Outside The Confines: A baseball namesake

Happy Friday!

There’s plenty of goodies in today’s links roundup, so let’s not muddle around. We’ve got a historically bad day at the park, a historically great team offense, a potentially irreversible Yankees slump, a female baseball wunderkind, and a rather painful baseball injury.

So grab your coffee, find a comfy place to sit as we ease ourselves into the weekend, and let’s jump into today’s links.

• Loved this fun little bit of Phillies history about quite possibly the unluckiest sports fan ever.
• Michael Baumann looks at the unlikely rise of both the Marlins and Orioles in the same season.
• Sarah Langs has 10 wild stats from the week that was.
• Jimmy Traina looks at how a home run led to a Dodgers fan naming his child after Mookie Betts.
• ESPN had a little more into the Dominican investigation into Wander Franco.
• Zack Meisel shares the story of a former MLB player whose struggle with Tourettes set him on a path to help others. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Sorry, this is just hilarious.

• This story about Diamond Sports suing Sinclair could be an interesting one to keep an eye on. (Reuters)
• Is Bobby Witt Jr. the best-kept secret of 2023? Dan Szymborski would like to convince you.
• Will Leitch assesses which teams have the hardest and easiest roads ahead to contend for the playoffs.
• Tom Verducci believes the Braves’ offense has no weaknesses.
• David Schoenfield tries to understand the Yankees’ slump.
• Sam Blum analyzes the rise, fall, and rise again of Christian Yelich. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Right in the Nootbaar.

• Ben Clemens thinks Win Probability Added is a pretty cool stat.
• Michael Clair introduces us to the groundbreaking Australian double threat Genevieve Beacom, who is breaking barriers and paving the way for women in baseball.
• Amid their ongoing slide in the AL East, the Yankees are adding insult to injury as a former prospect speaks out against the club’s approach. Story by Nick Selbe.
• Melissa Lockard looks at fan-owned cooperatives in light of the recent situation in Oakland. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• This is just delightful.

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