{"id":8365,"date":"2020-04-11T16:28:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T20:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8365"},"modified":"2020-04-11T16:28:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T20:28:30","slug":"stick-to-baseball-4-11-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/11\/stick-to-baseball-4-11-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 4\/11\/20."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I didn&#8217;t publish anything this week at the Athletic, but hope to have two pieces up next week, as well as a new review at <em>Paste<\/em> and possibly new pieces at Ars Technica and Vulture as well. I did hold a short <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Persicope video chat (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/keithlaw\/status\/1248706699415785472?s=21\" target=\"_blank\">Persicope video chat<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My second book, <em>The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves<\/em>, is due out on April 21<sup>st<\/sup> from Harper Collins, and you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/9780062942722\/the-inside-game\/\">pre-order it now<\/a> via their site or wherever fine books are sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My publisher is holding a contest where one winner will get a 30-minute chat with me before the baseball season starts, and several other entrants will win free copies of <em>The Inside Game<\/em>. You can <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"enter for free here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/a.pgtb.me\/f3VPlF\" target=\"_blank\">enter for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\">my free email newsletter<\/a>, which I say I&#8217;ll write more often than I actually write it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I appeared on the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Big Fly Baseball podcast (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dDaaFLbkKRo\" target=\"_blank\">Big Fly Baseball podcast<\/a> this week and spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/the-program\/h3-keith-law-0-00-26-48-royals-farm-system-26-48-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"WHB's Soren Petro (opens in a new tab)\">WHB&#8217;s Soren Petro<\/a> about the shutdown, the draft, and the Royals for almost a half an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Longreads: The <em>New Yorker<\/em> looks at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"how cervical cancer is on the rise in the developing nation of Alabama (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2020\/04\/06\/a-preventable-cancer-is-on-the-rise-in-alabama?utm_campaign=aud-dev&amp;utm_source=nl&amp;utm_brand=tny&amp;utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_040620&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;bxid=5be9effe24c17c6adf0ba7d6&amp;cndid=53666876&amp;esrc=AUTO_PRINT&amp;mbid=CRMNYR062419&amp;utm_term=TNY_Magazine\" target=\"_blank\">how cervical cancer is on the rise in the developing nation of Alabama<\/a>, where sex education and Medicare\/Medicaid coverage both lag behind most other states.<\/li><li>ProPublica finds that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"white nationalist authors have a haven on Amazon's self-publishing platform (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/the-hate-store-amazons-self-publishing-arm-is-a-haven-for-white-supremacists\" target=\"_blank\">white nationalist authors have a haven on Amazon&#8217;s self-publishing platform<\/a> for their racist and anti-Semitic works.<\/li><li>It&#8217;s hardly worth calling it a dilemma. If the President is going to lie and equivocate when talking to the public about COVID-19, the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"press should not give him a platform to do so (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2020\/03\/10\/theres-a-public-health-crisis-time-for-journalists-to-tune-out-our-ignorant-president\/\" target=\"_blank\">press should not give him a platform to do so<\/a>. Don&#8217;t cover his &#8216;speeches&#8217; when they contain disinformation or outright bullshit (like his touting of hydroxychloroquine or claims that the virus has &#8216;outsmarted&#8217; antibiotics). <\/li><li><em>Scientific American<\/em> looks at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"what developing antibodies to COVID-19 might actually entail (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/what-immunity-to-covid-19-really-means\/\" target=\"_blank\">what developing antibodies to COVID-19 might actually mean<\/a> &#8211; maybe two years of immunity, but perhaps less, and almost certainly not lifelong immunity as with some other, unrelated viruses.<\/li><li>&#8220;A fiasco of incredible proportions:&#8221; Epidemiologists tell <em>The Guardian<\/em> how <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Trump abdicated his responsibilities as President (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2020\/mar\/28\/trump-coronavirus-politics-us-health-disaster\" target=\"_blank\">Trump abdicated his responsibilities as President<\/a>, dithering for six weeks over testing, a failure that will lead to thousands of needless deaths. Compare the U.S. debacle to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"the New Zealand government's swift, decisive actions (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/asia_pacific\/new-zealand-isnt-just-flattening-the-curve-its-squashing-it\/2020\/04\/07\/6cab3a4a-7822-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;wpisrc=nl_most\" target=\"_blank\">the New Zealand government&#8217;s swift, decisive actions<\/a> to shut the country down, thus far avoiding any significant outbreak of the virus.<\/li><li>Daniel Kahneman spoke to the <em>New Yorker<\/em> about why the scope of the pandemic is <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"so hard for humans to grasp (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/podcast\/political-scene\/why-we-underestimated-covid-19\" target=\"_blank\">so hard for humans to grasp<\/a>.<\/li><li><em>The Federalist<\/em> &#8211; funded by nobody knows who, although their talking points often mirror those of Koch-funded entities &#8211; has engaged in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"dangerous coronavirus trutherism (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/thebulwark.com\/the-federalists-dangerous-coronavirus-trutherism\/\" target=\"_blank\">dangerous coronavirus trutherism<\/a> throughout the pandemic.<\/li><li>Clay Travis, a football\/gambling writer turned meninist conservative heel, has also <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"become a COVID-19 denialist (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/thebulwark.com\/the-ballad-of-clay-travis\/\" target=\"_blank\">become a COVID-19 denialist<\/a> &#8211; apparently because doing so is quite profitable.<\/li><li>Sean Hannity is trying to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"paint Trump as some sort of heroic leader (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2020\/04\/08\/hannitys-latest-propaganda-actually-exposes-trumps-epic-failures\/\" target=\"_blank\">paint Trump as some sort of heroic leader<\/a> &#8211; but his own statements serve as an indictment of Trump&#8217;s botching of the crisis, including multiple moves to undercut his own people.<\/li><li>Kansas Republicans <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"overturned the Governor's order (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kansas.com\/news\/politics-government\/article241861126.html\" target=\"_blank\">overturned the Governor&#8217;s order<\/a> to limit religious gatherings to no more than ten people, so that more people can get sick and die this Easter.<\/li><li>East Asian countries that successfully stopped the first wave of COVID-19 infections have seen <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"new cases pop up as people brought the virus back in (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-asian-countries-that-beat-covid-19-have-to-do-it-again\/\" target=\"_blank\">new cases pop up as people brought the virus back in<\/a> from outside countries &#8211; a huge warning for the U.S. not to let our guard down whenever we finally do get to a point where we might reopen things.<\/li><li>Here&#8217;s the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"apology Donald Trump should issue to the American public (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jwatch.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/dear-nation-a-series-of-apologies-on-covid-19\/2020\/04\/06\/\" target=\"_blank\">apology Donald Trump should issue to the American public<\/a> for his failure to act early enough to slow the pandemic and for his promulgation of false or misleading information as it has spread. I wouldn&#8217;t hold my breath for this to happen.<\/li><li>Helen Rosner explores <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"the ethics of ordering take-out (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/annals-of-gastronomy\/pick-up-the-damn-phone-and-other-thoughts-on-ordering-restaurant-delivery\" target=\"_blank\">the ethics of ordering take-out<\/a> during the pandemic &#8230; and concludes that it&#8217;s okay to do so, but if you do you should order directly from the restaurant.<\/li><li>&#8220;If there were ever a time to take a few extra moments to order through your local bookstore, it\u2019s now.&#8221; Dave Eggers writes for McSweeney&#8217;s about <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"the need to save local bookstores (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcsweeneys.net\/articles\/bookstores-can-be-saved\" target=\"_blank\">the need to save local bookstores<\/a>.<\/li><li>Afar.com listed <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"25 independent bookstores in the U.S. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afar.com\/magazine\/the-best-independent-bookstores-in-the-united-states\" target=\"_blank\">25 independent bookstores in the U.S.<\/a> that they love. I&#8217;d add Phoenix\/Tempe&#8217;s Changing Hands and D.C.&#8217;s Politics and Prose as well.<\/li><li>Ars Technica found that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"80% of Steam games earn under $5000 (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2020\/04\/ars-analysis-80-of-steam-games-earn-under-5k-in-first-two-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\">80% of Steam games earn under $5000<\/a> in their first two weeks &#8211; which certainly doesn&#8217;t bode well for developers&#8217; long-term business outlooks.<\/li><li>The Athletic&#8217;s Nando di Fino <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"remembers Glen Waggoner (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/1671901\/2020\/04\/10\/remembering-glen-waggoner-the-shepherd-of-this-silly-little-game\/?source=shared-article\" target=\"_blank\">remembers Glen Waggoner<\/a> ($), one of the original members of the first Rotisserie Baseball League and the author of several of the books that first described the game.<\/li><li>Finally, if you&#8217;re still confused about the role that our Administration played in making the pandemic more severe in the U.S. than in any other country, well:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Other countries responded quickly and aggressively to combat the spread of coronavirus.<br><br>Trump failed to do the same\u2014and now the U.S. has the most cases in the world. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JpYn0okt2j\">pic.twitter.com\/JpYn0okt2j<\/a><\/p>&mdash; CAP Action (@CAPAction) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CAPAction\/status\/1248287038580891649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 9, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn&#8217;t publish anything this week at the Athletic, but hope to have two pieces up next week, as well as a new review at Paste and possibly new pieces at Ars Technica and Vulture as well. I did hold a short Persicope video chat on Friday. My second book, The Inside Game: Bad Calls, [&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":[964,1050,1162,1170,190,256,870,707],"class_list":["post-8365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alabama","tag-bookstores","tag-coronavirus","tag-fantasy-sports","tag-links","tag-racism","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-video-games","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365","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=8365"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8385,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8365\/revisions\/8385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}