{"id":6573,"date":"2018-04-21T11:05:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T15:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=6573"},"modified":"2018-04-21T14:18:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T18:18:19","slug":"stick-to-baseball-4-21-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/21\/stick-to-baseball-4-21-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 4\/21\/18."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My one Insider post from this week is <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2HcJAi1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">my ranking of the top 50 draft prospects<\/a> for this June&#8217;s MLB draft, a strong year without a lot of clarity up top after #1 overall prospect Casey Mize. <\/p>\n<p>Here on the dish, I <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2HtsMXI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked all 90 Pulitzer Prize winners<\/a> in the Fiction\/Novel category in advance of Monday&#8217;s announcement of this year&#8217;s winners. I&#8217;ve now read the newest entry, <em>Less<\/em>, and will update the ranking next week.<\/p>\n<p>I have a new event to announce: on July 14th, the day before this year&#8217;s MLB Futures Game, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politics-prose.com\/event\/book\/keith-law-smart-baseball-story-behind-old-stats-are-ruining-game-new-ones-are-running-it\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I&#8217;ll be speaking at Politics &#038; Prose<\/a>, a Washington, DC, independent bookstore that is legendary for its author appearances. I&#8217;ll be signing copies of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2foenM8\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smart Baseball<\/a><\/em>, which is now out in paperback.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>SI<\/em>&#8216;s Greg Bishop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/2018\/04\/18\/jake-locker-nfl-2011-draft-tennessee-titans-why-he-quit\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tracked down former NFL QB Jake Locker<\/a>, who opens up about why he retired in 2015. Locker was a first-round talent in baseball, too, but he says in this piece he never had the same passion for it that he had for football.<\/li>\n<li>Liberty University, run by extreme right-wing conservative Jerry Falwell, Jr., has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/liberty-university-online-jerry-falwell-jr\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">built a $1 billion empire<\/a> by aggressively recruiting students for its online degree programs, according to this expose from ProPublica and the <em>NY Times<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>ProPublica also released a long investigative piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/canary-in-the-coal-pond\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">how waste from burning coal has contaminated drinking water<\/a> in nearby communities. The current Administration is pushing increased reliance on coal and rolling back environmental regulations on its use.<\/li>\n<li>Lindsay Gibbs looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/msu-nassar-victims-466cb901da70\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the continuing institutional failures at Michigan State<\/a> in the wake of the school&#8217;s two-decade refusal to consider complaints about Larry Nassar&#8217;s sexual abuse of patients on campus. MSU continues to deny any wrongdoing in the mishandling (or non-handling) of investigations into Nassar, even as one of his victims revealed that now interim MSU President John Engler tried to bribe her into staying silent.<\/li>\n<li><em>New York<\/em> ran a very long Q&#038;A <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/selectall\/2018\/04\/an-apology-for-the-internet-from-the-people-who-built-it.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with many architects of the modern Internet<\/a>, who then &#8220;apologize&#8221; for the way the stuff they built has been used to ruin everything.<\/li>\n<li>Gizmodo&#8217;s John Cook argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/johncook.kinja.com\/why-journalists-shouldnt-be-cheering-about-the-sean-han-1825387326?rev=1524152908959\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">journalists should not be cheering the Sean Hannity-Michael Cohen revelation<\/a>, as it&#8217;s deleterious to the operation of the free press. Hannity, meanwhile, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@ScottMStedman\/sean-hannity-unveiled-as-secret-co-owner-of-company-he-routinely-promotes-f78939a9e6c2\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">busy promoting a company in which he holds an ownership stake<\/a>, disguised by the use of a shell company, and may have violated federal securities laws.<\/li>\n<li>Twitter accounts of questionable origin <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/blogs-trending-43745629\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are pushing fake conspiracy theories around Syria<\/a>, such as claiming the Assad regime didn&#8217;t use chemical weapons on its own people and calling it a &#8216;false flag&#8217; operation.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/sandy-hook-parents-hit-alex-jones-with-defamation-lawsuits_us_5acf6a6de4b0ac383d74bfe1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Several Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones &#038; InfoWars<\/a> for defamation in response to his repeated claims that the massacre was staged.<\/li>\n<li>Surprising nobody, FiveThirtyEight reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/everyone-wants-to-go-home-during-extra-innings-maybe-even-the-umps\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">umpire calls in extra innings are biased towards ending the games<\/a>. I wouldn&#8217;t really mind this if, say, the strike zone changed equally for both teams, but that doesn&#8217;t appear to be the case.<\/li>\n<li>The Marlins, having already scammed Florida taxpayers for a new stadium, are now trying to dodge a lawsuit from the state over profits from the recent sale of the team, are claiming they&#8217;re actually based in the British Virgin Islands &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/2018\/04\/14\/marlins-man-found-marlins-virgin-islands-post-office\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">but Marlins Man found their &#8216;office&#8217; there is just a PO box<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Prince&#8217;s estate released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guitarworld.com\/artists\/hear-prince-original-1984-recording-of-nothing-compares-2-u\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an early recording of his song &#8220;Nothing Compares 2 U,&#8221;<\/a>, which, of course, later became a global hit for Sinead O&#8217;Connor.<\/li>\n<li>Commencement Day speakers at my alma mater have tended toward the famous and dreary, but this year&#8217;s class will get a treat: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/04\/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-named-harvards-class-day-speaker\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author of several novels<\/a>, including the superb <em>Half of a Yellow Sun<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Grand Forks, North Dakota, may be about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandforksherald.com\/news\/education\/4430514-voters-should-refuse-white-supremacist-candidate-grand-forks-school-board\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to elect a white supremacist to its school board<\/a>. Be better, North Dakota.<\/li>\n<li>Chef and charcutier Matt Hinckley writes for <em>Food &#038; Wine<\/em> about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodandwine.com\/chefs\/communal-table-sober-chef\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">getting sober after years of drinking<\/a>, which he had justified as part of his job working in busy restaurant kitchens and brewing\/distilling at home.<\/li>\n<li>A junk study in a predatory journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skepticalraptor.com\/skepticalraptorblog.php\/anti-vaccine-pseudoscientist-fails-vaccines-linked-autism\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pushes, again, the bullshit claim that vaccines cause autism<\/a>, as Skeptical Raptor breaks down on his site.<\/li>\n<li>The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/2018\/04\/19\/appeals-court-affirms-ruling-pence-era-law-banning-abortions-based-disability-diagnosis\/534986002\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ruled unconstitutional an Indiana law restricting abortion rights<\/a>. The law would have prohibited abortions based on potential disabilities in the fetus &#8211; so, if genetic testing found that the fetus had Tay-Sachs disorder, the woman would not have been able to abort the pregnancy even though infantile Tay-Sachs kills most victims before age 4.<\/li>\n<li>Wisconsin&#8217;s Attorney General told a radio host last week that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2018\/04\/top-republican-official-says-trump-won-wisconsin-because-of-voter-id-law\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump carried the state because of its voter ID law<\/a>, which primarily disenfranchised voters in heavily Democratic areas.<\/li>\n<li>Eagle-Gryphon announced a Kickstarter for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/eaglegryphon\/fleet-the-dice-game?ref=5ki39x&#038;utm_source=Eagle-Gryphon+Customers&#038;utm_campaign=26a56bf9b6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_18&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_term=0_856162b785-26a56bf9b6-161341581\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fleet! The Dice Game<\/a>, a spinoff of their popular 2012 game Fleet! (which I have not played)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My one Insider post from this week is my ranking of the top 50 draft prospects for this June&#8217;s MLB draft, a strong year without a lot of clarity up top after #1 overall prospect Casey Mize. Here on the dish, I ranked all 90 Pulitzer Prize winners in the Fiction\/Novel category in advance of [&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":[49,134,939,190,870,807,937],"class_list":["post-6573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baseball","tag-football","tag-harvard","tag-links","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","tag-voter-suppression","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573","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=6573"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6578,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions\/6578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}