Music Friday: "For Your Soul"

Josh Ritter has a new album out called Spectral Lines. I've listened to it a few times so far. 

SiriusXM's The Spectrum has this song from the album in fairly heavy rotation right now. 

Unpopular Opinion: Bunting Is an Offensive Force

One rarely sees a bunt in the major leagues, but you're more likely to see bunts happen in high school and college. 

I saw some figure a while back that the on-base-percentage in college baseball with bunts to third base is something like .700. 

I can't find that percentage now, but I did find a tweet by Tyler Rost, the Director of Player Development at Duke, that provides this percentage: "The batting average across D1 baseball on all drag bunts is .533 (Trumedia). There are a LOT of hits down the third base line." 

My son's JV baseball team this season had a game in which they bunted successfully three times in a row and had a big inning because of those bunts. 

There's an old saying that "Chicks dig the long ball." 

However, the bunt is an underused weapon in the game of baseball. 

Music Friday: "Semi-Charmed Life"

Mrs. Nasty is collecting a list of songs to play when she's running the booth at travel baseball games. 

I made a list of song suggestions, and here's a 90s classic I suggested. 

Stay Positive: Birds & Positive Thoughts and Feelings

In The Washington Post, Richard Sima has an interesting article titled "Why Birds and Their Songs Are Good for Our Mental Health." 

The findings about birds creating positive vibes for humans is not a surprise to me. 

I'm fascinated with birds and their behavior, and how hearing and seeing birds is positive for humans makes sense considering the findings that Florence Williams talks about in The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. 

I featured that book in a Stay Positive post back in 2017 if you want to check out my prattling on about her book. 

I'm a person who has a depressive bent from since a young age, and being outside and paying attention to birds is something that makes me feel happy. 

The author mentions the Merlin Bird ID app, which I have had before but I never used. So I may download that gadget again. 

I would also argue that playing attention to plants when one is out and about also create good vibes. I currently use the PlantNet app to identify plants when I'm rambling around outside. 

Notice that I didn't use the term "mental health" in my own writing. I didn't use the term because I'm tired of people using "mental health" as an excuse for not wanting to do something or just being lazy. 

Just stay positive by seeking out positive vibes, folks. 

Unpopular Opinion: No Doubt Was Not a Good Band

I'm trying out a new feature for this blog. I'm calling it the "unpopular opinion" feature. 

I love the music of the 90s. I had a lot of fun in the 90s. I graduated high school in 1989 and was in a college environment throughout the decade. And the decade featured some great music when Mtv was still playing videos and "alternative" rock and grunge were king. 

No Doubt, however, never jived with me. I like bands with female lead singers, but I don't think Gwen Stefani is that great. 

To me, No Doubt was just a white bread rip-off of Fishbone. Stefani even admitted that she took her fashion cues from Angelo Moore. And they did the ska-rock thing to a certain extent. 

When one of their songs comes on any of the SiriusXM stations I listen to, I'm very likely to turn the channel. Their songs do nothing for me. 

No Doubt was not a good band. 

Music Friday: "Verses from the Abstract"

 I was listening to the Grumpy Pundits radio show on the way down to move my daughter home from college, and one of the commentators on SiriusXMFC, Brian Dunseth, recommended that his co-host Tom Rennie take a listen to The Lower End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest. 

I've always liked A Tribe Called Quest because they were on of the hip-hop groups that were likely to use jazz as part of their songs, such as one of my favorites "Jazz (We Got)." 

Here's "Verses from the Abstract" from that album. 

Cheers, mate. 

Music Friday: "Never Gonna Change"

Mrs. Nasty is putting together a list of songs she can play when she's up in the press box for my son's travel baseball games. She usually runs the scoreboard at certain venues. 

I gave her all kinds of suggestions, but this song is my lone personal request.