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So Long, Skipper

Former White Sox manager Jeff Torborg, who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, died at the age of 83.  Torborg took over the White Sox following the 1988 season, replacing Jim Fregosi.  It was a tough go for the rebuilding White Sox, who finished with a record of 69–92, giving them a last place finish in the AL West.

Things got significantly better in 1990, when the young White Sox surprised the world, going 94-68 in their final season at Comiskey Park and finishing in second behind the A’s.  The 25-game improvement earned Torborg the Manager of the Year award.  As the White Sox opened the new Comiskey Park II across the street in 1991, they posted another second-place finish.  Following the season, Torborg bolted to the Mets, getting a hefty pay raise.

Torborg ended his tenure on the South Side at fifteen games over .500 and became a mentor to future manager Ozzie Guillen.  His son Dale was a roving strength and conditioning coordinator for the White Sox from 2004-22.

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Book 4 (of 52) – Good Me Bad Me

Good Me Bad Me – Ali Land

After turning in her mother for murdering a young boy, Mille goes to live with a therapist and his family to prepare for the trial.  The fresh start is not all it seems, as her new foster sister has made it her mission to make Millie’s life miserable.  As Millie tries to adjust to her new life, she hears her mother’s voice calling to her.  Can she make a clean break?  Or will her upbringing and training come back stronger?

A few years back, I came across an article listing a number of works by female authors that were described as descendants of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  Ali Land’s debut, Good Me Bad Me, is the final one that I had saved to read later.  I liked most of this tale, but the end kind of fizzled out for me.  It looks like Land hasn’t published anything since this, so this may be a one and done.

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iTunes Top 200: #183 Part II

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 songs in my iTunes library, featuring he songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which older songs still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to songs, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2025.

We continue this week with the next batch of songs tied for 183rd place with 36 plays apiece since my stats began in late 2007.

#183: Nirvana – About a Girl
iTunes stats: 36 plays, most recently on 12/7/2023
Previous ranking: NR

Written about Kurt Cobain’s then girlfriend, this live acoustic version was recorded in November of 1993 and was released as a single in October of 1994, the band’s first single after Cobain’s death.

#183: The McCoys – Hang on Sloopy
iTunes stats: 36 plays, most recently on 6/25/2024
Previous ranking: NR

After falling off the chart five years ago, the official rock song of Ohio returns, adding 19 plays over the last nine years.

#183: Mazzy Star – Into Dust
iTunes stats: 36 plays, most recently on 2/9/2024
Previous ranking: NR

Featured on the group’s second studio album and charting twice in the UK despite never being released as a single, the track has picked up 16 plays over these last nine years.

#183: Mark Snow – X-Files Theme
iTunes stats: 36 plays, most recently on 5/24/2023
Previous ranking: #125

My current ringtone, the theme from the 90s FOX hit became just the second instrumental to hit #1 on the French pop charts.

#183: Lustra – Scotty Doesn’t Know
iTunes stats: 36 plays, most recently on 12/13/2024
Previous ranking: #170

Written for the 2004 film Eurotrip, the track picked up six additional plays over these past five years. Continue reading →

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New Duds

Thursday night, on the eve of their annual fan convention, the Cubs unveiled a new alternate uniform for 2025.  According to the press release, the new Blues Alternate “pays tribute to the team’s history and Chicago’s contribution to the electric blues movement that shaped music worldwide.”  Despite having all of the story elements of a City Connect uniform, this is not that.

The jersey, described as baby blue, features a new logo insignia that “combines details from early Cubs uniforms with typography inspired by blues-era instruments.”  The sleeve patch is in the shape of a guitar pick “representing Chicago’s legacy as the birthplace of the electric blues.”  The numbers and nameplate take design elements from past Cub designs.  The jersey looks to be teamed with white pants.  The cap appears to be a darker blue, with a white front panel featuring the same logo as the jersey.  The socks feature references to Sweet Home Chicago, along with a six-string guitar stripe.

The Cubs were the first modern team to wear baby (or powder) blue, incorporating it into their road jerseys from 1941-1942.  It returned in the late 1970s, as most of baseball switched from plain gray to powder blue on the road.  The final full-time appearance was the road pinstripes in 1981.

The number font on the blue jersey gives off very strong Expos vibes, but aside from that, these look pretty good.  We won’t have to wait long to see how these look on the field, as the new uniforms will debut Saturday, April 5.  After that. they will be worn at home on Fridays during the summer months, which was the same schedule as the old City Connects.  Which, again, these are not.

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Ballpark Tour: A’s

With just under a month to go before pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring training camps, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head to the Bay Area to look at the former Oakland A’s. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with the Oakland Coliseum.

Stadium Name: McAfee/Network Associates Coliseum

Years in Service: 1968 – Present

Visits: 2

The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum opened in 1966 as the home of the Oakland Raiders.  Two years later, Charlie Finley moved his A’s from Kansas City to Oakland and became the baseball tenant of the stadium.  In 1998, the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum.  In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee and the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.  Following the 2008 season, the name reverted back to Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum until April 27, 2011, when it was renamed Overstock.com Coliseum. Just over a month later, the Coliseum was renamed O.co Coliseum, after Overstock.com’s marketing name.

Both times I’ve traveled to the Bay area, I’ve taken in both Giants and A’s games.  My first trip to what at the time was called Network Associates Coliseum was on September 6, 1999 while I was out west visiting my friend Scott.  The Tigers triumphed over the A’s that day, and my one memory of the stadium is that the seats were not necessarily positioned in such a way as to face the field for baseball purposes.

My second trip to the Bay area, for the JavaOne conference in 2008, actually started out with a BART trip out to Oakland for a 2-1 A’s victory over the Orioles on May 5th.  The A’s had opened up three sections of the third deck as designated All-You-Can-Eat seats, where, for the price of the ticket, free ballpark fare was included.  While I enjoyed the novelty of the free foodstuffs, the seats, while directly behind home plate, were horrible.  Leaving early in order to catch the train back to San Francisco led to the problem of trying to get out of the stadium, since none of the gates were open.

The A’s bid this stadium, and the city of Oakland, farewell following the 2024 season.  They plan to play their home games in Sacramento while a new stadium is being built in Las Vegas.  The funding for said stadium isn’t as secure as MLB and the A’s would lead you to believe, so the future home of this franchise is anyone’s guess.

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Book 3 (of 52) – Mr. Monk and The Blue Flu

Mr. Monk and The Blue Flu – Lee Goldberg

When negotiations with the police union go south leading to an unofficial strike, the mayor offers Monk his badge back and promotes him to captain, leading a rag-tag group of detectives who have also been rehired despite some issues that led to them losing their jobs in the first place.  His task: find the  Golden Gate Strangler and deal with other murders that come up along the way.  While Monk and his team crack the Golden Gate Strangler case and track down another murderer, the real police return when one of their own is gunned down.  Working again with Stottlemeyer and Disher, Monk helps to solve that case, but once again loses his job in the process.

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu is the third of 18 novels based on the USA Network dramedy that ran from 2002 to 2009 from series writer Lee Goldberg. Once again told from the perspective of Natalie, the story shares the bones of the plot with an episode from Monk‘s final season, aired two years later.  With the remaining fifteen books waiting for me, hopefully things start to gel more as the series goes forward.

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2024: The Year In Live Performances

2024 was an exceptionally slow year for live performances, as I managed to get out just a single time to see a play.

At the end of February, Michael cashed in his Christmas present, and we headed into the city to see Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue, my first trip to the theater since seeing Clue in 2022.  It was, unbeknownst to me when I bought the tickets, a drag show, with gay men taking the parts of all of the characters.  It ended up being a tad bit raunchier than the source material and it gave Michael and I a chance to hang together, something we haven’t been able to do much of since he got sick.

Here’s hoping 2025 has more opportunities for me to experience the live arts.

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FB10: Week 51

My streak of decent results came to an end as I headed back to work for the first time in 2025.  Sunday got the week off to a bad start, finishing with just 24100 steps.  Things picked up on Monday, as I came 14 steps away from 4200.  Things were slightly better on Tuesday, finishing with 4200 steps.  A slight drop-off on Wednesday put me at 3900 steps.  A slight improvement on Thursday left me 30 steps shy of 4200.  Friday dropped back down again, needing 18 additional steps to get to 3800.  Taking down the Christmas tree and putting it away on Saturday helped me surpass the 4000-step plateau.

Total steps: 26,756

Daily average: 3822.3

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2024: The Year In Television

With less and less good productions airing on network and cable networks and instead moving to the various streaming platforms, that seems to have taken over as my main form of non-game show television watching. Now that I work from home full time, I have plenty of time to take in whatever they have to offer. Since we cover the network and cable shows that I watch elsewhere, let’s take a look at the 22 seasons of shows I streamed on six different platforms this year.

9-1-1 Seasons 1-7 (Disney+)
I was introduced to this show when I was in Amsterdam and decided to watch from the beginning once I got home.

Based on a True Story Season 1 (Peacock)
Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina start a podcast with a serial killer.

The Blacklist Season 10 (Netflix)
One final go-around for the former NBC hit, which wrapped up its run in the summer of 2023.

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17 (Paramount+)
The BAU returns once again, following up on plot threads from the previous season.

Derry Girls Seasons 1-3 (Netflix)
A group of friends in Northern Ireland grow up amidst a changing political climate.

Doctor Who Season 1 (Disney+)
Ncuti Gatwa ushers in a new era for Doctor Who.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 (Netflix)
A new set of interns start at Grey Sloan.

Nobody Wants This Season 1 (Netflix)
A gentile sex/relationship podcaster falls in love with a rabbi.

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 (Hulu)
Yet another murder in the building brings Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez back together for another investigation.

Remington Steele Season 2-5 (Amazon Prime)
The 80s hit, starring Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, has become a weekend morning staple.

This is the Zodiac Speaking (Netflix)
The latest attempt to identify the notorious Zodiac killer.