What I read (week of 4/16 - 4/22 2017)

I think once you start judging items for newsworthiness, you never really stop. I'm closing in on 20 years since I ran a college newspaper, but I've found I keep recommending stories to people and they keep acting like they like it ... So I thought I'd start chronicaling the good things I read and maybe start kicking out a newsletter straight to your inbox ... who knows?

‘DID YOUR FATHER DIE?’

An amazing piece from the Washington Post on the effects of violence on one second grader.

The boy was sitting in his favorite spot, atop his dad’s bed, playing their favorite game, “NBA 2K16” on the Xbox One, when he heard the sound. Pop, pop, pop, from just outside the second-floor window on that warm summer afternoon. Tyshaun McPhatter’s father burst through the open doorway, crouching. “Get down on the floor,” he screamed, and the 7-year-old knew what that meant: more gunshots.

Craig Hodges: ‘Jordan didn’t speak out because he didn’t know what to say’

Maybe you knew what former NBA great Craig Hodges was up to, but I didn’t. The Guardian is on the case.

“I’m sad to say that one of our players was shot on Monday,” Craig Hodges reveals after he has spoken for an hour about his brave but tumultuous career in the NBA. Hodges fell out with Michael Jordan, confronted George Bush Sr in the White House and won two championships with his hometown team, at a time when the Chicago Bulls were venerated around the world, before he was ostracised and shut out of basketball for being too politically outspoken.

The Trouble With Innocence

Going to try to keep this to one Texas Monthly piece a week, and this is a good one.

June 6, 2016, convicted murderer Kerry Max Cook walked into a Tyler courtroom. The sixty-year-old was dressed in black, his silver hair trimmed short. Cook’s eyes, dark and nervous, shot around the wood-paneled chamber, which was filling rapidly. Local news reporters and a documentary-film crew from New York were setting up cameras and microphones. Cook caught sight of three men in the audience, men who had once been convicted criminals themselves: Billy Smith, Michael Morton, and A. B. Butler Jr. All three, famously, had been proved innocent of their alleged crimes after serving a collective sixty years behind bars. They had come from miles away to attend this hearing, and Cook walked over to greet them. Smiling, the three stood to shake his hand. Morton clapped him on the shoulder.

The Secret Life of Pitchers

Going to try to keep this to one The Atlantic piece a week, and this is a good one.

The major league baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred, will never be mistaken for a rebel. He’s a 58-year-old Harvard Law School grad who clerked for a U.S. district judge appointed by Richard Nixon; became a partner at the lofty Philadelphia law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; and made his name in the league negotiating collective-bargaining agreements and investigating the Biogenesis doping scandal of 2013. The guy even wears a tie when he throws out the first pitch at games.

Did you read something good this week? Drop me a comment below or shoot me an email ... colby at colby angus black dot com.

Game 1

No one asked what I thought about the Post Game 1 world we now live in, so I am going to tell you anyway. I did, however, say people that donated to my Movember got looped into my World Series Text Chain ™. That said, I can assure you, no one really wants that, and I was also busy winning trivia at the bar down the street last night, which meant no phone usage.

tl;dr - winning beats losing.

Over on fivethirtyeight.com, they’re giving the Cubs a 54 percent chance of winning Game 2 tonight and the Indians a 55 percent chance to do the one thing left to do (hint: it’s “win the whole fucking thing.”). They also - somehow - pick the Cubs to win the next 4 games. Which seems totally incongruous. 

It bears noting, though, that I don’t think their pitcher adjustments takes bullpens into account. That seems like a major flaw. Which means surely I am missing something. It seems like you’d want to factor in the most dominant pitcher of the post season and the ALCS MVP. But what the hell do I know? Maybe that’s how we keep sneaking up on people. 

Also, potentially of note: Danny Salazar isn’t factored in.

Historically,* when the home team wins Game 1 of the World Series, they go on to win Game 2 55.8 percent of the time and go on to win the series 68.8 percent of the time.

When leading a best-of-7 playoff series 1-game-nil, the Cleveland Indians have a series record of 1-0 and a Game 2 record of 1-0. When trailing a best-of-7 playoff series 1-game-nil, the Chicago Cubs have a series record of 0-9 and a Game 2 record of 4-5.

* This is sort of a worthless stat, as MLB changed the way they awarded World Series home field advantage in 2003 … so we don’t really have a hundred year yardstick here. Merely 13 years. Speaking of that ...

I saw this from ESPN today:

Over the past three decades, almost every team that lost Game 1 of the World Series found it had just dug itself a canyon it couldn't climb out of. It's tough to comprehend, but Game 1 losers have lost the past six World Series. And 12 of the past 13. And 17 of the past 19. Not to mention 19 of the past 22 and 24 of the past 28. Going all the way back to 1997, the only two teams to lose Game 1 and survive were the 2009 Yankees and the 2002 Angels. Hard to believe in a best-of-seven series, but 100 percent true.

I haven’t researched it, but I’m assuming it’s 100 percent true. it’s also fairly worthless as you’re dealing with one of the least lucky franchises on one of the least lucky towns in the history of professional organized sports.

But none of that means shit for this series.

Regardless, today, I awoke in a world where my beloved Indians led the World Series for the first time since 1948. And I’ve savored that bit of awesome all day. Because I fully expect Arrieta to completely clamp down the Indians lineup tonight as the Cubs exit Progressive Field with a W. 

Conventional wisdom would call this loss a disaster for the Indians. And it’s certainly not good, Bob. Losing Game 2 at home means the Cubs just have to win 3, 4 and 5 in Wrigley (where they have the best record in baseball) and they can schedule a parade. 

But, as great as a 2-0 knockout punch would be, I think Tito’s playing the long game with this series. My gut tells me he’s trying to make sure he’s got a 100 percent Kluber, a 100 percent Miller and a 100 percent Allen to throw at the Cubs in Game 1 (check) Game 4 (perhaps) and Game 7 (we’ll see) because he’s confident that’s 3 wins for the Good Guys. Throw the kitchen sink at them for games 2, 3, 5 and 6 and maybe you get lucky with one of those.

I also know the Indians are the only team in baseball that didn’t have a 4 game losing streak this season. I’m aware of that fact because Tito’s bragged about it to the radio crew a few times. Which is to say I am pretty sure it’s something he relishes and think he’s banking on it. “Cede” game 2 to the Cubs, keep your powder dry, because you’re confident they’re not taking the series 4-1. 

First pitch tonight was moved up an hour to 7 eastern due to anticipated bad weather in the Cleveland area. Personally, that’s good for me, because I am fucking dead tired. However, I think there’s a bit of an edge to that for the Cubs. I’d love a situation where Bauer gave us 5 or 6 good innings and then a rain out meant we got to come back tomorrow to finish it out with a rested Miller taking the hill. 

But we don’t get what we want, so I’ll take the extra sleep.