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The Appreciator - Welcome to the World of Matt
Home
Appreciations
    Why The Appreciator?
    Collected Wisdom
    Media Reccomendations
    Soul Fillers
    Reuben R. Reuben loves Reubens
Matt’s Satisfying Expressions
    Personal
    Originals
Sports Writings
    Baseball
    Cubs 2016 Season
    Things Less Important Than Baseball
    Radio
Music Writings
    On Musical Intake
    On Musical Output
    Hot Stove, Cool Music
Tributosaurus
    Official Site/Schedule
    Press
    Videos
Good Comp, Bad Comp
Introducing “Our Game”
About Matt
Further The Conversation
    Contact Matt
  • Home
  • Appreciations
    • Why The Appreciator?
    • Collected Wisdom
    • Media Reccomendations
    • Soul Fillers
    • Reuben R. Reuben loves Reubens
  • Matt’s Satisfying Expressions
    • Personal
    • Originals
  • Sports Writings
    • Baseball
    • Cubs 2016 Season
    • Things Less Important Than Baseball
    • Radio
  • Music Writings
    • On Musical Intake
    • On Musical Output
    • Hot Stove, Cool Music
  • Tributosaurus
    • Official Site/Schedule
    • Press
    • Videos
  • Good Comp, Bad Comp
  • Introducing “Our Game”
  • About Matt
  • Further The Conversation
    • Contact Matt
Favorite Appreciations, Sports

The Best Rally I Ever Missed

 I just married the most ardent Cubs fan in town.

OK, I guess we have to define “”ardent.” She doesn’t use face paint. She doesn’t have any logo jewelry, tattoos or piercings. Our home isn’t festooned with memorabilia. She can’t recite endless stats of the current team, nor rattle off rosters from previous years.

But she feels the love for her team as passionately as anyone I’ve ever been around. Her father brought her to the Wrigley Field bleachers as a little girl, usually with her sister and four young female cousins, six Pierce Street cuties watching the game while the old man had a couple. It was her Sunday bliss.

So now she maintains one can never be in a bad mood at Wrigley Field. She glows there.

Our wedding day was scheduled with an afternoon game in mind. Morning ceremony, followed by Bloody Marys and breakfast, all wrapped up by noon so guests who’d want in could make it to first pitch of the Cubs game.

Well of course guests wanted in. We were paying.

 

To read the full article, with it’s thrilling conclusion and genuine “One To Grow On” lesson, click here.

Baseball, Collected Wisdom, Favorite Appreciations, Matt’s Satisfying Expressions

Ballpark Collecting Time is Here, NOW.

It’s never too late to start something that will take the rest of your life to accomplish.

I wanna hit every MLB ballpark.  Lots of people go on or have completed this quest.  It’s absurd, really, how many of them I’ve not been to.  I get jealous when I see tweets like this from friend and colleague Chris Tannehill:

Cheers to Ballpark #20 @PetcoPark @BallastPoint pic.twitter.com/XU07fPV21R

— Chris Tannehill (@ChrisTannehill) June 30, 2018

20!  The man is barely in his mid-30’s.  His ballpark list is incredibly impressive, like a Bert Blyleven curve. Plus, he seems to have had very pure, solid fan experiences at the parks, with beers and snacks and friends and such.  I’ve so often been working; upstairs with snooty, carefully detached media, unable to hang out where the real people are and fully feel the building.

“Other than hanging with family, the ballpark visits are probably my favorite thing,” says Tannehill. “Obviously I love to travel but don’t have the time or money to see the world; seeing ballparks allows me to explore the country.”

You’d think I, a baseball romantic bred into this passion essentially from the womb, would have been one of the many who collect ballparks.  I am a man whose pronunciation of “#baahhhhseballl” was so lampooned on the radio that it turned itself from insult to compliment almost daily.    A Twitter account was born just to keep the ridicule flowing.

And yet, my ballpark list feels meek and inadequate, like a Doug Jones fastball.

Last Friday night, amid accompanying my wife on a work trip to Dallas (I have some free time these days), we decided to hit the stadium in Arlington. An insurance company I’d never heard of has the rights, so “Globe Life” isn’t just what all us Earthlings are living every day, it’s the home of the Texas Rangers.

The teams were bad.  Hell, one of them was the White Sox.  Dylan Covey got absolutely destroyed, the Sox played like the clowns Reynaldo Lopez accused them of being a couple weeks ago, and it was 10-0 Rangers by the 3rd. But hey, Matt Davidson pitched in the 8th!

Secret weapon. pic.twitter.com/i6Xdqjbr2e

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 30, 2018

That was awesome….the man showed a legit curve and splitter. He said afterwards it was a dream come true.

StubHub got us great seats behind the plate for under a hundred bucks, and we stayed all night until the postgame fireworks, accompanied by a well-crafted Beatles medley.  This was my kind of night.  Adrian Beltre didn’t do anything special, but I’m still glad I saw him. And maybe it was the weird 17% alcohol drinks in mini-baseball shaped cans, but I enjoyed watching the teams have to go through the motions of playing out the game because they must.  It reminded me of times I have sung at terrible, corporate parties.  The band knows the gig absolutely sucks by the middle of the first set….the crowd barely pays attention, we are sonic wallpaper.  But you play your best.  You finish the night with professionalism. It’s a job.

This column appears in full on the Score’s website, here.

BUT…here, you can comment, let’s get a thread going.  What’s your ballpark count at right now?  What traditions do you do at each new park?  Talk to me.

Homegirl wore the Rangers hat, just so her White Sox loathing was clear. True Story.

 

Favorite Appreciations, Matt’s Satisfying Expressions, Personal, Radio

On the End Of Daily Radio Life at The Score

I will no longer commune and connect with my people every day from 9 to 1. That sucks.
I love being a part of your day. The spontaneity and precariousness of live, interactive radio is unmatched, as is the genuine magic that occurs when a show gets rolling.
Our show was rolling. Spiegel and Parkins had come so far in terms of our chemistry, and you knew it. The quality of the conversation, the unpredictability of every segment, the musicality (or honest lack thereof) in our song parodies, the evolution of ideas, the inclusion of the whole crew with Jay and Rick; the momentum was palpable to everyone. Well, almost everyone.
Also, as you’ve probably read by now, the ratings numbers had steadily climbed and by now were very, very good. That was not the issue. My contract or salary was not the issue. As far as I know, societal conversations and other non-sports content was not the issue.
The issue is that each radio host is not beloved by everyone, and a new boss gets to do what he wants. This has played out in our industry, and others, for decades. Because I’m me, I’m reminded of so many rock bands who sign a record deal with a passionate A & R man, only to be hung out to dry when that record label goes through management changes. I feel a little (just a little) like Wilco when Reprise Records said they didn’t want to put out Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The band found a way to get the music out, but it was awkward and tumultuous. It’s the content creator’s lot in life to carry on.
So It Goes, as Vonnegut wrote. In that sense it’s been pretty easy to not take the move personally.
But please know that I miss you. We had a hell of a 9 year run.
We is not me and Danny Mac, or me an Jason Goff, or me and Patrick Mannelly, or me and Danny Parkins. It is not me and the 30 or so different co-hosts that have joined from 9 to 1 at some point.
We is me and you. The connection we’ve had is the absolute goods, and I deeply appreciate it. I thank you for hearing me, for yelling to or at me, and most of all for furthering conversations with me. You’ve made my best thoughts funnier and more fleshed out. You’ve withstood my worst thoughts, and let me find good ones again. You’ve shared life experience that helped conversations synthesize and be enriched deeper than I could have imagined.
I’ve always thought of you as one big collective, theoretically comprised of every slice of Chicagoan imaginable. It took a couple years, frankly, to accept that amidst that collective were some that deeply loathed me. Local radio is unique in that way. We are often chosen by listeners with the direct expectation of supplying a target for derision and/or rage. As long as you listen, it counts. This can lead to some really bad programming choices by certain hosts, who go for the easy denominator of being provocative instead of genuine. If you’re not careful, you can lose yourself and become a contrarian by convenience, ready to inhabit a debate role that virtually anyone could play.
Thankfully, I realized this danger, and have worked to avoid it. I didn’t succeed all the time, but please know I tried to remove as much of the filter between my head, heart and microphone as possible. I’ve been me, for better or for worse. Sometimes my sensitivity would show through, but I lived with that because it sure felt better than being a fake tough guy. Anyway, if you feel like you know me, you do.
Onward! I’ll be on the station, filling in on various shows as needed. I’ll resume writing baseball columns for The Score. I’ll be launching the podcast idea of my dreams, through the station’s website. This idea has been percolating a long time…if I can pull it off, it will fuse my worlds together as they’ve been destined to be. And, I’ll obviously still be playing and singing around town with Tributosaurus.
I want to thank each and every one of you who have reached out to wish me well, or remind me of moments that meant something to you. It’s been amazing; kind of like a living wake. I’ve joked that both me and Jason Goff have had that “noble martyr” thing going, like when Conan O’Brien got displaced on The Tonight Show by an entitled, waffling dinosaur in Jay Leno.
But that imagined martyr role doesn’t last, or carry any real heft. I have to create content, and keep the connections with you active. I’m on it. Hell, Conan’s been pretty damn funny since then. Content is king.
You’ll hear or see or read me soon. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your life.
Good vibes babe, (staying on brand)
Matt

Baseball, Cubs 2016 Season, Favorite Appreciations, Hot Stove, Cool Music, Radio

Backstage with Cubs and Eddie Vedder at Hot Stove, Cool Music 2016

Hot Stove, Cool Music was held Thursday night at the Metro. I’ve been looking forward to it for months, following the lead of the tireless and enthused Len Kasper. There were lots of schemes and plans. Len has grabbed the reins of the musical side of this thing and made it better every year. I’m really happy to help him with it.Last year, the headliner seized an opportunity to grandstand. This particular attempt at being a fearless truth-teller was woefully misguided.  He embarrassed himself with inaccuracies and downright foolishness. He bummed out a group of organizers and participants who deserve far better.

So this year, Theo Epstein called in the big gun.

Eddie Vedder, what a gem. Warm, mellow, kind. He paid for his longtime guitar tech and monitor person to fly in. He decided he wanted his favorite Cub growing up, Jose Cardenal, to be there. So Eddie flew him in.

Eddie at rehearsal

Eddie was pleasantly surprised at the musical competence at our rehearsal, because we got the right guys Pros. Great players with good vibes, who did their work to learn everything and showed up ready to go. The rehearsal stretched long, arrangements were adjusted by good ideas, and he showed what a generous musician a big-time rock star can still be.

Joe Shanahan and the Metro are the perfect host and venue. That place reeks of historic rock credibility, and it sounds amazing when it’s full.  Every year, this is my favorite green room.  Musicians, baseball execs, radio people, Hall of Fame writers, random former Cubs and/or Red Sox.

Green room

Early in the night, I turned a corner and eavesdropped on a moment: Theo and Jose Cardenal one-on-one.

Jose: “You’re doing a great job, man…”

Theo: “Thank you Jose. This is a special team to work for, and you’re a part of it.  I want you there when we win, OK?”

Jose: “Yes, yes, man … I’ll be there, thank you.”

TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, WITH LINKS AND STORIES GALORE, CLICK HERE.

You’ll see why I taught a vocal part to these guys.

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 “You know, I guess I think I’ve always been a professional critic… you know, or some sort of professional appreciator or something."
-Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (2000)

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