Joc Pederson: lefty masher, Yankees anonobots, the Joey Votto show, the Phillies Phiasco, some righteous anger in defense of the mentally ill, and my perpetual disappointment with Democrats
Evan Longoria has had one of the strangest careers of my lifetime as a “hardcore” baseball fan (so let’s call it 2007-now). Comes up in 2008 as a sure-fire, can’t miss prospect. All-Star team first three seasons and he felt like a legitimate MVP candidate in 2009-10. Always a tough out and a rising superstar.
Then, no All-Star nods or any honors outside of a 2017 Gold Glove from 2011-17. Ok, no problem. He’s still a tough out and it feels like he especially mashes the Yankees. Feels like he’s still in the conversation for best players at times but he’s gone from rising superstar to actually pretty underrated by no real fault of his ow.
Then, he goes to the Giants. He’s worth 6.2 WAR since the start of 2018 and has become totally irrelevant for a franchise that, for the most part, has remained relevant in that time.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t know if Longo was on a Hall of Fame path when the Giants acquired him. He had 1,700 hits through his age-31 season but getting to 3K was going to be extremely difficult especially in a league with no DH at the time. Just interesting to think about his career trajectory and how quickly he seemingly faded from the national spotlight despite being a consistently reliable player for the Rays.
TL;DR: I wanted to wax poetically about Evan Longoria before going to the dentist.
What is it about the Nissan Z cars? When I was Carlo’s age (back in 19MYOB) I desperately wanted a 240z.
The car he should want (and you not want him to have) is the Subaru WRX, which is ridiculously overpowered with an incredibly lightweight body. A friend of mine had one, complete with the COEXIST sticker, and called it his “little pinko rocket.“
PS That was actually the first win by the Nats over the Dodgers since the 2019 league championship series. No, I am not kidding.
The best car my dad ever had he took from my grandfather when he became unfit to drive - a 1979 Mk2 Ford Escort 1600 with a brown vinyl roof. It was immaculate and went like stink. I have still not quite forgiven him for selling it 3 weeks before I got my license in 1998. I saw it again about 5 years ago for sale at a car show, for the equivalent of about $50k, looking just as good as it was back in the day. Needless to say, it has aged better than Rich Hill has this season.
So what SHOULD the Democrats be doing? We cannot get any legislation about guns through Congress, period. So what is the point of introducing any more symbolic doomed legislation? I don't what we can do, but I don't feel for a second that we are the ones to blame for any of this. And until enough Americans stop voting for the GOP, nothing is going to change. And even that I am not sure you can fault the Democrats on, since I think that most people who vote Republican now are beyond any help or redemption. They want this country to be just like it is and are happy with it, and won't listen to us, or to reason, or to logic. I don't see how that is on the Democrats.
And yes, the best way to stop gun violence is to get rid of the guns. But we really also need to understand better why people do these things. What drives anyone to kill children? Why is gun violence up so much since the pandemic. The fact is, we are having a massive mental health crisis, and the anger and the violence are part of it. Not that Fox News actually cares about the collective PTSD of America and the world. But it should be as much of a priority as figuring out Long COVID and making a new vaccine.
The good news for the Mets is that Trevor Williams came in and stopped the Giants entirely. I think poor Szapucki won't be seeing the majors again for a while, but Williams looks to be tag-teaming with David Peterson in the rotation for now.
In Atlanta news, Acuna missed the game with a right quad strain. This is less than a week after being out for several games due to a left groin strain. And of course the year started late following major knee surgery. This is starting to feel like the last half dozen years of Chipper: great when he’s on the field, often not on said field.
My math may be off - not enough coffee yet - but I think that William Contreras now has 8 extra base hits and 4 singles. That is the perfect 2022 batter.
I started to watch that Braves-Phillies game but the Atlanta announcers are such asshole homers I had to turn it off. They kept complaining that Charlie Morton was 'not getting the calls' on close pitches which were clearly outside or low and which were clearly shown by the K-box or whatever they call it to be outside or low.
"Well, apparently Charlie has to work overtime this inning because the ump's not giving him those calls" (which were all balls)
Snakehead is very tasty. They've been an environmental catastrophe down thisaway but there are some areas, like the Loxahatchie Canal, which have become angler's paradise because snakeheads hit like Tyson, put up a vicious fight, and grill up yummy.
Ackcherley, lionfish - another environmental catastrophe - is also yummy; Whole Foods sells lionfish dumplings and fillets.
Interessin' factoid: both of these invasives started life as pet shop items. Maybe aquarium irresponsibility holds the key to feeding the masses. Maybe Biafra wouldn't have happened if it'd had more pet shops.
Thank you for the part of your newsletter about mental health. I have struggled with my mental health since I was a young child. I am on medication. I have a therapist and a psychiatrist. I have never, not once thought about harming someone else.
I am sick of being seen as part of the problem by people who don’t want to see or figure out the real causes. Punching down is easy. Leadership is not.
Is the Phillies pedal-to-the metal, high powered offense, defense be damned approach entertaining to watch or terrible to watch? Maybe it depends on whether you're a neutral observer of a Phillies fan.
I don't know. It may not meet the definition of mental illness, but in my opinion anyone who would kill a bunch of strangers, children or otherwise, has some sort of mental dysfunction. Mentally healthy people wouldn't do that.
I don't think it out of line to suggest both gun restrictions and increased mental health support might be parts of the solution. (Which isn't what Tucker Carlson et al are saying of course)
My first car was a late 70's Ford LTD. It got about 8 miles per gallon and leaked power steering fluid so bad that i had to replace it every other day. I bought it for $50 from my uncle. It was huge. It could seat 8. The front seat was basically a bench. I miss it every day. If you're going to learn to drive, learn to drive a difficult car as your first owned and then everything is easier after that.
My first car was my dad’s 1973 Ford Maverick. The rear end was bent inward from the time he backed into a pillar, the drivers side window would roll down but not back up, and the heat was intermittent.
Evan Longoria has had one of the strangest careers of my lifetime as a “hardcore” baseball fan (so let’s call it 2007-now). Comes up in 2008 as a sure-fire, can’t miss prospect. All-Star team first three seasons and he felt like a legitimate MVP candidate in 2009-10. Always a tough out and a rising superstar.
Then, no All-Star nods or any honors outside of a 2017 Gold Glove from 2011-17. Ok, no problem. He’s still a tough out and it feels like he especially mashes the Yankees. Feels like he’s still in the conversation for best players at times but he’s gone from rising superstar to actually pretty underrated by no real fault of his ow.
Then, he goes to the Giants. He’s worth 6.2 WAR since the start of 2018 and has become totally irrelevant for a franchise that, for the most part, has remained relevant in that time.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t know if Longo was on a Hall of Fame path when the Giants acquired him. He had 1,700 hits through his age-31 season but getting to 3K was going to be extremely difficult especially in a league with no DH at the time. Just interesting to think about his career trajectory and how quickly he seemingly faded from the national spotlight despite being a consistently reliable player for the Rays.
TL;DR: I wanted to wax poetically about Evan Longoria before going to the dentist.
What is it about the Nissan Z cars? When I was Carlo’s age (back in 19MYOB) I desperately wanted a 240z.
The car he should want (and you not want him to have) is the Subaru WRX, which is ridiculously overpowered with an incredibly lightweight body. A friend of mine had one, complete with the COEXIST sticker, and called it his “little pinko rocket.“
PS That was actually the first win by the Nats over the Dodgers since the 2019 league championship series. No, I am not kidding.
The best car my dad ever had he took from my grandfather when he became unfit to drive - a 1979 Mk2 Ford Escort 1600 with a brown vinyl roof. It was immaculate and went like stink. I have still not quite forgiven him for selling it 3 weeks before I got my license in 1998. I saw it again about 5 years ago for sale at a car show, for the equivalent of about $50k, looking just as good as it was back in the day. Needless to say, it has aged better than Rich Hill has this season.
So what SHOULD the Democrats be doing? We cannot get any legislation about guns through Congress, period. So what is the point of introducing any more symbolic doomed legislation? I don't what we can do, but I don't feel for a second that we are the ones to blame for any of this. And until enough Americans stop voting for the GOP, nothing is going to change. And even that I am not sure you can fault the Democrats on, since I think that most people who vote Republican now are beyond any help or redemption. They want this country to be just like it is and are happy with it, and won't listen to us, or to reason, or to logic. I don't see how that is on the Democrats.
And yes, the best way to stop gun violence is to get rid of the guns. But we really also need to understand better why people do these things. What drives anyone to kill children? Why is gun violence up so much since the pandemic. The fact is, we are having a massive mental health crisis, and the anger and the violence are part of it. Not that Fox News actually cares about the collective PTSD of America and the world. But it should be as much of a priority as figuring out Long COVID and making a new vaccine.
The good news for the Mets is that Trevor Williams came in and stopped the Giants entirely. I think poor Szapucki won't be seeing the majors again for a while, but Williams looks to be tag-teaming with David Peterson in the rotation for now.
In Atlanta news, Acuna missed the game with a right quad strain. This is less than a week after being out for several games due to a left groin strain. And of course the year started late following major knee surgery. This is starting to feel like the last half dozen years of Chipper: great when he’s on the field, often not on said field.
My math may be off - not enough coffee yet - but I think that William Contreras now has 8 extra base hits and 4 singles. That is the perfect 2022 batter.
Thoroughly disgusting that the "first responders" stood idly by, while that person was inside, shooting children like fish in a barrel.
Citizen to police officer: What is your primary role?
Police officer: To protect and serve the community.
Citizen to police officer: Then why the fuck are you standing out here?
Police officer: We're not sure that it's safe to go in there.
I started to watch that Braves-Phillies game but the Atlanta announcers are such asshole homers I had to turn it off. They kept complaining that Charlie Morton was 'not getting the calls' on close pitches which were clearly outside or low and which were clearly shown by the K-box or whatever they call it to be outside or low.
"Well, apparently Charlie has to work overtime this inning because the ump's not giving him those calls" (which were all balls)
Snakehead is very tasty. They've been an environmental catastrophe down thisaway but there are some areas, like the Loxahatchie Canal, which have become angler's paradise because snakeheads hit like Tyson, put up a vicious fight, and grill up yummy.
Ackcherley, lionfish - another environmental catastrophe - is also yummy; Whole Foods sells lionfish dumplings and fillets.
Interessin' factoid: both of these invasives started life as pet shop items. Maybe aquarium irresponsibility holds the key to feeding the masses. Maybe Biafra wouldn't have happened if it'd had more pet shops.
Thank you for the part of your newsletter about mental health. I have struggled with my mental health since I was a young child. I am on medication. I have a therapist and a psychiatrist. I have never, not once thought about harming someone else.
I am sick of being seen as part of the problem by people who don’t want to see or figure out the real causes. Punching down is easy. Leadership is not.
Is the Phillies pedal-to-the metal, high powered offense, defense be damned approach entertaining to watch or terrible to watch? Maybe it depends on whether you're a neutral observer of a Phillies fan.
Need a weekly 1980s anecdote about your old man as a palate cleanser for *waves arms around wildly* all this other shit.
I don't know. It may not meet the definition of mental illness, but in my opinion anyone who would kill a bunch of strangers, children or otherwise, has some sort of mental dysfunction. Mentally healthy people wouldn't do that.
I don't think it out of line to suggest both gun restrictions and increased mental health support might be parts of the solution. (Which isn't what Tucker Carlson et al are saying of course)
My first car was a late 70's Ford LTD. It got about 8 miles per gallon and leaked power steering fluid so bad that i had to replace it every other day. I bought it for $50 from my uncle. It was huge. It could seat 8. The front seat was basically a bench. I miss it every day. If you're going to learn to drive, learn to drive a difficult car as your first owned and then everything is easier after that.
These mother fuckers...
I couldn't be more proud of Craig than I am at this moment. Calling them what they are... These motherfuckers .
My first car was my dad’s 1973 Ford Maverick. The rear end was bent inward from the time he backed into a pillar, the drivers side window would roll down but not back up, and the heat was intermittent.
What a great car.