Cup of Coffee: June 12, 2024
A quick one before I go away
Good morning!
As I’ve mentioned, As of this morning I am officially on vacation.
Today I skipped the recaps due to packing pressure and getting-out-the-door stress. I did have some time for some quick hits, of course, so there is stuff to talk about.
I’m sort of playing it by ear the rest of the time I’m gone, however. There will not be a newsletter on Thursday morning. Beyond that I’ll probably at least send out a “hi hello” sort of thing on most days. If jet lag and the time difference and me having nothing to do in the early Manchester/London/Brighton hours messes with me enough I may write longer on a day or two. I have no idea. Like I said: we’ll play it by ear.
Thanks for bearing with my busy June travel schedule. Let’s get on with things, such as things are today, anyway.
The Daily Briefing
JT Realmuto has to have knee surgery
The Phillies have been cruising so far this year but yesterday they hit their first bump in the road: catcher J.T. Realmuto has to undergo right knee meniscectomy surgery on Wednesday in Philadelphia. He’s expected to miss about a month, though that could be a bit optimistic compared to other players who have had meniscus surgery and who tend to be out 6-8 weeks.
Realmuto is currently hitting .261/.309/.411 (105 OPS+) with seven home runs in 51 games. That’s around what he hit last year, actually, but it does represent a decline from Realmuto’s usual standards. Of course he’s been experiencing knee pain, so that could be playing a part.
A word on hats
Yesterday in the comments, in response to the New Era/’47 acquisition, one of you asked me about what kind of ballcap I wear which, in turn, led to discussion of how New Era caps are so damn tall in large sizes. Yep, that’s 100% true, and I can say that based on personal experience given that I wear either a size-7 3/4 or 7 7/8, depending on how the particular cap has been cut.
The way around this, for people who are unaware, is to get the New Era low profile crown model of the 59Fifty cap. They usually have to be ordered — some team stores carry them, some don’t — but they’re available in all of the on-field designs and most of the special caps like City Connect or whatever. Yeah, the sizing can still be weird — I almost always defer to 7 7/8 in the low crown hats now — but it solves the top hat problem.
Daulton Varsho will never un-see this
I’m usually too tired to even make myself breakfast the day after a long flight. This is what separates athletes like Gary Varsho from the rest of us.
I think the double-zero was chosen for a reason
Also seen on Twitter:
“Drew Titsworth? Of the Frankenmuth Titsworths? Well, do indeed come in my good man!”
But wait, there’s more!
I retweeted that pic of the baseball player yesterday and my son saw it. Then he texted me something fun:
We live in a truly amazing world.
Other Stuff
Rebecca Grossman sentenced to 15-to-life
Socialite Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years-to-life yesterday for killing two young brothers in a Los Angeles crosswalk in 2020.
You’ll recall that Grossman was dating former MLB pitcher Scott Erickson at the time, and the two of them were apparently racing from a restaurant, where they had multiple margaritas, back to Grossman’s place when she struck and killed the boys. Grossman’s attorneys made at least some attempt to argue that it was Erickson’s car, not Grossman’s, who struck the boys but the evidence didn’t support the claim, which seemed desperate.
Obviously this is not a happy ending for anyone. Nothing is bringing those boys back and multiple lives have been destroyed in the process.
Wanna be a bone to be chewed?
Pfft. If these people weren’t cowards they’d hold the event in November. Real crews and good captains well seasoned know what’s up.
More about Watershed
A week or two ago I shared a new single and talked about a new album from the Columbus power pop band Watershed. I was happy to learn that a lot of readers who were unaware of them beforehand liked what they heard. It even led to some airplay for them on legendary indie station WFMU (thanks, Evan!).
Today we have more Watershed content. This comes from a story about the band by my comrade Andy Downing at Matter News. In it Watershed singer/guitarist — and, like Evan and Andy, Cup of Coffee subscriber! — Colin Gawel offers up all manner of fantastic quotes about the band’s history, its particular level of modest success, and why Watershed still plugs away despite the fact that the universe seemed to tell them, like 25 years ago, that maybe they weren’t gonna break big:
“It was never about ‘fame’ or anything like that. We were always just having fun with it,” said Gawel, who described the band’s brief mid-90s run on Epic Records as “a peek behind the curtain.” “When you get dropped, maybe that would have been a smart time to quit. And it never even crossed our minds. It was like, ‘Oh, we have to make another record now.’ ... And then we toured with Insane Clown Posse, which was a disaster, and Herb, who was an original member, left the band. And maybe that would have been a good time to quit. And again, we didn’t even think about it. It was like, ‘Oh, we’ve still got more songs.’ … I remember in Hitless Wonder, Joe’s book [about his life in Watershed], his wife says that ‘the only one who gives a shit about a new Watershed album or Watershed tour are the guys in Watershed.’ And that’s not too far from the truth. It’s a real pain to do all of this stuff. But it’s something that’s in us. And it’s just assumed we will always keep playing.”
That’s about as rock and roll as it gets, man. And there’s a lot more of that stuff in the article, including some wise words from Colin about avoiding stasis and not getting bogged down by nostalgia.
Watershed are playing a couple of album release shows at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus this week, on Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s show is showing as sold out but, as of last night at least, it looked like there were still tickets for Friday. That’s not likely to last. If you can snag a ticket, either to these or to later shows, make plans to go. You won’t be disappointed.
Automat News
Longtime Cup of Coffee readers are aware of my automat fixation. Some of you may remember last year when I linked to some business which had acquired the Horn and Hardart name — that’s the company which invented and operated the automats — and was selling H&H brand coffee. I was skeptical at the time. Who knows where the coffee came from and whether it was any good. It seemed like a nostalgia play in order to sucker, um, suckers like me into buying it. I didn’t buy any, though, and then I forgot about it.
The other day the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story about the young businessman who had acquired the rights to the H&H name and who had been selling the coffee. His name is David Arena and now, he claims, he plans to open up actual automats:
Now the chief executive, [Arena] revived the online coffee business to establish a customer base and to keep the name out here. He's currently looking for a location and hopes to reopen Horn & Hardart, Automat and all, in the next year.
"This isn't a nostalgia grab," Arena said. "What we're really doing is cutting lines, and taking the cashier and tipping out of the restaurant experience. I have two little kids and that's amazing. It's this sort of pain points that I think the self-service model eliminates."
Longtime readers who are aware of my automat fixation are also aware of my coolness to those who claim they are bringing automats back. Most of the time these stories are really about people who simply want to run a restaurant without having to pay any front-of-house staff and who use the word “automat” in order to get some press or to distract from what it is they’re actually doing. I suppose this Arena fella is doing them one better by actually owning the name Horn & Hardart. And to be fair, in the article he offers a fairly logical and reasonable use case: someone who already stood in line to get a latte or something and who would now like a piece of coffee cake but doesn’t want to wait in the line again. So sure, maybe. I can see it working with pastries and other basic, mostly side things.
But I’m pretty sure that to the extent I like automats, I just like the idea of automats. The history. Not nostalgia as such as I all but missed automats completely making them other people’s good old days rather than my own, but something akin to nostalgia. I like them much in the way I like 1930s and 40s interior design and big band jazz and swing music. Things I appreciate aesthetically and conceptually but which don’t make a hell of a lot of sense in the present day.
And with that I am about to put an ocean and a river between everybody else, between everything, myself, and home. As I said above, I’ll be checking in most of the usual days, but there won’t be regular newsletters for about a week. Thanks for understanding, and have a great day everyone.
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