Flowers | Song of The Summer Tournament | PGA Tour Championship | Riff Round The Bases | Notes Nobody Asked For (Hard Knocks) | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
I gotta give Miley Cyrus her flowers for Flowers. The tune came out this past January of this year and broke all sorts of streaming records on Spotify including the fastest song in history to surpass one billion streams en route to making it to #1 on Billboard Hot 100. The song found a home there for 8 weeks and was Miley Cyrus’ 2nd song to reach #1 since Wrecking Ball back in ‘13. Thus, Flowers is the 8th and final Song of the Summer ‘23 nominee...
Miley Cyrus said the original chorus was, “I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can.” She added, “It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better. The song is a little fake it till you make it. Which I’m a big fan of.” Interesting.
Anyway, I got a bit more on music this Saturday so I’m skipping over the rest of the lyrics for…
The criteria for the inaugural Song of the Summer ‘23 Tournament presented by Week to Week Notes was that the songs needed to have come out this year. If you don’t see a song on here that you like, in fairness I did ask you to submit your own months ago. 8 songs were nominated and I tried mixing in as many different sounds from the year.
Of course, I understand that this is a Cruel Summer and Taylor Swift runs the internet but I left her off of this because she already won the summer. Cough, cough, I also didn’t trust myself - as a Swiftie I would’ve rigged the polls so that she would win, cough, cough.
The 1st Round polls can be found below and on @You_The_Reader's Instagram story so your vote can count twice. Whether this is your first time here on Week to Week Notes or you’re a long-time @YouTheReader please feel free to perform your civic duty, vote early, and vote often!
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1st Round Polls end Sunday evening. On to the sports…
This will be the final Golf event covered until the Ryder Cup at the end of September. Nothing much changed on the Week to Week Notes leaderboard from yesterday…
Collin Morikawa
Before yesterday, Collin Morikawa’s lowest 36-hole score was 130. Through 2 days at East Lake, Morikawa beat his personal best by shooting a 125. After shooting a 61 on Thursday, he followed up his Friday with a 64. From this tournament alone, Morikawa is now at 13 birdies and an eagle which means he will be personally pledging at least $15k to the Maui Wildfire relief.
Viktor Hovland
On Friday after shooting 1 under through 11 holes, Viktor Hovland picked up steam at the 12th. From holes 12 to 15, Hovland birdied 4 in a row to keep pace with Morikawa’s play at the top of the leaderboard. On the back 9 yesterday, he shot an impressive 30.
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie doesn’t want to know what his ‘22-’23 season would look like if his putting stats were middle of the pack. If his Putts Per Round were adjusted to each tournament’s putts per round, he would have had a prime Tiger Woods type of year including 2 Majors. (Source: @BradLundokc) After an inconsistent 1st Round of play, Scottie was much more consistent on Friday with 5 birds and no bogeys.
Rory McIlroy
Rory is still dealing with a bad back. “Yeah, I can't hit the ball left-to-right and -- yeah, I can't swing my irons the way I want to. I can't turn my right side through the ball. So from the top of the swing, I'm just sort of throwing my arms at it and it's a lot of face rotation and I can only really hit it one way with the irons. I can't hit the driver the way I usually do. Like, teeing it up I'm teeing it down and just hitting a sort of flat little runner down there. So, yeah, look, a little limited to the shots that I can hit, but I'm getting by.” That might explain his uneven play. Apologies to Rory for calling his rough to bunker shot amateur hour yesterday.
Patrick Cantlay
Patrick Cantlay stood there and admired this shot for 25 minutes. Ridiculous.
MLB Standings Peek
Quick catchup on the MLB Standings as we head into the last week of August.
- The Baltimore Orioles’ rookie SS/3B Gunnar Henderson launched his 22nd home run this season to give the Orioles their 3rd straight victory. Henderson is the favorite to win AL Rookie of the Year.
- The Texas Rangers have lost 8 in a row, which is the longest active losing streak in baseball. Somehow they are barely hanging on to their lead in the AL West. They have been without their Rookie 3B, Josh Jung, for most of August as he is recovering from surgery on his left thumb - a 110 mph line drive fractured it. They don’t call 3rd base the hot corner for nothing. Jung was well on his way to being the AL Rookie of the Year prior to the injury. The Rangers are hoping he will be back by the end of September.
- The Minnesota Twins’ former 1st overall pick, 3B Royce Lewis, has been back with the ballclub for a week after recovering from an oblique strain that sidelined him from July to mid-August. Lewis is hitting .328 with 20 RBIs and 6 homers in 34 games this season.
- The Tampa Bay Rays’ Yandy Diaz is having a career year at the plate. The 1st time All-Star is hitting .326 with a career-high 17 homers.
- The Seattle Mariners quietly have one of the best pitching rotations in baseball. They lead the MLB in team WHIP (allowed Walks + Hits Per Inning) and are in 2nd in the majors in both quality starts & ERA. Headlined by Luis Castillo, the Mariners have some young underrated arms in George Kirby (25), Logan Gilbert (26), Bryce Miller (24), and Bryan Woo (23). The Mariners have been one of the hottest teams in baseball all summer and are creeping onto the AL West 1st Place doorstep.
- The Houston Astros’ acquired Kate Upton’s husband and what do ya know, he has given the ‘Stros 3 quality starts in 4 games pitched.
- The Toronto Blue Jays are extremely hard to figure out. Despite the fact that coming into the season Alek Manoah was supposed to be their ace and he is currently pitching in Buffalo, the Jays lead the MLB in team ERA. They just can’t hit.
- The Boston Red Sox beat the Houston Astros 17-1 earlier this week and I feel nothing because I hate them both, but Boston even more.
- The Yankees’ rookie LF Everson Periera collected his first major league hit, which calls for his own GIF on Week to Week Notes.
- The league batting average in the MLB is .249. The Atlanta Braves have a starting lineup where the player with the lowest batting average is .262. If the nerds ever try convincing you that batting averages don’t matter or that it’s too hard to hit for average with today’s pitching, just point to the Braves lineup. They have the best record in baseball.
- The LA Dodgers’ fans completely have filled up Fenway Park this weekend, making it their home.
- The Milwaukee Brewers have a terrible lineup but can really pitch. They won’t make it out of the Division Series.
- The Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper is heating up. Earlier this week he had an inside-the-park homer run, followed by 2 straight days of 2 more homers including the electric game-tying 8th-inning 3-run homer he hit against the Giants GIF’d above. He should have been a Yankee. Sad.
- After a completely free fall for most of the summer, the Arizona DBacks have gotten their bearings under them the past week with 6 straight wins. NL Rookie of the Year candidate and All-Star Corbin Carroll has struggled in the 2nd half. After hitting .289 with 18 homers and 26 steals in the 1st half, Carroll has hit .250 with 4 homers and 13 steals since the All-Star game.
- The Chicago Cubs’ OF Cody Bellinger has had a scorching hot 2nd half. The former Dodger since July 1st is hitting .374 with 13 dingers and 46 RBIs in 47 games. The Cubs have gone 29-18 in this span and will need Bellinger’s bat down to stay hot if they want to stay in the Wild Card race.
- The San Fransico Giants’ are led offensively by a familiar NY name in Wilmer Flores who is batting .300 with a team-leading 18 homers. The rest of their lineup isn’t much to write home about.
- The Cincinnati Reds may currently be on the outside looking in of the NL Wild Card, but they are flooded full of rookies on the diamond getting valuable meaningful baseball experience. While most baseball fans at this point have heard of the uber-talented 3B Elly De La Cruz, they also have SS Matt McClain, OF Will Benson, and 1B/3B/OF Spencer Steer to go with a rookie pitcher in Andrew Abbott. The future is bright in Cincinnati.
- The Miami Marlins’ Luis Arraez may not hit .400 this season, but he is still batting a clean .355 to date. Since I’m not including DJ LeMahieu’s ‘20 COVID-shortened season where he hit .364, nobody in the MLB has hit over .350 since Josh Hamilton in ‘10. From 1993 to ‘10, the MLB batting champ hit above .350 in 16 of the 18 seasons. Bring back batting average.
Notes Nobody Asked For
Hard Knocks ‘23 | Episode 3
- The episode opens with the debatable voice of God saying it’s “The dog days of August and every play matters at training camp.”
- Randall Cobb getting a feature. As the elder statesman of the WR group who has played with Aaron Rodgers for the past decade in Green Bay, Cobb tells the fellas, “If Aaron doesn’t trust you, you ain’t getting the ball. He doesn't like throwing interceptions.” I can’t believe the Jets will have a QB that doesn’t like throwing interceptions, that’s a first.
- Phins fan insider was present for the Week to Week Notes viewing party and he had a beer with the Jets QB Coach, Rob Calabrese. “Nice guy.”
- Coach Saleh has a PowerPoint presentation on “Level of Competitors.” Level 1 are the Survivors - they do just enough to get by. Level 2 are the Contenders - they are motivated by external factors like money and fame. Level 3 are the Competitors - they are motivated internally to be their best regardless of the situation. This person shows up and lays it all on the line day in and day out. They scratch and claw their way to getting things done & being excellent at their craft. Level 4 are the Commanders - they have all the traits of a Competitor with one exception, they bring others with them. Gotta love football coach PowerPoints.
- Dalvin Cook sighting. “If you win in New York there is nothing else like it.” Somebody gave him the memo. Dalvin Cook’s significant other is pregnant and he will miss some of the training camp for the birth.
- RB Breece Hall has been cleared to practice. Hall’s rehab process was full of ups and downs but he looks fast.
- Woody Johnson is chained up with drip. Is he becoming a competent owner by letting the football guys make football decisions? Woody has come a long way.
- Tampa Bay joint practice. Mike Evans calls Quinnen “Q-Ball” Williams “fat.” Q-Ball is a star.
- Sauce gave up a TD in practice. I guess he is human, or HBO is doctoring film.
- A lot of fighting going down with the Jets and Bucs players.
- Garrett Wilson looks nifty per usual. Mark Sanchez sighting. As Sanchez speaks to Rodgers about his Jets’ weapons, Rodgers tells Sanchez, “Wilson is a good kid.”
- Aaron Rodgers is Randall Cobb’s son’s Godfather. The Cobb family loves New Jersey.
- Damian Woody is at training camp. He and Coach Saleh are talking about big families as both men have 7 kids each. Coach Saleh’s son is catching passes from Rodgers after the coach’s son inadvertently punched #12 #8 in the face.
- Rookie Talent Show part 2. RB Izzy A had a rough joke about a boy named Justin with a play on words about justice. It wasn’t great. Some of the Rooks sing “Return of the Mack.” WR Jerome Kapp looks like Eminem with the beanie and he performed B. Rabbit’s 8 Mile freestyle. No cap, Kapp won the rookie show.
- Coach Saleh runs the stadium stairs as a pregame ritual.
- Zach Wilson and Aaron Rodgers shared a nice laugh on Wilson’s nice run against the Bucs.
- Punter Thomas Morstead is a real speed demon after holding kicks as the placeholder. Something funny to watch for during the season is how fast Morstead runs.
- Jets lose to the Bucs and are 1-2 in the preseason. Coach Saleh emphasizes it’s been about turnovers and ball security.
- The original Karate Kid breaks down practice. Ralph Macchio is a true Jets fan.