You Come For The 1884 St. Louis Maroons, You Best Not Miss

Buttercup Dickerson & His Teammates Can Rest Easy

The 162-0 dream is over, as the Tampa Bay Rays finally lost, and then (gasp!) followed it up with a second loss. So they will have to settle for matching the 1982 Braves and the 1987 Brewers by equaling the longest winning streak to begin a season post 1900. That means the 1884 St. Louis Maroons, who included the aforementioned Buttercup Dickerson on their roster, along with a rotation led by Jamie Moyer and George Santos, continue to stand alone in history.

It goes without saying that the Rays’ streak was helped in no small part by the fact that their schedule in the opening weeks was very soft, but they’re still facing major league competition. It’s difficult to sustain that strong of a run, no matter how inferior the competition may be. So, kudos to the Rays, but there’s still a ways to go. Remember, those Braves lost in the NLCS and those Brewers failed to win their division.

Finally, you gotta love that there was a player known as Buttercup Dickerson. I couldn’t find the explanation for his nickname, and frankly I’m happy in not knowing. It makes him sound like the type of guy Monty Burns would have tried to recruit for the Springfield Power Plant softball team. There’s a reason the Tungsten Arm O’Doyle tweet took off, beyond its accuracy. The game’s history is filled with nicknames that are descriptive and/or odd.

SNL Recap

This week’s episode was uncharacteristic of the way the majority of this season has gone. Most episodes have started off poorly, eventually built up steam, and were saved by a typically odd final half hour. Not so this week. This one started off fairly well & built good promise before turning terribly ragged in the back end. Which is a shame because Ana de Armas was a very game host, showing a touching level of sincerity in her monologue and fully committing to her characters.

My highlight this week was the cold open. I’m generally not a huge of fan of this sketch format; quick hits with each cast member popping in for a line or two. People move in & out so rapidly that no one makes much of an impression. This one worked for me, however, with a solid premise in which Heidi & Bowen man the Ted carpet as they introduce assorted characters emerging in Central Park for the season’s first warm day. Most of the jokes landed, and anyone who has spent anytime outdoors on a nice day can recognize the archetypes: Mikey’s older man on a power walk, Ego’s woman on a cellphone trying to meet up with people (Ego had a great night this week), Chloe’s entitled wealthy woman, etc.

With so many major cast members leaving this year, it was inevitable that the show would need to retire many of the recurring bits. I was surprised, however, to see how much SNL has avoided introducing new ones. Recurring sketches have been the lifeblood of the show throughout its entire history - the Bees made a return appearance as early as the second show - but it’s been a welcome change to see them not rely on that crutch so much. We did see 2 returnees this week, with different results. We had the return of Mikey’s nerdy guy who somehow bags a wife that should be out of his league. (Mikey also had a strong episode) Kenan is always the MVP for this bit; his incredulity is well played. Ego’s Lisa from Temecula also returned, this time mixing a huge salad at a wedding table. This one wasn’t as funny as her initial appearance, it seems likely that this was an ideal one-shot premise that doesn’t lend itself well to multiple occurrences.

Honorable mention goes to the trailer for an American Girl Doll movie. I liked the matter of fact way they dealt with how tough life would have been for those women in real life, with all the disease and the slavery. Dark, yet funny. The Spanish teacher sketch was also a good one, and I liked Sarah’s update appearance as mental health guru Genesis Fry. But as I mentioned, the show fell apart after Update, best illustrated by the dog acting school sketch. Animals on live TV are tricky; they may have all been good boys & good girls, but none of them acted the way the trainers wanted them to. de Armas & Chloe tried their best to make do, but cute animals only go so far.

Overall, solid work by Ana de Armas and a decent enough episode as a whole as long as you went to bed early and avoided that last half hour. After a two week break, the show returns for the final run of this season’s episodes (unless there’s a writer’s guild strike) with yet another first time host. Pete Davidson will make his return to 30 Rock. I’m honestly surprised that he’s coming back to host this quickly.

Toxic Fandom At Its Worst

We’ve all heard many times how the word “fan” is short for “fanatic.” Usually fandom is fairly harmless as long as one acknowledges its inherent absurdity. I mean, there’s no rational reason why anyone should intensely hate another human being simply because they play for the wrong team. But there are times when a line is clearly crossed.

During Wednesday’s Bulls/Raptors play-in game, DeMar DeRozan’s 9 year old daughter Diar became the star of the game as she loudly screamed whenever a Raptors player went to the free throw line. It may have even had an affect; Toronto lost the game, in part because they short an anemic 18 for 36 from the charity stripe. Reports came out that some overzealous Raptors fans sent out what authorities described as “severe online threats” and security had to escort her out of the arena to the team bus.

The reports I read didn’t specify exactly how many threats there were, but 1 is too many. What is wrong with people? She’s a 9 year old girl for Pete’s sake, cheering on her daddy. What could possibly compel a person to be so lacking in perspective that he would threaten a young child over something as trivial as a sporting event? Fandom at its best is a great thing; the sense of community as we collectively celebrate a big moment is a big part of what makes sports so special. Fandom at its worst is indescribably awful.

Revisiting The Longest Yard

I rewatched the original version of The Longest Yard for the first time in years. In the old days ABC used to rerun the film regularly, albeit it was obviously edited for TV version. Audiences were well aware that Richard Kiel broke the guy’s freaking neck, only he didn’t say “freaking.” It is clearly a movie of its time; it has 1970s grit and doesn’t try to make Paul Crewe a likable character. The classic version contrasts strongly with the later Adam Sandler remake.

The first 3rd or so of the Reynolds version is essentially a gritty prison drama. It’s not until they begin to construct the prison football team that it veers more towards the wacky hijinx that people think of when they remember the film. As a result, the sudden murder of Caretaker (and that is a very intense scene; he burns to death in his locked jail cell while screaming in agony as his fellow inmates are unable to come to his aid) while stunning, matches the tone of the movie. Whereas the Sandler version is much more of a standard comedy, making that murder very jarring and out of step with the vibe from the rest of the movie.

Now that I think about it some more, the careers of Reynolds and Sandler are strikingly similar. Both spent years as massive box office stars, but rarely challenged themselves. Each had their moments (Deliverance, Uncut Gems, etc.) but were much more satisfied simply getting together with their buddies to make a movie rather than trying to stretch their acting muscles. Nothing wrong with giving the people what they want, but neither man seemed to have much interest in following the “one for me, one for them” credo. Each of them had notable roles that clearly showed they had strong acting talents that expanded beyond light comedy; one has to wonder how differently their respective careers would have gone had they tapped into their talents a bit further.

Anyhoo, The Longest Yard still largely holds up well. Crewe badly mistreats his girlfriend at the beginning of the movie, but I don’t consider that plot point terribly problematic as it’s meant to establish the fact that he’s a bad guy. Eddie Albert’s warden is a bit too cartoonishly villainous, and most of the secondary characters are a bit flat, but overall it’s still a keeper. It’s a shame that there are generations that can only picture Norm MacDonald sporting the bolo tie when they hear the name Burt Reynolds.

Things Are Still Going Great, Elon

The latest events in the slow decline of Twitter included NPR removing its account from the platform entirely, following Twitter’s labeling of the organization as “government funded media.” PBS has followed in its wake along with multiple local public radio stations. One can conveniently ignore the fact that both Tesla and Space X receive considerably more government funds than NPR does.

That’s too bad; the more reliable sources of news on the website, the better. There was a news item considerably more damaging that cropped up over the weekend. In an attempt to deal with the bot issue, Twitter has reduced individual company’s abilities to send out automated tweets. The problem? That severely limits the amount of timely information that the National Weather Service can send out. Apparently they would be restricted to 50 automated tweets per day, which sounds like a lot until you realize how many alerts are necessary during a major weather event. Timely and accurate info is critical; restrictions could prevent people from receiving the information they need to keep themselves safe.

After so much attention was drawn, the Tsunami Warning System was informed that their access to automated tweets was fully restored although they warned that they can’t fully test that access until it’s necessary. In other words, there would need to be a live test during an actual disaster rather than some sort of dress rehearsal. Fingers crossed that it’s fully functional when the next natural disaster strikes. I would imagine that this headache could have been avoided had Elon Musk not fired so many engineers; with a full staff (or at the very least a crew consisting of more than just yes men) there would have been someone who could have pointed this out ahead of time.

All is well, however. The company is clearly in good hands. Any press inquiry that went out regarding the NWS issue received a poop emoji as a reply. And he says that the elimination of the legacy blue checkmarks should be completed on 4/20. Because of course it will.

The Band Is Starting To Play Me Off

As always, thanks for reading. And if you like what you see, tell someone about it. The more, the merrier. See you all again on Wednesday.