- I'm Curious with Roey
- Posts
- I'm Curious - Edition 4: Birthday Edition
I'm Curious - Edition 4: Birthday Edition
This week, South Sudan has a lesson for the United States, Caitlin Clark is busy, and of course, there are rats on ice.
Peach, the mascot of this newsletter, being curious about what’s going on inside the local dog park.
Welcome to “I’m Curious!”
Hello and welcome back to “I’m Curious!”
Older but none the wiser, this newsletter returns to keep you sane and grounded during maybe the most unprecedented time of our lifetime.
You may already be on board, but before you indulge in another edition, why not get a friend or two to subscribe?
In lieu of any birthday presents, just spread some “I’m Curious” love!
I’m happy to have more people join our community, especially since this is a two-way street and I welcome your reactions and takes on what I have to say.
Author of this newsletter, age 7.
Author of this newsletter, age 28. Note that the jersey is the exact same one in the first photograph, as is the hat.
The Most Curious Thing This Week
Aging!
Today I turn 29, an age I anticipate being for years to come.
And with this being a primarily sports-themed newsletter, my mind jumps to this tweet.
You: "I'm only 35, I have my whole life ahead of me."
Sports Broadcaster: "Here comes the oldest player in the league. He's 32. A miracle."
— Troy Johnson (@_troyjohnson)
6:06 PM • May 19, 2024
It’s wild to me just how differently we perceive age in sports versus in the rest of life.
I decided to take a quick exploration into the “Class of 1995,” and as it turns out, athletes also turning 29 this year are already in a place where retirement may be closer than the start.
Stars like Patrick Mahomes and Nikola Jokic already have cabinets full of MVP awards and can start preparing for their Hall of Fame inductions now.
A few others are arguably still at their peaks. Nathan MacKinnon has already carried the Colorado Avalanche to one Stanley Cup and might nab one or two more before hanging up his skates.
A handful of ‘95ers, Vivianne Miedema of the Netherlands and American star Rose Lavelle, will both be on the pitch going for gold at the upcoming Summer Olympics in women’s soccer.
Which reminds me… the Olympic sports can really make you feel old.
Swimmer Missy Franklin won five gold medals, is my age, and has been retired for nearly six years.
Fellow ‘95ers Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney won gold for the U.S. in gymnastics but both have been retired for nearly a decade.
Both McKayla Maroney and Barack Obama may be retired now but no word yet on whether they’re still not impressed. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Now, compare that with non-sports life. There are definitely some successful musicians, actors and influencers in my age group.
The likes of Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion have lit up the pop charts for years. Kendall Jenner is a billionaire thanks to her ability to leverage Kardashian fame. And Timothée Chalamet is in just about everything these days. Films, commercials… the man is inescapable.
But out of pop culture, so much hasn’t yet been done or written.
There are no Fortune 500 CEOs yet who were born in 1995. No world leaders, either. Only one member of Congress in our bunch, but the voters of North Carolina dumped Madison Cawthorn after one tumultuous term. The UK sent a handful of ‘95ers to Parliament in their election earlier this month.
Sports may make anyone my age feel like they’re in or even past their prime. But we have a ton of life ahead of us. I’m excited to see what we do.
My Reporting
Apologies in advance, but we’re going to have to broach at least one of the topics that are barred from conversation at the Celebrity Delly in Falls Church, Virginia. (I ate there on Saturday. Sure, the pastrami is good but the chicken tenders are to die for.)
I spent most of last week covering politics! There’s not much I’m allowed to opine about but I have a pair of sports-related theories I can introduce you to.
Republican nominee Donald Trump wants to embrace 1980s sports. This is a theory I didn’t create, but need to give a ton of credit to Pablo Torre from Meadowlark Media and Kadia Goba from Semafor for reporting out.
But Trump’s core pitch to Black voters this election cycle seems to stem from Black athletes who endorsed him, the most prominent of whom are guys who were super popular in the 1980s.
The likes of Mike Tyson, Herschel Walker, Darryl Strawberry and Lawrence Taylor being both won over by Trump and being people Trump celebrates being close to tells me that this man wants to collect the love of just about everybody who was big in the ‘80s, when he first made it big.
I highly recommend their podcast with more details on it.
But nothing made this theory clearer to me than last week’s Republican National Convention, when Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt while cutting a wild promo about how TRUMPAMANIA IS RUNNIN’ WILD BROTHER!
And did I mention that Trump blew a kiss Hulk Hogan’s way? He loves this stuff.
Trump blew a kiss to Hulk Hogan at the GOP convention lmao
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32)
2:10 AM • Jul 19, 2024
And then there’s Kamala Harris.
What counted as a GOP attack a year ago has born new fruit, specifically coconuts, for the vice president.
As the internet blossoms with memes about coconut trees, being unburdened by what has been, and Charli XCX songs, I see a major sports parallel.
kamala IS brat
— Charli (@charli_xcx)
12:29 AM • Jul 22, 2024
Every few years there’s a team that makes a run toward a championship on the back of one or more weird running gags that they do with their teammates.
For example, as they made a run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996, Florida Panthers, just a few years into their existence, had a game where player Scott Mellanby killed a rat in their locker room pregame. He scored two goals that night, which birthed the tradition of fans throwing plastic rats onto the ice to celebrate goals.
Long live the rats.
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers)
1:00 AM • Jun 26, 2024
Another one: in 2012, the long-struggling Pittsburgh Pirates adopted a hand gesture depicting a “Z” because they were watching one scene of the film “Dude Where’s My Car?” where the main characters meet a UFO cult that does the gesture to honor their leader, named Zoltan.
Sometimes it works out, like when the Panthers revived the rat celebration on their run to this year’s Stanley Cup. Sometimes it doesn’t, like the 2012 Pirates, who finished with their 20th consecutive losing season.
Win or lose, the Harris campaign’s meme mania reminds me of the way that underdog teams adopt weird gags and seem to have a good time doing them.
College Football 25 Follow-Up
We also had a follow-up to my newsletter feature last week on the EA Sports video game College Football 25.
Thanks to a “small-world” connection, we were able to get a guest from The Pat McAfee Show, Matt “Bruce Brahn” Brown, to talk with us about it.
The McAfee Show cohort were very excited about the game and spent a big portion of one of their shows last week discussing it.
Matt did a heck of a job explaining the buzz, and mentioned he had picked Navy for his first dynasty build.
Here’s the full clip:
Sometimes the progrum makes the news (literally!)
@brucebrahn from the @PatMcAfeeShow joined us on @scrippsnews America Tonight to break dahn the excitement around @EASPORTS College Football 25.
(And if you want to know who he's taking for his first dynasty, it's in here! 👀)
— Roey Hadar (@roeyhadar)
1:23 AM • Jul 20, 2024
WNBA
I was not able to make it out to the WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix this weekend but was still able to provide a helping hand.
Scripps News’s Phoenix-based correspondent and friend of the newsletter Adi Guajardo, who I have roped into women’s basketball coverage a few times now, was there covering it and had a nice piece about all the excitement.
But I appreciated getting to jump in with a virtual assist, with a question to Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark. We were looking to get some reporting on players doing some community engagement and connecting with fans, so I asked a non-basketball question about her schedule.
Here’s what I got:
Other Sports Takes and Things of Note
South Sudan Has a Warning for America: Team USA may not have as easy of a ride to the gold in men’s basketball as they’ve had in years past. Twice now, they have been pushed to the edge by teams that haven’t generally been considered top gold-medal contenders.
On Saturday, the US eked by South Sudan, having to eliminate a double-digit lead to do so. It took a late basket by LeBron James to beat a South Sudanese team that has no players currently signed to an NBA team.
South Sudan also deserves a ton of credit. JT Thor and Wenyen Gabriel both played in the NBA last season, and teenage big man Khaman Maluach is committed to Duke and may be a prospect for the 2025 NBA Draft. NBA veteran Royal Ivey, also an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets, coaches the team. And the country’s basketball federation, led by longtime South Sudanese former NBA player Luol Deng, has been working to build the country’s program and get several players raised in exile to become eligible to play for the country.
SOUTH SUDAN IS A PROBLEM!
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons)
8:03 PM • Jul 20, 2024
The US showed no signs that this was a fluke in their game Monday against Germany. The Germans, with a squad headlined by emerging Orlando Magic star Franz Wagner, lost by just four points to the Americans, led in the 4th quarter and trailed by just one with 90 seconds left.
Oddsmakers still favor Team USA to win the gold medal but if they don’t fix a lot of fundamental issues, don’t be surprised if they fall short.
Kershaw’s Last Ride?: Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw is set to come off the injured list and make his first appearance of the season by starting Thursday’s game for the Dodgers.
Kershaw has been out all season recovering from shoulder surgery. This will be his 17th season pitching in the major leagues, and all of them have had him wearing Dodger blue.
Baseball is at a moment where a generation of its best pitchers are all in the twilight of their careers. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Kershaw are all seemingly nearing the end.
The trio are the only active pitchers with at least 200 career wins. 300 wins used to be a gold standard for a pitching career. Now, Gerrit Cole, who at age 33 has 148 career wins, may be one of the last pitchers who could join the 200-win club.
Clayton Kershaw, highlighted, is third among active MLB pitchers in wins. (Chart via Baseball Reference)
The game has changed to de-emphasize pitching wins and the circumstances around them, so Kershaw may be one of the last of a dying breed.
And what a run he has had: a remarkable 2.48 ERA for his career, which is the lowest for any starting pitcher since 1920. Only three seasons where his ERA topped 3 earned runs allowed per nine innings. Three Cy Young Awards. Ten All-Star selections. An MVP award. A World Series championship.
If this season marks the end of the line, we might as well all appreciate his skill while we can.
NFL Training Camp: Just a quick note on the fact that NFL teams are reporting to training camp. Unlike spring training for baseball, I feel like there’s no palpable excitement or drama.
It’s inevitable that the NFL will take over our lives again once it starts up in September. We’ll talk about it then.
Shootouts with Style: I caught a few games of the NWSL’s Summer Cup, which started last weekend and mixes teams from the US’s top women’s soccer league with teams from Liga MX Femenil, its Mexican counterpart.
While it’s fun to see new players and teams, the most entertaining thing has been how it resolves things after 90 minutes. As usual, a winner gets 3 points, a loser gets none. But if it’s tied, the fun starts. Both teams are guaranteed 1 point, like a regular draw in soccer. But the winner of a postgame penalty shootout gets an extra point for the standings.
With players gone for the Olympics, it puts a spotlight on some good non-Olympians and lets people who might usually be backups shine.
THE MATCH WINNER FROM @Kris10edmonds 🤯🤯🤯
— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC)
11:20 PM • Jul 20, 2024
Coming up big with back-to-back penalty saves ‼️
All smiles for @marisabova_ 😄
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL)
3:02 AM • Jul 21, 2024
It produced some good, low-stakes fun. PKs are the worst form of resolving ties for big games, except for pretty much all the others soccer has tried. But for lower-stakes events like this, have fun.
Which reminds me… a few weeks back I learned that in its early days, Major League Soccer perfected this.
Instead of the usual setup, where a player stands 12 yards out from the goal and kicks a stationary ball, early MLS would give a player a ball 35 yards from the goal. The player could then run up toward the goal and had five seconds to beat the goalkeeper, who usually was running full speed at the ball from the other side.
It was unpredictable and downright bananas.
MLS eliminated it in 1999, and The Athletic had a nice write-up about it back in 2020, but it deserves to come back in some form.
Seriously, look at this:
Something Good I Ate
A recent lunch featuring pupusas, the often-savory, sometimes-sweet fried corn cakes stuffed with meat, cheese and beans, reminded me of the first time I had it.
Pupusas are common in a few countries in Central America but are most often associated with El Salvador.
The Washington, D.C. area has a large and prominent Salvadoran community, and shops selling pupusas are pretty common.
They’ve long been a signature concession item at soccer matches in D.C., which is where I first ate them.
Back in 2015, I snuck across town to a D.C. United game, my first ever pro soccer game, at RFK Stadium.
RFK has been closed for the last five years and is nearing demolition. But in 2015, it looked exactly the same. An empty, cavernous metal husk with signage dating back to the 1960s, RFK Stadium was a window into what it would have looked like if the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated.
RFK Stadium seat, you had certainly seen better days before teenaged author came rolling through.
My first pupusa, consumed quickly pregame, had… I think… just cheese in it and was paired with the usual curtido cabbage slaw and tomato salsa.
To this day, pupusas are a go-to if I need a quick bite at a soccer game or just crave something resembling the Mexican food that New Jersey had in spades but DC kind of lacks.
All of them are good, but none of them came in a place as weird as my first.
Pupusa sits on author’s lap, ready to be eaten before a DC United game at RFK Stadium, May 2015.