Nope

Ronna Romney McDaniel will resign her position as Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) next week. She is being forced out by Donald Trump. She no longer goes by Romney. She dropped that name years ago because Trump supposedly asked her. Trump hates U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, Chair McDaniel’s uncle. 

She is just another Trump toady. She bowed to him and then got run over by him. I don’t feel sorry for her. She bought into his corruption and unethical behavior and pushed the big lie.  History will not be kind to her.  She gave up her name for this. What a toady.

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Commentary owns a lot of Astros lids. Too many. All are in great condition. Colt 45s lids, brick red, orange, BP, World Series gold, blue and gold, road lids, and commemorative. Like I said, too many. The featured photo is one that I will skip. What were they thinking? Here is from the Chron:

The folks at New Era aren’t afraid to try a thing, you’ve got to give them that.

They once just threw every random font they could find on an Astros hat and somehow sold them until they ran out of stock. Another time, they took an Astros hat and slapped a slab of steak on the back of it and called it a “Team Describe” cap and it also quickly sold out.

Now, they’re at it again with something New Era calls its Team Landscape collection. They took 17 teams, including the Astros and Rangers, and made their hat khaki and put a landscape scene across the front.

If you had to come up with a landscape for Houston, it probably would be the downtown skyline, but if you wanted to stick to nature, perhaps you would be inspired by the bayous all over the “Bayou City.”

Nope. Instead, Houston got a red desert with plateaus, saguaro cacti and a cow skull. Although saguaro doesn’t even grow in Texas, the Texas Rangers got the exact same landscape. To be fair, it does look better than the actual landscape of Arlington, which is just a Chili’s and every other chain restaurant imaginable.

Here is the full Chron read: New Era MLB Landscape hats: How laughable scenes got picked for teams (houstonchronicle.com).

Nope. I’ll skip on this for sure.

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Commentary doesn’t watch the Astros Spring Training games on the flat screen. I just pay attention to what is going by reading the Chron or Tags.  I found this pretty interesting. If you are a fan, you will also be interested. See this from the Chron:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Yordan Alvarez, a mainstay in the middle of the Astros’ lineup since arriving in the majors, could man a different spot in the order this season. 

Joe Espada said Sunday he envisions Alvarez hitting in the second spot, behind leadoff hitter Jose Altuve, offering some insight into his preferred lineup structure in his first season as Houston’s manager.

Espada said his ideal lineup has Altuve and Alvarez at the top, followed by Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, a design that would mark a departure from recent seasons when Alvarez mostly batted third or cleanup.

“I see Altuve, Alvarez being that 1-2 punch, in your face, right out of the gate,” Espada said. “And Breggy provides that on-base threat. He’s so good with people on base, so having him potentially sandwiched in between Alvarez and Tucker, I think that’s a good weapon, a good strategy for us. So you guys will see me move that stuff around and see how it goes.”

Alvarez has made just one start in the No. 2 lineup spot in his major league career. His lefthanded power profiles traditionally to the middle of the order, where he can hit behind its table setters and ostensibly see more chances to drive them in. Evolution in strategy has seen more teams in recent years slot their best hitters higher in the lineup, though, aiming to get them more plate appearances over a full season.

Last season, the second lineup spot was the most productive in the majors, with hitters there compiling a combined .785 OPS. Shohei Ohtani, with the Angels, and Aaron Judge, with the Yankees, started more games in the second spot than any other. Texas’ Corey Seager and the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman ranked among their respective league leaders in OPS while primarily batting second.

The Astros, meanwhile, used a rotating cast in the second spot the last few seasons. Bregman made 101 starts and Jeremy Peña 44 last season. Michael Brantley, Peña and Yuli Gurriel each started at least 29 games there in 2022. Ten different Astros players made starts there in 2021, led by Brantley with 95.

The article says it is not set in stone and you can check out the full piece here: Houston Astros manager Joe Espada sees Yordan Alvarez in 2 hole (houstonchronicle.com).

If it works, fine.

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Five days of early voting in person remain, so go vote, please.

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