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- Cup of Coffee: August 15, 2024
Cup of Coffee: August 15, 2024
Judge hits his 300th, the White Sox pull a Schooner Tuna, Edwin Díaz should lighten up, the Dbacks AC is on the fritz, a new USMNT coach, J.D. Vance, and The Snake
Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!
And let’s get on with the show.
And That Happened
Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:
Yankees 10, White Sox 2: Aaron Judge hit his 300th career homer in this one and, in doing so, became the fastest ever to accomplish the feat. Judge did so in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat. That beat Ralph Kiner, who reached 300 homers in his 1,087th game. Babe Ruth did in his 3,831st at-bat. Different eras and all of that, sure, but a damn impressive thing from Judge. His homer had to be pretty satisfying too, because it came right after Juan Soto — who himself homered in the first — was intentionally walked. That was almost certainly not actual disrespect for Judge — there was an open base, a runner on second, and the Sox clearly wanted to set up a double play possibility — but I’m sure Judge was motivated by it. Players grab on to anything for motivation. The Yankees remain a half-game up on Baltimore.
Reds 9, Cardinals 2: Jonathan India hit a three-run homer in the third and a solo shot in the fifth. TJ Friedl also homered twice. Tyler Stephenson also homered, but only once, so I have no idea why he’s bein’ such a slacker. In other news, someone on Twitter told me last night that they were buying my book, Rethinking Fandom, because they have become disillusioned with the Cardinals and are seeking a permission structure via which they can walk away from them. Glad I can help!
Mets 9, Athletics 1: Pete Alonso homered, drove in three, and had four hits in all to help the Mets snap a four-game skid. Francisco Lindor had two hits and two RBI while Mark Vientos hit an RBI double which the AP gamer described as “a go-ahead, run-scoring double.” It put the Mets up 1-0 in the second inning. Feel like it’s a bit grand to call such a thing a “go-ahead double,” as that’s usually saved for decisive mid-to-late game hits, but no one’s paying me to edit anyone else so I’ll let it go.
Royals 4, Twins 1: Bobby Witt Jr. homered — on a pitch he had no business homering on — Paul DeJong homered, doubled, and singled, and Cole Ragans allowed one run over seven while striking out eight. The Royals avoid a sweep.
Diamondbacks 11, Rockies 4: Eugenio Suárez hit a grand slam and knocked in five and Joc Pederson drove in a couple. Some shoddy Rockies defense helped things along. Arizona sweeps the three-game series, they have won six in a row, and have won 18 of 21.
Padres 8, Pirates 2: Who is hotter, the Dbacks or the Padres? San Diego, for their part, has won 19 of 22. We can debate that, but no one is colder than the Pirates, as they’ve lost ten straight. Jake Cronenworth and David Peralta homered and Jackson Merrill hit a two-run triple. Martín Pérez allowed one run and five hits in five and a third innings with eight strikeouts and a walk against his old club.
Astros 2, Rays 1: Each team only got two hits all game. That’s a hell of a thing. The Astros’ second hit was Mauricio Dubón driving in the Manfred Man with a 10th-inning single which held up thanks to Josh Hader closing things out. The Astros sweep the three-game series and have won eight in a row. That portion of the early season in which it seemed like Houston’s run was finally over feels like 100 years ago. We’ll probably all be rooting against them in the ALCS once again this October.
Tigers 3, Mariners 2: Detroit trailed 2-0 with two out in the bottom of the eighth, but Matt Vierling doubled off Yimi Garcia and Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run shot to tie the score and force extras. Akil Baddoo hit a pinch-hit double in the 10th inning to give Detroit the walkoff win. It feels as if the Tigers and Mariners have played approximately 100 games against each other in the past week or so. The fact that the Tigers keep beating Seattle is the sort of thing M’s fans are gonna be steaming about when Seattle is stuck with a Wild Card rather than an AL West title.
Orioles 4, Nationals 1: Gunnar Henderson hit a two-run homer in the first, Jackson Holliday singled in a run and Adley Rutschman hit a sac fly in support of Dean Kremer, who allowed one over six to allow the O’s to split the two-game series. Assuming it’s even proper to call two games a “series” or to refer to anyone splitting it.
Guardians 6, Cubs 1: Andrés Giménez drove in three and José Ramírez, Josh Naylor and Will Brennan each knocked in a run as the Guardians complete the sweep. Alex Cobb got the start for Cleveland and picked up his first win since August 29, 2023 after allowing one run and pitching into the sixth.
Rangers 9, Red Sox 7: Wyatt Langford went 3-for-5 with a game-tying three-run homer in the 9th to force extras. Then Jonah Heim hit a two-run homer in the tenth for the win. Adolis García hit two solo homers, in the sixth and the eighth. The Rangers avoid the sweep.
Phillies 9, Marlins 5: Miami jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first which probably had Phillies fans thinking “welp, here we go again,” but the Phils righted the ship, took the lead thanks to Kyle Schwarber’s fourth inning grand slam, and never looked back. The win snapped a four-game losing streak. They’re 8-16 since the All-Star break.
Brewers 5, Dodgers 4: The Dodgers put up a three-run first but the Brewers put up a three-run second to reset things. Milwaukee went ahead in the fourth thanks to a Kiké Hernández error, the Dodgers tied it up, but then Milwaukee took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh when Jackson Chourio singled to right, Mookie Betts muffed the ball, and that allowed Joey Ortíz to score. The Dodgers committed three errors in all, so not their best day, that’s for sure. And it got worse when Devin Williams proceeded to retire Shohei Ohtani, Betts and Freddie Freeman in order, on just seven pitches, in the ninth to lock it down. The win snaps the Brewers three-game losing streak and the Dodgers five-game winning streak.
Blue Jays 9, Angels 2: Jose Berrios allowed just one run on two hits over seven innings. Daulton Varsho hit a three-run home run. I am starting to develop this theory that the Angels don’t actually exist or don’t actually have consciousness but, rather, are baseball’s NPCs. Non-entities put in the system to balance things out and to make sure everyone has an opponent on a given night. Might have to drill into that further in the offseason.
Atlanta 13, Giants 2: Well, at least the Giants didn’t blow this one in extra innings. It was over early, though, as Michael Harris — in his first at-bat after missing almost two months following a hamstring injury — hit a grand slam. Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Sean Murphy also homered for Atlanta. Starter Grant Holmes — a 28 year old rookie — had six strikeouts in seven innings to pick up his first career victory. The Giants had Mike Yastrzemski pitch the ninth inning. He allowed two runs, two hits and three walks. Not great, but he is now the all-time leader in major league appearances and innings pitched in Yastrzemski family history. Given that his grandpa is a Hall of Famer, that’s not too bad.
The Daily Briefing
The White Sox pull a Schooner Tuna
The Chicago White Sox announced that they are lowering season ticket prices by an average of 10% for 2025. Sox’ senior vice president Brooks Boyer:
"We understand where all the ticket prices are -- whether it's season-ticket prices or the secondary market. After looking at that, understanding where we are organizationally, we thought it was important that it's something that we do for our season-ticket holders who have been very loyal to us."
“Understanding where we are organizationally” is the nicest way anyone has ever put “Man, we suck . . . we suck so bad. It’s like historic suck.” And they do suck, obviously. Last year they lost 101 games and it was their worst performance in 53 seasons. This year is gonna blow that out of the water. After last night’s 10-2 loss to the Yankees the Sox are 29-93, which puts them on a pace to lose over 120 games, which would eclipse the 1962 Mets as the worst team in modern baseball history.
Oh, and if you don’t get the headline reference you need to educate yourself.
Lighten up, Edwin Díaz
Oakland A’s relief pitcher Austin Adams was on the Mets roster just before spring training, but they DFA’d him and later traded him to Oakland. Since then he’s put together a decent season by his standards. This week the A’s have been playing the Mets and Adams saw some action against his former team on Tuesday night. He entered the game with runners on first and second with no outs in the fifth and, to his credit, he escaped the jam, with the third out coming on a strikeout of Francisco Alvarez.
As soon as Adams recorded strike three he put his hands in the air, mimicking a celebration the Mets do after home runs called the “OMG” celebration, which is named after a song infielder José Iglesias recently recorded and released under the name “Candelita.” It’s apparently a pretty big hit on the Latin charts. Whatever the case, here’s Adams doing the strikeout and aping the OMG thing:
Mets closer Edwin Díaz was asked about that after the game and, no sir, he did not like it:
"He crossed a line because that's something we do when we hit a homer or something. He (can) do it always, that's fine. But he can't get mad if we do something to him the next couple of days."
What are you gonna do, Edwin? Throw at him while he’s sitting in the bullpen? He’s a relief pitcher. He’s not coming to bat and if you rush him while he’s getting off the team bus or something the cops are gonna get involved.
Which, whatever. Adams ain’t that important in the grand scheme of things. Giving quotes like this just shows him and the A’s and the rest of the league that it’s pretty easy to get under the Mets’ skin. If you don’t wanna get mocked don’t strike out and blow a potential rally.
The Diamondbacks’ air conditioning system is struggling
It’s always hot in Phoenix in the summer but this summer has been particularly brutal, with 79 straight days and counting of triple-digit highs. That has caused problems for Chase Field, where the air conditioning system has been overtaxed. From Front Office Sports:
All that has strained the ballpark’s efforts to establish an interior temperature of 75 degrees. A chilled-water facility adjacent to the ballpark is used to cool the Chase Field air. But the ongoing local heat and a 17% boost in team attendance following last year’s surprise run to the World Series has impaired the system’s ability to maintain that cooler temperature—to the point where some players have complained about cramping and overly humid conditions for an indoor ability.
Seems like a good time to move a baseball team from the mostly temperate-to-downright cool Bay Area and plop them down in Las Vegas.
Mike Cubbage: 1950-2024
Former major leaguer, coach, and interim manager Mike Cubbage has died of cancer. He was 74.
Cubbage was drafted by the Washington Senators in the second round of the 1971 draft and played parts of eight seasons between 1974-81 for the Rangers — who had previously been the Senators — Twins and Mets. A lefty utilityman who appeared in over 100 games in five of his eight seasons, Cubbage had a career line of .258/.330/.369 (94 OPS+). His playing days were probably most notable, historically speaking, by virtue of his being part of a package of four players Texas sent to Minnesota in exchange for future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven midway through the 1976 season. He’d get his most regular use as a starter, primarily at third base, while with the Twins.
Cubbage finished his career with a brief stint for the Mets in 1981, but he must’ve made a great impression on the organization because when he retired after that season they hired him to be a minor league manager. In that capacity he helped mold many of the players who would be a part of those excellent mid-to-late 1980s Mets clubs.
Cubbage himself would return to the big leagues as the Mets hitting coach in 1990 but would spend far more time as the third base coach. He was also the Mets interim manager for a week in 1991 following Bud Harrelson’s firing. Cubbage would eventually become a coach on the Red Sox staff in the early 2000s and once again had a brief interim skipper stint, this time in spring training 2002, after Joe Kerrigan was hired and before Grady Little could take over. Cubbage subsequently worked as a scout and in other player development roles. He picked up a World Series ring as a member of the Nationals’ pro scouting department in 2019.
Rest in peace Mike Cubbage.
Other Stuff
USMNT hires Mauricio Pochettino
The U.S. men’s national soccer team has reportedly hired Mauricio Pochettino as its next head coach. He’ll replace Gregg Berhalter, who was fired following the U.S.’s teams disappointing performance at the Copa America earlier this summer.
My level of knowledge and insight about national team football is poor even by my overall low level of football-knowing. I know that the U.S. team has pretty badly underperformed over the years. And while my gut feeling is that it’s more of a structural thing than a leadership thing — we just don’t do youth sports the right way here, I don’t think, and that seriously restricts the talent pipeline — (a) that’s obviously not the case with the women’s national team, so who knows; and (b) my friends who do know a lot about national team football had a LOT of specific criticism of Berhalter, so a change was almost certainly needed either way.
Pochettino has no national team experience, but he’s obviously a well-known club guy. Just this last season he was Chelsea’s coach and, despite a generally successful year for a club which has had some uncharacteristic struggles of late, he and the club parted ways. Whether that was because, as club sources said, Pochettino was stuck in his ways and had an antiquated approach to things or, per outside sources, Pochettino was miffed that Chelsea, which was in a financial pinch after years of bad decisions, wanted to go young and cheap instead of truly going for it is something I’m in no position to determine. Probably a little from column A, a little from column B, as are most things.
I do know that he had a pretty decent run at Tottenham before I really started paying attention to English football. Some will probably make jokes about the U.S. team hiring a Tottenham manager given how Spurs are routinely compared to the Mets and other shoot-themselves-in-the-foot sports franchises. But really dudes, if the U.S. Mens team under Pochettino gets a Tottenham-like rep for being excellent much of the time but losing in the semis or the finals, that’s a pretty damn big improvement for us, yeah?
Yay?
The BBC has a story about British marathon runner Rose Harvey who finished in 78th place — but did finish! — at the Paris Olympics. The thing about it, though: she did so with a severely injured hip and a stress fracture in her femur. Harvey:
“It was really tough. It was a really, really hard day. I knew from about two miles in that my hip was going to be really, pretty painful. The hills didn’t help at all, the downhills were just agony and it just got worse and worse. At the halfway mark, I knew that it was going to be incredibly painful. Honestly, today I'm not sure how I did it because I can't put any weight on my leg at all . . . Any other race I would have stopped, because I wasn't able to run like I normally can... and the pain was really bad, but I just had to get to that finish line, I had to do the Olympic marathon."
She’s getting married in a couple of weeks and is concerned about being able to walk down the aisle, though everyone involved, including her fiancee, says it’s all worth it and they’ll make it work.
I’m not an athlete. I never was an athlete and I’ll never be an athlete. I’ll never understand an athlete’s mindset. But I feel like “painful injured hip and stress fracture in femur” is a good enough reason to maybe bag out at mile seven or whatever. No one would give you crap for that, I promise!
J.D. Vance loves sweat shops and migrant labor
During J.D. Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention he talked about his personal record of starting businesses “to create jobs in the kinds of places that I grew up in” and what he called the need to “stand up for” American businesses. He has also spent a great deal of time, as have all Republicans, railing against immigrants and using the specter of people from places like Mexico and Guatemala taking the jobs of hard-working Americans.
So it’s probably pretty awkward for him that CNN is reporting on a company he invested in, was a board member of, and for which he served as the public face which promised to provide good jobs to eastern Kentuckians but which ended up being a sweatshop/hellhole that had to rely on migrant workers from Mexico and Guatemala and ultimately went bankrupt.
And don’t for a minute think that the company was not aware of how its realities did not reflect its stated goals and values:
As workers left, AppHarvest replaced them with migrant workers, numerous former employees told CNN. By the early fall of 2021, Hester described a workforce that was made up of many workers from countries such as Mexico and Guatemala.
That juxtaposition with the company’s public messaging on jobs was on full display when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, toured the greenhouse that November.
“They brought Mitch McConnell into the greenhouse, and they sent every single Hispanic worker home before he got there,” Hester said. “He then proceeded to have a speech about how we were taking the jobs from the Mexicans.” At least five workers confirmed Hester’s account of McConnell’s visit to CNN.
Supporting other worker accounts, Hester’s husband, Mitch Smith, who also worked at AppHarvest, told CNN that the migrants were kept in separate bays from other workers and were sent away when bigwigs came through the warehouse.
Vance has moonwalked from the company and his spokespeople are minimizing his involvement, but the operation would never have gotten off the ground if it were not for Vance’s investment and participation. Investment and participation which was clearly part of his and Peter Thiel’s carefully-crafted mission to make Vance into a viable political figure. It was Vance, still riding high on his “Hillbilly Elegy” persona, trying to show how he and he alone understood the challenges facing places like eastern Kentucky and how his life experiences, combined with Silicon Valley cash and regulators just leaving them the hell alone, can make the world a better place.
Except, branding aside, the plan was no different than any other plan from any other bunch of exploitative investors. Rely overwhelmingly on employees who are misclassified as “contract laborers,” cut costs to the bone making working conditions unbearable and, when that’s not good enough, find a more easily exploitable labor force in the form of migrant workers. If that fails, hell, declare bankruptcy, walk away, and disavow any substantive involvement.
And just as the plan at that plant in Kentucky was no different from any other soulless, amoral, ethically-challenged venture capitalist enterprise, Vance is no different than any other soulless, amoral, ethically-challenged venture capitalist. He just got some better P.R. for a brief while and has bene riding it ever since.
You knew he was a snake . . .
Back in the 2016 campaign, and for some time thereafter, Donald Trump would take time during his rallies to recite the lyrics to the song “The Snake,” which was written and originally recorded by Oscar Brown but later turned into a hit by Al Wilson. In the song a woman takes in a sick and nearly frozen snake, nurses it back to health, after which it immediately bites her. When she, with her dying breath, asks why the snake did such a thing despite the kindness she showed it, the snake replies — with a grin! — "Oh shut up, silly woman/You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”
The song is an adaptation of an Aesop fable, the moral of which is that that kindness to evil will, inevitably, be met by betrayal. Trump, of course, used the song as a means of demonizing immigrants, casting them as the snake and America as the poor victim of their treachery. To say this pissed me off is an understatement. Obviously because the sentiment was odious, but also because Wilson’s version of “The Snake” is a stone cold jam that is often heard at clubs during northern soul nights, it’s one of my wife’s favorite songs to dance to of all time, I like watching my wife dance, and Trump ruined that one for us for a good while.
That aside: it’s worth noting that, as is the case with almost everything Trump has ever done, his use of “The Snake” was an exercise in disingenuous projection.
Trump, in the phony guise of a successful businessman promising greatness, conned millions into embracing him before he bit ‘em all, just as he has bit every single person who has ever gone into business or into politics with him. In this I don’t even really blame Trump as much as I blame the people who have supported him and who have carried water for him. He is as a politician what he always was as a businessman and as a human being: self-centered, phony, shitty, concerned only with his own best interests, and willing to betray anyone at the drop of a hat. That so many failed to or refused to see that after he spent years demonstrating it in the most public ways possible is on them, frankly. Most of us saw that coming from miles away. From decades away.
That all comes to mind because, as Trump’s campaign continues to melt down, Republicans are getting increasingly panicky about it. And, in their panic, they’re imploring Trump to “stay on message.” A prominent example of this came when Nikki Haley went on Fox News the other night and said this:
I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she is dumb. You can’t win on those things
Hayley, you’ll recall, was one of the few Republicans who actually tried to challenge Trump in recent years. She ran in the primaries against him and, for at least a little while there, she called him out for what he actually is. Of course GOP voters did not want to hear that, she was badly defeated, and then she quickly bent the knee and came crawling back. But hey, at least she showed a modicum of actual objectivity there for a moment!
Which is why it’s so rich for her, of all people, to be acting surprised that Trump is campaigning on bigotry and misogyny and is fixated on ego-feeding crap like his crowd sizes. It’s what he does! It’s all he does! It’s who he is! You’re expecting him to spend more than eight seconds talking about tax or regulatory policy when there are millions of red hat-wearing cult members who loudly cheer him when he plays the hits? Please.
Nikki, you silly woman. You knew damn well he was a snake before you took him in. Both times.
Have a great day everyone.
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