My latest column for subscribers to the Athletic covered the transformation of Austin Riley from replacement-level hacker to Atlanta’s best player.
On the Keith Law Show this week, I spoke with MLB’s Sarah Langs, talking about this year’s award races, although it looks like our AL Rookie of the Year favorite might be heading to the injured list. You can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes and Spotify. I also appeared on the Athletic Baseball Show again on Friday.
We’ve cleared over $800 raised to help Afghan refugees resettle in this area, money I will donate to Jewish Family Services of Delaware when I receive it. You can buy your “I’m just here for the #umpshow” T-shirt here to support the cause.
I brought back my email newsletter this week, talking about our family’s experience with COVID-19 last month. And, as the holidays approach, I’ll remind you all every week that I have two books out, The Inside Game and Smart Baseball, that would make great gifts for the readers (especially baseball fans) on your lists.
And now, the links..
- Longreads first: The Guardian goes into the failed attempt to build a micro-nation on a cruise ship dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies. It’s actually less a story of ridiculousness than of ignorance.
- I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and ended up on this 2018 Boston Globe story written by Eliza Dushku, detailing how her co-star Michael Weatherly on the CBS series Bull, sexually harassed her and was responsible for her firing, leading to a $9.5 million settlement. So how the hell is this show even still on the air?
- The New Yorker‘s Paige Williams writes about the legacy of United Flight 93 and how the residents of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, honor the memory of the crew and passengers.
- Doctors across Texas say the state’s leaders are responsible for the rapid spread of COVID-19, which has the state matching its peak level of hospitalizations and approaching 95% ICU bed usage.
- Alan Sepinwall offers an obituary of Michael K. Williams and thoughts on the actor’s tremendous career.
- Tom Nichols decries the moral collapse of author turned political opportunist J.D. Vance, calling him “a contemptible and cringe-inducing clown.”
- The BBC has the story of how Swedish authorities arrested a suspected Iranian war criminal who thought he was going there on vacation.
- I mentioned on Twitter that Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is my favorite album of 2021, and a reader pointed me to the tremendous performance she gave on NPR’s Tiny Desk series.
- The risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 is far greater than the risk of myocarditis from any of the vaccines.
- AFP Fact-Check points out that anti-vax grifter Sherri Tenpenny owes $1.5 million in taxes to the IRS because she claims she shouldn’t pay taxes … so why isn’t she up on charges of tax evasion? She’s the one who started the whole “the COVID vaccines make you magnetic” thing, as far as I can tell.
- Slate looks at how religious exemptions to vaccine mandates actually work – bearing in mind that no legitimate religion opposes vaccinations.
- A Tennessee high school student spoke at a school board hearing to urge the members to mandate mask usage, citing the loss of his grandmother to COVID-19 in 2020. Adults there laughed at and heckled him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
- Anti-vaxxers have thrown live fireworks and garbage at vaccine clinics in Colorado, leading some clinics to shut down. Call out the National Guard if we have to.
- The daughter of Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) appears to have been directly involved in fixing the prices of EpiPens while she served as CEO of Mylan, along with pushing the possibly illegal bundling that required people to buy two of the life-saving devices rather than just one.
- The Delaware News-Journal gives us the origins of the Blue Rocks’ unofficial mascot, Mr. Celery.
- Board game news: The CEO of The Broken Token, which makes high-end inserts for board game boxes, stepped down in the wake of sexual abuse and harassment allegations, but has not divested his shares in the company.
- Very pleased to see that The Price of Coal, a board game about labor rights, reached its funding goal.
- Asmodee announced 7 Wonders: Architects, a new standalone game that promises a streamlined 7 Wonders experience. The original game is quick, but there’s definitely a steep learning curve the first time you play.
Hi Keith, I think you mean Michael Weatherly in the Eliza Dushku story.
fixed. I had his NCIS character name on my mind.
BTW, this is strong evidence of the effect of sleep on my own cognition. I got less than 6 hours of sleep on Thursday night, and was a disaster all day Friday. It’s why I don’t drive to games more than an hour away unless I’ve had at least 7 hours the night before (or napped).
Re: the kid being heckled in Tennessee, it’s stories like that one which caused me to purchase a mask that says, “I’m a better Christian than any Trump supporter, and I’m an atheist.”
As Ron Popeil would say “But wait, there’s more!”
At that same Tennessee school board meeting, the school board had to provide a security detail for two pediatricians who spoke in favor of the mask mandate. Maybe I missed that day, but I don’t remember from my Catholic Sunday School classes where Jesus said “Fuck the poor, fuck the weak, fuck the sick, fuck those who lost loved ones, and fuck the experts.”
I am 67 years old and am proud of the fact that I’ve made it through all my life without ever having thrown a punch in anger. But if my child or grandchild was heckled like this young man was, I swear that I would find the heckler and beat the living hell out of them, and not lose a moment’s sleep.
1600+ reports of hair loss following COVID-19 shots
(link removed)
Your “source” is garbage: “LifeSiteNews (or simply LifeSite) is a Canadian Catholic far-right anti-abortion advocacy and news publication. LifeSiteNews has published misleading information and conspiracy theories, and in 2021, was banned from some social media platforms for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.” (via Wikipedia)
And VAERS contains unverified reports – anyone can submit one, and nobody checks them to see if they’re real. I could submit one right now claiming that after I got a COVID-19 shot, my feet fell off, and it would go right into their database.
I had to look up the link between the vaccine and hair loss. And sure enough, there is a possible association between actual COVID-19 disease and hair loss (one example: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dth.14761)
It’s *interesting* that nearly every fucking thing that the COVID vaccines get blamed for actually happens at far greater frequencies in COVID patients.
Sepinwall wrote a nice tribute, but I was really impressed (and moved) by the piece by Matt Zoller Seitz. I read it on Vulture, so a subscription may be required. (I responded to a $1 introductory offer that included several sites affiliated with “New York” magazine.)
whew, i just read MZS’s piece, and definitely agree. and no subscription necessary.