Greatest Song Evah 6/7/24
Lots of quick hits today, so let’s get right to it.
The Waiting
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m about to drop shade, but I offer this as high praise. Basic mainstream rock and roll doesn’t get much better than Tom Petty, and this song serves as an ideal example of that classic sound. No unnecessary bells and whistles, no superfluous flash, just a solid riff and a universally relatable lyric. When you are looking forward to something, the waiting really is the hardest part.
The Waiting was the lead single from the crucial 4th album by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Its predecessor was the one which moved them from the ranks of popular rock bands into legitimate Top 40 level stardom. In situations like this follow up records are important - can an act maintain that popularity and can they remain artistically relevant? Hard Promises answered both of those questions in the affirmative. It didn’t sell quite as many records as Damn the Torpedoes did, but it sold well enough. This proved that they were here to stay.
The record was also filled with songs that became rock radio standards. You’ve also gotta love how Petty used his capital to make a stand. At the time the industry standard list price for a major label album was $8.98. Record labels were getting ready to raise that cost an additional dollar to $9.98 for superstar releases, and MCA was prepared to make this album the first to do so. Petty lost his s*** over that, at one point threatening to title the album “The $8.98 Album” with the cover art simply serving as those numbers in large type. The record company backed down & Petty made his point. Yes, eventually prices went up industry wide anyway, but Tom Petty did not turn out to be the test case.
Apologies In Advance To London
That joke would have landed a little harder a few days ago - the Mets are coming off of a series sweep; so what if it came against the equally struggling Washington Nationals - but MLB isn’t sending its best across the pond for this weekend’s London Series matching the Mets against the Phillies. If the purpose of an overseas series is to display the very best that the sport has to offer to an international audience…
I kid. I’m still enough of a cockeyed optimist to look at the NL wild card standings and see that every team has its weaknesses. The Mets clearly need to play waaaaay better than they have, but all it takes is one hot streak to be back in the mix. Easier said than done, but I’ve seen stranger things.
On a related note, the last time I checked in on the Chicago White Sox they were coming off of a stretch of relative success. As a result, they had moved ahead of the pace of the 1962 Mets, who had the most losses post-1900, as well as the 1916 Athletics, who had the worst winning percentage. About that… the Sox have hit the skids again. They are in the midst of a 14 game losing streak, which places them once again below the Mets’ pace. There’s still a long way to go, and all it takes is a short stretch of playing .500 ball to change things, but then again think what that roster could potentially look like assuming they’re major sellers at the trade deadline. The dream is still alive.
I Bet They Have Regrets
Once again, a player in a team sport has received a lifetime ban for gambling on his sport. Once again, the leagues likely quietly felt relief that the player in question was not a big star. Tucupita Marcano of the Padres, who received the ultimate punishment, barely qualifies as a Remember Some Guys level player. 4 additional players received 1 year suspensions. Unlike Marcano, none of these players bet on games that their own teams participated in, but gambling on baseball in any way is strictly verboten, so they will each have to miss a full calendar year.
This was all so avoidable. The 4 suspended players (Michael Kelly from Oakland, + minor leaguers Jay Groome, Andrew Saalfrank, and Jose Rodriguez) each wagered fairly minuscule amounts. None of them bet more than $1,000 in total; for that pittance they hit the pause button on what could be lucrative careers.
Marcano was another matter entirely, and from a distance he appears to be a man with a serious gambling problem. Not only did me make things worse by constantly betting on his own team - the biggest mortal sin that there is in baseball - but investigations showed that his bets have totaled more than $150,000. He’s not just a habitual gambler, he’s also a bad one. He barely broke even. He was a promising enough prospect that future paydays in the millions were not out of the question; now it’s all gone.
As a general rule of thumb, I try my best not to be too judgmental of others. It’s hard to avoid that feeling in this case. MLB’s rules against betting on the game are crystal clear and are prominently displayed (in multiple languages) on the wall of each clubhouse. Say all you want about mixed messaging that comes with the league’s partnership with FanDuel. MLB has beer sponsors as well, but a player can’t show up to a game drunk. So too with gambling; players can bet on football to their heart’s content, but there is a big red line that they cannot cross under any circumstances.
No Hanging Chads Here
In the issue of Baseball Digest that I shared in Monday’s newsletter there was an article in which Joe Falls produced a memory test for older fans, presenting a series of images from the 1930’s-50’s. I wondered out loud what a similar article would look like were it to be written today. Well, here’s one image that would be part of it.
MLB All-Star Game voting is underway, and once again it is a two phase process. In phase 1 fans can vote for anyone, and then the top vote getters at each position will move to the final round of voting where the starters will be selected. It’s all dome online nowadays, but I miss those old school punch cards. As soon as you would enter the ballpark someone would hand you a ballot. Then, after carefully punching out your selections on that card, there were drop boxes conveniently located throughout the stadium where you could submit your ballot. (I’m not sure if this was universal as well, but I could often find corner stores that also distributed ballots. The drawback was that for those, you had to return the ballot via snail mail. You had to buy a stamp and everything.) The advantage to the physical ballots is that if you were filling it out at the stadium, it stood to reason that you were an actual, game-attending fan and not a bot.
I suppose the current process is a more efficient one, but there was a certain amount of satisfaction in taking the time to punch holes in the ballot. Or even better, choosing a write-in candidate. That took commitment.
The Finals Have Begun
Following 2 respective anticlimactic conference finals, the NBA Finals tipped off last night with one expected participant and one slightly surprising interloper. The Celtics have clearly been the class of the NBA all season - best record, best point differential, best at maintaining health - so it’s little surprise that they had an easy time surviving the Eastern Conference playoffs. The fact that virtually every other eastern contender had at least one significant injury to a key player should not tarnish their accomplishment. After all, the Celtics were without the services of Kristaps Porzingis for a few weeks.
With the number of strong teams in the Western Conference, whoever survived there was going to do so after running through an absolute gauntlet. The Mavericks may only be a 5 seed, but that is a bit misleading. The rotation was radically transformed with the midseason trades for Daniel Gifford & P.J. Washington, which took a bit of time to gel. Credit where credit is due - as much as I criticize Kyrie Irving, he is an exceptional player, and right now is playing at peak efficiency without any of the distractions that are too often a part of the Kyrie Irving Experience.
I try not to steer too hard into the Ringz Culture, Dude Needs A Championship To Cement His Legacy argument, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Luka Doncic has been playing at an insane level during this run. He’s probably already on the Jokic/Giannis level, but a title would quiet anyone not willing to place him in that rarified air. On the other side, there’s even “why hasn’t Jayson Tatum won anything” chatter going around. That will end quickly if Boston wins. I also want to acknowledge how well Derrick White has been playing; he’s gotta be one of the most underrated players in the league. I’m picking Boston to win. I swear I wrote this before last night’s game; I fully expect the remainder of the series to be tighter than the Game 1 result.
Before ending NBA talk, I woke up on Thursday morning to see quite the Woj Bomb. Just when everyone assumed that JJ Redick was in line to be the new Laker coach, we learned that the team is in serious talks to pluck Dan Hurley from the college ranks. Nothing is a done deal until a contract is signed, but Redick never made much sense to me, even beyond the fact that without ANY coaching experience, he would have been cutting the line ahead of so many others that have worked hard for such an opportunity. The Lakers are in an odd position; on the playoff periphery in a brutally tough conference, yet still in a win-now scenario with LeBron James turning 40 next season. This doesn’t seem like the situation in which you want to place someone who will essentially be learning on the job. If hired, Hurley comes with his own risks of course. The history of college coaches making the jump to the NBA is mixed. And who knows how well Hurley’s famous intensity would translate to the pros. With all that he seems like a safer choice than Redick.
The Queen Is Dead
Jeannette Charles died earlier this week at the age of 96. You may not know her name, but trust me, you have seen her face many times. She was the famous doppelgänger for Elizabeth II, portraying the queen in countless movie roles. It was she whom Reggie Jackson attempted to assassinate, it was she who bestowed knighthood upon Austin Powers, it was she who greeted the Griswold family at the palace, it was she who shared an awkward moment with Frank Drebin at a state dinner. You have to respect someone who was able to build such a long career within such a narrow niche.
The Original Antifa
Round numbered anniversaries always stand out, and that was certainly the case yesterday as it was the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The commemorations grow more poignant with each year. Simple math shows that even the greenest soldier who landed on Normandy on 6/6/44 is in his late nineties today. The day will come before too long when there will be no remaining survivors from D-Day. (On a terribly sad note, this year a 102 year old veteran passed away en route to France.) These men literally saved the free world; I can’t wrap my head around the fact that there are people today who are willingly embracing the very fascism that we fought against 80 years ago.
50 Years Ago - The Game Shows
When I was a kid I was a big fan of game shows. I had a special affinity for the ones with celebrity panelists, and at the time there were plenty of those. In 1974 The Love Boat and Fantasy Island didn’t exist yet, so this was one of the best ways for someone who was the 4th or 5th banana on a now-cancelled TV series to remain in the public eye. It sure helped; I would have no reason to know the names of cast members from Petticoat Junction or Ironside, but if they regularly appeared on Pyramid, oh yeah, I know you. (There were of course a certain number of game show regulars for whom I still couldn’t tell you what they were originally famous for. As far as I’m concerned Match Game was their sole credit.)
None of the legendary examples of the form premiered in 1974, but there are a few worth mentioning. I’ll lead with one that was not a celebrity showcase. The rules of High Rollers were fairly convoluted, but I will always remember the visual of contestants rolling a comically oversized pair of dice as part of the game. More notably, it was the first memory I have of that show’s host - a Canadian gentleman with a mustache and a classic 1970’s perm. This would not be the last game show that Alex Trebek would host.
Celebrity Sweepstakes attempted to ride on the success of Hollywood Squares. In this show, a question would be asked of the celebrity panel and the studio audience would place bets as to which celebrity was most likely to know the correct answer. The contestant would then have to use strategery to decide which celebrity they would choose to answer the question for them. Do you play it safe and go with George Hamilton, who always seemed to get the lowest odds, or do you act a little bolder and go with a longshot? Joey Bishop essentially played the Paul Lynde role in this game, always ready with a joke and Carol Wayne was the other main constant on the panels.
There was one other show that I had largely forgotten about until I did the research, and when I saw this title the recognition began to flow. Masquerade Party was an odd show, and I still don’t really get the purpose of it. (Although upon further consideration it sounds a lot like The Masked Singer.) In this one various celebrities would appear in disguise under heavy prosthetics (refiring the brain cells I had devoted to this show brought back clear memories of William Shatner disguised as an old timey sea captain) and a different panel of celebrities would have to guess who they were. Even by the standards of 1970’s TV, this show was a head scratcher.
Closing Laughs
And that brings things to a close for another day. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Have a great weekend everybody, and we shall talk again on Monday.
