DaBigDave

The actor playing try-hard Emma Bennett was Angel Boris,a playboy playmate. This is back in the late 90s when TV was trying very hard (starting w/Jenny McCarthy) to make Playboy Playmates into actresses. It generally didn't work.

Indeed. I once went over to her place with some TWOP folks to watch "Echoes of the Mind" - the episode of Magnum P.I. with Sharon Stone, and were amazed by how well that episode held up. She was awesome.

Yeah. Cuts in and out alot starting at the 28-min mark. Sounds like they may have accidentally mixed out everything but John Ramos' audio channel in the recording or something.

Thanks!

Something strange happened with your audio file. The last two minutes or so of the podcast is super choppy.

Re: Henry and school, I suppose the show is still in 1984, Because Thomas Jefferson (the Fairfax Magnet School that produced my deadly HS & College Quizbowl Nemesis opened in 1985. I have to assume parents in the NOVA suburbs (who care more about their sons than the Jennings) would be well aware of it and just pushed him toward what would rapidly become one of the US's best High Schools. Especially for Science and Tech, what with them being Russian spies. I know this is probably writing the actor out, but he should just be applying to TJ.

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, or below, but yeah - so far Phillip and Elizabeth haven't done any same-sex honeytraps. But, at the time, they may not really have had to. Back in S2, they blackmailed Andrew Larrick, a Naval Officer with the threat of outing him as gay. In the 80s, anybody who was gay and doing any kind of DoD/Security work would have their career ruined by being outed. Indeed, this vulnerability to blackmail by Soviets was often cited as a reason not to hire or employ gays in the industry. (As opposed to, you know, negating the threat of blackmail by not caring that they were gay in the first place.)

It made some sense because (1) having reconnected with the Villaneuvas he's now seeing the close family they have and wanting that connection for himself and (2) he's getting older and it might be his last shot to do fatherhood from the beginning. By the same token, deciding that Mateo is filling that spot in his heart is also something I can believe.

The ex is played by Ashley Hinshaw, who I mostly know from roles that are about how attractive she is. I'd guess the play so far is that Megan is supposed to be more "real" and she certainly doesn't behave like anyone who has dealt with any kind of fame. Honestly, I got more "what happens when you may get famous" training from ABC when I was briefly on TV than Terrence's people have given her. And I wasn't even under contract with them.

During "To Sir With Love" - I kept waiting for the turn, where this was gonna become funny. It never came. I kept thinking they would have been better off doing something with Joe Biden instead. Funny never came. It was treacly, and not what the show is for. The only real virtue lies in knowing that it's the sort of tribute that Trump himself desperately craves, and it mush make him angry that Obama gets love he doesn't. But I didn't need to sit through that.

Because I am a huge baseball nerd and cannot leave well enough alone... (1) The Seattle Pilots are not the Seattle Mariners (2) The Minnesota Twins are not an expansion team. 1. The Seattle Pilots were an expansion Team in 1969 - at the end of the season, they were sold to a used-car salesman named Bud Selig, who moved them to Milwaukee and renamed them the Milwaukee Brewers. As a note, the Original Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis to become the Browns, and are now the Baltimore Orioles. 2. The Minnesota Twins were the Washington Nats/Senators from 1901 to 1960 - they were moved and became the Twins. 3. In 1961, the American League expanded, adding the Angels and Washington Senators. (This Senators team is now the Texas Rangers.

According to fangraphs, Hector Santiago is the only pitcher who thre a sscewball in the majors last year. Basically, ppitchingcoaches had eeveryoneswitch to change ups years ago because the screwball is supposedly murder on the elbow. Throwing oneas much as Ginny.... yikes.

I am pretty sure the empty stands were deliberate. It was done to show that Ginny was visualizing to push back all the distractions and focus on the game. I don't buy that Mike is still in love with his ex or that she is his true love. He is undergoing a life transition. He is aging and nearing the end of a career that has consumed his life since he was a kid. It is lonely, scary and traumatic. We see him looking wistfully at his teammates' families and girlfriends greeting them when they return home. He wants an emotional connection to someone, his ex, his father, but ultimately it is Ginny that he has those strong feelings for. However, a romantic relationship with Ginny is untenable. They are teammates and she is at a different stage of her life and career. So Mike is trying to recreate a relationship with his ex. I just don't think that is the answer. A new woman without that their unhappy history would be the best for MIke. His ex did not seem super into that future relationship.

I had a whole thing ready to go about how they didn't handle the shutdown thing all that well on this show (do I want to revisit the 80,000 articles about every side of Strasburg here in DC) ... but it's just another example of this show rushing through a baseball point they could have spent more time on. Without really even making the Shutdown / pitch limit / innings limit thing a metaphor for something else. OTOH, I guess now we know Ginny is a good enough major league pitcher to reach her innings limit. So she's better than Todd Van Poppel.

Not sure where they got their data from, regarding elbow injuries for women - but on ligaments as a whole... It's been widely studied for decades, and female athletes are three times as likely to suffer a torn ACL as a male athlete. My sister suffered a torn UCL playing softball last year (oddly, crashing into a 3rd baseman, not throwing) the Dr. told her not to get Tommy John surgery as she was over 40 and it wasn't worth it for her.

The Ginny / Mike ship, in particular, is one that doesn't do all that much for me. But I guess I don't feel the need to fight over shipping on shows anymore. The getting together portion of TV Romance is often not a thing I'm into - established couple Coach Taylor & Mrs. Coach on Friday Night Lights were as interesting to me as as any will they/wont they ... but I recognize it's just a part of the form. A lot of shows will pair the leads and that's what this show is doing. I'm just bummed at the stories they aren't telling. Ginny would certainly spend a lot of time with the team's main catcher - but Pitchers especially spend time with other pitchers. Beat writers in baseball towns can always file pieces on a slow day with tales of pitching staff weirdness. I know this isn't an ensemble show but I don't think we know the names of any of the pitchers on this team other than Tommy, who they traded. I'll just assume they're off golfing somewhere.

I agree. There's a wonderful lived in quality to Mike that I really like watching and MPG gives him a certain gravitas but they're doing a pretty decent job showcasing all the perils that face not only a female trailblazer but a rookie player. And not ignoring her psychology in the meantime. That's why I liked the trade storyline. Sure, we knew Mike wouldn't be traded but if the journey is handled well, I don't care if I know the outcome in advance. I liked watching the backroom dealing, the pure business desire to go young, Mike struggling between team vs. ring, the uncertainty in the locker room, the crowd's reaction and the hint of what life would be like not being a Padre. Other than the "making it through wavers" part, that never came up .., because no way could this show possibly handle the Waver Claims portion of August baseball trades.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar is elevating this show from deeply frustrating to Not Good, but Worth Watching, and kind of Frustrating. Do we need to check in with somebody who watched a lot more Hyperion Bay and Franklin & Bash than I did, because I just do not remember MPG as being all that great an actor in the stuff I've seen him in. Is it the beard? Seriously, is it the beard. Like if he gets a shave, will his powers all disappear?

OMG. you are right - this would be much better if Mike Schur were writing it. Also, the Stat Nerd jokes would be much better. And maybe Ginny could do an ad for the Law Firm of Babip, Pecota, Vorp and Eckstein. And yeah - sports psychologists are not new. I remember back during the World Series, when John Smoltz credited his mental approach and dealing with stress to his psychologist. The 1991 World Series.

They didn't trade Blip though. Ginny's talk gave Oscar the idea to give the Angels a centerfielder, so he acquired one in trade and flipped him for the player he needed. RIght. But they never would have traded Blip... and everyone would have known that. While, yes, if you don;t have a no-trade clause you might get traded... this just wouldn't happen - especially since they say Blip has a "team friendly" contract. Which is to say, they couldn't get back equal value on the field without have to pay way more. And again, everyone, Ginny included would know they weren't trading Blip and wouldn't stress over it. Mookie Betts doesn't have a no-trade. But he's not going anywhere.

If Mike Lawson is an old all-star catcher who can still hit, and you have a hotshot catcher in the minors.... and apparently a First Baseman you can comfortably trade... In the real world, Mike Lawson gets moved to First and you call up the awesome catcher you just spent all this effort to sign. If Ginny really needs Mike Lawson to catch for her... well he can go behind the plate on the days she pitches. And there is no way in hell a team in contention trades an all-star centerfielder for the stretch drive. All of the trade stuff was dumb.

Perhaps they are channelling former Padre outfielder, Leon "Bip" Roberts

This show keeps having good ideas for storylines, and doing them badly. There are literally hundreds of baseball players who have done TV studio spots. Teams give players media training. If Mike Lawson has been in the majors for over a decade (he was enough of a star when Ginny was a kid for her to have his poster) then he would have interacted with the Media plenty. They could use all of those random people around to show how you train a guy to do a studio spot. This show is moving way to fast - it tries to cram too many things into each episode and is trying to check off to many story points... but it just hits them superficially. And also - the All Star Break is only four days off, and the Padres were on the West Coast. No way a family would have done an Orlando Disney World trip over that break, especially if you thought you were going to the ASG. That's an off-season trip and some stupid drama. In short, I'm really glad I watched my Team get knocked out by the Dodgers last night, and this in no way affects how frustrating this "could have been good" show it.

Except for Brian McCann. I kind of feel like those 2010-2013 Braves teams talked about "The Code" to people who already knew about it full well all the time. And McCann was pretty much baseball's self-appointed fun police. This show keeps raising about 15 or so good story ideas per episode, and failing to execute them. And mishandling it's drama worse than Buck Showalter in an extra inning playoff game... OTOH, yeah that was perfect casting of the Bench Coach. Who kind of looks about as Don Zimmer-y as you might get in Hollywood.

Aslaug suspects that Harbard is one of the Gods. Possibly Odin.