Left Coast Sports Babe

MLB just canceled the second week of the regular season. So did owners decide as long as Russian invasion of Ukraine is going on Americans don’t have the bandwidth to be outraged?

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At this point MLB opening day at the earliest will be Jackie Robinson Day.

Your reminder, most MLB owners didn’t want Jackie Robinson to play ball either.

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Noticed MLB has followed MLBPA in creating fund for spring training stadium workers who will lose money due to lockout. What about restaurants, bars & other small businesses who count on Feb & March for a substantial part of their revenue? After COVID losses in 2020 & 2021.

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Stephen Colbert points out no one knows what “Z” which is being used as symbol supporting Russian invasion of Ukraine, means. Z doesn’t exist in Cyrillic Russian alphabet. Well, with sanctions maybe Z was the only letter left at Russian ruble equivalent of Dollar store?

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Although maybe “Z” is the Russian “Q?” And is JFK Jr somehow involved?

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Russian oil accounts for only about 8 percent of U.S. oil imports. So why are gas prices skyrocketing? (Take a look at oil company stocks, for starters.)

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Apparently Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott are still operating locations in Russia. Uh, with all the sanctions, planes grounded, banks closed, etc, uh, for exactly what kind of travel these days?

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Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who has not condemned Florida’s #DontSayGay bill, said he called Governor Ron DeSantis today to convey the company’s “disappointment and concern.” “Disappointment and concern?” So when Chapek retires will he run for the Senate in Maine?

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Governor Ron DeSantis’s Florida now is telling children not to get vaccinated for COVID, and new state guidance says 16 & 17 year old children may face more risk from the vaccine than from the virus… I miss the days when Florida man was only a danger to himself.

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Former Velveeta Voldemort Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham was on “The View” yesterday. Uh, if she couldn’t be bothered to have a press conference when it was her job, why should anyone watch her now. Asking for a country tired of this BS.

Atlanta WR Calvin Ridley suspended at least a year by NFL for betting on games. He apparently placed parlay bets involving 3, 5 & 8 games while on injured list -all including Falcons to win. The Falcons to win? Wonder if Ridley asked for clemency by reason of insanity? #whodat

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How pathetic is MLB right now? The owners’ second or third self-imposed deadline for ending their lockout & keeping a full season came and went tonight, and it’s not even on the top page of ESPN’s sports’ headlines.

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Well, not that they’ve been shamed into doing the right thing for fans, but at least MLB were shamed into helping workers – they launched a $1 million fund today day to support spring training workers impacted by canceled games, matching what players did last week.

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Per a telephone survey, about 58% of Russians approve of the invasion of Ukraine, while 23 % oppose it. But have to wonder, how many people polled by phone in Russia think their phones are tapped?

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Higher fuel prices hurt, & they especially hurt lower & middle-income Americans. So let’s make it simple for all those GOP who think gas prices are most significant issue facing USA now. Repeal Trump tax cuts & use money for tax credits or to subsidize gas prices. You’re welcome.

Weekend before USA shutdown in March 2020, was in Washington DC & bought a copy of “The Splendid and the Vile” about Churchill during the London Blitz. Great book. But never expected anyone to come before UK Parliament now for a 21st Century version.

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Susan Collins met with Ketanji Brown Jackson for nearly two hours today “It’s clear that her credentials & the breadth of her experience are impressive.” I WANT to believe Senator Collins is a yes. Or will she come up with a “very troubling” reason to vote no?

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January 1977, my senior year of high school in Florida,, Dade County Commission passed gay-rights ordinance, Anita Bryant launched dishonest ‘Save Our Children” campaign & Voters repealed gay rights in June 1977 Until DeathSantis this seemed like Florida dark ages.

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Gawd we are a nation of snowflakes Not making this up, went into bank to cash check & get some small bills for tips for travel. Woman in front of me in line asked teller if Wells Fargo would notify them if Ukraine war meant “we won’t be able to get our money out of the bank.”

Congrats to Gregg Popovich for tying Don Nelson’s NBA record of career coaching wins. San Antonio Spurs beat the Lakers tonight 117 to 110. 1,335 total wins. And at least that many reporters who regret asking Pop stupid questions.

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Not a single MLB owner will miss a meal or rent payment because spring training & regular season games are canceled. Not a single MLB owner will miss a dream spring training or opening day trip. & these are millionaires/billionaires some politicians tell us still need a tax cut?

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It’s about time: Senate just PASSED the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, cosponsored by Cory Booker and Tim Scott, which designates lynching as a federal hate crime by unanimous consent. Didn’t think Senate could get unanimous consent on the color of the sky.

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Putin has been suppressing votes by every means necessary for years in Russian elections. Now, it is basically impossible for him to be voted out of office. While we support democracy in Ukraine we need to remember to support democracy at home. And pass a new Voting Rights act.

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We’re all in awe of Zelenskyy – “I’m staying in Kyiv. In my office. I’m not hiding. I’m not afraid of anyone.” Remember now Jan. 20, 2021? Many Americans thought inaugural committee led by Klobuchar & Blunt, along w/ Biden, were nuts just to keep Joe’s inauguration outside.

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Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announces the state is going to be the first to recommend against the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy kids. What’s next, Florida telling parents their kids don’t need to bother getting vaccinated against mumps, measles and polio?

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New Florida motto – come for the sun, stay for the deadly diseases?

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Russia constitution says a President can only serve two terms. With various machinations, Putin has been in power since 2000,, and just changed rules, again, to allow him to stay in power theoretically until 2036. Think Velveeta Voldemort wouldn’t have tried to do the same here?

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CNN reports how Russian ambassador to UN says “We are NOT bombing civilians.” And blames “Ukraine Nationalists.”

If you wonder where the Former Guy & his cult got the idea to blame “Antifa” for everything…

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Since we need all the moments of positivity we can get these days. I love everything about this picture: Queen Elizabeth Meets with Justin Trudeau for First In-Person Engagement Since COVID..

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https://people.com/royals/queen-elizabeth-first-in-person-engagement-since-recovering-from-covid-justin-trudeau/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-share-article

Apparently women’s basketball star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia now for about 3 weeks. Makes me wonder, did Putin order Griner held indefinitely, while he planned to invade Ukraine, as a possible hostage?

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Apparently MLBPA has agreed to ban shifts. So they’re conceding that major league hitters can’t learn how to hit to the opposite field. Or to bunt?

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When with about 20 games – about 25% – left in NBA season & for all but about 3-4 teams on the bubble – it just comes down to postseason seeding, you’ve created a sport where the regular season doesn’t matter. And MLB wants to move in that direction

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As some in GOP peddle the statement that Putin didn’t invade Ukraine on Velveeta Voldemort’s watch? Well of course not, in what Vlad thought would be Former Guy’s first term the Russian dictator was too busy consolidating his efforts to take over America.

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So now that the #PeoplesConvoy has experienced the joys of being stuck in DC beltway traffic, protesting COVID restrictions that have largely been lifted, what’s next? Another convoy to protest gas prices after the truckers all wasted so much of it idling in stopped traffic?

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So if the truckers’ #PeoplesConvoy insists they are protesting COVID restrictions would it be churlish to suggest they try driving to the only state remaining with seriously tight statewide restrictions? That would be Hawaii.

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Got my fingernails done yesterday and amazed how touching it was to see high school girls excitedly getting mani-pedis for a formal dance tonight. A small thing maybe, but we need all the joy we can get these days.

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SNL Cold Open last Saturday has Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham and Alex Moffat as Tucker Carlson… raising money for those who Fox News believes are the real victims of Putin invading Ukraine – Russian oligarchs. Would be funnier if less accurate.

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This may end up forgotten and hoping the Ukrainian President literally dodged a bullet. But Saturday morning, Zelenskyy gave updates to U.S. Senators and member of Congress on a Zoom chat.

The Ukrainian ambassador requested that nobody share anything on social media during the meeting, because Russians could use it to pinpoint Zelinkskyy’s location. Sens. Rubio and Daines posted screenshots from the Zoom anyway, putting Zelenskyy’s life at risk.

Bad enough some in former adminstration put book sales over country. But twitter impressions over a world leader’s life?

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Feb 12, 2021 Nikki Haley on Velveeta Voldemort “We shouldn’t have listened to him. We can’t let that ever happen again.”

April 13, 2021. Nikki Haley says she’ll support & not challenge Trump if he runs in 2024

Why the f**k does ANYONE care what Haley says now about Ukraine?

Not that it would make a difference with most of the serious problems in the world right now. But it sure would be nice to have MLB spring training games as a distraction now.

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Of course, the NBA plays 82 games, about half the teams make the playoffs. and much of the season is meaningless. So maybe that’s MLB owners’ goal?

MLBPA apparently preparing a written response to MLB’s owners last offer. Wonder if the response contains any words that might get you suspended from Twitter or Facebook?

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34 House Republicans voted with ALL House Democrats for bill to dramatically boost health care services & disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq & Afghanistan. 174 voted no. So about 16% of GOP house members actually give a d*mn about our troops.

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Noticing a lot of people saying they don’t care about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT scores. I don’t care either, she’s a brilliant judge and was an editor of Law Review. But pretty sure her test scores were higher than average for SCOTUS & certainly higher than F*ckwit Carlson.

So with Facebook and Twitter now banned in Russia wonder if Vladimir Putin will allow Russians to use Truth Social?

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Vladimir Putin has signed bill with new prison sentences of up to 15 years for spreading information going against Russian government’s position on war in Ukraine. How close did we come to Velveeta Voldemort trying to do something similar by executive order in a 2nd term?

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Vladimir Putin called Friday for the “normalization” of relations with other states, saying Moscow has “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.” Amazed Vlad didn’t say the invasion was “legitimate political discourse.”

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Reports that Russia is poised to deploy up to 1,000 more mercenaries to Ukraine in the coming days and weeks. With all the sanctions what is Putin going to pay them with

Would never accuse MLB owners & commissioner Rob Manfred of being glad Russia has invaded Ukraine. I’m sure that all decent people are appalled. But it has been good timing that Putin keeps Manfred for being one of the most universally hated people in America.

#PlayBall

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Meanwhile, if you didn’t already love former SF Giants pitcher and current announcer Mike Krukow, Thursday he compared Manfred to a Batman villain.

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Uh, so now Bill Barr, who covered up Velveeta Voldemort’s abuses of power and sat on important evidence of his criminal behavior, has a big interview on NBC News with Lester Hold as part of his rehabilitation book tour. Hard pass. #ChangeTheChannel

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The gerrymandered GOP Florida Senate passed a bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks.

Governor Deathsantis will sign the bill. A Democratic governor would have vetoed to. Ron DeSantis won election in 2018 by fewer than 32,500 votes out of over EIGHT MILLION.

Don’t anyone ever tell you your vote doesn’t matter.

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As Senate votes on resolution to end the COVID-19 national emergency declaration passed 48-47. Now, Senator Dianne Feinstein was absent after the death this week of her husband, but California Senator Alex Padilla was also not able to vote – because he just tested positive for COVID-19.

You cannot make this “stuff” up.

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Some in media still want to report what the Former Guy says about Ukraine. Uh, If we hear from any recent Presidential candidate it should be Hillary Clinton – she’s been right about everything.

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In a 4-3 decision, Wisconsin Supreme Court chose Gov. Tony Evers’ “least change” legislative maps proposal keeping Wisconsin GOP from truly horrific gerrymandering. Remember this in April, 2020? Jill Karofsky was elected this day. Elections matter. Our votes matter.

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Spring training games don’t matter that much in the the grand scheme of things. – unless your business depends on people attending those games. But they are a great distraction. And a lot more fun than headlines about the latest Lebron James or Aaron Rodgers drama.

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Not sure how many games will be canceled for MLB, though one of the things being debated is how many teams will end up in the playoffs. Right now looks like minimum could be 12. Owners want 14.

So as MLB loses fans to other professional sports leagues, somehow I don’t think fans are flocking to NBA over baseball because the regular season matters less?

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Ebay has auctions for charity. Are they going to have a new category just for seized Russian assets that benefit Ukraine?

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A nice story for a change today – CNN reports AirBnb is offering free temporary housing for Ukrainan refugees.

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I’m not going to use the name of the rude piece of garbage who interrupted President Biden talking about his late son Beau. IMHO, we need to stop giving her attention.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has an immuno-compromised wife battling breast cancer and he still tries to score political points by bullying students wearing masks. There is no bottom.

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Velveeta Voldemort is ranting in a fundraising email about “MY State of the Union Address when Crazy Nancy Pelosi RIPPED UP my speech on LIVE TELEVISION?” So it would have been better if Madame Speaker acted Presidential, took the speech home and flushed it?

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Stephen Colbert tonight points out how the DC Trucker rally, which put the city on high alert, was expected to number over 3,000. But when SOTU started “only 12 rally-goers had actually assembled.” Waiting for Sean Spicer to tell us how it was the largest rally crowd ever.

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President Biden asked by a reporter today “As a Catholic, why do you support abortion, defying church teachings?” His response. “I don’t want to get in a debate with you on theology, but I’m not going to make a judgment for other people.” Nailed it.

Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst says he’s not getting a lot of teams calling to inquire about Aaron Rodgers’ availability via trade.

What, you mean most NFL teams aren’t interested in a high-priced almost 39 year old who lied to his team and the NFL last year over his vaccine status and then may have distracted the team by continually publicly doubling down on the controversy?

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MLB Opening Day being canceled is trivial in comparison to Ukraine right now. But if President Biden gets a few minutes, he could probably score a lot of bipartisan points by an executive order simply locking MLB owners in a room until they agreed to a deal with players unions.

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But if Joe really wants Democratic votes, maybe Biden could just remind baseball fans – under the previous administration, all the MLB owners got tax cuts!

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Senator Marco Rubio thinks it’s “theater” to take COVID test before SOTU because he’s says he’s not sick. But many cases of COVID are asymptomatic Average age in Senate is 62.9 years, in House, 57.6, with many of Octogenarians. “Theater,” sir, is risking their lives to avoid a 5 minute test.

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And Rubio skipped SOTU because “he didn’t have time.” for the test. But he had time to tweet during Biden’s speech. A rapid COVID test takes less time than composing a tweet.

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President Biden in his SOTU will say “When dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos.” Joe will be talking about Vladimir Putin, but he might as well be talking about Velveeta Voldemort leading a fatal coup attempt on January 6.

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“Light will win over darkness” President Biden quoting Ukranian President Zelensky!🕯️

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Since Russian aircraft can no longer enter US airspace that may put a serious crimp in attendance at events at Mar-A-Lago.

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Democratic House Member Cori Bush is still saying tonight “defund the police.” While I’m for police reform, I can say as a fellow Democrat, I believe she is wrong. Hey, GOP, see how easy that is? You don’t HAVE to be a lockstep mindless cult.

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Even GOP have to privately be glad about some social distancing at tonight’s #SOTU
Means none of them had to risk drawing the short straw to sit next to Ted Cruz.

In all seriousness can we imagine the SOTU speech Velveeta Voldemort would have given tonight?

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When did Andrea Mitchell decide she wanted to be Chuck Todd?

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At time of writing, MLB and players’ union have paused negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement after a 16-hour day of meetings that stretched into 2a Tuesday.

MLB has extended its deadline for reaching a deal to 5 p.m. on Tuesday in order to salvage a March 31 opening day.

Okay, now what about the businesses, especially in Arizona,, who have already lost more than two weeks of revenue from Spring Training?

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A 12 team MLB playoff is only a win compared to the idea of a 14 or more team playoff. Baseball has been last major sport where all the games in the regular season actually mattered.–

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Among many reasons I love Rachel Maddow, instead of giving ANY airtime to Velveeta Voldemort’s lies about Ukraine, she went to the woman who warned us. And who should have been elected President in 2016. #HillaryClinton

We thought Putin chose a useful idiot who turned out to be insane. But maybe the puppet master was always as insane as his puppet?

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Senator Susan Collins, who claims to be pro-choice, voted against opening debate on Women’s Health Protection Act. Wonder how “troubled” was she by her decision?

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Senate couldn’t get close to 60 votes today to even open debagte on Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill aimed at codifying the right to an abortion. Would take some of these anti-abortion GOP Senators, who CLAIM to care about children, more seriously if they also hadn’t voted against the child tax credit.

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While what is going on in the Ukraine is awful, the courage and resistance of the Ukrainian people is truly inspiring. And I can’t be the only person who feels comfort in having Rachel Maddow temporarily back on air covering things!

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Rachel Maddow “If this is David versus Goliath we are wired as humans to cheer for David and to believe in David.” “But David is going to need help.” Once again, Rachel nails it

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Stephen Colbert – the late night newscaster we didn’t know we needed now – “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis, but also a triumph of humanity. Because despite all Russia’s military prowess the ordinary people of Ukraine will not back down or bow down.”

Meanwhile, while many people are convinced COVID is over… deaths were UP again last week. And the US is on pace to reach 1 MILLION deaths in March. Imagine if Velveeta Voldemort had just pushed vaccines as hard as he is pushing the Big Lie.