Mine was high school baseball as a freshman. I made the varsity after the JV season ended and this was literally my first game on the team.

It was district game and all I remember is it was COLD. Like, wind making your bones ache cold.

I didn't start and was tasked with keeping the books. The problem was it was so cold that eventually my fingers stopped being able to grip the pen, but I didn't have anything more than batting gloves to warm them. It was the type of cold where you stop moving your fingers because it hurts to do so.

Anyway, we get to the last inning and the coach sees me growing icicles on the bench, and decides to let me pinch hit and get into the game. He realized it kind of late and told me that I was going to get an AB, but it was when I was due up and not "go get into the circle" type of situation. I dunno, maybe he just saw that I had batting gloves on already.

Honestly? I was excited. My first varsity AB and a chance to impress the team. There was just one problem, and I realized it as soon as I tried to grab my bat and walk onto the field.

I couldn't grip the bat. Like, at all. My fingers weren't currently working and I knew if I actually tried a swing I would uncork the bat to who knows where.

Now, given a few minutes to warm up and take a few swings I could have properly overcame this. But, I was needed in the batters box and there was no time.

I honestly didn't know what I was going to do. I was desperately trying to move my fingers and get a grip, but when I stepped into the box I knew I couldn't swing at the first pitch at least. Should I bunt? No, I was a stocky power hitter and the coach definitely didn't want me bunting.

So I stood there, bat basically resting in the palms of my frozen hands just hoping that maybe after a few pitches I'd be in some sort of "able to hack it" type of situation.

But alas, that was not in the cards. Because on the first pitch of my varsity career the pitcher uncorked a fastball that hit my directly in the middle of my back, right under my shoulder blade. Right in the frozen muscle.

Now, everyone knows you're not allowed to act like getting hit by a pitch hurts. Makes you a wuss. But let me tell you as a guy who has been hit by many baseballs, this one HURT. Felt like a sledgehammer to the back, and the only thing that got me moving towards first was the fact that it was warmer than standing there.

Than, to top it off, as soon as I reached first I was substituted for another kid who was the "fast kid" that hadn't got into the game either.

Varsity game #1 was in the books, and baseball can be a cruel sport.

Anyone have any others they want to add to the list?

I would rather see Kelly leave LSU for recruiting reasons but who gets the job?

Would have tonight and will next fall! Hookem’

Allen) was a great threat and is a player I respect,” Wembanyama said. “He’s the type of player I like and he’s already had a long career. He’s efficient and does the hard jobs.”

Allen and Wembanyama exchanged highlight-reel blocks against each other down the stretch in the fourth quarter, leading a defensive charge that held the Cavaliers scoreless in the final 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

Wembanyama, who leads the NBA in blocks, finished with five rejections.

“I’m excited for Wemby because he’s talented, takes people off the dribble, is an excellent shot blocker, posts up,” Allen said. “He has it all. And you don’t realize how big his wingspan is until you go against him.”

Michigan sure made that look easy.

Texas at 2, discuss

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39252279/2024-way-too-early-college-football-top-25

I will take that!

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Let’s go sark and co !!


EDIT: Blackshire to visit TX

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I pulled an excerpt from our donor newsletter that just went out and we need Longhorn Nation to answer the call. 15% of your Longhorn Foundation annual gift is where we ask folks to consider starting, which can be paid monthly.


“For those counting at home, that is three Big 12 titles, two teams in their respective final fours, and one NCAA National Championship. This fall was a great start to the 2023-2024 athletic season. Keep up your support as our Winter sports continue their conference play, and Spring sports are on the horizon! Thank you all for being a part of it, and we look forward to having you on our team as we continue to make an impact not only in the lives of our student-athletes but also in the community that helps make Texas the place to play college athletics.”

I live west of 360 and the gusts are nuts! The good news is because of the freeze most of the trees are pretty clean.

Does this national championship make Michigan the Houston Astros of college football???

Countdown is on

Oh yeah, he is also a helluva football coach.

I think there might be several NFL teams that could use his services. It won’t hurt my feelings if he is not on the Michigan sidelines when we play them next year.

Woof.

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And more right here:

I’ve said since he was drafted Harbaugh would be a match made in heaven for him. I doubt it happens though as LA is the likely landing spot if he leaves Michigan.

Who are the likely candidates?

According to multiple sources, after three days of contemplating if he would enter the NFL Draft, Barryn Sorrell will return to Texas for the 2024 season.

For us to curb stomp your aggy team into the pyle field astroturf, again. Yes, we are coming to collie station to ruin your lives, again. So get ready, only 275 some days until we make your lives miserable, again. So the Final countdown is ticking, you can’t stop Father Time nor Texas. We are the avalanche you see coming but can’t get out of the way. Prediction is Texas 48, aggy 10.

According to news reports, the Secretary of Defense spent 4 days in the ICU and nobody told the White House, the Joint Chiefs, or even his subordinate (who in charge and did not know it)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon released new details Sunday about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s continued hospitalization, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The latest information came as members of both parties in Congress expressed sharp concerns about the secrecy of Austin’s hospital stay and the fact that the president and other senior leaders were kept in the dark about it for days.

The statement, released by Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, did not, however, provide any details about the medical procedure or what actually happened on Monday to require Austin to be in intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit “due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy.

The Pentagon’s failure to disclose Austin’s hospitalization, including to President Joe Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

Ryder said the National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1. Ryder said Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and “unable to make notifications before then.” He said she informed Hicks and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday.

Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington. Hicks was in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

Hello everyone, I’m still trying to get my KokeFest refund. Bank, visa, and ticketsauce all telling me that I need to contact Koke FM. I have called the numbers I have and nobody is answering anymore. I’m pretty sure they aren’t a thing anymore. But wondering if anyone has any advice on something like this.

Sark has shown great ability to keep improving the program and culture on and off the field. This season the 3rd down defense and pressures/sacks improved dramatically which was an off season focus.

The NIL program and roster management has been exceptional.

To me there are 3 things to focus on in the off season this year:

1. Penalties - This to me seems like it’s part of the Sark culture at this point. Maybe it’s a by product of all the pre snap motion but this team killed drives all year with penalties on offense. It just kills the team and very well may have cost us a spot in the championship. Seek outside help but great teams don’t kill themsleves. This shouldn’t be that hard to fix. Low hanging fruit to me.

2. Staying Agressive - This has been covered a lot but we almost always get in trouble when we get conservative on O and D. Sark has to make it a focus to keep throwing punches until we’re up by 30+ in Q4

3. Improve the pass defense - See 40% of the posts on the board. It’s obviously been identified as a problem and they’re working on it aggressively.

To me these are the next steps if you can maintain (and that’s the hard part) the rest of what the program is doing.

Emmett Shear (twitch founder, Open AI interim CEO for a couple of days) gets into it with Devon Ericksen (random sci fi author). Emmett was pontificating about putting in a 50-100% death tax for better societal equality and Ericksen eloquently puts him in his place...

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One excerpt:

"The problem isn't Emmett in particular. It's the entire culture he comes from.
Autism adjacent techie nerds who managed to make millions or billions off a website without ever seeing Middle America or what's happening there are confused.
They start to move in elite circles, get lots of attention online, and they start to think about how society should be ordered to maximize some sort of vague goodity-ness. And then their brain just treats this problem like coding a website for streaming video games.
You make up a really smart plan, and write the code, and all the little components execute the code, and some new feature is added, increasing the amount goodity-ness in the world. Yay!
But societies aren't made of components waiting for instructions. They are made of people, who have their own goals and needs. "

And dropped passes last week.