Cup of Coffee: August 14, 2025

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

And away we go.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Marlins 13, Guardians 4: Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee had a monster night, with a three-run homer in the first, a two-run homer in the fifth, and a two-run double in the sixth for a seven-RBI game. Kids' a rookie, he's only played in 13 games, but even if he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame one day this stands a good chance of being the best game he's ever played. That kind of thing blows my mind. Graham Pauley and Xavier Edwards also homered for the Feesh, who snapped a four-game skid.

Brewers 12, Pirates 5: The Brewers continue to lay waste to all comers, picking up their fourth straight series sweep and their 12th straight win. And they, once again, won in dominant fashion. William Contreras drove in four via two RBI singles and a bases loaded walk. Christian Yelich knocked in three via two RBI singles of his own. Joey Ortiz also had two RBI singles. Twelve hits in all for Milwaukee, only two of which went for extras bases. They drew seven walks as well. When you're going good you can win any which way.

Padres 11, Giants 1: The Padres put up seven runs in the second inning, ending this one before it really began. Fernando Tatis knocked in three. Ramón Laureano hit a two-run shot. Jake Cronenworth also drove in two. San Diego completes the sweep, wins their fifth straight and, because of the Dodgers' loss, now sit in sole possession of first place in the NL West. After a day off today, they play those Dodgers in a big three-game series up in Los Angeles, so how about that. The Giants, meanwhile, have lost five in a row and they've only scored five runs total in those give games. Remember when some folks were super optimistic about them when Buster Posey took over? Yeah, seems it takes more than a vibes shift to actually make as baseball team better.

Rockies 6, Cardinals 5: Hunter Goodman hit a pinch-hit two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to bring Colorado back from behind to win it. Mickey Moniak also homered and Kyle Karros – son of Eric – had two hits and scored twice. The Rockies took two of three from the Cardinals in St. Louis. They also took two of three from the Cardinals in Denver in late July. As of now, 12.5% of all Rockies wins this year have come against the Cardinals. I'd just call it a year and forfeit the remainder of the schedule if I were them.

Angels 6, Dodgers 5: Meanwhile, the Dodgers were completely swept by the Angels in their season series and have lost seven in a row to their regional rivals overall. Maybe that's not as bad as losing four of six to the Rockies, but it's pretty bad. They've also lost four straight. Here it was a come-from-behind job. After the Angels found themselves in an early 3-0 hole, Taylor Ward homered and Luis Rengifo hit a sac fly to make it 3-2. It was back up to 5-2 by the fourth but Zach Neto doubled in two in the fifth and Logan O'Hoppe hit a two-run single in the eighth to complete the comeback. Shohei Ohtani gave up four runs in four and a third and struck out three times. The Dodgers are 15-21 since the beginning of July.

Tigers 1, White Sox 0: A combined two-hitter for Detroit pitching with Troy Melton (5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 6K) leading the way. The game's only run came on a sac fly from Wenceel Pérez. Hell, the Tigers only had five hits themselves, so it's not like there was a ton of action here. Detroit takes two of three.

Nationals 8, Royals 7: Nathaniel Lowe kicked off the scoring here with a first inning grand slam off of Seth Lugo. CJ Abrams also homered off Lugo, who gave up seven of Washington's eight runs in just four innings. Nats starter Jake Irvin was no great shakes himself, allowing six runs in his four innings, but it was enough to help his team avoid the sweep.

Diamondbacks 6, Rangers 4: Texas took a 4-2 lead into the ninth but James McCann hit a solo homer off of reliever Phil Maton, after which Maton hit a guy, walked a guy, and then gave up a three-run shot to Ketel Marte to put the Dbacks on top. All of that happened with two outs, by the way. Just a complete meltdown and a fast one to boot. The Snakes take two of three.

Reds 8, Phillies 0: Hunter Greene came back last night and made his first appearance in over two months and all he did was toss six scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and striking out six. Four relievers held Philly hitless the rest of the way. The Reds lineup had built up a 4-0 lead by the seventh at which point Miguel Andújar hit a friggin' grand slam to spice things up.

Astros 4, Red Sox 1: Hunter Brown worked into the seventh while allowing just one run while scattering six hits. Jeremy Peña and Yanier Díaz each homered. Díaz had three RBI.

Cubs 4, Blue Jays 1: Chicago starter Cade Horton struck out eight over five and two-thirds to win his fourth straight start while Michael Busch and Matt Shaw each homered. The bad news for the Cubs: catcher Miguel Amaya, who had been on the injured list since May 25 with a left oblique strain, was activated just two days ago. In this, his first game back in months, went down in a heap just past first base after hitting the bag awkwardly as he beat out an infield hit. He was taken off the field on a cart. Somehow the X-rays came back negative and they're saying it's just a sprain but I saw the replay of it and it looked . . . ick.

Orioles 4, Mariners 3: Ryan Mountcastle hit a game-tying solo shot in the seventh and, later that inning, pinch-hitter Jeremiah Jackson hit a two-run triple to give Baltimore its first lead. The Mariners tied it up in the top of the ninth, but the O's won with a Jackson Holiday walk off double. When the newsletter went out this morning I had it 3-1 Baltimore because, apparently, I started writing the recap last night before the game was over and I forgot to go back and update it when it ended. In my defense I was exhausted from a long travel day. But, yeah, lol.

Twins 4, Yankees 1: I wasn't aware the Twins were legally allowed to beat the Yankees but here we are. Joe Ryan came up big, allowing one while working into the seventh. Kody Clemens doubled in a couple and Royce Lewis doubled in Clemens. It was the first time in ten meetings that Minnesota has beaten New York. They stil found a way to piss off their fans yesterday, of course, but that was because of what happened with ownership, not on the field. More on that down in The Daily Briefing.

Atlanta 11, Mets 6: The Mets led 6-0 after two innings before Atlanta put up a nine-spot in the fourth inning. Michael Harris II's grand slam was the big blow there, but it wasn't all just him. Indeed, Mets pitcher David Peterson helped greatly by walking four guys, one of which came with the bases loaded, and giving up a three-run double to Jurickson Profar. Marcell Ozuna had an RBI single in that fourth inning and hit a two-run homer in the sixth as well. The Mets have lost 12 of 14 games.

Rays 8, Athletics 2: Brandon Lowe and Junior Caminero each hit two-run home runs, in the second and ninth, respectively. Caminero, Josh Lowe, and Jake Mangum each had an RBI in the top of the first and Mangum scored on a throwing error. Drew Rasmussen allowed one earned run over six. He hasn't lost a game since June 19.

The Daily Briefing

The Twins aren't being sold after all

For the past year or so the Pohlad family had been exploring a sale of the Minnesota Twins, and Justin Ishbia, one of the owners of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, had appeared to be the favorite to purchase the club. The Twins' wholesale selloff at the trade deadline was presumed by many, your dear writer included, to be a clearing-of-the-payroll in anticipation of a sale, be it to Ishbia or someone else, keeping in mind that new owners often like to take over teams with clean slates, financial or otherwise. But we can forget all of that now! Twins fans are gonna be stuck with the Pohlads for a long, long time.

Per Sportico, rather than selling off the club, the Pohlads have agreed in principle to instead to take on minority investments from two different groups. The transactions are awaiting approval from the league. The statement from Joe Pohlad:

“After a detailed and robust process, our family will remain the principal owner of the Minnesota Twins. To strengthen the club in a rapidly evolving sports landscape— one that demands strong partnerships, fresh ideas, and long-term vision—we are in the process of adding two significant limited partnership groups, each of whom will bring a wealth of experience and share our family values.”

The new investors were not identified, but Sportico says the groups include "a handful of locals from the Twin Cities area and an East Coast family not currently invested in major sports." The deal does not include a future path to control for the investing groups. They're just giving money to the Pohlads, primarily to pay down their debt.  

So: the Twins owners shipped off 40% of the roster and decided to field a team that isn't likely to compete for years, not because they were planning to sell, but for the sheer love of slashing payroll and improving their own financial standing. That's inspiring as hell, man. Must feel great to root for the Minnesota Twins.

Otherwise: a friend of mine texted me yesterday, saying "the Twins, Nationals and Angels have all had difficulty finding buyers. What does this say about the financial state of baseball?" Good question!

Things don't look great for Josh Hader

Astros closer Josh Hader was placed on the injured list on Tuesday due to a shoulder strain. That strain had kept him out of action this past weekend and earlier this week.

As recently as a couple of days ago it sounded like this may not be a major deal, with Joe Espada saying he'd just mix-and-match relievers to close out games while Hader was gone. But yesterday Espada said that Hader is seeking a second opinion on his shoulder and that he will be on the IL beyond the minimal stint. His exact words: “This is going to take a little bit longer than the two weeks.”

That's not great. Nor is it great when pitchers feel it necessary to get second opinions on shoulders and elbows as that often means that the first opinion was the diagnosis of something major and usually surgery-requiring.  

I forgot to share this

I'm home now, but I forgot to share this, which can be seen on the wall outside of Durham Bulls Athletic Park:

The Durham Bulls have other retired numbers, of course. Alongside that number eight is Chipper Jones' number 10, Joe Morgan's number 18, longtime Bulls manager Bill Evers' number 20, longtime Bulls manager Charlie Montoyo's 25, and Jackie Robinson's 42. But Crash Davis is the only fictional character on there. I guess Nuke LaLoosh upset the organization somehow. He probably thought, which as we all know, can only hurt the ballclub.

The Bulls, not surprisingly, lean into the "Bull Durham" stuff a good deal, though not so much that it makes you wanna roll your eyes.

The on-field entertainment crew that throws t-shirts into the stands and runs the between innings programs and contests and stuff are called "The Lollygaggers." They sell some merch in the store with quotes from the movie on it. Most importantly, they have the "Hit Bull, Win Steak" sign out in left field which, contrary to what some people believe, is not some venerable thing from the old Durham Athletic Park. It was invented for the movie in order to add some more bush league color. Still, it's pretty rad:

It snorts, its eyes turn red, and steam comes out of its snout when a Bulls player hits a homer. And they do follow through on the steak if you actually hit the sign. Specifically, if a Bulls player hits the sign both that player and one fan chosen at random win a $100 gift certificate to The Angus Barn down in Raleigh. If that home run happens to be a grand slam the player and fan each win a $200 gift certificate. And yes, the club keeps track of who has hit the bull and won a steak. The last player to hit a grand slam into the bull was Willy Adames, who did it back in 2018. I bet he still thinks about that.

On Tuesday night Jeferson Quero of the Nashville Sounds actually hit one over the bull. My first thought was "what a shame; a little less muscle on that and you'd be eatin' well tonight." But I just read on the team's website that a visiting player doesn't get anything if they hit the bull. It's only for the home team. That's some serious bull, man.

OK, I'm pretty sure that's all I got from Durham.

Other Stuff

That tracks

Katie Miller, the wife of America's Himmler, Stephen Miller, launched her own podcast recently. You'd think that given all of the horrible things we know about Miller that nothing she could say about him could be all that upsetting, yet here we are:

In the first full episode of The Katie Miller Podcast, Miller and [J.D.] Vance discussed several personal and family-related topics during their nearly 45-minute chat. Near the end of the podcast, Miller asked him several questions about food preferences . . . According to Miller, the only condiment her husband will eat is mayonnaise, describing him as “only a mayonnaise guy.”

He's so big a supremacist that even his condiments have to white.

When Talking Heads met Lou Reed

The first time I became aware of Talking Heads was when I saw the video for "Once in a Lifetime" on early-days MTV. I was probably only eight or nine years old at the time, but I had already internalized the idea by then that rock stars are, by definition, the height of cool. In my mind they were all supposed to be like Elvis or John Lennon or one of the long-haired rock gods on the posters on the walls of the rooms of my friends' older brothers. Which is why seeing David Byrne spasmodically jerking around in a bowtie and high-water pants definitely caught my attention. Rock stars aren't supposed to be like that, I thought. It wasn't a criticism.

Not long after that I asked my parents for a Talking Heads album. I didn't care which one because I didn't know any of them. They got me "Remain in Light," almost certainly because that was their newest album at the time and it had that weird song on it that I was going crazy over on MTV. I played it all the time and I got all the albums which came after that when they came out. Somewhere in there I got one of those double-album release cassettes with both "Talking Heads: 77" and "More Songs About Buildings and Food" on the same tape. I somehow missed "Fear of Music" until like 1990. I dunno. I didn't have the Internet yet so I guess I just missed it.

Being a completest notwithstanding, I'll never claim to be the world's biggest Talking Heads fan or anything. Though I've always liked them I don't obsess on them like some other bands or artists. But they certainly spoke to me. They had a groove, to be sure, with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz doing all of the things that make you wanna move your body, but it was really David Byrne to whom I was most directly responding.

I liked his look. I liked the manic yelping. I liked his intellectualism and his unconventional phrasing and dancing. I didn't realize it at the time but, looking back with a lot more self-awareness, I think part of what I was responding positively to lyrics which often struck me as though the singer was observing the world as opposed to living in it which, as I've mentioned here recently, is something I've been prone to do my entire life. In this David Byrne made way more sense to me than confidently-strutting frontmen like David Lee Roth or model-pretty guys like Simon LeBon did. Another part of the appeal was that I wasn't cool and I knew I was never going to be particularly cool, so seeing and listening to an uncool person like David Byrne being cool was . . . extremely cool.

I mention all of that because there's a new interview with David Byrne at Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone does a hard paywall, but if you have Apple News+ you can read it. Even if you don't, most Rolling Stone interviews of major artists tend to eventually leak out into the ether one way or another, so it'll probably bubble up for you soon enough.

There are two primary things I liked about the interview.

First: Byrne explains, better than any legendary artist has ever explained, why Talking Heads are never gonna get back together or tour or whatever. It's not complicated. While there has been a good bit of friction between Byrne and his ex-bandmates over the years, his explanation is not bitter or overly-laden with interpersonal stuff or anything. It's just a very basic acknowledgement that you can't go back in time and you probably shouldn't try to. I get how that can be frustrating for people – and I totally understand why a lot of bands do go out and play legacy shows – but I greatly appreciate someone in their 70s who is still looking forward rather than backwards. I'm no artist, but I hope that I lean that way, just as a matter of sensibility, as I get older too.

The second thing I like is the story about meeting Lou Reed back in the 70s just as Talking Heads were getting started:

What was Lou like?
We were playing through some of our songs, just strumming a guitar. And I remember he was showing us how if you slowed some of them down a little bit, that might not be the worst thing in the world, rather than trying to blurt out all the words really quickly. So, yeah, he had some good ideas. I remember when we met, he was eating an incredible amount of ice cream. I think he went through two of those quart containers of Häagen-Dazs ice cream in one sitting. We were like, "Whoa."

I feel like that whole meeting needs to be a movie.

My final Talking Heads thought relates to this story from The Onion from several years ago:

A few years ago I got my kids their own turntables. Around Christmas that year I asked them what sorts of albums they wanted. Anna, without any prompting from me whatsoever, wanted Talking Heads albums. She specifically asked for "Remain in Light," which was both my first Talking Heads album and the one pictured in this annoyingly accurate goddamn Onion article.

My god, what have I done?

"Weird Al" on the best and worst parts of his career

From one music interview to another: Vulture has an interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic yesterday in which they asked him about his best, worst, hardest, and weirdest songs and videos. It serves as a nice career retrospective and, once again, serves as a reminder that Yankovic is one of the most admirably self-aware stars out there. It's possible he's a bit too self-deprecating at times – I think he's actually a genius, though he'd never say so – but it's nice that, for however zany or out there his work has always been, he has been a feet-on-the-ground kind of guy, personally speaking, for well over 40 years now.

Come for him talking about how much damn work he put into doing a Frank Zappa pastiche that I've never heard anyone else talk about even once. Stay for his answer to the question, "what is your most prized Hawaiian shirt":

The Hawaiian shirt that I wore for the bulk of my movie UHF. It’s an orange Hawaiian shirt. I haven’t worn it since the movie. There’s nothing that screams “custom” about it, so the stylist probably found it in a thrift store. In fact, I was getting ready to donate it to the Smithsonian. I had several things I was going to give to the museum because it requested it for a “Weird Al” exhibit, but I’m putting that on hold because, as you may have heard, the Smithsonian is going through some changes right now, and I’m waiting until the dust settles. So it may or may not ever make its way there, but it’s certainly the most prized shirt of my life.

The man just gets it. God bless "Weird Al."

Have a great day everyone.