{"id":8918,"date":"2021-03-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8918"},"modified":"2021-03-05T16:50:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T21:50:22","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-6-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/06\/stick-to-baseball-3-6-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/6\/21."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/2420975\/2021\/03\/03\/2021-mlb-draft-prospect-rankings-vanderbilts-jack-leiter-kumar-rocker-top-keith-laws-list\/\">the top 30 prospects in this year&#8217;s draft class<\/a>, with the caveat of course that we&#8217;ll likely see a lot of movement this spring because most college players didn&#8217;t play at all last summer or fall. I also <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/2423827\/2021\/03\/03\/padres-top-prospects-keith-law\/\">answered some questions on the Padres&#8217; farm system<\/a> for our beat writer Dennis Lin. And I held a <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/30eea6g\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/podcast\/168-the-keith-law-show\/?episode=49\">the Keith Law Show this week<\/a> is Aaron Fitt of D1baseball.com, talking about this year&#8217;s draft class, Kumar Rocker vs. Jack Leiter, and other topics around college baseball. You can subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-keith-law-show\/id1499877854\">Apple podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Keith-Law-Show\/dp\/B08JJS4ZKH\">Amazon<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5ZWZfudyuL6YKsTkUV9yXS?si=Xh_dGPlgRdSUxxVvaA2nmg&amp;nd=1\">Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\">my free email newsletter<\/a> was about how it feels when the face in the mirror finally starts to catch up with your biological age. Also, you can still buy <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/2960\/9780062942722\"><em>The Inside Game<\/em><\/a>and<em> Smart Baseball<\/em> anywhere you buy books; the <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/2960\/9780062942739\">paperback edition<\/a> of <em>The Inside Game<\/em> will be out on April 6<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Longreads first: <em>WIRED<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/sex-tapes-hush-money-hollywood-kevin-blatt\/\">the strange economy of scandals in Hollywood<\/a> and the man who often inserts himself into the deals made around them.<\/li><li>In 1963, Alderman Ben Lewis, a rising political figure in Chicago and one of the most powerful Black men in the city government, was killed in his office, execution-style, but the city made sure not to investigate it thoroughly. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/ben-lewis-murder\">ProPublica examines why not<\/a>, and whether the police may have been involved in the murder.<\/li><li>Anti-vaxxers are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/qjpmp7\/anti-vaxxers-misuse-federal-data-to-falsely-claim-covid-vaccines-are-dangerous\">now misusing federal data to lie about COVID-19 vaccines<\/a>, claiming they pose dangers that aren&#8217;t supported by evidence. Alex Berenson, once a promising <em>New York Times <\/em>reporter, has now gone from cannabis alarmist to COVID-19 denialist to full-blown anti-vaxxer, using his sizable Twitter following to encourage fellow deniers and discourage people from getting the vaccine.<\/li><li>The <em>Washington Post<\/em> examines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2021\/02\/27\/making-madison-cawthorn-how-falsehoods-helped-propel-career-new-pro-trump-star-far-right\/?arc404=true\">the history of lies and fraud that propelled Madison Cawthorn<\/a> to the House of Representatives.<\/li><li>From last August, <em>Current Affairs<\/em> explains that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/2020\/08\/why-crime-isnt-the-question-and-police-arent-the-answer\">police aren&#8217;t the answer if crime isn&#8217;t actually the question<\/a>.<\/li><li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> has the story of the battle over the Wentworth golf club in Surrey, England, which they describe as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2021\/mar\/02\/wentworth-golf-club-reignwood-yan-bin\">a battle between the rich and the very, very rich<\/a>.<\/li><li>Georgia Public Broadcasting has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpb.org\/news\/2021\/02\/25\/what-happening-voting-bills-in-georgia\">an update on the voter suppression bills<\/a> currently in the works in the state.<\/li><li>Kayla Parker, a 25-year-old Black activist, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/changing-america\/respect\/equality\/540766-meet-the-voting-rights-activist-who-wants-to-make-tennessee\">is trying to mobilize Tennessee voters<\/a> the way Stacey Abrams did in Georgia.<\/li><li>Dr. Richard Pan, a state Senator in California, writes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/anti-vaccine-extremism-is-akin-to-domestic-terrorism\/2021\/02\/26\/736aee22-787e-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html\">that anti-vaccine extremism is a form of domestic terrorism<\/a>.<\/li><li>David Leonhardt, writing the daily briefing for the <em>New York Times<\/em>, explains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/04\/briefing\/elaine-chao-cuomo-capitol.html?action=click&amp;module=Briefings&amp;pgtype=Homepage\">why the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine is just as effective<\/a> as the other two vaccines on the market already, even though misleading headlines show lower efficacy rates.<\/li><li>The University of Texas is embroiled in a completely avoidable controversy over a racist song sung by some fans of their football team. Some angry white donors sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2021\/03\/01\/ut-eyes-of-texas-donors-emails\/\">some rather telling emails<\/a> to the school, threatening to pull their donations if the racist song was banned, because you can&#8217;t have college football if you don&#8217;t get to do a racism.<\/li><li>The <em>Atlantic<\/em> reports on the success of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/03\/stocktons-basic-income-experiment-pays-off\/618174\/\">small Universal Basic Income experiment in Stockton, California<\/a>. The United States is the stingiest developed country when it comes to helping people in our lowest income strata. That needs to change if we don&#8217;t want to lose the economic and social gains of the last century.<\/li><li><em>New York Times<\/em> opinion page writer David Brooks, who hates millennials but married one anyway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/craigsilverman\/david-brooks-nyt-weave-facebook-bezos\">has been taking a second salary from the Weave Project<\/a>, funded by Facebook and by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos&#8217; father, without disclosing the potential conflict of interest to his editors or his readers.<\/li><li>A U.S. diplomat has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/02\/26\/diplomat-online-activity-blood-and-faith-471755\">railing against Jews<\/a> and promoting the idea of a Christian nation-state online for years and is somehow still employed by the Foreign Service.<\/li><li>Wealthy residents of one town in the Florida Keys <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/local\/community\/florida-keys\/article249666463.html\">received COVID-19 vaccines before most of the state<\/a> \u2026 and, oh, hey, a bunch of donors to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) live there.<\/li><li>Dan Dakich, an announcer for ESPN and a former assistant coach who has denied being there when Bobby Knight choked Neil Reed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/sports\/college\/acc\/duke\/article249601863.html\">doxxed a UNC teacher and threatened to sexually assault an Ursinus professor<\/a>. Somehow, four days later, ESPN hasn&#8217;t suspended him or taken any other action. Sure seems like they move a lot faster when the tweets are about evolution, doesn&#8217;t it?<\/li><li>Former WNBA owner and former Senator Kelly Loeffler <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/kelly-loeffler-wnba-montgomery\/\">lost control of her basketball team to a player whom she refused to meet<\/a> to discuss their differences of opinion.<\/li><li>The former head of the agency that oversees the Voice of America <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/03\/04\/973765185\/trump-appointee-at-voa-parent-paid-law-firm-millions-to-investigate-his-own-staf\">racked up over $1 million in taxpayer-funded expenditures to investigate his own employees<\/a> to find reasons to fire them. I thought the Republicans were the party of smaller government and less waste?<\/li><li>These transgender athlete bills pushed by Republican lawmakers \u2013 who don&#8217;t care about athletes of any identities, only about staying in power \u2013 are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/govt-and-politics\/a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem-missouri-lawmaker-s-transgender-sports-ban-proposal-criticized\/article_7c33624a-7576-5f13-b61a-eef54e8c3496.html\">a solution in search of a problem<\/a>, according to critics of one such bill in Missouri.<\/li><li>Hundreds of scientists and researchers have signed an open letter to President Biden saying that <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2021\/03\/03\/science-based-policy-means-decriminalizing-sex-work-say-hundreds-of-researchers\/\">evidence-based policy should mean decriminalizing sex work<\/a>. Doing so would be the best way to protect the interests and health of the workers themselves.<\/li><li>Board Game News: Red Rising, the latest release from publisher Stonemaier Games (Scythe, Charterstone, Pendulum), is <a href=\"https:\/\/store.stonemaiergames.com\/products\/red-rising-collectors-edition-preorder\">now available for pre-order<\/a>.<\/li><li>Alderac has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/alderac\/meeples-and-monsters\">Kickstarter up for Meeples &amp; Monsters<\/a> that funded fully in just 15 minutes.<\/li><li>And there&#8217;s also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/highnoongame\/24579284\">a Kickstarter for High Noon<\/a>, a card-based strategy game for 2+ players, where the first 4000 people to fund the game will get their copies as soon as the Kickstarter closes \u2013 the first I&#8217;ve seen of this in a board game crowdfunding effort.<\/li><li>The British Museum offers a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.britishmuseum.org\/top-10-historical-board-games\/\">ten board games from ancient history<\/a>.<\/li><li>And finally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@karentangmd\/video\/6933732314723667206\">watch a doctor dismantle Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene&#8217;s ignorant claims on sex and gender<\/a> in about 30 seconds.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For subscribers to the Athletic, I ranked the top 30 prospects in this year&#8217;s draft class, with the caveat of course that we&#8217;ll likely see a lot of movement this spring because most college players didn&#8217;t play at all last summer or fall. I also answered some questions on the Padres&#8217; farm system for our [&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":[128,1112,190,961,907,477,940,807],"class_list":["post-8918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-florida","tag-lgbt-rights","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-social-media","tag-texas","tag-the-swamp","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918","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=8918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8919,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918\/revisions\/8919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}