Post-Eclipse Newsletter
Science Is Awesome
I envy those of you who were in the totality path on Monday. Here in New York City the eclipse was only a partial one, so it was cool, but nowhere near as impressive as it was for those who were able to experience complete darkness for those few minutes.
I have to say, I really felt something as I was watching the event on TV. The networks quickly jumped from location to location as the eclipse moved northeast, and even though the responses from the witnesses were essentially the same each time - awestruck silence followed by raucous cheers - it hit me every single time. There’s just something about sharing such a unique moment with a group of strangers. It’s so fortunate that the weather largely cooperated; there were a few pockets of heavy clouds, but at least from what I saw nothing that completely spoiled the day for anyone. One note about the TV coverage - anyone who has ever seen how excited Jim Cantore gets over thunder snow would easily guess that his eclipse coverage would be a must-watch. He did not disappoint.
Some of you may be aware that Monday was also the home opener for the Cleveland Guardians, and Cleveland was smack dab in the middle of the totality path. The game was originally scheduled as an afternoon start, with the thought that the game would pause when the time came. Wiser heads eventually prevailed; the game time was moved to a later start. It likely would have been a logistical headache to play a game with so many drastic changes to the playing conditions. The team did open up the gates early, however, so the stands were packed with fans experiencing the event together.
So, due to geography, my 2024 eclipse experience was not as special as that of others. The next total eclipse to pass over New York comes in 2079. As if the wish to celebrate the tricentennial wasn’t enough, this now gives me plenty of incentive to stick around until then.
What Next?
Another day, another ratings record for an NCAA women’s game. It’s been fortunate that the games have been tight battles, because it not only encouraged the audiences to stay through to the end, but an exciting game will always make new fans eager and willing to come back for the next one. That’s the key to sustaining success, there’s always going to be a new bright shiny object to distract audiences. Not everyone who has sampled the women’s game this year will return; but if enough if them do, the sport will continue to have a bright future.
Things look good for the college game both short and long term. While it’s true that many of the brightest stars are graduating to the pros, the sport is still in good hands. Camila Cardoso is moving up to the next level, but the South Carolina roster has enough returning underclassmen that the dynasty will live on. And in addition to the returning Paige Bueckers, UConn has yet another top ranked recruiting class coming in next year. That’s in addition to the other talented freshmen players such as JuJu Watkins and Hannah Hidalgo who will only get better next year.
This is key as well. I noticed that around year 6 or so of the WNBA the talent level and the talent depth had both improved immensely. There was a good reason for that. A skilled high school player was now fully aware that with a U.S. based professional league she had the potential to play at home after the completion of her college career. That’s a tempting carrot at the end of the stick; it provides a much stronger incentive to work hard to improve her game. Now we should see something similar. There are countless 12 year old girls who watched this tournament and will be inspired by Caitlin Clark to work on their jump shots or inspired by Angel Reese to work on their low post moves. The quality of play will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
And the W will draw even more eyeballs this season. People have made the Magic/Bird comparison to Clark and Reese, but I don’t know if that holds. Magic & Bird benefitted by playing for the 2 most iconic franchises in the NBA, but that won’t be the case here. Clark will be the #1 pick of Indiana in Monday night’s draft, but Reese is projected to go in the bottom half of the first round. So, not only do we have no idea of which team she will play for, but at least in the beginning she figures to be a rotational player, not a star. But, fans who followed them in the tournament will still be eager to see them in the pros. Once again, some will watch only 1 or 2 games and move on. But many others will like what they see and stick around. Maybe there are a lot of new fans who don’t know A’ja Wilson very well, but if someone watches an Indiana/Las Vegas game and sees the wonderful style of play that the well-oiled machine of the Las Vegas Aces produces? That’s how a league builds a fanbase.
What it comes down to is that when network executives see those rating numbers they must be kicking themselves, imagining how much money they have cost themselves over the years by consistently undervaluing women’s sports. There is so much gold in them thar hills that has been untapped for years. They are not going to make that same mistake again.
On a related note, seismic news dropped late last evening with the news that legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is retiring. She departs having passed Coach K & setting the record for most victories in Division I, male or female, earlier this year. She won’t hold that record for very long; UConn’s Geno Auriemma only trails her by 3. I’ll make the bold prediction that he will pass her early next season.
VanDerveer has earned a place on the Mount Rushmore of coaches in the women’s game. In addition to that record career total, she also led Stanford to 3 national crowns and was the head coach of the gold medal winning 1996 Olympic team. The timing is interesting. When Stanford star player Cameron Brink declared her entrance into the WNBA draft last week, she said that one of the factors was the huge increase in travel that will come with Stanford’s move to the ACC. That has got to be a factor in VanDerveer’s retirement. These new conference alignments are going to be a terrible grind; yet another unintended consequence of the cash grab.
Godspeed, Stephen Strasburg
Many of you may recall that last summer news had come out that Stephen Strasburg was going to announce his retirement - he has been a little vague, but apparently his injuries are so severe that simply living a normal life has become challenging, the ability to pitch is a secondary concern - with a ceremony tentatively scheduled for sometime in September. And then, suddenly, radio silence.
There was no explanation as to why the promised retirement did not happen. The assumption was that the buyout terms on his massive contract were a bone of contention between Strasburg and the Washington Nationals. My sympathies will almost always lie more with players than with management, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt. But it seemed terribly petty for the team to nickel & dime a player who has meant so much to the franchise. What made it more awkward is that once the season ends, players must be removed from the 60 day IL & reinstated to the 40 man roster. That means that the Nationals had to waste a roster spot on a man who everyone knows is no longer able to pitch. They added further fuel to the fire by asking him to report to spring training so that he could go through the facade of taking, and failing, a physical. (That farce did not happen, BTW.)
Whatever hard feelings there were between the two parties have finally been buried, as they reached an as yet undisclosed settlement on payment deferral, clearing the way for Strasburg to officially file for MLB retirement last weekend. There figures to be an official farewell ceremony in the near future, but the prolonged process to get to the inevitable conclusion feels so unnecessary. Strasburg was one of the most crucial elements in the team’s one and only World Series title. He’s exactly the type of player whom you make it a point to treat the right way, even if it costs you a few dollars.
Anyway, now we can finally give him a proper goodbye. He was one of the most hyped pitching prospects in memory, and as long as he was physically able, he lived up to that hype. A relatively small total of 113 career victories does not properly tell his story, a 2019 World Series MVP award does. Just as importantly, he was the type of pitcher for whom his starts were events. There were several contemporaries of his who had objectively “better” careers, but Strasburg is one who will be remembered much longer. That’s a good legacy to have.
TV Of the 21st Century - Orange Is the New Black
One of the great Trojan Horse television shows of all time, OITNB is the one that really put Netflix on my radar - House Of Cards was already a thing, but it made me roll my eyes in exasperation too frequently. Based on Piper Kerman’s non-fiction book about her experiences in a minimum security prison, the show used the source material as a launching point to explore the stories of a vast array of female prisoners .
It could have easily gone so wrong. The tale of a blond woman of privilege thrown into that atmosphere is only so interesting. Instead the show focused on her fellow prisoners, introducing the audience to characters (and actresses) of all types of ethnicities, ages, and sexual orientations. It’s also worth noting that the early seasons were set in the prison’s minimum security wing; most of the characters were there due to low-level non-violent drug convictions, so there was an inherent level of sympathy for these women.
It’s not uncommon for the lead character in a large ensemble cast to be among the least interesting; they are often used as a grounding point. But OITNB took it to a higher level. Piper was often so inessential that much of the story would not have changed at all had she never entered Litchfield. To take one example, the main plot in season 2 involved Vee and how her introduction into the population affected the group dynamics among the established characters. Not only was Piper not involved with this story at all, but Vee had no idea who Piper even was.
A great sign of a show with a deep bench is this - how difficult is it to formulate a list of your favorite characters? When OITNB was at its peak, I posted a list of my 5 favorites on Facebook. The first 2 or 3 were pretty easy, but I had about 10 worthy choices for the last couple of slots. It was impossible to narrow it down. In conjunction with the litany of great characters was the number of outstanding actresses in those roles, many of whom I was unfamiliar with at the time and have now become regulars on the awards show circuit/cast lists for prestigious projects - women such as Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, and Samira Wiley. It doesn’t speak well of Hollywood that it had to take a show set in a prison for so many actresses of color to make names for themselves, but it’s at least a good thing to see that these women seized the opportunities that were made available to them. And of course it must also be said that this was the show that ignited Natasha Lyonne’s spectacular comeback.
The first 4 of the show’s 7 seasons were about as good as TV got, but it started to lose steam following some questionable creative decisions. I’ll tiptoe around spoilers, but in season 4 a character was killed by a chokehold from a CO. That eventually led to a riot at season’s end, and season 5, which was concentrated in a time period of only a few days, dealt with the aftermath of the riot & inmate’s takeover of the prison. The resolution of that storyline meant that beginning with season 6 the characters were either transferred to maximum security or to another prison entirely. As a result, a massive percentage of the rich cast of characters were written out. Worse, our favorite characters were now intermingling with a batch of more hardened criminals.
Not only did season 6 spend too much time on characters & situations that held little interest - Badison? - but there was also way too much misery porn for my taste. The first time I saw a beloved character crying in her cell following a beating from either a guard or a fellow inmate was a gut punch, by the third or fourth it was just too much. The show regained its footing to some extent in the final season - including happy endings for some of the characters - but a lot of damage was already done.
There are a lot of other worthy aspects of the show that I haven’t even mentioned - its skill at discussing important issues such as the lack of dignity afforded the inmates, the drawbacks of prison-for-profit, etc. There’s also the wonderful friendship between Taystee & Poussey, Pennsatuckey’s hard to pin down complexity, Flaca’s obsession with indie rock, and so much more. I’ve barely scratched the surface, this show at its best was a true treasure.
Originally aired on & currently streaming on: Netflix
Closing Laughs
The building manager is flicking the lights on & off, which means it’s time to wrap up for today. See you all again on Friday. Peace out!
