I visited the Dominican Republic for the first time this week, and saw Eddy Julio Martinez, six other Cuban defectors, and a handful of Dominican teenagers who will be eligible to sign in 2016 and 2017; Insiders can read all of my scouting notes on those players. I also wrote some preview/notes pieces on the American League and National League Division Series, although my Blue Jays in four prediction is already dead.
I held my regular Klawchat here on Thursday. I think the new software, despite some tiny glitches, is working out well; if nothing else it works far faster on my end.
And now, the links…
- The United Nations – the one joke that makes everyone in the world laugh – caved to Saudi Arabia by removing LGBT rights from its “sustainable development goals” list. Why anyone would listen to a repressive dictatorship that still refuses to grant its women basic human rights is beyond me. Of course, the Saudis have a seat on the UN’s Council on Human Rights, which shows you how well that whole idea works.
- NPR has a sad, brutal story on girls dying and disappearing in El Salvador.
- Can’t make this up: Vaccine denial group Safe Minds is mad that a study they funded showed no link between vaccines and autism. Science is beautiful.
- Texas 14-year-old falls pregnant after getting a flu shot. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait here.
- Joe Posnanski is a national treasure and he lays waste to the Hall of Fame’s “Segregation Era” Committee in a post for NBC Sports.
- Los Angeles has enacted the nation’s strictest ban on plastic microbeads, which appear in many shampoos and other soap products but pass through industrial filtration of water waste.
- The Atlantic asks what happens to digital content we’ve bought if the sellers should go out of business? Those Kindle e-books you “bought” aren’t quite yours, not the way a physical book would be.
- The BBC reports that 2015 has been a very bad year for coral, which is undergoing a massive global bleaching as a result of the ocean acidification from our overproduction of carbon dioxide and deforestation.
- Also from the BBC, a very entertaining podcast that discusses the science in science fiction, especially movies. Is accuracy necessary, or even better?
- The New Yorker looks more at the daily fantasy sports “scandal” that has, in my view, received disproportionate news coverage. The so-called “insider trading” is far less of an issue than the firms’ insistence that regular joes are signing up and winning money when the bulk of the winnings go to a small number of sharks instead.
- MIT Technology Review looks at the successes and challenges of implanting electrodes in the brain to treat neurological and mental illnesses.
Pretty sure the flu shot pregnancy article is satire. I’m guessing that’s the point.
Forth Worth? Yeah, it’s satirical…
Dan LeBatard had a good interview this week with a gambling expert Bob Voulgaris. Voulgaris said that the insider trading thing isn’t a big deal in football because a lot of the information is publicly available. Volugaris agreed with you that the bigger issue is that there are professional daily fantasy players who make the vast majority of the money. A small time player might only enter a couple of teams, while the professionals enter in thousands, with many combinations of players after running simulations to see who would have the best week. He said it was similar to guy who plays poker with his buddies once a week going to Vegas to try to win big. The small time player really has no chance.
Keith,
I saw you flew into Santo Domingo, is that where you did your scouting or elsewhere on the island? I’ve been down to the DR the past 3 summers with the FCA on mission trips. Fascinating baseball country…
Yes, I was in Santo Domingo for 24 hours, and was driven around by the agents for the players I saw (it’s not really safe to drive yourself). That means I didn’t get to see much of the city.
agreed on the safety of driving. I’ve coached a HS teams that we’ve taken down the past three years and that is the biggest danger we face. We have spent most of our time in Boca Chica and San Pedro. It’s amazing the amount of talent you see, even in the most remote village, but the kids never get a “look.”
I suppose the HOF was asking for it by calling it the Pre-Integration Era in the first place — in referring to the earlier days of professional baseball by the most shameful aspect of it, they’re practically begging people to view it primarily, if not solely, through that lens. Which is a shame, because similarly to how MLB serves to educate new generations of fans through the annual celebration of Jackie Robinson, the occasional HOF induction of an old-time player can help to focus for a moment on how the game developed by showing how it affected, and was affected by, the technology and culture of the times, for better and worse. Posnanski’s dismissal of the flat-earthers and train-riders of a century ago implies that we require protection from our own history. I disagree.
He’s particularly dismissive of Deacon White. I was pleased to be able to use his induction to dig in to the earliest days of the organized game, which I wrote about here, using Bill James’ Keltner List:
http://www.bravesjournal.us/?p=9087
Keith, I know the comment section on your blog isn’t the ideal place for a weighty question, but I was reading your chat and I wondered: at what point do you need to seek help for depression (or potential depression)? I had some stuff happen and I’ve been really scuffling the last month or so, varying wildly between doing okay and wishing that I could disappear and escape my thoughts, and I’ve talked myself through the low moments, but sometimes it feels really dark. Is it the point where it gets beyond just being down and sad? There’s just no one I can really talk to about what’s going on, and I’ve thought about seeking help (psychiatrist?), but I can’t tell if I’m overreacting or what. Thank you–I would just be sitting on this if not for what you’ve shared on here, in chats, and on Twitter before.
Just go. The downside is that you’ve spent an hour and perhaps a little money to get some things out of your system and probably get some practical coping advice. That’s the absolute worst thing that can happen if you go to a therapist (which is what you want, not a psychiatrist, who will likely be less about talking and more about considering whether you need medication). It’s all upside, and based on what you’ve said here I am guessing that you would benefit greatly from speaking to a professional.
Thank you Keith.
I am surprised to see you describe Posnanski as a “national treasure,” given:
1. His ham fisted “aw shucks” pandering to readers. He is the Steven Spielberg of sports columnists.
2. The shameful Paterno biography/apologia he wrote.
I haven’t read the Paterno book, nor would I under any circumstances (I have negative interest in college football), but speaking just as a writer here, I think Posnanski was boxed into a corner with that project. Had it been just a magazine article of some sort, he could have pulled the plug on it, but when it’s a book and there’s a big investment already made and a corporation behind you, that’s no longer a unilateral decision.
As for the first complaint, I’ve hung out with Joe several times and that’s pretty much the person he is (the “aw shucks” part, not the pandering). It’s not an act or façade.