No. 162: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED & DREW ORTIZ, SALT LAKE CITY & MEDICINE HAT V / An almost happy ending. The mag I that worshipped kills my story, but I manage to salvage something if not my pride.

The best way to find a story is to be out in the field, reporting another story. That's how it played out when I wound up in Medicine Hat around the worst team in minor league baseball.

OKAY, first, a big thank you to those who’ve been reading along this week. From Day One, this SubStack has been an exercise in self-flagellation and never more than this week. Like the Audible Original that gave this SubStack its name, I’ve detailed in this space various professional stumbles, indignities, embarrassments, humblings, shamings, humiliations and utter degradations that I have soldiered through. Other life events get occasional treatments, but let’s face it: If you’re reading this, you’re waiting for me to get a pie in the face. Oh, and the occasional false finishes. Just when you think it’s over … well, it’s not quite over and it’s about to get worse.