Scott T. Holland
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sth749.bsky.social
Scott T. Holland
@sth749.bsky.social
510 followers 97 following 280 posts
Husband of one, father of four. Writer and other things. What was your favorite part of the day?
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Reposted by Scott T. Holland
adamj.bsky.social
Are you guys winning your arguments with screenshots today?
November 12, 2025 at 3:37 PM
sth749.bsky.social
@treykerby.bsky.social Guy near to me at the blood drive trying to convince the guy between us to get on board with the Bulls. A real “Bulls are Back!” In the wild situation. Huge Giddey fan.
November 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
sth749.bsky.social
We attended an amazing CSO concert tonight. Listened to the Blue Jays feed of G7 on the way home. At the most tense moments, they threw it to the third guy in the booth for hockey scores and a CFL update.
November 2, 2025 at 4:23 AM
sth749.bsky.social
Completely unhinged set of thumbnails from Facebook marketplace today.
October 23, 2025 at 8:37 PM
sth749.bsky.social
@milkepescs.bsky.social Because you asked, the H20 thing did elicit a cringe.
August 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Speaking from personal experience: This is the kind of thought that — while true, defensible and sane — warps otherwise healthy minds when filtered through modern social media.
quillauthor.bsky.social Quill (she/they) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ 🐎🗡️🌼 @quillauthor.bsky.social · Aug 25
Sometimes, you don’t argue with someone to change their mind, you argue with someone to give information to all the people in the room who are watching and still have an open mind about things.
August 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Scott T. Holland
johnsahly.bsky.social
It's been a busy month here at work! Shaw Media acquires 4 northern Illinois newspapers after abrupt shutdown
www.shawlocal.com/ogle-county-...
Shaw Media acquires 4 northern Illinois newspapers after abrupt shutdown
Shaw Media is set to buy four northern Illinois newspapers after their publisher abruptly shut down operations earlier this month, including The Rochelle News-Leader, Ogle County Life, The Mendota Rep...
www.shawlocal.com
August 21, 2025 at 9:47 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Fair.
August 14, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Scott T. Holland
marcnormandin.bsky.social
I have said it before and will say it again, but: being able to see something and go "well that's none of my business" when it actually, truly is none of your business is a very important skill to cultivate.
August 8, 2025 at 7:56 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Went to the Twins game Friday where they hosted the Nationals, so when we watch the playoffs in October I can continuously point to the TV and say “We saw that guy play in July!”
July 31, 2025 at 5:37 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Never really got to meet him, but Ryno got to watch my son play second base on the same field where I dreamed of one day being Ryne Sandberg, a memory that always reminded me how baseball is timeless and legends live forever.
July 29, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Scott T. Holland
housingactionil.bsky.social
Thank you @sth749.bsky.social for reflecting on the plan to prevent & end homelessness in IL & our call to fund the plan as needed to make meaningful progress. “...otherwise we’re just managing homelessness at its current level,” states Housing Action's Bob Palmer. www.shawlocal.com/opinion/2025...
Eye On Illinois: ‘Functional zero’ homelessness target moving wrong direction
In proposing the fiscal 2026 budget, Pritzker suggested spending $7.6 million less on housing programs. Lawmakers actually cut $14.6 million. The Court-Based Rental Assistance Program, which helps peo...
www.shawlocal.com
July 14, 2025 at 5:06 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Baseball dad life is being able to identify your kid at third base just off this.
July 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
sth749.bsky.social
This was a single. I love baseball.
July 11, 2025 at 3:48 AM
sth749.bsky.social
One more tomorrow to finish the job.
June 14, 2025 at 2:22 AM
sth749.bsky.social
Chicago Pope Day was delightful On Here. Needs to come back every May 8 for all who celebrate. #MalörtAndSavior.
May 9, 2025 at 3:09 AM
sth749.bsky.social
Probably a hundred Royko columns made me want to write opinion pieces in the newspaper. Almost all still hold up. This is one of the finest. The greatest American columnist on the most important ballplayer we’ll ever know.
bcbsara.bsky.social Sara Sanchez @bcbsara.bsky.social · Apr 15
The largest paying crowd in the history of Wrigley Field was the day Jackie Robinson made his debut. Wrigley is the only park left Jackie played a game in. Mike Ryoko was a kid at that ballpark that day and he wrote about it. Take a minute and read this today.

press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago...
A newspaper clipping from Mike Ryoko part one: Jackie's Debut a Unique Day All that Saturday, the wise men of the neighborhood, who sat in chairs on the sidewalk outside the tavern, had talked about what it would do to baseball. I hung around and listened because baseball was about the most important thing in the world, and if anything was going to ruin it, I was worried. Most of the things they said, I didn't understand, although it all sounded terrible. But could one man bring such ruin? They said he could and would. And the next day he was going to be in Wrigley Field for the first time, on the same diamond as Hack, Nicholson, Cavarretta, Schmitz, Pafko, and all my other idols. I had to see Jackie Robinson, the man who was going to somehow wreck everything. So the next day, another kid and I started walking to the ballpark early. We always walked to save the streetcar fare. It was five or six miles, but I felt about baseball the way Abe Lincoln felt about education. Usually, we could get there just at noon, find a seat in the grandstand, and watch some batting practice. But not that Sunday, May 18, 1947. By noon, Wrigley Field was almost filled. The crowd outside spilled off the sidewalk and into the streets. Scalpers were asking top dollar for box seats and getting it. Part II: I had never seen anything like it. Not just the size, although it was a new record, more than 47,000. But this was twenty-five years ago, and in 1947 few blacks were seen in the Loop, much less up on the white North Side at a Cub game. That day, they came by the thousands, pouring off the northbound Ls and out of their cars. They didn't wear baseball-game clothes. They had on church clothes and funeral clothes·suits, white shirts, ties, gleaming shoes, and straw hats. I've never seen so many straw hats. As big as it was, the crowd was orderly. Almost unnaturally so. People didn't jostle each other. The whites tried to look as if nothing unusual was happening, while the blacks tried to look casual and dignified. So everybody looked slightly ill at ease. For most, it was probably the first time they had been that close to each other in such great numbers. We managed to get in, scramble up a ramp, and find a place to stand behind the last row of grandstand seats. Then they shut the gates. No place remained to stand. Robinson came up in the first inning. I remember the sound. It wasn't the shrill, teenage cry you now hear, or an excited gut roar. They applauded, long, rolling applause. A tall, middle-aged black man stood next to me, a smile of almost painful joy on his face, beating his palms together so hard they must have hurt. Part III: When Robinson stepped into the batter's box, it was as if someone had flicked a switch. The place went silent. He swung at the first pitch and they erupted as if he had knocked it over the wall. But it was only a high foul that dropped into the box seats. I remember thinking it was strange that a foul could make that many people happy. When he struck out, the low moan was genuine. I've forgotten most of the details of the game, other than that the Dodgers won and Robinson didn't get a hit or do anything special, although he was cheered on every swing and every routine play. But two things happened I'll never forget. Robinson played first, and early in the game a Cub star hit a grounder and it was a close play. Just before the Cub reached first, he swerved to his left. And as he got to the bag, he seemed to slam his foot down hard at Robinson's foot. It was obvious to everyone that he was trying to run into him or spike him. Robinson took the throw and got clear at the last instant. I was shocked. That Cub, a hometown boy, was my biggest hero. It was not only an unheroic stunt, but it seemed a rude thing to do in front of people who would cheer for a foul ball. I didn't understand why he had done it. It wasn't at all big league. I didn't know that while the white fans were relatively polite, the Cubs and most other teams kept up a steady stream of racial abuse from the dugout. I thought that all they did down there was talk about how good Wheaties are. Part IV: Late in the game, Robinson was up again, and he hit another foul ball. This time it came into the stands low and fast, in our direction. Somebody in the seats grabbed for it, but it caromed off his hand and kept coming. There was a flurry of arms as the ball kept bouncing, and suddenly it was between me and my pal. We both grabbed. I had a baseball. The two of us stood there examining it and chortling. A genuine major-league baseball that had actually been gripped and thrown by a Cub pitcher, hit by a Dodger batter. What a possession. Then I heard the voice say: "Would you consider selling that?" It was the black man who had applauded so fiercely. I mumbled something. I didn't want to sell it. "I'll give you ten dollars for it," he said. Ten dollars. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what ten dollars could buy because I'd never had that much money. But I knew that a lot of men in the neighborhood considered sixty dollars a week to be good pay. I handed it to him, and he paid me with ten $1 bills. When I left the ball park, with that much money in my pocket, I was sure that Jackie Robinson wasn't bad for the game. Since then, I've regretted a few times that I didn't keep the ball. Or that I hadn't given it to him free. I didn't know, then, how hard he probably had to work for that ten dollars. But Tuesday I was glad I had sold it to him. And if that man is still around, and has that baseball, I'm sure he thinks it was worth every cent.
April 16, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by Scott T. Holland
buckweaver.bsky.social
On Jackie Robinson Day, here’s an outstanding collection of essays from SABR on his entire life and legacy—from college football to fighting Jim Crow in the U.S. Army to his role in the Civil Rights Movement. Plus plenty of baseball too. sabr.org/journals/jac...
Book cover for Jackie: Perspectives on 42, edited by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks, published by SABR in 2021
April 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
sth749.bsky.social
Another season, another chance to wear #42. When he was 9 he requested this number and said he wanted to wear it as long as he's allowed. Bigger than baseball.
April 15, 2025 at 2:12 PM
sth749.bsky.social
don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet don't argue with strangers on the internet
April 11, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Scott T. Holland
sammillerbb.bsky.social
MLB needs to fix its blackout policy. There's no good reason I should be allowed to watch the White Sox.
April 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
sth749.bsky.social
No better reason to become editor of the college newspaper than the chance to craft an April 1 edition. This one is now 25 years old.
The April 1, 2020, "April Fool's Day" edition of the Coe College Cosmos.
April 1, 2025 at 1:46 PM
sth749.bsky.social
A. Always read @sammillerbb.bsky.social.

B. I spend a lot (A LOT) of time hitting grounders to an eager eighth-grader whom I already suspected to be both a future Gold Glover and a literal genius, so this reflection of course turned both dials to 11.

(open.substack.com/pub/pebblehu...)
It’s just unfathomable to me that our brains can see a groundball and almost immediately intuit whether we need to charge it or back up or stay where we are to get the best hop. It’s not based on how hard the ball is hit, but based on where we calculate the second or third hop is going to be, relative to our starting position. The math on that! It must be impossible, especially since every groundball is hit with a different angle/velo/direction combination than any other groundball that fielder will ever see. Every fly ball is essentially the same proposition as every other fly ball, but every groundball is essentially a one-time-only phenomenon. AND the ball goes across multiple surfaces, and one of those surfaces isn’t even smooth, but is a thatchwork of a billion different blades of grass leaning against each other, which presumably affects the uniformity of each bounce. Somehow these grounders routine to us. It’s the greatest testament to the human brain I can figure. Robots can drive cars. They can probably catch fly balls, or they will be able to. I don’t think a robot will ever be able to field groundballs better than we do. (That’s how naive I probably am.)
March 31, 2025 at 10:07 PM
sth749.bsky.social
It boggles me how MLB Opening Day is not today, when both major college hoops tournaments hit pause, but three days later when everyone wants to dive back into their brackets. (That said, also boggling is trying to open in March anywhere but the south/domes.)
sammillerbb.bsky.social Sam Miller @sammillerbb.bsky.social · Mar 25
Be so rad if MLB dropped a surprise series today
March 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
sth749.bsky.social
If the last 10 seconds of the Waukegan-Guilford sectional semifinal happened in an NCAA tournament game, there would be a national investigation. (Or at least 87 minutes of replay stoppages.) That said, Waukegan-Warren Friday in the Dog Pound might be as good as it gets for IHSA.
March 6, 2025 at 3:15 AM