Cup of Coffee: July 5, 2024

Good morning!

Days after a holiday, amiright?

If you didn’t actually read on the holiday yesterday — and I get it if you didn’t — know that I wrote a lot of words about the whole Joe Biden thing and my angst about our country sliding into a fascist dystopia. You know, the usual Fourth of July stuff. Anyway, if you did miss it, it was the usual Free Thursday dealio and you can read it here.

As for today: we have recaps. We basically have no baseball news because off-the-field baseball apparently took the day off, but I at least put a video in there for funsies. In Other Stuff I talk a bit about the UK election, a little more Kamala Harris stuff, and the DooDah Parade.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

First off, yesterday’s caps:

Based on the stuff I wrote yesterday I’m sure all of you appreciate that I am TOTALLY not the audience for patriotic sentiment these days, which may bias me to no small degree, but I feel like these are ugly all the same. Or maybe I’m still salty — like, 15 years running — that they don’t do Labor Day caps, so to hell with it.

Reds 8, Yankees 4: Before the game, post-National Anthem, Reds pitchers Graham Ashcraft and Carson Spiers of the Reds stayed on the field, as did Yankees pitchers Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet, with the four of them having a stare down. It lasted more than five minutes, with the players ignoring the umpire’s efforts to shoo them off thee field to allow the game to get going. Ashcroft won the stare down, being the last man standing:

After the game the Reds’ Spencer Steer said, “That also set the tone.” Spiers said “That was pretty awesome of [Ashcraft] just to kind of win that one for us and kind of give us a little edge before the first pitch.” Ashcraft, who started on Wednesday and wasn’t going to play in this game regardless, said “I ain't got nothing to do today. I'm staying until I win or I get ejected or both.” Ballplayers, man.

As for the part of the game that actually mattered, Nick Martini, Jonathan India and Steer homered and Jake Fraley hit a bases-loaded triple for the Redlegs while former Yankee Frankie Montas allowed two runs over five to pick up the W. The Yankees continue to struggle. They’ve lost 13 of 17 games and 14 of 19. Yeah, such measures are arbitrary, but you gotta stretch back pretty far to find a clump of games in which they looked good, arbitrarily or otherwise.

Nationals 1, Mets 0: A pitcher’s due between Jake Irvin (8 IP 1 H, 0 ER, 8K) and Jose Quintana (7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER) made it a zero-zero into the eighth. But with Quintana gone Jesse Winker came through with a solo homer, Irvin gets the win, Quintana gets a no-decision, and the teams split the four-game set.

Cardinals 3, Pirates 2: Also a pitchers’ duel, with Andre Pallante and Martin Pérez each allowing just one run over seven and seven and a third, respectively. That sent it to extras where the Redbirds plated two via Pedro Pages’s RBI double and Alec Burleson's RBI single in the tenth. St. Louis takes two of three from the Buccos.

Astros 5, Blue Jays 3: The clubs traded three-spots in the first inning but that’s all the Jays would get while Mauricio Dubón singled in a run in the fifth and Jeremy Peña homered in the seventh. Yordan Alvarez reached base four times. Houston takes three of four in the series and has won five of six overall. The Jays have lost 12 of 16.

Red Sox 6, Marlins 5: Another extra innings run-barf-a-thon as seven of the game’s 11 runs came after the ninth ended. David Hamilton hit an RBI groundout in the 12th inning and Tyler O’Neill added an RBI double to give the Sox the margin. But god, I find these kinds of CalvinBall games to be a drag.

Guardians 8, White Sox 4: Steven Kwan went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI. In so doing he finally got enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting race and, in so doing, takes over the MLB batting lead with a .367 mark. Sustainable? Probably not. But fun all the same. Josh Naylor, Bo Naylor and Andrés Giménez each drove in two runs apiece as well. The Guardians take two of three from the Chisox.

Twins 12, Tigers 3: It was a rain-shortened affair, which is good for the Tigers because if they went all nine the Twins might’ve scored 15-20 runs. Ryan Jeffers had three hits and four RBI and Jose Miranda went 5-for-5 with three doubles, four runs scored and three RBI. The Twins take two of three in the series and have won four of five overall. I’m going to see the Tigers play the Reds tonight. Hopefully they’ll show a bit more gumption than they did yesterday.

Cubs 10, Phillies 2: Ian Happ hit two three-run homers — one from the right side in the fourth and one from the left side in the fifth — while Jameson Taillon allowed two over seven while striking out seven. In so doing Chicago avoids the sweep and snaps a seven-game losing streak to the Phillies which stretched back into last year.

Padres 3, Rangers 1: Jurickson Profar hit his 12th homer, scored twice and threw out a runner at the plate in the fourth inning to preserve what was then a 1-0 Padres lead. Profar is batting .317 with 50 runs scored, 12 homers, 56 RBI and five steals through 89 games this season. What a year. The Pads take two of three.

Mariners 7, Orioles 3: J.P. Crawford’s bases-loaded, three-run double in the seventh broke a 2-2 tie. Then Mitch Garver hit a two-run shot that same inning to make it 7-2 and the rest was just paperwork. Earlier in the game Julio Rodríguez hit a solo shot. Seattle salvages one in the series and ends a four-game losing streak. Their once substantial lead over the Astros in the west remains at two games.

Athletics 5, Angels 0: On Wednesday night the Angels got a Maddux thrown at them by A’s starter Joey Estes en route to a 5-0 shutout. Yesterday it took five pitchers and 58 more pitches to get the job done but the results were the same: 5-0. J.P. Sears handled five innings worth and the pen took the rest. Lawrence Butler homered. The rest of the runs came on singles and sacrifices and stuff.

Giants 4, Atlanta 2: Logan Webb shoved, (7 IP, 7 H, 2 ER), Matt Chapman hit a go-ahead homer in a three-run fourth, and he added a run-scoring double in the sixth to help the Giants take the series two games to one.

Rockies 4, Brewers 3: Jake Cave hit a tie-breaking solo homer in the bottom of the sixth that held up. Earlier Charlie Blackmon hit a two-run double. Rockies earn the split.

Rays 10, Royals 8: Jonny DeLuca and Brandon Lowe homered and eight different Rays players drove in runs in an 18-run game that took three and a half hours to play. It was like a throwback to 2019 game. Rays take the series two games to three.

Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 3: Christian Walker hit a solo homer in the first and a two-run homer in the third. He also hit two homers in Wednesday night’s win so, man, have yourself a couple of days there, Christian. Dude really loves Dodger Stadium anyway, as I just learned that he has hit 19 home runs there in 42 career games at that ballpark, which is a 73-homer pace projected to 162 games, so I suggest the Dodgers trade for him immediately to they can have their own personal Barry Bonds. Which is totally how such things work. It’s simple math. Joc Pederson also went deep and the Dodgers crowd booed him. Totally get it. All he did was play really well for the Dodgers in helping them win the 2020 World Series after which they didn’t really try to re-sign him, forcing him to settle for one-year deals and qualifying offers for the past several years, so I guess he’s a traitor? I don’t know. Fans gonna fan.

The Daily Briefing

There was basically no newsy stuff yesterday. No transactions. No significant injuries. No business drama. It happens sometimes, especially on holidays.

So, since there was nothing really to talk about, here’s a video of Brian Snitker getting hit in the nuts by an Ozzie Albies foul ball on Wednesday night:

Alright, c’mon, everybody stay alive out there!

Other Stuff

Meanwhile, in the UK . . .

The Labour Party appears to have defeated the Conservative Party in a historic landslide yesterday, ending 14 years of Tory rule. By the time the counting is done they may have a 100+ seat majority. Hilariously, the former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her seat entirely to a Labour MP. It’s not the worst loss she’s ever taken, of course, having once been defeated by a head of lettuce. Rough day for the Conservatives, is what I’m sayin’.

And that’s great given how crappy the Tories are, but it’s less great when one realizes how far to the right Labour has tracked over the past few years in order to get back into contention.

Labour leader and incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been accused of purging MPs and MP candidates who he views as too far to the left, particularly if they’re vocal activists and, it just so happens, non-white candidates have borne the brunt of his culling. He’s seen as very friendly to banks and business and the Oxbridge media/intellectual set. He has publicly opposed various strikes and labor actions. He is said to be incrementalist to the point of static when it comes to the sorts of social and economic reforms that one might expect with an incoming Labour government. You know, the stuff Democrats have been doing here for a good while.

Of course it’s not my country, so what I say about it is comically basic and only barely informed, but my take on it is that the incoming Labour government might pass for a Conservative government from days of yore, not unlike how most of the Democrats in positions of power now would profile as Republicans from the 1970s or maybe even the 1980s.

All of which is better than keeping the incumbent right wing party in power. And maybe it’s necessary given the not-insubstantial rise of the extreme right in the country. But it’s at least mildly depressing in a bunch of ways that there seems to be no appetite anywhere for a genuine social-democratic government, basically anywhere, in the western world anymore.

Anyway: I know there are a decent number of UK readers of this newsletter. I’d be curious to hear your far more educated takes on the election, especially if it involves explaining to me why I’m wrong about my eyeballing of the situation.

Quote of the Day: Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has been talking himself through all of the current presidential campaign tsuris in much the same way I have been. Sort of shocked and gobsmacked at where we are but generally settling on the notion that, even if where we are is completely crazy and unexpected, the only way the Democrats can go forward if Joe Biden steps aside is for Kamala Harris to take over. It’s simply a matter of legitimacy and practicality and everything else and to think someone else should or even could step in and have a chance at success is crazy.

In the course of that argument, Marshall argues that if Biden does drop out of the campaign that he should also resign the presidency. I am not sure I agree with that for the reasons I explained yesterday, but it’s a defensible position. Marshall, for his part, puts a pretty damn fine point on it, couched in terms of eliminating the unfair and bullshit potshots people would take at Harris if she runs as anything other than the sitting president:

Becoming President makes you the President. And no, it’s not as obvious as it sounds. In the US system becoming President imbues the occupant with a cloak of power and gravity. That is unquestionably an electoral advantage. But we also know what the campaign against Harris will be: that this black woman is a secret far left radical and if she becomes President she’ll order the forced castration of all white men over 50 and make Cardi-B Secretary of State. You may think that’s hyperbole or funny. But seriously, who are we kidding? The best way to deflate the bogeyman of what Kamala Harris would do as President is to make it no longer theoretical. Make her President.

Actually, if we bump that age up to, say, 52, I’d be all for that hypothetical platform.

DooDah

My expatriate longings notwithstanding, I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon doing what a lot of people do on the Fourth of July: watching a parade, eating grilled meats, and drinking beer. The parade in question was not the official patriotic parade that a lot of towns put on, however, it was the DooDah Parade.

The DooDah Parade is a sort of alternative/nonconformist parade that snakes through the somewhat more progressive parts of near-downtown Columbus. Anyone can march in it. There really aren’t any rules or expectations. It’s heavy on costumes and humor and absurdist strangeness. You get a lot of this kind of thing, as was seen last year:

Here are a couple of photos from this year’s parade that I took from my vantage point on Neil Avenue:

Frankly, all three are ideas I can get behind. I was a big fan of the guy who put cardboard around a golf cart in the shape of an airplane, wrote “Boeing 737 Max” all over it, and rigged it up to look like it was on fire. I mean, say what you want about the quality of his mock-up, but it’s brave as hell to talk shit about Boeing these days. You could end up in a body bag.

I figure a lot of cities have these sorts of parades. Columbus’ version has been around for around 40 years at this point so it’d be silly to call it transgressive in any way. But it can be called silly. I mean, there were a non-trivial number of dudes on unicycles. A stretch of those 19 year-old cars people glue figurines and crap all over. Nearly incoherent signs carried by old guys with long white beards who you’ve seen at the dive bar for years before finding out that, actually, they have a PhD in medieval literature but stopped teaching a decade ago because they just got way more into gardening. Guys who fall short of many of today’s prevailing beauty and body image standards skateboarding down the street in red, white and blue Speedos while giving absolutely zero fucks. All in all, it’s a good natured parade of the sorts of neighborhood weirdos you often see individually but never all together in one place.

Whatever you call it it was exactly what I needed to help pull me out of my funk yesterday, so thanks DooDah folks.

Have a great weekend everyone.

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