FeedCity: Defector

Defector
07 Oct 16:48 • Ray Ratto

Padres-Brewers Has Been The Best Of October Baseball

The single discordant note in the otherwise effervescent National League Divisional Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres so far was a brief shot of new Padres owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones watching Game 3. It was easy to imagine them, less th...

Defector
07 Oct 14:45 • Luis Paez-Pumar

Cristiano Ronaldo Has Lost His Damn Mind

As someone who broadly finds international breaks boring—and this current double break painfully so—I have to express gratitude to Cristiano Ronaldo for having a complete meltdown over his spot on the Portuguese national team. While his performance at the World Cup was often...

Defector
07 Oct 14:45 • Barry Petchesky

Must Every Leafy Thing Be So Freighted With Meaning? Yes, Yes It Must

Let's play a game. What do you expect was the outcome of this 3-on-0?

Expectations are a funny thing in sports. They are as subject to the observer effect as any quantum mechanic: When a player or a team is aware of them, they may tend to play up to or exceed those expectations, or play down to them, as the case may be. Or they may be rattled and fall short. All this depends on temperament. The Maple Leafs have more observers than anyone, and their expectations are historically the least rooted in reality. Expectations and belief are two separate things, and in Toronto—at least among the 1050 caller demographic—those things are forever at war. Fans and local media believe that the Leafs will not achieve what is expected of them, even though those fans and media are the ones doing the expecting. It's a weird scene.

Defector
07 Oct 14:45 • Giri Nathan

Christine Brennan Has Fully Lost It Over Caitlin Clark

If you listen to a certain subset of the media—not necessarily the sports media—the state of the WNBA is dire. A generational talent is being squandered. Weak leadership has failed a league on the cusp of great opportunity. Something must be done. Once we figure out what exa...

Defector
06 Oct 21:03 • Drew Magary

Fuck Bucket Lists

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 dumb PA announcers, selling yourself, coaches, and their hobbies, and more.

Your letters:

Jeff:

Defector
06 Oct 20:21 • Diana Moskovitz

“I Got Friends That Will Hurt Her”: Court Documents Describe Audio Recordings And Video Footage Tyreek Hill Wants Kept Out Of His Divorce Trial

To hear powerhouse sports agent Drew Rosenhaus tell it, his client, the once-electric receiver Tyreek Hill, could sign with a new NFL team at any moment. From a football-only perspective, the agent’s optimism makes sense. With so many teams losing starters to injuries, any football fan would expect a veteran like Hill to get a…

Defector
06 Oct 19:06 • Ray Ratto

The Yankees Look Meek And Flubby

You've been fighting it off as best you can, but the weight of the evidence is starting to hit your hips, knees and ankles in a series of small electric spasms. You've tried to explain it away as "Well, the league's weird this year," and while you're right no matter what lea...

Defector
06 Oct 17:24 • Barry Petchesky

Defector Reads A Book Is Spooked By Some ‘Incidents Around The House’

The first thing I have to warn you is that if you purchase Josh Malerman's Incidents Around The House, it will have a sticker on it saying it's a movie now. If that's a dealbreaker, there's no escaping it, because the movie is coming out next week and because it features one...

Defector
06 Oct 17:24 • Lauren Theisen

Will Matthew Mayich’s Collapse Change Anything?

The Arizona State hockey team plays their home opener on Friday, but hanging over their season, and the entire program, will be what happened to defenseman Matthew Mayich. At an outdoor, "military-style" team workout on Aug. 20, Mayich collapsed from exertional heat stroke. ...

Defector
06 Oct 17:24 • Sabrina Imbler

This Worm Has No Ifs And Many Butts

In the 1870s, as the research ship HMS Challenger passed through the Philippines during its circumnavigation of the Earth, it dredged up a sponge from the gray sludge 95 fathoms (nearly 600 feet) below the surface. The scientists knew that glass sponges abounded in these wat...

Defector
06 Oct 15:24 • Chris Thompson

LeBron James Is Commuting In A Fanatics Helicopter

LeBron James wasn't pretending. He really is taking daily helicopter rides from his home in New York City to the offices of his new employer, the Philadelphia 76ers. Since the start of October, the LeBron James Express (call sign N6FN) has made 18 trips between Northeast Phi...

Defector
06 Oct 15:24 • Patrick Redford

Knicks And Nets Give Me High Fives, With Hell Gate

This week's episode of Nothing But Respect was special on several fronts; Harry and I got to record in person for the first time in roughly a year, and we did so with our good friends, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and Max Rivlin-Nadler, of Hell Gate. Topics discussed include: ...

Defector
06 Oct 15:24 • Kathryn Xu

White Sox Touched By God, Or Perhaps Merely Joyful Exuberance

At the start of Game 2 of their ALDS matchup, Chicago White Sox starter-turned-reliever-turned-opener Anthony Kay faced the Cleveland Guardians offense to pose a powerful question: What would be more powerful, a papal blessing, or Guardiansball, an offensive strategy best de...

Defector
05 Oct 21:18 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Atlanta Dream Can Poke And Prod You To Death

The argument against the Atlanta Dream says their transition-heavy style might be incompatible with playoff basketball. But in the three playoff games they’ve played so far, the latest a 92-82 home win over New York to open the second round, Karl Smesko's team has totally se...

Defector
05 Oct 19:30 • Kelsey McKinney

Phoebe Bridgers Showed Us How To See In The Dark

PHILADELPHIA — When the lights went out, a crisp, adolescent shriek rose from all sides of the arena, anticipating her arrival. But she did not come, not just yet. Instead, a silence fell heavy and unsettled where the shrieking had been, as if making space for the ball at th...

Defector
05 Oct 16:45 • Israel Daramola

Patience Is Paying Off For Bryce Young

I'm not sure when we fell into the collective delusion that first-round quarterbacks should be capable of leading an NFL team on Day 1. Was it induced by the take economy? Is this sports radio's fault? Did Joe Burrow's early success create this standard? I can understand cer...

Defector
05 Oct 16:33 • Alex Sujong Laughlin

The Case Against Exceptionalism

The first line in a Min Jin Lee novel gives you the whole story. In Free Food For Millionaires, it’s “Competence can be a curse.” In her follow-up, Pachinko, it’s “History has failed us, but no matter.” Both establish the thesis and themes of the novels, and of her larger pr...

Defector
05 Oct 16:15 • Ray Ratto

Atlanta’s Least Heralded Relievers Did The Most

The Atlanta Braves are not the best team in this postseason, but there do seem to be more of them than anyone else. Manager Walt Weiss has appeared blithely unconcerned by the math that demonstrates that the more pitching changes a team makes, the greater the likelihood that...

Defector
05 Oct 15:48 • Alex Sujong Laughlin

How Lucy Yu Learned To Ask For Help

Who among us has not floated the idea of starting a bookstore to our friends and partners, as a way out of the nightmare that is 9-to-5 work and LinkedIn hell? In 2021, Lucy Yu actually did it. She had been unhappily working as a chemical engineer and socking away money, and...

Defector
05 Oct 15:30 • Hamilton Nolan

Jaguars Junction: Week 4

Are you grasping for an explanation of the Jacksonville Jaguars' typically excellent performance? Look no further than the Microsoft Surface. Microsoft Surface tablets are in the hands of all the Jaguars coaches on the sidelines now and players are allowed to look at th...

Defector
05 Oct 15:30 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Crossword, Oct. 5: Overheard In New York

Our Monday crossword? It's good! This week's puzzle was constructed by Drew Schmenner and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Drew is a writer and editor for a national education non-profit who grew up in the Indianapolis area. Although he has lived in the Bay Area since 2013, he hasn’t renounced his Indiana Pacers fandom for the Warriors because his adoration for Reggie Miller’s heroics is so strong. Despite his decades of cheering for Indiana against its fiercest rivals, he couldn’t resist this puzzle’s theme. He hopes Pacer fans forgive him.

Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE.

Defector
05 Oct 15:30 • Patrick Redford

The Valkyries Are Fighting Firepower With Frenzy

Before Sunday's semifinal Game 1 in Ballhalla, the Valkyries threw a little ceremony to honor Janelle Salaün for winning Sixth Player of the Year. Salaün's unanimous approval by voters is one indication of her team's tremendous depth; another, stronger one is that the Valkyr...

Defector
05 Oct 15:30 • Barry Petchesky

Eagles Fans Demonstrate How To Get Humbled By Opposing Coaches

I want you to imagine you are a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I know it can be difficult to formulate a theory of mind for them, but if it can be done for a bat, it can be done for a Philadelphian. OK, ready? Go. You are a Philadelphia Eagles fan. You suddenly have a constant cr...

Defector
05 Oct 13:30 • Tom Ley

Jackson Chourio Was Nails

Mason Miller wasn't looking like himself by the time Jacskon Chourio stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth of Game 2 of the NLDS. After making quick work of three Brewers hitters in the bottom of the eighth inning, Miller was trusted to go back out there for the ni...

Defector
04 Oct 18:30 • Chris Thompson

They Packed The Trop And Were Treated To A Gem

Bryan Baker, closer for the Tampa Bay Rays, encountered a new problem on the mound Saturday night. He'd been summoned to record the final three outs of Game 1 of the ALDS and to preserve and finish a franchise-all-timer of a gem from teammate Drew Rasmussen, who'd pitched ei...

Defector
04 Oct 16:27 • Chris Thompson

Ty France And The Padres Thwarted By Good Old Reality

Ty France talks like a guy who is pretty sure he'd socked a game-winning dinger. "I stood there and watched it, and it was going," France said Saturday, of his ninth-inning moonshot. "It was staying fair." The ball did, in fact, stay fair: Soaring down the left field line, F...

Defector
02 Oct 18:06 • Chris Thompson

The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off Lurches Unsteadily Into Cake Week

Welcome back to The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off, where Kelsey and Chris attempt to complete the technical challenges from the newest season of The Great British Bake Off in their own home kitchens, with the same time parameters as the professional-grade bakers competing o...

Defector
02 Oct 16:12 • Israel Daramola

It’s Time To Separate The Real Teams From The Clowns

Welcome to the Defector College Football Watch Guide, where Israel Daramola and Ray Ratto will tell you which of the weekend’s college football games are worth giving a crap about. Ray: We're in the middle of bye season now, which means some of your favorites—Texas, UC...

Defector
02 Oct 16:12 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Too-Small Lynx Will Have To Answer Some Big Questions

As end-of-season Minnesota Lynx press conferences go, this year’s was pretty subdued. There was no “shit was stolen from us,” no missives delivered against Cathy Engelbert. “I don’t have a speech prepared, so everyone can relax,” Napheesa Collier said at the s...

Defector
02 Oct 14:09 • David Roth

Jack Smith Did Not Conspire Against Donald Trump While Watching Steph Curry Score 60 Points In An Overtime Loss To The Hawks

The most salient part of the accusation that Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt lodged against former special prosecutor Jack Smith in a Senate hearing on Tuesday is that it was wrong. It was ecstatically and grandiosely wrong, and obviously wrong in ways that even a rudimentary blo...