Cup of Coffee: March 11, 2021

Recklessness in Texas, baseball on the radio and dispatches from the United States of Elite America

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday, non-subscribers! I think you’ll like what I have for you today and, assuming I’m right, you’re gonna wish you had hit this button:

And you’ll definitely want to hit this button:

But don’t worry, I’ll put them at the end of all of this too so you can rectify your oversight.

Today we talk about the Texas Rangers being absolutely reckless, greedy jackasses, a guy about to pull off a reverse-Ankiel, a guy who still wants to play but, for some very good reasons, does not have a job, a super heartwarming story from the world of sports gambling that involves threats of beheadings over meaningless July games between losing teams, and a vow to not mention a certain team by name.

In Other Stuff we talk about The United States of Elite America, some media news, a guy who took his basement back to 1995, and we watch some sick-ass drone footage.

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The Daily Briefing

I would like to report a murder

This is what you call a poke, folks:

Sarah Langs @SlangsOnSports

Giancarlo Stanton 420-ft, 115.1 mph home run szn FOLKS!!!

You all know that I don’t spend a ton of time talking about Statcast stuff, but it’s probably worth mentioning that since Statcast began tracking batted balls in 2015, Giancarlo Stanton has hit more balls over 115 m.p.h. than the next four players on the list combined. No one hits balls harder than that dude.

The Texas Rangers are doing something that is absolutely fucking stupid

The Texas Rangers plan to open to full 40,518-fan capacity for their final exhibition games of spring training and for Opening Day. After that they plan to have somewhat reduced capacity with “social-distanced sections available.” They will require masks, but it sounds as if that’s an utterly toothless requirement, with the team asking for “voluntary compliance” and where refusal to comply will fall under a “three-strikes” rule. Which you know damn well will not be enforced.

This is monumentally fucking stupid. Given the ramp-up in vaccinations, we are so fucking close to turning the corner on the pandemic. By many estimates we are only a couple of months away from, more or less, returning to normality. But the Rangers cannot wait even that long. They cannot bear to leave even a bit of money on the table.

Even the post-Opening Day plan — the “socially-distanced sections” — is a financial play. They know they’re likely to sell out Opening Day and that crowds for subsequent games will be small. By offering the “socially distant” option they figure on attracting more fans than might’ve otherwise shown up. Which is to say that they’re willfully eschewing safety when it makes them money and then cynically embracing the notion of safety when it’s in their financial benefit to do that. In reality none of this has anything to do with safety. It’s absolutely depraved.

When left unchecked — and it is basically unchecked right now — baseball will always embrace a good race to the bottom, so I suspect the Rangers won't be the only ones doing this.

Joey Votto has COVID

Speaking of COVID, Reds first baseman Joey Votto tested positive yesterday and was placed on the injured list. He’s expected to miss at least ten days. Anyone found to have been in close contact with him will have to isolate for at least seven days.

Normally the identity of players who test positive is not revealed, but Votto gave the Reds permission to release his test result.

Anthony Gose is close to making the bigs as a pitcher

Anthony Gose played the outfield for the Blue Jays and Tigers between 2012 and 2016. He didn’t hit that much, though, and the Tigers sent him down in 2016. After his demotion he had run-ins with his Triple-A manager Lloyd McClendon that got him demoted down to Double-A and then he got into something of a war with the media. Things were not, to say the least, going well.

Then in 2017 Gose and the Tigers decided to convert him to pitching, which is what first attracted scouts to him when he was a fireballing high schooler in Los Angeles. He struggled in the low minors in 2017 and 2018, first in the Tigers organization and then with the Rangers. He then signed with Cleveland and split 2019 between Class A Advanced Lynchburg and Double-A Akron, combining for a 2.48 ERA in 32 appearances while limiting opponents to a .165 average and .237 slugging percentage. He struck out a ton of guys but he also walked a ton. Like most minor leaguers he was idled in 2020 but he played winter ball over the past two years and did well in small samples.

He’s back in Cleveland’s camp this spring and he’s hitting triple digits on the gun and turning heads. From The Athletic:

Gose throws in the upper 90s, topping out at 100 mph. He has added a slider to his repertoire that he can tunnel with his fastball to keep hitters guessing which pitch is spiraling their direction. He still throws an occasional curveball. The key, of course, is commanding each pitch and consistently finding the strike zone. If he can do that, he could work his way back to the big leagues . . .“It’s a pretty cool story,” Francona said. “He’s obviously a kid we’re rooting for. His stuff is off the charts.”

The story talks about Gose’s high school days, when despite his fearsome high-90s stuff, he made it clear to teams who scouted him that he wanted to be an outfielder. That ended up being a good decision for him given that, you know, he made the big leagues as an outfielder, which is not an easy thing to do. But going back to what turned heads to begin with may pan out for him as well. Reverse Rick Ankiel-style.

Yasiel Puig still wants to play

Yasiel Puig didn’t play last year and he doesn’t have a job this year. In effort to remedy that his agent, Rachel Luba, told The Athletic that Puig wants to be back in baseball. She said, “baseball needs Puig, I truly believe that.”

Thankfully the excellent Andy McCollough is the reporter who took that call as opposed to someone who would just serve as a mouthpiece for Luba, because he puts right up front the thing that is likely serving as a big impediment to Puig getting a job: a civil suit from a woman accusing Puig of sexually assaulting her. From The Athletic:

Four months earlier, a woman filed a civil suit in Los Angeles against Puig seeking damages for sexual battery. The woman said Puig assaulted her at the Staples Center in October 2018. Puig has denied the allegations. In a motion filed in January, his attorneys asked the federal court in the Central District of California to throw out the suit. The motion, which was obtained by The Athletic, claims the “reputational damage” brought by the suit “threaten[s] his future professional opportunities as he is currently a Major League Baseball free agent seeking a contract with an MLB club.”

Puig is not facing criminal charges and there is no MLB investigation into the incident, but the claims are certainly giving teams an added reason to be concerned about Puig over and above his reputation for tardiness and his infamous resistance to instruction. Those things and, as McCullough phrases it, an “on-field resume littered with moments of brilliance but mostly marked by modest production.” Yes, Puig is a solid defender and occasionally a productive hitter, but he’s not the superstar he looked like he might become several years ago. If you’re just a bit above average, a spotty reputation, some of it earned, some of it, as I’ve noted over the years, a bit unearned, is enough to keep you unemployed. And, obviously, serious allegations against you, even in the context of a civil suit, provide way more of a tipping point than any team needs to pass you up.

I would not be surprised if Puig latches on with some team this year. Once a season begins and injuries begin to mount, a lot of clubs will change their tune about a player they previously avoided. But it’s no gimme. Even for someone as famous a Yasiel Puig.

Gambler pleads guilty to threatening Tampa Bay Rays players

A sports gambler named Benjamin Patz — who goes by the nickname “Parlay Patz” on gambling forums, pleaded guilty to making death threats to Tampa Bay Rays players in 2019.

While those specific charges are the only ones to which he pleaded guilty, the criminal complaint against him alleges that he also made threats to New England Patriots, players following their Super Bowl win against the Rams, claiming that he would rape and murder their families and threats against players for the Atlanta Braves, the San Diego Padres, the Oakland Athletics, Cleveland, the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals. One of Patz's accounts also threatened a player for the Swedish women's soccer team after it beat Germany in the Women's World Cup quarterfinal in June 2019.

Specific to the Rays:

In many messages, Patz threatened to enter the athletes' homes and behead them or their family members, the FBI said. Some of Patz's threats also contained derogatory terms and racial slurs, investigators said . . . The Tampa Bay Rays lost a home baseball game in July 2019 to the Chicago White Sox. An account linked to Patz later sent threatening Instagram messages to four players for the Rays and one player for the White Sox, according to authorities. None of the players was identified by name, only initials.

At the time that series began, on July 19, 2019, the White Sox were 15 games out of first place. The Rays were nine games out of first. So no, it’s not like this was some massively important contest. Which sort of illustrates just how unhealthy those with a gambling addiction can truly be.

I’m so, so happy that Major League Baseball, its clubs, its broadcasters, and the media companies which cover it are so gung-ho to mainstream and massively ramp-up gambling on the game.

On the name of Cleveland’s baseball team

The Canadian Press announced yesterday that, effective immediately, it will no longer use the nickname of Cleveland's major league baseball team in staff-written stories. That’s a good idea. One that I’m going to, personally, attempt to commit to in this space.

Starting last year I tried really hard to not use that name in stories and, at least as far as recaps and things I think I did an OK job of it. I began to backslide this past winter, though, and I’m mad at myself for that. The reason is mostly laziness — it’s hard and somewhat awkward to write a story about a sports team without alternating city and nickname as second and subsequent references. But I can do better. Maybe if we set up a virtual swear jar or something. Or, at the very least, if you all just yell at me in the comments or on social media when I mess up.

Anyway, this is the right thing to do, even if it’s difficult. While not an actual slur like the former name of the Washington NFL team, Cleveland’s baseball club has, itself, made the decision that its name is inappropriate and has announced that it plans to change it. The fact that simple stubbornness, marketing considerations, or the desire to sell a bunch of “last chance!” merchandise for the 2021 season has caused it to delay that order for a year doesn’t make it any less appropriate.

So: Cleveland Baseball Club. Cleveland. Maybe some other cutesy nickname if I feel it absolutely necessary to use a different reference than “Cleveland” in a story. But I’m gonna do my damndest to stay away from the old nickname in this space.

Baseball on the Radio

Over at FanGraphs RJ McDaniel has a great essay about baseball on the radio. The essay, inspired by the Blue Jays’ recent decision to dispose with a dedicated radio broadcast, talks a good bit about the history of radio broadcasts of games, dispelling a few myths about baseball on the radio in the Golden Age in the process.

McDaniel also talks about the pros and cons of baseball on the radio — a lot of people do that — but also the pros and cons of baseball on TV and in person. McDaniel, with the help of Brian Eno, arrives at a conclusion that, intellectually, I think I’ve always known but which I’ve never really thought about so concisely:

Radio certainly fails as a baseball experience. The airwaves are crackly, staticky, breaking up when you pass through a subway tunnel or turn your microwave on. You can’t see what is happening, the exact spin or bend of the pitch, the expression on the players’ faces, the arc of a ball as it sails out of the stadium; you are entirely at the mercy of the broadcaster’s voice, which, while skilled, is fallible. There is so much about baseball that you miss by listening to a radio broadcast.

But there is so much that you miss by watching a TV broadcast, too, with the limits of its focus, the way that its frame can only encompass so much, the camera determining what is seen and what goes unseen. And there is so much that you miss by going to a game, squinting down from the view level, distracted by the noise and the smells. Every medium is imperfect; every medium has something different to offer. Their imperfections, reflecting an imperfect and human game, are what makes them unique. And for many people, the unique imperfections of baseball on the radio are the perfect way to experience the game. The ways it fails are what makes it special.

My first exposure to baseball was on the radio. I still listen to a lot more games on the radio than I suspect most people do and certainly more than most baseball writers do. I am well aware of its imperfections but I find myself able to more easily dismiss them than the imperfections of television, which requires my undivided attention in ways that radio does not, and going to games in person which, for me anyway, requires a lot of travel and time and money and hassle.

Which is not to say I won’t watch games on TV. I mean, you have to check in with it to see things to help you better fill in the blanks for listening to later radio broadcasts and you have to know what guys you haven’t seen play before look like. And it’s not to say that I won’t go to games in person. It’s a lot of fun to do that! But I will never stop listening to games on the radio. There’s something about it that just hits right. I can deal with its imperfections pretty easily.

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Other Stuff

The United States of Elite America

I have a friend who is an executive for a very large, very well known company. My friend happens to live in a place that, recently, experienced a natural disaster that displaced and endangered many people. As he is working remotely, the company’s headquarters are not located anywhere near where my friend lives.

Yesterday my friend shared with me a message he received from his employer as the disaster was unfolding. It came from an email address the name of which made clear is dedicated to dealing with crises of various kinds. The subject was “welfare check.” The short message indicated that the company was aware that he lived near where the disaster was and asked him to indicate if all was well. There were two buttons at the bottom, one of which said “I’m OK” the other which said “I need help.” My friend, I should tell you, was clear of where the disaster was and did not require his company’s assistance.

In talking to my friend, however, he said that he is confident that if he clicked the “I need help” button that the vast resources of a huge corporation with billions of dollars at its disposal would be quickly mobilized to help him. He knows this because he knows someone else, similarly high up at a different but similar company in the same broad sector as his own, who found themselves in a similar, albeit more dire situation. This person was, like my friend, far from corporate HQ — in another country in fact — and was in at least potential peril. A similar message was sent, the person indicated their need of assistance and the company sent private security to literally extract them to safety.

As my friend was telling me this, I recalled the time a few years ago when I wrote something which provoked the more obnoxious segments of the right wing media for a few days and turned me into a temporary target for a bunch of bad faith editorializing. In the middle of that I received some death threats, a few of which were a little too specific for my tastes. I called my local police and they were as helpful as one can expect in that situation, but it’s not like much could be done. That evening, however, I received a call from Comcast/NBC’s global head of security, who was busy doing advance work for the Olympic Games in Korea. He had dropped that pretty massive undertaking and called to ask what, if anything, the company could do for me. As the situation had started to wind down by then and it did not appear necessary, I thanked him and declined assistance, but I am every bit as confident as my friend that, had I needed it, a very large corporation with billions at its disposal would’ve mobilized, well, something, in order to assist me.

As my friend and I discussed this yesterday afternoon, we arrived at almost exactly the same place at exactly the same time: that these instances gave us a feeling of personal confidence and security, yes, but they also troubled us to no small degree because they made it clear how great the divide is between elites — corporate elites and media elites, such as I at least arguably was — and everyone else in this country.

If this were a more egalitarian country, people — all people — might expect good and helpful things from the government or from their employers. But that’s certainly not the country we live in. Companies like his and mine are rational economic actors. They would not do these things — at least for certain employees — unless (a) it was necessary, due to the lack of confidence in public institutions; or (b) it did not provide a way for them to remain competitive in all the ways they want to be competitive. We exist in a country where government and society at large have ceded the field of providing for basic human well-being, thereby transforming peril or suffering into an inefficiency that corporate actors have found it beneficial to address and exploit when the elite and/or executive class requires it.

I suppose I’d feel better about this if I had any confidence that all or even most employers approached aid to their workers like this (I’m pretty sure they don’t) or if I believed that those which do would behave the same way with respect to lower-level employees who are not considered as important or elite as the executive class is (I’m skeptical).

As it is, however, I’m left with yet another reminder that our country is not particularly interested in helping its citizens and that, if left to the private sector to fill in the gaps, that sort of help will almost certainly be limited to those whom the private sector values most.

Meanwhile, in Florida

Checking the news . . .

Former president Donald Trump recently requested a mail-in ballot for a municipal election in South Florida, according to Palm Beach County records, voting again by mail despite months of repeatedly promoting false claims of election fraud without evidence . . . The completed ballot was received on Monday, ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Insert your best surprised face here.

More on the HuffPo layoffs

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo wrote up a brief blurb about those Huffington Post layoffs I mentioned yesterday. Of primary relevance:

Many of these news operations simply are not financially viable. They don’t bring in enough money to sustain their expenses. Indeed, many of them – way more than you’ve been led to believe – were never financially viable. They were floated on on-going infusions of new investment money chasing big payoffs that were probably always illusory. Then they hit the brick wall of the rapid consolidation and automation-driven price declines in the ad industry. 

I don’t know the specifics of the business side of places like The Huffington Post, but It’s hard to disagree with that.

I had at least a fair glimpse into what NBC was doing digitally. I knew what HardballTalk’s traffic was and could at least back-of-the-envelope the ad revenue and overheard. Based on that and some casual conversations with upper management I could grok that, if you pretended that we were an isolated site, we were profitable.

Of course we were not an isolated site. We were part of a huge media company with massive revenue streams from other sources. And we had only had two full-time employees, one part time employee, and an editor/manager — who handled multiple sites, not just ours — for the last several years of our run. Even with some basic level of independent profitability, low costs, and the backing of a giant media company for which we were a pretty minor line item, it was still not the sort of operation that justified itself well enough to avoid the axe when it came time to tighten belts.

How places like HuffPo or BuzzFeed stay afloat financially is beyond me. Yeah, those sites have way more traffic than just HBT had, but not so much more that they seem capable of supporting 50 or 100 times the number of employees and significantly greater reporting overhead than a couple of stay-at-home bloggers required. And they didn’t have the massive media company and its attendant revenues over it to cover for it when things get tough like NBC did for us for 11 years.

In light of all of that it has long boggled my mind that any standalone digital news operations have stayed in business. Like Marshall says, I suspect the biggest reason they’ve hung around is VC dollars or other rich benefactors, waiting for a payoff that was never gonna come. And now it’s coming home to roost.

Christina Kahrl named sports editor of the San Francisco Chronicle

Longtime ESPN.com baseball editor/writer and, before that, Baseball Prospectus editor Christina Kahrl has been named the sports editor for the San Francisco Chronicle.

First: a hearty congrats to Christina who I have known for a very long time and who I consider a friend.

Second: my mind is kinda blown. I realize that the old statheads vs. mainstream media wars — to the extent you could call them that — ended many years ago, but I still vividly remember when the notion of a Baseball Prospectus type running a major daily newspaper’s sports section seemed like the stuff of fantasy. Hell, not even fantasy. It seemed like an utter impossibility. The context was so different that it’d be like expecting a jellyfish to ride a unicycle.

Now an O.G. online stathead is in charge of a 156 year-old paper that is owned by the company founded by William Randolph Fucking Hearst. You could not have gotten me to bet one thin dime on that circa 2002.

Be kind, rewind

Most of us have sat on our asses for the past year, paralyzed by *waves generally at everything in the world*. Some people, however, have put the pandemic year to good use. By doing things like, say, building a video rental store in their basement:

andrew @andrewneville

Love this a lot

If you follow that thread you will find that, yes, there is an adult section too.

Holy drone shot, Batman!

This drone footage is from the Minneapolis institution Bryant Lake Bowl. Seems like a good bit of the audio is dubbed in, but the footage is legit. So much so that it impressed “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn.

Trevor Bauer, eat your heart out.

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