How Not To Do Customer Service

The Poscast with Joe Posnanski & Michael Schur is one of my favorite podcasts. I've listened to every single episode for many years. Posnanski is a sports writer, and I've read several of his books. Schur is best known for creating Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Man on the Inside among a long list of credits. So when they announced that they co-wrote a book, I was excited to read it. The pair promoted a specific independent bookstore that I will not mention here where you could purchase the book. All of the books would be autographed by the authors with limited edition versions signed by people like Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. On May 13th, I placed my order through the bookstore's online site.

After finishing the transaction, I received an email from the store indicating that the preorder had been processed and would be shipped upon the book's release. The book was released on Tuesday, May 19th, so I figured that I would receive an update with the status or a tracking number on or around that day. To date, 10 days later, I still have not received any information about the order status. And it's certainly not due to a lack of effort by me. Let's go to the timeline:

On Thursday, May 21st, I emailed the store's account for online orders asking about the status. No response.

On Sunday, May 24th, I emailed a general "contact us" account about the order status. No response.

On Monday, May 25th, I attempted to contact the store through its Facebook page. I received an automated message asking me to email a different account or call the store due to the high volume of messages the store receives. I sent an email to that email address on that day. No response.

On Tuesday, May 26th, I called the number from the Facebook message and was given a prompt for online orders. I left a voice message. No response.

On Thursday, May 28th, I called the store and actually talked to someone. I was told that the store essentially outsources its online store, so she could not see the status of my account. I was given the store's marketing email account and sent an email. No response.

So I have now sent four emails to four different email accounts, provided a message on Facebook, and left a voice message. I have not received a response, and the physical bookstore can't access my order. 

This really shouldn't be that difficult. I generally check out books from the library, but I figured this would be a fun book to own, particularly since I would get an autographed copy. While I truly want to support independent bookstores, I could have paid less to order from a giant company and received the book at least a week ago. Get it together!

Best and Worst of 2024

While I've written this before, I dislike best and worst posts that come out in November or early December. What happens if you see something great in late December? Does it qualify for the next year or is it just forgotten? Now that 2024 is complete, here's my annual best and worst list. Please note that the items in this post represent what I watched or saw in 2024 even if they came out before this year. For example, The Sound of Music was released about 60 years ago, but I saw it for the first time over the summer as part of a live outdoor screening/sing-a-long (which was a lot of fun). 

Best TV Show: A Man on the Inside and Primo

There's two things in common with these shows: They are comedies with a lot of heart, and Michael Schur is a producer on both. Primo, which aired on Freevee in 2023, featured a teenage boy in San Antonio raised by his single mom and five uncles. While it's a coming of age story about the teenager, the dynamics between the five uncles (as well as with their sister and nephew) made the show. I'm writing this in past tense since it's unfortunate and disappointing that the show was cancelled after one season. Still, I highly encourage you to check it out.

A Man on the Inside follows Ted Danson, a widower hired to live in a retirement community by a private detective to try to solve a case of a stolen necklace. This one seemed to hit close to home between older residents and Mary Elizabeth Ellis (maybe best known as The Waitress on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and her husband raising three boys. Any scene with the three kids seemed to mirror many parts of my life. While there are certainly funny moments, I think the show is much more of a drama than a comedy.

Right before I published this post, I changed my mind. My favorite TV show that I watched in 2024 was Only Murders In The Building. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are fantastic. The show has so many good lines and scenes and amazing guest stars. The "minor" characters are all awesome too. The only negative is that I haven't watched the last two episodes of season four since my free Hulu subscription ended. I need to see how the last season ended!

Worst TV Show: Yellowstone

I watched the first three seasons last year, so this only represents season 4 and season 5, and really it's just the last 6 episodes which aired in November and December 2024. The show returned after a nearly 2-year break by killing off a major character but not having that character appear on screen thanks to a contract dispute. Even though there wasn't much time to wrap things up, there was still time to show Yellowstone's creator and writer Taylor Sheridan play poker several times and have Rip tell a story about meeting Sheridan's character at a bar fight. Oh, and there's always time for 2-3 minute clips of horses stopping quickly in the dirt for the 713th time. I really hope that there's not a 6th season though I would watch a spin-off featuring Mo and Teeter.

Other TV shows I watched in 2024:

Night Court

The Bear (season 2)

Archer (final episode)

Not Dead Yet

Abbott Elementary

Quantum Leap

Atlanta

Shogun

Modern Family (I had the last few seasons from several years ago saved on my DVR)

Welcome to Wrexham (latest season)

The Big Door Prize

The Amazing Race

Fargo (season 5) 

High Potential

The Other Two (season 3)

Girls5eva

Succession (last half of last season)

Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North

Hacks (season 3)

Beast Games

Best Song: APT by Rose and Bruno Mars

While I wrote about my favorite songs of 2024 a few weeks ago, APT by Rose (from the South Korean group BlackPink) and Bruno Mars is my favorite. It's pure pop and really, really catchy. To me, the bridge makes the song. 

Don't you want me like I want you, baby

Don't you need me like I need you now

Sleep tomorrow but tonight go crazy

All you gotta do is just meet me at the

So good. Plus, if you want to be silly, you can replace the chorus with a-pa-chocolate chip. It works. (Credit to The Moose for this change.)

Worst Song: Lonely Road by MGK and Jelly Roll

Look, if you're going to use the tune from John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads, just do a cover. 

Lonely road, take me home

To the place that we went wrong

Where'd you go now?

It's been a ghost town

And I'm still here all alone.

No. No. No. No. No. Now, if you insert West Virginia after where'd you go now, that might redeem the song a little. That might be funny.

Best Movie: The Holdovers

I'll admit that this was the toughest pick for me. Oppenheimer and Barbie both deserved all the acclaim they received. Poor Things and Emelia Perez are both very weird (especially Poor Things), but I appreciate that the films went for a big swing. They are both so much different than anything I've seen. With all of that, The Holdovers is a safe pick. Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa are all excellent. A feel good story and ending too.

Worst Movie: Maestro

I give credit to Bradley Cooper for acting and directing this movie about Leonard Bernstein. I just found that I didn't really care about Bernstein's personal life. 

Other Movies I Watched in 2024 not mentioned above:

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version)

Dumb Money

Mississippi Burning

Lincoln

Ex Machina

A Star Is Born

The Sound of Music
Everything Everywhere All at Once

Top Gun: Maverick

Knives Out: Glass Onion

If

Wicked (part 1)

Best Book: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong runs a tea shop with barely any customers and finds a dead body in her shop one morning. From there, she decides to solve the case. It's a really fun read. 

Other Books I Read in 2024:

Rickey by Howard Bryant

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

60 Songs That Explain The 90s by Rob Harvilla

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto 

People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn (only a few chapters in)

Best Pittsburgh Sports Moment:

The real answer should be anything related to Paul Skenes, but this picture (as shown below) after Pitt's men's basketball team defeated Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in January is still awesome. Pitt really should have made the tournament, but a few pre-conference losses sealed their fate. 

Worst Pittsburgh Sports Moment:

Everything else! The Penguins didn't make the playoffs. The Steelers lost in the first round of the playoffs in snowy Buffalo and seem headed to that again next week. The Pirates are the Pirates, Pitt's football team lost 6 straight, and Pitt's women's volleyball team had an incredible year but lost in the final four. Duquesne's men's basketball team winning an NCAA tournament game was fun though.  

Best Sports Moment I Saw Live: Maryland Women's Basketball

Yes, this is definitely recent bias, but the pass starting around the 3:40 mark of this video was awesome.

Most Meaningful Blog Posts:

The high and low of 2024 came just a few weeks apart. The Moose celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in early April, and then, my mom passed away at the end of the month. I'm grateful that she was able to watch the ceremony online and congratulate him on an amazing job. 

Worst Blog Post: A Hawk Tua Post

This was a dumb idea about hawks that lived on my street and the Miami Dolphins quarterback.

Best Concert: Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

I saw these concerts about a week apart, and that's quite the twin bill. What I appreciate about both is that they have deep catalogs and play such a wide variety of their songs. I was awestruck by the Bruce concert, and as I was leaving Nats Park, I started going through his hits that they didn't play. I wasn't upset. Bruce and company could play a 7-hour concert and still not play everything!

Fan Points

One of my favorite podcasts, The Poscast with baseball writer Joe Posnanski and Parks & Recreation and The Good Place creator Michael Schur, featured an episode where the hosts discussed fan points. While I had heard of this idea before, the premise is that you have 100 points or 100% to assign to your favorite sports teams/players. Basically, this is a way to show your fandom and what you really care about as a fan. For example, let's say that you are a Dallas Cwboys fan. First, my apologies. You only care about the NFL, so in this case, maybe you assign 95 or even all of your fan points to the Cowboys. Maybe you give 5 points to whoever is playing against the Philadelphia Eagles or another team that will help the Cowboys. It seems rare that a person is only a fan of one team, but this is just an example. Today, I'm sharing my fan points.

22% - Pittsburgh Steelers

22% - Pittsburgh Pirates

22% - Pittsburgh Penguins

Growing up in Pittsburgh and still being a passionate Pittsburgh sports fan, these three teams are part of my identity. Obviously, these numbers fluctuate throughout the year depending on the season. While I'm very interested in what the Pirates do in the offseason, I'm more concerned in the immediacy about the Steelers upcoming game against the Baltimore Ravens. However, this list is designed for the entire year, so I'm not going to show favoritism between my three kids, I mean, teams.

10% - University of Pittsburgh athletics

10% - Ithaca College athletics

I'll admit that I'm cheating here by grouping entire athletic programs into one category. Like my fandom for the professional Pittsburgh sports teams, I grew up on Pitt sports. I went to Pitt football games at Pitt Stadium with my Cub Scouts troop. I remember watching the "Send It In Jerome" basketball game on TV. 

In recent years, I've really enjoyed seeing the success of Pitt's men's soccer team and women's volleyball team. Sure, I should assign specific percentages to each individual team, but this is my blog, so my rules! 

Ithaca is where I went to college, and was and is a big part of my life. I have lifetime friendships from and connections with the institution. In the last year, I've been able to attend an IC football game, women's volleyball game, and women's basketball game in the DC-Baltimore area and loved being able to support my alma mater. 

This is where things get difficult. 

5% - Sheffield Wednesday

I shared the story about how I lived in Lancaster, England for a summer and how my supervisor took me to a Sheffield Wednesday match. It's difficult for me to watch matches, but I generally follow gamecasts and commentary on ESPN and Twitter and listen to a weekly podcast about the team. It will be amazing if the team ever gets back to the Premier League, though I'm just hoping that they don't get relegated back to League One at the end of this season!

4% - Ohio State Football

I went to graduate school at Ohio State and had season tickets to football games when I attended. Watching a game at Ohio Stadium with 100,000+ of your closest friends is an amazing experience. Unfortunately, the team was lousy (for Ohio State standards) when I was there, so I also got to see and hear about some of the bad side of fans. While I don't go out of my way to watch most Buckeyes games, and I can't name more than a handful of current players, I make sure to see them play Michigan and root for them to win a national championship (especially against SEC schools). 

5% - Miscellaneous

I usually attend 2-3 George Mason men's basketball games a year, so while they should probably get their own fan points, I'm including the team here. Miscellaneous also includes things like the US National men's and women's soccer teams, anyone against Novak Djokovic near the end of a Grand Slam tournament, and DC United, Loudoun United, and even the Washington Nationals when I attend their games in person. While I'm not including Coco Gauff in her own category, for the two weeks of the 2023 US Open, I followed her more than anything else in sports. That's the purpose of miscellaneous points.

So that's my 100 points. Although I follow the NBA, there's not a specific team that makes the list. (Sorry Washington Wizards.)  Now that I'm done, I just realizd that this could all be a lie. I should probably reduce nearly everything above in half and add a significant amount of my points to fantasy sports. I spend way too much time on that in my sports fandom!

Feel free to share your list in the comments section below.

Random Baseball Players

One of my favorite podcasts is The PosCast featuring sports writer Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur, who you may know better as the creator, co-creator, writer, and/or producer of The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, and Masters of None, only some of the best television comedies over the last decade. In a recent episode, they talked with Stefan Fatsis and Jonathan Hock about the 2020 Name of the Year Bracket and then transitioned to a draft of some of the first baseball players that popped into their minds. Now that I'm a podcast veteran, I figured that I would share my list, um, on my blog and not on a podcast.

One ground rule here. The player can't be a great player. Sure you can share the time you saw Barry Bonds, Pedro Martinez, Mike Trout, or Nolan Ryan, but what fun would that be. The purpose of this post is to name five random players.

Dave Magadan - I spent lots and lots and lots of time collecting baseball cards and going to card shows in the late 80s and early 90s. For some reason, I had a bunch of rookie cards of Mets 3B/1B Dave Magadan. I thought he was going to be really good and the cards would be worth a lot of money. I thought wrong. Amazingly, Magadan played 16 seasons in the majors. Also amazingly is that Magadan had only 42 home runs in 4159 at-bats. That's a terrible ratio for someone that plays 1B/3B. Actually, that a terrible ratio for anyone playing baseball.

Doug Frobel - I always thought that Frobel was a funny name.

Tuffy Rhodes - I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been in the same fantasy baseball league since 1991. We generally draft a few days into the season, so that we knew who made the opening day roster. In 1994, Chicago Cubs outfielder Tuffy Rhodes hit three home runs on opening day, and we all thought he was going to have a monster season. In our auction league draft, someone got him for like $30, which was a huge amount at that time. Rhodes hit 5 home runs the rest of the year.

Vicente Palacios - I shared this story earlier, but I attended the 1988 Pirates home opener With the bases loaded and no one out in the 6th inning, manager Jim Leyland brought in Palacios who retired the next three batters without allowing a run. And that was just the start to Palacios' Hall of Fame career! Random fact that I just learned from his Baseball Reference page: Palacios pitched in 7 games for the San Diego Padres in 2000 after last playing in the majors in 1995.

Steve Nicosia - Nicosia was the backup catcher for the Pirates in the late 70s and early 80s. I believe that I went to a game near the end of Nicosia's tenure with my family and another family. My memory is a little fuzzy, but before the game, we were hanging out by the bullpen or third/first base line asking for an autograph or baseball. Finally, Steve Nicosia threw a ball to one of the kids in the other family. I didn’t get a ball, and to this day, I still haven’t got a baseball at a game. No, I'm not bitter.

Honorable mentions:

Jose Tabata for breaking up a perfect game with two strikes and two outs in the 9th inning by getting hit by a pitch.

Archi Cianfrocco for being my friend Dan's favorite player. If Dan still reads this blog, I hope he can explain the obsession of over a career -4.0 WAR hitter. I think Dan might have met Archi at an Expos game.

Tuffy Rhodes photo by Getty.

Sean's Best and Worst of 2017

Welcome to my annual list of the best and worst of 2017! Actually, it's not my annual list of 2017 since there's no way I would have known in 2014 what my favorite song or book of 2017 would have been. You know what I mean. Anyway, feel free to enjoy my thoughts on some of the biggest pop culture (and more) things that occurred in 2017.

Best TV Show: The Good Place

I watch a lot of television. With young kids and especially a new addition to the family in September, I rarely get to the movies (more on that below). I also find that I don't have time to sit down and watch a 90-minute or 2-hour plus movie as I fall asleep too easily and just don't have the time to watch a movie in one sitting. Therefore, I load up on TV shows on the DVR and started a Netflix subscription. There are so many great shows out there. Just on Netflix alone, I really enjoyed Ozark, Glow, Master of None, American Vandal, and Stranger Things this year. ABC's Speechless may be the funniest show on TV, and I love Better Call Saul. FOX's Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still fantastic and I found USA's Search Party very interesting. The most clever and fascinating show, and also my favorite from the past year, is NBC's The Good Place. The premise behind the show is that Kristen Bell dies and goes to The Good Place, which is basically heaven. However, Bell's character is actually a terrible person who really shouldn't be there. Ted Danson is perfectly cast as the architect of The Good Place neighborhood and the rest of the cast is amazing. There was a huge twist at the end of season one that made most people (or at least me) wonder where the show would go from there, but season two has been just as good if not better than season one.

Please note that I have not seen Game of Thrones yet this year, so that didn't make the list. I also need to see Mindhunter.

Worst TV Show: Nashville

I've watched this show from the beginning. I guess it's a guilty pleasure, and I really don't know why I still watch it. At the beginning, it was Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere being country music stars. The show was definitely soap-opery but the music was good (even from someone who isn't a big country music fan), and I enjoyed most of the characters. ABC cancelled the show a few years ago, but it got a second life on CMT. Then, this season, they killed off Connie Britton, only the best person on the show. Panettiere's character keeps doing dumb things and never learns from anything in her past. Then, they had a "is Gunnar the father of Scarlett's baby" thing. Plus once Will came out as gay and most people were okay with it, the show didn't know what to do with him, so he rarely gets screen time. Meanwhile, Deacon can never be happy, and the show wasted Rachel Bilson having her be an accountant or something. The one redeeming quality of this show right now is that I can watch it and do something else. I need to have my full attention on the shows listed above, but I can write a blog post watching Nashville and know I'm not going to miss anything. Anyway, I really should stop watching this show especially when I have season three of Fargo, the last season of Orphan Black, and the current season of This Is Us all sitting on my DVR.

Best Song: Feel It Still by Portugal The Man

I wrote about this song back in August, and since that time, it exploded. I'm not saying that I was the reason for the song becoming one of the most played songs of 2017, but I guess I'm not not saying that either. Plus, the band's Twitter account liked and responded to my tweet when I wrote my August post. That gets bonus points in my book!



Worst Song: Paris by The Chainsmokers

I considered writing a blog post analyzing the lyrics of this song but decided against it...until now.

We were staying in Paris
To get away from your parents

All the way to Paris just to get away? The Chainsmokers were formed in New York City. I'm sure they could have just gone to Jersey.

And I thought, "Wow
If I could take this in a shot right now
I don't think that we could work this out”

You went all the way to Paris to realize that you're going to break up. What an awful person. You could have done that in Atlantic City or even better at home without traveling thousands of miles. Think about it. You take your significant other all the way to Paris which is a really big deal, and then you get there and realize that you can't work it out. Jerk.

Out on the terrace

Nice job finding another word that rhymes with Paris.

I don't know if it's fair but I thought "How
Could I let you fall by yourself
While I'm wasted with someone else”

Wait, not only did you realize that you couldn't work it out but you're with someone else? And again, you took this person to Paris. Super jerk!

If we go down then we go down together
They'll say you could do anything
They'll say that I was clever

You're not going down together, Chainsmokers. You're dumping this person. There's no together here. And no one will say you were clever.

If we go down then we go down together
We'll get away with everything
Let's show them we are better

You are definitely not better. Again, you are an a**hole.



Best Movie I Saw in the Theater: Wild Kratts

You're probably thinking to yourself, I've never heard of this movie. If you have young kids, you may know the PBS television show but are still confused by this entry. PBS partnered with movie theaters across the country to show episodes of some of its television shows on the big screen. The cost of tickets serve as donations to local PBS stations. It's a neat idea where young kids can go to the theaters in a comfortable environment (meaning that it's okay if the audience isn't completely quiet during the show). For Wild Kratts, I took both The Moose and Pedro Tulo with me, and we bought a bottomless tub of popcorn. The popcorn was delicious!

Worst Movie I Saw In the Theater: Ready, Jet, Go

This was another PBS show, and I took only Pedro Tulo for his first ever trip to a movie theater. He could not keep still. We went to the restroom at least three times, and he wondered all over the mostly empty theater. I also didn't get popcorn.

Best Blog: The Mrs. Fisher

My friend Nichole blogged regularly throughout 2017 sharing everyone from wedding plans and her honeymoon to the building of her new house. While some of her posts about fashion and style certainly are not geared for me, it's been really fun reading about Nichole's busy 2017!

Best Podcast: The Poscast / The YaJagoff! Podcast (tie)

Michael Schur is the official winner of 2017. He created the best TV show in The Good Place and is partially responsible for other quality shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Master of None. In his off time, he and Joe Posnanski, a writer for MLB.com, do a podcast called The Poscast. While baseball is a central topic to The Poscast, they also regularly conduct drafts on various topics such as "We Are the World" singers, autumn things, salty snacks, and road signs. Highly entertaining and the podcast I listen to immediately when they are available.

Meanwhile, I've listened to John Chamberlin's The YaJagoff! podcast since the beginning, and it really found it's footing this year with co-host Rachael Rennebeck. The podcast seems to go to a different Pittsburgh event or venue every week, and it makes me a little jealous about all the cool stuff happening in Pittsburgh that I'm missing. Plus, the podcast was responsible for this awesome Christmas ornament.

My Best Blog Post: Life as a New Father

This was quite the personal post about my fears of being a new father to a third child. A close second is my two-part interview with Chris Wright, the former GM of the Pittsburgh Spirit and President of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. He recently (after the interview) started a new job where he's responsible for the day to day business and sporting operations of the Minnesota United. (This is part one; this is part two. I'm still extremely grateful to Chris for his graciousness in talking with me.

My Worst Blog Post: J.D. Vance Comes to Washington

I pointed out that the National Book Festival listed the same author twice on its advertisement.

Best Sports Moment: Penguins Repeat As Stanley Cup Champs

Marc-Andre Fleury was the hero in the opening rounds, and Phil Kessel is a two-time Stanley Cup champion! It wasn't always pretty (see the end of the Capitals series and much of the Ottawa series), but Crosby, Malkin, and company won back-to-back titles!

Embed from Getty Images

Worst Sports Moment: The Pittsburgh Pirates (again)

The Pirates were one of the best teams in baseball just a few years ago, and after a 75-87 season, there's discussion about the team trading its best players Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole. If trades are made, I have little confidence in the team's front office to get solid returns for these players to allow the Pirates to contend again in the near future. So frustrating.

Best Movie I Saw At Home: Deadpool

What a fun movie. I mean it definitely deserves it's R rating but highly entertaining.

Worst Move I Saw (well, didn't see) At Home: Get Out and Hell Or High Water

Why would my DVR show that I recorded 2 hours of Get Out, and when I played the movie, it said it wasn't available? I'm blaming Showtime. For Hell Or High Water, the first 25 minutes were all messed up, and I wasn't going to start after missing this. I'm blaming the DVR on this one.

Best Book: The Arena: Inside the Tailgating, Ticket-Scalping, Mascot-Racing, Dubiously Funded, and Possibly Haunted Monuments of American Sport by Rafi Kohan

Unfortunately, I didn't read as many books as I would have liked in 2017. This book was right up my alley as I've been to dozens of stadiums and arenas across the country, and this deals with everything besides the on-the-field/court activity. As the title indicates, the book broaches subjects like stadium financing, in-game entertainment, security, and much more. Very interesting stuff that you probably don't consider going to a game.

Feel free to share your best and worst of 2017 in the comments below. Happy Holidays, and have a Happy New Year!