Outside The Confines: Up in smoke

If you like to be able to breathe when going to baseball games, then attending one on the East Coast right now wouldn’t be ideal. As wildfires rage in Canada, the smoke moving down the East Coast is creating dangerous air quality conditions for hundreds of miles.

As a result several MLB games on Wednesday and Thursday were postponed. On Wednesday the Tigers/Phillies game and Yankees/White Sox game were both postponed; then on Thursday the Diamondbacks/Nationals game was postponed. While many online dismissed the need by suggesting fans could choose not to attend, this seemed to overlook the danger posed to players who did not get to decide whether or not they wanted to play.

MLB has long drawn criticism for its approach to postponing games. Many games played during intense storms pose genuine risk to players as the equipment and field become slippery and impossible to navigate. So it’s nice to see MLB taking safety into consideration in a real way with this haze.

Now let’s get onto some non-smoke-related links!

• Jay Jaffe remembers Roger Craig.
• The Angel with the longest home run of the season so far might surprise you. Story by Rhett Bollinger.
• Teams continue the recent trend of benching players who aren’t showing enough hustle. Story by Nick Selbe.
• Games are speeding up, but strikeouts are also on the climb, explains Eno Saris. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Well I guess that’s pretty good.

• Dan Szymborski takes a deeper look at that big home run.
• Jay Jaffe contemplates Mike Trout’s sluggish start.
• A former Detroit Tigers prospect helped defeat them in a game against the Phillies. Story by Todd Zolecki.
• Wondering if the Yankees still consider the Red Sox their biggest rivals in the East? Nestor Cortes explains why he doesn’t think so. Story by Nick Selbe.
• The Athletic staff pick one MVP for each of the 30 teams. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Not the kind of record you want to break.

• Kyle Kishimoto gives us a breakdown of the grand history of McCovey Cove home runs.
• Stephanie Apstein explains how MLB has the power to keep the A’s in Oakland.
• The whole A’s plan to move is coming under serious legislative pressure. Story by Evan Drellich. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• David Schoenfield explains how the Rangers have managed to go from rebuild to contention in just one season.

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