Friday, June 8, 2007

Heavy Metal

Super Regionals of the NCAA Men's Baseball, "Road To Omaha," start today. One day after the MLB draft was completed. Does the NFL or the NBA have their draft before the their amateur seasons are over? "What's the beef," you may ask? Simply this: You're a senior athlete at a college (playing one of the big three sports), you're still in the post season, and undrafted. Your baseball career is over if you lose.

Lose and go home takes on a whole new meaning to these guys. There is no pro contract for most college athletes but unlike baseball, they usually play their last game without fully knowing that. They know it's over in the sense that they're going to work in some other capacity in life, and still play hard. They show emotion that has long ago left the bigs. Tears? They are guaranteed. Rally caps, and finally a pile up on the mound at Rosenblatt Stadium. It will all be over, a new champ crowned. All but one standing with a loss in their last game. Even most of the winning team will be just another guy on your softball team.



Whitey's mention of the Taliban in his previous post got me to thinking of acceptable fun and games in the fine country of Afghanistan, namely Bukashi. The rules are simple (although there are apparently two versions: simple and simpler). You have a bunch of guys (I'm sure women are not allowed in this fun) on horseback trying to snag the carcass of a headless goat or calf and either drag the thing free of your fellow competitors (simpler) or haul the carcass around a flag or marker at one end of the "field" (or dirt, if you are not colorblind) and then toss it into a scoring circle (much more complex). I like that the 'scoring circle' is called the "Circle of Justice," although I'm not quite sure how justice is served in this game. My source and at least some of the rules are here.

One would think this game would have worldwide appeal, but you would be wrong. I was unable to track down how many men are involved, but it seems to be more than 2 and less than 1,000. In case the NBA finals is putting you to sleep check out some very fine Bukashi here. I particularly like the soundtrack.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Head Scratcher?

Sitting around watching the NBA Finals, which I found to mimic tryptophan, I started to do a little reading up on Micheal Vick, and this whole dogfighting issue.

I know that everyone is innocent until proven guilty; however, the Feds coming into the investigation has raised some eyebrows. The Sheriff of Surry County Va. seems to think the Federal intervention may involve Vick's star status and/or the racial element.

Racial thing; I counter with this thought. When you look to be waist deep in an activity that the Taliban outlawed......you're up to no good.

Lord Stanley?

Well, ladies and gentlemen; SO. Cal is thawing out this morning after bringing home THE best trophy in sports. The Ducks imposed their will on an Eastern team ala "The Great One". And a Canadian team to boot.

I know the NHL is playing on the Oxygen network, during paid programming, but it's still the best trophy! Name another sport where guys won't even touch it if they haven't won it (and they say baseball players a superstitious); where at the end of the finals, the men who fought like warriors shake hands. Then the guy with the C on his jersey raises "THE CUP", skates around the ice, kisses it, and each player hands it to another as they celebrate. And then the Cup makes it tour in the off season; each player and some of the staff get it for a period of time, to do with pretty much as they like.
So I ask you: what is the best trophy in sports?





The cream always rises

Gary Sheffield stirred up a little more dirt than Sweet Lou did a few days ago. Yes, we all have a desire to have a guy that will go to the wall for you. That rant was to show his players, just how bad they were playing. Time will tell if it worked, it's a 162 game marathon.

The dirt that Sheffield kicked up was more like unto Jose Canseco. In this time of looking back at the things that no one controlled the MLB got it wrong, or just plain closed its eyes. It's more supply and demand than black and white. Who's the next Jordan? Lebron?

Why not go and look at what he said from this point of view. The biggest thing MLB has for the training of inner city children is the RBI program. RBI should be funded like a 'farm league.' When I started playing baseball that's what it was, a 6years old, down on the farm. From there: bronco, mustang, pony, colt and then on to high school and college.

The RBI program is in 200 cities. Wow, 200 inner cities. How many baseball camps are in Latin America? My guess: Mucho. When you are in a country where you see a playground and a hoop, chances are you're not in the Dominican Republic. If you see four kids with a stick and a ball in the street, can you tell me if your in Panama or just one of the 1000s of inner cities in America?

In a time when media covers some young athletes like Lebron James, name the next Dave Winfield and I'll make sure to catch his next Little League game. There is a stark truth to what Shef said. Kids need a place to let the cream rise to the top! No matter what color the milk is.

The only question I have is will MLB treat RBI the way they did greenies, or roids?

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The Homer Cometh...but is his Hair worthy?

Ah, the time has come to stop asking, "What sort of circus pony is running this team?" Well, maybe not, but Mr. Homer Bailey will make his first start for the Reds Friday night against a not-so-bad Cleveland squad. About time if you ask me, but the Reds are not necessarily known for producing pitching (name one, and not Tom Browning) and they have never, I repeat, never had a Cy Young award winner. Heck, the Royals have two (Saberhagen and guess...the winner gets free tickets to River Downs).

But enough of that. Take the poll if you want to discuss
his impact. I will say this: he can't be any worse than Milton and the gang of thieves they've been paying to lose games up to this point. Should he succeed, it will be fun to watch the bullpen flush his young hopes with our dreams of an over .500 baseball team. If there is anything the Reds are good at (other than striking out) it's finding unique ways to lose games-Ryan Freel leads all baseball having been picked off 4 times, and he's got a .313 OBP.

The biggest problem may be the battle for the ladies' hearts here in the Queen City. The
reigning champ, in a typical pose:

The contender:The battle is on! Homer better play a mean guitar, or at least hit Mt. Adams on a routine basis.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Say What You Want

As a sometime broadcaster, I appreciate our fine U.S. court system ruling which basically states I can say whatever the hell I want. Now it's up to the FCC to fabricate some jacked up reasons why their policy is not "arbitrary and capricious." Of course, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps said of the ruling, "...any broadcaster who sees this decision as a green light to send more gratuitous sex and violence into our homes would be making a huge mistake."

The funny thing is the FCC had four examples they trotted out before the court, none of which had anything to do with sex or violence. To summarize:

  1. Cher said, "F--- 'em" during a Billboard Music Award show.
  2. Nicole Richie said, "Have you ever tried to get cow s--- out of a Prada purse? It's not so f------ simple" during a different Billboard Music Award show. And to answer your question Nicole, no, I have never tried to get cow s--- out of a Prada purse.
Search as I could the other examples escaped me, although the "fleeting expletive" policy was put in place after Bono blurted out "f------ brilliant" during a 2003 Golden Globes broadcast and Janet Jackson had everyone throwing dollar bills at the screen during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. (In case you were wondering why I am doing t--- and not this, that's a fair question, especially considering no one is going to take me to court and this post being focused on the ability to do just that. I don't see the need to gratuitously throw out expletives, but then again it's not as if y'all can't play Hangman and figure out the letters missing. Personal choice? Slightly different media presentation? When one says these things in print they are not, shall we say, "fleeting." I have no intention of playing censor on this blog, but at the same time we would like to present at least some level of decorum, or at least common sense. I will most likely change the --- to 'uck' and 'hit' when this post hits the archive. Feel free to shred me at will for this meandering explanation...)

I would hazard a guess that close to 90% of the time either "fuck" or "shit" (there!) is used during a broadcast it doesn't have anything to do with sex or violence. One could claim that their use makes you (or your grandma) cringe, but that comes from something inherent in the word itself not some arbitrary contextual meaning. The words are quite versatile and often times it would be near impossible to nail down a specific definition for either. One of the more humorous examples of this is here.

The FCC basically limits its wrath to the big national broadcast companies like NBC, CBS, ABC and so on because, well I'll let FCC Chairman Kevin Martin explain. He finds it "hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'shit' and 'fuck' are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience." And there you have it: protect the children. I forget what age I learned these words, but I guarantee you that quickly thereafter I learned I wasn't throwing out the F-bomb at the dinner table. I distinctly remember my mother lambasting me for using the word 'suck' one day.

And therein lies the crux of the matter. While it may be more difficult nowadays for parents to limit and perhaps monitor the media their children experience, I am more comfortable leaving that task to society at large than the knuckleheads at the FCC. When the public found nasty Miss Jackson's halftime flash a bit too much they complained, fines were issued, and we now have a 7 second delay in the halftime show. The FCC has an important role, but it should be more
reactive then proactive. Advertisers can get corporations to do within a week what would take the Government 4 years. Send your kids to bed before Dallas comes on. Hell, tell 'em to read a book; there's never any profanity in those...

Monday, June 4, 2007

Before anyone judges.....


Take into account that Billy Donovan worked his way to Gainesville. He coached up a group of kids into history. This, in my humble opinion, is production well beyond what was expected, much less hoped for. I spoke with one of the Gator faithful who seemed fine with Billy leaving. He said, "He outplayed his contract."
I, hearing this from a fan, was stunned. Most people would jump off a cliff if their coach went off to more than double his salary: "It's all about the money!"
However, try this hat on for size. You double your salary and get a guaranteed 5 year contract. (Nobody is turning down that deal). Or, you could stay where you are for good money and become an icon. Dean Smith and Coach K are icons however at basketball schools and on 'tobacco road' no less. Try being a basketball icon at one of the best football programs in the country. That's history. There are people that don't think with their pockets, but with their hearts.
So ask yourself: Icon or the dollar, what do you want to be?

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Remember, if the tail stinks; the head is dead.



It Begins.