My one ESPN column this week is a free one, covering my awards picks for 2017, excluding NL Rookie of the Year, the ballot I was assigned (again). I also held a Klawchat on Friday.
I reviewed Azul, one of my favorite new boardgames of the year, for Paste, which will be my last review for them until November. I will continue to post reviews here in the interim.
My book, Smart Baseball, is out and still selling well (or so I’m told); thanks to all of you who’ve already picked up a copy. And please sign up for my free email newsletter, which is back to more or less weekly at this point now that I’m not traveling for a bit. I also have a new book signing to announce: October 14th at Changing Hands in Phoenix.
And now, the links…
- Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are disasters after Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept through the northern Caribbean. The New York Times has had several superb (if horrifying) articles on the islands, like the massive economic toll in the Virgin Islands or the devastation of Puerto Rican farms.
- Meanwhile, Nero is fiddling, and San Juan’s Mayor is done being polite, and the U.S. Army general in charge of relief efforts says he hasn’t been given enough troops or equipment. The Washington Post documents how the government’s response was delayed while the President played golf.
- Longread of the week: Nicole Chung, who was born here to Korean immigrants and then adopted by white parents, writes about what it means to be “American” and dealing with family members who voted for Trump. Some of what she’s gotten back from family members, including her adoptive parents, is just appalling; I doubt I’d ever speak to my parents again if I were in her shoes.
- A pair of must-reads on the Kaepernick/NFL/protest story from the New Yorker: Jelani Cobb on “ungrateful” as the new “uppity,” and David Remnick on Trump’s race-baiting demagoguery on the issue.
- A Colorado University study found that vaccine denialists are getting louder and more pervasive on Twitter. Those of us who live in the real world and rely on evidence need to be just as loud in our defense of vaccines – and to fight to eliminate non-medical exemptions for schoolchildren.
- A nurses’ union in Boston is suing Brigham & Women’s hospital for mandating flu shots. If you’re not willing to get a flu shot – safe, effective, and important for health-care workers – perhaps find a field other than medicine?
- Jezebel looks at a new denialist ‘documentary’ about fraudster Andrew Wakefield, who lost his medical license in the U.K. after fabricating data that he then claimed showed that the MMR vaccine causes autism (it doesn’t, just to be ab-so-fucking-lute-ly clear on the topic.)
- A fake Boston “antifa” account accidentally outed itself as Russian-based this week, but that’s far from the only fake leftist account run by Russian trolls.
- Wild Beasts’ Boy King was my #2 album of 2016, but it’s also going to be their last as the British quartet announced that they’re calling it quits, with a new EP of leftover Boy King tracks to represent their final release.
- The headline: “A Southwest passenger complained about dogs on her flight. Police forced her off the plane.” The full story: She claimed she had a serious dog allergy but didn’t have the required medical certificate. All the news coverage I saw made Southwest Airlines the villain, but it seems to me that the passenger was unreasonable. (And the police, but that’s another matter.)
- Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence, a referendum that was quickly denounced by the Iraqi government and the Turkish government, the latter of which has a decades-long history of oppressing the Kurdish minority and whose autocratic President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is already threatening to starve them. If the Kurds do declare independence, this could be a Timor-esque situation and potential genocide … and our current President has done nothing but express admiration for Turkey’s dictator. Oh, and one of his resorts hosted a Turkish Airlines golf event last week.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch voted to uphold the death sentence of a man convicted by a racist jury. Slate points out here how Gorsuch lied in his confirmation hearing because that’s just how it goes these days: Say whatever it takes to get elected/confirmed, then do what you wanted to do all along afterwards.
- Swamp update: Trump nominated a candidate to head the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance who has previously worked for a Church of Scientology-funded health “board”. It’s a con – all of Scientology is – and while it may qualify him for this administration, we shouldn’t hire fraudsters for the DoJ.
- Trump’s tax “reform” plan includes eliminating the estate tax; Bloomberg wrote in December how repealing it would be a huge windfall for him, his family, and his Cabinet.
- Keith Olbermann argued that the President is using the Pittsburgh Penguins as his own political pawns (video).
- The unelected official known as Ivanka Trump is taking steps to hide which Chinese suppliers manufacture Ivanka merchandise.
- A number of Harvard professors have come out to publicly criticize the University’s handling of Michelle Jones and Chelsea Manning, revoking Jones’ admission and Manning’s invitation to speak in apparent bowing to public pressure.
- FiveThirtyEight’s Rob Arthur has a deeper look at the juiced baseball in MLB this season.
- CBS Sports’ RJ Anderson looks at catcher concussions and MLB’s battle with head trauma.
- Columbia Journalism Review looks at how “pivoting to video” doesn’t really pay off.
- Ugandan President (who has been in power since 1986) spoke about how genetically modified organisms will be critical to meeting his country’s food needs. You can buy non-GMO if you want, but don’t be fooled: It’s not better for you, and we will need GMOs to feed the world.
- Roy Moore is the Republican candidate to fill the open U.S. Senate seat from Alabama. He believes homosexuality should be a crime. He’s also probably going to win.
- St. Louis police practices have come under fire recently, such as these sweep arrests that brought in many innocent people last week.
- In the wake of Hugh Hefner’s death, the Washington Post revisited the murder of Playmate Dorothy Stratten, shot by her ex-husband after her career took off.
- With the Law and Order brand name now applied to a true-crime miniseries, The Ringer looks at how the original format found success by avoiding challenge, and how that formula won’t work with this current iteration.
- Some local news: A Delaware mom says she was never informed her son was bullied or got in a fight at Maple Lane Elementary School in Claymont, the town at the northeastern-most tip of the state. The school officials appear to have failed to fulfill their obligations under state law here, which, of course, makes me wonder if this is an isolated incident.
- Cape Cod isn’t exactly known for good food, but the Chatham Bars Inn, a well-known luxury resort on the eastern edge of the Cape, has started its own farm a few miles away in Brewster.
- This started a few weeks ago but I just caught it last Saturday – Iowa Hawkeyes fans have a new and wonderful tradition: After the first quarter of each football game, they turn and wave to watching patients at the neighboring children’s hospital. Hey Iowa, you may produce some of the worst politicians in the country, but I’m glad you’re nice to sick kids!