Cup of Coffee: June 17, 2024

Good morning!

It was a bad weekend for the Dodgers on the injury front, it was a bad weekend for baseball on the gambling front, it was a bad weekend for José Abreu on the career front, and it was a bad weekend for Blue Jays season ticket holders on the not-getting-boned front.

In Other Stuff I talk about nostalgia for a bit and add to the ongoing travelogue. But despite those travels it’s a full newsletter, recaps and all. Viva being five hours ahead of the east coast.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Red Sox 9, Yankees 3: Not that anyone cares, but it took me several minutes to find this box score because, per my complaint from Friday about how ESPN, MLB, and other stats/box score services code things for people in non-U.S. time zones, this was listed under Monday’s games. I’m writing from the future, apparently, and the future sucks.

Anyway, Connor Wong had a two-run triple in the bottom of the seventh, David Hamilton had four stolen bases, which is a new club record, and Red Sox baserunners stole bases nine times — Nine times? NINE TIMES! - last night.

In not-really-related news, in 1986 the woman who played Ferris Bueller’s mom, Cindy Pickett, married Lyman Ward, the guy who played Ferris Bueller’s dad. They met on the set of the movie. They had two children together, then divorced shortly after playing the parents of the teenager who was the lead in the 1992 movie Sleepwalkers. They’re both still alive and I feel like that’s worth at least a quickie documentary. Or at least a segment in a documentary about actors who met on set and got hitched. Someone get on that.

Twins 6, Athletics 2; Twins 8, Athletics 7: Carlos Correa, who is hot as hell right now, hit two homers in the first game. Royce Lewis and Carlos Santana also homered and Bailey Ober pitched into the seventh, allowing one run. In the second game Jose Miranda hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth, Correa had two more hits and Willi Castro had three hits. The Twins sweep the four-game set and win their fifth game in a row. The A’s have lost nine times in a row. Nine times? Nine— Ok, I won’t do that again.

Brewers 5, Reds 4: Willy Adames hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning and Blake Perkins threw out a runner at the plate to end the game. Not a great send by the Reds’ third base coach, but still a great play by Perkins. Not as great: Brewers catcher William Contreras was hit hard while applying the game-ending tag and was down on the ground for several seconds afterward. Pat Murphy says they’re checking him for a concussion, so keep an eye on that. While it came in a losing effort, Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz had a hell of a game. He homered, tripled and scored three runs, one of which came when he scored from second on an errant pickoff throw. Dude has wheels, man.

Dodgers 3, Royals 0: A win but a damn costly one as Mookie Betts got his hand broken on a hit-by-pitch. More on that below in The Daily Briefing. As for the non-dreadful news for the Dodgers, Tyler Glasnow tossed seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits, while Shohei Ohtani homered twice. Freddie Freeman also went deep, going back-to-back with Ohtani’s second dinger in the sixth. Those two will now have more weight on their shoulders now that Betts is gonna be out months.

Diamondbacks 12, White Sox 5: Christian Walker hit a solo homer early, hit a bases-loaded double later, and drove in three in all to pace the Snakes’ blowout. That double capped a six-run fourth inning for Arizona, which took two of three from the Chisox. There were some bumps in this one, as Dbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll left the game in the seventh inning after making a throw from center field which caused him some pain. He’s scheduled for an MRI today. Also, home plate umpire Marvin Hudson left the game in the sixth when a foul ball off Walker’s bat hit him in the mask. Catcher Martín Maldonado had to grab Hudson to keep him from falling, and Hudson left the game. No word on his status.

Rays 8, Atlanta 6: Jose Siri hit tie-breaking, two-run homer in the ninth inning off Raisel Iglesias to help Tampa Bay avoid the sweep. Earlier Ben Rortvedt hit a grand slam. Brandon Lowe was 2-for-3 with a homer for the, yesterday notwithstanding, stumbling Rays. Atlanta’s highly-touted rookie starter Hurston Waldrep was not great in his second major league start, giving up six runs on five hits, including two homers, walking four and hitting a guy while failing to make it out of the fourth inning. In two starts Waldrep has allowed 13 runs over seven innings. Woof.

Orioles 8, Phillies 3: Zack Wheeler had a dingeriffic Sunday afternoon, giving up homers to Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Adley Rutschman, and Jordan Westburg. Corbin Burnes continued his outstanding 2024 campaign, allowing two runs over six and striking out seven. Baltimore took two of three to pull within 1.5 of the Yankees.

Cardinals 2, Cubs 1: Miles Mikolas pitched four-hit ball into the seventh, allowing one run, striking out five, and walking none. Pedro Pagés hit a two-run homer which held up as the Cards take two of three from the rival Cubs.

Pirates 8, Rockies 2: Jared Triolo had two hits and two RBI and Jason Delay had a three-run double, with all five of those runs getting knocked in in the Buccos’ five-run sixth. On Saturday the Rockies scored 16 runs with three homers and ten extra-base hits in all. Yesterday four Pittsburgh pitchers combined to hold Colorado to just two runs while scattering nine hits.

Astros 4, Tigers 1: Astros starter Ronel Blanco pitched seven no-hit innings and reliever Ryan Pressly continued the no-hitter into the eighth when Wenceel Perez singled to break it up. Blanco, of course, tossed a full-game no-hitter back in April. He wasn’t going to go the distance here as he had amassed 94 pitches in those seven frames, but the guy has two clean sheets, such as it is, on the year and that’s pretty dang good. Jordan Pickford had a clean sheet against Serbia last night, but that seemed pretty disappointing to the folks near me in the pub. It was sorta disappointing for me too because I sorta hate Pickford, who is a redass if there ever was one.

Mets 11, Padres 6: The Mets continue their recent outstanding play, winning their fifth in a row thanks in part to Pete Alonso’s five RBI afternoon. This was never in doubt as New York took an early 7-1 lead. Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff homer and drove in a second run on a sac fly. Alonso’s three-run shot followed Lindor’s dinger in the opening frame. The Padres fell under .500. Life ain’t great for the Dodgers right now but for all their problems it’s not like they have any worthy challengers in the NL West.

Mariners 5, Rangers 0: Logan Gilbert had his big boy pants on yesterday, pitching eight innings of two-hit shutout ball while striking out nine. Tyler Locklear hit a solo home run. Seattle scored two runs on wild pitches. The M’s sweep the three-game set against the world champs, extending their AL West lead to eight and a half games.

Giants 13, Angels 6: Teams that have nine-run fourth innings are 456-0 all time. OK, I totally made that up. I have no idea how they’ve done or how I’d even find that kind of thing — that’s Sarah Langs’ beat — but I bet they usually win. Jorge Soler hit a three-run homer and drove in four. Brett Wisely knocked in three. Thairo Estrada and Austin Slater knocked in a couple as the Giants avoid the sweep.

Blue Jays 7, Guardians 6: Daulton Varsho hit a grand slam, Ernie Clement added a two-run home run, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. reached base four times to help the Jays take the series. Varsho actually batted three times with the bases loaded but the other two times he popped up and struck out. Sometimes you get the bahr, etc. etc.

Nationals 3, Marlins 1: Jacob Young and Lane Thomas went deep — it was Young’s first career longball and Thomas has gone deep three games in a row — as the Nats complete a three-game sweep. You probably haven’t been paying a ton of attention to the Nationals, but they’re only a game under .500. Not bad for a team whose offseason made them look like a 100-loss candidate.

The Daily Briefing

Mookie Betts placed on the IL with a broken hand

As mentioned up in the recaps, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts broke his left hand when he was hit by a pitch with a 97.9 mph Dan Altavilla fastball during the seventh inning of yesterday’s game against the Royals.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterwards that it appears that Betts’ hand does not need surgery, though he will see a hand specialist later today. Roberts said he didn't know how much time Betts would miss with the injury, but typical recovery times for guys who break hands when hit by a pitch range from two to three months. So, assuming things aren’t more complicated than they seem right now, the Dodgers could expect to have Betts back in time for the stretch run and the postseason, though it’s obviously too early to say so with any degree of certainty.

Betts was in the midst of yet another outstanding season, hitting .304/.405/.488 with ten homers, 40 RBI, and nine stolen bases. His accomplishments are made all the more impressive by his move to shortstop, which is not a thing guys his age or of his caliber tend to do after so many years in the outfield.

And this bad weekend for the Dodgers didn’t end there . . .

Yoshinobu Yamamoto heading to the IL

The Mookie Betts news is obviously awful, but it’s not the only major injury the Dodgers are dealing with: pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was placed on the injured list yesterday after he left his start Saturday night against the Royals after two innings due to triceps tightness. The injury was later diagnosed as a strained, but not torn, rotator cuff. Dave Roberts said yesterday that it’s “not season-ending” but Yamamoto will take a couple of weeks off throwing and then the club will assess where he is.

All of this came after Yamamoto was given extra rest following a season-high 106-pitch outing on June 7. It also comes after what appears to have been some communication issues, as Yamamoto said on Saturday that he had had triceps tightness earlier in the week, that it felt better by Saturday, but that it flared up again in his start. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, however, had said that Yamamoto was merely given that extra rest because of the 106-pitch start and that he felt fine. It was unclear whether Roberts knew about the previous triceps issue at the time he said that or if he had just been withholding that from the press. Not that it matters much now.

This is Yamamoto's first year in the majors after signing a 12-year, $325 million deal in December. He is 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA and outside of a season-opening disaster start against the Padres, he’s looked at perfectly at ease facing MLB hitters. One wonders if the every-five-days thing, as opposed to the once-a-week schedule starters enjoy in Japan, has contributed to this but wondering is all one can really do I suppose.

Umpire Pat Hoberg suspended for gambling

Major League Baseball has disciplined umpire Pat Hoberg for violating the league's gambling policy, it was reported on Friday. The league’s statement:

“During this year’s Spring Training, Major League Baseball commenced an investigation regarding a potential violation of MLB’s sports betting policies by Umpire Pat Hoberg. Mr. Hoberg was removed from the field during the pendency of that investigation.

“While MLB’s investigation did not find any evidence that games worked by Mr. Hoberg were compromised or manipulated in any way, MLB determined that discipline was warranted. Mr. Hoberg has chosen to appeal that determination. Therefore, we cannot comment further until the appeal process is concluded.”

Hoberg will continue to be held out of games during the pendency of his appeal, which will be heard by Rob Manfred.

Umpires are subject to baseball’s Rule 21, which forbids players and personnel from betting on baseball and being associated with illegal bookmakers. Baseball personnel are allowed to bet on other sports legally. Which means that Major League Baseball has determined that Hoberg either bet on baseball or that he was using an illegal bookie. Hoberg, for what it’s worth, denies betting on baseball. And maybe that’s true. But if you’re a baseball umpire and you’re gambling despite the rules of your profession — not to mention the horrible look that gives off — you likely have a gambling problem. And if there’s one thing everyone knows about problem gamblers is that they’re unfailingly honest.

As for the discipline Hoberg faces: if, his denial notwithstanding, he was betting on games in which he was involved he faces a permanent ban. If he was betting on baseball games in which he was not involved or was using an illegal bookie to bet on other sports, he will be subject to a range of discipline depending on the circumstances.

Hoberg himself issued a statement:

"I am appealing Major League Baseball's determination that I should be disciplined for violating the sports betting policies. While that appeal is pending, it would not be appropriate to discuss the case. That said, I have devoted my adult life to the profession of umpiring, and the integrity of baseball is of the utmost importance to me. I look forward to the appeal process, and I am grateful that the Major League Baseball Umpires Association is supporting me in the appeal.''

For what it’s worth, Hoberg is considered to be an excellent balls-and-strikes umpire who I cannot recall being involved in any controversies the likes of which cause umpires to become household names. Indeed, the only time I can ever remember him being in the news for his on-field work was when he called a perfect umpire’s game — no missed balls or strikes — in Game 2 of the 2022 World Series between the Astros and Phillies, calling 129 of 129 taken pitches perfectly.

So now we wait for Hoberg’s appeal. And the inevitable leak of the specific basis for the investigation and his suspension. Which, after the Ippei Mizuhara/Shohei Ohtani/David Fletcher affair and the banning of Tucupita Marcano and suspension of multiple minor leaguers, stands as the third distinct gambling investigation the sport has seen in the first half of the 2024 season. Don’t you just love the future? Ain’t it grand?

Astros release José Abreu

The Houston Astros released José Abreu on Friday, bringing what has been a pretty awful year-and-change stint with the club to an end.

Abreu signed a three-year, $58.5 million contract with Houston prior to the 2023 season. Last year he hit .237/.296/.383 (87 OPS+) and hit only 18 homers in 594 plate appearances. This season he’s hit a miserable .125/.167/.195 (4 — yes, 4 — OPS+) in 120 plate appearances, interrupted by a demotion to the minors that obviously did not help. Based on all of that it’s hard to conclude that the 37 year-old slugger is anything but cooked.

It’s probably worth noting at this point that Abreu’s signing was spearheaded by Astros owner Jim Crane and his special adviser Jeff Bagwell not long after Crane fired general manager James Click following the 2022 season but before hiring current GM Dana Brown in early 2023. Which is not to say that signing him was indefensible or anything, as Abreu had just come off of a season in which he posted a 134 OPS+ for Chicago. But that season was much heavier on the on-base percentage than the slugging — Abreu hit only 15 homers in 679 plate appearances in 2022 — which is a fairly classic hallmark of a slugger entering his decline. It seems doubtful that executives with the bonafides of Click or Brown would go three-years on such a hitter, let alone at nearly $20 million per, especially for a player Abreu’s age.

As for now, the Astros owe the remainder of Abreu’s contract, which amounts to more than $30 million through 2025. If he signs elsewhere a new team will only owe him the league minimum salary. And maybe someone takes a flier on him, but as I said above, it’s hard to believe that Abreu has much if anything left in the tank.

Say you’re having a fire sale without saying you’re having a fire sale 

Last year the Toronto Blue Jays’ season ticket renewal deadline was in August. On Friday it was reported that this year they’ve moved it to July 22, which is prior to the trade deadline in a year in which there is reason to believe the Jays are gonna sell off players due to their disappointing season. If you were a cynical person you might think they changed the deadline in order to lock in people beforehand, knowing that many ticket holders won’t renew if it looks like a rebuild is afoot. Thank goodness no one around here is cynical!

For their part, the Jays said in a statement to The Athletic that this is all a good thing for season ticker holders:

“We have introduced many new ticketing products over the past several seasons. With the renovations nearly complete, we are working to establish a regular renewal schedule for all products. This timing allows our valued full season ticket members to have the first chance to secure their seats for the next season, before selling and renewing other products.

“The benefits of earlier renewal timing let members make their decision while they are experiencing their membership, raise feedback with their service executives, and opt into a fan-friendly payment plan over a longer period of time.”

The Jays are likely going to miss the postseason this year but they can certainly raise a banner for the Championship-level Bullshit Businesspeak.

Other Stuff

I don’t believe I’m defending nostalgia

Saw this in the wild:

I'm generally anti-nostalgia, but I get more cranky at explanations like this, which seek to advance whatever seemingly knowing tech critique they’re on about at any given time than I do at the actual nostalgia.

It may be hard for some people to grasp, but not everything wrong with today is a function of people having phones or social media or whatever. People have always pined for a lost past and what they perceive to be a simpler time, no matter its nature and no matter whether it was actually simpler. And, contrary to this tweet, people will pine for their lost digital/online pasts one day too. Hell, you already see it, with people talking about the good old days of Something Awful forums, chatrooms, and blogs and things.

So no, don’t criticize people who long for the days of Blockbuster Video and eat-in Pizza Huts for being deluded about the nature of their nostalgia. Criticize them for not remembering that Blockbuster and eat-in Pizza Hut objectively sucked and not recognizing that ordering delivery and streaming stuff at home is massively simpler and more pleasant in just about every respect.

UK odds-and-ends

Got my full English on Friday morning:

I cannot imagine eating this more than a couple of times a year — and I limit myself to one on any given trip over here — but it’s fun as hell.

Friday evening was the first of the two James shows I attended, which was the purpose of this trip.

The venue in Manchester is the brand new Co-op Live arena. It’s a unique place. It’s the size of a basketball or hockey arena and holds like 23,000 fans, but it’s purpose-built for concerts, not sports. The differences between it and a sports arena is that (a) the floor is WAY bigger; (b) there’s no scoreboard and stuff blocking sight lines from the high seats; and (c) the seats on the sides don’t go all the way to the floor. Rather, there is standing room there too. Here it was before it filled up:

I get the idea in theory, but in practice it’s got some problems. Mostly with the floor being way, way too massive, which means that the vast majority of people who buy floor seats — and think they’re somehow getting closer to the stage or in the thick of the excitement — are so far away that they probably can’t see much. It seems more like being at a giant festival than a rock show. We actually got seats on the side here, partially for that reason, partially because we’re too old to do standing shows on back-to-back nights and we planned to stand in London on Saturday.

And I’m glad we got seats, as the floor looked like a mass of humanity/shit show, complete with people throwing cups of urine and stuff, which is not something you tend to see at shows for laid back/older bands like James. I think it was a function of way too many people packed into a huge space they didn’t feel like they could leave and get back into easily and way, way more places to buy alcohol — and to buy it faster — than I’ve ever seen in at an arena. Before the show we were talking to a security guard who works there and he said that they’ve already had way more drunken and rowdy incidents there in the month it’s been open than the older Manchester Arena usually gets in a year. The security guy said he was genuinely worried how the four scheduled Liam Gallagher shows — two of which went down on Saturday and Sunday — were going to go, because you DO see stuff like people throwing piss at Gallagher/Oasis shows as it is. Godspeed, Co-op workers.

I can say this much, though: (a) the sound at Co-op was fantastic, as you might expect from a new place; and (b) given the crowd density and the frightening efficiency via which fans were served alcohol and merch and were ushered in and out of the venue — which means massive bang-for-the-buck for the venue owners and promoters — I feel like purpose-built places this are the future of arena shows, for better or for worse. They already have plans to build a similar place in London. It would not shock me if we see some in the U.S. soon as well.

On Saturday morning we took the train down to London, dumped our bags at our hotel, and headed out to the O2 Arena where that night’s show was. Getting from King’s Cross station to the O2 was complicated by an unexpectedly closed Tube station we encountered midway on our journey. As we were cutting it close already to get there before the VIP soundcheck for which we had tickets, we opted to get an Uber from where the stop was at London Bridge station. I’d never had the privilege of taking a 45 minute car ride to go like five miles, but at least it involved a trip over Tower Bridge, which I never thought I’d do in a car:

Glad our Uber had a moonroof which extended to the backseat!

The O2 arena is its own kind of ridiculousness:

The arena itself is only the middle of the inside of that dome. Around it is a circular mall/entertainment space with a movie theater, a bowling alley, stores, and places like axe-throwing bars, virtual reality roller coasters, a TGI Fridays and all of the sorts of places English people like to talk down to Americans about liking. I see you, though, mates. You’re just as basic as we are.

The arena itself is like most arenas you’ve been to. It holds around 20,000 folks with a more traditional breakdown of seats and floor space. For this show we got floor tickets, as we were meeting up with some UK friends of ours who always do the floor. Because of the soundcheck passes we were able to leave and then be first in line for when the doors opened later, which allowed us to be on the rail for the show. Here was the view behind us:

As you can see, James crowds tend to skew aging Gen-X, young Boomer, so it was pretty damn civilized all things considered. And none of these people threw cups of urine. At least that I was aware of.

Here was our view of the stage from the rail:

The day after the show the band posted a photo taken from the stage of the lead singer, Tim Booth, crowd surfing. Look to the bottom right and you can see a couple of aging bald guys with glasses. One of them is my friend Andy Petrou. One of them is me:

Fun times.

Standing for the soundcheck, then getting back in line for over an hour to enter first for doors, then standing at the rail for the hour before the opener, the hour’s worth of the opener’s show, the half hour changeover for the headliner, and the two hours of the James concert during which we both stood AND danced meant for some pretty damn sore dogs by the end of the night, but it was worth it. Fantastic show.

Yesterday was a relaxing day in London.

Allison recently entered a drawing and won tickets to see a charity event screening of the full season of the TV miniseries “Normal People” at a movie theater in Leicester Square which was hosted in person by the show’s stars, Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. She loved that book and the show and has unequivocally stated that she would leave me for Paul Mescal if the opportunity arose. Quick, someone tell me based on this photo from the event if I should be worried:

Not that it’d bother me because, frankly I get it. The dude is a hottie.

I did not go to the “Normal People” thing as our friend April who lives in Brighton also likes “Normal People” and took the train up to go to the event with Allison, sparing me six+ hours in a movie theater on a lovely crisp day.

So I spent my day walking around — a slow, winding walk from King’s Cross and eventually out to a hotel bar near St. James Park where I eventually met Allison. While on my walk I grabbed the occasional pint, popped into the fantastically fun Sir John Soane’s museum, ate my lunch in a park, people-watched, and enjoyed the weather. I enjoyed it even more than I usually might given that I know it’ll be 98 degrees or some shit when I get back to Columbus on Wednesday.

The evening involved fish-and-chips at a place with a dedicated gluten-free fryer so Allison could enjoy some as well, then a drink while watching the England-Serbia match, and back to our room for a reasonable bedtime. If you wanna see some of the stuff I did yesterday you can check out my Instagram stories, many of which will begin to disappear later this morning, but you’ll get the gist if you’re an early riser.

Today we’re taking the train down to Brighton to hang with April for a bit before heading home. Though Allison has gone to Brighton a couple of times I’ve never been, so I’m looking forward to it as I’ve heard great things.

That’s all for now. Talk back atcha tomorrow.

Have a great day everyone.

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