It's Game 7, Baby

Your humble blogger is a front-running homer, that is, I usually follow baseball only when the hometown Giants are contending, but I have to admit that this year's postseason run by the Dodgers is must-see TV. Los Angeles' Shohei Ohtani has not only broken records, he has given us moments that Major League Baseball in its 149-year history has never seen before. Ohtani had nothing to do, though, with what happened in Game 6 of the 9th inning last night.

The ball hit the seam on the fly and became wedged

With the Dodgers nursing a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 9th, the Blue Jays leadoff hitter, Alejandro Kirk, was hit by a pitch and replaced by pinch-runner Myles Straw. Then a freak play happened. [bold added]

[Addison] Barger hammered a [Roki] Sasaki fastball over Hernandez's head in left field with a drive that left the bat at 106 mph as Straw rounded the bases. The ball headed for the padding on the outfield wall then became wedged just beneath it, stopping on a dime between the padding and the warning track.

Confusion was everywhere. Dodgers center fielder Justin Dean raced over and threw up his hands, calling attention to the trapped ball. Hernandez, who initially also had his hands up, ran over and started yelling at Dean to grab the ball and throw it into the infield because Barger was circling the bases.

"I was just screaming at him to get the ball and throw it in because that's the umpire's discretion," Hernandez said. "The fact that the ball stuck there doesn't mean that they're actually going to call ground-rule double. So I was screaming at him. That's kind of why I've lost my voice a little bit."

Left-field umpire John Tumpane called time as soon as he saw the ball trapped under the padding. Taking nothing for granted, Barger rounded third and crossed the plate. The fans thundered, certain they had seen the Blue Jays tie the score on a two-run, inside-the-park homer.

"Been here a long time," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "I haven't seen a ball get lodged ever. Just caught a tough break there."

The play was ruled a ground-rule double, sending Barger back to second and Straw to third. They advanced no farther after the wild play was confirmed on replay.

The Dodgers had caught a huge break. Still, there was a man on second and third with no one out and the potential winning run was coming to the plate. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled Sasaki and installed potential Game 7 starter Tyler Glasnow in relief. Desperate times....

The ball arrives at 2nd a split second before Addison Barger

Glasnow got Ernie Clement to pop out to first base on the first pitch. The next batter, shortstop Andres Gimenez, hit a line drive that would normally have been a single and brought in the runners from second and third.

However, the Dodgers Enrique Hernandez was playing in shallow left field, caught the line drive and alertly threw to second baseman Miguel Rojas before Barger could get back to the bag. (Barger represented the tying run and had aggressively wandered too far from second base in case the ball fell for a single.) It was the first 7 to 4 game-ending double play in World Series history. (Position 7 is left field, and position 4 is second base.)

Bring on Game 7, baby!

Musk: Something More

Elon Musk has been attacked from all sides during his time at the Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Washington. Interest groups are fighting to keep every dollar of over-$6 Trillion in annual government spending, while shareholders in his companies want him to return to tending his businesses.

Elon Musk's last day as a temporary government employee was today, but he may have a few ideas about how he wants to spend his time that don't include Tesla or SpaceX.

The Tesla Diner under construction (Jessie Alcheh/SFGATE)

Elon Musk continually surprises with his list of priorities, but I doubt that many had Tesla Diner on that list.

But there’s something … different about the diner under construction at Santa Monica Boulevard and Orange Drive in Hollywood. For one, it’s got a striking two-story silver Space Age design and electric car charging stations aplenty. Large outdoor screens are set to show movie clips. And then there’s the mercurial owner, controversial Tesla and SpaceX CEO and Department of Government Efficiency architect Elon Musk...

The Tesla diner project has been in the works since 2018, when Musk announced on what was then Twitter that he was “Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.” Progress has been slow since that first public idea, but lately, tidbits about the space have been trickling out on social media. The announcement of [Eric] Greenspan as chef was first floated on X and picked up later by the New York Times. In March, Sawyer Merritt shared on X that the “diner will feature a ‘1950s retro charm, dazzling neon lights, the unmistakable scent of freshly grilled burgers & hand-spun milkshakes.’” Merritt also noted the launch of a Tesla Diners Instagram account, which remains post-free...

The restaurant’s alien-spaceship design, courtesy of Stantec, is growing more visible by the day, despite the fencing and security around the busy corner lot. In late 2023, the restaurant was still very much a steel shell, but recent photos reveal that the building has not only been topped out but is already filling up with furniture and other finishing touches. Large movie screens affixed above the chargers are roughly in place, and word is that the screens will show films for 30 minutes, or the time it takes to charge a car.

It may have the tastiest burgers and unique decor, but I doubt that was enough to excite Elon Musk. There is undoubtedly something more to Tesla Diner.

Rancho Palos Verdes: Unlikely Ally

Homes in Rancho Palos Verdes (Getty/SFGate)

Three months ago we wrote about the slow-moving disaster in Rancho Palos Verdes, where some homes are sliding toward the ocean. However, the slippage has slowed for an unexpected reason.

Recently, though, the rate of failure has slowed somewhat, giving new hope to those on the edge. And it’s thanks to an unlikely ally: drought.

At a May 6 city council meeting, Rancho Palos Verdes geologist Mike Phipps explained that the land movement across much of the peninsula has stabilized (or at least decelerated) recently. “Mr. Phipps believes this is largely due to significantly below-average rainfall through April,” according to a news update on the meeting from the city’s website, which added that “winterization measures” last fall and “ongoing dewatering efforts” have also contributed to the slowdown. Since the start of the rainy season back in October, the region has received only 46% of its average seasonal rainfall total this year.

In California we're lucky to have had three wet winters in a row, but in Rancho Palos Verdes that's too much of a good thing.

Slip Sliding Away

Palos Verdes Peninsula in LA (Fallon/AFP/SFGate)

Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city in Los Angeles, west of Long Beach. The city has a population of 42,000 and is known

for its breathtaking ocean views, luxurious homes, and serene environment, [and] has been named the richest retirement town in the country, boasting a median household income of $166,747.

I became familiar with RPV when I helped an aviation executive put together business plans for a startup (we couldn't persuade enough investors to make a go of it). He loved living there not only for the aforementioned attributes but also because its schools made it an excellent place to raise his kids. Now the community is suffering from a slow-moving natural disaster: [bold added]

According to data captured by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory using airborne radar, a portion of the Palos Verdes Peninsula is slipping towards the Pacific Ocean as much as 4 inches per week.

California has experienced its share of natural disasters in recent years. However, its wealthiest residents have generally avoided feeling the consequences....until the Pacific Palisades fire showed that even they are vulnerable.

Repairing Pacific Palisades, and perhaps Rancho Palos Verdes, will require funds that only the Federal Government can provide, yet the Progressives that run California have passed legislation to "Trump-proof" California. Why poke the bear? The moneyed backers of the current regime can only wonder if it is really interested in protecting their interests.

Dodgers Win World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2024 World Series by defeating the New York Yankees in Game 5:

The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series championship in five seasons, overcoming a five-run deficit with the help of three Yankees defensive miscues and rallying on sacrifice flies from Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts in the eighth inning to beat New York 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday night

Personal note; A typical "homer," your humble blogger takes an interest in Major League Baseball only when the San Francisco Giants have a contending team.

But this is one World Series that any boomer sports fan had to watch. We remember when baseball was head and shoulders above the NFL and NBA, and the '50's and '60's Yankees and Dodgers had some of the most famous players ever to play the sport. In 2024 the Yankees and the Dodgers had the most glamor and the fattest payrolls--along with their storied histories--and this World Series would demonstrate whether baseball still deserved a place at the top of the sports pyramid.

This is the World Series that Major League Baseball has been dreaming about.

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are the most prestigious and popular franchises in the sport, loaded with enough star power to light up a small city. Shohei Ohtani is a once-in-a-century talent, now playing on the game’s biggest stage for the first time. Network executives are betting that it will be the most-watched Fall Classic in years.

“Baseball purists probably love it. I know MLB probably loves it. Fox definitely loves it,” Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón said ahead of Friday’s Game 1. “There’s definitely some glamor to it.”

...There are five different players in this World Series—Ohtani, Judge, Freeman, Betts and Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton—who have won an MVP award, and that doesn’t even count injured Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Assuming they all appear in a game, it will be an all-time record.

One of those players has been named MVP in six of the past seven seasons, a streak that is going to continue with Ohtani and Judge, the presumed MVPs for 2024. It will make this the first World Series since 2012 and just the second since 1988 to feature both MVPs from that season.

The business assessments have to wait on the viewership ratings and other financial analytics, but from this fan's standpoint the 2024 World Series had many interesting and suspenseful moments that showcased why baseball is unique and fascinating.

About Elon Musk: Another Reason You Should Read Beyond the Headlines

The 2.800 sq. ft. home was the property of Gene Wilder. Elon Musk sold it to Wilder's nephew.

Elon Musk forecloses on homeowner is a headline that seems to confirm the worst suspicions about a billionaire and his greed; that is, until one digs into the story and the homeowner sings his praises (!). [bold added]

In 2020, tech mogul Elon Musk agreed to sell one of his Los Angeles homes to filmmaker Jordan Walker-Pearlman and his wife, Elizabeth Hunter, for $7 million. Walker-Pearlman had grown up in the Bel-Air house—the longtime home of his uncle, the late “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” actor Gene Wilder—and Musk agreed to loan the couple most of the money they would need to buy it.

“He could have sold it for so much more,” Walker-Pearlman, a film director and writer, told The Wall Street Journal in 2022. “His sensitivity to me can’t be overstated.”

The facts, as noted in the article:

2013 - Elon Musk buys the late Gene Wilder's home for $6.75 million.

2020 - Musk lists the home for $9.5 million but sells it to Jordan Walker-Pearlman for $7 million and provides him with a $6.7 million loan, a much higher advance than any bank would allow.

2024 - The Musk loan managers file a notice of default after Walker-Pearlman fell behind the loan payments. Walker-Pearlman lists the home for $12.95 million ("Musk’s representatives have made it clear that they have no intention of forcing a sale").

Normally a foreclosure is bad news for the homeowner, but look at the overall picture. Jordan Walker-Pearlman and his wife, Elizabeth Hunter put $300,000 down, lived for four years in a house they never could have afforded were it not for a billionaire's generosity, then stand to receive $5.25 million ($12,950,000-6,700,000 mortgage-1,000,000 selling expense plug estimate) on the sale.

That's a $4.950,000 profit, 16.5 times their down payment, a 1,650% return on investment. On a yearly basis, that's 105% per annum over four years [$300,000 x (1+1.05)^4].

Elon Musk has given away multi-million-dollar profits to someone he probably never knew four years ago. Are billionaires greedy? Sometimes, but not always.

Note to Kamala Harris' speechwriters: that's how one does a "return on investment" calculation. It would be nice if you show your work, but I'm not holding my breath.

Costco's LA Housing Venture: If I can make it there I'm gonna make it anywhere

Costco's inventory management is second to none, so it can afford to experiment with selling products like $2,000+ gold bars, $1,150 funeral caskets, or chicken coops; if the items don't move, they can be pulled quickly with limited financial exposure.

However, this new venture is a substantial commitment that cannot be abandoned easily: Los Angeles affordable housing.

The project, to be built by developer Thrive Living and architects AO, was first announced early last year in a press release that revealed renderings of a mixed-use model with multiple floors, open courtyard spaces and other amenities. All told, the build would encompass not only the Costco store (and necessary parking) but a whopping 800 residential units, including 184 set aside specifically for low-income tenants.

Not only is Costco trying its hand at building and operating residential real estate, it's doing so in California, whose regulations make it one of the most difficult places to build.

The city’s upcoming South LA Costco, slated for 5035 Coliseum St. at the intersection with La Brea, is building up on a vacant 5-acre lot that was formerly a hospital. The redone site will not only encompass the store and 800 individual apartments, it will also include a fitness area, multi-use community space, multiple courtyards and landscaped paths, a rooftop pool, and other amenities like gardens. Oh, and lots of parking too, of course.

So how, exactly, is everything going to fit together on this relatively compact lot, particularly when layers of bureaucracy, local input, unique design and state-level lawmaking are added to the cement mix?

“The planning and land use system in California and in LA is a Rube Goldberg machine,” housing activist Joe Cohen tells SFGATE, “and this project is seeing that machine laid bare.”

In a long post on X earlier this month, Cohen described the complex construction hurdles faced by Thrive Living, AO and Costco in detail, ticking off state Assembly bills and union rules for construction projects of this size. The result of all that regulatory navigation is an unconventional building with a less-than-usual look, something Cohen inelegantly dubbed the “Costco Prison.”

Cohen later admitted that the term "Costco Prison" was inapt and voiced his support of the project.

It's difficult to judge the look and feel of a place from drawings, but almost everyone gives Costco the benefit of the doubt due to its track record of success.

Willie Mays (1931-2024)

(SF Chronicle photo)

Willie Mays has died at the age of 93. Rather than do what hundreds of others have done in reciting the statistics that show his greatness or tracing a career that began in the Negro leagues, I'll just provide a (free) link to the Chronicle's obituary. Several of its sportswriters also chipped in with separate articles about what Willie meant to them.

I had become a baseball fan in the early 1960's when my grand-uncle Fred (the owner of Buck's sweet bread), bought season tickets behind home plate for the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders. He often gave tickets to my father and me to the games at Honolulu Stadium (aka the "Termite Palace"), which was only a quarter of a mile from our house.

Another catalyst for my interest was the chase after Babe Ruth's home run record of 60 in a season by Yankees Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in 1961. I devoured every baseball article in the morning Advertiser and the evening Star-Bulletin. I learned about all the stars in the game, and none were greater than Willie Mays.

I did get to see him and the San Francisco Giants play in the summer of 1962, thanks to my uncle who was the best mechanic I ever knew. He invited me to stay with him over the summer at his home in San Bernardino.

One night he took me to Dodger Stadium, whose four decks dwarfed the Termite Palace back home. But the real difference was in the players. Even from our distant seats along the right-field foul line, I could sense the power in just the practice swings by Giants Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Willie Mays. I don't remember the specific batting statistics from the game, although the Dodgers did win because their outstanding pitching staff got the better of the Giants.

I did see enough to realize that both the Dodgers and Giants played on a different plane from the Islanders. Baseball is the one professional sport, IMHO from watching film clips, where the stars from a half-century ago can compete with the stars of today. Willie Mays was the greatest player in history during his time, and according to many baseball fans, sportswriters, and players he retains that title 51 years after his retirement. R.I.P.

Keep Telling Yourself It's the Safest Way to Travel

My brother's flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Thursday was delayed by a stuck door handle. The pilot announced that the problem was "fixed" and the United Boeing flight went on to Honolulu.

Normally I wouldn't have given the matter a second thought but for the spate of recent headlines:

February 6: Boeing 737 MAX Missing Critical Bolts in Alaska Airlines Blowout, NTSB Says

April 9: Boeing Engineer Says Company Used Shortcuts to Fix 787 Jets

April 17: Boeing’s Quality Complaints Mount as Another Whistleblower Comes Forward

We all were relieved when brother landed safely.

For the first time in my life, I'll check the price of flight insurance the next time I take a Boeing flight.

O.J.'s Legacy

The 1994 Bronco "chase" (spectrum)

Every newspaper (yes, I still read at least three of them every day) has carried obituaries of O.J. Simpson, who died this Wednesday from cancer at the age of 76. His outstanding career in college and professional football and his subsequent work in film, TV, and advertising alone merited pages, but the big story was his 1994-1995 trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan captures that unique, "crazy" period in history:

Our crazy country. The O.J. Simpson case was the beginning of knowing we were crazy and admitting it. It was 30 years ago this June, the murder followed by the Bronco chase, and I find myself wanting to tell those who weren’t there what a sensation it was, what an amazement.

Everyone over 40 this weekend will be saying, “I’ll never forget when I heard the verdict,” and, “Did you watch the Bronco?” The case burned itself into our retinas; everyone in the country was in the path of totality.

As much as anything and more than most, the story was the beginning of the modern media age. It was the beginning of hypercelebrity and marked by the emotionalism of crowds. Crowds ran to California freeway overpasses on June 17, 1994, to see the Ford Bronco containing Simpson roll by, surrounded by police cruisers. They cheered and pumped their arms. They didn’t see it as a tragedy, the story of the beautiful young woman and mother, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her 25-year-old friend, Ron Goldman, who had been brutally stabbed to death. They saw an exciting drama unfolding before their eyes, like Al Capone shooting his way out of a bank heist surrounded by cops. Simpson was a guy everyone liked. So they cheered. And people watching thought: Whoa, what are we seeing, what is this?

Some new kind of fame was being presaged. A close friend of O.J.’s, Los Angeles lawyer and businessman Robert Kardashian, an apparently quiet fellow no one had heard of, was thrust into the case from the beginning. At a news conference he read a public letter from O.J., just before he turned himself in. The letter said he had nothing to do with Nicole’s murder. “I loved her. . . . If we had a problem, it’s because I loved her so much.” It was classic abusive-husband patter.

Kardashian, like other O.J. attorneys, would become famous, and the fame would be a lesson to many. After fame comes wealth and power and everyone gives you a good table. It is probably true that none of this was lost on his former wife, Kris, who had been one of Nicole Simpson’s best friends, or on his children, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe and Rob. Their show, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” debuted in 2007. They were the first reality-TV family, famous for being famous. They are billionaires now.

“It marked the end of cozy, afternoon soap opera entertainment and ushered in a tabloid culture of Kardashians, Jenners, and lesser beings,” former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter said by email. “Also, it made, for a time, Dominick Dunne the most recognized print reporter in the world.” Dunne’s colorful and breathless reports each month in Vanity Fair covered the case like a blanket—who snubbed whom in the courtroom, who said what at Brentwood’s glittering dinner tables...

If the signal moment was the Bronco chase, it was the court case that would have lasting significance. It was a prime example of how our legal system got bogged down in distractions, inanities, and poor police and legal work. It dragged on nine months. The judge, Lance Ito, also became a celebrity, and apparently liked it. He kept three open computers on his bench. No one had ever seen that before. Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” had a regular sketch, the “Dancing Itos.” There were endless, meandering objections. The prosecutor, Marcia Clark, had to get her hair and makeup done, and a new wardrobe.

And the cast of characters! Kato Kaelin, the house guest who never left. Mark Fuhrman, the police detective who seemed solid on evidence and then was torn apart for having once used racial epithets and was accused of planting evidence.

And the phrases that bubbled up from the courtroom and entered the national consciousness: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

And, of course, the terrible and historic moment when the jury announced its verdict.

The trial felt like it had gone forever but the verdict came in within a day. No one in America did a bit of work from the moment it was announced that the jury had a verdict. Everyone ran to a TV set. From Robert D. McFadden’s O.J. obit in the New York Times: “Even President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office to join his secretaries. In court, cries of ‘Yes!’ and ‘Oh, no!’ were echoed across the nation as the verdict left many Black people jubilant and many white people aghast.” Exactly true.

A friend wrote Thursday afternoon: “Trial as spectacle has been with us for a long time (think Lizzie Borden), and so have juries doing unusual things. But this seemed to take it to a new level. If memory serves, the volume of the New York Stock Exchange went down to basically nothing for a few minutes as the verdict was announced. That’s real.”

Reaction famously fell almost completely along racial lines. It was one of those 20th-century moments when you realized race is here to stay as an unending factor, an unyielding actor in American life. White and black saw two different realities. Whites: All the evidence points to his guilt, he’s one of the most admired men in America, race isn’t the story here.

Blacks: This is what you do to black men, you railroad them on cooked-up evidence, there’s plenty of room for doubt.

It showed in some new and unforgettable way the divided country. The verdict itself didn’t divide the country; it revealed it, again and not for the last time, as divided. Reaction was called shocking, revelatory. But what it was, was simpler. It was painful. It left you with a tight and mournful feeling in your throat.

Before O.J., American blacks lacked confidence in the legal system. After O.J., everyone lacked confidence in the legal system. It looked cynical, performative, agenda-driven, not on the level.

I would say he got away with murder because I believe he was guilty. But in a way he didn’t get away with it; it stalked him the rest of his life. And that is tragedy, too, because he’d been such a hero, a winner of the Heisman Trophy, a football star, a man of great accomplishment whom everyone admired.

That’s all.

The O.J. case revealed so much and started a new age. Within a few years the internet would become ubiquitous, and at that point the new age would become more so.

I remember going to lunch at a popular bar-restaurant in San Francisco. Instead of the TV being tuned to sports, it showed a slow-moving Ford Bronco being trailed by police cars on an LA freeway. I couldn't hear the sound and had no idea what the fuss was about.

Over the next year, one could not avoid the O.J. Simpson story; it was on all the network news. In their thirst for material reporters unearthed every scrap of information about every character in the drama: the defense team, the prosecution, law enforcement, and witnesses. Many cashed in on their new found fame.

The O.J. Simpson trial showed how much society had regressed in the late 20th century. Tribalism had taken hold; it didn't matter what you did, what group you belonged to determined whether you deserved punishment, facts and evidence be damned. It was okay to exploit the tragedy of a double murder if it meant a lucrative book deal.

The genie was out of the bottle, and there would be no turning back.

Remarkable Feature

(Photo by Amitrano/WSJ)

If you want to go to church in person on Sunday but don't want to leave home, you can do so in LA for $38.5 million (and live nicely for the other six days of the week): [bold added]

A Los Angeles compound with a stand-alone chapel is coming on the market for $38.5 million.

The gated property, which measures about 1.4 acres in tony Brentwood Park, has a Spanish Colonial Revival-style house built around 1928, as well as a guesthouse and poolhouse. The chapel was added around 2004 by longtime owners Helen and David G. Price, Christians who became devout later in life, according to Craig McDonald, Helen’s son from a previous marriage. The Mission Revival-style chapel was “a space for them to be able to go and have time and quiet and to study,” he said.

Los Angeles mansion owners can devote a room to exercise, electronics, or Elvis, and no one would notice. But a Christian chapel? That's remarkable.

For the Rest of our Lives

Our Peninsula neighborhood three years ago

One summer in Los Angeles was enough. The cleaner air indicated that the SF Bay Area was a more hospitable place to live.

I've never regretted that decision, made over 40 years ago ("when you come to a fork in the road, take it"-Yogi Berra)

The recent spate of hazy days is reminiscent of that LA smog. Air quality has flattened, or even gotten worse, all over the country:

increasing pollution from wildfire smoke has reversed or stalled air-quality improvements in 41 of 48 states, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Health professionals have improved their understanding of the dangers of wildfire smoke.[bold added]

Particles from these emissions pass through the body’s defenses and bury themselves deep in the lungs, where they can cause a variety of acute and chronic health problems, especially for vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.

To separate wildfires from other sources of particulate pollution, the researchers from Stanford and Harvard universities devised a method of identifying wildfire particles using satellite imagery to trace the path of the smoke. They combined this information with data from nearly 2,500 ground-based air-pollution sensors collected by the EPA from 2000 to 2022...

Smoke from California wildfires coincided with an 18% to 22% spike in cases of invasive fungal infections in 22 hospitals across the state, according to a May study published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health. Researchers found that fungal spores in the soils of California are lofted into the air by wildfires. When inhaled, the spores can lead to Valley fever, an infection that can cause respiratory symptoms including cough, fever, chest pain and tiredness.

On smoky days we wear masks outdoors, not because of the coronavirus but to protect lungs. Tests at the allergist have revealed that our respiration has weakened considerably over the past 20 years.

Both wildfires and protective masking, sadly, will be with us for the rest of our lives.

Hot, but Take a Breath

Registering 114°F after being parked in the sun, the
car "cooled" to 102°F after I drove it for 15 minutes.

The heat dome settled over Northern California on Labor Day, resulting in all-time high temperatures:

Californians endured another straight day of searing temperatures on Monday as this summer’s heatwave shattered records — with Livermore’s mercury hitting 116 degrees, the highest ever recorded, Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield registering a blistering 117 degree, and Gilroy registering 112 degrees, breaking its previous daily record of 106 set in 2020...

At its peak, the South Bay saw some of the most extreme temperatures in the region Monday. Along with Gilroy, Redwood City registered 106 degrees, beating the previous record of 97 set in 1983, according to the National Weather Service. San Jose even saw the highest temperature ever recorded on this date at 104 degrees, breaking the previously held record of 99 degrees in 2008.

The outdoor thermometer registered 102°F in Foster City and reminded me of the hottest days in Los Angeles in 1974 when I took a summer job. In those days I had to wear a suit into the office and drive a car with no air conditioning.

From the breathless news reports one would think the sky is falling, but really, this isn't so bad.

“Menswear is getting bigger, bolder and brighter”

"Ken" actor Ryan Gosling (WSJ photo)

The Barbie movie is coming out in 2023, and SoCal sensibility--for better or worse--threatens to become the next fashion thing:

Such vibrancy aligns with the current menswear mood, said Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. “There’s real contemporary relevance to how they’re costuming the ‘Barbie’ film,” he said. “Menswear is getting bigger, bolder and brighter.” Just look at recent fluoro-flecked collections from Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton. Arguably the last time we saw such carefree, SoCal-inflected menswear was the ’90s, when overalls were worn with the straps down, tips were frosted and Marky Mark exposed his Calvins.

Bold pastel, sometimes-fluorescent clothes went out in the 20th century with disco. You can still find them on kids whose parents want them to stand out, more for safety than fashion, especially at night time.

If the style is coming back, and we're going to have to pay 3-4x what we are used to paying, it should be comfortable, right? Au contraire, mon ami.

When trying outré colors, heed attention to fit, said Los Angeles stylist Brand Williams. Keep tailoring close to the body rather than going oversize, he said. The bolder the shade, “the more conservative the fit has to be.”

By the way, if you're going to commit to the look, you've got to do one more thing.

Bleach your hair.

Nope.

“We have to travel now thinking that our baggage is going to get lost”

Orphaned luggage at Heathrow (WSJ photo)

In yesterday's post on the decision to drive, not fly, the 840 miles to Seattle one factor I did consider but failed to mention was that air travel is experiencing a raft of problems due to short-staffing. Foremost is the headache of lost luggage.

Every bag in that ocean of unclaimed luggage we’re seeing on airport floors has a story behind it.

To hear those stories is to understand just how maddening travel has become for many in 2022. Travelers say calls, emails, chats and tweets to airlines about lost bags frequently go unanswered by short-staffed airlines and airports. They hear conflicting information—or nothing—about the bag’s whereabouts.

Efforts to find and retrieve their bags, even when devices like AirTags pinpoint the location, are eating up hours and sometimes days of vacation time. And that doesn’t count the daily shopping trips for clothes until (or if) the bag shows up.

...Yvonne Heerema, senior luxury travel adviser at the Shameless Tourist travel agency, spent the first two days of a June trip to London stressed about three bags that didn’t show up with her family on a United flight from Newark, N.J. (United said it works hard to reunite costumers with lost bags “as quickly as possible.”) Now she warns clients with coming trips to prepare for that possibility. Her tips include packing one suitcase that has a few of each passengers’ items in it and buying AirTags.

“We have to travel now thinking that our baggage is going to get lost,” says Ms. Heerema, who is based in Austin, Texas.

A family member was stuck in a Southern California airport for eight hours while a substitute plane was "on the way." Eventually the U.S. major carrier put him up at a hotel and didn't lose his luggage, so he was one of the lucky ones.

Where was he going? To SFO, 400 miles away. He should have driven.

The Best Post-Season Ever

The four-game divisional round three weeks ago ("The Best Weekend of Football Ever") was followed by two closely contested Conference championship games: Rams 20, 49ers 17; Bengals 27, Chiefs 24.

The Super Bowl is often a letdown, but not this one:

The Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the 56th Super Bowl.

Los Angeles led 13-3 before falling behind 20-13. They survived a pair of interceptions thrown by Matthew Stafford, an injury to Odell Beckham Jr. and long stretches when the offense struggled to move the ball.

Yet with the game on the line, the Rams turned it around. That’s because they went for it.

Down 20-16 with five minutes left on their own 30-yard-line, the Rams faced fourth-and-1. In lieu of punting, Stafford handed the ball off to Cooper Kupp, the NFL’s most productive receiver this season, who ran seven yards for the first down. It was the pivotal play on a drive that ended with a barrage of penalties—before Stafford hit Kupp for a one-yard score.

The Bengals got the ball back with 1:25 to go, and when Joe Burrow is the opposing quarterback anything is possible. He began the drive with back-to-back completions that totaled 26 yards. But after Burrow helplessly threw the ball into nowhere as he was getting dragged down on fourth down, the Rams players stormed onto the field. The Lombardi Trophy was about to be theirs.

Not only were they all close, the final and winning score was made in the last few minutes, sometimes seconds, of each game.

The ancient Romans stupefied the masses with bread and circuses, but they were pikers compared to the NFL.

The half-time show wasn't bad either

The Central Valley is Looking Better and Better

WSJ illustration: blue dots show where Bay
Area ex-residents are resettling.

In April we commented on a Chronicle editorial that decried the migration from the coasts to Central California. The Chronicle declared the growth of the suburbs "unsustainable", which struck us as wishful thinking:

No, Progressives, your scare tactics won't work ("drought","fire country"), not to mention your sniffing at the plebes ("sprawl", "unsustainable"). And what's with the suburbs fostering climate change? Sacramento, which you control, has ordered us all into electric cars in a few years, so transportation won't be a source of bogeyman carbon.

It's your emptying cities which frighten us with homeless encampments, rampant burglary, drugs, usurious rents, filthy mass-transit, filthy streets, and labyrinthine regulations, which all come with extra taxes for the privilege of living and working in your precious highrises.

Six months later the trend shows no signs of abating. WSJ: Californians Flee the Coast to Inland Cities in a Mass Pandemic-Era Exodus

The pandemic boosted the flow of households from California’s coastal counties to other parts by nearly 50%, postal data show.

A net 97,000 households left the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and the San Francisco metro area lost about 67,000. The city of San Francisco lost a net of 44,000 households last year, about one-eighth of its total. Many from the city settled in the Sacramento metro area, about 90 miles northeast.

In Southern California, the center of the state’s shift, the Inland Empire had a net gain of 25,000 households last year, according to the postal data. That figure doesn’t count immigration, a longtime source of new Californians.

Roseville, near Sacramento, has some nice stores
but I doubt they'll be hit: too many guns and
Republicans, and the people support the police.

As if to put an exclamation point on the pay-more-get-less life by the Bay, organized smash-and-grab gangs attacked pricey stores in multiple cities the past weekend.

“It was a wild weekend,” (Alameda County Sergeant Ray] Kelly said, referring to sprees in Hayward, Walnut Creek, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, where roving bands of thieves swarmed into stores, grabbed as much merchandise as they could carry and escaped in getaway cars.

In Oakland the caravans grew particularly violent, as police encountered hundreds of drivers roaming the city on Friday, seeking out cannabis businesses for attempted theft, authorities said.

And why should the gangs worry? Property theft less than $950 is only a misdemeanor, so hardly any victim bothers reporting it. And if you're unlucky or stupid enough to get caught, San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin ended cash bail for all criminal cases, so criminals will be out in no time.

This weekend, for the first time in two years, I'll be visiting the Sacramento area, where life seems more civilized.

The Central Valley is looking better and better.

Giants vs. Dodgers Game 5: Good But Not Great

A checked swing ends the season (USAToday)

Everyone knew that the Giants-Dodgers season-long rivalry had to come down to the deciding game of the 5-game series.

As contests go, it was good, but not great, and not because the result let down this home town fan: the Dodgers won 2-1. They will go on to face the Atlanta Braves for the National League Championship, the winner going to the World Series.

IMHO, a "good" game is close throughout, thereby heightening the suspense of each pitch. Moreover, both teams should play well and not lose the game because of a fielding mistake, e.g., a dropped fly ball with the bases loaded. (Actually this time the lone error by the Dodger's third baseman in the bottom of the 9th inning raised the excitement because it increased the Giants' chances of winning or tying the game.)

A great game should have a number of spectacular fielding or base-running plays. Home runs can aid the enjoyment, but not for me are the 9-8 bashfests where the pitchers can't do anything right. The game ended, not with a spectacular play at home plate, but just the opposite of excitement: a checked swing that was ruled strike three by the first-base umpire.

It was a desultory end to an unexpectedly glorious season.

We are spoiled by a culture that bombards us with narratives every day; life is often not that exciting, and the results often disappoint.

Elitism in the Defense of the Giants is No Vice

Grammar needs work--elitist, much? (pinterest image)

We take a break from debt-ceiling histrionics--apparently there's an agreement to postpone the reckoning day for almost two months--to talk about news that's equally important--The Giants will meet the Dodgers in playoff baseball: [bold added]

The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 3-1 on Wednesday night to earn the right to fly to San Francisco and face the winningest team in the majors. Game 1 of this rivalry revelry is Friday night, and history’s in the making at Oracle Park...

It’ll be the first Giants-Dodgers postseason series since 1889 when the Giants played in New York and the Dodgers were in Brooklyn and known as the Bridegrooms, a best-of-11 series in which the Giants’ John Ward was that century’s Mr. October. You can look it up.

Fast forward 132 years, and baseball’s two premier teams will meet in a best-of-five Division Series to determine bragging rights not only in 2021 but in the latest chapter of the game’s greatest rivalry, with apologies to Yankees-Red Sox.

"Brooklyn Bridegrooms"--be careful, autofill assumes you're typing "Brooklyn Bridge"--is not the most ridiculous name that preceded the Dodgers monicker. In fact the entire history of the club's names, much like Elizabeth Taylor's, is a subject for hilarity.

The Dodgers were originally founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Atlantics, taking the name of a defunct team that had played in Brooklyn before them. The team joined the American Association in 1884 and won the AA championship in 1889 before joining the National League in 1890. They promptly won the NL Championship their first year in the League. The team was known alternatively as the Bridegrooms, Grooms, Superbas, Robins, and Trolley Dodgers before officially becoming the Dodgers in the 1930s.

The New York Giants were first known as the Gothams, a centuries-old respectable name for the Big Apple, and unlike the Dodgers, had no past or trolleys to run away from. (People run towards San Francisco cable cars.)

The Dodgers, with their huge Southern California fan base showering the team with riches, are loaded with All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famers, but we know where you came from, Grooms, Superbas, and Trolley Dodgers.

Los Angeles is not in the same ballpark as San Francisco, and we're not just talking baseball.

Giant Over-Achievers

Buster Posey, 34 is the only likely HOF
member on the Giants roster. (Chron photo)

The San Francisco Giants (99-54) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (98-55) have the two best records in Major League baseball, but unfortunately for both they are in the same division, the National League West. This means that the one who finishes second will be a wild-card team which will play in a one-game elimination for the right to advance in the playoffs. If either of them were in another division, they would have already won, or be cruising to its title and could be resting their starters for the playoffs.

Last year's World Series champion Dodgers were expected to contend again, but no one expected the Giants to be in this position. The Dodgers are loaded with All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famers while the Giants have a few aging, formerly great players, cast-offs from other teams, and rookies.

With 94% of the season gone, the experts still have a hard time explaining the Giants' success.. From an ESPN article written two days ago:

The San Francisco Giants have been the best team in baseball for nearly six months now, through 151 games, 227 home runs, and at least a million roster moves. And every day of those nearly six months, and each one of the 137 days that they woke up in first place, they have been described, collectively, with endless derivatives of the word surprise.

...despite the durability and repetition of the Giants' achievements -- 97 games don't just win themselves -- they continue to be regarded as something of a fluke.

Your humble blogger freely admits to being a fan who jumps on the bandwagon, i.e., follows the local teams a lot more when they are winning. However, I must admit to really enjoying the way the Giants are going about doing it, not by creating a Murderer's Row but by playing smart and maximizing their (average) physical talents.

Example: below are the two key plays in the 9th inning when the visiting Giants broke a 5-5 tie with the Padres to win the game.



Top of the 9th: a single brings Brandon Belt home with the winning run.

The first thing to notice is what didn't happen. Manager Gabe Kapler did not put in a fast pinch-runner for Brandon Belt, 33, stating that what the first baseman lacked in speed he made up for in base-running savvy, and besides, he might (and did) need his defense later in the game.

Concerning the scoring play itself, Brandon Belt immediately took off for home plate, judging that Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. would fail to make the catch, which he missed by inches. (Tatis would have easily doubled off Belt at second base.) When catcher Austin Nola made what would have been a successful tag, Belt punched the ball out of Nola's glove and was safe at home plate.

Bottom of the 9th: Giants close out the Padres with a double play.

All-Star Padres 3rd baseman Manny Machado hit a sharp groundball to 1st baseman Brandon Belt, who was positioned perfectly between 1st and 2nd. With no one to hold him at first base, the Padres 1B runner was nearly halfway to 2nd when the play started.

Belt had to hurry his throw to shortstop Brandon Crawford, who stepped on 2nd and threw to first to pitcher Tyler Rogers covering. Crawford had to make a 95 MPH throw to Rogers to catch the speedy Machado, and Rogers had to run to first at the crack of the bat (baseball cliche) to beat him. (Note how Rogers flinched; pitchers throw fast balls and are not used to receiving them.) It was a play that took place in four seconds and required perfect execution by three players.

Note: Brandon Belt proclaimed himself team captain two weeks ago, and a teammate taped a "C" to his uniform with black electrical tape. He then wore it in a game. The Giants are riding the joke for all its worth:

Just a Captain and his sea men 👨🏻‍✈️👨🏻‍✈️👨🏻‍✈️@SFGiants pic.twitter.com/hXrXzeosM5

— Kevin Gausman (@KevinGausman) September 24, 2021