Stick to baseball, 3/19/22.

I had a surprisingly busy week, writing five pieces for The Athletic about some of the big trades and signings since the lockout ended

• The Chris Bassitt and Mitch Garver/Isiah Kiner-Falefa trades
• The Josh Donaldson/Gary Sanchez and Sonny Gray trades
• The Matt Olson trade
• The Matt Chapman trade
• The Kris Bryant and Seiya Suzuki signings

My podcast guest this week was old friend Joe Sheehan, talking about the CBA and what transactions had already taken place at the time we spoke on Monday afternoon. Listen via The Athletic or subscribe on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Over at Paste, I reviewed MicroMacro Crime City, the Spiel des Jahres winner for 2021, a mystery game that asks you to solve a series of 16 cases by examining a giant map and answering a set of questions. It’s fun and novel, but it’s one-and-done – once you finish the 16 cases, you’ve completed the game.

And now, the links:

• Koch Industries, whose owner, Charles Koch, is probably the biggest dark-money donor in U.S. politics, is refusing to cease doing business in Russia. This is the same Charles Koch who funds all kinds of astroturfed efforts against LGBT rights and CRT in schools so he can keep his taxes low and regulation to a minimum.
• The completion of a highway in the western Amazon, first started in the 1970s to connect the otherwise isolated Manaus (2.2 million people) to Porto Velho (539,000), is leading to deforestation and now killings of residents by those seeking to profit from the construction.
• As Florida’s death-loving Governor claims you shouldn’t vaccinate kids against COVID-19, the evidence and the experts agree that this advice is wrong.
• David Gorski takes on DeSantis and the Great Barrington Declaration grifters by pointing out that there’s a long, dark history of this kind of thinking, rooted in eugenics.
• One-third of all U.S. child COVID-19 deaths came during the omicron surge this winter, in case you’re still on the fence about vaccinating your kids.
• We have yet more evidence that ivermectin doesn’t help COVID-19 patients at all.
• State government health policies are driving increasing gaps in health outcomes, notably in the varying state responses to COVID-19.
• Duchess County, New York, decided to spend $12.5 million in federal COVID-19 aid funds to renovate the Hudson Valley Renegades’ stadium.
• Netflix cancelled The Baby-Sitters Club after two seasons, with the first season taking seven Emmy nominations and two wins. Vulture spoke to one of the show’s executive producers about the service’s decision. Slashfilm did as well, with more focus on the loss it represents for female audiences.
• Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D) tweeted through a list of some of the alarming, hate-filled, anti-science bills coming in that state.
• Like the law in Texas preventing schools from talking about race, a bill that was designed to stop the teaching of critical race theory even though it wasn’t actually being taught anywhere.
• Board game news: Birdwatcher, a fast-playing competitive game from first-time designer Zakir Jafry, is available for pre-order. I’m going to have a hard time not thinking this was at least inspired by Wingspan, though.
• The Villainous game universe will get its first set of Star Wars villains this summer. I’m slightly disappointed at the absence of Cad Bane, though.