Stick to baseball, 6/25/22.

For subscribers to the Athletic, I posted my second mock draft for 2022, with a change right at the top – and a key note on what we don’t know about Baltimore’s plans; and scouting reports on five draft-eligible players in the CWS finals, which pits Oklahoma (which hasn’t won since 1994) against Ole Miss (which has never won the whole shebang).

On my podcast this week, I spoke with Sarah Langs of MLB.com about several rookies’ performances so far this season, with a deeper dive into some of the Statcast data. You can subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My free email newsletter will return in a day or two once I gather my thoughts and can translate my anger into words. Also, my two books, Smart Baseball and The Inside Game, are both available in paperback, and you can buy them at your local independent book store or at Bookshop.org.

And now, the links…

• First: The New York Times’ editorial board called Friday’s SCOTUS decision overruling Roe v. Wade “an insult to women and the judicial system.”

• “The American Medical Association is deeply disturbed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nearly a half-century of precedent protecting patients’ right to critical reproductive health care.” Read the AMA’s full statement here.

• Also condemning the SCOTUS ruling: The American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization.

• Longreads: Billionaire Jeff Yass, the founder of quantitative trading company Susquehanna International Group, has been avoiding paying taxes on his hundreds of millions of dollars in income, and is using his savings to fund right-wing political candidates and movements, according to ProPublica.

• A new Indian film inadvertently highlights the growing racial/religious tensions in the country, which is ruled by a Hindu nationalist Prime Minister. The Kashmir Files is an unsubtly pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim, and its director parrots dubious claims about terrorism by the minority Muslim population in this interview with Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker.

• The Texas Tribune continues to provide some of the best reporting on the failed police response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, including the officers’ failure to even open the doors to the classroom where the killer was.

• Amy Kaufman, the ex-wife of convicted abuser Jonah Keri, spoke to the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin about her ordeal with Keri, including his pattern of manipulative & controlling behavior as well as graphic descriptions of domestic abuse.

• A Black high school student in Illinois was ticketed for a theft she says she didn’t commit. She’s still fighting to get the ticket overturned several years later.

• Writing for Andscape (formerly The Undefeated), Clinton Yates writes about the side of Omaha you don’t see during the College World series – the city’s Black neighborhoods, overlooked in a city that is 75% white.

• The Anti-Defamation League issued its report on hate and harassment online, finding a huge increase in targeting of LGBTQ+ and Asian-American people.

• SCOTUS revoked the reproductive rights that had been secured for 50 years by Roe v. Wade; in his assenting opinion, Clarence Thomas argued that the court should also overturn its rulings on gay marriage, contraception, and “sodomy” laws. Meanwhile, if you want to know what a strict abortion ban does to women’s health, read this story of a U.S. citizen in Malta (where abortion is almost compleptely banned) whose nonviable pregnancy is now threatening her life. And STAT News reports on the threat to the right to contraception included in the ruling.

• The FX/Hulu series Under the Banner of Heaven seems likely to win a few Emmys in the next awards cycle, especially for Andrew Garfield as the series’ star, but the sister of Brenda Lafferty, whose murder forms the basis of the series and the Jon Krakauer book from which it’s adapted, says the seven-part show does not represent her sister fairly.

• The owners of Prince Street Pizza in New York City have stepped down as managers – but not as owners – after their own racist comments to customers resurfaced online this week. There are plenty of great pizzerias in New York City that are owned by people who do not have a history of racist behavior.

• Franklin Graham, the Trump-supporting son of Rev. Billy Graham, told a woman who was the victim of spousal abuse to return to her abusive husband.

• Texas AG Ken Paxton said of the massacre in Uvalde that “God always has a plan.” Ignoring, for a moment, the question of God’s existence, does anyone truly believe that a benevolent God’s plan involved the parents of 19 children burying the partial remains of their kids?

• The Texas Republican Party’s official platform refers to homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” which contradicts several decades of science on same-sex attraction.

• The anti-vaccine grift has moved on to bogus treatments for long COVID.

• A Saskatchewan judge who ruled in favor of a doctor accused of assaulting five women patients because he found them too emotional during their testimony now faces several complaints about his conduct.

• Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) wants to block a bill renewing federal funding for school lunches because the USDA could withhold those funds from schools that discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

• Presswatchers offers thoughts on the New York Times’ coverage of the ongoing threat to our democracy posed by supporters of former President Trump.

• Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City certainly looks like a Warriors/Escape from New York sort of board game, which isn’t a bad thing, and CMON has a great reputation for high-quality components and heavier games. This new title is already funded on Kickstarter.