Cup of Coffee: August 7, 2025

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

Let's get at 'er.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Blue Jays 20, Rockies 1:  Davis Schneider went deep twice, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had four hits including a home run, Bo Bichette homered and knocked in four, Ernie Clement homered and drove in four, and Nathan Lukes drove in four as well as Toronto once again embarrassed the Colorado Rockies. The Jays scored 20 runs on 24 hits here. For the series they outscored the Rockies 45 to 6 and notched 63 hits, which is the most a team has had in a three-game set in at least the last 125 years. The 45 runs set a team record for a three-game series. This game was the sixth time in the 48-year history of the Blue Jays that they have scored at least 20 runs in a game.

The Rockies franchise is a complete embarrassment, Major League Baseball has financially incentivized clubs to put a dog crap product on the field for a number of years now and a number of clubs have taken advantage of those incentives. But nothing like the Rockies have. They need a complete change of ownership and management. They won't get it, though, because there's no one who gives enough of a shit to make them. They have a nice enough ballpark that draws a decent amount of people and Dick Monfort plays ball with the Commissioner's office so dog crap baseball is what Colorado is gonna get for the foreseeable future. It's disgraceful.

Guardians 4, Mets 1: Cleveland starter Gavin Williams took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. He had thrown 111 pitches to that point and recorded out number one on four pitches. He lost the no-hitter and the shutout on pitch number six when Juan Soto took him downtown. I guess if you're gonna lose a no-no in the ninth losing it via a homer to Juan Soto is the way to do it. At the very least you can't say you got dinked or doinked by some scrub. Williams ended up recording one more out and walking a guy before being pulled at 126 pitches which, I'm pretty sure, is the most pitches anyone has thrown in a big league game in a couple of years. David Fry and Ángel Martínez homered and Gabriel Arias tripled in a run. Cleveland sweeps New York.

Twins 9, Tigers 4:  Luke Keaschall drove in three runs for the second game in a row. Brooks Lee, Alan Rhoden, and Austin Martin all homered. Martin's was a pinch-hit deal. Twins starter Pierson Ohl didn't have anything but Thomas Hatch picked up the win after tossing four and a half innings of scoreless relief.  And with that, and the Guardians' win, the Tigers' AL Central lead drops to six games. That's their smallest margin in over two months. On July 9 the Tigers' division lead stood at 14 games. They're 7-16 since then.

Orioles 5, Phillies 1: Trevor Rogers scattered eight hits over six innings, allowing just one run. Coby Mayo hit a three-run homer. Jeremiah Jackson doubled in a run and Jackson Holliday singled one in. If the Orioles didn't suck this year I'd consider giving them a cool nickname like "The Action Jacksons" or something, but this lot doesn't deserve to share a moniker with the late great Carl Weathers.

Giants 4, Pirates 2: Lately the Giants seem to be going through the motions, but they showed some late inning gumption here. The Pirates led 2-1 in the eighth when Matt Chapman tied things up with a sac fly. In the top of the ninth San Francisco got the go-ahead run on a pinch-hit RBI double from Dominic Smith and an insurance RBI single from Patrick Bailey. Bailey had come in as a pinch-hitter in the eighth, singled, and scored on the Chapman sacrifice. The Giants take two of three.

Cubs 6, Reds 1: Cade Horton held the Redlegs scoreless into the sixth and three more pitchers carried the shutout through the eighth before the Reds got a consolation run in the ninth. Chicago got homers from Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson, and Ian Happ. Suzuki also had a sac fly. Cubs reliever Andrew Kittredge had an immaculate inning –  three strikeouts on nine pitches – in the top of the seventh. The victims were Austin Hays, Gavin Lux and Tyler Stephenson. After the game Cubs catcher Carson Kelly said they went sinker-sinker-slider against all three batters. Pretty spiffy. Chicago avoids the sweep.

Yankees 3, Rangers 2:  Paul Goldschmidt hit a pinch-hit solo homer in the seventh to put the Yankees ahead and to end their five-game losing streak. They got their other two runs on an Anthony Volpe RBI single and a throwing error. Carlos Rodón allowed two over five and for once the bullpen didn't pour kerosene all over the damn place. Indeed, New York's bullpen arms gave 'em four scoreless innings.

Rays 5, Angels 4: Tampa Bay built up a 4-0 lead by the third but the Angels tied it back up in the bottom half largely thanks to Mike Trout's three-run homer. I guess the old man's still an artist with a Thompson. Christopher Morel un-tied it, however, with a seventh inning homer. That's right, Rays. You're the big shot around here, and the Angels are just some schnook likes to get slapped around.

Cardinals 5, Dodgers 3: Shohei Ohtani started and went four innings while allowing one run and striking out eight and he hit a homer for the 1,000th hit of his career. That hasn't been done since Tungsten Arm O'Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsmen. The Cardinals defeated the Dodgers 5-3.

Marlins 6, Astros 4:  Xavier Edwards went 4-for-5 with a double and scored twice while Graham Pauley and Heriberto Hernández each hit a solo homer to get the Marlins back on their winning ways. Janson Junk got the win. I do so love that there's a big league pitcher named "Junk."  

Nationals 2, Athletics 1: Washington snaps its six-game skid and avoids a third straight double-digit shellacking by holding the A's to just one run. Five Nats pitchers combined to do that on four hits while striking out a dozen. Riley Adams tied the game up with a sixth inning homer and CJ Abrams hit a walkoff RBI single.

Royals 7, Red Sox 3: Kansas City snaps the Sox' seven-game winning streak thanks to Jonathan India's three-run homer and Michael Wacha scattering five hits over six solid innings. Kyle Isbel hit a two-run single while Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino each had a base knock as the Royals avoid being swept.

Brewers 5, Atlanta 4: Andrew Vaughn and Blake Perkins each homered and drove in two while Brice Turang doubled in a run. Make it six in a row and nine of ten for Milwaukee.

Mariners 8, White Sox 6: The Mariners jumped out to a 7-1 lead by the second and then held on the rest of the way as the White Sox made it close. Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor went deep as a part of that early onslaught, with Rodríguez's being a three-run shot. Naylor's was a two-run deal and Cal Raleigh – who has been as cold as ice since the All-Star Game – singled in two. George Kirby was solid over six.

Padres 3, Diamondbacks 2: Arizona led from the first inning until the top of the ninth, but it was tight. Ryan O'Hearn led off the ninth with a game-tying homer after which Xander Bogaerts doubled, moved to third on a sac bunt, and Jose Iglesias singled him in to give San Diego its first lead of the ninth, which Mason Miller held by working around a walk to strike out the side. Looks like O'Hearn and Miller were a couple of decent deadline pickups, eh?

The Daily Briefing

MLB is calling up its first woman umpire

Some genuine history is going to happen this weekend: Major League Baseball will have its first regular season game umpired by a woman. Her name is Jen Pawol and she will be called up to work this weekend's series between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta. She will work both ends of Saturday's doubleheader and the Sunday series finale.

Pawol, 48, began umpiring in affiliated baseball in 2016 in rookie ball. She reached Triple-A two years ago. Last year she became the first female ump to work a spring training game in 17 years. She was named a Triple-A crew chief last year as well, which put her on the callup list. Prior to her baseball umpiring career, Pawol umpired NCAA softball from 2010-16. She was invited to the Umpire Training Academy after attending an MLB tryout camp in August of 2015. Before any of that she played softball at Hofstra University.

You may recall Pam Postema who, in the late 1980s, was the first female baseball umpire to work an MLB-level spring training game. Many thought she'd make the big leagues but she was unceremoniously drummed out of her job after the death of Bart Giamatti, who had forcefully backed her. If you followed Postema's career and/or read her memoir you have to figure that, even though it's over 30 years later, Pawol went through a lot to get to this point. Congratulations to her for persevering. And a hats off for the examples set by women such as Postema, Ria Cortesio,  Bernice Gera, Christine Wren, Emma Charlesworth-Seiler, Perry Barber, Theresa Cox Fairlady, and the others who blazed the trail which helped Pawol, and the game of baseball to this point. It's about damn time.

Red Sox, Roman Anthony agree to an eight-year contract extension

The Boston Red Sox and rookie outfielder Roman Anthony have agreed to an eight-year, $130 million contract extension. The deal, which as of yesterday afternoon was still pending a physical, includes a club option. It will keep Anthony under team control through 2034.

Anthony, 21, has delivered since being promoted from Triple-A in early June. Prior to yesterdays game he was hitting .283/.400/.428 (132 OPS+) with two homers, 15 doubles, 27 runs scored, 19 RBI, and two steals in 46 contests. His Statcast numbers – barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and swinging strike rate – are all excellent, which is a great sign for a player so young.

Along with Anthony, the Red Sox have Kristian Campbell, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Brayan Bello all signed to long-term contracts. Which suggests that Boston has, finally, figured out where they went wrong with Mookie Betts and other homegrown stars of the past.

It's rough out there for a mascot

You're a troll mascot for an NHL team. You're simply out there trying to enjoy some fly fishing in Alaska with one of the hockey players on your team. Then, for no good reason, a grizzly bear charges you:

OK, maybe there was good reason. As, upon reflection, this story fits in fairly nicely down with the last item in today's Other Stuff. It's not as egregious, but it certainly falls into the same broad "this ain't your house" bucket.

Other Stuff

Two vice presidents, two rivers

The Guardian reports that J.D. Vance's Secret Service advance team had the Army Corps of Engineers change the outflow of an Ohio dam in order to make his birthday kayaking trip more comfortable. From The Guardian:

JD Vance’s team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned.

The request from the US Secret Service was made to “support safe navigation” of the US vice-president’s security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE).

That's weak as hell, and a lot of people have been giving Vance and the Secret Service crap for this since the story came out yesterday afternoon. As they should. I take no pleasure in reporting, however, that this sort of thing is not unprecedented when it comes to callow hayseed vice presidents engaging in such pursuits. Story time!

Back in the late 1980s my dad's National Weather Service office was in the Raleigh County Airport in Beckley West Virginia. It overlooked the runway through big ass windows, below which the walkway from the tarmac into the terminal led. One day he came home and told us that a Secret Service advance team had arrived to check out the place, interview people, and do Secret Servicey things. The reason: Vice President Dan Quayle and his family would be coming in a few days and they needed to check out the area for security purposes. The reason Dan Quayle was coming was that he and his family were going whitewater rafting on the New River.

In 1989 my father had yet to have a communist family member who wanted nothing more than the Vice President of the United States to fall head first into a porta potty on the final day of a music festival – I was just 15 at the time and had not yet become the jaded crank I now am – so he and his office passed Secret Service muster. The Quayles showed up a few days later, boarded a caravan of black Chevy Suburbans that had been unloaded from a big transport plane earlier that day, drove on up towards Fayetteville, and had their rafting holiday.

When I remembered that story early this morning I recalled that there was some controversy about that trip at the time. Thanks to Google, I was able to have my memory refreshed as to what the deal was. Turns out that, like J.D. Vance in Ohio last month, the Secret Service messed with the outflow of a West Virginia damn in order to give the Quayles an easier ride. From the New York Times on June 11, 1989:

Vice President Dan Quayle and his family took a whitewater rafting trip down North America's oldest river today after the Army Corps of Engineers lowered the water level for a smoother ride.

Mr. Quayle, his wife, Marilyn, and his children, Benjamin, Tucker and Corinne, put their raft into the New River about 10:30 A.M., accompanied by guides and three rafts filled with Secret Service agents.

The Vice President had been whitewater rafting only once before, in Wyoming. He and his family received about 15 minutes of instruction today before setting off for a three-hour ride. 'Kinder, Gentler Ride'

The corps of engineers informed raft operators that it would decrease flow from Bluestone Dam, 40 miles upriver, to 8,000 to 10,000 cubic feet per second today, said Susan Hanger, who runs Songer Whitewater in Fayetteville. The flow was 14,000 cubic feet per second on Friday, she said.

''He'll have a kinder, gentler ride,'' added Ms. Hanger, who said recent rains would also smooth the course over rapids from Cunard to Fayette Station.

Later in the article it was reported that other rafters had their rafting trip delayed that day because the Secret Service didn't want the Quayle's raft too close to other people's rafts. Another rafter is quoted complaining about how, due to the dam manipulation, the river that day wasn't as wild as it normally was. However, he said ''But I understand. After all, he is the Vice President.''

It was a simpler time. It was also a weirder time, at least compared to today.

For starters, Quayle ruffled some feathers when he arrived because he mentioned a clean air initiative that the Bush Administration was launching to combat acid rain, perhaps not realizing that it was really unpopular in West Virginia because it put limits on coal. Imagine a Republican administration caring about the environment and doing something to upset the fossil fuels industry today!

Also:

Gov. Gaston Caperton of West Virginia, a Democrat and a whitewater rafting enthusiast, greeted Mr. Quayle at Cunard but did not go on the rafting trip. Agriculture Commissioner Cleve Benedict, the only Republican holding statewide office in West Virginia, did.

The year 1989 doesn't feel that long ago to an old head like me, but a reference to a time when West Virginia politics was utterly dominated by Democrats makes it seem like ancient history.

In closing: screw J.D. Vance and Dan Quayle, each of whom are softer than wet tissue paper. They's fancypants, all of 'em.

This is important. This means something.

One day after I wrote about maybe going on another big hike two relevant items crossed my timeline before I even ate lunch.

First:

Yup.

While writing is the primary way I express myself and being online is, for better or worse, the primary way in which interact with the universe, the best and most interesting ideas always I get seem to pop into my head when I'm not staring at my computer. My brain, always prone to a bit too much linear thinking, just seems to free itself up some when it's in a different posture.

I, like a lot of people, get great ideas while I'm in the shower, for example. Or if I've taken a big fat edible and put on a Massive Attack record. And, more than anything else, while I'm out walking. Anything which gets me out of overly-familiar mental patterns does wonders for the old noodle.

The only problems:

• You can't really write things down when you're in the shower so those shower ideas often disappear before you're done drying off;
• The ideas I get when I've taken a big fat edible and put on a Massive Attack record are, invariably, as dumb as hell. I almost never write while high because I simply can't do it, but even if I could, the crap that pops into my head when I'm like that is really, really useless. Maybe one day I'll write a whole newsletter while high to show you how hilariously useless I am in that state. It'd probably be like 7,500 words with even more superfluous italics and ALL CAPS than I usually use because, man, DO YOU hear WHAT I'm saying?; and
• While I am prone to stumbling upon some legitimate and useful truths while walking, you have the same transcription issues that you have in the shower. I've tried to use audio notes to record them in these instances, but when I get back home they sound like "What if program teach bird and tree things but not yellow" and I have no idea what I was thinking about. Maybe I'm somehow getting high when I go for a walk without realizing it? I don't know. For now I'm just gonna assume that this is a problem with the audio note software and not a function of my Revealed Truths being stupid and incoherent.

Maybe I should hire a secretary.

The other item I encountered yesterday involved an American hiker – a journalist to boot! – getting lost for a week while taking a solo backpacking trip in a Norwegian national park. The guy was found alive, thank goodness, but the fact that he is an experienced hiker 14 years my junior to whom Shit Just Happened is a bit sobering. True, he was out on a glacier, not on some heavily traveled trail frequented by retirees and schlubs having midlife crises, but it's a good reminder that I've spent a lot of time doing things that could pretty easily kill me for someone who invariably describes himself as risk averse.

Yes, I fully plan on doing more of it for some reason, but nothin' bad will happen to me. I'm built different, man.

Great Moments in Liberal Arts Education

My son attends Ohio University, which is located in Athens, Ohio. Some amazing things are happening in Athens this week:

Carlo then told me, "This dude has the largest speaker I’ve ever seen absolutely blasting 'War Pigs'." Which means that I am willing to excuse the spelling error as the man is obviously based.

No, it's the youths who are to blame

Las Vegas tourism has cratered, with only 3.1 million people visiting in June. That, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is down 11.3% compared to last year. Conservative outlets like Fox News and the New York Post are blaming young people:

Robby Starbuck, conservative activist and host of “The Robby Starbuck Show,” told Fox News Digital it is not just prices that are keeping people out of Vegas. “Now nearly everyone under 40 who bets seems to do it online,” Starbuck said this week. I don’t know one person under 40 who goes to Vegas regularly to bet or play slots," he added.  "This trend will continue with younger people because, honestly, our minds are wired differently . . . Another differentiator is that older generations focused on real-life interaction, while younger generations feel just as content with parasocial online experiences,” he said. The Vegas marketing image is one centered on slots and showgirls, two things young people have no interest in,” said Starbuck.

I find it interesting that the article does not mention a decline in international visitors to Las Vegas being an issue. After all, per the very same Convention and Visitors Authority, travel to Vegas by non-U.S. residents had spiked in recent years, with the city receiving 4.74 million foreign visitors in 2023, accounting for 11.6% of all Vegas trips. It was as high as 13.3% prior to the pandemic and had been moving back up toward those numbers in recent years. Now that the U.S. government has made it clear that any foreign-born person can be disappeared into a Salvadoran prison simply for showing up here, however, international arrivals to most U.S. cities have fallen off a cliff. There's no reason to think that Vegas is faring any differently.

Given how they roll I'm guessing Fox News and the New York Post aren't too keen on underscoring that. After all, if you're an editor at one of those outlets it's much safer for you to claim that that it’s all the fault of the the kids and their avocado toast and stuff than the direct and immediate consequences of aggressively implemented policies that have no regard for human rights.

This seems smart

From Wired:

It's as if no one has ever watched "WarGames" or the "Terminator" movies before.

Go Bulls

Finally some good news:

A millionaire American trophy hunter was gored to death on the horns of a buffalo he tried to kill on a trip to South Africa. Asher Watkins, 52, was tracking a 1.3 tonne Cape Buffalo bull, known as the Black Death, in the 50,000-acre Bambisana concession on Sunday when it suddenly charged at him at 35mph. It slammed into the 52-year-old after becoming increasingly agitated and killed him almost instantly.

If only there was some wise saying about what happens when you mess with a bull. Oh well.

Also: get a load of this statement, issued by the safari company which outfitted the guy:

"On Sunday while on a hunting safari with us in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, Asher was fatally injured, in a sudden and unprovoked attack by an unwounded buffalo. He was tracking it together with one of our professional hunters and one of our trackers.  This is a devastating incident and our hearts go out to his loved ones."

Calling it an “unprovoked attack” when the guy was actively tracking, hunting, and attempting to kill this specific animal is some super magical thinking, I tell you what. Maybe they should give this a framing guys like Asher can understand: you entered the buffalo's house without its consent. The buffalo stood its ground, rendering his use of force entirely justifiable. Sorry, pal.

Watkins' widow had this to say:

"We’ve been in a state of shock and heartbreak ever since, trying to process not just the loss, but the complexity that comes with it."

Girl, there ain't much complex about it. Your husband fucked around and found out. It's a tale as old as time.

The tech and defense guys never watched "WarGames" or "Terminator." This dude never watched "The Breakfast Club." My fellow Gen-Xers obviously never did their homework and thus lack the cultural wisdom they should've acquired in the 1980s and 90s. Now we're getting everything we deserve.

Have a great day everyone.