A great story of a startup paying minor league players money now, for a future cut of MLB earnings. An incredible, entrancing time-lapse drone video of sheep being herded. And a couple handcuffs themselves to each other for four months to try to save their relationship. Take a guess how it ended.

I sat down with @MSchwimer, Founder and CEO of Big League Advance, to discuss the private equity fund’s role in paying Minor League ballplayers in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. Tune-in to @RealSportsHBO tonight at 10pm @HBOMax

https://t.co/RiN6VUvmt0

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) June 22, 2021

The life of a minor-league baseball player is as unglamorous as it gets. I say this as someone who covered some minor league baseball in my career as a sportswriter. The players make almost no money, a comical amount that would be insulting to factory workers in third-world countries. They travel many hours in cramped buses on road trips, sleep 3-4 to a room at home and on the road (who can afford their own apartment, in even small-town America?) and their eating habits, by necessity are poor.

Only a very tiny percentage of minor-league players, like 1 in 10, ever make it to the big leagues for a day, and most are completely broke their entire time as pros.

This is why I’m so enamored of, and encouraged, by this fantastic HBO Real Sports story I saw on a seven-year-old startup company called Big League Advance. Led by CEO Michael Schwimmer, Big League Advance uses statistical predictive models to identify which of the thousands of amateur prospects have the best chance of making it to the majors.

Then they approach the players and offer them a large sum of cash, upfront, in exchange for their signature on a contract that says if the player gets to the major leagues, BLA will get a percentage (10 percent is typical) of their future contracts.

If a player never makes it to The Show, they never have to pay BLA back one penny.

Now, a few questions that I’m sure spring to mind: Is BLA actually good at predicting who will make the big leagues? Yes. According to the story they’ve got 60 players they’ve signed now in the bigs, including emerging superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. (who just signed a $341 million contract, so BLA is going to get around $34 million of that), out of around 350 they’ve given money to.
Is this exploitative of poor and predominantly minority players? I can see that argument, but I really don’t see how. If a player and his family are struggling and desperate for money, are you “exploiting” them by helping them out when they’re poor and struggling in Double-A Altoona, Pa., and then recouping some of that investment when they make the big leagues? I really don’t think so.

Schwimmer and BLA are businesspeople, making investments in talent and then recouping some of it later. It’s human capital, yes, but they’re also providing a desperately-needed service. The MLB owners and the MLB Players Union don’t care at all about minor league players, and have MLB has kept minor-league salaries ridiculously low for decades.

Hopefully, with companies like BLA, they will be forced to change their stance. I’ve embedded the story trailer above, and below is a podcast that has the entire piece in it. (Sadly HBO doesn’t have the full video of the BLA story online).

I heartily applaud BLA, and am glad they’re around.

 

**Next up, this was one of those extraordinary videos that reminds you how wonderful technology is, and how far we have come. A drone photographer named Lior Patel followed a herd of sheep for months, in Ramot Menashe in Northern Israel, as they were shepherded it summer pasture. It’s intoxicating and so cool to watch.

Drone photographer Lior Patel followed a herd of sheep for several months, as the herd was shepherded to its summer pasture. Entrancing and relaxing. pic.twitter.com/2VyAFtwYnZ

— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) June 26, 2021

**And finally today, a story of a couple in Ukraine who thought they’d really come up with the perfect way to test the bonds of their love for each other, and it failed spectacularly.

A pair of Ukrainians named Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova decided on Valentine’s Day to handcuff themselves together to see if that would bring them closer together, emotionally, while bringing them closer together, physically.

But alas, according to this story, “after 123 days handcuffed together to save their on-again off-again relationship, the Ukrainians have split up, shedding their bonds on national TV and saying the experiment had brought home uncomfortable truths.

Throughout the experiment, which they documented to a growing social media following, they did everything together, from grocery shopping to cigarette breaks. They took turns to use the bathroom and take showers.”

Man, so many jokes, so little time. They literally spent every waking moment together for 123 days, and it took THIS long for them to break up? There is no human, not even my wife, who I’d want to be attached to for four months, 24/7. 
I mean, I guess you can’t “leave” a relationship if you can’t leave, right? I mean, I’ve heard about keeping your loved one under lock and key, but this takes that to a whole new level.

“I think it will be a good lesson for us, for other Ukrainian couples and couples abroad not to repeat what we have done,” Viktoria told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv.

Yeah no kidding! You hear that, you crazy lovebirds? Keep the handcuffs where they belong, only in the bedroom, that’s it.

 

We saw “In the Heights” this weekend. Live, in an actual movie theater! And the experience, like the movie, was fantastic. The Marsh Family Singers are back with another amazing pandemic song. And Simone Biles back doing GOAT stuff.

The popcorn smell hit me as soon as I opened up the Soundview Cinemas’ double-doors.

Like a beautiful, overwhelming smack in the face, the scent welcomed me back to a place we all used to take for granted: An actual, live movie theater, filled with people laughing and talking and buying $7 boxes of Milk Duds without even worrying about it.

Saturday night, my wife and I experienced all that for the first time since mid-February, 2020, and it was glorious.

OK, fine, I confess we didn’t experience ALL of that. The theater we were in contained about 20 people, no one I saw was eating overpriced candy, and when there were funny lines on the screen the laughter was kind of quiet.

But still .. it was a theater, and we were watching something together with other people, and it felt wonderful.

A large part of that good feeling came from the fantastic film we saw, the latest from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s genius brain, “In the Heights.”

A musical set in his hometown neighborhood of Washington Heights, N.Y., at the northern tip of Manhattan, Miranda wrote and starred in it on Broadway long before Alexander Hamilton came into his brain.

The Broadway show won a ton of awards, and here’s predicting the movie will do so as well. It was simply magnificent. Visually, musically, emotionally, it hit all the right notes and had me smiling from beginning to end.

The story, if you’re not familiar with it, is simple: A young, hungry bodega owner named Usnavi longs to return to the Dominican Republic he remembers from childhood to rehabilitate his father’s business and live the life he wants. He goes about life in Washington Heights with an incredible group of characters, including his young cousin Sonny, the woman of his dreams that he’s too afraid to approach, a salon worker named Vanessa, and many other compelling people that make up the rich tapestry of his ‘hood.

We learn about car service owner Kevin Rosario, and his brilliant, Stanford student daughter Nina; Benny, a young worker for Rosario with big dreams, and Abuela, the neighborhood grandmother who is the heart of the film.

I can’t tell you how beautiful, visually, the film is. Every scene is shot perfectly. The choreography is, as you’d expect for a movie with so many, and so intricate dance sequences, fantastic. And Miranda’s lyrics are as good as those in “Hamilton,” really smart, funny and force you to pay attention to every line. The songs exude joy, pain, and excitement, sweeping you up with the irresistible melodies (there’s a song about fireworks in the movie that’s been in my head for three days now).

The acting is sensational, especially from Benny (Corey Hawkins) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera.). And Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, the “narrator” of the story, is terrific as well.

There are some funny, smart touches in the movie version of “In The Heights,” including a scene where a character is put on hold, on the phone, and we hear a song from “Hamilton” as the hold music, and a cool cameo from Christopher Jackson, who played George Washington in “Hamilton” as the neighborhood ice cream man.

“In the Heights” is in theaters, and on HBO Max, and I highly, highly recommend it. It’s 2 hours and 20 minutes of pure fun.

Go see it in a theater if you can; the stickiness of the cinema floor will never feel so warm and comforting.

**Next up today, the Marsh Family singers of England have been back doing their wonderful songs again, and I feel obligated to share them with you whenever I see them.

This one takes the choreography up a notch, while getting bonus points in my book for a parody of a classic song of recent vintage, Gotye’s “Somebody that I used to Know.”

Here, with “Some Hobby That I Used to Know,” the Marshes kick butt yet again. The boy on the left, is just mesmerizing.

**Finally today, for a while now I’ve been feeling about Simone Biles the way sports fans felt when Mark McGwire came up to bat in 1998, or when Roger Federer played a Grand Slam match in the 2000s: You absolutely don’t want to miss any of it.

Biles, as everyone knows, has brought her sport forward enormously over the past decade, and as she prepares to kick some ass at the Olympics next month, she’s going through the motions of qualifying at this week’s U.S. Olympic Trials.

Here was her floor routine from Friday night, and it was sensational and had my jaw on the floor.

She might be the greatest athlete at these Olympic Games.

The Daddy Chronicles returns! Starring a 6.5 year old obsessed with sports and following the rules, and a 3.5 year-old who’s the “most improved boy” but only at school.

Happy Summer, y’all! Here in New York the school year from Hades is finally coming to a close, the temperatures are rising, the pools are open, and it’s time for another edition of the Daddy Chronicles.

As always, a whole buncha stuff has happened in the lives of my boys since our last report, so let’s get right to it before they burst into my office telling me one brother has struck and hurt another brother, and what am I going to do about it?

— Let’s start with the brand-new graduate of first grade, young Mr. Nate. My first-born heir had a wonderful school year, as usual his teacher (the wonderful Mrs. Mattia) spoke highly of him, and Nate flourished in reading, math and writing. His writing in particular has gotten so much better this year; just reading his weekly “Weekend News” reports every Monday make me swell with pride, since the stories now have a beginning, a middle and an ending (usually something like “It was a very fun day!” Although we laughed out loud a few months ago when his “Weekend News” detailed the many minor injuries he suffered over the past two days, falling off a chair, stubbing his toe, etc. And the final sentence was “It was a very hurtful weekend!”)

Not to say my kid is a “building” nerd, but this past Wednesday, two days before school ends, he and two buddies (both named Lucas) were over our house doing a STEAM project that they’d really wanted to do , to turn in on Thursday, the final full day of school. I don’t really understand what they made, but hey, they wanted to do schoolwork and they did it together, that’s all that mattered.

— We also continue to be amazed and entertained at Nate’s patience with his brother. For months now Theo has demanded to be first out of the car when we get home, first out of the house when we go somewhere, first upstairs to take a bath, you get the idea. And Nate is so good with Theo 95 percent of the time, not just with the “first” nonsense but in always asking him after a nap “Hi buddy! Did you have a good rest?” or asking Theo for one more hug or kiss before going to bed. Nate helps Theo put his shoes on the correct feet, constantly asks him if he has to go potty (Theo is trained, but still can have the occasional accident) and just generally checks on him.

He truly loves his little bro so much, and while sometimes he acts as a third parent, hilariously and frustratingly (more than once I’ll hear, while in the kitchen, “Daddy, he WON’T come upstairs for dinner, I’ve told him three times it’s time for dinner, and he just won’t listen!”) we are so lucky that he endures his brother’s tantrums and mood swings and demands with such a pleasant demeanor.

— The other big thing with Nate these days is his obsession with checking sports scores on my phone, morning and night. For a while it was just the Rangers score in the morning, but now with the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing, and MLB season going too, he’s always asking for my phone and saying things like “Wow, the Suns won AGAIN Daddy, 111-103” and “oh my goodness, the Pirates beat the Nationals 13-12.”
Then he checks the weather to see how hot it’s going to be. All he needs is to start looking at traffic reports and he could start his own one-man radio newscast every day.

— Oh and his other obsession lately is “American Ninja Warrior.” Watches it every single day, since there have been like 12 seasons of it there are always reruns to tape. He gets SO into it, rooting for some contestants and telling me who has qualified to go to Mount Midoriyama and what funny think Akbar (one of the hosts) did or said.

It’s kind of hilarious that a kid still a little scared of parts of the playground is so into this adventure sport of a show.

— And now to Theo… who has finished his first year of preschool with a flourish, getting better and better at speaking and drawing and just behaving better at school. His wonderful teacher, Miss Randi, kept calling him her “Most Improved Boy” at the end of the year, which, sure, is a little bit of a backhanded compliment but made us very proud, because he has improved so much.

He was SO excited about the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day projects he made at school that he gave my wife her present four days before the actual holiday, because he couldn’t wait to see her reaction. He somehow waited to give me mine until the actual day, and his “All about Daddy” page contained the facts that I’m currently 5 years old, I’m strong as an ant (deceptively strong, those ants!) and I work “at the computer.”

— The boys as expected continue to try new feats of daredevil-ness around the house. I am proud to say I’ve trained them in one way: Whenever they’re about to leap off a table several feet in the air, or jump from a couch toward a cushion seven feet away, I say “Where doesn’t Daddy want to go today??” and they both yell back “The hospital!”

It doesn’t actually stop them, but I like to think it makes them at least pause and decide against doing that flip in the air their little brains were planning.

— So one of our big excursions this spring was to the minor-league Long Island Ducks baseball game. Theo in particular was super-excited to see QuackerJack, the giant, web-footed mascot of the team. “Where’s QuackerJack?” he asked over and over again in the first few innings.

Finally, the green and white bird appeared, and Theo was completely terrified of him. We went to go shake his hand and pat his bill, and Theo ran away. Sadly, Nate, the nearly-7 year-old, also was scared of the mascot and didn’t go anywhere near him. He’s a giant bird who’s harmless! I said to the boys. But they were undeterred.

Safe to say, we’re not going to Disney World anytime soon.

The NFL finally, finally, has an active player come out as gay. Bravo, Carl Nassib. CNN’s Jim Acosta has run of fucks to give. And a man claims to have been eaten by a whale, then spit back out.

“I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now but I finally feel comfortable getting it off my chest.”

Raiders DL Carl Nassib shared this video to social media and became the first active NFL player to announce he is gay. pic.twitter.com/gGXbZEP3R7

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 21, 2021

We have been waiting. Man, have we been waiting.

As barrier after barrier to the acceptance of gay people in America has fallen over the past several decades, so many hurdles have overcome.

Almost nobody blinks an eye about a politician being gay, or an entertainer, or a teacher or Boy Scout leader. We have come so far in the acceptance of gay athletes as well.

But there was one major, major taboo we still had not seen overcome: An active professional football player in the NFL had yet to announce he was a homosexual. The most masculine of all our major sports, with so much physical contact between players.

We thought that barrier was going to fall in 2014, when Michael Sam came out of the closet, was drafted and seemed a sure bet to break this barrier. But Sam never made it onto an active NFL roster, so the taboo stayed out there, ridiculously long past when it should have been.

But Monday brought great news. Carl Nassib, a 27-year-old defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, announced on social media, during Pride Month, that he is gay.

You can watch the video above, and this is big for so many reasons. One, Nassib is not like Jason Collins, the first active NBA player who came out, at the end of his career, barely hanging on (not at ALL diminishing the courage it took for Collins to come out, just saying, his career was nearly over at the time). Nassib is an in-his-prime athlete, still very productive (he played 14 games for the Raiders last year, with one interception and 28 tackles) and should have many more years in his career.

Two, it’s football, the slowest sport to move forward on gay issues, and the support Nassib immediately got from the commissioner, and superstars like Saquon Barkley and J.J. Watt, was important.

And three, it’s big because of the way Nassib did it. His attitude of “hey, no big deal, just want to let you guys know this,” was a perfect way to show how normal an announcement like this should be.

I hope Nassib is welcomed into the Raiders locker room with open arms next month at training camp. His bravery and confidence in making his statement was exemplary, and I’m thrilled one more barrier has fallen.

Acosta: I’ve decided to award Tucker with the distinction of bullshit factory employee of the month. Congrats Tucker. You did it. Nobody bullshits like you when it comes to the insurrection pic.twitter.com/uzmlDkLIv9

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 19, 2021

**Next up, CNN’s Jim Acosta deserves a medal or a Purple Heart or something for having to stand in a room with Donald Trump and ask him questions for the past four years. Acosta is sometimes a bit of a grandstander, definitely likes to be noticed, but all in all I’ve found him to be a fair, reputable journalist who tries to get to the truth.

Which would make him the complete opposite of Tucker Carlson, the human turd that is on Fox News every night, spewing hatred, bigotry and more lies than a roomful of Pinocchio’s.

Acosta decided that Carlson’s latest ridiculousness, saying the FBI was behind the Capitol raid on Jan. 6, was worthy of a new title from him.

Take it away Jim, and I bet that felt good to say.

**Finally today, one of the most bizarre ocean stories I’ve ever heard. A lobster diver on Cape Cod, in Mass., was swallowed whole by a humpback whale, then spit back out.

Michael Packard, a 56-year-old man, said he was doing his usual work on the bottom of the ocean floor when suddenly he was swallowed up by a humpback whale, which Packard initially figured was a shark.

“I was completely inside; it was completely black,” Packard said to the Cape Cod Times. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.”

After about 30-45 seconds, the young whale (whose name might have been Willy or Shamu, who knows?) spit Packard back out, a person on Packard’s diving boat rescued for emergency help, and Packard was rushed to the hospital, where he was released after a few days with “a lot of soft tissue damage” but no major injuries.

“Based on what was described, this would have to be a mistake and an accident on the part of the humpback,” said Jooke Robbins, director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. Humpbacks are not aggressive animals, particularly toward humans, she said.

What a bananas story! Can you imagine what he must’ve been thinking for the seconds he was in the whale? And clearly the whale was no fan of Packard as a snack, hence the regurgitation.

Just crazy. Note to self: Don’t ever go lobster diving.

My best friend is in town this week, and that’s a rare treat. A community in Michigan helps save a wedding after disaster strikes. And I ruminate on the Brooklyn Nets’ stunning Game 7 defeat, and what might have been.

I first met Clay Pandorf during our first week at the University of Delaware, in August, 1993.

We were living in the same dorm, Smyth Hall, and as these things tend to happen in the first few days of college, we met through set of normal circumstances: My new roommate was from the same New Hampshire town as a girl Clay met the first day on campus, and when the girl (who later became Clay’s wife, and now ex-wife, but that’s a whole ‘nother story) came to visit my roommate, she brought Clay with her.

He was, in almost all ways, my opposite: He was tall, gangly, shy and blonde. I was short, dark-haired (ah, I miss my hair!), ready to talk to anyone at a moment’s notice, and eager to fit in at college in any way I could.

We barely spoke the first time we met, but that weekend Clay, Heather (the girl who introduced us) and few of us who’d met that first week all went to a fraternity party, and Clay and I ended up hanging out on the roof together, drinking warm Natural Light beer from red cups, discussing where we were from (as he was a Massachusetts Red Sox fan, we had plenty to argue about right from the start) and what college would be like.

Pretty much since 1993, he’s been my best friend in the whole world. We remain, in many ways, complete opposites, Mutt and Jeff, as we’ve been described: I’m a sports fanatic, a creative out-of-the-box thinker and writer, always willing to take chances and dive into new situations.
Clay is a “science nerd” and always has been; he’s a Ph.D, for God’s sakes, and has worked at a variety of colleges and universities as a research scientist. He is maddeningly deliberate; when we lived together I would pull my hair out since it would take him 20 minutes to leave the apartment. I am emotional and often make rash decisions; he will spend a half hour determining whether to spend $3 at a sidewalk pretzel stand.

We shouldn’t “work” as friends, but we do, and I love him to death, and have for nearly 30 years now. He’s been the best man at both of my weddings, and he’s been there for me at every big moment of my life for the past three decades. We have fun together doing nothing, and everything, and the shared history is so important to me.

I’m telling you all this tonight about Clay because he came for a rare visit Sunday with his 11-year-old daughter, and I never get to see him. He lives in Alabama now, and Georgia before that, and we see each other about every 2-3 years, and we don’t talk on the phone nearly as much as we used to (I used to be able to blame him for never calling back, but I’m bad at it now too).

Everybody deserves to have a great, loyal, smart best friend, who’s there for you always. I’ve got one, and for the next three days I get to hang out with him.

Life is good. A great Father’s Day with family, then a visit from my best bud.

**Next up, a pretty awesome story I didn’t have room for in last week’s Good News Friday, but wanted to make sure you saw it now.

A couple in Michigan recently had a pretty unfortunate thing happen during their wedding reception, but the local community rallied to make sure their wedding continued without a hitch.

People, helping people, is just beautiful to see.

**Finally, a few things I’ve got to get off my chest after Saturday night’s Game 7 loss by my Brooklyn Nets, at home, to the Milwaukee Bucks.

I’ve been a Nets fan for 30 years, so I’ve seen some disappointment. Most of life as a Nets fan is disappointment, let’s face it. But Saturday night… man. In a Game 7, at home against the Bucks, the Nets blew it, losing 115-111 in overtime.

Of course there are excuses; there are always excuses. Kyrie Irving got hurt early in the series and didn’t play the final four games, and that made a huge difference.
Another of Brooklyn’s Big 3 superstars, James Harden, got hurt in the first minute of Game 1, and came back in Game 5 but was at best 50 percent of his normal effectiveness. And Kevin Durant, can’t say enough about how amazing he was this series, scoring 48 points or more in two of the last three games.

So yeah, Milwaukee is a very good team, the Nets were injured, Joe Harris had a terrible series which is very unlike him, all those excuses are there.

But I don’t care. This was going to be Brooklyn’s YEAR to finally win its first NBA title. And you’ve got a home game, Game 7, in your own building, and couldn’t close the deal. So damn frustrating, to come so close.

I sometimes wish I didn’t care about sports so much. I certainly don’t care about them as much as I used to; losses by my favorite teams don’t stay with me as long as they used to.

But this was a huge missed opportunity for my favorite pro team. Yes there’s always next year, but Harden, Durant and Irving will all be a year older, other teams may get stronger, and injuries can certainly happen again.

I hope the Bucks win it all. But man was this a terrible finish to the Nets’ season.

Good News Friday: Mackenzie Scott does it again, giving away another few billion dollars. Two babies giggling at each other, having the time of their lives. And a wonderful story of a Dad adopting a stepdaughter, and giving her his last name that she always wanted.

Happy Friday, peeps! It’s Father’s Day weekend, and as always I will take a minute to give thanks for my outstanding father, my fantastic and supportive father-in-law, and my wonderful stepfather. I have been blessed with tons of Dad role models in my life, who have helped guide and teach me how to be a great Dad (well at least I hope I’m a great Dad, I think I’m fabulous but I may be biased).

I also want to give thanks to Kevin Durant for that unbelievable performance Tuesday night, helping my Brooklyn Nets to a big win, and to Joe Biden, for somehow restraining himself from strangling Vlad Putin at their summit meeting this week. Putin is pure evil, but Uncle Joe kept it together.

On with the show! First up this week, we return to the wonderful generosity of Mackenzie Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (those two facts might be related).

A few months ago Scott made headlines for an enormous series of donations she made to charities and educational facilities, to the tune of nearly $6 billion in 2020.

Well she’s at it again, even as her Amazon stock make her richer and richer. Scott announced this week in a Medium.com post that she had disbursed a new round of grants, worth a combined $2.74 billion.

According to this New York Times story, “The latest grants will be distributed to 286 organizations including major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence. Among those receiving grants — the average size was just under $10 million — were the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Broward College in Florida and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Yet even as she disbursed her billions, Ms. Scott expressed some ambivalence about her fortune and the source of it, writing in a blog post that “it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.”

Scott also wrote this, which I wholeheartedly agree with:

“Putting large donors at the center of stories on social progress is a distortion of their role. Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change. In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others. Though we still have a lot to learn about how to act on these beliefs without contradicting and subverting them, we can begin by acknowledging that people working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower others.”

Here is a woman completely aware of how wrong it is for so few to have so much wealth, and doing her best to help as much as possible.

I couldn’t admire Mackenzie Scott more, and the billions she’s giving away will do SO much good.

https://twitter.com/GoodNewsCorres1/status/1404989174554533910

***Next up, from the wonderful Twitter feed of Good News Correspondent, a couple of babies lying next to each other and giggling their hearts content.
They’re talking to each other, somehow, and they understand each other completely, and it’s pretty freaking wonderful.

Quite possibly the best sound in the world, these two.

***And finally today, this seems appropriate for Father’s Day weekend: The story of Mike and Sarah Rousell, a couple from Texas who’ve been together for five years, finally getting married this past March.

Sarah’s daughter Camryn had been asking to be officially adopted by Mike, and get his last name. Well, recently it happened, and Mike and Sarah surprised Camryn at school to give her the good news.

Beautiful, heartwarming stuff.

Here’s the raw video of them surprising Camryn at school. Have a great weekend, everyone.

https://twitter.com/GoodNewsCorres1/status/1402135658748170244

The Faces of Covid page honors the 600,000 dead, and makes them less anonymous. Dana Carvey does Biden on Colbert again, and it’s awesome. And a pro soccer game in Poland is interrupted for a very strange reason.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/06/15/1006190754/faces-of-covid-twitter-obituaries?utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr

Alex Goldstein is a communications worker in Boston. Like everyone else in the world, he was staggered by the unending number of deaths from Covid-19 last March and April. The numbers rolled by and piled up so fast, it was so easy to lose perspective that these were each actual human beings who had died, with stories, families and friends all their own.

Goldstein decided to do something about it, and he created the Faces of Covid Twitter feed, which multiple times a day links to stories and obituaries about those we’ve lost to his horrible scourge.
(Full disclosure: I don’t know Alex, but he and I have emailed for a while about a project I was working on for his site.)

Some of the stories feature older people at the end of their life, such as David and Muriel Cohen, a couple who died within hours of each other, but far too many feature younger people who were crushed by Covid and couldn’t survive.

In this NPR story on the Faces of Covid site, Goldstein explains why he started the site, which has nearly 150,000 Twitter followers: 

“I think that the story at the beginning of the pandemic was largely a data story. We were getting thrown all these numbers thrown at us — hospitalizations and cases and deaths,” Goldstein tells Morning Edition. “I found it really hard to process and I felt like, we were missing the human element of that story.”

It’s a wonderful site where you can learn about people from all over the country, and while it’s of course remarkably sad to think about so many deaths, it’s fascinating to see the lives led, and to remember them as people, not just as numbers.

Here’s the NPR story about Alex again.

**Next up, I featured Dana Carvey’s tremendous Joe Biden impression a few weeks ago, but it’s so good that when he went on Stephen Colbert again this week, I still was gobsmacked at how good he is. Calling Colbert “Merv Griffin” at the start was perfect, as was the next five minutes, especially when he compares words to Republicans. 

Dana Carvey should be back on “SNL” doing Biden, like, yesterday.

🛬 Awaryjne lądowanie w Elblągu, podczas spotkania rezerw @ZKSOlimpia z Pisą Primavera Barczewo. Takie rzeczy tylko na boiskach forBET IV Ligi! @iforbetpl #KursNaforBETIVLigę pic.twitter.com/ib0dZpbvRq

— WMZPN (@wmzpn) June 8, 2021

**And finally today, under the category of “come to a sporting event, you might see something you’ve never seen before!” I give you this.

At a professional soccer match last weekend between Olimpia Elblag and PISA Primavera Barczewo in Poland, a skydiver had to make an emergency landing right in the middle of the field.

Amazing no one was hurt, and also I love the referee giving the diver a yellow card at the end.

Sports, man. The best reality show out there.

At the French Open, Novak Djokovic has a remarkable few days, and he’s just about clinched GOAT status in my book. A pretty amazing game of “professional” tag. And R.I.P. Ned Beatty, a wonderful character actor.

The arguments against Novak Djokovic being the greatest male tennis player of all time are falling, falling away, like leaves off the trees in autumn.

Each year that passes by, as he adds to his enormous Grand Slam singles trophy haul, he gets closer and closer to passing the two rivals and other candidates for best player ever. Djokovic is so mentally strong, so physically fit, such a great defensive player, with a backhand for the ages, that the people who doubt his candidacy are left looking kind of silly.

Especially after what the 34-year-old Serb just pulled off in Paris over the past four days. Friday he somehow found his way past Rafael Nadal, who has won the French Open a ridiculous 13 times (13!). The two played, for a couple of sets, some of the finest tennis you’ll ever see, with a third set (won by Djokovic in a tiebreaker) that’s as high-quality as anything I’ve ever seen.

Then, after that four-hour, gut-wrenching triumph, a win that kept Nadal from breaking a tie with Roger Federer for most Grand Slam titles (both have 20), Djokovic came out flat against Stefanos Tsitsipas, the best of the new generation of stars, on Sunday. Tsitsipas hit stinging backhands and crushing forehands to grab the first two sets, and while of course it wasn’t over, it was looking mighty bleak.

Then the Serb, as he so often does, found another gear other people can’t reach. He channeled his inner fire and stormed back to win the final three sets, and claim his 19th French Open title.

Djokovic is now the only man in the Open Era (since 1968) to have won all four majors at least twice, and seems certain to surpass Federer and Nadal in Slam titles. He is, for many, hard to embrace; he has a volcanic temper that shows oncourt sometimes (he destroyed a sign on a Roland Garros court during one match last week), and he makes lots of strange, disturbing pronouncements, including saying in 2020 he wouldn’t get the Covid-19 vaccination.

I get that he’s difficult to love; he does make it hard for fans sometime, and the majority are usually rooting for his opponent in his big matches.

But I admire the hell out of his maximizing of his ability, how damn hard he fights, and how he has truly separated himself from the other greats of this era.

The arguments against him are completely falling away. He’s the greatest player of all time, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. 

 

Professional Tag is next level 🤯🔥

Holy crap @worldchasetag pic.twitter.com/u2YcyiH2tT

— Erin Ashley Simon (@erinasimon) June 7, 2021

***Next up, I saw this clip on Twitter last week and it made me want to know more about something called World Chase Tag, which seems incredibly intense and fun to play. It’s kind of like “Ultimate Tag,” a TV show on Fox that my 6-year-old very much enjoys, but with more obstacles and more fun.

Check out this clip and tell me you don’t want to play it with your friends.

**And finally, a few words about the great actor Ned Beatty, who died on Sunday at age 83. He was a terrific actor, who was in so many great movies, like “Deliverance,” and “Superman” and “Toy Story 3.”

But maybe his most famous role was in “Network,” the classic 1976 prophetic satire about the news industry, which won Oscars and was re-made into a Broadway show starring Bryan Cranston a few years ago.

Beatty, in the movie, gave this sensational, powerful speech to the character Howard Beale, and it’s so good I watched it a few times Sunday night.

This is pure, fantastic acting. Worth watching a few times yourself.

Good News Friday: A woman offers her $40,000 college scholarship to a classmate in need. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jimmy Fallon with an awesome tribute to Broadway coming back. And a high school principal croons a classic at graduation.

Happy Friday, world! Hope you and yours are healthy and safe. Man, lots going on this week, but let’s focus on what’s really, truly important: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are going to play an epic tennis match today at around noon today on NBC at the French Open. If Nadal wins, he’s likely to win the championship on Sunday and garner his 21st Grand Slam title, passing Roger Federer. If Djokovic wins, well, it’s not often you can say the No. 1 player in the world winning would be an upset, but it would be. Can’t wait.

OK, lots of good news as always to get to, but this video and gesture showed up everywhere for me this week, so I must share it. It’s a beautiful gesture of generosity and kindness, that will have a major impact on someone’s life.

At Fitchburg High School in Fitchburg, Mass., a woman named Verda Tetteh did something extraordinary at graduation. She has already been accepted to Harvard and will be going there, and at graduation was told that her school was awarding her a $40,000 scholarship to help her at school, in addition to her Harvard scholarship.

At the ceremony, though, Tetteh stood up and asked the school to please give her scholarship to a student at the school who is going to community college, since she, Tetteh “is not the one who needs it the most.”

Watch the clip here.

https://twitter.com/GoodNewsCorres1/status/1402331910827917317

Tetteh explained to reporters later that her Mom had gone to community college;

“I’m excited to see who it helps and how that changes their life, so I am so happy that God gave me the strength to do that,” Verda said.

A standing ovation followed some moments of reflection for Verda, during which she heard the assistant principal urge grads to be “bold and selfless” and that made her think of her mom, an immigrant who often works 80-hour weeks to provide for her family.

Verda’s mom brought her to the U.S. as a child from their native Ghana, always stressing the importance of education. In fact, her mom Rosemary earned her bachelor’s degree from a local community college, at the age of 47, which is why she is so proud of her daughter’s spontaneous decision.

“Now I’m 100-percent sure she is ready to go into the world on her own,” Rosemary said.

What a wonderful move by Verda, and you just know the person who received that money will benefit immensely from it.

Young people, they’re going to save the world.

 

***Next up today, it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Jimmy Fallon sketch as much as this one. This week he and Broadway legend Lin-Manuel Miranda celebrated the recent news that Broadway shows will be re-opening in September with a kick-ass musical number. Featuring, among others, Kristin Chenowith, Jimmy Smits and Laura Beninati, this is six minutes of pure joy and adrenaline to kick start your day.

I don’t know what play or musical I’ll be seeing this fall, but it will be something I will enjoy immensely.

In North Carolina, this principal stood at the podium on Graduation Day.

Instead of just a speech, he performed Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" to the entire graduating class.

Warning — It's the best seventy seconds you'll spend today…#Amazing 🎓pic.twitter.com/QC23Ol9SY1

— Goodable (@Goodable) June 9, 2021

**And finally today, another musical number of a very different sort to share today. A principal of a school in High Point, N.C., did something wonderful and unusual at graduation last week.

Marcus Gause, the principal at T. Wingate Andrews High School in High Point, decided to croon the great Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston song “I Will Always Love You” to all the students and parents gathered.

He knocked it out of the park. This man should be the chorus teacher as well!

Have a great and safe weekend.

A dating app asks you to think twice before sending a woman a really stupid message. A Jamaican sprinter shows she’s ready for the Olympics. And a hilarious “first Day of school” photo from an NFL veteran.

The world of online dating is a jungle out there. So many choices, so many landmines for men and women to navigate. And as we know, men are oftentimes not smart with what they say to the fairer sex; let’s face it, there are a lot of doofuses (doofii?) sending idiotic or just plain mean messages to women.

Which is why I think it’s kind of hilarious what the Tinder app has come up with now to “save” women from men and their own idiocy, and save men from themselves.

Here’s how it works, according to this story:

“AYS?, which was announced on Thursday, is a real-time warning that, like Does This Bother You?, utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to detect inappropriate language. The machine learning was based on what members have reported in the past and, according to Tinder, will evolve and improve over time. 

“When a user types a message that the AI flags, the AYS? prompt pops up. It notes that what they’re saying may offend their match, and asks them to pause before sending. In early testing, AYS? reduced harmful language in sent messages by more than 10 percent.”

I understand the safety part of all this, and that’s commendable. But I also think it will flag men’s stupid comments to women, that they think are “so original” and witty and brilliant.

Women, on behalf of all men everywhere who populate these sites, I’m sorry. We’re men. We’re trying the best we can.

An app feature that stops you from making a fool of yourself. Finally, a great use of modern technology! 

 

**Next up today, we’re getting closer to Summer Olympics time, when for about three weeks we all care about who the world’s best breaststroker is, or javelin thrower, or the most impressive rhythmic gymnast turns out to be.

Lots of countries are having Olympic trials and tuneups in different events, and once in a while you get a mind-blowing performance.  Like the one above, where Jamaican sprinting legend Shelley Ann Fraser-Pryce ran the second-fastest 100 meters ever last week, smoking the competition in 10.63 seconds.

Can’t wait to see her in Tokyo. (And yes, let me say here for the record that it’s absolutely crazy that the IOC is going ahead with these Olympics, with Covid still gripping so many nations. It’s a bad, bad, bad, idea. But if they’re going to be happening, I am excited to watch.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CP3H15wh1x9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

**Finally today, this hit me exactly right on Tuesday and made me laugh for 30 seconds. Ryan Fitzpatrick has played for a whole bunch of NFL squads, and now is on the Washington Football Team. For his first day of mini-camp Monday, he put together a little sign like you see with little kids on their first day of school.

His “teacher” is head coach Ron Rivera, and his “friends” are two of the WFT’s starting wide receivers.

Freaking awesome. I love FitzMagic.