You don't mess around with Jim

Croce's influence on me, a half-century later

On this day 50 years ago, singer-songwriter Jim Croce died as his plane crashed into a tree during takeoff. Croce was 30 years old.

We wrote about it last year.

We got quite a bit of feedback from this post. Not much engagement on Substack, but people—mostly old friends—writing me emails and text messages with memories of Croce's music, our family's van, and my late father.

As I re-read what I wrote a year ago, I'd change some things. Not much.

The main thing I would change is that our podcast, which you can find on Substack, is easily searchable as "The Brian D. O'Leary Show." All the archives should be there on your podcatcher of choice, including The O'Leary Review Podcast and Sportlanders the Podcast.

All the podcasts put together have now morphed into The Brian D. O'Leary Show. Nothing more nothing less. "I Got a Name," as the late Mr. Croce sung.

As I tell people quite regularly, all I wanted to do was a sports show. It went well for some time. I couldn't do that exclusively anymore. Folks wanted to hear more of what I had to say.

"But I'm a sports podcaster..." was my typical response. "I podcast about sports."

Do something more, they said.

"Okay, I'll see where it goes."

It's gone better than I ever would have thought. We regularly get thousands of people listening to each show.

And… the last three programs have almost exclusively been about sports. But something more than that, really.

I honestly don't care much for the day-to-day mundane aspects of the sports world anymore. My morning scripture readings used to be the daily standings tables and box scores of major league baseball games and NBA contests of the previous night's games.

These days, it's actual scripture from the Douay-Rheims (and Twitter & email) that take the place of that long-ago morning ritual. Coffee instead of cereal, too.

But as far as sports goes, I love the stories. I read a great article this morning on ESPN about Rico Hines. Great story.

When I tune into the rare game, I seek out games with good announcers. Ones who can craft a narrative out of the game going on in front of all of us.

If the game is compelling and the play-by-play stinks, I turn the sound down or off (see: Colorado State at Colorado this past Saturday).

It took me three quarters to consider it, but I even figured out a way to sync the Boston College announcers to my feed on the ABC game from Saturday vs. Florida State. It was a great game, but the ABC crew figured out a way to throw a wet blanket over all of it.

Long story short:

• I am still interested in sports.

• I will still write and talk about sports.

• There is a deeper meaning to all of it—not in a spiritual or transcendental way—and that is what I will concentrate on when I get into sports.

But we have a lot more going on around here.

Meanwhile, say a prayer for the repose of Jim Croce's soul. Great man lost much too early.

As always,

Brian

P.S. — We're stepping up some content behind the paywall on Substack. More to come on that in the next weeks.

Support us if you can.

P.P.S. — One of my favorite YouTube channels, Rick Beato, breaks down Croce's classic "Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels)." Absolutely terrific—the song itself and Beato's analysis of it.