The Lie Often Seeps Out
I am in insufferable sports team fan.
In-sufferable.
I am someone nobody wants to be around regarding any my-sports-team thing to such an extent that I realized I had to do something about it. Ever since November 17, 1998, I've scaled back my big-time sports intake to virtually nothing. I confess there are some things I do rarely pay attention to simply because my pathological obsession with my teams knows no bounds. I do watch the Chiefs games but only the games, and to assuage the excruciating pain of even that amount of torment, I blog about it.
I also enjoy Angels games with my son because he loves baseball so much that this indulgence can't help but enhance the father-son bonding thing. But again, I really only do this when I'm with him.
The other night my son had the Angels game up on his Wii, which allows us to see website pages of things. We had the ESPN gamecast there, not the live game, just the webcast with the pitch-by-pitch graphics. The Angels were holding on to an 8-7 over the Red Sox. Their closer Brian Fuentes was in pitching the ninth with the bases loaded but two outs, and if I remember he'd gone 0-2 on mediocre batter Nick Green.
Suddenly he started throwing balls, working the count full. Then the fourth green dot showed up indicating a walk. Tie game. Boston went on to win it in extras.
The following day there were reports from the umpires that the Angels coaches including manager Mike Scioscia were harassing them exceedingly. Then came the mind-blower.
The home plate umpire confessed that the ball-four pitch that tied the game could have been a strike. He added that he called it a ball because catcher Mike Napoli went too far to frame the pitch, meaning he caught it and moved his glove to make it look more like a strike.
Now, I didn't see the pitch, but from what I heard it was so plainly a strike that to say it wasn't, well, to say it wasn't requires an umpire to 'splain himself.
If you know professional sports, you know that umpires or referees 'splaining themselves simply never happens. This is beside the fact that the umpire in this instance practically confessed that he blew the call.
The reason I've felt like blogging about this is because for one thing, I've noticed that umpire strike zones are so tiny or they are so malleable that they can have such a profound impact on the game simply by virtue of this divinely bestowed prerogative. The other notable thing is that it is quite apparent that the Red Sox have an intimidating aura that allows them to get calls like these and therefore, gain an advantage when they play games.
It is well-known that superstars in every sport "get the calls," and that this is just accepted practice. Furthermore our beloved Angels could just as easily get the calls because they too are a huge market team, so please note I have nothing against the Red Sox per se and I do know our Angels are themselves certainly granted such advantages.
All I'm doing is pointing out the lie.
The thing is, many could blap back, this is such a tiny little lie. Oh a little meaningless sports thing--whatever. Ah, just have to remind you--did you forget? I'm just insufferable about the sports team thing.
And really, the whole little culture war spat between the umps and the coaches? It's all drama. All of it just hides the fact that so much duplicity is taking place behind closed doors to a much larger degree giving the larger media darling teams the advantage. Think we're not going to get showcased for the eleventy-seventh time in as many eons a postseason of Yankees-Red Sox-Dodgers-whatever other media-glomming team there is?
Today I even caught this joyous piece at MSNBC about the new Cowboys stadium. And yes, being a moderately zealous 49ers fan I'm naturally disposed to revile the Cowboys. The idea here: now that the Cowboys have the biggest boffoest specTACKyoolarest new stadium could mean more talent and therefore more wins.
Now, does this sportswriter not know about the way NFL football works--or at least is supposed to work? Salary cap, draft, pretty much meaningless free agent movement, all are designed to make sure every team has a chance to compete. It doesn't matter if you have a million capacity stadium charging ten thousand dollars for each game's seat and you float the spectators on specially designed hovercrafts to their luxury boxes, the system is intended to make the play on the field the fair and honest result of the very best any team can do to with the players they have.
The problem comes in how little the NFL really wants to see St. Louis-Nashville Super Bowl matchups (as there was in 2000), and how much they slobber over Boston-New York (2008).
I really don't think this MSNBC writer is a moron. I do believe, however, that simply by highlighting the Cowboys in this way he helps inject into the public consciousness a conception that the Cowboys are supposed to be favored in some way, and when they are indeed given certain advantages, then that's just the way things go.
In other words, we are all to know that what's good for the Cowboys is good for the NFL. After all, in baseball, what's good for the Yankees (or the Dodgers or the Red Sox) is good for major league baseball.
I do know the umpire's call and the webwriter's story are actually little tiny things in the grand scheme of things. But I just blog about them for two reasons.
One, I'm that insufferable sports team fan -- note that I'm sports team fan simply wanting my team to win -- and I just don't like it when I see how difficult it is, even impossible it is, for my teams to be reasonably competitive against the powers of those working the system to get the most $$$ from major-market media-darling teams' success.
And two, big powerful institutions contracted with the World not only lie, but they have the very best marketing campaign to keep people believing it's not happening.
But hey, more people like the Yankees and Cowboys winning, so what do I have to say about it?
That's show biz...
A bit of narrative about my sports team story begins in this entry last January from my Chiefs blog. I've also compiled an inventory of sports team success frequency for metropolitan areas to provide some evidence that certain markets are indeed unduly favored.
In-sufferable.
I am someone nobody wants to be around regarding any my-sports-team thing to such an extent that I realized I had to do something about it. Ever since November 17, 1998, I've scaled back my big-time sports intake to virtually nothing. I confess there are some things I do rarely pay attention to simply because my pathological obsession with my teams knows no bounds. I do watch the Chiefs games but only the games, and to assuage the excruciating pain of even that amount of torment, I blog about it.
I also enjoy Angels games with my son because he loves baseball so much that this indulgence can't help but enhance the father-son bonding thing. But again, I really only do this when I'm with him.
The other night my son had the Angels game up on his Wii, which allows us to see website pages of things. We had the ESPN gamecast there, not the live game, just the webcast with the pitch-by-pitch graphics. The Angels were holding on to an 8-7 over the Red Sox. Their closer Brian Fuentes was in pitching the ninth with the bases loaded but two outs, and if I remember he'd gone 0-2 on mediocre batter Nick Green.
Suddenly he started throwing balls, working the count full. Then the fourth green dot showed up indicating a walk. Tie game. Boston went on to win it in extras.
The following day there were reports from the umpires that the Angels coaches including manager Mike Scioscia were harassing them exceedingly. Then came the mind-blower.
The home plate umpire confessed that the ball-four pitch that tied the game could have been a strike. He added that he called it a ball because catcher Mike Napoli went too far to frame the pitch, meaning he caught it and moved his glove to make it look more like a strike.
Now, I didn't see the pitch, but from what I heard it was so plainly a strike that to say it wasn't, well, to say it wasn't requires an umpire to 'splain himself.
If you know professional sports, you know that umpires or referees 'splaining themselves simply never happens. This is beside the fact that the umpire in this instance practically confessed that he blew the call.
The reason I've felt like blogging about this is because for one thing, I've noticed that umpire strike zones are so tiny or they are so malleable that they can have such a profound impact on the game simply by virtue of this divinely bestowed prerogative. The other notable thing is that it is quite apparent that the Red Sox have an intimidating aura that allows them to get calls like these and therefore, gain an advantage when they play games.
It is well-known that superstars in every sport "get the calls," and that this is just accepted practice. Furthermore our beloved Angels could just as easily get the calls because they too are a huge market team, so please note I have nothing against the Red Sox per se and I do know our Angels are themselves certainly granted such advantages.
All I'm doing is pointing out the lie.
The thing is, many could blap back, this is such a tiny little lie. Oh a little meaningless sports thing--whatever. Ah, just have to remind you--did you forget? I'm just insufferable about the sports team thing.
And really, the whole little culture war spat between the umps and the coaches? It's all drama. All of it just hides the fact that so much duplicity is taking place behind closed doors to a much larger degree giving the larger media darling teams the advantage. Think we're not going to get showcased for the eleventy-seventh time in as many eons a postseason of Yankees-Red Sox-Dodgers-whatever other media-glomming team there is?
Today I even caught this joyous piece at MSNBC about the new Cowboys stadium. And yes, being a moderately zealous 49ers fan I'm naturally disposed to revile the Cowboys. The idea here: now that the Cowboys have the biggest boffoest specTACKyoolarest new stadium could mean more talent and therefore more wins.
Now, does this sportswriter not know about the way NFL football works--or at least is supposed to work? Salary cap, draft, pretty much meaningless free agent movement, all are designed to make sure every team has a chance to compete. It doesn't matter if you have a million capacity stadium charging ten thousand dollars for each game's seat and you float the spectators on specially designed hovercrafts to their luxury boxes, the system is intended to make the play on the field the fair and honest result of the very best any team can do to with the players they have.
The problem comes in how little the NFL really wants to see St. Louis-Nashville Super Bowl matchups (as there was in 2000), and how much they slobber over Boston-New York (2008).
I really don't think this MSNBC writer is a moron. I do believe, however, that simply by highlighting the Cowboys in this way he helps inject into the public consciousness a conception that the Cowboys are supposed to be favored in some way, and when they are indeed given certain advantages, then that's just the way things go.
In other words, we are all to know that what's good for the Cowboys is good for the NFL. After all, in baseball, what's good for the Yankees (or the Dodgers or the Red Sox) is good for major league baseball.
I do know the umpire's call and the webwriter's story are actually little tiny things in the grand scheme of things. But I just blog about them for two reasons.
One, I'm that insufferable sports team fan -- note that I'm sports team fan simply wanting my team to win -- and I just don't like it when I see how difficult it is, even impossible it is, for my teams to be reasonably competitive against the powers of those working the system to get the most $$$ from major-market media-darling teams' success.
And two, big powerful institutions contracted with the World not only lie, but they have the very best marketing campaign to keep people believing it's not happening.
But hey, more people like the Yankees and Cowboys winning, so what do I have to say about it?
That's show biz...
A bit of narrative about my sports team story begins in this entry last January from my Chiefs blog. I've also compiled an inventory of sports team success frequency for metropolitan areas to provide some evidence that certain markets are indeed unduly favored.
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