Cup of Coffee: July 26, 2024

Hey everyone —

Because I was on airplanes most of yesterday and didn’t get home until the wee hours this morning there’s no newsletter today. I thought of just not sending anything but (a) people like to comment on stuff beyond what I write about; and (b) if I simply didn’t send anything out a lot of folks would email and say “I didn’t get a newsletter today” and this saves everyone time.

But I did have time to note this before I got on my plane:

Padres 3, Nationals 0: Dylan Cease tossed a dang no-hitter. He struck out nine and walked three, and accomplished the feat in 114 pitches. It was only the third complete game in his 145 starts, but I suppose it’ll be the one he remembers the most.

Oh, and Cease had some pretty damn great help from Xander Bogaerts and Jackson Merrill on a play in the bottom of the fifth:

This is only the second no-hitter in the Padres’ 55-year history. The first one only came three years ago when Joe Musgrove no-hit the Rangers. It’s the second no-hitter this season, with Houston's Ronel Blanco twirling one against Toronto on April 1.

Congrats, Dylan Cease!

Beyond that: talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you a topic: How do we feel about the fact that Southwest Airlines plans to do away with the A-B-C/open seating thing it’s done for the past 50 years and go to assigned seats with premium seating and all of that?

As someone who flies Southwest a fair amount because of how his home airport rolls, I will admit that I’m a bit tired of it, and not just because I think they’re rigging it in order to encourage you pay for the Early Bird Check-In (seriously: if I click “check in” the millisecond the clock changes I should NOT be getting stuck with B12).

At the same time, it’s fun to see who boards with C-group and to imagine what was going on in their life that they could not check-in 24 hours in advance. “That guy had a rough night and slept past check-in time . . . that woman bought this ticket as a walk-up just this morning because she’s impulsively chasing after the man she loves.” At least that’s how my inner monologue goes as I see people in the last boarding group vainly search for a seat on an aisle or a window before asking someone to let them get into the middle seat in a defeated tone.

Anyway, I suppose I’m agnostic about it.

Back on Monday.

Have a great weekend, everyone.