The Opener

1. The Milwaukee Brewers became the first team to clinch a postseason spot. They have the best record in baseball and are currently on pace for 98 wins. If that holds, this would be the second season in a row without a 100+ win team. Before 2024, there had been at least one team to win 100+ games every year since 2014.
2. Tigers ace and AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal left a game Friday after feeling tightness in his side, but tests have apparently ruled out any structural issues. So (that whooshing sound you hear is Detroit exhaling) it appears the most exciting pitcher bound for the postseason is OK.
3. Cal Raleigh has tied Mickey Mantle’s single-season record for homers by a switch-hitter. Somehow, I think this might be crazier than the record for catchers? Or at least, it’s crazy that a catcher is breaking this record, too.

Three MLB teams do not offer maternity leave — the Detroit Tigers, the Texas Rangers, and the Los Angeles Angels. This is according to an investigation by The Athletic published last week. That particular fact was just one small detail in a story about the Tigers’ toxic front office culture and a troubling pattern of high-ranking men mistreating women. The rest of the investigation is plenty damning and worthwhile (and, full disclosure, bylined by my friend Britt Ghiroli along with Alex Andrejev) but that particular policy stopped me in my tracks. I’m biased by my recent life experiences, but not offering maternity leave — which can not be even erroneously chalked up to a bad apple or a drunken mistake or a misunderstanding but is rather a sustained, willful, unambiguous declaration of organizational values — struck me as especially malicious.

Much is made about how sports are sexist, as a cultural force and an industry. Not offering paternity leave is sexist. It’s premised on retrograde assumptions about gender roles. Not offering maternity leave is something else — it’s either anti-family or anti-women and, considering the social conservatism of sports teams, I think we can rule out that the intent is to be anti-family. Not offering maternity leave, then is anti-women1. Which, I know is the same thing as saying it’s misogynistic but I don’t want to obscure the simplicity of this stance behind fraught buzzwords. It’s as straightforward as hanging a NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign on the door.

Except, it’s more targeted than that: NO WOMEN WHO ARE IN THE BABY-HAVING STAGE OF LIFE, WHICH INCIDENTALLY OFTEN HAPPENS TO ALIGN WITH A CRITICAL CAREER JUNCTURE IN ORDER TO MAKE THE JUMP FROM JUNIOR ROLES TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS.

Very young women might not be impacted by such a policy. Nor very accomplished women who have proven their bonafides and, perhaps, built a family elsewhere. No, it’s specifically anti-women advancing within the organization. That’s what rankles.

It sort of surprised me that such explicit discrimination did not merit more prominent placement in the Tigers investigation or a separate story highlighting the two other teams as well. Maybe it’s because it requires adding nuance to the uncomplicated position that women in male-dominated fields just want the exact same treatment as their male counterparts. Ideally that could still be applicable because teams should offer generous leave for all parents, but practically speaking there are biological realities that make returning to work immediately after giving birth unduly onerous. Or perhaps it’s because readers are more interested in sexism that can be solved by ousting some douche without having to reconsider boring structural inequities. That’s not to disparage the reporters on the story — who did the legwork that may have inspired the Tigers to say they will start offering maternity leave in the future — but rather a broader indictment. The rather inescapable truth is that people care more about sexism when it’s salacious than when it’s about moms.

– Hannah Keyser

The Bullpen

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A month ago, I texted Zach (noted hat knower) this:

In fact I liked it so much I later mentioned it to my husband, who was like “Oh yeah, that hat is everywhere.” And he is right. It is, in fact, the hat of the summer.

Every season the Brooklyn Cyclones do an annual giveaway hat that is available throughout the summer. The article mentions “a throwback Dodgers-style flat brim cap” from a few years ago that I remember, for instance. But this year’s is especially noticeable and now that I’ve noticed one I can’t stop noticing them! Thank you to New York Groove for doing the reporting of talking to Cyclones assistant general manager Billy Harner to get the scoop. Harner said the colorway was inspired by all the neon he saw at his nephews little league tournament and that they’re almost out of the 35,000 hats that they started the season with.

“We’re down to the bottom of the barrel,” Harner said.

If you snagged one, now’s the time to list on eBay and inspire a bidding war. But give me the heads up if you do; I want one. –HK

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I will investigate this more systematically at some point, but I can’t go without (again?) mentioning my pet theory: Baseball players have gotten way better at sliding. Look at this!