Meet Dave | Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb, Part 1 | Dorktown

hey everybody! Jon here. Alex and i hope you’ve enjoyed this series so far. thanks for giving us the time of day. just wanted to give y’all a heads-up: Part 2 is going up Tuesday, March 15th, Part 3 runs Tuesday, March 29th, and Part 4 runs Tuesday, April 12th. why aren’t we releasing them sooner? the answer is simple: i have a poor work ethic! i don’t want to work hard! anyways in between we’ve got some other good Secret Base stuff coming, including a Weird Rules from Seth and Clara about a baseball game that was delayed for the dumbest possible reason. hope you enjoy, and we’ll have much more Stieb Content coming your way soon.

Because of Dorktown I am now: - a mariners fan - a falcons fan - a dave stieb fan

I’ve never heard of Dave Stieb but I am fully prepared to get deeply emotionally invested in him and his career

Me at the 1 minute mark: "How are they going to stretch this into 4 episodes?" Me at the 20 minute mark: "How are they going to squeeze all if this into only 4 episodes!?!?!?"

I mean this with absolute sincerity: Jon Bois is probably one of the best storytellers currently alive

I'm a huge Dave Stieb fan and this is my first time hearing of him

I have the utmost respect for the amount of work that goes into making long haul, exhaustive video series like this one. You guys must be elated to finally release this masterpiece into the world.

"To say the move backfired implies the possibility that it could have correctly fired" More absolute gold from Jon Bois.

That Halladay intro is like these video game overtures, where you play another character starting maxed up with a boss fight and lose, just to introduce you to the game mechanics. Genius.

I can't wait to watch a 5 part series about a dude I've never heard of, who plays a sport I don't follow, in a country I don't live. No sincerely, I can't wait!

Every time they do a new Dorktown, and they show the big overview of all the different episodes woven together, I realize that the stories come together to make a literal town, composed of data charts and stories

I am just delighted with the fact that you guys connected Roy Halladay to Dave Stieb in such a dramatic way. This is a great masterpiece.

completely caught me off guard seeing my uncles Detroit team making an appearance in the first minute of the video. RIP Kimera Bartee. Another great video though you guys. keep these vids coming

"He has hit just one home run in 890 career at bats. That's about one in 890." I took me 3 seconds to realize what you said.

Jon and Alex make these stories sound like the mythology of some mostly forgotten civilization

Watching this for a second time. You know your in for a good Dorktown when Jon has a throwaway line about a MLB coach getting canned for making up Vietnam War stories in the first couple mins.

I can't believe Dave Stieb gets his own Dorktown, I'm so immeasurably exited

I have watched baseball my entire life, and research it with the majority of my free time, but I guarantee Jon and Alex will tell me something that I never knew about this man.

I have never once cared about baseball, but Jon and Alex have a magical power to make me care about anything and everything, god damn it I love you guys.

Decked out in our STIEB 37 Jays jerseys, my best friend and I quietly cheered against then-absolute no-name Halladay during that ninth inning. We didn’t need a second-start kid bagging a no-no with the progenitor of Blue Jay heartbreak in the ‘pen and likely on his last Major League watch. We were in the top-ring 500s, first row, homemade Stieb signs draped over the ugly cinder siding, shading toward centre-right. Higginson, one of the better Detroit players, left off the lineup card that day until his call to interrupt history, launched that gopher into the sky and we just looked at each other, eyes saying “trajectory,” and watched it carom into Stieb’s mitt. He barely flinched. It’s not an easy catch, considering speed and surface, either. He held the ball until the handshakes, quietly dropping into the kid’s hand, and that was that. Jeez. If I’m getting THIS much material off a sidebar story, what am I gonna get out of the main course? Much-younger me was also at Stieb’s home debut, July 9, 1979, a four-hit 7-1 CG win where the only Brewers hits came off hall of famers (Yount, Molitor) or future battery mates (Buck). Lot to unpack. Looking forward to the opportunity.