Time Out for Sports Talk: Stupid Blogging Tricks
Todd: A smattering of thoughts heading into the long weekend…
This past week television saw the departure of both “Mad Men” and a mad (Letter)man. I for one am going to miss them both.
I was alive during the 1960s, but not long enough to have any lasting recollections. So “Mad Men” helped give me a flavor of that time that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. Not sure I’m thoroughly satisfied with how it all ended, and I don’t want to drop spoilers for those who still haven’t seen it. But it’ll be at least another decade before Don Draper has consumers taking the Pepsi Challenge.
I’ll freely admit that until the last couple of weeks, I had not regularly watched the David Letterman’s “Late Show” in about 15-20 years, right around the time Mike and I were fortunate enough to attend an actual taping at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and witnessed one of the few Late Shows when Paul Shaffer was not leading the CBS Orchestra (the late Warren Zevon was filling in for Paul). But Dave’s signoff earlier this week signaled the end of an era and served as another reminder that time marches on.
I had just entered my teen years during the summer of 1980 when I remember watching the very brief run of Dave’s incongruous morning program. His unique brand of humor ultimately struck a more popular chord on “Late Night”, and my college years coincided with his prime years at 12:30am. Like Johnny Carson was for our parents, Dave was the talk show host of our generation. His sardonic wit has had as much of an influence on today’s comedy over the last three decades as anyone in the world of entertainment.
From ‘thrill cams’ to stupid pet tricks to suits made of any material imaginable, Dave was never afraid to be both different and relatable. Heck, even Mike once wrote a top ten list for the TV show from whom this blog/column gets its name. Letterman’s final “Late Show” served as an appropriate encapsulation of his work, and all the tributes paid to him these last few weeks befit his legacy.
Continuing on with the ‘mad’ theme, let’s talk about DeflateGate? I promise to keep these brief, but mad is an apt description not only for how I feel about this going on for weeks and weeks, but also the folks in charge of running the National Football League. The amount of actual conversation on this topic is considerably out of proportion with what actually transpired. We’re talking about air pressure in footballs here, folks.
No question I would be naïve to think the Patriots did absolutely nothing nefarious, but at the same time it’s hard for me to take the NFL seriously when the supposedly independent investigation of Ted Wells’ investigation resulted in zero culpability given to the league in its 243-page report. The man who serves as its commissioner (whose name I don’t even want to type this week) has become a joke—particularly over the last year—with the arbitrary punishments he has doled out to both teams and players.
While to some degree I don’t blame Robert Kraft for giving up the fight so he could avoid becoming the Al Davis of the 21st century, I’m still perplexed by his sudden 180-degree flip following the over-the-top penalties assessed by the league to the Patriots. In case you’re keeping track at home, that’s now two first-round draft picks deducted from the Pats’ selection coffers in the last nine years. Speaking of over-the-top, if Tom Brady’s four-game suspension(???) doesn’t wind up getting reduced, then Kraft’s change of heart will have served little purpose.
As we approach the unofficial start of summer, let’s turn our focus to the Red Sox. On the one hand, I’m encouraged by the overall improvement from the pitching staff the last couple weeks…although they honestly had nowhere to go but up, right? But here we are one-quarter into the MLB season, and the team batting average is a woeful .233. An even more ominous stat is that they are dead last in the American League in doubles while playing more than half their games in a ballpark that consistently ranks near the top in that category.
My final thought about these moribund bats: all off-season, the general complaint was that the Sox had an overabundance of right-handed hitters. So can anyone explain why have they fared so poorly against left-handed pitching? Perhaps the answer lies with one of those right-handed bats, Hanley Ramirez, who in sixteen games this month he has collected as many RBI as me.
Mike: Yup--I remember that taping, the guests were Paul Riser, Tia Carrere and Echo and the Bunnymen, and it was freezing in the theater. But it was a fun time seeing the Letterman show!
Anyway, enough about that, this is a sports column after all.
I am so sick of this Deflategate business. I know I am biased as a Patriots fan, but it seems like this is going just so long for what seems to be a minor infraction. But we all know this is just piling on for past crimes.
It was smart of Bob Kraft to give up his fight against the league, he wasn't going to win anyway. And I am firmly convinced that there were some back room conversations going on that convinced him it would be better for Brady (and the team) to drop the fight and let the league just hear Brady's appeal. My guess is that it gets cut in half, down to two games.
Anyway, that's all I have. Have a great Memorial Day!
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