Cup of Coffee: September 3, 2024

Good morning!

Yesterday was a federal holiday and usually on federal holidays we have a full slate of games. But nope. Eight teams had the day off. I’d like to say that this was MLB’s attempt to recognize that (a) players are labor; and (b) Labor Day should, at least partially, be recognized by giving the workers a day off, but we all know better than that. MLB and its owners would sooner crush organized labor and abolish Labor Day than to recognize it in even the slightest way, so it was business as usual as far as the league was concerned. Not that that’s new or anything.

We still have a full newsletter today, however. Recaps of the 11 games which did go down, an item about how math is probably keeping a Yankees prospect down on the farm, the Astros’ strange handling of Kyle Tucker’s injury, and we hear from a parent of a kid deeply involved in youth sports who tells us how big of an outlay that whole deal really is.

In Other Stuff we have a Newsletter Update, The Economist uses a word that I don’t think means what they think it means, a suspected Russian agent has been neutralized, and I talk a bit about naked game shows.

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