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Does Barry Bonds belong in the Hall of Fame?

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Francis Scialabba

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

 

Good morning. Like many of you when December rolls around, we’ve been reflecting on how this year went and what we can do to improve going forward.

So, after many a whiteboard sesh, we’ve decided to make a few tweaks to Brew Review. The general concept of a laid-back, magazine-style newsletter is going to stay the same, but we’re going to experiment with different section ideas—all with the goal of making this email as integral a part of your Sunday routine as NFL RedZone.

How can you help? By sharing your feedback. Tell us which sections you find the most interesting, which you skip over, and what you’d like to see more of in general. Our inbox is open 24/7.

Neal Freyman, managing editor

 

BROWSING

 

Brew Classifieds

Classifieds banner image

The wackiest headlines from the week as they would appear in a “Classifieds” section...

Jobs

  • HIRING RAT CZAR: NYC is hiring a new vermin extermination master. Candidates should have a “general aura of badassery.” Competitive salary for bashing rats: $120k–$170k.
  • FURRY GAME TESTERS WANTED: UK startup Joipaw is developing video games for dogs (and saliva-resistant screens to go with them).
  • NEED DRUG-FREE MONKS: Four monks in Phetchabun province, Thailand, were sent to rehab after testing positive for meth. The temple is empty, so you’d have free reign in decorating.

For sale/lease

  • FRONTIER’S OLD PHONE NUMBER: The cheapo airline ditched its customer service phone line to cut costs. Buy the number. Could be funny.
  • FOR SALE: CRYPTO PUBLICATION. CoinDesk’s investigation of FTX contributed to the crypto exchange’s meltdown, but the fallout from FTX’s collapse also ravaged the finances of CoinDesk’s owner. Now, the site is reportedly attracting takeover interest…directly because of its own reporting.
  • FOR LEASE: 2-SQFT SPOT IN REFRIGERATED CASE. Whole Foods has sparked an intense debate over its move to pull Maine lobsters over environmental concerns.

Events

  • THE SINGULARITY: Elon Musk said that Neuralink aims to test its brain-implant technology in humans in six months. No takers yet.
  • THE BATTLE OF “OPE”: Tomorrow, the Bears and the Packers will face off tied for the most regular-season NFL wins of all time, at 786 each. The winner will snag first place and territorial claims over Lake Michigan.

Personal

  • LOOKING FOR NEW KING: TikTok bodybuilder “Liver King,” who is famous for eating raw animal livers and throwing spears, admitted to using steroids.
  • A PARTNER TO TAKE ON KRAFT: Join the Florida woman suing Kraft for $5 million who claims microwave Velveeta mac takes longer to make than promised.
  • PLEASE LEAVE PETE DAVIDSON ALONE: Pete found a new gf and has rescinded his ad here.—MM
     
 
Caliber
 

SNAPSHOTS

 

Photo of the week

Mauna Loa Andrew Richard Hara/Getty Images

The world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, erupted last Sunday for the first time in nearly 40 years.

 

SCIENCE

 

Dept. of Progress

Dexter from Dexter's lab saying Dexter’s Laboratory/Warner Bros. Domestic Television via Giphy

Here are some recent scientific discoveries to help you live better and maybe even travel through time and space.

Your Hydro Flask is more “pretty” than “necessary.” We’ve all heard that you need to drink eight glasses of water a day to avoid turning into a desiccated husk of a person. But a recent study found that’s probably too much for most people. Tracking the water intake of ~5,600 people, scientists concluded that there’s no one-size-fits-all amount that everyone should drink—but most people need less than the eight glasses frequently recommended (six or seven may do). The good news is that drinking too much water won’t hurt you (unlike some other beverages), though it is a waste of a valuable resource.

Don’t believe everything you read about cannabis. The medical benefits of marijuana are just starting to be explored, but one area where the drug might be getting too much credit is pain management. A recent analysis of 20 previous studies found that cannabis didn’t perform much differently than a placebo when it comes to relieving pain. Despite this, the researchers noted that cannabis studies were more likely than other published papers to get significant positive media attention.

Scientists made a wormhole, nbd. Wormholes that connect separate regions of space time have been a part of sci-fi and theoretical physics since Albert Einstein first predicted their existence in 1935. But this week physicists made one in a lab. Using Google’s Sycamore 2 computer, the research team simulated two black holes and managed to transport a message between them. One of the researchers involved called it “the smallest, crummiest wormhole you can imagine making”—and outside experts cautioned that it wasn’t an actual physical wormhole—so it won’t have you hurtling through the cosmos any time soon. However, it can help further our understanding of the universe.—AR

 

ANALYSIS

 

Does Barry Bonds belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Barry Bonds Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Barry Bonds hit more home runs than any other player in MLB history (762), hit more home runs in a single season than any other player in MLB history (73), and is undoubtedly one of the best hitters who’s ever stepped into the batter’s box.

And yet, in the 10 times Bonds was on the ballot to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame, he has never gotten enough votes to be immortalized among the sport’s greats in Cooperstown, New York.

That could change today, when a 16-member group, known as the Contemporary Baseball Era committee, will decide on whether to grant Bonds—and seven other baseball players, including star pitcher Roger Clemens—entrance into the HOF.

But it’s doubtful Bonds will get the 12 votes necessary to send him to the Hall. And it’s for the same reason that he was consistently snubbed in prior rounds of voting: The bulging frame that whacked all those homers is viewed as artificial, the result of alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The debate over Bonds’s candidacy has ripped open old wounds over baseball’s shameful “steroid era,” and sparked deeper questions about how we should remember our blemished superstars. Let’s get into the arguments.

The case against Bonds in the Hall of Fame

Those who want to keep Bonds out say it’s pretty simple: He cheated, defiling the integrity of the sport. It would be immoral to “honor” him with a plaque in baseball’s hallowed museum, next to all the players who punched their ticket the right way.

In the Washington Post, John Feinstein wrote, “A Hall of Fame should be about more than numbers; it should be about what a player—or manager or owner or commissioner—meant to the history of the game.”

Ryne Sandberg, a Hall of Fame baseball player himself and a member of the committee who will be voting on Bonds’s candidacy today, has drawn a similar line in the sand: “It’s about stats, integrity, and playing by the rules. There’s no cheating in Major League Baseball or the Hall of Fame,” he said in 2018.

The case for Bonds

The folks in this camp say the anti-Bonds people need to lose their monocles and enter the real world. “It’s a museum. About baseball. It ain’t a church, synagogue, or mosque. Nor is it a world heritage site. And it’s absolutely not a club where only the sanctified should be allowed entry,” Adam Caparell wrote for Complex.

Bonds supporters say the Hall of Fame is already littered with unsavory people—including known racists and plenty of players who were caught using performance-enhancing drugs. Heck, Bud Selig, MLB’s commissioner during the steroid era, is in the Hall. By snubbing Bonds and denying his role in baseball’s history, voters are trying to preserve the purity of an institution that has none.—NF

     
 
Kimpton Hotels
 

BREW'S BEST

 

Sunday to-do list

Meal prep: If you threw the turkey carcass in the freezer and have no idea what to do with it, make this soup. Plus, here are two Sweetgreen harvest bowl dupes.

Workout: This is your comprehensive guide to foam rolling. If you need to get one, here’s a cheap foam roller.

Book club: Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy is the harrowing true story of a polar expedition.

Smart purchase: Wingspan is a board game for bird lovers with a pleasant mix of strategy and luck.

Streaming binge: Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? is a Netflix docuseries about a 20-year-old who tried to win a fighter jet in a Pepsi sweepstakes.

Productivity tip: One of the top tips on r/productivity seems so obvious, and yet had not occurred to us before.

Save up to $2k on flights: Want round trip to Paris from $308, Hawaii from $195 + more? Oui! Try Dollar Flight Club for only $1 + get discounts up to 90% off. Offer ends in 12 hours.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

 

DESTINATIONS

 

All aboard!

The holiday train from the Dartmouth Steam Railway Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company

It’s a big world out there. In this section, we’ll teleport you to an interesting location—and hopefully give you travel ideas in the process.

Imagine if a train was on more cocaine than Cocaine Bear. Then you’d get the Dartmouth Steam Railway’s Christmas Train of Lights. Now through Dec. 30, the steam engine with vintage carriages and holiday light displays (both inside and outside the train) runs along a festive, spectacle-filled route between the South West of England towns Paignton and Kingswear.

If you’d rather not shell out 26 quid for an adult ticket, you can always catch the locomotive from the old-timey stations it rolls through. It journeys along the coast of the English Channel and illuminates the frosty evening air with a wondrous pageant of retro holiday vibes.—SK

 

COMMUNITY

 

Crowd work

The final section of Brew Review requires audience participation—but not in an embarrassing way. We’re going to present a hypothetical question sparked by recent news, and we encourage you to submit your answers. We’ll highlight the most creative/thought-provoking responses in next week’s Sunday newsletter.

Here is today’s question: If you could go back in time to before FTX’s implosion, knowing what you know now…how would you make the most money possible out of the situation?

One of our ideas to get the juices flowing: Basically do what author Michael Lewis did. Cozy up to Sam Bankman-Fried for a book you’re writing about him, then sell the movie rights.

Can you beat that? Share your answer here.

 

SHARE THE BREW

 

Share Morning Brew with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag.

We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link.

Your referral count: 2

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=303a04a9

         

Written by Neal Freyman, Abigail Rubenstein, Sam Klebanov, and Matty Merritt

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