Kyle Larson vs The Double

 

I've been to the Indy 500 probably 20 times, maybe more. It is an absolute exhausting day as a fan. The race may run from noon until 3, but the day typically starts around 6 AM and doesn't usually finish until 6 PM, sometimes later. Fighting through the crowds to get to the track, during the race, and getting home is exhausting. Throw in the emotional ups and downs from the race itself, and I nearly need two days to recover. I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to be a driver in the race. To expand on that, think about what Kyle Larson did - twice. He began the day in Indianapolis for the Indy 500, ran the race, then flew to Charlotte, NC to participate in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. The first year he attempted this, the Indy 500 was massively delayed by rain, and by the time he reached Charlotte the same storm from Indy had also reached Charlotte, preventing him from racing in NASCAR's night race. The second year he attempted this feat, he crashed in the Indy 500. Thus, he didn't complete all 1,100 miles in any attempt. Regardless, to even attempt "The Double" is a feat in itself that only a handful of other drivers have tried.

In addition to the logistical and emotional and physical challenges of "The Double", this documentary highlighted Kyle as both a racer and a person. I admittedly don't watch much NASCAR. But I know that Kyle is a great driver, and I've always been fascinated by how much dirt track racing he still does while competing at the highest level of stock car racing. I have definitely become a Larson fan after watching this documentary and after his attempts at "The Double". I think it takes a ton of courage to strap yourself into an Indycar and race at IMS at those speeds, especially when open-wheeled racing isn't your background. He's a true racer, and he has become my favorite NASCAR driver because of these efforts.

Omega Watches

 

When it comes to watches and watch brands, I've always liked Omega. As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to watches and advertising. I was introduced to the brand via James Bond. Pierce Brosnan's Bond. Bond started wearing Omega watches in the 1995 film GoldenEye, and he has worn an Omega Seamaster in every film since. Of course, GoldenEye the game is when I really became a Bond fan and have watched every movie since playing the game. The game features the 300m diver watch on the pause menu that Bond wears in the film. 

When I decided to start a watch collection, I wanted to focus on certain watch categories with wearability. For instance, I wanted a daily dress watch to wear to work, a less dressy watch to wear on the weekends, etc. This was my focus over having a large number of watches or focusing on rare watches that interest collectors. With that approach, however, I've decided to place an emphasis on Omega watches for my collection. This doesn't mean that every watch I buy will be an Omega, as I like watches from other brands as well and Omega watches aren't exactly cheap. However, I plan on taking them into consideration when I'm thinking about getting a new watch for a certain category. This isn't just about James Bond. Bond was just my introduction to the brand. I like a number of their watches, and after buying a Seamaster Aqua Terra, I have a 300m Diver and Speedmaster Professional on my wish list. 

Beyond Bond, Omega has a rich and interesting history that appeals to me. The most appealing part of their history revolves around their Speedmaster Professional watch and its history with NASA and the moon. Since watching the 1995 film Apollo 13, I've been interested in NASA's space missions, specifically the ones that took place during the Space Race and Cold War. Omega's involvement with NASA during this time, being one of the first watches in space and the first watch worn on the moon, is super cool. 

The other part of their history that I find interesting is their involvement with the Olympics. Since 1932, Omega has been the official timekeeper of the Olympic games. With this has come a number of timing and scoring innovations, including the starting gun linked with timing and the touch pad in the swimming pool linked to timing. 

Finally, I have to mention my all-time favorite Omega ambassador. Above, I said that James Bond introduced me to Omega. That is only partially true. Around the same time that the GoldenEye game was released, one of my favorite athletes was an ambassador for Omega, cementing the brand on my radar. Of course I'm talking about Anna Kournikova.

The Russian Five

 

There has never been a team in my history of sports viewing that I have been more interested in than the 1990s Detroit Red Wings and the Russian Five. In the early 1990s, hockey was not a sport that received any attention in southern Indiana. I learned the sport from playing NHL '94 on the Sega Genesis, and picked the Wings as my team (1) because they were a good team on the game and (2) because I liked their symbol. After learning the teams and players from the game, I started to watch hockey on TV, following the Wings specifically. I remember the Wings being knocked out of the first round as the top seed in '94 against San Jose. I remember being swept by New Jersey in the Cup finals in 1995. I remember being beat by Colorado in the 1996 Western Conference finals, and the violence that came with that series and subsequent games against the Avs. I remember all of the discussion that surrounded these playoff disappointments, the utter nonsense about this team not being able to win a Stanley Cup because of all their Russian players being soft. And then I remember the Stanley Cup championships in 1997, 1998 and 2002. The story of this team is so intriguing, the ups and downs, and their unique roster of five Russians was game changing for the NHL and North American hockey. In addition to all of that history, they were just a fun team to watch. Their style of play, which emphasized puck possession instead of the traditional dump and chase attack, allowed them to dominate the NHL for nearly a decade.  

The Russian Five is a documentary film on Amazon Prime based on a book by Keith Gave (or maybe it's the other way around). I initially watched the show for nostalgia purposes, to relive the glory days of the 1990s Detroit Red Wings and the Russian Five. I was born in the early 1980s, but I don't have any real memory of the Cold War or the Soviet Union. I have since heard stories about how the Wings acquired some of these Russian players, but I had no idea at the time how big of a deal this roster was. This part of the story, the part on what the Wings did to get these players, was the most interesting part of the book and the documentary. It involved secret meetings with the players, faking medical diagnoses, and other semi-shady activities. At the time, most of these Russian players were enrolled with the Soviet military, and leaving their country could be considered treason. Not only could the player be penalized, but they were fearful for ramifications against their family if they left as well. Subsequently, getting these players to North America to play hockey was nearly impossible. 

The Red Wings drafted Sergei Fedorov (my favorite player of the Russian Five and one of my all-time favorite athletes) and Vladimir Konstatinov in the 1989 draft. They secretly met with both players during an exhibition match in Helsinki, Finland. Fedorov eventually left his Russian team when they were in Portland, Oregon for the Goodwill Games. Konstatinov left Russia to seek medical treatment in the United States for a made-up illness. Slava Kozlov was later drafted by the Wings, and Fetisov and Larionov came to Detroit via trades. After signing Scotty Bowman as their coach, he put the five Russians together on the same line, and the rest is history, as they say. As I mentioned above, the team had tremendous success, albeit with some early playoff failures. In the end, the team was tremendously entertaining to watch and changed the game of hockey forever, at least in North America. The book and documentary are especially interesting to Red Wings fans, but I think would be worth a watch/read to any sports fan. The story of how these players came together from the Soviet Union and past the Iron Curtain, is truly an amazing sports story.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2026)

The 2026 edition of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue recently launched, so it is time to do my yearly review. Let's start with Sophie Cunningham. Since her trade to the Indiana Fever a couple of years ago, Sophie has become one of my favorite athletes. She's outspoken and overall is an entertaining person, and thus she's a fun social media follow. I was glad when I heard she was going to be in this year's issue.

Nina Agdal's appearance in this year's issue was a pleasant surprise. Nina's rookie appearance in 2012 was memorable, and she is one of my favorite swimsuit models from the 2010s. I'm including her in my review here, not just because I like her, but because I think she had some of the better pictures from this year's issue. 

Another surprise for this year's issue was the appearance of Molly Sims. Her first issue was in twenty six years ago in 2000! She's now 53 years old and she had some really good pictures in this year's issue. A couple of other models to mention include Brooks Nader. She is perhaps the most famous current model, with her own reality TV show. I haven't thought much of her previous issue appearances, but I thought her pictures in this year's issue were quite good. Olivia Dunne has become a recent favorite, and as usual her pictures in this year's issue were some of my favorite. Before I wrap up, I have to recognize Christen Goff, who has become one of my favorite models from the 2020 era.

A couple of closing thoughts on the issue. The first is about the locations. Maybe I'm misremembering, but it seems like there were fewer locations in this year's issue compared to previous issues. While Montauk looks like a super cool place to visit, the picture backgrounds were a little redundant. Several pictures were taken in Botswana, in south Africa, and I've never been a huge fan of the safari backgrounds for the swimsuit issue. The other closing though is about Hilary Duff's appearance. I was completely fine with her appearing in the issue, but why are all of her pictures filtered? I find that trend to be annoying, honestly, and would have preferred for her pictures to be just normal pictures. The issue features great photographers so I don't know why the filters are necessary. 

Timepiece Blueprint - Year 2 - A Dress (& GADA?) Watch

As I've grown older, I find myself navigating away from chronographs and leaning more towards watches with simpler faces and less complications. Maybe I'm entering my "old man watch" phase, but honestly I just like their sleek look and find them easier to read. Additionally, I wear dress clothes most days of the week at work, and they pair more nicely with dress clothes than a chronograph. Don't get me wrong, every watch collection needs a nice chronograph (or two), but on a day-to-day basis I find myself wanting to wear a dressier watch.

A dress watch was always on my watch blueprint, though not necessarily in year two, and not necessarily this particular watch. I was searching for a GADA watch, a watch that is the pinnacle of any watch collection. GADA stands for "go anywhere, do anything", and is a watch that is versatile enough to wear with dress clothes during the week while at the same time can go on weekend adventures and not feel out of place. As soon as I discovered the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra I liked it. There is popular opinion online that it is a GADA watch, so I added it to my blueprint for this category. After seeing it in person, however, the watch is much dressier than I expected. I've thus shifted my blueprint around and made this my dress watch, opening a slot for a potentially more sporty watch. 

This watch looks and feels nice. It has a shiplap background, representing the deck of a yacht, a nod to it being a "Seamaster" model. Its large face is very easy to read, as is the date complication. The bracelet shines, and it fits perfectly under the cuff of a sleeve. I suppose you could wear it with anything, but I think it feels at home with a nice dress shirt. It checks a couple of boxes in my watch collection list as well. It's the first mechanical watch I've owned. Without going off on a tangent about mechanical watches, I've always been fascinated with their second hand movement and the complexity of how they function, so I was very excited to own one. Having owned one now for a little over a month, I will say the power reserve is a stat to pay attention to. This watch has a 60 hour power reserve listed, but I'd say it's more like a 48-60 hour reserve, making keeping it running over the weekend a challenge. Regardless, every time I wind it up and get it going, I feel like I'm wearing somewhat of an engineering marvel. The movements are just so cool. The second major box this watch checks is that it is an Omega. For as long as I can remember I've liked Omega watches. I was planning on going into my fascination with them in this post, but I think I'll save it for a subsequent post so that this one doesn't get too long. I have enough to say about Omega watches for them to have their own post.

Timepiece Blueprint - Year 1 - A (Themed) Chronograph

Historically I've gravitated towards chronographic watches. I've always found them visually appealing to look at, and I think they're just cool to be honest. In more recent times I've found watches with simpler dials more appealing. Watches with less complications are sleeker and pair better with dress clothes, and honestly are easier to read. With that being said, however, I think every watch collection needs a chronographic watch, and this watch checks off two boxes in my revised collection: (1) a chronograph, and (2) a themed watch.

There are numerous themed watches available. Breitling has NFL watches, there are lots of Snoopy collaborations, and possibly the most famous is Omega with their James Bond watches. I'm a huge Indycar fan, and a huge fan of the Indy 500, so the Tag Heuer F1 Chronograph Indy 500 Special Edition is the perfect themed watch for me. It's an homage on my wrist to my favorite and one of the most famous sporting events in the world, made by a watch company in Tag Heuer with a rich and deep history in racing.

The watch features the Indianapolis Motor Speedway "wing & wheels" logo on the bottom complication at 6 o'clock. The second hand is in the complication between 2 and 3 o'clock. It features quartz movement, which on the one hand is considered less "fancy" as mechanical movement, but on the other hand is more reliable, especially in a watch that you may not wear daily. The red hand that looks like a second hand and the complication to the right of the watch are chronographic time keeping portions of the watch. The face is black and is surrounded by a red band, giving it a sporty and racy appearance. The 11 is also highlighted in red, paying attention to the year 1911 which was when the first Indy 500 was ran, which is a nice touch. 

Drive to Survive (Season 8)

 

I've always been interested in watching Drive to Survive. However, I'm like the only person in North America who doesn't have Netflix, so in the past the show has been unavailable to me. I previously had Apple TV+ intermittently, but now have access to the channel on a more consistent basis because of my Apple One bundle. Formula 1 moved from ESPN to Apple TV+ this year, and one of the perks of this move is that the newest season of Drive to Survive became available on Apple TV+. It's the first time in the history of the show that I've had a chance to watch it, and it was the first show I watched on Apple TV+ after picking up Apple One. It did not disappoint.

Drive to Survive is a behind-the-scenes documentary on Formula 1. One of the interesting aspects of this show is that Formula 1 historically has been tight lipped, not really allowing people much access to the teams and drivers. This show was a complete change for the sport in terms of allowing access, and it is credited for helping the explosion in popularity of the sport in the US. I follow the sport relatively closely, and while I have heard of almost everyone featured on the show, several of them I had never heard speak before. Even for a relatively big fan of the sport, this level of access is huge. 

Drive to Survive is really well done. It does a good job of explaining the pressure that these teams and drivers feel, as well as highlighting the drama of the series. On the surface, it is really easy to turn on an F1 race and see Max dominate and think that it is boring. When you are given some behind-the-scenes access, however, you realize how competitive the sport is in reality. It inherently makes the sport more interesting. So much so that my interest level in the 2026 season has increased a lot, despite the fact that it has been a bit of a mess. I also started playing the F1 game again because of my motivation from watching the show. We are planning on temporarily picking up Netflix in the near future. I don't anticipate watching past seasons. However, as long as future seasons are available for me to watch, I will stay current with the most recent season. 

Apple One & Home

 

We've been long term Amazon Prime subscribers. Due to increasing cost and perceived decreased benefits (along with some other things), we've decided to discontinue our Amazon Prime subscription. The reason I'm bringing this up here is because of some downstream ramifications that come with discontinuing Prime. When I first started subscribing to a streaming music service several years ago, I went with Amazon Music Unlimited, partially because of a discount that was received if you were a Prime subscriber. I'm not sure if we still receive a discount for Music Unlimited, but the decision to drop Prime got me thinking about switching music services as well. Generally I've been happy with Music Unlimited. However, like everything else it seems, the price keeps going up for the service. Additionally, and I'll get into more details on a future post, I had issues with the Music Unlimited app(s). We're heavily involved in the Apple eco system, and so I started looking into Apple Music. This escalated quickly as I discovered Apple One, a bundle package that includes all of the apps shown in the picture above. There are already a handful of shows on Apple TV that I watch, and there is another handful of shows that I'm interested in watching. Additionally, with Formula 1 switching from ESPN to Apple TV, there was additional incentive to pick up Apple TV again. I was already familiar with TV, but I decided to do a trial of Apple Music to make sure it would work for us. Apple News is part of the bundle, and so I decided to pay attention to it again as a potential source of news. After doing about a month trial of Music and News, I decided that it was worth switching from Amazon Music Unlimited to the Apple One bundle. On the one hand, the per month cost would go up. On the other hand, I like the Apple Music app better than the Music Unlimited app, I will watch content on Apple TV, and I'll use the News app daily. This is what I mean when I say that things escalated quickly. None of this was on my radar until one Saturday morning Sarah suggested we get rid of Prime. This decision, plus being heavily involved in the Apple eco system and the overall quality of the apps in the One bundle made the decision make sense for us.

What I plan on doing is having subsequent posts where I talk about (at least some of) the apps individually. Like I said above, I've been doing trials over the past month with the apps and have subscribed to the One bundle now for a little over a week, and so I have enough experience with them to have opinions and thoughts moving forward. The other thing I wanted to mention in this post was Apple Home. We have some lighting automation in our home, some of which is electronic (as opposed to being dawn to dusk with solar sensors). The electronic workflows were a bit of a mess, because of a mix of software being used. Some of the lights were running on Alexa, some on Belkin Wemo, and some on Apple Home. In January, Belkin discontinued support for their Wemo smart plugs, which were running all of our lighting timers. I decided that moving forward I wanted to run all of our smart home workflows through Apple Home. The app is readily available to me on all of my Apple devices, it is a nice looking and easy to use app, and Apple TV can be used as a smart home hub to help control your smart devices. Since my original go around with smart home devices, a standardized protocol called "Matter" has been developed, allowing for interoperability between devices made by different companies. This is a great step forward. For me, ensuring that my devices work with Apple Home is how I am going to standardize where I go to control my home workflows. The app is really nice, and the ability to use Apple TV as a hub is a nice feature as well.

F1: The Movie

 

Initially, I was on the fence about watching this movie. It got great reviews, however, so when it was released on Apple TV I decided to give it a watch. Overall I thought it was really good, with only some minor plot points that held it back. From Chat GTP:

The film follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a former Formula One driver whose promising career ended decades earlier after a devastating crash. Now a veteran racer competing in other motorsport series, Sonny is unexpectedly recruited by his old friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), the owner of a struggling F1 team on the brink of collapse.

Sonny returns to Formula One not as a championship favorite, but as a last-chance gamble to help save the team. He’s paired with Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a young, highly talented rookie whose raw speed is matched by inexperience and ego. Much of the film centers on the tense mentor-student dynamic between Sonny and Joshua, as they clash over racing philosophy, pressure, and what it takes to survive at the highest level of the sport.

My biggest takeaway from the movie is that the on-screen racing action is fantastic. The racing scenes were filmed during actual F1 race weekends, and the way the action is portrayed feels very realistic. It has the best racing scenes and action that I've ever seen in a racing movie. It feels very authentic.

The plot is good enough. It's a bit of a stretch to think that an older, retired F1 driver can return to a struggling team to save the season by winning a race, but it provides for an interesting story. It reminds me a bit of Philip Rivers returning to the Colts this season. Too bad it didn't work out as well for them. The biggest thing that I didn't like was the one night stand that Brad Pitt's character had with the race engineer. It felt a bit forced and unnecessary, honestly. Additionally, the crashes were over the top, especially Pearce's crash at Monza. I also didn't like how everyone turned on Sonny after Pearce's crash at Monza. Pearce did the opposite of what Sonny recommended, crashed, and everyone blamed Sonny. Seems incorrect.

Criticisms aside, overall the movie was really well done. It has the best, most realistic racing action I've ever seen in a movie. The plot is intriguing enough, and I really like how they didn't dumb down the racing dialog. It's probably the best racing movie ever made, or at least the best one made in my lifetime. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're a racing fan.

Watches!

This is a situation where advertising got me. Sort of. To be fair, I've always liked watches. Part of it is that I like to be on time. The bigger part of it, however, is that I like how they look. I'm not a big jewelry guy, but I think watches look cool. I had a couple of Citizen watches, including a really cool chronograph that Sarah bought me (more on that later). I likely would've continued to wear and buy traditional watches, but then the Apple Watch debuted.

I wasn't initially interested in the Apple Watch because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it. The only reason why I got one was because I had a gift card to the Apple store and I wasn't sure what to do with it otherwise. I quickly fell in love with the device, especially as it has evolved, as it majorly improves common workflows that I use at work and home. Having rapid access to some of the random apps, such as the stop watch, has been a big benefit. I could go on and on about why I like the Apple Watch, but the point of this post is to discuss traditional watches. I only bring up the Apple Watch to say that its existence put a major pause on my interest on traditional watches.

I really like racing, especially Indycar racing. The Indy 500 is my all-time favorite sporting event that I attend every year. At the top of the Pagoda at the Speedway, and painted on the wall at the finish line, is advertisements for Swiss watch company TAG Heuer. TAG has a line of watches called the F1 Chronograph, and they have a special edition watch in this line specifically for the Indy 500 that has been on my radar for a couple of years now. My biggest hold-up for getting this watch (in addition to the cost) has always been fear of disrupting my workflows with my Apple Watch at work. I receive notifications frequently while at work on my watch that I need to respond to, and not having my Apple Watch would be a bit of a pain point now that I'm used to using it. However, in the past few months I've started running DAX Copilot on my phone all day while at work, which means my phone thinks I'm seeing notifications there and isn't always passing them along to my watch. I used this opportunity (plus a bonus at work) to purchase the Indy 500 special edition watch and migrate (at least partially) back to the world of traditional watches.

Overall I've been quite happy with my decision to go back to traditional watches. I think they look nicer, and honestly it is nice to have a bit of a break from the connected world of the Apple Watch. I'll admit, I have occasionally looked at the watch to check the temperature or tried to use it for Apple Pay just by habit, obviously without success. Getting this watch has inspired me to wear my two older Citizen watches as well, just to switch up the look. My only issue with the Citizen watches is that they use Eco-Drive, and if you don't wear them somewhat regularly the battery dies. This isn't a huge deal except that the Citizen Chronograph that I mentioned above has about a 30-step process (see the instructions below) to set the time and date on it. It's interesting, because on the one hand, it is incredibly sophisticated with a perpetual calendar and radio synching to make sure the time is accurate. On the other hand, compared to what a modern-day smart watch can do, traditional watches can be a bit "dumb". I suppose they are sophisticated in their own, different ways.

It's In The Game - Madden NFL Football

 

Some of my fondest memories of playing video games as a kid involve Madden '94 on the Sega Genesis. John Madden's 16-bit voice saying "Boom! He'll remember that number." and "Quarterback can't hold the ball that long." will forever be etched in my mind. I would dominate games with Emmitt Smith and the Dallas Cowboys. Once the Madden games got the franchise feature, I had two multi-season franchises on the PS2, one with the Bengals and one with the Saints. By the time the PS3 era arrived, however, I was playing video games less and less, and the Madden games were becoming more and more complex, and so I stopped playing them. I haven't had a Madden game since the PS3. However, because of my history with the game, I was intrigued by this show on Amazon about its history.

Madden NFL football has been around so long and has become such a gaming institution that you don't often stop to think how odd it is that the cover star is a coach. Actually, by the time Madden was on the cover of his game he had retired from coaching and moved to the broadcast booth. That is even more weird. The person who developed the game had been obsessed with making a football game since his childhood, and wanted someone associated with the game to be knowledgeable about football so that he could provide input. He was a fan of John and thus that is how Madden became associated with the game. I started playing Madden in 1992, and the game itself first appeared just a few years earlier. It is amazing to see footage of the earlier games and how simple they were. The first version didn't even feature 11 vs 11 players (an aspect of the game that John famously rejected), nor did it have real players or teams. Those were added by the time I was playing the game, however, and so was the football itself (apparently that also was not present in earlier versions of the game).

As players were added, there was a big focus on player ratings. Who was rated best overall, fastest, etc. This was discussed on sports news and among players themselves, sparking debate. Eventually they replaced Madden on the cover of the game with actual players, and the Madden curse became a thing. These are just a few examples of how the game transcends the video game world into the real world. There are other examples as well, such as the Madden Bowl, but the point is that the game became huge, affecting an entire generation of kids.

Like I said above, I haven't played a Madden game in over a decade, but I spent a lot of time in the past playing different versions of the game and remember it well. This 4 part miniseries explored the history of the game as well as what it takes to make the current game, and was generally interesting from a nostalgia perspective. I particularly enjoyed the parts from the 1980s and 1990s, dealing with competition from Sony on the PS1 and 2K sports, and the entire story about reverse-engineering a Sega Genesis to create Joe Montana football was fascinating. John Madden will never be a football player or coach to me. I somewhat remember him as a broadcaster, but more than anything, I'll remember John Madden as a video game icon.

NBA 2K25 (& Caitlin Clark)

I almost didn't write a separate post about NBA 2K25 (from here on referred to as 2K25). I follow the Pacers but am a bit fair weather, and I don't really follow the NBA otherwise. Plus, I've already written a recent post about NBA 2K24 and honestly there isn't much difference between the two games. However, there is a feature on both games that I didn't explore on 2K24 which I absolutely love on 2K25 which is called MyNBA Eras. I wanted an opportunity to discuss this feature. Additionally, I have thought about writing a separate post on Caitlin Clark on a few occasions but never did so for various reasons. Caitlin is in 2K25, and I wanted to discuss her and women's basketball in general. So with that preface, let's get into 2K25 and MyNBA Eras.

MyNBA Eras essentially allows you to play a season or franchise as an NBA team in different eras of the game. This is so cool because it plays heavily on nostalgia. Growing up, I remember the NBA on NBC and the rivalries between the Pacers and Knicks vividly. I remember watching Michael Jordan and how dominant he was. This period of time was the height of my NBA fandom, and I feel more attached to those teams and players than I do the current ones. So to be able to play with the Pacers from the 1990s and battle against Patrick Ewing and John Starks of the Knicks is so fun. In addition to having the players, teams, and logos from the era, the game recreates the NBA on NBC theme, complete with the music and appearance of playing the game in low definition on a cathode ray tube TV. The result is instant nostalgic fun.

Caitlin Clark has become the biggest athlete on the planet. That is news by itself, and the fact that she has landed professionally in Indianapolis is huge. We are fortunate to have her playing here on our home team. What makes her such a big story isn't just how good she is at basketball, however. She is a generational athlete who is bigger than the sport she plays. I watched her final two seasons at Iowa, and last year watched every Fever game that I could, and we even went to one game and have tickets to go to another game this season. Prior to Caitlin, I honestly can't remember ever watching a women's basketball game. The numbers don't lie, and they say that I'm not the only one paying attention. Attendance and viewership records were set last season for the WNBA, Caitlin's rookie season. The last athlete that I can remember that had this kind of impact, in terms of drawing real attention to a sport that I didn't previously care about, was Tiger Woods and golf. 

Caitlin is fantastic, but moving onto 2K25, since I now pay attention to the WNBA and Caitlin is in 2K25, I also started a franchise with the Fever. I have no nostalgic attachment to older Fever teams, so being able to play a franchise with them with the modern presentation of the game is a great contrast to playing with the Pacers from the 1990s. I was previously playing 2K24 on Playstation Plus, but unfortunately its tenure on the service was brief. Honestly, I probably would have picked up 2K25 regardless so that I could get Caitlin on the Fever. I was able to pick up 2K25 on a black Friday sale for like $45, which turned out to be a steal.

Modern Sports Games

 

For as long as I can remember, sports video games have tried their best to recreate what it is like to watch sports on TV. Throughout the years games have had various levels of success at accomplishing this style of presentation. When I was younger sports games were some of my favorite video games to play. This lasted through the PS2 era. I remember playing Madden '11 on the PS3, but not much else, and by the time I started playing the PS4 sports games took a back seat to other types of games. However, in the PS5 era with Playstation Plus, I have had access to many sports games that I've been able to play and they are fantastic. Instead of discussing them individually, I thought it would be better to discuss my experience with them collectively. My impressions and experiences with the games are similar and thus my thoughts on one game generally cross over to the other games.

The sports games I've been able to play the most are NBA 2K24 and FC24, so my thoughts are mostly based on those two games. I have played a bit of MLB The Show '23 and Top Spin 2K25 and am planning on playing NHL 24 soon, but for the time being my thoughts in this post are about NBA 2K24 and FC24.

My biggest take away from playing these games is that they have absolutely nailed the television viewing experience. NBA 2K has a halftime show, on-court interviews, arenas that look different and have team-specific features, and on and on. In fact, the television experience is so good that it is almost a detriment to the game. I found myself frequently needing to skip past cutscenes and it felt like all of the extra scenes made the games a bit cumbersome to play through. You can't play through a game quickly because of all of the scenes. I looked for a way to turn this off and sadly didn't find that feature. It's an amazing presentation but is almost too good. 

FC24 is more subtle and doesn't feature the halftime show or cutscenes during period brakes or timeouts. This may be a feature of how soccer is played, however, as there are not nearly as many brakes in soccer matches as there are in basketball games. The announcing in both games is good, but in FC24 the announcing is especially good. When taking a free kick close to the goal, the announcer states that the kick is coming from "a spot of absolute menace" which is a fantastic line. The reporter Alex is a bit annoying, though, and I couldn't find a way to mute her. If a scoring opportunity happens when she is speaking, however, the announcers will cut her off to announce the game and allow her to continue once the scoring chance ends, which is pretty cool. 

Another trend that appears across the games is the complexity of the controls. No longer is there just a button to take a shot or pass the ball. Instead, there are multiple buttons depending on what type of shot or pass you want to take. For instance, there is a button for a lob shot and another button for a power shot. Admittedly, for someone who is new to modern sports games, this can be a bit intimidating at first. I found myself looking up the controls on a few occasions for both games. Once you get used to the more complicated controls, however, it makes the game that much better because it gives you quite a bit more control over the action.

I've been playing sports games on the PS5 over the past few months and overall have found them quite enjoyable. The one negative that also trends across most of the games is the complexity of the game menu system. No longer are there options for a season or exhibition game. You can play a season or individual game, but they are available in submenus that do not have obvious labels. I think a lot of this is to cater to online gaming and also the breadth of play modes that the games have these days, such as manager modes and individual player modes, not to mention online gaming. Regardless, I found it to be a bit confusing. Embarrassingly, I had to Google how to start a season for both games. Overall this is a minor complaint, and I've enjoyed getting back into the sports game scene. At the end of the last hockey season, I had some interest in getting back into hockey. I'm planning on spending some time playing NHL '24 next, which I'm looking forward to as it should be a good transition into watching hockey for this upcoming season.

It's Always Sunny In...Wrexham? (Seasons 16 & 2)

 

I decided to combine the posts for It's Always Sunny season 16 and Welcome to Wrexham season 2 because I have too many posts in my queue, waiting to be published, and because Rob McElhenney is involved with both shows. It's amazing to me that It's Always Sunny is still producing new episodes and still on TV. Despite its age, the show remains amusing. I don't have anything specific to say about season 16. The format of the episodes and jokes remain the same, so if you've been following the show over the years then you will enjoy the latest season.

I'd like to spend a little more time discussing Welcome to Wrexham. Ryan (Reynolds) & Rob's purchase of Wrexham's soccer club is one of the most interesting stories in sports at the moment. Wrexham is portrayed as a down-on-its-luck town, with their soccer club struggling and stuck in the lower leagues of play. Their fans are extremely passionate, and their moral as well as the moral of the city ebbs and flows with the team's success (or failure). When Ryan & Rob purchase the team, not only did they shine a spotlight on the Wales community, they infused some much needed energy (and more importantly, capital) into the team. The show is a documentary about the team and the community, and it is really well done and interesting to watch. 

There are two things I specifically want to discuss regarding soccer in the UK. The first is the concept of promotion and relegation. The UK soccer ladder is long, with the Premiere League (level 1) being at the very top and featuring the most famous and well known teams and players. When Rob & Ryan purchased Wrexham, they were playing in the National League North/South (level 6). The best comparison I can think of in the United States is minor league baseball, and level 5 of English soccer would be akin to a league less than single A baseball. What's really neat about this situation, however, is that teams have the opportunity to move up (or down) leagues based on their success. Moving up leagues means more money, which can then be fed into the team to sign better players, upgrade stadiums, etc. It's really tough to move up leagues, however. As successful teams move up, teams that struggle move down. I find this concept really interesting, and it would be cool if leagues in the United States had a similar situation. Since Rob & Ryan bought Wrexham, the team has been promoted twice, and now play in League 2 (level 4).

The second item I wanted to discuss regarding English soccer is more of an observation than a fact, and that is the passion of the fans. We have passionate fans in the United States, but the level of passion displayed by the fans of Wrexham is truly amazing, and borderline crazy. In the US, everyone roots for the top tier professional teams. In my experience, the minor league teams always have their devoted fan base, but they are typically small and relatively quiet. Can you imagine a community in the US supporting a minor league sports team that is playing in the equivalent league of single A ball or lower the way Wrexham supports their football team? The only analogy I can think of in the US where communities rally around a team is small town high school sports. I suspect the ability to be promoted to a higher league plays a part in the support the team receives. Regardless, their passion for their team is great to see.

NHL '94 Rewind

To borrow a quote from Billy Madison, NHL '94 for the Sega Genesis is the greatest video game of all time. OK, that may not be entirely true, but I do think it is one of the best sports games ever made. I distinctly remember dominating this game on the Genesis (as well as the slightly upgraded NHL '95 on the PC). Everything about this game is just great - the sounds, the visuals (I said I was a sucker for 8 & 16-bit graphics), the gameplay - all of it is just perfect. Even just hearing the menu music is enough to incite nostalgia. When you take the ice and hear the organ music, or the unique grunts of the players, it takes me back to 1994 and playing the game on the Genesis on our old CRT TV. 

I had read about NHL '94 mode for NHL '22, where you could play the modern game in the style of NHL '94. I almost bought NHL '22 because of this, but decided against it. I had no idea you could buy NHL '94 Rewind as a standalone product. Once I discovered this a few weeks ago I immediately paid the $10 for the game.

I'm happy to report that Rewind faithfully recreates NHL '94, or at least my memories of the game. Everything is there - the menu music, the organ, the grunts, and the gameplay. It is a near-perfect of an all-time sports classic. I only have two minor complaints. The first is that I wish you could play an entire season with a team, not just a playoff. However, if I remember correctly, that feature also did not exist in the original game. My other complaint is that I wish you could use the rosters from the original game. When I first played Rewind, I was disappointed that the Red Wings had their current players (from 2022) and not Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov. I was really hoping to dominate on Rewind like I did on the original with the Red Wings. Other than these two complaints, Rewind is great and well worth the $10.

100 Days To Indy

 

I'm a huge Indycar fan. I watch all of the races and most of the practice and qualifying sessions. I follow many of the drivers and teams on social media. I even go to a couple of races every year, one of which is the 500, naturally. It's suffice to say that when this show was announced I was excited to see it. With that being said, I also fully understood that this is a show that isn't necessarily for me, the hardcore fan. It's aimed more towards the casual fan or maybe even towards someone who isn't a fan. Despite that, I found the show to be really good.

I liked that the show focused on the current season. Despite paying as much attention to the series as I mentioned above, it is easy to forget what happens race to race, so it was nice to get a reminder of what occurred in the previous race. There were 6 episodes, each of which highlighted a handful of drivers and their families and discussed what happened in the race the previous week. It was nice getting some behind the scenes looks at the families and home lives of the drivers. 

Overall I think the CW and Vice did a great job putting this show together. Even for a diehard Indycar fan, I found the show to be interesting and it highlighted the drama of the series and reminded me that the drivers are regular people with families and loved ones who support them. I assumed that this was going to be a one season and done documentary, but one of the makers of the show mentioned a possible season 2 on the Off Track podcast so hopefully next year I can discuss season 2 on this blog.

Lego: McLaren F1 Car & A Flying DeLorean

 

Several years ago we started developing a Christmas village made of Lego sets. We started with a train that circled the tree. It even has an engine allowing for movement! We then added several buildings, including a train and fire station, some stores, etc. At this point we have enough buildings to have an actual village. It's been a cool tradition and a neat way to get back into Lego building as an adult. Along the way I've periodically picked up sets for myself. The most recent one was the McLaren F1 car.

Most of the Christmas village sets we've built have been in the 1200-1800 piece range. This car was right in that neighborhood at 1434 pieces. While average in terms of number of pieces, it is not average in terms of physical size. This car is absolutely massive. It measures over 2 feet long (25.5 inches)! It is plenty big to place on a shelf for display and is easily the largest Lego set I've built in terms of actual size.

This car was also unique to me in that it is a Technic set. Instead of using traditional Lego bricks, the pieces on this car are held together by rods and pins that connect pieces with holes in them. This is the first Technic set I've built since I was a kid, when I had a dirt bike. Generally speaking, I'd prefer to build using the traditional bricks. Connecting the pieces with the Technic connectors can be a bit cumbersome. However, using this method allows for some options in terms of movement that you can't get with regular Lego bricks. This car, for instance, has front wheels that move when the steering wheel moves, pistons that move when the rear wheels move, and an active suspension hidden within the body of the car for the front and rear wheels. None of this would be available with traditional bricks. The Technic connectors also allow for curves and shapes, something else that wouldn't be available with traditional bricks, where you're mostly limited to 90 degree angles. The Technic connectors absolutely make sense for this set, despite being a bit of a pain.

The other set I built back in the summer of '22 was the DeLorean time machine from Back To The Future. This car uses traditional Lego bricks, and thus isn't quite as complex as the McLaren F1 car. With that being said, it has a complex suspension set that allows it to switch between the land-based and flying versions of the car from the various movies. It looks great, and comes with a Lego Doc Brown and Marty, and of course the car has a flux capacitor! If only the F1 car came with a Lego Lando.

Welcome to Wrexham

 

I've been a fan of Rob McElhenney from his days on It's Always Sunny, and I've become a Ryan Reynolds fan after seeing Deadpool and after people have said I look a bit like him. When I heard the two of them bought a soccer club in Wales, I was intrigued. Welcome to Wrexham is a documentary about them buying the team and the challenges that come along with ownership.

Wrexham is a city in eastern Wales near the English border. It has a population of roughly 60,000 and is home to Wrexham A.F.C., the oldest football club in Wales. The city and people of Wrexham are portrayed as being down on their luck, and the football club is portrayed as a source of hope for the community. One of the coolest aspects of football in the UK is this concept of promotion and relegation. Teams that perform poorly are sent to the league below (think going from the MLB to triple A), and teams that perform well are promoted to the league above. Wrexham A.F.C. is in the lowest tier, and Ryan and Rob want to improve the team to get promoted to a higher league and rally the community of Wrexham in the process.

The people of Wrexham eat and breath Wrexham football. They are hard core. They take hours long bus rides to away games and seem to focus their entire outlook on life on Wrexham's success or failure. It's possible the show featured a biased group of Wrexhamonians, I suppose. The best sports analogy I can think of in the United States is high school sports. There could be some college programs that have similar support as well. I don't think professional sports rally a community in quite the same way. Plus in high school sports, you can get "promoted" or relegated to different leagues based on your performance. Wrexham is relatively close to both Liverpool and Manchester. If this were occurring in the United States, the people of Wrexham would be fans of one of the nearby Premiere League teams. And maybe they are fans of those larger and more famous teams. But no question they support their local, lowest tier team.

I bring all of this up because it makes buying this type of team even more random than it seems on the surface. They are not just buying a team in Wales, they're buying into a culture and identity of a community. Of course there is a mix of excitement and skepticism amongst the fans. They are excited to have celebrities own the team, as their is a feeling that they will be able to inject some excitement and desirability into the team. There is skepticism because, if we're honest, what does an American and Canadian know about Welsh football? 

By the end of the season featured in the show, the team has improved and it seems as if the community has bought in to Rob and Ryan owning the team. One of the most interesting aspects to me of this entire story is that apparently Rob and Ryan didn't even know each other prior to owning the team. Rob needed a co-owner and randomly decided to ask Ryan. In general, I think this is a fantastically unique and interesting sports story. The show does a good job discussing how this team affects numerous individuals as well as the larger community. I hope they have a second season and continue to have success with the team and promotion.

Baseball History

I like sports quite a bit, but rarely discuss them on this blog. There is just so much to discuss when it comes to sports, and the pace is so rapid, that it would be impossible to keep up. With that being said, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge how awesome baseball has been in the month of September. Let's start with Albert Pujols.

When Albert signed a one year contract with St. Louis at the beginning of the season, I didn't think much of it honestly. I figured it would be a final swan song to cap off a hall of fame career in the city where it all started. Albert has been great this season, anything but an aged veteran on a publicity tour. Watching him climb the all-time home run leaders list has been pure entertainment. As he approached and passed A-Rod for fourth all-time, and then last night hitting career home run 700, it has been awesome to watch. He joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and the Babe as only the fourth person in MLB history to hit 700 or more home runs.  Adding fuel to this fire is Aaron Judge's chase of Roger Maris' AL home run record of 61 homers. As of today, Judge has 60 home runs this season, just one shy of Roger's record. Not since the Sosa & McGwire season in '98 have I went out of my way to watch people bat in anticipation of a home run. It is fantastic sports drama.

Providing less drama but possibly more impressive is the record set by Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina for 325 career starts as a battery. The duo they passed set the record of 324 in 1975, and no other battery has even come close since. Think about all the variables and perfect circumstances of events that have to take place to make this happen. First of all, you have to have two players who are good enough to stick around the big leagues that long. Second of all, you have to have said players play together essentially for the duration of their career. In the era of free agency and trades, accomplishing this task will be exceedingly rare. Additionally, the game is different today in terms of how pitchers are utilized, with less frequent starts and larger rotations. They say records are meant to be broken, but I honestly think this record will never fall. It has been an amazing month of baseball and an absolute joy to watch.

Indycar on Peacock

 

When NBC shut down NBC Sports at the end of 2021, they shifted qualifying for IndyCar races on to Peacock, requiring a paid subscription. I typically watched qualifying and so was a bit bummed by this decision. I decided not to get the $5 subscription initially. This decision was less about the money and more about the principal of having to pay for something that used to come with my YouTube TV subscription.  I thought I might pick it up for the month of May, as there is a lot of Indy 500 content that is broadcast on the channel, but I didn't. Turns out I was too busy to watch it anyway. The season prior to the 500 is pretty sparse, commonly going 2-3 weeks in between races. Once the 500 hits, however, the rest of the season throughout the summer is pretty busy with weekly races. All of the races except one are on NBC or USA, which I get through YouTube TV. The race in Toronto, however, was exclusively on Peacock. That weekend I didn't have much going on, so I decided to go ahead and subscribe to the service to see what it was like. I must say that I enjoyed the experience more than I expected.

One of my buddies who went through this experience last year complained a lot about the app. He said you couldn't pause/rewind live TV, it took a long time for recordings to reappear on the app, etc. I think they've improved their app since last year. You can pause and rewind live TV, recordings appear on the app as soon (or shortly after) they finish live. The headlines do not contain spoilers. It is overall a nice presentation and app experience. One of the fears of removing content from a more traditional provider is that you loose DVR functionality, and I'll say that for the most part this app does a good job of replacing what you would get on a DVR. My only small complaint is that if you watch the race on Peacock, you don't get side-by-side coverage for commercials like you do on NBC. This is at least true for the $5 tier, I'm not sure if this is true for the $10 tier. Overall, the app experience is nice.

There is no question that racing is a niche sport. The obvious negative to this whole setup is that you have to pay $5 a month. There are positives, however, and if you are a big fan (which let's be honest, if you're looking into getting this for racing, you're a big fan), I think the positives easily outweigh the $5 per month fee. In addition to qualifying, you also get the practice sessions and Indy Lights content, none of which was previously available on NBC Sports. Keep in mind, too, that Peacock isn't a racing app. In addition to the racing content, you get other sports content, including English Premiere League soccer, as well as a lot of NBC content as well.

Despite the annoyance of having to pay for what was previously "free" on my main TV service, I think the amount of content and delivery through the Peacock app is worth the price of admission. We were reluctant to cut the cord from our satellite initially because of fear of losing live sports content. YouTube TV has been an excellent substitute for cable/satellite TV. However, at this point in time I feel as if we are very close to being able to eliminate the traditional cable service. Most of the sports we watch we can access through individual apps, and most shows we watch are the same way. More to come on this topic, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future we migrate to a more individual app experience.