Friday Rewind: One Week to Father's Day!

I hope some of you checked in, but even if you didn’t — early Friday I did a little live blogging of the Novak Djokovic-Carlos Alcaraz French Open semifinal match. I was so excited for it, and the first two sets lived up to every expectation and hope I had.

Djokovic won the first set by simply being brilliant. Alcaraz looked just a little bit nervous.

Carlos won the second set and hit two or three of the best shots I’ve ever seen. Ever. He actually hit what I think is THE BEST shot I’ve ever seen. If you fast-forward this YouTube clip to the 0:54 second mark, you’ll see it. But do yourself a favor and watch the whole three minutes of highlights.

It was just wonderful, incredible, miraculous stuff.

Unfortunately, at 1-1 in the third set, Alcaraz cramped up all over his body. It was almost 90 degrees in Paris and the match was the most intense one Alcaraz ever played, and he had never really been in a situation like this before, so you could understand it. But cramping up still reflects a tennis player’s conditioning and preparation; that’s why a player is not allowed to take an injury timeout for cramps.

Anyway, it was no match after that. Alcaraz had to forfeit a game so he could sit down, and then he couldn’t move. He played a kamikaze style, going for broke on every shot, but that was not going to work against Novak, who won the last two sets 6-1, 6-1.

Something happened at the end of the match that I found to be unfortunate. It was clear that Djokovic was thrown off balance by Alcaraz’s injury. Put yourself in his place: He’s in the middle of a banger of a tennis match, an absolute classic, and then suddenly his opponent is wounded. The crowd is stunned and angry. Djokovic clearly hated that this happened.

But you still have to win the match — I mean, this is the semifinals at the French Open and Djokovic is going for a male-record 23 grand slam titles. So Djokovic did what he had to do. He saw that the crowd was against him, he realized that had to put the throttle down and take Alcaraz out, and so he started pumping himself up, screaming when he won a point, reminding himself that he had to stay focused and stay present. The intensity from the match itself was gone, and this was the only way Djokovic knew to power himself forward.

The crowd didn’t like that. That’s understandable — visually it looked like Djokovic was pounding a nearly defenseless Alcaraz and then shouting about it — but the hard reality is that (1) Even a nearly defenseless Alcaraz is dangerous; I’ve seen Rafael Nadal when he can barely walk take out opponents, and (2) Djokovic was doing what he had to do to win the match and reach the final.

When the match ended, there were some boos … and that was just unfortunate. It’s like the crowd was booing Djokovic for NOT cramping up. Over the years, Djokovic has faced a lot of boos, some he brought on himself, others have just been because of circumstances. He’s pulled through. It’s part of what makes him a legend.

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WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL Update

OK, here we are one week before Father’s Day, which means there is one week left to preorder WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL from Rainy Day Books and get it signed and inscribed with anything you like! You people are having me inscribe some of the craziest things. I’ve now had two different people — TWO people — get me to inscribe praise for St. Louis pizza. I can barely live with myself.

But this is what we are willing to do to take back the Rainy Day presale record from that guy Michael Schur.

I’d also like to mention that the good people at Sandlot Sporting Goods have joined in, and in coordination with Rainy Day, they will be giving away all sorts of cool prizes to some lucky preorders! Sandlot sent me some of the cool stuff that we will be giving away!

Awesome, right? We’ve got what they call “Yardballs” — these awesome leather baseballs that you can throw around. You will see a couple of Cleveland Buckeyes hats, a Negro Leagues Museum pennant and can holder, I mean this is awesome stuff. And yes, I know, you’re asking: What is that cat hat? I will tell you exactly what that cat hat is — I have absolutely no idea.

But my wife Margo has already called it, so that’s that.

Anyway, if you preorder the book anytime from Rainy Day — even after Father’s Day — you will be eligible to win some fantastic Sandlot stuff. But the personal inscription deal will end on Father’s Day, June 18.

So if you want me to: (1) Praise Derek Jeter; (2) Praise Billy Joel; (3) Admit Mike Schur is right about anything … or, hey, (4) You know, say something really nice about the person you’re giving the book to as a gift, (5) Write something fun about your favorite player or team, (6) Write one of your favorite lines (I’ve had numerous people ask me to write, “I question the mobility of eggplant,” which will make absolutely no sense to 83% of you but, I think, will make the other 17% laugh or (7) Tell you how much I paid for those “Hamilton” tickets all those years ago*, well, this is your last chance.**

*I’ll write, “A lot. I paid a lot.”

**At least until my football book comes out next year.

Two other quick things. One, if you are a Goodreads sort of person, you can enter the contest and try to win one of 20 early uncorrected proofs of WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. That way you could read the book before almost everyone else. Amazing!

The other thing — the early schedule for the WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL book tour is beginning to come into focus. I think we’ll start to announce some dates next week. And it is looking like there might be a couple of really special guest stars for some of the events. Can’t wait to share more!

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JoeBlogs Weekly Awards

Player of the week: Miami’s Luis Arraez (.560/.577/.720). I could give the award to one of my favorites, Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes, who this week went 12 for 24 with a double, triple and two home runs … but, yeah, we’ve got to give it to Arraez, don’t we? The guy’s hitting .403! And he’s doing it the old-fashioned way; he’s only hit one home run and he’s only struck out 11 times all year. It’s like watching Rod Carew again. Delightful!

Pitcher of the week: Jon Gray (1-1, 0.56 ERA, 17 strikeouts, 1 walk). Gray this week became the first pitcher in almost six years to pitch nine innings, allow just one run and take the loss. The last pitcher: Rich Hill in 2017. It’s fun to see Gray having this sort of success; he was a massive prospect for the Rockies in the early 2010s but, you know, the Rockies are the Rockies. Now at 31, he pitching great for the surprising Rangers.

Bummer of the week: Jacob deGrom getting Tommy John surgery. It was predictable enough, sure, but deGrom is absolutely one of the best pitchers of this or any other time, and it just looks like he’s never going to be healthy enough to achieve the sort of historic stardom that his awesomeness deserves. I hope I’m wrong. He’s hoping to be back sometime late in the 2024 season.

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JoeBlogs Week in Review

Monday: Letting it Fly. I talk about my first pitch and lots of baseball things.

Tuesday: JoeBlogs Hall of Fame — The Fifth Class.

Wednesday: Brilliant Reader Challenges. Super-fun batch this week, including a challenge asking me to name the worst movie characters ever.

Thursday: Around the Sports World in One Column. Thoughts on PGA Tour-LIV, Novak, Jokić, Elly and Messi. I also announced that I am (with reservations) bringing back the Cleveland Browns Diary this fall!

Friday: Alcaraz v. Novak. A live blog.

As always, would love to have you join us here at JoeBlogs. We do have fun!

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Fans Planning Reverse Boycott

On Tuesday, Oakland A’s fans are planning a reverse boycott, where the idea is to fill the stadium as a reminder that Oakland is actually a good baseball town that has been treated badly by a terrible baseball owner and dreadful politics that have kept them in that mausoleum of a ballpark.

I wish I could be there to support — can’t get across the country for this one — but I’ll be there in spirit. I hope that fans do fill the ballpark.

By the way, things are looking worse and worse for the dumb Oakland-to-Vegas gambit.

“Can you explain to me,” Nevada State Senator Rochelle Nguyen asks, “why we need to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for a billionaire team to come to the Las Vegas Strip, on some of the most valuable property in the world, if we can’t provide for critical resources?”

No, Rochelle. I can’t explain it to you. Nobody can. It’s just dumb. It might happen. But it’s just dumb.

Fulfilling a Brilliant Reader Promise

This one is for Brilliant Readers Matt and Doug — Matt bought Doug a subscription and I made them a promise to mention their favorite former Met, Steve Bieser, this week. So here goes:

Steve Bieser drew not one but TWO walks from Pedro Martinez. After his playing days, he became a very successful coach at St. John Vianney High School, then he coached at his alma mater, Southeast Missouri State, and then he became head coach at the University of Missouri, where he was widely admired for being an all-around good guy. Unfortunately, the team didn’t win enough — Missouri doesn’t exactly invest a whole lot in its baseball program — and Steve was fired a couple of weeks ago.

If you buy a gift subscription for someone — Father’s Day IS coming up — I’ll fulfill a promise for you as well.

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Bottoms-Up: The Reverse Power Rankings

1. Athletics (14-50). They’re playing at a sweet 35-127 pace.

2. Royals (18-44). Zack Greinke only 68 Ks away from 3,000; that’s something.

3. Rockies (26-38). Hey, the Go-Go Rockies have stolen 25 out of 31 bases!

4. Cardinals (26-37). The Cards are back to playing bad baseball. Hot seat time.

5. Nationals (25-36). There is simply nothing good or interesting happening here.

6. Tigers (26-34). They’ve lost six in a row and are dead last in runs scored.

7. Cubs (26-36). Their 5-11 record in one-run games isn’t helping.

8. White Sox (28-36). Have won 5 of 6, including two against the Judgeless Yanks.

9. Mets (30-33). Justin Verlander getting rocked again this week wasn’t great.

10. Padres (29-33). At least Juan Soto is looking like Juan Soto again.

11. Guardians (29-33). How about that three-homer game for Jose Ramirez?

12. Reds (29-34). Does Elly De La Cruz change everything? I think so.

13. Twins (31-32). Everybody in the AL Central has a losing record. Nice.

14. Mariners (30-31). Hey, Julio’s been great the last couple of weeks.

15. Phillies (30-32). Kyle Schwarber has 16 homers and 15 singles.

16. Red Sox (31-32). Alex Verdugo was benched for not hustling? Bad times.

17. Giants (32-30). Rookie Patrick Bailey’s looking good. It’s a wonderful life.

18. Pirates (32-29). Andrew McCutchen is about to get his 2,000th hit!

19. Angels (34-30). How is Shohei Ohtani getting better? How?

20. Marlins (35-28). No idea how they’re doing it — must be South Florida voodoo.

21. Brewers (34-29). Look out, Corbin Burnes is locking in now.

22. Blue Jays (36-28). The Alek Manoah thing is weird, but they’re still winning.

23. Yankees (37-28). Hey, I wrote about Aaron Judge for Esquire this month!

24. Diamondbacks (37-25). Hey, fantasy owners: I’m not trading Corbin Carroll.

25. Astros (36-27). Still struggling to score runs, but the pitching is so good.

26. Dodgers (36-27). Who expected Clayton Kershaw to be the healthy one?

27. Orioles (38-24). Felix Bautista has 62 strikeouts in 30 innings.

28. Braves (38-24). Ronald Acuña Jr. already has 28 steals. That’s nuts.

29. Rangers (40-21). Marcus Semien-Corey Seager is the best DP combo in baseball.

30. Rays (46-19). They have like four or five legit MVP candidates.