Cup of Coffee: June 25, 2024

Good morning!

Today we recap a fairly wild night around Major League Baseball, check in on the All-Star voting, talk about a suspension, a couple of notable injuries, a REALLY off-site Olympic event, and we get a little bit of sports media news that is about the most unsurprising thing ever.

In Other Stuff, Marriott cares about hockey, Netflix is about to give us a wholly unnecessary prequel, we discuss “rawdogging” flights, I talk about a thing I have for maps and, in totally relatable content news, we discuss royal equestrians.

Let’s go.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Phillies 8, 1 Tigers: The Phillies turned a triple play in this one. It was an extremely rare 1-3-5 number, featuring a comebacker to the pitcher to get the batter, the runner on first was then doubled off, and then the runner on third — Zach McKinstry, who for some reason broke for home and kept on running — was doubled off for the third out:

All I can think is that McKinstry was thinking “welp, I’m dead to rights here, but if I break home and someone drops the ball or throws it away I’ll score” but who knows. As for the rarity, it was announced later in the evening that the last time a 1-3-5 triple play happened was July 11, 1929, so this play was the bee’s knees, by gum!

As for the rest of the game, the “3” in that 1-3-5, Bryce Harper, homered, doubled a couple of times and drove in five runs. The “5”, Alec Bohm, had four hits, including a homer, and drove in three, and the “1,” Aaron Nola, allowed one run on six hits over seven innings. Nice game, you three.

Cardinals 4, Atlanta 3: Willson Contreras was activated before this game, was behind the plate for it, and batted third. It was his first action since a J.D. Martinez swing fractured his forearm back on May 7. He went 1-for-4 with an RBI single and a run scored, so welcome back. Brendan Donovan had three hits with an RBI. Lance Lynn pitched into the seventh, allowing one run, and while Atlanta mounted a late comeback that comeback fell short. St. Louis has won nine of its last 12. Atlanta’s loss combined with Philly’s win puts the Barves eight games back in the East once again.

Giants 5, Cubs 4: The Giants held a pregame ceremony commemorating the life of franchise legend Willie Mays and all Giants players wore number 24 in his honor, so that was nice. So too was them not rolling over after falling being 4-0 after five innings. To the contrary, they mounted a comeback, plating runs in the fifth and sixth and then rallying for three in the bottom of the ninth, the final of which was a bases loaded walk to Wilmer Flores for the walk2 off win.

Padres 7, Nationals 6: San Diego took an early 3-0 lead, the Nats tied it up between the third and the seventh, and then it got interesting in extras. In the top half Keibert Ruiz double in a run and then Nick Senzel hit a three-run shot to put Washington up 6-3. In the bottom half Donovan Solano doubled to put runners — Manfred Man included — at the corners before Jackson Merrill singled in two to make it a one-run game. Ha-Seong Kim drew a walk to put runners on first and second, Tyler Wade sacrificed to put both of them in scoring position, and one out later the Nats intentionally walked Luis Arráez to get to Jurickson Profar. I get not necessarily wanting to pitch to Arráez, but Profar has been dangerous this year. He was dangerous once again, working the count to 2-2, fouling off a couple of pitches, and then sending an 89 mph splitter into right field to plate both runners to give the Pads the walkoff win.

Guardians 3, Orioles 2: José Ramírez hit a tie-breaking homer in the sixth to send Cleveland to its sixth straight win. He also singled home a run in the first. Baltimore, in contrast, has dropped four in a row. The Guardians’ AL Central lead is now eight games over Minnesota. The Orioles fell to two games behind the AL East-leading Yankees.

Rays 4, Mariners 3: A three-run eighth inning, featuring a two-run single from Yandy Díaz and an RBI double from Ben Rortvedt was the difference here. The Rays have now won eight times when trailing after seven innings, which leads the league. Of course, it’s only teams who find themselves trailing late a lot who have the chance to lead the league in that category, so maybe the Rays shouldn’t hang a banner in honor of that accomplishment if they continue to pace the league in that regard.

Reds 11, Pirates 5: Ellie De La Cruz hit a 440-foot homer and had three RBI, Spencer Steer drove in three runs himself, and both Steer and Stuart Fairchild hit two-run doubles in Cincinnati’s five-run fourth inning. De La Cruz’s dinger came in a four-run sixth. Which is something considering the the Reds scored just three total runs in dropping two of three to the Pirates last week in Pittsburgh.

Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 6: Toronto rallied for five in the seventh to give them a 6-2 lead but Boston rallied for four in the eighth to tie things up. The Blue Jays shot themselves in the dick but good in the bottom of the ninth, however, with Ceddanne Rafaela reaching on a Spencer Horwitz error and Zach Pop balking him over to second base, after which Jarren Duran hit an RBI single to end the game. Earlier Rafael Devers and David Hamilton each hit two-run homers for the Bosox, who have won ten of 12. The Jays have lost seven in a row.

Dodgers 3, White Sox 0: James Paxton tossed five shutout innings and four Dodgers relievers finished the five-hitter. Kiké Hernández doubled in a run and scored on an error and Shohei Ohtani hit a ninth inning sac fly. Once again Sox starter Garrett Crochet was solid, shutting out the Dodgers into the sixth, but at this point his starts are more about auditioning for the trade deadline than they are about helping the White Sox win. Because he ain’t getting any help himself.

Royals 4, Marlins 1: Cole Ragans struck out 11 batters over six innings, Royals pitchers struck out 15 in all, and Vinnie Pasquantino, Sal Perez, and Hunter Renfroe all went deep for the Royals.“It’s tough to win when you score one run,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. He ain’t wrong.

Brewers 6, Rangers 3: Michael Lorenzen held the Brewers scoreless for the first four innings, giving Texas pitchers 26 consecutive scoreless frames to that point. Unfortunately for them the game continued on, and Rhys Hoskins hit a grand slam and Andruw Monasterio added an RBI single in Milwaukee’s five-run sixth to snap the Rangers’ four-game winning streak.

Angels 5, Athletics 1: Griffin Canning allowed just one run over seven, Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer, and Zach Neto, Luis Rengifo and Willie Calhoun each had a pair of hits to lead the Halos to victory. The A’s have dropped four of five and fell to 29-52 at the halfway point of the season. It’ll take some gumption for Oakland to avoid its third straight 100-loss season. Though it would require far less gumption if the club was owned and run by people who gave the first shit about baseball.

The Daily Briefing

The All-Star voting to date

Yesterday MLB dropped its latest update in its first phase of All-Star voting.

As you may remember: the leading vote-getter in each league during Phase 1 — which ends on Thursday — will receive an automatic spot in their team’s starting lineup. Beyond those two players, the top two vote-getters at every position, and the top six outfielders, will advance to Phase 2 of the voting, which begins Sunday.

At the moment Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Bryce Harper of the Phillies are the leading vote-getters. Juan Soto is the only other player beyond the two million vote threshold. Both the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies have a lot of fans stuffing the ballot box, as each team has six players who will advance to Phase 2 of voting if current results hold through Thursday. But hey, All-Star voting has never really been about merit as much as it’s been about enthusiasm — if it was, Shohei Ohtani would not be fifth in overall voting right now — so whatever happens happens.

Current totals:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

CATCHER

1. Adley Rutschman, Orioles: 1,638,425
2. Salvador Perez, Royals: 1,033,099
3. Jose Trevino, Yankees: 388,072
4. Danny Jansen, Blue Jays: 366,294
5. Yainer Diaz, Astros: 305,331

FIRST BASE

1. Ryan Mountcastle, Orioles: 1,400,373
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays: 1,338,688
3. Josh Naylor, Guardians: 792,354
4. Anthony Rizzo, Yankees: 423,889
5. Nathaniel Lowe, Rangers: 284,465

SECOND BASE

1. Jose Altuve, Astros: 1,233,299
2. Marcus Semien, Rangers: 963,423
3. Jorge Mateo, Orioles: 646,527
4. Michael Massey, Royals: 575,952
5. Andrés Giménez, Guardians: 523,314

THIRD BASE

1. José Ramírez, Guardians: 1,426,755
2. Jordan Westburg, Orioles: 846,352
3. Rafael Devers, Red Sox: 602,047
4. Oswaldo Cabrera, Yankees: 364,667
5. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Blue Jays: 355,969

SHORTSTOP

1. Gunnar Henderson, Orioles: 1,551,124
2. Bobby Witt Jr., Royals: 987,689
3. Anthony Volpe, Yankees: 537,398
4. Corey Seager, Rangers: 490,326
5. Bo Bichette, Blue Jays: 400,378

OUTFIELD

1. Aaron Judge, Yankees: 2,375,199
2. Juan Soto, Yankees: 2,136,383
3. Kyle Tucker, Astros: 1,002,803
4. Steven Kwan, Guardians: 973,401
5. Anthony Santander, Orioles: 808,100
6. Colton Cowser, Orioles: 649,710
7. Alex Verdugo, Yankees: 512,766
8. Cedric Mullins, Orioles: 512,352
9. Mike Trout, Angels: 439,855

DESIGNATED HITTER

1. Yordan Alvarez, Astros: 963,519
2. Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees: 717,023
3. David Fry, Guardians: 706,262
4. Ryan O'Hearn, Orioles: 687,374
5. Josh Jung, Rangers: 364,366

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CATCHER

1. William Contreras, Brewers: 1,473,348
2. J.T. Realmuto, Phillies: 1,081,907
3. Will Smith, Dodgers: 955,726
4. Sean Murphy, Braves: 261,526
5. Willson Contreras, Cardinals: 247,286

FIRST BASE

1. Bryce Harper, Phillies: 2,037,523
2. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers: 1,327,918
3. Matt Olson, Braves: 309,079
4. Pete Alonso, Mets: 273,369
5. Jake Cronenworth, Padres: 269,090

SECOND BASE

1. Ketel Marte, D-backs: 1,183,331
2. Luis Arraez, Padres: 1,133,342
3. Bryson Stott, Phillies: 931,165
4. Ozzie Albies, Braves: 458,788
5. Brice Turang, Brewers: 339,755

THIRD BASE

1. Alec Bohm, Phillies: 1,960,231
2. Manny Machado, Padres: 545,259
3. Joey Ortiz, Brewers: 486,267
4. Max Muncy, Dodgers: 393,734
5. Austin Riley, Braves: 331,418

SHORTSTOP

1. Mookie Betts, Dodgers: 1,680,658
2. Trea Turner, Phillies: 1,070,672
3. Elly De La Cruz, Reds: 596,015
4. Willy Adames, Brewers: 320,396
5. Orlando Arcia, Braves: 290,712

OUTFIELD

1. Jurickson Profar, Padres: 1,646,276
2. Christian Yelich, Brewers: 1,506,639
3. Teoscar Hernández, Dodgers: 1,413,877
4. Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres: 1,390,737
5. Brandon Marsh, Phillies: 1,003,261
6. Nick Castellanos, Phillies: 857,186
7. Johan Rojas, Phillies: 677,753
8. Cody Bellinger, Cubs: 556,912
9. Heliot Ramos, Giants: 505,042

DESIGNATED HITTER

1. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers: 1,773,404
2. Marcell Ozuna, Braves: 940,851
3. Kyle Schwarber, Phillies: 880,794
4. Rhys Hoskins, Brewers: 219,604
5. Donovan Solano, Padres: 182,192

May the odds be ever in your favor or whatever.

Edwin Díaz gets his suspension

As expected — indeed, as mandated by MLB rules — Mets reliever Edwin Díaz was handed a 10-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for violating the prohibitions on foreign substances in Sunday’s game against the Cubs.

Díaz can appeal if he wants, though he said on Sunday night that he’s not sure if he would. If he doesn’t, the suspension takes effect starting tonight as the Mets were off yesterday.

Patrick Sandoval has a torn UCL, to have surgery

Angels starter Patrick Sandoval told reporters last night that he has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left arm and a flexor tear as well and that he’ll undergo surgery. It’s not clear if it’s classic TJ surgery or the internal brace procedure thing — which we really need a pithier name for — but either way he’s done for the year and a good chunk of next year.

Sandoval, who was removed in the third inning of Friday's start against the Dodgers, is 2-8 with a 5.08 ERA (82 ERA+) in 16 starts this year. He posted a 122 ERA+ over 72 appearances, 69 of which were starts, between 2021 and 2023, however. He’s scheduled to hit free agency after the 2026 campaign, so while this injury is tough news, the 27 year-old does have time to come back and reestablish his value before then.

Fernando Tatis Jr. placed on the IL

Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was placed on the injured list yesterday with what the team is calling a right femoral stress reaction. It’s a bone issue in the thigh, Mike Shildt says. He further says that Tatis could play though it if he had to but that it’s not going to improve without rest, thus the move.

Tatis has been battling right quad tightness for several weeks and has missed the last two games. The move is backdated to June 22 to reflect that. Not that it matters much as Tatis said last night that his recovery is “going to take some time.”

He’s hitting .279/.354/.468 (135 OPS+) with 14 homers on the season.

“Where’s the shuttle to Oklahoma City?”

I somehow missed this, but late last week the organizing committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics announced that two events — softball and canoe slalom — will take place 1,200 miles away in Oklahoma City.

There’s a certain efficiency to that as there already exists a world-class level softball facility in Oklahoma City which has played host to both national and international events. There are obviously lots of softball fields in southern California, but none with the number of seats they anticipate needing. As far as canoe slalom goes, there are no such facilities in southern California and there is one in Oklahoma City, so there we are.

There’s stuff like this every Olympics, though I figure 1,200 miles has to be a record for how far an event will be held from the nominal host city. And it has to be a drag for the families and supporters who would probably like to go to both the opening ceremonies and the events in question. And bless the hearts of any of them who think that they can just pop on a train and get from one to another in quick fashion.

Not a shocker

Most of you know about my dislike of the Super 70s Sports Twitter account. Short version: if it was merely a “back in my day athletes were tougher!” account I’d roll my eyes and ignore it. Except, in addition to that nonsense, the guy who runs it is also transphobic and sexist and comes off like an all-around asshole. Despite this, he’s wildly popular with sportswriters of a certain age who just LOVE to retweet him and who have helped get the guy three quarters of a million followers, a TV deal, and stuff like that. Great work, everyone.

All of which makes me wonder why he didn’t enter into this sort of relationship ages ago:

Match made in Heaven. Or someplace in that general vein.

Other Stuff

That’s New

Yesterday morning I had to call Marriott to deal with an upcoming reservation I have. When the call was ending the rep I was talking to said "and good luck to whichever team you're rooting for in the Stanley Cup Final."

We had not discussed that at all. That was certainly a new one to me. Congratulations to the Panthers I guess? I don’t know.

Forget it, Netflix

A thing I learned the other day: Netflix plans on making a “Chinatown” prequel series produced by David Fincher and written by “Chinatown’s” screenwriter, Robert Towne. The series would deal with the early days of Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes character, with an emphasis on his friendship/frenemyship with Lt. Escobar from before the events in the 1974 film.

While I’d love nothing more than to see them end the whole thing, “Rogue One”-style, by showing a crappy CGI version of Burt Young’s Curly character entering Jake Gittes’ office, I am struggling to understand who or what this project is for. If Robert Towne needs the money do a GoFundMe or ask Nicholson to float him a loan or something. It was bad enough that they made a half-baked sequel out of it back in 1990. Maybe leave it lie?

I suppose that’s a naive question. We didn’t need a prequel to “Perry Mason” but we got one. We didn’t need to see Sam Spade’s adventures in Paris, but we got that too. Coming up with new characters or franchises is apparently impossible, so we’ll just reheat and rehash all of the existing ones forever, apparently.

Rawdogging flights

I took my first international flight in 2001 when my former wife and I went to Europe. I was on the aisle, my wife was in the middle seat, and at the window was a young woman, probably in her early 20s. She was already seated when we boarded. She was small, she was leaning fairly hard into the corner of her seat away from us, and she was staring more or less blankly into the middle distance. She did not acknowledge us when we sat down. She did not appear to have any books or anything with her, at least at hand.

Just after takeoff we were served our meal but the woman in the window seat declined both it and anything to drink. Determined to sleep, my wife and I each took a Tylenol PM, reclined our seats, and conked out. We did not wake up again until we were descending into London. Based on how we had been reclining, there was no way the woman at the window could’ve gotten by us without waking us up, so we assume she stayed in her seat the entire flight. There was likewise no evidence that she had had any food or drinks during the flight. For the past 23 years my ex and I still talk about our stoic seatmate from time to time, wondering how someone could pull off seven hours or whatever it was without doing . . . anything.

Then, yesterday, this story in GQ made the rounds:

Everyone has their own tricks for staving off boredom on a long-haul flight. Some people load up on podcast episodes, others power through the available in-flight entertainment. But no one simply sits, staring silently at the real-time flight map on the screen in front of them, for the entirety of a trip. Right? Wrong. A small group of hardy men—the gender that brought you frat hazing and Logan Paul—are now doing exactly that, and for a variety of surprisingly solid reasons.

To be sure, this story is based almost exclusively off of one dude’s TikTok about how he does nothing on long flights except stare at the flight map, so it’s not like the story is describing some widespread trend. And one questions whether the article would even be written if the TikTok guy hadn’t referred to his practice as “barebacking” a flight, which has mutated into “rawdogging” as others have commented on or copied his post. The GQ story offers a couple of shallow-but-plausible explanations for why someone might want to do that, but there’s not a lot more to it than that.

Still, it made me think about in-flight habits.

Unlike 2001 Craig, present-day Craig has great difficulty sleeping on flights. If it’s an overnight deal I can drift off somewhat fitfully, but not for long and not in any way that satisfies even my meager need for sleep. If it’s a domestic flight, even a long one, forget it. And while I will spend more time than most people staring at the flight map because I have this thing about maps, I have to at least have some music or a book or a movie or TV show or something to pass the time. I cannot imagine doing . . . nothing but listening to the hum of the engines. At least absent some meditation training.

My thing about maps

I mentioned it above and it occurs to me that if I don’t explain it someone might think that I’m some serious cartophile or something, when really, I am not. I don’t collect maps. I don’t actively seek them out or anything. I only have one framed map and it’s not even a real map. I’m just a guy who likes maps a fair amount. If one is put in front of me I’ll look at it for a while, and maybe more intently than most people, but then I’ll move on.

For many years I may have been a road atlas-phile if that’s a thing. When I was a kid we had an RV and there were always a couple of Rand McNally’s floating around the old Midas mini, and I’d look at them all the time, mostly to see where we were going and where we had been. Starting when I was a teenager — and lasting until I was like 35 or 40 probably — I’d keep one of those more manageable-sized spiral-bound Rand McNally’s in my nightstand. On nights when I’d feel too tired for novels or other real books I’d pull out the atlas, flip to any state or province and . . . just look at it. I’d follow a road here or there and note the towns or points of interest. I’d figure out how to get from one random place to another, even if it was several states away. I’d eventually get sleepy and drift off.

Because of that practice, there was a time in my late 20s and early 30s when I could tell you how get from anywhere in North America to anywhere in North America, either by interstate or by non-interstate routes off the top of my head. In 2003 when I took a massive 8,000-mile+ road trip I had my atlas with me but I didn’t need to refer to it all that much as I’d marked out the path over the course of years before falling asleep at night.

My road atlas thing began to wane as Google Maps began to get better. These days I will absently map things while I’m at my laptop or on my phone whenever I’m inspired to, but it’s far less of a thing then when I was obsessed with road atlases. I don’t even have a Rand McNally in my nightstand anymore. Hell, I may not have one in my house anymore. I still rely less on maps when driving than a lot of people do — my son was shocked recently when I used Google maps while driving someplace, saying that he couldn’t remember ever seeing me use it — but I’m guessing my past memorization of routes has eroded significantly. I still like maps but I’m over whatever it was I was on about them for 20-25 years.

So that’s my thing with maps.

Are we not doing “phrasing” anymore?

Did you know that the late Prince Philip — consort to the late Queen Elizabeth II — was the grandson of Olga Constantinovna of Russia who was the granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I? Yep. And Nicholas I was the son of Emperor Paul I, who was the son of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. All of that, in turn, makes Princess Anne, daughter of Prince Philip and sister of King Charles III, the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Catherine the Great.

In related news:

Don’t look at me like that. If they had phrased that differently my mind would not have gone there.

Have a great day everyone.

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