GOAT

Fans compare Greg Maddux to Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martenez, and Nolan Ryan as if they're equals. Not even close. Who won 15 or more games a record 17 times? Who won more games than any righthander since the end of the Dead Ball Era? Maddux's 1.8 walks per 9 innings were markedly lower than his contemporaries. Strikeouts might be cool. Some pitchers may have been lights out for 2 or 3 years. But the object of the game is to win. No one was as consistently great as Maddux. 

W/YR..W.YR.BB9.streak of 15+wins

15.43 355 23 1.8 17 Greg Maddux

14.95 284 19 2.0 06 Fergie Jenkins

14.93 209 14 2.2 04 Don Drysdale 

14.78 266 18 4.1 06 Bob Feller 

14.76 251 17 3.1 05 Bob Gibson

14.75 236 16 3.1 05 Whitey Ford

14.75 354 24 2.9 07 Roger Clemens

14.11 268 19 3.0 05 Jim Palmer

14.09 324 23 2.3 08 Don Sutton

13.77 303 22 3.3 04 Randy Johnson

13.75 165 12 3.2 04 Sandy Koufax 

13.71 329 24 3.2 07 Steve Carlton

13.30 266 20 2.5 03 Justin Verlander

13.25 318 24 3.0 07 Phil Niekro 

12.78 221 18 2.4 04 Max Scherzer

12.39 223 18 2.2 03 Clayton Kershaw

12.17 219 18 2.4 04 Pedro Martinez 

12.00 324 27 4.7 03 Nolan Ryan

Monday: productive morning: (1) played golf, (2) gassed up my car, (3) hit the gym for an hour, (4) visited the AT&T Store, (5) picked up two things at CVS, and (6) picked up my dry cleaning.

AM golf: Took my time getting started, but the professor was a no show. Even played the first hole twice while looking out for him.

1. Decent 6 iron off the old first tee box. Then another nice long 6 iron to just short of the front right bunker. Chipped just over the green. 

1. From the new 1st tee box I hit driver. Went a little further than my earlier 6 iron. Hit two good 5 irons, first into the front right bunker, then a mulligan that landed just a short of the green. One of my 3 chips stuck on the green. Two putt for bogey.

2. After a flub I hit one straight, but short. Hit about 5 chips, none that good. Double.

3. Hit two straight 8 irons off the tee. Both short, but at least that didn't roll down off the green. A couple of good chips. Took me 4 tries to sink the par putt.

4. Hit one short, then hit two good 5 irons. One settled on the front right fringe. Hit several nice lag putts to within inches. Par.

5. Hit four tee shots, not that good. Hit several chips, a couple to the front fringe. Hit a couple of good lag putts. Couldn't sink a bogey putt.

6. Hit two pretty good drives off the tee. Only one of my three fairway shots was good. Hit one real good chip, out of four tries. Took me a couple of attempts to sink the par putt. 

7. Hit a drive right, flubbed one, then lined a drive into to the hill. It managed to roll part of the way up. Two decent 6 irons, the first further than the mulligan. Chipped one to the front of the green, and a second to the back. Putted two close. Bogey.

8. Hit two high drives to the middle of the fairway. Not much roll or distance. Hit one great chip, three others were just okay, and only one flub. Hit like 4 birdie putts to within inches. Par 

9. Just before i walked to the last tee, a grandfather had taken his two young grandsons off the adjacent bike trail for a little adventure. Maybe one had to pee. But they hung around to watch me tee off. I hit a decent hybrid up the right side of the fairway. With a tree branch in my way, none of my chips were good. One did hit the branch, or it might've been good. Hit three uphill putts past the hole, and left one short. Just so hard to putt on this green. Double 

SHOHEI OHTANI [B-R Bio] is the only major leaguer to win MVP unanimously more than once. Playing for the Angels, Ohtani won the AL MVP in 2021 & 2023.  After signing with LAD, he won the NL MVP in 2024 & 2025. All 4 times, no other nominee ever got even a single first-place vote. He was ROY with LAA in 2018 with 25 of the available 30 first-place votes. Pitching for LAA in 2022, he finished 4th for the Cy Young Award, behind Justin Verlander’s unanimous vote

Denison: in Reinventing Liberal Christianity, the British theologian Theo Hobson describes the three marks of a revolution:

1. What was universally condemned is now celebrated.

2. What was universally celebrated is now condemned.

3. Those who refuse to celebrate are condemned.

As a means to advancing such a "revolution," the first step is to normalize "what was universally condemned." We are reticent to celebrate what we consider aberrant, so we must be convinced that what we thought was aberrant is actually normal.