Sean's Best & Worst of 2015

Many television shows, magazines, websites and newspapers have best and worst of 2015 lists. Well, I do too, and while mine is probably not nearly as good as their lists, I think that my list is more entertaining.

Best TV Show of 2015: Fargo

Game of Thrones is always amazing, and while I don't see every episode, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is both educational and extremely entertaining. I also always enjoy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. However, my favorite show this past year was Fargo. Although season one was in 2014, I didn't actually watch it until late 2015. And I couldn't stop watching it. Billy Bob Thornton was incredible in such a fascinating character, and the rest of the cast was amazing. I've recorded all of season two and am finally going to start watching it any day now.

Worst TV Show of 2015: The Mysteries of Laura

I've never actually seen this show, but the fact that it wasn't cancelled cost me The Ted Marshall Open TV Death Pool championship for the 2014-2015 season. I seriously have no idea how this show got renewed and is still on the air.

Best Song of 2015...

My rule is that the best song must be from a video that I posted on my blog in 2015. Your nominees are:

Renegades by X Ambassadors
Ex's and Oh's by Elle King
Uma Thurman by Fall Out Boy
Beggin for Thread by Banks
Kathleen by Catfish and the Bottlemen

And the winner is: Kathleen!



Worst Song of 2015: Dooo It! by Miley Cyrus

The Video is NSFW due to language...and for it being a terrible song and terrible video.



Best Movie I Saw In The Theater: Trainwreck

I saw two whole movies in the theater in 2015. That's double what I saw in 2014! Trainwreck was much funnier than I expected. Surprisingly enjoyable appearances by John Cena and LeBron James. Oh, you may have heard that Amy Schumer was in it too.

Worst Movie I Saw in The Theater: The Martian

Okay, so The Martian was better than Trainwreck, but it was a weird experience for me. I finished the book only a few days before I saw the film, so I compared the two constantly. While I won't give away much, there was a part in the movie where Matt Damon drives thousands of miles across Mars. In the book, this was quite an eventful trip. In the movie, driving across Mars was as difficult as driving from New York to Chicago on the interstate in perfect weather. I was also frustrated by the ending. It's really my fault though. I should have known better than to finish the book and see the movie so close together.

Best Book I Read in 2015: My Sunshine Away: a novel by M.O. Walsh

Here's the description: A man reflects on the summer of his fourteenth year, where in Baton Rouge he fell in love with a golden-haired girl across the street before an unspeakable crime shattered illusions in his seemingly idyllic neighborhood.

My Sunshine Away is a coming of age book, but quite dark because of the crime that I guess I can't speak about. The book was very well written and the neighborhood certainly had some fascinating characters. I highly recommend it.

Honorable mentions: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng and The Martian: a novel by Andy Weir.

Worst Book I Read in 2015: Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books all of time, so I felt like I had to read this book. It actually felt like a homework assignment reading the "new" Harper Lee book at times. There were parts that were really good. Lee also gave what appeared to be an accurate description of what it was like to live in the South during a specific time period. However, Atticus Finch, though fictional, is supposed to be perfect (at least in my mind) and some of his views in Go Set a Watchman don't mesh with how most people in the real world view him.

Best Sports Moment: Max Scherzer's No Hitter

I didn't like the fact that this occurred against the Pirates, but seeing a no-hitter live and at my son's first baseball game was priceless.

Worst Sports Moment of 2015: The Pirates Losing the Wild Card Game

The Pirates had the second best record in all of baseball and were rewarded by getting to host the NL Cy Young Award Winner. Naturally, Arrieta dominated. Here's what ESPN's Jayson Stark wrote about Arrieta:

1) Over his last 18 starts of the season, the Cubs went 17-1 -- and in the only loss, they got no-hit (of course they did) by Cole Hamels. (2) Over his last 20 starts, he hit as many homers as he allowed (two). And (3) if you'd started your clicker on Aug. 1, you'd have counted 269 pitchers who allowed at least four earned runs in an inning. And while all that was going on, Arrieta was also allowing four earned runs -- in two months.

Stupid Cubs. Stupid Arrieta.

Best Blog Post: (Tie) My Summer of Sean series & a special TMI Thursday

The Summer of Sean series chronicled part of my incredible summer of 2000. Unfortunately, I only wrote a few posts. When I have free time, maybe I'll continue this series. I also shared what really happens in my bedroom on nearly a nightly basis.

Worst Blog Post: My Interview With Dr. Christopher Geary About Big Ben's Injury

Based on his position as an Orthopedic Surgeon and Chief of Sports Medicine at Tufts University Medical Center, you would think that Dr. Geary would be better than sharing wild Tweets. He also didn't give much in my interview with him or come close to apologizing for declaring that Big Ben was out for the season.

I hope that you had a great 2015 and a better 2016!

Interview With Dr. Christopher Geary About Big Ben's Injury

Mark Barron of the St. Louis Rams sacked Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on Sunday afternoon causing Big Ben to go down and Steeler Nation to go into complete panic mode. Around the time that Roethlisberger was carted off the field, I saw this tweet from Dr. Christopher Geary, Orthopedic Surgeon and Chief of Sports Medicine at Tufts University Medical Center.

While Roethlisberger has an MCL injury to his left knee, multiple reports suggest that the franchise QB will miss approximately 6 weeks, a big difference than being out for the season. Therefore, I reached out to Dr. Geary for his thoughts on the initial tweet and the Big Ben's current diagnosis.

Please tell me and my readers about yourself. How did you get into medicine and decide on your specialty?

I kind of always figured I would go into orthopedics and I really enjoyed it in medical school. And I had played sports my whole life (including playing rugby right through medical school), so sports medicine was a natural choice for me.

You made some waves on Twitter on Sunday by writing that Ben Roethlisberger's season was over. How did you come to this assessment?

Is it difficult to make a medical diagnosis by seeing an injury on television?

At Monday's press conference, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said that there is no timetable for Big Ben's return; however, many sources estimate that he will miss 4-6 weeks. Any new thoughts about this based on your initial tweet? (Sean's note: I combined all of these questions together since Dr. Geary provided this response to all three questions at once.)

As an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and also a huge sports fan (mostly Boston, obviously), I watch games for enjoyment but I can't help but be on the lookout for injuries as they happen. Making diagnoses based on what you see on TV is fraught with difficulty - I was actually watching the replays of Roethlisberger's injury on an 8-inch screen while riding an exercise bike at a hotel gym - but you can usually get something of an idea based on the mechanism of injury and the player/trainers reactions.

My initial tweet about his injury was to Scott Zolak, and I actually referenced a bad MCL injury as my first thought but obviously my subsequent tweets got more play. My thoughts were that if he had an ACL/MCL or a fibula fracture that his season would be over - thankfully for the Steelers this isn't the case. It's tough to say when he will be back - it could be anywhere from 4-8 weeks based on what I have seen in my patients. It will depend on how quickly he is able to move without pain and regain his range of motion - MCL injuries do tend to get stiff. He has the advantage of having a great training staff available to work with him every day, so his recovery may be on the short end.

In looking at your timeline, I didn't see any tweets from you to Scott Zolak, only the one that stated "Most likely an ACL/MCL for Roethlisberger-other possibility is a high fibula fracture w/ syndesmosis injury. Either way, season over."

You're right - I went back and checked and that Tweet either never went through or got deleted. It did exist at some point, though - you'll have to take my word on that even though I'm a Pats fan...


I really appreciate Dr. Geary's quick responses to my questions. We both spent time in San Diego (Dr. Geary mentioned that "San Diego was amazing" and that he "would move back there in a heartbeat if it wasn't so damn expensive." I agree!) and are obviously sports fans. He also was a good sport about this question.

Finally, your Twitter profile picture shows you shirtless. Does this make you the Dr. McDreamy of Tufts Medical Center?

I hate Grey's Anatomy.

Please make sure to follow Dr. Geary on Twitter and you can see his complete bio on the Tufts Medical Center website.