It’s a radio broadcast of a baseball game. It’s completely fictional. And it’s designed to put you to sleep. The Northwoods Baseball Radio Network is on the air with no yelling and commercials at the same audio level. In an interview with its creator, Chicago-based media producer Mr King said "I experimented with listening to podcasts and white noise, and I found I liked to fall asleep by listening to a west coast game that I didn’t really care about." One game has been "played" with more planned as part of a podcast.
posted to MetaFilter by myopicman at 4:27 PM on January 20, 2022 (52 comments)

Facebook renames itself Meta
posted to MetaFilter by Cookiebastard at 11:31 AM on October 28, 2021 (363 comments)

Did Dottie Drop the Ball On Purpose?: Solving the Only Cinematic Mystery That Matters

The time has come...to debate what is probably the most important question of an old millennial’s life: Did Dottie Hinson drop the ball on purpose at the end of A League of Their Own in order to let her sister shine?

posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha at 10:08 AM on August 27, 2021 (24 comments)

On the opening track of the album "Mothership Connection" by Parliament, there's what sounds like a reference to David Bowie. More specifically, it sounds like a reference to David Bowie as someone who is making a noteworthy contribution to some strain of funk music, along with the Doobie Brothers and Blue Magic, a strain markedly inferior to the uncut pure funk on offer by Parliament. So my question is: am I misinterpreting this? Would David Bowie, in 1975, have been on anyone's radar as a funk musician, or as an influence on some of them? Or would the Doobie Brothers have been? What exactly is the Lollipop Man getting at here?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Ipsifendus at 2:50 PM on September 20, 2013 (9 comments)

And in this round of the Professional Sports Teams With Racist Names Choose New Names Draft, for the 2022 season and onward, the Cleveland baseball team selects "The Guardians." Atlanta, you are on the clock.
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 8:23 AM on July 23, 2021 (97 comments)

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted to MetaFilter by Melismata at 2:10 PM on July 14, 2021 (110 comments)

A lot of athletes are incomparable and revolutionary in their respective sports. There are too many wonders in the world for any one person to pay attention to all of them... But if it’s even conceivable that you could care about baseball—or about boundary-breaking human achievement, regardless of the field—you should try to pay attention to Ohtani. Ben Lindbergh on Shohei Ohtani's incredible two-way performance this season in Major League Baseball, "Shobaes", and the oddity of an elite athlete who is "improbably pleasant".
posted to MetaFilter by Cash4Lead at 7:39 AM on June 30, 2021 (22 comments)

'This Should Be the Biggest Scandal in Sports.' Rampant illegal pitch-doctoring--with "sticky stuff" like Spider Tack and Pelican Grip--is Major League Baseball's latest cheating scandal. Most recently, a former Angels clubhouse manager named a long list of pitchers he's helped use sticky stuff, and, when asked point-blank whether he was cheating, Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole refused to answer. In response, MLB plans stricter enforcement of existing rules against foreign substances.
posted to MetaFilter by Lyme Drop at 9:02 PM on June 9, 2021 (53 comments)

We talked about this in the run-up to the Gala, so: let's start off 2021 with some new merch! We've got new designs up, available as shirts on Neatoshop and as magnets and stickers on Teepublic, so if you've been looking for something MeFi-centric to drape over your mortal form or stick to your laptop or fridge or car or whatever the heck this is your lucky day.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 12:54 PM on January 8, 2021 (46 comments)

Major League Baseball is reclassifying the Negro Leagues to include them part of the major leagues.
posted to MetaFilter by dances_with_sneetches at 12:39 PM on December 16, 2020 (56 comments)

Kim Ng's Hiring Could Be The Start Of Something Special In Miami - "Long-overdue baseball history was made late last week when the Miami Marlins announced they had hired Kim Ng as general manager. Ng is MLB's first female GM, as well as the sport's first Asian American GM, and she is also the first woman to serve as general manager in any major North American men's league."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 11:56 PM on November 19, 2020 (14 comments)

"The most important thing I look for when choosing which tools to use is longevity ... I believe the era of new text editors emerging and quickly becoming popular has now ended with Visual Studio Code."
posted to MetaFilter by geoff. at 11:47 PM on September 22, 2020 (104 comments)

Hello Metafilter! Welcome to the first of many regularly-scheduled updates on the state of the site. Comments will be turned off for these, as they’ll cover far too many topics for an unthreaded conversation to manage, but we’re happy to hear from you via the Contact Form. If you want to discuss a particular subject with the community, you’re welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.
posted to MetaTalk by restless_nomad at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2020

The first ever season of Internet league blaseball ended with a blang yesterday when the fans, given the power to vote new decrees into the sport, chose to open the Forbidden Book (despite intern-turned-commissioner Parker asking them please not to).
posted to MetaFilter by taquito sunrise at 3:58 PM on July 27, 2020 (55 comments)

MLB presents Opening Day at Home -- a full slate of 30 games broadcast nationally across various platforms. There will be one game -- a victory, of course – broadcast for each MLB club.
posted to MetaFilter by Think_Long at 11:20 AM on March 26, 2020 (20 comments)

Armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a camp on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory last week, in what some are calling “the next Standing Rock.” For years Wet’suwet’en First Nations people and supporters have been blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline by building camps and villages in the pipeline’s way. In response to this week’s RCMP raid, people blockaded the ports of Vancouver; 57 of those protesters were arrested today as satellite protests also erupted in Montreal, Ottawa, and Saskatchewan. Freda Huson, a spokesperson of the hereditary chiefs who has lived in the path of the pipeline since 2010, says “Our people’s belief is that we are part of the land. [...] And if we don’t take care of her [...] we as a generation of people will die.”
posted to MetaFilter by hungrytiger at 10:29 PM on February 10, 2020 (53 comments)

We got an Instapot for Christmas. I used it last night to make tomato soup. It was delicious. I get most of my recipes from blogs. I'm looking for Instapot specific blogs. No dietary restrictions. Savory and sweet both interest me. Thanks!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kathrynm at 5:15 PM on February 8, 2020 (10 comments)

Major League Baseball proposes huge expansion of playoffs So, what’s the controversy all about? It involves a proposal to up the number of playoff teams in each league to seven from the current five, while adding games to the wildcard round. In a sport that sells nostalgia as part of its package, any alteration of the postseason is enough to draw the ire of traditionalists. [Details below]
posted to MetaFilter by Kirth Gerson at 3:22 AM on February 13, 2020 (97 comments)

The Astro's cheating scandal gets an update as the punishments have been decided by the league office. The Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for only a year (though subsequently fired), and the team was stripped of it's first and second-round draft picks for 2020 and 2021. Alex Cora and Carlos Beltrán were also fired/resigned from managing the Red Sox and the Mets (though some could argue managing the Mets is punishment enough)
posted to MetaFilter by Carillon at 12:59 PM on January 24, 2020 (53 comments)

Busy middle-aged women of MeFi: how did you finally STICK to an exercise routine? And what is your workout of choice?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by yawper at 5:47 AM on January 12, 2020 (44 comments)

Good luck getting a family of four into a professional sport for $100 — not in good seats, but any seats. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times on a typical Southern California family being priced out of attending live games of virtually all major professional sports leagues.
posted to MetaFilter by The Gooch at 1:51 PM on December 27, 2019 (55 comments)

My job is boring and not easy to quickly explain, but telling new people I meet who ask me what I do that my job is boring or it's "paperwork" seems to be mildly alienating. What the hell do I tell people?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by griphus at 8:14 AM on September 4, 2015 (54 comments)

A bombshell report in The Athletic (subscription required; secondary coverage here) alleges that the 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros used a camera mounted in center field at their home park to steal signs, relaying the results to hitters with the sound of a banging trash can. The ensuing investigation figures to involve three current MLB managers. (The Athletic again/Sports Illustrated)
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 8:18 AM on November 14, 2019 (107 comments)

For the first 123 games of the 2007 season, the Baltimore Orioles' pitching staff was doing fine. Really! They weren't bad! Everything was OK. Then came August 22, 2007, which Alex Rubenstein and Jon Bois chronicle in Dorktown #2: The night that destroyed the 2007 Baltimore Orioles forever
posted to MetaFilter by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:53 PM on July 31, 2019 (7 comments)

The Oakland A's are trying to solve baseball's attendance issues,a year in it looks like a large success, having doubled the number of plan holders. With the new season plan you get access to every home game, even if you sold your ticket to a seat, as well at 50% off concessions.
posted to MetaFilter by Carillon at 10:03 AM on July 29, 2019 (15 comments)

Baseball pitcher and author Jim Bouton has passed away at 80, after a long battle with cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
posted to MetaFilter by delfin at 8:21 PM on July 10, 2019 (21 comments)

MetaFilter, that weird blue site (and, yep, we've finally turned it blue again), is 20 years old today.

It's a thrilling and boggling and remarkable and ungainly and heartening number. I've had trouble figuring out what the thing is that I want to say about the site today, and I've realized the problem is there's no one thing. MetaFilter is too complex, its history too complicated, to reduce to a tidy anecdote.

But I want to talk a little about what it means to me, and what I want it to aspire to, and to reflect a little bit on this twenty year milestone on an unsteady world wide web.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 10:30 AM on July 14, 2019 (228 comments)

Let's celebrate 20 years of MetaFilter. The Jason George has a patio if the weather is good. Time can be adjusted!
posted to MeFi IRL by wellred at 9:17 AM on May 24, 2019

"Baseball is a sport rooted in rules and regulations. Everything in the game is standardized, planned, and coordinated, based on a guideline or precedent. Everything, that is, but the park itself: outfield sizes and wall heights vary across the entire league. There are 30 MLB stadiums. No two of them are alike."
posted to MetaFilter by Hey Dean Yeager! at 1:31 PM on May 9, 2019 (37 comments)

Twelve years ago, after a mid-game rain delay, a couple of front-row fans grabbed a pop foul, ruining an easy out for fielder Garret Anderson. Unremarkable play, not worth remarking on. But then, 1.62 seconds later, here comes the pizza.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 3:59 PM on April 16, 2019 (66 comments)

In 2019, a young Buck Bokai made his debut in the Planetary Baseball League with the Crenshaw Monarchs. 23 years later, the last World Series was played between the New York Yankees and the London Kings. Meanwhile, also in 2019, Major League Baseball will adopt new rules with the intent of speeding up games.
posted to MetaFilter by Gray Duck at 9:45 PM on March 29, 2019 (74 comments)

"You're not in traffic, you are traffic" and "Prohibition isn't regulation. It's the absence of regulation" are two phrases I've come across that pithily, quickly and directly sum up some situation. They help flip the usual terms of the discussion around, and provide insight. Do you know more?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 10:50 AM on July 8, 2014 (53 comments)

There's a detailed walkthrough of the process with photos. The shape is a Menger sponge.
posted to MetaFilter by Foci for Analysis at 9:20 AM on February 14, 2019 (24 comments)

Slack, the office messaging app company, unveiled a new logo. Five minutes later, Twitter got at it.
posted to MetaFilter by knownassociate at 9:36 AM on February 5, 2019 (113 comments)

Why do publishers slap on "A Novel" to the titles and/or covers of, well, novels?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by CKmtl at 1:41 PM on October 16, 2008 (22 comments)

For the 2018 season, 33 Minor League Baseball hosted the first "Copa de la Diversión," or "Fun Cup," a season-long event series specifically designed to embrace the culture and values that resonate most with participating teams' local U.S. Hispanic/Latino communities (MiLB.com). The new initiative culminates more than two years of collaborative work and research with U.S. Hispanic/Latino civic organizations where each of the teams play, per Forbes, who also include the full list of Copa nombres and translations. Ranking The Best Team Names From MiLB's Copa de la Diversión (Sports Illustrated)
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 11:51 AM on January 24, 2019 (6 comments)

Whence Nthing? Isn't the word "seconding" meant to include multiple votes of support? Is this something peculiar to Ask Metafilter?
posted to MetaTalk by vacapinta at 10:16 PM on January 13, 2008 (74 comments)

Looking for fantasy books hiding out in the non-genre section of the bookstore.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by xenization at 8:39 AM on June 18, 2014 (27 comments)

Please recommend to me any science fiction/fantasy novels (maybe TV shows as well) that are well written, interesting, and essentially nonviolent. "Completely violence-free" isn't necessary. I'm particularly looking for novels aimed at adults that don't rely on combat scenes to advance the narrative, generate/resolve tension, or provide Crowning Moments of Awesome.*
posted to Ask MetaFilter by wintersweet at 12:22 PM on June 17, 2014 (42 comments)

Last year, Sophie's "Bipp" came out and blew a bunch of people's minds. It was XLR8R's best track of 2013 ("On a very basic level, it's almost impossible to define exactly (or even approximately) what 'Bipp' is.") Now the mysterious Sophie is going to be working with equally unusual J-pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (of "PONPONPON" fame/notoriety), pointing toward something singular and unprecedented on the horizon. On some level "Bipp" might be a pop manifesto of sorts, or a distilled blueprint for the future - global and k-/j-pop influenced, strange and disorienting, candy-coated and synthetic to an uncomfortably garish extent. A lot of people are wondering what happens next. Well, a post-Bipp (or post-ringtone) era might be underway: enter A.G. Cook, Hannah Diamond, and the rest of the shadowy collective PC Music.
posted to MetaFilter by naju at 12:13 PM on June 4, 2014 (48 comments)

What is the oldest entity still referred primarily to as "New [type of entity]"? This question is inspired by the New Forest (named around 1079 or 1086) and New College, Oxford (named around 1386). Not interested in things that are now usually referred to by other names, such as New Rome or New Spain.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by grouse at 4:16 AM on August 28, 2018 (19 comments)

In 2014, MeFite-beloved image sharing site MLKSHK (pronounced "Milk Shake") announced it was shutting down. But have no fear! A dedicated group of volunteer users has worked hard to put together a replacement site based on the original -- and it launched today! Introducing MLTSHP (pronounced "Malt Shop")! See Popular Posts for public-facing content.
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 3:26 PM on May 16, 2017 (51 comments)

deadmau5 dared me to circuit bend a bible The wonder wonder bible. Nothing against the bible here. I showed it to a couple of christian friends before and they seemed to like it. for what thats worth! Im Just #circuitbending a cold blooded machine, for the more avantgarde inclined
posted to MetaFilter by CrystalDave at 3:23 PM on August 20, 2018 (10 comments)

A decade or so ago, the web was awash with small mp3 blogs, presenting all manner of music old and new, often grouped into categories that reflected genres or personal interests. Where are they now?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by srednivashtar at 12:31 PM on August 6, 2018 (21 comments)

The New York Yankees Are a Moral Abomination: "Soberly considered, the New York Yankees and their fans present a moral dilemma. Our consciences, naturally abhorring everything abominable, tell us that such things simply ought not exist. And yet we also know that the evil they represent is one we would not really want eradicated. " (SLNYT by David Bentley Hart)
posted to MetaFilter by crazy with stars at 9:45 PM on July 15, 2018 (44 comments)

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted to MetaFilter by Phire at 9:47 AM on July 14, 2018 (153 comments)

Traumatic License: An Oral History of Action Park
posted to MetaFilter by BigHeartedGuy at 2:17 PM on May 23, 2018 (40 comments)

How a shy, queer Canadian woman accidentally invented one of the internet's most toxic male communities.
posted to FanFare by Tevin at 6:50 AM on May 10, 2018 (10 comments)

SB Nation editor and fan favorite Jon Bois and friends field up another episode of Dorktown. This time, the discussion is about Adam Dunn, being a "four true outcome" hitter, and how he created nearly $7M of pointless labor. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 6:34 PM on May 1, 2018 (17 comments)

Remember personal blogs? So does Dan Cohen: "There has been a recent movement to “re-decentralize” the web, returning our activities to sites like this one... However, I’m also a pragmatist, and I feel the re-decentralizers have underestimated what they are up against, which is partially about technology but mostly about human nature." He reflects on inertia, ambient humanity, and the challenges to a resurgence in personal blogging in this post, Back to the Blog. Via kottke.org.
posted to MetaFilter by MonkeyToes at 3:05 PM on March 25, 2018 (90 comments)