Cup of Coffee: May 27, 2024

Just some quick notes for a holiday

Hi, all. Happy Memorial Day.

Some years I write a full newsletter on holidays like today and other years I don’t. I just do a vibe check of sorts to see if I feel like a need a three-day weekend or not and go from there. This time around, yeah, I felt like I could use the three-day weekend, so I’m mostly taking the day off.

But I do have some notes, of course, because I am constitutionally incapable of shutting up for even a day:

Ronald Acuña Jr. left Atlanta’s game against Pittsburgh in the first inning yesterday after his knee buckled when he tried to take off on a stolen base attempt, sending him to the ground. He walked off under his own power, but later the team announced that he has suffered a complete tear of the ACL in his left knee. He will miss the remainder of the 2024 season. You’ll recall that he missed most of the 2021 season and the beginning of 2022 when he suffered the same injury in his right knee. This is just awful news in every conceivable way for both Acuña and Atlanta, which had already lost its ace in Spencer Strider for the year and now loses the reigning MVP.
The Guardians won again. That’s nine in a row for them, which is the longest winning streak going at the moment.
The Dodgers lost again. That’s five in a row for them, which is the longest losing streak going at the moment. Some of my Dodgers friends online are very angry about how things are going of late. I have misplaced my play-sad-songs-for-Dodgers-fans violin, however, probably because it is so very, very tiny.
There was some wildness yesterday that shouldn’t go without mentioning. Things like the Tigers blowing a five-run lead — indeed, they led 5-0 after three innings, 8-3 after five, and 9-5 after six — and then rallying from a late 11-9 deficit for an 14-11 win. The final blow was Matt Vierling’s walkoff three-run homer, his second of the day. I didn’t see this game but I’m guessing everyone watching it, no matter their allegiance, was pissed off at least three times at various junctures. Sports rule. Sports are miserable. But sports rules.
The benches cleared, though nothing happened, when Milwaukee Brewers first base coach Quintin Berry chirped at Red Sox reliever Chris Martin. First base coaches winding guys up is inherently funny because, c’mon, they’re first base coaches.
Whatever the case, I’m gonna be in Boston next weekend and I’m going to catch two Tigers-Red Sox games, so I’d like to see (a) the Tigers display the sort of offense they displayed yesterday; and (b) a coach on one of the teams going after a player. Fenway Park seats are tiny and I’m gonna be rather uncomfortable, so the least the participants can do is give me some unusual entertainment in addition to the standard entertainment that is a baseball game.
Gabe “The Babe” Kapler wants you to watch him get dressed.

Happy unofficial beginning of summer, which always feel way more official than the official beginning of summer.