Steve (sports teams of dubious quality enjoyer)

Trans kids are an easy target. Bigots lost ground on attacking gay people, so switched to trans people. And kids are an easy wedge issue because everyone gets worked up about protecting them. It's why book bans started in schools, too. Banning books is unpopular, but protecting kids is popular.

The other issue is while it may be more fun for fans of teams outside the top 8 or so, the PL survival rate for playoff teams seems low enough already- if a 7th or 8th place team somehow claws through the playoffs what chance do they really have? The Championship was competitive enough already.

It reminds me of when Major League Baseball added extra wild cards. Expanding the total playoff teams from a pretty ideal 10 total teams to 12 means usually every decent team gets in now which lowers the stakes at the end of the season (still better than the NHL/NBA though).

Black graphic with dark orange and white text headlined "Kristi Noem Hall of Shame" and a bulleted list: A 20-year high of deaths in ICE custody; Sent immigrants to CECOT, an El Salvador torture prison; Illegal warrantless searches; Detention of American citizens over their speech; At least 3,800 children held in ICE detention; Denied people's right to habeas corpus, while not knowing what it is; Lives lost and terrorized like Renee Good, Alex Pretti, 5 year-old Liam Ramos, Kilmar Ábrego García, and more

Secretary Noem’s time at DHS is riddled with ICE and CBP abuses, racial profiling, free speech violations, and more. Her departure is the direct result of public outrage — but the anti-immigrant policies and masterplans devised by White House aide Stephen Miller remain.

Womp womp

Bunts are probably only a good idea like 5% of the time and this wasn't it, but it worked...

Watched some Honkbal on my break and thought Venezuela having Maikel Garcia lay down a sac bunt against an inexperienced pitcher struggling mightily could've been an "Oh no Disaster! What a bad idea" moment if they didn't score, but it turns out Netherlands forgetting to cover first was that. #WBC

Whenever there's bad news for DJT and Right wingers don't mention it, I assume they don't know about it because they're protected from any criticism of MAGA in their safe bubble of Fox News and/or Far Right podcasts. (Probably not talking to people who are openly NOT Right Wing either).

There are * a lot* of former White Sox who are some guys...

To hammer it home entirely and maybe should've led with, a lot of white upper middle class people are racist. And all of them have white privilege. And a lot of Latin people in Miami-Dade are also white and upper middle class, which people not as familiar with South Florida don't realize...

Bluesky doesn't offer space for nuance, so I get that you don't necessarily "look" of certain descent, which was kind of my overarching point: A lot of people of Latin descent in Miami-Dade look like me. Many of them are also of the same social class as me and that's why this stuff isn't surprising.

Speaking from my own experience, I lived and worked in Miami-Dade for 3 years. As far as I know, I'm near 100% Northern/Central European descent and look it. Still, I was regularly greeted with incredulity when people found out I didn't speak Spanish/am not of Latin descent; So I'll leave it there.

They passed a bill to name the street outside FIU after Gish Gallop Guy and his org has been doing this. It's too long to get into here and I'm not the person to speak eloquently on it, but a lot of Miami-Dade exists at a rare intersection of Latin culture, colorism and white privilege...

Back to Great Britain- I forgot about Trayce Thompson. So many forgettable former White Sox!

So to recap the MAHA movement:

Evil:
- vaccines
- cancer research
- all known medical science
- coffee

Healthy:
- swimming in human shit
- pretending to exercise
- inhaling asbestos
- consuming Roundup
- cigarettes
- heroin
- brain parasites
- doing cocaine off of toilet seats
- Kid Rock

I am desperate for us to get around to the "find out" part for all these fascists in power.

May this painfully long wait be worth it.

Anyway, I hope someone somewhere enjoyed remembering some guys with me...

I couldn't find any Sox connections with Mexico, Netherlands Honkbal, Panama Taiwan or Venezuela (other than a coaching staff with a few guys who used to absolutely kill the Sox) and skipped Israel (the only team in the tournament without a player born in their country) because genocide...

USA- a few years after he started a fight with Tim Anderson, Brad Keller made a few mediocre appearances for the 2024 White Sox. Then somehow became an elite reliever for the 2025 Cubs.

Puerto Rico- Martin Maldonado was the perfect 2024 White Sox player in that he was profoundly awful. That did give Korey Lee a chance to play and inspire the Sox to trade for Catchers though, so there's that.

Nicaragua- who can forget the Cheslor Cuthbert era? Which consisted of one at-bat for the Sox in 2020. Which was his last MLB appearance, but he's on the Nicaragua roster.

South Korea- Dane Dunning sighting! Not a 2010s Sox, but made a few good starts in 2020 before being dealt for Lance Lynn in the off-season. Not Sox-related but controversial and consistently good Samsung Lions Outfield Koo Ja-Wook is also playing.

Japan- one of the favorites of the tournament. No 2010s connections, but excited to see Munetaka Murakami play, of course.

Italy- while this team isn't good per se, they seem pretty fun with lots of young talent. No 2010s Sox connections, but besides Teel and Antonacci they include 2025 Sox Dan Altavilla who was puzzlingly DFA'ed in spite of a 2.48 ERA and 1.17 WHIP.

Great Britain- before the Sox hit big on Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, there was 2017 Sox Rule 5 pick Dylan Covey, arguably the worst Sox pitcher of my lifetime with a 6.54 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, -2.9 WAR and 6-29 record over 63 games in 3 seasons. Former Kane County Cougar Vance Worley is also on the squad.

Dominican Republic- among many better players (including Seranthony Dominguez), reliever Jimmy "Muscles" Cordero who was good for the Sox in 2019 (not so much in 2020) is on the roster. Don't sleep on KBO legend Mel Rojas Jr. either...

Czechia- don't know these dudes but they have a Canadian-born player (Ryan Johnson) and the electrician who struck out Shohei Ohtani (Ondrej Satoria) is back.

Cuba- ALEXEI! My fortysomething body feels in danger of falling apart anything I move awkwardly and meanwhile 44-year-old Alexei Ramirez, almost a decade removed from the MLB is playing in the WBC. Yoan Moncada is here too...

Colombia- I can't even joke about this one because I own a Jose Quintana jersey and he was one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball for a few years. Post-2010s, 2023 White Sox reliever Luis Patino is here too.

Canada- Matt Davidson hasn't played in the majors since 2022, but he was a 2017-18 rebuild legend. He was 2nd on the 2017 team in homers, hit 3 on Opening Day 2018 and even randomly pitched a bit. Justin Morneau is on the coaching staff too.