#Major League Debut

[newyorkthegoldenage]

On May 16, 1957, the Dodgers introduced a new young pitcher by the name of Sandy Koufax. Shown here in the eighth inning, he struck out 13 Cubs and led the Bums to a 3-2 victory at Wrigley Field.

Photo: Harry Hall for the AP via the LA Times

[dinosaurwithablog]

Today marks the 8 year anniversary of Aaron Judge's major league debut. He homered on his first at bat. And he's still going strong!!! I love Aaron Judge!!! 😍 Let's go Yankees!!!!!

[freshthoughts2020]

[bgtem]

Messi - Inter Miami.

[matthewliberatore]

what pete alonso sees right before i punch him in the face

[conniesblueboys]

Nick Robertson

[settsplitt]

Idk if I'm strong enough to wake up at 5am next week to watch baseball.....on a work day and everything 😭😭

[dailynews60]

"Mesmerising: Lionel Messi's Historic MLS Debut Reignites Soccer Fever in Miami"

To commemorate Lionel Messi’s anticipated debut with Inter Miami CF and Major League Soccer on Friday, July 21, fans worldwide may tune in to MLS Season Pass to experience a variety of multimedia that compliments all of the action on the pitch. “Lionel Messi’s Historic Debut with Inter Miami CF and MLS Season Pass” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi “Lionel Messi joining Inter Miami…

[prokopetz]

I'm spinning this off of the main thread about tracing the origin of the term "d66" because it's not strictly germane to the topic – none of these examples actually use the term "d66" to describe their dice-rolling methods – but I'm going to post it anyway as a matter of general interest: following a conversation with Tumblr user @notclevr, it appears that before tabletop wargames (and, nearly concurrently, tabletop RPGs) got their hands on the mechanic, the principal (though by no means exclusive) users of the old "roll a six-sided die twice, reading one die as the 'tens' place and the other die as the 'ones' place" trick may have been tabletop American baseball simulators.

The most notable example of the type – and the only well-known example still in publication today – is J Richard Seitz' APBA Baseball, first published in either 1950 or 1951 (accounts vary). In this game, a d66 roll is cross-referenced with a card representing the active player and a "board" representing the current situation on the field:

For example, with Carlton Fisk at bat, a d66 roll of 31 would yield a result of "8". Assuming for the sake of argument that the situation on the field is a runner on first and a grade C pitcher, consulting the "Runner on First Base" board, this corresponds to an outcome of "SINGLE—line drive to left; runner to third".

(This example is, strictly speaking, incorrect, as Carlton Fisk didn't have his major league debut until 1969 and I'm using the wrong lookup tables for any year in which he played, but you get the idea!)

Interestingly, APBA Baseball is not the first game to use this setup. It's heavily derived from Clifford Van Beek's National Pastime, a game whose patent was registered in 1925, though it wasn't actually published until 1930. Even at a glance, the similarities are substantial:

Indeed, though National Pastime's lookup tables are much simpler than APBA Baseball's, where they overlap they're often word for word identical. It's generally accepted that Seitz plagiarised National Pastime without credit when creating APBA Baseball (ironically, given his own famously combative stance toward alleged imitators!), though he was within his rights to do so, as National Pastime had fallen into the public domain by the time APBA Baseball was published.

We can go back even further, though. As far as I've been able to determine, the earliest known tabletop baseball simulator to use d66 lookup tables for resolving plays is Edward K McGill's Our National Ball Game, first published in 1886:

A copy of the game's 1887 US patent application can be downloaded here. This one uses an unusual 21-entry variant of the standard d66 lookup table in which the order of the rolled digits is insignificant, with doubles being half as likely as non-doubles rolls; it's unclear whether McGill was aware of this when he laid out the table. Unlike later incarnations of the genre, there are no individual player statistics, with all at-bats being resolved via the same table.

[firstpitchswinging]

manoah looks like he would give really good hugs

[i-miss-breathing]

DPxDC prompt idea

So everyone believes Danny is some ancient being, and in this one, he IS.

In a time travel incident with clockwork he got stuck in like the beginning of time, clockwork got idk captured or something and wasn’t able to, or didn’t want to, get him out of the past before it happened, and Danny has been trying to find a natural portal for millennia to see what happened to clockwork, and to get back to his time. But they either don’t stay open long enough or he does go into one and appears in the past infinite realms, aligning with the time he’s in instead of the time he’s from.

He becomes a master at fitting in, learning all the languages keeping up with the fashion trends, both as Danny and as phantom.

He meets all the immortal heroes in this time, he avoids himself in the time periods he already time travelled to, and he just continues to be a hero throughout all of it. Knowing after the first 10 years he’s immortal as he hasn’t changed at all, he knows he’ll see his family and friends again one day, the thought playing in his head like a mantra for like 10,000 years, he sees a little bit of history everywhere, becoming a nomad, traveling from place to place, doing odd jobs for whatever currency his newest home uses, staying in inns or with whoever’s kind enough to let him, he’s in a constant state of mourning and keeping his need to protect fed and trying to keep his morale up, refusing to break

he does things like watching the Industrial Revolution and pushing oil and coal instead of the newly discovered substance ectoplasm, as ectoplasm is radioactive and they don’t have a way to make it safe, and they also don’t have any access to solar power yet and he wouldn’t know where to start. Sam was going to kill him.

He sabotages nazis in ww2, he frees prisoners in concentration camps, and he meets Wonder Woman, who has apparently heard stories about him.

He doesn’t do anything to change any major event, as much as it hurts, because clockwork isn’t here to guide him on what’s going to lead to something better or worse, and if he changes something too much he may never meet his friends again.

He’s finally in the 21st century.

He can see his friends again.

But…

He’s future Danny sent to the past by future clockwork, present Danny still has present clockwork, who is probably aware of what’s going to happen but isn’t going to say anything, future clockwork is nowhere to be seen, and Danny is finally in the 21st century. But he’s not their Danny.

Several more years of traveling, contemplating, saving people, reminding himself that his friends are so close and yet refusing to see them. His memory never changes, he barely forgot anything in 10,000 years, he still remembers their last conversation as if they’d just had it, but he also remembers all the friends he’d made in that time without them. He knows even if he doesn’t go back, he’ll be ok.

He can feel the portal open. He knows what’s happening. He almost wants to stop it just so that present him, past him, doesn’t experience this eternity. He doesn’t.

He leaves Illinois, he sees the debut of Superman, he sees the creation of the justice league

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers pt2

Episode 1 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 6 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Episode 8 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 9 of My Adventure with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

(SPOILERS obviously):

An obvious one, but a classic, the "up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" line reference. This one never gets old.

Jimmy next name drops Flamebird. in the comics Nightwing and Flamebird were Kryptonian superheroes adopting their names from a species of Kryptonian birds. This is where Dick Grayson gets his Nightwing identity from. The page here is from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #17 (1986) drawn by Curt Swan and Karl Kesel.

At the climatic battle of part 2 of Adventures of a Normal Man, we see Leslie Willis become blue and look more like her traditional Livewire look. Her first appearance was in Superman the Animated Series, season 2 episode 5 "Livewire" where she was voiced by Lori Petty, a.k.a. Tank Girl. In the show Leslie was a shock jock radio DJ slinging hot takes live on air knocking down Superman a peg or two

Obviously MAwS took Leslie in a whole different direction, design choice, and occupation change, but I am excited to see what happens next for her.

Before we see Clark battle Leslie we see this guy. White hair, wears orange and black, its Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke. This fool here in like 20 to 25 years will have his life spiral out of control and get his ass kicked by a bunch of colorfully dressed teenagers.

Deathstroke makes his first appearance in New Teen Titans #2 (1980) (W: Marv Wolfman and George Perez, P: George Perez, I: Romeo Tanghal, C: Adrienne Roy, L: Ben Oda) where he is hired by H.I.V.E. to kill the Teen Titans. In the comics he's a major piece of shit, but a damn good assassin.

After the fight we see Supes clean up and he picks up a billboard that reads Amazotech.

This is a good reference to Professor Anthony Ivo, a mad scientist of the DC Universe who built the Amazo robot who could adapt and replicate any power that the Justice League has and weaknesses. Both Ivo and the Amazo robot make their first appearances here in Brave and the Bold #30 (1960) with the cover art done by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson.

At the end of the episode Slade name drops Task Force X better known as the Suicide Squad. The name "Suicide Squad" is from the Brave and the Bold #25 where it was the name of Rick Flag's unit in the military. The Suicide Squad pop culture knows first debuted in Legends #3 (1987) as seen below (W: John Ostrander and Len Wein, P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tom Ziuko, L: Steve Haynie).

The team at this time was composed of Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Enchantress, and Blockbuster. The team members have changed out with each new Task Force X/Suicide Squad iteration.

Behind Slade, here is Amanda Waller, the most fearsome woman in the DC universe. She's ruthless, politically powerful, and will not hesitate to blow up anyone in the Suicide Squad if they screw up. She makes her first appearance in Legends #1 (1987) same comic series in the previous picture. Very excited to see where My Adventures with Superman goes with this cuz you don't see Superman interact with Deathstroke or Suicide Squad all the often.

Link to Episode 1 of My Adventures of Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 6 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Link to Episode 8 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[casscainmainly]

This is a copy/paste of a reply I did to this post. I'm putting it in its own post because I genuinely need people to understand that saying Duke is unpopular because he's 'new' or unknown only furthers the racism Black characters face in fandom. This extends to the sexism Babs and Steph face, and the double racism/sexism that Cass faces.

For everyone in [this post's] notes saying [Duke's unpopularity in fanfiction] is because Duke is new, that's part of it, but absolving fandom of responsibility is misguided and sweeping both racism and sexism under the rug. The newness argument doesn't explain why Damian has more fics than Cass, Stephanie, and Babs, who all predate him.

More importantly: Jon Kent, who was introduced one year after Duke in 2015, has a total of 3,144 works under 'Jonathan Samuel Kent' and 9,280 works under 'Jon Kent'. That is 12,424 fics - around 5,000 more than Duke, despite debuting at roughly the same time.

The adaptation argument (that the ones who are more adapted are more likely to be written about) is also flawed - Tim has 3 major TV show appearances (The New Batman Adventures, Young Justice, and Titans). He cameos in Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and an episode of Justice League. For films, he appears in two DCAU movies, Batman Unlimited, Gotham by Gaslight, Batman Ninja, and Death in the Family. That's 12 total appearances in film and TV.

By comparison, Barbara has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to adaptations of her. She appears in 8 animated films, 6 animated Lego films, and has 5 animated film cameos. This is already more adaptations than Tim. Add to that 60s Batman, the Birds of Prey show, Titans, Gotham, DC Super Hero Girls, BTAS, Batman Beyond, Gotham Girls, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice, Beware the Batman, Teen Titans Go!, Harley Quinn, Batman: Caped Crusader, and the live action Batman & Robin, that's 35 total appearances across film and TV.

Barbara Gordon as Batgirl is undeniably more popular to the general public than Tim Drake as Robin, and her film and TV adaptations also outnumber Jason's (13, with 90% of those being pictures of him because he's dead) and Damian's (15). So if she should be more popular than Tim in every supposed metric (longevity, adaptations, even name recognition), you have to ask yourself: why is she less popular in fandom?

To return to Duke Thomas, if you're even a casual Batman fanfic reader you would know that most of his tagged fics are not about him. Duke has 7,042 tagged fics, and of those, 242 works are tagged as Duke Thomas-centric. By contrast, Tim Drake has 62,704 total works, with 3,809 tagged Tim Drake-centric. That means 3.4% of Duke fics are tagged as Duke-centric, whereas 6% of Tim fics - almost twice as much - are Tim-centric. This is not a perfect metric by any means (for example, Dick actually has less than Duke with 2%, though this is due to him having a bonkers amount of fics), but it is illustrative of the trend that literally anyone who's skimmed AO3 could tell you.

More comparisons: Jason Todd (2,990/76,427 = 3.9%), Damian Wayne (1,870/45,635 = 4%), Cassandra Cain (200/17,060 = 1.1%), Barbara Gordon (54/16,729 = 0.3%). Keep in mind not everyone uses the -centric tag, but this is generally useful to see broad trends.

If debut date, adaptations, popularity among the public, amount of canon content, or presence in major Batman events were truly the deciding factor, Barbara would be the second most popular character in fandom (behind Dick). However, she isn't. Even Dick isn't the most popular - Tim, despite his lack of adaptations, is clearly the Batboy centred most in fanfiction and fandom. Therefore, the treatment of Babs, Steph, Cass, and Duke in fandom cannot be attributed purely to lack of knowledge.

Blaming fandom's focus on the White- or White-passing boys on canon is ignoring the signs of racial and gendered biases in the way we latch onto characters. Fandom barely cares about canon - most Titans Tower AUs or family fluff blatantly ignore huge chunks of comics. If we can ignore Gotham War, make up lies about Red Robin (2009), and pretend Tim's allergic to shrimp, why can't we extend that imagination to the POC and female characters? Why are they less worthy of our efforts to make stories about them, whether they have canon/adaptational histories or not?

All this to say, trying to explain away the lack of works for Duke and the girls will not solve anything. Making excuses for the fandom is only perpetuating the racist and sexist erasure of these characters. Instead, read their comics! Here is a list of reading guides for POC characters.

Not interested in comics? Read these Duke fics (compiled by @himejoshiangels)! Also take the time to go through the Barbara Gordon-centric tag and support those creators. Feel free to post any recs of your own as well :).

[newtonsheffield]

two questions about the baseball au…

Is Edmund alive?

Is Chicago Anthony’s hometown?

1) Edmund is not alive we’ll get into that a little on Kate and Anthony’s second date

2) Chicago is Anthony hometown. He grew up going to cubs games with his family and it was one of the proudest moments of his life when he got drafted and made his major league debut on Wrigley Field. There’s always rumours about whether or not he’s agreed to a trade waiver but the truth is if Anthony’s no longer a cub it’s because he’s not playing baseball anymore. He loves Wrigley Field and that’s one of the reasons the fans love him so much. One of the reasons his jersey sells the most: Anthony is one of them.

[bgtem]

Vamosss Miami!!!

[luellasplanet]

crowded and confused. (aggie beever-jones & grace clinton)

word count: 1k

this was one of the fics i wrote when i got drunk and i’ve tried to make it make sense but i really don’t think it does

on your first ever lioness u16 camp you were paired up to room with grace. your shy nature hindered your ability to make friends meaning you followed poor grace around like a lost puppy for the first four days of camp, before you properly started interacting with the rest of the team. much to the relief of the brunette, who could only handle a few days without interacting with everyone else before she lost her mind.

your friendship with aggie in the beginning was slightly more forced than yours and grace’s. due to you playing in a forward position it meant that you and the blonde were constantly having to work on both your off and on the field connection.

but once you had warmed up to the blonde you had spent the majority of your time during the youth group stages with her.

and then even more time with aggie when you moved from your grassroots club to chelsea shortly after that camp.

even four years later you and aggie remained close friends. the two of you had moved in together at the beginning of the 23/24 season following the end of your loan spells at your respective clubs.

during your champions league debut in the first half of the season you had gone down with a broken foot after landing awkwardly during a corner. which meant that you were bedridden for a few weeks before the doctor gave you the all clear to slowly get back to daily life.

the rhythmic four knocks, on your front door, that were repeated in a specific pattern, meant that you knew exactly who was at your door. “oh that’s gracie, i’ll go open for her.” but before you had the chance to stand up aggie was up to open the door, but not before gently pushing you back down onto the bar stool.

ever since you had gone down during the match aggie had been at your aid, offering hugs, food, water, hoodies, anything that you needed she was there within seconds. going with you to all your physio appointments and making sure to keep a close eye on you during gym sessions.

“oh! hey aggie wasn’t expecting to see you here, is y/n home?” slightly pushing past the blonde she made her way into the living room and kitchen area when she saw your crutches placed haphazardly against the couch.

grace had brought a gift basket full of chocolates, hot chocolate bombs, one of her hoodies and your favourite candles plus flowers.

“hey y/n/n, how are you feeling darling?” setting the basket down onto the chair that aggie was previously sitting on in order to have free hands to give you a hug.

aggie busied herself on the other side of the counter, quickly making herself a cup of tea before making her way into her room without even sparing a second glance at the two of you.

three hours later after catching up you and grace had arranged to go out for dinner next saturday so she could introduce you to some of her spurs teammates. “bye gracie, i’ll see you next weekend!” closing the front door softly before locking it and throwing the key onto the countertop.

throughout those three hours there was still no sight of your blonde roommate. after a very painfully slow walk upstairs and across the hallway you knocked on aggie’s door.

before you could even start talking she was already fussing over you walking upstairs by yourself. “you’ve been on your feet too much, you should sit down. you still aren’t allowed to put pressure on your foot properly.” dragging you over to her bed before sitting on it next to you.

the silence in the room was deafening but you mustered up the courage to ask where she had disappeared to. “wanna tell me why you vanished into thin air when gracie came to visit?”

you were met with radio silence. which had left you ever more confused than before. you convinced yourself that you were being ridiculous, aggie and grace were friends, always had been and always will be.

you had slotted in and turned the dynamic duo into the troublesome trio. always getting in trouble for goofing off during training and getting told that the three of you had to speak to more than just each other at camps.

but the disappearing act continued every time that grace came over aggie suddenly had twenty other things to do instead of hanging out with her ‘two best friends.’

same goes for grace. if you invited her anywhere and mentioned that aggie was going she suddenly had to rain check on the plan’s because ‘something came up.’

utter bullshit.

and anytime you could get them in a room together they sat on either side of you constantly trying to win your attention.

whether it was a hand on your thigh, an arm around the back of your chair or offering to do something for you.

it was exhausting. yet you didn’t know what to do, talking to them seemed the reasonable decision but being able to get them into a room together was the difficult part.

after many many feeble attempts to get them to talk to one another you turned to your teammates for help. millie and niamh had helped you realise that maybe both aggie and grace liked you more than just a friend.

but how could you choose just one of them?

there was aggie with her infectious smile and caring nature that made your heart flutter every time you were with her. but then there was also grace who had the best jokes and her constant need for physical affection had you swooning.

there was just no possible way that you could pick between the two.