L.D. (From Seaver to Seattle)

Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone. Just a pair of Italian Royals enjoying some dugout coffee.

before the game I was joking about praying to the unusually high number of Jac cards I've gotten from 2026 Series 1 so that he'd actually hit tonight and well,

ITALY WINS

BASEBALL POWERHOUSES THE MIGHTY ITALIAN AZZURRI HAVE DEFEATED THE FRAUD MICKEY-MOUSE MINOR BASEBALLING NATION KNOWN AS "THE UNITED STATES"

Excerpt of From Seaver to Seattle blog post, reading: "10. Refusing to be outdone by some of the more interesting celebrations around the league (looking at you, Drew Gilbert and the Giants) and in other sports, an MLB team sees its players debut a celly that involves fully kissing each other on the mouth. I think it would be fun, and that’s probably all the explanation needed."

one of my predictions for the upcoming regular season is looking increasingly likely. I just didn't necessarily think it would be thanks to Vinnie Pasquantino

surely they can shoot Austin Nola a quick email

Team USA showing incredible solidarity with Tarik Skubal

I, for one, am highly comforted by the Phillies' new righty setup guy throwing the ball away in a pressure situation

DAAAAAAAA YANKEES LOSE

Ondřej Satoria, the Czech pitcher, who struck out Shohei Ohtani in the 2023 WBC, announced he is retiring. You can order his baseball card, I believe the first one for a Czech baseball player, until March 12th.

to be fair I was at least hoping for a nice preview of McLean's upcoming season and then he got lit up and I was like ah, well, time to go full steam ahead cheering for Italy and wipe this out of my mind

Disgrace of Gijón - Wikipedia

rooting for Italy-Mexico to pull a Disgrace of Houstón

WE MADE IT HAPPEN!

this game proves that you need a real manager like Dave Roberts for Team USA because he has the kind of experience that allows him to know exactly when to put in Clayton Kershaw to make a loss even funnier

unfortunately, with the Italy-USA game coming to an end, I still haven't received an answer to my profoundly important question: if Vinnie hits a home run, do they have a designated kisser?

World Baseball Classic pool play tiebreakers, after head-to-head: RULES & RULE MODIFICATIONS, CONTINUED » The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied. » The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest earned runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied. » The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the highest batting average in games in that round between the teams tied. » Standings shall be determined by the drawing of lots, conducted by WBCI.

USA to quarters if Italy beats Mexico

If Mexico beats Italy, a 3-way tie, all 1-1 vs. others. next tiebreaker: runs allowed / def. outs

USA 11 R/54 outs (.2037)
Mexico 5 R/24 outs (.2083)
Italy 6 R/27 outs (.2222)

Mexico wins 9-inning game w/1-4 runs, USA is out
Mex. win with 5+ runs, Italy out

my timeline:

when Aaron Judge was talking about everything all the team USA players sacrificed he was talking about this game

I'd like it to be known that I asked him to "Jac one outta here" and then he did in fact do that

I'm looking for independent baseball writing to support this season. If you write a baseball newsletter, blog, book whatever—or have one to recommend, drop it here (no substack, sorry).

ALVY CRUSHED THAT BALL! 🤯

lol even Team USA didn't think it was great, so... case in point

Cal is only one example of this broader ideology where "locking in" = shutting off your personality and human connections. which is pretty funny, because having a little chat with the catcher and umps doesn't stop Juan Soto from mashing year-round, and Cal is a nice 0-for-6 in the WBC thus far

plenty of incredible players are visibly friendly with the opposing team both in MLB and the WBC, and I don't think it's a coincidence that those players are also generally the ones visibly *having fun*. they get to play a children's game! it's supposed to be fun!

it really hearkens back to that terrible Aaron Judge speech where he's talking about them going to war in the trenches for each other. this idea that the other team is your *enemy*, or that what you're doing isn't a game - I think sports (among other things) are worse for it!

one thing grating on me about the Cal situation: the idea that fun/friendliness are mutually exclusive with competition, that it must be hostile with firmly drawn lines in the sand, is a very distinct ideology common in certain spheres. and, well, it kind of sucks

jokes aside, I do indeed have one! while I am principally a Mets/Mariners fan and sometimes write team-focused pieces, it's mostly more general baseball. @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social gave me great advice re: staying away from substack when I was getting started, lol

Low-quality image of a white guy in a green-gray sweatshirt and black sweatpants sitting on a couch, holding a beer, and pointing to himself with a baffled expression.

he sure did!

but I'm sure that the reason people behave that way is because every shortstop since ARod has been complete dogshit. There's no other possible reason that people would talk about a white guy to the exclusion of everyone else!

not denying that. it's just not some sort of never-before-seen catch that nobody this century could have made, which is what people are pretending it is, presumably because they've missed the past decade of Francisco Lindor