The joy of rewatching Frasier relies so much on the genius of David Hyde Pierce in his role as Niles Crane.
Kelsey Grammar seems by many accounts to be a big weirdo jerk, but he is great as the show's title character. Beyond those two brothers on the show, I am fond of the other main characters. Marty is great. Daphne and Roz are strong characters and key to how the whole mix of the show works.
But it all comes back to Niles. That show brings me joy because of Niles. And based on the way he has carried himself since the days of Frasier, David Hyde Pierce seems like such a wonderful and thoughtful person.
I'm happy to go down any rabbit hole that involves watching clips or listening to interviews with Pierce.
Unrelated to David Hyde Pierce, or so I thought, my kids are currently interested in all things Minions. They like the movies. They like the decorations and the funny shirts. And they like the soundtracks.
So it was that I learned that these two separate tracks of interest actually overlap.
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Are you skeptical that I am going to get to sports after that intro about David Hyde Pierce and the Minions? Read on to see how we get there!
What's Minion for "Major-General?"
A little while ago, my parents asked me if I had seen Pierce singing in the Broadway Musical, "Pirates! The Penzance Musical!" In particular, they sent me to seek out his rendition of "I am the very model of a modern Major-General."
I found it. It's a wonderful short clip, and it includes a brief interview with Pierce about the song.
That tune stuck enough in my memory that I recognized it when my kids picked a song from the Despicable Me 3 soundtrack during a ride in the car. That song: "Papa Mama Loca Pipa."
I have never seen the movie, so I have no idea how the Minions ended up on a singing competition show. I don't even really know what the joke is, other than putting the made-up Minion language to an old musical tune. But I do find it pretty funny anyway.
Our family listened to that and the Broadway version, as performed by Pierce, in the course of the same 15-minute car ride.
Our musical selection is nothing if not diverse.
Three questions about Denver sports teams
Let's start with the one built around the guy who looks like Gru.
Spoiler Alert
- Are the Denver Nuggets doing this again?
By this, I mean relying on a top-heavy, injury-prone roster to capitalize on the prime of their transcendent superstar Nikola Jokić. Are they giving us a team that can beat anyone when everything goes right, but leaving the slimmest possible margin for error?
From my seat as a fan, it seems like they are doing the same thing over and over again, falling back into the same old habits that don't work, even as they probably know it won't work as they are making the decisions.
This feels like the kind of decision I make all the time. But this is an area where I don't want the Nuggets to be so relatable to how I stumble through certain areas of my life. I say that even as I acknowledge that I don't have to navigate challenges like the salary cap or the "second apron" or whatever.
I don't know how those complexities affect Denver's off-season decisions. But I do know that the Nuggets signing DeMar DeRozan to their already-thin bench feels like every time I write down the workouts I am going to do on a given week: trying the same thing that hasn't worked before and hoping it works this time, even though I already know it probably won't.
- Are the Colorado Rockies going to lose 100 games?
Follow-up question: does it matter? Sure, there's something symbolic about a team's status if they reach or avoid 100 losses. But in the case of the Rockies, a bad and hopeless team for so long, I'm not sure the number of losses will change many minds in either direction.
For example, Lauren Thiesen wrote a funny blog over at Defector ($) in which she checked in on the Rockies.
It was aptly named: "Let’s See If The Colorado Rockies Have Learned How To Play Baseball Yet." The conclusion after a hapless loss at the hands of the New York Yankees? Not really.
This team's record and the results on any given night can certainly confirm the still-sad state of this franchise. But I do think I see reasons to hope that things are moving in a better direction. In most cases, these reasons come in the form of fun, young players:
- Cole Carrigg hit an inside-the-park home run and flipped off some Atlanta fans in the span of a couple weeks. Both of these things are more exciting than anything that happened in the last three years of late summer baseball in Colorado.
- Zac Veen brings some flash and energy, along with a much-improved bat compared to his debut last year. Now I'm hoping he brings back his purple hair.
- Hunter Goodman is a legitimately great power hitter. I'm glad the Rockies didn't trade him.
- Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy represent a certain form of competence that has been lacking in Colorado for many years (maybe forever). They were highly regarded prospects who needed changes of scenery. They have both gotten on track with the Rockies.
They are still in last place and might end this season with the worst record in baseball, but the Rockies have actual good players who wouldn't be out of place on actual good teams. They often play well against those actual good teams. They at least make it tough on those teams in their losing efforts.
There's still a long way to go for the Rockies. Most obviously, they are still miles away from solving the mystery of how to build a good pitching staff while playing their home games at altitude. Dick Monfort still looms as a meddlesome owner who might reassert his right to muck things up.
But I can see my way through to finding some actual reasons for hope for my baseball team. And when it comes to our hobbies and the places we go for escape and fun experiences, carving out a little bit of hope can sustain enjoyment for a while.
If you're not a Rockies fan, you'll just have to take my word for it that this passes for hope. Especially if Cole Carrigg flips off another team's fans.
- Should we Bo-lieve?
I think the fate of the Denver Broncos bandwagon rests on this question. Bo Nix is entering his third year as the team's quarterback.
Nix has come up big in the clutch in his career so far, including a playoff win over Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills the last time any of us saw him on a football field. But he has also played like a real bonehead for sustained stretches of games and seasons.
That includes no shortage of head-clutching moments last season when the Broncos almost reached the Super Bowl. Let's just say that Nix might not have had so many opportunities for fourth quarter heroics if he would have played better in more of the first three quarters.
I Bo-lieve, but I completely understand if people don't. That's going with my heart over my head as a Broncos fan.
As a bonus, this gives us an excuse to remember a genuinely funny pro wrestling gimmick.
I Bo-lieve in Bo Nix, but I was predated by the Bo-lievers in Bo Dallas. He tried to rally fans and wrestlers with that turn of phrase as part of an underdog angle that played out over a period of time.
I'm hoping it goes better for Bo Nix and the Broncos.
That trip down memory lanes brings me to a pro wrestling thought I had this week while watching The Office. But first, this week's tidbits.
❄️ The NFL season starts this week. I noticed a lot of things while consuming preview coverage. But the story that really stuck with me was this one about DK Metcalf and his belief that Antarctica is "another world," a civilization inside of earth. Honestly, I'm just relieved he isn't talking about raw milk (The Athletic $).
🤖 I wish this wasn't the case, but I am feeling a lot of angst about AI. This angst extends into multiple facets of my life. For the purposes of my writing and this newsletter, it has me thinking a lot about the importance of people making art. I found this clip of Josh Johnson heartening, in which he answers a question about AI and stand-up comedy (The Daily Show YouTube).
🧢 MLB umpire Doug Edding truly made a fool of himself when he instructed rookie pitcher Hancel Rincón to straighten out his cap in his big league debut. At least it gave us a fun moment of unity when both the Cardinals and their opponents, the aforementioned Rockies, kept tilting their caps to the side to mock him the night after the incident (Birdy Work).
🏈 A story I came across courtesy of Craig Calcaterra: college punters effectively unionized to get more money in the new NIL system. In the muck that is money in college sports, this story rules (Wall Street Journal).
📚 Currently reading: Dear Writer, by Maggie Smith and Roughhouse, by Alison Lyn Miller.
🪿On the list of things I will be reading next, I want to shout out Pound Foolish, by Christopher Harris. He published the novel independently and it's been a bestseller on Bookshop.org this week. Chris and his Harris Football podcast have meant a lot to me the last 11 years, and he is a great inspiration to me and how I've approached my newsletter and website. I also have no doubt that it's a good book, so go buy it!
(Note: if Chris or any other yacht possums see this, there wasn't a possum icon. But there was a goose).
Jim gave Dwight good advice
I'm always watching The Office. A couple nights ago, I watched the episode entitled "Dwight's Speech." In that one, Jim intends to prank Dwight when he helps him prepare for a "salesman of the year" speech with the talking points and delivery style of murderous dictators.
In giving his advice, he reminds Dwight of his love of power and authority. It's supposed to be bad advice, but it turns out to be good advice.
It leads to a successful speech in which Dwight shouts and bangs the podium and wins over a bunch of salespeople. The speech works because Jim essentially offered the same wisdom that you hear from some of the most successful pro wrestling characters: take your real personality and turn it all the way up.
Dwight's speech is Dwight turned up to 11. It also could have passed as a pretty darn good wrestling promo.
In terms of the modern wrestlers that I enjoy, Hangman Adam Page continues to find ways to take this wisdom and spin some interesting stories.
He was the "Anxious Millennial Cowboy" en route to his first AEW championship. And let me tell you, as a fellow anxious millennial, I was there with him each step of the way.
More recently, the Hangman has incorporated his identity as a gardener. I am currently wearing a pink Hangman shirt with a picture of flowers coming out of a cowboy boot. Even more precisely, he started a recent promo by saying, "I'm a gardener."
I cannot account for all of the things that have been said in wrestling interviews over the years, but I bet that's a first.
AEW has some classic male-centric content, because it is still a professional wrestling show. But part of its appeal to me is the willingness of some characters to poke at and question traditional and outdated notions of what it means to "be a man."
I don't know Adam Page personally, although I did meet him once. But I get the sense that he is just turning his personality up to 11 when he subverts a lot of stupid ideas about toughness and masculinity and advocates for something better.
For that reason, he'll probably always be my favorite wrestler.
And if anyone ever asks you how David Hyde Pierce could possibly be connected to the professional wrestler Hangman Adam Page, you can send them this newsletter.
