Volume 2, Issue 22: Stardust Memories
Housekeeping alert! I've decided it would be fun, every few months, to do a mailbag for this here newsletter. I don't know why. I just thought it would be fun. If you have anything you've ever wanted to ask me -- or you just, you know, wanna talk -- email me at will.leitch@nymag.com. We'll compile some good ones and answer 'em in a few weeks.
I have an old Flickr account. Remember Flickr? Back before Yahoo bought it -- and back before social media ate it -- Flickr was my one-stop repository, a place you could put up dumb pictures of yourself and your friends that was less about showing them off to other people and more about being slightly amazed that there was a place that would store all your old photos in the first place. There was a time when photos were tangible items that would erode after years went by, so the idea that there would be a location where you could preserve them -- and, lo, have other people even comment on them -- sort of blew our minds. Like everything, Flickr was mostly ruined when Yahoo bought them; I swear, that place could buy air itself and we'd all be choking a month later. But I still have my account, and I was rooting around in it the other day.
Next week, Deadspin will turn 13 years old. It is now old enough to go on a date with Dane Cook. In honor of its 13th birthday -- and because I have another topic for next week's newsletter that limits the time for this one -- here are 10 random, weird, context-free photos from the early days of Deadspin that tickled my fancy heading into this holiday weekend. You might have to have been a reader back in that time to enjoy or even understand some of these, but I'm feeling nostalgic. I'll be back with more words next week. Have a great Labor Day.
I don't really miss those days in the same way I don't really miss high school: It's fun and warm and amusing to look back at them, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. It's fun to walk the old halls sometimes though.
Here is a numerical breakdown of all the things I wrote this week, in order of what I believe to be their quality. (This is an attempt to have an objective look at the value of my work in a way that I suspect will be difficult to sustain.)
1. Is It Possible to Be an Ethical Sports Fan? New York Magazine. This was a thorny one, for several reasons, in several different ways. Though I like writing detailed explorations of a question and then never coming up with an answer anyway.
2. MLB Reunions Inspired by Matt Holliday, MLB.com. Oh, yeah, Freese is coming back someday.
3. The Thirty: The Overlooked Players on Every Team, MLB.com. Pour one out for Jedd Gyorko.
4. Debate Club: Astronaut Movies, SYFY Wire. One suspects First Man is gonna crack this list awfully soon.
5. MLB Septembers, Ranked, MLB.com. 2011 obviously won.
THE WILL LEITCH SHOW
This week's guest on "The Will Leitch Show" was the great Andrea Kremer, as mentioned in last week's newsletter. She is the best. Watch our show right here on Amazon or on SI TV.
PODCASTS
Grierson & Leitch, short on "The Happytime Murders" and gloriously long on "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Seeing Red, Bernie Miklasz and I prep for our live show. If you're in St. Louis, come to our live show on Thursday!
Waitin' Since Last Saturday, preview of today's Austin Peay game, which I will be attending.
If you have an Amazon Alexa -- and my family doesn't, for obvious reasons -- you can hear a special show Grierson and I are doing weekly solely for the Amazon Alexa. Read about it here. If you have one, will you try it out and see if it works? I have no idea how to work that weird device.
Sorry about the short newsletter this week. It's Labor Day weekend. Go out there and enjoy it. Also, pour one out for the Village Voice, which closed down this weekend. There was a time in my life when that was the only job I would have ever wanted. Be safe, everyone. Try to look sharp.
Best,
Will