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Defector
16 Jul 17:00 • Sarah Borus

I Have Discovered The Final Frontier In Baseball Tinkering

Baseball is a game of centimeters, and every carefully placed hair on a pitcher’s head is the difference between a Cy Young season and an ERA higher than your jersey number. Take Toronto's Dylan Cease. At the All-Star Game, Cease explained that during spring training he bega...

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16 Jul 16:30 • Patrick Redford

A Chaotic Day In The Life Of The Photographers At The Tour de France

CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE, France — Roughly 15 minutes after driving past the start line, Harry Talbot decides it's time to pull over next to a field of droopy sunflowers. He scouted the route of Stage 11 of the Tour de France kilometer by kilometer earlier this year on Google Street...

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16 Jul 16:30 • Lauren Theisen

The Yzerplan Failed, So It’s Time For Plan Z In Detroit

When Steve Yzerman took over as Red Wings general manager in 2019, the state of Michigan embraced him as the man who would return their hockey team to glory, or at least clean up the mess Ken Holland left behind. Some of that was nostalgia for the time he was the Wings' capt...

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16 Jul 14:30 • Sohini Desai

PEN America’s “Silent Moratorium” Prompts Very Loud Criticism

PEN America president Dinaw Mengestu resigned from his position this past Thursday after the troubled free-expression organization published a report reaffirming its opposition to cultural boycotts. The report, titled "A Silent Moratorium," recounts anecdotes from editors, a...

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16 Jul 14:30 • Israel Daramola

Who’s Afraid Of A Scammer Anthem?

Welcome to Listening Habits, a column where I share the music and musical topics I’ve been fixated on recently. The rap song of the summer is undoubtedly Yung Miami's "Spend Dat." Produced by J. White Did It, the gloriously maximalist strip-club banger celebrates ...

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16 Jul 14:30 • Luis Paez-Pumar

You Have To Kill Argentina Dead

Argentina is in the World Cup final for a second straight tournament. Somehow, some way, that is a true statement. After Cape Verde put the fear of god into the reigning champions, after Egypt had a 2-0 lead as late as the 79th minute, after Switzerland equalized and looked ...

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15 Jul 18:54 • Hassan Abo Qamar

What It’s Like To Watch The World Cup From Gaza

The original version of this article was published in The Nation on July 13.

When I first heard the 2026 World Cup was about to begin, I barely paid attention.

This was partially because of the timing—most matches this year have aired late at night in Gaza because of the time difference with the United States—but mostly because I couldn't imagine how anyone here would watch the games.

Defector
15 Jul 18:18 • Sabrina Imbler

New Monkey! New Monkey! There’s A New Monkey!

Many new species have been announced this week. There are new mites from Saudi Arabia and a new weevil from Japan. There are new midges from China and new spiders from Brazil and China. There is a new dragonfly from Vietnam, a new jewel beetle from Borneo, and a grasshopper ...

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15 Jul 17:48 • Jae Towle Vieira

The Groom Saw You From Across The Dance Floor And Likes Your Vibe

As an anxious and judgmental person whose standards for interpersonal etiquette and social niceties might best be described as Austenesque, I can confidently say: Every wedding is rife with social crimes. I’ve seen more than my share of dads make speeches about mawwiage, and...

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15 Jul 17:03 • Alexandra Tey

Trans Girl Baseball Makes Me A Better Woman

Taking care to avoid the team-picking system of our schoolyard memories, Lilah Maravi divided us into two sides of about 20. It was a pleasant Sunday in June—Father’s Day—and we had gathered at our usual spot for our Pride month game. After a spontaneous game of catch in a B...

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15 Jul 17:03 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

Which Version Of The Indiana Fever Is The Real One?

Aliyah Boston's teammate drives so much of the American population insane that it's easy to forget her own talent for getting in other people's heads. Opposing bigs unravel next to her. Jonquel Jones, possibly the nicest and humblest athlete I've ever spoken to, revealed th...

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15 Jul 17:03 • Lauren Theisen

The All-Star Game Was Funereal

We'll start with the most significant play of the 2026 MLB All-Star Game: a hit batsman. In the top of the third, with a man on first and the AL already leading 3-0, Tampa's Junior Caminero got smacked on the hand by a 98-mph pitch from St. Louis's Riley O’Brien. Caminero wa...

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15 Jul 17:03 • Drew Magary

Is It Possible To Teach My Kid How To Manage Risk?

Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at minordilemmas@defector.com.

This week, Drew talks about danger.

Defector
15 Jul 15:03 • Tom Ley

Spain’s Perfect Game Needed A Perfect Goal

Having sat with Spain's 2-0 victory over France in the World Cup semifinal for several hours now, I am left with an overwhelming sense of relief. Not because Spain won or France lost, but because the game's second goal was as beautiful as it was.

Whether or not you watched the game, you need to do yourself a favor and watch this goal several more times before the day is done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBOIka9sXlQ

Defector
14 Jul 20:51 • Giri Nathan

Various Reports Dispute Where Bam Adebayo’s Fist Landed On Tyler Herro’s Face

This past Friday in Vegas, while many players were in town for NBA Summer League action, Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo got in some kind of fight with his recently departed teammate Tyler Herro. In last month's trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Heat sent Herro to the Milwaukee Bucks, ending his seven-year stint alongside Adebayo. The fight between them took place in the morning, in a practice court at a hotel; later that day but before news broke of the fight, Herro said in an interview that "it's all love" with his former team.

As with any event described by the NBA media, the details of this story took on many forms and involved many imperfect synonyms. So what exactly happened in last weekend's scuffle? That depends on who you ask.

ESPN's Shams Charania, who broke the story, put it like this:

Defector
14 Jul 19:51 • Tom Ley

Atlantic Writer: I Will Always Cherish The Day Lindsey Graham Told Me I Looked Like Shit Mere Hours After A Mass Shooting

Lindsey Graham's sudden death has elicited plenty of nauseating remembrances from his colleagues in the Senate, none of whom seemed to be all that ashamed to speak and write warmly about a guy whose life's work was bigotry and warmongering. But no tribute has been as bone-ch...

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14 Jul 17:09 • Drew Magary

I Crave The Ocean

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. Today, we're talking about dipping pizza crust, worst great athletes, wheelchair envy, and more.

Your letters:

Charlie:

Defector
14 Jul 16:24 • Israel Daramola

‘Citizen Vigilante’ Is The Latest Product Of The Culture Of Petulance

In the movie Citizen Vigilante, the latest Uwe Boll provocation that's gaining attention from the far-right side of the internet, Armie Hammer plays Michael Sanders, an American vigilante righting the wrongs of Europe's woke-and-broken criminal justice system. Why an America...

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14 Jul 16:24 • Sabrina Imbler

Why The Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Is Way Worse Than Regular Diarrhea Parasites

Grab a stool, take a seat, and get ready to learn about cyclospora.

Defector
14 Jul 14:24 • Tajja Isen

‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women

Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: Your künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve read so many recollections of the program that sometimes I think I might h...

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14 Jul 14:24 • Patrick Redford

How Cycling Solved Sleep

AURILLAC, France — Is the Tour de France is the most competitive sleep environment in sports? "Probably, yeah," answered Dr. Jon Greenwell, EF-Education EasyPost's Head Doctor when I asked him. Every athlete needs to recover, though the demands on professional cyclists at th...

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13 Jul 20:27 • Alex Sujong Laughlin

What Will Happen To My Ambition After Children?

To someone without children, the world of parenthood seems like a walled garden that contains knowledge of the very best and worst experiences of humanity. But will you love it or hate it? Are you still yourself on the other side? Will you regret it? The only way to know for...

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13 Jul 19:36 • Chris Thompson

The Hornets Aspire To Be An Also-Ran With A Plan

Listening to Jeff Peterson, president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, talk about the recent LeMelo Ball trade, you get a pretty good idea of what he thinks about last season's team. "There's no doubt in my mind that we had a successful season last year, b...

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13 Jul 18:39 • Sarah Borus

Is There Any Limit To Zack Wheeler’s Spite?

There are four players in MLB with a higher bWAR than Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, but nobody can hope to top him in PAR (pettiness above replacement). Last week, after he was left off of the All-Star Game roster, Wheeler struck out 14 batters to tie his career-best perfor...

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13 Jul 18:06 • Tom Ley

Bryce Harper Only Pawn In Game Of Exploitation

Bryce Harper has finally provided an answer to the question of how he ended up helping FanDuel convince a problem gambler to lose more money. You may not be surprised to learn that Harper got himself into this sticky situation partly due to an inability to assign meaning to ...

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13 Jul 16:51 • Dave McKenna

If Conor McGregor Was A Horse, They’d Have To Shoot Him

Conor McGregor came up lame literally one second into Saturday’s comeback bout with Max Holloway. To open a fight that the UFC claimed drew the biggest live gate in mixed martial arts history, McGregor rushed out of his corner and threw a flying kick with his left leg. The...

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13 Jul 15:48 • Patrick Redford

I Believe I Have Located A Ham Truck In France

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF FRANCE — They call it the diagonal of the void: the corridor running southwest to northeast across France where population density is significantly lower than elsewhere in the country. Explanations vary as to why, though after spending three nights...

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13 Jul 15:27 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Crossword, July 13: Flat Out

You have one last job to do this Monday morning. This week's puzzle was constructed by Madison Shultz, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Madison has too many hobbies. She spends most of her free time skiing, climbing, hiking, and rockhounding, but started constructing cr...

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13 Jul 15:27 • Albert Burneko

Lindsey Graham Dead, World No Worse

The Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died on Saturday, after what reports have called a "brief and sudden illness" following an official visit to Ukraine. He was 71. In 2003 Graham succeeded ancient dread Confederate mummy Strom Thurmond in the Senate, an...

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13 Jul 13:27 • Giri Nathan

Jannik Sinner Reinstates The Regime

After losing the 2025 Australian Open final, Sascha Zverev was remarkably despondent. The man who defeated him, Jannik Sinner, put both hands on Zverev's shoulders and delivered a pep talk to the sobbing runner-up as the duo awaited the presentation of their trophies. "I th...