Cup of Coffee: September 1, 2022

Tony La Russa goes on medical leave, MLB is going to Mexico, the O's call up a top prospect, bad stadiums, unearned second chances, indicting Trump, and saying goodbye to a friend

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

We have a whole heck of a lot to get to today, so let’s get-gettin’.

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And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Mets 2, Dodgers 1: Jacob deGrom allowed only one run over seven, was backed by a two-run homer from Starling Marte in the second inning, and was REALLY backed by a sweet-as-hell Brandon Nimmo catch in deep center that robbed Justin Turner of a game-tying homer in the seventh. And hey, Timmy Trumpet got to play walk-in music for Edwin Díaz live!

New York Mets @Mets

Sound ‘em! 🎺 @TimmyTrumpet | @SugarDiaz39

I don’t have any strong personal rooting interests these days, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see Díaz coming into a the ninth to lock down a lead in a Game 7 at home in October. This is just too damn good.

Nationals 5, Athletics 1: Aníbal Sánchez allowed just one run over seven. Did he become unstuck in time and pitch this game from 2013 or was it just a function of facing the A’s?

Rays 2, Marlins 1: Manuel Margot singled home the Manfred Man in the top of the 10th. Earlier Drew Rasmussen and Trevor Rogers traded off six-inning performances in which they each just gave up a run. When I first wrote this recap I had it as “Dennis Rasmussen” so it wasn’t just Aníbal Sánchez who has become unstuck in time, I guess. Except I went back like 30 years. It happens to me more these days than I care to admit.

Angels 3, Yankees 2: New York had a 3-2 lead with one out in the fifth when Josh Donaldson committed an error which turned a single into a double, after which Isiah Kiner-Falefa muffed a routine Mike Trout grounder which put a second batter on. Right after that Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer on a fastball that Gerrit Cole said after the game was his “worst fastball of the night” — right down Harbor Boulevard — which gave us our final score here. Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa are already two of Yankees fans least favorite everyday players and I’m guessing this didn’t help that. Yankees fans are also pretty invested in pushing back against any suggestion that Ohtani, instead of Aaron Judge, should be the AL MVP and I’m guessing this didn’t help that either. The Yankees finish August 10-18. They once had a 15.5-game lead in the AL East, too. It’s now down to six. Woof.

Phillies 18, Diamondbacks 2: The Phillies scored 19 runs on 22 hits, and . . . had no homers? Dang. They went 15-for-29 with runners in scoring position? Dang-er. The Dbacks still take two of three in this series, but the scores of all three games — 13-7, 12-3, 18-2 — are a hell of a thing.

Mariners 5, Tigers 3: Abraham Toro hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh. Eugenio Suárez had a two-run shot earlier in the contest. From the gamer:

“Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings . . . Gonzales didn't give up a run in his last four innings after making a uniform change.

"I came in and changed my jersey," he said. "I just needed to change it up. I didn't feel like myself. I felt kind of shaky, a little off. I came in and changed my jersey and we rolled from there."

I haven’t looked at any video from this one but I’m just gonna assume that he went from the dark blue alternate the M’s usually wear on the road into something like this:

White Sox 4, Royals 2: Lance Lynn pitched four-hit ball through seven, allowing one run and striking out eight, and Elvis Andrus, who I had forgotten signed with Chicago, so that looked weird in the box score, hit a tie-breaking home run in the fifth. A.J. Pollock also went deep. Bench coach Miguel Cairo managed once again as Tony La Russa went on indefinite leave for health problems, about which we talk more in the Daily Briefing. Cairo, postgame: “After the last out, [La Russa] always says, ‘twenty-seven outs,’ and until that last out, you cannot feel comfortable until they get that last out.” Makes me wonder if La Russa says “30 outs” after 10-inning games or “18 outs” after rain-shortened games.

Cardinals 5, Reds 3: Albert Pujols hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly to score the Manfred Man in the 13th inning after which Lars Nootbaar added a two-run homer. According to the gamer, the Cardinals twice used five-man infields during extra innings which helped cut down what would’ve been winning runs from the Reds, allowing the game to go on. I figure that means Rob Manfred is going to immediately start looking into ways to ban that soon.

Astros 5, Rangers 3: Jose Altuve drove in two and scored two while Astros starter Cristian Javier got off to a rough start but righted the ship and gutted things out for a win.

Brewers 6, Pirates 1: Milwaukee put up a four-run seventh inning to secure this one and take their fourth win in five games.

Padres 5, Giants 4: The sweep. Joe Musgrove struck out 11 while pitching into the seventh and Manny Machado drove in three via an RBI single and an automatic double. Hell, even Josh Hader came in and got a mostly clean save. The Padres have won five of six.

Orioles 4, Guardians 0: Joran Lyles pitched shutout ball into the seventh and newly called-up prospect Gunnar Henderson got the start at third base and went 2-for-4 with a homer. Welcome to the big leagues, my dude. More on Gunnar down in the Briefing.

Cubs 7, Blue Jays 5: Franmil Reyes homered and Nico Hoerner drove in a pair to help the Cubs avoid the sweep. Chicago went 15-15 in August, which was its first non-losing month since May 2021.

Atlanta 3, Rockies 2: The Barves break a three-game losing streak thanks to Kyle Wright’s seven shutout innings and a shutout inning from A.J. Minter. Kenley Jansen came in to handle the ninth and did his level best to blow it, walking a dude and giving up a two-run homer, but it was too little, too late for Colorado. Austin Riley hit a two-run homer and Ronald Acuña Jr. had a solo shot.

Red Sox 6, Twins 5: Xander Bogaerts hit a grand slam in the third after which J.D. Martinez also homered, giving Boston a 5-0 lead. Bogaerts later doubled in a run to make it 6-2 and after that it was just about Boston holding its breath as the Twins tried but failed to come back late against guys who were not Michael Wacha, who pitched pretty well and picked up his 10th win on the year. Boston snaps a three-game losing streak.

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The Daily Briefing

Tony La Russa will be out indefinitely

White Sox manager Tony La Russa left the stadium before Tuesday night’s game due to unspecified health reasons. Now it appears as if he’s going to be out for an extended period of time, with Bob Nightengale first reporting that “La Russa will be out indefinitely while undergoing further testing with his personal doctors in Arizona.” He later updated it in a story saying that, rather than going to Arizona, he was going to see heart specialists at the Mayo Clinic. Then the White Sox made an official announcement saying, actually, he’s going to Arizona.

If that confused you, know that it also confused Chicago White Sox players, who told reporters that they found out via social media that La Russa would be away from the team. The White Sox don’t always do things like other organizations do, with communication being near the top of the list. I think it’s because of that more than anything that this all feels like when Khrushchev got pushed out, but I’ll refrain from saying any more at the risk of being insensitive. Seriously, though: the White Sox could do better with this kind of thing.

Whatever the case, this is Miguel Cairo’s team for the foreseeable future.

Orioles call up top prospect Gunnar Henderson

The Baltimore Orioles called up the man who is, arguably, baseball’s top prospect, infielder Gunnar Henderson.

Henderson was the O’s second-round draft selection in 2019. He has hit .297/.416/.531 with 19 homers and 22 stolen bases in 25 attempts while splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A. Not bad considering he was Triple-A’s youngest player, at just 20, when he was promoted in June. He turned 21 at the end of that month. Henderson has played both third base and shortstop in the minors but figures to play more third given that the O’s have Jorge Mateo at short.

As noted above, he started at third base yesterday and went 2-for-4 with a homer in the Orioles’ 4-0 win over Cleveland so, hey, there you go.

Padres, Giants to play regular season games in Mexico City

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that the Padres and Giants will play a two-game series on April 29-30, 2023 at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City.

While there were regular season games played in Estadio de Béisbol in Monterrey in 1996, 2018, and 2019 — and while there have been exhibition games in Mexico City before — these will be the first major-league regular-season games in the Mexican capital. For what it’s worth, they’ll be Padres home games.

The Spring Training schedule is out

It’s never too early to get a jump on next year. To that end, Major League Baseball has released the spring training schedule for next season.

Spring training games will start on Friday, February 24 with two games. All 30 teams will be in action the next day. Select games featuring World Baseball Classic teams will be played at various Florida and Arizona facilities on Wednesday, March 8 and Thursday, March 9, which is a thing they’ve done in the past. It’s how I got a photo of Mike Piazza in a team Italy uniform a few years back. I have no idea why I took that, but I have it in some digital folder somewhere.

The final exhibition games — at major league ballparks — will be played on Sunday, March 26 through Tuesday, March 28. The 2023 regular season will begin on Thursday, March 30.

Yeah, Oakland Coliseum sucks, but . . .

The Guardian has an article about the Oakland A’s, their stadium situation, and the possibility of their move to Las Vegas. There’s nothing inaccurate in it but it reads a hell of a lot like ruin porn reporting you used to see about places like Detroit and Cleveland. Heavy on the lurid details, very light on the full story and the underlying causes.

Team president Dave Kaval is described as “energetic” but nowhere in the article does it talk about how blatantly he and team owner John Fisher have hamstrung the team in order to rake in more cash and how their approach to the whole stadium thing is the closest thing we’ve ever seen to the plot of “Major League.” Like, maybe it’s worth noting Kaval’s conspicuous trips to Las Vegas and Portland, which he shared on social media in what can only be seen as a taunt to both the city of Oakland and Oakland fans?

There have been crappy stadiums in the past. There have been bad teams in the past. There have been franchise relocations in the past. But rarely has there been an as extended and pointedly cynical and fan-unfriendly campaign on the part of a team’s leadership like we’ve seen in Oakland the past few years. I feel like that, rather than feral cats in the stadium, should be what leads the way here.

Thom Brennaman still fishing for a second chance

Disgraced announcer Thom Brennaman has been calling some high school sports and doing some multimedia work of his own accord in partnership with a startup company in Cincinnati for the past year or so. Which, fine. If a guy wants to work and someone wants to hire him, good for them. In an interview about that with Awful Announcing, however, Brennaman can’t just leave it at that. He has to, for the umpteenth time, go on about how he thinks he should get another chance to broadcast major league sports:

“All I can do is what I’ve tried to do over the past two years, that’s learn and grow from the ignorant word I used in a flippant sort of way.”

Note: it was not flippant. There was contempt and ire in his voice when he used that slur, but go on with yourself, Thom.

“And really, through my experiences and time with people in the gay community, I’ve learned a great deal. All you can do is the best you can do, and I’ve done that for two years, and I continue to learn and grow. I’m a better man today than the guy who sat up there in August of 2020, I’ll be a better broadcaster today than I was in August 2020 because of this whole experience and this whole journey. All I can do is ask people for forgiveness, a little bit of grace, and a second chance.”

If Thom Brennaman was not the son of a famous father, he’d never have gotten that job in the first place. But even if he had, if he had shown himself to be incompetent and/or offensive at the job, he’d have been fired and it’d be ridiculous to think he’d get a second chance. That’s because there are only 30 major league clubs and there are hundreds if not thousands of people who would both kill for that job and who would be excellent in that job, none of whom who had shown his level of incompetence or offensiveness. Indeed, it’d be nonsensical for us to talk about second chances. He got his big break and he blew it. Next! That’s how it works with any highly-coveted position. Yet, for some reason, Brennaman thinks he’s owed another shot here despite his demonstrated incompetence and offensiveness. What a crazy level of entitlement.

Brennaman talks about how he’s a better man now and how he has reached out to people and learned things and stuff. I hope so. And if it’s true, good for him. I hope, in that case, that he has a great life and makes the best of whatever it is he chooses to do with it. But why that necessitates anyone giving him another chance to broadcast major league baseball games is beyond me.

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Other Stuff

If there is any justice, Trump and at least one of his lawyers will be indicted

Yeah, I realize that headline contains a massive, recently-unsupported assumption in the first clause, but when you read this thread from national security law expert Bradley Moss breaking down the DOJ’s latest filing in the Mar-a-Lago documents case it seems inescapable that Trump illegally retained classified documents, delayed, obstructed and resisted government efforts to recover them, concealed the records from investigators, and then got caught doing so. One attorney for Trump executed an affidavit falsely asserting that there were no documents on site when there obviously were. That, as they say in the legal profession, is bad.

It’s the sort of thing that, if done by any other person in America, would get them arrested and indicted on felony charges. Except, as we learned yesterday afternoon, if that does happen, it probably won’t happen for at least a couple of months. Why? Because unnamed fed sources are telling reporters that “under DOJ policy, no investigative steps will be taken 60 days before an election,” which would be September 10 this year.

There are two problems with this. The first one being that Donald Trump is neither a public official nor a political candidate in the 2018 election for any office. He doesn’t hold any formal political position whatsoever, in fact, be it with the government or with a political party. He’s a guy who owns some shitty hotels and golf courses and grifts members of his personality cult.

Less flippantly, as Lawfare Blog noted four years ago, there is no formal rule barring DOJ action in the days immediately before an election. Rather, the “rule” is a soft norm based on “long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition.” In Attorney General guidance issued in 2012, “[l]aw enforcement officers and prosecutors may never select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.” [emphasis added]. What if — and bear with me here — charging Donald Trump with a crime is, actually, about responding to what appears to be manifest criminality as opposed to affecting the 2022 election in which he has no formal role whatsoever? What then?

That aside, how can one EVER fully insulate authorities from accusations of playing politics when a figure like Trump is involved? The election calendar, practically speaking, never stops. If the DOJ lays off on charges here because of the alleged 60-day rule, what if Trump announces his 2024 presidential candidacy on November 9? Wouldn’t the DOJ be accused of playing politics if they move on him after that? There's no winning here.

Which is why the DOJ should not be trying to game this at all. They should have civil servants making the sort of decisions civil servants make all the time. If there is a need to create an ethical wall between them and Biden political appointees for the sake of propriety, by all means, do it. But let the law and the facts determine these things, not the political notoriety of the suspect. Let us have an actual, legitimate justice system, not one justice system for Donald Trump and another for everyone else.

We Are The Troopers

A book called We Are the Troopers: The Women of the Winningest Team in Pro Football History, by Stephen Guinan came out this week. From the publisher’s description:

Discover the unlikely story of the Toledo Troopers, the winningest team in the National Women's Football League, who won seven league championships in the 1970s—and gain full access to the players and key figures in the organization.

I met Guinan, who lives just up the road from me in Westerville, Ohio, earlier this year and, as a result, got a chance to read We Are the Troopers ahead of time. I knew almost nothing abut the National Women’s Football League, let alone that the Toledo Troopers were the league’s dominant power. I enjoyed the book so much that I was happy to blurb it. As is the case with any book I blurb — not too many! — I highly recommend it.

David Smith: 1972-2022

In the spring of 1989 I worked on a high school play with a friend named David Smith in which he played a medieval knight and for which I was a stage tech. Because there was no budget, the medieval knight costume was gray long underwear with a tunic thingie over it. David, who played an older character, also had a fake beard and spray-on silver in his hair. I wore a black turtleneck and black sweatpants so I could blend into the background for scene changes.

After the final performance of the play there was a party at our friend Rebecca’s house. David rode with me over there. Before getting to the party we decided to stop at the Beaver, West Virginia Kroger — and yes, Beaver, West Virginia is a place — to buy some chips and sodas and things. David was still in his long underwear, but sans tunic. I was in head-to-toe black. We looked like a goth/new romantic duo who couldn't decide on the proper aesthetic.

A few steps in the door we realized how not-very-Beaver-West-Virginia-Kroger we looked. A few people stared at us. I sort of chuckled and said "maybe it was a bad idea coming in here like this." David, after a brief pause, said “no, it's their problem, not ours,” and confidently strode in. I followed him, not feeling independently confident, but confident enough because I was not alone in feeling ridiculous. We made it out of the store with our snacks in a bag and our heads held high.

David was the valedictorian of the class that graduated a year ahead of me. He went on to Harvard. Then on to work for a notable company which might’ve made him a rich, but while working there he uncovered corporate impropriety and became a whistleblower, at no small cost to his career prospects. He’d go on to what seemed to be a personally satisfying career helping high school kids prepare for college entrance exams and the admissions process. It’s probably worth noting that, for most of David’s life, being a gay a man was by far from the easiest thing in southern West Virginia and places like Harvard and conservative corporate America and that there are always people who react negatively to gay men working with kids. As was the case with our snack run to Kroger, however, those were not his problems, they were other people’s problems.

The last few years had not been particularly easy for David. He suffered from acute mental illness which made life difficult for him. For a time it caused him to withdraw from those he loved, then it caused him to lash out, then it caused him to be hospitalized. In the past year and a half of so, however, he began to respond to treatment and medication and he had begun to rebuild his life with the help of his partner Brandon and his first love and longtime friend Patrick, his mother, and his sister. God bless them all.

I was supposed to see David on that trip I took to the Shenandoah Valley to see high school friends back in July but he couldn't make it due to health problems. Those of us who gathered there didn’t realize how serious those problems were. He died yesterday morning at the age of 50. In the end, the last time I saw him in person was 12 years ago, which for both of us was a lifetime ago in so many ways:

And, of course, it was too long ago. You always think you have more time.

David was both a friend and an inspiration, and I am feeling his loss deeply today. The world is a worse place without him in it than it was with him.

Have a great day, everyone.