Greatest Song Evah 6/16/23

All My Loving

This week’s selection is one of the earliest examples of the Beatles’ genius. At its essence it contains several of the components that made up their early sound. The song has a beautiful medley, simple yet heartfelt lyrics, and tight harmonies. Yet it also has a complexity that is very striking coming from a group of musicians who were still so young at the time.

The most noticeable musical hook is the guitar triplets that John Lennon plays throughout the track. It was readily apparent at this stage that Paul McCartney was a master craftsman of pop songwriting, and the arrangement demonstrates that they were already beginning to experiment with the studio wizardry that would transform music later on in the decade.

Rob Manfred, Man Of The People

I don’t know why so many people like giving Rob Manfred such a hard time. Have you ever seen him at the Hall Of Fame induction ceremony? The man just oozes charisma. He gives off strong “I’d pay to listen to Olivier read the phone book aloud” vibes. It brings chills to the spine.

Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I was being sarcastic, Marge. I’ll give the man credit for instituting the pace of game rules that have improved the sport, but otherwise he actually makes me long for the days of Bud Selig. Yesterday he briefly met with the press during the owner’s meetings and the majority of the questions he was asked concerned the Oakland A’s near-certain move to Las Vegas.

He could not have come off looking worse if he had tried, and he filled out his Bingo card of tone deaf comments pretty thoroughly. He repeated the debunked claims about how new stadiums are an economic boon to their communities. (Narrator: virtually every independent economic study shows that they merely recirculate spending that would have been made elsewhere in the city. There’s no new business generated.) He claimed that Oakland never made a stadium proposal of their own, which Oakland’s mayor immediately called a bald faced lie. And he was very dismissive towards the fans that filled the stadium as part of the reverse boycott the previous evening. “I mean, it was great. It was great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That’s a great thing.” He might as well have mimed giving Oakland fans a collective condescending pat on the head while saying that.

To be fair, as much as we want to pretend that the commissioner has the fan’s best interests at heart, the truth of the matter is that he was hired by, and must answer to, the 30 team owners. As embarrassing as John Fisher’s neglectful ownership of the Oakland A’s is, as long as the other owners are OK with it, there’s nothing that Manfred can do about it even if he wanted to. The loss of Oakland as a major league city is going to be a sad occasion, and I remain pessimistic about a team being able to succeed in Las Vegas. There are just too many entertainment options in that city to believe they can fill a stadium for 81 games. Rob Manfred acting so feckless doesn’t help at all.

Great Moments In Propaganda

There’s a small part of me that would love to be a fly on the wall at one of Fox’s daily editorial meetings. How do they come up with the Topic Of The Day? What outrage are they going to stir up this time? Which product will they lead a boycott on for committing the cardinal sin of attempting to be inclusive? Are they pro-DeSantis today? Or are they back on the Trump train? It’s gotta be exhausting.

I know that Fox is gonna Fox, but on Indictment Day whoever was operating the chyron really outdid himself. Behold:

It was eventually taken down, but my God, what in the Sam Hill is going on over there? One would think that forcing the company to pay out a $757 million settlement might encourage all involved to show a little more discretion. We’ve long since passed the point where Fox can be called a legitimate news organization, but are there ANY guardrails at that place? Just imagine what will go down if/when there is an indictment in the Georgia case.

Tulsa & Juneteenth

The whitewashing (pun intended) of our history is very disheartening. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it indeed. But what about those who don’t learn it in the first place? The only way that we can form a more perfect union is if we acknowledge our faults and strive to correct them. Those who are trying to impose a “safe” teaching of history are merely creating a generation of ignorant people.

I think about this a lot when June comes around. I attended an academically prestigious high school, which helped me gain admittance to an equally strong university. In other words I received a strong education, yet there were large gaps in the history that I was taught. I did not learn anything about the Tulsa massacre, the anniversary of which took place the beginning of this month. I can’t say for sure when I finally did; it was certainly well before I saw Watchmen, yet well after my school years. And next week’s Juneteenth holiday reminds me that I did not learn anything about the significance of that day until I became an adult.

Gaps in education such as this have a significant detrimental effect. Learning about Tulsa teaches us how far we’ve advanced as a society since, as well as how far we still have to go. It teaches us about the two systems of justice - the perpetrators of the violence suffered no consequences. And maybe, just maybe, if white people knew more about these sorts of historical tragedies they might not to so quick to dismiss legitimate complaints from the African American community regarding more contemporary examples of mistreatment.

The Sports Media Bloodletting Continues

In the first few months following The Athletic’s launch, it was seemingly impossible for a day to go by without seeing a well-known reporter or columnist write a “Why I’m Joining The Athletic” column. The timing of The Athletic’s startup was ideal; there had just been massive waves of layoffs at major legacy media such as ESPN & Sports Illustrated, and the Fox Sports website was in the middle of its infamous pivot to video. There were scores of talented writers in search of an outlet, and The Athletic served as a perfect landing spot.

The website has more than lived up to its promise, since it covers a wide variety of sports there truly is something for everybody. As a subscription based site, it avoids some of the more annoying aspects of web navigation. It eventually started running ads, but they are limited to banner ads; no pop-ups. More crucially, no auto play videos appear, none of those irritating sponsored articles on the bottom of the page, and a refreshing lack of clickbait material.

Even from the start there were whispers that its financial model is untenable, and I have noticed some changes made to reflect the changing economic reality - way too much gambling related content, for example. But overall there is enough worthwhile content that it’s not difficult to ignore silly stuff such as last week’s profile on Baby Gronk’s father. Unfortunately, however, money woes have hit The Athletic as it announced a round of layoffs earlier this week.

It’s still a great website; I’m pretty sure it’s the site I visit most frequently over the course of a normal day. It’s just a shame that once again many talented journalists are out of work and there are fewer and fewer outlets that can support strong reporting. Have you visited Sports Illustrated’s site lately? Geez. They may as well post a photo of tumbleweed on their home page.

The Road To 23,000

Sean Forman of Baseball Reference shared a cool nugget the other day. He sent out a tweet on Monday stating that their database of MLB players stood at 22,961, which means that the debut of the 23,000th player in major league history is imminent. And take a moment to digest that. Major League Baseball has been in existence for almost 150 years, yet if you gather together every man who has ever played it would not be a large enough crowd to fill a major league stadium.

There are a few disclaimers to that total. Baseball Reference includes players and stats from the National Association, which existed from 1871-1876, but MLB does not designate that league as an official major league, so technically any man who played in the NA but not the National League shouldn’t count as a major league player. Additionally, incorporation of Negro League players and statistics is still an ongoing process, so it’s certainly conceivable that there have been some players from those leagues whose records are not yet in the tally. With those caveats in mind, it will be a fun moment to see who becomes MLB player #23,000.

RIP Blackie Onassis

Finally, Urge Overkill drummer John Rowan, known professionally as Blackie O or Blackie Onassis, passed away this week at the age of 57 - cause of death was not publicly disclosed. As one of the central bands in the Chicago alternative scene in the early 90s, they emerged at the perfect time to ride the post-Nirvana wave. They’re best known these days for their memorable cover of Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon, but their creative peak came with Sister Havana. That song is an all-time banger. Come around to my way of thinkin’.

Closing The Book On Yet Another Week

Thanks as always to all of you for reading and supporting this newsletter. It means a lot to me. Have a great weekend & let’s do this again next week.