Cup of Coffee: May 30, 2024

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

Normally at this point I’d say “let’s get to it!” or something, but I understand if Mets fans would rather not.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Dodgers 10, Mets 3: Shohei Ohtani homered and drove in three while Will Smith went deep twice to give the Dodgers the sweep over the reeling Mets. Jason Heyward also homered. New York’s bullpen gave up seven runs to extend that crew’s recent run of futility.

Six of those runs came in the eighth, which began with the score tied at three. Two of those runs came off of Mets reliever Jorge López, who surrendered that two-run home run to Ohtani, then fell behind Freddie Freeman 3-1 before barking about third-base umpire Ramon De Jesus' ruling on a check swing. De Jesus ejected López. Then things got fun, with López untucking his shirt on the field and throwing his glove into the stands as he made his way to the dugout:

López was interviewed after the game and appeared to say the Mets were “the worst team in, probably in the whole fuckin’ MLB”:

To many it sounded like he said "worst teammate,” but later, when asked by an MLB.com reporter to clarify, the response, through an intermediary, was “López said he meant them as a combination of both: the worst teammate on the worst team in the league." So yeah.

Either way, the Mets understandably moved to DFA López after the game. Which, on top of the injury to Edwin Díaz, mentioned below, means New York is now down a couple of arms. Not that any of the arms they have have been assets of late.

Oh, and Pete Alonso is hurt now too, exiting this game in the first inning after he was hit on the right hand by a pitch. After the game Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said X-rays on Alonso's hand were negative, but the CT scan results, which often reveal injuries when X-rays do not, will not be back until today, so hold on to your butts.

The Mets have lost 10 of 12 and now they’re doing it super ugly to boot. When does Jets camp start?

Tigers 8, Pirates 0; Pirates 10, Tigers 2: In the first game Tarik Skubal continued his fantastic season, shutting the Buccos out for seven while striking out eight and winning his seventh on the year. Matt Vierling hit a three-run homer and drove in four. Riley Greene added two hits and scored two runs. The tables were turned in the second game when Paul Skenes did Paul Skenes things, striking out nine over six innings. Andrew McCutchen had a three-run homer and drove in four. Nick Gonzales had three hits including a solo homer. Vierling homered again for the Tigers, albeit this time in a losing cause.

Cardinals 5, Reds 3: Matt Carpenter doesn’t homer often anymore but he did here. Nolan Gorman homered for the second game in a row. He also had an RBI double. Andre Pallante allowed three hits in six scoreless innings. The win puts the Cardinals back at .500 for the first time since mid-April.

Rangers 6, Diamondbacks 1: Corey Seager homered again — his eighth in eight games — and Dane Dunning threw five scoreless innings, about which I’ll say nothing because I don’t really do that anymore. Marcus Semien was not in the lineup for the first time since May 13, 2022, ending his streak of 349 consecutive games played. I saw one report saying that Semien’s “iron man” streak ended. In related news, today is the 42nd anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. beginning his record consecutive games streak. He went a bit more than 349 games, of course, so let’s maybe use the term “iron man” judiciously.

Phillies 6, Giants 1: Christopher Sánchez put in six shutout innings while Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber went deep. Castellanos added a double and a single and Schwarber added an RBI single to help Philly end their three-game skid. Fun stuff: both benches cleared in the fourth when Giants starter Kyle Harrison threw two straight pitches high and inside to Bryce Harper, one of which hit the knob of Harper’s bat. No punches were thrown and there were no ejections so it was pretty lame. Wake me up when the terms “fracas,” “hullabaloo,” or “fisticuffs” can properly be used.

Marlins 9, Padres 1: Josh Bell had three hits and scored twice, Jesús Sánchez hit a solo homer, Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two hits and drove in two, and Nick Fortes knocked in a couple. Braxton Garrett allowed one over five.

Orioles 6, Red Sox 1: Gunnar Henderson hit a grand slam. Ramón Urías singled in a run just before that happened and he later homered for the O’s sixth run on the night. That was plenty for Corbin Burnes who went seven, allowing just the one run. Baltimore takes two of three.

Rays 4, Athletics 3: Jose Siri doubled, walked, and later delivered a walk-off RBI single to end this one. He also made a leaping catch at the wall in center field in the top of the ninth which appeared as though it was destined to be a two-run homer to keep the Rays in a position to win it.

Nationals 7, Atlanta 2: MacKenzie Gore struck out 10 in just five and a third innings, allowing just one earned run, six hits, and no walks, while dropping his ERA to 2.91 on the season. Lane Thomas was the offensive hero. He went 3-for-4 with a go-ahead three-run home run, a double, a walk, two runs scored, and two stolen bases. Atlanta starter Spencer Schwellenbach made his major league debut last night. Schwellenbach went five and gave up three, looking pretty good while doing it for most of the way. Things unraveled for him in that final frame, however, when he hit Jacob Young in the head with a pitch. Young was on the ground for a minute but stayed in the game. Schwellenbach was clearly upset, and he soon gave up that homer to Thomas. The big leagues are tough.

Brewers 10, Cubs 6: Willy Adames went 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and two runs scored. Christian Yelich went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, three RBI, and two runs scored. Blake Perkins went 2-for-4 with a home run, double, and two RBI. They were just cloning nights like that in Milwaukee on Wednesday. All of that was enough to hand Shōta Imanaga his first loss of the year and to jack his ERA up from 0.84 to 1.86.

Royals 6, Twins 1: Seth Lugo picked up his ninth win on the year after allowing just one earned run across six innings. And, thanks to Imanaga’s poor night in Milwaukee, Lugo's ERA, which dropped to 1.72, is now the best in baseball. Nelson Velázquez, meanwhile, went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI. Sal Perez also went deep and later doubled in a run.

Blue Jays 3, White Sox 1: George Springer went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored. Bichette singled in one and Isiah Kiner-Falefa knocked in a couple. Bad news for the Jays: starter Alek Manoah departed because of elbow discomfort in the second inning. The bullpen picked him up and then some, allowing just one run over the final seven and a third. We’ll no doubt hear more about Manoah’s status today following his MRI.

Rockies 7, Guardians 4: Ty Blach allowed two runs with five strikeouts over seven and Brendan Rodgers hit a two-run homer in a six-run second inning to pace the Rockies. The Rockies have won three series in a row.

Yankees 2, Angels 1: Luis Gil was solid again, allowing just one run over eight while striking out nine to pick up his seventh win. His only blemish was giving up a solo homer to Logan O’Hoppe in the seventh. But Alex Verdugo hit a solo shot of his own and Anthony Volpe scored on a triple which forced an error that allowed him to come home in the eighth. Clay Holmes closed it out.

Mariners 2, Astros 1: Justin Verlander (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 9K) and George Kirby (6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 8K) had a pretty good pitcher’s duel going. Dominic Canzone’s solo homer gave the M’s their only run through nine and Jake Meyers’ RBI single constituted the same for Houston. Seattle won it in the 10th when a groundout put the Manfred Man on third. After Astros reliever Tayler Scott walked two batters to load the bases J.P. Crawford hit a walkoff sac fly.

The Daily Briefing

Edwin Díaz heads to the IL 

The Mets bullpen has been dogshit of late, blowing saves like it’s their job. Except it’s not their job. Blowing saves is a bad thing. And part of that is a function of the club’s putative closer, Edwin Díaz, being hurt. We learned that yesterday when Díaz was placed on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder impingement.

Shoulder impingements are tricky things. Sometimes they’re the precursor to more definitive ailments. Sometimes they lead to “oh crap, dude is out for the season for reasons we’ve never quite been clear on.”

Either way, it’s been clear that something is pretty damn wrong with Díaz. He has allowed 11 runs in his last 10.1 innings and has blown four of last five save chances while opponents have hit .326/.383/.651 against him. So now we know it’s because of pain, not because he forgot how to pitch.

In closing, the Mets 2024 season is a nightmare.

Metaphor Alert

The crew demolishing the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas — the site on which the Athletics’ future stadium will purportedly be built — had a bit of a problem yesterday. A big piece of equipment fell into a hole that once housed the Tropicana’s septic system:

I appreciate that the A’s have more experience dealing with troublesome sewage management systems than most teams, but this one is a little on-the-nose.

Other Stuff

This is adorable 

From the NYT newsletter:

I first wrote “Marco Rubio thinking he’s going to be Donald Trump’s running mate is like a small child coming up to you and telling you that he or she is going to be an astronaut someday,” but then I remembered that there are some kids out there who will, in fact, become astronauts some day. This, on the other hand, is unmitigated fantasy. It almost brings a tear to your eye.

This was predictable

People often ask me when baseball was at its best. My reply, which I offer as a joke but which is the actual answer, is “whenever the person making the judgment was about 12 years old.” By the same token, it’s always just a few years after the speaker was 12 that baseball started to go downhill, players only cared about money, and all of that. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

With that in mind, I greatly enjoyed the results of a Washington Post survey in which people were asked when American culture, in terms of music, movies, TV, fashion, sports, food, and stuff like that was at its best. The answer, which is consistent across generations:

The pollsters also asked about when things were at their worst. As the Post notes, “almost without exception, if you ask an American when times were worst, the most common response will be ‘right now!’ This holds true even when ‘now’ is clearly not the right answer.” That dynamic applies to subjective things like music and objective things like the economy. To hear anyone but a current 17 year old tell it, music has never been worse than RIGHT NOW and times have never been harder.

In a recent newsletter I wrote about why I’ve spent so much time over the past year or two reading history, to the exclusion of almost all other topics. To expand on that a bit, I’ll say that a lot of it is tied up in my increasing distaste for public discourse, about almost anything, that seems to lack all perspective, be it in reference to history or basic reason. A lot of that has to do with the fact that said discourse is filtered through a modern media that does well when breathless outrage or generational resentment is the order of the day. It causes almost everyone to do what only pessimists and cynics used to do, which is pine for some glorious past that, in most cases, did not actually exist in the way people like to claim it did. When you read a lot of history you realize that, actually, most things are pretty great now compared to the past, even if there are some notable exceptions and some serious present challenges.

Of course we didn’t think so myopically back in my day. Unlike today, which sucks worse than ever, back in the late 80s and early 90s the media was smarter, the people were wiser, and all manner of other things were great. What a damn coincidence!

All aboard the U.S.S. Icarus

Less than a year after the implosion of the Titan submersible, an Ohio real estate billionaire named Larry Connor announced that he is planning to take a two-person submersible of his own down to Titanic-level depths to prove that the journey can be carried out safely.

The best part, besides the fantastic chance for Poseidon or Aquaman or whoever to deliver a lesson about the dangers of hubris, is that Connor wants to help you and me, the common people, understand things:

He has a point. There is, quite obviously, no other way to appreciate the power, wonder, and enjoyable qualities of the ocean without going 12,000 feet below its surface in an otherwise purposeless multi-million dollar contraption. I do hope he succeeds, because for my entire life I’ve been waiting to have informed opinions about the ocean, and if he fails I don’t know if any of us will ever have another chance to gain an appreciation for it.

This is relevant to my interests

There is a lot of weapons-grade stupid surrounding AI. Stuff like this:

Imagine someone who has ever stepped foot outside of a Silicon Valley workspace or his own LinkedIn feed actually saying something so goddamn dumb. Of course, if you don’t say stuff like that no one will ever call you a “thought leader” so I suppose I can see why he’s laying that bit of insight down.

There are some AI applications, however — or things with the term “AI” slapped on them so they get media coverage — which sound great. Stuff like this:

Because I’m not living in 2029 like my homeboy in the above tweet, I still find myself in drinking establishments from time to time. My biggest problem in them or any other people-filled space in which conversations take place is distinguishing individual voices. If the room we’re in has even a moderate amount of noise floating around I’m lost. I can hear the person talking in the same way you hear the adults in a Peanuts animated special talking to the kids — “wha wha wha wha wha!” — but it’s a real challenge for me to make out what an individual is saying over the broader din. In these situations I nod and smile a lot but then I start to detach and daydream. If you’ve ever met me out in public you’ve probably noticed me doing it. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I can’t hear.

I know this is a me problem. Allison or other people I’m with rarely seem to have the kind of trouble I do. I’ve often fantasized of having a Cyberdyne T-800 augmented reality screen in my line of vision with a transcript of whatever the speaker in a bar or restaurant is telling me. As a bonus it can also display the person’s name, as I’m one of those people who forget names the moment I’m told them. That’s not some unique sensory deficit of mine, however. That’s just me being kind of an asshole.

If this article is not bullshit — and one never knows when AI claims are involved — I’ll happily upgrade my AirPods. By doing so I’ll not have to ask Allison what the hell so-and-so was talking about while we’re walking back home.

Wanna own a York Steakhouse?

Old timers among us will remember York Steakhouses. The cafeteria-style chain was sort of like Ponderosa, Bonanza, or Ryan’s and served as a precursor to joints like Golden Corral. Places that dominated the middle class culinary scene for a couple of decades but mostly went the way of the dodo in the 80s or 90s as tastes changed and even the most ordinary people got too fancy-pants for ‘em.

Yorks, which were owned by General Mills for many years, were mostly in malls and thrived in the 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s before being purchased by some other company which shuttered or converted and then shuttered almost every location. Some limped on as Bonzanas for a spell. Most died with the obsolete malls which once housed them.

There is one exception, however: the York Steakhouse location on West Broad Street here in beautiful Columbus, Ohio. That location was not in a mall. It’s a freestanding location across the street from a mall which no longer exists. The franchise owner, however, has kept the restaurant open all these years, complete with all of the York branding and, I’m told, all of the York ambiance you may expect. These are all recent pictures from its Google Maps page:

This York, the last of its kind, remains fairly popular as far as things go. And now it could be yours if you have the scratch, because its owner, Jay Bettin, is retiring and putting it up for sale as a going concern. From the restaurant’s Facebook page:

The building and land are not for sale, just the business, which Bettin plans to keep running while a buyer is sought and is, presumably, trained to run the restaurant, which the post says will remain open and “will continue for years!”

I’ve been aware for a few years now that this York has remained open, but I’ve never bothered to shlep all the way out to the west side to try it. I should probably amend that. Maybe I’ll take my mom. She was the last person I know to ever order beef tips anywhere — probably in the mid-80s — and I’ll be damned if York doesn’t still have ‘em on the menu.

Have a great day everyone.