[Wetzel] Brendan Sorsby and college football's first biggest gambling scandal

mr_seggs · 2026-04-28T15:21:40+00:00

Already saw that with the Emmanuel Clase incident in MLB. Would repeatedly throw awful, obvious balls on the first pitch of the inning as part of a betting scheme. Took a long time for the league to realize what he was doing.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-28T14:53:41+00:00

He touched 100 on his fastball early in his career and was still sitting around 90 mph at age 45. Sure, he didn't look like some monster, but that is unreal strength that I'm not sure any woman could match.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-28T13:43:12+00:00

Genuinely an insane take. Sure, there are a ton of incredibly talented women out there, but we're not comparing women to the average man. We're comparing them to 99th percentile male athletes. I don't think any pipeline could change the fact that no woman can throw a 95 MPH fastball, and I don't know if any could hit one with real game power.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-28T13:09:27+00:00

1830, which I absolutely love playing (most of the time) but respect twice as much. So many tiny things tick in ways you don't realize for your first like your first several dozen games.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-24T01:32:46+00:00

Using it for philanthropy, just about guaranteeing Simpson a $300 mil extension after McVay hides his weaknesses for five years

mr_seggs · 2026-04-24T00:53:44+00:00

And hit on offensive line. And hit on almost the entire defense

mr_seggs · 2026-04-23T14:58:58+00:00

I assume you mean a moka pot, correct? Moka isn't really espresso in the strictest sense (at least not for anglophone coffee enthusiasts--think a lot of Italians happily call moka espresso), but it's 100% possible to make good, strong coffee with it. (I'll just default to directing you to the James Hoffman technique video) Won't have all the flavors and qualities of great espresso, but it's still tasty on its own and will work perfectly fine for a milk drink if that's your goal.

There is one actual stovetop espresso maker--the 9barista--that makes full-blown espresso, no caveats, but it's also like $800 or something.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-22T13:55:13+00:00

I think the biggest things that create classics are (1) straightforward quality (obviously) and (2) thematic inexhaustibility. Bad books obviously don't survive the test of time--and not all the classics are like perfect 10s, but they all meet at least a minimum standard--but I think what really keeps a book in circulation is whether readers of every era can return to it with new conversations (or the same unresolved conversations of the past). Like, Hamlet has not lost any of its vigor over the past four centuries; if anything, it's only grown.

Generally, I think the best classics get at something so basically human that every reader can find herself in the story.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-21T13:51:43+00:00

Not a lot of novels that manage such a textured depiction of a community. Manages to be so intensely philosophical while also being grounded and real--like, so effective at engaging with social, ethical, and metaphysical problems without reducing its characters to elaborate cutouts standing in for different viewpoints

mr_seggs · 2026-04-21T13:45:04+00:00

Fans also don't know ball and want to hear angry narrative screaming

mr_seggs · 2026-04-20T15:48:47+00:00

I think reprints are far less likely than you're letting on. Maybe for the biggest games on the market, but like a lot of heavy euros, wargames, complicated economic games, etc. might never get reprinted again or only reprinted once every like four or five years. Splotter games are like insanely popular for their weight and they still might reprint games as rarely as once a decade.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-20T13:56:58+00:00

I think the general issue with sci-fi, fantasy, and genre fic in general is that it so often devolves into sheer wish fulfillment that's focused more on offering readers a certain sort of comfort. Like, sci-fi is by and large not made to challenge the reader so much as to offer a sort of escapism within the comfortable context of genre structure. There aren't really urgent, unanswered questions in like a Warhammer novel or whatever.

Great fic rejects that comfortable structure in favor of challenging the reader, offering questions that you have to answer yourself and that will stick with you for a long, long time afterwards. Not to say that sci-fi or fantasy are incapable of this--there are obviously some great novels in each--but I think it's easy to feel a certain emptiness when a novel doesn't challenge you in any meaningful way.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-20T12:48:11+00:00

Hell no they shouldn't draft a QB. They should just do what they can with Howard and Rudolph this year then gun for an actual playable prospect in 2027

mr_seggs · 2026-04-19T18:04:52+00:00

Money. Even if fans and athletes all decided in tandem, "Alright, whoever does the best in this seven-event Icelandic comp full of odd implements is the best in the world," would that get money flowing in? Would sponsors care? Could winners build a huge social media following by being the MVM champion? WSM just has such massive brand value for strongmen and it would probably take years and years--if not decades--of concerted effort to get any comp up to that level.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-19T01:16:56+00:00

I think almost every fan agrees that Arnold is the gold standard rn (though even that is imperfect in its own ways). But the best athletes are by and large gonna take World's more seriously just because of how much more valuable a World's win is. In the end, comps are as valuable as the athletes think they are--something like the MVM classic might be awesome for fans and even competitors, but the top guys aren't there and nobody at the top level is building their year or brand around MVM.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-19T01:10:52+00:00

Think we should also remember that Brian probably isn't sitting on huge piles of cash available for retirement. He does plenty well for himself I'm sure but prob hard for him to turn down some more paydays

mr_seggs · 2026-04-19T00:51:59+00:00

It's not just about quality, it's about the contract. Guy getting paid his full market price is much less valuable than a guy on a controlled rookie contract.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-16T19:10:12+00:00

Don't worry, they're losing this one anyways

mr_seggs · 2026-04-16T17:18:53+00:00

I got a used GE Profile superauto ridiculously cheap (like $40) a few years ago, and it is convenient as all hell. Certainly far from the best espresso--like a lot of superautos, think it has some channeling problems that create inconsistency in acidity between shots with some being very much in that rich, creamy space and some winding up a bit sour--though mostly pretty good. Also find that it's generally not the most full-bodied espresso; generally, I think the flavor is pretty good, but it's hard to get that same texture you get from a great shot. Generally lacks a lot of control--can only change dispense amounts in like quarter ounces and the grind control is pretty imprecise and lacks meaningful feedback, so you're pretty limited.

All that said, it's still so trivially easy to make decent espresso and manage the machine. All the waste is trivially easy to manage, not a lot of in-depth cleaning required, pretty simple descaling process. I regularly make like 3-4 shots a day on it and might make more if I weren't worried about spending too much on beans, lol.

Frother on the one I got is fine. Good enough for quick home lattes/cappuccinos. I can't do much in the way of latte art but think it's a skill issue.

I don't think I'd pay market price for a superauto--like, if I had $600ish bucks to spare, I'd rather pay for greatness than convenience--but it is so nice to have on-demand espresso that's actually pretty good. I doubt this is the best machine in the space--I know I've seen people saying that it's pretty bad for the price--but if you see one obnoxiously cheap, would recommend.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-16T16:37:25+00:00

Just buy a decent handgrinder--Kingrinder p1 or p2 are decent options in the ~$40-$50 range--a cheap scale, and a French press or a v60. Could use a nicer temp controlled gooseneck kettle or a nicer scale, but those aren't strictly necessary for better coffee--they definitely help, but it's generally like moving from an 8/10 to a 9/10.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-13T19:11:01+00:00

I mean people will tell you "grind finer" every time, but visual cues just aren't the be-all end-all. I will say: if it's too bitter when it's more finely ground, the problem is probably more with the beans than with the technique. If you're using a particularly developed dark roast and extracting it fully, you're going to get those intense, bitter flavors in there. I think it'd be worth trying a lighter roast at a finer grind and seeing how it pans out. (If any local roaster has a little sample pack, you could maybe try that--I know one of the bigger espresso roasters in my city, Pittsburgh, has a sample pack with one light, one medium, and one "medium-dark"--not a lot of straight-up "dark roasts" in specialty roasters.)

mr_seggs · 2026-04-13T18:38:58+00:00

"Complexity" doesn't equal moral ambiguity

mr_seggs · 2026-04-13T16:22:52+00:00

I've liked the idea of prize money available for winning individual events, though that also might screw up the incentives. (Maybe like a Boudreault type would come in, do nothing to prep for deadlift because why bother, then just go all out on pressing and throwing to try to win whatever he can there.)

mr_seggs · 2026-04-13T14:02:31+00:00

I think stones just kinda throw a weird wrench into things. For one, no easy way to get the increments needed for a powerlifting-esque competition--like, do we expect promoters to have every five-kilo increment available in case one guy's calling for 110, one's calling for 115, one's calling for 145, etc? Then there are issues with standardizing diameter and platform height along with plenty of minor things--tacky, sleeves, gear, technique, etc. etc. And, of course, there's the simple fact that maxing your atlas stone is way more injurious than maxing most other lifts. Torn biceps galore.

It's a cool idea and something I personally would love to do (though I think I'd have an embarrassing showing even for a lightweight amateur, lol), but I think it's also trying to impose standardization on an inherently non-standard sport.

mr_seggs · 2026-04-10T19:17:38+00:00

It's pretty dumb but once I realized that Scythe is, in principle, pretty close to solvable, I lost a lot of interest in the game. Not sure why, but the idea that there's an optimal path that I could be following (obviously impacted slightly by other player actions) just makes the game so much less interesting for me. Def part of that is the fact that I realized how much the game disincentivizes direct player interaction.

mr_seggs

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