22 Comments
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Mandy Worley's avatar

Gambling and baseball? What could possibly go wrong?

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Lee Judge's avatar

Last year baseball suspended four players and banned one for life for gambling. Leo Durocher was suspended for an entire season because he associated with gamblers. Pete Rose was banned for life (now reinstated) for gambling. Turns out, players associating with gamblers is bad, the league, not so much.

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jr rogers's avatar

That was a good baseball fix! And I watched that whole video but still needed your explanation.

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Lee Judge's avatar

As usual, it needed context and when you know the whole story everything makes a lot more sense.

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jr rogers's avatar

You have a gift for context… with baseball at least.

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Lee Judge's avatar

I'll take that in context.

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Terrry Payne's avatar

FanDuel strikes me as a perfect name because several times pistols at dawn has occurred to me.

Jason Kendall does an excellent impersonation of a brick wall, physically & Metaphorically.

Love that dude's attitude and approach.

I remember your hit-by-pitch video. You never have to prove your manhood in any other way.

I am puzzled at Salvy confronting Contreras & then forgiving him. No good captain does that IMO.

Cannot wait to play Redbirds in June. Strongly suspect there will be SOME form of retaliation.

Thanks for excellent post. I will never fall out of love with baseball, but sometimes I fall out of like.

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Lee Judge's avatar

Jason Kendall has taught me a lot about baseball and made my stories better and you're not wrong to be impressed by him. Although he was the main proponent of me getting hit by that baseball; hard to impress that guy but that video did it.

Don't know because I wasn't there, but Salvy and India and Matt Quatraro said they didn't think it was unintentional, which is convenient because if you thought it was intentional you need to do something about it. I'd say drill him even if it wasn't intentional as a reminder to be more careful in the future.

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Twila Samborski's avatar

The Herrera video was kinda fun to watch. I always wonder how much spit the managers & umps get on each other when they get within millimeters of each other! Also, don't go to the Lake of the Ozarks if you want to watch the Royals. Televised once in a blue moon & it's in freakin' Mo.

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Lee Judge's avatar

One of the best parts was Don Wakamatsu losing his shit because he was automatically ejected with Herrera, so the umpire was trying to throw him out of the game a second time. Generally speaking, the attitude is once you've been tossed, get your money's worth.

And yeah, when they get nose-to-nose the saliva's flying so the guys who chew tobacco have an advantage.

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hildave15's avatar

Fan Duel is awful. I'd like them to realize if I'm watching the pre-game show I'm most likely going to hang around for the game. Why do I have to go back and "Start Watching" the game? But my biggest complaint is that this year, in the never-ending search for more money, is that every time something big happens LIVE Fan Duel shrinks the fucking screen and puts up a T-Mobile banner on the right and bottom of the screen. WTF???? So as Jr. is trying to stretch a double into a triple I get reminded that T-Mobile is sponsoring the game. What a bunch of BS.

P.S.- Another interesting baseball article. Thanks Lee.

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Lee Judge's avatar

Glad you liked it and I agree, the ads during the action are a pain in the ass.

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Doug Kinney's avatar

Fan Duel sucks. I caved and spent 20 bucks a month for Fan Duel because it’s still cheaper than one beer at Royal Stadium. But the quality is terrible. I’ve had that three second back up problem on my tv for about two weeks now and it’s annoying as hell. It seems though that if I pull up FanDuel on my iPad and cast it to my TV, it’s better quality with no back ups. It is odd that. you can’t back up to watch a key play or funny moment over because the FanDuel broadcast is 20 seconds behind real time. If I have the radio in the kitchen tuned to the game and watching it on FanDuel in the living room, I can predict the future.

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Lee Judge's avatar

Most broadcasts are delayed so they have time to bleep profanity, but I used to have the same thought when I was sitting in the press box watching the games live: If I could get a bet down in less than 20 seconds I could make a lot of money.

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Doug Kinney's avatar

Well, shit! Profanity is part of the game. Sometimes the best part. 🤬

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Lee Judge's avatar

Best baseball profanity that I'm trying to bring back: "horseshit." Very versatile, works as a noun and an adjective. "That call was horseshit" or "That was a horseshit call." We all need to use it more often.

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BPhillips's avatar

Side note - watching Sporting KC on the Apple TV app is about as fun as the FanDual app.

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Lee Judge's avatar

Glad to know baseball fans aren't the only ones suffering.

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Erika Zeitz's avatar

I was at that game, and I was sure that Lawrie was overreacting. It barely hit him! It was nowhere near his head! Nowhere near!

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Lee Judge's avatar

The ball did in fact, not touch him; it went behind him. He knew somebody was going to do something after his slide on Escobar. The part that seemed to bother Jason Kendall the most, was Lawrie having a bunch of tattoos, acting like a badass and then letting the umpire hold him back by grabbing his jersey.

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Erika Zeitz's avatar

I think this was my second in-the-stadium game as a new Royals fan, and I wanted to beat up Lawrie!

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Lee Judge's avatar

Good instincts. Lawrie slammed into Escobar when it was clear Esky was not trying to turn a double play (he was stretched out like a first baseman) but then Lawrie acted like an innocent victim when Herrera decided to send a message.

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