Rowdy gettin' rowdy, Reynolds hitting big, the Yankees and Atlanta roll, Rob Manfred fails at damage control, the A's could be Vegas bound, and I talk about Trump, abortion, and Cheez-its.
I did not recall him being so greasy during his time on the Padres, so I did a little image searching, and I think we may have discovered the problem. He needs to quit sucking on his hair.
A lesser man would also note that you borked the Bosox-Jays score - but I’m not that guy. (That same guy might suggest stuff like that is why you’re just #2.)
An even lesser man might even point out that Whiten's nickname was *Hard* Hittin', not *Big* Hittin' :-)
Whiten hit his 4 homers in the 2nd game of a doubleheader. He didn't homer in the first game, but did have an RBI, giving him 13 RBI for the two games at Riverfront Stadium that day.
Your Nats' recap is testament to the fact that boxscores can't show everything, and this game had enough weird shit to warrant a Stefon from SNL narration, but I'll let Barry Svrluga summarize instead:
"Here are some of the things that happened on a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon at Nationals Park: One Washington Nationals base runner tried to tag up at third base with two outs — and was nearly overtaken at the plate by another base runner, who began the play at second but was thrown out at home. Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds hit three homers. The Nats and Pirates turned six double plays — none in the normal 6-4-3 or 4-6-3 fashions.
Oh, and the Nats lost, 8-7, at least in part because the Pirates scored a run on a double play on which the third out was recorded — and the Nationals didn’t take the time to record a fourth out."
The double play in question started with the Pirates having runners on second and third. A soft liner was caught by Josh Bell at first, but both runners broke thinking he hadn't caught it. Bell threw to third, where Ehire Adrianza tagged Hoy Park (who'd come from second) and then stepped on third (doubling off Jack Suwinski) but because the ump didn't see Adrianza step on third and/or because Suwinski crossed the plate before Adrianza tagged Hoy and the Nats left the field without appealing the play, Suwinski's run counted. Had Adrianza stepped on third before or instead of tagging Hoy, Suwinski would've been the third out and the run wouldn't have counted. However, he didn't, and so the Nats didn't get four outs that inning and eventually lost by a run.
And now Nats fans will forever be experts in Rule 5.09(c)(4) I guess
Wonder how much of that #2 ranking is from people reading comments like this on Free Thursday and ponying up cash for the Sub? It’s good we have fans like this commenting when Dunning is pitching so Craig can focus on whatever Hollywood era he wants to place him in. Wouldn’t surprise me If he has Dunning in some John Landis rip-off as some older adult figure working with teen/young-adult B-list actors in a few start
My understanding was that stepping on third after the 3rd out had already been recorded on the tag wasn't enough, that he needed to step on third and then appeal to the umpire. Which apparently means he had to ask the umpire to call Suwinski out, even though there were already 3 outs at the time, to prevent the run from scoring.
You may be right about the details, and while the Nats have not consistently demonstrated mastery of the fundamentals commensurate with a major league team this year, I'm not gonna criticize them for not knowing how to get four outs in a given inning.
I was watching this game on mute and let me tell ya, I had no idea what had happened on that play until I read your recap. I just assumed they hired interns as umps for Nats/Pirates games and everyone was learning.
Yeah, this play was wild, and the Nats having to ask for a fourth out to prevent a run scoring when a guy didn't tag up on a ball caught in the air is a ridiculous technicality. Umps had no control of the situation. Then, of course, in the bottom half of the inning, the Nats may have lost out on an additional run (and maybe more) because Keibert Ruiz tagged up at third WITH TWO OUTS and slowed up the guy coming from second (Yadiel Hernández) so he got tagged out to end the inning. Yadi may well have been a dead duck anyway (and he blew through a stop sign), but I can't remember the last time I saw a TOOTBLAN assist like that.
Lots of Nats fans are getting hung up on the weird play in the top of the fifth where the Pirates scored a run on an inning ending double play because of the “fourth out“ rule, but given that the lead changed twice after that - and the fact that Brian Reynolds hit three home runs off of three different pitchers - all you can do is tip your cap and glare at your pitching coach.
That said, the umpiring crew did itself no favors by taking nearly 10 minutes to rule on the play, leaving broadcasters, both managers and the dozens of fans in the stands at a getaway day game wondering what the hell was going on.
PS I knew you’d love that quantity shart thing. Seems fitting that Patrick Qorbin leads the league since 2016.
PPS I’m sorry, but that “Music Man” revelation sounds like an SNL bit that got left out of the final show after it bombed at dress rehearsal. Simultaneously unsurprising and bizarre.
I saw that stat about your newsletter doing very well in Marc Stein's newsletter on Tuesday. Congrats on rising to such a vaunted spot. (I highly recommend Stein's substack to roundball fans, especially today).
But I was curious who this Sherwood Strauss is, and it seems he is Craig's opposite, a conservative writer who left the SF Chronicle to write about "the culture wars." I suppose it's not surprising that the top sports newsletter on Substack is right wing crap, though we can take hope from Craig being number two. Maybe.
A thought that never occurred to me: when they take players off the field at Citi Field for medical care, where do they go? The nearest hospital is the one my wife and I have used many times for her emergencies (most of which are related to kidney stones). Are major leaguers taken there, and then triaged and made to wait as long as my wife had most times we've been there? Or are they taken to where I went when I broke my scapula, where the care is actually quicker because no one has to figure what is wrong? One time we were in the ER, it was during the US Open, and there was a player from the tourney there (the daughter of one time pro Tom Gullikson, though I don't know which daughter). But she was not an MVP candidate. So do you go for the closest hospital, or for the one in Manhattan you have the special arrangement with, and hope the ambulances don't get stuck on the Queensboro Bridge?
Do the Mets have a medical center/hospital as a sponsor? If so, maybe where they take players? Red Sox have Beth Israel Deaconess medical center as a sponsor and also have a clinic in Fenway if fans get minor injuries/ailments during the game. I think I recall they send players there too since it’s near Fenway.
I think the Mets have some sort of arrangement with the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, though I could be wrong. (It's the best orthopedic facility in NYC and I think a lot of athletes see specialists there.)
But the key word is Manhattan. Even though there are reasonably good hospitals in the boroughs, the best ones are all there.
It’s the Mets. They ship their emergencies to Dr. Nick Rivera in Springfield.
Nit: Andrews still has ownership in the Birmingham clinic but now has a limited practice based out of the Florida panhandle around Destin. Beautiful beaches along the gulf coast.
Very mildly related to the usual political shenanigans that often are the central focus here, but James Andrews was lightly connected to the scandal that took down the last Democratic Governor of Alabama.
Andrews practiced out of HealthSouth in Birmingham. HS was run by Richard Scrushy. Scrushy and then Governor Seiligman were convicted in a fund raising / bribery case with the latter being removed from office at the tail end of the last century. HS had major financial repercussions and Andrews, who wasn’t involved in the scandal, had to buy his way out of his contract and ended up in Florida.
I unfortunately know of no baseball related tie to the more recent conviction of a subsequent GOP AL GOV. But I’m sure that somehow Dane Dunning was involved.
I'd argue that the best path to the top of the sports charts is to have a robust non-sports presence in your newsletter.
After all, from a social standpoint, sports are just male-coded reality tv/celebrity drama. The most interesting stuff tends to be what happens alongside the game, rather than the game itself.
That's why Jomboy's breakdown of the Mariners-Angels fight both:
1) Takes 15 minutes to explain
2) Remains compelling for the full 15 minutes.
Anyway, congratulations! Thank you for all the sports and non-sports writing that wouldn't (and couldn't) be written by anyone else
For a lot of them, yeah, but for the fights, I really appreciate the time he takes to go through the whole thing and pick out the narratives and interactions that you're probably not going to notice if you only see the wide shot of the scrum.
It's fun to see the list of suspensions and go "I know *exactly* why Dom Chiti's on this list," as opposed to "Who's Dom Chiti, and what did he do to get suspended?"
Less glibly, there's a fair amount of self-determination going on, isn't there? People who decide to write a sports/sports+ blog are sports bloggers. There's no hard and fast rule across the internet; it's just how people choose to categorize their writing.
Like, this is pretty clearly a sports blog. Every newsletter starts off with the score and a breakdown of the previous night's games, there's almost always some mlb, team, or player-related news, but then the second half of the newsletter is fair game. Maybe it's more sports news, maybe it's Ohio politics, maybe it's general leftism, maybe it's an ode to media that nobody under 40 has seen in first run.
But what if there was no MLB news highlighted? Then you've got less of a sports blog going on, but there's still a bunch of words written for every single baseball game from Sunday-Thursday. I'd have to supplement with other sources if I wanted to follow baseball, but this would still fit my definition of a sports blog.
Similarly, if Craig decided he wanted to be a "lifestyle blogger," and only dropped the blurbs, this would be very baseball-heavy for a lifestyle blog, but there's enough stuff here that it wouldn't be an inaccurate description. Plus, if your lifestyle includes enjoying sports, your lifestyle blog can have your takes on sports news.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. It's the difference between "Alternative," "Pop," "Rock," etc.. Sometimes fun to sate our categorization impulses, but not consequential.
I'm sure the comparison is unwelcome, but there's a reason Barstool Sports is both successful and the last man standing from that early-2010s bro-culture boom.
Sports get the ball rolling
Extraordinary news is the fuel for the furnace (h/t New York Post)
Writer personality is the glue that holds everything together and keeps the people coming back.
Free newsletter? More like Fire Newsletter today (sorry, I’ll share a cell with Counsell if necessary)
Didn’t read yesterdays newsletter until late last night. Like Craig, I also had a travel day driving home from NE Pennsylvania from my daughter’s college pre-orientation. 36 hours from Tuesday morning till last night, 840 miles (got 30.5 MPG in a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe 6 cylinder, which is my dad brag for the day today) to get her ID, schedule and iPad the school issues.
That Red Sox bench/bullpen clearing “mill-around-and-jaw” melee seemed like Vlad Jr wanting to start something so he could watch it on Sports Center later, zero chance Pivetta threw at Kirk intentionally.
Ronald Acuna missed another game but has at least now flown to Philly. He may be available today or he may just want to compare and contrast Pat and Geno’s. Your humble poster’s POV: Geno’s but definitely witout da wizz.
Acuna’s absence meant another game in LF for Ozuna. Wow, he’s bad defensively. The only thing he can grab is his wife’s throat and his best throws are her against the wall. I really with Liberty Media would understand sunk costs (or better yet have a spine about DV) and move on.
Speaking of bad D, the Phils look b-a-d. Atlanta’s first two runs were scored via a catchable ball in LCF that turned into a double, a grounder just outside the limited range of the 2B, a runner going first-to-third because the RF’s arm is a cooked noodle, and finally an attempted 6-4-3 that was turned kinda slowly allowing the ATL batter to beat out the throw. No errors, just C- / D+ skills.
Will Smith got the save. He was Atlanta’s closer in the WS run last year but has been used in the 6/7 innings with Kenley Jansen on the team. A day earlier they used AJ Minter to close. The beat writers are saying the two will split the job until The big guy’s heartbeat returns to normal.
...
Reading the Manfred interview reminds me that everyone is the star of their own internal movie. Dane Dunning may be the only exception out of 7 billion humans.
Don't know if you saw the Sunday night Kay/Arod thing but they interviewed Acuna and he said he was very worried about his foot despite what the Braves were saying.
See, this is why Acuna needs a strong veteran presence like Freeman around. Someone to tell him to go to a real Philly cheesesteak shop and not the touristy crap.
Of course, Freeman is a fellow millennial suburban white guy, so he'd probably be ok with Steak'ums on a club roll.
I'm about an inch above tourist to the area. I spent a year working across the river in Mt. Laurel, would fly up from ATL Sunday night and fly home again on Thursday. So some extended time in the Philadelphia area, but certainly no native.
What ATL needs is to bring back a rolly polly guy to lead the club in all cheesesteak related issues. Freeman and now Olson are just too healthy. Criminy we've even got vegan Spencer Strider on the team. For all that is good and holy, bring back Pablo Sandoval!
I'm a late boomer suburban white guy, and I'm ok with Steak'umms (I think they use two Ms) on a club roll.
I actually made two steakumm and cheese sandwiches just this week (because that's how many I can get from a pack of steakumms), on hoagie rolls, with a little Frank's Red Hot for flavor, and of course provolone.
On top of the f*caked up nature of sentencing disparities likely to follow the Dobbs decision, we now have the coordinated efforts of “conservative” States’ legislatures to pass criminal laws against other States’ efforts to keep abortion legal and safe. When they do pass, the laws will be written with Texas-style vigilante enforcement.
I can easily picture a bunch of well armed goons setting up “check points” at the border crossing on I-68 between Maryland and West Virginia. Sure we could once say that violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. But with this Supreme Court’s 6 clerics, can we now?
I think this court can and willl find a 'religious freedom' that trumps any other law. 'God told me to' is going to become a get out of jail free card for any and all audacious actions of the far-right.
If they go with "religious freedom", I'll bet a LOT of Jewish organizations will immediately speak up, saying "Our faith allows for, and in some cases even requires abortion. Are you being anti-Semitic?"
A lot, including my wife's employer (which usually doesn't take sides on such matters), but not all. Some are even applauding the end of Roe v Wade, which is madness to me.
I already saw someone argue that because the Jewish and Muslim religions didn't have such deep roots in America, and they don't have Popes or something, that they don't technically "count" as much because there isn't an overarching philosophy instead of just a bunch of individual practices.
Which is bullshit to such a large degree that it requires exponents on the exponents.
Violates the travel clause. Violating an actual right spelled out in the text of the Constitution will be harder for states to justify, even with this court.
I don't believe this court would have any problem saying that a person's right to express their religious views in any way they choose trumps any other right, codified or not. They can just say it's one right against another right and religion wins!
The Free Exercise Clause certainly has primacy over the establishment clause in their minds. This is why the fictitious “deeply rooted in American history” standard Alito has invented is so dangerous. It means whatever they want.
Indeed it does. The problem is that in “returning the question to the people and their elected representatives” stated at the end of Dobbs was also decoupled from the strict scrutiny analysis that otherwise restricts laws that infringe individuals’ rights.
I think it’s no longer possible to imagine limits to what this Court majority is willing to do to impose its vision.
The best part of the Quality Shart story is seeing the Washington Post define what a Shart is for its high-brow readers. I can envision the writer holding his monocle while proudly working portmanteau and flatulence into that sentence.
Meanwhile, when I was growing up, my dad always referred to them as “G&L Farts” (standing for “Gambled & Lost”)
Whomst among us has not waddled home from a run trying to decide if running faster to get home quicker is a GOOD idea or heaping more fuel on the fire?
At our house that's known as a "developing situation." Our powder room (the only bathroom on the main level) has been dubbed The Situation Room with a knock-off sign from the West Wing to make it official.
Posnanski's newsletter is newer, though he too was blogging for a long time and has a long-running podcast that I have seen some claim is the best sports podcast out there (I disagree).
I wasn’t shocked to see ESPN run some garbage story about Manfred. I was pretty surprised, however, to see it written by Van Natta. He is not normally a puff piece kind of writer - he’s an actual investigative reporter with a pretty good rep. Would really like to know how that came about because it just seems odd.
Was thinking the same exact thing. Has the slow death of quality investigative reporting at ESPN forced Van Natta to take whatever assignments are available for freelancers?
Yesterday, I thought about how, when Trump dies, even if it is (god please be sooner) 15 years from now and in his sleep, his cult followers will claim he was assassinated or he's not really dead or whatever. Then I wondered if that would kick off the actual Civil War or be in the middle of it. Or if we'd already have changed our name to Trumpmerica, be required by law to own guns, and whether or not I'm willing to die for my rights or just seek asylum elsewhere.
Anyway, that was Wednesday. I think we're doing great.
The Red Sox - Blue Jays recap states that the Red Sox just barely hung on last night. In fact, they sharted all over Canada, again. That Tanner Houck is a real team guy I tell you. A clubhouse glue kind of guy, willing to put it all on the line for the team.
I did not recall him being so greasy during his time on the Padres, so I did a little image searching, and I think we may have discovered the problem. He needs to quit sucking on his hair.
https://www.overthemonster.com/2022/3/28/22999706/boston-red-sox-roster-preview-2022-matt-strahm-bullpen-contract
And yes, I am aware I accidentally put June 20 instead of June 30 when I sent it out. If that's the worst thing I do all day I'll take it.
A lesser man would also note that you borked the Bosox-Jays score - but I’m not that guy. (That same guy might suggest stuff like that is why you’re just #2.)
Other than the Rangers box score when Dunning pitches, I only really read the Red Sox one in detail and skim the others, and I missed it. #2 indeed…
A lesser, lesser man would point out the misspelling of Mark Whiten’s surname. Oh, we all love Craig’s typos, but Mark Whiten is a goddam god, man.
An even lesser man might even point out that Whiten's nickname was *Hard* Hittin', not *Big* Hittin' :-)
Whiten hit his 4 homers in the 2nd game of a doubleheader. He didn't homer in the first game, but did have an RBI, giving him 13 RBI for the two games at Riverfront Stadium that day.
You are erasing my aunt's birthday, her 71st. And she's a long time Dodgers fan no less.
You monster. Attacking an old woman with Alzheimer's like that.
Happy birthday!
Your Nats' recap is testament to the fact that boxscores can't show everything, and this game had enough weird shit to warrant a Stefon from SNL narration, but I'll let Barry Svrluga summarize instead:
"Here are some of the things that happened on a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon at Nationals Park: One Washington Nationals base runner tried to tag up at third base with two outs — and was nearly overtaken at the plate by another base runner, who began the play at second but was thrown out at home. Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds hit three homers. The Nats and Pirates turned six double plays — none in the normal 6-4-3 or 4-6-3 fashions.
Oh, and the Nats lost, 8-7, at least in part because the Pirates scored a run on a double play on which the third out was recorded — and the Nationals didn’t take the time to record a fourth out."
The double play in question started with the Pirates having runners on second and third. A soft liner was caught by Josh Bell at first, but both runners broke thinking he hadn't caught it. Bell threw to third, where Ehire Adrianza tagged Hoy Park (who'd come from second) and then stepped on third (doubling off Jack Suwinski) but because the ump didn't see Adrianza step on third and/or because Suwinski crossed the plate before Adrianza tagged Hoy and the Nats left the field without appealing the play, Suwinski's run counted. Had Adrianza stepped on third before or instead of tagging Hoy, Suwinski would've been the third out and the run wouldn't have counted. However, he didn't, and so the Nats didn't get four outs that inning and eventually lost by a run.
And now Nats fans will forever be experts in Rule 5.09(c)(4) I guess
Wonder how much of that #2 ranking is from people reading comments like this on Free Thursday and ponying up cash for the Sub? It’s good we have fans like this commenting when Dunning is pitching so Craig can focus on whatever Hollywood era he wants to place him in. Wouldn’t surprise me If he has Dunning in some John Landis rip-off as some older adult figure working with teen/young-adult B-list actors in a few start
My understanding was that stepping on third after the 3rd out had already been recorded on the tag wasn't enough, that he needed to step on third and then appeal to the umpire. Which apparently means he had to ask the umpire to call Suwinski out, even though there were already 3 outs at the time, to prevent the run from scoring.
https://sports.yahoo.com/nationals-pirates-fourth-out-rule-suwinski-mlb-221319598.html
Seems sort of arbitrary to require the Nats to ask for the runner to be out.
You may be right about the details, and while the Nats have not consistently demonstrated mastery of the fundamentals commensurate with a major league team this year, I'm not gonna criticize them for not knowing how to get four outs in a given inning.
And yet, it isn’t a major league rules question without Davey Martinez looking absolutely flummoxed.
That's part of the Davey Martinez Experience...
His being the manager of a World Series winner is an elevation of mediocrity on a par with Trent Dilfer, Super Bowl winning quarterback.
Yep. Sometimes, beautiful places lead to bumpy roads.
This video does a good job explaining what happened. This channel is pretty good for getting an umpire's perspective, especially on confusing plays.
https://youtu.be/p-DKeVgyUJ0
I was watching this game on mute and let me tell ya, I had no idea what had happened on that play until I read your recap. I just assumed they hired interns as umps for Nats/Pirates games and everyone was learning.
Yeah, this play was wild, and the Nats having to ask for a fourth out to prevent a run scoring when a guy didn't tag up on a ball caught in the air is a ridiculous technicality. Umps had no control of the situation. Then, of course, in the bottom half of the inning, the Nats may have lost out on an additional run (and maybe more) because Keibert Ruiz tagged up at third WITH TWO OUTS and slowed up the guy coming from second (Yadiel Hernández) so he got tagged out to end the inning. Yadi may well have been a dead duck anyway (and he blew through a stop sign), but I can't remember the last time I saw a TOOTBLAN assist like that.
Lots of Nats fans are getting hung up on the weird play in the top of the fifth where the Pirates scored a run on an inning ending double play because of the “fourth out“ rule, but given that the lead changed twice after that - and the fact that Brian Reynolds hit three home runs off of three different pitchers - all you can do is tip your cap and glare at your pitching coach.
That said, the umpiring crew did itself no favors by taking nearly 10 minutes to rule on the play, leaving broadcasters, both managers and the dozens of fans in the stands at a getaway day game wondering what the hell was going on.
PS I knew you’d love that quantity shart thing. Seems fitting that Patrick Qorbin leads the league since 2016.
PPS I’m sorry, but that “Music Man” revelation sounds like an SNL bit that got left out of the final show after it bombed at dress rehearsal. Simultaneously unsurprising and bizarre.
https://youtu.be/wTqsV3q7rRU?t=74
cheeeez itttsss
I saw that stat about your newsletter doing very well in Marc Stein's newsletter on Tuesday. Congrats on rising to such a vaunted spot. (I highly recommend Stein's substack to roundball fans, especially today).
But I was curious who this Sherwood Strauss is, and it seems he is Craig's opposite, a conservative writer who left the SF Chronicle to write about "the culture wars." I suppose it's not surprising that the top sports newsletter on Substack is right wing crap, though we can take hope from Craig being number two. Maybe.
A thought that never occurred to me: when they take players off the field at Citi Field for medical care, where do they go? The nearest hospital is the one my wife and I have used many times for her emergencies (most of which are related to kidney stones). Are major leaguers taken there, and then triaged and made to wait as long as my wife had most times we've been there? Or are they taken to where I went when I broke my scapula, where the care is actually quicker because no one has to figure what is wrong? One time we were in the ER, it was during the US Open, and there was a player from the tourney there (the daughter of one time pro Tom Gullikson, though I don't know which daughter). But she was not an MVP candidate. So do you go for the closest hospital, or for the one in Manhattan you have the special arrangement with, and hope the ambulances don't get stuck on the Queensboro Bridge?
Do the Mets have a medical center/hospital as a sponsor? If so, maybe where they take players? Red Sox have Beth Israel Deaconess medical center as a sponsor and also have a clinic in Fenway if fans get minor injuries/ailments during the game. I think I recall they send players there too since it’s near Fenway.
I think the Mets have some sort of arrangement with the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, though I could be wrong. (It's the best orthopedic facility in NYC and I think a lot of athletes see specialists there.)
But the key word is Manhattan. Even though there are reasonably good hospitals in the boroughs, the best ones are all there.
This is the Mets. Don’t all their medical emergencies get shipped directly to Dr James Andrews in Alabama?
It’s the Mets. They ship their emergencies to Dr. Nick Rivera in Springfield.
Nit: Andrews still has ownership in the Birmingham clinic but now has a limited practice based out of the Florida panhandle around Destin. Beautiful beaches along the gulf coast.
We’re probably both wrong for thinking the Mets ship their injured players ANYWHERE
Steam train? Horse and buggy? Bataan death march?
Letting them rot in the corner of the room until the stench becomes too overbearing….then off to the IL
Very mildly related to the usual political shenanigans that often are the central focus here, but James Andrews was lightly connected to the scandal that took down the last Democratic Governor of Alabama.
Andrews practiced out of HealthSouth in Birmingham. HS was run by Richard Scrushy. Scrushy and then Governor Seiligman were convicted in a fund raising / bribery case with the latter being removed from office at the tail end of the last century. HS had major financial repercussions and Andrews, who wasn’t involved in the scandal, had to buy his way out of his contract and ended up in Florida.
I unfortunately know of no baseball related tie to the more recent conviction of a subsequent GOP AL GOV. But I’m sure that somehow Dane Dunning was involved.
If it doesn't have waves, it's not a beach.
Not New Amsterdam?
It would be like the Mets to send people to fictional hospitals.
I'd argue that the best path to the top of the sports charts is to have a robust non-sports presence in your newsletter.
After all, from a social standpoint, sports are just male-coded reality tv/celebrity drama. The most interesting stuff tends to be what happens alongside the game, rather than the game itself.
That's why Jomboy's breakdown of the Mariners-Angels fight both:
1) Takes 15 minutes to explain
2) Remains compelling for the full 15 minutes.
Anyway, congratulations! Thank you for all the sports and non-sports writing that wouldn't (and couldn't) be written by anyone else
It’s the lip reading that’s the best part of the breakdowns.
For a lot of them, yeah, but for the fights, I really appreciate the time he takes to go through the whole thing and pick out the narratives and interactions that you're probably not going to notice if you only see the wide shot of the scrum.
It's fun to see the list of suspensions and go "I know *exactly* why Dom Chiti's on this list," as opposed to "Who's Dom Chiti, and what did he do to get suspended?"
I thought it was the attempts by the closed captioning to spell the player's names correctly.
"Patsy Baloney" indeed.....
How, though, do you define something like Kareem's newsletter, which is not sports but has a robust sports presence?
I think you did a fine job of it.
Less glibly, there's a fair amount of self-determination going on, isn't there? People who decide to write a sports/sports+ blog are sports bloggers. There's no hard and fast rule across the internet; it's just how people choose to categorize their writing.
Like, this is pretty clearly a sports blog. Every newsletter starts off with the score and a breakdown of the previous night's games, there's almost always some mlb, team, or player-related news, but then the second half of the newsletter is fair game. Maybe it's more sports news, maybe it's Ohio politics, maybe it's general leftism, maybe it's an ode to media that nobody under 40 has seen in first run.
But what if there was no MLB news highlighted? Then you've got less of a sports blog going on, but there's still a bunch of words written for every single baseball game from Sunday-Thursday. I'd have to supplement with other sources if I wanted to follow baseball, but this would still fit my definition of a sports blog.
Similarly, if Craig decided he wanted to be a "lifestyle blogger," and only dropped the blurbs, this would be very baseball-heavy for a lifestyle blog, but there's enough stuff here that it wouldn't be an inaccurate description. Plus, if your lifestyle includes enjoying sports, your lifestyle blog can have your takes on sports news.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. It's the difference between "Alternative," "Pop," "Rock," etc.. Sometimes fun to sate our categorization impulses, but not consequential.
I'm sure the comparison is unwelcome, but there's a reason Barstool Sports is both successful and the last man standing from that early-2010s bro-culture boom.
Sports get the ball rolling
Extraordinary news is the fuel for the furnace (h/t New York Post)
Writer personality is the glue that holds everything together and keeps the people coming back.
Free newsletter? More like Fire Newsletter today (sorry, I’ll share a cell with Counsell if necessary)
Didn’t read yesterdays newsletter until late last night. Like Craig, I also had a travel day driving home from NE Pennsylvania from my daughter’s college pre-orientation. 36 hours from Tuesday morning till last night, 840 miles (got 30.5 MPG in a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe 6 cylinder, which is my dad brag for the day today) to get her ID, schedule and iPad the school issues.
That Red Sox bench/bullpen clearing “mill-around-and-jaw” melee seemed like Vlad Jr wanting to start something so he could watch it on Sports Center later, zero chance Pivetta threw at Kirk intentionally.
Ronald Acuna missed another game but has at least now flown to Philly. He may be available today or he may just want to compare and contrast Pat and Geno’s. Your humble poster’s POV: Geno’s but definitely witout da wizz.
Acuna’s absence meant another game in LF for Ozuna. Wow, he’s bad defensively. The only thing he can grab is his wife’s throat and his best throws are her against the wall. I really with Liberty Media would understand sunk costs (or better yet have a spine about DV) and move on.
Speaking of bad D, the Phils look b-a-d. Atlanta’s first two runs were scored via a catchable ball in LCF that turned into a double, a grounder just outside the limited range of the 2B, a runner going first-to-third because the RF’s arm is a cooked noodle, and finally an attempted 6-4-3 that was turned kinda slowly allowing the ATL batter to beat out the throw. No errors, just C- / D+ skills.
Will Smith got the save. He was Atlanta’s closer in the WS run last year but has been used in the 6/7 innings with Kenley Jansen on the team. A day earlier they used AJ Minter to close. The beat writers are saying the two will split the job until The big guy’s heartbeat returns to normal.
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Reading the Manfred interview reminds me that everyone is the star of their own internal movie. Dane Dunning may be the only exception out of 7 billion humans.
Don't know if you saw the Sunday night Kay/Arod thing but they interviewed Acuna and he said he was very worried about his foot despite what the Braves were saying.
See, this is why Acuna needs a strong veteran presence like Freeman around. Someone to tell him to go to a real Philly cheesesteak shop and not the touristy crap.
Of course, Freeman is a fellow millennial suburban white guy, so he'd probably be ok with Steak'ums on a club roll.
(Always with provolone, though.)
I'm about an inch above tourist to the area. I spent a year working across the river in Mt. Laurel, would fly up from ATL Sunday night and fly home again on Thursday. So some extended time in the Philadelphia area, but certainly no native.
What ATL needs is to bring back a rolly polly guy to lead the club in all cheesesteak related issues. Freeman and now Olson are just too healthy. Criminy we've even got vegan Spencer Strider on the team. For all that is good and holy, bring back Pablo Sandoval!
I'm a late boomer suburban white guy, and I'm ok with Steak'umms (I think they use two Ms) on a club roll.
I actually made two steakumm and cheese sandwiches just this week (because that's how many I can get from a pack of steakumms), on hoagie rolls, with a little Frank's Red Hot for flavor, and of course provolone.
That sounds wonderful.
On top of the f*caked up nature of sentencing disparities likely to follow the Dobbs decision, we now have the coordinated efforts of “conservative” States’ legislatures to pass criminal laws against other States’ efforts to keep abortion legal and safe. When they do pass, the laws will be written with Texas-style vigilante enforcement.
I can easily picture a bunch of well armed goons setting up “check points” at the border crossing on I-68 between Maryland and West Virginia. Sure we could once say that violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. But with this Supreme Court’s 6 clerics, can we now?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/29/abortion-state-lines/
I think this court can and willl find a 'religious freedom' that trumps any other law. 'God told me to' is going to become a get out of jail free card for any and all audacious actions of the far-right.
If they go with "religious freedom", I'll bet a LOT of Jewish organizations will immediately speak up, saying "Our faith allows for, and in some cases even requires abortion. Are you being anti-Semitic?"
"Oh, sorry - we didn't mean THAT kind of religious freedom."
A lot, including my wife's employer (which usually doesn't take sides on such matters), but not all. Some are even applauding the end of Roe v Wade, which is madness to me.
I already saw someone argue that because the Jewish and Muslim religions didn't have such deep roots in America, and they don't have Popes or something, that they don't technically "count" as much because there isn't an overarching philosophy instead of just a bunch of individual practices.
Which is bullshit to such a large degree that it requires exponents on the exponents.
If "don't have popes" is a standard, then we can disqualify all the Protestants, right?
I wish. And logically a bunch of cranky Catholics, too.
Violates the travel clause. Violating an actual right spelled out in the text of the Constitution will be harder for states to justify, even with this court.
I don't believe this court would have any problem saying that a person's right to express their religious views in any way they choose trumps any other right, codified or not. They can just say it's one right against another right and religion wins!
The Free Exercise Clause certainly has primacy over the establishment clause in their minds. This is why the fictitious “deeply rooted in American history” standard Alito has invented is so dangerous. It means whatever they want.
Indeed it does. The problem is that in “returning the question to the people and their elected representatives” stated at the end of Dobbs was also decoupled from the strict scrutiny analysis that otherwise restricts laws that infringe individuals’ rights.
I think it’s no longer possible to imagine limits to what this Court majority is willing to do to impose its vision.
The best part of the Quality Shart story is seeing the Washington Post define what a Shart is for its high-brow readers. I can envision the writer holding his monocle while proudly working portmanteau and flatulence into that sentence.
Meanwhile, when I was growing up, my dad always referred to them as “G&L Farts” (standing for “Gambled & Lost”)
Back when I was in some form approaching health, I jogged. The phrase “never trust a fart after mile three” is burned upon my memory.
See, THIS is the content I come here for.
Truth: I just LOLed and startled the dogs.
Whomst among us has not waddled home from a run trying to decide if running faster to get home quicker is a GOOD idea or heaping more fuel on the fire?
At our house that's known as a "developing situation." Our powder room (the only bathroom on the main level) has been dubbed The Situation Room with a knock-off sign from the West Wing to make it official.
I don't have dogs to startle, but this made me LOL.
I think the fact that Craig is only #2 is proof that Baseball is Dying, You Guys!
Seriously though, that's awesome.
I'm surprised he's ahead of Joe Posnanski!
Posnanski's newsletter is newer, though he too was blogging for a long time and has a long-running podcast that I have seen some claim is the best sports podcast out there (I disagree).
I wasn’t shocked to see ESPN run some garbage story about Manfred. I was pretty surprised, however, to see it written by Van Natta. He is not normally a puff piece kind of writer - he’s an actual investigative reporter with a pretty good rep. Would really like to know how that came about because it just seems odd.
Was thinking the same exact thing. Has the slow death of quality investigative reporting at ESPN forced Van Natta to take whatever assignments are available for freelancers?
It’s a really interesting question. I never would’ve thought his name would be attached to a piece like this.
I'm guessing ESPN was thinking "we need to run a fluff piece on Rob Manfred, with natta a bad thing about him in it."
These jokes write themselves, folks.
Yesterday, I thought about how, when Trump dies, even if it is (god please be sooner) 15 years from now and in his sleep, his cult followers will claim he was assassinated or he's not really dead or whatever. Then I wondered if that would kick off the actual Civil War or be in the middle of it. Or if we'd already have changed our name to Trumpmerica, be required by law to own guns, and whether or not I'm willing to die for my rights or just seek asylum elsewhere.
Anyway, that was Wednesday. I think we're doing great.
They already think JFK Jr. is going to return so I'm sure they will think TFG is hiding somewhere and not actually dead.
Any time a day can start out with a mention of Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten, I'll take it.
The Red Sox - Blue Jays recap states that the Red Sox just barely hung on last night. In fact, they sharted all over Canada, again. That Tanner Houck is a real team guy I tell you. A clubhouse glue kind of guy, willing to put it all on the line for the team.