Video: Watch what happens when you “ruin” a no-hitter
August 9, 2015Denny talks Foo Fighters, fatherhood, and more – WFNY Podcast – 2015-07-30
August 10, 2015Happy Monday, loyal WFNYers. I hope this edition of While We’re Waiting… finds you well and good on such a lovely Monday morning. How ’bout them Indians, eh? Assuming you’re still paying attention, you were treated to quite the weekend—one which we’ll have lots more on coming up. But in the meantime, you should make sure you catch Andre Knott getting showered with sunflower seeds and Michael Brantley getting the business from his teammates. Oh, and the Browns had a scrimmage! How about that?
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I say ‘How about that?’ as I largely missed the entire scrimmage at The Shoe. Friday was spent hacking up Mayfield Country Club before heading to Canton where Aerosmith ring in Hall of Fame weekend at Fawcett Stadium, or whatever they’re calling it now. Though that venue is a complete dump and is entirely not accommodating for the insane amount of people they packed on to the field in front of the stadium, Steven Tyler and crew absolutely brought the house down. The dude’s almost 70 and jumped around stage like he was Tigger if Tigger wore nothing but leather pants and a floor-length scarf.
But I digresss…
While it would have been great for Terrelle Pryor to suit up, Brian Hartline did. And while it would have been great for the Browns running backs to have been at least somewhat healthy, Johnny Manziel looked like an actual quarterback and Danny Shelton looked pretty damn good (from what clips I was able to see). There will be takeaways and storylines until the beginning of the season, but it’s funny to think that one of this season’s bigger free agent additions—defensive lineman Randy Starks—is slated to be the starting defensive end for a much-improved unit, but he is going largely undiscussed while guys who may or may not even make the team are getting boat loads of attention. Either way, it’s great to see Manziel seemingly having his head on straight. It’s great to see Phil Taylor leading the ones, even though Shelton is right on his heels. It’s great to see the defensive backfield looking absolutely filthy. And it’s great to see that the first preseason game of the year is less than five days away.
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I hesitate to discuss the recent release of Dr. Dre’s latest (and supposed final) album, “Compton,” as Andrew typically talks tunes on Tuesdays1, but this is worthy of discussion on back-to-back days. Though dubbed a soundtrack due to the impending release of the “Straight Outta Compton” film, Dre may have taken more than a decade since releasing “Chronic 2001,” but the man known more nowadays for his headphones and obscene amounts of wealth showed quickly that he hasn’t skipped a beat. As John Weiner put best at Rolling Stone: “It doesn’t seem like he’s ever stopped working, and yet somehow 16 years have elapsed since his last solo LP.”
To be clear: This album doesn’t hold a candle to “The Chronic,” and will likely get considerably less radio play than anything that came from “2001,” but if these are the benchmarks by which we are going to judge hip-hop albums, music critics should just fold up shop as very few records between now and the end of time will be able to loft itself into said pantheon. “The Chronic” was a life-changing, axis-tilting album. “Dre Day” was a diss track before Drake and Meek Mill knew how to write their names let alone bars. But “Compton” shows that timing can be fortuitous—as The Chronic was one of dozens of classic rap albums to come from that three-to-four-year window—but it also has a lot do to with the man writing the rhymes.
There’s something to be said for the way today’s music is oftentimes released. Beyonce seemingly shocked the world by dropping her last album in the middle of the night, completely unannounced. Drake did the same earlier this year, simply tweeting out an album cover and a link to iTunes. Dre gave us a bit of a heads up, but even that was just a week. In a day in age where we seemingly wait months (if not years) for albums—Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, for example—the way that some of these legends have been able to quietly knock out an album and disseminate it to the masses (Dre’s album, for what it’s worth, streamed on Apple Music the night before it was released) is worthy of a case study. The dude went nearly 20 years without releasing an album, and then just says, “Oh, by the way…my next and final album comes out next week.” Hey, I’ll take it.
I fully anticipate that there will be negative reviews of “Compton.” In today’s day in hip-hop, it’s simply not as good—for lack of a better term—as it was during Dre’s first run. When legends set benchmarks early, they give themselves a tough hill to climb. Just look at JAY Z and “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” Tons of hype, but it was a bit of a mess in terms of production, and let’s be honest: We expect more from the dude who drops “The Black Album.”
In releasing “Compton,” however, Dre did something that will largely go under discussed: He gave us one last taste of his genius, tossed in some clutch verses from today’s biggest stars (Lamar and, of course, Eminem) and also introduced us to a slew of artists who can now use this widely listened to album as a launching point for their respective careers. They won’t all be legends, but while Andre Young spent the last 16 years teasing us with “Detox,” he also launched the careers of some of today’s biggest stars. Perhaps he just passed the torch to one or two others, something that could live on long beyond the ephemeral nature of today’s music landscape.
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Smack those hot takes with a nine iron and douse them in the lake. Here’s this week’s edition of #ActualSportswriting:
“The Confession of Arian Foster” by Tim Keown (ESPN The Magazine): “Where some might see the hand of God, Foster sees physics and engineering, the slope of the road and the elevation of the homes in relation to a swollen runoff canal that bisects an arterial a few hundred yards away. Science and faith. They’ve brought us to this place, where Foster is ready to tell the story he’s been leading toward for as long as he can remember.”2
“The End of the Hoops Dream” by Jordan Ritter Conn (Grantland): “Even as he boasted, something about Solomon was sweet. He never wanted to get off the phone. He always wanted me to listen just a little longer as he discussed his plan to change the game. I was fascinated by the circle in which he ran — a global network of vagabond ballers from no-name schools, barely earning a living to play in remote hoops outposts, subsisting on pirated DVDs and mediocre cheeseburgers. Solomon was a gateway to a little-known basketball underground, a world that exists in the space between ambition and delusion. So I flew to Germany to follow one of Solomon’s exposure tours. And when I arrived, I found 10 American players wondering what the hell they’d gotten themselves into.”3
“Ninth Inning: The Baseball Bond” by Benjamin Hochman (The Denver Post): “The bond of baseball. It sounds cheesy, until a Marine tells you about the letters he got during boot camp. Or the ones he got in Afghanistan. So many of our parents taught us to love baseball, to believe in baseball. But today, more than ever, families split apart, with the children living far from home. As such, the text message, the instant message on Gmail and even the handwritten letter, these are what keep our bond stitched, like a Rawlings.”4
“The Change-up: How baseball’s tech team built the future of television” by Ben Popper (The Verge): “Watching sports online has always had one major complication: regional blackouts prevent you from streaming a game in the same territory as a television broadcaster who owns local rights. That meant BAM had to figure out where a customer was and whether or not they could legally watch the stream. In fact, BAM’s very first post-season package wasn’t even broadcast live in the United States or Japan. Fox owned the national broadcast rights to the pennant race, so BAM’s first big broadcast took place in Europe. From the beginning, BAM had to perfect live video stream.5
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And finally...John Oliver’s latest on parental anger and sex education.
Have a killer Monday, you guys. Back to the links I go!
- What’s up, alliteration? [↩]
- What doesn’t get mentioned in the story is that Keown showed up to Foster’s house and he was not there and no one in the home knew he was coming. Nevertheless, he was invited in and simply waiting for Foster to arrive. When he did, he delivered one of the more intriguing stories of the young NFL season. [↩]
- Another week, another fantastic story by Grantland’s Conn, who, on Twitter, stated that this was the most fun he’s had writing a story. [↩]
- The final installment of Ben Hochman’s nine-part series on the game of baseball. I’m continued to be impressed by the freedom given to him by the Denver Post—more old-school outlets could use work like this. [↩]
- I’ve been a very big critic of the MLB’s rules with video, but this Verge piece uncovers the history and the future of the group behind all of the multimedia coming from the diamond: BAM. [↩]
9 Comments
Straight outta the NFL…
http://thebiglead.com/2015/08/09/predicting-the-2015-2016-nfl-season-vs-straight-outta-compton-meme-remix/
The Broussard meme is priceless.
Best part of the Foster piece is the friendship of Foster and Forsett. They prove what many times is forgotten in today’s political landscape. People can indeed have lively, intelligent debate about issues they are on opposite sides. And, it is healthy (brings both parties not only an understanding about each other, but about themselves). We need more of that in today’s society.
Column needs more Swisher/Bourn trade excitement.
That was good.
RB injuries can go one of two ways IMO. I talk myself into thinking that, if not serious, it is better it happens early with time to rest in preseason than for them to get hurt in last preseason game and miss time, or go through the season not 100%.
Tom Withers tweeting that Joe Thomas was rolled up on in practice and helped off the field. Trainer checking his knee.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMDtzC9UkAA-afD.jpg
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/nrvs.gif
No “True Detective” mention for finale? Based on what I saw I can’t blame Scott for not mentioning it. This season was a let down from last year for me.
Wait, when did either Drake OR Meek Mill learn to write bars?
Tim Keown’s work runs hot and cold with me, but this article on Foster is an excellent read. And bravo to Foster for opening up on the topic.