Today begins the postseason in MLB with four Wild Card round, best of three series. Here are my predictions.
Astros over the White Sox in three. I hope I’m wrong with this one, as no one can possibly be cheering for Houston outside of the Gulf of Mexico region. However I think the bit of experience Houston has, and the fact that no one wants this to happen, will make them take two of three at home.
Yankees over the Red Sox in two. If Crochet had come off the IL and got more work in, I’d go the other way on this one, as Boston has enough pitching to beat a busted up Yankees. I just think the Yankees will get big time performances from Schlittler and Fried and win a couple of pitching duals. If they don’t win in two, I think Ranger Suarez ends their season though.
Padres over the Cubs in three. I was tempted to pick this in two, but I can’t see PCA and Bregman not having at least one big game each. With that said, San Diego has been the hot team for several weeks and I think that carries over.
And for the main event… Atlanta had a better season than the Phillies. The Braves have a deeper roster. So of course they get stuck in a three game coin flip with a team who has recently tortured them in the playoffs. The Braves absolutely have to win Sale’s start today and you can probably say the same for the Phillies in Sanchez’s game two start for the Phillies. I would predict the upset if Wheeler were actually available to pitch as a starter in this series- he is tough on Atlanta when it matters- but he’s not. Because of that, I’m saying game three depth matters and Braves in three over the Phillies.
I have to admit, I was starting to doubt things. At least until Saturday night, when the Diamondbacks lost a winnable game to San Diego that kept the Phillies up by a game and in control of their destiny. Suddenly, it seemed fathomable that the Phillies wouldn’t collapse. The cruelty of it for Arizona fans, a kind of consolation to an otherwise rough week for Phillies fans.
This is the second time in club history that the Phillies have made the postseason five straight years, and I was here alive for both. That’s not lost on me. My grandfather didn’t see them play a postseason game until he was twenty and they were swept in the 1950 World Series, and didn’t see them back again until he was 46. He saw one title at age 50, three NL Pennants, and 7 playoff appearances in 76 years. I’ve seen 11 playoff appearances, four NL pennants, a championship, and been at four World Series games in person. This franchise, known for historic losing in it’s history, has actually been a very good franchise from 1976 on- two championships, six NL Pennants, and 15 postseason appearances. It’s not Yankees, Dodgers, Braves, or Red Sox good in that time, but it’s also better than most teams. Combine that with the greatest run of Eagles football since before color television, and I have to call myself a lucky Philadelphia fan.
There’s no sense writing a post-mortem about this team yet. They could be done playing baseball as soon as Wednesday. They also might not. Atlanta is very good. So is Los Angeles. So is Milwaukee. Chicago won’t be an easy out. San Diego is hot right now. The National League is a brutal path to the World Series for whoever comes through it, and while everyone is good enough to do it, I’m not sure there is a really clear favorite to do it this year. Even if you get through that, you’ll still need four more wins against someone who will be red hot after winning the American League. With Luis Arraez hurt and Zack Wheeler now unavailable, the Phillies should be a tremendous underdog against Atlanta. But well, we’ve heard that before. I’m pretty sure we need a new manager and hitting coach, at least two new players in next year’s lineup, and a lot more depth than we have. But if you just line up the Phillies best players on their roster against any other teams, which is usually how October baseball is decided, you realize they’re very competitive, if not better, than some of the “better” teams. The Phillies should lose. The point is that they might not.
There was a lot of fan and media chatter about not wanting the Phillies to make the playoffs so they would “break it up.” That’s everything wrong with Philadelphia’s sports media in a nutshell, but it’s also just flat out stupid. I agree they need some changes to freshen up the roster for next season. The idea that you want to go back to not being a playoff team though is silly. The Phillies didn’t have a super active offseason last year because they were basically at their budget, and the market lacked younger right handed bats that would shake up their older, lefty heavy roster. It took a while for Andrew Painter to figure it out, but he had a sub-4 ERA in the second half and showed you he can survive in the big leagues. Justin Crawford hit over .280 from June 1 on, which frankly is what he needs to do to be a big leaguer. Alex Macfarlane was probably the most stabilizing force in that bullpen down the stretch. Giving the kids a shot paid off this season. Do they need to do more for next year? Sure. But realistically, this was not a season they had lots of options. They kind of are what they are.
And now what they are is in the playoffs. See you Tuesday.
The case against every Republican in Washington, and even Harrisburg, is simple- everything costs too much, and their policies made it so. By kneeling before a mad man President, they created a monster. An inflation crisis that was slowly improving is now an inflation disaster- gas, health care, food, and housing, essential core building blocks of life that we cannot skip as people, cost too much. The “Big, Beautiful Bill,” a failed trade war, a botched and unnecessary war in Iran, and rampant and undeniable corruption have wrecked our economy, made our country weak, and destroyed our place in the world. Republicans are heading towards a brutal wipeout that they earned.
Of course, the problem with this is that the Democratic Party is troublesome right now. As a lifelong Democrat, I am trying to navigate the mess we have made. I’ve sent thousands of dollars from the pac I work at to candidates this week, some of whom I have issues with. Small problems that are actually big ones, things like whether a candidate wants to scrap the Affordable Care Act for a larger, unworkable government plan, I’m overlooking, basically because ending Trump’s functional power as President is more of a priority. More core, fundamental things, such as embracing antisemitism, calling for the abolition of borders, police, and prisons as a whole, are not. The truly personally terrible few who are running. Candidates who would steal from their own family? I’m taking a hard pass there. A crook is no more worth a vote than an imbecile.
I obviously won’t vote for Ryan Mackenzie. He’s awful. But Bob “Crooksy” Brooks? I’m still a hard no on him. I’ll just leave it blank. Why? Because what they’re saying about him is true. So even as I send out checks and independent expenditures to candidates in Alaska, Florida, Wisconsin, Maine, California, and other places in the hopes of the Democrats ending Trump’s reign of terror on the world, here at home I just can’t stomach our local version of John Fetterman and Graham Platner.
Democrats spent the last decade chastising the GOP for putting “party over country.” Voting for some of these folks we are running would prove we were nothing but scolding hypocrites who would do the same thing in pursuit of power. Most people already believe that, which is why they allowed themselves to vote for Donald Trump to begin with. I have quite a few friends happy to prove them right, apparently.
A lot of folks are talking about the absolutely racist letter that showed up in East Side Allentown in recent days. Among the insane claims in the letter- there are roughly 40,000 “illegals” in Allentown, rent would go down if we deported more, and my favorite of the bunch, the Puerto Rican flag is going to replace the American flag. I guess the fact that Puerto Rico recognizes the American flag as an American territory is lost on these guys. The people producing this are ignorant, hateful, modern day Klansman, and they are worthy of our collective mockery. We should point out that they are dumb, in addition to being dangerous. While others have declined to post the letter because they don’t want to platform it, I have to disagree. Our continued denial that a sizable enough portion of our society to matter believes in white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, radical fundamentalist, and nativism hasn’t helped us at all. Only confronting and shaming bigots can help us dig out of our reality.
The entire mindset that America is a white, Christian, English speaking country is built on false history and open lies. Native Americans lived all over the Americas for a long time before Europeans got here. They were not white. When Europeans did arrive, it was not only English men that built colonies in America, unless you’re so stupid as to believe the only history here is the original 13 colonies. France had massive territory here, where people spoke French, including everyone in the Louisiana Purchase territories, or a gigantic chunk of our country. “New Spain” was a massive land territory spanning both continents, and present day Florida, Texas, California, and the entire southwest were included in it. Russia had territory on the West Coast, besides Alaska, that is in today’s America. Hawai’i was never a white place when it was simply a Polynesian set of islands, and certainly was not English speaking. In fact, no natives of the soil in the United States were white, spoke English, or were Christian. The overwhelming majority of Europeans who came and settled colonies in America were not English speaking. And I could certainly go into the enormous role slaves played in literally building this country, and that none of them are white, but I think most people reading me are smart enough to know that, so I won’t. And all of that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the roles of East Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern (Arab, Persian, and Jewish), African, and Eastern European immigrants that came here and joined Western European immigrants to build a wealthy, superpower country we have inhabited for most of our lives (I’m not sure we are “the” superpower now, but I digress). Pretending that the country that just celebrated it’s 250th birthday was built by a bunch of white, English speaking Christian’s men is historically ignorant, and can be a racist view of history. Even the idea that we are a “Christian nation” is fundamentally flawed- yes, that is the largest religious group and therefore sets many norms, but our first amendment was crystal clear in it’s declaration that the government shall not establish a state religion. We are *supposed* to be a country where a Bosnian can live next to a Serbian, a Palestinian next to an Israeli, an Orthodox Christian next to a Muslim, or a Catholic next to a Protestant, and the relationship is peaceful. The idea of some “pure blood” American citizenry sounds remarkably similar to what we defeated in World War II.
The truth is that almost all of the people who think we need to racially/religiously/linguistically purify our culture and society are simply mediocre or worse people who cannot compete in modern America. They are afraid of the implications of more people in their society, bringing more histories and cultures, and how that will impact their ability to survive socially, economically, and even personally. Frankly, they deserve to fail. And we should tell them so, and point out their inadequacies, and mock them. We shouldn’t look away and pretend simply shunning them will get rid of the problem. They won’t self examine until it hurts.
And one final note about this flier- it’s central premise of decline caused by the Latino population in Allentown is bullshit. You know what Allentown would be today without it’s Latino population? A dying shithole. Literally any and all cultural and economic advancement would have simply died. Young white people with any sort of skill would all have been leaving, as has happened in many former industrial “Rust Belt” cities across America. Latinos moving in brought vibrancy, economic viability, and energy that saved probably all three Lehigh’s Valley cities, and we should be thankful that they did. And for those who cry that they politically altered the landscape? I’ll remind you that no single group has moved more right in the Lehigh Valley from 2016 to 2024 than Latinos in Allentown. So miss me with making this about politics.
Stuff the people writing this shit in lockers. Make sure they know they are the losers in this story.
The Democratic Party is going to win the midterm. It’s going to win the U.S. House. It’s going to win *most* of the major swing state statewide elections. There’s a chance, albeit I’m still more skeptical than others, that we’re going to flip the Senate. I do not think this is going to be super close. The only thing that might get in the way of it being a bloodbath is that Democrats picked some highly controversial nominees in a few races. Basically if you’re in a blue or swing district or state, and the GOP nominee isn’t a very unique brand, and all you have given the GOP to attack you with is “they’re a liberal,” you shouldn’t make others plans for next year’s swearing in day. Hell, Democrats nailed some nominees in red states this year, and they even might win yet too.
Basically, look at this as a worse inverse of 2024. Everything costs too much. People think the President has lost a step. Foreign policy news is basically all bad, and what’s worse for Trump is that he’s basically Bush now, since he started his own cowboy war in the Middle East. But more than anything, everything costs too damn much. Health care, food, housing, and gas, things that are inevitable for everyone, cost way more than they did. If the Democratic Party were smart, that’s all they’d be saying at all this election. The truth is that you don’t have to pin yourself down on specific policies you’re going to do until you actually know what you can pass, because voters don’t understand that anyway. You say vague things like “restore health insurance subsidies and cuts that were made to Medicaid,” or “we’ll end the war in Iran and get oil flowing from the region, while restoring funding for renewable energy,” and voters will just assume you’re doing the opposite of what they don’t like now. And honestly, you are. A sane political party would realize they’re on the one yard line here and walk into the end zone. We’re not so sane.
The bigger problem isn’t our election rhetoric though, it probably won’t matter. The problem is more what will happen next year. We already have Raskin and others salivating about “oversite” powers. We have incoming members talking about eliminating prisons or borders. We have folks who want to spend the next two years impeaching people in the Administration, despite the fact that it is abundantly clear that nearly no impeachment trial of anyone has really any chance of reaching the constitutional mandates two-thirds Senate vote for removal. They want to “abolish ICE” when Trump probably already has enough money from his “Big, Beautiful Bill” to keep it running for two more years. They have all of the grand plans, and even if the House is a blowout, they’ll be extremely lucky to have 52 Senators to try and pass all of this with, and Chuck Schumer probably leading one more term. In short, they’re going to go down there, promise lots, and probably do little to none of it. this will define the party, at least in part, for 2028 with the public. And they already don’t like us, they’re just tolerating us.
There are things that can be done next year, they’re just not all that sexy. Our military has a depleted stockpile of weapons because of this stupid war, and they’re going to desperately need to replenish them. Force a reversal of Medicaid cuts in exchange for the money. They’re going to want to increase domestic energy outputs to deal with gas prices. Force returns to Biden era funding for clean and renewable energy in exchange. Force increases in funding for affordable housing in exchange for other things Trump wants. Force Trump to agree to popular Democratic policies in exchange for the things he needs to keep the wheels on the bus for two more years. Take tangible, realistic wins, and take them every chance you get.
I don’t expect Democrats to be measured in victory though, and frankly that’s a problem. Many Democrats complain that we’re held to a standard the other side isn’t. This is sort of true, in part because we say we want to use the government to fix things. Also, we just spent a decade calling Trump and his supporters low grade jackasses. We sort of set the high bar ourselves. If we’re viewed as an “Always On Camera” political party, filled with grandstanding and people seeking their viral moment, frankly people don’t take us seriously. Based on what we say, they shouldn’t.
“The Resistance” of 2017 and 2018 was probably a failure for the Delocratic Party and America. Yes, we won a landslide in 2018, but ultimately those wins started to retreat in 2020, and frankly the only reason Biden survived in 2020 while “defund the police” and “green new deal,” and every other stupid slogan was hung around our neck, was that the public didn’t believe Joe Biden was like the rest of the party- then he got into office and a sizable chunk of the public believed he fell in line. We’ll win in 2026. There is no “above the fray” figure right now for 2018 that could outrun how the party will be defined by 2028. That’s a big problem, because America desperately needs to directly reverse course on much of the Trump agenda.
