The Heart and Hustle Awards were announced last week and our boyfriends past and present were a lock Our Olympic Baseball rundown covers qHAR, the bullpen cart, the emotional Eddie Alvarez story, and Scott Kazmir and Nick Allen, two guys at opposite ends of their career getting a bump from the spotlight. Hooray for that, plus Brock Holt’s eephus, the Scherzer’s philanthropy, Adley Rutschman in general, the CPBL, and Christian Yelich’s acoustic guitar, because then things go south.
In Police Blotter, Omar Vizquel’s story gets significantly worse, the lead-up to Trevor Bauer’s restraining order hearing continues to spiral, and Ramon Laureano is player #5 to earn a PED suspension this year. MLB has given up on encouraging players to vaccinate and now may have to put back some loosened protocols -- mask mandates already in place in Spring Training facilities used for the minors. None of the remaining seven teams has met the 85% vax threshold since June.
Write your congressperson to support the Minor League Baseball Relief Act to carve out emergency relief for ballpark staff wages and stadium expenses due to no season last year and reduced ticket sales this year. This is similar to other Federal relief earmarked for suffering business, small and large, but focusing on keeping these specific community treasures afloat until they regain their footing. There is no Federal help on the way for the woes suffered by minor league players due to MLB not ponying up housing and food for their staff but instead creating unnecessary financial stress and damaging player health. Thank you Adopt a Minor Leaguer and More Than Baseball for your work here.
We say Wood Ducks, Rubber Ducks, fight club, Hammers, and Guardians.
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