June was a month of loss. As someone who likes to try to live my life with a low amount of drama, the fates were unrelenting in their determination not to let me. I lost several strips of skin and suffered a couple painful weeks off the bike recovering from consecutive gravel crashes, the second worse than the first, on the same spots on my body. I very likely lost my favorite sports team. We lost our beloved dog. And, in the month’s waning hours, nearly six years to the day after I lost my mom, I lost my last living grandparent, my 97-year-old maternal grandmother. Her name was June.
It says something about both the physical and emotional brutality of such a rapid fire onslaught, as well as the overall privilege I’ve enjoyed in my life, that this was one of its very worst months. I’ve thought about that a lot in terms of my grandmother’s own life. Despite losing much of her vision to macular degeneration three decades ago, she found a way to remain active, going for hikes, serving as a docent at the university botanical garden, volunteering, and attending social and cultural events all the same. She remained in the massive, three-story house she raised her family in, despite those limitations, despite outliving my grandfather by nearly a decade. She grew up poor, but lived a life fuller than anyone could hope for, literally traveling around the world in her golden years. Nobody truly dies well; the goal is simply to live well, as best you can, for as long as you’re able. For that, she set a dauntingly high bar.
Months are arbitrary, human markers of time, but needless to say I’m happy to be putting this one behind me. I’m happy that the Tour de France is back, bringing daily excitement and beautiful views of the French countryside to my living room. I’m happy that we get the Tour de France Femmes once again right after, extending that European staycation an extra week. I’m happy the Women’s World Cup is just weeks away, another pleasant distraction. And I’m happy to be able to have a moment of peace to prepare myself for other, impending life changes.
At least turning the calendar feels good. At least it’s July.
Recommended Newsletter
To help bring some balance to life, the universe, and this newsletter, I’ve tried my best to keep this month’s collection as positive and uplifting as I can. I was originally going to wait until college football season for this one, but since they’re putting in some solid offseason work, it’s as good a time as any to recommend Sickos Sentinel, the newsletter form of the College Football Sickos Committee account from Twitter. They’re always entertaining and constantly looking for the arcane, bizarre, untold storylines from America’s most beloved, corrupt, bombastic, morally dubious sport.
Other Links
Staying in the spirit of keeping things light, let’s kick off the links with something entirely trivial — literally.
If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve probably already discovered Immaculate Grid, but if not, allow me to be the ambassador to your newest pastime. Each day, the grid offers a new set of 3x3 combinations for you to fill. It’s a cross between teams played for and accomplishments. Get all nine, and you win the day. But the real sicko behavior starts when you start caring about your rarity score. Sure, everyone knows Mark McGwire played for both the A’s and the Cardinals, but how about Kiko Calero? That’s what I (and only 0.1% of you) thought.
When I interned for the Chicago Cubs media relations department back in 2008, I “traveled” to one road series — when I took the Red Line to the South Side for the crosstown series against the White Sox. It was a spectacular, summer weekend in the Windy City, and as I stood with my department head out on the freshly cut grass at the edge of the visiting dugout that Saturday, I spotted legendary baseball writer Peter Gammons, in town doing prep work for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball the next night. My boss, who knew him, offered to introduce me, and Gammons spent the next half hour casually chatting with us about anything and everything, before inviting us to join him in the press box for lunch. He was magnanimous and gracious, and this profile of him by Tom Friend was an absolute treat, stuffed full of an impossible amount of lore from a life well-lived.
More sports? Sure, more sports. This roundup from The American College of Sports Medicine’s recent conference in Denver has a number of interesting insights on exercising indoors vs. outdoors, the difference in how men and women respond to fatigue, and the importance of training your mind.
As e-bikes become more popular and widespread, the question becomes how to make them more accessible and adoptable to reach a tipping point that changes the way we treat transportation in our cities. When it comes to national policy, nobody is doing more on that front than Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
Finally, if you aren’t already following Ben Collins on your social media platform of choice, here’s a good time to fix that. As the press fights — and largely fails — to hold the tides of misinformation and conspiracy at bay, he’s one of the most direct, outspoken journalists willing to call things exactly as they are. This is his call to arms, from the memo attached to his Cronkite Award-winning submission.
That makes this a good time for a programming note: For those of you on Bluesky, you can find me over there.
My Links
Before I wrote here about the A’s and their stadium situation, I wrote about the reverse boycott that Oakland fans executed at the Coliseum. It felt representative of so much else these days, a clear, loud, angry message from the masses at one singularly rich person, who goes ahead and does what he wants anyway. It all feels increasingly contentious, and unsustainable, and like it’s all leading towards something.
Will it matter? Maybe not enough to keep the A’s in Oakland. Beyond that, we’re all going to find out, one way or another.