13 Essential Baseball Movies and Books to Get Your MLB Fix

A sample of the commentary offered:

Nine Innings by Daniel Okrent: Yes, we realize “a single random game from June 1982” doesn’t sound like the most compelling premise for a book to read in 2020. But it’s worth it. Okrent does an incredible job of using that one game to communicate so much more about the sport, and, perhaps particularly notable now, he captures the rhythm of baseball as beautifully as any written word ever could. (We’d link you the boxscore—Orioles-Brewers, June 10, 1982—but why would you want to spoil the ending?)

So, what would all of you nominate as books to read and movies to watch?

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza ([most of] March 2020)

After weighing the pros and cons of keeping a scheduled April 10 bow for its main action tentpole amid the coronavirus outbreak, MGM opted for a cautious route by pushing the upcoming James Bond outing No Time to Die to November. But how much will the move, prompted by growing disruptions due to the epidemic, cost the studio that fully financed the film?

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (February 2020)

With half a decade in the rearview mirror since Pono’s arrival, however, there may be another, more valuable take on its creator to consider.

Neil Young’s insistence that hardcore music fans would be willing to pay extra for a high-definition digital music experience looks less outmoded in 2020 than it did in 2015, now that Amazon has put an HD-quality up-sell at the center of its multi-tiered music streaming offering. Particularly so because Amazon Music, according to Midia Research, now looks set to overtake Apple Music in global subscriber volume terms this year.

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Allow me, then, to lead you toward an alternate retrospective tale; one which vanquishes any suggestion of Neil Young as a myopic fuddy-duddy, scrabbling to deal with the realities of the Spotify age — and instead views him as someone provably ahead of the curve of music-technological trends (albeit not always with the most rip-roaring tech at his disposal).

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (January 2020)

The 2019-20 TV season has hit the winter midway point, so here’s our annual list of midseason premiere dates for new and returning series. It covers more than 200 broadcast, cable and streaming programs debuting from January 1 through March 31 and includes shows that were on hiatus and some one-off specials such as awards shows.

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (December 2019)

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have known each other for 60 years. They love each other. “I used to say that I love him, but with my fingers crossed,” says Townshend of Daltrey. Townshend, gangly and hunched, his angular face having grown into his long nose, sits in a Dallas Ritz-Carlton suite wearing gray clothes on a white-hot day. “Now, I like him too. I like all his eccentricities, his foibles, his self-obsession, and his singer thing. Everything about him.” Daltrey feels the same. He sits in a comfy chair later the same afternoon. “I’ve always kind of known Pete cares for me,” says Daltrey, crossing his legs in blue cargo shorts. He’s a little impatient because my time with Townshend ran long. “I hope he realizes I care about him. I think my actions through our career have shown that.”

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have known each other for 60 years. They tolerate each other.

OT - Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (November 2019)

What’s in a brand?

That’s the central question that all four of the forthcoming streaming services from media titans Apple, Disney, WarnerMedia and Comcast will be asking themselves in the coming months as they prepare to launch platforms that rival established stalwarts like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and even CBS All Access.

For Disney (Disney+), WarnerMedia (HBO Max) and Comcast (Peacock), that means focusing on corporate synergy from across many of their respective linear networks and spending billions to reclaim their biggest hits that helped to feed the big red beast that is Netflix. Meanwhile, Apple (Apple TV+) will build up its own content library after spending billions on star-studded originals as it eschews the library backbone that many other services are turning to in order to have ample content to draw subscribers.

Catch-All Pop Culture Extravaganza (October 2019)

Universal released a behind-the-scenes video on the making of Sam Mendes’ upcoming WWI drama 1917, which provides the first look at the way it was uniquely lensed to appear as one continuous take to create a real-time experience.

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Filming largely on location in England, Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins created long takes with camera movement, choreographed to appear as one continuous take for an immersive, real-time experience. Respected director of photography Deakins — who won an Oscar for Blade Runner 2049 and was nominated an additional 13 times — previously worked with Mendes on Skyfall, Revolutionary Road and Jarhead.