Very clever that only if you watch the entire video and pay attention to the credits would you know that SI’s Cauldron made this, not Deadspin, which is what is implied by the lack of overt credit.

Now is probably a good time to let y’all know that the word “berk” in England is a slang synonym for “cunt.”

I’d be interesting in seeing some more rejected Godspeed You! Black Emperor album covers. Thanks.

The only way to make the reading of that whole saga even better is, once you’re finished, imagine the theme song from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” playing and the credits rolling.

Finest kind here, Tom. Thanks.

The simplest explanation is that Murphy is just extremely hot right now, but I think adrenaline is having a tangible effect here. His general makeup as a hitter has him as kind of being on the borderline of being able to be described as having power.

Calling Murphy a “raging homophobe” is like calling Hillary Clinton a “raging socialist,” which—shit, Murphy probably believes that too, but you know what I mean.

When did it become an example of good writering to throw a random present-tense paragraph in the midst of a bunch of conventional past-tense ones?

Interesting take, given that the Dodgers got so much production out of Kendrick during the series - shit, during the entire season! - that they would have lost much more decisively had he not been there.

I didn’t call the Mets a “huge payroll team.” I set up the Mets as a counterexample to the “huge payroll teams” like the one they just beat in the NLDS (though it looks like they have something of a Murphy analog in J. Turner). I could have been clearer, though, to be fair.

I suppose, but that assumes the cost of keeping him is substantially higher than the risk of looking for the “next” one, thinking you’ve signed him, then having him not pan out. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. There’s something to be said for paying a premium to retain a player who is as consistently above-average as…

Murphy is exactly the type of player most huge-payroll teams neglect to sign in favor of “better” players. He’s certainly flawed defensively, but he can play a bunch of positions and he’s an extremely consistently good hitter. When the rest of the team is struggling, he tends to buoy them a bit until things turn…

This is fucking amazing. I’m prescribing myself three Denis Johnson stories now, though, to return to equilibrium.

Should the umps be given the technology to make announcements that the whole stadium can hear, like in football? Has this been discussed recently? Seems like an explanation from the crew chief could have saved a few beer cans from being chucked, if not all of them.

Can’t the sentiments “It’s a bad idea to bring a baby to an intense playoff baseball game” and “It’s a bad idea to throw a beer can around a crowded stadium” coexist? What’s mutually exclusive about them? How is this a hot take?

I hope I never get so drunk that I confuse beer with bathwater.

Okay Atticus, how about this:

Since Utley was clearly trying to body Tejada, rather than merely get to second base, could it not be argued that he put Tejada at a risk that was not “natural and attendant” to the activity in which they were both participating? Utley very plainly broke the contract, created by baseball’s rules, to which he was bound…

Utley still being upright (i.e. not in any conventional sliding posture) while even with second base didn’t “create a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another person”?

Beyond MLB rules, Chase Utley is guilty of criminal reckless endangerment of Ruben Tejada. If hockey players can be charged for viciously aggressive actions toward other players (e.g. Marty McSorley/Donald Brashear, which was more obscene, but not by too much), Utley ought to be charged for his.