SPORTS BALL!!! v2.0

[Xprimentyl]

I dunno how poor they are at Alfa Romeo but they could at least spare some gas for their driver... For a couple of laps? Pretty please?

Imagine my surprise when I learned that Bottas getting "disqualified" from qualifying when he ran out of gas didn't mean he was relegated to his Q1 session's P15 for the race, but that he had to start from the back of the grid. I started drinking early yesterday. Glad he managed to pick up some places if not points.

And Perez will once again make it a more entertaining race, because he has to be taking positions full time. Maybe it is a Red Bull marketing plot to get the car into the spotlight more. I'm not that opposed to the idea anymore.

He makes the races interesting when he has to storm through the field and scrap with the midfield, but I'm certain Red Bull have about had it with him. F1 is a cruel mistress, and if you're not bringing her results consistently and keep putting yourself in positions to have to fight when you've got a dominant car, she will drop you like a bad habit. I wonder where he'll end up, and if they'll just give the seat back to the prodigal son Daniel Ricciardo? I can't wait to see what he looks like back in the saddle of a Red Bull during an FP session, and if he'll outshine Perez... Shame, because I like Perez, if only because he is humble next to the arrogance and entitlement that codifies Max Verstappen.

And I like Lando Norris as well. Glad he made podium at least, though the couple of laps he led at the start were inexorably short lived. I watched him defending against Verstappen as best he could, and this gif came to mind.

I thought to myself: Sweet, sweet summer child; you had your fun, now, save your tires and energy, and just let Verstappen by. We all know how this is going to go down.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Ok, wow, I knew Formula 1 was a cruel mistress, but she's just being a straight up b*tch at this point. Rookie Nyck de Vries has lost his seat at Alpha Tauri after only 10 races to be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, sister team Red Bull’s third driver who’s had stints (and chances) at Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, Red Bull again, and now Alpha Tauri.

I don’t dislike Ricciardo, but de Vries really didn’t get a fair go to prove himself. I mean, Alpha Tauri isn’t exactly a highly competitive car, and de Vries is only a rookie who didn’t even get a full season before they gave up on him. My hope now is that he at least gets a reserve seat somewhere, because if he’s done done, I don’t think less than half a season in an uncompetitive car is enough to gauge his potential. With Ricciardo taking over, I don’t know what Alpha Tauri expects. It’s not like his experience is all they were missing to compete with the likes of Alpine, Aston Marton, McLaren or Ferrari, nevermind Mercedes or Red Bull. They’ll continue to suck meeting all of our expectations, and the only one getting unexpectedly screwed being de Vries.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Limited stock, I imagine. However it's easy to track availability because we only have one brand of liquor store. Alko

Also in other news Perez can't keep on track.

I emailed Alko, and they assured me they can't ship outside of Finland's borders, so I'll be leaning heavily on my friend procuring me a couple of bottles while he's there. We're supposed to meet him next week for drinks; I'll be sure to give him a screenshot of Oath Gin so he knows what I want. The next hurdle will be customs; not sure what international laws make transporting liquor more difficult than it should be, but I'm sure it's not as easy as checking a bag, because God knows, nothing simple is ever simple.

 

[McElroy]

I emailed Alko, and they assured me they can't ship outside of Finland's borders, so I'll be leaning heavily on my friend procuring me a couple of bottles while he's there. We're supposed to meet him next week for drinks; I'll be sure to give him a screenshot of Oath Gin so he knows what I want. The next hurdle will be customs; not sure what international laws make transporting liquor more difficult than it should be, but I'm sure it's not as easy as checking a bag, because God knows, nothing simple is ever simple.

The laws seem simple enough and apparently 1 liter is duty free. But it's important to check the Alko website often enough because it seems they have it restocked.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The laws seem simple enough and apparently 1 liter is duty free. But it's important to check the Alko website often enough because it seems they have it restocked.

I hope it's that easy and available when he gets there. I want a bottle to drink, and one to save unopened. Looks like each bottle is only 0.5L, so if two bottles stays within duty-free tolerance, that'd be perfect. For now, though...

 

[McElroy]

Amazing qualification performance crumbled by turn 3 of the first lap. On a track like Hungaroring the race pace difference between good and not so good cars is ridiculous. Sadly the Aston Martin has lost the edge it had. So while still a contender for points it's no longer good for podiums as McLaren and Mercedes have picked up speed. Funny enough the McLarens seem to be the only obstacle between Perez (and his poor Saturdays) riding off to the sunset with Verstappen instead of him alone.

I'm getting bored, honestly. I'm gonna watch women's football instead.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Amazing qualification performance crumbled by turn 3 of the first lap. On a track like Hungaroring the race pace difference between good and not so good cars is ridiculous. Sadly the Aston Martin has lost the edge it had. So while still a contender for points it's no longer good for podiums as McLaren and Mercedes have picked up speed. Funny enough the McLarens seem to be the only obstacle between Perez (and his poor Saturdays) riding off to the sunset with Verstappen instead of him alone.

I'm getting bored, honestly. I'm gonna watch women's football instead.

Yeah, Alfa Romeo looked pretty damned amazing through qualifying. Both made it convincingly into Q3, and gave me unrealistically high hopes for the race yesterday; I quietly knew with a track notoriously difficult to pass on, a double-points finish for the team was a real possibility. Then, the gods took note of my tacit hubris and smote my hopes almost immediately. My heart leapt into my throat when along with Crofty's commentary on the munch-anticipated launch between Hamilton in P1 and Verstappen in P2, his next animated commentary was about Bottas' incredible jump from P7 to overtake his teammate in P5... Then Zhou happened, and along with putting BOTH Alpines out of the race, AR was relegated to the back of the back as per usual. Bottas made a valiant effort, holding P10 for a while, but I knew he wasn't going to be able to hold it when he came in for his second stop and fell out of the points.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I hope it's that easy and available when he gets there. I want a bottle to drink, and one to save unopened. Looks like each bottle is only 0.5L, so if two bottles stays within duty-free tolerance, that'd be perfect. For now, though...

@McElroy, just found out another friend of ours is going to Finland in October, so I've got a second chance to nab bottles of Oath gin if the first friend fails to procure me a bottle or two next month. It was a pipe dream initially, but this many opportunities being dropped in my lap in rapid succession make it a foregone conclusion: I WILL have Oath gin before this year's end.

 

[McElroy]

@McElroy, just found out another friend of ours is going to Finland in October, so I've got a second chance to nab bottles of Oath gin if the first friend fails to procure me a bottle or two next month. It was a pipe dream initially, but this many opportunities being dropped in my lap in rapid succession make it a foregone conclusion: I WILL have Oath gin before this year's end.

Despite going to Finland in October, I wish them good luck.

 

[Baffle]

 

[McElroy]

Spain managed to improve their performance little by little, while England got a luckier bracket going against a tired Colombian team and the defense-oriented Matildas, who already stole the match against France (through good defense, but still) and rightfully were outshot against Sweden for the bronze. Deserved victory.

In my opinion the top of the bracket was more competitive, because Germany and Brazil underperformed. Of course such is the nature of these tournaments sometimes.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

It's weird watching Messi highlights with American commentators. They sound exactly like basketball commentators, which is so jarring.

But anyway, Messi. Man is having a fuck ton of fun, and it's clear that he was worth every dollar the MLS gave and is going to give him. Man is probably just farming the whole league, but I can't say I don't love seeing him do it. I'm curious why generally, people seem to enjoy him going to MLS while seeing every other super star player going to Saudi Arabia a sad thing. Hell, even I hold this opinion, and I'm not sure why. There is some feeling that these people are chasing Saudi money, but it's not like Messi isn't with the MLS.

 

[BrawlMan]

I went to the Tigers game back on Sunday, August 6th. They lost, but it was a fun game, the Tigers played well, and I has sky box seats.

My dad went to the Lions pre-season game yesterday, and they lost badly.

 

[Xprimentyl]

A few months ago, my 49ers picked up QB Sam Darnold, a pick up I was personally never behind, but hey, Lynch and Shanahan never called for my opinion, so I can but trust what they believe to be a solid move. Since, the speculation has been the battle for the starting position would be a 3-horse race between Brock Purdy (last pick in the draft who was called up late last season when QB injuries found us near the bottom of our depth chart, and also the man who threw us to the NFC Championship game where he was himself injured,) Trey Lance (an early draft pick for whom we gave up a lot of draft capital, but has since seen about as much play time as I have,) and Darnold (a QB on his third team in six years with no real success to his name since being drafted.)

Latest buzz is Darnold is being named #2, and we can only assume this is behind Purdy since Lance hasn't shown anywhere NEAR the ability to command the team. Now speculations have turned to us trading Lance, speculations bolstered by his recent absence from practices.

I hate this. Not only have some already talked about the acquisition of Lance being "one of the biggest trade busts in NFL history," but with so little perceived value, I can't even imagine what we might get for him. Our front office has been pretty good lately, but the Lance deal is turning out to be an instance of "we rarely fuck up, but when we do, we burn the house down." I just want to get whatever it is they've planned done, and move into the 2023 season to see what we're dealing with. We've been in the "win now" mentality for years, and we're running out of them for the QB position to be were all the problems and drama are. Our bags are packed and loaded, the kids are contently buckled in, the gas tank is full, and dad can't find the fucking car keys.

 

[McElroy]

Actually a pretty interesting qualifying in Zandvoort. Apart from Max winning again (I mean... at any time he can push over half a second per lap over anyone else. He'd be the favorite to win even with a power unit penalty or similar that would take him back to P11-ish). It's interesting how the Williams can blast off so fast on straights. And into a wall if you're Logan Sargeant...

 

[Xprimentyl]

Actually a pretty interesting qualifying in Zandvoort. Apart from Max winning again (I mean... at any time he can push over half a second per lap over anyone else. He'd be the favorite to win even with a power unit penalty or similar that would take him back to P11-ish). It's interesting how the Williams can blast off so fast on straights. And into a wall if you're Logan Sargeant...

The most interesting so far has been LeClerc and his issues at turn 1. What has it been, 4 times he's run off this weekend? If it happens during the race today, it'll be hilarious.

EDIT: but yes, Williams has been pretty impressive this season. Sergeant making P10 really shocked me. The only American on the grid, I've a soft spot for him, but I'm faithful to "my" Finnish roots #VB77.

 

[McElroy]

The most interesting so far has been LeClerc and his issues at turn 1. What has it been, 4 times he's run off this weekend? If it happens during the race today, it'll be hilarious.

EDIT: but yes, Williams has been pretty impressive this season. Sergeant making P10 really shocked me. The only American on the grid, I've a soft spot for him, but I'm faithful to "my" Finnish roots #VB77.

And Sargeant crashed his Williams once again... And LeClerc got messed up at the start, again. Bottas got an insane start (and Zhou a totally crappy one... again), but Alfa Romeo's tactic worked insanely well for Zhou. Too bad the car isn't competitive. Their straight line speed is cabbage-tier.

And the rain in the end. How lovely. Aquaplaning into a wall to end the race with a bang. Alonso is still an impressive driver, he even got the fastest lap, and patched up the pit crew's mistake that dropped him down a place.

 

[Xprimentyl]

And Sargeant crashed his Williams once again... And LeClerc got messed up at the start, again. Bottas got an insane start (and Zhou a totally crappy one... again), but Alfa Romeo's tactic worked insanely well for Zhou. Too bad the car isn't competitive. Their straight line speed is cabbage-tier.

And the rain in the end. How lovely. Aquaplaning into a wall to end the race with a bang. Alonso is still an impressive driver, he even got the fastest lap, and patched up the pit crew's mistake that dropped him down a place.

Bruh, I literally lost my shit at Bottas' start. Jumped out of my chair. I'm certain the neighbors didn't appreciate that enthusiasm so early in the morning. I knew it wasn't going to last, but talk about a breath of fresh air to see him GAIN that many places instead of dropping them.

As for Alfa Romeo's strategy, your guess is as good as mine. Pitting one driver for intermediates and leaving the other on slicks on a wet track? It felt like they were just throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Ironically, Zhou "stuck" to the wall in the end, and our guy beat a Mercedes. No points, but I'm happy given what the race was complete chaos. It was fun.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's weird watching Messi highlights with American commentators. They sound exactly like basketball commentators, which is so jarring.

But anyway, Messi. Man is having a fuck ton of fun, and it's clear that he was worth every dollar the MLS gave and is going to give him. Man is probably just farming the whole league, but I can't say I don't love seeing him do it. I'm curious why generally, people seem to enjoy him going to MLS while seeing every other super star player going to Saudi Arabia a sad thing. Hell, even I hold this opinion, and I'm not sure why. There is some feeling that these people are chasing Saudi money, but it's not like Messi isn't with the MLS.

Messi always did say he wanted to retire in Florida. Playing with/against American players sounds like retirement to me.

 

[McElroy]

Bruh, I literally lost my shit at Bottas' start. Jumped out of my chair. I'm certain the neighbors didn't appreciate that enthusiasm so early in the morning. I knew it wasn't going to last, but talk about a breath of fresh air to see him GAIN that many places instead of dropping them.

As for Alfa Romeo's strategy, your guess is as good as mine. Pitting one driver for intermediates and leaving the other on slicks on a wet track? It felt like they were just throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Ironically, Zhou "stuck" to the wall in the end, and our guy beat a Mercedes. No points, but I'm happy given what the race was complete chaos. It was fun.

Bottas certainly wasn't happy about the strategy. He could've been right behind Perez on lap 3 had they given him priority. And yep, they just seem to guess some pit and tire tactics. The car already isn't easy on the tires, and so they got both drivers on mediums -> net loss in grip against everyone else -> can't stay close to other cars even if you have the pace.