Podcast: Welcome Back, Elvis Andrus
Record Date: 2/19/2023
Rundown:
- Chicago White Sox are re-signing Elvis Andrus to a one-year, $3 million contract to help solidify the second base position. Josh and Jim explain why they give that move two thumbs up.
- Letting Mike Clevinger speak is given two thumbs way down. It’s gotten so bad that the topic “Clevinger” is prohibited until the MLB investigation concludes.
- Applauding Anderson Comas’s decision to announce he’s gay and the White Sox response to the matter.
- With MLB already forming an economic reform committee, Josh believes a work stoppage is coming again in late 2026.
Author
Buster Olney Tweet hits it on the head-
Acute team tanking has been a problem for baseball for a decade — without public complaint from other teams, without even out-loud acknowledgement of the practice. Now the Mets and Padres spend big and they’re forming a special committee? Really? –
The makeup of the owners on the committee seemed odd to me as well. I don’t think any owners from small market teams were on the committee.
My daughter, an adult with Down Syndrome, gets a thrill when she sees someone with Down Syndrome on a TV program or in an ad. Never Have I Ever, Call the Midwife, All Creatures Great and Small, and Away are four programs we’ve watched recently with characters who have Down Syndrome. She invariably gets misty-eyed and says, “That makes me feel special!”
it’s important for all people to see themselves represented in life. For most of us it’s never an issue and we never think about it. We simply accept that we see ourselves all around us. But for some groups of people, it’s a rarity and it adds to their sense of isolation.That’s why it’s important for Comas to come out and it doesn’t matter if other players let on that they’re straight.
I don’t know if the BBC’s Gardeners’ World is available in her area (it’s on BritBox in the US), but I bring it up because of what happened that half-century-old gardening show pivoted to adding viewer segments during the pandemic.
Among the many wonderful developments due to this change, a team of three adult sisters (two of whom have Down Syndrome) became cherished occasional contributors. I think they’ve been on 4-5 times in the past three years; here’s one episode (their segment begins about eight minutes in).
That link won’t work for me because it won’t recognize that I’ve disabled my adblocker. I get Britbox. Do you know which episode number that clip is from? We’d like to watch it, though we are to gardening what Mike Clevinger is to human decency.
It’s episode 19 from the 2022 season. (Oddly, my ad-blocker lets me play it.)
The sisters first appeared sometime in the early spring of 2020, though we started watching the episodes a little later when told about how the change in format led to much more of the viewer community participating. The results were some of the best TV during lockdown for our mental health as we listened to the ambulances barrel down our street.
Thanks! My wife and I just watched it. I can see why they’ve been such a hit. We’ll watch it with our daughter when she comes over on Wednesday. She’s anxious to see it.
I hope she enjoys it!
She will. It will make her feel special.
Well said. 100%
Jerry is holding on to life for one more of his favorite thing in the world — a good old fashioned labor dispute.
I missed Anderson Comas, thanks for covering it. I’ve been openly bi (w friends and family) while playing baseball for several years now, but there are teams on which I feel fine being open with that, and teams on which I absolutely don’t want my teammates to know that.
Young jocks can be, but are often not, the most understanding or accepting crowd, especially in the US where baseball and its players trend more conservative.
I’m also glad the org publicly supported him. It’s baseline expectation, but I am far from certain that all orgs (Cards, Royals?) would be quite as effusive.