Disarming Frankness, in Fiction and the Real World
January is hard. Find joy and hope where we can. LFG.
GO DIRECTLY TO:
- “Heated Rivalry” and “Heartstopper”
- Don’t Let Anyone Tell You MLB “Needs a Salary Cap”
- More of What I’ve Learned From Playing Immaculate Grid
- Compelling Darts
- How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends
- You Should Talk to Friends
- In Case You Needed Another Reason to Watch “Taskmaster”
- Remember Martin Prince? He’s Back, in Tattoo Form
- Greenland
- Occupation of Minnesota
- An Example of Journalism That Doesn’t Call Things What They Are
- The Most Electric Movie Experiences
- My Next Book
“Heated Rivalry” and “Heartstopper”
Like just about everyone else in my circles, I watched “Heated Rivalry” and found it deeply moving. My spouse and I initially bailed after the first two episodes because it felt like it wasn’t for us, but the wave of praise for subsequent episodes was too much to ignore, and when we continued, I learned that those first two episodes are largely setup for what was to come.
At the same time, my 11-year-old child and I have been watching “Heartstopper”, a British TV show based on a graphic novel series that is about a group of teenagers figuring out their sexualities, romantic awakenings, and so on. The two shows, while aimed at different age groups, actually have a lot of overlap. Specifically, they depict optimistically earnest worlds where sexuality of multiple shades and nuances are respected as fundamental expressions of self that should not be compartmentalized from different parts of one’s life without negative consequences, and they do it by having the characters speak in disarming frankness about their wants, desires, and general feelings. It’s hard to write that kind of dialogue without it coming off either treacly or robotic, but both shows pull it off.
Moreover — and perhaps this is because “Heated Rivalry” is a Canadian production from a Canadian creator and “Heartstopper” is a UK production — my American brain clocks that characters genuinely listen to each other, something that is relatively rare in American drama and stands out once you’re aware of it.
Don’t Let Anyone Tell You MLB “Needs a Salary Cap”
I appreciated this Bluesky thread about competitive balance in Major League Baseball over the past couple decades. The topline: MLB is on par with the NFL, NHL, and NBA when it comes to how many teams have made the playoffs, advanced far in the playoffs, and won championships in recent years. Don’t let anyone tell you MLB “needs a salary cap” or anything like that; that’s a management talking point aimed at putting more money in management’s pockets, not improving the game. If anything, the trend of MLB teams simply not trying is probably enabled by playoff expansion making such strategies more forgiving, and less parity would probably improve the product by forcing teams to actually try to win if they want to make the playoffs and make money for management.
READ MORE: The state of preparing to compete has no predefined end point
More of What I’ve Learned From Playing Immaculate Grid
In April, I wrote about what I’d learned from playing Immaculate Grid. I’ve continued playing the MLB grid with the self-imposed obstacle of only using players who appeared in games for the New York Giants or San Francisco Giants, and I have a few more nuggets to share.
Have you ever heard of Zeke Bonura? Our guy was a first baseman who played for the White Sox, Senators, Giants, and Cubs in a relatively short career that started at age 25 in 1934 and ended when he was drafted into the Army in 1941. He had a poor 1940 season in the majors and may not have made it back anyway, but by the time he was discharged in 1945, he was old enough and far enough removed from being a good hitter that he never reached the majors again.
But his short prime was pretty dang good. Over four full seasons with the White Sox to start his career, he hit .317/.396/.518 (128 OPS+), good for 15.5 bWAR. Traded to the Senators, he had a down year, with only a .346 OBP, but rebounded the next season with the Giants to hit .321/.388/.477 (130 OPS+ and 3.5 bWAR).
For grid purposes, he’s the only one-time Giant to have 100 RBI for the Senators/Twins franchise, the only one-time Giant to have 100 RBI for the White Sox, he’s a nifty answer for a guy who hit .300 in a season the Twins, and he had a career .300 average.
Do you pay attention to which guys have won a Gold Glove? Or a Silver Slugger? Perhaps it’s easy to guess that Buster Posey, Barry Bonds, Matt Williams, and Will Clark won both while with the Giants, and that Carlos Beltran won both while with the Mets. But to fill out the grid, that’s not enough. Orel Hershiser won both while with the Dodgers. Randy Hundley is the only one-time Giant to win a Gold Glove for the Cubs. Liván Hernández won a Silver Slugger for the Expos. Jake Peavy won a Gold Glove with the White Sox. Manny Trillo won multiple Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers with the Phillies. Kris Bryant won Rookie of the Year and an MVP, and has been a four-time All Star, but has never won a Silver Slugger.
As noted previously, for just about every combination of two MLB teams, there are several dozen players who appeared in games for both franchises. However, adding a third team means that in some cases there are extremely few players who meet the criteria. For example, there are zero (0) position players who have appeared in a game for the Astros, Twins, and Giants in their career. Perhaps the most prominent of the eight (8) pitchers who have are Jim Deshaies, LaTroy Hawkins, and Mark Portugal. There is also exactly one (1) position player who has played for all three of the Giants, Athletics, and Marlins: Cody Ross. There is exactly one (1) position player who has played for all three of the Giants, Rays, and Rockies: Dustan Mohr.
Finally, I’ve learned that even though the reserve clause limited players’ ability to choose where they could play, there was still a lot more player movement in pre-free agency than folks may realize. Rogers Hornsby played for the Cardinals through age 30, but then put up an MVP-caliber season for the Giants and an MVP-caliber season for the NL Boston squad before joining the Cubs for four seasons and making sporadic appearances for the St. Louis Browns over several seasons while being a player-manager.
Carl Mays was traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1919 at age 27 because he was having the first slow start to a season of his career. He proceeded to reel off two top-flight seasons and then a solid one. After the 1923 season, by far his worst performance of his career, and ahead of his age-32 season, he was sold to the Reds. Though he was never again dominant, two of his seasons in Cincinnati were well above average.
Finally, Bobo Newsom may be an obscure name to even knowledgeable baseball fans, but over an MLB career that spanned from 1929 to 1953, he was a very good pitcher for long stretches, yet never stuck in any one place very long. He pitched for the Dodgers, Cubs, Browns, Washington Nationals, Red Sox, Browns again, Tigers, Nationals again, Dodgers again, Browns again, Nationals again, Athletics, Nationals again, Yankees, Giants, three years in the minors, Nationals again, and Athletics again. His peak seasons were in 1939 and 1940 when he put up 8.2 bWAR in a season split between the Browns and Tigers, then returned for the Tigers and put up 7.4 bWAR. However, he also had nine other seasons with at least 3 bWAR, and finished his career with 211 wins and 2,082 strikeouts. Why was an effective pitcher traded so often? According to his SABR bio, he seems to have had a big personality, which may have played a role.
Compelling Darts
You probably don’t need to know how to score darts to enjoy this classic clip of a high-stakes darts match from a few years ago. It’s three minutes of building tension with an engaged crowd, and the competitors’ facial expressions are gold. Fantastic sports content.
How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends
Another classic from a while ago, this imgur entry appears to have been wiped, but, thankfully, it was archived.
I like board games, and I play them frequently. When the original Landlord's Game was developed, it was certainly fresh and innovative. However, 110+ years of advancement in the field of game design has produced games that are far superior, packing more strategy, nuance, and fun into a fraction of the play time. Monopoly is, by comparison, a long, boring, unpleasant slog. On the now-rare occasions that people insist I join a game of Monopoly, I play in a way that ensures not only that I'll win, but that they'll be more open to my suggestions for other games in the future.
You Should Talk to Friends
If you’re like me, you’ll read this NYT story about a bunch of people trying to “optimize love” (see: monetize tech solutions to romantic relationship development) as a parable about getting interested in the mechanics of something such that it overtakes simply doing the thing. Most of these people are just different flavors of “track everything so I can make data-informed decisions” folk, but the obvious solution for most of them is to make friends and have real conversations with them. Your three best friends should be able to offer genuine wisdom on dating and relationships, and a wider net of friends should provide relationship opportunities and leads on relationship opportunities. Trying to reverse-engineer the process will be like trying to reverse-engineer cow’s milk — you might be able to come up with something that has a good result for some people, but you’re probably better off just learning how to raise cows and extract their milk.
In Case You Needed Another Reason to Watch “Taskmaster”
Somehow, the best game show in the world got Kumail Nanjiani to be a contestant on the new season, alongside Armando Ianucci (perhaps best known in the US as the mind behind “Veep”), and three other comic performers. Forget the “Eternals” debacle: Nanjiani was great in “Silicon Valley”, he was great when I saw him onstage as Abraham Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!”, and though I haven’t seen his recent standup special, at least one of the clips made me laugh. In sum: Watch “Taskmaster”.
Remember Martin Prince? He’s Back, in Tattoo Form
I got a tattoo of Martin Prince, the Simpsons character. He’s shown dressed as Calliope, muse of heroic poetry, his costume from the season 4 Halloween episode. It is the peak moment of Martin’s greatest attribute: He is always unapologetically himself. And I wanted to commemorate that sentiment. Back in 2014, the Toast published an appreciation of Martin that has heavily influenced my thinking about him, and I hope does the same for you.
Greenland
A bunch of polls recently got published showing that Donald Trump is wildly unpopular. Among the specific things people hate about him, broad majorities say it would be a bad idea to use military force in an attempt to take Greenland. However, should the administration actually move forward with it, we can expect many Republicans to shift their opinions and say they support it because that’s exactly what happened with Republican opinion on using military force for regime change in Venezuela.
In mid-December, a Quinnipiac poll (PDF) found 52% of Republicans supported military action inside Venezuela, with 33% of Republicans opposing and 15% undecided. A month later, after the military action — and, crucially, too soon to know the full implications of capturing Maduro and bringing him to the US — Quinnipiac found 85% of Republicans approved of that decision, with 7% of Republicans opposing.
So, a free idea for any journalist in a position to execute (and that I hope is already being done): Do the "talking to everyday Republicans" thing about Greenland. Many will inevitably say they don't know why Mr. Trump is doing this (they won't be able to bring themselves to say anything he does is "bad"), and then, if he does attack Greenland, go right back to them and get them to talk. Show the right-wing information bubble doing it’s thing.
Occupation of Minnesota
I don’t have much to add about what is happening in Minnesota beyond what’s already been well-explained by others. Renee Good was murdered on camera and the Trump administration ordered there be no investigation into the officer who shot her. Also, it is attempting to smear her wife. The administration is attempting to intimidate the Minnesota governor and Minneapolis mayor with lawfare. Masked government agents who do not identify themselves are detaining people based on their accents, deploying tear gas at schools, and other atrocities.
I’m not in Minnesota, but I take seriously the stories people there are telling about becoming radicalized in favor of supporting their neighbors and defending their communities against jackbooted thugs. As I walk to my local library, I can’t help but think about an occupying force rolling into my neighborhood and seeking out people with Cantonese accents, people with Mexican flag stickers on their cars, and so on. What would I do? I’ve imagined bearing witness and putting my body on the line in defense of my neighbors, but if the real conflict comes, will I have that courage? That I’m asking — and that our lawless federal government demands that we all ask that of ourselves — is deeply sad, but also rousing.
It may feel cringe to point to fiction for inspiration at a time like this, but nonetheless, a fictional speech may be more true than any speech delivered for a real-life conflict. “Andor” is one of the best television shows of this era precisely because it speaks precisely to what freedom and tyranny and oppression are, and what it takes to win and maintain freedom. Listen to Nemik. He tells the truth.
An Example of Journalism That Doesn’t Call Things What They Are
This Politico piece about the University of Austin, which anyone with any knowledge of how academia works recognized as a case of right-wingers wishing they had a school where their ideas would go unchallenged, is funny because of course the people sinking money into it would demand their ideas be acknowledged as supreme, and of course the faculty who got roped in with lip service about “free speech” would struggle to understand they’ve been had.
That said, you might read the piece and not understand that because it suffers from a case of "describing people and their actions as they wish to be seen, not how a knowledgeable and truthful outsider would describe them" — that is, it accepts the lip service premises proffered by the right-wing founders as truth instead of analyzing their statements and actions and reaching an independent conclusion. There’s no better example of this than the long list of right-wing people involved with the “university”, at which point the writer probably realized they needed to name someone who wasn’t obviously conservative and named… Larry Summers, who is not exactly beloved by the American left, and widely considered a creep.
The Most Electric Movie Experiences
I cannot recommend the Batting Around podcast enough. After only a few listens, I realized I was honor-bound to become a subscriber, with the bonus of getting additional episodes. Yes, Jane, Lauren, and Stephen often threaten to abandon the premise that they run a baseball podcast, but both the baseball talk and the non-baseball talk is all very entertaining, even during the offseason. My favorite hangout podcasts turn the magic trick of making me feel like a part of the conversation, not in an audience, and Batting Around has the best batting average among all the shows in my feed.
Recently, the hosts were talking about times they remembered their movie theater audience was electric, and I immediately flashed back to two specific instances. First, when “Star Wars” was re-released in the 1990s, my dad and I went to the first show we could, and the full house at the Coronet in San Francisco was rowdy through the trailers, peaking when Darth Vader first appeared and the theater erupted in boos. It was performative, but performative in the way that a good pro wrestling crowd is. The second example I thought of was “Get Out”. When my spouse and I went to see it with a full theater, every person in the place audibly groaned when the flashing red and blue lights appeared, with a few people saying aloud, “Oh, hell no,” et cetera. And the reaction to who stepped out of the car was even louder.
My Next Book
I’m writing another novel, this one a thriller set at a fictional Silicon Valley company. More details to come. If you want to read my first book, a romcom-adjacent story about a wedding photographer, you can request a free e-book copy with this form.
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Thanks for reading, you crazy kids. Let’s do this again, sometime.
(Lead photo: "Capital Pride Parade 2023" by UKinUSA. Used under CC BY-SA 2.0 license. The photo shows Kit Connor [left] and Joe Locke [right], the two leads of "Heartstopper", on a parade float.)