April 1, 2022

1. MLB umpires will be mic’d up for replay review explanations

We’re in luck today, this season we’ll be getting in-depth descriptions of every awful call.

And it’ll be starting this weekend in spring training — per MLB.com:

2. Jacob deGrom is out with an injury to start the season

More bad news, for the best pitcher in baseball.

Mets fans are losing it:

3. Major trade news: AJ Pollock for Craig Kimbrel

A surprising piece of news this late in the spring training calendar, after the transaction frenzy died down — and a straight swap of two significant players, between two contending teams:

4. Happy April Fool’s Day aka Sidd Finch Day

He (the guy who posed for the photos, Joe Berton) was my woodshop teacher in middle school, in Oak Park, Illinois. Not kidding!

5. The highlight of the day: Julio Rodriguez with an inside-the-park home run

The #1-rated prospect in baseball on some rankings, and last night he gave Mariners fans their most exciting moment of spring training:

6. The anti-highlight of the day: Mets in the outfield

Same inning, these two plays. About two minutes apart.

7. Shohei Ohtani pitched yesterday and JJ Watt came to watch

8. Meet Joey Votto the TikTok star

He’s about a week into his social media career, passing with flying colors (and a lot of time on his hands).

9. The cheapskate team moment of the year

If you ever wondered why the Indians picked a new name that shares the very same last five letters — here’s parsimony personified:

10. Will Smith is getting (jokingly) booed at games

And the fallout from the Oscars continues, for the Dodgers catcher:

11. A fantastic office label change at Giants camp

“ANALYTICS” to, simply, “NERDS”.

12. And lastly, Randy Johnson on The Dan Patrick Show

He calls his 25,000-square-foot mansion in Arizona “Area 51”, and invited the whole show to conduct their broadcast from the grotto as his compound, during next year’s Super Bowl week.

The full interview here, from this morning: