No More Issues
Sneaking out the back door of '24
You made it. Welcome to the last Sunday Bunch of 2024.
I hope you’ve enjoyed watching me try to make sense of a wild year. I spent just a few minutes revisiting the archives this week, so I can say with confidence: we saw some shit. This year will definitely be one of the good chapters in a future textbook, assuming we still have books and/or reading by the end of the decade.
Thank you for taking the ride so far.
The time of our lives
With this our 36th and final edition of the year, let’s do a quick tale of the tape:
You have been a remarkably loyal and consistent audience, so popularity of each installment week-to-week has stayed mostly steady, at a very healthy 60% average open rate.
Our one standout was Children of the Corn (Vol. 2, No. 4), which was our most opinionated installment and proceeded to do 50% more in terms of readers and views than any of our other issues. Point taken and warmly received. More judgmental content on the way in 2025.
Most Clicked Links
Mike Tyson's Bare Ass Exposed During Pre-Jake Paul Fight Interview (TMZ)
Seized Whiskey Auction (Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control)
The 6 New Rules of Communicating (Honest Broker)
Pink Hawk Tuah Jumpsuit Costume (Spirit Halloween)
Is It Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism? (McSweeney’s)
Microtrends are taking over social media, and keeping up can be really expensive (Business Insider)
California Takes Step to Ban Kids from Riding E-Bikes (Micromobility)
The How & Whyyy of Unhinged Marketing (On Brand / Kira Klaas)
The Making of Sam Altman’s Eyeball Scanner (Bloomberg)
Not sure what to take away from the top 10 or even the top 50, other than to say I covered a lot of ground (some might say a little too much) between high(ish) and low brow, and many of you were flexible enough to navigate that growing expanse with me, so thank you.
Most Viewed Videos
The Obstruction of Action by the Existence of Form (R Eric McMaster)
Three Pete Bites the Dust aka my SportsCenter debut (ESPN)
Washington’s Dream 2 (SNL)
Dorm Rooms for Adults (@saxyboybilly18)
The data doesn’t lie, the people want to see more of Timmy and me on ESPN, just two bros will chill mustaches talkin’ college football.
The people have spoken
The state of newsletter openings
Following up on last week’s conversation about small talk and subsequent poll, I have the results and it seems you feel the same way I do about opening intros in newsletters. You could kind of go either way:
Lacking a clear referendum, I’m going to try something novel in the current state of the newsletter milieu and…stfu unless I have something meaningful to say. Some Sundays, I’ll walk in and strike up a conversation with all sorts of personal developments or thoughts to discuss. Others, I am just going to walk in, hit play on the boombox, and start spitting.
And with that…
Here’s one more for the 2-4.
Rickey Is Forever
We lost a true 🐐 this week, as Major League Baseball legend Rickey Henderson passed away on Friday at the age of 65.
Everyone talks about Bonds and the steroid taint, but Rickey’s (free of PED scandal) stats are off the charts, especially by modern stat nerd definitions1. Along with 3,055 career hits across 25 seasons, he still holds the record in more offensive categories than any one player:
Most runs scored - 2,295
Most stolen bases - 1,406
Most single-season stolen bases - 130
Most walks2 - 2,129
Most games led off with a home run - 81
He won two World Series, he was the 1990 AL MVP and a 10-time All-Star, continued to produce well past the point that most guys are Rendoning their way through the lucrative final contract. In 1998, during his fourth stint with with Oakland, a 39 year-old Henderson became the oldest player in history to lead the American League in steals with 66.
In 2003, he played his last MLB games with the Dodgers, where he hit his final home run as a big leaguer:
After 2003, Rickey didn’t race to start cashing retirement checks. In 2005, more than a year removed from his last pro at bat, Rickey was still refusing a one-day contract from Billy Beane to let him retire with the A’s, insisting he could still play.
The career numbers, the wins, the determination, all of them would be more than enough to cement his place as one of the all-time greats. But the Legend of Rickey is so much bigger.
Rickey grew up in Oakland, he played baseball, basketball and football, and was an All-American running back with two 1,000-yard rushing seasons3. He dreamt of playing for the Raiders, but his mother encouraged him to go with baseball because it had better career longevity:
"The main thing was I wanted to get to the major leagues in a certain amount of time. If I played football, it would take four years of college before I could play in the pros. I said, 'In four years, if I can't make it to the major leagues, I'd rather go to college and play football.' I made it to the major leagues in 2 1/2 years."
He was drafted by the A’s, came up in their system, and he ultimately did four stints with the club. No, it’s not lost on anyone that Rickey is passing in the year that he is, the same one that watches HIS team limp out of town in pursuit of the bag4.
Then there’s Rickey being Rickey. The quotes and stories. So much lore:
In the early 1980s, the Oakland A’s accounting department was freaking out. The books were off $1 million. After an investigation, it was determined Rickey was the reason why. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on a wall at his house.
During his time with the Yankees, Henderson received a six-figure bonus check. After a few months passed, an internal audit revealed the check had not been cashed. Current Yankees GM Brian Cashman – then a low-level nobody with the organization – called and asked if there was a problem with the check. Rickey said, “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up.”
When he was on the Yankees in the mid-1980s, Henderson told teammates that his condo had such a great view that he could see, “The Entire State Building.”
There was the time he fell asleep on an ice pack and gave himself frostbite–in the middle of August.
In 1996, Rickey’s first season with the Padres, he boarded the team bus and was looking for a seat. Steve Finley said, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” Henderson looked at Finley and said, “Ten years? Ricky’s been playing at least 16, 17 years.”
This one is a classic, but has been refuted by both parties: When Henderson signed with Olerud's Mariners in 2000, he came up to Olerud and asked about the helmet the first baseman always wore in the field. After learning the reason -- Olerud suffered an aneurysm in college, and wore the helmet to protect his head -- Henderson said, "Man, I played with someone like that in New York."
And Olerud's response: "Yeah, Rickey, that was me."In the last week of his lone season with the Red Sox, Chairman Tom Werner asked Henderson what he would like for his ‘going-away’ gift. Henderson said he wasn’t going anywhere, but he would like owner John Henry’s Mercedes. Werner said it would be tough to get the same make and model in less than a week and Henderson said, “No, I want his car.” The Red Sox eventually got Henderson a Red Thunderbird and when he saw it on the field before the last game of the season, Rickey said, “Whose ugly car is on the field?”
R.I.P. to a proper legend, one of the last on-the-field greats with mystique to match.
Nicolas Cage & Christian Bale to Star in David O. Russell's ‘Madden'
Considering some of the roles he has pulled off before, this week’s report of Christian Bale as an age-approximate Al Davis felt almost boring. I’m not saying it is a bad choice, I am sure he’ll kill it and I am guessing it requires less prep than just about any role of his career.
I am much more interested to see where Nic Cage is going to take John Madden. The appearance, the wardrobe, the mannerisms, the sound, I need that first look ASAP. And the updated description that was circulating with the Bale news has me hanging on one more key casting announcement:
Don’t expect a token sports biopic. Russell’s film is not that. Madden is being described as a “video game movie.” It’s the origin story of MADDEN NFL, one of the biggest video game franchises of all time. “Madden” will focus on the former coach’s exit from the league and subsequent partnership with EA Sports to create the pioneering “Madden NFL” video game franchise. The film will recount the rivalry between Madden and ex-footballer Joe Montana, in a race against time to develop the ultimate football video game.
Assuming this is a late 1980s/early 1990s timeline, who do you get to play a 35ish Joe Montana opposite Cage as Madden and Bale as Al Davis? Only wrong answers in the comments please.
As if all of that weren’t wild enough, the casting of this movie has been a ride in and of itself: Madden was Will Ferrell, then Hugh Jackman before landing on Cage. Meanwhile Al Davis was going to be Tom Hanks in the earlier iteration, before things reconstituted with Cage and Bale5.
Eventually, Madden will find its way to theaters, hopefully in time to help Woody Johnson’s handlers explain to him that it’s just a game.
1-800 CHAT GPT
I love the phase that OpenAI is in right now. It’s that adorkable pre-IPO stage where they can do things like these and then just launch them with product folks talking to camera and sitting around a table at what feels like the most awkward company-sanctioned holiday party imaginable6.
In two years this will relaunch with a global campaign featuring a short-film by David Fincher and VO by Viola Davis.
🦞🥞 Holiday Potluck
As you make your way through those last open tabs, saved items, reading lists, and streaming queues7, should you find yourself in need of a last minute story to round out the year with mirth, merriment and a sense of childlike curiosity (or just a smidge of childish humor), please make yourself at home and enjoy the best from my last foraging adventures of 2024:
Texas is bigger in Japan (Axios)
How McLaren Went From The Brink Of Bankruptcy To Formula 1 World Champions (Huddle Up)
Hermès and the success of the coveted Birkin bag (60 Minutes)
Related: Why Louis Vuitton is struggling but Hermès is not (The Economist)
Can Vans Recapture Its Cool? (Business of Fashion)
Timeless Style is a lie (Blackbird Spyplane)
The Long Game: Why Family-Owned Hotels Are Redefining Luxury (Skift)
A Year of Los Angeles Dining (Jason Stewart / Taste)
The first trailer for James Gunn’s Superman (DC Studios)
36 Things That Stuck With Us in 2024 (NY Times)
Bobby Hundreds’ Best of 2024 (Monologue)
Starbucks is the new Venmo for Gen Alpha (Fast Company)
Vote Dicker the Kicker (LA Chargers)
Why NHL arenas are designed the way they are — and how they're changing (The Athletic)
Churches and their Hidden Basement Bowling Alleys (Messy Nessy)
Haliey Welch Tells Caroline Calloway How Hawk Tuah Changed Her Life (Interview Magazine)
How to Substack (Max Read)
People Are The New Brands (Ed Elson)
Related: The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too! (Pessimists Archive)
We’re experiencing the faultline where too much stuff meets the “always on” of the internet, complicated by dead internet theories: we’re in the eve of the false memory economy and, after experiencing this enough, the warm potential of the next thing feels like a type of madness. Is it not quantum insanity to keep doing this again and again, expecting stability in the process? Everything is constantly stolen from us and, while our rights and our health are more important, so is our culture, so are our lives. And yet: another casualty. One day, all the links that I’ve linked in this newsletter will be broken. All these footnotes, all these arguments, a cloud: conversations about nothing, ramblings on lost times, lost to forces beyond you or me.
Happy holidays to you and yours. Thank you again for the time you spent reading me and Sunday Bunch in 2024. I’ll talk to you on the other side.
Cheers,
BUNCH
One more thing…
You do not want to see Peter Brand alone with Rickey game tape, that’s all I’m saying.
“Unintentional” which is just a way of saying technically Bonds has more overall walks but Rickey’s are way cooler.
He also ran track, but did not stay with the team as the schedule conflicted with baseball.
Throw in Kamala and it’s a rough, rough year for Oakland.
I love where we landed, but Hugh Jackman as John Madden and Christian Bale as Al Davis would have been the football-themed spiritual sequel to The Prestige that we deserve.
From The Verge: “Funnily enough, Google launched a similar tool in 2007 called GOOG-411, which offered free directory assistance by voice. The service was discontinued in 2010 without an official explanation from Google, but some speculate that it was shut down because the company had already achieved its underlying goal: collecting a sufficient database of voice samples to advance its speech recognition technology.”
How many of us need to adopt resolutions involving a cleanse for our inbox or Chrome tabs or Readwise/Pocket saved items or bookmarks on X or movies in our Netflix queue or our Letterboxd watchlists?