FInding it as a hand-copied floppy, with no packaging or instructions or explanation, just a handwritten label that said "HACKER," probably enhanced the effect more than the game deserved

Hacker (1985) because my dumb seven-year-old self really thought he was hacking into the actual government

Man, I wish I'd thought of that last night

had completely forgotten about this, or never knew this, or ESPN made this up. one of the three

It's hard to write a story where everyone already knows the ending. I tried to put a slightly different spin on the Padres experience, which feels more and more like the thrill of skydiving without a reserve parachute.

It miiiight have been for the 800, I think my folks upgraded at one point before he became a Mac Plus guy

That era of the Atari/Commodore had so much incredible trash, and the internet never even really considered sifting through the rubble

I have never been able to find the video game baseball I grew up on. Well, played first. It was an Atari 400 game that cut to the individual fielder on balls it play, and you had to move them with a joystick to intercept the ball

I was a small fonts 6 guy back then. Made those pixels just a little extra chunky

Then I wrote about one moment in Tampa's series-clinching Game 3 victory, and the eight years of moments, mostly uncatalogued, that got Victor Mesa Jr. there:

I think the conclusion holds up, personally. Please do not bore me with objections that include "logistics"

It's funny: part of MLB's proposal is letting high-seeded teams choose their own playoff opponents, and I wrote a proposal for just that, five years and one day ago. Obviously with the expanded playoffs, avoiding division-related imbalance is a big reason, but I also argued that it's just fun.

Ironically it worked out for me, because they also neglected to tell the students about their plan, and when they found out apparently enough of them complained that they had to put me back on my old schedule on overtime pay. Very gratifying, probably not applicable in this situation

Once when I was teaching English overseas, the bosses of our hagwon approached us saying they were reorganizing and asked if we were interested in having Saturdays off. We said sure, sounds great, and then they did it and were like "OK great now we're going to pay you less"

I started writing the piece at like 1 AM his time and as I was like halfway through I realized I should have just assigned it to him instead, oh well

Then I wrote about one moment in Tampa's series-clinching Game 3 victory, and the eight years of moments, mostly uncatalogued, that got Victor Mesa Jr. there: