Speaking of close to home, this time of year I tend to read more golf stuff because I'm itching for the season to start. I just started this one yesterday:
https://www.amazon.com/First-Major-Inside-Story-Ryder/dp/1101971096/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+first+major+by+john+feinstein&qid=1679406339&sprefix=feinstein+first%2Caps%2C238&sr=8-1
That seems interesting.
Related note...
Recently heard that Michael Jordan is the highest paid athlete of all time (over his career, including endorsements, etc.). The next 3 highest paid are all golfers. Tiger and Jack but I forget the 3rd. Maybe Arnold Palmer?
I saw that as well. I don't remember who or the order, but it always amazes me the amount of endorsement money golfers can make. That's why new drivers come to the market at $600. They pay these guys a ton of money so they have to recoup those costs, but because they pay them the money, golfers are willing to put down that kind of dough for the same driver their favorite pro uses. It's a vicious cycle.
A similar phenomenon happens with musical instruments and gear.
About 20 years ago, DigiTech came out with a guitar pedal called "Bad Monkey." It was a subject of intense debate among some guitar players who insisted that it was as good as the Ibanez Tube Screamer pedals used by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many others who insisted vociferously it wasn't even close. At the time, vintage Tube Screamers were going for many hundreds of dollars, and the Bad Monkey was selling for $40. Subsequently, DigiTech was bought out. The Bad Monkey was discontinued, disappeared, and was mostly forgotten for 19 years.
A few weeks ago, a famous "boutique" pedal maker and debunker named Josh Scott put a video on YouTube in which he demonstrated visually and sonically that the Bad Monkey was the same circuit as the Tube Screamers, with the same components, and was aurally indistinguishable. He also demonstrated that the Bad Monkey could hold its own with authority against a number of very expensive and and very rare guitar pedals.
What happened next was hilarious. The market value for used Bad Monkeys jumped overnight to many hundreds of dollars. Many guitarists howled that what had been a great cheap guitar pedal in the resale market was now unobtanium.
Josh Scott replied on Instagram to complaints about his role in this travesty, "I wish to remind all of you that you had 19 years to buy one cheap before I elevated its status."
Then, jokingly, he offered one of his Bad Monkeys for $50K.
Guitar players are apparently as nuts as golfers.