May 20, 2006
Hey baseball fans!
Barry Bonds hits #714. Let's all yawn in unison!
Posted by bill at 07:22 PM | Comments (3)
November 14, 2005
Sports shorts
- Raise your hand if you're wondering whether A-Rod actually wanted to win the AL MVP. For most NY Yankee fans, any mention of it is sure to be followed with: "...but he sure sucked in the playoffs."
- If the Philadelphia Eagles ever, ever wonder whether they'd done the right thing in suspeding Terrell Owens for the season, this should end any concerns. T-minus how many days until someone drops the "R" stink bomb?
- Penn State is, I think, a Texas upset away from a Rose Bowl matchup with USC for all the marbles. They're #4 in the latest BCS poll, with one-loss Miami ahead by a bit. But there's a human element in the BCS formula - and who wouldn't want to give Joe Paterno a crack at one more national championship?
Posted by bill at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
September 30, 2005
We're talking baseball
No Morning Blend today...
This weekend baseball fans, whether Yankees fans or Yankees haters (everyone is one of those things, from what I can tell) are in for some fantastic baseball. The Yankees lead Boston by one game heading into a season-ending three game series at Fenway. If you're not a baseball fan, tune into this weekend and become one. Meantime, Penn State football hosts Minnesota tomorrow at 3:30. This is Penn State's first 4-0 start in a while, and the program seems to be picking up steam after a dreadful few years. The disintegration, by the way, began in 1999 when Penn State's national championship run was derailed by a heartbreaking come-from-ahead loss at the hands of, wouldn't you know, Minnesota.
I'll be on the couch.
Posted by bill at 07:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2005
Hoy, Neuva York! and other ramblings
As if Yankee fans needed one more reason to despise the Mets...Manny Ramirez, who evidently listens to MP3's while earning his millions and millions, may be headed to Flushing. Everyone wins, I suppose.
I'm sure our friends at Pundit Review will have some nonsensical Yankee-hating commentary on the Manny Ramirez front. Regardless, be sure to set aside your baseball passions and tune in to Pundit Review radio on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Despite their residing in a second-rate city, PR has lined up some serious guests over the past few weeks. This week, it's Jeff Jarvis, who seems like he'd benefit, all in all, from a punch in the mouth. (Among other things: Jarvis was among those who sand-bagged Bernard Goldberg on "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch," prompting yours truly to draft a snitty letter to Donny (it's below the fold)). In any case, happy Friday, everyone. See you Sunday evening.
My letter (thanks for looking):
Dear Donny:
I watch your show, occasionally, and I think it's mildly entertaining. But after what you did to Goldberg, I don't think I'll be watching anymore. He's certainly gruff and disagreeable, and he doesn't debate as well as he thinks. But his conduct was understandable given the situation you put him in, and it's disappointing to me that you saw this as an opportunity to thwart debate rather than foster it. Whether you intended to "sandbag" him or not, the fact is you introduced the segment by reference to his book, which neither you nor the other guests -- all, coincidentally (?) left wing shills, the kind Goldberg betrayed -- bothered to read, then permitted those guests to pile on.
You then chuckled at the notion that the big 3 networks don't want Goldberg on their screens, and used the word "scary" to describe the book's success, which isn't "commentary" at all -- it's as vacuous as the "last word" silliness Jerry Springer offers. What is "scary" is that you, and the rest of your guests, don't bother to entertain ideas that bother you.
Read the book, Donny, and try to look past your personal distaste for Goldberg because you might learn something. Read, too, a book called "South Park Conservatives." Meantime, if you're willing to dismiss Goldberg and his work so summarily, the that you're not among the "media elite" is wishful thinking, hurt though that label might.
Posted by bill at 08:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
Mid-summer
No politics. Baseball. It's on Fox.
Posted by bill at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 09, 2005
Yankee Stadium
I'm not sure I want to know why, but the recently announced plans to build a new Yankee Stadium have enjoyed something of a free pass in terms of media coverage. I just posted a column about the plans here.
Posted by bill at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2005
Mr. Asterisk
The wisemen at Powerline occasionally blog about the baseball (e.g., this), so I don't feel too bad about doing so, too. It's a worthwhile distraction from politics. But sometimes, sadly enough, the two congeal. Today, for example, I came across this article (6/6) by Richard Roeper tearing into Barry Bonds,...
...home run king, miscreant. He writes:
Bonds is also regarded almost universally as a world-class jerk who has given us a dozen reasons to root against him. He's a grandstanding show-off who stands at the plate and admires his home runs forever, and taps his chest before catching routine fly balls. He doesn't get along with teammates, he's never been fan-friendly, he loathes the media, he's beyond disingenuous about alleged use of banned substances, and he has enough chips on his shoulder to fill a can of Pringles.
Even when he's talking baseball history, Bonds has been insulting, as when he said he was more interested in surpassing Ruth's home run total than Henry Aaron's.
"[T]he only number I care about is Babe Ruth's," said Bonds. "Because as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage and I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more.
Bonds has always been a prick, and I've been half-rooting for a Bonds knee injury for years. Steroids aside, something's always struck me that he's after Babe Ruth, rather than Hank Aaron, for the worst reason: because Ruth was a white man. For years Bonds has said many things of the type that, were the race picture reversed, would be verboten. And Roeper suggests it's not too far off to infer the worst:
Former White Sox outfielder and American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle has a new book titled Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout. Kittle -- a solid, likable guy who hardly has a reputation for stretching the truth or sensationalizing things -- writes that when he approached Bonds in the Wrigley Field visitors' clubhouse in 1993, the encounter quickly went sour. He had a couple of Bonds' game-worn jerseys and he asked Bonds to sign them for a golf fund-raiser for children with cancer.
"I paid about $110 of my own money for [the jerseys] so they could be auctioned off at the golf outing," writes Kittle. "I did that all the time for stars like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens . . . every player gladly signs -- with one exception.
"I walked up to Bonds at his locker . . . introduced myself and said, 'Barry, if you sign these, they'll bring in a lot of money for kids who need help.'
"Bonds stood up, looked me in the eye and said, 'I don't sign for white people.' If lightning hits me today, I will swear those exact words. Matt Williams and other Giants were in the room and they heard what Bonds said.
"I said, 'White guys aren't the only ones who get cancer,' but Bonds had turned his back on me and walked out of the clubhouse."
What a dink. Of course, it hardly proves Bonds's Ruth-only pursuit is race-motivated, but it's a glimpse into the unbalance that is Barry Bonds. Is it much of a stretch to believe after whitey? Is there any other reasonable explanation?
Posted by bill at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
