Stick to baseball, 9/21/24.

One new post at the Athletic this week, naming Boston’s Kristian Campbell as the Minor League Player of the Year for 2024, along with a bunch of honorable mentions and other honorees as usual. And, as usual, people got very mad that I didn’t mention some prospect from their favorite team. I’ve got a piece coming up Monday on the future of the White Sox given what’s in their farm system and what they’ve shown they can and can’t develop.

You can and should sign up for my free email newsletter, because think of all the worthless crap that’s in your inbox. I promise you my emails are better than the latest email blast from Lands’ End, and they’re much less frequent.

If you missed me on Codenames Live! this week, you can watch the replay here on Twitch. My teammate was the great Daryl Andrews, designer of Sagrada and the brand-new game Mistwind.

And now, the links…

  • Northwestern has suspended Professor of Journalism Steven Thrasher due to his participation in the anti-Gaza War encampments in the spring and pro-Palestine statements he has made elsewhere. Over 1900 journalists, academics, and health professionals signed a letter to the school, saying he has been targeted for his views and what should be protected speech. I’m presenting the story here but acknowledge it may be more complicated than it first seems, as this only presents Thrasher’s side and that of his supporters.
  • The Q-Collar claims it can protect athletes’ brains from concussions and that research “proves” its efficacy. The data may not be real. I don’t see any way this thing could possibly work as claimed.
  • Prof. Deborah Kelly at Penn State has had two papers retracted and a third may be on the way, but she’s lawyered up and is fighting it even though other researchers have found fabricated data or images in 21 of her publications.
  • Paste’s Jim Vorel wrote a defense of the Aviation, a drink that had a brief renaissance about 15 years ago but seems to have lost some of its luster. I’m a fan – it is the only drink I’ve ever seen that uses crème de violette, but those floral notes are a great complement to the juniper flavors of a quality gin. And it’s a good drink to order out in the world because you’re never going to buy crème de violette to make it at home.
  • A Kickstarter for Railroad Tiles, a new game inspired by the roll & write series Railroad Ink, is already over $250,000 in funding. I actually don’t like Railroad Ink, but this looks more up my alley.

Comments

  1. Thank you, Keith. I’ve been having…discussions…with an anti-vaxxer on my aunt’s FB page who is comparing the COVID vaccine to thalidomide. Your links were very timely. I’m not going to convince this fella, but at least people who see the threat will see accurate information alongside his nonsense.

  2. Brian in SoCal

    Apparently, the Republican vice-presidential candidate goes by JD Vance. He shuns periods. (There’s probably a joke here about control of women’s bodies.) As a baseball fan who keeps a scorecard and cares about accuracy, I’m especially attuned to this. There have been quite a few Met games this year featuring J.D. Martinez (periods) and DJ Stewart (no periods) in the same lineup. You get to know your CJ Abramses and DJ LeMahieus and DL Halls and TJ Friedls from your J.T. Realmutos and J.D. Davises.

  3. Anti semite as almost all the left and this from a goy

    • Hi Gerry. I don’t speak gibberish. Can you be a little clearer?

    • Astroturf! You know who’s responsible for that, don’t you?

    • A Salty Scientist

      Poor grammar aside, I’m guessing Gerry thought that goy meant a Jewish person. It’s possible he meant non-goy, but I think he’s just cosplaying. Which I’m not sure would count as irony, but would definitely be something, if he were truly pretending to Jewish while complaining about the left’s anti-semitism.

  4. No I am a goyim which means non-Jewish. Please try to keep up.

  5. Salty it’s to say I don’t really have a horse in this race. But if you want to get down to brass tacks, who wants to live in peace with their neighbors, .Israel of their neighbors?

    • their neighbors

    • A Salty Scientist

      It’s a weird thing to point out, like saying one is white so they have no horse in the race when discussing racism. But whatever. Who wants to live in peace? It’s complicated. I’m sure most of the civilians of Israel and its neighboring countries want peace. I’m sure the governments of some neighboring countries want peace with Israel as it exists today, while some are on record for not wanting that. Bibi and Likud more generally not appear to want peace, considering his use of disproportionate force (Dahiya Doctrine).

  6. I’m sure most Palestinians would like to live in peace, As would most Israelis . When Hamas does what it did on 10/7 it largely negates that no? And when your slogan is “from the river to the sea”, it doesn’t really compute.
    I hope that peace comes to the area, but the evidence doesn’t leave me overly sanguine

  7. Not so at all. But I wish you well

    • Mat’s right. Your argument is fallacious. It is not based on actual evidence. And you still haven’t explained your initial charge of antisemitism.