, Mark. So so insane.”

“So this is Santa Monica, huh?” Mark says, looking out at the crashing waves in front of him and inhaling deeply, letting his lungs fill with the cool ocean air, sand getting stuck between his toes.

“This is so beautiful,” you whisper. “Thank you for bringing me, Mark.”

“I would do anything for you, I hope you know that,” Mark responds. He takes out a brown paper bag from his backpack, twisting off the cap of the bottle inside and taking a swig of it and gagging. You laugh, taking the bottle out of his hand and sniffing it before taking a drink yourself.

“Why would you buy vodka? You know you can’t drink alcohol very well.”

“I wanted to see if my ID would work! It was pretty easy, I just handed it to the guy and spoke in Korean and he didn’t question it.” He takes the bottle out of your hand and takes another drink, this time more prepared and able to suppress the gag that bubbles in his throat. You turn to look at Mark, and he quickly shifts his head to stare back at you. Some people say they feel their heart skip a beat when the person they love looks at them, but when Mark looks at you, your heart stops completely. Your heart stops, your breath gets caught in your chest, and you stop blinking. You have to make a conscious effort to breathe in and out, and open and close your eyelids as Mark looks at you and overtakes your thoughts.

As you’re staring at Mark, memorizing every inch of his face as the Santa Monica sun sets, you feel your cheeks begin to heat up and your face begin to numb as the vodka hits you. He reaches out to pinch your cheek, smiling wide at your flushed face, and when you feel his fingers on your skin, you just know — this is real, this is love.

“You’re so cute,” Mark says.

“Says you.” You grab the bottle from Mark’s other hand, taking another deep chug before pressing the bottle to his lips. You tilt it and he drinks from it until he can’t handle the taste anymore, pushing it away slightly and letting you drop it between your bodies.

“Y/N, I—”

“Kiss me.”

Mark doesn’t need to be told twice; instantly pressing you down into the sand, body hovering above yours and attaching his lips to yours. He lets you lead the kiss this time, opening his mouth when he feels your tongue poking at his lips and allowing you to slip your tongue into his mouth. Your tongue traces over his teeth, before meeting his tongue and playing with it. Your hands come up to hold onto his face, and he softens into your touch. Mark feels dizzy — both from the feeling of your tongue in his mouth and the vodka hitting him all at once. He pulls away, panting as he tries to catch his breath.

“I feel like I’m living a dream,” Mark says, staring at your face with something you can only describe as love in his eyes.

“I want to go swimming,” you respond, quickly sitting up without thinking and hitting your head against his. “Owie, I’m sorry, honey. Don’t know why I got up so quickly.”

Mark giggles and sits up, peeling his shirt off and dropping it on the sand. “Let’s go swimming.” He stands up, trying to kick his skinny jeans off as you stand up and start walking to the water. “Y/N! Take your jeans off at least.”

“Nuh-uh, I wanna go swimming,” you say, stumbling as you walk through the hot sand as quickly as you can and into the water. You don’t even register how cold the water is, quickly walking deep into the ocean and letting the waves go over your head. Mark rushes to catch up with you, walking into the ocean in only his underwear. He pulls you into his arms and you wrap your legs around his waist, your arms around his neck, and rest your forehead up against his.

“I miss you already, Mark.”

“I don’t even leave for another 3 months.”

“I know, but I don’t want you to go,” you say quietly. Unwillingly, tears fall down your cheeks and mix with the salt water on your face.

“I’m so glad I finally found you,” Mark responds. “My missing puzzle piece. I’m complete.” He wipes the tears and water from your face and presses a kiss to your lips.

“I can’t believe we’ve known each other for over 2 years and you waited for us to graduate before making a move on me,” you say, angrily pressing another kiss to his lips. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I took you downtown for the first time, Mark.”

“And I’ve been in love with you since the day you asked me to go downtown with you.”

“You’re so lame,” you say to Mark, just as a huge wave goes over your heads and crashes. You both burst into laughter and you untangle yourself from him, pushing the hair out of your face and trying to regain your breathe. You place your hands on Mark’s shoulders, letting them travel down his chest to the waistband of his underwear. You slip your fingers underneath, pulling the band back before letting it snap back on his skin. “Mark, have you ever… you know…”

He shakes his head no. “M-my mom told me I should s-save myself for someone special,” he says, nervously. “Have you, ever… you know…”

You shake your head no. “Let’s go all the way tonight. No regrets, just love. Just you and me.”

“Okay.”

You and Mark stumble into the Santa Monica Motel, only a 20 minute walk from the Santa Monica Pier, coming up to the front desk with your clothes still dripping and asking for whatever vacant room they have. The desk attendant rolls his eyes, handing you two a pair of room keys and sending you on your way. You walk into the room, one hand holding Mark’s hand, as the other held onto the mostly gone bottle of vodka.

As you walk into the room, Mark throws your things onto the floor and locks the door behind him. You drink half of what’s left in the bottle, giving the rest to Mark which he finishes quickly before stepping into the bathroom. As Mark is in the bathroom freshening up, you pull the sheets off the bed and throw them onto the floor. You then pull the cushions off the couch in the corner, attempting to make a fort in the tiny motel room. You set the cushions up, then use the pillows to try and complete the walls of your fort, before throwing a thin white sheet over everything and crawling underneath. Mark comes out of the bathroom and raises an eyebrow when he sees the mess you’ve created on the floor.

“Y/N?”

“Come meet me in the fort, honey.”

Mark crawls underneath the sheet carefully, trying not to destroy the fort he’s sure you worked hard on. Once he’s underneath and he sees your shirt sticking to your chest, and your skin-tight jeans seemingly sticking tighter to your skin, his heart begins to race.

“I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but I feel like I’m living a dream,” Mark says, letting his hand rest on your stomach. You reach for his arm, pinching him slightly and he lets out a soft moan. “What was that for?”

“Just to remind you that this isn’t a dream. This is real, and I love you.”

“I love you,” Mark responds. You pull your wet shirt up and off your head, letting it fall to the floor before you unbutton your wet jeans and try to push them off.

“Mark, I need help,” you whine. He laughs before helping you pull your jeans down and setting them on the floor with your shirt. He looks at your entire body up and down, taking in the sight of your matching bra and underwear.

He groans. “Fuck, I really love you.” Mark lets his body hover over yours, quickly enveloping your lips in a quick, passionate kiss. You wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him closer to you and bucking your hips up to meet his. Mark feels himself harden in his underwear and he whines into your mouth at the feeling of you grinding up into him. Your hands grip onto his cheeks softly just as they did when you kissed on the beach, and one of his hands reaches up to pull your bra down and let your breasts free. His hands grab at your chest as if he’s done this before, fingers tugging and tweaking your nipples and you can’t help the moan that escapes your mouth and is caught by his.

You rip his hand away from your chest, bringing it down into your underwear and pressing his fingers onto your clit. His fingers reach down to your entrance, teasing it softly before collecting your slick and returning to your clit. He pushes down roughly, rubbing in circles and your hips buck up again. This is the first time anyone else has ever touched you, and you quickly feel the knot forming in your stomach.

“Mark, I’m gonna—” you say, pulling back from his lips for a second and grinding harder into his fingers in an attempt to reach your high quicker.

“Really?” Mark asks in disbelief, eyes wide as he presses his fingers harder into you and takes in the sight of your body. Your chest is going up and down quickly, hips moving and grinding into his fingers, one hand gripping onto his wrist as the other grips on his hair.

“Fuck, just a few more seconds, I swear, Mark,” you whine, and he speeds his fingers up. And surely enough, within a few seconds, you’re gripping onto his wrist tightly to stop his movements as you cum, clenching around nothing as you chant his name repeatedly. Mark lets you come down from your high on your own time, afraid of overstimulating you before he can even get inside of you. As soon as you’ve come down from your orgasm, you’re pulling Mark into another kiss and pushing his underwear down.

“Y/N, I-I should p-probably get a c-c-condom,” Mark stutters as your hand grips onto his hard dick and pumps lightly.

“Nuh-uh,” you say, letting go of him and bucking your hips, feeling the tip of his dick rub against your clit and letting out a content sigh. “I want to feel all of you.”

Mark nods, gripping onto the base of his dick and pushing himself into you slowly, letting you adjust to him. Once he’s all the way in, he lets out a shaky breath as you clench around him a few times, getting used to the feeling of being full of something more than your fingers. “You can move now, honey.” He nods again and slowly begins moving his hips, pulling all the way out before slamming back in.

Mark lowers himself more, making sure you’re chest to chest as he moves slowly inside of you. Your legs wrap around his waist again, arms around his neck, pulling him close to you as you close your eyes and focus on the feeling of Mark’s length moving in and out of you swiftly. Mark lowers his head, resting it on your shoulder and pressing a kiss as you let your mouth fall open in a moan.

“I love you,” Mark’s hips pick up speed at your confession and you let out another loud moan. “I love you, I love you, fuck, baby, I really love you.”

He balances his weight on his hands, pushing himself up to look into your eyes as he fucks into you like his life depends on it. You want to close your eyes so bad, want to focus on the feeling of Mark fucking you, but you’re mesmerized as his eyes look into yours. You’re afraid to even blink, not wanting to miss a moment of this, not wanting to miss a second of the way Mark’s eyebrows furrow as he looks into your eyes, then down at your chest, then down at where your hips meet, then back up into your eyes. He shifts his weight onto one hand, moving the other to your clit and your eyes instantly roll into the back of your head.

“Look at me, baby,” Mark says quietly, angling his hips to meet that spot inside of you, and you struggle to keep your eyes open and looking at him, but you try.

“A-are you sure you’ve n-never done this before?” You ask, clenching tightly around Mark as he fucks you and rubs your clit.

“N-never ever. Been saving myself for you.”

“You’re gonna make me cum,” you whine.

“Cum for me, baby, please.” Mark says, and you nod as he presses his fingers just a little harder, pushing you over the edge quickly. The feeling of you clenching around his length sporadically, and your fingernails digging into his back, is enough to push him over the edge, and he’s cumming in you in thick white ropes. He lets out a deep groan as he cuts inside of you, giving you everything he’s got. He falls on top of you, not even bothering to pull out, and you wrap your arms around his neck and hold him close. You wipe the sweat off from his forehead and let out a laugh that he returns.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” you say.

“Are you on birth control?” Mark asks.

You flick his forehead and giggle. “Yes, I’m on birth control. I have been for like a year.”

“Oh thank God,” he lets out a sigh of relief.

You bask in the silence of the motel room for a second, realizing you’re still on the carpeted floor in the fort you’ve built. “Lets get into bed.”

Mark fixes the sheets and pillows onto the bed as you use the bathroom, and when you emerge from the bathroom naked and crawl into bed next to him, he feels his chest swell with love for you. As soon as you’re in bed with him, you snuggle into his body, resting your head on his chest and closing your eyes, listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

“Your heart is beating really fast,” you whisper.

“Because of you,” he responds. He pushes you off him slightly, pushing you onto your back and resting his head on your chest. “I wanna be held.”

“You’re such a baby.” You play with Mark’s hair, enjoying the silence before it hits you that Mark is going to leave you. You’ve finally gotten the boy you love, given everything to him, and within a few months he’s going to leave you and start a new life while you’re stuck in your tiny town. Your chest begins to warm in anxiety at the thought of having to be away from him, and tears well in your eyes. “Mark, you can’t leave me. You’re my soulmate.”

“Come with me, then.”

“Ha-ha. Very funny.” The tears drip down your face slowly and Mark can tell you’re crying by the way your chest contracts underneath him.

He sits up quickly and looks down at you, eyes flickering to your bare chest for a split second before looking back up into your eyes. He wipes the tears from your face. “Y/N, I’m serious. Just take a year off and come with me to Korea, and then you can start school there. I’ll take care of you, I promise.” He leans down and presses a kiss between your breasts before coming back up. “I can’t live my life without you. Please come with me.”

“Mark, my parents would kill me. Moving to a new country for a boy I’m not even married to? You’re insane.”

“If I could marry you tonight, I would.” Mark thinks for a second and grabs his phone from the table next to the bed, unlocking it and shielding it from your view as he looks something up.

“What time is it?”

“It’s midnight,” he responds.

“You know… it’s only about a 5 hour drive to Vegas from here.”

“And?”

“If we start driving now, we can make it by the time the sun rises.”

“Aaaaand?”

“Aaaand, wecouldbeimpulsiveandgogetmarriedmaybeifyoureallymeantit,” you say quietly.

Mark lets out a hearty laugh before rolling over onto you and pressing a flurry of kisses all over your face, before pulling you into a long kiss.

“What was all that for?” you ask.

He unlocks his phone and hands it over to you, showing that he was looking up 24 hour pawn shops nearby.

“I had the same thought. I thought maybe we go out and get some food, hit one of these pawn shops and get some rings, then drive over to Vegas.”

You let out a laugh and peck his lips. “Let’s go then, baby.”

“I can’t wait to see the look on your parents’ face when you tell them I convinced you to drive across state lines, get married to me, and drop out of state university to move to another country with me.”

“They’ll just have to deal,” you say, getting up out of bed and cringing as you put your wet clothes back on. “I have dry clothes in the car. It’s still parked by the beach, isn’t it?” Mark nods in response, slipping his wet clothes back on and leaving the room keys with the front desk attendant. Your hand slips into his as you walk in the dark streets of the city, walking towards the beach where Mark’s car is parked. “Can we stop in San Francisco on our way back home? I want to see the Golden Gate Bridge.”

“We can do whatever you want, baby.”

“I love you. You know that, right?”

“I know. I love you, too. You know that, right?”

“I know,” you sigh contently. “I can’t wait to spend my life with you.”

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let-it-raines · 5 years ago

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Catch Me If You Can (35/40)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: I’ve exercised, showered and blow-dried my hair, cleaned the house, and have both girls asleep. So that means, you know, that the rest of the afternoon will probably be some kind of disaster. At least I’m getting this chapter up for you guys now!

An absolutely GIGANTIC thank you to @imagnifika for making this cover. I mean, seriously. Look at Emma! And look at number 29! And all of it really ahhhhh ❤️ And thanks to @resident-of-storybrooke for helping me bring this story to life! Also, there’s a line in here specifically for @captainsjedi and any other botb fans 😘

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

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-/-

Emma types a big, fat “L” into the stat sheet on her phone for the beginning of the Championship series, and she is undeniably bitter about it.

Like, seriously so bitter that she couldn’t have typed it in last night when it happened and saved it for this morning.

Damn the Red Sox.

How many times a season does she say that? It’s probably far too many times, but it’s something that needs to be said over and over again until it’s tattooed on her forehead so that everyone knows that she hates the Red Sox.

The games are simply different than against anyone else. Tension runs through everyone’s veins, and mistakes that aren’t usually made are made with frequency. The volume of the crowd is this constant rumble with a persistent murmur of excitement, and depending on if they’re in New York or in Boston, that crowd noise completely and totally changes how the players feel out there.

It changes how she feels simply watching from whatever seat the network has given her that day.

So the fact that they lost by one run yesterday afternoon on home turf has left a bitter taste in Emma’s mouth.

She’s not even a player, and she’s never been this nervous. There’s obviously time to make up for the loss. It’s best of seven games here, and a loss doesn’t mean anything. Except that, well, it can mean everything. It’s hard to come from behind if they get too far behind, and dammit, Emma wants the Yankees to play in the World Series again.

She wants to cover it and come up with those obnoxious think pieces about a team’s legacy and a player’s legacy. She wants to hype the team up and talk about the match-up with who they’re playing and everything that Killian hates about commentators and reporters.

Seriously. He hates it a lot. And yet he watches all of the shows like some kind of glutton for punishment.

He kind of is.

He’s also playing his first game in forty days today, and Emma’s nerves are nearly frayed as she has to keep her leg from bouncing up and down and her fingers from fidgeting against every single surface that she can find.

Killian is playing again.

It never sounds quite real no matter how many times she thinks it, so obviously Emma is going to think it over and over again until the words don’t have any meaning.

Except they have every meaning.

“Why are you working right now?” Killian mumbles into her stomach before shifting up her body so that his cheek rests on her breast. He totally shifted that way on purpose. Such a man.

“Because I was awake, you were asleep, and I felt like you would wake up if I shifted away.”

“Probably.” His lips wrap around the peak of her nipple through the thin material of her camisole, and Emma sighs contently as she puts her phone down on her bedside table and reaches forward to gentle run her hands through Killian’s hair so that she can feel the soft strands slipping through her fingers. “You’re a very good pillow.”

“And you were extremely tired. What time did you fall asleep last night?”

His tongue runs in a circle, and she nearly melts right then and there. Then Killian is looking up at her through those long, thick lashes of his, and she nearly melts for an entirely different reason. Along the same guidelines, though. “Late. Or early depending on how you want to look at things. I wouldn’t check your closet if I were you. It may be organized.”

“Killian – ”

He grunts and moves back to paying attention to her breasts, his nose nudging away her shirt until warm breath is making direct contact with skin and even warmer lips are wrapping around her and making her hips arch in the air looking for friction they absolutely will not be getting this morning. They don’t have the time or the privacy.

But Killian’s lips feel really, really good, little sparks of fire flickering across her skin as heat pools between her thighs, and maybe, just maybe they can…

“Emma,” Ruby yells through the bedroom door as her knuckles collide with it, “I am leaving in ten minutes. Do you want to come with?”

“No,” Emma shouts back, but Ruby doesn’t know the definition of privacy and opens the door anyways before Emma can pulls her shirt back up or Killian can even move away. The bastard doesn’t even try. He just bites down on her in the way that he knows she likes and smiles into her skin all the while Ruby stands there with an arched brow. “Oh my God, Rubes. Privacy.”

“What? It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. There’s usually not a man attached to it, though. Hi, Killian. Nice to see you here. I’m glad you guys remembered that Emma has an apartment.”

Killian chuckles, and Emma swears it makes her entire body vibrate, before he’s grabbing the covers and pulling it up over her so that he can move away from her boob and look at Ruby in all of his ruffled glory.

“Hello, love,” he smiles, reaching up to stretch his arms behind his head as he winks. She swears he is the cockiest man alive. “We do stay here on occasion. It’s just at my place nobody walks in when I’m trying to tell my girlfriend good morning.”

“I think your mouth was in the wrong place to be telling her good morning.”

“Depends on the good morning I was thinking on giving her.”

Emma reaches down to grab a pillow before smacking Killian in the back of the head with it and then throwing it at Ruby who simply catches it and cradles it to her chest. “I hate that I brought the two of you together. There’s too many dirty jokes in your heads for you guys to share the same air.”

“These are thin walls, Emma dear,” Ruby teases as her knuckles rap on the walls. “I know for a fact that you’ve got some dirty jokes too.”

“Oh my God,” she groans again as she sinks further into the mattress and pulls her comforter up over her head. Her cheeks have to be as red as tomatoes right now, and Emma is going to hide under here until they calm down. She is not easily embarrassed, but the thought of Ruby hearing her the way that she’s heard Ruby and Graham before is too much.

Maybe moving out is beginning to sound like a good idea.

“I think we’ve embarrassed her, Lucas.”

“I think we have, Jones. To think, seeing your foreplay in action wasn’t enough to send her under the covers but making a joke about her bedroom humor was.”

Emma throws the covers down and peeks up at Ruby, completely ignoring Killian. “Go to work. I will see you when I get there and maybe I won’t ignore you as you talk into my ear.”

“Love you too,” Ruby teases before blowing Emma a kiss and walking away, her heels clicking down the hallway.

“Ugh.”

“What?” Killian asks, turning over to his side and reaching over to her to toy with her ring as it rests on her stomach.

“For one,” she starts, “I’m now super sexually frustrated, but we don’t have time to do anything about it. And, also, I seriously regret letting you guys become friends. You’re far too chummy with each other.”

“That’s how I feel about you and Elsa and Anna. I’m attacked every time the three of you get together.”

“Oh, speaking of Elsa, I need to text her back and tell her that I can come up to the suite today at the beginning of the game. I’m only going on to interview you when you’re finished and to do post-game stuff.”

Killian grumbles something she can’t here before he’s wrapping his fingers around her waist and pulling her closer to him so that he can pepper his lips across her jaw and ghost them over her mouth.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Killian.”

“Well, you see, my darling, love of my life, sweet Emma,” he overdramatically sighs as he kisses her, “I’m just a little worried that you won’t be able to handle interviewing me now that we’re dating. I’ve found that women are incapable of keeping a professional workspace, and I’m afraid that things might get a little murky for us.”

“I have never hated you more than I hate you right now.”

“It’s funny because I swear you just told me you’d never loved me more than you had right then.”

“Right. And now I hate you as much as I’ve ever hated you, and I used to actually hate you.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, the tone in his voice quickly switching from playful to melancholy, “you did.”

“You okay?”

He shifts against her until his cheek is resting on her breast again, and Emma runs her hands through his hair to soothe both him and her. “I’m fine, love. Simply a little nervous. I haven’t played a game in a good bit, and this is an important one. I can’t believe Al is trusting me with it.”

“It’s to get you back in the rotation. They may only keep you in for an inning depending on how you do.”

“I hope I bloody well do better than one inning.”

“You’re going to kick ass today, okay? Like you always do.”

“I do not always kick ass,” he grumbles, twisting his head to look back up at her. “In fact, I often don’t kick ass. I don’t know how I’m going to handle today.”

Emma brushes his hair back, and not for the first time she notices how boyish he can look in the mornings when the day’s stress hasn’t gotten to him. The stress is starting to creep in, however, and she wishes that she could take it all away from him.

“One pitch at a time, twenty-nine. They’re not going to be perfect, and you’re going to struggle. But it’s one pitch at a time. You’ve been doing this for a long time. You know how to be a baseball player.”

“What if we lose?”

“You’re not going to.”

“But what if we do? I’ve already let so many people down. I can’t…I don’t want to do it again.”

Her heart breaks the tiniest bit, and Emma simply keeps brushing his hair back as his eyes flutter closed. “You’re not letting anyone down. You try so hard for this team, and they know that. If you lose, it’s not your fault. You know that. You guys are a team, and you’re not standing up on that mound alone.”

“I literally am.”

“Figuratively, you are not.”

A slow smile curves from one side of his lips to the next even if his eyes stay closed. Killian’s hand searches for hers and in his hair, and he squeezes her wrist. “Thank you, Swan. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she sighs. “We’ve got to get out of bed. It might take me a little while to find something to wear since you apparently organized my closet last night.”

“It was messy.”

“But I knew where everything was.”

Killian grins before sitting up. “I know where everything is now. I’ll help. Team work makes the dream work.”

Emma hits his head with a pillow. “I take back saying that’s the most I’d ever hated you because this is the most I’ve ever hated you.”

“That’s because you haven’t seen your closet yet.”

-/-

When Emma wraps up her pre-game filming, talking back and forth with Isaac and James who miraculously only make two mentions to her dating Killian when talking about his return to the game today and only one mention of Arthur getting a pretty hefty fine for his treatment of an “anonymous” reporter in the locker room, she quickly walks back into the tunnel behind the dugout and down the hallways until she’s getting in the elevator that takes her up to the suites. Emma doesn’t have that long to be up there, only an inning or two depending on how the game goes, and she’s supposed to keep her earpiece in so she can be contacted no matter where she is. So she’s hurrying to meet Elsa and Liam in the suite like she said she would.

Her life was a lot less hectic when fewer people liked her.

She wouldn’t change it for a thing.

Except maybe she’d give herself some more time to accomplish more things. And possibly also speed up time a little bit so that she can stop worrying about Killian and Killian can stop worrying altogether.

Those two things are contradictory, but it works.

Kind of. She guesses. She really has no idea, and all she can really focus on his how much she absolutely feels like she’s going to vomit with all of the nerves that are ferociously swirling through her stomach.

Killian is going to make her sick.

Why is love so painful? Literally and figuratively.

Emma flashes her ID when she gets up to the suites, and after she’s let in, she walks through the door. Everyone is standing out on the little balcony, so she takes the chance to grab a glass of lemon water and take a deep breath.

She really needs a deep breath. Or five.

Why has she never been this nervous before? Why is this different now?

Because everything is different now.

Everything.

Elsa turns around and sees her, reaching up her hand to wave, and it calms down Emma’s nerves as she walks out the sliding glass door and takes back in the sound of the stadium as people still filter in and all of the players begin to take their spots out on the field.

“Hey,” Elsa greets her, wrapping her arm around Emma’s waist in a half hug. “How are you?”

“Nervous as hell.”

“You’re telling me,” she sighs, not letting go of Emma’s waist. “I swear I wore down the wood floor in our kitchen pacing.”

“If Killian hadn’t been with me this morning, I would have done the same thing too.” Emma leans over to look at Liam, Kris, and Anna. “Hey guys.”

They all wave back at her with bright smiles on their faces that quickly fade back into frowns. Nerves are very obviously a present factor for everyone this afternoon.

“Where are the girls?” Emma asks.

“They are with my parents today. I’m sure Addy has the TV turned on and is watching the game. That girl is serious about her baseball.”

“Well, she does have a pretty cool uncle who plays.”

“This is true. How is he doing? I tried texting him earlier, but I didn’t get a text back.”

“He’s anxious. Like, hardcore Killian level anxious. In the locker room, I’m sure he was fine, you know? He always puts up the façade for the guys, but this morning he was really nervous. I don’t know if me talking to him did any good or if he just faked it for me.”

“Men have a harder time faking it than women, but it is possible,” Liam adds in with a cheeky smile before going back to paying attention to what Kris is saying and what’s going on down at the field as music booms out of the speakers.

Elsa playfully rolls her eyes at her husband before releasing Emma’s waist and sitting down in her chair. Emma follows suit while static moves through her earpiece.

“Ignore him,” she insists, still smiling at his bad joke. “I’m sure your talk helped. If anyone can calm him down, it’s one of the people sitting out here.”

“I hope so. I’m just…he wants this so badly, you know? And I want him to have it.”

“I know,” Elsa whispers as Killian takes his place on the mound and the murmur of the crowd quiets down. “I know.”

And then Killian is winding up and releasing a ball from his hand and Emma intakes a sharp breath.

It’s a ball. Not the best pitch in the world but not the worst. At least it wasn’t a homerun hit off of Killian’s first pitch back. That would have been demoralizing.

One pitch at a time. That’s what she told him earlier, and she’s going to stand by that.

Emma hopes that Killian can too.

Another wind-up, another pitch, and then there’s the thwack of a woodenmetal bat against the ball as it flies into the outfield and curves far enough left that it ends up being a foul.

One pitch at a time.

The next pitch flies right inside of the batter’s strike zone, and he smacks a line drive down past third, and he manages to get on first base.

Dammit.

Emma’s hand clutches for the ring around her neck, and she bunches up the chain, holding tightly onto it while she watches the video of Killian on the jumbotron and tries to see if there’s any inclination as to how he’s feeling.

There’s not. Killian looks like he always does out there, and not being able to tell what’s going on in his mind is driving her crazy.

Suddenly, there’s a slight pressure on her left hand, and Emma looks down to see Elsa’s hand covering hers while Elsa’s gaze stays out on the field.

“You’re going to give yourself a heart attack worrying like that.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Elsa looks over at her and smiles. “I have been with Liam for as long as Killian has had a professional career, and it does get easier, most of the time at least. There have been times when he has done things to make me nearly throw up, but I never have. No matter what happens, he’s going to be okay. That’s what we told him when he came back from injury last time, and he knows it even if he has trouble remembering it.”

“He may know it, but I certainly don’t.”

Elsa squeezes her hand again. “You’re in love with him. It makes sense. As much as we all love him, it’s not the same for you.”

Emma huffs. “So, can I have my heart attack in peace?”

“Not a chance in hell,” Liam scoffs before leaning over so she can see his face. “We have our heart attacks together up here. It’s a team effort.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Anna teases.

“It makes perfect sense.”

“Why would we all have a heart attack instead of just one of us?”

“Solidarity.”

“That sounds like a great way for all of us to end up dead, and then I promise you that Killian will not care what happens on the field.”

“Exactly. It’s going to keep his mind off of things.”

“It’s his job to stay focused on things.”

“You’ll get used to their bickering too,” Elsa laughs, and Emma swears that she is the very definition of an ice queen with how calm that she is. “It’s all part of the process. Kris will pipe in about three sentences too late since he focuses on the game better than anyone.”

“Wait,” Kris starts, “why are we having heart attacks?”

Elsa raises her brow as if to say “I told you so”, and all Emma can do is laugh as Killian throws his first strike of the day to the appreciation of the crowd.

Good. He’s getting there.

It’s a slow start, undoubtedly, and while Killian isn’t at his best, everyone else on the team is. Where he falls short, they pick up the slack, and Emma knows that while Killian will feel guilty about it, he’ll also be appreciative of the fact that he’s not out there ruining everything for everyone.

If there’s anyone who knows who to place guilt on himself when there’s no reason to, it’s Killian Jones.

By the time the bottom of the third rolls around, the Yankees are up three runs to one, and while it’s not the most convincing lead, it’s still a lead. And there’s a lot of game to go.

Not for Killian, though. Al pulls him when the third inning is over, and Emma and Jeff wait for him in the tunnels behind the locker room so that she can give him an interview without disrupting any part of the game.

His brows are furrowed when he first walks into the tunnel, but then he sees her and forces a smile onto his face. It’s fake and far too forced, and all she wants is to hug him and tell him that it’s okay. She can’t do that, though. Not right now. They’ve talked about this, and they’re going to be professional when on camera. It’s how it has to work.

“Hey, Swan,” Killian sighs as he steps into space.

“Hey, you did good, Killian.”

He shrugs his shoulders and then nods at the camera. Jeff motions to them that they’re about to roll, and Emma forces her own smile before beginning the introduction to her interview by talking about Killian’s stats for the game and reminding everybody that he’s coming back after forty days away.

As if they don’t know.

“How does it feel to be back?” she finally asks Killian as he lifts his hat from his head and pushes his sweaty hair back before placing it back down and scratching behind his ear.

Why is he nervous?

“Fantastic,” he answers with a cocky grin that shows all of his perfectly white teeth. “There’s nothing that can replicate being out there. Absolutely nothing. I’m so thankful to be back and to feel that crowd support. We’re in a critical part of our season if we want to make it all the way to that final game, and I’m glad to be a part of it once more. You can only be a benchwarmer for so long before you go a little stir crazy.”

The smile he flashes there is a bit more genuine, and that relaxes her the slightest bit. “Are you nervous about the future when it comes to your arm?”

His hand reaches up to rub at his right shoulder, and Emma wonders if he even knows that he does it. But then he’s tilting his head and smiling at her like he does with every interview he’s ever been in before something changeschanges, and his lips become a little less curved and his eyes the little bit softer.

“The future’s nothing to be afraid of, love. Not when you’re happy with your life regardless of if things don’t always work out the way that you hope. My arm may mess up again. It may not. I can’t know. But I have to be okay with whatever happens and know that my life is pretty damn great no matter what happens on that field. Even if I damn well want to win.”

Emma’s breath hitches, and her brain has suddenly forgotten words.

Like, all words except for the actual word “word.”

Shit.

“Wrap it up, Emma,” Ruby speaks into the earpiece. “You’re staring at him like he just told you that he loves you for the first time. Wrap it up.”

So she does, mumbling something that she’s sure makes no sense, but then Jeff is turning off the camera and lowering it from his shoulder so that Emma can take a deep breath and try to compose herself. She doesn’t really get a chance to before Killian is wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her into him while he buries his face into her neck, the sweat from his body and his uniform clinging to her clothes. It takes her by surprise at first, honestly and truly, but then she’s wrapping her arms around him too and simply breathing him in, sweat and all.

There are probably twenty people in this tunnel right now who can see the two of them, but Emma doesn’t care. The world knows, and everyone can think what they want about she and Killian’s relationship. None of their opinions matter when the two of them know the truth behind the smokescreen of lies the world is putting in front of them.

She may not be ready for them to hug or kiss on National television, but she can do this.

People have tried to tell her who she is her entire life, and she’s punching back and saying no. She is who she wants to be.

“You did it,” she whispers to him. “You’re back.”

“I would not have gotten off of my couch and back out onto that field without you, Swan.”

“You would have.”

“No,” he murmurs, his scruff scratching at her neck. “I wouldn’t have. You don’t know how much you’ve changed things for me. When I was out there and felt like I was about to pass out on the mound, I thought of you and how I knew that you were cheering me on. It’s a hell of a lot better than thinking about thousands of people I don’t know cheering me on when the only person who really matters is you.”

“What about your family?” Emma teases, the words rolling off of her tongue immediately. There are still times when she’s not good with affection, when she can’t take a compliment like that without freaking out, and sometimes words escape her before she can stop them.

Killian pulls back from the hug then, just a little bit, and rests his forehead against hers, his hat long since toppled to the ground, while his hands run up and down her biceps. “They obviously matter, love. Don’t go telling them what I said because they will give me shit about it, but you know that it’s different between you and me.”

“I would hope so. I don’t want to be treated in the same way as Liam.”

Killian laughs and softly pecks her lips. “Am I freaking you out making big declarations like this?”

“Not at all.”

“You’re a liar.”

“Only a little bit.”

He smiles, and her heart settles back in its regular spot while there’s the sound of cheers outside. “You’ve got a game to cover, and I best let you back to it. Pull them through.”

“Sounds like a plan, Stan.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” Emma laughs as she pulls back from him. “It’s just a little phrase I heard. I thought I’d try it out, but I don’t think it quite works for us.”

“Maybe it’ll catch on.”

“Or we’ll have to come up with a better phrase.”

“What about ‘you’re looking fine, twenty-nine?’”

“A little egotistical for my taste, darling, but I think it’s got potential.”

Emma pushes at his shoulder and shakes her head. “Go get that shoulder massaged and take a shower. You smell horrible.”

“All for you, my love.”

An absolute dork.

-/-

They win that night, and Killian’s spirits are at what has to be an all-time high.

The fact that they lose two nights later when they’re in Boston only tampers those spirits the slightest bit.

They’re behind two games to one, but there’s still time to come back from it and survive this series.

And if Emma knows anything, Killian Jones is a hell of a survivor.

-/-

Tag list: @authorarsinoe @stunningswan @eala-captian @galaxyzxstark @xellewoods @mariakov81 @ultraluckycatnd @royalswan @shey-starsfury @superchocovian @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @karenfrommisthaven @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @notoriouscs @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @qualitycoffeethings @carpedzem @tornadoamy

#catch me if you can #cs fic #cs ff #captain swan ff #captain swan fanfic #captain swan fic #captain swan

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thegeminisage · 2 years ago

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from my minimal testing, the replay saving seems decent? I think something might be wonky with the sound but I might need to mess with settings. it also captures either the active window OR the entire screen and if you have multiple screens you have to pick one before you try saving anything or it just captures the wrong one. i found out like 20 minutes after beginning to fiddle with it. I've only done 60 seconds for recording so idk how it'll work with longer.

i have a childhood love for ff12, mainly Balthier and Fran 🥰 baby me thought they were the coolest. this hasn't changed much tbh

Celeste has been moved to the top of my steam wishlist so i remember it exists more easily, will play in the name of science and also it looks cute

i forget blocking is a thing in games. my fighting style is basically "hit it until it stops moving and hit it a little more" which, unclear where this came from! i pretty much prefer to either tank hits or maybe dodge if possible. i see no problems with this. it worked in skyrim, it works in bloodborne.

cannot speak on asscreed tho, i only played a little bit of the first one because my sister wouldn't let me play the second. i think she said it was because it was more sexual?? i could be wrong. i remember liking altair, but i never went back. i think it was because it felt too big for me? i have a hard time sticking with games that have big long stories. which is why I've never finished a bioware game even though i end up loving the characters

okay lol ✌ i need to figure out how not to type entire paragraphs in asks. hope radeon works out decent for you if you give it a go. bye bye!

i actually did a little research too and i think i have the wrong graphics card for radeon BUT i also think that geforce has a clip thingy too!!! i just have to figure out how to use it. i have not been a pc gamer for very long and i am still trying to learn the ins and outs of using a machine made to do shit like this instead of jury-rigging a laptop that wasn't meant for more than word processing and watching youtube videos. anyone who has used geforce please advise i fucking hate figuring out new technology

also, control went on sale yesterday. 12 bucks. HAD to grab it. can't possibly say when i'll get around to playing it but it's mine now >:)

#liz answers asks #anonymous #dl anon #literally do not worry about long asks i love them if i take a long time to reply thats on me

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theuniversitychallengereview · 3 years ago

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UC 51.21-22: Christmas Double Episode

Having been fortunate to sidestep Covid (to the best of my knowledge) for the past 20 months, I took a lateral flow yesterday which went positive pretty much before the liquid hit the detection zone. I had made it home with the help of four or five negative tests, but now find myself locked upstairs in the perhaps vain hope that I avoided infecting my family during the time we spent together prior to the positive test.

You’d think that this might be the perfect time to get some UC-Reviewing on the go, but I spent the whole of yesterday lying on the floor (to be fair, there is a mattress, it isn’t just the actual ground) watching loads of telly (some of which, admittedly, was the Christmas series of the Challenge, so I’m not entirely off-brand here). It turns out that being forcibly contained within a room isn’t the productivity-booster I thought it might be. Still, I’m finally getting round to it now, so let’s hope I make it through the two episodes I have to catch up on before the Succession-binge starts again.

King’s College London vs Hertford College, Oxford

Kings first appeared on our screens in July’s episode 1, and their five month break between shows is only two weeks shorter than the maximum possible gap. They won a low-scoring match against Glasgow on that occasion, and would have to up their game considerably to beat Hertford, who outscored them by sixty five points against LSE, who scored the same amount of points as Glasgow.

King’s came out of the blocks at a blistering pace, looking a lot more comfortable on the buzzer than in their first round match, as they raced through the opening four starter questions, racking up 65% of their previous score within minutes. A good sign for the Londoners, but Hertford weren’t going to lie down and take it. Three in a row for the Oxford quartet, and a neg from King’s, brought the deficit back to ten points going into the music round.

However, another streak from King’s effectively ended the game as a contest. Ninety five points in a row brought the scores to 165-60. Bizarrely, the remaining fifty five points all went to Hertford, meaning that the scoring in the match took place entirely in four polite streaks, alternating between the sides. Never before has a University Challenge match so resembled a cricket match, with Hertford playing the role of England in the current Ashes series with remarkable aplomb.

First innings: King’s - 75/16; Hertford - 60/12

Second innings: 90/24; Hertford - 55/12

Final Score: King’s 165 - 115 Hertford, Ox

Birmingham vs St Andrews

Now, onto the second match, which wasn’t like cricket, although one team did get tonked like England again…

This was a repeat of a 2016 second round match, and the only possible match in University Challenge where a team sharing a name with a professional football club can play against a team sharing the name of the stadium belonging to said professional football club (if I’m wrong on this please let me know. I don’t think there’s an Old Trafford University, but I might be mistaken). Birmingham came out on top last time, but thats no guarantee of anything this time round.

When the first starter became obvious with the mention of Crystal Palace, Birmingham’s McParlan was quickest to the buzzer with FA Cup, and it was the same for the second question, with the phrase ‘first black woman on a presidential ticket’ tipping off Bartelle to Kamala Harris. A couple of bonuses added to Birmingham’s lead, before a neg dropped St Andrews into the minus points. The first picture round dragged them back above zero, and a ding-dong over the next few questions, in which they came out slightly on top, brought them back within twenty points of their Midland rivals.

However, this is where things started going wrong, and the rest of the match could be described in football parlance as a cricket score (I promise you that does make sense). Birmingham ran away with it and St Andrews would only be able to bank a further five points (with a few negs thrown in as they attempted to get a foothold back in the game). The Brummie quartet started having fun, with Bartelle guessing Jeremy Paxman for one bonus, and Robinson coming in very early on a starter about Adidas and Puma.

Final Score: Birmingham 245 - 50 St Andrews

Congrats to Birmingham and King’s, who take up the sixth and seventh places in this years quarter-finals. Exeter and Imperial face off for the eighth and final one in the New Year, which is when this blog will return. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the Christmas series, and wish you all a very happy festive period. May all your covid tests be negative!

#university challenge #bbc2 #birmingham #st andrews #kings #london #hertford #oxford #quizzy mondays #jeremy paxman

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iloveyoupittsburghpirates-blog · 6 years ago

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You Broke Me, Pittsburgh Pirates

My Dearest Pittsburgh Pirates,

Well, that will do it. Might as well circle March 28, 2019 on the calendar because that’s the next time you will play a meaningful game. You had a chance this week to get back into the race and you threw it away. You played two playoff contenders who were ahead of you in the race and you do the same this week. This was your opportunity to gain ground. Instead, you scored two runs in three game against Atlanta leading to a sweep at home. The offense finally found a little life after completely embarrassing itself for seven games in which you scored only seven runs. That was rather difficult to watch. When the offense finally did show up in Milwaukee against the Brewers, their offense showed up as well. Friday night was basically rock bottom for this season but more on that nightmare in a bit. When it was all said and done, done being the key word, you had lost two out of three against the Brewers. That makes for a 1-5 week when you needed it to be at least 5-1. Not exactly stepping up to the plate (pun intended) when the season was on the line. You are now 64-67, you are 13 games back in the division, and you are 8 ½ games back in the Wildcard with seven teams in front of you for the two spots. The season is over. Start looking at how to improve for next year because this one is done.

Friday night’s game broke me. It shouldn’t have been so devastating because it was already nearly impossible for you to make the playoffs after being swept by the Braves. I shouldn’t have been so emotionally invested but I sat through over 5 ½ hours and 15 innings of that game to watch you finally take a two run lead in the top of the 15th after you had tied it in the 9th to send it to extra innings. That’s when Hurdle’s decision to pull Musgrove after four innings so Josh Bell could pinch hit and strike out with the bases loaded really burned you. Every reliver had pitched except Kyle Crick who apparently wasn’t available because of back pain. Brault had thrown four scoreless innings and had batted in the top of the 15th so I assumed he could come back out even after throwing 58 pitches. Apparently, he couldn’t. This is going to be known as the “Clay Holmes season” now. Things have gone downhill since you gave him that spot start in San Francisco (It’s a coincidence because the offense imploded. Pitching him really had very little to do with your collapse.) Now he will be remembered for the half inning that put the nail in the coffin for 2018. Holmes got the first out but looked a little wild doing so. He proceeded to walk the next guy, then throw a wild pitch, and then another walk. He struck out Ryan Braun so now it was still 6-4, men on first and second, two outs, and pitcher Jordan Lyles coming up. The Brewers were out of position players, so they had to let him bat. Holmes walked him on five pitches. It was ridiculously embarrassing. It got to the point that catcher Elias Diaz wasn’t even giving him signs. He was motioning/begging him to throw it right down the middle and he couldn’t. That loaded the bases. A single by Erik Kratz scored two to tie the game and then another single by Orlando Arcia (and a terrible throw home by Polanco) scored the winning run. That was it. The game, the season, the hope. All gone. I sat in silence for about an hour after it was over. It broke me. The game was actually the perfect microcosm for the whole year. Not very optimistic, then suddenly you seem like you’re destined for great things, but you immediately plunge back to earth. It was quite a ride.

Cue the panic. I’m just going to say it now to get it out of the way. Chris Archer has been undeniably bad since coming over in the deadline deal. He said it himself. He got lit up yesterday for six earned runs in four innings pitched. Since coming over, he’s got a 6.45 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, and hitters are batting .313 against him. That’s worse than bad. His BABIP against is a whopping .377 so there’s reason to believe that will improve. The Pirates are tinkering with the pitches he throws and how he throws them so there were going to be some growing pains. Starting pitching is extremely hard to acquire and to get someone like Archer for this year plus three more isn’t easy to do. This is a guy I’m still very excited about. Yes, Shane Baz was a first-round pick and that’s a big piece to give up. Yes, Austin Meadows has been crushing the ball (7 HRs, 1.002 OPS) in Triple-A since being traded and your offense has struggled terribly on top of it. Yes, Tyler Glasnow looked good in his first couple starts, though he’s leveled out and shown the same tendencies of high pitch counts, too many walks, and the inability to control the running game. Either way, this trade doesn’t look good right now. This season doesn’t matter anyway. Archer can take the rest of this season to iron out the kinks and come back next year ready to be a top of the rotation starter with Jameson Taillon. The risk is still very much worth it because if he gets back to the pitcher he’s been his whole career, which is reasonable to believe, then you have one of the top 20 pitchers in all of baseball. Just try not to panic after five starts because I’m sure a lot of the fan base will.

When looking at the team going into next year, there will obviously be changes that need to be made but maybe players aren’t the only thing that should be considered. The coaching staff has performed questionably at times this season and before you go into this three-year window of potentially being competitive, you might want to consider making changes. I only watch so many other baseball games in a season but whether it’s Rick Scofield or now Joey Cora, you seem to have the worst third base coach in baseball year in and year out. They make mistakes constantly. I can think of three boneheaded mistakes Cora has made in the last month. That’s too many. Jeff Branson, your hitting coach, looked very bad this week with the offense performing beyond inept. They rank 17th in baseball in OPS which isn’t terrible but not exactly something to write home about. When they grind out at bats, they can be a formidable offense. They just don’t seem to do that often enough. Even Ray Searage, who I do want to keep, isn’t void of criticism. Your pitching staff has the most errors and wild pitches in all of baseball. That doesn’t fall squarely on him but that’s got to be something that’s remedied. And then we get to the top with Clint Hurdle. I’ve had issues with him all year and it feels like I have weekly complaints. My one for this week goes back to Friday night’s game when he pinch hit for Musgrove in the 5th inning with the bases loaded. You haven’t been scoring runs and he was desperate for some. Fine. He showed a sense of urgency. Where was that urgency a month ago when you were still in the hunt and he let Alex McRae pitch in a tie game against the Cardinals for three-plus innings? That didn’t even piss me off as much at the time as it does now. He finally starts coaching with desperation after you are basically eliminated from the race? Good timing, Clint. My guess is this entire coaching staff will be back next year, but I’d be down for firing Branson, Cora, and Hurdle. They have just proved to be amateurs on way too many occasions.

This is where I usually say what’s on the docket for this week and what you need to do in order to get back in this race. Well, that’s all pretty pointless now. You can’t lose today, which is nice, but that’s only because you don’t play. The road trip continues with three games in St. Louis against the red-hot Cardinals starting tomorrow followed by three games in Atlanta against the Braves, you know the team that swept you this week and held you to two runs in three games. If you wanted to even consider the thought of getting back into this thing, you have to win all six games. That would only be enough to ger started. The likelihood of you winning all six games is so miniscule that’s it’s not even worth talking about. Now is the time that you should start auditioning people for next season. Keep playing Adam Frazier at second to see what he’s got. Play Kevin Newman more to see if he’s got any hope of starting. Bring up Kevin Kramer and work him in more. Now’s the time to figure out what you have up the middle next year. Hell, try Kramer third if you want to get bold. I don’t care. With this pitching staff and bullpen, you can compete now. The window is open and the National League doesn’t have a team so dominant that you couldn’t sneak into the running. Start figuring all this out now so we don’t have to you don’t waste a year of this window trying things out. You showed some potential this season. We will chalk it up to that. Now figure out how that potential comes to fruition in 2019. Good luck, as always. Talk to you next week!

Shattered Into A Million Pieces,

Brad

P.S. stands for Pretty Simple. The question is what’s wrong with your offense and what happened during that epic losing streak? The answer remains the same: home runs. Or the lack there of. You rank 24th out of 30 teams in homers and in the NL you rank 12th out of 15. That won’t cut it in a home run driven league. During the seven runs in seven game stretch, you hit two homers total. The walkoff by Frazier against Chicago was one and the other was the meaningless solo shot in the 9th inning of the 6-1 loss to the Braves by Polanco. Clutch hitting comes and goes throughout a season. Home runs are the way to get sure runs and your team doesn’t hit enough. That’s also something you need to address this offseason…

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junker-town · 7 years ago

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Shohei Ohtani is pretty good, Andrew McCutchen is a delight, and Tim Tebow is in this headline for SEO purposes

Welcome to Monday, baseball fans. Here’s some baseball.

Can you follow everything that happens in baseball every week? Man, I sure can’t. So every week, I dig back through the archives and tweets and videos and recaps and look for interesting baseball things to share with you on Monday. The best part is that I’ll miss a whole bunch, which is definitely a feature, not a bug. It wouldn’t be baseball if a week’s worth of action could be explained in a few hundred words.

But there are some baseball things that are impossible to miss. Here, then, are those baseball things. While the categories and sections will rotate from week to week, the first one will be an absolute constant. This first section will always posit that ...

Baseball is good, actually

Baseball friends, I promise you that this section will not be a secret way of sneaking Giants-related content into this weekly recap. There were not a lot of times that I watched the Giants last year and thought, “Yes, baseball is good, actually.”

While I’m anticipating a much better season, it’s likely that they are the sixth- or seventh-best team in the National League if everything goes right. This section almost certainly will not feature the Giants very often.

But, sweet Njörðr, look at this at-bat from Andrew McCutchen in the bottom of the 14th inning:

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I’ve been hard on MLB Advanced Media in the past because of how they’ve intentionally limited how some of their videos can be shared. Looking for something older than two years ago can be a nightmare. Basically, they never think about me, the baseball writer who needs to lazily embed something whenever he needs it.

But this video is exactly what you need to understand that baseball is good, actually. Someone in charge took this entire 12-pitch at-bat and presented it unedited, allowing you to drink in the mounting tension and expectations, and it was a brilliant decision. It’s not just that McCutchen hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th; it’s that he directed the whole thing like Kubrick, piece by piece, setting up the reveal at the end.

I’m a sucker for a lot of baseball things, but I’m really a sucker for two very specific baseball things:

Andrew McCutchen

At-bats where the hitter keeps fouling pitches off again and again and again and again and again

This at-bat had it all, really. It started with a muffed strike call, and it quickly went against McCutchen after Wilmer Font fuzzed him with a wicked fastball running in on his hands. If he popped up the next pitch, nobody would have blamed him. Instead, he turned into a living Rocky IV montage, fouling pitches off again and again and ...

One thing that I love about baseball is the idea that all of those foul balls are examples of the hitter failing. Font’s job was to make the hitter not do what he wanted with the ball. McCutchen’s job was to hit the ball somewhere where it couldn’t be caught. Framed like that, Font won. He got McCutchen to do something he wasn’t trying to do.

Instead, it ended with McCutchen hitting a dinger and reacting with a broken water main of emotion that had been building pressure since the first pitch. It was mostly perfect.

And maybe — maybe — the fact that it was against the Dodgers in the 14th inning will color my judgment just a little bit. But I’d like to think that if McCutchen were on the Twins, and he did this against the Rays, it would be just as notable.

Because look at that museum-quality at-bat. Carve pictographs of that at-bat into the side of an interstellar probe and let alien civilizations learn about baseball.

What Shohei Did

Well, this section sure feels a lot different this week.

Last week, it was still okay to be cautiously optimistic about Shohei Ohtani. He had one quality start under his belt, albeit with a ton of strikeouts. He was 1-for-5. This all came after a rough spring. So you’ll forgive me if prudence was the better part of valor in this case.

And then Ohtani started firing lighting bolts out of his eyes and demanding our fealty. Yes, yes, we cried. We are yours to do with as you wish. We’re so sorry, Shohei. How could we have been so blind?

The Shohei-o-meter just seven days ago was stuck on “timid,” and we spent an hour on the phone with tech support trying to get it unstuck.

Shohei-o-meter: half-Luis Castillo, half-Gregor Blanco

See, he was a wild, unproven fireballer with a .200 average, so I thought ... look, forget it. I was wrong.

Let’s update that Shohei-o-meter:

Shohei-o-meter: half-Tim Lincecum in his prime, half-Bryce Harper

THIS IS WHAT WE WERE PROMISED.

Deep breaths. Stay with me. But it’s completely okay to freak out.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll keep getting it all year. He could be half-Vince Velasquez, half-Eric Thames, where the early returns are drowned by a tidal wave of baseball being extremely hard.

Still, if you can’t get excited about this fastball-splitter combination, you hate baseball and are already googling “2019 Oscar frontrunners.” Look at this marvelous baseball player:

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That is peak Tim Lincecum. I saw it. I lived it. I breathed it. He doesn’t know exactly where the ball is going, but he knows two things: The fastball goes fast and the splitter goes prrrowwwwww down into the abyss. If those two things can hold steady, he isn’t just a Rookie of the Year candidate. He’s a Cy Young candidate.

Maybe we should see him against another team that isn’t the A’s before getting nutty, but it’s worth pointing out that the Athletics are stuffed with solid hitters. It’s possible that they’re especially susceptible to splitters that go prrrowwwwww down into the abyss. All of this still might be a mirage.

Wouldn’t it be a lot cooler if it weren’t, though? Wouldn’t it be a lot cooler if he were a Cy Young candidate every year with a 900 OPS?

It would. It absolutely would.

The best part is that I don’t even have to mention the three home runs in three consecutive games to make you impressed about Shohei Ohtani. Because peak Tim Lincecum was just about the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen, so if he’s already that, he’s a baseball legend.

Ohtani hitting dinger after dinger, though, is the kind of thing that’s going to melt our hearts and follow this story wherever it goes. He’s even better than advertised right now. That’s probably not going to last, but what if it does?

John Sterling calls a famous home run throughout history

It is high! It is far! It is gone!

Sho-hei can you see? By the ball’s distant flight!

What so proudly we hailed, at that pitch’s last gleaming!

it’s so cold in here, is anyone else cold, i’m freezing, i’m not proud of this, please get me a blanket, why is it so cold

THIS WEEK IN “AW, RASPBERRIES”

Good things can happen when you put the ball in play. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#walkoff pic.twitter.com/wKJRkLrM7i

— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2018

aw raspberries

A grown man bought this baseball card on purpose

This was $1 plus shipping, and I bought it for a couple reasons. The first is Ted Williams. The second is that Ted Williams is about to hit Mike Epstein with a bat because of his sideburns.

Is it possible that Williams had such incredible bat control that he could can hit someone with a bat and make it hurt, but not incapacitate them or cause lingering damage? Is it possible that he could hit someone with a bat just hard enough to make their sideburns fall off but cause no other injuries?

No, it is not possible. It is absolutely guaranteed. He could hit you with a bat on the back of your ankle and make you sterile for exactly eight years if you wanted. He was just that good. And if you think that’s hyperbole, look what popped up when I was looking for the above image on my computer:

When you opened that box, Ted Williams would pop out and hit you with a bat until you were temporarily sterile. And you were fine with it. This is how things were done back then.

Also, I think it’s fine and normal to have a file called “Ted Williams condoms.jpeg” on your computer and not remember that it exists. It is absolutely fine and normal.

This week in McGwire/Sosa

It’s the 20th anniversary of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa transfixing the country with their historic chase. It’s also the 20th anniversary of:

McGwire: 21 AB, 0 HR (4 total), .333/.438/.429 Sosa: 27 AB, 1 HR (2 total), .400/.444/.600

The race is still nothing at this point. Sosa had a hot week, but he had seven singles and two doubles mixed in. McGwire was hitting like an especially focused Chone Figgins.

Later in this season, enough baseball things would happen to make someone decide to make a Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa diecast semi-truck.

At this point in the 1998 season, though, they’re just a couple of baseball players, doing normal things. Sometimes they hit the ball, and sometimes they don’t. That’s how you play this wacky game, ha ha. No big deal.

Also, because of this stupid article, I finally bought one of those trucks on eBay. I hope you’re happy.

Let us study this baseball thing

The U.S. Olympic men’s curling team got to throw out the first pitch for the Twins’ Opening Day. That’s incredibly regional and exciting and regionally exciting. It’s also exciting for the rest of the country because, heck yeah, gold medal curlers. It’s an honor for them, and it’s an honor for us.

What could possibly go wrong?

I can't stop watching the gif of the gold medal-winning US Olympic curling team throwing out the first pitches at the Twins home opener. It's the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. I'd read an oral history about this. pic.twitter.com/7FWhRZ6wO9

— ℳatt (@matttomic) April 6, 2018

Oh, noooooooooooo.

The crowd reaction to USA men's curling team first pitches in MN yesterday pic.twitter.com/5WZarp0GNE

— That Dude (@cjzer0) April 6, 2018

nooooooooooooooo

The good news it that we get to study this baseball thing. For it started with such hope and optimism.

Anyone can throw a first pitch in a baseball game. But it takes a special person (or group of people) to get the enter-from-center-field-to-throw-a-first-pitch treatment. Gold medal winners get that treatment. The downside, though, is that expectations are incredibly unfair. This isn’t something that’s blurting out of the loudspeaker while people are finding their seats. This is something that’s supposed to be watched.

If you watch the video, at 2:17, the guy in the middle, Tyler George, turns to his teammate and says, “Ready?” He’s fired up.

EDUARDO ESCOBAR: [record scratch] Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

You can see how it’s George who screws this all up. He throws the ball first, and he almost kills Tyler Kinley, there only because of the Byzantine red tape of the Rule 5 Draft. Because Kinley has to protect his face, the second-from-left pitcher looks much worse than he otherwise might have, though it’s not like he did himself any favors. The guy on the right throws a gull-killer that almost leaves orbit, too. It’s an incredible mess.

For my money, though, I’m most impressed by the commitment of the fellow who decided to “curl” the baseball and roll it to his catcher. If they had all done this, it would have been funny! Whimsical! And I’ll bet that idea was floated, but I’ll bet George was like, oh, heck no, I get one first pitch in my life, and I’m gonna chuck it.

Because there was exactly one guy rolling the ball to home plate, though, it looked bizarre beyond words. It looked like he was screwing up almost as much as everyone else, even though he’s just doing a bit.

Please acknowledge the calm, collected first pitch of John Shuster, the captain of the medal-winning team. He’s the one on the left, and he threw a perfect pitch that absolutely no one will remember.

“What the crap was that?”, he asks. You’ll notice that there are only four curlers in this picture. That’s because George is already off screen, apologizing profusely for winning a gold medal for screwing up a first pitch.

But I saw you, John. You did well. Proud of you on several levels. Thank you for representing our country. Thank you for knowing how to throw a baseball.

This week in baseball spoonerisms

If I can be an 11th-grader giving a presentation in front of the class for a moment, according to Wikipedia, “a spoonerism is an error in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase.” So instead of “Joe Maddon,” for example, you would say, “Moe Jaddon” and laugh for some reason.

On baseball Twitter, they are very popular and obnoxious but also popular. Every week, I would like to share a baseball spoonerism with you.

But if I’m going to start doing this, I need to start with a bang. I can’t just give you a B-minus spoonerism that I’ve been sitting on for a couple months. I need something big.

Allow me to present ...

I think the important thing to remember is that a cat pooper isn’t a cat that poops. You wouldn’t need to single out a cat for pooping by calling it a cat pooper. They all do it. It’s their thing, man.

A cat pooper has to be, by definition, someone who consumes cats and ... well, you know.

Anyway, the important part to remember is that this section has started out incredibly stupid, and I promise you that every week is only downhill from here.

Internet Christmas for Baseball Nerds

Used to be that I would spend a lot of time digging through the bowels of the internet looking for stuff to put on on Baseball Nation under the heading of “Internet Christmas for Baseball Nerds.” It was just baseball esoterica from throughout the history of the sport, no big deal. Like this book from Johnny Evers from 100 years ago, in which he basically invented modern defensive statistics.

Anyway, this installment comes to you by way of the Library of Congress, which decided to publish a treasure trove of Branch Rickey papers. If you’re a true nerd, you’ll enjoy idly leafing through them, like me. But if you want a hot sample, I’m partial to this one:

Man.

If there’s a happy ending to this story, it’s that Joe Adcock had a 133 OPS+ over the next three seasons, even as he was older and injury-plagued.

Still, that scouting report haunts me. One day, someone will write “not desirable as a gift” about me, and they’ll be absolutely right. I’ll have earned it.

Baseball picture of the week

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

I’m not sure what happened to make Travis Shaw accost veteran umpire Biff Tannen with such venom that someone in an Old Navy hoodie had to come get him, but that’s okay. I don’t want to know. I’m satisfied with the image of an umpire living his best life in the face of a baseball player who is very, very upset for whatever reason.

BRIAN O’NORA: That’s right. Fleetwood Mac’s best album is Tusk.

TRAVIS SHAW: oy, mate, what’d you say?

I don’t think Travis Shaw is from Sunderland, but we can’t rule it out. Anyway, I’m in love with this baseball picture. Look at the disdain on O’Nora’s face! It’s absolutely withering. He does not care what Shaw has to say, and that is probably the best default position for an umpire to take.

Baseball picture of the week (runner-up)

Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images

See, it’s not just that Yoshihisa Hirano is sharing his baseball butt with the world. It’s the Getty-supplied caption that accompanies the picture:

PHOENIX, AZ - APRIL 03: Yoshihisa Hirano #66 of the Arizona Diamondbacks delivers an eighth inning pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field

[lowers sunglasses until they slide off the tip of my nose]

Man oh man, I gotta see this guy pitch.

Tim Tebow is the Shohei Ohtani of baseball players who can run a power-read option instead of pitch

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First at-bat in Double-A where he probably doesn’t belong and it’s a dinger. You might be impressed by Tebow’s incredibly respectful run around the bases. For my money, though, I can’t get enough of the pitcher checking a nonexistent runner at second base twice before he throws the pitch.

Minor league baseball: where everyone is still trying to figure this crap out. Put it on a t-shirt, and send me three of them, please.

Man, this is a weird one to end on. We’re not really going to spend all season following Tim Tebow in Double-A, are we?

No. Because at some point, we’ll have to follow him in the majors.

Until next week!

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

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Watching Movies in ‘Fortnite’ Is More Fun Than a Theater

The last movie I saw in a theater was Cats. There weren’t many of us in the darkened room, but it still managed to be chaotic. Two middle aged women sang throughout the entire film and then picked a fight with another group they thought were being too loud. This morning I watched Inception inside Fortnite along with other players and, when I logged in, heard the rambling monologue of a younger player. I muted them, something I could never do in a real-life theater.

Fortnite, a mega-popular free-to-play battle royale video game, has recently begun to host events in-game, including concerts with Travis Scott, EDM artist Marshmello, and Star Wars tie-ins. This weekend, Fortnite is screening Christopher Nolan movies—sort of like a drive-in, but with more grappling hooks. Depending on where you live, you can watch The Prestige, Inception, or Batman Begins. It's partly hype-building for Nolan's upcoming film Tenet, and partly to test the concept of Fortnite as a venue for theaters.

When I watched Inception, the screen was clear, the stream never stutterd, and the audio never gave out. The crowd was rowdy at first, but calmed down as the movie progressed. It was shockingly like attending the opening night of a Marvel movie, a trip into Fortnite’s budding metaverse that proved a video game can replicate the communal experience of going to the movies online.

Concerts and films in Fortnite happen in a separate game mode. Players can’t shoot each other and the sound effects dull as they approach the screen. Vending machines filled with tomatoes, grappling hooks, launch pads, and other toys surround the theater. As Inception began, people tossed tomatoes at the screen. Strange avatars used grappling hooks to climb on top of the projection. Occasionally, someone would fly across the frame.

I thought I’d hate all this chaos, but it was fun. I threw tomatoes at the screen and launched myself into the air with the grappling hook, trying to come down on top of the screen as Leonardo DiCaprio droned on about dreams.

Watching Inception in Fortnite felt like going to a drive-in theater with a group of barely controlled teens. They tossed tomatoes when the movie got boring, quieted down as action blared across the screen, and flickered in and out of existence as their attention waxed and waned. It was a communal experience of a kind I hadn’t had before, but it felt good.

I love going to the movies. A crowded theater on opening night fills me with a kind of energy I don’t get anywhere else. When the lights go down and the music swells, I’m filled with a reverence and awe comparable to what the religious tell me they feel in church. I feel this spiritual jolt even if the movie is mediocre or outright bad. For me, the story on the screen is often just a vehicle for this feeling. With the coronavirus pandemic seemingly raging with new life in the U.S., I don’t know when, or if, I’ll get to feel that again.

The idea of braving Covid to watch Wonder Woman 1984 or Tenet seems foolish, especially here in South Carolina, which is experiencing a horrifying spike in cases thanks to mismanagement at the state and local level. I used to live in Texas and the theater I frequented there went viral on Twitter when Cinemark published a video of an employee disinfecting its seats. The tweet was meant to assure the public that theaters are safe. For me, it had the opposite effect. I’ll be watching movies at home for the foreseeable future.

Here, Fortnite might just be a life-saver. Developer Epic Games’ push to make its game a space for people to experience live music and watch movies is working. It’s a compelling option in a world where going to a movie theater means risking infection of a horrible disease.

Tenet, Nolan’s new film, was slated to come out on July 17 but it’s been pushed back several times. Just yesterday, Warner Brothers pushed the release date back another two weeks to August 12. Nolan is a devotee of the theater experience. He wants his movies viewed on a big screen, with the sound booming over a crowd of like-minded folks all experiencing the same story together as a community. I respect that desire, but it’s just not possible right now for the majority of the country. I suspect many Americans won’t gamble with their health to sit through a Hollywood fantasy. I definitely won’t risk infection to see Nolan’s latest.

But I would log into Fortnite to watch it. The crowd of weird avatars, rowdy tomato throwers, ATV driving cat-men, and prattling 12 year olds replicated the communal experience of going to the movies in a way I did not think was possible when I logged into the game this morning. The screen was there, somehow feeling bigger than life on my monitor, and I was experiencing the story with other people.

The lights off in my office, my position in the rocks above Fortnite’s digital shore secured, I watched Nolan’s story of a heist inside a dream. I threw tomatoes during the boring bits, something I could never do in real life. It ruled.

Watching Movies in ‘Fortnite’ Is More Fun Than a Theater syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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viraljournalist · 5 years ago

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Real or not? Even the Dodgers' rookies are out of this world

New Post has been published on https://viraljournalist.com/real-or-not-even-the-dodgers-rookies-are-out-of-this-world/

Real or not? Even the Dodgers' rookies are out of this world

Let’s admit it: When your name is Will Smith and you’re playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the shadow of the “Hollywood” sign that sits up in the Santa Monica Mountains, it’s going to be difficult to divert attention away from that other guy named Will Smith, who also works in Los Angeles.

Well, this is a good way to do it. The Dodgers’ Smith pinch-hit with two outs and two on in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game with the Colorado Rockies on Sunday and delivered a three-run walk-off home run to send Dodger Stadium into a fever of joy:

WEST SIDE WALK IT OUT. pic.twitter.com/DqNiS8QoZS

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 23, 2019

Smith, a rookie catcher drafted 32nd overall in 2016 out of Louisville, had played in six games with the Dodgers earlier this season, hitting a walk-off home run for his first major league homer to beat the Phillies on June 1. He had just been recalled before the game to replace injured David Freese. With Matt Beaty on second base, Rockies manager Bud Black elected to intentionally walk veteran Russell Martin to have Scott Oberg instead face Smith.

Oops.

These walk-off home runs have become standard fare in L.A. It was the third game in a row the Dodgers hit one to sweep the Rockies — and all three were hit by rookies, Beaty taking hero honors on Friday and Alex Verdugo in the 11th inning on Saturday.

Two rookie walk-offs wasn’t enough?

HOW ABOUT THREE? pic.twitter.com/c7NmPCilrL

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 24, 2019

Remember when the #Dodgers were the first team in MLB history to have rookies hit walk-off homers in two straight games? That’s so yesterday. pic.twitter.com/g5K4mwlS4Y

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 24, 2019

WOW!!!!!! UN.REAL!!!!!! IS THIS REAL LIFE?!! #WalkoffsAreFun

— Enrique Hernández (@kikehndez) June 23, 2019

The Dodgers became just the sixth team to hit walk-off home runs in three consecutive games, joining the 2013 Rangers, 2004 Tigers, 2000 Royals, 1999 Diamondbacks and 1998 Tigers, and the first to do it with three rookies. (In fact, they were already the first team to have rookies do it in two consecutive games.)

What a weekend at Dodger Stadium as the team improved to 54-25. The New York Yankees have been hot, but the Dodgers are clearly the best team in baseball right now, with the best record in the majors, in the much tougher league, as they head to 55 wins in the first half.

This weekend not only showcased the Dodgers’ depth of the 40-man roster, but also showcased why they’re headed to a seventh straight division title — with maybe the best team of the run, even better than the 104-win team of 2017. Consider the astute drafting:

— The Dodgers took Smith as a supplemental first-round pick (acquired for losing Zack Greinke as a free agent). They liked his defense at Louisville, but his bat has been good enough to allow him to advance quickly �� he’s hit .291/.397/.609 at Oklahoma City. In the same draft, the Dodgers selected infielder Gavin Lux with the 20th overall pick and he has become a top-30 prospect, hitting .310 at Double-A Tulsa. Given that several of the top-10 picks from that draft have struggled, getting Lux and Smith late in the first round looks like a steal.

— Verdugo was a second-round pick in 2014 out of a high school in Tucson, Arizona. Many teams saw him as a pitcher with his low-90s fastball, but he wanted to hit and the Dodgers liked him in that role as well. Verdugo would have played regularly for a lot of teams last season, but had to wait his turn. The trade of Yasiel Puig and injury to A.J. Pollock opened up playing time this year, and Verdugo is hitting .302/.352/.489.

— Beaty was a 12th-round pick in 2015 from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, not exactly a baseball powerhouse, but he hit .382 his junior season with more walks than strikeouts. He has hit .308 in his minor league career (he missed most of last season with a torn thumb ligament) and has made himself more valuable with his ability to play first base, third base and left field. He’s hitting .333/.352/.478 in 69 at-bats.

When you’re not picking high like the Dodgers, it becomes more difficult to build through the draft, but they’ve added depth and built one of the top farm systems by crushing those late first-round selections (Walker Buehler is another example) and finding other gems later in the draft (such as Cody Bellinger in the fourth round).

You won’t believe this, but more crazy stuff happened with the Mets: The Cubs beat the Mets 5-3 on Javier Baez’s three-run homer off Seth Lugo in the bottom of the eighth:

Javy, PLEASE.

Javy, THANK YOU. pic.twitter.com/aHA1oAZprI

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 23, 2019

Baez’s home run came off an 0-2 sinker from Lugo — well, it didn’t sink enough as he probably wanted to bury it in the dirt — and while 0-2 is usually an out for most hitters, Baez isn’t a normal hitter:

All MLB hitters in 2019 On 0-2: .152 AVG/.397 OPS After 0-2: .165/.464

Javy Baez in 2019 On 0-2: .314 AVG/1.057 OPS, 4 HR (35 AB) After 0-2: .296 AVG/1.076 OPS, 9 HR (73 PA)

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) June 23, 2019

Anyway, the Mets. Too often, they just can’t get out of their own way. Lugo has actually been the team’s best reliever this year, so that wasn’t the crazy thing that happened. After the game, tension escalated in the clubhouse when manager Mickey Callaway cursed out Newsday beat writer Tim Healey, and then pitcher Jason Vargas, in the words of Daily News writer Deesha Thosar, “took steps toward Healey looking for a fight before the two were separated by a handful of people.” The confrontation with Callaway resulted when Callaway walked past Healey following his postgame news conference and Healey said, “See you tomorrow, Mickey,” which the manager interpreted as the reporter being sarcastic. Callaway turned back to Healey and spewed out a string of words not suitable for print here.

The Mets issued a statement after the game: “The Mets sincerely regret the incident that took place with one of our beat writers following today’s game in the clubhouse. We do not condone this type of behavior from any employee. The organization has reached out and apologized to this reporter and will have further discussions internally with all involved parties.”

Is this a big deal? Probably not. Hey, maybe Vargas stepping up for his manager can even be viewed as a little team bonding. Or maybe it’s the just the beginning of the final disintegration. Callaway may already be on edge after the team fired pitching coach Dave Eiland and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez a few days ago, and this certainly isn’t going to please management. While Sunday’s loss was painful, the series against the Cubs wasn’t a complete disaster as they split four games. Still, the Mets fell to 37-41 and they haven’t won a road series since early April. It’s time for the Mets to beat up on some opponents, not reporters.

Phading Phillies: Heck, the Mets aren’t even the biggest disaster in the NL East right now. The Marlins beat the Phillies 6-4, completing a series sweep and extending the Phillies’ losing streak to seven. Jordan Yamamoto picked up his third win for the Marlins in three career starts and Miami pounded out 16 hits. The Phillies have lost 16 of 22 and dropped nine games to the Braves in the standings in that spell.

2 Related

Phillies fans let out a chorus of boos when Roman Quinn popped out to end the game.

As Scott Lauber wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer, this is not what owner John Middleton paid for in believing the Phillies had constructed a World Series contender. They’ve been outscored 43-15 in the seven-game skid. “It’s not good,” Bryce Harper said.

There are few Phillies who might be expected to perform better — Harper, for starters, although his high strikeout rate suggests he’s not going to suddenly go on a big binge. J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura have been minor disappointments. The back of the rotation has been awful, but most teams have struggled with the backs of their rotations. The Phillies really just look like a .500 team and I don’t see much reason to expect them to go 20 games over .500 the rest of the way. Indeed, FanGraphs currently projects a final record of 81-81. Next up: four games at home against the Mets. It feels like an important series for both teams.

Run of the day: The Pirates beat the Padres 11-10 in a wild extra-innings game (Kirby Yates finally blew his first save of the season), but check out Fernando Tatis Jr. scoring on an infield pop-up. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen this before:

Fearless Fernando.@tatis_jr • #FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/nkoKJPqnVE

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 23, 2019

If you didn’t watch the entire replay, Tatis was ruled safe upon review. This kid is absolutely electrifying and is hitting .323/.387/.571 after going 2-for-4 with two walks Sunday. He probably missed too much time with his hamstring injury to warrant All-Star consideration, but he is fifth among NL shortstops in WAR and two of those ahead of him (Trevor Story and Corey Seager) are currently on the injured list. Maybe the point isn’t that Tatis deserves to be on the All-Star team, but he has certainly played like an All-Star when healthy.

Verlander avoids the sweep: It wasn’t a fun trip to the Bronx for the Astros as the Yankees took the first three games of the series — running Houston’s losing streak to seven, their longest since a seven-game skid in June 2015. On Sunday, Justin Verlander finally turned things around, holding the Yankees to three runs on four hits in seven innings, and the Astros’ lineup smashed four home runs. One of those came from Yordan Alvarez, his seventh in 12 games:

Yordan + Yuli = Cuban connection! #TakeItBack pic.twitter.com/cOOFRgiBLI

— Houston Astros (@astros) June 23, 2019

OK, seven bombs in his first 12 games is amazing. He’s the fourth to do it, joining Trevor Story (2016), Trey Mancini (2016-17) and Dino Restelli. What, you’ve never heard of Dino Restelli? Me neither.

He hit seven home runs in his first 12 games for the Pirates in 1949 — and just six more in a brief major league career that was over in 1951. Just a fluke? Probably, although one issue was he wore glasses and they would constantly fog up in the East Coast humidity. (He kept a bright red bandanna in his back pocket to clean his glasses, a habit that apparently ticked off opponents.) Early in his career, after a glasses-cleaning timeout, Ewell Blackwell hit Restelli in the back of the neck. One theory says Restelli was never the same after that.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure Yordan Alvarez will have a much longer career than Dino Restelli.

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years ago

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And That Happened: Tuesday’s Scores and Highlights

http://tinyurl.com/y4pzddez Here are the scores. Here are the highlights: Indians 7, Red Sox 5: Boston took a 5-2 lead into the ninth and blew it. Roberto Pérez hit a solo shot, Greg Allen hit a two-run homer and Jordan Luplow doubled in two to complete the hanging of the five-spot on the combination of Ryan Brasier and Travis Lakins. At this point I usually insert a “Craig Kimbrel is still a free agent” crack, and then some of you comment that Craig Kimbrel sucks and is overpaid and that you’re happy with guys like Brasier and Lakins because — I’m assuming — you have a personal, vested interest in John Henry’s finances and somehow think they’d be imperiled by slightly overpaying for a good pitcher. It takes all kinds, but I really don’t get y’all who think stuff like that. Reds 11, Pirates 6: Any team could’ve had Derek Dietrich this past offseason. Including the Marlins, who controlled his right but let him go because they were too cheap and their rebuilding plans far too grand to pay a guy a million or two for some decent production. The Reds got him on a minor league deal and all he’s done since is rake. Here, as we noted last night, he socked three bombs, all of them two-run shots, to give him 17 on the year. The Pirates, whom Dietrich has taken special joy in victimizing, watching his dingers from the box and slow-trotting around the bases, didn’t even throw at him this time. They just watched him, knowing he has defeated them while their broadcasters embarrassed themselves talking about how Dietrich’s grandfather or whatever wouldn’t approve of his showboating. It’s gotta feel amazing being so far under an entire organization’s skin. Padres 5, Yankees 4: Manny Machado singled in a run in the first and Eric Hosmer followed him with a three-run homer to give the Padres an early lead on Masahiro Tanaka and it’s a lead they’d hold. Starter Eric Lauer allowed one while pitching into the sixth and six relievers bent but didn’t break. Really, it’s odd to see a game in which the Yankees trailed early in which they didn’t just come back with a ton of bombs. It’s just kind of what they’ve done this year. White Sox 2, Royals 1; White Sox 4, Royals 3: The suspended game from Monday was resumed and nothing happened until the ninth inning when Yolmer Sánchez singled to center, scoring James McCann for the walkoff win. In the game actually scheduled for yesterday, Kansas City scored three in the first on an Alex Gordon three-run shot, but starter Lucas Giolito would stay in for eight, striking out ten, having given up only those three runs. The Chisox, meanwhile, would plate four via a couple of sac flies and a couple of singles. The best part of this game, though, was the ceremonial first pitch: And the still shots: Rays 3, Blue Jays 1: Austin Meadows continued his torrid streak, homering for the third straight game. Avisail García went deep as well as the Rays bullpen brigade subdued the Jays, limiting them to six hits on the night. The Rays are a good team, sitting in second place in a tough division and have won four straight games, yet they continue to struggle with attendance. It’s not worth dwelling on that too much — everyone is aware of the structural/geographic/aesthetic/demographic issues of the Rays’ market and they do get pretty good TV ratings for their games — but it’s worth noting records. And this was a record low for Tropicana Field: 5,786 souls. Story continues Tigers 3, Orioles 0: Matt Boyd tossed six shutout innings and the pen completed the job, holding the O’s to six hits and striking them out 13 times on the night. Miguel Cabrera singled in a run, JaCoby Jones doubled in a run and Niko Goodrum homered, um, in a run (sure) for the Tigers scoring. Phillies 4, Cardinals 3: Nick Pivetta came back to the bigs and, after surviving a couple of first inning homers and finding himself in an early 3-0 hole, allowed three runs and three hits, striking out six in five innings. ‘Twas enough. ‘Twill serve. Bryce Harper doubled in two in the third to begin the Philly comeback and César Hernández completed it with a two-run homer in the fourth. Marlins 11, Giants 3: In case you wanna know how things have been for the Giants lately, this one started off with a leadoff homer from Joe Panik that inspired this tweet from beat writer Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic: Joe Panik homers on the first pitch of this game and the Giants dugout looks livelier than I’ve seen it in weeks. — Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) May 28, 2019 Then the game happened, and it inspired this tweet: In between those things Jorge Alfaro and Garrett Cooper each hit three run homers and Marlins starter Trevor Richards surrendered only two hits in seven innings of work. The Giants have lost six straight. Nationals 5, Braves 4: Stephen Strasburg struck out 11 in seven innings of work. Howie Kendrick had three hits, including a home. Trea Turner also had three hits. The sixth inning was particularly ugly for Braves pitchers as Max Fried hit a guy and walked two guys, including Adam Eaton with the bases loaded. Anthony Swarzak then came in and walked Anthony Rendon to force in another run. The Braves will have what Baggarly’s having. Astros 9, Cubs 6: Alex Bregman homered twice, with the second being a go-ahead two-run bomb in the sixth that gave Houston a lead they’d not surrender. A.J. Hinch picked up his 500th victory despite Astros pitchers giving up five homers to Cubs batters. All but one of ’em were solo shots, though, and you can survive solo shots. Twins 5, Brewers 3: When things are going good they’re going good. And when they’re going good things like “rookie makes his big league debut against a good and powerful team and tosses six shutout innings” happen. Devin Smeltzer was that rookie for Minnesota. He allowed three hits, walked none and struck out seven. Eddie Rosario homered and Max Kepler added a two-run double for Minnesota, which has won 12 of 14 games and has the best record in the majors. Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 2: Chris Iannetta hit a two-run shot in the seventh to break a 2-2 tie. Ryan McMahon added some insurance with a two-run double. The crowd was happy. Not just because of the win but because it was in the 40s and raining and no one wanted to stay for extra innings. Rangers 11, Mariners 4: The Rangers put up a seven-run fifth thanks to a couple of RBI from Hunter Pence, a couple of RBI from Asdrúbel Cabrera and a three-run home run by Ronald Guzmán. Seattle has lost 10 of its last 12 games. Angels 6, Athletics 4: It was tied in the ninth when Shohei Ohtani lined a single to score two. That gave L.A. the win, overcoming homers from Matt Olson, Marcus Semien and Ramón Laureano. Mets 7, Dodgers 3: Michael Conforto stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in a 2-2 game in the seventh and, bammo, grand slammo. God, why did I write something that dumb? Sorry, the recaps have taken me way longer than usual this morning and I’m kinda punchy. Maybe the writers covering this game were punchy too, because there’s an extended riff in the AP gamer about how Robinson Canó helped Conforto before his at bat, during a pitching change. I’m thinking “hmm, maybe Canó had some insight into the new pitcher? Something like “he likes to start lefties out with offspeed stuff low and away” or something useful like that? Nah: Conforto took some advice from Cano during a pitching change before his at-bat in the seventh and turned on an 0-1 pitch from Scott Alexander that lifted the New York Mets over the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 Tuesday night. “He’s going to try to get you to hit into a double play,” Cano told Conforto. The Mets outfielder went to the plate expecting that, but got a ball up in the zone and sent it into the left field pavilion to snap a 2-all tie. “When I got back to the bench I told Robinson right in front of Chili (Davis) that he is going to be my hitting coach now,” Conforto said. Bases were loaded with one out so, yeah, I suppose he was going to try to get a double play. But then that didn’t even matter because it caused Conforto to look for something down and he didn’t get something down, he got something up. Seems to me that Conforto’s fast-twitch muscles, rather than any sage advice from Canó, were to thank, but what do I know? Follow @craigcalcaterra Source link

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racingtoaredlight · 6 years ago

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RTARL weekly degenerate’s guide to college football TV watch ‘em ups for week 9 of the 2018 college football season

Heart’s not really in this one so I’m sorry if this post is even worse than in other weeks.

Well, that’s overstating it. I’m not really sorry but be aware of that possibility.

Times are EDT and lines are whatever from wherever.

Saturday, October 27

Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile

Army at Eastern Michigan 12:00pm CBSSN

This should be a very close game full of lots of time for sleep and not caring about this stupid ass game.

Bethune-Cookman at Nebraska 12:00pm BTN

I know they ruined everything by winning last week but this still isn’t a gimme game for Nebraska. Overall talent level is pretty even between these two.

Central Michigan at Akron 12:00pm ESPN3

Now is as good a time as any to hug your loved ones and tell them to fire Mark Richt.

2 Clemson at Florida State 12:00pm ABC

Here it is, the game of the week. Second week in a row it involves Clemson and that is really way too much ACC. I take it back, this isn’t the game of the week. I’ve convinced myself that FSU is going to win, though.

Purdue at Michigan State 12:00pm ESPN

Sparty is favored by 1 but it’s important for the college football culture that Jeff Brohm makes it back to Louisville and Rondale Moore makes it to the dais for the Heisman telecast. Purdue needs to win.

Texas Tech at Iowa State 12:00pm ESPN2

I can not for the life of me make up my mind about how much I’m interested in this game. I feel like not at all. My rudimentary understanding of sports in general tells me that TTU at +5.5 is a good value.

UMass at UConn 12:00pm ESPNU

RTARLsman alert! Adam... uh... ? Whatever, you can look it up if that’s wrong. It was in the last post before this one. He’s a wide receiver and UConn is like a factory for defensive backs so if he’s actually good, the guy I wrote about yesterday, then he’ll put up numbers here.

Vanderbilt at Arkansas 12:00pm SECN

I wonder if I could interest either of these programs in hiring Mark Richt.

Wake Forest at Louisville 12:00pm RSN/ESPN3

This is as bad as power 5 football gets. Louisville is favored. That isn’t something you should be able to say this year.

20 Wisconsin at Northwestern 12:00pm FOX

This isn’t looking so hot, either. You better hope I’m right about FSU-Clemson being worthwhile because these early games don’t seem very appealing.

North Carolina at Virginia 12:20pm Raycom Sports

UVA-FSU in the ACC Championship Game isn’t something I want to actually watch but I would love to see it happen. Does that make sense? Let’s revel in the tawdriness of the ACC.

Coastal Carolina at Georgia State 2:00pm ESPN+

Christ almighty.

Southern Miss at Charlotte 2:00pm ESPN3

Just find something better to do.

Oregon State at Colorado 3:00pm Pac-12N

Two potential RTARLs-Americans are maybe in this game? I can’t remember what’s up with Laviska Shenault. He might be injured or some shit.

TCU at Kansas 3:00pm FS1

TCU hasn’t been what you would call good this season. Kansas has been normal Kansas. Does that sound entertaining to you?

Arizona State at USC 3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 (RM)

Tons of talent and no good coaching vs. an OK amount of talent and outdated coaching. Porter Gustin is done for the year so if you wanted to see him play you don’t have to feign interest anymore.

Duke at Pitt 3:30pm RSN/ESPN3

Why do we do this to ourselves? Nobody deserves this.

9 Florida at 7 Georgia 3:30pm CBS

This is the actual game of the week. And I don’t really actually trust either team just because of their respective brands. UF has been as good as their collection of talent so far this year but aren’t they always just a couple of horrible series away from unraveling? Kirby Smart might have already peaked in Athens. I hope he has.

Illinois at Maryland 3:30pm BTN

Goddamn all of it. Any sport that would condone Illinois-Maryland as an annual event isn’t deserving of this much of our time.

18 Iowa at 17 Penn State 3:30pm ESPN

Last year the Hawkeyes choked away a big upset and I’d hate to see them lose again. Seems like Penn State flirts with losing every single game. They deserve to lose every single game from now until they drop football.

Kansas State at 8 Oklahoma 3:30pm FOX

If you watched all 64 innings of last night’s World Series game you saw FOX trying to hype this game as something worth your interest. Do not fall for that.

Middle Tennessee at Old Dominion 3:30pm ESPN+

Why does this sport exist?

NIU at BYU 3:30pm ESPNU

The only joy to be had with this game is pronouncing the matchup as Nigh You Bayou.

Cincinnati at SMU 3:30pm CBSSN

Go Fuck Poniis.

21 USF at Houston 3:30pm ABC/ESPN2 (RM)

Decent shot that Ed Oliver and friends fuck up a potential matchup of top 10, 11-0 teams for USF, UCF and the AAC as a whole. What I mean is I expect Houston to win.

12 Kentucky at Missouri 4:00pm SECN

I really thought Memphis was gonna win last week but Kentucky actually should beat Mizzou, right?

New Mexico at Utah State 4:00pm Facebook

This wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it had a 10pm start time and was being broadcast on CBSSN. It’s neither of those things, stupidly enough.

Rice at North Texas 4:00pm ESPN+

Watch UNT go for some points! I think.

UNLV at San Jose State 6:30pm ATTSN

If there were playoffs for the worst 4 teams this would be a very important game.

15 Washington at California 6:30pm FS1

UDub has kind of sucked this year. They shouldn’t but they definitely have. Cal might be able to cure what ails them.

Arkansas State at Louisiana 7:00pm ESPN+

Boise State at Air Force 7:00pm CBSSN

This is a very CBSSN game and I will be here for it.

22 NC State at Syracuse 7:00pm ESPN

I know it’s important in some context but I still wish this game didn’t exist.

New Mexico State at Texas State 7:00pm ESPN3

I bet there’s a prison with a warden who graduated from one of these schools and he’s making the entire prison watch this game and that is a human rights violation.

16 Texas A&M at Mississippi State 7:00pm SECN

Montez Sweat vs. Kellen Mond is kind of intriguing. The uniform matchup is awful enough that it doesn’t matter. Hard pass.

Tulane at Tulsa 7:00pm ESPNU

Tulane is fun to watch but you have to know going in that they aren’t actually good. They just have cool formations and offensive concepts. The players are mostly awful. Tulsa is more of a MAC-style team and I hate them.

14 Washington State at 24 Stanford 7:00pm Pac-12N

Washington State needs to win out for the Pac-12 to have any shot at all for a playoff berth and I want you all to join me in wanting that. Mike Leach in that setting could be era defining.

FIU at WKU 7:30pm beIN SPORTS

Might be worth checking out just for the cool throwback helmets WKU is going to be wearing. Much less interesting for the actual football.

Tennessee at South Carolina 7:30pm SECN

Oh, hey, look! Another game that might be serving as a portal to hell.

UAB at UTEP 7:30pm ESPN+

Bad football isn’t strictly confined to the early games.

3 Notre Dame at Navy 8:00pm CBS

Navy has been awful but are they +23.5 to Notre Dame at home awful? I say no but I’m usually wrong.

6 Texas at 25 Oklahoma State 8:00pm ABC

Is Texas back? If they’re back to being what they’ve been most of this life they’ll get blown the fuck out.

Hawaii at Fresno State 10:30pm ESPN2

i don’t care what the patches on the jerseys say, the WAC will never die.

19 Oregon at Arizona 10:30pm ESPN

I’m not sure the process that lead to hiring Kevin Sumlin was entirely sound but I still want him to make Arizona fun for more than a few weeks at a time. This could be worth some time just to see Justin Herbert sling the ball around.

San Diego State at Nevada 10:30pm ESPNU

Not a good game but a nice uniform matchup at least.

#saturday post #football #college football #tv watch em ups #degenerate football #gambling #fire richt

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flauntpage · 6 years ago

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Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad

Yesterday, VICE Sports Canada published a piece extolling the virtues of MLB's Wild Card format. It's great, you should go read it. Today we offer a counterpoint.

My issue with the one-game wild card playoff in Major League Baseball is not that it’s bad or boring—it is demonstrably neither of those things. I don’t even care whether or not it’s a “fair” representation of which team is necessarily better—if we wanted to reward the team that prevailed over the long run we would simply crown the city with the best regular season record as champions, 19th century style. My problem with the one-game wild card playoff is that it is a flawed solution to a nonexistent problem. It takes a perfect system and mucks it all up.

If you watched last night’s game between the Cubs and Rockies, you probably think this is indefensible, and even though it’s a hill that I am willing to die on, I see how once you get into the weeds of what is “necessary” or “not” in sports, you run the risk of sounding like someone who takes the whole thing a little too seriously. For six years and also last night, the one-game wild card playoff games have been great! Super exciting. I watched the Giants beat the Mets at Citi Field in 2016 and it was one of the most electrifying sporting events I’ve ever seen live. It was also entirely contrived.

Just because something is good, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. (This is neither a moral argument nor a defense of stodgy baseball traditionalists who decry bat flips.) I just mean, like, literally, when it comes to entertainment, it’s all added value and yet we instill arbitrary parameters that curtail the net value of fun. If you like football, why not have 18-week seasons? Or hell, year round! A slip-n-slide between third base and home plate sure sounds like a hoot and yet the basepath remains dirt to this day! If the World Series was nine games long, I would tune in for those extra games and someday find myself marveling at how wacky and wonderful that comeback from a four-game deficit was.

So the question is not whether these games are enjoyable—baseball is awesome, as is deviation from the norm, even when contrived—but whether this is the optimal system for MLB’s playoff structure. Which, it’s not! In fact it is a shift away from the optimal structure, when we had one wild card team.

The single wild card team, introduced in 1994 but first implemented the following year after the strike-shortened ‘94 season, solved the problem introduced by the expansion from two divisions per league to three. In doing so, it also accounted for the possibility that a second place team might have a playoff-worthy record but be denied a spot in October on the virtue of playing in an especially strong division. That these teams are better than the first place teams in other divisions despite playing against such strong competition is a reason to reward them. This reward, as far as I’m concerned, does not need to come with a corresponding punishment. But more on that in a moment.

This is an elegant, airtight solution. It introduced a whole new round (hell yeah, ticket sales) and four more teams into the playoffs while preserving baseball’s superlatively exclusive postseason. And that’s where it should have ended. What baseball failed to realize is something the NCAA has similarly grappled with while selecting the field for its basketball tournament: the cutoff point is always going to be hotly contested, regardless of whether four teams or five from each league ultimately advance to the postseason. But that’s what makes getting to the postseason so special. It’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. There is a cut off and if you don’t make it this year, you have to wait a whole other year to try to get back. I’m not saying having two wild card teams is like giving everyone a participation trophy, but I’m also not not saying that.

That second wild card team was added in 2012 to solve amorphous, situational ills. It was believed that an extra pair of playoff berths would encourage competitive balance; more teams with their eye on October would result in better regular seasons. This is a reasonable assumption but six years into the experiment and more teams than ever are tanking. The Cubs and Astros are largely to blame for this, existing as ringing endorsements of leaning into the rebuild, but if not for parity’s sake then what?

There’s a line of thinking that if wild cards are treated the same as division winners, it dilutes the value of winning the division, but that just doesn’t make any sense. First, a wild card team would still always have to play the best division winner, and second why risk getting into a slugfest with as many as 12 other teams for one spot, when you can battle it out with four others (realistically more like two) in your own division? As a result of this needless fix we now find baseball in a situation where it simultaneously rewards and punishes objectively playoff-caliber teams for having the misfortune of playing in a strong division.

The single most compelling part of the wild card showdown is that it’s one game long—despite everything so deeply entrenched in baseball’s slow-and-steady legacy—but that’s only because that’s all they have time for. There’s a Division Series to get to. It’s a side effect of the constraints, rather than an endgame in and of itself.

Of course, the excitement of a win-or-go-home game is undeniable. That’s what’s so special about Game 7s or Game 163 tie-breakers. Trying to recreate that atmosphere absent the context feels a little like the proposals to start extra innings with a guy on second base. Sure, that’s an exciting scenario, but that doesn’t mean we should necessarily skip the build up. If you want the playoffs to feature all win-or-go-home games then we can just… do that (We can’t, there would be riots, not to mention a massive loss in revenue.) But the one-game, winner-take-all format is merely incidental to adding a second wild card team—it’s a problem born of an unnecessary situation.

MLB is selling a product and of course they want every postseason to be the best one ever but fans should be frustrated by that even if they are benefiting from the experience of these weird-by-design single game series. Last night, people kept talking (OK, tweeting) about various firsts or mosts that the 13 innings between the Cubs and the Rockies represented but it seems odd to marvel at a stat that is largely just reflective of a shift in the overall system and that will be necessarily diluted by the very perpetuation of that system.

All sports drama is contrived but with the one game wild card playoff the machinations of catering to an impatient, short-attention span audience feel especially heavy-handed. It’s arbitrary, not in result, but in design.

Actually, the Wild Card Format is Bad published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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braddavis2410 · 7 years ago

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You’re Still In First Place, Pittsburgh Pirates

My Dearest Pittsburgh Pirates,

I said that I wanted a 4-2 week and you delivered. I’m rather impressed. The week started with a snow out in Chicago on Monday which is when we last spoke. You followed that up by winning two out of three against the division favorite Chicago Cubs. Not easy to pull off on the road though Anthony Rizzo’s trip to the disabled list certainly helped your cause. You didn’t have to face Yu Darvish or Jose Quintana though both of them are off to rough starts anyway. They also didn’t have to face your best pitcher, Jameson Taillon, so it all evens out in the end. You followed that with trip to Miami to play the Derek Jeter owned, rebuilding Marlins. After losing game one in sloppy fashion, you rebounded to win game two 1-0 on Saturday thanks to two bunt base hits and capped it off with a solid 7-3 victory behind a strong outing from Ivan Nova. You are 11-4 and still sit atop the National League Central. You are tied for the second best record in the NL and you are tied for the fourth best record in all of baseball. The bats weren’t as electric this week but you kept finding ways to win which is a sign of a (gulp) good team. I hesitate to use that term simply because it’s still so early and things like Corey Dickerson having the highest lineup drive percentage and the highest WAR in baseball seem unsustainable. The pitching has been better than expected and even the bullpen seems to hopefully be calming down. Who knows how far this will go but all I know for sure is that so far I’m very much enjoying the ride.

Jameson Taillon has become the unrequited ace of this staff. After him, the second-best pitcher in the rotation has by far been Trevor Williams. People might think that his current record of 3-0, his 1.56 ERA, and his 1.21 WHIP are unsustainable statistics. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that he will keep those numbers but his 3.03 FIP is a stat that’s far more interesting to me. It’s not out of the question that he could have a consistent mid 3’s ERA because that’s what he’s been doing for a year now. Over his last year as a starter, Williams is 10-9 in 28 starts with a 3.74 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. Batters splits over that time against him are .251/.324/.380 for a .704 OPS against. He has given up 14 home runs in 163 2/3 innings over that time. That means he gives up one homer every 11.7 innings. All of those numbers include a BABIP (batting avg of balls in play) of .290 which is high and could also go down. Those aren’t exactly ace-type numbers but they are really good if that’s your #3 starter. And keep in mind that he’s young and still learning. He could conceivably improve as he gets older. If he continues like this, the idea of Taillon, eventually top prospect Mitch Keller, and Williams at the top of the rotation becomes very attractive. We will see if the league figures Williams out and if he will have to adjust to keep performing at this level. So far getting him in a trade for a coach that ended up getting fired anyway looks brilliant.

The bullpen still left a lot to be desired after last week. I begged for Neverauskas and Smoker to be demoted for Siegrist and Schugel while not being fully aware that Schugel was coming back from an injury and just started a rehab assignment this week. Siegrist still hasn’t reported to AAA so it seems unlikely we will see him anytime soon, if at all. You did finally send down Smoker and Clay Holmes who was brought up after Musgrove hit the DL. You brought up Kyle Crick, the reliever you received as part of the Cutch trade. He’s a hard thrower with upside so you would hope he can at least be a better option than Josh Smoker. Richard Rodriguez, signed to a minor league deal this offseason, was the other pitcher brought up. He’s at least interesting because his last two years in the minors have been very good. He’s sported ERA’s of 2.53 and 2.42, WHIP’s of 1.10 and 1.05, and a .216 batting average against in both seasons. In those two seasons, he pitched 152 1/3 innings, walked 43, and struck out 161. Those are dominant numbers. He got lit up in five innings in the majors last year but that’s a ridiculously small sample size. He’s a hard thrower but he is already 28. Sometimes you wonder why someone who is so good in AAA hasn’t got more of a chance in the majors. I like his upside so we will see. This week you also acquired Enny Ramirez off waivers from Washington. He will report in the next day or two which hopefully means the demotion of Neverauskas is finally upon us. Ramirez threw 55 2/3 innings in the majors last year for the Nationals with a 3.56 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. His 10.5 K/9 were impressive and his 3.7 BB/9 were not. He pitched 75 2/3 innings the two years prior in Tampa Bay with WHIP’s of 1.73 and 1.53. That’s not good. I like that he has major league experience and if this is our last option out of the bullpen, I feel a lot more comfortable with him then our previous options. Hopefully these additions can stop the bullpen carousel that could very well be a season long issue.

I’ve spoke extensively about how important keeping Polanco healthy is to your season, even after only one hit the entire weekend. It’s very important to keep Francisco Cervelli healthy too. Let’s start with the fact that he currently holds a .904 OPS, a 135 OPS+, and that he’s been extremely clutch sporting a 1.274 OPS with runners in scoring position including 2 homers and 12 RBI’s. The job he does behind the dish might even be more vital. Every pitcher he’s ever caught raves about the help he provides them. Ivan Nova decided to resign with you partially because he loved Cervelli’s insight so much. You also see how seasoned he is compared to your other options. Elias Diaz started for Cevelli on Friday night and he had an adventurous night. He was 2 for 2 with a walk and a two-run homer. That’s a pretty good night. Defense was another story. With a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 5th, the Marlins had the bases loaded and one out. Starlin Castro hit a sacrifice fly to Polanco in right field scoring a run and tying the game. Polanco still made the throw to the plate and Diaz tried to catch the runner tagging to take second. He airmailed it into center field allowing both runs to score and putting them up by two runs. I’ve honestly seen Cervelli make similar mistakes but it’s always worse when it basically costs you the game. The defensive play I had a bigger problem with was when the Marlins got their first run. With two outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 2nd, the Marlins’ pitcher, Dillon Peters, was batting. Chad Kuhl threw a slider in the dirt to Diaz’s non-glove side. Instead of sliding over and using his body to block it, Diaz lazily just tried catch it and it turned into a wild pitch. That slide and block is a Cervelli specialty. That’s not acceptable especially in that situation and Cervelli would know that. It’s those little elements that show off his importance. He already took a pitch off the hand yesterday so who knows how long until he has a stint on the DL. If he keeps hitting in any capacity like this, he becomes more essential than ever.

Naturally all of this good news had to be met with some bad news. The pitch that hit JHay yesterday broke his hand and he will miss six weeks. That means he’s back around the end of May. Not the end of the world but we will see a drop in defense at that position if Adam Frazier becomes the everyday starter with SRod getting starts against lefties. Frazier can hit but watching him boot an easy grounder yesterday after JHay left the game isn’t reassuring. You will go into this week JHay-less back at home for a quick three game homestand against the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies were a wildcard team last year and are out to a 9-8 record so far. Not bad. Thanks to a fight that broke out after a pitch was thrown at him, perennial MVP candidate Nolan Arenado will not play in the series because he’s serving his five-game suspension. That’s now two of the last three series where arguably the team’s best player is out. You need to take advantage. You already did once against the Cubs. After that, you travel across the state to Philadelphia to take on the upstart Phillies in a four-game series. They are 9-5 and currently sit in second place in the NL East. That series should begin with a (not so) friendly face. Jake Arrieta was signed by the Phillies this offseason for 3 years, 75 million and he is scheduled to start game one of the series on Thursday. Fun times. This will be the first week you don’t have a day off so make sure to pace yourself. These are beatable teams but nothing is ever a given. Take care, be safe, and talk to you next week.

Surprisingly Still Steeped In Success,

Brad

P.S. still stands for “Plugging Something” which remains the unchanged phrase. I would like you remind you that my new podcast that I co-wrote with my friend Chris Maxwell called DEATH AT SUNSET: HARD TIMES AND SOFT DRINKS is now available on Apple Podcasts (aka iTunes), Stitcher Radio, Google Radio Play, and SoundCloud. Follow P.I. Jack Dime as he searches for a missing bus boy and stumbles upon a conspiracy involving a Los Angeles booze shortage. This comedy sunshine noir story is told in four, 20 (ish) minutes episodes. Please listen, rate, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for your support of this blog and of our new endeavor!

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son-of-a-duck · 7 years ago

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March 2, 2018

Last night I got seven hours of sleep, so that was a slight improvement over previous nights. I also didn't run on the elliptical this morning because yesterday my left knee started getting pretty achy while at work and I decided I wanted to give it a little time off.

I was off desk for the first two hours of work. I looked at Twinery examples, read news articles, talked to my coworker, and worked on the active shooter cheat sheet. I tweaked the cheat sheet throughout the day but I think it's pretty close to its final form. Or at least the final rough draft. I'll get input from the managers' meeting next week.

I was on desk for two hours after that. I worked on the active shooter thing, helped patrons, answered phone calls, and had an interesting interaction in chat. They asked for a cool book and when I asked what there definition of “cool” was they said “cold”. So I asked if they wanted places or food. When they said food I gave them a link to a book about ice cream. Then they asked for a cookbook. And when I asked what kind, they said ice cream. I sent a link to one of those, they said thank you, and thankfully that was the end of it.

When I got back from lunch I answered a call from New York. The person wanted to know if we had access to the local newspaper from the 1930s, which we do on microfilm. Then he asked if I could find and mail a copy of the front page of the March 10, 1938 to a local address. It was meant to be a birthday present for a local resident, who was born on that date. The guy calling was the boyfriend of a woman who I think is the granddaughter of the local resident, and the rest of the family lives in Germany, so this was their attempt at a birthday present. I managed to find the page, got it printed out across two legal size pages because the entire page of a newspaper is big, wrote a quick letter to go along with it so the guy knew what was going on, and got it put in an envelope and ready to be mailed out.

I was on desk for an hour again and spent that time doing things. The main thing was updating drop-in information on the calendar. Previously I moved the location of the drop-ins happening in April and May because of the remodeling. Then it was decided we needed to move the ones in March as well. I was able to move the one at the end of March but there wasn't really a viable location for the one next week, so I think we're going to leave it because the room shouldn't be needed next week for remodeling-related things. I also updated the description for each one to reflect the the correct room, because I forgot to do that when I moved locations. After that I signed up for a webinar about conflict and read news articles.

The last hour of the day was spent reading library magazines because I wanted a break from the computer. I also ordered a pizza, because that sounded good, even though I still have leftovers from Chipotle and the last time I cooked.

On the way home I stopped for gas, and within maybe two or three minutes of getting home, the pizza was delivered. This was perfect timing and a pleasant surprise because it was supposed to take quite a bit longer than that. I got Pizza Hut for the first time in years. I mainly avoid it because it's pretty greasy. I think it was slightly better than I remember but still kind of greasy. My pizza had barbeque sauce and it was half green peppers and half pineapple. I also got fries, because apparently Pizza Hut has fries now. They are in the same realm as Spangles fries, which is cool because those are my favorite, but they were put in a covered box when they were hot (which is the same thing IHOP does), so by the time I got them they were just kind of soggy. Still tasty though.

While I ate I watched videos, and then I played CoD: WW2. I noticed the playlist for the new maps so I jumped in that. I got to play all the new maps but one of them caused my game to crash the two times I got into it. After that I updated my graphics driver (because that fixed things back when Operation Griffin was crashing my game) so hopefully the next time I get that map my game won't crash. Other than the crashing, I had fun. I need to play the new maps more to see if I actually like them. Right now they are interesting but I can't fully have fun with them when I have no idea where I should be going and where I should be expecting the other players to come from.

After playing I went back to watching videos and I got distracted by that for too long because it is now 12:45AM and I'm freaking tired. But I will hopefully get a full night of sleep tonight and won't be waking up to an alarm in the morning. I might even do something productive tomorrow. It's a solid maybe.

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yahoo-big-league-stew-blog · 7 years ago

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The Cubs' struggling offense will have to figure out Yu Darvish in NLCS Game 3

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Nearly two days after it happened, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s managerial oopsie-doodle in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series is still the only thing anyone wants to talk about. (And who could blame them?)

But it’s important to remember: the Cubs are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in a seven-game series, and it’s far from over. The Cubs have lost two, but Sunday’s snafu wasn’t the end. In fact, there’s another game Tuesday night, as the series shifts back to Chicago. Another game means that the Cubs will have a chance to crawl back from their 2-0 deficit, and show that their offense has a little life in it.

[Now’s the time to sign up for Fantasy Football! Join for free]

So which Dodgers starter are the Cubs taking on in NLCS Game 3?

Yu Darvish's Slider to Paul Goldschmidt was downright FILTHY. pic.twitter.com/nd3fwwL2fh

— Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) October 10, 2017

Yup, it’s that guy. Yu Darvish. That’s him totally fooling Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt in his last start, which was against the D-backs in Game 3 of the NLDS. Darvish helped the Dodgers complete a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks, pitching five innings of one-run ball before manager Dave Roberts called in his bullpen.

That was eight days ago. Darvish had electric stuff in that start, but it hasn’t made him overconfident about facing the Cubs. Here’s what he said to the media on Monday:

They’ve got really good lineups from top to bottom, and they play as a team so there is nobody in that lineup that I can get easy on. So it’s going to be a battle, and I just want to take one pitch at a time, one guy at a time.

Darvish isn’t taking anything for granted — he knows the Cubs can be a tough offensive team to face. And they definitely can be. But right now, that’s not who the Cubs are. Out of every team that’s left in the playoffs, they have the lowest batting average by far. They have the lowest everything, in fact. Over seven 2017 playoff games, they’re hitting .162 as a team. Their collective on-base percentage is a paltry .251, and their slugging percentage is at .262. It’s bad. Compare that to the Dodgers: over five playoff games, they’ve collectively hit .275/.387/.463.

The Cubs’ postseason stats are a far cry from their regular season offense, in which they hit .255/.338/.437. And since the playoffs are such a small sample size, you could even say that the Cubs are perhaps due for an offensive breakout. Right?

Anthony Rizzo reacts after getting hit by a pitch during Game 2 of the NLCS vs. the Dodgers. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Well, that brings us back to Yu Darvish. Because while the Cubs probably won’t hit like crap forever, Darvish isn’t really anyone’s idea of a slump-busting pitcher. And the Cubs are at a distinct disadvantage here: with Darvish spending most of his career in the AL, most of the Cubs hitters have barely seen him. In fact, of the 10 players that Maddon has started over the last seven postseason games, only one has faced him for more than three at-bats: Ben Zobrist. Zobrist is 2-for-12 against Darvish, with two walks and four strikeouts.

Of the other nine guys that Maddon has started, four haven’t faced Darvish at all: Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora Jr., Javier Baez and Jon Jay. The other five (Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant and Jason Heyward) have seen him for two or three at-bats, all coming in a July 2016 interleague game against the Texas Rangers. All of them racked up at least one strikeout, and only Rizzo managed a hit.

Maddon actually has more experience with Darvish than anyone, having spent the first three years of Darvish’s career managing an AL team. And during his news conference yesterday, he told the media that he and the Cubs have a plan of attack for Darvish.

“Obviously without getting into detail, we know what he likes to do. Most of the times when you’re able to get pitchers of that quality, two things have to occur, they’re off with their command a little bit and you get them early in the game. That’s normally — because when you get guys like that settled in, it becomes increasingly difficult and more difficult to get them as the game is in progress.

So that’s the two things I’ll be looking for. If there are any command issues and how we react in the early part of the game, because, again, if you permit them a lead at all, it’s really hard to match up with them in the latter part of the game.”

Of course, that requires that Darvish be off his command. And with an eight-day layoff, that’s entirely possible. But it’s also possible that with over a week between starts, Darvish is simply very well rested and well studied on all the Cubs hitters.

We don’t know what could happen. The eternally dependable Corey Kluber took the mound for the Cleveland Indians two separate times in the playoffs, and both times he looked awful. So anything is possible. Darvish could forget how to throw a baseball, or Bryant could try holding the bat at the wrong end as a fun experiment. We won’t know until both teams take the field on Tuesday night. But no matter what, it’ll be worth watching.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher

More from Yahoo Sports: • Kaepernick question sets off Green Bay coach • Popovich: Trump is a ‘soulless coward’ • NFL Power Rankings: Does anyone deserve No. 1? • The one mistake that led to the Aaron Judge of old

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