{"id":11178,"date":"2026-05-02T11:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=11178"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:31:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:31:35","slug":"stick-to-baseball-5-2-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/02\/stick-to-baseball-5-2-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 5\/2\/26."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I had a weird lull over at The Athletic, as I didn\u2019t really have games to hit or travel planned, so my scouting notebook from this week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7242224\/2026\/04\/30\/scouting-gerrit-cole-franklin-arias-ronny-cruz\/\">on Gerrit Cole, Franklin Arias, Ronny Cruz, and more<\/a> was my first post in a couple of weeks. I\u2019ll be back with at two pieces next week, including my first mock draft of 2026, tentatively scheduled to run on May 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over at AV Club, I reviewed the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/catan-on-the-road-review\">Catan on the Road<\/a>, and then spoke to designer Josh Wood about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/lets-go-to-france-board-game-josh-wood\">his upcoming game Let\u2019s Go! To France<\/a>, the sequel to the delightful Let\u2019s Go! To Japan. The site shuttered its games section on Friday, so my regular reviews and writing there are done. I loved writing about games, so I\u2019m open to freelance board game writing opportunities elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/keithlaw.bsky.social\">Bluesky<\/a> more than anything else right now. I\u2019ve also been posting longer videos to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mrkeithlaw\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@keith_law\">TikTok<\/a>, talking about players I see or reacting to news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also appeared on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/923thefan\/sports\/keith-law-as-a-second-baseman-travis-bazzana-has-the-potential-to-be-a-frequent-all-star\">talk about Travis Bazzana, Chase Delauter,<\/a> and other Guardians prospects\/players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll work on <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.kit.com\/\">another free email newsletter<\/a> next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: North Carolina cop Scott Collins shot and killed Brandon Webster, a Black man, in 2019, and claimed self-defense. The Marshall Project <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarshallproject.org\/2026\/04\/22\/north-carolina-trooper-shooting\">finally got the truth<\/a>, which includes the state never even bothering to investigate Collins\u2019 rendition of events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/208750\/kennedy-rfk-vaccine-trump-impeach\">What will it take to get rid of RFK Jr. as Secretary of \u201cHealth\u201d and Human Services<\/a>? Laura Weiss goes long on the topic for <em>The New Republic<\/em>, with quotes from Colette Delawalla, founder of Stand Up for Science and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/29\/colette-delawalla-science-profile\">the subject of this profile<\/a>. Meanwhile, Gregg Gonsalves writes in <em>The Nation<\/em> about \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/jay-bhattacharya-nasem\/\">Vichy scientists<\/a>\u201d like Jay Bhattacharya who have chosen to collaborate with the anti-science Administration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Streetsblog found that <a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.streetsblog.org\/2026\/04\/23\/to-protect-and-swerve-nypd-cop-has-527-speeding-tickets-yet-remains-on-the-force\">Staten Island cop James Giovansanti racked up <em>547 speeding tickets<\/em><\/a> and hasn\u2019t been disciplined once. The <em>Times<\/em> picked up the story on Thursday in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/30\/nyregion\/nyc-speed-limiters-cars-frequent-speeders.html\">a longer piece on a bill aimed at stopping<\/a> these so-called \u201csuper-speeders.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Residents of Roxbury, New Jersey, are <a href=\"https:\/\/boltsmag.org\/ice-warehouse-detention-facility-roxbury-new-jersey\/\">fighting ICE\u2019s efforts to build a concentration camp in their town<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/the-banal-horror-of-jimmy-fallon\">Jimmy Fallon accelerating the death of culture<\/a>? I guess the question really is whether he\u2019s a cause or a symptom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The President of Cornell ran his car over the foot of a protesting student and bumped another, then claimed they had attacked his car and blocked his exit. Student journalists at <em>The Cornell Daily Sun<\/em> obtained video of the incident and found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cornellsun.com\/article\/2026\/05\/kotlikoff-drives-into-student-and-recent-grad-following-harassment\">he made up that excuse<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The University of Iowa created the Orwellian-titled Center for Intellectual Freedom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/opinion\/iowa-intellectual-freedom-christopher-rufo-republicans\">which just creates the problem it claims it\u2019s trying to solve<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A mother whose daughter died of SSPE, an incurable, fatal disorder caused by a past measles infection, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/21\/opinion\/measles-child-britain-vaccination.html?unlocked_article_code=1.clA.eB1F.ioXV_yRD_-CR&amp;smid=url-share\">wrote about the tragedy<\/a> in <em>The New York Times<\/em>. The Times\u2019 editorial board ran this editorial a few days later about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/25\/opinion\/measles-vaccines-rfk-jr.html\">how RFK Jr. and the Trump Republicans<\/a> have created a terrifying new reality of preventable infectious diseases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This Administration is going after all kinds of rights. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-federal-agency-coming-for-gender-affirming-care\/\">The FTC is ramping up to go after gender-affirming care<\/a> in the continuing war on trans people. Trump and RFK Jr. are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2026\/04\/25\/birth-control-maha-abortion-trump-00889738?nid=0000018f-3124-de07-a98f-3be4d1400000&amp;nname=politico-toplines&amp;nrid=001c1684-48aa-4a12-8cab-c70522b1fe38\">threatening the availability of contraception<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The London Review of Books<\/em> notes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lrb.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/april\/displaced\">that the genocide in Gaza continues<\/a>, and those who still live there face appalling conditions, with over 70,000 cases of rodent and ectoparasitic infestations just this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Israel continues to attack journalists in Gaza and now Lebanon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/23\/what-we-know-about-israel-killing-lebanese-journalist-amal-khalil\">killing Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil<\/a> and injuring her colleague last week in what appears to have been a deliberate act of murder \u2013 when the first airstrike didn\u2019t kill her, they fired again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I posted this in the last roundup but I\u2019m re-upping here after the sanitizing biopic <em>Michael<\/em> made so much money last weekend: Tim Grierson writes about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson-documentary-you-cant-see-estate-cant-hide?mc_cid=eec495e279&amp;mc_eid=64f3128798&amp;utm_source=PMNTNL&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=260420&amp;md5=ba9f07c203681758f0ae0ccef2be0bea\">the now-unavailable documentary <em>Leaving Neverland<\/em><\/a> and how impossible it is to forget the clear accusations against Michael Jackson that documentary laid out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Janet Mills\u2019 withdrawal from the Maine Senate race makes Graham Platner the presumptive Democratic nominee. A Maine reporter and former classmate of Platner\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/themainemonitor.org\/graham-platner-success-explained\/\">writes about his appeal<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Texas Tech, a public university, has issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.erininthemorning.com\/p\/texas-tech-issues-ban-on-students\">a ban on any discussion of LGBTQ+ topics by professors or even by students in their work<\/a>. The American Historical Association announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/news\/aha-opposes-restrictions-on-teaching-and-learning-at-texas-tech-university\/\">their opposition to the policy<\/a>, which, in a normal world, would be thrown out as a clear violation of the First Amendment. In <em>Inside Higher Ed<\/em>, Prof. Ben Wright at the University of Texas-Dallas writes that people need to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/opinion\/views\/2026\/04\/27\/how-not-talk-about-colleagues-texas-florida-opinion\">stop criticizing professors who stay at these schools to fight the crackdown<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It\u2019s not a normal world, of course, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/apr\/30\/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-ruling\">six judicial activists on the Supreme Court sounded the death knell for American democracy<\/a>, writes Moira Donegan in <em>The Guardian.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Louisiana Republicans aren\u2019t just trying to gerrymander Black citizens out of their franchise \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/new-orleans-criminal-clerk-calvin-duncan-exonerated-d247677aa601a85cac604645d50fc739\">they\u2019re also trying to eliminate an elected position so a Black man can\u2019t take office<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In more free-speech-for-me-not-for-thee news, Utah State caved to a right-wing political campaign that included Senator Mike Lee (R, of course) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXdHSwUlFhx\/?img_index=12&amp;igsh=MW44NWdzMjdsMnJyYw==\">to disinvite speaker Sharon McMahon<\/a> \u2026 over McMahon quoting Charlie Kirk\u2019s own words after his death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New gas-powered data centers could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/new-gas-powered-data-centers-could-emit-more-greenhouse-gases-than-entire-nations\/\">dump more climate-warming gases into the air than entire nations<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Verge looked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tldr\/915176\/nft-metaverse-ai-weirdos\">how tech bros have lost touch with what people actually want<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/04\/20\/pentagon-middle-eastern-news-propaganda-iran\/\">The U.S. government is running fake-news sites in Arabic and Farsi<\/a> to push pro-American views in the Middle East.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I missed this from last fall, but Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), currently running for Governor of South Carolina, tweeted at a Jewish Congresswoman \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/forward.com\/fast-forward\/768826\/i-have-a-good-surgeon-if-you-ever-want-to-get-your-nose-done-gop-rep-nancy-mace-said-to-jewish-progressive\/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\">I have a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done<\/a>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Republicans in Indiana have succeeded again in <a href=\"https:\/\/indianacapitalchronicle.com\/2026\/04\/20\/indiana-college-id-voting-ban-goes-back-into-effect-as-injunction-is-stayed\/\">making it harder for college students to vote<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We love Quince in this house, for their cashmere sweaters (my god they are warm) and many other things. Bloomberg looked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-15\/how-quince-gets-its-prices-so-low-from-cashmere-to-furniture\">why they\u2019ve been so successful<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A reader passed along this <em>Times<\/em> story on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/20\/dining\/la-marzocco-espresso-machine.html\">the hot resale market for La Marzocco espresso machines<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A tiny bit of good news: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2026\/apr\/19\/independent-bookstores-comeback\">Over 400 new independent bookstores opened in the U.S. in 2025<\/a>, an increase of 31% from 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mixed-use complexes are the hot new(ish) stadium funding scam that built the Battery in not-Atlanta. The Rays\u2019 new owner is trying to run the same playbook, but economist J.C. Bradbury writes <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/sorry-tampa-bay-mixed-use-districts-dont-reverse-the-dismal-economics-of-sports-venues-280862\">that Cobb County hasn\u2019t seen the promised benefits<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I had no idea that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20260408-the-extinct-english-words-for-just-the-two-of-us\">English used to have pronouns to refer to exactly two people<\/a>, whether it was in the sense of us, you, or them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allplay has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/boardgametables\/river-valley-jewelcraft\">a new Kickstarter up for River Valley Jewelcraft<\/a>, a \u2018spiritual sequel\u2019 to River Valley Glassworks and Things in Rings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I\u2019ve never played Kohaku, but there\u2019s a Kickstarter up for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/goldsealgames\/kohaku-big-pond\">a reprint and new expansion<\/a>.<br><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MENSA does some annual board game awards that are probably the only thing MENSA does that\u2019s worth noting; you can see <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/22\/high-iq-society-mensa-reveals-its-top-board-games-after-annual-four-day-judging-marathon\/\">this year\u2019s winners here<\/a> over on Board Game Wire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a weird lull over at The Athletic, as I didn\u2019t really have games to hit or travel planned, so my scouting notebook from this week on Gerrit Cole, Franklin Arias, Ronny Cruz, and more was my first post in a couple of weeks. I\u2019ll be back with at two pieces next week, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[821,1050,828,84,844,1060,1387,1456,1375,190,961,1065,1315,223,1197,1306,671,870,477,1239,483,807,1012],"class_list":["post-11178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-bookstores","tag-climate-change","tag-coffee","tag-economics","tag-free-speech","tag-gaza","tag-immigration","tag-indiana","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-louisiana","tag-measles","tag-new-york-city","tag-police","tag-scotus","tag-south-carolina","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","tag-trans-rights","tag-utah","tag-vaccines","tag-womens-rights","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11179,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11178\/revisions\/11179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}