Greatest Song Evah 11/3/23

Army

I have a strong appreciation for songs in which the tones of the music & lyrics don’t quite match. This tune from Ben Folds Five (who despite their name were actually a trio) is a perfect example. It’s a bouncy pop tune with a glorious horn arrangement in the instrumental break that hides some downcast lyrics. It’s a song about a young man practically crippled by indecision and lacking any sense of direction in his life. Folds has admitted that it contains some autobiographical elements.

Some of the lyrics are pretty devastating.

“Citing artistic differences the band broke up in May. And in June reformed without me.” Ouch. “God, please spare me more rejection. Cause my peers they criticize me, and my ex-wives all despise me.” Ouch again.

Ben Folds occupied his own special corner in the musical playground. Leading a band without a guitar player has a way of making you stand out from the crowd. And he’s a damn fine songwriter.

~ 100 Days Until Pitchers & Catchers

Me, after waking up from an 18-month coma:

“Tell me what happened in baseball.”

“Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer just won rings.”

“Outstanding! LFGM!”

“Um, about that…”

There’s now one fewer member of the no championship club, as the Texas Rangers finally won that piece of metal in the 63rd season in franchise history. (If you want to be charitable and start the clock when they moved from Washington to Arlington, that’s still season #52. Any way you slice it, it’s been a long drought.)

Thank goodness the final game was tense, it was a lot closer than the 5-0 final score would indicate. It’s not quite enough to rescue this series, but it washed some of the stench off of Game 4. With the exception of a few games here and there, it was a fairly uninspiring postseason this year. I’m not one to complain about the playoff format, or about the large number of early round upsets. But it is true that with so many major players going home early it felt like there was something missing. It didn’t help that in so many games one team would take a huge early lead; too often games felt like they were over before they even started.

Game 1 of the World Series was an all-time classic; highlights from the last two innings of that one will be part of great moments clips montages for years to come. Sadly, no momentum from that game carried over, at least until we got that intense pitcher’s duel in Game 5. And the game 4 bullpen game was an ugly one. I don’t know what the solution is, but there has gotta be a way to resuscitate the importance of starting pitchers.

Kudos to the Rangers. They may have been a wild card, but they also spent much of the year with one of the best records in the league, and the lineup has plenty of stars. With Seager, Garcia, Semien, Jung, Lowe, and Heim in the lineup, that’s a team that figures to be a regular October presence. Get used to them. It’s also worth noting that all the angst over whether the pitch clock could cause a World Series game to end on a clock violation was unnecessary. Players adjusted. The frequency of violations decreased throughout the season, and there were few in the playoffs. Most importantly, the rules did exactly what they were designed to do. Game pace was so much better; can you imagine how long it would have taken to play Game 4 under the old rules?

There are lots of key questions to answer this offseason. Where will Shohei Ohtani sign? Will the Padres trade Juan Soto? Will there be an unexpected trade that shakes everything up? Will anyone join Adrian Beltre on the podium in Cooperstown next July? Who will win the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie Of the Year awards? With a World Series contested between 2 teams that each lost more than 100 games as recently as 2 years ago, I have to hope that other teams realize that they can turn things around quickly as long as they make the correct moves. This should be a very active Hot Stove season.

Championship Weekend (And A Big Farewell)

After 35 races and a draining 3 rounds of playoffs NASCAR is down to the 4 drivers will compete for the cup on Sunday in Phoenix. I made my Championship 4 predictions back in September, and thank goodness nothing on the internet is ever preserved for posterity, because I really whiffed. I only correctly guessed 1 out of the 4 eventual finalists.

No need to worry about points or stages, everything is simple. The full field of 36 drivers will race, but only the final 4 of Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, and Kyle Larson are eligible for the title. Of the four, Larson is the only one who has previously won the title, so chances are high that we will have a first time victor. Whichever of those men has the highest finish will be the 2023 Cup champion. Ideally, that champion will also win the race. It’s always a bit awkward when a non-championship contender wins the final race of the season. It feels like NASCAR is rushing through that trophy presentation. “Take your bows and go away, we have a bigger prize to give out.”

It will also be the final race for one of the all-time greats, as Kevin Harvick is retiring and will move into the Fox booth next season. He first joined the circuit as the replacement for Dale Earnhardt after The Intimidator’s death and immediately demonstrated his talent. He leaves with 1 Cup championship, 1 Daytona 500 victory, and 60 overall race wins, 10th all-time. He has also been one of the sport’s great personalities - sometimes prickly, sometimes temperamental, never dull. And at his peak he was known as The Closer; it was never a good sign to see him in your rear view mirror in the closing laps. Any driver knew that he would somehow find a way to close that gap. Congrats on a fantastic career.

TV Of the 21st Century - Ed

Despite a cast filled with people who would go on to become familiar faces on our TV screens, Ed is a show that has been largely lost to history. In a sense, it felt almost doomed from the start. Its initial promotion led to easy mockery from people who dismissed at as the “bowling alley lawyer show.” Now it exists as one of those orphans, not available on any streaming service.

Tom Kavanagh starred as the titular character, a lawyer in a big New York City firm. After a punctuation error on a contract which cost his firm a bundle led to his firing, he returned home only to discover his wife was having an affair. He decided to chuck it all and return to his hometown in Ohio. The fictional town of Stuckeyville is the prototypical television small town; it oozes charm and every resident has their own special quirk.

He and his best friend immediately fall back into their old rhythms; one of the running gags was the $5 dare. One would dare the other to do something really embarrassing for minimal reward. Ultimately his main reason for returning home beyond his desire to reconnect with his roots is that he wished to win the heart of his secret high school crush Carol.

On a whim he purchased the local rundown bowling alley and would have been perfectly happy managing it. But once someone found out he was a big city lawyer and went to him for legal advice, many others followed. Which led to him simultaneously running a small law practice along with the bowling alley. Hence, the bowling alley lawyer show designation.

As for his main goal - Carol (Julie Bowen) is now working as an English teacher in the local high school and in a relationship with a fellow teacher. The back and forth between Ed & Carol was the main focus of many of the plots throughout the show’s 4 year run. She broke up with that boyfriend fairly soon, but the biggest hurdle in the relationship was soon to come. She began dating the school’s principal (John Slattery) and they were even engaged for a time.

Did I mention the quirky characters in the town? There were plenty, none more so than Michael Ian Black as the counter guy at the bowling alley with a never ending set of get rich quick schemes. That’s admittedly a stock character type but Black’s deadpan demeanor made it work. It’s also worth mentioning that the show gave early roles to Justin Long and Ginnifer Goodwin as two of Carol’s students.

All in all, it was an utterly charming show which never failed to please. Plus it had a theme song from the Foo Fighters! As I mentioned, it can’t currently be found on any streaming service. It’s apparently another victim of music rights, and let’s face facts the show wasn’t big enough of a hit for there to be a battalion of Edheads demanding that Peacock add it to the library. Which is a shame; it was an entertaining show.

Originally aired on: NBC

Currently streaming on: Nowhere, but you can find episodes on YouTube

The Ceremony

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony is tonight, and Disney+ is going to stream the whole darn thing live. It’s not the first time the ceremony was available to watch live. VH-1 Classic aired it live for two years before editing it down to a 2 hour show for later broadcast on the main VH-1 channel, and Fuse had had one live airing during that 3 year period when that network was the broadcast partner. But those are both essentially second level cable networks, doing this on Disney feels bigger.

This figures to be a test of my stamina; the question is if I can manage watching it in one sitting, or if I’ll need to spread it across multiple viewings. Whatever happens my plan is to complete my watch so that I can share my thoughts in Monday’s newsletter. Keep in mind that I’m an easy mark for this type of festivity; I know that the emotional high points of the evening will hit me hard and I’ll brush aside the slow moving portions.

Some more names have been added to the roster in the last week. Peter Frampton, Andrew Ridgeley, and Olivia Rodrigo have been announced as presenters/performers. The Hall likes to make it a surprise as to which artist each guest will honor, but we can always guess. Frampton is likely there to honor Link Wray. No need to be cute about Ridgeley, Captain Obvious believes he will honor George Michael. Rodrigo has said in interviews that she’s a huge fan of Rage Against the Machine, but no suspense is to be had here. Hall Chairman John Sykes has already told The NY Times that she will be performing with Sheryl Crow.

I’m interested to see how they will handle the In Memoriam section, as this was another year in which we have lost some significant figures. Who will merit a special performance beyond just a spot in the photo montage? Tina Turner is an obvious choice. She was Tina Turner, after all. I have to believe there will be special notice for Robbie Robertson as well. He was on the Board Of Directors for years. But what about David Crosby? Or Jeff Beck? In addition, practically every awards show this year has included some sort of tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and with DJ Kool Herc’s induction this evening will have one as well. What are the producers planning that will differentiate itself from the others that have already been done? Finally, who gets the choice time slots? Willie Nelson is almost certainly going to be the show closer. Anyone who has ever watched a Farm Aid concert knows that he loves to lead large group singalongs to end an event. Who will open? That usually goes to someone who can start off the evening with a lot of good vibes. I think this year it will be Missy Elliott.

For those not inclined to sit through a ceremony that’s likely to run well over 4 hours, ABC will present a 3-hour long edited version on New Year’s Day. Choose your best option.

Bob Knight

There’s that saying when great art is created by problematic people that one needs to separate the artist from the art. That applies to sports as well. Take Bob Knight as an example. He was one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history, but also a miserable human being. Any honest assessment of his life needs to acknowledge both truths.

The on court success is self evident. An almost 30 year long tenure at Indiana produced 3 NCAA championships and the Hoosiers appeared in the tournament almost every year during Knight’s tenure. He coached the star-laden 1984 Olympic team to a gold medal. And he had a well-earned reputation as a basketball genius.

And yet, that came with a dark side. A ferocious temper became his calling card. His list of unfortunate incidents runs long. Tossing a chair across the court. Getting into a fight with a police officer in Puerto Rico. The litany of public arguments he had with sportswriters and tournament volunteers alike with little provocation. Accusations that he was physically abusive towards his players. An absolutely awful comment he made to Connie Chung about rape. (Google that one. It’s horrifying.)

There is one that stood out above all others for me. For some reason he thought it would be hilarious to show the press a prop that he supposedly used to motivate his players - a bullwhip. There was even a photo showing him brandishing a whip while one of his players was bending over. It’s beyond my comprehension that he so casually ignored the horrible optics of an authoritarian figure “comically” threatening one of his African-American players with a bullwhip. He said he had nothing to apologize for, using his graduation rates as a defense. I don’t care how many black athletes earned degrees under his guardianship, that was an indefensible act.

But then again, what do I know. It might be a case of Stockholm Syndrome, but a significant percentage of his players swear by him. I just can’t excuse that abusiveness simply because he won a lot of games. No one would defend him if that behavior produced sub .500 records. Great coach, failed human being.

Closing Laughs

Good news everyone, we gain an hour this weekend! Use it well. Why not use some of that extra time recommending Tending The Herd to all of your friends, or even some random strangers? Thanks for reading, and let’s talk again on Monday.