It took a while but I think I finally came up with an idea for a bat blog around.
About two years ago my collector friends in Japan did a fun little challenge where they constructed a starting nine/10 lineup with their best MLB/MiLB autographs at each position. Now "best" is subjective. Some people went with best in terms of the best on their favorite team at the moment, or possibly the best at the position in franchise history, or just go with the best in general regardless of team. In my case I went with players who were my favorites in general (so Luis Torrens was at every position).
This variety is what made the challenge so fun and gave people a chance to flex and show off some of their autographs.
I know that not everyone on our corner of the blogosphere is an autograph nut, but if you're in this hobby long enough you'll accumulate a decent number of them for one reason or another (usually because of the kindness of strangers). Anyway I wanted to revive this fun little challenge for my friends here on the blogosphere as my first Bat Blog Around.
So my version is going to basically be the same. EXCEPT that instead of just the starting eight position players and the starting pitcher, I'm going to add two relievers, a DH/PH and a closer (Card Gen style baby!). So 13 names in total. Sidenote, feel free to have platoons if you so choose ;).
Obviously you can use any of the players you want as long as you have an autograph of theirs. Their autograph can be on things that aren't cards if you want (balls, 8x10 pictures, a lamp, etc...).
Also if you really don't have an autograph at a certain position, feel free to use an autograph of a player at another position you do have to fill that slot if necessary.
Without further ado, here's mine to kick things off.
C - LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS Torrens
Honorable Mentions: Francisco Cervelli, Jorge Posada, Gary Sanchez, Pedro Severino, Chance Sisco, Carson Kelly, Austin Hedges, Lucas Hebert, Dioner Navarro, Jesus Montero, John Ryan Murphy, Austin Romine
1B - Daniel Vogelbach
Honorable Mentions: Greg Bird, Brendan McKay, Mike Napoli, Rhys Hoskins, Tyler Austin, Casey Kotchman, John Olerud, Chris Chambliss
2B - Oswaldo Cabrera
Honorable Mentions: Bobby Richardson, Ben Zobrist, Joe Panik, Neil Walker, Jedd Gyorko
Honorable Mentions: Adrian Beltre, Wade Boggs, Miguel Andujar, Rafael Devers, Ron Cey, Trey Mancini, Michael Franco, Chase Headley, Todd Frazier, Jake Lamb, Brandon Drury
OF - Victor Robles
OF - Jose Bautista
OF - Aaron Judge
Honorable Mentions: Brett Gardner, Michael Conforto, Bucky Dent, Kevin Kiermaier, Clint Frazier, Austin Meadows, Lou Piniella, Harrison Bader, Ian Happ, Alex Verdugo, Lewis Brinson, Nick Castellanos, Max Kepler, Joc Pederson, Kevin Pillar
DH/PH - Alex Rodriguez
Honorable Mentions: Hideki Matsui, Adam Dunn, Josh Hamilton, Dave Kingman, ROCK SHOULDERS
SP - Clayton Kershaw
Honorable Mentions: Hiroki Kuroda, Shigeru Sugishita, Don Larsen, Noah Syndergaard, Jose Berrios, Julio Urias, Walker Buehler, David Price, Michael Fulmer, Corey Kluber, Luis Castillo, Doug Fister, Nick Tropeano, Josh Hader, Anibal Sanchez, Aaron Nola, Jordan Zimmermann, Alex Reyes, A.J. Burnett, Jose De Leon, Kyle Freeland, Chien-Ming Wang, Brent Honeywell, Danny Salazar, Gaylord Perry, Dave Righetti, Ron Guidry
RP - Dellin Betances
RP - David Robertson
Honorable Mentions: Masanori Murakami, Junichi Tazawa, Chris Sale, Tyler Clippard, Luke Gregerson, Domingo German, Sean Doolittle, C.J. Edwards, Andrew Miller, David Phelps, Adam Warren, Zach McAllister, Mark Melancon, Pat Venditte, Seth Lugo
CL - Mariano Rivera
Honorable Mentions: Koji Uehara, Andrew Miller, Ken Giles, Addison Reed, Greg Holland, Raisel Iglesias, Brandon League
So there's my starting lineup. I know that some of my picks were questionable (especially over a lot of the honorable mentions), but this is what makes this fun.
I can't wait to see the kind of autograph teams the rest of you all come up with :).
During my pretty down period this past winter my Drake (the Canadian rapper) intake went pretty up. Drake's monotone, Xanax in song form, type of music fit my mood a lot back then. In the process I listened to a few songs that struck me as interesting.
One such Drake song I wanted to talk about was his remix of Little Bit. Little Bit was originally a track by Swedish folk/indie singer Lykke Li. Drake sampled/remixed it for his 2009 mixtape, So Far Gone (not to be mistaken with his EP of the same name, although every song on the EP is on the mixtape).
The Original
The original version is about the narrator developing feelings for somebody and them being absolutely terrified of it because they're unsure of how the other person feels. Throw in the fear of getting hurt (presumably again) and the fear of making a big commitment for good measure. Worst of all, those feelings just keep getting stronger. Go listen to it. It's cute and fun.
The Remix
So for this Drake remix I view it as being kind of a duet. The parts of Lykke Li still left in are meant to represent the girl Drake is talking to in this song. Lyrics courtesy of Genius.
Hands down, I'm too proud for love
But with eyes shut, it's you I'm thinkin' of
But how we move from A to B, it can't be up to me
First let's look at the first verse in the song. The first two bars are Lykke Li's and Drake takes over and adds in his own lines.
I personally interpret Lykke Li's parts as her telling Drake that she's too proud to say she wants to be in a relationship. But in spite of that he's always on her mind. Drake then comes in saying that if they want to move into the next stage of their relationship, he can't be the one to initiate that move.
Cause you don't know, who I was before you
And basically to see a change in me
I'd be losing, so I just ignore you, yeah
Oh, but you're on my mind
(My mind, my mind, my mind, my mind)
Oh, but maybe in time (in time, in time, in time)
I'll tell you I'm—
Reason being that he himself realizes that he's a bit different from his usual/old self when he's with her. He feels like he's losing a part of himself in the process and instead of confronting/accepting that change he prefers to push her away and keep what he knows intact. Although try as he might, she still remains on her mind. Always. To the point where he actually starts thinking that might one day be able to say...
A little bit, a little bit
A little bit in love with you
I guess that I'm a little bit, a little bit
A little bit in love with you
...that he loves her, if only for a little bit.
Looking at this chorus as a listener in 2018 is interesting because the most famous lyric in one of Drake's newer songs God's Plain goes like this...
Well it's not quite "a little bit" but close enough I guess :P. Hidden within several layers of early Drake songs are hints of the troubled relationship-haver that we'd all come to know/expect from Drake in the years since the So Far Gone mixtape dropped. Later in this song we'll see more.
I know you told me break their hearts
But it's you I wanna take apart
And I will never ever be the first, to say it
But still I, they know I—
Verse two starts with Drake reaffirming that he's incapable of making the first move even though it's obvious for all to see.
I would do it, push a button
Pull a trigger, climb a mountain
Jump off a cliff, cause you're my baby
I love you, love you, a little bit
I would do it, you would say it
You would mean it, we could do it
It was you and I and only I—
But then she admits that she has feelings for him. Feelings that are strong enough to climb mountains and jump off of cliffs. But it's evident that she has trouble telling him her feelings to in spite of that. I just think all of the things that troubled her in the original song are just as true here too.
I think I'm a little bit, little bit
A little bit in love with you
But only if you're a little bit
Little bit in love with me
This chorus is performed by Lykke Li this time and in the context of the original it's about how she thinks she loves the guy but she's not sure if he loves her back. Leading to her being terrified of potentially being hurt by him. I think that works just as well here since it'd make total sense for the girl in this relationship with Drake to be confused. He does have strong feelings but he's too stubborn to communicate properly. That's one of the tidbits about the Drake presented to us in his music that we'll see over and over in years to come BTW. The common theme in the failed relationships he talks about in his songs is that both he and his partner suck at communicating with each other.
I hope they never find out
What they already know, know, know
As soon as it's official
We'll have to let it go, go, go
So we don't confirm the fling
Keep avoiding all the questions
And here we have the third verse performed by Drake.
The first part of the verse is about him being afraid of people finding out about his relationship with her. I suppose that could potentially mean they're having an affair but personally I choose to believe that the couple aren't adulterers and instead they're both just really terrified of people finding out they like eachother. Because once that happens he'll have to deal with questions and comments from friends and family like "so have you asked her out?" or "you two would be really cute together". So his solution is to just say nothing ever happened.
You could teach me many things
I'm just scared to learn a lesson
This part of the verse is my favorite because it finally gets at the real root of Drake's problems. The part before about him afraid of losing himself just makes Drake seem like a stubborn dick. But here we see that beneath that, he's terrified of getting hurt too. He's insecure because he's scared to death of the relationship going badly and teaching him a painful lesson in romance. So he'd rather play it cool and say he just won't make the first move. Even if that's also painful to him in another way.
The pressure's on, both hearts beat like a metronome
Both in sync like a Justin song
Feels so right but it's just, so wrong
More pressure and stress piles up on Drake. He's so close to making a move and confessing, but something is still holding him back. By this point both the girl and guy are equally nervous and yet they feel glimpses of being happy together. The song just keeps building from here.
I wonder where my world 'bout
When n***** that I know tryna take my girl out
It finally starts to reach a boiling point when Drake finds that his friends are making moves on the girl while he just stands pat.
And her friends say I ain't the one to go for
She just jealous cause you always get approached more
But what really puts Drake over the edge (at least from the way this song is structured) is how he's aware that the girl's friends all say that he's not the one she should interested in.
Oh, well—tell her fall back
Caught up in some more shit, tell her call back
Tell her get a man that ain't cheatin on her ass
Wit a girl that I know, yeah tell her all, that, that
I get the feeling that this is where Drake snaps because he just unloads on the girl's friend(s?) and tells his crush to flat out ignore them before mocking the friend's own failing relationship (and inadvertently saying they have no right to butt into other people's relationships).
And as for you, I think I know you're the one
The closest I've come, I'm probably—
By the end Drake finally comes clean and says that he thinks he knows that the girl is the one. The one he can say he loves.
A little bit, a little bit
A little bit in love with you
I guess that I'm a little bit, a little bit
A little bit in love with you
A little bit.
The end.
Woof, on one hand I really like the way Drake reworked the song in a way to work as a duet and have the guy's perspective. Drake breaks out of his shell and is express his feelings at the end after a surge of emotions. Character development in a song. I love it (concept wise)!
Drake circa 2009
On the other hand, the way Drake acts like a dick to the girl's friend(s) strikes me as a sign that this relationship won't end too well for them. From my own experience, having a girlfriend with best friends who talk shit about you will not turn out too well. That said, I'll admit that I've been the type of dick Drake presents himself to be here. The one who doesn't want their significant other's friends to butt in when they're in no position to talk because those friends don't have the best relationships either. The fact that I knew where he was coming from kind of made me realize that I need to really reflect on where I've gone wrong too. But I'll be 100% honest and say that yes, I've been there before. It's not a fun place to be.
All the same, the way Drake acts there is a pretty telling sign that he probably isn't the best guy for the girl. It took him all of the stress in the world for him to finally break and be honest about his feelings for once. His own friends made moves on his crush and yet thing that pushed him over the top was her friends calling him a bad love interest. Bad habits die hard, so I'm going to assume that both the guy and girl will continue to both send and receive mixed messages when they start going out. So then when things start to go bad, they'll continue to get worse until the two eventually break up. Likely hurting both in the process. A part of me also wants to think that this is the same girl Drake drunk dials to talk shit about her new boyfriend.
Drake circa 2018
So yeah, this remix is a fun(?) little expansion of the original to me. It builds upon the premise of a girl being scarred of making the first move to both the girl and guy being afraid of making the first move, to then showing that this has the makings of a doomed relationship from the start.
It struck a chord with me at the end and hit closer to home than most Drake songs do, I'll have to really reflect and ponder what that says about me.
So yeah. It was fun to look back on 2009 Drake. I really miss when he used to rap like he does here. With energy and a fast paced flow that contrasts awkwardly with his monotone voice. This song is all about Drake being frustrated but really unsure about anything, that works well with the tension between the energy fueling Drake and his low tone and varying deliveries.
As a song I like it. One of my favorite Drake tracks since this is him when he actually tries lol.
Before Apple launched Apple Music, they used to do this thing where they gave you a few free downloads every week. Usually they were one or two songs, a free episode of a TV show and possibly even a movie (it might've just been a trailer or a clip of a movie actually).
It was basically one of the ways the iTunes library could promote some new-ish media to consumers. And when the price for these are 0 dollars and 0 cents, why not give them a shot?
I can't say that a lot of the songs they gave out were all that great, but they got the job done in terms of broadening my horizon. Plus there were some really fantastic acts I discovered through the promotion and today I thought I'd look back and say thanks to the iTunes - Single of the Week for some pretty good recommendations.
KONGOS - I'm Only Joking
KONGOS is probably known for their song Come With Me Now. Come With Me Now managed to get them enough buzz through its use as an ad-jingle (again, in the 2010's and beyond indie rock is all about the commercialism) and the South African quartet managed to get Platinum single off of that. I like that song just fine but the first time I heard them was when iTunes gave out their song I'm Only Joking for free. The drums in the back slowly build up and at when they speed up you can feel yourself feeling getting amped up too in the process. As for the lyrical matter it's oblique, it appears to be a guy telling his true feelings but because they're so outlandish he falls behind how he was only joking to protect himself from being thought as dumb or silly. A nice little jingle to drink to if you're in a singing mood under the influence.
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
Consider this and the KONGOS track from before as being tied for first place, they're both really good but hard to put against eachother.
Passion Pit's debut single was put up for free on iTunes and I listened to it A LOT for that entire month. It was my first introduction to this indie-electronica type of genre and the sound interested me a lot (for reference up until this point my indie knowledge was limited to Franz Ferdinand and my electronica knowledge was limited to Justice). At the time I didn't particularly listen to the lyrics or message all that deeply but I remember a friend of mine (this friend is the type of music listener who reads Pitchfork religiously) saying that it probably fits me because it's a super happy sounding song despite it's incredibly dark nature. I love twisted contrasts like that. I've come to realize that yes, this is a dark song as the Sleepyhead in the title isn't about someone who needs coffee. The person is going to have the kind of sleep you don't wake up from.
Anyway Passion Pit is also like KONGOS in that they have another song they're better known for after being used in ad-jingles, Take A Walk. Trust me, you've heard parts of this song before, most likely the guitar riff.
PVRIS - St. Patrick
PVRIS is a little synth rock group comprised of Lyndsey Gunnulfsen, Alex Babinski and Brian MacDonald. Originally they were one of those screaming metalcore bands but decided to go into a more electronic route. You can still hear hints of their metal influence and lead singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen can absolutely belt it all out with the best of them. Compared to the rest of the album St. Patrick is noticeably more upbeat and "poppier". The song itself is relatively simple compared to the rest of the songs on the album White Noise too. It's basically about a person who the narrator considers to be a godsend because they're good enough to distract them from all of the terrible shit consuming the rest of the world. Or at least that's my interpretation. Feel free to disagree.
I kind of liken PVRIS as what Crystal Castles would sound like if CC had used more guitars and less synth.
The Veragroove - Broken Glass
Veragroove was a reggae rock band from Arizona. It had a nice little run on the tour circuit before frontman Andres Rodriguez left the band. After that the band tried to keep going but has pretty much disappeared since 2015. A real shame because their stuff isn't bad for reggae music that's not made by Jamaicans. I certainly would've like to see this get big instead that Rude song. This song has a nice groove I like it.
Etiquette - Attention Seeker
Etiquette is a Canadian indie band consisting of two extremely talented Canadian artists you've never heard of. Those two being singer/song-writer Julie Fader and producer Graham Walsh. Both have been present in the indie scene for decades but did all sorts of projects under different names with a lot of different people. This song in particular is about someone who is being all "woe is me" and the singer just cuts into their bullshit and decides to tell them to get over themselves. That's basically this song lol. But it sounds great though. Walsh really did a fantastic job setting up the heavy and yet still relaxing atmosphere with the music (both on this song and on their other tracks) and boy it is a treat. This is a great song to get high to.
CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share
CHVRCHES is a Scottish trio consisting of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty. This is their debut single and probably one of their better known songs. If nothing else it practically launched them onto the scene in the U.K. and various parts of Europe. Pitchfork really liked it. As best as I can parse out the song itself is a post-breakup song and the pain the breakup leaves behind, but what makes it fun is the way this song just sounds. It's really hard to explain but I can imagine all three just having a fun time seeing what they could create with a sampling machine. And yes I heard this in an advertisement too. No indie rock song can escape commercialism.
Jay Rock - All My Life [(In The Ghetto) Feat. Lil Wayne & Will.I.Am]
Back in high school I was pretty obsessed with LA-based hip hop. Jay Rock here was one of many rappers who were making buzz as promising up and comers who would put California back on the map after a decade of Southern dominance. Obviously that didn't happen, but Jay Rock and his fellow Top Dawg Entertainment label-mates kept at it. Eventually TDE managed to produce a bonafide superstar in Kendrick Lamar, who went by the name of K-Dot back then. The first time I heard Jay Rock was on this free song. It was pretty amazing to me because this was one of the few times I could remember Lil Wayne performing on such a soulful sample (mainstream hip hop beats in the late 2000's were pretty bad). Anyway this song made me interested in Jay Rock's discography and that led to me discovering Kendrick Lamar (then known as K-Dot), Schoolboy Q and others. Fun fact, there is another version (the original version) of this track with Kendrick Lamar performing the chorus, which is a huge upgrade because Will.I.Am hasn't been good since his Ruthless Records days.
The Ting Tings - Wrong Club
Yet another band known for their other song. The Ting Tings are probably best remembered for their song That's Not My Name where Katie White lists off names that people call her and she clarifies that those aren't her names. Well half a decade after that the musical landscape shifted and like most acts, White and Jules De Martino adapted. This song was released in 2014 when people started realizing that instead of partying to garbage over techno beats they should go with throwback disco/soul/funk. For reference the biggest songs from around then were Get Lucky by Daft Punk, Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and Treasure by Bruno Mars. I'm never going to say no to artists choosing to make their songs a little bit more upbeat and danceable.
WATERS - I Feel Everything
WATERS is the solo project of Van William/Pierszalowski. iTunes sure did love its indie rock didn't they? This song is a bit oblique but the lyrics suggest it's about the singer talking to a someone (possibly a girl?) who is under a lot of peer pressure and scrutiny from people around them. My guess is that it's that girl in high school was labeled a "slut" after rumors spread that she slept with possibly the narrator's brother. Then again, I could be off the mark entirely. I'll have to give this a few more spins to see what else pops up.
American Authors - Believer
American Authors are a rarity, in that they're a band from New York City. That city never makes anything. This is their second best known song behind Best Day Of My Life (which you all have definitely heard at some point). The quartet make songs that are either pseudo-feel good songs about being optimistic or looking back on the past and bad decisions made before that led to hoping for better days ahead. Apparently they've sold their songs to videos and commercials so you'll probably recognize a surprising number of songs by them even though they mostly sound the same and could easily be mistaken with Imagine Dragons, another group of jingle makers disguised as a rock band.
Broods - Bridges
Here we go, we finally have a band with the song they're best known for.
Broods is a sister-and-brother duo from New Zealand who made themselves known with this debut single. This song, as catchy as it is, is basically about a relationship falling apart in real time. From pushing aside issues at the beginning, to things starting to unravel, to the two knowing that things will never be the same no matter how much they want it to. Going so far as to wonder what could've even been said or done to ensure that it never got this far. Troubled relationships is a common theme for a lot of their discography BTW. If you're really into Lana Del Rey and Lorde you'll probably enjoy Georgia and Caleb Nott here too.
Banks - Beggin For Thread
Speaking of songs for people into Lana Del Rey and Lorde, here's a little fun track from Jillian Rose Banks, aka Banks. It's about her knowing that she's imperfect and the other guy in the relationship is going to need to be really crafty to make things work. And the song implies that he's not so they're in for a rough time ahead. If this song hasn't been used in a trailer for a movie yet I'll be really surprised.
Sufjan Stevens - Should Have Known Better
One of the last conversations I had with the Pitchfork reading friend I mentioned earlier was regarding Sufjan Stevens, an indie darling who is popular among people who like bands like Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys. The way I'd describe his music is tranquil music you play while you sip tea and read a book at home on a rainy day. For me I need to be in a specific mood and place to listen to this. This is too whispy and mellow to be enjoyed in the loud clickity clack NYC subway, but it gets the job done in a quiet library.
The Glitch Mob - Fly by Night Only (Yaarrohs Cover)
Prior to this song I had known Glitch Mob by reputation as an electronica band so I was thinking that their sound would be more like Wolfgang Gartner. Instead I was hit with this. After the initial "good grief this is slow and boring" listen I gave it a few more tries and over time it grew on me like a lot of Florence and The Machine tracks do. Not that they're the same, but for me personally it takes a lot for me to listen to slow songs. I'm a "don't bore us, get to the chorus" type of listener. But something about this kept me coming back. I attribute that to Yaarrohs having a great voice. Sidenote, if you listen to this when you're high this song will feel like it's been going for an eternity even though it's only a two and a half minute song.
La Roux - Bulletproof
Let's finish this post with a song that became huge shortly after it was offered for free. At this time La Roux was a duo consisting of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid. Langmaid has since left the band but the duo has enjoyed success pretty early into their group's formation. How many people can say that they managed to perform on Ellen or work with Kanye West? This is a fun little poppy song about being better prepared for the next relationship. A topic that was apparently popular in the late-2000's/early-2010's because there was another song with a similar premise released like two years after that.
So these were some notables I downloaded while iTunes still the did the free singles promotion. I hope that these were able to widen some of your horizons like they did for mine. I still have a few more free singles I wanted to talk about but I might incorporate them into my next what I'm listening to post.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
