Cup of Coffee: March 30, 2023

2023 previews, a new minor league CBA, remembering those we have lost, the people you see on vacation, ForeverWar, a childhood spent at sea, and my issues with late-period Wes Anderson

Good morning! And welcome to Opening Day! Which also happens to be Free Thursday!

Today I do what I rarely do and, at least briefly, preview the season and make some predictions. Do not, however, under any circumstances, take it seriously. None of us know what’s gonna happen in the next five minutes, so to expect any of us to know what’ll happen over the next six months is sheer folly. Beyond that, the minor leaguers have a new, first-ever labor deal, a minor trade went down, a coach has a cancer diagnosis, and we remember those who ascended to Baseball Valhalla in the past year.

In Other Stuff we talk about the types of people you see on vacation, Mitch McConnell’s apparent desire for a state of perpetual war, bad choices in New York, a crazy story of a childhood spent at sea, and some critical words about Wes Anderson’s recent work from me, a guy who is an even bigger Wes Anderson mark than he is a Marvel Mark, so that’s saying something.

The waiting is over, people. Baseball is back. Let’s get at ‘er.

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The Daily Briefing

Your Opening Day schedule

Cup of Coffee HQ is stocked with hot dogs, beer, and a good half-dozen screens that can be utilized if need be, so let’s do this:

• Atlanta at Washington Nationals: 1:05 p.m. ET, Max Fried (ATL) vs. Patrick Corbin (WAS)

• San Francisco Giants at New York Yankees: 1:05 p.m. ET, Logan Webb (SFG) vs. Gerrit Cole (NYY)

• Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox: 2:10 p.m. ET, Kyle Gibson (BAL) vs. Corey Kluber (BOS)

• Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs: 2:20 p.m. ET, Corbin Burnes (MIL) vs. Marcus Stroman (CHC)

• Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays: 3:10 p.m. ET, Eduardo Rodriguez (DET) vs. Shane McClanahan (TB)

• Philadelphia Phillies at Texas Rangers: 4:05 p.m. ET, Aaron Nola (PHI) vs. Jacob deGrom (TEX)

• Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds: 4:10 p.m. ET, Mitch Keller (PIT) vs. Hunter Greene (CIN)

• Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres: 4:10 p.m. ET, German Márquez vs. Blake Snell (SD)

• Toronto Blue Jays at St. Louis Cardinals: 4:10 p.m. ET, Alek Manoah (TOR) vs. Miles Mikolas (STL)

• Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals: 4:10 p.m. ET, Pablo López (MIN) vs. Zack Greinke (KC)

• New York Mets at Miami Marlins: 4:10 p.m. ET, Max Scherzer (NYM) vs. Sandy Alcantara (MIA)

• Chicago White Sox at Houston Astros: 7:08 p.m. ET, Dylan Cease (CHW) vs. Framber Valdez (HOU)

• Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics: 10:07 p.m. ET, Shohei Ohtani (LAA) vs. Kyle Muller (OAK)

• Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers: 10:10 p.m. ET, Zac Gallen (ARI) vs. Julio Urías (LAD)

• Cleveland Guardians at Seattle Mariners: 10:10 p.m. ET, Shane Bieber (CLE) vs. Luis Castillo (SEA)

I’m just sitting here marveling at the fact that Patrick Corbin and Corey Kluber are Opening Day starters in The Year of Our Lord 2023. Of course, this being baseball, I now totally expect each of them to toss seven innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts today.

So what’s gonna happen in 2023?

It’s silly enough to predict the outcome of a baseball season in which over 2,400 games are played by over a thousand players, all of whom are subject to injury and/or wild variation from past performance or reasonable expectations. Yet, for some reason, every sports media site in existence makes at least some effort to write previews and make predictions from a place of unearned authority and which ignore the fact that when Man plans God laughs.

But screw it. As I’m writing this it’s the middle of Wednesday afternoon and nothing is going on, so let’s waste some time:

AL EAST

Blue Jays: They added much-needed lefty hitters, shored up the defense, particularly in the outfield, and moved the fences around a great deal. All of that should be both fun and effective in improving things. Of course they still have George Springer, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at the top of the lineup, and not much improvement is needed there. Maybe it’s a bit optimistic to pick the Jays to win the division — and maybe it’s based just as much on wanting to see it happen as opposed to believing it will actually happen — but if you can’t be optimistic on Opening Day, when can you be?

Yankees: Aaron Judge isn’t gonna hit 62 homers again I don’t think, but with him leading the attack the offense will be great. What looked like a really good rotation in January has become an injury riddled rotation on Opening Day, which is another reason why I don’t have them picked for first place at the moment. Still, they’re the Yankees, there’s a load of talent here — I’m particularly excited to see Anthony Volpe’s rookie season — and my putting them in second place notwithstanding, it would not be a shock if they won the division once again. All of that being said: Aaron Boone is my pick to be the first manager fired this year. Anything other than a fast-as-hell start will put him on the hot seat.

Rays: A pretty common story for Tampa Bay: tons of arms which will be optimized to the nth degree but a lot of questions on offense. If Wander Franco stays healthy and plays to his potential, he could be the difference between the Rays being a low-90s win Wild Card contender and being a true threat to the Yankees and Jays for the division title.

Orioles: The O’s were unexpectedly good last year but the team actually shed talent at the deadline and didn’t do much to improve in the offseason. Given their core of talent and minor league depth that was an absolute betrayal by ownership and the front office. At some point the energy of exceeding expectations runs out and teams on the rise like this need to be augmented with better players. With that not happening don’t be surprised to see them slip.

Red Sox: Corey Kluber is the Opening Day starter and Chris Sale is being counted on to be an ace in the year 2023. That tells you all you need to know. Masataka Yoshida looks like a fun player at least. And hey, the Red Sox have won it all after stinkin’ up the joint the year before a couple of times this century, so who’s to say they don’t have that 2013 devil magic in them again? Well me, I’m saying it, but you guys can believe otherwise and maybe you’ll be right?

AL CENTRAL

Guardians: A solid, albeit throwback offensive core which was better in the batting average and on-base department as opposed to power, and a fantastic pitching staff drove the Guardians to the division title last year. It’s hard to rely on hits finding their way through the infield from year-to-year and starting the season without Triston McKenzie will test them early, but I think they’ll be the best team in a weak division once again.

Twins: Carlos Correa returns but there are a lot of injuries on this club as Opening Day dawns. Byron Buxton is not one of the injured players but, if form holds, he will join the walking wounded eventually. I hope that doesn’t happen, of course, and if he stays healthy and everyone else gets healthy they are a solid-to-truly good team that could win this division. I just don’t think you can bet on their health and I don’t think they have the depth to compensate.

White Sox: The 2021 division winners crashed last year due to injuries and Tony La Russa basically losing the clubhouse. Now they’ve lost José Abreu. They signed Andrew Benintendi and Mike Clevinger which could improve them some but aren’t exactly inspiring, shoot-the-moon additions. Closer Liam Hendriks will miss a big chunk of the season due to a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As Bob Dylan once sang, “you can always come back, but you can't come back all the way.” I feel like that will describe the 2023 White Sox. They’ll be better than last year but the highs of 2021 are likely unobtainable.

Royals: New manager Matt Quatraro brings with him the Rays’ winning-with-less/squeezing-the-toothpaste-tube-from-the-bottom philosophy, which certainly can’t hurt a crew who was managed by Mike Matheny for a few years. The pitching needs to take a big step forward and maybe Brady Singer can do that. Bobby Witt Jr. is a star in the making but his defense was terrible last year. I think there’s more upside here than there is on a lot of bad 2022 teams but it’ll take a lot to go right for them to break out of the 4-5 position in the Central.

Tigers: A year ago I — and a lot of other people it should be noted — thought the Tigers were about to turn the corner from rebuilding to at least marginally contending. Why wouldn’t they? They had a lot of young talent like Riley Greene, Spencer Torkleson, Casey Mize, and Tarik Skubal. That talent didn’t pan out, unfortunately, and the Tigers didn’t turn a corner. This year expectations are pretty low so they’ll probably surprise us with something close to 80 wins, as underperforming talent that is truly talent tends to regress to the mean. As a Michigan native with a lot of friends in Detroit this would please me. As someone who makes a couple of trips up to Detroit each summer and has enjoyed finding relatively cheap Tigers tickets, such a thing would be problematic.

AL WEST

Astros: The champs now have José Abreu. They lost Justin Verlander, of course, and Jose Altuve will miss the first couple of months of the season with a broken thumb, but they always seem to manage. They’re probably more vulnerable to someone overtaking them this. year than they have been in a few years, but they finished 16 games up on the Mariners last year and I don’t think either the Astros and Mariners had an offseason to suggest both of them are moving eight+ games toward one other heading into the season. They’re my pick for division champs until someone steps up and beats ‘em.

Mariners: They were one of the best stories of 2022 and people are understandably excited about them in 2023, but it’s easy to get too excited sometimes. Adding A.J. Pollock, Teoscar Hernández, Kolten Wong, Trevor Gott, and Tommy La Stella addresses some needs but I don’t think it transforms them into Astros beaters. Unlike Houston, however, they are healthy right now and a hot start to the season could make the race in the West one of the better ones in baseball. Even if they don’t overtake the champs, though, the M’s should be a strong Wild Card contender. As we saw last season, their time has arrived.

Angels: Same story it’s been for a long time: the Angels have, arguably, the two best baseball players on the planet it Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, but the supporting cast is lacking. Maybe not as lacking as it’s been in recent years, but not ideal either. This team, more than any other, needs to get off to a hot start because, if it doesn’t, the “will they trade Ohtani” talk will suck up all of the oxygen in Anaheim.

Rangers: One of my favorite exchanges in any movie is in “Miller’s Crossing” when a drunk Tom Reagan bursts into the ladies lounge to chew out Verna and throws a glass to break the mirror in which she’s fixing her makeup. Verna, one of the most hardboiled characters in cinematic history, calmly turns around and says “I suppose you think you’ve raised hell.” Tom replies, “sister, when I’ve raised hell, you’ll know it.” The Rangers have raised hell on the free agent market the past couple of years and now have some serious star power at the top with Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien. They don’t, however, have the sort of supporting cast that makes for a true contender. Tom Reagan was able to raise hell alone and by the time he was done we knew it. I don’t think a few stars on a baseball team can raise hell without a lot of help, even if Bruce Bochy is their manager.

Athletics: The team that is trying the absolute least to win games in all of Major League Baseball. Indeed, it feels like they are trying to lose more aggressively than Billy Beane and his Moneyballers were trying to win back in the day. It wouldn’t shock me if they dropped 110 games and, in the middle of all of that, attempted to shed even more payroll than they’ve already shed if that’s even possible. Success from the A’s point of view in 2023 will be a press conference in Las Vegas announcing the team’s relocation. Maybe I’m being harsh here, but the A’s have the most hostile, doesn’t-give-a-shit ownership in the game. They just beat out the Reds ownership on that score because the Reds aren’t, as far as I know anyway, trying to movie to Nashville or Louisville or whatever.

NL EAST

Atlanta: They’ve won the division five years in a row and, given the talent up and down the roster — with new catcher Sean Murphy joining all the other stars — I’m gonna guess they’ll win it again. Not that it’ll be easy, of course. They lost shortstop Dansby Swanson to free agency and will start the season with Orlando Arcia at the six. I cannot help but think he won’t be there by the All-Star break, be it if the club calls up prospect Vaughn Grissom or makes a trade. Ronald Acuña has looked like he’s back to his old self after a big knee injury in 2021 and some rust impeding his 2022 campaign. 20-game winner Kyle Wright beginning the season on the IL is amconcern, but there is a lot of pitching depth here. And if their shortstop, left field, or rotation concerns turn into problems I have no doubt that Alex Anthopoulos will make a deal.

Mets: A balanced, Pete Alonso-led lineup and a 1-2 of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander is a hell of a lot of fun, assuming age doesn’t catch up with them. The Mets are the most expensive baseball team ever put together, but all of the money in the world can’t fix injuries any faster. The loss of Edwin Díaz and José Quintana will hurt. That’ll put a lot of pressure on Adam Ottavino, David Robertson, and the back end of the rotation. They could easily win this division despite it being the best one in baseball. I am worried about their health, though, so I’m putting them second.

Phillies: Loaded, of course, but with key injuries (Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins) which will be hard to overcome. In an easier division that might not be a big deal, but with the Mets and Atlanta to contend with, they’ll have to tread water in the first half, hope for a lot of guys hitting upside projections, and try to make another second half move. Obviously, though, a strong Wild Card contender even if they can’t keep up in the division.

Marlins: Miami has a lot of guys playing out of position, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. moving to center field, Joey Wendle moving to shortstop, and Jean Segura at third. All of this to accommodate 2022 AL batting champion Luis Arráez, who was acquired in a trade from Minnesota. Should be fun! As usual, the starting pitching is outstanding and, whatever their talent deficiencies may be, Miami has played hard, respectable baseball over the past couple of years. If new manager Skip Schumaker’s playing days intensity rubs off on this squad they could be dangerous. Maybe not a true contender given how loaded Atlanta, New York, and Philly are, but dangerous.

Nationals: Did I mention that Patrick Corbin is their Opening Day starter? He’s led the league in losses two years running. I feel like if everything breaks juuussst right he can do it again. Not that this mess is his fault. He’s just trying to do is job. The cupboard is simply bare. It’s astounding and depressing how bare the cupboard truly is.

NL CENTRAL

Cardinals: Willson Contreras takes over for Yadier Molina, young Jordan Walker has made the club, and the pitching staff, as always, is solid even if it’s lacking Cy Young candidates and depth. Indeed, pitching health is likely the key to the Cardinals season. But with Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado anchoring things I don’t believe that anyone else will be winning the Central.

Brewers: The rotation, led by Corbin Burns and Brandon Woodruff, and supported by Freddy Peralta, Wade Miley, Aaron Ashby, and Eric Lauer, is one of the better staffs around but ultimately it’s the same story as last year: where will the offense come from? Newly acquired catcher William Contreras should help, but it’s an open question whether he’s truly a 100+-game catcher. A bounce-back season from Jesse Winker and a “remember when I was the MVP?” campaign from Christian Yelich would be nice, but I’m not sure you can count on those things. They fought for the Wild Card but lost last year. I don’t know that they’re any better while the teams with whom they fought are. Tough place to be.

Cubs: I think the Cubs bought high on Dansby Swanson and low on Cody Bellinger and Trey Mancini so maybe that washes out. There are all kinds of guys on the Cubs roster who could provide some upside — maybe not 2021 San Francisco Giants “where the hell did that come from?” upside, but some — but none of whom I’d bet a lot on actually doing it, so I think it’s a pipe dream to expect them to truly contend.

Pirates: There are the beginnings of an interesting Pirates team here with a decent amount of youth with upside either on the roster or on the way up. Not enough to contend yet and, I don’t think, even enough to be frisky in the way the 2022 Orioles were. But there are reasons to watch the Pirates this year and it’s been a while since one could say that with a straight face.

Reds: Cincinnati is one of the best baseball towns in America and always has been. It’s damn shame, then, that the team is owned by a guy and his tone-deaf and feckless son who don’t give anything approaching a shit about them. At least unlike the Athletics there is a good deal of talent in the farm system. It’s still many years away, however.

NL WEST

Padres: All they did this winter was sign Xander Bogaerts, Michael Wacha, Nick Martinez, and Seth Lugo and extend half the roster. They’re getting Fernando Tatís Jr. back after his PED suspension ends early in the season. They’ll have Juan Soto for the entire campaign. It’s a deep offense that, somehow, still has upside. Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and Blake Snell make for a nice 1-2-3. There are teams with a higher top-end in their rotation, but the Padres have a deep pitching staff. That, combined with a truly fearsome offense and a front office that seems willing to do whatever is necessary makes me think that it’s San Diego’s time to displace the Dodgers atop the NL West.

Dodgers: It’s a transition year for the Dodgers, what with Turners Trea and Justin gone, Walker Buehler on the shelf for following Tommy John surgery, and question marks in a lot more places than they’ve had in several years. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith still form a potent heart of the lineup, but the Dodgers are not going to win 111 games again. Indeed, I think that, while they’ll still be a postseason team and could win the division again, they’ll win far fewer.

Diamondbacks: Definitely a team on the rise. Corbin Carroll is now in the big league fold and he should be fun as hell to watch. He joins veterans Christian Walker, Ketel Marte, Josh Rojas, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Kyle Lewis and Evan Longoria for an offensive core that, while not world-beating, is definitely respectable. The pitching staff is less deep, with Zac Gallen joined by a lot of lesser talents and a questionable bullpen. There is a lot of young pitching talent on Diamondbacks Farm, however, so while this may not be a playoff year for the Snakes, it should be a year in which you first see a lot of guys who will be on future Snakes playoff teams.

Giants: I’m struggling to think of the last team with no guys who you could properly call a star made any real noise. They should change their name to the San Francisco .500s.

Rockies: As a Gen-Xer I truly appreciate the “if I’m not gonna succeed I’m not gonna waste my time and effort trying” ethos, but I feel like it’s bad way for a baseball team to operate.

That’s all I got as far as previews and predictions. This newsletter is about watching baseball and talking about what happened, not what will happen, so let’s just stick to our strengths, OK?

MLB, minor leaguers have a labor deal

Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported last night that Major League Baseball and the MLBPA have reached a tentative agreement on the first-ever minor league labor deal. The players’ leadership has approved a five-year deal and it now moves on to a full player vote. As far as minimum salaries go:

• Complex league/rookie ball player minimum salary increases from $4,800 to $19,800;

• Single-A increases from $11,000 to $26,200;

• High-A increases from $11,000 to $27,300;

• Double-A increases from $13,800 to $30,250; and

• Triple-A increases from $17,500 to $35,800

The salary increases, Drelich reports, will take effect as soon as the deal is ratified, and players will get retroactive pay for four weeks to cover this year’s spring training. Players will make additional money during offseason “training periods” in the fall before Thanksgiving and in the winter between New Year’s and the start of spring training.

Other provisions:

• Players who sign at age 19 or older are going to be under club reserve for six years, rather than seven;

• Double and Triple-A players will be guaranteed their own bedrooms in league-supplied housing. At lower levels players will either get a bedroom or can opt-out and get a stipend. Spouses and children can be accommodated in club-provided housing;

• One thing the players gave up and MLB gained: the league’s right to downsize minor league rosters, beginning in 2024. Specifically, the union agreed to allow MLB to trim the maximum number of minor league players carried across a club’s organization to 165 during the season, down from 180 and down to 175 in the offseason, down from 190. MLB formally agreed, however, that there would not be contraction of minor league teams during the life of the CBA. Which they can’t do anyway, at least for the moment, because they have a ten-year agreement with the minor league owners;

• There are various other terms relating to transportation expenses, medical opinions, NIL and licensing, and other matters.

One of Drellich’s sources estimates that the entire Collective Bargaining Agreement will cost the league around $90 million the first year. That’s only $3 million per club, of course, which shows you just little it would’ve taken in the past to give minor leaguers substantial raises and other benefits. They just didn’t want to and weren’t forced to before the players unionized. Maybe there’s a lesson in there. Who can say!

Anyway, the MLBPA expects to have the player vote concluded by midnight tonight. Which is good given that minor league Opening Day is tomorrow. MLB owners must vote to approve it as well. If ratified, as it is expected to be, minor leaguers will also have a formal grievance procedure.

Matt Williams has cancer

Bad news from San Diego: Padres third-base coach and former MLB slugger and manager Matt Williams has been diagnosed with colon cancer. He will be on hand for Opening Day festivities today but he will undergo surgery to remove a growth near his colon tomorrow after which he will take a leave of absence for recovery and, presumably for ongoing cancer treatment.

Mike Shildt, the former St. Louis Cardinals manager who serves as a senior advisor for the team, will coach third base in his absence.

Here’s hoping Williams gets well soon.

Phillies acquire Cristian Pache

The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired outfielder Cristian Pache from the Oakland A’s in exchange for right-handed pitcher Billy Sullivan. Pache, who is out of minor-league options, had been told earlier this week that he would not make the A's Opening Day roster, so the A’s had to do something with him.

It’s not that long ago that Pache was one of baseball’s top prospects and was the top prospect of the Atlanta Baseball Club. They traded him to Oakland in the Matt Olson deal last year, however, and in 115 big league games he has hit a frighteningly bad .156/.205/.234 (25 OPS+) with four home runs and two stolen bases. He does have elite defense and speed, though, so it makes sense that someone might view him as a project. Or, at the very least, a late innings defensive and a pinch runner. Philly has room for that, so here he is.

In Memoriam

Each year for the past decade or so Paul Sullivan of Sully Baseball has produced an Oscars-style In Memoriam segment for baseball. Except, unlike the Oscars, Sully has yet to omit multiple major figures from his montages. He simply does it better.

From well-known figures like Vin Scully, Tim McCarver, and Gaylord Perry to far lesser-known people (in America at least) like Japanese Hall of Famer Hiromitsu Kadota, here is a thoughtful and touching rundown of those who have moved on to Baseball Valhalla in the past year:

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Other Stuff

The types of people you see on vacation

The Washington Post breaks down all the people we see at hotels, resorts, tourist attractions, and the airports on the way there and on the way home. The list is pretty exhaustive. I suggest tagging yourself. I am “The Carpe Diem” mostly. Although this one hits close to home:

Absolutely no lies detected there. I’ve run into other Ohioans — and they into me, of course — on every vacation I’ve ever taken. If you go to the airport gate for your return trip to Ohio the waiting area is 75% Buckeyes gear. Whenever I see the scarlet and gray-clad tourists out and about my inner monologue immediately turns into Agent Smith from “The Matrix” when he says "human beings are a disease . . . a cancer of this planet,” except I substitute “Ohioans” for “human beings.” You can’t kill us. We’re everywhere.

McConnell wants ForeverWar

Recently I re-upped a thing I wrote a couple of years ago about how, for most of my adult life, the United States has either actually been at war, under a legal state of war, or has at least assumed a nation-at-war persona that affects almost everything it says and does.

I had hoped that we were finally coming to an end of that, what with the movement afoot to repeal the use of force authorizations that enabled our disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mitch McConnell, however, has other ideas:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he opposes repeal of the 2002 and 1991 authorizations of force against Iraq, arguing that that authority “bears directly on the threats we face today in Iraq and Syria from Iran-backed terrorists . . . I am opposed to Congress sunsetting any military force authorizations in the Middle East. Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can.”

It’s absolutely perverse that war authorizations that are 32 and 21 years old, respectively, still have any force or effect. It’s even more perverse that someone in power is advocating for them to remain in force and effect indefinitely. It’s even more perverse to say, as McConnell says above, that when we deploy troops in war zones we should probably have a legal fig leaf covering it all as opposed to, you know, acknowledging that it’s actually illegal for us to send troops into war zones without some legal authorization to begin with. That’s not putting the cart before the horse. It’s pushing an unattached cart down a steep hill and making “neigh!!!” sounds.

Here’s an idea, Leader McConnell: if you want the United States to deploy combat troops, obtain a new authorization to make it possible. Put it out there, anew. Make a case for it before the American people and require Congress to vote on it. Given that there are actually Members of Congress who weren’t even alive when the first war resolution in question was enacted, perhaps rubber stamping it into perpetuity is a bad and cowardly idea.

I’m sure there’s nothing else on which that could be spent

From Buffalo:

As a final deal to fund the new Buffalo Bills stadium nears completion, it’s still not clear how Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration will fund the state’s $600 million commitment to the project.

Because of rising interest rates, however, the state is most likely to pay for about 30% of its commitment using cash, rather than issuing long-term debt, according to a Hochul spokesman.

That’s over $180 million in cash that the State of New York will simply gift to Bills owner Terry Pegula, a fracking billionaire. And no, that’s not “Battlestar Galactica” profanity. Pegula made billions helping destroy the environment and contributing to our disastrous dependance on fossil fuels by literal fracking. Personally, I can think of no one more in need of state money in New York that Pegula. I am sure there are no higher or better uses of those public dollars.

Issuing bonds is one thing, but just handing over a briefcase with $180 million in it for an NFL stadium is . . . amazing.

Wavemaker

If you read one story about a man who, along with his wife and two young children, bought a sailboat in the 1970s and set off on a decade-long trip around the world during which the kids were forced to fight high seas, face near-death experiences, isolation, boredom, and some pretty obvious parental neglect, read this one in The Guardian.

It’s actually the story of man’s daughter, Suzanne Heywood, who was seven years-old when her family set off from England on their seemingly never-ending journey. It’s an excerpt from her upcoming book, Breaking Free, which chronicles the decade at sea she spent against her will yet, somehow, came out of it on the other side. The book comes out in two weeks and, boy howdy, am I reading it. If, for no other reason, because it’ll help me keep some perspective when I’m being gloomy and worrying that I’ve been a bad father.

“Asteroid City”

I’m an even bigger Wes Anderson mark than I am a Marvel mark, so when a trailer drops for a new Wes Anderson movie — like the one for the upcoming “Asteroid City” below — I am definitely gonna share it and I’m definitely gonna see the movie when it comes out. It’s just one of those ironclad universal laws.

That said: I’ve been a bit cold on the last two live action Wes Anderson movies. I thought “The French Dispatch” was a boring mess and while “Grand Budapest Hotel” has its charms, I found the story to be slight and at times annoying and I’m not sure why people seem to like it as much as they do. There’s really no there there, ya know?

Anderson has always taken flak and praise for his highly mannered — many say affected — production design and whimsical aesthetic, and it’s absolutely the case that that’s a huge part of his art. Personally I love it, even when he takes things to excess. The thing about it, though, is that his quirky visual style works best when it contributes to a human story at its core, not when it leads to an exercise like “what if we set something in a zany Budapest hotel in the 30s” or “lets build a story around some ersatz French New Wave scenes” with nothing deeper around which to place the whimsy.

“Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Life Aquatic,” “Darjeeling Limited” and “Moonrise Kingdom” are all extremely Wes Andersony, but they are first about a misfit kid, a dysfunctional family, a depressed/obsessed adventurer, three brothers in personal crisis looking desperately for meaning, and two kids on the edge of maturity. They are real people or, at the very least, approximations of real people experiencing real and relatable things — often the consequences of being failed by their parents — albeit in heightened settings. Indeed, those heightened settings — the Wes Andersonyness of it all — provides us with a safe, novel way to approach and appreciate these characters and their crises which might be too harrowing if rendered realistically. In Anderson’s hands, however, we get humor, visual inventiveness, and no small amount of escapism to make the stories of damaged people in fraught circumstances go down more easily. I think all of that makes us consider those characters’ problems — which may at least touch on our own problems — in a very different light than if they were rendered in a strictly realistic world.

Though still an excellent movie, I think the balance began to tip to some degree in “Moonrise Kingdom,” with the affectedness and altered realism of it all threatening to overtake the story, especially near the end. It tipped completely with “Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The French Dispatch.” There we have scenes and visuals that you know Anderson wanted to create — many of them excellent in isolation — but with nothing at the core of the story which really made us care or think. They were exercises which dipped their toes into self-parody and which unwittingly served to validate the charges of Anderson’s most vocal critics.

Looking at the trailer for “Asteroid City” — and the MASSIVELY star-studded cast list — I can’t help but think Anderson has made the same mistake once again. That he decided that he wanted a story set in this heightened early Cold War/Space Age milieu and that he’s thrown a couple of dozen big names at it and instructed them all to ham it up in that mannered, Wes Anderson style. I want to be wrong about that. I want there to be an actual beating heart in the middle of all of the quirkiness and off-center reality. I just don’t know if that’s gonna happen.

Have a great day, everyone. And Happy Opening Day!