John Shultz

Marketing guy. Dad. Former assistant little league baseball coach. NJ transplant to the Midwest.

[Rany Jazayerli @jazayerli]

The Royals whenever their Fangraphs playoff odds hit 0.0%

[⚡️ @yankeesvision]

The Yankees are 24-14 since July 9th, 2nd best in MLB over this span.

Insane considering they haven’t had Judge or Stanton the entire time, Fried and Rodon missed multiple starts each, and Bellinger missed over half of these games!

[Carissa Byrne Hessick @CBHessick]

Definitely worth a read.

[Patrick Hedger @pat_hedger]

Bernie is right. There is no rational reason why each generation should have a lower standard of living than the previous…

…which is why they don’t.

[The Yankee Report @YankeeReport_]

The 2026 Yankees are making a very strong case for having the best pitching staff in baseball, and Matt Blake deserves a huge amount of credit for it. Since Matt Blake joined the Yankees, their pitching staff ranks top five in MLB in ERA, WHIP, strikeout rate, K/9, opponents’ slugging percentage and opponents’ OPS. Some careers he’s turned around include Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Nestor Cortes, Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn, etc. Not to mention developing Cam Schlittler into an ace. Matt Blake deserves more recognition and respect.

[Ben Verlander @BenVerlander]

People love bookmarking things when anyone makes a prediction.

I’ve seen old Volpe posts EVERYWHERE these last few days.

So I don’t say this lightly….

George Lombard Jr is a star. The kid is going to be an absolute STUD. Love watching him play.

[MLB @MLB]

Welcome to New York, Luis García Jr. 🗽

[John Shultz @JohnShultzKC]

Joey really stepped up this summer against some tough competition. Proud of this guy!

[Joey Shultz @JoeyShultz22]

Thanks @naturalbaseball for a great summer season, ending in the Marucci World Series! Some areas I'm most proud of: a .545 BA/RISP going into the MWS and a .940 fielding percentage in the MIF. Looking forward to fall and the spring season! @SHBroncoBSBL @CoachAbelSH

[Bobby Goodlatte @rsg]

Thoughts on the Odyssey a couple days later:

It’s an incredible film. Is it my favorite Chris Nolan movie? No. But it’s certainly top 5 for me if not top 3

The critiques I’ve read basically fall in two camps, neither of which I agree with:

The casting: I think Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy was extremely well cast. This is a non-starter for me as her performance is excellent and she’s certainly beautiful

Elliott Page also makes sense in context. This is supposed to be a smaller in stature soldier. It makes sense that Odysseus would choose this soldier for the role the character plays in the movie

Did it slightly take me out of the movie in the moment: yes, for a minute. But in retrospect: no notes, fine casting

The second category of critiques are from people who expect every Nolan movie to be a puzzle-box to figure out, like Inception. There’s no puzzle to solve here. It’s just an epic journey

It’s far more like Oppenheimer than Inception. And a much better movie than Oppenheimer

That said: I think in every Nolan film there’s a moral parable or emotional core to the movie. And things tend to come around full circle

I’m honestly shocked he was able to adapt something that felt almost un-adaptable. People also said Dune and LOTR were similarly un-adaptable until they were pulled off brilliantly

Chris Nolan pulled it off. He adapted the un-adaptable, a task many filmmakers attempt, and very few achieve

It’s also a proper Chris Nolan movie with a moral center, full circle moment: the whole 9 yards

To take a story from 3,000 years ago and turn it into Nolan-esque film with a moral center…

Perhaps not the moral Homer intended…

But I think Homer himself would be proud of this film.

It’s very much worth watching. Go see it, on the biggest screen you can ❤️

[Natural Baseball Academy @naturalbaseball]

High School workout on Saturday 7/25 beginning at 10am. Field is located at the corner of 183rd and Pflumm Rd.

[John Shultz @JohnShultzKC]

Great org, and definitely worth considering for hard working ballplayers. If you're interested in your son growing as a person and a player, highly recommend NBA.

[Natural Baseball Academy @naturalbaseball]

Natural Baseball has 12u and 14u opportunities for players. We will hold an open workout tonight 7/15 for the age groups at 183rd and Pflumm Rd.
12u 5pm-7pm
14u 6pm-8pm

https://t.co/Sl1HDKxppD

[Jay Cuda @JayCuda]

each team's W-L% at the all star break since 2018

[John Shultz @JohnShultzKC]

Proud of this kid!

[Joey Shultz @JoeyShultz22]

Some swings from this weekend's Hawg World Series Showcase in NW Ark. Team did well. At the event, I had a .445 avg, .590 OBP, 2 2-out RBIs, and 1.000 fielding % over 4 games at SS/2B. Going to the Marucci World Series in Baton Rouge @naturalbaseball @SHBroncoBSBL @BlainOhlmeier

[Basil🧡 @LinkofSunshine]

The real cost of tuition is down over 10% in the last 10 years

[John Shultz @JohnShultzKC]

More good work this weekend from @JoeyShultz22 ...

[NXT Gen Showcases @nxtgenshowcases]

#22 Joey Shultz 2028
NBA Marucci 16U Donaldson
Single

[NXT Gen Showcases @nxtgenshowcases]

#22 Joey Shultz 2028
NBA Marucci 16U Donaldson
Single

[John Shultz @JohnShultzKC]

@JoeyShultz22, getting it done in NW Arkansas...

[NXT Gen Showcases @nxtgenshowcases]

#22 Joey Shultz
NBA Marucci 15u Donaldson
Single to CF

[Ben Verlander @BenVerlander]

I promise no amount of explaining will prepare you for how bad this play is

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

The middle class actually isn't falling behind, they're getting ahead. But everyone thinks they're falling behind because they're constantly interacting with super-rich people online, and seeing rich people's lifestyles on Instagram.

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

I’ve always found people who bristle at “American exceptionalism” kind of… weird. Not because I lack self-awareness — I’ve spent my career cataloging every way this country fails to live up to its own rules. But that’s exactly why I love it so damn much. We built a system designed to be shamed by its own founding documents, and it still delivered one of the most spectacular, world-altering runs in human history. A genuine force for human flourishing.

I also found the argument against American exceptionalism to be historically illiterate. Here’s a sample of what we were first at:

• The first large-scale democratic republic in human history — not a city-state, not a monarchy with a parliament bolted on, but a bold continental experiment in self-rule, popular sovereignty, and ordered liberty.

• A written Constitution (1789) with separation of powers and checks & balances — still the oldest national constitution in force anywhere.

• The Bill of Rights (1791): the first time a nation wrote “the government cannot touch these” into supreme law and actually meant it. A dare the world copied — from later rights charters to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Public land-grant universities and mass higher education (Morrill Act), opening college to ordinary people no aristocracy would have let near the gates. (but don’t get me started about what happened after we started. Massively federally funding it.)

• Kitty Hawk, 1903 — first controlled powered flight.

• The Moon, 1969 — still the only ones who’ve been there.

• The world’s largest economy since ~1890, powering unprecedented prosperity through grit and genius.

• The assembly line, skyscraper, transistor, personal computer, ARPANET — the backbone of the modern world.

• Telephone, phonograph, GPS — connecting and powering daily life.

• Surgical anesthesia, polio vaccine — saving and transforming millions of lives.

• Jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll — brand new American art forms that conquered the globe.

• Hollywood’s dreams, blue jeans, bourbon, and a culture so open a kid like me could devour sushi, burritos, stuffed cabbage, and tabouli in the same week and rightfully think of it all as American.

That’s the part that fills me with genuine love and pride: not just the power or the wins, but the appetite for freedom, creativity, and reinvention. The audacity to say “We the People” and keep trying to live up to it.

What do you love most about this truly exceptional country? 🇺🇸