😴 Late Shows & Early Exits

In this week's P.O. Box:

I went to a concert last Sunday for the first time since 2019 and boy did it make me feel old.

Not only because of how much has happened since then—a pandemic, a career change, a kid—but because my experience attending a concert in 2024 was hilariously different than what it was five years ago.

I remember going to see shows at the Great Scott in Allston when I first moved to Boston after college. The bands wouldn’t come on until midnight and it would barely faze me.

But life comes at ya fast.

Instead of impulsively buying tickets a few nights before, this night was meticulously planned months in advance.

I called the venue to figure out when the opener would come on, combed Reddit posts to gauge set length, lined up a babysitter for the night, secured a dinner reservation for the perfect time…aka a bunch of old people shit in order to fully maximize our few hours out on the town.

The only reason I was willing to juggle all of these logistics is because mk.gee’s new album floored me when I first heard it earlier this year and I have not stopped spinning it since. It’s my runaway album of the year and I couldn’t imagine passing up on him playing in my neck of the woods.

I’m sure you can guess how this story ends.

Lauren and I ended up only being able to watch 50 minutes of his set (so, so good, at least) before needing to bail early to relieve the sitter (my maniacal planning was no match for their tour bus hitting traffic and starting the show late).

I had one of those out of body experiences as we elbowed our way to the exits through a sea of twentysomething Cambridge hipsters (I blame Kylie Jenner for posting his album on her IG story) who were completely fixated on the stage and unbeholden to time.

The scene had passed me by. Indie rock concerts are a young man’s game.

Bet none of those punk kids understand the satisfaction in not making a sitter wait, though.

🌴 Don’t let the NFL Schedule fool you (correlation & bye week tips). We cover lots of ground in this new strategy video: one big mistake to avoid when analyzing the schedule, how to quantify a correlation boost, my preferred way to attack correlation in a draft, and whether bye weeks matter or not.

🍆 A Week 17 Correlation Draft Challenge: Dome boner edition. Check it out on the Deposit Kingdom channel.

☕️ Best Ball Breakfast: Correlate Like A Pro. Shawn Siegele, Pat Kerrane and special guest EZ116 from the Deposit Kingdom join the show to discuss Week 16/17 stacks and correlation strategies, drafting with structure flexibility, Zero RB targets, and rookie values.

🏆️ Fantasy Life roundup. This week I analyzed the rookie premier photo and handed out some awards, wrote about a potential wrinkle in the Jags backfield, and pressed the panic button on some early injury scares from OTAs.

☣️ Best Ball Insights From A DFS Pro. Bric shares his thoughts on "better in best ball" player archetypes, Week 16 vs. Week 17, and portfolio theory.

🍬 NFL Weight Watchers. Who is shedding pounds, who is bulking up!

🚢 Our Favorite Picks In Underdog Drafts Right Now. The Ship Chasing crew discuss their favorite selections in drafts before hopping in the new Pug contest on Underdog. An epic autodraft is made, and Pat and Ben share their latest slow draft experiences.

💪 The Swolecast Drafts A BBMV Team. The one where Davis pondered an equity swap with Kitchen to get access to a mastermind’s portfolio.

🏃 ADP Chasing: Hunting For The Next Kyren Williams. ADP Chasing dissects the RB depth charts across the league and identifies who to target now and who to be patient with until more info drops.

⏰ OTA News & Swingy ADPs. Off & On The Clock checks in on camp news, looks back at a draft from January, and hops in a BBMV draft.

I’ll introduce these more next week, but wanted to get the June selections to everyone as soon as possible so you have more time to track them down:

• River of Doubt by Candice Millard

• The Hunter by Tana French

🖼️ Book #9 for May (35%): The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

It’s always fascinating to hear what compels elite performers to do what they do. And it’s especially fascinating when that person is an art thief:

There’s clearly an addiction to the high—”He hopes as well to satisfy some hole inside him, though no matter how much he steals, the emptiness never feels filled”—similar to what you hear from extreme sports pros like Alex Honnold or Garrett McNamara (100 Foot Wave).

Even though they know that what they are doing is dangerous and that the consequences could change the entire trajectory of their life (or end it altogether), they still feel the pull to continue to chase the high.

Best ball doesn’t seem so bad as a hobby now that I think about it.

✅ Book #8 for May (COMPLETE): Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
✅ Book #7 for April (COMPLETE): Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
✅ Book #6 for April (COMPLETE): The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
✅ Book #5 for March (COMPLETE): Recursion by Blake Crouch
✅ Book #4 for March (COMPLETE): The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
✅ Book #3 for Feb. (COMPLETE): Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk by Billy Walters
✅ Book #2 for Feb. (COMPLETE): Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
✅ Book #1 in Jan. (COMPLETE): Clear Thinking by Shane Parris

We got two shows on tap this weekend…

🥃 Best Ball After Dark w/ Fantasy Dog Pound (Fri)

Pat aka Fantasy Dog Pound joins Best Ball After Dark to share his background and his recent data deep dive on the Weekly Winners format. Become a YT member to watch live (top 2 tiers).

After that, I’ll be joining Deposit Kingdom reg Bindles on his stream for a draft.

Mike Leone recommended the podcast Finding Drago awhile ago in a group chat and I finally finished it the other day.

It’s a very funny podcast from 2018 hosted by two Australian comedians who investigate a pointless mystery involving an elusive novelist who wrote some bizarre Rocky fan-fiction.

The story gets weirder and weirder each episode as the two explore strange corners of the internet, immerse themselves in cult fandom, and unveil secret identities.

If you enjoyed last month’s book club selection, Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, you’ll really like this. Very similar energy.

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