Cup of Coffee: August 21, 2024

Good morning!

The Atlanta Baseball Club has signed who they hope will be a stopgap solution at third base, Trevor Bauer continues to make friends, Disney still doesn’t get it, neither does J.D. Vance for that matter, political press fact-checking is an absolute joke, and RFK Jr. suggests the obvious.

Today’s final item is a State of the Newsletter thing in which I talk about the recent deliverability issues we’ve had and the steps I am taking — the cautious, preliminary steps — to get off of this godforsaken platform. Basically, I’ve had it.

But let’s try to be positive before we get too negative.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Diamondbacks 3, Marlins 1: The Dbacks had only four hits but two of them were Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. homers. Eduardo Rodríguez allowed one run and six hits over five and a third innings and Ryan Thompson, A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez combined for three and two-thirds innings of one-hit scoreless relief after he left.

Rockies 3, Nationals 1: Austin Gomber gave up one run on three hits in seven innings while Ryan McMahon had two hits and drove in a run and Nolan Jones singled in a run. The Rockies have won three of four, which is pretty damn cool for the Rockies.

Blue Jays 10, Reds 3: George Springer hit two homers and Leo Jiménez, Alejandro Kirk, and Spencer Horwitz also went deep for The Jays. José Berríos struck out seven in seven innings of two-run ball while striking out seven. Reds starter Carson Spiers allowed 13 hits and 10 runs, nine earned, in four and a third innings. Man, they let his ass wear that one, didn’t they? Did David Bell find him with his daughter or something? Harsh.

Orioles 9, Mets 5: James McCann homered, had a sac fly, and drove in three, Anthony Santander homered and Ramón Urías and Eloy Jiménez drove in runs. Dean Kremer allowed just one run over six, giving up two hits and striking out seven. The game story made a big thing about saying that McCann is 5-for-9 with eight RBI in 11 plate appearances over three games against his old team, the Mets, this season, but I honestly wonder if anyone involved cares.

Atlanta 3, Phillies 1: Marcell Ozuna hit a homer in the sixth to break a 1-1 tie, and newest Atlantian, Gio Urshela, drew a bases loaded walk in the eighth to give ‘em some breathing room. More on Urshela below. Reynaldo López struck out ten over five innings of one-run ball. Atlanta is still six games behind Philly, but the sides meet six more times over the next 12 games so, hey, who knows

Brewers 3, Cardinals 2: Frankie Montas pitches seven innings of one-hit shutout ball while William Contreras had three hits including an RBI double and Sal Frelick added two hits, including an RBI single. That’s six straight wins for the Brewers.

Pirates 4, Rangers 0: Mitch Keller righted the ship after a couple of dogshit starts, tossing seven shutout innings, and striking out nine. Bryan De La Cruz singled in two, Oneil Cruz tripled in Bryan De La Cruz, and Jared Triolo singled in a run with no Cruzes/De La Cruzes involved, which is quite the trick on the Pirates these days.

Red Sox 6, Astros 5: Triston Casas hit an early two-run homer and later singled in a run while Jarred Duran singled in the tying run in the fourth and hit a tie-breaking homer in the eighth. Nick Pivetta sucked in the start for the Boston but four relievers tossed four innings of shutout ball.

Cubs 3, Tigers 1: Cody Bellinger hit a two-run double and Dansby Swanson homered while Javier Assad pitched into the sixth, allowing just one run on six hits and striking out seven. Tyson Miller, Drew Smyly and Porter Hodge threw three and a third scoreless innings, each allowing a hit, to close things out. It doesn’t matter because it came in a losing cause but Spencer Torkelson went 4-for-4. Kinda happy to see him hitting since he’s been called back up.

Angels 9, Royals 5: Tyler Anderson had a really 1990s start, allowing five runs on 12 hits and striking out just two guys over six innings but he pulled out the win thanks to the run support. That included an RBI double from Kevin Pillar, a sac fly from Anthony Rendon, a Zach Neto homer, two RBI singles from Logan O’Hoppe, one from, Rendon, and some additional run-scoring hits that just kept on piling up.

Guardians 9, Yankees 5: This one was tied at three by the fourth and stayed that way until the 12th when Lane Thomas doubled in a run, José Ramírez singled in another, David Fry tripled with the bases loaded, plating all three runners, and Jhonkensy Noel singled in Fry. Cleveland getting five and two-thirds of scoreless bullpen work in the middle of this one helped a lot. The Yankees had a lot of chances to win this one, despite the fact that starter Luis Gil exited early with lower back tightness, but they were dog crap with runners in scoring position and stranded a bunch of runners. Oh, and the game lasted four hours and five minutes, which, woof.

Padres 7, Twins 5: Jurickson Profar hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to put San Diego up by one and Xander Bogaerts doubled in some insurance later in the inning. Manny Machado also went deep and Jake Cronenworth had two hits and scored two runs.

Rays 1, Athletics 0: Offense was at a premium here, as Shane Baz and Joey Estes each pitched seven and two-thirds innings and each allowed only three hits. The last one Estes gave up was, unfortunately for him, a solo homer to José Siri in the top of the eighth. That gave Baz his first victory since July 3, 2022.

Giants 4, White Sox 1: Robbie Ray struck out nine while allowing just one run while pitching into the seventh. Heliot Ramos drove in two as the Giants won their third straight game and remain 3.5 games behind Atlanta for the final NL Wild Card spot.

Dodgers 6, Mariners 3: The M’s took an early 3-0 lead but the Dodgers bashed their way back thanks to Gavin Lux and Max Muncy homering in the fourth, Mookie Betts doubling in a run to tie things up in the seventh, and then Jason Heyward smacking a three-run pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the eighth. The two base runners who reached before the dinger walked and were hit by a pitch so, nah, not a good day for M’s reliever Andres Muñoz. Whose name I first wrote as Anthony before catching it because, of course, my brain autopilots to 1983 on the regular.

The Daily Briefing

Atlanta signs Gio Urshela 

The Atlanta Baseball Club signed free agent infielder Gio Urshela yesterday. The move comes a day after they put Austin Riley on the IL with a broken hand. Urshela, who mostly played third base for the Detroit Tigers before being released this past weekend, will be a part of the chewing gum and bailing wire keeping Atlanta’s postseason hopes alive in the final month and change of the 2024 campaign.

The Tigers signed Urshela just before the season (a) to be a stopgap backup in case some younger players didn’t pan out; and (b) to possibly flip at the deadline. The first part worked out as Urshela played a lot of baseball for Detroit this year, but his batting line — .243/.286/.333 (73 OPS+) — pretty much foreclosed the possibility of the Tigers getting anything for him in trade, thus the post-deadline DFA and release.

I don’t figure he’s the type of player who will ignite a late-season surge to keep Atlanta in the playoff picture, but as a stopgap he’s better than anything the club has in-house, so signing him makes sense.

Trevor Bauer takes an obvious swipe at Joey Votto

Separate and apart from doing things which led to him receiving the longest suspension in the history of baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy, Trevor Bauer has also made himself persona non grata for being super unpopular with many and sometimes most of his teammates.

To wit:

• Bauer had a notorious feud with UCLA teammate Gerrit Cole, which most people have chalked up to Bauer being a jackass;
• Despite being a top prospect and a high draft pick, Bauer was traded away from the Arizona Diamondbacks because he pissed off a number of his teammates, particularly his catcher, Miguel Montero, about whom Bauer subsequently recorded a terrible diss track;
• He exasperated the usually hard-to-exasperate Terry Francona in Cleveland with his immature antics, and was traded away a couple of days after he hurled a ball over the wall when Francona came to lift him from a game; and
• While he was on administrative leave, well before his suspension, the Los Angeles Times reported that “Two people with knowledge of Dodgers clubhouse dynamics, who are unauthorized to speak publicly about the situation, said that a majority of players do not want Bauer back under any circumstances.” Again: this was a day or two after he was placed on leave and before anyone knew anything about the sexual assault allegations against him. They just didn’t like the guy and were happy he was gone.

So it’s probably not surprising, then, that Bauer didn’t make friends during his time in Cincinnati either. We learned more about this earlier this week when Bauer brought that up on his Twitter feed.

For context, a guy who runs a Cincinnati Reds fan account — after stanning for the team to re-sign Bauer and lamenting the “woke” people in baseball who are allegedly blackballing him — replied to a Bauer tweet by sharing a photo of Bauer in his Dodgers uniform with two of his former Reds teammates. The poster, referring to the Reds, said “still cannot believe how much some of them hated you!” Bauer’s response:

Reds fans who followed up on this suggested that the first guy Bauer mentioned was Eugenio Suárez, though it’s not clear what incident Bauer is referring to. The second one is very clearly Joey Votto, who Bauer once cussed out it in the dugout, in front of everyone, after Votto committed an error in a game back in September 2020.

Again: Joey Votto. The best Reds player since Barry Larkin and one of the best players in franchise history. A player who is almost universally loved by Reds and non-Reds fans alike. That’s the guy Bauer, who had been with Cincinnati for a little over a year at that point and who was only there because he was run out of two previous clubhouses, decided he was going to make a public example of and against whom he still, apparently, holds a grudge four years later.

Gee, it’s a wonder why no one wants to sign this guy.

Other Stuff

Disney still doesn’t get it

Remember the recent story about the wrongful death suit against Disney which was filed after a woman from New York was served food with allergens at Disney World and died of anaphylactic shock? And how Disney lawyers were trying to get the case thrown out and sent to binding arbitration because the woman’s husband had, years prior, signed up for a free trial of Disney+ which contained a terms-of-service-mandated arbitration clause? And how it became a big national story in which Disney was pilloried for being so callous and craven?

Yeah, well, Disney read the room and has dropped that argument. They are no longer moving the court to have the case sent to arbitration.

Except, contrary to what the headlines are saying, they’re not actually acknowledging that their position was horseshit. Indeed, they’re still insisting that they have the right to take the case to arbitration if they want to. They just don’t want to. At least that’s what the company’s statement, from Josh D’Amaro, the Chairman of Disney Experiences, pretty clearly says:

“At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations. With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss. As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”

“Waive our right.” As if their claim was in any way meritorious in the first place and that they’re simply foregoing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

This will likely put out the P.R. fire, but I hope the judge is giving them the old side eye all the way through this case. I know I would be.

Today’s J.D. Vance item

I mean, I should just keep calling it that seeing as as though he is turning out to be a constant source of material. Anyway:

There's nothing easier than glad-handing at a local business but Vance can’t buy a thing of olives and a sando to go without (a) asking them if they have food that sucks; and (b) without referencing a vendetta he has that no one outside of his little bubble gives the tiniest crap about. My dude here simply cannot go five minutes without being unfunny, resentful, ungracious, and small. It's amazing!

While it’s patently obvious that I despise J.D. Vance, I think I’m being objective here when I note that this is what happens when your political rise comes in an environment and in a party where the greatest claim to honor is winning some petty argument or coming up with some edgy way to own your haters via tweets or memes or something. This is what happens when you’re terminally online and forget that virtually everyone in the world at least attempts to be normal and amiable among strangers or in places where you might want to come off well. J.D. Vance, however, is the logical product of a political movement the lingua franca of which is comprised almost exclusively of insults, grievances, and negativity, so he cant do it.

How hard is it to walk into a deli in a swing state and say “happy to be here! The food is great!” while flashing a smile? If you’re J.D. Vance it is apparently physically impossible.

This has to be a bit

This actually appeared on the Washington Post’s website Monday night during Joe Biden’s speech at the DNC:

That, by itself, would be an astoundingly stupid and naive thing for anyone with a brain and two eyes to say. But the fact that it was said by a reporter whose bio notes that she was “a member of The Post team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including its runup and aftermath,” almost makes it into performance art.

Really, every fact check of anti-Trump comments is hilarious. "Trump did not say he'd reject election results, just that any result that didn't have him winning would be the result of Democrats rigging it." Or "No, Trump did not say he loves Nazis, he said he loves white supremacists." Or, “No, Trump did not say to inject bleach to fight COVID, he said to inject a non-bleach disinfectant.” Seriously, those are things the fact-checkers are saying.

It’s all very clarifying! Just not in the way the fact-checkers seem to think it is.

Not surprising at all

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate Nicole Shanahan was on a podcast yesterday and said this about the possibility of the ticket quitting the campaign:

“There’s two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we draw more votes from Trump. Or we walk away right now and join forces with with Donald Trump and explain to our base why we're making this decision.”

I have long suspected that RFK Jr.’s campaign was far more damaging to Trump’s than Biden’s/Harris’ because his whole anti-vaccination thing is far more in keeping with what a certain brand of Trumper who was radicalized during the pandemic likes than what those otherwise inclined to support the Democrats might like. Yes, there is a real strain of new-age woo-woo on the left as well, but that tends to be most prominent in the more granola precincts of California, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado, and it’s not like Harris was gonna lose those in those places with or without them. It’s the Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia anti-vaxx types — the ones who got a case of the redass when Chili’s was closed for three weeks in April 2020 and who might’ve otherwise leaned Trump — who have been most seduced by RFK Jr., I suspect.

This would seem like an admission of that, probably informed by internal polling. And it’s probably RFK Jr.’s effort to curry favor with Trump in the hopes of getting something out of a Trump win, if such a thing comes to pass.

A Cup of Coffee/Beehiiv Programming Note

As many of you are aware, at various times over the past seven months Beehiiv has been unable to reliably deliver the newsletter to certain email providers. This has most notably and most recently affected Comcast/Xfinity customers, whose newsletters are being delayed or “bounced” by Comcast before they can reach recipients for reasons that are not at all clear. All that I know is that Comcast — and in the past other providers — has found something offensive in the emails and has decided “nope, this is junk.” On each occasion this has eventually passed and deliveries have resumed, again, for reasons I do not know, though the current Comcast issue appears to be ongoing.

My inquiries to Beehiiv about this have been completely unfruitful. They don’t seem to know why this happens and have, alternatively, blamed the written content of the newsletter or the fact that I do not send it from a custom domain. Given that this never happened when I published the same newsletter with the same sort of material on Substack, it can’t be the content. Given that I’ve never used a custom domain that can’t be it either. All that I can figure is that there is something in the architecture of whatever Beehiv communicates to email servers, the Beehiiv domain itself, or the other sorts of emails Beehiiv users send out which has negatively affected their sender reputation, that negative assessment is being applied to Cup of Coffee, and that is what is preventing delivery.

I have gotten no satisfaction from Beehiiv’s tech support on this or many other issues of late. Indeed, despite bringing this to the company’s attention nearly a week ago, I did not receive my first substantive response with respect to the Comcast issue from Beehiiv tech support until yesterday afternoon, and that response was, “We're currently working with our deliverability engineers and directly with Comcast to sort this out. We don't have an estimated time of resolution at this point but we will let you know as soon as we have a timeline.”

Recently, having seen me complaining about Beehiiv on Twitter, the company’s Founder and CEO, Tyler Denk, reached out to me personally in an effort to address my concerns. I think he means well and he has at least attempted to be accommodating, even if none of the problems seem to be getting solved. Yesterday, however, after I brought up the Comcast issue to him, he replied to me, “The Comcast issue is not unique to Beehiiv, that is how email works.” Well, no, it’s not how it works, as the nearly four years of this never being a problem on Substack makes clear. I told him that was implausible to me and that I found the whole situation unacceptable. I did not get a response back.

It’s bad enough that Beehiiv seems to be unable to handle the two most basic functions of a subscription newsletter — accepting payment properly and sending emails out reliably — but being told by the CEO of a newsletter company “well, that’s just how it works” is a hell of a thing. Imagine hearing that from the head of any other company responsible for delivering things. “Hey, sorry, sometimes our trucks just don’t make to Philadelphia. That’s how sending packages works,” said the CEO of FedEx.

Needless to say, I am over this.

While I will not do anything hasty, I have begun talking to the newsletter/blog publishing platform Ghost about the feasibility of moving Cup of Coffee over. Know that before I do anything, however, I will inquire fully about functionality, comments, look and feel, billing and billing notifications, and every other aspect of this that will affect you, the subscriber. I fear I have already done considerable damage to your trust in me by moving the newsletter to a substandard platform back in January, and I will not do the same thing twice. In keeping with that, I ask that any of you who have input, insight, or questions about all of this to reach out to me so that I can discuss everything of concern to subscribers with Ghost before moving and, potentially, causing more damage.

As for the timeframe: to keep disruption to a minimum, I will likely not formally switch platforms until after the postseason is over. If Ghost convinces me that it’d be 100% seamless to do so beforehand I’ll let you know, but my top priority with all of this is doing no harm.

I’m sorry it’s been such a hassle for so many of you of late. I have one job and I have not been getting it done. That’s not acceptable. I’ll fix this. I promise.

Have a great day everyone.

Make a Comment