Maddux, in his best years, when he won his four consecutive CYAs, threw in the high 80s / low 90s. How would that be measured on the new radar guns?
Gotta love his high school scouting report where he was already throwing "86-89 consistently with very good movement ... a quick explosive bat breaking kink." I'm sure that latter reference had something to do with the songs mentioned by our host today, right?
Here in DC we have the “Gio”: 4.2 IP and ~100 pitches with 2 runs on 5+ hits and 2+ walks - but you leave with the lead despite two runners on as your skipper goes to the pen. It’s always good for a standing O for the fans behind the Nats dugout.
Back in the 00s, Twins fans knew the "Johan" well. That's any quality start with 10+ Ks, and every run allowed is a solo home run. Sample Johan i just made up: 7.1 IP, 11 Ks, 1 BB, 2 ER (both solo home runs, maybe to Magglio Ordonez or perhaps Jason Giambi). I don't know that they/we called those "Johans" back in the day but when Santana was going right, his line was always something like that. A ton of strikeouts, and one or two solo homers allowed.
Fact, and then also, the pretty good Brewers teams about 8-10 years ago had K-Rod closing. Same damn thing. We called it "the 20 Minutes Of Terror". But the world of the one inning closer is littered a trail of high WHIPS and moderate-to-low ERAs...
Before he became more infamous for his Schilling-lite Twitter presence, Mark Mulder had this thing in Oakland in which he’d throw these wildly efficient complete games. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Mark Buerhle (sp?) had a similar rep?) Anyway, once on a “fireworks night” in Oakland, Mulder got the CG win so quickly that, literally, the sun still hadn’t set by the final pitch, so the fans had to wait around…with alcohol sales, per usual, halted after the 7th inning. Mulder’s name is always invoked when the A’s play one of those exceedingly rare 2 hour, 15 minute games or thereabouts.
When I lived in Milwaukee, I listened to Ed Farmer and Steve Stone bouncing off the albedo northwards from time to time. I became a mild-to-moderate White Sox fan. Over time, my AL fandom moved up I94 to the Twin Cities, but I still quite like the White Sox and this year am reeeeally hoping for a Milwaukee vs. Southside World Series. And I really appreciate this link! Thank you.
Just checked that box score for 4/16/05. The game Buehrle pitched wasn't even a Maddux! (The other guy only threw 90-some pitches, but also only pitched 8 innings because it was a White Sox home game).
Buehrle, to me, is a lot like Maddux but his calling card to me wasn't so much the complete game shutout with a sub-100 pitch count as it was just how fast he worked on the mound. There were no pace of play issues during his innings pitched!
I coined the term LAIM (League Average Innings Muncher) maybe 15 years ago on my extremely lightly read blog. It didn't gain much traction, but Jay Jaffe picked up on it and even used it a few times in his Baseball Prospectus comments. It still has a definition on their site glossary, but alas no articles tagged with it.
It didn't have any corresponding game-level acronym, although I would posit that a "Suppan" would be something like 6 innings, 4 runs, 2 walks, 3 K's. Not quite a Quality Start, but close enough to give your team a shot.
TOOTBLAN is news to me, and far more entertaining than my own acronym. I don't know if anyone actually tracks them, but I'm sure the Yankees were leading MLB in TOOTBLANs earlier in the year. Seems like their recent winning ways correspond with a departure from doing dumb shit on the bases.
Unpopular(?) opinion: I liked Richards precisely because he was so unremarkable. The host isn't the star of Jeopardy! - the questions and contestants (and Johnny Gilbert) are. I also had lots of trouble shaking the feeling that LeVar Burton was reading me a children's book. [I am realizing that is generational - lots of my younger colleagues adore him and are clearly very disappointed/angry he didn't get the gig.] Setting aside everything else (and there's a lot) about her, I can't see Bialik as anything but Amy Farrah Fowler.
Outside of Richards, my "boring is beautiful" pick was Bill Whitaker.
As a regular Jeopardy! watcher and aspiring contestant (Zoom test today, wish me luck), I thought Richards was good. The anger seems to be based on a mistaken impression that the guest hosts were formally auditioning and that fan opinion would be given significant weight, but I think was was projected by viewers and not based on anything the company said. I mean, nobody thought Anderson Cooper was going to leave New York and take a massive pay cut, did they?
I agree with your point about the focus of Jeopardy being the contestants and the material, which is something Alex Trebek always said. And it's worth noting that Trebek was not formed by Merv Griffin from the dust of Hollywood Boulevard. He was hired because he was a competent and experienced host of mostly forgettable game shows. Trebek became an institution by doing such a great job with Jeopardy; he was not an institution when he was hired. I'm a trivia dork and will continue to watch.
Also, I don't know a ton about the TV industry, but hosting a quiz show seems to be a particular skill, especially a fast-paced show like Jeopardy. Many of the guest hosts, nearly all of whom have spent their professional careers in front of the camera, struggled at times with the rhythm of the game. I can understand why Sony might decide, "hey, we've got a successful show with a built in audience, why not hire an experienced game show host to host this game show rather than roll the dice?"
PS I do think they were auditioning the "prime time" slot. Whether they made the right choice is left to the reader to answer in the form of a question.
I agree with you to an extent. I guess what I mean by formal audition is, "we're going to go into this blind and with no preconceptions and will hire the person who does the very best on stage no matter what." It seems to have been a mix of people who wanted the job (Richards, Burton, Bialik, Jennings, Cohen) and people who seemed unlikely to take it (Cooper, Gupta, Couric, Guthrie, Rodgers, etc.).
Completely agree with this. My wife and I already sort of informally separated the hosts into two categories: Serious Contenders and "I'm just here to have fun." Didn't see the dual host / show thing coming though.
Good luck John. Agree with the J! take. And the general perception that selection of a host was some kind of rigged reality-show competition. Also can't grok the MB and LB takes--Neither could internalize the rhythm required to pace the show.
Jeopardy probably wanted someone who would commit long term to being the host and face of the show, similar to Trebek. Someone who isn't known primarily for doing another show. Someone whose popularity will be tied to the show. Someone who also won't have a lot of leverage in contract negotiations.
Good luck! And if it helps, I will give you $5 if you make it on air and answer everything with "Why is [answer]," since the rule only stipulates it must be in the form of a question, not a sensical question!
Totally agree. I really like Mike Richards (although the latest behind-the-scenes stuff is hard to digest).
Of all the celebs, I think David Faber might’ve done the best with the rhythm of the show. I love Levar Burton, but his turn as host was very disappointing - and anyone stumping for him was watching very different episodes than what they showed in my market.
Yes. I think the last eight months have proven that hosting Jeopardy requires a certain cadence, authority, and (for want of a better word) "presence." It's a hard combo to hit, and none of them fully nailed it. But LeVar, for all his talents, was clearly not the guy.
The only host that surprised me during this carousel was Rodgers. He was a quick wit, but mellow and somewhat self deprecating. And a NoCal guy to boot! Maybe if I'd ever followed NFL it wouldn't have been news to me.
I feel the same way about Aaron Rodgers. Not sure what the "Rodgers was great!" crowd were watching. With that being said I think it's also worth noting that they film something like a week's worth of Jeopardy! episodes per day. So we were seeing most of these guest hosts after 1-2 days of filming. Alex Trebek had 35+ years to make that show his own. It's kind of crazy to expect that anyone could step in and approach his level of talent on their first day.
I thought Richards was perfectly adequate. Better than many, worse than many others. I wasn't bothered by him, so much as the idea that the whole thing was a farce from the word "Go!" Bialik would have been my personal pick. Or, my personal pick among those guest hosts who didn't already have an obvious job they weren't quitting (hello, Aaron Rodgers and Anderson Cooper).
And God forgive me, I did not like LeVar Burton. I honestly, truly wanted to. But I just didn't.
Thanks for the shoutout, Craig. I’m small-time enough that it is always exciting to see myself mentioned, but as you said, it being mentioned without my name is a sign that it’s caught on in a significant way. That’s more than I ever hoped for during the years before Baseball-Reference, when I was keeping track of ones I could find in an old notebook. Seeing Wainwright mention the feat, and in a way that implies a lot of pitchers are familiar with it, is pretty dang cool.
Maddux was my favorite pitcher as a kid. I loved the precision and craft. He'd have the front-door two-seamer to lefties that seemed to move a foot horizontally that barely nicked the inside corner.
But how can you tell in advance whether the Santana/Thomas sequel will be one of the ill-advised or one of the better than the originals? They could have decided "The first Godfather won Best Picture, maybe we shouldn't mess with it and have a sequel".
Yeah, that was my favorite typo too, but I still kinda want to see everyone who get a parking pass have to take an AB like it's the world's biggest little league.
First thing I did when I got to that one was go check the box score. "I feel like someone pitching into the 11th woulda been a bigger story..." I just checked B-R and nobody has pitched more than 9 innings in a game since 2012 when Cliff Lee did it, and nobody has pitched more than 10 in a game since 1990.
- No rain at all in NYC except at game times two days running. As if the clouds were indeed gathering for the Mets. Probably a good thing last night was rained out, since both times used every pitcher in sight. I think the Nats even used the ghost of Walter Johnson.
- Is Adam Wainwright underappreciated? He sure seems to keep going, if nothing else.
- That article on "ethnic foods" has a photo that shows the "kosher" sign but doesn't actually mention the weird little Jewish food section in markets across the nation, in both places where Jews make up a large part of the population (and usually shop in kosher stores) and places where Jews are as rare as hen's teeth. And "Jewish" food usually means matzah ball mix, a few Israeli brands of cookies, and kosher grape juice if we are lucky. It represents a very narrow definition of Jew, and when we travel and are looking for groceries, it rarely has anything we want. Not that in this day we can't find a decent selection of kosher food in most markets (or an actual kosher market where we travel). I sort of doubt that any Jews who really care about being kosher would miss these items if they vanished from the shelves. Well, except the grape juice, since it's hard to find kosher wine to use for the sacramental prayers on the sabbath.
Wainwright is karmic payback for Atlanta's trade of Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz. JD Drew was quite good in 2004, but batted .200 as the club got bounced out in the first round then left for riches elsewhere. Think that the Barves would reconsider?
Not in Georgia's suburbia. I'm sure that the kosher groceries in town have a wider selection but out here, its Manischewitz or MD - which were part of Moses' punishment as he was kept out of the holy land.
I live in an area with a decent-sized Jewish population, and yet the Passover stuff will come out based on when Passover was the previous year. (The Jewish lunar calendar aligns with our secular calendar on a 19-year cycle.)
In the Jewish calendar, every few years there is an additional month added in to re-align the lunar-based with the solar-based calendar. Sometimes this means that Passover is almost a month later than Easter, rather than being fairly close in proximity. One year I remember going in for Passover things at our local grocery store, and everything was gone, even though Passover was not for another ten days or so - the store had pulled the Passover things as soon as Easter was over.
I was in Costco the other day, looking for “Organic” foods in the fridge section. Under a huge “Kosher” sign, all I found were chicken parts, which all had the same label. It said neither “organic” or “kosher”.
I'm sure the Arizona Bowl will be OK. They can replace the Pima County sponsorship with Cyber Ninjas.
I wonder if we will see any articles about people who were at WTC on 9/11 and who didn't die. I was not in the buildings but very close at the time the planes hit. The whole thing was surreal, and the scars of the day remain with me, and it was not nearly as harrowing as for the people who had to get out of the buildings. I'd like very much to read about the effects on them 20 years later.
So I don't have that story, but a couple years back I worked with a gentleman who was at Cantor Fitzgerald then. His brother worked with another firm in the towers. Their mom died on 9/10, so neither one of them went in that day.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who, through various degrees of separation, have a story like that. One of my best friends at the time did computer instruction. He was scheduled at one of the business on the upper floors (I forget if it was Cantor or someone else) for 9/10 and 9/12.
Then there was the other side of things... the people who died on 9/11 in Manhattan, but in ways that had nothing to do with the attacks on the WTC towers. Your dad died of a heart attack on 9/11? Very sorry to hear that, but imagine telling people that. Larry David got some mileage out of this angle for Curb, I think!
Are there any baseball hats you won't wear? I tend more towards Minor League ones or baseball styled caps from places I've been. I'm wearing one from Grumpy Old Men brewing in the North Georgia mountains as I type this.
Wahoo, obviously (I do own a Cleveland Block C). I cannot ever see myself paying money for a Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, or Phillies cap, though people have given them to me before and I think I've posted selfies. I generally do not like caps with really BIG logos but there aren't any hard refusals.
Generally I prefer blue/black caps and I tend to prefer the simpler logos. Heavy rotation for me are Dodgers, Tigers, and the all-navy road Atlanta cap, each of which I've bought several versions of. I got the Padres one when they went back to brown. I have an all-green A's cap I like a great deal. I have a Columbus Clippers one but it shrunk and got mishapen so I can't wear it anymore. When I went to a Clippers game a few weeks ago they didn't have my size.
Field of Dreams came out when I was an 8-year-old Iowan who lived less than two hours from Dyersville. I loved baseball and basically only paid attention to the baseball parts (and got scared to death by the voices).
And I have never considered - not even once - that the final game of catch was touching and happy because of any other reason than his dad was dead, he missed him, and he got to see him again.
My dad is alive and well (and a subscriber here!), but it isn't hard to imagine the sadness and missing I would feel if he was gone. And I love picturing that final scene with the two of us. I am sure, that even though we haven't played catch in 25 years, our love of baseball would lead us to stand with our gloves on and bitch about the Cubs. It would be perfect.
Anyway, FoD is about grief, Iowa, and baseball to me. I love it unabashedly because it is a simple movie. It requires no psychological evaluation to love it or to hate it, but maybe one is needed for those who argue about it? :-) Looking forward to the game tonight and hope it is an entertaining spectacle.
I don't hate FOD but don't love it either - it's a little Too Serious for me - but I will admit to always being moved by Moonlight Graham (despite Burt Lancaster's enthusiastic scene-chewing) ... the moment when he gives up his dream of being a ballplayer to do the thing he was meant to do in life, at the precise moment it's needed, gets me every time. [Maybe that's my part of the Rorschach.]
Excellent point. The Moonlight Graham angle is the unassailable angle in the plot. I suppose this would be like someone hating The Big Lebowski, except for the Jackie Treehorn-through-cab driver "I hate the Eagles!" part, which can almost stand on its own as a film within a film.
Kind of a cool game. I am reminded of a 2003 “Turn Back the Clock” game at PNC Park, commemorating 100 year anniversary of the 1st World Series in Pgh. Red Sox (not the Boston Pilgrims, but close) vs. Pirates. No music! No PA, ABs announced by megaphone on top of home dugout. Both teams wore much more baggy kits. We sat in the outfield bleachers where people kept turning around to see replays on the jumbo-tron. Nothing there except 3 boxes showing balls, strikes & outs. All the flashing light signs were dark. People were there to watch a game.
While "Smooth" is ultimately an okay song, I guess, in a bland inoffensive way, it forces me to remember the "Vinny Castilla plays for the Braves in 2004/05" era and that's just nothing I want to re-live.
The international aisle part reminded me of that time the President of the United States and Trump White House administration staffer Ivanka Trump used their official positions to promote Goya products because the CEO kissed Trump’s ass a few days before, and faced no consequences for it as always, as will also probably be the case with the insurrection and his tax fraud shit, because nothing matters anymore.
Fun fact: at Kroger, Goya beans are with the other beans in canned veggie aisle, not in the international aisle. They've broken through, but La Preferida have not for some reason. Guessing it has to do with marketing pull.
Like Craig, I only sporadically watch Jeopardy these days and only caught a few of the guest hosts. I did watch Joe Buck host last night and - holy moley - he was abominable. And, I’m mostly ambivalent to his sportsball broadcasting work! He used his Randy Moss “that was a disgusting act” volume for all 22 minutes and threw in the worst Rodney Dangerfield impression in history of humanity after a correct response. It’s been more than 12 hours and I’m obviously still shaken.
The Dangerfield impression was hilariously bad and uncomfortable. Buck has been a little...abrasive...for my taste as the Jeopardy! host, however, I don't think he's been that bad. He likely wouldn't be in my bottom five. Also, I have to throw out a likely unpopular opinion: I don't share the burning hatred for Joe Buck that so many others do. In fact, I think he's one of the better national broadcasters. Now his partners Aikman and Smoltz, on the other hand, can take a hike. Smoltz ruins baseball games for me.
Craig: I have some thoughts on Field of Dreams, but I'm reluctant to post them here as it's quite wordy, and I feel like I push those boundaries too often by being long-winded.
Now that's a good idea, but the thing is, I don't necessarily disagree with the premise that it's not a great move so it would be kind of a flaccid defense and not something that I would feel is worthy of a guest post.
FoD is not a favorite of mine--far from it--and I haven't seen in it in a long time. I just don't understand the level of hate that it engenders in some circles, and I do have some thoughts about the ending that don't align with the big critics.
I've tried to keep an open mind (Did I miss something here? Is there some hateful propaganda lurking? Something evil and pernicious? No, it's just not particularly well-written) and I've read the "take downs", most of which feel as empty as the movie they're criticizing. That's not aimed at Craig, whose issues are understandable, and many of which I find myself in agreement. Though, not all.
Kinda feel that an additional qualification for a 'Maddux' should be that no pitch is thrown above 95 mph. But that's just me.
Maddux, in his best years, when he won his four consecutive CYAs, threw in the high 80s / low 90s. How would that be measured on the new radar guns?
Gotta love his high school scouting report where he was already throwing "86-89 consistently with very good movement ... a quick explosive bat breaking kink." I'm sure that latter reference had something to do with the songs mentioned by our host today, right?
https://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/671856/maddux1.jpg?_ga=2.146307703.299830381.1628770257-99144985.1628770257
Yup, Maddux had at least league average velocity in his prime. He wasn't a soft tosser until he hit his 30's.
I feel like you have to do some actual fielding. The man has 18 Gold Gloves.
Or that the umpire is giving you every pitch that's a foot off the plate.
There should be a term for an umpire with a "Maddux" strike zone.
Here in DC we have the “Gio”: 4.2 IP and ~100 pitches with 2 runs on 5+ hits and 2+ walks - but you leave with the lead despite two runners on as your skipper goes to the pen. It’s always good for a standing O for the fans behind the Nats dugout.
Would love to hear other teams’ eponyms…
Back in the 00s, Twins fans knew the "Johan" well. That's any quality start with 10+ Ks, and every run allowed is a solo home run. Sample Johan i just made up: 7.1 IP, 11 Ks, 1 BB, 2 ER (both solo home runs, maybe to Magglio Ordonez or perhaps Jason Giambi). I don't know that they/we called those "Johans" back in the day but when Santana was going right, his line was always something like that. A ton of strikeouts, and one or two solo homers allowed.
...well, this year anyway! I honestly did a double take when I checked his stats for this year. He's really pitching well, good for the Jays!
Now known as a Scherzer :)
One of these career lines is Johan, the other is Sandy Koufax:
49 WAR, 165-87 (.655 win%), 131 ERA+, 9.3 K/9, 2324 IP, 3 Cy Youngs (4x in the top-10)
52 WAR, 137-78 (.641 win%), 136 ERA+, 8.8 K/9, 2025 IP, 2 Cy Youngs (6x in the top-10)
I mean, you can probably guess which is which - but it's not obvious.
I don't know if it ever became a thing, but among my friends the "Todd Jones Special" was put 2 runners on but still get the save.
“Every Day” Eddie Guardado was famous fir doing the same thing fir the Twins.
Fact, and then also, the pretty good Brewers teams about 8-10 years ago had K-Rod closing. Same damn thing. We called it "the 20 Minutes Of Terror". But the world of the one inning closer is littered a trail of high WHIPS and moderate-to-low ERAs...
"Torture" was the catchphrase for the 2010 Giants, largely (but not entirely) due to Brian Wilson as the (overall very effective, but ...) closer.
I have a cousin named Todd Jones. He's nothing special.
Before he became more infamous for his Schilling-lite Twitter presence, Mark Mulder had this thing in Oakland in which he’d throw these wildly efficient complete games. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Mark Buerhle (sp?) had a similar rep?) Anyway, once on a “fireworks night” in Oakland, Mulder got the CG win so quickly that, literally, the sun still hadn’t set by the final pitch, so the fans had to wait around…with alcohol sales, per usual, halted after the 7th inning. Mulder’s name is always invoked when the A’s play one of those exceedingly rare 2 hour, 15 minute games or thereabouts.
Just made the mistake of checking Mulder's twitter account. That's a yikes.
Last year, early in the pandemic, he tweeted out something to the effect of, “Does anyone actually KNOW anyone with COVID?” And, so forth…
I didn't know that about Mulder - what a loon.
Man, Michigan State really seems to crank out the Covidiots, with guys like Mulder and Kirk Cousins.
And also Tom Rizzo, who gave us his son and vaccine skeptic Anthony
Chi Sox fan here, and yeah, Buehrle was the king of those super-efficient complete games. He once pitched a complete game shutout that was over and done in one hour and thirty-nine minutes! https://theathletic.com/2333588/2021/01/20/chicago-white-sox-mark-buehrle-hall-of-fame/
When I lived in Milwaukee, I listened to Ed Farmer and Steve Stone bouncing off the albedo northwards from time to time. I became a mild-to-moderate White Sox fan. Over time, my AL fandom moved up I94 to the Twin Cities, but I still quite like the White Sox and this year am reeeeally hoping for a Milwaukee vs. Southside World Series. And I really appreciate this link! Thank you.
Buehrle vs Verlander was a good matchup, the game would be over in 2 hours, tops.
Just checked that box score for 4/16/05. The game Buehrle pitched wasn't even a Maddux! (The other guy only threw 90-some pitches, but also only pitched 8 innings because it was a White Sox home game).
Buehrle, to me, is a lot like Maddux but his calling card to me wasn't so much the complete game shutout with a sub-100 pitch count as it was just how fast he worked on the mound. There were no pace of play issues during his innings pitched!
Definitely - he was the king of setting and immediately getting ready to go into his windup as soon as he caught the ball from the catcher.
I coined the term LAIM (League Average Innings Muncher) maybe 15 years ago on my extremely lightly read blog. It didn't gain much traction, but Jay Jaffe picked up on it and even used it a few times in his Baseball Prospectus comments. It still has a definition on their site glossary, but alas no articles tagged with it.
It didn't have any corresponding game-level acronym, although I would posit that a "Suppan" would be something like 6 innings, 4 runs, 2 walks, 3 K's. Not quite a Quality Start, but close enough to give your team a shot.
LAIM is fantastic, and this is the first time I've heard it. It's right up there with TOOTBLAN for me now.
TOOTBLAN is news to me, and far more entertaining than my own acronym. I don't know if anyone actually tracks them, but I'm sure the Yankees were leading MLB in TOOTBLANs earlier in the year. Seems like their recent winning ways correspond with a departure from doing dumb shit on the bases.
One assumes Mike Richards is also much cheaper to hire as Jeopardy host than some well known star, which could have been a factor as well.
As a good friend of mine likes to say "It starts with a business decision". "It" being damn near if not everything.
Unpopular(?) opinion: I liked Richards precisely because he was so unremarkable. The host isn't the star of Jeopardy! - the questions and contestants (and Johnny Gilbert) are. I also had lots of trouble shaking the feeling that LeVar Burton was reading me a children's book. [I am realizing that is generational - lots of my younger colleagues adore him and are clearly very disappointed/angry he didn't get the gig.] Setting aside everything else (and there's a lot) about her, I can't see Bialik as anything but Amy Farrah Fowler.
Outside of Richards, my "boring is beautiful" pick was Bill Whitaker.
As a regular Jeopardy! watcher and aspiring contestant (Zoom test today, wish me luck), I thought Richards was good. The anger seems to be based on a mistaken impression that the guest hosts were formally auditioning and that fan opinion would be given significant weight, but I think was was projected by viewers and not based on anything the company said. I mean, nobody thought Anderson Cooper was going to leave New York and take a massive pay cut, did they?
I agree with your point about the focus of Jeopardy being the contestants and the material, which is something Alex Trebek always said. And it's worth noting that Trebek was not formed by Merv Griffin from the dust of Hollywood Boulevard. He was hired because he was a competent and experienced host of mostly forgettable game shows. Trebek became an institution by doing such a great job with Jeopardy; he was not an institution when he was hired. I'm a trivia dork and will continue to watch.
Also, I don't know a ton about the TV industry, but hosting a quiz show seems to be a particular skill, especially a fast-paced show like Jeopardy. Many of the guest hosts, nearly all of whom have spent their professional careers in front of the camera, struggled at times with the rhythm of the game. I can understand why Sony might decide, "hey, we've got a successful show with a built in audience, why not hire an experienced game show host to host this game show rather than roll the dice?"
What is "good luck today, John M?"
PS I do think they were auditioning the "prime time" slot. Whether they made the right choice is left to the reader to answer in the form of a question.
I agree with you to an extent. I guess what I mean by formal audition is, "we're going to go into this blind and with no preconceptions and will hire the person who does the very best on stage no matter what." It seems to have been a mix of people who wanted the job (Richards, Burton, Bialik, Jennings, Cohen) and people who seemed unlikely to take it (Cooper, Gupta, Couric, Guthrie, Rodgers, etc.).
Completely agree with this. My wife and I already sort of informally separated the hosts into two categories: Serious Contenders and "I'm just here to have fun." Didn't see the dual host / show thing coming though.
Good luck John. Agree with the J! take. And the general perception that selection of a host was some kind of rigged reality-show competition. Also can't grok the MB and LB takes--Neither could internalize the rhythm required to pace the show.
Good luck on the test tonight!
Jeopardy probably wanted someone who would commit long term to being the host and face of the show, similar to Trebek. Someone who isn't known primarily for doing another show. Someone whose popularity will be tied to the show. Someone who also won't have a lot of leverage in contract negotiations.
They made this known at the beginning of the search. As such, people like Anderson Cooper were never truly in the running for the main gig.
Good luck today!
Good luck! And if it helps, I will give you $5 if you make it on air and answer everything with "Why is [answer]," since the rule only stipulates it must be in the form of a question, not a sensical question!
Totally agree. I really like Mike Richards (although the latest behind-the-scenes stuff is hard to digest).
Of all the celebs, I think David Faber might’ve done the best with the rhythm of the show. I love Levar Burton, but his turn as host was very disappointing - and anyone stumping for him was watching very different episodes than what they showed in my market.
Yes. I think the last eight months have proven that hosting Jeopardy requires a certain cadence, authority, and (for want of a better word) "presence." It's a hard combo to hit, and none of them fully nailed it. But LeVar, for all his talents, was clearly not the guy.
The only host that surprised me during this carousel was Rodgers. He was a quick wit, but mellow and somewhat self deprecating. And a NoCal guy to boot! Maybe if I'd ever followed NFL it wouldn't have been news to me.
I feel the same way about Aaron Rodgers. Not sure what the "Rodgers was great!" crowd were watching. With that being said I think it's also worth noting that they film something like a week's worth of Jeopardy! episodes per day. So we were seeing most of these guest hosts after 1-2 days of filming. Alex Trebek had 35+ years to make that show his own. It's kind of crazy to expect that anyone could step in and approach his level of talent on their first day.
I thought Richards was perfectly adequate. Better than many, worse than many others. I wasn't bothered by him, so much as the idea that the whole thing was a farce from the word "Go!" Bialik would have been my personal pick. Or, my personal pick among those guest hosts who didn't already have an obvious job they weren't quitting (hello, Aaron Rodgers and Anderson Cooper).
And God forgive me, I did not like LeVar Burton. I honestly, truly wanted to. But I just didn't.
I'm just amazed at all the fuss being made over the "Who Will Be The Next Host?" thing. WHY IS THIS FRONT-PAGE NEWS?
Thanks for the shoutout, Craig. I’m small-time enough that it is always exciting to see myself mentioned, but as you said, it being mentioned without my name is a sign that it’s caught on in a significant way. That’s more than I ever hoped for during the years before Baseball-Reference, when I was keeping track of ones I could find in an old notebook. Seeing Wainwright mention the feat, and in a way that implies a lot of pitchers are familiar with it, is pretty dang cool.
Maddux was my favorite pitcher as a kid. I loved the precision and craft. He'd have the front-door two-seamer to lefties that seemed to move a foot horizontally that barely nicked the inside corner.
But how can you tell in advance whether the Santana/Thomas sequel will be one of the ill-advised or one of the better than the originals? They could have decided "The first Godfather won Best Picture, maybe we shouldn't mess with it and have a sequel".
I'll bet a cup of coffee on it.
Not to harp on a typo, but repairing a rift between a father and a sun sounds pretty fascinating. And Craig said he wasn't a sci-fi writer!
Yeah, that was my favorite typo too, but I still kinda want to see everyone who get a parking pass have to take an AB like it's the world's biggest little league.
Whereas my typo is not nearly that much fun
After another round of COVID positives on the Yankees, fans will end up playing for parking. Like the emergency goalies in the NHL.
I was partial to the Blue Jays starter pitching into the 11th inning. Did the Jays hit all those HRs in the top of the 11th?
First thing I did when I got to that one was go check the box score. "I feel like someone pitching into the 11th woulda been a bigger story..." I just checked B-R and nobody has pitched more than 9 innings in a game since 2012 when Cliff Lee did it, and nobody has pitched more than 10 in a game since 1990.
"Alpha Centauri, I am your father!"
I don’t think it’s an official “Maddux” if the less-than-100 pitch shutout is accomplished against the Pirates, Orioles or D-Backs this year.
Let’s add the post trade deadline Cubs and Nats. Good thing the Nats had an estate sale. There was no way the Mets were going to return to ash.
“Estate Sale”, I like it. But, Nutting’s alive & well here in Pgh.
And the Proto-Guardians.
Or Mariners, or Cleveland “professional” baseball team.
You mean the Proto-Guardians?
The Gestating Guardians
- No rain at all in NYC except at game times two days running. As if the clouds were indeed gathering for the Mets. Probably a good thing last night was rained out, since both times used every pitcher in sight. I think the Nats even used the ghost of Walter Johnson.
- Is Adam Wainwright underappreciated? He sure seems to keep going, if nothing else.
- That article on "ethnic foods" has a photo that shows the "kosher" sign but doesn't actually mention the weird little Jewish food section in markets across the nation, in both places where Jews make up a large part of the population (and usually shop in kosher stores) and places where Jews are as rare as hen's teeth. And "Jewish" food usually means matzah ball mix, a few Israeli brands of cookies, and kosher grape juice if we are lucky. It represents a very narrow definition of Jew, and when we travel and are looking for groceries, it rarely has anything we want. Not that in this day we can't find a decent selection of kosher food in most markets (or an actual kosher market where we travel). I sort of doubt that any Jews who really care about being kosher would miss these items if they vanished from the shelves. Well, except the grape juice, since it's hard to find kosher wine to use for the sacramental prayers on the sabbath.
Wainwright is karmic payback for Atlanta's trade of Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz. JD Drew was quite good in 2004, but batted .200 as the club got bounced out in the first round then left for riches elsewhere. Think that the Barves would reconsider?
If (((we))) really are g-d's chosen people, then why has he inflicted Mogen David wine upon us?
I haven't seen that brand of wine in ages. I suspect my local liquor store has it, but kosher wine has evolved far past that.
Not in Georgia's suburbia. I'm sure that the kosher groceries in town have a wider selection but out here, its Manischewitz or MD - which were part of Moses' punishment as he was kept out of the holy land.
I live in an area with a decent-sized Jewish population, and yet the Passover stuff will come out based on when Passover was the previous year. (The Jewish lunar calendar aligns with our secular calendar on a 19-year cycle.)
In the Jewish calendar, every few years there is an additional month added in to re-align the lunar-based with the solar-based calendar. Sometimes this means that Passover is almost a month later than Easter, rather than being fairly close in proximity. One year I remember going in for Passover things at our local grocery store, and everything was gone, even though Passover was not for another ten days or so - the store had pulled the Passover things as soon as Easter was over.
Reins?
Yep. Welcome to CT!
I was in Costco the other day, looking for “Organic” foods in the fridge section. Under a huge “Kosher” sign, all I found were chicken parts, which all had the same label. It said neither “organic” or “kosher”.
I'm sure the Arizona Bowl will be OK. They can replace the Pima County sponsorship with Cyber Ninjas.
I wonder if we will see any articles about people who were at WTC on 9/11 and who didn't die. I was not in the buildings but very close at the time the planes hit. The whole thing was surreal, and the scars of the day remain with me, and it was not nearly as harrowing as for the people who had to get out of the buildings. I'd like very much to read about the effects on them 20 years later.
So I don't have that story, but a couple years back I worked with a gentleman who was at Cantor Fitzgerald then. His brother worked with another firm in the towers. Their mom died on 9/10, so neither one of them went in that day.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who, through various degrees of separation, have a story like that. One of my best friends at the time did computer instruction. He was scheduled at one of the business on the upper floors (I forget if it was Cantor or someone else) for 9/10 and 9/12.
Then there was the other side of things... the people who died on 9/11 in Manhattan, but in ways that had nothing to do with the attacks on the WTC towers. Your dad died of a heart attack on 9/11? Very sorry to hear that, but imagine telling people that. Larry David got some mileage out of this angle for Curb, I think!
Are there any baseball hats you won't wear? I tend more towards Minor League ones or baseball styled caps from places I've been. I'm wearing one from Grumpy Old Men brewing in the North Georgia mountains as I type this.
Wahoo, obviously (I do own a Cleveland Block C). I cannot ever see myself paying money for a Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, or Phillies cap, though people have given them to me before and I think I've posted selfies. I generally do not like caps with really BIG logos but there aren't any hard refusals.
Generally I prefer blue/black caps and I tend to prefer the simpler logos. Heavy rotation for me are Dodgers, Tigers, and the all-navy road Atlanta cap, each of which I've bought several versions of. I got the Padres one when they went back to brown. I have an all-green A's cap I like a great deal. I have a Columbus Clippers one but it shrunk and got mishapen so I can't wear it anymore. When I went to a Clippers game a few weeks ago they didn't have my size.
Cool, cool. If ya got a SF Giants cap though, please keep it off your melon til Thanksgiving.
I won't wear the free ones they give out on Cap Day that have a sponsor's logo (like Dairy Queen) across the side.
I would be stunned if I saw Craig in a Phillies hat.
Field of Dreams came out when I was an 8-year-old Iowan who lived less than two hours from Dyersville. I loved baseball and basically only paid attention to the baseball parts (and got scared to death by the voices).
And I have never considered - not even once - that the final game of catch was touching and happy because of any other reason than his dad was dead, he missed him, and he got to see him again.
My dad is alive and well (and a subscriber here!), but it isn't hard to imagine the sadness and missing I would feel if he was gone. And I love picturing that final scene with the two of us. I am sure, that even though we haven't played catch in 25 years, our love of baseball would lead us to stand with our gloves on and bitch about the Cubs. It would be perfect.
Anyway, FoD is about grief, Iowa, and baseball to me. I love it unabashedly because it is a simple movie. It requires no psychological evaluation to love it or to hate it, but maybe one is needed for those who argue about it? :-) Looking forward to the game tonight and hope it is an entertaining spectacle.
I don't hate FOD but don't love it either - it's a little Too Serious for me - but I will admit to always being moved by Moonlight Graham (despite Burt Lancaster's enthusiastic scene-chewing) ... the moment when he gives up his dream of being a ballplayer to do the thing he was meant to do in life, at the precise moment it's needed, gets me every time. [Maybe that's my part of the Rorschach.]
Excellent point. The Moonlight Graham angle is the unassailable angle in the plot. I suppose this would be like someone hating The Big Lebowski, except for the Jackie Treehorn-through-cab driver "I hate the Eagles!" part, which can almost stand on its own as a film within a film.
I’m confused, are we to praise goofy, lawyer-manager, Tony LaRussa, for skipping the FoD game, or do we still loathe him? Craig?
I'd say praise. He's going to a family funeral.
Kind of a cool game. I am reminded of a 2003 “Turn Back the Clock” game at PNC Park, commemorating 100 year anniversary of the 1st World Series in Pgh. Red Sox (not the Boston Pilgrims, but close) vs. Pirates. No music! No PA, ABs announced by megaphone on top of home dugout. Both teams wore much more baggy kits. We sat in the outfield bleachers where people kept turning around to see replays on the jumbo-tron. Nothing there except 3 boxes showing balls, strikes & outs. All the flashing light signs were dark. People were there to watch a game.
While "Smooth" is ultimately an okay song, I guess, in a bland inoffensive way, it forces me to remember the "Vinny Castilla plays for the Braves in 2004/05" era and that's just nothing I want to re-live.
The international aisle part reminded me of that time the President of the United States and Trump White House administration staffer Ivanka Trump used their official positions to promote Goya products because the CEO kissed Trump’s ass a few days before, and faced no consequences for it as always, as will also probably be the case with the insurrection and his tax fraud shit, because nothing matters anymore.
I have a freebie Mets t-shirt with a Goya logo on the back. Odds are I will never wear it.
For awhile, every time I went by the Goya section of our local grocery the labels were turned away or upside down. They were also usually unsold.
I got a free Mets t-shirt with Goya logos on the sleeves
Fun fact: at Kroger, Goya beans are with the other beans in canned veggie aisle, not in the international aisle. They've broken through, but La Preferida have not for some reason. Guessing it has to do with marketing pull.
Like Craig, I only sporadically watch Jeopardy these days and only caught a few of the guest hosts. I did watch Joe Buck host last night and - holy moley - he was abominable. And, I’m mostly ambivalent to his sportsball broadcasting work! He used his Randy Moss “that was a disgusting act” volume for all 22 minutes and threw in the worst Rodney Dangerfield impression in history of humanity after a correct response. It’s been more than 12 hours and I’m obviously still shaken.
I'm so sorry you had to go through that, my sympathies.
The Dangerfield impression was hilariously bad and uncomfortable. Buck has been a little...abrasive...for my taste as the Jeopardy! host, however, I don't think he's been that bad. He likely wouldn't be in my bottom five. Also, I have to throw out a likely unpopular opinion: I don't share the burning hatred for Joe Buck that so many others do. In fact, I think he's one of the better national broadcasters. Now his partners Aikman and Smoltz, on the other hand, can take a hike. Smoltz ruins baseball games for me.
Craig: I have some thoughts on Field of Dreams, but I'm reluctant to post them here as it's quite wordy, and I feel like I push those boundaries too often by being long-winded.
Guest post?
Now that's a good idea, but the thing is, I don't necessarily disagree with the premise that it's not a great move so it would be kind of a flaccid defense and not something that I would feel is worthy of a guest post.
FoD is not a favorite of mine--far from it--and I haven't seen in it in a long time. I just don't understand the level of hate that it engenders in some circles, and I do have some thoughts about the ending that don't align with the big critics.
I've tried to keep an open mind (Did I miss something here? Is there some hateful propaganda lurking? Something evil and pernicious? No, it's just not particularly well-written) and I've read the "take downs", most of which feel as empty as the movie they're criticizing. That's not aimed at Craig, whose issues are understandable, and many of which I find myself in agreement. Though, not all.
Great. Now I'm going to be listening to The Kinks all day.
And how is that a problem?
Nothing a little copy-editing won't fix.
Great! Now I'm going to be listening to the Kinks all day!
Punctuation lives matter.
“Works on contingency? No! Money down.”