Wednesday Newsletter

It’s OK To Enjoy Things

There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy skepticism towards hype. Where it goes wrong is if one essentially stands stiffly with arms angrily crossed, essentially saying “prove yourself!” That sounds like an existence that’s both miserable and exhausting. It’s a wonderful experience to see a promising young athlete emerge in any sport. It’s fun to be there at the ground floor.

In recent memory the most prominent example of this came from Certified Killjoy Keith Olbermann. During Shohei Ohtani’s first spring training in the U.S. Olbermann was constantly telling his followers that they needed to take a collective chill pill. Each day he would find a new way to say “calm down, no one has ever done what he is attempting. It’s not gonna happen.” Fast forward a few years later and he has been equally as proficient at the plate and on the mound, at least when his elbow has cooperated. I suppose his two major injuries have proven Olbermann’s point to a small extent, but the whole point of following sports is to be wowed by things that don’t seem physically possible. I wish that circumstances could allow Ohtani to pitch more frequently than he does, but I’m glad that we’ve gotten what we’ve had so far.

More recently I saw a lot of the same type of “I don’t see what the big deal is” talk in anticipation of Victor Wembanyama’s NBA debut. The roving band of skeptics felt that the hype machine was running in overdrive, but most of those words were coming from people that had not yet seen him play. The massive anticipation had come from the scouts who recognized that Wemby is practically the next step in human evolution. Or to put it another way, your standard #1 NBA draft pick is rarely met with this same level of breathless anticipation. Front offices were excited about the pending arrival of Paolo Banchero, but nothing close to this level.

The reason I bring this up now is that Paul Skenes made his debut with the Pirates last weekend. The #1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, his first start was the most anticipated debut for an MLB pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg. So of course Bill James felt the need to be a wet noodle.

Was that really necessary? Pirates fans have had few reasons for optimism in recent years. Not just Pirates fans either; one of the big talking points throughout the sport is the prevalence of injuries that have paused the careers of so many talented pitchers. What the sport needs more than anything else is to see youngsters come up and find consistent success. Maybe Skenes will be one of them, maybe not. I don’t think it serves any good purpose to act like such a humorless contrarian before the guy had even thrown a single pitch in the major leagues.

Lucky Fan Of The Year

The odds of catching a foul ball at a baseball game are quite high. To catch 2 in the same game? On consecutive pitches? That seems impossible. Kudos to the dude for stretching out the drama before revealing that he did in fact catch that second ball. All hail our new overlord!

I’ve been attending baseball games for more than half a century and I’ve never come all that close to catching one. The closest I came was around 10 years ago; it was moving in my direction before it grazed the wire that holds up the protective netting and changed direction. Just as well, I would probably coil in fear. I don’t want to be the guy who flubs an easy catch only to see my personal lowlight repeated on ESPN & MLB Network over and over again.

I’m also at the age where it wouldn’t feel right to snag a foul ball. Honestly, if I’m sitting in a part of the park where catching a ball is theoretically possible I make a mental note to see if there are any kids seated nearby. If by some miracle I grab a ball I would happily give it to a child. Let the little tyke have his or her special moment. Pay it forward.

I say that because I’ll hopefully be on the other end of that spectrum one day. There was an old commercial that has stuck with me. I don’t recall the product being advertised - sounds like it has the unsubtle tug at the heartstrings that is a Budweiser trademark - but it starred two bros in the stands, one of whom was joking about an elderly gentleman nearby with a glove. A foul ball travelled directly towards that group of fans, and the nicer of the two bros caught it and discreetly placed it in the older man’s glove to make it look as if he had caught it. The friend was befuddled. “How could you do that? That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity?” The good dude said “Yes, I know” as he looked at the older man glowing in absolute glee. My goal is to be that man; an old guy so adorable that a complete stranger would be inspired to do me that solid. I’ve tried to find that old ad on YouTube, but without knowing for sure if it was a Bud ad or not, none of the keywords that I type in lead me to it. Does my description strike a chord with any of you?

Upfronts Week

This is the annual week in which the TV networks put together elaborate presentations to the press and advertisers in order to promote the upcoming fall schedules. In another sign of how far network television has fallen, these events are nowhere near as relevant as they used to be.

For a few years now the upfront presentations have promoted all of the holdings under the larger corporate banners - instead of simply announcing ABC’s fall schedule, every individual Disney service gets its moment under the sun, for example. And the actual network is treated as a relatively insignificant component of the corporation’s inventory. To get back to the Disney example, it’s much more crucial to promote ESPN or Disney+ than it is to hype up the traditional ABC broadcast network.

Which is just as well. The corporate overlords practically treat the networks as afterthoughts. The majority of the schedules are filled with franchises, reality programming, or game shows. I look at the schedules and I draw blanks too often when I see the names of many of the returning series. I get a sense of disbelief when I see that a series I’ve barely heard of has been renewed for a 6th season. I realize that I’ve aged out of a targeted demographic, but I still feel a bit wistful. As a kid I spent an inordinate amount of time closely examining the TV Guide Fall Preview Issue. Now, the announcement of the new fall schedule means nothing to me.

The Streaming Orphans - The Ben Stiller Show

In its early days a disproportionate amount of Fox’s primetime programming consisted of half-hour long sketch shows, and I’m not just talking about In Living Color and The Tracey Ullman Show. Remember The Edge? Which starred Julie Brown? Which included Jennifer Aniston and Wayne Knight in the cast? Just me? OK.

Another short-lived Fox sketch show from this 1992ish time period was The Ben Stiller Show. (Obligatory pause to acknowledge that although it’s not running on a streaming service, you can find the episodes on YouTube.) This ran for one season in a transitory portion of Stiller’s career. It was shortly after his brief and unhappy stint with SNL and just before his movie career began to take off. Although it was poorly rated it is still well regarded in hindsight, aided in no small way by the bigger and better things that his collaborators would go on to. (Hmmm… an SNL cast member who never found his footing and brought his sensibilities to a sketch show of his own. Sounds a lot like Tim Robinson.)

Who were those collaborators? Judd Apatow was a co-creator. David Cross was one of the writers. And speaking of David Cross… there were 3 other regulars in the repertory company in addition to Stiller. Those would be Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk. Try not to look at that too closely through the prism of 2024. At the time no one had any clue about Andy Dick’s toxicity. He seemed like a nerdy dork with a penchant for physical comedy.

Here’s what most impresses me about this show. It aired more than 30 years ago, and unlike SNL or Monty Python, it’s not as if it has left deep cultural footprints. Yet, there are multiple sketches that I remember so clearly even after all these years. Stiller certainly dipped into his well of impressions. In one sketch he portrayed Tom Cruise in a one-man Broadway show playing his big hits. Arguably the most remembered sketch was the Cape Fear parody with Stiller as Eddie Munster in the Max Cady role.

It was more than just his famous impressions. There was a good bit in which Odenkirk played a rapper who had recorded a diss track about his annoying neighbor - “Kill Doug Szathkey.” There was also a recurring series of sketches which took the show Cops and set it in historical periods, complete with Stiller’s officer sporting an anachronistic New Yawk accent.

The show ran in 1992, or shortly before Fox won the NFC contract, so the network was still garnering minuscule ratings for much of its programming. In fact, in some markets it was still confined to the UHF band. Before long Fox would have little desire to fill its schedule with a crazy little show such as this one. It was a nice gem for the brief period in which it aired, and I think Ben Stiller turned out all right even with his titular show’s failure.

Closing Laughs

That’s all for today. Enjoy your day everyone and get yourselves ready. Summer is creeping up on us. See you again on Friday.