Baseball is a cesspool, have a nice day

As we're twirling the dial on the big Motorola looking for something new, (the prospect of serendippity do-ing into the unexpected is an age-old romantic attraction to radio) we sometimes pass a station where we hear grown men talking excitedly with earnest conviction in voices we're used to hearing on political talk radio.

We stop, thinking there's a new talk station in a new place, but when we give a listen, and hear names of people we've never heard of, we realize we stumbled onto sports talk.

It's an alternate universe, and one where perfectly intelligent people get all riled up about the small stuff in little games with little balls that in terms of infinity, mean little.

We admit it, back in the day, when it was the nerds vs. the jocks: we were with the nerds.

It's different nowadays- we know plenty of nerds, and many other normal, intelligent people of all genders who are invested in this sport or that; that team or this.

These people (and hell, we've been married to some of them) tell us: "OK, you've got your politics, and I've got my sports. You like the Democrats, and I like the Yankees..."

As if interests in these are just two available choices like Coke vs. Pepsi; cats vs. dogs; or hunting or fishing.

(The idiocy of that kind of apathy and fuzzy denial is what got us so many years of Republicans...). 

We don't usually knock sports around here. But after the huge doping scandal that erupted Thursday, we just can't shut up.

(Not that the situation will change in any discernible way, even after all this kerfuffling).

We're always hearing the common chatter about politicians: they lie, they cheat, they steal. Our experience being around politicians all our lives, however, belies that stereotype: most we know are longsuffering to the point of masochism; public service for them is what's important, and they're willing to take the shit that comes with it.

Despite this heroism, who ever heard of a politician- at least in this century- being held up as a role model for kids?

Mamas, for God's sake don't let your babies grow up to be legislators... but for some reason it's OK to encourage them to become an overpaid, juiced-up piece of meat, who's probably making book on their own games in the hopes they'll get richer before the system uses them up, wears them out and sends them off to the glue factory.

Or they end up in jail.

It was so fucking sad to hear George Mitchell saying how many complaints he heard from 2nd or 3rd stringers in baseball who doped up just to play at all. Some were angry because they had to compete against ballplayers who were cheating by taking the illegal drugs, that have been more than tolerated for years by the greed-driven powers that be.

Doping is good for business- follow the money: now that baseball's primacy is endangered by football, it's balls-out for home-runs and puffed up records to attract bigger teevee audiences.

 

A decade of home-run records and a lot of other baseball milestone are just shams.

This cheating, and drugging has tainted almost every professional sport- even bicycle racing is a sewer and a laughing stock.

So why the hell do we put up with athletes and the porqueria that is professional sports?   

Baseball, forever the fount of heroes of small boys and our sweet pastoral American pastime and is just another drug-infested circus, not that different than the World Wrestling Federation.

(We don't expect much out of football- that's the bloodsport that's produced O.J. Simpson, Michael Vick, and Rev, Ken Hutcherson. It's studded with rapists, beaters-up of hookers, coke-heads, domestic violators, and barroom brawlers).

We don't expect that legislators or Lt. Governors will be on trading cards any time soon, but we needed to get this off our chests. We stew about it every time the freeway is clogged by Seahawk traffic.

We can't help but think of the higher uses of the money we pay these idiots and for those magnificent stadia we never approved.

If we must choose between bread and circuses, we'll take the bread- even if the butter's all taken by the corporate owners.

Comments

[joanie]

$$$=corruption

good night

[Andrew]

What does it say of a contest or personal endeavor when you can win the goddamned world record by simply shooting chemicals into your blood? There are no steroids to help a scientist find a cure for cancer, or to be a better parent, a better listener, etc.

Pro sports are realy just like every other junk entertainment, you get enjoyment from observing it but you get no residual benefits from it whatsoever. People like New York Vinnie who have an unhealthy obsession with sports use it to escape from a scary reality, and use up any free moments of thought were a person might be forced to reflect on where they've been and where they are headed in life. When a heart attack finaly takes them out they'll probably be wearing their team jacket and baseball hat.

[DT]

Is this a blog about local talk radio, or this is a blog about Bla'M commenting on current events and politics?

Here's what I think. After looking back at quite a few of Bla'M's posts, I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't listen to very much talk radio. That's why many of his posts don't have anything to do with the daily specifics of a given talk host's show. Most of the time what he does is post about a general topic that's in the news, like baseball and drugs, and we're supposed to fooled into thinking he's staying true to his blog's purpose because some host somewhere also talked about the baseball scandal.

Bla'M, I think you need help with your blog. I think you should do like Goldy does and let a few others (who actually listen to a lot of local talk radio), also post on here occasionally.

[Brian]

I think you’re missing something here.
Where else can you get a community coming together 60 thousand strong united by a common goal? Where else do you find the rich, poor, conservative, liberal and people from all walks of life together in one place enjoying the same interest. Besides 4th of July fireworks or maybe the Microsoft company meeting I think of few things other than professional sports events.

Are the players paid too much? Sure.
Are many of them poor role models? You bet.
Just like any other segment of our society you get the good with the bad.

In many ways participating as a fan in a sporting event is an escape, you become immersed in the environment and for a few hours everything else fades away. As you cheer on your team you end up united with the stranger in the stands next to you who’s from Duvall, Mercer Island, Fife, Freemont or wherever.

[sparky]

Hey DT quitcherbitchin and start your own blog.

[Brian]

Um Yeah,as far as I could tell this was a subject discussed on pretty much every talk show I heard yesterday.

[Upton]

Now that he has been named, it will be interesting to see if Roger Clemens will be treated with the same vitriol as Barry Bonds.

[DT]

Brian, you missed the point.

[Brian]

Thanks DT, I re-read your post & see where you're coming from.

[Nevets]

Too bad the anti-war movement didn't take this approach to get fans out of the Stadiums and into the streets to protest an illegal war. Then maybe we would have seen that 70 percent.

[god]

isnt that a picture of ronnie coleman, a professional body builder?

[blathering michael]

As I've written, DT, this is my blog, and one of the great things about blogging is the freedom of it. I write all day for editors who act as gatekeepers, sort through what I write, and ultimately make the decisions as to what of me is published. It's their job, and bless 'em but BlatherWatch is mine. I get to write about whatever I want, whenever I want to write about it. And lots of people seem to like reading my meanderings. I don't have to listen to talk radio if I don't want to or heed you, and your motherly chiding as to what you think should be my editorial decisions. This blog has always been divided between radio and politics, and part of its success is that it's read by people who are interested in one or the other or both. Sometimes it goes toward the radio side...and the political people lose interest- and when it drifts to the political, people like you bitch about it. I'll continue to write about what it is that's stirring me up at the moment it's stirring me up regardless of you. I suggest you follow Sparky's suggestion and start your own blog which could follow the strictures you want to place on me. I love readers' input, and have lively off-line relationships with many of them but I have doubted your criticisms have my best interests in mind. So fuck you very much and have a nice day...

[Rick]

Michael--here here. You cover the radio when radio is interesting. I've been reading you since you started and I have noticed as you have noted many times that radio is in a rut. I' have found myself at NPR and plugged into my iPod more and more on my commutes. You are reflecting what is happening. Also the politics right now are very compelling. Please keep on doing what you are doing. Being restricted to AM radio only would be really boring, especially as the world is blowing up all around it.

[DT]

BM, I'm going to take your advice. I'm going to start a blog that focuses on baseball. Except 90% of the time I'm going to talk about football. And if anyone complains, I'll tell them it's my blog.

Wow, that sounds kind of nutty.

[DT]

But you really should consider allowing someone to make a guest post. Maybe every Friday. You know it's a brilliant idea. Swallow your pride and just admit it.

[sparky]

,,,which should fit you like a glove, DT. Be sure and let us know the URL so we can come complain like you do here.

[sparky]

and Now For Something Completely Different..

To my fellow women readers/bloggers of Blatherwatch: Do any of you find that man with the muskels in the police outfit attractive? I knew a guy who competed in the Mr. Universe bodybuilder contests and he was a pure narcissist,. He taught jr high Health classes at the same school where my dad taught social studies and he freaked out once when someone in the faculty lunchroom told him that mustard causes cancer... steroid misuse leads to nutsacks the size of filberts...no thank you!

[Andrew]

DT's post is way off topic anyway. I wish it would have been deleted so we can get back to talking about how shitty sports are. Can you somehow make a dedicated thread for complaining about the blog so I can ignore it?

[Central Concern]

Look at football player Lyle Alzado who died in Portland at the age of 42 from brain cancer.

Birth: Apr. 3, 1949
Death: May 14, 1992

Professional Football Player. He played for the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Raiders. A true defensive standout for the Broncos, he was the first Yankton (South Dakota) College player ever drafted by the NFL and was a two-time All-Conference pick. From those humble beginnings, his combination of quickness and strength provided him with the pass-rushing skills to start with the Broncos in 1971. His 4.75 40-yard dash time, coupled with his tremendous strength (he once had 27 wins as an amateur boxer) ranked him as one of pro football's top pass rushers. His status as a premier defensive lineman was also enhanced by his versatility - he played both end and tackle in the front four with All-pro status. An American football Superbowl hero with the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1984, he owned a restaurant in West Hollywood and had embarked on a career as a movie actor when he died in 1992 after going public about his steroid use while in pro football. "I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped," he admitted during his pain-racked final days. "It was addicting, mentally addicting. Now I'm sick, and I'm scared. Ninety per cent of the athletes I know are on the stuff. We're not born to be 300lbs or jump 30ft. But all the time I was taking steroids, I knew they were making me play better. I became very violent on the field and off it. I did things only crazy people do. Once a guy sideswiped my car and I beat the hell out of him. Now look at me. My hair's gone, I wobble when I walk and have to hold on to someone for support, and I have trouble remembering things. My last wish? That no one else ever dies this way". Lyle Alzado was 43 when he died of brain cancer brought on by excessive use of steroids.

Cause of death: Brain cancer brought on by excessive steroid use

Search Amazon for Lyle Alzado

Burial:
River View Cemetery
Portland
Multnomah County
Oregon, USA

[PugetSound]

Andrew
"People like New York Vinnie who have an unhealthy obsession with sports use it to escape from a scary reality, and use up any free moments of thought were a person might be forced to reflect on where they've been and where they are headed in life."

Could you elaborate a bit about your knowledge of NY Vinnie's scary reality? He seems to be just a guy who does a radio show on sports.

[Andrew]

IMO having sufficient knowledge of sports to conduct a daily radio show lasting for, or God help us, longer than an hour, constitutes and unhealthy familiarity with the topic. I can only imagine what personal milestones he hasn't achieved in the pursuit of learning all that sports trivia.

[RickAtl]

I, too, was on the 'nerd' side in high school. I was small, barely over 5' and under 120 lbs. I played a bit of little league baseball, even went out for football one year but didn't make it past the first cut. In high school, my extra-curriculur activities were limited to the band room and German club.

But I'm gown up now. I don't consider 'us' to be against the 'jocks' anymore. How you can still hold such animosity, not just with the 'jocks' themselves but with us fans, as well, is strange to me and difficult to comprehend.

For me, sports and politics are indistinguishable in that they both appeal to an otherwise unique combination of the intellectual and emotional, allowing us to experience both simultaneously, an experience as pleasing as any frat party Dionisys ever threw together.

Whether it's WWE, NASCAR, NFL, NBA, MLB, Leauge of Women Voters' debates, Rush Limbaugh's diatribes or Barrack Obama's campaigning, you can be intelligent in your viewing and participation, mindful of the overall game and the human frailties that will inevitiably be exposed during the 'heat of combat,' or you can approach it with only a few synapses firing preferring to experience the pure emotion of the competition.

Either way, it's all fun.

[Andrew]

If there truely is any actual intelectual content to sports, and I mean actual not imagined, then you have to admit it goes completely to waste and might have been used more productively somewhere else.

Why doesn't baseball take a hint from the Olympics or bicycling and test players before the game? It's almost as if they want it to happen. I guess they do, in the end some reputations are tarnished but they're all more wealthy for it, probably a fair trade in their mind.

[sam]

I'll answer your question, Sparky. I am curious/attracted to that guy with all the rippling hormones and muskels like diamonds. And what's wrong with filberts? I'd fuck him just as I'd fuck an alien or a robot. I'd enjoy the exotic, erotic variety. But hey, I'm just a guy...

[sparky]

Oh, sorry, Sam. I didn't mean to leave out any gay men on here in my question.

I will never forget seeing Lyle Alzedo sobbing on TV at the thought that he was going to die of cancer. It was beyond sad.

[abob]

NY Vinnie obsesses on sports in order to escape the stark reality of his bloated body and his nightmarish plunge into the depths of morbid obesity.

[Central Concern]

Listening to a podcast of Ray T from his early morning show on KGO, Mitchell' 402 pages did not provide any evidence ,just hearsay, (somebody saw Clemens do this) if fact Mitchell states " I don't think anyone named in this report should be charged" "The report should be used to look into this a little further"

[Sam]

Funny thing is, Sparky, I am not gay, I never have been gay...

[sparky]

LOL ok!!

[Andrew]

Not to be cold, but how long can New York Vinnie realy have? You can't be that heavy and last forever. Cholesterol has taken out lesser men. The recent deaths of local radio personalities reminds us of their mortality.

[Andrew]

Sam is attracted to robots? Robots aren't even sexualy attractive. First gay marriage, next comes people like Sam wanting to me marry their entertainment systems. Regarding attraction to aliens, all I can say is you must realy not like women if you're going to such lengths to replace them.

[PugetSound]

Andrew
"If there truely is any actual intelectual content to sports, and I mean actual not imagined, then you have to admit it goes completely to waste and might have been used more productively somewhere else."

If you have an analytical bent, take a look at SABR which uses sabermetrics -the usage of mathematical tools to analyze baseball. It is highly analytical.
With that said, NY Vinnie is a man who makes his living talking about something he really loves. How many of us can say that? For a lot of people, the chance to take your mind of your daily woes/world problems for a little bit and listen to NY Vinnie or a Dave Neihaus has value.

[Sam]

I love women, Andrew, but like most men, I like a little variety now and again. Besides, robots don't have to look like Bixbo the Mechanical Man, they can have breasts, other and sweet spots usually associated with the warm-blooded. Think outside the box, little man.

[sparky]

I like Vinnie. He always took the Mariner's wins and losses to heart. When something is your passion, you tend to be an expert on it. What is your passion, Andrew?

[PugetSound]

NY Vinnie wears his big heart -albeit filled to the gills with an unhealthy amount of pastrami/deli buildup- for all to see. I think personalities like him or a Ciscoe Morris fill an important role on the radio and over time become beloved in a community. It can't always be about Dem vs Repub. Heck, the way those conversations predictably go I would put up the NY Vinnie discussions on Ichiro's base running skills as no less intellectual.

[Andrew]

Sure you can put intelect into something as retarded as how fast a guy runs or how quickly he can find a base but you won't get intelect back out of it. It's an investment with no returns. It's gazing at someone else's navel.

[Andrew]

Sam is a regular blow-up doll salesman. I need to have woman involved, I guess you're lucky if you can accomplish the same thing with more diversity. I can't knock that.

[Nevets]

"steroid misuse leads to nutsacks the size of filberts...no thank you!"

Sounds like you have first hand knowledge of this Sparky. Care to elaborate.

[Jimmy Kowalski]

Nevets begs to differ...lol

[sparky]

Well Stevarino, I was tempted to say I peeked when you were taking a shower. Instead, all you have to do is Google and you find articles such as this:

"The British Govt expresses extreme consternation about the most serious of all steroid effects: acne, breasts, and whithered testicles"

The advisory council will write to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to warn about the trend, which can lead to long-term health problems for children – including sterility, acne, liver tumours and the growth of breasts in boys.

"It can also make the testicles wither – which is probably not what the users want," said Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, the chairman of the committee.

"Even more worrying, there is emerging evidence that anabolic steroids cause aggression."

Yep, all we need are more angry males with manboobs, zits and tiny balls.

[Nevets]

Sounds just like your type Sparky. Not that I disagreed with you though, but the "no thank you!" part sounded personal. As if you had real life experience with this sort of affliction on someone you dated and you were freaked out about it.

[sparky]

Heh.,,no, it hasn't ever been the case. But I am not attracted to men who look like all the toothpaste has been squozed to the top of the tube. I dont understand why some women do the same kind of thing. Instead of breasts they have hockey pucks.

[joanie]

That guy and others who concentrate all their efforts on sinewy muscles and expanded chests are just like women who concentrate all their efforts of huge boobs . . . ugly, grotesque and deformed! Sorry. I just like normal people who accept and make the best of what god gives them. She knows what she's doing.

I also don't think you can totally isolate the intellectual from the emotional. Well, maybe with a lobotomy.

DT, you had a lobotomy? You sound like it.

[sparky]

I agree about transplants, Joanie, but I was referring to women who do competitive body building. Fatty breast tissue that gives them their shape is replaced with muscle. That and having those veins stand out like ropes...ugh.

[joanie]

I know. I wasn't responding to your hockey puck comment. Just talking in general. Deformation of any sort via artificial or overwrought effort turns me off. So does obsessive/compulsive behavior.

[KS]

It's driven by money. Steroid use has been on the upswing since the salaries have escalated. It just shows that money and the power and fame that come with it corrupts humanoids. The management of pro baseball teams brought much of it on themselves.

The report was at least an attempt to bring this out of control situation to justice after years of apathy- even though it will create some problems - flawed in its release. At least, we all know that the rightful career home run leader is still Hank Aaron. Bonds and most likely Clemens are forever asterisks. Let NY Vinnie (who I try to avoid hearing) blather away about it for hours "baseball is tainted.." DUH !