Cup of Coffee: April 7, 2022

Happy Opening Day!

Good morning! Happy Opening Day!

And welcome to Free Thursday! If you’re just visiting, and if you’ve been considering a subscription, you should know that I’m running a sale right now. Twenty percent off both monthly and annual subscriptions, with that discount good for a year!

Act now, because the sale only goes through tomorrow!

---

The Daily Briefing

A couple of Opening Day games got banged and one got shoved

Today is Opening Day! But a couple of the games scheduled for today have been postponed or, in the parlance of the baseball press box, “banged.” God, I love it when someone says a game “got banged.”

Anyway, Red Sox v. Yankees in New York and the Mariners v. Twins in Minneapolis have been banged. Banged, banged, banged. The Mets vs. Nationals game has not yet been banged but it has been shoved back three hours and will now go off at 7:05 PM instead of 4:05 PM.

Even if, somehow, the rains stay away in these places today and we learn, in hindsight, that the games could’ve been played — or played on time — these are the right calls. Opening Day is a big deal and people make special plans for it. Best to ensure the games get played without a hiccup than to tempt fate like you would for a random Wednesday game in mid-June.

Ronald Acuña rips Freddie Freeman, says he will not miss him

Last night Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. sat for an Instagram live interview in which he blasted his former teammate Freddie Freeman.

Acuña said he had friction with him and that Freeman didn't stand up for Acuña when the Miami Marlins repeatedly threw at him over the past couple of years. He added that Freeman was overbearing and wasn't someone he could ever talk to.

Acuña later took to Twitter claiming that he didn't actually say that, but the video, the interviewer, and a third party — respected journalist Héctor Gómez — all confirmed it. And, obviously, Acuña has an incentive to walk back this kind of thing. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time an athlete had regrets about what he said after it came to light. Since it was in Spanish I’m not in any position to know if there were any nuances to it all which made it less critical, but I’m inclined to believe the guy who conducted the interview and Gómez here.

Anyway, that should be fun when Atlanta comes to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers a week from Monday.

Guardians, José Ramírez agree to a long-term extension

So much for the various trade rumors which have swirled around José Ramírez over the past couple of weeks: he and the Cleveland Guardians have agreed to a five-year, $124M contract extension with a full no-trade clause. It’s the largest contract the Guardians franchise has ever handed out to anyone, more than doubling the deal they gave to Edwin Encarnación in December 2016.

Ramírez had two option years left on what was a very team-friendly five-year $26 million deal he agreed to back in 2017. As a part of this deal each of those two options have been picked up, which means that, all-told, he is guaranteed $150 million from the Guardians between now and the end of 2028, which will be Ramírez’s age-35 season. Which is also a pretty team-friendly contract, but given he wouldn’t have hit free agency until he was 31, it’s not necessarily a bad choice on his part to agree to this. The team-friendly cake was baked when he signed that original extension.

Ramírez, 29, has a career line of .278/.354/.501 (126 OPS+) but has really turned it on over the past five seasons in which he’s batted .280/.365/.547 (139 OPS+) while getting MVP votes in four of those season, winning three Silver Slugger Awards, and making the All-Star team three times.

Good for the Guardians for finally committing to a franchise cornerstone. Now if only they’d surround him with fellow position players, most of whom who would find themselves on Triple-A teams with other franchises.

Rafael Devers turns down Sox’ extension offer

Boston third baseman Rafael Devers has turned down a long-term contract extension offer from the Red Sox. There is no word on the terms of that offer but our friend Héctor Gómez of Z101 Digital reported that Devers turned it down because it was “lower than he was willing to consider.”

Devers, 25, who hit .279/.352/.538 with 38 home runs last year, is slated to become a free agent at the end of the 2023 season. He and the Red Sox agreed to an $11.2 million deal for 2022, avoiding arbitration.

Gettin’ Mookie Betts vibes with all of this, to be honest. The Red Sox don’t seem too keen on commitments these days.

MLB announces its slate of games on Peacock

We first heard about this a few weeks ago but as of yesterday it’s official: MLB has a deal with NBC’s Peacock streaming service to broadcast a bunch of Sunday games. Starting on May 8 there will be one live game each Sunday that will be exclusive to Peacock. The first six weeks will featured a first pitch at 11:30 AM Eastern while the final 12 weeks will begin at noon eastern. NBC Sports will produce the broadcast, with pregame and postgame shows on Peacock.

My first thought: Man, I begged NBC to get baseball rights when I worked for them so I could turn into a big TV star. Did they listen to me? Nah. After all I gave to them! Just disrespectful, frankly.

My second thought: players are gonna HATE 11:30 AM games, but I’m kind of OK with them because by then I’ve been up for like six hours and I’m ready.

My third thought: Great, more games on a platform people have to pay for.

As it is, fans wanting to watch their local teams need a cable subscription to watch their team's primary network as well as national games on ESPN and TBS. Out-of-market fans need MLB.tv. If you're a New York Yankees fan in New York, you're also going to need an Amazon Prime subscription to see Friday games. AppleTV has a number of games this year that, while free, require an account via which Apple and MLB will inundate you with subscription offers and pitches. And now the same with Peacock which, presumably, will require a subscription given how limited its free tier is.

As I said recently, I am not sure what the strategy at play in putting more and more games behind pay walls and subscription services is. In addition to the added expense for fans it results in extreme fragmentation and games played at non-traditional times which can’t be great for making baseball appointment viewing. It’s certainly not a strategy which involves growing the game or reaching casual fans or curious viewers who may, with a bit of a nudge, become more avid baseball fans. This makes the game harder and more expensive to consume, and that’s almost certainly because it fits in with Rob Manfred’s and the owners’ obvious desire to maximize short-term profits no matter what. Which, hey, I suppose that’s an ethos, but it’s a pretty shitty and myopic one.

Anyway, here are the games:

• May 8: Chicago White Sox at Boston Red Sox

• May 15: San Diego Padres at Atlanta

• May 22: St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates

• May 29: San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds

• June 5: Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees

• June 12: Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Guardians

• June 19: Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

• June 26: New York Mets at Miami Marlins

• July 3: Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers

• July 10: Los Angeles Angels at Baltimore Orioles

• July 17: Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays

• July 24: Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia Phillies

• July 31: Detroit Tigers at Toronto Blue Jays

• August 7: Houston Astros at Cleveland Guardians

• August 14: San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals

• August 21: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians

• August 28: Los Angeles Dodgers at Miami Marlins

• September 4: Toronto Blue Jays at Pittsburgh Pirates

Peacock will also be the exclusive home of the MLB Futures Game, which MLB still stupidly schedules opposite a full slate of Sunday games just before the All-Star break rather than giving it its own showcase.

Anyway, congratulations to Premier League marks like me and people who are addicted to ritualistically rewatching reruns of “The Office” over and over again as a means of warding off anxiety and depression in this cold and frightening world. These games are for you and, frankly, not too many other people.

Atlanta CEO whines about the failure of a sports betting bill in Georgia

Since a national ban on sports betting was invalidated in 2018 some 30 states have legalized it. Georgia is not one of those states. There was a bill proposed in their just-ended legislative session, with said bill being backed by the Atlanta MLB club, the NFL’s Falcons, the NBA’s Hawks, and the MLS’ United, but it didn’t get a vote.

This has greatly upset Derek Schiller, the CEO of the Atlanta Baseball Club:

“There’s so much illegal sports betting going on in the state of Georgia that we have to bring that out of the shadows and regulate that. It’s our firm position that (legal gambling) only helps secure and improve the success of professional sports teams in particular. And also the taxes that are generated from that if it was legalized benefit the state. At some point in time, I think logic should prevail in this. And at this point in time, it hasn’t.”

Yes, Derek, I’m sure this is all about regulation of illegal activity and tax revenue for the good people of Georgia and is not at all about you wanting to plop some skeevy sportsbook down in the Battery with a name like “BravesBets” or whatever the hell.

I understand why he’s mad, though. This is the first time I can recall Georgia politicians not giving that team something it demanded in a great many years. It’s anarchy, basically.

MLB continues to rake in sponsorship dough

I got a press release yesterday morning that said MLB and Dairy Queen are now Official Partners.™ Given that it’s felt like every other official partnership MLB has been involved in lately involves crypto or gambling or something, the combination of soft serve, burgers, and baseball is downright refreshing and wholesome.

Of course MLB’s press office still has to business jargon it all up, complete with references to “integrated marketing partnerships” “amplification,” “media assets,” “leveraging” and stuff:

Major League Baseball and American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ), a leader in iconic treats and food, today announced a new integrated marketing partnership that brings together two beloved American brands this summer. To amplify this relationship, ADQ has also partnered with MLB All-Stars Tim Anderson, Cody Bellinger, Bryce Harper and Fernando Tatis Jr.

The DQ brand is launching this landmark league sponsorship with broadcast, digital and social media assets that feature the four All-Stars, while also leveraging MLB in retail marketing and popular DQ® restaurant offerings: new Signature StackburgersTM and the Summer Blizzard® Treat menu. To lead off the partnership, DQ and MLB are giving away autographed items from each of its All-Star ambassadors via @MLB on Twitter.

Me, looking at a TV with Rob Manfred on it: “That man has never had a Dilly Bar in his life!”

CC Sabathia is named special assistant to the Commissioner

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that CC Sabathia has been named Special Assistant to the Commissioner. Responsibilities: trying to make Manfred less of a punk-ass bitch.

Wait, I’m sorry, I read that wrong. It actually says that the job is “a new role developed specifically for him that will address areas important to the future of the sport, including player relations, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, social responsibility, youth participation, and broadcasting.”

That’s a bit more appropriate. But honestly, the other thing is just as necessary.

Baseball is Dying, You Guys

There was a time when people would frequently write columns and articles about how baseball was a dying sport. Usually these columns and articles were written by people who mostly wrote about football, and the point of the articles was to pump up the sport they loved at the expense of Major League Baseball. I used to bash those articles pretty heavily because they tended to distort the TV ratings numbers and make apples and oranges comparisons in service of their “the NFL is the KING, baby!” subtext. They also would ignore the fact that baseball was still an economically vibrant sport even if it was not longer the most popular sport in America.

Those kinds of columns have mostly gone away over the past few years because, I suspect, editors realized how dumb or dishonest they tended to be. At the same time, I’ve come to care less and less about the economic arguments for baseball’s vitality because I have come to better recognize the cost to the sport and its place in the national consciousness that monomaniacal pursuit of that economic vitality has occasioned. Baseball is decidedly not dying, but it is fair to ask whether the vibrant life it is living — a vibrancy that can only, really, be defined in economic terms while many other important aspects of the sport are in decline — is worth a shit.

Against that backdrop comes a guest op-ed in the New York Times — from some wakco extremist Catholic activist/kinda COVID denier people are telling me, but I had never heard of the guy before yesterday — which makes the old “baseball is dying” arguments and ads the allegedly humorous/satirical idea that the sport should be nationalized to save it or whatever. He doesn’t pull off the satire, by the way. That’s easily the dumbest part of the column.

Beyond that I’ll grant that there are some accurate factual observations in that column about baseball’s decline in the national consciousness, but what the writer fails to appreciate is that baseball's transition from a national pastime to a (lucrative) niche sport is not a crisis as far as MLB is concerned. It's by design. I find it lamentable to be sure, but if you told Rob Manfred everything in this column — that baseball doesn’t appeal to young people, that it has more than lost its grip on the national consciousness, and that its considerable cash flow is largely a function of it being passively and actively subsidized by people who, actually, don’t give a crap about it — he'd blink at you as if you were speaking some unknown and indecipherable language. He’d say “yes, and that’s why the owners pay me millions of dollars a year. What’s your point?”

I was on FanGraphs Audio

Earlier this week I had the privilege of talking with my friend Jay Jaffe over at FanGraphs audio. The subject, duh, my book, because that’s all I ever talk about now. Still, it was a fun talk, so check it out!

Baseball in Memoriam

A few years ago Paul Sullivan of Sully Baseball noticed that Major League Baseball doesn’t have an Oscars-style In Memoriam segment at any point in the year to remember the people that the game has lost. He rectified that by producing one. Today, for what I believe to be the ninth straight year, he has released his In Memoriam video.

From well-known figures like Jerry Remy and J.R. Richard to the far lesser-known members of the baseball community, here is a thoughtful and touching rundown of those who have moved on the Baseball Valhalla in the past year:

---

Other Stuff

BeReal

Bloomberg has a story about a social media app called BeReal. The pitch: while Instagram and TikTok encourage users to share photos and videos from exotic locales or with elaborate premises aimed at impressing people in some way, BeReal is geared toward immediate, candid, no-warning kind of content.

It does this by sending a notification every day at a different time. Users then have two minutes to snap a simultaneous photo on their front and back-facing phone camera, which is then shared with friends. If you don’t do it, you can’t see your friends’ posts. The idea is to just share a mundane but real moment of your day. When you’re at work. In school. Out someplace. No time for staging or anything like that.

It’s primarily used by college kids right now. Which means I’ll totally have to create an account to stalk Anna in Vermont this fall. Of course (a) I don’t even know how to take a simultaneous front-and-back camera photo; and (b) Anna would never allow me to add her on that or any other social media site. She has an Instagram account I’m connected to which has one post on it, so she’s obviously using burners for that. And, while I have no evidence of her ever being on Twitter, I know that she sees my tweets and I heard her ask a friend if she was following her there, so there are obviously burners there too.

All of which is to say that, upon reflection, I probably shouldn’t bother with BeReal.

Absolutely odious

On Tuesday night Member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene went on some talk show, presumably on some third-rate hack propaganda network, and said, “The Democrats are the party of pedophiles . . . the party of princess predators from Disney . . . the party of teachers . . . trying to transition their elementary school age children.”

I am not being hyperbolic when I say that this is indistinguishable from the way in which Nazis spoke of the peoples they went on to murder by the millions.

And yes, Greene is an absolute clown, but these talking points are not exclusive to her. There is a growing trend among right wingers to label any and all trans people and, increasingly, gay people, as “groomers” or “pedophiles.” If you even criticize some of the anti-LGBTQ bills that are floating around state legislatures right now, you’re very likely to get a response of “OK groomer” from some random conservative person. It’s simply become a standardized talking point on the political right. Of course, I have a standardized response to that, which is immediately followed by muting these people, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still out there.

This sort of rank demonization is insanely dangerous and is going to get people killed. And absolutely no one in the Republican Party is pushing back. They will reprimand their own only if they do something which may alienate Republican voters, but they will do nothing to stop this ugly, violent rhetoric from becoming part of the everyday discourse of the right wing.

The Pulps

Last week I admitted that my favorite artist was Edward Hopper. A guy whose work, while great, is pretty accessible and popular and for whom you tend not to get a lot of art snob points for liking. My literary tastes are pretty much the same: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, Donald Westlake, and other folks at the higher-end of the detective/crime novel world. Yes, I like some more challenging literature than that, but the hard boiled stories of mid-century America are extremely my jam.

All of that kind of work had its roots in the pulps. The pulps were inexpensive magazines which, for the most part, contained serialized, often lurid stories (“pulp fictions” right?). Stories of adventure. Horror. Science fiction. Sometimes, if they were careful about it, sex stories. Most famously, pulps gave us detective and crime stories. It’s where Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe got their start and Hammett and Chandler built their audiences. If not for the popularity of the pulps, none of that stuff I like would’ve ever made it to novel form and survived until the 1980s or 1990s when I got into it all.

I bring that up because there was a neat Twitter thread the other day from the account Pulp Librarian which set forth a little history of the pulps and how, above all else, they were a triumph of marketing. How they identified specific narrow segments of consumers and delivered to them exactly what they wanted, even if they didn’t necessarily know they wanted it. That sort of enhancement to old fashioned, carnival-barker sales was a pretty astonishing innovation. One which we totally take for granted now. Of course Instagram is feeding us crap it has determined we like based on our online habits. Of course we’re getting mailers that seem almost too specific to our tastes. But we weren’t always pitched to in such a fashion. Folks like those who ran Black Mask magazine and the like are the ones who truly developed it, for better or for worse.

Just one more thing . . .

Yassified and Ancient @alex_navarro

Columbo is great for a lot of reasons but a vital one for me is that it dares to portray being annoying as a heroic trait.

It’s OK to be annoying when the people you are annoying think they’re better than you. That’s the whole hook of the show!

I don’t think she’s actually singing about baseball, but have a great Opening Day anyway, everyone!