iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

RIP Iron Mike Ditka. One of the benefits of having a dad who was a baseball letterman at Pitt is that I’ve accompanied him to some alumni events over the years, and before a football game in 2018 we got to hang out with Mr. Ditka.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Kinda poignant that it was his own error/misplay, especially since an inning earlier he had barehanded a soft line drive and turned it into a double play. I enjoyed writing about it for SABR last year, especially since CC doesn’t yet have a BioProject bio.

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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Celebrating Matt Damon’s birthday by playing The Odyssey with the kids in the yard, having Greek food plus potatoes for The Martian, and for dessert, a how do you like them apples cake with maple (therefore New England) cream cheese frosting.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I find it interesting that both of the baseball players Donald Trump has advocated for and/or honored this year – Roger Clemens and Pete Rose – were involved in the exploitation of girls who were no older than 15 at the time. What a weird coincidence.

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Adam Mallinger @bitterscriptreader.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This week is the 30th anniversary of THAT THING YOU DO. I’m reposting my tribute to it, which includes a deep dive about how contrasting the bloat of the extended cut with the theatrical is a great lesson in editing and efficiency thebitterscriptreader.blogspot.com/2026/10/an-a...

thebitterscriptreader.blogspot.com

An appreciation of THAT THING YOU DO on its 30th anniversary

This is a piece I originally wrote ten years ago for Film School Rejects on the occasion of THAT THING YOU DO's 20th Anniversary. Since Film...

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Bill Horton @mrhortywho.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

So for whatever reason, his Facebook page is wide open, so I figured I'd see if he really was a "lifelong Democrat" until 2024, like he claimed. Doesn't seem like it. /1

Jack Buhring
••
Feb 21, 2021 • TikTok •
This guy so dam stupid he cant even talk.
Let alone run this country. You will never be my president Trump is my president.

He posted a TikTok video which I didn't open, but was surely about Biden based on the date.

Another post from Jan 2021 calling Biden a "dam fool" for information he's passing about vaccinations.

Jack Buhring
Jan 11, 2021 • 6
Donald Trump we all stand with you. You have more people on your side than you know. If you cant get it done its hard to tell where this country will end up. Keep fighting!!!

Pretty damning for his "lifelong Democrat" claim since this is obviously in support of Trump just days after the Jan 6th insurrection.

Jack Buhring
Mar 26, 2020 • NewsBreak • O
Still none in ross bullshit.
••.
newsbreak.com
704 confirmed coronavirus cases with
10 deaths and 182 hospitalizations in...

An article about COVID deaths, which he seems to think is a hoax here.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Crazy that Sting and Dave Winfield were born a day apart. #BornInThe50s

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Dizzy, Juan Peron, and Cass Elliott all died the month I was born.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ozzie is one of those players you have to watch for here — he played in the 1996 postseason, so his “last game” situation is kinda like Shawon Dunston’s.

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

More fives, more zeroes: OTD 50 years ago, Walter Alston manages his last game, though nobody knows it at the time. From the SABR Games Project: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Good! I’ve had Bee Gees 1st in heavy rotation since you started posting about it a few weeks ago. I’ve kind of moved to Rush after catching their tour on Friday, but I look forward to seeing what the Bowieposting and Elvisposting brings up.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My wife and I saw his widow Gabby at a San Antonio Missions game a couple of weeks ago. We’ve known her for years through local distance running.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Happy 101st birthday to Bobby Shantz! 🎂💯+1️⃣

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy 52nd birthday to one of the Pirates’ wildest defeats of the 1970s!

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The production on “Tired of Sex.”

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

OTD 50 years ago, Danny Frisella of the Brewers pitched in his last game. My SABR Games Project colleague @aharner.bsky.social tells the story:

sabr.org

September 23, 1976: Unbeknownst to all, Brewers’ Danny Frisella makes final appearance – Society for American Baseball Research

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Probably Matthew’s all-time best playlist to soundtrack doing the dishes!

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Kinda adjacent to the list is one of my four-year-old’s current favorites: Exposé’s “Your Baby Never Looked Good in Blue.” When I drive him to preschool in the morning, he always calls out, “Hey, Siri, play My Baby Never Looked Good in Blue by Expose.”

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Tremendous playlist. I turned 13 in 1987 and a lot of these songs resonated with me as a teen, even when they were middle-aged soap opera (like “Heart of the Matter” and the even better IMO “Last Worthless Evening,” two of my favorite Top 40 hits as a ninth-grader).

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“one weird trick” = realignment to the AL West

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I remember being really pleasantly surprised that they had the comeback hit “One” in the summer of 1989, around the time I turned 15. (Almost as unexpected as Donny Osmond having two hit singles the same year.)

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Warren Morris Jimmy Anderson Brant Brown

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Today the baseball world joins hands to celebrate an anniversary: it has been 50 years since the big-league debut of Cowboy Joe West.

sabr.org

September 14, 1976: Cowboy Joe’s first ride: West umpires first of record-setting 5,460 games – Society for American Baseball Research

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Carter made a few trips to Fulton County Stadium back in the day and might have some interesting memories to share: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

Three paragraphs from SABR article about Hank Aaron Day celebration in July 1974.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I remember hearing “Stayin’ Alive” as a child, probably not too long after it was a hit, and really struggling with what they were singing about. It wasn’t like Neil Diamond or Peter Paul & Mary, whose words made sense when I was four or five.

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Dimitri Drekonja, MD, MS @dimitridrekonja.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

As someone in my 50’s, I can only dream of such attacks… 😢

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The Rooster @rooster.info · 12/09/2026

Tears in my eyes. Ohio Democrats hitting these perverts where it hurts???? Mental scenes.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Spending time with the other Rolling Stones keeps you young.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

My 4-year-old son has requested “No Sugar Tonight” on Siri a few times, although it’s never captured his imagination in the same way as “My City Was Gone,” “My Pal Foot Foot,” or (this week) “People Are Strange.”

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

New SABR Games Project jawn 🚨 takes us back to the Summer of Love to revisit a different kind of Impossible Dream. Tom Paciorek fans won’t want to miss it: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

Black and white news photo shows a clean shaven young Caucasian male with an expression somewhere between a smile and a grimace, the way people sometimes get when they’re not good at smiling on cue (this is not a criticism; you should see some of my family photos.) the young man has a regrettable lopsided Munsters sort of haircut; his flow makes Pete Rose look like a supermodel. The caption identifies the young man as “Tom Paciorek, Record Hitter,” which he was in April 1967 when this photo ran in the Houston Chronicle

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Song 187: Commencing Countdown, Engines On

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Happy 39th birthday to Jeff Robinson’s Immaculate Inning!

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

my brand-new SABR Games Project story is FIYAH. 🔥 No, srsly: it’s about a team coming back to its charred, patched-together ballpark after a major fire. Enjoy: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

Front page of the May 15, 1969, Syracuse Post-Standard (or at least the portion above the fold.) the lead stories are Richard Nixon offering a plan to pull troops out of Vietnam, and a fire destroying part of the city’s minor league park, MacArthur Stadium. MacArthur’s park is burning in the dark, all the sweet green icing floooooowing dooooooooown. (Alas, the pic is in black and white)

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Veruca Salt Urban Dance Squad Semisonic John Wesley Harding Jill Sobule Nash Kato Bryan Adams Ryan Adams Frank Black Brian Setzer Orchestra

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Warren Zevon Electric Six Le Tigre Mavis Staples Pere Ubu Rush Taylor Swift Neil Diamond Rufus Thomas Dave Davies

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But Andrew Hickey Died Ten Years Ago This Very Night @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 28/08/2026

Next main episode will be up in a few days, but for now here's the bonus to go with it. Twenty-five minutes on "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" by The Banana Splits. (And yes, before the Americans get to commenting, I do pronounce "banana" in an English accent, because I am English.)

patreon.com

500 Songs Patreon Bonus: "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" by The Banana Splits | Andrew Hickey

500 Songs Patreon Bonus: "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" by The Banana Splits by Andrew Hickey on Patreon. Join Andrew Hickey's community for exclusive content and updates.

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"smokey stevenson" @kurtblumenau.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Philadelphia Freedom, alas, does not encompass the right to pass other people on the basepaths.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“You screw up right out in front of 30,000 people it’s kinda tough to hide.” My latest for SABR remembers Tim McCarver’s mid-‘70s Philly comeback, his battery partnership with Steve Carlton, and the time his inattentive trotting turned a grand slam into a 3-run single. sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Chauvin was, in fact, the cause of Floyd’s death. He used a technique that MPD and most other agencies have banned, specifically because it causes death. And the crime for which he was convicted is unintentional second-degree murder, which by definition does not require intent to kill.

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

He has a cameo in my next SABR Games Project article — he was filling in as the Phillies’ first base coach on July 4, 1976, when Tim McCarver turned a grand slam into a three-run single by passing Garry Maddox between first and second.

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Harrison Golden @harrisongolden.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A Louisiana legend is gone. Skip Bertman, who led LSU baseball to five College World Series titles, has died at age 88. I had the joy earlier this year of writing about one of Bertman's most famous triumphs: the 1996 championship. 📷: TigerRag magazine ARTICLE: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

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BaseballObscura @justmckinney.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Been working on a cool, but insane project the past couple weeks. Thanks to @adarowski.bsky.social and Gary Ashwill and Kevin Johnson at Seamheads, I've procured a list of the 891 Negro League players who are missing death dates. In two weeks, I've found death dates for 37 of them...

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John Fredland @johnfredland.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Probably next up will be; 1968 - Near four-homer game at Wrigley 1978 - Massive Olympic Stadium HR and Comeback Player of the Year 1982 - Pinch-hitter in final season

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