Independence Day Rumblings - News for July 4, 2024

Not to be confused with the 1996 Will Smith vehicle.

Michael Wacha was excellent in Kansas City’s win last night:

Wacha allowed just two hits Wednesday, working around three walks with eight strikeouts. On his 97th and final pitch, with two outs and a runner on first in the sixth inning, Wacha struck out Josh Lowe swinging on a cutter, which Wacha relied on heavily throughout his start.

Wacha pounded his glove, leaving the mound. No frustration there – just another quality start logged. It was Wacha’s sixth quality start of the year and the Royals’ sixth in the nine games during this homestand.

Royals fans are not alone in thinking Jhonkensy Noel’s home run on Saturday was actually a foul ball:

While discussing the Royals taking three of four from Cleveland, Mark DeRosa said: “(Noel’s) homer was foul on Saturday. I don’t understand how that ball was called fair. That made no sense to me.” Lauren Shehadi agreed with DeRosa, who also talked about the good vibes in KC. “I thought it was a phenomenal weekend in Kansas City. Three or four against the Guardians. Kind of just sent a little bit of a message,” DeRosa said. “They also put Bo Jackson in the Hall of Fame.”

Kiley McDaniel has a big question about how the Royals might approach the draft ($):

Day 1 picks: No. 6, No. 39, No. 41

Bonus pool: $15,418,300

One big question: Will the Royals’ surprise start impact which prospect they pick in the draft?

The Royals are ahead of schedule in their rebuild, currently holding the last wild-card spot in the American League. Their farm system is in the bottom third of the league with some depth of solid contributors but no projected standout types, while they sit here at No. 6 with the fourth-highest draft bonus pool and an opportunity to improve their position. Will KC take a quick-moving college player, or shoot for upside with a real chance they get to pick the first high school player in the draft?

The All-Star Game starters do not include any Royals.

Milwaukee acquired right-handed pitcher Aaron Civale from Tampa Bay.

Arizona left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery is headed to the IL with a knee injury.

Milwaukee infielder Joey Ortiz is headed to the IL with a neck injury.

Kansas City will host the NWSL Championship in November.

I may not be sterlingice, but with today being a holiday, I figured I’d write up an OT section. American Independence Day, more commonly known simply as the Fourth of July, is the premier summer holiday in the United States. I will not be discussing anything directly related to the US right now given *gestures at everything.* Instead, let’s go deep on something synonymous with today that I actually have knowledge on: fireworks.

I love fireworks. I love shooting them, watching them, hearing them, all of it. (Disclaimer: I am sympathetic to those that dislike them, hence why I only shoot them in sparsely populated rural areas. I am also well aware of the mess that they create, having participated in the cleanup efforts after a fireworks show on more than a few occasions.) Because of this, I signed up for a class in my sophomore year of college that ended up being my favorite class of my 11 undergrad semesters: commercial pyrotechnics.

In this course, we learned everything about designing and executing a fireworks show, which included learning all about NFPA 1123. I won’t go into all that right now — instead, let’s go over the terminology used to describe various types of aerial fireworks that you will likely see in a fireworks display. Many of these are very difficult to identify with just a photo, but I’ll do my best to include examples.

Peony

This is your standard firework. It flies up, goes boom, and releases colorful stars in a spherical pattern (stars are the term that refers to the little colored things that fly out). The term is typically accompanied by a color. For example, the two biggest blasts on the below image are red peonies.

Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Chrysanthemum

This is a firework that bursts like a peony, but the stars leave a trail of sparkles in their wake. Pictured below is a red chrysanthemum (or maybe it’s orange, I can’t really tell).

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

Pistil

This is essentially a peony within a peony; the sphere of stars contains a smaller sphere of stars within it, often of a different color. Below are two red peonies with blue pistils.

Photo by Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images

Comet

A comet burns as it flies into the air, leaving a trail of sparkles as it rises (this is called a rising tail). It does not have a report, meaning it does not go boom.

Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images

Fish

When a fish reports, the stars fly out in every direction in a random, shifting pattern. They appear to squirm through the air the way a school of fish would swim away from a rock you throw into the water near them. Pictured below is a red fish.

Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Palm

A palm ascends with a gold or silver rising tail before bursting with thick, long streams. As the name implies, this creates the look of a palm tree.

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Willow

This shell releases gold stars with long, delicate trails. They fall to the ground with the trails hanging in the sky for at least ten seconds, creating the effect of a willow tree.

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Brocade

A brocade produces slowly falling stars with a tail that is usually, but not always, silver. The effect lasts longer than a chrysanthemum with brighter tails than a willow, as seen in the orange brocades below.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Glitter

Glitter produces flashes of light in the tails of the stars that last several seconds. I think the photo below was something with a glitter effect but I can’t be certain from a still image.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Crackle

Similar to glitter, crackle effects feature hundreds of small, flashing gold stars accompanied by a crackling sounds. The visual effect of a crackle is shorter than that of glitter.

Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images

Salute

This is a term to describe any shell with a particularly loud report. These are the ones that you really feel in your chest when they explode. This has no bearing on the visual effect of the shell. I did not include an example photo for obvious reasons.

There are plenty of other types of aerials that we did not cover, such as dahlias, strobes, and Saturns, but this covers the majority of what you can expect to see in a given firework show.

Your song of the day is Firework by Katy Perry.