Let go and move on
A lineup from the box score of a symmetrical February
The weeks of February 2026 lined up perfectly in four rows of seven, Sunday through Saturday, neat like the 1-4 hitters in a baseball box score. This month wasn’t neat. I finished my January writing goals on February 15, the lineup of baseball songs I scheduled for the first day of Spring Training morphed into this 1-9, and I found out this morning that the U.S. is at war with the country set to send their World Cup team to train at Tucson’s Kino North Stadium in a few months.
But baseball lineups are symmetrical, three groups of three, the same number of names as the number of innings. So we’ll restore some neatness with this batting order.
B. Jones, organist
A. Albon, seeker
M. Verstappen, hunter
J. Stockton, illustration
C. Cignetti, grandpa
L. Kiffin, uncle
C. Piascek, illustrator
B. Burnett, designer
D. Evans, designer
M. Council Jr., Phog Dawg
1. Booker T. Jones, organist
“Green Onions” plays while the kids from The Sandlot bat around the town team. The song works as a soundtrack for baseball: rhythmic and repetitive, simple yet loaded with energy like a lineup primed for a big inning.
Booker T. Jones opened a Tiny Desk Concert with “Green Onions” 14 years ago. The live performance feels like a sunny afternoon in the bleachers. It’s a gon that’s best not over a movie montage, but when you can see the organist playing on two levels, pulling stops, changing tones, smiling and enjoying life. I didn’t finish the song lineup, but I wanted to share this and say go spend a sunny afternoon at a live baseball game. Choose details to follow through all nine innings. Watch one player, watch around the horn, watch for joy and variance in repetition.
2. Alex Albon, seeker
My wife and I have been binging “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” and Alex Albon’s arc stuck with me. The young Red Bull Racing driver was twice headed for a podium finish, once as a rookie, once the next year, but was twice spun around by Mercedes’s world champion Lewis Hamilton. Albon twice watched a McLaren driver earn his first podium because of post-crash penalties doled out to Hamilton.1 The narrative that followed Albon was that he needed to get his first podium, to outrace one of Mercedes’s championship cars or his world-championship contender teammate, to relieve pressure on his RBR seat. This isn’t a what-if about Albon avoiding Hamilton, but a reminder of the high bar that the best must surpass over and over despite difficulties.
3. Max Verstappen, hunter
Here’s Albon’s world-championship contender teammate. He hadn’t won — yet.
The first F1 race I watched was with my friend John D.’s family in California. We were on the overlapping weekend of housesitting stints doubling as family vacations, and they set up a projector to watch that weekend’s race. Chatting about the drivers revealed their favorites, including their future son-in-law’s preference for Max Verstappen. Cue groans and eyerolls. I thought this was due to rooting for the champion. At this point, Verstappen had one or two world titles, and even I knew his name. Now I know that he gets three and goes for a fourth.
Watching DTS in 2026 time-travels you back to Verstappen hunting down Mercedes, and I liked his no-nonsense approach to the chase. We had dinner with John’s family after finishing DTS Season 1. I mentioned liking Verstappen. Cue some wide eyes and groans. We’re a few more seasons in now, and, while I do like his direct nature, the vibes around his team have soured due to the way Red Bull Racing goes about winning. Now I understand the eyerolls weren’t just connected to rooting for the winner, and I’m finding myself gravitating to the storyline of Ferrari.2 But I’m not sure that I’ve been sorted into a fanbase yet, or if I will be.
I’m being cautious about observing vs. rooting. I got connected to sports through enjoying seeing what happens more than needing a specific outcome. Right now, my favorite thing about F1 is watching with my wife and talking about it with my friends, so it’s ticking the community box for me.
4. John Stockton, illustration
Speaking of community, I saved a handful of card packs to open with my friend Nate F. When we finally cracked them, the coolest pull was a $2 1991 NBA Hoops illustration card of Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton. Stockton has a blur effect giving him extra speed, and a defender watches him blow by from a frame within the frame in the background of the painting. It’s not worth much (Nate, a collector, noted that it’s off-center and has a subtle production line on the back), but it’s unique in that it comes from a night of hanging out and opening packs. Maybe I should’ve had everybody sign it as a memento of a fun, one-of-one evening.
5. Curt Cignetti, grandpa
Thrill Shot Mini No.8 will feature duplex No.3.3 The first/last line comes from a song by Summer Salt, a band I like because of my daughter. The two dueling sports voices are football coaches speaking at their introductory press conferences. Indiana just went undefeated and won a national title, which just shouldn’t have happened. But when you listen to the guy they picked to lead the team, it makes more sense. He twice emphasized that “there will be no self-imposed limitations on what we can accomplish” in a way that makes you believe him. He gives off the gruff energy of a grandpa who knows more than you and is willing to tell you but not linger over the conversation.
6. Lane Kiffin, uncle
The coach that my curiosity paired with Cignetti is the new leader of Louisiana State’s football program, Lane Kiffin. I wondered how his introduction would compare to Cignetti’s. If Cignetti was a gruff grandpa, Kiffin brought fun uncle energy. Cignetti scoffed at recruiting star ratings. Kiffin didn’t give a direct opinion on recruiting evaluations, but he did talk about being a destination for elite players and needing good players to make systems work. Cignetti’s undefeated season will certainly draw the attention of four- and five-star recruits who would’ve considered LSU and not Indiana before. Will they go to LSU anyway? Is Cignetti going to bring any to Bloomington? The comparison between these two approaches is my only college football curiosity for 2026.
7. Chris Piascek, illustrator
My day job gets me access to Adobe, and I found Chris Piascek’s channel while searching YouTube for how-tos and inspiration. His work is vibrant, and his videos are helpful. These are from a recent list of pieces of advice for improving your hand-lettering skills, but it’s good for any creative work or just life.
Not everything needs to be neat like this February or that illustration on the left. My day job also throws obstacles at me that make focus tricky, so the response is to keep figuring out what needs to be in bold block letters and what doesn’t.
8. Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, designers
I’m not sure which co-author of “Designing Your Life” should get credit for this, so I included them like a box score shows a pinch hitter. The Stanford professors line out a design process that ends with AGONIZE LET GO & MOVE ON. Make a make a choice. Move forward. I prototyped a writing setup for January. It worked, kind of, and then February kept getting less and less neat.
However, I do have a clearer idea of something that matters for Thrill Shot. Community. I couldn’t help but notice how often I came back to that while putting bits of the month in this lineup. You know what, I’ve got one more for community.
9. Melvin Council, Jr, Phog Dawg
I saw Melvin Council, Jr play at home with my family in December, and I’m seeing him play away in a couple of hours with my friend Nate E.4 We passed up a chance to see Kansas play Arizona at McKale about two decades ago, but we weren’t doing that again. Make a choice, learn from it.
The extra layer of community is why I’m excited to see Council again. He played for St. Bonaventure last year, which is where I earned my master’s.5 The fact that a Bonnie has become the most beloved member of a talented Jayhawks squad is beautiful. I don’t buy player jerseys, but I might spring for a No.14 COUNCIL shirt this season. Maybe it’s too much of a one-on-one moment to pass up.
*This was NOT the most emotional event of the first few seasons. Not even close. But no spoilers for people who have yet to watch Drive to Survive. Shoutout to our friends who knew what was coming but said nothing so we’d experience the most dramatic episode with no expectations.
John: “I like this trajectory.”
Here’s duplex No.1, with an explanation of the form, and duplex No.2.
I’ve had a lot of friends named Nate, but even more named John. Hey guys!
This relates to a story in the works centered on an interview with Brian Moritz, Bonas sports journalism grad program director and Bills fan. He was at the final game at the Bills old stadium, and a future Dispatch from the last rumble at The Ralph is on the way.