John's Best of Substack 2024

A look back at some fun and offbeat work

The year 2024 was filled with Substack posts that covered sports, travel, food, music and fashion — that eclectic mix of lighthearted topics you’ve come to expect from me.

I’ve already posted about food and travel in 2024, so I’m going to concentrate on some of the other topics that I wrote about.

Looking back, sports was a big topic. It was the year of Caitlin Clark, of the 2024 Olympic games, a time when the Kansas City Chiefs were the best and the Chicago White Sox were definitely the worst.

The Chicago White Sox had a historic losing season in 2024. (Photo by John Naughton.)

The White Sox posted a 41-121 record, the most losses of any team in modern Major League history.

The team started the season 3-22. By the All-Star break, the White Sox had tasted defeat 71 times.

I can say I brought the team a little luck. I attended a 4-3 Sox 10-inning win over the Angels in the final week of the season.

In Iowa, the biggest story of the year was Caitlin Clark.

Clark was a great impact player on the college game, leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to a second straight NCAA runner-up finish.

But then she made a big splash in the WNBA. Every team and player benefited from the Caitlin Clark Effect. Game attendance for the Indiana Fever at home set a WNBA record with more than 340,000 fans. TV viewership for the league increased 48 percent. Merchandize sales shot up accordingly.

There was a backlash, too. Rivals grew jealous of the rookie’s attention. I view those things are growing pains for the game. When you’ve got unprecedented attention and interest, the stakes get higher.

The West Des Moines Scheels store had a huge display of Caitlin Clark merchandise for sale. (Photo by John Naughton.)