Bob Schewe

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@kanylaw1 @TrackPhantom @sidgustafson I believe turf rail position is an option you can display in DRF Formulator.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@girdley @RegZeller Nice historical review, but lacking retail industry context. Many many traditional retailers struggled or failed in this same time period. Target’s main issue was being too slow to embrace omnichannel retailing and e-commerce.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The reason no machine can stitch an MLB baseball is the same reason a half millimeter changes a pitcher's career.

Each ball is two figure-8 cowhide panels wrapped around a cork and rubber pill, joined by 108 hand stitches of waxed red thread. The seam height those stitches create, raised about a millimeter above the leather surface, is the single biggest variable in pitch physics. Higher seams grip more air, breaking pitches bite harder, four-seamers lose carry. Lower seams cut cleaner and let fastballs ride. When seam heights drifted in 2021 and 2022, pitchers said balls felt like cue balls. That was a manufacturing tolerance problem fans watched on TV for two seasons.

Cowhide is a natural material. Every panel has slightly different thickness, grain, and stretch. A machine can pull thread to a fixed tension. A machine cannot feel a thicker section of hide and ease up a quarter turn so the seam stays inside spec. That sensing problem has defeated automation for fifty years.

Now the economics. About 300 stitchers in one factory in Turrialba, Costa Rica sew every baseball used in the major leagues. Reporting from the New York Times, Reuters, and Tico Times puts their pay at $1.60 to $2.33 an hour, roughly 50 cents of labor per ball. About a third develop carpal tunnel within a few years. MLB burned through about 1.14 million balls in 2019, roughly one new ball every few pitches. A ball lasts about two plays before it gets swapped out.

A $20 billion sport, 30 franchises averaging $2.6 billion each, $325M+ pitcher contracts, and the playing surface that decides every one of those outcomes gets stitched by a few hundred hands in one town the rest of baseball will never see.

Physics and economics point at the same fact. The hand survives because it's the most precise feedback system anyone has tried to replace, and the cheapest one too.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@DRFHersh No kidding. Two dreadful trips after flying two jockeys 4,000 miles. Notable Speech never looked like a winner. At least the horses and riders got a good schooling out of it for the Breeders Cup -- always helpful at Keeneland especially.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@Jackpotkimm All he needed to shout was Aiello’s favorite, “WHO’S IT GONNA BE?” 🙄

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@burackbobby_ On iPhone you can set it so all unrecognized callers (not in your Contacts) go straight to voicemail, no ringing. Most will hang up. But you’ll miss occasional calls you want from home service providers, banks, etc.

[Brad Paquette @BradPaquetteMI]

My mom hasn't lived at my grandma's house since she was 19 years old, 45 years ago.

She also has been a Paquette for the last 43 years.

An absentee ballot application was sent to my grandma's house in her maiden name authorized by @GovWhitmer.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The fluid-like behavior of sheep being herded and filmed by a drone

[📹 rural.riley]
https://t.co/8nzODFVYJG

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@jeremypgordon Key advantage of hotels is you can usually cancel a day or two before without financial penalty. Not so with the home stays. No flexibility.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@JoeKinseyexp 100% inflation in a year -- 👇 in 2020.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@InsideThePylons OK but they broke from posts 19, 16, and 14.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@bobbo329 @54to1 To cash a $15.15 super? His mounts won over $120k today x jock's 10% = $12k.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@ggbourne @tomfgoodwin @davidkalil I think it's to toast on just the cut side.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@Racingwithbruno @garypaljr Doesn't the fact Wesley wasn't boosting his horses say it all? He's perpetually positive.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@horseracing4beg @Beerbythepool Mott, too, was stumped last year: "For some reason she didn't finish the Personal Ensign...we don't see anything...It's really hard to tell...It doesn't appear to be any soundness issue that I can pick up on, she seems to be moving as good or better than ever. I don't know."

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@horseracing4beg You might consider driving for 20-30 minutes every week or two -- to keep your car battery alive and other parts working. Cars can't sit indefinitely.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@basic_random @TheZervPipe @JonGabrielB @zachary_kramer Not sure about Canadian practices, but sounds like that “large” is same as a “tall” in the U.S., which yea, is just more ice and mixer and shouldn’t cost more. The “double” is double liquor and it costs more. Have to specify which one you want in your order.

[Bob Schewe @BobSchewe]

@BeckerTrackside More like Toyota White Grass

[UMBC Athletics @UMBCAthletics]

PUT SOME RESPECK ON IT! WE HAVE DEFEATED NO.1 OVERALL SEED VIRGINIA 74-54

[UMBC Athletics @UMBCAthletics]

We're up 17 with 3:29 to go thanks to a Lamar three, BUT the media dining is out of cookies and this is the worst day ever