#9: Pat McAfee and the sportification of culture
Plus, cause for hope in the Angels' hot start?
Hey it’s Hannah and I have a bit of a blog for you today. Harkening back to my roots.
Paul Skenes, one of the top-five most famous current baseball players, appeared at a Pat McAfee event in Pittsburgh this week. I don’t think it’s worth inferring anything about Skenes himself from this decision — although that’s not to say whatever you might infer is necessarily wrong — considering he apparently didn’t know what GQ was (???) until appearing in the magazine. But I mention it because I want to write about McAfee and it provides a useful, if tenuous, connection to baseball. And also because I’m specifically interested in the way sports function to lend McAfee credible cover as a popular but unserious entertainer when claiming to be such is convenient.
I have never seen a minute of McAfee’s show. I don’t really know what it’s like except that I assume it’s like a lot of bloviating sports content from people who probably know what they’re talking about some of the time but also don’t care if they don’t. I never thought much about it until the article from Katie Strang in The Athletic earlier this month detailed the wreckage he wrought on an 18-year-old woman’s life by jovially speculating on an utterly unsubstantiated rumor related to her personal life during his ESPN show.
The crassness and carelessness of intentionally engaging in such a gross display on television is sort of mind boggling. McAfee, a man in his late 30s, didn’t get surreptitiously caught discussing the sexual behavior of a teen, he literally broadcast it on purpose. But I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising, even as it remains shocking, that such titillating topics would garner attention. What nagged at me until I went back to check the article was: What does that rumor have to do with sports?
The answer is nothing, of course. It wouldn’t make the damage any less distressing if there was some specious way to spin this as a draft story, but the fact that there isn’t — and that, as Strang details, a handful of other sports figures also perpetuated the rumor publicly — underscores a particularly virulent phenomenon: Barstool-coded sports commentators have become powerful pillars of the broader culture. Sports isn’t the subject matter so much as it is the ethos.
I know that sports matter. They’re a big business and a useful microcosm and increasingly a battleground. But they’re also a chance to take seriously something that isn’t that serious. Traditionally, they’ve been a playground for masculinity. A space where a lack of nuance can only hurt so much. If you don’t think about the athletes existing away from the field, it’s practically kayfabe. Plus every day, or at least every season, the stakes reset and nothing you said last time matters unless some idiot on the internet brings it up, and even then it’s just proof they were paying attention. It’s not an especially smart way to talk about sports, but it’s a simple one that rewards unrelenting bombast and aggression.
Crucially, sports are also a space where everyone is either a loser or a winner. There is no such thing as mutual benefit. In fact, one of the most foolproof ways to know if you’re winning is if the other side is losing. Think of the standings: someone else’s suffering is just as good as personal gain. It’s ok cause it’s all just a game. The only part that matters is the clout that comes from being the loudest and most shocking voice in the room. What the Take Havers say is important, of course, but it’s not serious.
Populism is creating a lot of problems these days and one of them is the type of culture commentator that has been elevated. Validating people’s worst impulses has proven to be a crowd pleaser for obvious reasons. Turns out, there’s a market for making slut shaming seem mainstream. For treating young women’s personal lives like a spectator sport.
The modern platform has conflated having an audience with a mandate to talk about whatever you want. “Influence” is the end-all metric that pits discerning experts against personalities and says the bigger number wins every time. Sports are popular so sports figures are popular so those people are now the culture writ large.
But when you apply the sort of zero-sum mentality of sports to anything else, it’s easy to justify punching down. Whatever it takes to be top dog, assert your dominance, be undeniably manly. Be a winner by delighting in the losses you can identify elsewhere.
Remember, it’s all in good fun.
The irony is, the type of fan who attended ESPN multi-million dollar star Pat McAfee’s stadium show airing of grievances about how he’s been widely sanctioned by the establishment is the same type of fan who used to tell me and others at Deadspin to stick to sports.
Better Angels
by Zach Crizer
As someone who enjoys a general lack of anxiety perhaps a little too much, I have a tendency to let mundane tasks, decisions and potential stressors get very big in the windshield before I react. My fiancée, a normal person who worries about these things, will sometimes gently prod me to change my ways or take action before it’s absolutely necessary. I’ll signal my intent to do just that. In the moment, I do mean it, but we both know the inertia is going to take more than a gentle nod of my head to reverse. “You’re just yes-ing me,” she’ll say.
No team inspires more desire for change than the Los Angeles Angels, the employers of Mike Trout who have not finished above .500 since 2015 and have not made the postseason since 2014. Unfortunately, few teams inspire so little faith in their ability to make a change happen.
So that means we might never have a better chance to believe than right now. The Angels have won all four of their series to start the year, and sit at 8-4 as they head to Houston to begin divisional play. Let’s yes some developments and hope for the best.
Mike Trout is healthy. He bashed two homers Thursday! For the first time since 2013, Trout is manning a position other than center field, acting as the regular right fielder with designated hitter days sprinkled in. And really it doesn’t matter now, because he’s here to hit. He’s embarking on this season with the eighth-best batting line of all-time (minimum 5,000 plate appearances) through age-33, per the park- and era-adjusted metric wRC+. Good guy to have in the lineup right? [Nods.]
Kyren Paris has a believable breakout story. Ever been to a restaurant where there’s a huge line outside? And you wait and wait, and it’s getting difficult to believe this is worth it, but every single person comes out and exclaims “It’s worth the wait,” like they were paid to say it? A private hitting coach and the Angels hitting coach described the 23-year-old’s offseason work as “pretty much a 180-degree swing change” and “a complete 180 to who he was in the past.” In the past, aka last year, he hit .167 with a 35% strikeout rate and only four homers, in the minors. This year, he already has five homers in the majors. Seems like a 180 amirite? [Nods.]
Jo Adell still has potential. Hope is two homers in one inning. [Nods.]
The clubhouse cell phone ban seems like it blew over. Manager Ron Washington’s spring training decree had “season-long symbol of dysfunction” written all over it, but the players “relaxing enforcement” without incident seems promising, right? [Nods.]
A new young core might be forming. Catcher Logan O’Hoppe is off to a great start and shortstop Zach Neto hasn’t even played yet as he works back from injury. Things could actually keep getting better for the team that ended Opening Day with a position player pitching … against the White Sox. They almost have to. [Nods.]
Rooting Around
On Fridays we do a segment dedicated to what we’re fans of *other* than baseball. This week, I invited a guest to participate. Since the interview I did with AP sportswriter and baseball contract savant Ron Blum was such a hit, I asked him what he’s enjoying these days. I mentioned in the original piece that Ron is a real opera head, so I also asked him to recommend an opera that non opera-knowers can enjoy. For context, he said he’s seen 30 shows — theater, opera, concerts — so far this year. Next interview topic: How does he find the time?
What we’re chatting about
The Pirates did the best slapstick routine in the vicinity of home plate since the 2021 Pirates got bamboozled by Javy Baez. But hey, this time they got an out. —ZC
Alex Bregman’s dad is running for governor in New Mexico and let’s get this out of the way now: His campaign better make sure staffers don’t steal signs. —ZC
Matt Gelb at The Athletic has a lovely little feature about José Alvarado. And you don’t have to read very far to learn what has got to be the most insane part:
By the time José Alvarado fired his 30th pitch Wednesday night, he had consumed at least 10 coffee drinks. He swears this is true. The man has a tattoo of a small mug with the words “Coffee is life” inked on his left hand. He starts the day with six espressos, then it’s a steady drip through the night.
—HK
Evidently, Brice Turang has been wearing Ryan Braun’s 2011 batting gloves this year after the two “had a chat” in spring training. When the baseball guys are wearing the other baseball guy’s gear, I always wonder whether the gear was offered … or asked for. The vibe of those two options are very different. —HK
Jon Heyman says: JD Martinez is hitting and staying ready while waiting for a job. No good reason he doesn’t have one yet. Hannah Keyser says: Same.