Level VI | Rugby Report | Yanks & Jets Banter | Critiquing The Critics | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
In ‘24, His or Her Words, Not Mine has Levels by Avicii on in the background. It’s a happy song so I figured that would be better to throw up on people’s social media timelines every Thursday. If you ever find anything funny on the internet, have a story of your own you want to share, have your own insight on your favorite sports team, or even a Guinness recommendation, whatever it may be, please feel free to shoot over a text, direct message on social media, or email WeekToWeekNotes@gmail.com.
The vocal sample to this tune comes from Etta James’ “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, originally sung in 1962.
Moving on…
Tony from the UK
Hello You_The_Reader, love your post about the Six Nations, although I can see your bias! 😂 Getting ready for tonight’s match, France have much to live up to as do the ROI, both currently favourites. Me? well s**t, I’m English with Flemish ancestry, my wife however is , SCOTTISH! So it’s going to be an good series😂 I shall, when England play, wear my New England top, to go with the many I have! Humorous slanging of words have already been with the Scottish family, the Irish family will be tonight along with our Surrogate French family later, when I get the proper translation …….
Hahaha thanks Tony! Much appreciated as always. Yes I’m overtly biased towards the boys in green 😂 my dad is a huge rugby fan as well and thinks this series is going to be close one, up for grabs with a bunch of hungry teams, England/Scotland of course included. Haha at the end of the day the humorous slanging of words and the Guinness pints sponsoring it all is what it’s all about. Should be a good one, I’m very excited as well!
And many cheers to you guys across the pond! Your Dad is right it’s going to be a close one, too close for my liking…. there will be many cheers, tears and my wife telling me off for shouting at the tv! Many years ago I had my best Guinness, or two 🤥 on business in Dublin, and my worst at Dublin Airport returning the same day….. but the good memories remain… good to keep in touch Sir! As my wife says …… Slainte Mhath, or from us Englush Heathens, Chin Chin Old Son, keep in touch! 😂
Haha yes keep in touch and enjoy the bye weekend against the Italians tomorrow! 😂 cheers
👍 but I don’t underestimate the Italian Team..
Omg that drop kick at the 63rd minute just now….Ok, that was a good ‘un, but tell your Dad, it’s never over til the fat lady sings….😂
The Irish played well, but France was in it for most of the game even down a man. Haha my dad is like you, wouldn’t dare to even underestimate Italy so he knows it’s a long series.
👍 Ok agree there. I’m watching Carol King now. Jeez it’s going to be a long night, keeping the sound low, as the wife is asleep …… 😂
Thank you, Tony, you’re always welcome to talk rugby on Week to Week Notes. Cheers!!
NY Yankees & Jets Banter
Large italics are Yankees and Jets fan insiders.
The small font is me.
2/1 ‘24
Oh my
That was a very rough stretch haha
(@YouTheReader this was a low point for the Yanks of this era. Jeets was hurt and about to retire the following year. A-Rod was suspended for juicing for the 97th time. Mark Teixeira was out with a wrist injury that occurred while he was representing Team USA. CC Sabathia was going through it. Somehow this team team won 85 games which is insane when you consider the ‘23 Yanks only won 82. BTW last year’s struggles, they are winning the World Series in ‘24.)
Woah. The Orioles are close to getting Corbin Burnes… Btw. The Knicks are awesome!
What they do
Nice scrappy comeback against the Pacers. They are fun and play harder than any team in the NBA. I think Brunson is also like kind of a superstar? He had 40 tonight.
He is a legit superstar. Best player the Knicks have had in 20 years. Better than Melo for sure.
This dude is loved - and deserves it.
These guys are great too. They just eat boards and play defense
Hartenstein is good. Knicks being good would be fun - their fans deserve it.
Yes. I am hopping on the bandwagon. And Brunson just seems like a great guy
Melo Knicks teams were more flashy and full of vets. This team feels different, more underdogs, scrappy. What I imagine the Ewing/Stark Knicks were like.
2/2 ‘24
Pretty much
This is such a great point. What the hell was KD thinking not going to the Knicks?
He screwed that up and will never recover.
2/3 ‘24
I think they were convinced they were getting the Japanese pitcher - and when they didn’t they kind of froze. We’ll see if they do something before the trade deadline that shows they really want to build a Mecca and try to win.
Agreed, would’ve thought they had a better idea of where he was going to go but must’ve been surprised it was LA. Probably could use another ace or bullpen guy, maybe they get it at the deadline.
Hated this guy, but love this.
That’s awesome, he looks like a normal dude. Probably happens a ton with catchers/football players in helmets, where fans don’t realize it’s them
I think they’re right and it fits with what you just said, Dad. It’s been a few years of this now where they consistently misread the market, and when the plan they have gets derailed they don’t have a plan B to go to
I guess the deep dive didn’t help.
Although I give them some credit for signing Stroman bc that doesn’t feel like something Cashman would usually do, I think it was kind of smart.
Desperate too.
But it’s disappointing that we didn’t have prospects that could’ve beat the Orioles’ offer for Burnes.
This is actually really cool.
(@YouTheReader more on Rocky and Carl Weathers in this Week’s Critiquing The Critics below.)
**Suns Fan Emma gets Invited into the Groupchat**
Emma is gonna be a Knicks fan pretty soon
Haha Knicks bandwagon is filling up
Hop on Emma!
**Suns Fan Emma dislikes our comments and leaves the Groupchat**
I love Rizzo - but there is no reason this guy is not our 1B other than Rizzo was cheaper.
That - is insane.
That is an incredible stat.
BTW - St John’s started off 0-3…now 7-5. Playoffs just around the corner. Also Brunson is so good.
That sounds like great coaching. Also atta boy Ry!
Yep. I wonder if those LeBron to the Knicks rumors are true at all.
Would be interesting. Do you think they would go for it?
They should
100% should if they can
2/4 ‘24
Doubt this is true - but would be wild if they fired him. Vrabel?
Would be very Jets to wait this long. I like him but based on how everything went last year, it wouldn’t shock me and I wouldn’t be like super mad about it
Same here, wouldn’t be opposed to Vrabel either.
But does that mean we then keep Hackett? Like whoever else they hire is not going to want the clowns we have running our offense
I would feel bad for him - but move on quickly if they got someone better. Maybe Rogers knows Hackett stinks.
This is good for the jets. Soccer has to be played on grass. So I think they’re ripping up the turf. And also, it’s really cool.
Kind of a big deal?
See my comments above
(@YouTheReader see even the pros like us sometimes slip up!)
It will be a big deal..the last time it was held here was 30 years ago (1994 *gulp*) and because we host it we automatically make the World Cup.
Let’s go !!
2/5 ‘24
Not sure why they gave him away for a bucket of balls, but everything I read says this was a very good move for the Yanks.
Yeah, that’s true kind of odd, the Dodgers might just have too much talent and Ferguson can’t be sent down to minors.
Caleb Ferguson
Caleb Ferguson is from Columbus, Ohio. He was drafted in the 38th Round of the ‘14 MLB Draft out of West Jefferson, Ohio. He was committed to playing for West Virginia but chose to join the Dodgers. Ferguson made his MLB Debut in ‘18 and as a 21 year old pitched to a 3.49 ERA. After a Sophomore Slump in ‘19, Ferguson pitched to a 2.89 ERA in ‘20 but unfortunately, he had to get Tommy John after tearing his UCL in September. After missing all of ‘21, Ferguson was back in LA’s pen in ‘22 as he pitched to a career-best 1.82 ERA. Last year the lefty had a 3.43 ERA and was used as the Dodgers opener 7 times. For his career, Ferguson he owns a 3.43 ERA and strikes out 10.7 batters per 9 innings. He throws a mid to high 90s fastball with a cutter that is offspeed at high 80s. (Source: Baseball Savant) He is not necessarily a lefty specialist as lefties hit .234 off him while righties hit .236. I’d expect the Yanks to use him in lower-leverage situations, but he should be a nice piece out of the pen.
I think the Yanks are gonna be good this year. Don’t know why - but I think a lot of things will work out - and if Judge and Rizzo are healthy it’s a very different story from last year - and they are obviously better this year with Soto.
Yes, hopefully, Volpe improves at the plate and not saying DJLM is going to get back to hitting .340 again, but if his average can be around .280-.290 the lineup could look scary.
2/7 ‘24
Second part of this = nightmare.
I’ll pass on the ‘04 doc too haha
This is not funny (but it’s kinda funny).
That must’ve been unreal. (@YouTheReader no need to end on OJ this go around!)
Miscellaneous of the Week
With this week’s passing of Carl Weathers, who played the iconic character of Apollo in Rocky, it’s an obligation to do a Critiquing The Critics of the original Rocky film. We’ll start off with what the critics had to say and end with the Backstory of Rocky…
Sir Vincent Canby, they made 4 more out of this Hollywood make-believe, just hold the L.
Rocky originated the “achingly familiar” underdog story. Someone’s gotta tell Richard to stop being a dickhead, I guess I’m the man for that!
Nell punching back with Common Sense, thank you, dear!
As a fellow writer, I’ll say that Roger should’ve known to never start a sentence with “But & And.” But he’s a legend. And he got this take correctly.
Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in what might be the greatest sports movie ever made. Stallone before this franchise was down on his luck as an actor, but his story traces back to Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. When he was born in The City, his mother had troubles during delivery which caused the paralysis on the left side of his face. Sly was born with his signature look and snarling speech. As a result, he was bullied throughout his childhood, which made him hit the gym. When he couldn’t make it in acting in the late ‘60s, Stallone starred in some snuff films creeps in the ‘70s would watch around Times Square and he even slept in the Port Authority while failing in auditions in acting. One of the roles he didn’t receive was as an extra in The Godfather.
Down on his luck, Stallone turned to writing his own story that he could star in. The first draft of Rocky took him 3.5 days to write, but only 10% of the story would end up in the movie we know today. One of the original endings was Rocky throwing the fight so that he could open up a pet store with Adrian. Glad that got revised! One of the main things that Stallone wouldn’t budge on was who would play Rocky. Studios insisted that the likes of Burt Reynolds and James Caan play the lead, but Sly said, “I didn’t know that much money existed. They kept insisting they needed a big-name star, but the story was about not selling out, about going the distance as a million-to-one shot. I never would have sold it … I’d rather bury it in the backyard and let the caterpillars play Rocky.” The other aspect of the film that Stallone was keen on was having it be set in Philadelphia. This was because it was the bi-centennial of the Declaration of Independence, which was of course a big deal and further hyped up this American underdog story. Screw what The Google says, reading about all this just makes me want to start eating raw eggs in the morning.
Before selling the script of Rocky, Stallone was down so bad money-wise that he had to resort to selling his own doggo he loved for $40. That’s brutal. He ended up buying Butkus back for $3k after “several threats later.” This film was made with only a $1 million budget and they would cut costs any way they could, such as not filming with extras on his date with Adrian at the Ice Skating Rink. It ended up much better anyway that Rocky paid off the ice rink manager during after-hours, more intimate.
In regards to Apollo Creed, Carl Weathers during his audition gained Stallone’s trust after their first spar session. Weathers clocked Stallone on the chin, to which Sly told him to calm down. Weathers responded, “if I was allowed to audition with a real actor, I could do much better.” After that, Sly offered Weathers the role on the spot. After the passing of Weathers, Stallone said, “Carl Weathers was such an integral part of my life, my success. When he first walked into that room for the audition. I saw greatness, but I didn’t understand how great. I never could’ve accomplished what we did with Rocky without him. He was absolutely brilliant. His voice, his size, his power, his athletic ability, but more importantly his heart, his soul. It’s a horrible loss…He was magic and I’m so fortunate to be a part of his life. Apollo, keep punching.” RIP Carl Weathers