Cup of Coffee: January 4, 2024

The Padres get a reliever, the Jays insist they weren't Ohtani leverage, a call for common sense gambling regulation, fun with the Jeffrey Epstein documents, Nature Boy crypto, weirdos, and movie talk

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

Let’s jump on into it, shall we?

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The Daily Briefing

Wander Franco formally accused of sexual exploitation, money laundering

The Associated Press reports that Dominican prosecutors have formally accused Rays shortstop Wander Franco of commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering. The money laundering charge is related to Wander allegedly paying off the mother of one of his alleged victims.

Prosecutors have requested that Franco be held on an $86,000 bond, which he obviously can afford, but that he also be barred from leaving the Dominican Republic and that he be placed on house arrest. Prosecutors have also asked that the mother to whom Franco allegedly paid the money also be placed on house arrest and be barred from leaving the country. That latter part is, obviously, geared toward a key witness against Franco simply up and disappearing on an extended vacation.

The judge is expected to issue a ruling on this stuff on Friday.

Padres sign reliever Woo Suk Go

This one has brewing for a day or two, but the San Diego Padres have signed Korean reliever Woo Suk Go. It’s a two-year $4.5 million deal. The deal includes a mutual option for 2026.

Go — or is it Woo? I’m often confused with Korean names — has pitched for seven seasons for the LG Twins of the KBO. In that time he has posted a 3.18 ERA with 139 saves and has struck out 401 batter in 368.1 innings.

He joins a Padres bullpen which has already added Yuki Matsui and which also has Robert Suarez, each of whom have been talked about as the potential closer following the departure of Josh Hader via free agency. Now make it three guys in that mix.

Ross Atkins insists the Jays weren’t used for leverage in the Shohei Ohtani negotiations

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins spoke to the press yesterday for the first time since the club lost out on the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes to the Dodgers. He talked about how disappointing it was not to land the two-time MVP but says he was proud of how the Jays put together the best pitch they could make.

He was then asked if he felt like the Jays were being used for leverage:

"Absolutely not," he said. "I feel strongly otherwise. We feel really good about the process. It was an incredible effort, from ownership to business to baseball, people coming together. Not the outcome we wanted, but feel really good about the process and absolutely felt like it was authentic and real."

I don’t doubt that Toronto’s effort was sincere from their own perspective, but dude, you totally got used for leverage. How else to explain the reports from Jon Morosi of MLB Network, Jim Bowden of The Athletic, and J.P. Hoornstra of Dodgers Nation, each of whom either explicitly reported or strongly implied that Ohtani was going to the Jays? Those guys didn’t practice great journalism in those final 24-48 hours, but I doubt they made that stuff up from whole cloth either. Someone — and I’d guess it was someone associated with Ohtani’s camp — at least suggested to them that the Jays were on the verge of signing Ohtani and I’d guess that was done in order to motivate the Dodgers to up whatever their last offer was.

Again: this doesn’t reflect on Atkins or the Jays, who had nothing to do with any of that. But I think it’s crazy to assume that the Jays weren’t being used as a stalking horse as things went down to the wire.

The Dodgers and Brewers made a minor trade

The Milwaukee Brewers acquired lefty Bryan Hudson from the Dodgers in exchange for lefty Justin Chambers and a player to be named later or cash considerations.

The Dodgers had DFA’d Hudson last week to clear up a roster spot for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He gave up seven runs in 8.2 innings for the Dodgers in his first major league season. He might snag a spot in Milwaukee’s bullpen, but he has options left and will probably spend more time at Triple-A.

Chambers was the Brewers’ 20th round draft pick in 2023. He’s still just 18 and hasn’t appeared in any pro games yet.

A call for common sense sports gambling regulation

Over at Slow Boring, Ben Krauss — who himself enjoys betting on sports now and again — talks about how insidious and dangerous gambling marketing and the online gambling experience is.

Legalized gambling is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, he says, but gambling companies have basically weaponized their products, all but ensuring that people will gamble irresponsibly:

“This issue is exacerbated when individuals already have a bet on the game, as some sports gambling companies aggressively send push notifications encouraging additional in-game bets. Clinical psychologist Meredith K. Ginley, a specialist in gambling addiction, emphasizes that these in-game notifications are strategically crafted to trigger risky behavior in individuals predisposed to such tendencies. Essentially, these gambling apps, driven by profit motives, exploit psychological triggers to encourage habitual and hazardous betting practices among their customers.”

He argues that the lack of any real barriers to placing bets is a big problem. As an example he compares sports gambling habits in Delaware, which only allows bets to be placed at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, to gambling in New Jersey, which gives online sports gambling free rein. Problem gambling and gambling volume has remained pretty steady in the former. Both are spiraling ever-upward in the latter, no doubt because of how readily available gambling opportunities are.

He further argues that limiting gambling’s “cultural salience” — the ubiquitous marketing, celebrity endorsements, and misleading come-ons for gamblers to place increasingly risky bets — is necessary. There is almost zero chance we will ratchet back legalized gambling and, indeed, more states will be legalizing gambling as time goes on. But we can and should put in place some form of common-sense gambling regulations, at the very least with respect to advertising.

None of you will be surprised to hear that all of this makes perfect sense to me. It’s not gonna happen, though, because state governments and all manner of stakeholders with lobbying power — TV networks, sports leagues, and the sportsbooks themselves — will never let it happen.

Bernie Williams to play with the New York Philharmonic

From the AP:

Former New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams will make his New York Philharmonic debut on April 24 when future music director Gustavo Dudamel leads the orchestra's spring gala at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall.

Williams, 55, was a five-time All-Star while playing for the Yankees from 1991 to 2006 and won the 1998 American League batting title. He is classically trained guitarist who began playing at age 7, and has released two recordings, in 2003 and 2009.  

There’s not much else to say about that, but (a) I like bringing up Bernie Williams as much as possible because people need to be reminded that the Yankees’ alleged Core Four of the championship years was not just four dudes. Bernie deserves his props; and (b) because I talk about “Maestro” down in Other Stuff, and I love it when a thematic thread can run through multiple items in a given newsletter.

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Other Stuff

Sigh

From the AP:

Former President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with treason for his alleged involvement in a failed coup attempt in November, Sierra Leone’s government said Wednesday.

Maybe one day we’ll have the sort of commitment to the rule of law that Sierra Leone has.

Hi, Les!

Hundreds of documents from a long-settled civil lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein were publicly released last night. The names in the documents had been redacted back before the suit was settled in 2017 but, given the passage of time, the death of Epstein, and the incarceration of his partner — and partner in crime — Ghislaine Maxwell, they were un-redacted. That’s what people are talking about today when they talk about “the list of names released” or what have you. It’s not, as some have irresponsibly claimed, a “client list” or anything like that.

Many of the biggest names in the documents — including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — were just mentioned in passing and there are no accusations of wrongdoing connected to them. Some other notable people, while not necessarily accused of anything specific, are mentioned in somewhat juicier contexts.

Such as my former neighbor and Ohio’s richest man, Leslie Wexner, whose name came up in a deposition of one-time civil plaintiff and Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre:

As many of you know, I’ve been following Wexner’s connection to the Epstein case for some time. Back in 2019 I wrote about how one of Epstein and Maxwell’s sexual assaults occurred in a house that Epstein owned but which sits on Wexner’s property in New Albany, Ohio and which is guarded by Wexner’s private security. Wexner cut ties with Epstein a decade or so later and claims to know nothing about any of Epstein’s illegal activities. Virginia Giuffre clearly believes otherwise.

Wexner’s name coming up in this latest batch of documents began getting some play in the Columbus media last night. That’s pretty unusual, actually, as Wexner — the single most powerful figure in Columbus, Ohio over the past 50 years — has routinely been protected by the local media. Indeed, as recently as a couple of years ago it took a good two or three days for the local paper to report on stories connecting Wexner and Epstein after national outlets like the Washington Post or New York Times already had. It felt as if the wagons were being consciously circled or, at the very least, that high-level meetings were held in which people carefully decided how much they could say about our own local Mr. Burns.

But Wexner has fallen at least somewhat from grace here in Columbus over the past couple of years. He stepped down as CEO and Chairman of the empire he built with The Limited stores, Victoria’s Secret, and Bath and Body Works and he has divested himself of a great deal of the company’s stock. The poor business performance of his companies and Wexner’s age — he’s 86 — were cited, but many people think the Epstein-related press had something to do with it (I certainly do). While I don’t doubt that Wexner still pulls many strings in town, his profile is certainly much lower. Maybe so low that circling the wagons doesn’t seem as important as it once did.

I don’t think anything will ever happen to Wexner, legally speaking. Like I said, last night’s documents did not provide some sort of actionable new information or anything. They were merely reminders of what most people who have paid attention to this stuff for some time have long knew or at least strongly suspected.

But I do wonder if the many, many buildings and institutions which continue to bear Wexner’s name in this town — most of which are associated with Ohio State University, including its entire hospital system, which is vast — will be getting a name change one day soon. At least a technical one in which OSU or whoever asserts that, actually, these things were named after his wife, the philanthropist Abigail Wexner or the family at large or something, and not the guy who a sexual assault victim believes knows more than he claims and that he’d lie about it if asked.

I mean, it’s not unheard of for universities to play such silly games.

Great Moments in Chutzpah: Ghislaine Maxwell Edition

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s partner who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse and sex trafficking, decided that the day of the document dump was a good week to play the victim in all of this. From The Daily Beast:

Maxwell’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said on NewsNation’s Cuomo that Maxwell has “nothing to say” about the impending release of names—but that the former socialite takes issue with the fact that the only person facing consequences over the rampant sex trafficking of young girls is a woman. “I don’t think she has anything to talk about except maybe that if you look at this crime, this overall crime, it’s all about men abusing women for a long period of time… and it’s only one person in jail—a woman”

I’m a feminist through-and-through but there’s a special circle of hell reserved for people, like Maxwell, who try to act like victims of sexism in situations like these. I mean, sure, I’d personally be happy if a woman was not the only person in jail for this. It’s just that, unlike Maxwell, who no doubt feels like she’s been unfairly singled out, I’d love it if a great many men who, like her, sexually abused women and girls, were in jail along with her.

Short of that, lets us all remember that Epstein, a man, would be in jail now too if he hadn’t un-alived himself back in 2019. So be careful what you wish for, Ghislaine. You could be in worse places. As one day, even if it takes many decades, I suspect you will be.

To BE The Man you’ve got to . . . be scammed by the man?

Look, I’ve long been a critic of cryptocurrency as it’s all clearly a giant Ponzi scheme, but that was before I was pitched crypto by a stylin,' profilin,' limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ dealin' son of a gun:

In related news, Flair has been a financial train wreck for several decades now, having gotten into monster trouble with the IRS for not paying taxes, taking out loans he had no intention of paying back, getting sued over all manner of failed ventures and broken promises, failing to pay the lawyers he retained to fight said suits, and ultimately filing for bankruptcy.

So nah, sorry, I’m not gonna be buying Nature Boy crypto I don’t figure.

Speaking of horseshit . . .

My personal website has an email form via which readers can contact me. Over the past several months, unfortunately, it has become close to useless as bots have exploited it, leading to me receiving several spam emails a week. Most of which tend to be things like “Attention webmaster of craigcalcaterra.com! Do you want ten thousand business leads! AI can do that for you!” or “Hey, I like your page! But It’s not appearing high enough in search results! Let our product rocket you to the top!” And things of that nature.

I should probably just shut down the contact page, but I keep it up for two reasons. First, because despite it primarily sending me spam, I still do get occasional emails from it from people who are genuinely trying to contact me. I’ve gotten story leads in the past, for example, and on a few occasions people who were looking for me in a personal capacity have tracked me down there.

The second reason I keep it? Because sometimes I get absolutely unhinged lunacy like this one:

Hey,

Ground-breaking research reveals that people who don’t grow up wealthy…
Has a shrunken hippocampus, a walnut-sized region in your brain.

Your brain's wealth centre, the hippocampus, might be smaller. This blocks "billionaire brain waves," stopping you from attracting your dream life.
Left unchecked, it even affects your children.

But there's hope!

A special sound frequency can grow your hippocampus 6x faster, magnetizing money in just 7 seconds daily.

Ready to activate your inner billionaire?

You can’t put a price on that kind of content, man.

Random movie stuff

We’re not obsessives or completists or anything, but each December/January Allison and I at least try to watch as many of the potential Oscar flicks as we can. In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen four pictures which are likely to get some Academy love, and Allison half-watched one I had already seen:

“Maestro”

I was prepared not to like this one because I’ve been unable to take biopics seriously ever since “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” came out in 2007. I was further prepared not to like it because some people whose opinions I respect said it may be the most Oscar-thirsty movie ever, and that kind of thing can be distracting. Having watched it on Tuesday night, however, I have to say that it was pretty dang good.

“Maestro” wisely eschews the most cliched biopic conventions in favor of telling a narrow, more focused story of just a couple of aspects of Leonard Bernstein’s life. Carey Mulligan was fantastic as Felicia Montealegre. Bradley Cooper, for as much crap as he took over the prosthetic nose — which was a non-issue while watching the movie as far as I was concerned — also did a great job as Bernstein. It’s still hard to shake how hard he’s trying as so many of his scenes seem to have a neon “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION!” sign over his head, but I’m prepared to admit that a lot of that is me bringing in my preconceptions to it. You can tell he worked his ass off and he and Mulligan do a great job of talking in a way that is closer to how real people talk as opposed to actors archly exchanging dialogue, which is a common thing in prestige pictures. Cooper’s direction is pretty deft too. Lively and kinetic in some places, slower and more measured in others, fitting the dramatic beats nicely. Just a good solid movie.

Also: I am willing to bet that “Maestro” features more conspicuous smoking than any movie in cinematic history. It was positively distracting how much Cooper chain smoked in this thing. It was almost comical.

“Poor Things”

I really, really liked this one. A completely out-of-left-field kind of flick, and I mean that in the best sense of the term. And if Emma Stone doesn’t win Best Actress they ought to burn down Hollywood.

To be sure, this is not gonna be for everyone. Especially if you’re the type who does not care for frank and sometimes graphic sexuality in movies. Even if you’re fine with it, don’t watch this with your parents or anything because, man, no one needs that kind of awkwardness in their lives. That being said, neither the sex nor the nudity is there for salaciousness. It absolutely serves the story and the journey Stone’s character takes in the film.

Beyond that: Willem Dafoe plays the most Willem Dafoe character of all time and that’s saying something. Like, if he had turned the role down I halfway feel like they would’ve just shut down production because I don’t know who else could’ve done it. Also, it was nice seeing Mark Ruffalo in a non-Marvel movie. A lot of great actors slum it for the paycheck in those films but Ruffalo’s detour from prestige work was much longer than most and his presence was missed. It helps that you can tell he had an absolute ball playing his character here.

“The Holdovers”

The Best Hal Ashby movie since “Being There.” And I’m not saying that just because Alexander Payne was clearly trying to ape the look and feel of those small 1970s movies, right down to the opening credits and stuff. Payne wholly embraced the sort of character-driven stories those movies often told and which movies could still tell if they wanted to. There’s just not a big market for it now I don’t guess. Whatever the case, it’s a wonderfully bittersweet love letter to an era in filmmaking that I love more than any other. If, in a couple of years, we start to see “The Holdovers” as a weird pastiche or shallow homage or something, well, fine. But I greatly enjoyed this little bit of wintery goodness when I saw it.

“May December”

Todd Haynes somewhat campy take on the Mary Kay Letourneau story was certainly an interesting watch. There’s been so much talk about whether it’s exploitative or even whether it’s a drama or a comedy¹ that I feel like most people are missing what it really was: an absolutely savage take on actors.

I haven’t read much press about the movie but it would not shock me at all if Haynes and Natalie Portman set out to take down the sort of Hollywood types who see strife, tragedy, and damaged human beings as nothing more than fodder for their art. Part of me also suspects that Portman, in crafting her actor character, had a specific real life actor in mind for her character and was mercilessly mocking them. I never say anything to celebrities if I see them in the real world because it seems pointless and rude, but if I ever find myself in Natalie Portman’s presence I’m totally gonna ask her who she modeled Elizabeth after.

“Oppenheimer”

I saw it at the theater over the summer and I really liked it even if, like a lot of Oscar bait, I doubt I’ll rewatch it or anything. Allison hadn’t seen it before last week, though. She began watching it while I was upstairs watching another movie. This was our text exchange:

“Dean Spanley” was pretty fun though.

Have a great day, everyone.

1. It’s totally a drama. I think it’s only a comedy to people who are uncomfortable with its subject and thus laugh out of self-defense. In this it’s much like how I first saw the Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis.” It was in a packed theater during a pre-opening preview. I am pretty sure the whole crowd was expecting “O Brother Where Art Thou II” and thus filled in anything but the most tense moments with laughter, as if they were willing it to be funny rather than the profoundly sad movie that it was. There’s probably a great paper on group psychology to written about such things. One of you go write it, please.