Greatest Song Evah 12/6/24

Beautiful Girl

Robyn Hitchcock is the very epitome of British whimsy, and this song is a wonderful illustration of that. The song is as simple as can be, from the sparse arrangement to the minimalist lyrics. Just Hitchcock and an acoustic guitar as he presents an ode to the woman he is in love with. You could make the case that the simplicity of the song is entirely due to his infatuation; he is so head over heels that he can only be so articulate about it.

There are some nice lines that make this one so special. “I hope she’s in love with whom I think she’s in love with.” “I’m a charming and dangerous guy.” “If you don’t expect too much it’s alright.” Once again, simple, but effective. It’s almost enough to forgive the creepy ventriloquist’s dummy in the song’s video.

Because he is so quirky he has only had limited success stateside; he was briefly getting MTV & radio play in that time period when alternative rock broke through into the mainstream. But he’s still plugging away all these years later. In fact just this year he released his best album in some time. 1967: Vacations In the Past is a tribute to that year, with cover versions of classic songs from ‘67 along with a couple of Hitchcock originals inspired by the year. His version of A Whiter Shade Of Pale is terrific.

The Ballot Countdown

Newcomer #12 Russell Martin - The fact that a player as good as Martin comes in at #12 shows the quality of this year’s ballot. As a whole this year’s newcomers are a batch of players that were exactly the type of players you would want to have around to build a winning team. Not great enough to be realistic HOF contenders, but good, well-rounded baseball players. Such as Russell Martin.

A 3-time All-Star and a winner of Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, he was basically a league average hitter, demonstrated by the fact that he finished with a career OPS+ of 101. But having a catcher who provides league average offense along with a strong glove is a valuable commodity. He had a reputation as one of the better pitch framers of his time, and that’s the sort of catcher with whom pitchers love to work.

I don’t remember hearing this at the time, but according to Baseball Reference his nickname was Le Muscle. (Martin is Canadian.) How cool of a moniker is that? That’s gotta be worth at least a few bonus points. That still isn’t enough to place him in the Hall, however. Good player, though.

Holdover #12 Omar Vizquel - Two things can be true at the same time. Shortstop is a primarily defensive position, and Omar Vizquel was a premiere defender, even if the 11 Gold Glove Awards were likely a few more than he deserved; towards the end voters had moved to autopilot and reflexively chose him for the award. On the other hand, he was never a particularly good hitter, and that has to count for something as well. His career numbers in the counting categories are impressive because he was supernaturally durable, but in a 24 year career he finished with an OPS+ above 100 exactly twice. In a 24 year career he earned down ballot MVP votes exactly once.

Now, the durability that I mentioned above is an important aspect of his career. He was valuable enough that he earned regular playing time into his 40’s. But he spent the peak years of his career as perhaps the 4th or 5th best shortstop in the league. I don’t think that adds up to a Hall of Fame case. Or to put it another way, he provided a lot of quantity (which is vital, don’t get me wrong) but not the level of quantity that merits a spot in the Hall.

And that doesn’t even take character issues into account. The sexual harassment allegations that have been made against him are pretty horrifying. I don’t want to link the stories, Google them if you care. Suffice it to say that while he isn’t technically banned from MLB, he does have a de facto ban. No team is likely to hire him. As a result he has been one of the rare players whose vote total has plummeted over the years. As recently as two years ago he appeared to be on track to eventually make it past the magic 75% mark. Now he has zero chance and everyone is simply waiting for his 10 years on the ballot to run out. He was a firm “no” for me well before the allegations came to light. I no longer have to worry about the possibility of congratulating him through gritted teeth.

Investing Made Easy

Hold the phone, are you trying to tell me that purchasing Hawk Tuah bitcoin is NOT a sound investment? And that doing so could lead to leagel (sic) action? I do have to say that “my crypto representative will be in touch” just might be the funniest sentence ever written in the English language. The ghost of Mark Twain must be jealous.

SNL Preview

After a couple of weeks off, SNL returns with the first of its 3 pre-Christmas episodes. The last 2 of these will be hosted by retuning alums, including the newest member of the 5 Timers Club, but it will begin with Paul Mescal’s debut as host. He is your classic ascending star, with an Oscar nomination already in his back pocket and a current starring gig in Gladiator II. Yet he is still new enough that he doesn’t have a well-defined public persona at this point. So, I don’t know what sort of direction the episode will take. And as we know from 50 years of the show, the success rate of hosts that are best known for dramatic acting is very hit or miss.

I’ll also take this opportunity to follow up on the story surrounding this week’s musical guest, Shaboozey. As expected, Kendrick Lamar’s dominance in the streaming world following the surprise drop of his newest release resulted in a corresponding dominance on the Billboard Hot 100. Lamar took the top 5 spots on the chart, including hitting the top with Squabble Up, which brings Shaboozey’s record tying reign at #1 to a temporary end. There’s always a chance that A Bar Song (Tipsy) can rebound, but if it does so it will not happen for a month. Mariah Carey hit #10 this week, which means that beginning next week Christmas songs will fully dominate the charts. Any #1 spot for a non-holiday song will have to wait until Toyotathon season ends.

TV Of the 21st Century - Chuck

It’s a real bummer that Zachary Levi has taken such a heel turn. Chuck Bartowski was a really sweet natured character. Oh well.

Chuck was the little show that could. It ran for 6 seasons, and although it was never a big ratings hit, it was the sort of show that inspired its fans to organize a successful Save Our Show campaign when it was in danger of cancellation. That meant that the producers were able to tell the full story and give it a proper ending. I’m not sure if it was a completely satisfying ending - it had a tinge of unnecessary darkness - but the years leading up to it were a lot of fun.

And it had one of the better pilot episodes. It started off with a CIA agent (Matt Bomer!) evading the bad guys and he uploads a computer file and sends it out via email just before they catch him. We then meet the titular Chuck, a once promising student at Stanford who had been expelled after having been caught cheating. (He was framed, BTW.) He was working for the show’s version of the Geek Squad, in this case the Nerd Herd at a big box electronics store named Buy More.

His basic decency was shown when a man came to him for help. He had failed to record his young daughter’s dance recital because he neglected to put a tape in the camera. Chuck’s colleagues at the Nerd Herd were the stereotypical antisocial geeks, mocking the father for making such a dumb mistake. Chuck instead wanted to make things right. He quickly set up a makeshift studio in the store, so that the girl could perform her dance there and the dad would be able to salvage things by recording that performance.

Chuck was living in an apartment with his older sister and her fiancé, both of whom were doctors. Chuck and his best friend sarcastically nicknamed the fiancé Captain Awesome, because everything about him seemed perfect. Professionally successful, handsome, and sculpted, he was almost too good to be true. Thankfully, he wasn’t hiding anything. He really was a good dude, with the exception of being a bit intellectually superficial.

The show kicked into gear once checked his email one evening. That CIA agent I mentioned earlier? It turns out that he was Chuck’s college roommate and Chuck was the recipient of that file. When he opened it up it zapped him into unconsciousness and while he was out the contents of the file downloaded into his brain. It was a program known as The Intersect, and it contained the complete databases of the CIA & the NSA. Chuck was now essentially a living computer and an asset for US intelligence.

What would happen is that if he encountered someone whose data is contained in that program, he would “flash” and be able to identify any foreign agent or villain. The military assigned holders from both the CIA (Sarah, played by Yvonne Stravoski) and the NSA (Casey, played by Adam Baldwin) to protect him or more ominously, terminate him if necessary. Sarah also posed as Chuck’s girlfriend, and part of the ongoing story was trying to figure out how much she actually cared for him or how much was part of her cover.

As you can see, that pilot episode was very exposition heavy, but once the show got going it was very well done. Early on, he had to keep his double life secret from his friends & family but gradually over the course of the series he let them all in on why he often inexplicably vanished while he was off on his secret missions. Also, as time went on he grew more confident in his missions and was no longer a liability in the field. In addition, nothing is ever a coincidence. We learned why he was framed at Stanford. Also, at different phases in the show his parents were introduced, portrayed by Scott Bakula and Linda Hamilton. You don’t cast actors of that caliber without a reason. That’s all I will say.

All in all, it was a likable show which had a nice blend of action and comedy. And it used Short Skirt/Long Jacket as its theme song. What’s not to love?

Originally aired on: NBC

Currently streaming on: Max and Prime Video

Closing Laughs

Hope everyone had an uneventful Krampus Night. Enjoy your weekends and we will meet right back at this same spot on Monday.