Cup of Coffee: September 30, 2021

The Wild Card race tightens, the Cards' winning steak ends, the Rays clinch top seed, Devin Williams joins a big dumb club, and which player was giving vaccine bribes?

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

For those of you who only read once a week, know that I’ve been doing a running bit in the Cardinals recaps in which I’ve been telling some made-up-on-the-fly story about a kid whose dad died in the Civil War and whose uncle married his mom and took over the family farm, after which the kid kills the uncle and heads out on his own. It ain’t exactly Hamlet, and not just because my protagonist is more decisive than Billy Shakespeare’s. Anyway, now that the Cards’ winning streak is over so too is the bit, but since I had to write the next installment last night before I knew the outcome of the game, y’all get an epilogue of sorts.

For those of you who hate this bit: hey, me too! Let’s all be happy it’s over!

In other news, the AL Wild Card race is tick-tight now, the NL East is almost sewn up for Atlanta, the NL West race is still going on thanks to a dramatic Dodgers comeback, and the Rays have clinched the top seed in the American League.

In less exciting news, Devin Williams joined a really dubious club and a mystery player — Player X! — bribed his teammates to get vaccinated, and whoever that player was [*cough* Adam Wainwright *cough*] he’s damn hero as far as I’m concerned.

There’s more baseball news than that, of course. And as always there’s a lot of Other Stuff, so let’s get on with it.

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And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Blue Jays 6, Yankees 5: Toronto pulls closer to New York, and tightened the overall Wild Card picture, but thanks to the Sox and Mariners wins, they didn’t pull any closer to a Wild Card berth than they were when they woke up yesterday morning. Bo Bichette homered twice, with the second one breaking a tie in the eighth. Marcus Semien hit a go-ahead homer of his own — a two-run shot in the first — and in doing so set a new big league record for homers from a second basemen with 44. Gerrit Cole was touched for five runs in six innings. He didn’t get the loss thanks to the way scoring works, but he certainly contributed mightily to it.

Red Sox 6, Orioles 0: Nate Eovaldi blanked the Birds for six and three relievers each tossed a hitless inning for Boston. J.D. Martinez homered and hit a two-run double and Hunter Renfroe went deep late. Thus endeth Boston’s four-game skid. With the Yankees’ loss they are now a game behind New York for the top Wild Card slot. with another game against Baltimore and three against the lowly Nats dead ahead.

Mariners 4, Athletics 2: Make it 10 of 11 for the M’s and their 12th straight win over Oakland to take the season series against them 15-4. Ty France had a ty-breaking sacrifice fly in the seventh and Abraham Toro took out some insurance with an eighth inning homer. They remain a half game out of the money at the moment, and have an off-day today, during which they will no doubt be rooting hard for the Baltimore Orioles to drop the Sox into a tie. Either way, Seattle stands a couple of breaks and three home games against the Angels away from ending a 20-year postseason drought.

Rockies 10, Nationals 5: Ryan McMahon hit a three-run homer and drove in four and Trevor Story, almost certainly playing his last home game for Colorado went 4-for-4, drew a walks, and scored three times. Beyond that, though, this game sounded like Hell on Earth, as the Nats and Rockies played for just under four hours and had a two-hour rain delay in the middle of that, stretching the proceedings into a six-hour affair. Attendance was, officially, over 20,000. If there was 1/50th of that sitting in the stands when it ended I’d be shocked. October baseball is great. Late September baseball, sometimes, is a slog.

Cubs 3, Pirates 2: Willson Contreras’ two-run double in the seventh brought Chicago back from a 2-1 deficit to help them end their seven-game skid. Contreras knocked in the Cubs’ first run, too, with a sac fly in the fifth.

Marlins 3, Mets 2: The Marlins, too, snapped a seven-game skid thanks to Miguel Rojas' two-run single which capped a three-run rally in the eighth. Taijuan Walker had pitched well for seven before that rally began but he put two men on to start the eighth and both of them later came in to score in the Miami rally. The Mets will be looking for a new top baseball operations executive this offseason and, usually, a new top baseball operations executive will want to hire his own manager. Yesterday Sandy Alderson said that "decisions on the manager and coaches will be made after the season . . .My hope is as soon after the season as possible.” In light of that I feel like Luis Rojas was a dead man walking anyway, but you can’t say you help yourself any by leaving a started in too long to lose a game you probably should’ve won four days before “as soon after the season as possible” arrives.

Atlanta 7, Phillies 2: Max Fried allowed only one run over seven, Austin Riley drove in three, and Dansby Swanson went 3-for-4 and knocked in a couple as Atlanta won its ninth game in its past 11 and lowered its magic number to one. An Atlanta win in today’s series finally would work two magics, of course, but even if Philly wins it, they need to sweep the Marlins over the weekend and have Atlanta get swept by the Mets. Feel like the former is entirely possible. I wouldn’t wager a week’s wages on the later, though I suppose stranger things have happened.

Twins 5, Tigers 2: Thanks to singles from Luis Arráez and Byron Buxton and a homer from Jorge Polanco, the Twins took a 3-0 lead three batters and eleven pitches into the bottom of the first. Michael Pineda allowed one run and scattered eight hits while pitching into the sixth in what could be the last game in Minnesota for the impending free agent.

Angels 7, Rangers 2: It was tied at two when the Halos plated four in the sixth inning, with the rally sparked by Shohei Ohtani’s wheels. Ohtani led off the sixth by beating the Rangers pitcher to the bag on a sharp grounder to first. He then stole second and continued on to third on a throwing error by the Rangers catcher, then came home when Jack Mayfield singled through a drawn-in Texas infield. Two more singles and a fielder’s choice made it 6-2 and a ninth inning sac fly ended the scoring. With the loss the Rangers join the Orioles and Diamondbacks in the 100-loss club. The Pirates are sitting on 99, so they’ll almost certainly join them. Four 100-loss teams will tie the record set in 2019 when the Royals, Marlins, Orioles, and Tigers each broke the century mark.

White Sox 6, Reds 1: There have been questions about Carlos Rodón’s health after some arm soreness, but here he gutted out five innings of one hit, shutout ball, striking out four. His velocity was down — his fastball averaged only 92.7, which is almost 2 m.p.h. off his season average — and both Joey Votto and Nick Castellanos were out of the lineup, so he’s not out of the worrying woods yet. Tim Anderson and Gavin Sheets homered for the Chisox.

Royals 10, Cleveland 5: Sal Pérez hit his 48th homer, tying Jorge Soler’s team record from two years ago. Hunter Dozier hit a tie-breaking two-run triple in the seventh and scored on a wild pitch. The win was the 4,000th in franchise history. That puts them third among the 1969 expansion franchises. They trail the Expos/Nationals which have a combined 4,068 and the Brewers who have 4,038, but they lead the Padres who only have 3,862.

Rays 7, Astros 0: Drew Rasmussen and three relievers combined on a three-hit shutout to help the Rays clinch the top seed in the American League playoff field. Ironic, I suppose, given that the Rays are the only team in the American League playoff field which wished it had a different home. Anyway, Brandon Lowe and Ji-Man Choi both homered, Wander Franco doubled and singled twice.

Giants 1, Diamondbacks 0: Kris Bryant’s seventh inning sac fly was the only run here, but thanks to Alex Wood and three relievers combining on a four-hitter, it was the only run needed. This was win number 104 for San Francisco. With four games left, they have a chance to break the franchise wins record of 106 set by the 1904 New York Giants. More importantly for the time being, they remain two ahead of the Dodgers.

Dodgers 11, Padres 9: L.A. was at risk of falling three games back as the Padres took a 9-5 lead after seven innings, but five unanswered Dodgers homers — four which came in the eighth inning — changed all that. Mookie Betts went deep in the seventh and then, the next inning, Max Muncy, A.J. Pollock, Cody Bellinger, and Corey Seager each went deep. Seager’s was a two-run job and it was the go-ahead shot. Pollock’s was his second of the game, as he had a two-run homer in the first. The Dodgers remain two back with four left to play. If they don’t make up that ground, they’ll face the Cardinals in the Wild Card game.

As for the Cardinals . . .

Brewers 4, Cardinals 0: I earned some money unloading riverboats after the Jack faded away and people started coming back to Memphis. I’d keep my head down, but my ears open, as you never knew if what you heard might prove useful. One time I heard two men talking and one of them mentioned that he’d come downriver from Stendal. Sometimes the night I left Pike County felt like a lifetime ago, but hearing someone speak the name of my hometown made it seem like yesterday. Stendal wasn’t a big place and everyone there knew Uncle Jedidiah, so I didn’t dare look up. Whether the man would’ve recognized me or not, I knew that it was getting too hot for me to stay.

I moved west, working odd jobs until I landed in Indian Territory. An innkeeper told me of a widow who had land on the Cimarron that was too much for her to handle and who was in need of a hand. Mrs. Halsell gave me a job and took a liking to me, saying I reminded her of her boy who had died in the war. He was a reb, as most people out in Indian Territory were. There was a time when this would’ve troubled me, as a reb bullet is what killed Daddy, but it all seemed so long ago now.

After a time she made me foreman on the ranch. I was only 21, but I was put in charge of whatever hands she hired. Most of them were older than me, but none of them were harder than I was. I realized this when, around a fire one night, the men began trading stories of their wickedness. The things they’d done. The men they’d killed, in the war or otherwise. If you’ve killed a man, you know when you hear someone lying about doing the same. Every man who passed through the Halsell ranch was telling tales.

Every man but one. He didn’t speak much but he knew of what he spoke. I took a shine to him. Name was Dalton. By and by we became friends. One day he told me he had a proposition for me. It sounded good, so come November I told Mrs. Halsell that I had to be moving on. As Dalton and I headed out west that cold morning I felt like I was taking control of my life instead of the world having its way with me.

It’s amazing the things we tell ourselves and even more amazing how eager we are to believe them.

And with that — and the Cardinals loss, courtesy of Adrian Houser’s five shutout innings backed with four more from Brewers relievers who did NOT break their hands punching walls and homers from Daniel Vogelbach and Manny Piña — the Uncle Jedidiah story comes to an end. The lessons: (a) never bet on a team the day after they had a champagne celebration, because they’re almost certainly going to come out as flat as the dregs of bottles that were popped the night before; and (b) don’t start bits you haven’t planned for, because they’re gonna take up way too much of your time.

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The Daily Briefing

First off, a correction: contrary to what I wrote yesterday, Dodgers announcer Jaime Jaime Jarrín will not be retiring until the end of the 2022 season, not this season. Reading is fundamental, folks.

Devin Williams punched a wall, broke his hand, is out for the season

Brewers setup guy and 2020 Rookie of the Year Award winner Devin Williams was placed on the 10-day IL with a fractured right hand. How did he get that fractured right hand? He had too much to drink after Sunday’s division-clinching celebration, got upset about something and punched a wall with his pitching hand, breaking it. He will need surgery and will almost certainly be out the rest of the season.

Williams, to the assembled Brewers press corps:

“If I could take it back, I would.”

No kidding?

Williams was the most dominant reliever in baseball last season. This year has had a few more ups and downs for him — some suspected that his famous changeup known as “The Airbender” was pine tar-aided, and this year’s crackdown on sticky stuff did him no favors early on — but he adjusted by midseason and continued to be one of the most important players on the Brewers’ roster. In July and August he was almost untouchable. A calf injury in September had slowed him down a bit, but he was still sporting a 2.50 ERA in 58 games, was striking out 14.5 batters per nine, and stood poised to be a key part of what can be a game-shortening and thus game-changing Brewers’ pen.

Now he’s out, and with it the Brewers’ postseason prospects take a hit.

On the bright side, there’s a new name to add to those “dumbest injuries in baseball history lists.” If it makes him feel better, there are a LOT of guys on that list who broke their hands punching things. A non-exclusive list: Kevin Brown, Hunter Strickland, Carlos Quentin, Huascar Ynoa, Colin Moran, John Tudor, Drew Storen, Jesús Luzardo, Brad Penny, Randy Johnson, Tim Worrell, Khalil Green, Julián Tavárez, Nick Hagadone, and Mark Grudzielanek. Honorable Mentions: Ryan Madson broke a toe kicking a chair and Kyle Farnsworth bruised a knee kicking an electric fan.

And those are just the ones either I or my Twitter followers could think of when we were shooting the breeze about this yesterday afternoon. There are probably more, because, as I mentioned the other day, there are a LOT of baseball players who have Big Dumb Guy Energy, and punching walls and things is something you do when you’re a big dumb guy. Chads and Kyles, the lot of ‘em.

Tim Anderson gets a three-game suspension

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson was slapped with a three-game suspension late yesterday and an undisclosed fine for making contact with umpire Tim Timmons during that dustup between the Sox and the Tigers on Monday afternoon following the whole José Abreu plunking/hard slide incident. He has elected to appeal, so he can still play, which is good for the Sox because he homered last night while out on parole. I would guess at this point he’ll serve whatever suspension his appeal results in next year.

As for the substance of that appeal, if I were Anderson’s union rep I’d argue that none of this would’ve happened if Abreu didn’t get a case of the red ass, so really, it’s on him. I mean, it can’t hurt, right? And maybe you make MLB discipline chief Michael Hill laugh a little, causing him to knock a game off the sentence.

Giants concession workers reach deal to avert strike, get raises and healthcare concessions

Back on Labor Day I wrote about how the union representing concessions workers at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, voted to strike after negotiations with the Giants’ food service contractor — a company called Bon Appétit — had stalled. The union’s workers had not received a pay increase since April 2018. They were seeking $3 per hour in retroactive hazard pay, raises, and increased safety measures.

Late Tuesday night a strike was averted, with workers agreeing to a tentative deal which is widely expected to pass when voted on today. The deal guarantees Oracle Park workers a retroactive $3 an hour raise, a separate, retroactive $1.50 an hour hazard pay bonus for 2020 and 2021, additional yearly raises that will ultimately total a $7 an hour increase by 2024, as well as significant improvements to health care and pension plans. The details of it all can be read here.

The movement here mostly came after the strike vote, with negotiations leading to the deal intensifying as the union started signing people up for picketing duties on the eve of the postseason. There’s a lesson in there about leverage and what actually moves the needle when it comes to labor negotiations. That lesson is not “let’s all just discuss this politely so that the threat of a work stoppage is minimized at any cost.”

A lot of folks will likely have to be reminded about that once the CBA negotiations take center stage in November and December and baseball columnists write about how the most important thing is that a work stoppage be avoided no matter what.

Royals, Michael A. Taylor agree to an extension

ESPN reported yesterday that the Kansas City Royals and their center fielder Michael A. Taylor, have agreed to a two-year, $9 million contract extension.

Taylor, 30, signed a one-year, $1.75 million deal with Kansas City over the winter after being outrighted by the Washington Nationals. In his first year in Kansas City his offense looked an awful like it did in Washington, as he was hitting .244/.298/.359 (OPS+ 77) through Tuesday night. He’s not around for his offense though. He’s a glove-first guy, and that glove is about the best one in baseball this season by just about any measure. That’s the kind of player you want around in a key defensive position as you mount a rebuild. Someone who can take some pressure off of pitchers who are gonna make a lot of mistakes.

Adam Wainwright probably paid teammates to get the vaccine

So there was a story at Defector yesterday by Kalyn Kahler, entitled “My White Whale Is The Story Of An MLB Veteran Paying His Teammates To Get Vaccinated.” As the title of the article suggests, Kahler got a tip that a certain veteran, whom she refers to as “Player X,” was paying teammates to get vaccinated. She knows the name and the team, but she didn’t have the sort of on-the-record confirmation that one can print, so she spent a lot of effort trying to turn her blind item into a reported story, complete with names.

She did not get that. But what she did produce was even better, as her chronicle of trying to get her on-the-record confirmation is really entertaining.¹ But she also, almost certainly intentionally, let slip a LOT of facts in the story which readers can consider to be clues, allowing them make educated guesses as to which player and which team she’s talking about. While I always enjoy some good sleuthing, I read the article once and, while I began to wonder a bit, I didn’t have the time or the desire to think all that hard about it. Luckily for us, a lot of other people did.

I saw a number of people running through it all on Twitter, but the most comprehensive take on it in one place is probably this Reddit thread, which pieces it all together, making it pretty clear that the team in question is the St. Louis Cardinals and making it pretty clear that Adam Wainwright is Player X.

Chief among the clues are descriptions of certain young players, when they went on and off the roster, some geographic hints, and some stuff about Kahler’s own movements. The players who were sent down or DFA’d and when match up with the Cardinals. She said she was in the team’s city reporting another story over the summer and one of her stories from over the summer sent her to St. Louis. She lives in Chicago and talked about the team visiting her hometown around the same time the Cards were in Chicago to face the Cubs. On top of all of that is the fact that Wainwright (a) is at least occasionally talked about as “a future Hall of Famer” which is a phrase she uses in the story to describe Player X; and (b) he and his whole family had COVID and since then, he has been an outspoken advocate for vaccinations. I mean, it could be Yadi Molina, the only other guy who gets “future Hall of Famer” stuff, but there have been suggestions in the past year that he may not be Mr. Cautious when it comes to this stuff. Anyway, that’s the general consensus.

My view on it: good for Wainwright or whoever else it was. The Cardinals were one of the fastest teams to get to 85% vaccinated and keeping it that way with player movement and roster turnover is important. While it’d be way better if MLB or the clubs mandated vaccines, they didn’t, so it took leadership for the Cards to do what they did, and good for them that they had that leadership.

Vaccines work. As I write below in another item, vaccine mandates work too. And money, without question, talks. Maybe all of that, taken together, created some good mojo for the Cards and maybe that’s part of the reason they’re gonna be playing October baseball.

Oh my god

This lede from Lindsey Adler’s story yesterday morning about Tuesday’s Yankees-Jays game caused me to literally yelp out loud:

TORONTO — In Canada, the Queen is on the currency. For the Yankees on Tuesday night, Michael King was on the money.

I feel like a defender who just had his legs broken by a crossover dribble. There should be old-timey two-handled loving cup-style trophies handed out for stuff like this.

I don’t even know how she wrote the rest of the story given how, once she hit on that Michael King line, she was no doubt compelled to march around the press box going “whoop! whoop!” and whatnot.

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Other Stuff

A “cancel culture” moment that will almost surely be met with silence

The Intercept reports that an Israeli diplomat pressured the University of North Carolina to remove a graduate student who was teaching a course on Israeli-Palestinian relations because they did not like some of her tweets. Two sitting U.S. Representatives joined in the effort to remove the grad student. All of this followed a pressure campaign by right-wing pro-Israel websites.

The university actually took a meeting with the diplomat who baselessly accused the student of antisemitism. It has thus far held firm from removing the student from teaching the course, but the fact that it even entertained these kinds of complaints is absolutely outrageous.

I’ve talked a lot about so-called “cancel culture” recently and how, for the most part, it is a bogus charge. In almost all celebrated “cancel culture” cases, at issue is really just a matter of someone getting criticized or suffering some sort of social consequence for controversial or transgressive acts or comments. This, in contrast is an actual pressure campaign from not just one but TWO sovereign governments to remove someone from their position because they simply do not like what she had to say, with a third governmental apparatus — a state university — at least entertaining the idea.

We will now see all of the people who are deeply concerned about cancel culture and free speech on college campuses rush to defend the grad student and condemn this attack on academic freedom, right? I mean, this is EXACTLY what they claim to be a paramount danger to freedom of thought and expression, right?

Bari Weiss? Anne Applebaum? Jonathan Chait? Anyone? I can only assume you’re all being silent on this now because you’re busy writing a BARNBURNER of a defense of this grad student, yes?

Vaccine mandates work. Which is why Republicans hate them.

This is not at all shocking to anyone who thinks critically, but it turns out that workplace vaccine mandates are not resulting in mass quitting anywhere near what people claimed would be the case or what they told pollsters.

There have been a lot of stories about this lately. The latest is from United Airlines: nearly all of its U.S.-based employees have been vaccinated. Less than 3 percent of its roughly 67,000 workforce applied for exemptions, but in the end only 593, less than 1 percent of its employees, have refused to comply and will soon be terminated. The same pattern has happened in many other settings, ranging from hospitals to universities to offices.

Meanwhile, in Ohio yesterday, the Republican-controlled legislature threatened to pass a ban on many COVID-19 vaccine mandates which would’ve created a gaping loophole via which people can simply refuse to comply with them. It also would’ve extended broad civil immunity for people and businesses who negligently transmit COVID-19 and would require schools, colleges, and a number of other businesses and institutions to recognize multiple possible exemptions, including “I had COVID before and thus I’m naturally immune!” and “reasons of conscious” or religion, which are offered, basically, an irrefutable presumption as long as someone offers a written statement. Really: you would’ve been able to just say “I don’t believe in vaccines” and you’ll be able to get out of it. Thankfully the measure died, though just barely.

This is outrageously irresponsible, of course, but it’s necessary for Republicans do this. It’s necessary because they have, in every way that matters, made themselves into a pro-COVID party. They dress it up as being pro-freedom or personal autonomy or what have you, but the contradictions and absurdities of that position fall apart in the face of even the most basic scrutiny. No, the only common through-line which makes all of their pandemic-related positions make sense is a desire to see the virus to continue to infect, sicken, and kill people. Maybe that’s merely a byproduct of their political goals — oppose absolutely everything Democrats, scientists, educated people, and those they claim to be “elites” support — but political goals reflect values, and the only value consistent with their COVID-related agenda is a a pro-COVID value.

Vaccine mandates put those values to the toughest test. Vaccine mandates show those values to be morally and ethically bankrupt and, indeed, downright monstrous. Ergo: vaccine mandates must be eliminated or, at the very least, disparaged, lest the entire Republican enterprise come crashing down.

Great Moments in Dumb Swimmers

Klete Keller, the five-time Olympic swimming medalist, agreed to a plea bargain Wednesday after facing seven federal charges for participating in the U.S. Capitol riot back on January 6. My favorite detail from the story:

Amid the chaos in the Capitol rotunda on Jan. 6, Townhall Media senior writer Julio Rosas captured Keller on a video posted to Twitter. He stood out from the crowd thanks to his 6-foot-6 height, beard and distinctive U.S. Olympic team jacket.

I get that a lot of the people who stormed the Capitol that day were under some right wing media and hate group-fueled delusion that what they were doing was totally legal and OK, but it still takes a special lad to wear a jacket that identifies him so definitively as a U.S. Olympic Team jacket. That’d be like Buzz Aldrin holding up a liquor store in his space suit.

Anyway, among his medals, Keller got the gold in the 800 meter freestyle along with teammates Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay. What are the odds of Ryan Lochte being in a group with any three people and not being the dumbest one there? 100-1? 10,000-1?

Great Moments in Old Writers

One of the most anticipated books of the fall is “My Monticello” by the Charlottesville, Virginia writer Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, which “Esquire” says “announces the arrival of an electric new literary voice.”

Unlike most people who get described that way, however, Johnson is not some youngster bursting onto the literary scene while she still has her student I.D. from her MFA program buried someplace in her bag. From the New York Times:

The book is extraordinary for another reason. Ms. Johnson is 50 years old, not the average age of your typical debut author. To be more blunt, the publishing industry is viewed by some trade observers as too often fetishizing young writers, so while 50 is considered relatively young in many circles, for a first-time author to find her way onto the grand stage is a rarity.

Indeed, the feature on Johnson is part of a series the Times does called “It’s Never Too Late” which “tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.” Which is a nice way of saying “people who didn’t have everything figured out at 27.”

One of my favorite authors, Raymond Chandler, had written a lot for magazines and places when he was younger, of course, but he didn’t publish his first novel until he was 51. Another favorite, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote many things for magazines and had published multiple novels by the mid-1960s, but did not have his commercial breakthrough — the one that actually let him stop working outside jobs and actually make a full living writing — until he was 47. I’ve made a living writing the little webby thing that I write since I was 36, but I was 47 when I started this newsletter — which is truly my own — and wrote that book I keep plugging. I’ve kinda smiled at that fact for the past year or so. It makes me rather happy.

Which is to say that I absolutely love the fact that “the electric new literary voice” of this season is 50. That she has a family and has worked a regular job for decades and all that goes with it. I also love the answers she gave to a couple of the questions posed to her by the New York Times about whether she wished she had written this book sooner and whether it and everything that surrounds it has changed her:

“I am so pleased that this book is my debut. It incorporates so much more of my lived experience and my life and my aspirations and my hopes . . . I think we’re constantly changing, and I think we should change. I’m a different person now than the teacher who greeted students at her door, or even different than the person who wrote “My Monticello.” And that’s exciting.”

There are some writers with fully formed voices at the age of 18, 22, or 26 or what have you. Some of their writing is transcendent, but I will admit that I have an increasingly hard time relating to such writers. Not because I’m old, they’re young, and they’re interested in different things than I am, necessarily. Mostly I just can’t stop thinking “how can you be so sure of that! My God, I had no idea about anything when I was that age! I kept changing! Everything kept changing!” Maybe that’s a common reaction people have to anyone of great talent that they themselves do not share. I don’t know.

But I do know that I’m far more likely to read “My Monticello” now that I know the person who wrote it lived with it and every other damn thing that life throws at a person for decades before putting it down on paper than I would have been had it come from a wunderkind. Maybe that’s not fair of me, but it’s how I feel.

Seen on Twitter

I realize that hate clicks are still clicks and that a lot of this sort of thing is geared toward that, but I still got a case of the red ass seeing this yesterday morning:

“Arguably, the best song R.E.M. ever did: is it any good? We chat about it on our podcast!” is some next-level trolling. I mean, if it was “is ‘Leave’ actually better than ‘Nightswimming’” we’d at least have a provocative question that is actually worthy of debate. As it is, though, this is hot garbage:

But “Nightswimming” is also somewhat of an anomaly. It’s a piano ballad, with strings and so forth, no bass, drums, or guitar whatsoever, two out of the four guys in R.E.M. don’t even appear on it . . .”

That’s like saying “But ‘Yesterday’ is also somewhat of an anomaly. It’s an acoustic ballad, with strings and so forth, no bass, drums, or guitar whatsoever, three out of the four guys in the Beatles don’t even appear on it . . ." I mean JESUS, dudes!

I’m disgusted here. I need to go for a walk to cool off. Or maybe a swim.

Have a great day, everyone.

1. I will offer one caveat to that: Kahler did a lot of player-stalking in the team hotel. As someone who has (a) stayed at the same hotel as players before, both when I was working and when I was not working; and (b) is friends with someone who was a bartender at a hotel that is used frequently by visiting MLB teams, it has been impressed upon me in a BIG way that one is NOT to stalk players for interviews at the team hotel. If you know them already and have a working relationship, that’s fine, of course. If they want to have a beer with you in the bar, cool. But you don’t go around as a person generally unknown to the team, pad and pen in hand, asking for comments and stuff, because they view the team hotel as a sanctuary from that kind of thing on the road. I mean, there are no laws about it, obviously, and if you aren’t worried about upsetting some people shoot your shot, but I suspect this had a lot to do with Kahler getting the cold shoulder from team PR later. It could also, potentially, cause the hotel some trouble with the team in the future — why did you let that reporter in here! — though I suppose the Chicago Ritz-Carlton will survive if the Cards decide to switch to the J. Marriott.