Jo Jo Freeman

Father of 4, 17-yr-old triplets, 2 grandsons, husband, fan of most all sports, baseball guy at heart, SID, Mississippi State grad

[MLB Scoring Changes @ScoringChanges]

It is not used every pitch because they have experimented with it. The current process in place was used for years in Triple-A. At one time in Triple-A, games Tuesday-Thursday was considered Full ABS, where the home plate umpire wore an earpiece and the pitch was called. A ball or a strike in their ear, and they would relay the call. Friday-Sunday were ABS Challenge games.

By and large, players, fans, and umpire preferred the challenge games to full ABS.

[Rob Anderson @_robanderson]

Records of the team that batted as the home team during the 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Friday: 17-14
Saturday: 15-17
Sunday: 16-16
Monday: 4-2
TOTAL: 52-49

[John Varlas @johnvarlas]

How did we get to the point where no one in sports can take responsibility for anything?

Bet thousands on football as an active player? Addiction is a bear and there are so many ads!

Throw your bat 30 feet in the air and get ejected? Umpire is just a big old meanie.

Take your homer celebration too far and get ejected? Umpire is an even bigger meanie who hates fun.

What are even doing here?

[Zito @_Zeets]

Another reason for why good public transportation is necessary is because old people need to be able to get around safely, without being in danger and without endangering other people

[David Billiot Jr @DCBilliotJr]

15 of UCLA’s last 21 games before the regional were decided by 3 runs or less. They went 13-2 in those games.

They went 1-2 in those games this weekend. The Bruins just didn’t find ways to win when it mattered most. It’s that simple. That doesn’t mean the system is broken because things didn’t go your way.

[Jo Jo Freeman @jfreeman615]

@mopatton_sports It would make for an ugly scorebook

[Aaron Fitt @aaronfitt]

@khchopchat I made two observations: (1) things are breaking the SEC's way. (2) lots of people are going to be unhappy about that. Both are just facts. If you think that's bias, then I don't know what to tell you. You are certainly an exhibit of point 2. ...

[James Gray @jamesgraysport]

Ukrainian tennis player Oleksandra Oliynykova on why she keeps talking about the war.

"A real role model has the courage to stand against evil.

"A real role model speaks when it's easier to stay silent.

"A real role model has the determination to act when action is needed."

[Jo Jo Freeman @jfreeman615]

@MtsuHall @NCAABaseball @BisonBaseball @BamaStateBB Also Missouri State and Arkansas played twice in regular season and they’re both at Kansas

[The Modern Boethius @ModernBoethius]

“Public opinion is gradually being shaped and conditioned by polarizing media narratives, which are often amplified by algorithms that prioritize conflict and confrontation.” -Pope Leo

The pope just exposed the entire grifting social media influencer class

[Ron Sirak @ronsirak]

Closing CBS Radio Network after 99 years of made me think about my days on the @AP Broadcast Desk. Working under such talent as @Jerry_Cipriano who later was Senior News Editor at CBS Evening News was an enormous education. America is less informed; journalism is less schooled.

[Monday Q Info @acaseofthegolf1]

19-year-old Blades Brown has just became a Special Temporary Member of the PGA Tour.

Pretty damn impressive.

[Mike Mitchell @MikeMitchNH]

One thing you learn as a teacher who is also the father of 3 elementary school aged children is that adults living in households without minor children - young adults, retirees, Republicans, Democrats, black, white - have absolutely no clue what school is like, but think they do.

[christian cheetham @ccheetham83]

Unfortunately, education is a type of bureaucracy.

Over time all bureaucracies tend toward incoherence - meaning they start to focus on things that aren’t central to their mission.

Once they lose focus on the actual mission, they start to devote resources on things that have no impact on accomplishing the mission. This is how we end up with high paid assistants that have never been in a classroom; personnel who are doing jobs that have zero impact on the mission.

The people in the bureaucracy who are actually doing the mission see clearly what is happening.

However, the people in the organization that are products of the incoherence have no idea how ineffectual their roles are; and they will fight for more incoherence.

This happens in all bureaucracies and large organizations and can only be countered by very strong leadership. Alas, strong leaders are hard to find in education.

[Marsha Lycan @mlycan12]

One year ago, the NCAA blindsided college athletics with unprecedented roster limits.

Thousands of student-athletes lost opportunities as coaches were put in the terrible position of cutting and/or de-committing players. Then AFTER the damage was done, the NCAA introduced the “Designated Student Athlete” designation as a way to let some athletes stay without counting against roster limits.

But many programs had already made painful decisions because coaches were told the limits were coming and tried to give athletes as much notice as possible.

Now we are about to do this AGAIN.
The NCAA is expected to approve a 5th year of eligibility next month — after most programs have already recruited their 2027 classes based on the CURRENT rules and CURRENT roster limits.

In women’s soccer, we already operate under a restrictive 28-player cap. You cannot recruit for FOUR classes for years, then suddenly force programs to fit FIVE classes onto the same roster without student-athletes paying the price.

Because when seniors stay, someone else loses a spot.

More cuts. More decommitments. More athletes caught in the middle of ever-changing rules they had nothing to do with.

College recruiting happens YEARS in advance. Families and athletes make life-changing decisions based on the rules in place at the time.

If 5th years are approved, they should all be classified as DSAs so as to not count against roster limits. Otherwise the NCAA is about to repeat the exact same disaster all over again.
#StopChangingTheRules #HereWeGoAgain #DSAThe5thYears

[DownOnTheBlue @DownOnTheBlue]

Love how we always think about the 5th, 6th, and 7th year college athletes as victims, but we completely neglect the 17, 18, and 19 year olds who are losing their opportunities.

[Adrian Pandev @adrianpandev]

This is exactly the part of the AOS debate getting missed.

This isn't only about immigrants' rights. It's about US citizens too. Roughly 1 in 5 married couples in the US includes a spouse born abroad. That's not a fringe group, it's 21% of married couple households.

When an American marries someone here lawfully on a visa, adjustment of status is how their spouse gets a green card without leaving the country.

Take that away and you are telling US citizens their husband or wife has to leave the US to process a visa abroad. They spend months (and often years) apart, and there is no guarantee they are allowed back in.

If there are US citizen kids, you are now separating them from a parent too.

That's not just an immigrant problem. That's a US citizen losing the right to live in their own country with the family they built here, even though their spouse followed every rule.

[Dana Corriel, MD @DrCorriel]

I wrote this because the conversation around physician workforce shortages keeps circling the wrong target.

Telling future doctors to commit to 20 to 25 years of full-time clinical practice sounds noble until you look at what the path actually costs.

Medical school is not free. Training is not light. The years are expensive in money, time, family life, health, and opportunity.

If society wants a service commitment, then society can fund the education and make that agreement clear before someone signs up. Until then, a medical degree belongs to the person who earned it.

Physicians are already screened for discipline, endurance, delayed gratification, and the ability to survive a long academic obstacle course with a stethoscope waiting at the finish line.

The better question here - that keeps getting ignored - is why so many capable, committed physicians eventually feel pushed toward the exits.

If we want doctors to stay, we need to build a profession they can afford to enter, survive, and stay in.

[Rich Luchette @richluchette]

The thing about watching the West Wing today isn’t that it’s aged poorly (it hasn’t).

It’s that it takes you back to a time when many still believed that public service could be a noble calling.

An entire generation has now grown up without that feeling.

[Dan Cevette @DanCevette]

The worst part of being a Minor Leaguer 👇

It wasn’t the bus rides.
It wasn’t the money.
It wasn’t sleeping 4+ guys in a tiny apartment in a strange town chasing the same dream.

Those things were hard.
But you adapt.

The hardest part?

How fast the game can humble you.

I was a small-town kid from Elkland, PA. Graduated with 32 kids.
Got drafted in the 3rd round.
Reached AAA at 20 years old.

I thought I was on the doorstep.

Four weeks later I had labrum surgery.

One minute you feel untouchable.
The next you’re in a training room wondering if everything you’ve worked for since childhood is slipping away.

That’s the part people don’t see.

The loneliness.
The uncertainty.
The identity crisis.

Because when baseball is all you’ve ever known… who are you without it?

People romanticize professional baseball.
But for most Minor Leaguers, it’s survival.

Long bus rides.
Fast food at midnight.
Pitching hurt.
Fighting for another year.
Watching younger prospects replace older dreams.

And the game doesn’t stop for anybody.

But looking back now…

I’m grateful for all of it.

Professional baseball wasn’t glamorous.
It forged you.

The game taught me discipline.
Accountability.
Resilience.
Humility.

Everything I’ve built in life traces back to lessons baseball beat into me long before success ever showed up.

That uniform eventually comes off.

But the toughness and perspective never do.