2024.08.DisappearingMoment
I stopped following the news and renounced social media in 2012. I stopped following sports in 2016.
Over the past couple of years, I let myself start following sports again. For the most part, I've followed running. I like following it enough to write about it. That includes my longest work in years, an essay about Sifan Hassan.
I also tried to get back into baseball in a small way. I’ve never had the time or money to go to many live games. I don’t have any interest in television or streaming services. I used to follow baseball through radio broadcasts, writers, and podcasters. To catch up on baseball, I subscribed to Molly Knight and Joe Posnanski. Then Substack revealed its vileness. Knight and Posnanski haven’t left Substack, so I won’t follow or promote their work.
In June, I got an email message from a library friend:
I feel like you and Craig Calcaterra are of a similar mind (Craig left Substack when they backed white supremacy). I didn't see his essential newsletter on your list.
Calcaterra is a prolific writer, practical and personable. He’s helping me learn about the teams and players in Major League Baseball. After eight years away, I recognize only a few names. A lot of other things have changed. I’m starting to catch up.
My pleasure in Calcaterra made me wonder about one of my favorite writers, Rany Jazayerli. I followed Jazayerli’s posts on Usenet in the mid-90s, then his work as a cofounder of Baseball Prospectus. He kept writing after he left, both on his own and for the most prestigious sports publications. He hosted a great, short-lived podcast with Joe Sheehan, a Prospectus cofounder.
During that time, Jazayerli went from college to medical school. He moved to Chicago and started a dermatology practice. The Chicago Cubs offered him a dream job and he turned it down. He felt an obligation to his employees, patients, and family. For many years, his main focus, when he has time to write, is the Kansas City Royals, his favorite baseball team.
I learned that Jazayerli hosts a podcast about the Royals. His co-host, Soren Petro, a radio announcer, serves as a surrogate for the fans. They started the show in April 2022. I like how they interact.
The show checks my boxes. Listening to it is efficient: it’s released weekly and I like binging it, so I don’t feel compelled to keep up. It’s parasocial: Rany is good at revealing the right amount of information about himself. It’s optimistic: Rany seems incapable of cynicism, pessimism, or cruelty. It is esoteric and nerdy. Very, very, very nerdy. Rany also does something better than most baseball pundits.
Like other nerdy baseball fans of our generation, Rany and I grew up on Bill James. In a post-Bill James world. As geeks like us took over, baseball analytics and fantasy sports became pervasive. We identified with executives more than players. It was baseball’s equivalent of wrestling’s kayfabe. We were post-modern baseball fans. The teams were granfalloons. Only marks rooted for laundry. The off-season, drafts, and transactions were as exciting as the games.
Rany understands that perspective. He honors it. And he also loves watching good players play well. He wants them to play for his beloved Royals. He wants the Royals to win. His desire to see the Royals win makes me want them to win. His joy brings me joy.
Welcome to August 2024’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
- Kauffman Corner (I Loved It): Rany Jazayerli talking about the Royals. Few things make me happier.
- The Sports Moment (I Liked It): I miss the Olympics. This was a fun way to keep up.
- Weird Little Guys (I Liked It): White supremacists are dipshits: great premise. Molly Conger: great host. This show will get better as it finds its rhythm. Or a better network.
Nerdy Software
NALScribe works well for captioning live speech. Try it for communicating with people with hearing loss.
Free Font
Nothing is authentic except the gadfly who reveals its absence
Bougie Products
Swissies are inexpensive, well designed, and useful. If you lift weights at home, they’re worth considering.
Personal Finance and Investing
Did National Public Data abuse your privacy? If it did, freeze your credit. If it didn’t, don’t rely on luck. Freeze it now.
Reading
- Michael Buckland, “Known Item Search and Subject Search” (I Loved It): Buckland’s scholarship starts where Margaret Egan ended. Their ambition, rigor, and fluidity set the standard for my profession.
- Carolina Carter, After Him (2017) (I Loved It): We, as readers, are as malleable as the author’s characters. What else is there to know?
- Curtis Sittenfeld, "An Experiment in Lust, Regret and Kissing" (I Loved It): Please may I live in a world where cheaters lose.
- Thomas J. H. Morgan and Paul E. Smaldino, “Author-Paid Publication Fees Corrupt Science and Should Be Abandoned” (I Liked It): Fuck Elsevier. It has done incalculable damage, akin to Facebook and Fox. Green and Diamond Open Access is a necessary response.
Famous and Relatable
We have different definitions of fame. We empathize with different people. For me, the relevant factors are:
- Authenticity
- Principles
- A sense that people who know them like them
- Self-awareness
- Reluctance (to be famous)
- Awkwardness
These are some famous people with whom I find it easy to empathize:
- Nia Akins and Justin Amash
- Joey Burns (and John Convertino) and Pete Buttigieg
- Michael Cera and Tyler Cowan
- Keira D’Amato and Courtney Dauwalter
- Ben Edlund and Theo Epstein
- Elena Ferrante and Paul Ford
- Bryan Garner and Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Ethan Hawke and Carla Hayden
- Miguel de Icaza and Allen Iverson
- Jameela Jamil and Katelyn Jetelina
- Starlee Kine and Maria Konnikova
- Matt Levine and Des Linden
- Frances McDormand and Nico Muhly
- Steve Nash and Yared Nuguse
- Michelle Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Dolly Parton and Mark Pilgrim
- Questlove and Robin Quivers
- David Rees and Mary Roach
- David Singleton and Curtis Sittenfeld
- Rashida Tlaib and Christy Turlington
- Tracey Ullman and Gabrielle Union
- Gus Van Sant and Joey Votto
- Sam Wang and Meg White
- Gao Xingjian and Wendy Xu
- Kevin Youkilis and David Yow
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Tony Zhou (and Taylor Ramos)
Thank you for spending a few moments with me. I appreciate you and look forward to corresponding again next month.
Brett
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