Outside The Confines: Dog Days

Good morning. On this day in 1933, the first All-Star Game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Lon Warneke, Gabby Hartnett and Woody English with the Cubs representatives.

I don’t have any dog news today. I just wanted to make people happy with a photo of a dog. And the Iowa Cubs.

• I hate the fact that the Yankees are the best story in baseball, but here we are. Zach Crizer has five reasons why the Yankees have been so good this year.
• Will Leitch has ten stories this season that no one saw coming. The Yankees being this good is one of them.
• Another one is the Mets having neither Max Scherzer nor Jacob deGrom for most of the season and still being in first place. Well, Scherzer returned to the Mets last night and struck out 11, walked no one and allowed just two hits and no runs over six innings. In typical Mets fashion, however, they still lost to the lowly Reds 1-0.
• We might as well pay the butcher’s bill while we are talking about it. Dodgers outfielder Chris Taylor has a fractured left foot and is out “indefinitely.”
• Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper had three pins inserted into his fractured thumb, but he vowed that he’ll play again before the end of the season.
• Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts needed seven stitches after Cubs catcher Willson Contreras accidentally hit his thigh with his spikes. Of course, Bob Nightengale is reporting that there’s a strong belief in the game that Bogaerts will be a Cub next season. But not Contreras, for some reason that no Cub fan comprehends.
• The Red Sox are close to getting starters Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi back from the injured list.
• Sad news. The 17-year-old daughter of Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski died over the weekend in a boating accident.
• Four fans at the Athletics stadium were hit by falling bullets from guns fired in celebration on the Fourth of July. Cripes. We had a little girl hit in the arm with a bullet at a park six blocks from me last year. The bullet was fired from over a mile away. I don’t know who thinks this is a good idea, but nothing surprises me these days.
• White Sox closer Liam Hendricks spoke out about the horror of gun violence.
• Yesterday was Shohei Ohtani’s birthday, and Andrew Simon has eight gifts that Ohtani has given to baseball.
• James Fegan writes that this critical stretch of games for the White Sox is not off to a good start. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• For example, the White Sox became the first team to ever hit into an 8-5 triple play against the Twins.
• With the trade deadline coming up, Will Leitch has one untouchable player on every team’s roster.
• David Schoenfield has one player that each team must trade away or trade for. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• The MLB Pipeline crew has the hottest pitching prospect in every farm system. I suppose they wrote this before Daniel Palencia gave up six runs on Monday.
• R.J. Anderson looks at how Kumar Rocker went from a Top-10 pick in last year’s draft to this year’s biggest enigma.
• Grant Brisbee wonders why the Giants defense has been so much worse in 2022 than it was in 2021 with mostly the same lineup. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Ken Rosenthal notes that Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. is open to a position change. (The Athletic sub. req.) And other baseball notes from the past few days.
• Bryan Hoch has ten defining moments in the career of Hall-of-Famer Goose Gossage.
• And finally, Anthony Castrovince has the story of Larry Doby and how he broke the color barrier in the American League.

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