STARTING FIVE

1. “Do The Work, Don!”

Random thoughts on yet another outstanding episode of “Mad Men”:

—”Believe me, there’s always a hierarchy.” You tell ’em, Roger.

–Don finds his deceased former partner’s Mets pennant beneath a couch in Lane Pryce’s former office (now Don’s) and trashes it. Then he posts it on the wall. METAPHOR ALERT: The Mets, who’d been moribund since their inception in 1962, will win the World Series later this year.

–The smoldering look Don shoots Peggy is, like the agency itself, Pryce-less. But how tactless did Peggy have to be not to call Don into her office first and explain it all to him?

— “You go by many names. You don’t need a campaign. You got the best campaign since the dawn of time.” Most enigmatic moment of the episode. Is Don calling the Lease Tech guy Lucifer? And if so, is this Matt Weiner’s nod to “Sympathy for the Devil”, which was released a few months earlier? One Twitter follower noted that Don is basically accusing Lloyd of being “the next big thing”, which he sort of is. Wonderful touch by Wiener when Lloyd needs a light and Don points out that he cannot master fire, man’s first paradigm-shifting invention.

–More Peggy and Joan interactions, and zero of Don Draper’s wives. Makes for a better episode.

—“Meet the Mets/Meet the Mets/Step right up and greet the Mets,

Bring your kiddies/Bring your wife/Guaranteed to have the time of your life…”

That was part of the soundtrack of my youth. I wonder what ad agency penned that jingle.

–Love that Matt Wiener got The Hollies into the closing scene (“Carousel”). (Graham Nash on lead vocals here) The best pop band of the Sixties whose first three letters were not “B-e-a” (and yes, that encompasses two bands). Highly recommend this tune and this one, as well. I’ll never understand why Allan Clarke isn’t a household name.

–Dinner tomorrow night at Vito’s, where they’ll give me a side of spaghetti with my order of spaghetti.

—Ginsberg! Last week he’s fist-pumping Richard, this week he’s telling Don he’s the low end of the see-saw as they move a couch that is not fart-infested. Ben Feldman’s got a pretty good life right now.

—Alan Sepinwall’s review for HitFix.

—Bert Cooper, winner of this week’s Lou Avery Memorial Award for Soul-Crushing Upper Management Style. Or as we used to hear in the Time-Life Building, “See Peter Carry.”

–How did that farm not come equipped with a Volkswagen bus?

–Loved the conversations between “Aw, shucks” Lloyd and Don. Wanted Lloyd to tell Don, “And now IBM is going to come out with an iPhone 6 if for no other reason than to please their investors.”

— Harry Crane: “I’m sorry you lost your lunch room. It wasn’t symbolic.” Don: “No, it was quite literal.” As the incomparable Steve Rushin used to say, “With friends like these, who needs friends?”

–Roger: “I’ll get Cletus to drive me to the train station.”

–Everyone needs either Roger Sterling or a Freddie Rumsen in their lives –even if their livers don’t.

–Met someone last week who didn’t “get” Mad Men (“Who cares what happens?”). I smiled. “Mad Men” is the first line of “Born To Run” writ large (“In the day we sweat it out on the street of a runaway American Dream…”). Matt Wiener is a few years older than I, which means that as an up-and-coming writer he was probably strongly influenced by “Thirtysomething”, which also was set in an ad agency, was also superbly written, and also revolved around its characters’ lives outside the office. “Mad Men” is superior, of course, but SCDP is just the template. This is just the latest take on the great American story, no less rich in texture than the final paragraph of “The Great Gatsby.”

“Mad Men” belongs in the Smithsonian. “Breaking Bad” was a fantastic show. “Mad Men” is art.

2. “Ashley’s Getting Big”

Mike Judge’s “Silicon Valley” has its “Who moves from a pony country to a non-pony country?” moment. That was the Seinfeld episode, actually the moment within that episode, in which the series found its voice and never looked back.

This was Judge’s best episode yet, as Jared finally begins to persuade the Incubator dwellers that they’re going to need to start behaving somewhat like a real company if they want to become future billionaires (I think we’re going to institute “SCRUM” at MH). The Chuy sub-plot with the mural is delicious, everything from Erlich’s line to the neighbors as they stroll past the obscene garage mural (the hed of this item) to the reveal when the garage door opens to the kicker, as Bighead strolls past the art work on the Hooli campus. Wonderful writing there.

Love the way Erlich broke the news to Chuy: “Here’s the headline: There’s a lot right with it.”

Every character, with the exception of our Indian friend, is idiosyncratic and has a unique and well-defined personality five episodes in. We’ve come to know what to expect of them and like them for it. Great show.

And Jared (Zach Woods) pulled a Ben Feldman by also appearing as Amy’s boyfriend on “Veep”, where he had his best line of the night after Amy shoots down his year-long anniversary surprise: “I’ll just have (the hired violinist) play me a bunch of Smiths covers in the car.” Yes, there’s no discernible difference in either of Woods’ characters (unlike Feldman’s, which are wildly disparate), but who cares? He’s a terrific nerd-emo-goth.

3. Nerd Prom: McHale Shaky, POTUS Kills

There was definitely an “I’m the substitute teacher” feel to Joel McHale’s address at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on Saturday night. Maybe it was because he kicked off by telling the assemblage that he’s what they got when the White House Correspondents’ Association couldn’t land Jimmy Fallon as emcee.

My favorite line is that he noted he is host of “The Soup”on E!: “To Republicans, E! is the channel which your deeply closeted gay son likes to watch. To Democrats, it’s the same channel that your happy, openly gay son likes to watch.”

McHale’s humor was B+. The performance was B- because he didn’t learn from Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers: Bring the mean and DO NOT apologize for it.

POTUS was actually better at this, scolding Fox News that “you’re going to miss me, because it’s going to be a lot harder convincing Americans that Hillary is Kenyan.”

Also: “I am a little jet-lagged from my trip to Malaysia. The lengths we have to go to to get CNN coverage these days.” And: “I think they’re still searching for their table.”

But POTUS has always been great at self-skewering, too: “In 2009 my slogan was ‘Yes, we can’ and in 2013 my slogan was ‘Control-Alt-Delete.'”

4. Rocky Mountain Highs

The Colorado Rockies lead the Major Leagues in (inhale deeply, dude) Hits, Runs, RBI, Home Runs, Batting Average, OBP, and Slugging Percentage. What should that tell you? That I’ve spent far too much time on this blog this morning and need to return to work.

5. Time’s 100 Most Influential

Read and discuss. We’ll talk more tomorrow.

The Hall

Charter Inductees: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner 1937:  Tris Speaker, CF; Cy Young, P ; 1938: Grover Cleveland Alexander, P; Eddie Collins, 2B 1939:Nap Lajoie, 2B; Joe Jackson, LF; 1940: Billy Hamilton, OF; Cap Anson, 1B; 1941: Wee Willie Keeler, RF; George Sisler, 1B; 1942: Rogers Hornsby, 2B; Pie Traynor, 3B; 1943: Mickey Cochrane, C; Frankie Frisch, 2B 1944: Ed Walsh, P; Old Hoss Radbourn, P 1945: Lou Gehrig, 1B; Kid Nichols, P 1946: Ed Delahanty, LF; Lefty O’Doul 1947: Pud Galvin, P; John McGraw, INF 1948: Carl Hubbell, P; Addie Joss, P 1949: Harry Heilman, OF/1B; Monte Ward, P/SS 1950: Cool Papa Bell, CF; Jimmie Foxx, 1B 1951: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, P; Josh Gibson, C 1952: Paul Waner, RF; Charlie Gehringer, 2B 1953: Mel Ott, RF; Hank Greenberg, 1B 1954: Eddie Plank, P; Dan Brouthers, 1B 1955: “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, OF; John Clarkson, P 1956: Chief Bender, P; Bill Dickey, C 1957: Sam Rice, RF; Joe DiMaggio, CF 1958: Bill Terry, 1B; Heinie Manush, LF 1959: Dizzy Dean, P; Tim Keefe, P 1960: Gabby Hartnett, C; Mickey Welch, P 1961: Bob Feller, P; Ducky Medwick, LF 1962: Luke Appling, SS; Jesse Burkett, LF 1963 Jackie Robinson, 2B; Zack Wheat, LF 1964: Jake Beckley, 1B; Rube Waddell, P 1965: Ralph Kiner, 1B; Lefty Grove, P

1966: Ted Williams, LF; Smoky Joe Wood, P/OF 1967: Roy Campanella, C; Max Carey, OF 1968: Goose Goslin, LF; Rabbit Maranville, SS 1969: Stan Musial, 1B/OF 1970: Ferris Fain, 1B; Earle Combs, CF 1971: Warren Spahn, P; Yogi Berra, C 1972 Satchel Paige, P; Sandy Koufax, P 1973: Robin Roberts, P; Whitey Ford, P 1974: Mickey Mantle, CF; Eddie Mathews, 3B 1975: Lefty Gomez, P; Hack Wilson, CF 1976: Jack Pfiester, P; Johnny Mize, 1B 1977: Ernie Banks, SS; Mickey Welch, P 1978: Roberto Clemente, RF; Chuck Klein, RF 1979: Willie Mays, CF; Luis Aparicio,  SS 1980: Al Kaline, RF; Enos Slaughter, RF 1981: Bob Gibson, P; Harmon Killebrew, 1B 1982: Hank Aaron, RF; Frank Robinson, OF 1983: Brooks Robinson, 3B, Juan Marichal, P 1984: Hoyt Wilhelm, P; Arky Vaughan, SS 1985: Lou Brock, LF; Pete Browning, OF 1986: Sidd Finch, P 1987: Willie McCovey, 1B, Roger Maris, RF 1988: Willie Stargell, 1B, Catfish Hunter, P 1989: Earl Averill, CF, Billy Williams, LF 1990: Johnny Bench, C, Carl Yastrzemski, LF 1991: Jim Palmer, P, Joe Morgan, 2B 1992: Rod Carew, 2B; Gaylord Perry, P 1993: Reggie Jackson, RF, Tom Seaver, P 1994: Phil Niekro, P, Rollie Fingers, P 1995: Pete Rose, INF, Mike Schmidt, 3B 1996: Steve Carlton, P, Denny McLain, P 1997: Jim Rice, LF, Don Sutton, P 1998: Dick Allen, 1B, Dave Parker, RF 1999: Nolan Ryan, P, George Brett, 3B 2000: Robin Yount, SS, Carlton Fisk, C 2001: Kirby Puckett, CF, Mark Fidrych, P 2002: Ozzie Smith, SS, Gary Carter, C 2003: Eddie Murray, 1B, Tommy John (Surgery) 2004: Paul Molitor, INF, Dennis Eckersley, P 2005: Wade Boggs, 3B, Ryne Sandberg, 2B 2006: Hughie Jennings, SS, Herman Long, SS 2007: Cal Ripken, Jr, SS, Tony Gwynn, RF 2008: Tanner Boyle, SS, Crash Davis, C

2009

Rickey Henderson, LF; 1979-2003, Athletics, others

Baseball’s all-time leader in Stolen Bases (1,406) and Runs (2,295), the “Man of Steal” is regarded as the greatest baserunner and perhaps the best lead-off hitter of all time. Though his lifetime average was just .279, he had a .401 OBP and 3,055 career hits. The ten-time All-Star and 1990 AL MVP holds the record for most lead-off home runs (81). You can argue that for a decade or so he was the most potent offensive force in baseball. A Top 50 All-Timer.

Duke Snider, CF; 1947-1964. Dodgers

Despite perennially being the third-best Major League centerfielder in New York City for much of his career, the Silver Fox was an eight-time All-Star who finished with 407 career home runs and a .295 batting average. A two-time World Series champ, Snider is the only player to hit four home runs in two separate Fall Classics.

 Remote Patrol

Clippers at Thunder

TNT 9:30

Four All-Stars in their absolute primes, with one future All-Star (DeAndre Jordan) coming into his prime. LAC has no one who can stick with Mr. Unreliable, and he’s the premier player on the court. Chris Paul is still too injured to handle Russell Westbrook at the moment. Player I think will need to make his presence felt? Steven Adams of OKC, if only to put some vertical pressure on (and give six fouls to) DeAndre Jordan. If Adams doesn’t foul out of every game, and if five of those six fouls are not on Jordan in shooting situations, someone is not doing their job.

Thunder in six.