‘04 Iris in Buffalo | Rangers Draft | Team USA | Riff ‘Round The Bases | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
This is one of my favorite songs of all time. I’ve been listening to it on in the background from radio stations in the late 90s to my MP3 Player in the ‘00s to Spotify today. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of you do the same. It’s one of those songs that I’ve always known but still to this day hear it and it hits differently every time.
Everybody talks about Woodstock in the 60s. Today all you hear about is Coachella, the Fyre Festival, and the Eras Tour, but they forget about ‘04 Iris in Buffalo. Somebody has got to remind them.
This song is Timeless so there’s a ton riding on these Week to Week Notes annotations. It’s the Goo Goo Dolls’ signature song which peaked at #9 on US Billboard Hot 100. Even more importantly it has become one of Ireland’s best-selling singles of all time so my aunties love it. Lastly, if I screw up Iris, the lads might decommission me. We’ve had many a night of drinking but all the best ones ended up with drunkenly searching ‘04 Iris in Buffalo up on YouTube. Many are saying it is the Modern-Day Quintessential YouTube Rabbithole of its time…
No phones. No TikTok. It’s pissing rain out on the 4th of July. Everybody’s just living in the moment. What a time to be alive.
Such an enigmatic chorus. He doesn’t want the world to see him, doesn’t think they would understand, but wants you to know who he is. Hmm, I can’t put my thumb on who that reminds me of, but it hits home.
As mentioned previously, ‘04 Iris in Buffalo took place on July 4, ‘04. This is the first Volume of ‘04 Iris in Buffalo and I’m setting the precedent that Week to Week Notes will have Iris on in the background every Saturday of July 4th Weekend from here on out.
NHL Locals Draft ‘23
New York Rangers: Drew Fortescue
In the 3rd Round of the NHL Draft with the 90th overall pick, the New York Rangers selected Pearl River, New York’s own, Drew Fortescue. The defenseman is committed to playing at the college in Boston with his new future Ranger teammate Gabe Perreault. The two new Rangers will also join forces for at least another year with fellow U.S. National Under-18 teammates in Will Smith (San Jose Sharks) and Ryan Leonard (Washington Capitals) to form one helluva freshmen class at the college in Boston.
Drew Fortescue played for Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ before he made the Team USA Under-18 Team. During his time representing Team USA from ‘21 to ‘23, Fortescue played 113 games, netted 3 goals, and had 39 assists. Team USA just won the Under-18 World Championship Gold Medal and Fortescue scored had 3 points in their 7 games. The 6’3” lefty stick defender was targeted by the Rangers, who actually traded up a spot just to make sure they could get the local kid. Rangers assistant coach, Dan Muse said of Fortescue, “He made really big improvements from year one to year two. He became a guy that you could play against anybody’s top line and he ate a lot of minutes for us." When asked about playing for the Rangers, the 18-year-old gave the right answer, “I actually grew up an Islanders fan, but not anymore." Congratulations and best of luck to Drew, we’ll be rooting for you!
Team USA
For the United States, the ‘23 FIFA Women’s World Cup starts this time next month on July 21st. Team USA’s roster was announced earlier this week. Since hockey&basketball have wrapped up, baseball not being for everyone, and football still being a bit of aways away; I figured spending the next month’s Saturdays doing some write-ups on the women could get you and me up to speed on the #1 Ranked Soccer team in the world. There are 23 roster spots, last Saturday we kicked off with the forwards. Today will feature the goalies & some defenders.
Alyssa Naeher, Goalie, #1
Club: Chicago Red Stars
Alyssa Naeher is from Stratford, Connecticut. She took over the role of starting goalkeeper for the USA in ‘17 and now ranks 3rd all-time in caps, wins, & shutouts for a goalkeeper in USA history. She has twice won the World Cup with Team USA as she was the backup to Hope Solo in ‘15. In ‘19, Naeher didn’t miss a minute on the back line. Naeher enjoys doing the crossword puzzle every morning with her coffee as well as biking and being outside during the Chicago summers.
Aubrey Kingsbury, Goalie, #21
Club: Washington Spirit
Aubrey Kingsbury is from Cincinnati, Ohio. She made her USWNT debut against Uzbekistan as the United States won 9-0. This made her the 8th goalkeeper in USWNT history to start off with a clean sheet in her debut. She started her professional career in Norway before moving back to the US in ‘15 to play in the NWSL. Kingsbury (formerly Bledsoe) holds Wake Forest’s career record for shutouts (33), goals against average (0.91), games started (94), and minutes logged (8,692).
Casey Murphy, Goalie, #18
Club: North Carolina Courage
Casey Murphy is the backup goalie and she is originally from Bridgewater, New Jersey. Standing at 6’1”, the local goalie is the tallest goalkeeper in USWNT history. Murphy seems to be a Jersey girl through and through as she attended Rutgers. As a Scarlett Knight, Murphy is the school’s all-time leader in career shutouts. After forgoing her final year of college eligibility, Murphy played professionally in France where she was named the D1 Féminine Best XI. Casey Murphy was twice named the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year.
Alana Cook, Defender, #12
Club: OL Reign
Alana Cook is from Far Hills, New Jersey, or a few towns over from Bridgewater, NJ. Cook is a central defender who broke out on USWNT in ‘22 where she received 3 times as much playing time and started 15 matches while playing all 90 mins in 12 of them. She started her career with PSG in ‘19 and returned back to the States to play in the NWSL in ‘21. Cook has an older sister who represented the Great Britain National Softball Team at the ‘16 World Championship.
Naomi Girma, Defender, #4
Club: San Diego Wave
Naomi Girma is from San Jose, California. The new 23-year-old is just coming off her break-out season with USWNT as she received a January Camp call-up in ‘22. Girma was the #1 overall pick in the ‘22 NWSL Draft. She graduated from Stanford, studying symbolic systems, and is working towards her Masters degree in Management Science and Engineering.
Sofia Huerta, Defender, #3
Club: Ol Reign
Sofia Huerta was born in Boise, Idaho. She has Mexican-American descent and played a bit for Mexico before changing her association to play for the USA. ‘22 was a huge year for Huerta as she set career highs in matches played (16), starts (11), and saw 1,074 minutes of action. In the NWSL, she was just named a part of the NWSL Best XI. Huerta is the first player from the state of Idaho to earn a cap for the USWNT.
Riff ‘Round The Bases
Wander Franco of the Rays is set to receive the largest amount from this year’s $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool based on regular season stats. He is projected to make nearly $900k. A total of 100 players will receive the payments which was established in last year’s collective bargaining agreement. Remember how last year started late due to the lockout? The O’s have a very nice young offense but could really use another starting pitcher at the trade deadline, look for them to go after Dylan Cease. The Yanks’ Domingo German earlier this week became just the 24th pitcher in MLB history to throw a Perfect Game, there have been well over 235,500 games played in MLB history (0.0001% chance of happening). Toronto’s Kevin Gausman leads the AL in quality starts with 14, I wonder if Drake knows that? The Sox are under .500, nice!
The AL Central is still the absolute worst division in baseball. Byron Buxton of the Twins, a former Gold Glover in Centerfield, has only DH’d this year as a way to keep him healthy. I’m not quite sure hitting .208 as a designated hitter is working. Terry Francona is back to managing Cleveland after missing 3 games this week because he was in the hospital with lightheadedness. A good sign to see that the 3 time AL Manager of the Year is back in the dugout. The Tigers have a kid down on their farm named Colt Keith who plays 3rd base and can really rake, batting .336 in Double&Triple A. Luis Robert Jr. of the White Sox hit 11 homers in June, it is just too bad that nobody was on base for these as he only had 16 RBIs. Boy, the Royals really do stink again, huh?
The Rangers’ Ezequiel Duran is batting .320 with 12 homers, do you think the Yanks might have wished they didn’t trade him for Joey Gallo? The Astros’ Alex Bregman is hitting under .250, you love to see it. Shohei Ohtani last night hit his 30th homer of the season and the longest of his career at 493 feet. Despite Luis Castillo's exceptional pitching with the M’s, the team is 7-9 in 16 of his starts this year and 13-14 in the 27 games he started since the trade last July. The A’s took 1 against the Yanks earlier this week, I was annoyed at that!
Michael Soroka of the Atlanta Braves won his first home start in nearly 3 years. Soroka has missed over 1,000 games during his age 22 to 25 seasons due to an Achilles. Jazz Chisholm and the Marlins are fun when they beat Boston. Unfortunately, Luis Arraez has sort of hit a rough patch and his batting average has dropped all the way down to .390 on the year. Kyle Schwarber has 21 yabos this season while only hitting a buck 84, he’s turned into an all-or-nothing hitter. The Mets, uh yikes, the Mets, well it’s Bobby Bonilla Day! They pay the former Met $1.19M every July 1 until ‘35. Chump change for Uncle Stevie, but I’m sure it’s nice for Bobby B! The Nationals’ Lane Thomas is batting .302 with 14 homers and is one of the few bright spots in Washington. I wonder if they will look to deal him for future assets, he’s 27 years old.
The NL Central is going to be quite a fun division in the MLB to cover down the stretch. The Reds after winning 12 in a row lost 3 in a row so naturally they are once again on a 3-game win streak at the moment. The Brew Crew sent down Luis Urias to the minor leagues and brought up Brice Turang to shake things up, both have struggled mightily so we’ll see how this turns out. Carlos Santana hit a pretty iconic June Walk-off homer last night in Pittsburgh and his celebration at home plate was GIF-worthy. The Cubbies’ Justin Steele leads All of the MLB starting pitchers in ERA this season with a 2.43; Chicago also has Marcus Stroman and his 2.47 ERA right behind Steele as well. They could use a bat if they wanted to try to make the playoffs. The Cardinals have had their own version of a 1st half from hell but at the same token are only 10 games back in the division. Not likely but also not insurmountable.
Arizona had a rally cat show up and petrify fans, see you never know what you’ll see at the ballpark! The Diamondbacks’ superstar Corbin Carroll is dealing with a right shoulder and is considered day-to-day. I think he’ll be fine to play in his first MLB All-Star Game by next Tuesday, July 11. Mookie Betts homered twice and went 4 for 4, which has risen his batting average up to .270 on the year. Barstool Baseball Tweeted out ‘Ol Mike Francesa do the SF Giants ever meet up for dinner with the NY Giants, 7 hours after Week to Week Notes already used that joke so they can kick all the rocks. Speaking of rocks, the Rockies’ Ezequiel Tovar is on a 13-game hit streak and the rookie has hit safely in 26 of his last 29 games.
YouTube Rabbithole
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris [Official Live In Buffalo, NY]
(Just in case you missed the 1st ‘04 Iris in Buffalo YouTube Clip.)