A game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night saw two of its most high-profile players, Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson, get ejected for a fight. Ramirez slid into second, got tagged out by Anderson in a way that he did not appreciate and confronted him, which led to Anderson dropping his gloves and the two squaring up.
Both players swung at one another, but only Ramirez connected, as he landed a right hand that sent Anderson to the ground despite being held back by White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech. The pair were ejected, and on Monday afternoon, we learned the punishments they’ll face from Major League Baseball. Despite being on the receiving end of one hell of a right hand, Jesse Rogers of ESPN reports that Anderson got the longest suspension, as he’ll end up missing six games. Ramirez will miss three, while a handful of other individuals received 1-game suspensions.
News: Tim Anderson suspended 6 games, Jose Ramirez 3 and Emmanuel Clase 1 game for their part in Saturdays brawl between the White Sox and Guardians, sources tell ESPN.
While it’s unclear exactly why Anderson, who got punched and hit the deck, got a longer suspension than Ramirez, who threw the punch, it stands to reason that the league is giving him a few extra games for escalating all of this.
But it’s not the first $1 billion movie for a member of the cast.
The obvious guesses are Margot Robbie or Ryan Gosling, but their top-grossing films before Barbie are Suicide Squad ($745 million) and La La Land ($436 million). It’s also not Will Ferrell, or Kate McKinnon, or Simu Liu, but it is, unsurprisingly, another member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ariana Greenblatt, who plays tween Sasha in Barbie, was also young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, which is one of only six films to exceed $2 billion at the box office.
The list of performers who have been in multiple billion dollar movies includes Samuel L. Jackson (10), Don Cheadle (6), and Scarlett Johansson (6), mostly from Marvel films, but no one did it at a younger age than Greenblatt.
“I just remember thinking, no matter how this turns out, I’m so happy I got to have a meeting with the two of them,” she told Flaunt about interacting with Robbie and Gerwig while auditioning for Barbie. “I was like, ‘Just kill it in this meeting so they remember you, and you’re good.’”
Of what he’s planning for the release of his next project to look like, Sheeran said in a new interview with Audacy, “I’m planning an interesting rollout of it. I feel like… I don’t understand the music [industry]… every time I work out the music industry, it changes, so I kind of want to do my own thing rather than try to do the traditional thing. So the next thing that comes out will be something that hasn’t been done before, I guess.”
That provided a transition to AI, about which Sheeran said, “What I don’t understand about AI is like, for the last 60 years, Hollywood movies have been telling you, ‘Don’t do it,’ and now everyone’s doing it. Have you not seen the movies where they kill us all? I just don’t know why you need it. […] If you’re taking a job away from a human being, I think that’s probably a bad thing, because then the world is just going to be… the whole point of society is we all do jobs. If everything is done by robots, everyone’s gonna be out of work. I just find AI a bit weird. But, you know… ChatGPT, f*ckin’ why not?”
Check out the interview above.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
If Donald Trump was looking for any sort of break in his ongoing legal troubles, the E. Jean Carroll case wasn’t it. The former president’s countersuit against Carrol has been tossed out by a federal judge. Adding insult to injury, the judge also doubled down on the verdict that found Trump liable for sexual assault.
Trump’s legal team attempted to claim that Carroll defamed him with her allegations, but considering a jury already found that it was actually Trump who defamed Carroll by disparaging her assault allegations (and continued to do so after losing in court), the countersuit didn’t stand a chance.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan noted Monday, the jury did find Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll during an encounter in the dressing room of a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, and the details of that finding show that her having maintained that the former president raped her is “substantially true.”
Kaplan dismissed Trump’s counterclaim, which sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as several of Trump’s defenses against a separate still-pending defamation lawsuit brought by Carroll.
But, wait, there’s more. In a separate filing, Kaplan also signed off on letting Manhattan prosecutors subpoena Trump’s “entire deposition” in the Carroll case and review it while pursuing charges for the former president’s alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
That decision makes Trump’s loss to Carroll even more damaging if it aids prosecutors in nailing the former president for falsifying business records to cover up the alleged affair with Daniels.
Things got a little heated between Klay Thompson and Devin Booker when the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns went head-to-head last October. The pair went at one another during the game, to the point that Thompson got ejected and chirped at the Suns bench as he made his way into the locker room.
Prior to getting tossed, Thompson kept holding up four fingers for Booker, signifying that he has four rings and the Suns star hasn’t won anything yet. It’s a reliable piece of trash talk that we’ve seen from athletes in a number of sports over the years, but as Thompson explained on “Podcast P with Paul George,” he regrets doing that for a pretty interesting reason.
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) August 7, 2023
“Yeah, I was in my feelings, though, and Book was busting my ass that day, I was not where I needed to be,” Thompson said when George brought up his run-in with Booker. “Stuff doesn’t age well, and that didn’t age well for me. I don’t need to be flexing four rings, bro, everybody knows that, that’s on Wikipedia. My game wasn’t where it was at, and we all get insecure at times. I’m man enough to admit that we all have our moments of weakness. I’m not really proud of that one, cause I see Devin Booker and I should be proud of this young man, the work he’s put in, he survived a tough regime in Phoenix where everyone’s getting traded, he’s playing for a new coach every year, but now, he’s a franchise player cause he kept working. So, I admire the guys who have work ethic like that.”
It’s good to see that Thompson has this kind of perspective on things, especially because it was clear last year how much his inability to play at the level he was accustomed before his injuries weighed on him. Whether or not he regrets doing the same thing to the Memphis Grizzlies, however, remains to be seen.
Tory Lanez is due to be sentenced in a little over 90 minutes as of this writing, but first, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford had over 70 letters of support for the rapper to read through as he considered his decision, according to independent journalist Meghann Cuniff. One of those letters, she reported, comes from fellow rapper Iggy Azalea, who was rumored to be dating Lanez after collaborating with him late last year. She reportedly asked for a sentence that would be “transformational, not life destroying.”
Alright we are on the 90-minute break. Judge Herriford got 70+ letters of support for Tory Lanez, including one from @IggyAzalea. He briefly summarized each one. Two jailers wrote letters, one spoke in court. Lanez’ father, Sonstar Peterson, was the last speaker before the break.
No stranger to controversy herself, Azalea was criticized by fans online for her connection with Lanez, who was accused of shooting Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the back of her feet after a disagreement in the summer of 2020. Azalea took the backlash in stride at the time, writing on Twitter, “You’re all very welcome to speak your opinion freely about me… just as long as we all have an understanding: you are having a monologue & not a discussion with me – because (respectfully) my bills remain paid without your two cents.”
Tory had previously announced he was executive producing the Australian rapper’s next album, although his motivations struck some as dubious. While he said he wanted to produce a female artist’s album “for a while,” to some observers, the announcement appeared to be a PR move, as he was then facing a criminal trial for assaulting a female artist — a crime for which he was later convicted. Meanwhile, Azalea has been censured multiple times in the past for allegedly co-opting her rap persona from existing Southern female rappers.
In addition to summarizing the letters of support for Lanez, whose defense requested a lenient sentence of probation and rehab against the prosecutors’ recommended 13 years in prison, Herriford heard from three speakers on the rapper’s behalf. One was Tory’s father, who apologized for his outburst after the original verdict, and a jail chaplain who spoke to Lanez’s character. Another jail employee wrote a letter calling him “remorseful,” which Cuniff notes is the closest Lanez has ever come to admitting guilt or taking responsibility for the shooting.
Megan The Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
A dockside disagreement turned into a violent brawl over the weekend in Alabama and now, footage from the fight has gone viral, according to Newsweek, Page Six, and the above local news video — which can be viewed on YouTube — from NBC affiliate WSFA.
On Saturday evening at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park, a fight ensued, leading to several arrests by local police. Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed shared a statement on Twitter saying officers, “acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.”
Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served.
This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police… pic.twitter.com/5cywOwA6Uz
What happened beforehand? Via Newsweek, footage taken from someone on the riverboat showed a woman explaining what led to the altercation. According to her, the man in the white shirt got off the riverboat to push the pontoon further down the dock after its owner was told he couldn’t leave his vessel there.
The riverboat worker then reportedly exchanged words with several shirtless white men surrounding the pontoon with things eventually escalating. While the Black dock worker tried to convince the people in the pontoon to move their boat, a man in grey shorts reportedly attacked him, encouraging the rest of his group to gang up on the man who was just trying to do his job.
Via WSFA, a handful of police officers arrived after the brawl began but seemed to let it die out on its own before issuing any arrests. At one point, a fold-up chair was reportedly used to beat one of the passengers on the pontoon while another was thrown into the water by a riverboat worker. Warrants have been issued for several people involved with more arrests likely to follow, but as serious as this whole situation was, Twitter was able to find some humor in the more bizarre bits.
me watching every clip of the Alabama boat brawl from different cameras, angles, perspectives pic.twitter.com/HsKvP8Lc26
Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon is one of the most sought-after whiskeys out there. The bulbous bottles of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey from the Buffalo Trace Distillery are the stuff of legends, driving up the desirability and price. That last part makes buying Blanton’s a sketchy issue. Yes, it’s pricey, which begs the question, “Is it worth it?”
Well, there isn’t one Blanton’s expression and there isn’t a clear “yes” or “no” to that question either. So I’m going to give you my professional opinion on all four of the mainstream Blanton’s bourbon expressions that you can buy (generally). It’s time to rank some Blanton’s, folks!
Before we dive in, let’s get a little background. Blanton’s is “The Original Single Barrel Bourbon” in that it was the first commercially available bourbon in a single-barrel format. This started back in 1984 when bourbon — and whiskey in general — was on the ropes. Vodka was the drink of the masses and a lot of whiskey distilleries were shuttering worldwide (they literally couldn’t give the stuff away back then).
Back in 1984, Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee took a huge swing and decided to release a “single barrel” product to distinguish his Kentucky whiskey on the market. It was … not that much of a success. Remember, this was back in the day well before single-barrel picks were everywhere. People weren’t really sure what Elmer T. Lee was getting at until the Japanese market woke up to the brilliance of single-barrel bourbon via Blanton’s being shipped over there (almost exclusively). The Japanese appetite for bourbon exploded in the 1980s, largely thanks to Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon which helped keep a large part of the industry afloat (and arguably set the table for bourbon resurging in the late 90s/early 2000s). Now, I’m not saying Blanton’s and Elmer T. Lee saved bourbon in the 1980s, but it was a big reason — amongst many — that bourbon survived a devastating downturn.
Fast-forward to that aforementioned 2000s bourbon boom and Blanton’s starts getting the recognition it deserves in the U.S. market. About a decade later, that recognition kicks into high gear with seemingly less of it on shelves, and, well, prices started to soar.
That gets us to today. Blanton’s is a highly allocated bourbon. That means that a small quantity of the expressions is released to specific retailers, bars, and restaurants seasonally and annually depending on the expression. That small quantity and lack of widespread availability (in the U.S. mostly) means that the price of Blanton’s has become exorbitant for the average consumer. Translation — what should be a $50-$100 bottle of bourbon often costs $150-$400 (or more) depending on the expression. You can read my advice on actually buying the stuff right here.
Since that’s the case, I’m going to give you my thorough tasting notes and professional advice on each. That way you can make a more informed decision if you do want to dip your toe into the world of Blanton’s. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This version of Blanton’s is made for the international market and has been on again/off again for a while. It seems to be on again right now and bottles are available at U.S. retailers (mostly only online though). The whiskey in the bottle is indeed single-barrel bourbon from Buffalo Trace. The ripple is that it’s proofed down to 80-proof or 40% ABV.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose feels like Blanton’s-lite with a mild sense of falling leaves, old barrel houses, vanilla-heavy oatmeal raisin cookie jars, and gently cedar kindling.
Palate: That vanilla mounts the palate like a lush creamy eggnog with a hint of allspice next to dates and more raisin with this fleeting sense of white pepper and dried red chili (very light sense).
Finish: That spice fades back toward the vanilla oatmeal raisin cookies and cedar on a frankly very short finish.
Bottom Line:
This is very clearly bottled as a mixing whiskey. It’s bourbon-y and very nice — there are no faults here. But it feels like something you build with, adding flavors for old fashioneds or whiskey sours.
3. Blanton’s The Original Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Buffalo Trace’s “original” Blanton’s Single Barrel is made up of hand-selected single barrels that meet the sky-high standards of former Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee, who created the expression back in 1984. Those whiskey barrels are kissed with local limestone water and then bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a clear sense of Christmas spices right away, leaning towards honeycomb spiked with vanilla and an old cedar cigar humidor before leathery Buffalo Trace notes (think freshly soaped saddle leather) kicks in with a hint of pipe tobacco.
Palate: The taste holds onto the spice, especially nutmeg (think eggnog), as caramel kettle corn, more fresh honey, fresh red berries with a hint of tartness, and vanilla pods that lead back to the dry spice barks and cedar.
Finish: Those woody barks and cedar have a nice dose of tobacco and leather on the end that feels like a vanilla oil-heavy eggnog with tons of allspice and nutmeg just kissed with fall leaves on a rainy day.
Bottom Line:
This is classic bourbon. It kind of has everything you want. It’s deep yet never overpowering or “hot”. It’s balanced and classic. But classic doesn’t mean “amazing” or “quintessential” — it just means it’s really good. So, I’d still rank this among the cocktail whiskeys. Make a Manhattan with it or use it for old fashioneds, Sazeracs, or boulevardiers. Or mix it into your eggnog during the holidays.
2. Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This expression is the purest form of Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon. The whiskey in these bottles is from the same Blanton’s barrels, but they’re perfect just the way they are. This whiskey goes into the bottle straight from the barrel with no proofing water whatsoever.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is full of very bespoke dark chocolate-covered salted hard caramel toffees encrusted with almonds and pecans — the kind you get from a chocolate shop that imports their goodies from somewhere like Belgium — next to full fall leaves falling on wet grass outside musty old warehouses with a hint of well-worn boot leather lurking beneath it all.
Palate: The nutty toffee carries through into the taste as oily vanilla pods mingle with cedar boxes of dried tobacco leaves and a touch of floral honey jars with old wooden spoons and more of that old boot leather before sharp winter spices and dried red chili pop on the mid-palate.
Finish: The end is very long and lingers in your senses with a hot buzzing thanks to the barky spices and dry chili that subtly fades through all that sweetness before ending up in an old cedar box full of choco-chili tobacco layered with old dark fruit leather sheets.
Bottom Line:
This is hot whiskey. That makes it the perfect candidate for an on the rocks pour, preferably over one big ice cube. Still, that heat can be a lot, depending on what the proof of the version is that you actually find. So while it’s not perfect, it’s still pretty goddamn awesome.
This single-barrel masterpiece was made for the international market but is now available widely in the U.S., albeit for a hefty price. The juice is all about the refinement of the single barrel aging process, with masterful finishing to bring this down to a very drinkable 102-proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a big greeting on the nose with notes of spicy tobacco leaves dipped in honey next to dried red berries dipped in salted caramel and dark chocolate before the richest eggnog drives your senses toward soft notes of winter fruit orchards and barks with a hint of moss and cellar dirt.
Palate: The palate carries those notes forward while leaning into the spiced cherry-chocolate tobacco and amps up the chili pepperiness and then balances that with a layer of buttery toffee creaminess, maple syrup-covered pecan waffles, and the softest of saddle leathers.
Finish: The finish takes its time fading out as notes of buttercream vanilla, winter spice bards, and orchard bark with a final billow of rich pipe tobacco popping at the very end with dry cedar kindling and the fleeting sense of a 100-year-old rickhouse.
Bottom Line:
This is the one. This is perfectly balanced and proofed to truly highlight everything great about Blanton’s. You can sip this neat. You can pour it over a big rock, allowing the creaminess to really go deep and reveal marzipan, eggnog pudding, and more buttercream. You can also put this into your favorite whiskey-forward cocktail to truly elevate it into the stratosphere.
If you aren’t drinking aged spirits once the sun goes down on hot summer evenings while you sit on a deck or around a campfire, you’re totally missing out. You should definitely be enjoying some well-made long-aged whiskey, tequila, and dark rum as the fire crackles and the lightning bugs pop off in the summer night air. Today, we are specifically turning our attention to the latter, dark rums.
White (un-aged or rested) rum has its place too, don’t get us wrong. It’s sweeter and lighter but more suited to mixing into a summer mojito or daiquiri. Dark rum, on the other hand, has matured in oak barrels and just speaks more to late-night summer sipping. While still sweet like its un-aged counterpart (thanks to the use of sugarcane juice or molasses), the aging process imparts flavors like vanilla, caramel, spices … and oak too (of course).
And while you can’t go wrong with some of the mainstream stuff from your local liquor store or online retailer (the Bacardis and Capitan Morgans if you will), there are other wonderful options available. To find them, we asked a handful of well-known bartenders to tell us the best dark rums to sip on a cool summer evening. Keep scrolling to see them all.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
Pampero Aniversario Rum is my go-to summer sipping dark rum. This is a world-class slow-sipping spirit. This Venezuelan rum is known for its balanced, fruity, sippable flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
It has great flavors of butterscotch, pipe tobacco, coffee, and black walnut. With a rich, creamy texture, it has a buttery thick feel with lovely baked layered flavors.
When it comes to the best dark rum, you have to try Brugal 1888 from the Dominican Republic. It is truly exceptional with rich flavors of bourbon and sherry casks.
Tasting Notes:
It is smooth, full of flavor, and perfectly balanced. Dried fruits, vanilla, chocolate, and toffee, make for a very sippable palate.
Diplomático Reserva
Diplomático
Michael Carlisi, Beverage Director at Barrio in San Francisco
Outstandingly smooth and balanced, I reach for Diplomático Reserva. This balanced and complex dark rum is a blend of copper pot still distilled rums all of which are at least 12 years old.
Tasting Notes:
It’s a complex and elegant rum. The fruity baked banana flavors are delicious.
Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Solera is a premium rum produced in Guatemala. It’s named after the town of Zacapa in eastern Guatemala, and the “23” in its name refers to the maximum age of the rums in the blend, not the minimum. Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Solera has won numerous awards for its quality and taste, including a Gold Medal at the International Rum Festival. Ron Zacapa uses a process known as “Sistema Solera”, where the rum is aged in a series of barrels that previously held American whiskeys, sherries, and Pedro Ximenez wines. The rum is not distilled from molasses but from the first press of sugar cane, known as virgin sugar cane honey.
Tasting Notes:
It’s known for its balanced sweetness and spice. It has a full-bodied, rich, and complex taste with notes of caramel, honey, vanilla, and dried fruits. The finish is long and smooth with a hint of toasted oak, making it an approachable option to sip and savor on a cool summer evening.
R.L. Seals 12 Year
R.L. Seals
Matty Clark, General Manager at Dutch Kills Bar in Long Island City, New York
I’m a Bajan Rum guy, so I would say R.L. Seals 12 Year if you can find it (we still have 1/2 a bottle at Dutch Kills). This complex dark rum is aged for a minimum of 12 years in ex-bourbon barrels.
Tasting Notes:
It’s deep and rich but not sugary with notes of vanilla and burnt sugar. There are also notes of coconut, chocolate, and toffee. Delicious.
Plantation Original Dark Rum
Plantation
Lorenzo Zappacosta, restaurant and bar manager at Manetta’s Bar in London
The most popular dark rum at Manettas Bar is Plantation Dark Rum. It’s enhanced by meticulous blending and further maturation in France. Plantation Dark Rum is an ideal companion for our signature cocktail ‘Atypical Christie’ which you can sip on a cool summer evening.
Tasting Notes:
The result is a profound structure spiced with notes of cinnamon and clove whose smoky quality adds texture.
The best rum to sip on a cool summer night would be Barbancourt 5 Star 8-Year-Old Dark Rum. It gets its smooth easy-drinking nature after spending eight years maturing in French Limousin oak.
Tasting Notes:
It almost tastes like cognac because of the way it’s aged. Vanilla and oak flavors make it great to sip on a cool summer evening.
Coconut Cartel Special Rum
Coconut Cartel
Javier Pastrana, Food and Beverage Director at YOTEL in Miami
I would have to go with the delicious Coconut Cartel Special Rum. The aged rum is cut to proof with fresh coconut water. This is the best and easiest sipping rum for the summer.
Tasting Notes:
It’s a fruity complex trip to an island paradise in every sip with tropical hints of caramel, vanilla, banana, and mango.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Rogan chatted with regular on-air commentator Patrick Bet-David about Carlson’s recent firing and his pivot to Twitter. Fox News axed Carlson after the network settled a massive defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. He’s since tried to restart his misinformation-spreading career on Elon Musk’s platform with a show that sparked his former employer to issue a cease-and-desist order. But, according to Rogan, if this whole schtick doesn’t work out for him, Carlson’s got a bright future in politics that could lead him to the White House.
After Bet-David asked if he thought Carlson might make a run for president in 2028, Rogan had this to say.
“When someone’s involved in politics in that extent where you’re talking about it constantly and you know the insides and the outsides, you know all the bullshit and all the shenanigans. I guess you would probably have at least an idea of how you would do it differently and better,” Rogan said.
Shocking “logic” there. Rogan claimed to know plenty about vaccines and COVID-19 treatments and yet, he shouldn’t be handing out bandaids on a street corner, never mind running the CDC. Rogan also claimed that Carlson’s pivot to Twitter has been “very profitable” and that the host is making “a tremendous amount of money” despite suffering an 86% decline in viewership since his show launched.
Still, here’s more of why Rogan thinks the guy who made a doc about testicle tanning should run the nation.
“He’s also got a very popular voice, like if he decided to run for president — let’s just make a scenario. Trump wins in 2024. He has four years. If Tucker went to run in 2028, he could win. He really could win, because it would be kind of carrying those policies. But also he’s sort of a no-nonsense guy who exposes bullsh*t, you know, pretty humorous way and a very insightful and biting way,” Rogan continued before adding that Carlson has “red-pilled a lot of left-wing people.”
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