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The End Of An Era

Later today, the final episode of Jeopardy! featuring Alex Trebek will air and an era will come to an end.  Trebek, who died in November after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, had taped episodes prior to his death that would have aired through Christmas Day, but produces inserted two weeks of his best episodes over the holidays to avoid pre-emptions.  His final week aired this week, culminating with today’s episode.  Trebek had hosted the syndicated program since its premiere in 1984.

A new, permanent host of the program has not been announced as of yet.  Former champion Ken Jennings, who won the show’s Greatest of All Time Tournament in early 2020, will fill-in for episodes that start airing next week, with other guest hosts expected to finish out the 37th season.

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Fitbit 6: Week 49

The hell year that was 2020 comes to an end and 2021 gets off to a bad start.  The week started slowly on Sunday, where I came 5 steps away from reaching 1700 steps.  Monday was better, getting all the way up to 3100 steps.  Tuesday fell back off again, down to 2500 steps.  Wednesday bounced back up and managed to just surpass 3400 steps.  Thursday, New Year’s Eve, fell back down again to 2200 steps.  Friday rang in the new year, and a trip to my aunt’s house for a super spreader event pushed me to my highest total of the week, with over 3400 steps.  Saturday fell back down once again, falling 5 steps shy of 2500 steps.

Total steps: 18,898

Daily average: 2699.7

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A New Voice

The Cubs and the Marquee Sports Network announced on Monday that Jon “Boog” Sciambi has been hired as the new play-by-play voice of the Cubs.  Sciambi has been the voice of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball for MLB on ESPN Radio and the play-by-play voice for Wednesday Night Baseball telecasts since 2014.  He takes the spot vacated by Len Kasper, who moved over to the White Sox radio booth last month.

“Having the opportunity to come to Wrigley Field and call games for the Chicago Cubs every day is surreal,” Sciambi said in a statement. “It really doesn’t get better than that. Chicago is one of the best cities and Wrigley is the best ballpark out there.”  Prior to joining ESPN, Sciambi had served as the lead television announcer for the Braves from 2007-2009 and as the radio voice of the Marlins from 1997-2004.

Sciambi teamed with current Cubs manager David Ross on ESPN telecasts, so he should have an immediate in to the organization.  He will continue working for ESPN in some capacity under this new deal.

In somewhat related news, missing from the list of contributors in the press release from Marquee was Mark Grace, the former Cub star who was suspended last season after making derogatory comments about his ex-wife during a broadcast.  Not a huge loss for the network or the Cubs, since, in my opinion, Grace makes for a poor broadcaster, but losing a high profile gig must sting for the former all-star.

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Book 1 (of 52) – High School

High School – Tegan & Sara

In High School, their first memoir, twins Sara Quin and Tegan Quin, known professionally as the band Tegan & Sara, look back on their high school years in Calgary.  The sisters switch off chapters, telling the stories of their first loves, parties and drug use, and the discovery of their step-dad’s guitar and the start of their musical journeys.  After playing for their friends, they enter a music competition while still in high school and win, putting them on the path to stardom.

I first became acquainted with Tegan & Sara back in the early 2000s, when one of the tracks from their third album started getting a little radio airplay.  While their more recent work has moved into a style that doesn’t really work for me, those early works, especially 2004’s So Jealous, remain some of my favorites.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but it is basically like reading the shared diary of two sisters who find themselves on different, but similar, paths heading to the same destination.  They don’t shy away from the sibling rivalries that caused many a fight between the two, but they managed to always find their way back to each other and, eventually, to their music.

While writing this book, they found their old homemade demo cassettes of songs they wrote while they were in high school.  Their latest album is them partially re-writing and then recording those songs.  Reading the book has rekindled my interest in their music and I am tempted to check out this album.  Time will tell if I follow through with that or not.

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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #188-197

It’s been 4 years since we last counted down the Top 200 artists in my iTunes library.  Since my iTunes stats are still intact, across multiple PCs, iPods, iPads, and iPhones, I figured it was time to take another look at the artists that have entertained me the most based on number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2021.

Today, we begin with 10 artists, 4 tied for 197th place, 3 tied for 194th, and the first 4 tied for 188th.  4 of these bands and/or performers are newcomers to this list.

#197: OutKast
iTunes stats: 44 plays
Previous ranking: #167

A slight increase of only 17 plays over 4 years drops the hip hop duo from Atlanta down 31 spots in the rankings.

#197: The Juliana Hatfield Three
iTunes stats: 44 plays
Previous ranking: #185

After breaking up with the Blake Babies, Juliana Hatfield put together this band before going solo, which drops 13 places after garnering only 19 new listens across its 2 tracks, including one from the Reality Bites soundtrack.

#197: Mariah Carey
iTunes stats: 44 plays
Previous ranking: N/A

The icon makes her debut on the strength of 3 songs, none of which are her wildly successful Christmas classic, which have gone from 16 listens up to 44.

#197: Björk
iTunes stats: 44 plays
Previous ranking: N/A

The Icelandic chartreuse scratches her way on to the list thanks to 2 solo tracks and 1 live duet with PJ Harvey.

#194: Firehouse
iTunes stats: 45 plays
Previous ranking: #185

The glam band, who somehow beat out Alice In Chains and Nirvana for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist at the 1992 American Music Awards, added 20 new listens to the 3 songs that make up their play total.

#194: Fall Out Boy
Continue reading →

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By The Numbers – 73

In 1929, uniform numbers appeared on the back of baseball jerseys for the first time, thanks to the Indians and the Yankees.  By 1937, numbers finally appeared across all uniforms, both home and away, across both major leagues.  Since that time, 81 distinct numbers have been worn by members of the White Sox, while the Cubs boast 76.

Today, we continue our look at those players, picking our favorite, if not the best, player to wear each uniform number for both Chicago teams with #73.  A single player has donned #73 for each Chicago team.

Tony Phillips had a turbulent 1996 season with the White Sox, retiring for 48 hours during spring training and getting into a fistfight with a fan at County Stadium in Milwaukee in May.  When Albert Belle signed with the White Sox prior to the 1997 season, Phillips gave up his #8 and switched to #73.  His tenure with the number, however, was short lived.  On April 21, he was ejected 3 pitches into that night’s game against the Yankees.  Phillips had to be restrained by 3 White Sox players and ended up getting suspended for 2 games.  He accused American League president Gene Budig of being a racist, which Jerry Reinsdorf called “out of line,” and, on May 13th, Phillips was traded to the Angels.

On the other side of town, young pitcher Adbert Alzolay has appeared in 10 games for the Cubs over the past 2 seasons.  He has a chance to claim a permanent slot in the rotation in 2021.

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52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2021 Edition

A new year is once again upon us, and it is time to once again delude myself with the goal of reading a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.

In years past, I’ve had a low point of 8 books.  I’ve hit a high point of  31 books twice.  Last year, I finished with 24 books finished, less than half of my goal and a somewhat surprising disappointment, since I was basically locked in the house for 9 months due to the corona virus.

Since I have nothing but time again this year, at least until the vaccine starts to make its way to the general population, I’m going to give it another go.  I’ve got plenty of new books stocked up in the Kindle app on my iPad, not to mention one or two birthday and Christmas presents, so I’ve got a good pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

  • You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2021 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2021
  • Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
  • Poetry collections do indeed count.
  • Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2021 only counts as 1 read)
  • Audiobooks also count.

My first book of the year looks like it will be the high school memoirs of the musical group Tegan & Sara, which I’d hoped to sneak in under the wire in December.  With at least another 6 months of being stuck at home, 2021 should be another good year.

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And Never Brought To Mind

The hell year that was 2020 has finally come to an end.  While the world looks forward to vaccines and a (hopeful) return to normalcy without the impacts of the corona virus, we turn our gaze back to two trips to California, one in 2017 to see Angelina compete and again in 2018 to see Danny march in the Rose Parade.  Starting in the top left and moving clockwise, we have a picture of Danny in said parade on New Year’s Day 2019, Angelina and Michael posing in front of the Central Perk window at the Warner Bros. studio, Angelina warming up before her performance in Anaheim, Danny performing at the pre-parade Band Fest showcase at Pasadena City College, the entire family (minus Danny) outside Ms. Patty’s dance studio back on the back lot at Warner Bros.  studios, and, finally, Michael, Danny, and mom at Disneyland in 2017.

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2020: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2020, a year where I should have been setting records due to the pandemic and stay at home orders, I managed to read only 23 books, a decrease of 5 books over last year.  Of those 23, 8 were non-fiction and, of the 15 novels, only 2 were tied to a TV show.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer and 15 were e-books.  I read just over 7,800 pages, my seventh highest total of all time.

For the first time in years, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I have read before. The 11 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Ken Harrelson
  • Jeff Snook
  • Liz Phair
  • Megan Abbott
  • Greer Hendricks
  • Sarah Pekkanen
  • Cameron Esposito
  • Rich Lindberg
  • Sara Schaefer
  • Alex Trebek
  • Trevor Noah

Tom Perotta, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2020.

6 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1933.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  My vacation to Hawaii in February and being off in December certainly helped pad its totals a tad bit. Continue reading →

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Tearing It Down

A few years from now, we will look back and ask ourselves exactly when did the Cubs rebuild officially begin.  Was it when Theo Epstein decided to walk away from the last year on his contract, leaving $10 million on the table?  Was it a few weeks later when fan-favorite Kyle Schwarber was non-tendered?  Or, was it yesterday, when the Cubs sent Yu Darvish, Victor Caratini, and cash to the Padres in exchange for Zach Davies, Owen Caissie, Reginald Preciado, Yeison Santana, and Ismael Mena.

Darvish, who has three years and $59 million left on the deal he signed before the 2018 season, went 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts for during the COVID-shortened season, finishing in second place in NL Cy Young Award voting.  Caratini was his personal catcher and hit .241 with 16 RBIs last year.  After struggling upon his arrival in Chicago, Darvish started to regain his form midway through 2019 and continued on into 2020, helping the Cubs win the Central Division title and return to the post-season after a one year absence.

Davies, 27, will become a free agent after the 2021 season.  He went 7-4 with a 2.73 ERA in 12 starts for the Padres in 2020.  The prospect package will not be of much help to the Cubs in the immediate future.  Caissie, an 18-year-old outfielder, was the Padres second round pick in this year’s draft.  Preciado, a 17 year old switch hitting shortstop, signed with the Padres in July of 2019 out of Panama.  The 20 year old Santana, also a shortstop, made his pro debut in 2018 in the Dominican Summer League. Outfielder Mena, 18, is a left handed hitting Dominican also signed in 2019.

Given the state of the NL Central, the Cubs may still contend for a division title next year.  Obviously, Jed Hoyer and company would prefer to retool on the fly and build up the farm system while still trying to compete.  But, this move definitely makes the Cubs weaker heading into 2021.  And, barring extensions, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, and Willson Contreras will all become free agents by the end of 2022.  It seems as though the Cubs contention window, which opened with a bang in 2015, closed with a whimper when they were swept out of the playoffs last October.  This trade did little to keep it open, but may have laid the groundwork for the next window.