Month: May 2021

The Canadian teams finally got into the Stanley Cup Playoff on Thursday night, but one of the division’s biggest stars had a scary collision early in the action. Toronto forward John Tavares was stretchered off the ice in Game One of the first round of the postseason against the Montreal Canadiens after a scary collision with two Montreal players.

The hit happened midway through the first period in Toronto on Thursday night. Tavares was skating backward waiting for a pass in the neutral zone when Habs defender Ben Chiarot stepped up to disrupt the play by the faceoff dot. Tavares was separated from the puck, crashing to the ice as play continued up ice.

The hit happened right in front of an official, but it wasn’t necessarily illegal. The problem was another Montreal skater, Corey Perry, was flying up ice to backcheck, and he slammed into Tavares while he was splayed on the ice. His knee hit Tavares in the head, who lay motionless as play immediately stopped, and a worrying scene then unfolded at Scotiabank Arena.

According to TSN, Tavares was transported to a Toronto hospital. But not before a very scary scene where Tavares apparently regained consciousness with a shock.

Tavares was down on the ice and not moving as Toronto’s medical staff signaled for the assembled Emergency Responders to bring a stretcher. As the EMS personnel descended, Tavares was put into a sitting position and appeared to pass out momentarily. When he came to, Tavares was seemingly disoriented and had to be calmed before the medical staff could continue.

Thankfully, Tavares gave the thumb’s up before he left the ice, though his status as of Thursday night is still not known and the optics of both the hit and his reaction are extremely worrying.

Hopefully Tavares is OK, but it was a harrowing start to a highly-anticipated matchup in the NHL postseason that will certainly be less entertaining without Tavares on the ice for the Leafs.

Damian Lillard doesn’t have to work too hard to find a chip on his shoulder. The Blazers superstar guard has long felt underappreciated and undervalued, going back well before he arrived in the NBA. He has always used slights and doubts to fuel him, steadily climbing the NBA ladder to be among the game’s very elite.

A year ago, Lillard enjoyed his best season as a pro, averaging 30 points and 8 assists per game on 46.3/40.1/88.8 shooting splits, dragging the Blazers to the 8-seed in the Bubble with one of the most incredible two week-long runs you’ll see from an individual player in Orlando. In the process, Lillard garnered some MVP buzz, but the Blazers struggles as a team kept him from truly entering the conversation, as he finished seventh in voting. This year, Stephen Curry is an MVP finalist for leading the Warriors to the 8-seed, averaging a league-leading 32 points per game on 48.2/42.1/91.6 shooting, along with 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Curry has gotten MVP backing from the likes of LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal, the latter of whom will scream at you for disagreeing, and he has undoubtedly been among the three to five best players this season. Still, Lillard can’t help but recognize how differently the discussion is about the Warriors being in 8th compared to Portland being in the same position in the West last season, and expects that to still result in Nikola Jokic taking home the MVP award, as he told Sam Amick of The Athletic this week.

I don’t go tit-for-tat. I just call it like I see it. I think Steph has had a great season. Obviously, there has to be a conversation about him being in the conversation. But I don’t think he wins it. At the eight seed, I just don’t see how that works. Last year, it was people like (ESPN’s) Stephen A. (Smith saying) ‘Man, I love what Dame is doing but he can’t be the MVP because they’re the eighth seed.’ You know what I’m saying? But last year, I averaged 30 points and eight assists on 46 (percent) from the field, 40 from the three-point line and 90 from free throw (it was actually 88.8). But last year, they’re like, ‘Man, we can’t consider him an MVP because they’re the eighth seed.’ And now it’s like it’s ok. For me, that’s the way that I’m looking at it. (Curry) is definitely in the conversation. There’s no way that you don’t have him in the conversation. But I think when you really look at it, and you see that Jokic has played in every game and he’s dominated the way he has, they’ve had injuries with so many guys out and missed games and he’s kept them rolling. He’s kept them where they are.

The question was posed as to whether Dame believes if Curry is getting MVP buzz then he should too, and he points out that the similarity is more to his season last year when his numbers were even more comparable to Steph’s on a similar situation. Obviously each year is different in who is in the mix, and this season’s general weirdness and how many guys missed time impacted how many players at the top of the league were in the mix for MVP — i.e., none of Brooklyn’s Big 3 played enough to merit real consideration due to injury. As such, Curry is maybe higher up than he would’ve been in a field like last year, but the point from Lillard is taken. He expects that to be the reason Steph ends up behind Jokic, who has put up ridiculous numbers himself and, as Dame points out, has kept the Nuggets in third in the West even as the likes of Jamal Murray and others have gone down with injuries.

It would be a stunner for Curry to beat out Jokic, no matter what a loud few say, and Dame’s point will likely ring true. Team success has always played a role in MVP voting, and while there’s no doubt Steph has put forth one of the best individual seasons in the league this year, he likely will finish second or third in voting.

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Paulie Walnuts presents: A Goomba’s Guide to Loving Your Mom.

Fresh from the oven like some scones Carmela Soprano baked for the “Fabio of The Sopranos,” as guest Desi Jedeikin from the Hollywood Crime Scene podcast calls Furio, there’s a piping hot new episode of Pod Yourself A Gun. It’s about dang time Matt and Vince got Desi on the show, as she introduced former guest and Hollywood Crime Scene co-host Rachel Fischer to The Sopranos in the first place. Her and the boys are talking about season four, episode twelve, “Eloise.”

This episode is more fun than taking a bunch of old ladies to see The Producers on Broadway, and if you say otherwise I will personally come to your place and smother you to death with a pillow like Paulie does to that old crone Minnie. Or, at least I’ll settle the dispute they had on the podcast about whether or not it’s possible to smother someone to death with a pillow. Don’t make me find out. You look like you have weak lungs.

To complement the pillow talk, there is also a bangin’ Bada-B story song parody about standing too close to a helicopter while urinating, and a discussion of Paulie’s performative mom love. He loves Nucci, but also he needs everyone in his immediate vicinity to know how much he loves Nucci. It’s sweet but gross — kind of like your mom.

Now that you have been thoroughly berated, tell us how great we are in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

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-Description by Brent Flyberg

This fall will mark three years since Lil Peep tragically died from a drug overdose while on his tour bus prior to a Tuscon, AZ show. A resulting toxicology report labeled his cause of death as an accidental overdose due to a mix of the pain medication, fentanyl and Xanax. Marijuana, cocaine, the painkiller Tramadol, and a number of opioids were also found in his system. At the end of 2019, the late rapper’s mother sued his management team and alleged that they encouraged his drug use. One example includes one of Peep’s managers gifting Peep with a bottle of pills during his 2017 Peep The Show.

The lawsuit process has taken a toll on Peep’s mother, Liza Womack. According to Pitchfork, Womack revealed she’s suffered two strokes since her son passed away. “I’ve had two strokes, and I am not going to die until I take care of this matter,” she said. “I’m going to live. I have a mission.”

Womack also shared how she remembers her son and continues the fight for his justice.

“There’s one woman who is a helicopter pilot, a photographer, and also an artist, and I asked her if I could buy her painting — it wasn’t even for sale — and she would not take any money,” she said. “She had an art dealer send it to me. We texted a little bit, and I told her I talk to it. I don’t believe in the afterlife, which is one reason why this was so horribly painful, because he’s gone, he’s gone.” Womack added, “But I told her I do talk to the painting and I tell him, ‘Gussie, I got ya.’ I am not stopping. I’m not giving up, ever.”

The finalists for the 2020-21 NBA Awards were unveiled on Thursday night ahead of the Eastern Conference play-in game between the Pacers and Wizards on TNT, and as is always the case, it sparked further debate about who should win the awards.

The MVP debate has been rather tepid this season, as Nikola Jokic’s performance in Denver from start to finish has been nothing short of superb, leading the shorthanded Nuggets to the 3-seed in the West despite the late season injury that took away star guard Jamal Murray. Still, as Stephen Curry has erupted to take the league’s scoring title and drag the Warriors into the play-in, where they’ll battle Memphis for the 8-seed on Friday after a thriller in L.A. on Wednesday, there have been plenty of folks stumping for him to enter the conversation seriously.

He was announced as a finalist alongside Jokic and Joel Embiid, and for Shaq, there’s no question in his mind that Curry is the MVP. As Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson explained, the MVP is almost always on a top team in the NBA, and that the Warriors finished eighth in the West, fairly or not, was going to impact the voting. This made Shaq very mad, as he started screaming across the table at Chuck who delighted in the opportunity to point out how Shaq was going to be wrong.

Curry has been nothing short of sensational for the Warriors, but the matter of consistency all season, Jokic’s health, and the team success in Denver even as his star teammates battled injuries has set up a near perfect storm for him to be a runaway winner. Steph’s efforts to pull this Warriors team into contention has been tremendous and being a top-3 candidate is a worthy honor, but while he’s made his case — and LeBron has too — it would be a genuine surprise for him to win. Barkley notes this and Shaq is having absolutely none of it. The funniest part of the exchange is that it started by Shaq using the All-Star MVP as an example, to which Ernie pointed out even that award always goes to a player on the winning team.

The 2020-21 regular season has come to a close and as the play-in tournament wraps up with the two remaining battles for the 8-seed in the East and West, the focus has shifted to the playoffs and who will walk away with the 2021 NBA Championship.

There is also the matter of sorting out who will win the NBA’s annual end-of-season awards, which, as a reminder, are regular season only awards that have already been voted on by the members of the media who are given a vote. The winners of those awards aren’t announced until later in the playoffs, but on Thursday they unveiled the finalists for the six regular season awards on TNT — finalists listed in alphabetical order.

MVP
Stephen Curry
Joel Embiid
Nikola Jokic

Rookie of the Year
LaMelo Ball
Anthony Edwards
Tyrese Haliburton

Sixth Man of the Year
Jordan Clarkson
Joe Ingles
Derrick Rose

Defensive Player of the Year
Rudy Gobert
Draymond Green
Ben Simmons

Coach of the Year
Quin Snyder
Tom Thibodeau
Monty Williams

Most Improved Player
Jerami Grant
Michael Porter Jr.
Julius Randle

There aren’t any real surprises on the list, although the TNT broadcast had plenty of debate including Shaq screaming at Chuck for daring question whether Steph was MVP — with Chuck, sagely, noting that Jokic is going to win the award. We’ll learn the winners of each award as the playoffs wear on because, like last year, there is no NBA Awards ceremony planned this season.

When you have a flower that only blooms once a decade or so, you probably want to share it with the world when it does.

Nursery owner Solomon Leyva decided to wheel his rare corpse flower out to an abandoned gas station in Alameda, California on May 18 to share the joy—and the stank—of it in bloom. The corpse flower is so named because of its rotting smell when it’s in full bloom. (The smell has been described as “worse than a thousand pukes,” which may also explain why Leyva brought it out into a wide open space during its flowering phase. Even though it only blooms for a day or two, it’s probably not too pleasant to have that smell indoors, even in a greenhouse.)

The first bloom of a corpse flower takes around seven to 10 years. After that, it’s anyone’s guess how often it will bloom. For some, it’s every few years, for others it can be several decades between blooms.

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Just that normal thing that happens in Alameda where a guy brings a corpse flower to an old empty gas station and h… https://t.co/0AIdBTVL8n

— Peter Hartlaub (@peterhartlaub)
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Corpse flowers are huge, growing up to 10 feet in height, and most of the time they sit with their “petals” (actually a singular frilly leaf called the spathe) wrapped up around their towering centers (called the spadix). When in bloom, the spadix actually creates heat, and a combination of chemicals put off a mix of smells described as cheesy and garlicky, sweaty feet-ish, and rotting fishy.

In other words, the rare blooming corpse flower is a feast for both the eyes and the nose.

Leyva told the San Francisco Chronicle that he shares his extremely rare plants on Instagram, and when he saw people showing interest in his corpse flower, he decided to bring it out for the public to enjoy.

“I grabbed my wagon, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, dragged it down here to this abandoned building and people just started showing up,” Leyva said.

Leyva sat near the flower in a folding chair and answered people’s questions. He didn’t set any rules for viewing, but as more and more people arrived, they formed an orderly line on their own, sometimes stretching down the block. By late afternoon, Leyva estimated that at least 1,200 residents had visited the flower.

“Everyone is commenting to me that the last time they’ve seen this was in San Francisco, and there was a barrier, and they had to wait for hours, and they weren’t allowed to get near it,” he said. “I think everyone’s tripping out that they can walk up and wiggle it and smell it.”

The combination of the bloom being a rare event as well as a putrid curiosity is likely what brought so many people out to an abandoned gas station to see a single flower. But the flood of visitors may also have been because Leyva’s instinct to share something special with the public in such an unlikely place, expecting nothing in return, created a sense of community that we’ve all been craving during the pandemic. No cost, no fuss, no hassle, just “Hey, I’ve got this big ass flower that only blooms every ten years or so and it’s blooming now so come take a look! And by the way, it reeks!” And the people came.

Thank you, Solomon Leyva, for sharing your cool, rank flower and reminding us that sometimes people will do something awesome for people just because it’s an awesome thing to do for people.

With the rise of expensive sipping tequilas, new styles like cristalino (not technically a new style, but certainly a technique on the rise), and the trickle-down barrel-obsession descended from the whiskey boom, it seems that as tequila keeps increasing in popularity blanco expressions are growing more and more under-appreciated. That’s a shame. In part, because there are a lot of great blancos out there and also because a good blanco is trying to achieve something very particular, rather than compete with reposados or añejos. It’s its own vibe — vegetal, peppery, bright.

This is tequila at its most pure. Its flavor profile is a reflection of the Blue Agave piñas it’s made from. And not for nothing, but it’s the base of some of the best cocktails on the planet — from the margarita to the paloma. So put some respect on blanco’s name.

To help give blancos their propers, we put seven bottles to the blind taste test. Why blind? Because it’s easier to zero in on flavors without the reputation of a brand influencing your opinion. Think I’m joking? Just take a look at how many Patron reviews will mention honey or flowers — no doubt influenced by its honey-bee adorned label.

On to the taste test!

Part 1: The Taste

For this blind tasting I grabbed seven bottles of un-aged tequila that all fall within the $20-$50 range. Some of these are budget tequilas and some are award-winning expressions, but all of them are good-to-great, so I’m not sweating any rude surprises that will wreck my palate. Here is our class:

• Bribón Blanco

• Don Ramon Platinium Plata

• El Tesoro Blanco

• Espolon Blanco

• Hiatus Blanco

• Hornitos Plata

• Patrón Silver

Let’s get to tasting.

Taste 1

Tasting Notes

Fresh cut grass greets you on the nose with a harsh hit of kerosene, hitting the tongue with an initial burn that morphs into a pleasing burst of sweet citrus. Herbal notes of cool pine linger on the backend of this one, finishing off in a pleasing place that wasn’t suggested by its smell.

Honestly, a great start.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes

One whiff of this tickled the sinuses as a flood of zesty lime greeted me, leading to a surprisingly mellow taste with a highly silky mouthfeel. This didn’t quite manage the depth that the first taste provided, though the initial flavor was much smoother.

Aside from its great mouthfeel, I got the subtlest hint of melon — supplying a note of sweetness but little else.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes

Noticeably sweet on the nose with an inviting floral quality, this one hit me with an initial burn that gave way to tart and slightly bitter apple skin, softening into a warm honey kiss with a sweet peach finish. This one really took me on a journey, the flavors are constantly shifting and dancing on the palate.

Much more complex than the first two tastes.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes

Sickly sweet and highly chemical on the nose, my hopes for this one weren’t high. But as soon as it hit my palate it presented itself completely free of burn with a pleasing mouthfeel. Highly vegetal, I’m getting a bit of asparagus and lettuce with a warm body and a celery-like peppery bite that finishes with sweet pineapple notes.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes

Bright on the nose with some peppery zest, this tequila doesn’t taste… bad, exactly. It has some interesting notes of cantaloupe and hibiscus going for it, but it tastes like the flavors are struggling to get through. At the finish, this one just feels a little flat, it hints at a depth that just isn’t quite there.

I suspected I might have hit an exhausted palate and took a bit of a break here and went in for a second taste. It wasn’t my palate, this was just boring.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes

Vegetal and agave forward with strong hints of gasoline, this tequila burns the nose but is highly drinkable, despite its harsh introduction. Unlike Taste 5 the flavors are well translated here — a gentle kiss of vanilla leads to spiced pineapple and cooked agave with a smooth and pleasant mouthfeel that goes down way too smooth for something that smells this offensive.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes

Wow. This is far and above the best. On the nose, bright citrus and cactus pear mingle, giving this tequila a pronounced desert-like quality. It feels fit to drink in a Western. On the palate, it’s noticeably luxurious with a subtle burn that gives way to bright and grassy agave and sumptuous fire-roasted pineapple with a warm floral honey finish.

Part 2: The Ranking

Unfortunately, there were few surprises here. I entered this blind taste test hoping a cheaper bottle would hold its own against the pricier stuff. I wanted some cool reveal!

But as we inched closed to $50, the tequilas really started to shine. Still, within the cheaper bottles, we did have one pleasant surprise.

7. Hornitos Plata (Taste 5)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $25

The Tequila:

Rolling up to a party with any of these bottles won’t make anyone feel like you secretly hate them and are passive-aggressively taking your hate out by bringing them bad tequila. But every ranking has a bottom and in this ranking, that position goes to Hornitos Plata.

That’s somewhat surprising. For $30 dollars a bottle, Hornitos really tries to position this bottle apart from the other mid-shelf brands as something slightly more special. Turns out… it’s not!

The Bottom Line:

Don’t be swayed by the slightly higher price tag, this tequila isn’t much better than the bottles priced a few bucks cheaper.

6. Espolon Blanco Tequila (Taste 6)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $26.99

The Tequila:

Produced in the legendary hills of Los Altos, Espolon’s Blanco is made using 100% blue weber agave and double distilled in column pots for an overall balanced expression. Aside from the silkier mouthfeel, Espolon’s Blanco presents itself harsher on the nose than Hornitos’ Plata, but its smooth qualities set it just over our bottom pick.

The Bottom Line

It’s good and cheap, but it doesn’t quite feel like a steal at this price. A bit harsh on the nose, but overall a smooth and drinkable tequila. Nothing special.

5. Bribón Blanco Tequila (Taste 2)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $21.99

The Tequila:

This one was by far the most surprising. At just $21.99 it’s a full-on budget bottle and the cheapest on this list, but it clearly punches above its weight. For Bribón’s Blanco, the label starts with hand-harvested fully matured agave cooked for 18 hours that is then shredded and juiced before being fermented in tanks and double distilled to a pure crystal clear state.

Overall, the bottles that hover between $20 and $30 don’t differ too too much, so in terms of bang for your buck grabbing this over Espolon or Hornitos will save you some cash and elevate your cocktails. Unfortunately, there is a world of difference between this bottle and everything ranked above it.

The Bottom Line:

If you don’t feel comfortable paying close to $50 for a bottle of Blanco tequila, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a bottle better than Bribón in both flavor and mouthfeel.

4. Don Ramon Platinium Plata (Taste 1)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $42

The Tequila:

Don Ramon’s Platinium Plata is the bottle that benefitted the most from the blind taste test. Having experience tasting the entire Platinium line — which includes cristalino, reposado, and añejo expressions — I know of the three the Plata is by far the weakest link. But in this blind tasting against other un-aged tequilas, it held up pretty nicely, ranking much higher than I initially expected.

Made from blue agave harvested from the highlands of Jalisco, this plata tequila is double-distilled and presents itself with an appetizingly shimmery clear color.

The Bottom Line:

This bottle has a lot going for it. A great agave forward expression with rich citrus undertones. Unfortunately, it has a strong kerosene quality on the nose that holds it back a bit. It’s a little too pure, we’re getting too much of the distillation process in the flavor.

3. Patrón Silver (Taste 4)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $49.99

The Tequila:

Everyone roots against Patrón because people are always insisting it’s top-shelf stuff. It’s priced high on restaurant menus and your liquor store probably keeps it locked up in a cage, which is ridiculous because there are way better tequila brands that stay on the shelves. My theory is that this is because Patrón is easier to say than Herradura or El Tesoro.

I’m not ashamed to say that I went into this rooting against Patron, too. I was hoping this bottle ranked close to the bottom and I could call out a spoiler. But hey, credit where credit is due: Patrón Blanco is incredibly drinkable.

If you’re someone who winces when tequila touches your palate, give Patrón a try — it produces almost no burn!

The Bottom Line:

Easily the most drinkable tequila on this list. Patrón goes down smooth and features an almost sweet aftertaste that lingers nicely whether taken as a shot or enjoyed in a complex cocktail.

2. El Tesoro Blanco (Taste 3)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $46

The Tequila:

Does it burn a lot more than Patrón? Yes. But El Tesoro’s Blanco tequila has so much character and depth of flavor, we’ll take a little pain to have a spirit this expressive. It’s no wonder this Blanco tequila snagged the gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge and scored highly at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge — it presents its flavors in distinct waves and just as you get a grasp on what you’re tasting it morphs into something else.

This draws you in and that’s what a good tequila should do.

The Bottom Line:

Floral and bright, El Tesoro’s Blanco is a journey for the palate and one of the most complex un-aged tequilas we’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. This will instantly elevate any tequila-based cocktail you’re mixing up.

1. Hiatus Blanco (Taste 7)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $49

The Tequila:

As I said in the tasting notes — wow. It’s almost hard to believe this is a Blanco tequila. While it’s got the clean and bright characteristic we’ve come to expect, Hiatus’s tequila is supremely smooth with a luxurious mouthfeel and a complex flavor that shifts between sweet tropical notes and grassy and highly vegetal qualities. Produced by master distiller Luis Trejo Rodriguez at La Cofradia distillery, this bottle deserves a permanent spot on your bar cart.

The Bottom Line:

Hiatus almost seems like it should be priced higher, thanks to its elegant flavors and silky smooth mouthfeel. This one reawoke my palate and really set itself apart from the rest in a noticeable way. Few tequilas in this price range are capable of inspiring a “wow” but Hiatus made it happen.

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While politicians weigh just how deeply they want to wade into the January 6 attack at the US Capitol at the behest of former president Donald Trump, those who took part in the MAGA riot continue to find themselves arrested for various crimes committed that day. For every easily-identified Q Anon Shaman there are dozens upon dozens of more anonymous people who were caught on film breaking into the Capitol Building, assaulting security officers and other offenses.

Some of those people, though, have apparently gone to great lengths to get themselves into trouble by capturing video of them inside, boasting about it on dating sites and telling family members about their escapades in Washington. And the latest case of this is pretty absurd: a man who boasted smoking a joint inside the Capitol and disobeying officers asking him to leave.

As Raw Story detailed, Daniel Warmus was arrested in Buffalo this week on charges of violent and unlawful entry, disrupting government business and disorderly conduct at the US Capitol. And the way the FBI tracked him down was unusual to say the least: he was overheard bragging about it all and showing a video of his criminal entry while at the dentist.

Warmus, from Alden NY, was heard by the tipster telling of how he smoked a marijuana cigarette inside the Capitol, the FBI criminal complaint states. The tipster said “that he/she overheard Warmus talking about his experience” which included having refused a police officer’s instructions to leave the building.”

The tipster said they could hear but not see a video Warmus was playing at the dentist’s office. Warmus was heard saying he went inside the Capitol building, according to the FBI. Agents added that the tipster wanted to remain anonymous and wouldn’t respond to questions but did provide the agents with Warmus’ home and work addresses.

You can read the full FBI criminal complaint here, which is full of fun details about the “f*ck antifa” flag he carried affixed to a tree branch and other details about the investigation that led to his arrest. There are a lot of ways to get arrested for a crime, but telling on yourself while holding incriminating evidence on your phone is certainly one of the more bizarre we’ve seen in 2021.

[via RawStory]

The talk of the baseball world for the past few days has been about Yermin Mercedes hitting an absolute moonshot off of Twins first baseman-turned-relief pitcher in blowouts Willians Astudillo on a 3-0 count. If you haven’t seen it, please enjoy, because it is hysterical.

I don’t think people who have been complaining about this fully recognize how hard it is to hit a baseball going that slow that far. Yermin had to create almost all of the ball speed here and absolutely destroyed one. This looks like a slowpitch softball home run. It absolutely ruled, full stop.

However, the Twins were upset about this — at least manager Rocco Baldelli was — and so was White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who says Mercedes looked off a take sign to launch this baseball 400-plus feet. In the next game, Twins reliever Tyler Duffey threw behind Mercedes and got tossed, which La Russa also said he thought was fine, which seemed like an insane thing for a manager to say about someone throwing at his player. Duffey and Baldelli have been suspended for that — Duffey for three games, Baldelli for one — and while all of Mercedes’ teammates have come to his defense, his manager has not.

That aspect of this story is what is making most people frustrated with La Russa, and on Thursday, CC Sabathia teed off on the Hall of Fame manager for being out of touch with the game on his R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco.

Sabathia is right. One thing just about every baseball player who has chimed in on this has said is that any unwritten rules go out the window when you put a position player on the mound, as that is, in and of itself, an effort form the manager to steal some rest for his bullpen and gain an advantage on the other team for the rest of the series. As such, you can’t really be mad when that gets punished in the form of a team teeing off on position player pitching when it’s an active choice not to use up your arms in the bullpen.

As Sabathia says, anyone complaining about this is “out of touch with the game,” and it highlights the problem many had with La Russa being hired in the first place. He’s not going to be able to connect with this young generation of players, has very different views on the miserable “unwritten rules,” and to hang your guy out to dry who, as CC notes, has been carrying your team much of the start of the season, is just an awful look. For this to be the prevailing storyline about the team with the best record in baseball is truly wild and unfortunate, and highlights the apparent disconnect between a manager and his team of young, fun stars.