Today is my sister Nancy’s birthday. I only have one sister, but I cannot imagine having a sister better than her. Although we live nearly 1,000 miles apart, we stay in touch on a regular basis. I always look forward to talking to her. She is a great sister-in-law to Leah and a great aunt to Chris and Katy. I texted her this morning and talked to her while driving to my baseball game today. I know that she has already had a great birthday. I hope she has many more.
Per Wikipedia , the Mendoza Line is an expression in baseball deriving from the name of shortstop Mario Medoza whose poor batting average is taken to define the threshold of incompetent hitting. The cutoff point is most often said to be .200 (Mendoza’s career average was slightly better than that, at .215). When a position player’s batting average falls below that level, the player is said to be “below the Mendoza Line”. This is often thought of as the offensive threshold below which a player’s presence on a Major League Baseball team cannot be justified regardless of his defensive wizardry. In today’s Tiger game, which was a 3 – 2 loss to the Royals, 4 of the 9 starting hitters entered the game with a season batting average below .215 (Mendoza’s career average) Three others were only slightly above it. In spite of the Tiger’s starting pitching being in the top 5 in the American League the team is off to its worst start 7 – 16 since 2003. Somewhere along the line during this rebuild, General Manager Avila, became so focused on building a young pitching staff, he forgot about finding someone who could hit. It is going to be a very long season.
Beware of scammers, they are everywhere. The Detroit News is reporting today, an elaborate scheme involving imposters acting as investigators led to a Michigan physical therapist and her family losing their life savings. The scheme was reported to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s consumer protection team and unfolded over several days with three men posing as investigators with the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and an FBI agent, her office said in a statement. “The men convinced the physical therapist that her license to practice was in danger of ‘immediate temporary suspension’ and directed her to the nearest UPS store to receive notification in writing.” Beware. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
Michigan is losing one congressional seat as a result of the 2020 census. Michigan’s population grew by 2% in the last decade, but that isn’t enough to keep the state from losing a seat in the U.S. House, dropping from 14 to 13 representatives. The first data from the 2020 census, released Monday, shows that the state population as of April 1, 2020, was at 10,077,331— up from the 2010 count of 9,883,640. It’s the first time that the state’s population, which peaked at 10,055,315 residents in 2004, has been at 10 million or greater since prior to the Great Recession in 2007. But Michigan fell from the eighth-largest state to the 10th-largest in the union, based on the new census data, which counted 193,691 more residents of the state than in 2010. Michigan was surpassed by North Carolina and Georgia.
Stay safe. Wear your mask properly. Wash your hands regularly. Social distance. Schedule your vaccine.
Quote of the Day: “In a close game you need to take advantage of any opportunity you have. We had a lot more opportunities today and that was encouraging. But it’s tough not to score a guy from third with less than two outs.” Tiger Manager A.J. Hinch after the Tigers failed to tie the game in the eighth inning after a leadoff triple by Akil Baddoo.
Orchid of the Day: My sister Nancy Berge
Onion of the Day; AG Dana Nessel and Governor Whitmer, who still have not released the information from the grand jury which was the basis of the criminal charges against former governer Snyder, former DHS director Nick Lyon and others. In addition Nessel and Whitmer have not finalized the contract to pay the defense lawyers for Snyder, Lyon and others which the State is obligated to pay. It is hard to develop a defense for something when you don’t know what the charges are and you don’t know how much you are getting paid to do the job. I have said before and will continue to do so, this case has no business in criminal court. The State has already settled the Flint water case in civil court for $680 million. The criminal charges are nothing but a political play by Nessel and Whitmer.