The Spurs have made my kid really like Liverpool.

Yes...usually walnuts almost certainly mean a pecan allergy, but it can be broader or Just walnuts.

If adult onset, it might be related to double jointedness.

Publicly available NPL and KBO conversion models were pretty terrible back then.

You just need to be disciplined and know that your ultimate goal is for them to have a life long love of sport AND that you have given them the training that lets them lead themselves.

And the point about it being ridiculous is that as much as you tell yourself that the now matters so little to what will be, that what happens on the dirt in game or in practice does not tell you what things will be in 5 or 10 years, you still have this attachment to their journeys.

I think as youth coaches our primary job is to keep things fun, our secondary job is raise their athletic foundation where they can use their agency to determine what they actually want to do. Our final job, is to eventually get out of their way.

Now, my first inclination was...oh man, I have coached you since you were six. I see your baseball path. Out of everyone, I see yours the best.

But, you know, it is their path and I think as adults we have this inclination to make their path ours.

I think people tend to not break up with a team, but the entire sport itself because of the lack of joy a team has given you.

I think becoming a fan of a team is such a weird thing that it is to do a second time.

What I mean is...if GRod has several seasons around 0.5 to 1.5 on average as a starter for four years...I am not sure that is all that much more valuable than Ward putting up 1 to 2.5 this year.

Does three things...one, permits more young player movement, two, encourages more older players earning 40 man benefits, three, ends a lot of roster manipulation.

I maintain that the club is much better run now, but perhaps the margin of error is a lot thinner and only the most difficult codes have yet to be cracked.

If 2026 is the target, the Orioles need several solutions. If serious, they will be pouring money into a couple pitchers now.

And, honestly, it still might not be enough.

The core of young players has to perform and last year brought a lot of questions as to who they really are.

I think it is easy to value GRod for what he was and think of it as what it might be. But he is in a challenging situation.

Neither of these guys have much value. Ward has moderate mow value. GRod has moderate long term value.

And when folks pine for their idyllic youth, they basically are just saying they really liked the memory of more simple times.