The Improbability of Mason Miller on the Mound
Plus, some Friday morning musings of music, television and the joy of being a fan.
Happy Friday morning from the airspace between Los Angeles and home. Here’s a photo a friend of a friend posted of Bruce Sprinsteen’s show at the Forum last night. See if you can spot our special guest star wearing the Dodgers cap.
As you know, our book BIG FAN comes out in a little more than a month — a book about what it means to be a fan — and I was thinking all day on Thursday about why I’m so excited for people to read it. Thursday was a pure fan day. I was in Los Angeles to join a friend (and his son) and see my favorite musical artist perform songs that, with only one or two exceptions, I’d seen him perform many times before.
We spent much of the day talking about how excited we were. On the way to the Forum, we stopped at In ‘N Out, which I love. When we got to the arena, we were surrounded by all these passionate Springsteen fans who just wanted to talk to anybody and everybody about how excited they were to see him, how much Bruce means to their lives, how they first saw him at the Stone Pony or in Chicago or Cleveland, when they were so much younger, and how a Bruce show still thrills them now that we’re all so much older.
Fandom unites us in such beautiful ways.
That, of course, is the heart of sports, the same feeling we get at a ballgame. We wear similar versions of the same thing, and we talk to each other like we go back many years. All the time, but especially now, when everything has the power to divide us (Including, alas, Bruce Springsteen), fandom unifies us. Makes the world feel smaller.
Hey, you know the words to Badlands, too?
Hey, you love Christian Yelich, too?
Hey, you get extra nervous when your hockey team is up 3-1, too?
Let’s be friends.
No. Let’s be BEST friends.
That’s why Mike and I wrote BIG FAN, to get at that feeling, where it comes from, how it moves us, to find all the joy and unity and passion and collective panic we could find chasing fandom around the world. The beer-soaked insanity of the World Darts Championship. The plonk-plonk madness of a professional pickleball tournament. The sauce-smeared chaos of a football Sunday at Buffalo Wild Wings. The swirling love of a stadium of people singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at a Liverpool match. The almost holy reverence of a baseball game played on top of the world.
I am so excited for you to read BIG FAN, which is available for preorder now.
And I’m even more excited to see you on the road during our upcoming BIG FAN tour. We are starting at the Strand in New York (with Seth Meyers) on May 18; unfortunately, that show is completely sold out. I have received more than a dozen texts from friends asking if there’s a way I can get them in; I’m certainly going to try. But there is some exciting news on that front: Brilliant Reader Adam got two tickets and now can’t make it — he would like to give them away to another Brilliant Reader. So we’ll have a little drawing for two tickets. I’m not sure how it will work yet, but if you’re interested, drop us a line here, and we’ll figure it out.
We’re in Boston on May 19 with an amazing guest to be announced soon. Then we’re in St. Louis on May 20 — tickets are going bananas there, which is so fantastic. In fact, as of right now, St. Louis is outselling our May 21st event in Kansas City, which, I don’t know if this changes anything, but Jason Kander will be joining us on stage in Kansas City.*
*There is a possibility that Kander’s appearance — and his profound love of the song “Centerfield” — will actually push St. Louis over the top in the I-40 matchup with Kansas City. I’ll keep you updated.
Finally, on Friday, May 22, we’re in Los Angeles with Colin Hanks.
Time now to jump into The Clubhouse for the ABS Challenge Scorecard and a thought or two about the impossible Mason Miller — and whatever else comes up while we fly over, I don’t know, somewhere. You know what I love? Those maps they have on international flights that show exactly what you’re flying over in real time. I’d like to believe like we’re flying over some kids waving at us.
If you’re a Clubhouse member, come on down — the door’s open below.
If you’re a free reader, thank you as always for being here. If you ever feel like joining us on Fridays — not for more, exactly, but to be a bigger part of our world — we’d love to have you.
