7-1 Wow 😳 Germany not playing with this team

When we got back from Iraq the first time, no one wanted their “POG’s” and so I collected them all up & took them to the Class VI on Ft Carson. After a 20 minute conversation & the lady making phone calls to see if she actually had to honor them as real AAFES money, I bought a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue (with just POG’s).

The biggest flex for a man over 40 is: •Low cortisol. •High testosterone. •High energy, fit, & strong. •A wife that initiates sex often. •A strong faith & spiritually locked in. •A peaceful house filled with laughter. •No addictions or destructive patterns. Mansions, lambos, or other expensive things mean nothing. If have the top 7 items you are richer than any billionaire that's ever lived.

When I was with the St. Louis Cardinals, we had a team meeting about hitting with two strikes. Albert Pujols was leading it. At the time, he was hitting something ridiculous with two strikes. I want to say it was around .265. Naturally, everyone wanted to know how. So somebody asked: "What's your two-strike approach?" Albert's answer surprised me. He said: "I think fastball inside and hit it back through the middle." That was it. No complicated mechanics. No secret formula. Just: Fastball inside. Back through the middle. I remember sitting there thinking: "Why would you think fastball inside with two strikes?" So somebody asked him. And Albert said something I'll never forget. He said: "If I can hit a fastball inside back through the middle..." "I can hit the fastball away." "I can stay on the changeup." "I can stay on the slider." "I can stay on the curveball." Then he paused. And said: "The ball gets deeper." That's when it clicked for me. He wasn't trying to pull the inside fastball. He was using one thought to cover everything. The more I thought about it... The more it made sense. So I started trying it. And it changed the way I thought about hitting with two strikes. Instead of worrying about every pitch... I focused on one. Fastball inside. Back through the middle. See it DEEP. If you're struggling with two strikes, here's what I'd do tonight: Round 1: Short Box (Set the distance somewhere between front toss and batting practice.) Have a coach throw only fastballs inside. Your only thought: "Fastball inside." Drive the ball back through the middle. 10 swings. Round 2: Mix Speeds Now the coach mixes: - Fastballs - Changeups - Breaking balls - Sliders But your thought never changes. You're still looking: "Fastball inside." 10 swings. Round 3: Two-Strike BP Every pitch starts 0-2. Compete. Battle. Use the same approach. "Fastball inside." Back through the middle. 10 swings. That's it. 30 focused swings. One thought. One approach. One goal. Drive the baseball back through the middle. One thing I've learned: Most hitters get worse with two strikes because they add thoughts. Albert got better because he removed them. With two strikes, simplicity is a weapon. Thank you for reading, Jermaine Curtis P.S. - If you enjoyed this and thought it was helpful, please share it. (When you share it, it tells me you want more content like this.)

June is PTSD Awareness Month. If you're struggling, remember that ignoring the problem won't make it disappear. Getting help for your mental health is your responsibility & no one else’s. Don’t make your inaction for help become someone else’s problem.

I have both a VFW and an American Legion in my town… I am part of neither. Why? Two reasons, first is I’m generally the youngest person in the room by far, but I can get past that. The real issue is the booze! Drinking and PTSD are not a good combo and it took me a while to learn that. But when you are creating spaces that support veterans it should NOT have a bar in the middle of it. Just my opinion of course. What I find much more beneficial is a group where we all drink coffee and talk about what veterans in my community need help. This forces you to know your local veterans and actually meet them where they are, with help to offer. In addition I run a veterans hiking group which many find beneficial as well. Camaraderie outdoors is incredibly healing. I say this not to turn anyone away from the VFW or the Legion. They are great. I just wanted to put some thoughts out there for anyone who might not fit into that space. Good luck and stay safe 🤘🇺🇸

I miss real intentional walks. The crowd booing, the .01% chance something weird would happen, the batter giving off “Yeah, I knew you didn’t want any this” vibes. If you want to walk a guy you should at least have to look like pussies for 30 seconds. It was good.

In case you all missed it, here’s the video:

One of the saddest things I discovered as a parent is that the stick works better than the carrot 9 times out of 10. I wish this wasn’t the case, but in my experience, threat of punishment is a SIGNIFICANTLY more effective motivator than offering a reward. I still prefer offering rewards, so they’re often my first go-to, but I have to be honest. Despite what passes for modern wisdom, it’s just not as effective as negative consequences.

Steven Bartlett says a few glasses of wine ruined the next 3 days of his life “It's one of those areas where you don't understand the hidden cost until you really give it up for a while. I stopped drinking at 30 years old. I'm now 33. When I was 31, I thought, I'll have a drink again because now I could really A/B test it. I had a year of not drinking, decided to have a drink again” “It ruined three days of my life. I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn't get drunk. It ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect it caused” “I got worse sleep that night, and then because I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or whatever, the cortisol system was all messed up. I podcasted worse. I didn't go to the gym that day or the day after because I felt really bad. I then slept worse, and I could track all of this on my Whoop”

The greatest abundance of jobs were mostly long hours in a factory. I'm sorry, I remember it pretty well. It was shit then too. Most of what we all enjoyed the shared experience of was free.

Why do these people not know what time period boomers were born in? My parents were boomers and they never ate McDonald's in their lives. As a Gen X'er (the best era imo) I grew up through the 80's and it most certainly wasn't a regular thing. We occasionally got something from the chip shop at the end of our street, but that was a treat. That's the closest thing to fast food we had 😂

What is your “I was there” sports moment? Please quote

After the Kevin Hart roast, everyone has been asking me to weigh in and comment on Chelsea Handler amd Shane Gillis. I do a deep dive on what happened and roast culture.

Manifesting this kind of love in 2026 😭❤️

I'm, "video games only worked on channel 3" years old.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar changed his name 55 years ago. You wouldn’t call a woman by her maiden name after 55 years of marriage, you SHOULDN’T call a transgender person by their deadname 55 years after transitioning. Hell, you shouldn’t call them by those former names a minute after they changed them. This is the islamophobic version of that.

Unpopular opinion: half of parenting is learning to regulate yourself, not your child.