Heroes | NY Baseball Week 2 Report | March Madness | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Today’s tune on this Saturday Sports is Heroes by David Bowie. It was a very clear choice after yesterday’s Bowie on the Radio by Ryan McMullan, in which he sings “For a moment we were heroes, heroes.” See what I did there, with these being back-to-back like this, very clever. That said, after yesterday’s Note and all the traumatics that came from the Earthquake that hit NY/NJ area, I promise there will be no Tomfoolery on this song.
David Jones was born on January 8, 1947, in London. He shared the same birthday as Elvis Presley and as a kid, he fell in love with music while listening to “Hound Dog.” The King of Rock & Roll was not only a great singer but knew how to perform on stage to get the women hot and bothered, which is something David Jones seemed to pick up on later.
As a musician, David Jones at 13 years old started on the saxophone. At 15 years old, he started his first rock band called the Konrads and was on the guitar in 1962. After getting frustrated with his fellow bandmates’ limited ambitions, he then played with American bands The King Bees and the Mannish Boys, who diversified his style of music as they sounded a bit more like American blues. Then in 1965, David Jones formed one more band called Davy Jones & The Lower 3rd. They released a song called “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving” under that band name before David Jones decided he needed a change.
That fall, David Jones would change his name to David Bowie. When asked by his manager why? Bowie explained, “a decade experimenting with various identities and growing us as plain old David Jones, a middle-class boy from London’s suburbs” a change was necessary. Inspired by American culture, Bowie changed his name as a homage to Jim Bowie after watching the 1960 American movie called The Alamo. (Source: Time Magazine)
Sidenote: The last thing I typed yesterday was to Remember the Alamo because of the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. Hand-up, holy shit, I did not know this fact yesterday, but wow, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good!
Under his new name and now solo, David Bowie would find his first real success in music when he wrote Space Oddity in 1969. At 22 years old, he finally had a single that charted at #5 in the UK and #13 in Ireland. In the 70s, he continued to experiment with different sounds and this would lead to his rise in popularity with albums such as Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Young Americans, and Station to Station. After his rise in music, Elvis Presley was now a huge fan of David Bowie. The two of them were set to collaborate after Elvis heard Golden Years, but unfortunately, Elvis would pass away in August of 1977. (Source: Smooth Radio)
By the time of this tune Heroes in 1977, Bowie was burned out from touring and had moved to Berlin to get out of the limelight. This ain’t his biography so that’s enough of a setup for this tune, but it should be Noted that later on in the 90s, David Bowie while passing through JFK would motion to his lovely wife, Iman, that a 2-year-old boy had “nice red hair.”
While living in Germany, David Bowie got his inspiration for this song through a real-life couple that was in the midst of an affair. It was his producer, Tony Visconti, and his backup singer, Antonia Maass.
For decades, David Bowie was never able to share what these lyrics were about because Visconti was married. In ‘03, Bowie told Performing Songwriter…
"I'm allowed to talk about it now. I wasn't at the time. I always said it was a couple of lovers by the Berlin Wall that prompted the idea. Actually, it was Tony Visconti and his girlfriend. Tony was married at the time. And I could never say who it was. But I can now say that the lovers were Tony and a German girl that he'd met whilst we were in Berlin. I did ask his permission if I could say that. I think possibly the marriage was in the last few months, and it was very touching because I could see that Tony was very much in love with this girl, and it was that relationship which sort of motivated the song." (Source: Song Facts)
Dolphins swim free in the ocean. The star-crossed lovers at the Berlin Wall were restrained. Makes sense with the added context.
King and Queen make a couple. The “them” here are the obstacles they face being together. Heroes represent love.
The wall, guns, and kisses are about the Berlin Wall. To be quite honest with you, I never really knew what this song was really about before this research, but I always thought it was an excellent song. The first 15 seconds of the instrumental to this tune is otherworldly. David Bowie was well ahead of his time.
David Bowie returned to Germany in 1987 to perform at a concert at the Berlin Wall. He would later say…
“I'll never forget that. It was one of the most emotional performances I've ever done. I was in tears. They'd backed up the stage to the wall itself so that the wall was acting as our backdrop. We kind of heard that a few of the East Berliners might actually get the chance to hear the thing, but we didn't realize in what numbers they would. And thousands on the other side had come close to the wall. So it was like a double concert where the wall was the division. And we would hear them cheering and singing along from the other side. God, even now I get choked up. It was breaking my heart. I'd never done anything like that in my life, and I guess I never will again. When we did 'Heroes' it really felt anthemic, almost like a prayer. However well we do it these days, it's almost like walking through it compared to that night, because it meant so much more. That's the town where it was written, and that's the particular situation that it was written about. It was just extraordinary.”
Wow and think just less than a decade after that performance he would compliment my red hair. Imagine peaking at 2 years old? This is a lot to take in, please forgive me, but I’m going to need to inhale some pints of Guinness to process all of this.
On to the sports…
Week 2 of the best baseball town in America was upon us. Here is a detailed report of the Yankees and Mets.
Game 3 (3/30 ‘24)
- 3 come from behind wins. There was never a doubt. Stroman pitched great. Oswaldo Cabrera needs to stay in the lineup.
- Juan Soto hit his first homer as a Yankee to give them the lead and Anthony Volpe also went deep to put the icing on the cake.
Game 4 (3/31 ‘24)
- Easter Sunday so missed some of the game to be with family. Very big of me to miss 1 of 162 games for them, I know.
- Caught some updates on the Hoboken train ride back and was on my arse in front of the TV for Soto’s go-ahead base knock. This Soto guy is pretty good. Robby is right, maybe they should sign him for 20 years.
- In the bottom of the 9th, Jon Berti made an excellent defensive stop to get the first out. Good on him for not trying to turn 2 and eating it.
Game 5 (4/1 ‘24)
- Missed the beginning of this game catching up. Blame it on the pub not having a TV.
- Anthony Volpe went 4 for 4 for the 1st time in his career. Week to Week Notes is anointing him with our inaugural player of the game.
- Yanks are now 5-0. Can they go undefeated this season?
Game 6 (4/2 ‘24)
- Nestor Cortes seems to struggle in the 1st inning. Back-to-back games where he’s given up runs in the bottom of the first.
- Yanks get out of the 1st inning thanks to a great defensive double-play on a safety squeeze. Poor D-Backs baserunning.
- Wasn’t the Yanks’ night. They lost and will not be undefeated this year.
Game 7 (4/3 ‘24)
- The game started at 2 PM ET so I missed all 9 innings while at the office.
- After work, while walking in the pissing rain to grab a few pints, I heard Alex Verdugo hit a bomb. Robby said Judge is heating up. He went yard for the first time this year and doubled in extras to extend their lead. Faller also just texted me saying “This team might be different.”
- Yanks are 6-1 heading back to Da Bronx. Still early, but we’ll take it.
Game 8 (4/5 ‘24)
- Home opener. Marcus Stroman gets out of trouble in the 1st inning unshaved unscathed.
- What an absolute dud of a game. The Yankees bats were asleep. Only one game in the Bronx so the sky isn’t falling, but the ground is shaking.
- The Yankees have 2 more with the Blue Jays this weekend. Aaron Judge against the Jays’ Saturday starter, Kevin Gausman, is 9 for 31 (.290) with 3 homers. Mike Stanton also sees the ball of Gausman well, he has hit .353 with a homer in 17 at-bats. The Yanks should win the next 2.
- The Mets won their first game of the season on Thursday in front of 17 people.
Women’s National Championship
South Carolina vs Iowa
Sunday, April 5th, 3 PM ET on ABC
In their Final Four matchup against NC State, South Carolina was only up 1 point at halftime before they dominated the 3rd Quarter. They went on a 29-6 run in what would turn into a rout. The Gamecocks are now undefeated at 37-0. The last Women’s College Basketball team to go undefeated in a season was the ‘16 UConn Huskies with Breanna Stewart and Ossining’s own, Saniya Chong. South Carolina dominated the paint in their matchup with the Wolfpack as they had 46 rebounds along with 6 blocked shots to NC State’s 32 boards and 1 block. Their front-court size gives SC a huge advantage on the boards as they averaged 46.2 rebounds per game (good for 3rd in the nation). Against NC State, their 2 bigs, C Kamilla Cardoso and PF Ashlyn Watkins, led the way. Cardoso scored a team-high 20 points as Watkins collected a team-high 20 rebounds.
Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes gritted out a win over UConn in the Final Four. F Hannah Stuelke came up clutch for the Hawkeyes as she led the team in scoring with 23 points. Clark struggled in this one, only shooting 3-11 from beyond the arc, but she did lead the Hawkeyes in scoring in the 4th Quarter with 8 much-needed points. UConn’s Nika Muhl did a great job full-court pressing Clark as if she were her shadow. One thing Iowa and Clark have going for them is that South Carolina probably won’t try to do the same in the Championship Game. UConn matched up very well with Iowa as they play 4 guards and 1 big, whereas SC always has at least 2 bigs on the floor. UConn could switch interchangeably with who guards Clark, while SC won’t want to stick one of their bigs on her on a switch. While SC may appear to have a massive advantage on the glass, Caitlin Clark isn’t just a great offensive player but is extremely savvy as a rebounder. She is always really well-positioned and has a knack for coming down with rebounds. For the Hawkeyes to end the Gamecocks’ perfect season 3 things will need to happen. 1) Hannah Stuelke will need to once again hold her own in the paint against much bigger opponents. 2) The other Iowa guards Kate Martin, Sydney Affolter, &Gabbie Marshall will need to knock down open 3s at a better rate than did against UConn (25%). 3) Most importantly, Caitlin Clark will need to go off. We’re talking 35+ points with a triple-double in rebounds and assists. Doable, she’s got this.
Prediction: 67 Iowa - 66 South Carolina
*Everything below here was written on Monday’s Mock Draft Monday. The Men’s Championship Game Preview will be posted by Monday morning.*
Purdue vs NC State | Tonight, 6 PM ET on CBS
UConn vs Alabama | Tonight, 8:45 PM ET on CBS
Final Four Preview
From the Sweet 16 Bracket, Week to Week Notes hit on 3 of the 4 Final Four schools. Not bad. I took NC State over Duke, so technically we hit on all 4 games of Elite 8.
The last time UConn and Alabama danced in March was in the ‘04 Elite 8. UConn won that matchup thanks to the 36 points that Ben Gordon scored. Those Huskies would win the National Championship in ‘04 as they had multiple NBA players besides Gordon in Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone, and Charlie Villanueva. The only other time they matched up was early last season when UConn once again came up on top.
In this year’s Elite 8, it looked like somebody finally would go toe to toe with the Huskies as Illinois was tied with them at 23-23 with 1:23 left in the 1st Half. Then, the Huskies woke up as they went on an absurd 30-0 run. Illinois did not score a bucket for the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half. It wasn’t just that UConn made a bunch of 3s either, in fact, they only made 3 of 17 attempts. They just continued to get stop after stop on defense. UConn’s C Donovan Clingan had a monster game with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 3 steals. A huge reason why the Huskies are so good is they can beat teams in so many ways because they consistently play great team defense. When you combine last year’s March Madness run, they have now outscored opponents 800-569. It’s been 10 games so the math is easy, they’ve averaged 80 points per game while allowing only 56.9, good for a 23.1 margin per game. Ridiculous.
Alabama played Clemson in a much closer game that went down to wire. After PF Grant Nelson had a huge Sweet 16, it was their other forward, Nick Pringle’s turn to step up. Pringle had 16 points and 11 rebounds including this smooth tip-in GIF’d above that was an AND-1. For Bama, of course, everything still runs through Mark Sears, who again led the team in scoring with 23. As a team, the Tide shot 44.4% from beyond the arc. If they want any shot at beating UConn, they need huge games out of Sears, Nelson, and Pringle, while also again shooting 44.4% from 3.
Prediction: UConn 80 - Alabama 56.9
Purdue vs NC State
These two schools have never once danced with each other in March. Very shy of them. That said, since 1971, they have faced each other 6 times with NC State winning the first 4 times they met. Purdue has beaten them in their last 2 meetings.
The Boilermakers beat the Volunteers to advance to the Final Four. Purdue’s Center, Zach Edey, continued his month of domination as he scored 40 points with 16 rebounds. During the game, the internet was annoyed that he shot 22 free throws, but Edey made up for it with a classic THIS IS MARCH post-game interview. When asked by the sideline reporter what his mentality was for this game, a fired-up 7’4” giant shouted into the mic, “They thought they knew us, man. They thought they knew what we had in our hearts. I promise you that they didn’t. We’re fucking winners. That’s what we do.” Much to my mother’s dismay, I have to report on Live TV hot mic F-Bombs, the people need to know.
The NC State and Duke Elite 8 game was a fun in-state showdown where the state students beat the private school kids. After being down 6 at the half, the Wolfpack went off for 55 points in the 2nd half. DJ Burns Jr. is my new favorite player to watch. As powerful of a human as he is at 6’9” and 275 lbs., he has an equal amount of finesse with his touch around the rim. His work in the low post is truly a joy to watch. It’s like Zach Randolph reincarnated. Aside from Burns Jr., DJ Horne also contributed 20 points. This matchup between Burns Jr. and Edey is going to be a classic on Friday night in Phoenix. I’m sticking with Purdue because I picked UConn vs Purdue on my original bracket, but I’ll be pulling for NC State as the underdogs. NC State is the 6th 11-Seed to make the Final Four as they join 1986 LSU, ‘06 George Mason, ‘11 VCU, ‘18 Loyola Chicago, and ‘21 UCLA. No 11-Seed has ever made the Championship.