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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #11-20

3 years ago, we first counted down the then Top 100 artists in my iTunes library.  Since that time, I’ve successfully managed to migrate my music collection to a new PC with the stats intact.  So, I figured it was time to take another look, expanding out the field to the top 200 artists, based on number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2017.

In our penultimate trip through the chart, we crack the top 20 and hit some of the more popular bands and musicians on my phone..

#20: Nirvana
iTunes stats: 211 plays
Previous ranking: #20

97 new listens to the same 19 songs from the grunge masters enable them to stay even at #20.

#19: Bon Jovi
iTunes stats: 214 plays
Previous ranking: #21

The boys from New Jersey have racked up 101 new listens, including 5 new songs, to raise 2 slots in the rankings.

#18: Eminem
iTunes stats: 215 plays
Previous ranking: #14

The same 16 tunes provided only 79 new listens, causing the Detroit rapper to fall 4 slots from 3 years ago.

#17: Elvis Presley
iTunes stats: 226 plays
Previous ranking: #27

One additional song, plus a trip to Graceland, helped the King of Rock & Roll more than double his total from 3 years ago and leap 10 spots in the rankings.

#16: Poison
iTunes stats: 243 plays
Previous ranking: #13

30 tracks, 2 more than 3 years ago, accounted for their 99 additional listens, causing the quintessential glam rock band to drop 3 slots.

#15: Def Leppard
iTunes stats: 255 plays
Previous ranking: #15

The troubled band from Sheffield used 36 songs to increase their total by 122, enabling them to retain their ranking from 3 years ago.

#14: The Lonely Island
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Book 13 (of 52) – Bum Rap

Bum Rap – Paul Levine

After the last book I read left a bad taste in my mouth, I turned to an unknown quantity that had been sitting on the Kindle for some time.  In this novel, Paul Levine crosses over two of his series, one with former NFL player-turned-lawyer Jake Lassiter and oil-and-water law (and bedroom) partners Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, for one story where Lassiter and Lord team up to get Solomon out of jail.

I have had no prior experience with Levine’s work or either of these two series, so I can’t really speak as to how well he merged his two worlds.  I can say that it was an easy read, if not the best book I’ve read.  If I happen to come across another of his works for the right price, I wouldn’t mind revisiting either of their worlds.

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#25 – Wilson Alvarez

Name: Wilson Alvarez

Rank: 25

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 1991-1997

Five days after making his major league debut for the Rangers, Wilson Alvarez was acquired by the White Sox, along with Scott Fletcher and Sammy Sosa, for Harold Baines and Fred Manrique on July 29, 1989.  After spending the next 2 calendar years in the minor leagues, Alvarez returned to the big leagues and made his White Sox debut on August 11, 1991, throwing an unlikely no hitter against the Orioles at Memorial Stadium.  With nowhere to go but down from there, he made 8 additional starts for the White Sox down the stretch, finishing the year with a 3-2 record and a respectable 3.51 ERA.

After tossing nearly 300 innings the previous year between winter league, Triple A, and the big leagues, 1992 saw Alvarez work mostly out of the bullpen, getting only 9 starts out of his 34 appearances.  He posted a career high 1.674 WHIP, giving up 65 walks in just over 100 innings.  This led to an unfortunate 5.20 ERA, despite a 5-3 record.

In 1993, Alvarez managed to break in to the rotation full time.  Despite leading the league with 122 walks, he finished second in the AL with an ERA of 2.95 and ended up with a 15-8 record as the White Sox won the AL West title for the first time in a decade.  He was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the ALCS, holding the Blue Jays to a single run while throwing a complete game.

Alvarez improved in 1994, earning his first (and only) All Star nod and cutting his walk total nearly in half.  Part of that, of course, was due to the player strike that ended the season in August, and he finished the year with a 12-8 record and a 3.45 ERA.  When baseball returned in 1995, Alvarez struggled to regain his groove, finishing with a losing record for the first time and an ERA of 4.32.

1996 saw a nice bounce back for Alvarez.  While his ERA was still an elevated 4.22, he tied his career high with 15 wins and set career highs for innings pitched and strikeouts.  He continued to impress in 1997, putting up a 9-8 record with a 3.03 ERA by the end of July, when, with the White Sox a mere 3 games back in the standings, he, along with Danny Darwin and Roberto Hernandez, was sent to the Giants for Brian Manning, Lorenzo Barceló, Mike Caruso, Keith Foulke, Bob Howry, and Ken Vining in what would become known as the White Flag Trade.

Alvarez’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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He Gone

On Wednesday, the White Sox announced that broadcaster Ken Harrelson, who cut back to working road trips only in 2016, would return in 2018 for a final season, with a schedule of primarily Sunday home games.  Jason Benetti, who had been working home games for the last year and a half, signed a multi-year extension to become the full time play by play voice for the team.

Harrelson, who first joined the White Sox booth in 1982, has had numerous health problems in recent years, including vision problems that caused him to miss time in 2015.  Those problems have caused the occasional gaffe, as he mostly relies on a monitor to see the action on the field.  While I’m glad he gets to leave on his own terms, it is clear that the time to pass the torch is here.  Benetti, who grew up a White Sox fan, has proven to be a worthy successor.

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Fitbit III: Week 17

Another week back over 50,000 steps and another week with all 7 days above goal, running my total to 17.  Things got off to a decent start on Sunday, thanks to trips to 2 grocery stores.  The work week started with 3 days of training, which had me working from home, which is normally a problem.  Good weather on Monday let me take an after work walk which led to the highest day of the week.  Tuesday and Wednesday both suffered from rain, so they did not get as high.  Thursday was back in the office, and I somehow managed to surpass 8000 steps.  Friday was the kickoff to the long weekend, and I managed to just surpass my daily goal.  Saturday had a double header at Guaranteed Rate Field, where I was able to cross the 7000 step plateau while taking in the split between the White Sox and the Tigers.

Total steps: 51,919

Daily average: 7417

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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #21-30

3 years ago, we first counted down the then Top 100 artists in my iTunes library.  Since that time, I’ve successfully managed to migrate my music collection to a new PC with the stats intact.  So, I figured it was time to take another look, expanding out the field to the top 200 artists, based on number of plays from late 2007 through January 1, 2017.

We continue today with the 10 performers who have combined for 1816 listens over the past 10 years.

#30: Klaus Badelt
iTunes stats: 161 plays
Previous ranking: #16

The composer dropped 14 spots in the rankings due to the White Sox no longer using his theme from Pirates of the Caribbean as part of their pre-game routine.

#29: Steam
iTunes stats: 164 plays
Previous ranking: #24

Another casualty of the White Sox victory playlist getting fewer plays over the last few years, Steam drops 5 spots in the rankings due to only 54 additional plays.

#28: Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers
iTunes stats: 173 plays
Previous ranking: #19

The novelty band responsible for the White Sox rally song from 1959 added 55 listens in the past 3 years, causing them to drop 9 spots in the rankings.

#27: Green Day
iTunes stats: 174 plays
Previous ranking: #30

The west coast punk rockers added 77 listens from their 18 songs to jump 3 spots in the rankings.

#26: Veruca Salt
iTunes stats: 175 plays
Previous ranking: #18

The girls from Chicago used 13 songs to increase their plays by 51, causing them to drop 8 spots.

#24: Stone Temple Pilots
iTunes stats: 182 plays
Previous ranking: #35

A 10 spot jump in the rankings, thanks to 100 new listens spurred on partially due to the death of singer Scott Weiland in December of 2015.

#24: Liz Phair
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#26 – Ray Durham

Name: Ray Durham

Rank: 26

Position: 2B

Years With White Sox: 1995-2002

Selected in the fifth round of the 1990 draft, Ray Durham broke camp with the White Sox in 1995 and made his major league debut on Opening Day, leading off and going 1-4 in the 12-3 loss to the Brewers at County Stadium.  Durham stuck in the leadoff spot and finished the year with a .257 average, 7 home runs, and 51 RBI, good enough for a 6th place finish in Rookie of the Year voting.

Durham saw improvement in 1996, raising his average to .275 and his OBP to .350.  His home run and RBI totals also jumped, going to 10 and 65 respectively.  1997 was another good year for Durham, as he hit .271 with 11 home runs.

In 1998, Durham earned his first All Star nod and finished the year setting career highs with a .285 average, 19 home runs, 67 RBIs, and 36 stolen bases.  Durham improved his average again in 1999, raising it to .296, his career best.  It was also his second of seven straight years with an OPS over .800.

Durham nabbed his second All Star selection in 2000.  When the season came to an end, Durham had a .280 average with 17 home runs and 75 RBIs and the White Sox were atop the AL Central for the first time.  Like the rest of his teammates, Durham struggled during the ALDS, hitting .200 in the three game sweep against the Mariners.

2001 saw Durham’s average drop to .267, his lowest total since his rookie year.  He did manage to set a new career high with 20 home runs as the White Sox failed to repeat.  Durham was hitting .299 with 9 home runs at the trade deadline in 2002 when, facing free agency, he was shipped to the A’s for Jon Adkins.  At the time of the trade, Durham was the club’s all-time leader in leadoff home runs, while placing in the top 10 in franchise history in steals (5th), doubles (7th), extra base hits (7th), and runs (8th).

Durham’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Book 12 (of 52) – Tender Wings Of Desire

Tender Wings Of Desire – Harland Sanders

If you are a multi-national fast food chicken restaurant, how do you promote yourself for Mother’s Day?  Well, if you are KFC, you publish a novella where your founder, Colonel Sanders, falls in love in England during the 1800s.  Attributed to Harland Sanders, who died in 1980, this tale is an insult to all who read it.  If their food doesn’t turn you off, reading this dreck surely will.

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Book 11 (of 52) – The Fireman

The Fireman – Joe Hill

Back in the year 2013, I first stumbled across the work of Joe Hill.  At the time, I said “I’m looking forward to reading more of his work.”  4 years later, I finally got around to it.  The Fireman, his fourth novel, tells the tale of a post-apocalyptic America, where a spore has infected the population, causing them to burst into flames.  A group of survivors, who have learned how to control and live with the infection, bands together and tries to survive something worse than the spore: humanity itself.

If I had one complaint about The Fireman, it would be that it is loooong.  There’s nothing in particular that screams out as a candidate for being cut out, but the length did make it seem like the book was dragging.  Besides that, I didn’t notice the same quirks that made Horns such a struggle to get through and found it to be an easy and engaging read.  It just kept going and going.

I still have Hill’s other 2 novels waiting on the Kindle app.  I’m pretty sure that it won’t take me another 4 years to get back to them.