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Craig Calcaterra

@craigcalcaterra.bsky.social

34K followers 450 following 9.4K posts

I write Cup of Coffee, a daily baseball, politics, entertainment, and nonsense newsletter: https://www.cupofcoffeenews.com/

www.cupofcoffeenews.com

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · Dec 1

Hi. I write Cup of Coffee. It's a baseball, news, politics, culture, and nonsense newsletter. You'd dig it the most.
www.cupofcoffeenews.com

Cup of Coffee Newsletter

A daily baseball, politics, entertainment, and nonsense newsletter

www.cupofcoffeenews.com

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 2m

Even the smell of Red Bull makes me nauseous.

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 11m

It's the closest -- and I do drink tea! -- but they're just different beasts.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 15m

If you believe that coffee has "lots of functional substitutes" you don't fucking understand coffee. bsky.app/profile/thea...

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1h

Tariffs have rapidly increased the price of coffee—a drink with almost no nutritional value and lots of functional substitutes. Yet coffee may also be the one thing Americans can’t live without, @elcush.bsky.social writes:

The Drink That Americans Won’t Give Up Without a Fight

Coffee has almost no nutritional value and lots of substitutes. It’s also, apparently, too important to lose.

bit.ly

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 21m

In today's newsletter: do not listen to people who say that the owners' push for a salary cap will change depending on whether the Dodgers or Brewers or whoever win the World Series. They're either dumb or lying to you. www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...

Major League Baseball and its owners have been attempting to limit or cap their salary obligations for roughly 150 years. They have done that regardless of what players make, regardless of what team revenues are, and regardless of the competitive balance situation in any year or any decade for that matter. That's because, no matter what Rob Manfred or a given owner might say, salary caps have nothing to do with competitive balance. They are solely about reducing labor costs and creating a situation where it's easier for profits to become locked in and predictable.

If you doubt this, ask yourself some questions:

Why have owners have long lamented the loss of the pre-Marvin Miller union and a financial system in which the New York Yankees won the World Series every goddamn year?
If owners only want salary caps in order to promote competitive balance why did they go to the mattresses for a salary cap in 1994-95 when the Oakland A's, Cincinnati Reds, and Minnesota Twins had recently won the World Series and when the Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball?
Why do they want a system like the ones that exist in the NFL and NBA but which have provided far, far less competitive balance than baseball has seen for decades on-end? Indeed, since 1980 there have been 23 different champions in baseball but only 20 in the NFL and 18 in the NBA. And those ratios have only gotten worse in recent years.

The answer is that competitive balance had nothing to do with salary caps, then or now. Owners want labor costs down because they want labor costs down, just like every single other business out there. The competitive balance appeals are for P.R. purposes only. They are to get the press and fans on their side. They want fans and reporters to point at the Dodgers and say "look at those rich guys ruining baseball!"

Which might be useful if P.R. or press pressure has had any real bearing on baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement battles over the past, oh, 50+ years.

The fans and the press were STRONGLY on the side of the league and owners while demonizing the allegedly greedy players during every episode of labor strife since the 1960s. That's been especially true during baseball's two extended work-stoppages, in 1981 and 1994-95. Yet that public sentiment has had no bearing on how the MLBPA and its members have approached negotiations. That's because the MLBPA is not in the business of gauging public sentiment. It's in the business of advancing the interests of its members. Because that's its job. The ONLY thing that will change the MLBPA's position on these matters is if the players themselves collectively change their position on the matter. There's no sign of that happening at the moment and the Dodgers winning or losing is not going to change that one iota.

I don't mean to be rude here, be it to baseball fans in general or to Jeff Passan. But anyone who believes that the Brewers winning the World Series will suddenly cause Rob Manfred and the owners to come off of their "WE MUST HAVE A SALARY CAP" stance is an idiot rube of the highest order and I refuse to take such people seriously. We want to THINK public sentiment matters because we care and we root for things that are related to sports and we have this notion that fan sentiment matters in the grand sceme, but sorry, it doesn't matter here.

This is pure business between two sophisticated, self-interested, and well-represented parties. Their disputes will be resolved as they always are: at a bargaining table, with each side's tolerance for risk and income-deprivation serving as the only significant lever on their respective decisions.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 26m

Yeah, really got going with the Jack Benny show. No matter where Benny went -- store, car dealer, any line to talk to a clerk -- he'd show up and do the same bit. Later, after Benny, he just kept doing it because people remembered it from the old Jack Benny show.

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 32m

I sorta want a neighbor now lol

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 44m

This fucker made a whole career out of this, man. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqKG...

Frank Nelson: YEEEEEEEEESSSSS? Compilation (UPDATED)

YouTube video by Baby Lamb Creations

www.youtube.com

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 46m

Nah, I actually want someone to buy this place. It's been empty too long.

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 47m

I didn't QUITE do the Frank Nelson "yeeeEEEEESSS?!" thing, but It was close.

"YESSSS" guy from the Simpsons, based on the actor Frank Nelson

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 49m

Despite the fact I'm in PJ pants and a Mr. Rogers sweater, I pretended to be helpful and non-misanthropic. It could go either way, but I may have helped close a sale. I should get a cut of the commission, man.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 50m

The other half of our duplex has been for sale for a while. Someone just came to look at it. She and her realtor stood on the sidewalk after and talked. My window is open and I heard, "maybe we just need to ask one of the neighbors." Then they knocked on my door. The dream of nosy people everywhere!

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 1h

What do you expect him to do? Real robots are expensive. bsky.app/profile/jose...

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 2h

A man who works for the people overseeing America’s nuclear stockpile has lost his security clearance after he uploaded 187,000 pornographic images to a Department of Energy (DOE) network. Included AI-generated robot porn.

www.404media.co/man-stores-a...

Man Stores AI-Generated Robot Porn on His Government Computer, Loses Access to Nuclear Secrets

www.404media.co

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 2h

We don't talk enough about how Mr. Van Pelt cruelly pranked his own son into believing in the Great Pumpkin and just let him go out and humiliate himself like that every year.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 2h

Wait, they're at different times. I can go to both!

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 2h

There are No Kings rallies all the hell over Columbus this weekend. One at the park in my neighborhood, one at the Statehouse downtown, which is like a 15 minute walk for me. Should I go to the big one or the neighborhood one?

Map of No Kings rallies in the Columbus, Ohio area this weekend

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 2h

Using ChatGPT to write a fucking email. bsky.app/profile/edit...

Edith @edithcharles.bsky.social · Aug 23

What's something that isn't considered embarrassing but you think it should be?

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 3h

If you know what the Marvelettes song "Beechwood 4-5789" refers to, today's newsletter is right up your old-ass alley!

Also: LCS action, what the NLCS means for the CBA, Mike Shildt unexpectedly retires, A.J. Hinch got extended, RIP Sandy Alomar Sr., and "Electric Nebraska."

Cup of Coffee: October 14, 2025

LCS action, what the NLCS means for the CBA, Mike Shildt unexpectedly retires, A.J. Hinch got extended, RIP Sandy Alomar Sr., "Electric Nebraska," and memorizing phone numbers

www.cupofcoffeenews.com

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 3h

Trump blowing up the global economy by dumb, blinkered choice should get a lot more attention than it does. bsky.app/profile/nyti...

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3h

Breaking News: The global economy is projected to slow this year and next as persistent uncertainty over tariffs continues, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Global Growth Remains Sluggish as Tariff Threats Loom

The International Monetary Fund said the impact of trade tensions had been limited so far, but it expects growth to slow.

nyti.ms

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 5h

It's not even 7:30 and the comments are already hopping with people talking about old-time telephone exchange names like ENglewood 3-1234 and MUrray Hill 5-9975 because my newsletter's demographics are decidedly . . . mature.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · 5h

Today's newsletter is out!

Inside: LCS action, what the NLCS means for the CBA, Mike Shildt unexpectedly retires, A.J. Hinch got extended, RIP Sandy Alomar Sr., "Electric Nebraska," and memorizing phone numbers.

www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...

Cup of Coffee: October 14, 2025

LCS action, what the NLCS means for the CBA, Mike Shildt unexpectedly retires, A.J. Hinch got extended, RIP Sandy Alomar Sr., "Electric Nebraska," and memorizing phone numbers

www.cupofcoffeenews.com