Sixty-nine until pitchers and catchers … and here’s your daily splash of joy.
Why do you love baseball?
Brilliant Reader Scott: “Getting off the L at Addison and turning the corner — there’s Wrigley in all of its magnificence.”
Brilliant Reader David: The Rogers Hornsby quote: “People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Brilliant Reader Matt: “The moment before the pitch, when even in the most modern and cacophonous stadiums, it gets suddenly quiet again.”
Brilliant Reader Nick: Wrigley Field.
If you would like to send in the reason why you love baseball, we’d love to hear it. And in that spirit, we’re also now collecting photos and artwork too — old snapshots, ballpark scenes, favorite scorecards, kids’ drawings, ticket stubs, whatever captures the joy of the game for you. Some people are sending song lyrics. Some are sending poems. It’s utterly wonderful. Just send along your baseball joy to [email protected].
Just a reminder that at noon Eastern time today, I’ll be going live for the PosCast and talking about the Hall of Fame vote this Sunday. Come on by, ask some questions, I would love to see you there. You never know who might stop by.
As for countdowns, there are 168 days until BIG FAN — the book Mike Schur and I wrote — hits bookstores, and you can preorder signed copies now. If you order from the good folks at Joseph-Beth, you will have a shot at getting one of the limited-edition signed copies that we’re doing with special messages, bonus autographs, and other surprises.
It’s the holiday season (you probably didn’t know this), and you can buy all your friends and family a year-long Clubhouse subscription for $10 off the regular price! Or even treat yourself!
Thinking (too much) about Lane Kiffin
Our younger daughter is studying to become a psychologist, and I would imagine that one of the tenets of modern psychology is this: “The less time spent thinking about the ethics of Lane Kiffin, the better for your mental health.”
But I can’t help it. I’ve been thinking about Lane Kiffin way too much lately.
I’m pretty much out on college sports these days because I don’t have any idea what’s going on. I’m not anti or anything like that. I’m just out. I don’t know what schools are in what conferences, I don’t really understand the NIL thing, and I can’t get my mind around college teams having General Managers. College sports for me these days are what the VCR was for our parents in the 1980s. I get the concept, I appreciate the concept, but the clock never stops blinking 12:00, no matter what I do.
Still, Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss for LSU because God told him to — it’s funny how God so often tells people to take the most money — and then whining incessantly that Ole Miss didn’t let him coach in the college football playoffs has pierced my world.
“Leaving Ole Miss was extremely difficult,” Kiffin said. “Extremely difficult decision, and in that, we tried every single thing possible to continue to coach the team through the playoffs and continue to coach the players. In the end, that was their decision and I totally respect that.”’
Narrator: He didn’t totally respect that at all. Reportedly, he fought the school to the death, threatening to take the whole staff and top players with him if they didn’t let him keep coaching — and then telling coaches if they didn’t get on the plane with him immediately, they would not have a job on his LSU staff.
What a guy.
Look, I’m all for live and let live. If Lane Kiffin wants to chase money and glory at the cost of all else, that’s very much his business. He must be a helluva football coach because he’s been acting like this forever — and I mean FOREVER …
This is a guy who was so bad with the Raiders that Al Davis called him a liar and said he was a “disgrace to the organization.” Do you know how bad you have to be to disgrace THE RAIDERS organization?
This is a guy who coached at Tennessee for just one season before bolting for USC. Tennessee’s Athletic Director, Mike Hamilton, summed up the Lane Kiffin Era with a one-word gem: “Brief.”
This is a guy who was so despised at USC that they literally pulled him off the team bus after a game to fire him.
This is a guy who, when he was offensive coordinator at Alabama, took a job at Florida Atlantic before the College Football Playoffs, which so ticked off Nick Saban that he canned Kiffin before the national title game to “avoid distractions.”
This is a guy who coached Florida Atlantic to 11 straight wins and a Conference USA Championship and then immediately jumped to Ole Miss and didn’t coach in the Owls' bowl game.
… and yet teams keep on hiring him. I mean, this time around, LSU AND Florida were both utterly desperate to get him. You would think that would have made the guy happy — he seems to love nothing more than to be wooed — but Todd McShay seems to believe that he was ACTUALLY holding out for the Alabama job, which, if true, is very funny.
Again, that’s Kiffin’s business. We are all searching for our place in life, right? If you feel good about abandoning your Ole Miss team before the playoffs — and, oh by the way, maybe having your first major success as a head coach* — then, OK, enjoy your new life in Baton Rouge until something better comes along (as soon as next year).
*For all the hype about Kiffin, his singular win was, I guess, Ole Miss’ 2021 Sugar Bowl victory over Baylor to move his team into the Top 10?
But what I can’t get over is Kiffin’s fury that Ole Miss didn’t let him coach in the playoffs. Why in the world would they let him coach in the playoffs? He has treated the school, the players, and the fans like dirt. He has publicly danced with multiple schools during Ole Miss’ greatest season in many years. He has acted the diva, suggesting one minute that he would stay, the next minute that he would go, letting himself be at the center of the “What Will Lane Do?” hype for as long as he possibly could.
Let him coach in the playoffs after he jumps ship for one of Ole Miss’ biggest rivals?
Are you serious?
Apparently, Kiffin is serious. And furious. I wish LSU all the best with this guy. They’ve got an unlimited amount of football money down there in Baton Rouge, and winning is everything, and it doesn’t seem like character is a necessary trait for successful football coaches, so it might just work out.
I’m not a betting person. But I wouldn’t bet on it anyway.
A Brilliant Reader Note That Made My Day
My family listens to you all the time. We have bought all your books, we eagerly anticipate the Holiday Draft, etc, etc. We are big fans.
I just wanted to tell you that today I ran in an event called the Taco Bell 50K. You have to run 31 miles and eat items from nine different Taco Bells along the route. It’s even dumber than it sounds.
I just want to tell you that I was in a lot of pain for the last little bit (well, actually more than the last little bit), but listening to you and Mike made the final two miles go by faster (or at least made them tolerable). So thank you for all that you do … all that you write and say. But thank you for getting me through today.
— Brilliant Reader Jon
Joe: I can’t even tell you how proud I am that we had a Brilliant Reader complete the Taco Bell 50. We contain multitudes.
