Cup of Coffee: November 3, 2022

A no-hitter gives us a new Series

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

We had only the second no-hitter in World Series history last night. Sure, it was a combined one and those aren’t as special as they once were, but it’s not like anyone in 2022 America should have high expectations for anything. We gotta take our wins when we can.

And That Happened

Astros 5, Phillies 0: As I said above: combined no-hitters are generally not as impressive these days as they used to be — hell, Christian Javier was part of one earlier this season already — but a combined no-hitter of a hot-hitting team in the damn World Series is something that is worthy of note. It was, as everyone said on the broadcast last night, only the second no-hitter in World Series history, with Don Larsen’s 1956 perfecto being the other. It's the first postseason no-hitter since Roy Halladay's for the Phillies against the Reds in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS. Dusty Baker was the Reds manager there, by the way.

Javier’s six innings of nine-strikeout ball last night was as dominant as it gets. Dude was just rolling, with strikes on 63 of his 97 pitches. Nothing was hit hard. Bryan Abreu striking out the side in the seventh wasn’t too bad either. In all Astros pitchers struck out 14 Phillies.

The offense, finally, came through for Houston too. Astros bats entered the fifth inning last night on a 16-inning scoreless streak. At which point I tweeted this:

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra

Runs would be fun.

Ask and ye shall receive. Chas McCormick, Jose Altuve, and Jeremy Peña started the inning off with back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases. Rob Thomson went to José Alvarado but he couldn’t put out the fire, plunking Yordan Álvarez with his first pitch to force in a run after which Houston plated four more to break the game open. They exited the fifth up 5-0 and that, despite the Philly comeback from that score in Game 1, was that.

And, just like that, the complexion of the Series changes again. It’s now a best-of-three. Following tonight’s tilt at Citizens Bank Park the Astros will host Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 in Houston. People weren’t exactly writing the Astros’ obituary after Game 3, but they were at least mentally composing their lede and thinking of sitting in front of the typewriter. Now it’s a damn Series.

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The Daily Briefing

Great Moments in Analysis

It was all lost on me before, but now that I’ve seen this I totally understand what happened:

David Adler @_dadler

#MLBFieldVision -- Alex Bregman's scoop at third base to finish off the Astros' combined no-hitter

I’m gonna guess that whatever purpose these “Lawnmower Man”-ass graphics have, they’re for internal analysis by teams or league data people or whatever as opposed to anything that is aimed at illuminating fans or viewers. God help us if they become routine parts of broadcasts.

Quote of the Day: Jill Biden

The First Lady, a few hours before she attended Game 4:

“There are some things that rise above partisan lines . . . values that we all share. Like wanting to see the Astros lose.”

And people say this country lacks inspiring leadership.

Of course Biden is a Democrat, Democrats never seem to be able to get what they want, and thus she went home unhappy last night.

Powder Blues, Baby

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday that the Phillies are planning to wear their power blue throwback uniforms for tonight’s Game 5. During the season they always wore them for Thursday home games and, welp, this is a Thursday home game. Granted there wasn’t even supposed to be a game today as things were originally scheduled, but thanks to the rain on Monday we got ‘em.

I am on record as saying that I much prefer powder blues to be used as they were back in the day, as road uniforms, replacing the traditional gray as opposed to home alternates. But I give the Phillies latitude on that because, unlike some teams, they at least go full blue head-to-toe rather than just wearing the blue jerseys. They look pretty spiffy in these duds.

LET ME OUT!

The wording here is sending me:

It makes it sound like someone has thrown Verlander into a room, barred the door shut, and now he’s powerless to escape his fate.

Of course, given how he’s pitched in the World Series over the years, and given what the Philly bats did to him the last time out, this may be a cosmically accurate way of characterizing it.

Skaggs’ widow’s lawsuit against the Angels proceeds

A California judge denied the Los Angeles Angels’ motion to dismiss the wrongful death and negligent hiring and supervision lawsuit brought against them by Tyler Skaggs’ widow. He set a trial date of October 2, 2023. This decision is not one which goes to the veracity of the claims, it should be noted. The court merely found that Skaggs’ widow has made allegations that, if supported, would state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Discovery will now begin.

There were a LOT of former Angels players and team employees who were on the government’s witness list in the criminal trial against Eric Kay. Not all of them testified there, but you can imagine that a lot of their depositions will be taken here. This includes the Angels former vice president of communications Tim Mead, who for a brief time served as the Hall of Fame president before hastily stepping down. At the time he said it was to “spend more time with his family,” but my gut has always told me that his involvement in this case — specifically, Eric Kay’s mother’s claim that she discussed Skaggs’ asking Kay for drugs with Mead before Skaggs died — had something to do with that. Either way, he’s going to be placed under oath. Other likely witnesses will be Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor and communications director Adam Chodzko, each of whom was on the government’s witness list in the criminal trial.

It’s gonna be an un-fun next year for the Angels in a lot of ways, I suspect, but the pendency of this lawsuit is a big reason why.

I was on the CubsPS+ Podcast yesterday

I joined Mike Waller on the CubsPS+ Podcast yesterday. We talked mostly about fandom and rethinking it, which is always a fun topic. We touched on the Cubs plans a bit as well. Overall it was a nice conversation. Hope you check it out.

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Other Stuff

My Chemical Romance has a point

My Chemical Romance @MCRofficaiI

We recognize concerns that our band "romanticizes sadness", but there are emo bands that do far worse. There are some that romanticize Ohio.

Dammit. Can’t argue with that.

Is Turkey OK?

This, via an often funny account chronicling the silly, unhinged, and dubiousness of British life and existence crossed the timeline yesterday:

No Context Brits @NoContextBrits

The headline here is, obviously, that everyone thinks English people are ugly. I’ll let that pass without comment. Mostly because I'm more concerned about Turkey.

Hey Turks: we love you and we want you to love yourself, OK? Good talk. Now get on out there and be the best Turks you can be! You’re beautiful!

A transformative 2022 election appears unlikely in Ohio

Lord forgive me but I wrote about Ohio politics again.

This time I’m writing for Matter News, which is now being run by the guy who was my editor over at Columbus Alive before it got shuttered. When he asked me if I’d contribute an occasional political piece for his new publication I said “are you sure you want to run 800 deeply cynical and depressing words right out of the gate?” He said “sure” so here we are.

After some words about the governor’s race, the borked Ohio legislature, and the J.D. Vance-Tim Ryan contest, I wound up with this:

One should always vote and one should always do whatever one can in order to help usher in a brighter, more just and more equitable future.

It seems highly unlikely, however, that any even remotely likely outcome of the 2022 election will do much to change Ohio's politics or its policies. The rot is too deeply ingrained, and there is a severe shortage of people who either stand a chance of winning an office from which they could dislodge it, or who seem willing to dislodge it even in the event they win.

I will now set the "Days since Craig bummed himself out due to his own writing" counter back to zero.

Speaking of J.D. Vance . . .

I got this political mailer yesterday. Talk about arresting images:

The political message aside, imagine going to get an abortion, looking up, and seeing a framed portrait of that guy there.

Crime blotter

A former Apple employee has pled guilty to defrauding the company out of over $17 million via various schemes including selling Apple’s own computer equipment back to the company and pocketing the money, creating fake invoices and all manner of other things. He faces 20 years in prison.

Look, that’s all bad, I’ll grant that, and the dude should go to jail. Still: Apple spent a couple of years making it increasingly difficult for us to use our headphones with iPhones and then rolled out their own headphones which easily pair with it that range between $90 and $550, are built to stop working after a certain period, and which cannot be fixed, only replaced. So who’s the real criminal, hmmmm?

The Right to Say “Writer”

I’ve shared stuff from Michele Catalano’s newsletter before. She writes personal essays for the most part. About her life, her marriages, her kids, music, mental health, and any number of other things. It’s good stuff.

Her latest piece is about being a writer. And questioning whether she can call herself one. She certainly writes but, she asks herself, what sort of writing makes one a writer? Does one have to be paid for their writing? To write certain things? To be a member, either formally or informally, of a certain club or clique? And what do you do if you feel that, objectively, you are a writer but you don’t feel psychically comfortable with saying you’re a writer due to imposter syndrome or fear of criticism or fear of sounding arrogant or whatever?

Plumbers and air traffic controllers and accountants and people with clear professional delineations don’t have that issue. Nor do people who have most sorts of unpaid hobbies or interests. Like, you’ve never heard an amateur beekeeper or someone who knits or a ham radio operator being coy or denying what they do with their spare time. I’ve yet to meet a golfer with imposter syndrome. It’s just writers. It’s really weird.

Part of what goes into that is gatekeeping, I suppose. There are some writers and people in that world who only consider literary novels or poetry to be real writing. On the non-creative side there is definitely gatekeeping as well, be it academic writers looking down on writers of popular works or credentialed media looking down on the bloggers and whatnot. It’s often not even active gatekeeping. It’s internalized stuff. I mean, I’ve been taking a paycheck for writing what I write for 13 years, my job title at NBC literally had the word “writer” in it, and I even have a book under my belt yet I still, until shockingly recently, found myself hesitant to call myself a writer when people asked what I did for a living. Or else I’d say it and then immediately hedge it or apologize for it somehow so they don’t think I’m claiming to be Roger Angell or Ring Lardner or whatever.

I’m pretty much over that crap. I’m a writer, not because I get paid for doing it, or because I’m any good at it, but because it’s what I do with my time. I’d still be a writer if I had a normal job and just did it on the side. I’m a writer when I write a book, I’m a writer when I submit a column to some publication, I’m a writer when I post a personal essay on my website, and I’m a writer when I make dick jokes in this newsletter. I’m a writer because I write. And so is anyone else who writes. Regardless of what gatekeepers might say.

Michele, by the way, is a subscriber. She is also a writer. And I’m glad she wrote what she wrote yesterday.

Have a great day everyone.