I don't know what makes someone a great drummer. I mean, I know you have to keep a beat, but what distinguishes the best drummers in the world from just your standard drummers playing in bands at bars and venues in your neighborhood? I mention this because Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones drummer, passed away last week at the age of 80. I saw the Rolling Stones perform twice, once in Syracuse in 1994 and the other in 1998 in San Diego. Sure, Mick Jagger commanded the stage and Keith Richards played familiar guitar riffs, but Charlie Watts seemed like the coolest member of the band to me. He was impeccably dressed and just seemed so composed and unflappable. I've seen multiple articles and obituaries refer to Watts as the heartbeat of the Stones, and he probably was. RIP.
Meanwhile, if you're ever down and want something to cheer you up, please check out this video of 11 year-old Nandi Bushell playing with the Foo Fighters. Again, I don't know what makes someone a great drummer, but watching her perform and the smile on her face while she's playing is just incredible.
One of my goals is to visit all 50 states. I’ve been stuck at 41 for about a decade now, but I have ideas for trips that will allow me to visit some of the states I'm missing and get closer to my goal. I mention this because The Washington Post recently had a story about two teenagers, Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak, who wanted to fish in all 50 states. Even though I find fishing to be very boring (though to be fair, I only did it once when I was a kid and I had no idea what I was doing), I’m jealous that Luke and Daniel accomplished this goal. I guess their next adventure should be fishing in different countries. Maybe after they complete their first-year at Clemson!
While it's only mentioned in passing in the article, I really want to know more about this part of the story.
On they went, raising money for fishing licenses, tackle, food and gas through a GoFundMe. They blogged at fishallfifty.us. They returned to Virginia every now and then, switching to Daniel’s family’s Toyota minivan and then back to the Honda after totaling the Toyota in a wreck.
Totaling a car is a big deal. I'd love to hear more about this and other random moments from their adventures. It turns out that Luke and Daniel created a blog, but it looks like they stopped updating it at state #19. Oh well.
Here's my vow to you. Whenever we pick up on our hockey road trip again, I will definitely write blog posts about the trip!
I mentioned recently that we passed a funeral procession while driving on Interstate 95 near Cape Canaveral National Cemetery in Mims, Florida. I also wrote that this was part of our first family vacation in two years. (The passing of a funeral procession was an unexpected part of the trip.) What I didn't include is that we spent a lot of time driving on I-95. And by a lot, I mean A LOT.
I think it's really easy to forget sometimes just how big the United States is. I mean, sure, if you look at a map, California is far away from New York, but it's one thing to fly from the East Coast to the West Coast and quite another to drive hundreds of miles...especially with three kids. Here are some observations from driving from Northern Virginia to Hilton Head, South Carolina to South Florida and back to Virginia.
* Until this trip, I was unfamiliar with Law Tigers, America's Motorcycle Lawyers. I passed plenty of their billboards on the drive, and all I thought of every time I saw one was Tony the Tiger being a lawyer.
Tony The Tiger in a courtroom: Your honor, if you rule in favor of my client, that would be grrrrrreat!
* We passed a billboard in Richmond for The Joel Bieber Law Firm. I wonder how many clients ask if he's related to Justin Bieber.
* If they could, my kids would eat chicken tenders/nuggets at every meal. No matter where we stopped, they had chicken tenders. While I'm on the topic of chicken, I don't think Zaxby's gets enough credit for being a terrific restaurant. It's probably because most locations are in the southeastern US and you only tend to see commercials while watching the ACC Network. I just learned that there is a Zaxby's about 20 minutes from me, and I don't know why I'm not a regular customer.
* Speaking of fast food restaurants, we passed hundreds during the trip, but there were no Long John Silver's. That is the reason why this country is falling apart!
Well, that or maybe the guy driving this van, who I'm sure is a kind and reasonable person.
* There are a group of truck stops in North Carolina called Big Boy's. Based on the location of the apostrophe, I guess there is one big boy and not a group of big boys.
* Much of the drive is the same. Miles and miles of tree-lined highways. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, you go over beautiful Lake Marion in South Carolina. It's such a shocking and unexpected difference in scenery. And then, it's back to tree-lined highways.
* If you're driving on 95 through North Carolina and have an extra 45-60 minutes, I recommend visiting the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, NC. While the entire story is on the Whirligig website, the late Simpson created dozens of "Whirligigs" out of recycled metals. The city created a downtown park and pavilion for these sculptures, and it's a cool little area to walk around. Unfortunately, the air was completely still when we visited, so we didn't see the sculptures move with the wind.
* We also didn't get to visit the "Treat Yo' Self Bakery" just down the street from Whirligig Park since they were closed for the day. I hope that Michael Schur and the folks at Parks & Recreation are okay with the bakery name.
* I have never been to Savannah, so I had a brilliant plan to break up the Florida to Virginia drive by staying overnight in the "Hostess City of the South." The day before leaving, I looked up hotels in the Savannah area and found that just about everything was sold out. The only exception was what appeared to be a really nice hotel in downtown Savannah which cost about $500 or 60,000 Hilton Honors points. That wasn't going to happen. I ended up booking a hotel in Manning, SC instead. This turned out to be a fantastic move. By the time we arrived in Savannah, we definitely wouldn't have had time to enjoy the city or the hotel. When we got to Manning after 9:00PM, the hotel and others in the area were sold out. Making the reservation worked out very well.
* Can we talk about South of the Border? This cornucopia of activities is located just south of the North Carolina border in South Carolina. South of the Border bills itself as "America's Favorite Highway Oasis." I'll admit that I have never stopped, but the countless signs on 95 promoting the venue are unavoidable. I truly appreciate the name, the idea, and the fact that it's been around for over 70 years. Now the negative. Some of the ads, which were probably created about 70 years ago, are just racist. Keep the premise, but get rid of the stereotypical Mexican cartoon and images.
* I was really disappointed that the musical group Florida Georgia Line wasn't just hanging out and playing on the Florida-Georgia line. We crossed this border twice, and they weren't there either time. (And in case you think this is just a Florida-Georgia Line thing, I fully expect to see Boston in Boston, Chicago in Chicago, etc. Europe in Europe or Asia in Asia might be a stretch though.)
* I'm fascinated by the Roanoke Rapids Theatre about 15 minutes south of Virginia-North Carolina border. It's just a beautiful building seemingly in the middle of no where. I'd love to see a show there someday.
Total mileage driven on this 15-day trip: 2336.2 miles
Total miles driven in the car in the 15 months prior to the trip: 3939 miles
I've listed to a lot of pop music this summer. On our drive on interstate 95 (more on this next week), the kids constantly wanted to play the Hits 1 station on SiriusXM. One of the songs we heard is "Love Again" by Dua Lipa. It's not her best song, but it's fine.
The point of this post is the sampled music in the song above that is very familiar to 90s music fans. After seeing Green Day and Weezer recently, maybe I'm just on a nostalgia kick right now. In any event, I still like "Your Woman" by White Town.
At some point in the next few weeks, I plan on writing about our first family vacation in two years. Today, though, I'm writing about just a few minutes of the trip. On our drive from south Florida to Northern Virginia, we passed a funeral procession on interstate 95. The procession was presumably heading for the Cape Canaveral National Cemetery located in Mims, Florida. Without knowing anything about the cemetery, I wondered who was being buried. Was it an astronaut? Someone involved with the space program?
When I got home, I thought about this a little more. I tried to see if there was information online, but was unsuccessful. I then contacted the National Cemetery Administration, a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They were extremely helpful and provided a quick response. With multiple interments, they could not say for certain which service it would have been. Instead, they gave me the names of four veterans and the spouse of a veteran who were buried on the day we passed the procession.
While I generally like to keep things light here, I wanted to share what I found about these individuals.
Stanley ("Chip") Wessel
Chip was born in Orlando, attended University of Central Florida, and reached the rank of corporal in the Army. More importantly, he was a father of three and had a huge impact on the Brevard County, Florida lacrosse community. This Facebook post really sums out how much he meant to so many people. He passed away at only 51.
Rubin Ervin III
Rubin, a retired Air Force Master Sergeant, passed away in Orlando at the age of 77. He was survived by three children, five grandsons, and a large extended family. His obituary included this, "We will always remember him saying "I'm a Baaaad man!!!" and "Never give up on yourself, you have to be your biggest fan."
Ruben performed duties as a Duplicating Devices Operator Supervisor and during his time in service, awarded the Commendation Medal w/3 Devices, Overseas Short Tour Ribbon, Overseas Long Tour Ribbon w/1 OLC, Longevity Service Award w/1 Silver OLC, NCO Professional Education Graduate Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Outstanding Unit Award w/1 OLC, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Military Ribbon, and the Good Conduct Medal w/1 Silver OLC and 2 Bronze OLC.
I don’t know what all of this means, but it seems impressive.
Felix Rodriguez
Felix was born in the Domincan Republic and moved to Puerto Rico at around ten. He traveled all over in the Air Force and met his wife while stationed in Panama. They raised two children and settled in Orlando after Felix retired as a decorated Master Sergeant from the Air Force.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Professional Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and later earned his teacher certification in mathematics from the University of Central Florida. He worked 20 years at Orange County Public Schools teaching mathematics at Westridge Middle School and Roberto Clemente Middle School. He was also a gardener. Felix passed away at the age of 62.
It definitely got a little dusty reading this comment on his obituary page:
Thanks Daddy for showing us how to be a husband, father, professional and a good person with your everyday behavior and conduct. If I get to be half of the person you were I would consider myself satisfied in life. Love you everyday. Thanks for being the best husband for mommy and the world #1 father to my sister and brother. Will always remember you as what you were, one of the most amazing persons I have the honor to meet.
Gregory Olive
Greg was from Auburndale, Florida and went to Auburndale High School and East Florida State College. He served in the Air Force, reaching the rank of Senior Airman. Greg also worked on the Space Shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center, and I saw one former colleague noted that "he was always smiling, happy, and one of the nicest co-workers." Greg passed away at 54. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find much more about him.
Barbara O’Donnell
I found even less about Barbara O’Donnell, who I believe passed away in Altamonte Springs, Florida at 81.
My condolences to the family and friends of these individuals. Thanks to all of them for serving our country. RIP.
Photos by Malcolm Denemark / Florida Today and Space Coast Daily.
I attended the Hella Mega Tour concert at Nats Park in Washington DC on Sunday evening. It was nice to do something "normal" again in seeing Green Day, Weezer, and opening act The Interrupters even though Fall Out Boy didn't perform due to one of the band's team testing positive for COVID. So even normal isn't really normal when one of the acts can't play and many of the attendees (including me) wore masks throughout the show unless this is what counts as normal right now. I just wrote normal so many times that I don't know what that word means or if I spelled it correctly.
While I'll share more pictures and videos below, I have a question. Let's say that you attend a football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys. If you are a fan of one of the teams, you might wear some type of Steelers or Cowboys clothing. You probably wouldn't wear a New England Patriots jersey or a Seattle Seahawks T-shirt. I mention this because at the concert, I saw people wearing T-shirts of the following musicians:
The Rolling Stones
Ramones
AC/DC
Foo Fighters
Run-D.M.C.
Nirvana
Slipknot
Jimmy Buffett
There are probably more that I'm missing, but the point is that none of these bands performed in DC on Sunday. Obviously, music is different from sports. While there's a rivalry between the Baltimore Ravens and the Steelers, there isn't any animosity (that I know of) between Weezer and The Rolling Stones or their fans. What do you think? Is it appropriate to wear a band's T-shirt to a concert of a completely different band?
This is the start of the Green Day show and definitely not suitable for work.
Even though you can see "Holiday," possibly my favorite Green Day song, above, this is from a different perspective.
If you ever wanted to see the chorus of Weezer's "Hash Pipe" signed, you're welcome!
Weezer has a new song called "All My Favorite Songs" featuring the band AJR. When Weezer performed this song, I sent a 30-second video to my wife to show my kids since they like AJR and know the song. My kids were convinced that the video was of AJR, even though the band name Weezer was prominently displayed on the stage!
Finally, even though Max Scherzer was traded to Los Angeles, he's still watching you!
Outside playing with my kids, we came across this little fellow on our street.
I thought it was a toy at first, but then it started moving.
It turns out that this is an Eastern Tiger swallowtail caterpillar. The kids and I were fascinated by this insect, but after a few minutes, the kids wanted to get back to playing. We were all careful to make sure that we didn't step on the caterpillar as it walked across the road. Fortunately, as the caterpillar neared the sidewalk, a friendly bird picked up the caterpillar and helped him (or her) reach its destination. Or at least the bird's destination.
A few weeks earlier, I took a picture of this butterfly.
I've come across several of them in my neighborhood, and as you may have guessed, this is what the Eastern Tiger swallowtail caterpillar turns into. I presume that before turning into a butterfly, the caterpillars eat through one apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, and three plums on Wednesday (but are still hungry before going on a crazy eating spree on Saturday).
My wife and I celebrated our anniversary by getting an extremely rare night away from the kids. We stayed at a very nice hotel, and when they saw it was our anniversary, the front desk staff said they would send something to our room. When we left for dinner nothing had arrived, so we didn’t think much of it. We ate dinner and dessert and came back to the room a few hours later to see a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and a box of chocolate-covered strawberries. Since we were stuffed from eating too much at the restaurant, we decided to take the strawberries back home with us.
Unfortunately, there was no refrigerator in the room except for the minibar. Not really caring about the products inside, we took out four non-alcoholic drinks and put the box of strawberries inside. The next morning, the bill arrived under our door, and we got charged $12.72 for two bottles of Pellegrino. First, $6.36 for a regular-sized bottle of water?!?! Second, I would struggle to drink a bottle of Pellegrino if you GAVE me $6.36 to drink it. Like Ted Lasso (a show that I finally just started watching), I just don't like sparkling water. (This video is not suitable for work.)
Apparently, there are sensors in the frig, so while the box of strawberries covered two sensors, the other two were exposed. Therefore, it noted the two missing bottles and added it to our bill. Fortunately, after we returned all of the cans and bottles to their original place, the front desk staff removed this from the bill and even comped us for a can of ginger ale that my wife did drink.
I'm just glad that they don't have sensors for the two pens that I took home from the room. They are great pens, and I probably would have been charged $8.41 each for them!
During the pandemic, we have had the opportunity to shift some of the kids' doctors appointments online. It has saved so much time and allowed me and the kids to meet with doctors without having to miss work and school. Seven year old Pedro Tulo has seen one particular specialist for over two and a half years. In June, Pedro Tulo had an EEG, and they wanted him to have as little sleep as possible. He made it all the way to 2:45 AM, and I woke him up at 6:00. The Moose stayed up for moral support (and the chance to watch unlimited TV) until midnight. After I woke him up from the couch to take him to bed, he angrily objected and declared that he wanted to win the contest for staying up later. I had to try to explain to a tired and delirious 10 year old that there was no contest and that he needed to sleep.
I'm getting way off topic. That happens a lot. The EEG was in person, but we scheduled the follow-up to be online. This worked out perfectly since we planned on being on vacation. About 30 minutes before the telemed appointment, a staff member from the doctor's office called to check on Pedro Tulo's height and weight and to confirm his medications. She then asked to confirm if we were in the state of Virginia and had the Zoom link. I paused and replied, "Is the first part a problem?" I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I did. The answer was yes.
Apparently there is some type of Virginia law that you must be in the state for any telemed appointment. I should probably mention that I live in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington DC. The doctor is affiliated with Children's National Hospital in DC, so he likely has patients in DC and Maryland. I could be in Washington or Bethesda only about 10-20 miles from the office, but the doctor could not meet with us online. Meanwhile, if I was in Roanoke or Virginia Beach over 200 miles away, that would be fine.
At the time of our scheduled appointment, I clicked on the Zoom link hoping that maybe the doctor would see us. He did not. However, a few minutes after I turned off the computer, he called, and we had the appointment by phone. While I'm not a member of the Virginia legislature, and I'm not going to play one on the internet, it seems like someone should look at these regulations. How is it fine to have an appointment by phone but not online? What's the difference? It seems like it is more efficient for doctors and patients to have appointments online in some cases. Why does it matter if I'm in Alexandria or Los Angeles?
Photo by TeleMed. Apparently, there's a company with this name. I just thought telemed was a generic term.
Welcome to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics taking place in 2021! Obviously, the Olympics were delayed because of the global pandemic, and it's definitely odd seeing events with no fans. While I had all types of ideas for Olympic related blog posts, I'm too late to do a preview. Instead, this post is part of my new series, Hills I'm Willing To Die On. And today's hill is that swimming and gymnastics get too much attention at the Olympics.
This certainly isn't designed to be an anti-Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, or Michael Phelps post. They are all incredible athletes who deserve all of the accolades they receive. Phelps is the most decorated Olympian ever with 28 medals including 23 golds. Many people see these numbers and also consider him to be the greatest Olympian ever. Ledecky comes into the Tokyo games with 6 medals and will compete in four individual events and at least one relay event. Meanwhile, Biles earned 5 medals in Rio and has the chance to double her medal total in Tokyo. Again, these are all outstanding athletes and their accomplishments may not be matched in these sports for years if ever.
The point of this post is more about these sports themselves. Women's artistic gymnastics has four individual events (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor) as well as the team competition.There are six individual events for men (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar) gymnastics plus the team. There are 37 different swimming events! 37! Yes, it's incredibly difficult to qualify to compete in multiple events, but the opportunity to do so is there. For example, Ledecky is competing in the 200, 400, 800, and 1500 free events. The distances are different and preparation for and the races themselves are different, but it's the same stroke. Meanwhile, if you play team handball, you have one chance to win a medal. There isn't a team handball event and then an individual one. There's one opportunity to win a medal in baseball and softball. The Olympics does not have a home run derby or skills competition. If you throw the javelin, it's all about who can throw it the furthest. Why not have more opportunities for javelin athletes? Maybe have an event to see who can throw the highest too? Perhaps archery and javelin athletes can have team events to combine accuracy and distance. I understand that this sounds silly, but why not?
NBC will show gymnastics and swimming more than other sports in part because they have so many events. Yes, Biles and Ledecky are superstars, but as I mentioned, in many events, athletes have only one chance to win a medal. I understand that I can go out and find rowing and baseball and skateboarding on TV or online, but I wish there were more focus on these other sports and athletes.
Although the 2021 Major League Baseball draft occurred over a week ago, the Pirates selected too many players with great names, so I had to write about it. Oh, if you're new to this blog and just saw the post title, I should probably mention that I often write Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers draft recaps that focus on player names and other silly things. If you're looking for in-depth player analysis, I suggest looking elsewhere, but I promise that this will be more entertaining.
Please note that I'm not going to write about every player drafted, and this isn't in any particular order.
Round 1: Henry Davis, C - University of Louisville
Sure, I could mention that Davis batted .370 with 15 home runs along with an on-base percentage of .482 and a slugging percentage of .663 during his junior season at Louisville, but what fun would that be? Instead, I'll share that my kids watched a few episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show Henry Danger recently.
Whenever I see the show title, I think of the band Harvey Danger who created one of my favorite songs from the 90s, Flagpole Sitta. While I can easily hear Pirates announcer Greg Brown yelling "O Henry" every time Davis makes a great play or hits a home run, I hope that nickname Flagpole Sitta catches on for Davis. Just picture it. HOME RUN, FLAGPOLE SITTA!
(My apologies to Brendt Citta who was the Pirates' 38th round pick in the 2018 draft and who is currently in AA Altoona. The #1 overall pick gets this nickname.)
Round 6: Mike Jarvis, SS - San Diego State University
First, Go Aztecs! Second, this is quite the unusual draft pick. Jarvis was a college basketball coach at George Washington University and St. John's University. He just seems a little (okay, A LOT) old to get drafted.
Round 9: Luke Brown, OF - University of Louisville
This is a country singer. The Pirates drafted a country singer. You can't convince me that Luke Brown isn't a country musician.
Round 15: Tyler Samaniego, P - University of South Alabama
Where in the world is Tyler Samaniego? Do it, Rockapella!
Round 4: Owen Kellington, P - U-32 HS (Vermont)
Round 13: Owen Sharts, P - University of Nevada
There have been plenty of jokes about the last name Sharts, but this is a high-class blog, so I will refrain from such sophomoric humor. I mean, Baby Sharts (doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo) is a potential nickname, but again, I want to focus on the first name Owen. Although baseball has been around for well over 100 years, according to Baseball Reference, there has only been one person with the first name Owen to ever play in the majors.* That's Owen Miller of the Cleveland Indians who made his debut in May. Owen Miller is currently batting .106 (5 for 47). Actually, besides retired long-time hockey player Owen Nolan and I guess NFL TE Owen Daniels, can you think of other successful professional athletes in America with the first name of Owen? (I'm not including Owen Hart.) There's not a good track record here, so these are highly questionable picks by the Pirates. Prove us wrong, Owens, prove us wrong!
Round 3: Bubba Chandler, P - North Oconee HS (Georgia)
Bubba has already committed to play baseball and football at Clemson, and honestly, someone named Bubba seems like the perfect fit as the Clemson quarterback. Looking at Baseball Reference again, there is not a great history of baseball players named Bubba. The most successful is probably Bubba Church who pitched from 1950-1955 for the Phillies, Reds, and Cubs. He went 36-37 with a 4.10 ERA and a career WAR of 7.8. Before you start bringing your thoughts about how great Bubba Trammell or Bubba Crosby were, they were not. Back to Bubba Church (which sounds like a really fun place for a Sunday service), he had 274 strikeouts in 713.1 innings. Most pitchers now have that many strikeouts in about 300-350 innings!
Round 12: Chazz Martinez, P - Orange Coast College
While there have been very few people named Owen or Bubba to ever reach the majors, Chazz Martinez could be a trailblazer. Yes, there's Chaz Roe, a mediocre relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays (and even as a mediocre pitcher, he's earned over $6 in his career), but there has never been a major leaguer named Chazz. Good luck, Chazz. We're all counting on you!
We interrupt this draft recap for a fun fact!
Of the 21 players selected by the Pirates, none of them primarily play 1st base or 2nd base. Some of the position players could certainly move there as they go through the minors. Typically, the best athletes play shortstop in little league and high school, but they may no longer be the best athletes once they join the Pirates.
Round 8: Sean Sullivan, P - California
Great pick! Anyone named Sean is a fantastic pick. Sean Sullivan is welcome to write a post here anytime.
Round 14: Braylon Bishop, OF - Arkansas HS (Arkansas)
Check mate! (I'm here for all of your chess joke needs.)
Round 16: Daniel Corona, SS - The Baylor School (Tennessee)
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the new name, image, likeness opportunities for college athletes, but if I'm Daniel Corona, I call the Corona beer people and request to be in a commercial with Snoop Dogg, Bad Bunny, or Tony Romo. I'm sure Corona is looking for an entry into the Wake Forest University community, and this is their chance. (If Corona says no, Corona should sign with the Pirates.)
* Update! This is incorrect. There have been about 10 major league players with the first name Owen (some with the given name). For example, Donie Bush, who was third in the 1914 MVP voting as a member of the Detroit Tigers, was born Owen Bush. Owen Wilson apparently went by Chief Wilson and had 36 triples for the 1912 Pirates. Thanks to John Dreker of Pirates Prospects for this information.
Congratulations to AJR for being featured in two separate Friday videos! (The first was for their song Sober Up.) Today's video is Way Less Sad, which is another catchy song by the band. I dig the song and the band!
Welcome to the first post in my new series, “Hills I’m Willing To Die On.” The idea behind these posts are me sharing my opinions that will be impossible (or nearly impossible) to convince me otherwise.
When it comes to active NFL coaches, Bill Belichick with six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots is clearly considered the best. I think many people would rank Andy Reid next though it took him having Patrick Mahomes as quarterback to win his first Super Bowl. After that, I'm not sure if there is a significant difference between the 3rd best and around the 10th best coach. And I would include Mike Tomlin in this group as a top tier NFL coach.
There are many people who criticize Tomlin. Some of it is fair. Some of it isn't. The idea that Tomlin only won a Super Bowl with Bill Cowher's players is still absurd to me. You know who didn't win with Cowher's players? Bill Cowher. The team followed its 2005 championship by going 8-8 with Ben Roethlisberger starting 15 games, Willie Parker rushing for nearly 1,500 yards, and having Hines Ward, Heath Miller, Alan Faneca, Troy Polamalu, James Harrision, Ike Taylor, and more. You know, Cowher's players! Meanwhile, I have yet to hear any Pittsburgh sports fans criticize Mike Sullivan for winning the Stanley Cup with Mike Johnston's players. Sullivan took over part-way through the 2015-2016 season and led the Penguins to titles that season and in the 2016-2017 seasons. He hasn't won since, so clearly he only won with Johnston's players, right?
The next criticism I hear is that Tomlin should have won more since he had Big Ben as well as arguably the best running back and wide receiver in football with Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. Thanks to injuries, the three of them rarely played together in the playoffs. Plus, having the best players in the game doesn't mean you're going to win. I know that I’m bringing up different sports, but Mike Trout has played in one playoff series with the Angels during his 11-year career. Connor McDavid has made it beyond the first round with the Edmonton Oilers once in his 6-year career. I think most people consider James Harden one of the best players in the NBA. He's only made it to the finals once and that was very early in his career.
Back to football, Aaron Donald may go down as one of the greatest players in NFL history. He lost in his only Super Bowl appearance. Just because you have possibly the best player in the league in 1-2 positions (no one considers Roethlisberger to be better than Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, or Drew Brees) clearly doesn't mean you're going to win a Super Bowl. Football of all sports requires more than 2 or 3 elite players. Just look at the Super Bowl last season. You have a future Hall of Fame coach in Reid and the best quarterback in Mahomes, but with an offensive line decimated by injuries, Kansas City lost big to Tampa Bay.
I’m getting off subject which happens quite often. Now Tomlin's recent playoff record definitely does deserve criticism. He hasn't done well with challenges over the years either. You can definitely complain about his choices in hiring offensive and defensive coordinators including the puzzling “retirement” by Bruce Arians. Still, look at how Tomlin has fared compared to his contemporaries (courtesy of Ian of @thesteelersnat).
Although Tomlin has the best regular season winning percentage of this group and the worst playoff record, this really seems like a lot of this.
Plus, Tomlin seems truly respected by his players. Have you ever heard a current or former Steeler say bad things about Tomlin? Take a look at the interviews Ron of Steelers Takeaways has done, and the players all seem to admire and respect him.
I'm not suggesting that Tomlin is the best coach in the NFL. He needs to win more playoff games which might be tough this season with an improved division and Ben at the end of his career. However, my hill to die on is that Tomlin is a top tier coach in the NFL and nearly every other team would love to have him. He’s also going to Canton and deserves to be there and not just for the Hall of Fame game in a few weeks.
I recently purchased a subscription to SiriusXM satellite radio since I expect to be in the car a lot more than I have been over the last year plus. That's a really low bar since if I just go out and sit in my car right now for an hour, it would be significantly more than over the last year plus.
Anyway, for those of you who have SiriusXM, what stations should I check out? Do you have favorite stations or shows? I should probably add that much of my driving will be with the kids in the car, so listening to Howard Stern may not be appropriate for them.
In case you're wondering, sure I could ask this question on Twitter, Facebook, or simply be calling or emailing friends. I'm just looking for some blog content today!
Gavin MacLeod, best known for playing Captain Stubing on The Love Boat as well as being a regular cast member on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and McHale's Navypassed away in May. If you're over 45 or 50, he's probably the best-known Ithaca College graduate. This got me thinking about a blog post I wrote a decade ago listing the most famous Ithaca College alumni. I think now is a perfect time to update the list.
Please note that this is in no particular order. It's very possible that I missed several notable graduates, so please contact me if there's someone that should be here. I also only included graduates. Therefore, even though actress/TV host Ricki Lake, singer Gavin DeGraw, and Emmy-award winning actor Jharrel Jerome all attended Ithaca College, they didn't make the list.
David Muir - Anchor of ABC World News Tonight.
David Boreanaz - Actor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Bones, and Seal Team.
CCH Pounder - Actress on The Shield, ER, and NCIS: New Orleans.
Bob Iger - Former CEO of The Walt Disney Company
Jessica Savitch - One of the first national female anchors (and her story helped inspire Anchorman).
Mark Romanek - Film director of One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go and Grammy and MTV Video Award winning video director. I highly recommend going down the rabbit hole of seeing how he works as a director and then watching some of the videos he directed. He's responsible for some of the most iconic videos of all time.
Karl Ravech - ESPN journalist.
Kevin Connors - ESPN journalist (and fellow member of the class of '97).
Aaron Tveit - Tony-nominated actor for Moulin Rouge who is likely going to be a Tony-winning actor for Moulin Rouge though it's still not a guarantee.
Barbara Gaines - Former executive producer of The Late Show with David Letterman.
Time to take a look at Ithaca College graduates in the Pittsburgh sports community:
Lanny Frattare - Former Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster.
Jenna Harner - Sports anchor on WPXI.
Josh Getzoff - Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster.
John Ross Bowie - Actor best known as Kripke on The Big Bang Theory and Jimmy DiMeo on the gone-to-soon show Speechless.
Ben Feldman - Mad Men and Superstore actor.
Jeremy Jordan - Tony-nominated actor also known for his TV work on Smash and Supergirl.
Robert (Bob) Marella - National Wrestling Hall of Famer better known as Gorilla Monsoon.
Eileen Filler-Corn - Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and first woman to serve in this position.
Meghan Musnicki - Gold medal winning rower at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Tim Locastro - Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder.
The Birthday Boys - 6 of the 7 members of this sketch comedy group are IC graduates, and they had a show on IFC with some guy named Bob Odenkirk.
Liz Tigelaar - Executive Producer for Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, and Nashville.
Ithaca has also produced these sports broadcasters:
Brandon Burke - Television play-by-play announcer for the New York Islanders.
Ed Cohen - Radio voice of the New York Knicks.
Drew Goodman - Television play-by-play broadcaster for the Colorado Rockies.
Nick Nickson - Los Angeles Kings' broadcaster.
Andrew (Andy) Daly - Seemingly the busiest actors in Hollywood. You might not know his name, but as soon as you see his picture, you know him (from Review, Modern Family, and even CarMax commercials).
Larry Teng - Television director and producer of Nancy Drew, Ed, and Medium.
Q Smith - Broadway actress in Mary Poppins and in the original cast of the incredible musical Come From Away.
Jan Singer - Former CEO of J. Crew and Victoria's Secret.
Bill D'Elia - Executive producer of Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and How To Get Away with Murder.
Ed Glazer - Co-owner and co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I've mentioned several times that I'm a fan of Sheffield Wednesday. I went to a game at Hillsborough Stadium when I spent the summer in England in 2000. Although the team had just been relegated from the Premier League to the English Football League Championship, I had a great time at the game. I didn't really follow Wednesday again until about 7-8 years ago, so even though the team went down to League One (the third division of English football/soccer) since my visit to Sheffield, I've only really known them in the championship division. Therefore, I'm sharing the 2021-2022 Sheffield Wednesday schedule with some notes about their opponents in League One. And by sharing notes, I'm really writing about my thoughts on the team names. My apologies in advance to any of the cities, towns, and clubs I write about below because I know nothing about them (as you will see very quickly).
First, here is your 2021-2022 Wednesday schedule:
So I could write about Wednesday having a busy February with 6 matches in three weeks or the team starting and finishing the season with 3 of 5 games on the road, but I want to focus on Wednesday's opponents. Enjoy!
* This was a LearnedLeague question and I got wrong this season:
What is the surname shared by soccer legends named Jack and Bobby, who played for two decades from the 1950s to the 1970s for Leeds United and Manchester United (respectively), and were among the starting eleven on England's World Cup-winning team in 1966? The name is also that of an area of southeast London that has been home to a Premier League club as recently as 2007 (currently in League One).
The answer is Charlton. If not for this question, I would have figured that the team was named after former member of the Cincinnati Reds' Nasty Boys, Norm Charlton.
* Current Sheffield Wednesday Darren Moore manager served as the Doncaster Rovers' manager until March 1st. There might be some familiarity between Moore and Doncaster. Should be fun!
* Fleetwood Town is clearly a town dedicated to all things Fleetwood Mac. I hope to visit this magical place I hope, no, I expect that the team plays Fleetwood Mac songs non-stop before, during, and after games. The team is probably going to look at Darren Moore like Stevie Nicks stares at Lindsey Buckingham beginning around the 3:30 mark of this Silver Springs video.
* It will be nice to see familiar teams Rotherham United and Wycombe Wanderers who got relegated with Wednesday last season.
* I have no idea what a Morecambe is or how to pronounce it. Give me some credit for learning how to say Wycombe last season.
* Plymouth Argyle is clearly known for their socks.
* Wigan Athletic spelled their team name incorrectly.
* Oxford and Cambridge are likely the best known universities in England and arguably two of the most prestigious in the world. I don't really have anything else to add here except that it would be fun to go to away matches in these cities. Oh, I also visited Cambridge University when I did my summer abroad program. Just wanted to share that.
* I find it fascinating that there is a Wycombe Wanderers AND a Bolton Wanderers. That's a lot of wandering! As for Bolton, you never know what to expect. They could be a soft and cuddly team like Michael Bolton (why are he and Zooey Deschanel doing some type of celebrity dating game?) or evil like Ramsay Bolton of Game of Thrones.
* MK Dons is clearly named after the Jersey City, New Jersey musical group that was big in the early 90s.
* I attended the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2000 and know that Wimbledon is a residential area of London. Still, I picture soccer matches being played on the grounds with passes going from court to court.
* Gillingham is clearly an homage to the X-Files actress who also recently played Margaret Thatcher on The Crown.
* Someone clearly made up the team Accrington Stanley just to see if we're paying attention. That's not a real thing.
There are other teams like Portsmouth, Sunderland, Crewe Alexandra that I didn't mention because I have nothing witty to share. I'm sure that they as well as Burton Albion (probably a nice guy), Lincoln City, Ipswich Town, and Cheltenham Town are all nice, quaint places to visit.
* Luigi (the three year old) goes to sleep after 10:00 regularly lately. He sleeps until 8:00, so 10 hours of sleep seems normal, but I'd prefer if it was 9:00-7:00 or 9:30-7:30. He also hasn't had a nap since the pandemic started.
* How does Dollar Tree make money? All of the products are $1, and they have to pay rent for the building, utilities, and employee salaries. Are they really making 50 cents for each bag of $1 Werther's candy bag? How much did they make on the 2-pack of playing cards that I purchased for $1?
* I feel bad for the non-Lachey members of 98 Degrees. Backstreet Boys and *NSync were huge at the beginning of the millennium and are still somewhat relevant today. For example, Backstreet Boys had a song "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that did pretty well just a few years ago. We all know about Justin Timberlake, but the other members of *NSync still appear regularly including in a recent Progressive commercial. Nick Lachey has had a very nice career thanks to his reality show with his then wife Jessica Simpson, and he recently won the latest season of "The Masked Singer." His brother Drew Lachey won the second season of "Dancing with the Stars." However, can you name the other members of 98 Degrees and say what they are doing today?
* Longtime readers may have seen my many different series (serieses?) over the years like Found in My Basement, and Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear. Well, I have a brand new series that will debut next month. I'm excited for it!
* There only seem to be a few cicadas still left in my neighborhood. Well, I mean there are plenty of dead ones around, but only a few that are still alive. I feel a little bad for these stragglers. There were thousands of them around just a few weeks ago, and I feel like the remaining ones missed their chance for fun and to procreate. I definitely don't miss the noise or them flying into me, so I'm definitely okay with waiting another 17 years to see them again!
* I finished my first book since the pandemic started. I read regularly on my commute to and from work, but since I've been working from home, I just haven't had the ability to focus on reading. It embarrassingly took 2-3 months to finish M.O. Walsh's "The Big Door Prize," but I'm glad that I did. I really enjoy his writing and recommend his books.
* Finally, I recently saw the new Disney Pixar movie "Luca." I'm trying to decide if it's a prequel or sequel of the Academy Award winning "The Shape of Water."
It's not exactly breaking news that sports betting is huge. What might be breaking news is that I think I'm going to start betting on sports. Just for some history, I placed a wager on a Pittsburgh Steelers game with a "bookie" when I was in college. (I won. Meanwhile, the bookie ended up having a fairly successful media career until last year when he abruptly did not though he seems to be working in the industry again.) I also go to the sports book whenever I visit Las Vegas, though I haven't been there in well over a decade.
Sports betting is now easier to do than ever. It's also legal in more and more places, and it's a huge moneymaker for states. For example, Pennsylvania has a high tax rate on sports betting revenue. Since Pennsylvania legalized sports betting, they have surpassed $7 billion in total handles. A small 2% goes to local jurisdictions while the rest goes to the state. Revenue for the Keystone State is over $500 million (this number does not include May 2021 numbers yet), and when the NFL season begins, there will be even more months of high revenues. (Even with all of this revenue, the cost to drive on the turnpike still seems staggeringly high, though that could be a topic for another blog post.)
I'll admit that I don't exactly know what all of this means other than a lot of people are making bets and casinos, websites, and states themselves are making money. Still, you see offers that are too good to pass up (though I have so far). A risk-free bet up to $1,000. Bet $1 and if an NBA team hits one 3-pointer in a game, you get $100. I'm sure there will be more of these as it gets closer to football season.
And speaking (well writing) of the upcoming football season, I imagine that we'll see an increase in revenue this season. The 2021 Super Bowl saw about half of Americans betting on the game so you could imagine how each month will be leading up to the 2022 Super Bowl. Just in case you're wondering, the Steelers' odds to win the Championship title this year are currently listed at +4000.
Since I still haven't signed up for a site yet, is there one that you recommend? Any betting tips are also welcome!
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
Posts
