Outside The Confines: The Detroit 500

I just wanted to announce that I will not be the next host of Jeopardy! I apologize if I offended anyone for insensitive things I said in the past in a misguided attempt at humor. Such as “Ketchup really belongs on a hot dog,” or “Godfather III was the best movie of the trilogy” and “The Dave Matthews Band is really great.” I will try to do better in the future and I don’t want my past controversies to overshadow a truly great game. So I am withdrawing my name from consideration as host.

• Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera became the 28th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs when he connected off of Blue Jays lefty Steven Matz on Sunday. Cabrera is also the first player to hit his 500th home run while wearing a Tigers uniform.
• Matt Kelly has some incredible stats from Cabrera’s career.
• Emma Baccellieri has an appreciation of Cabrera’s “timeless” swing.
• Former teammates and adversaries congratulated Cabrera.
• David Venn notes that Cabrera is the greatest Venezuelan baseball player in history and that he’s a hero in that South American country.
• David Schoenfield ranks all 28 players who have hit 500 home runs. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Matt Synder looks at who could be the next player to hit 500 home runs.
• Changing gears, do you think you have it tough as a Cubs fan? Try being an Orioles fan, who just lost their 18th-straight game to Atlanta on Sunday.
• Here are the longest losing streaks in MLB over the past 60 years. The Orioles aren’t far from the 21 straight losses in 1988 by . . . the Orioles.
• Zach Crizer looks at how the “relentlessly competent” Braves have taken control of the NL East race. Playing the Orioles helped too.
• Stephanie Apstein notes that despite injuries and games missed because of COVID, the Yankees have been the hottest team in baseball lately.
• Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said team owner Steve Cohen wasn’t wrong when he criticized the team’s hitting last week.
• The Rays placed DH Nelson Cruz on the COVID injured list and pitcher Chris Archer and first baseman Ji-Man Choi with other injuries.
• The Athletics announced that they will continue to negotiate both with the cities of Oakland and Las Vegas as they seek to build a new stadium.
• The permanent restraining order against Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer was denied by a judge last week. Fabian Ardaya explains what the judge’s ruling does and does not mean. (The Athletic sub. req.) He also looks at what MLB and the Dodgers might do next.
• Sara Sanchez breaks down the Rookie of the Year races in both leagues.
• Michael Baumann explains how the National League Cy Young Award race comes down to a philosophical argument about how to evaluate pitchers.
• Joon Lee thinks that the “City Connect” uniforms will change fashion in baseball forever. He also argues that the jerseys are more about marketing the game than selling more merchandise.
• Big news in the world of card collecting as Fanatics has signed deals with MLB, the NBA and the NFL players unions to be the exclusive sports trading card manufacturer for those three leagues. So when the contract between MLB and Topps runs out in 2025, a 70-year history of Topps producing MLB cards will come to an end.
• Ashley MacLennan has a short history of team mascots in the majors. Too short to mention Crazy Crab, I guess.
• And finally, Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola struck out his brother, Padres catcher Austin Nola and their dad didn’t know how to react. It’s the first time the Nola brothers have faced each other in the majors.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.